On 3/31/2014 10:03 AM, wi...@mncomm.com wrote:
I have a customer that we installed an IP phone system for. They moved their office to a new building where the telco couldn't or wouldn't bring service to. So I have the PBX at their old location where the COs come in and we go over a wireless link to the new office where they use their internet and IP phones, and all works great. So their fax machine sits at their old location and they want it in their new location. They are not interested in doing Internet fax at this time, but I may have to introduce it again. A while ago we bought some Grandstream gateway devices. We have them configured correctly and they transmit and receive voice just fine, just no fax. So, the scenario would be the CO goes into a gateway device to convert to digital, goes over the LAN to the other gateway device. That device hooks up to the fax machine. If someone has done this before can you share the products you may have used? The products we have say they will work this way, but no luck, just voice transmission. I may have a bad device as well. Also, is there any internet fax services that allow users to use their existing fax machine? I know it's a little weird to ask that, but some people have a hard time with change using their PC to send faxes
Which solution is best for the customer depends on how they use fax and how critical it is.
I just uploaded my FCC Comments on the AT&T "experiment", one which proposes that fax capabilities be lost. I pointed out that fax is sometimes used for reasons that distinguish it from email: Security and privacy (no middle man server), knowledge of receipt (not just to a mailbox), and reliability (no servers, no attachments). Internet fax is actually the worst of both worlds, putting fax in series with email. So it's useful if you get the occasional fax from someone who can't scan documents otherwise, but it's not useful if you use fax the way pharmacies, doctors, and courts do.
Since VoIP doesn't support modems or fax, if they need real fax, they need a way to extend the signal ("dial tone") to the new site. This can't just run over "best efforts" IP. But there are systems that do the timing and buffering to enable TDM to be reliably emulated across a wireless link (I suggest using a high-priority VLAN and no public IP). We're using the RAD IPmux series. We're putting them in to replace T1s, for instance, to support fire department voting receivers (very quality critical) across Ethernet radios. Not exactly cheap, but it's a nice tool. They are available with different types of interfaces.
-- Fred R. Goldstein k1io fred "at" interisle.net Interisle Consulting Group +1 617 795 2701
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