[comp.mail.misc] Sending Faxes using AT&T Mail

psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (06/30/89)

In article <29469@cornell.UUCP>, martin@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Bill Martin) writes:
> Someone posted a description of ATT Mail recently and how
> one can send faxes using it.

I think that was me.

> From Unix, ATT Mail is accessable on the UUCP network, but the
> machines I use are on Internet (and BITNET).

Standard introduction:  AT&T Mail is a commercial electronic messaging
service.  There is no gateway from BITNET and the Internet, because
we'd charge the gateway for every message the gateway would pass on,
and that gateway would have to swallow the costs, or work out a
bill-back scheme.  The latter is unlikely (the former, even more so!)

> . . . no one at ATT Mail could tell me the electronic mail
> address to use.  What one wants done with the file (Fax, overnight
> letter, telex, etc.) is part of the mail address as well.  

Who'd you talk to?  The right people to ask are at the AT&T Mail
Customer Assistance Center, attmail!atthelp, 1-800-MAIL-672
(1-800-624-5672).  We also have front-end software running on
stand-alone MS-DOS PC's (Access PLUS), networked MS-DOS PC's (STARMail,
which runs on more than just STARLAN), stand-alone Macintoshes (Access
III), and UNIX(R) systems (PMX/TERM) that make working with AT&T Mail
much easier.

Sending to fax and telex is easy:  just pretend that AT&T Mail knows
about two systems (called fax and telex), and that the phone number of
the fax machine and the telex account are users on those systems.  For
example, you could send mail to attmail!fax!1-201-576-3321, and it'd
show up on my fax machine (the hyphens are ignored).  If you can
persuade your mailer to add parenthetical messages at the end of the
To: line, you can include (answerback/attentionTo) for a telex message,
or some banner information (such as the name of the recipient) to a fax
message.

Sending U.S. Mail or overnight delivery to an AT&T Mail subscriber is
easy enough; just add /paper or /paper/overnight to the end of the
message.  You could mail me a paper copy of your message by sending to
attmail!psrchisholm/paper (or attmail!psrchisholm/paper/usmail, which
is what /paper defaults to).  There are some issues of memos vs.
business letters, and what logo (if any) you'd like to appear on the
paper, but let's not get into that.

Sending U.S. Mail or overnight delivery to J. Random Person (who
doesn't have an address in the AT&T Mail directory) is a little harder.
The trick is to actually send your message to attmail!dispatcher, and
to have a Paper-To: recipient in the message.  The following lines in
your message header would get a piece of paper delivered to me
overnight:

Paper-To: Paul S. R. Chisholm
	  room 3C-318
	  AT&T Bell Laboratories
	  307 Middletown-Lincroft Rd.
	  Lincroft, NJ  07738
	  Phone: optionally-insert-phone-number-here
	  /overnight

AT&T Mail also supports Paper-Cc: and Paper-Bcc: headers.

If you have any further questions, or would like to get an account on
AT&T Mail or order some of our software, please contact the AT&T Mail
Customer Assistance Center.

Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories
att!pegasus!psrc, psrc@pegasus.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm
I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind.

jiii@visdc.UUCP (John E Van Deusen III) (07/02/89)

In article <602@pegasus.ATT.COM> psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM
(Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes:
>
> ... We also have front-end software running on ...  UNIX(R) systems
> (PMX/TERM) that make working with AT&T Mail much easier.

Does this mean that there is a way I could send e-mail containing
troff(1) commands and have it come out formatted on a fax machine?
--
John E Van Deusen III, PO Box 9283, Boise, ID  83707, (208) 343-1865

uunet!visdc!jiii

rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson) (07/03/89)

In article <596@visdc.UUCP> jiii@visdc.UUCP (John E Van Deusen III) writes:
>In article <602@pegasus.ATT.COM> psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM
>(Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes:
>>
>> ... We also have front-end software running on ...  UNIX(R) systems
>> (PMX/TERM) that make working with AT&T Mail much easier.
>
>Does this mean that there is a way I could send e-mail containing
>troff(1) commands and have it come out formatted on a fax machine?

If you are willing to install a FAX board into an AT/386 computer
running UNIX, we can supply you with the software to allow
transmission of troff(1) documents directly from your computer
to any FAX machine.  Generation of the cover sheet for the
transmission is automatic.  Does this meet your needs:

	jetroff -mm -Tfax memo.mm > memo.fax
	jetfax -t "tomorrow at 11pm" jiii@visdc memo.fax

Or, since no fancy formatting options are needed, more simply:

	jetfax -t "tomorrow at 11pm" jiii@visdc memo.mm

Naturally, all features of regular jetroff, such as bitmap
inclusions, also work with our FAX software.

-- 
Rick Richardson | JetRoff "di"-troff to LaserJet Postprocessor|uunet!pcrat!dry2
PC Research,Inc.| Mail: uunet!pcrat!jetroff; For anon uucp do:|for Dhrystone 2
uunet!pcrat!rick| uucp jetroff!~jetuucp/file_list ~nuucp/.    |submission forms.
jetroff Wk2200-0300,Sa,Su ACU {2400,PEP} 12013898963 "" \d\r\d ogin: jetuucp

bode@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (michael.bode) (07/07/89)

In article <602@pegasus.ATT.COM>, psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes:
....... some stuff deleted here .....
> 
> Sending to fax and telex is easy:  just pretend that AT&T Mail knows
> about two systems (called fax and telex), and that the phone number of
> the fax machine and the telex account are users on those systems.  For
> example, you could send mail to attmail!fax!1-201-576-3321, and it'd
> show up on my fax machine (the hyphens are ignored).  If you can
> persuade your mailer to add parenthetical messages at the end of the
> To: line, you can include (answerback/attentionTo) for a telex message,
> or some banner information (such as the name of the recipient) to a fax
> message.
> 
........ more deleted here ......



I tried this by sending mail to my own fax machine and it worked. The file appeared on the fax machine shortly after I had sent it exactly as it was stored. My question is now: Can I process a file with a text-processor (say, troff) and send the output directly to a fax machine?