[comp.dcom.fax] Network FAX servers

kusumoto@chsun1.uchicago.edu (Bob Kusumoto) (02/21/91)

my explorations into networked fax servers (mostly ones that run on novell
netware networks) leads me to believe that network fax servers needs a lot
of work before they becomes easiler to deal with.

Of all the fax servers out there, I'm looking at or have looked at the
following:

a) Gammalink's Gammanet.  Gammalink is probably the oldest company around
and has a good deal of clout (they recently announced agreements with
Banyan, IBM, and I think the 3rd company was DEC or Xerox).  They market
a board called GammaFax (three or four different models, with the higher
end boards being the XP which lists around $900 and the CP which lists
around $1200, ISA versions, I believe they also have MC versions but
I didn't look at them).  It comes with software to run the board.  In
addition, we picked up GammaNet which is their networking software, and
GammaScript, which adds conversions for postscript and HP-GL files.
The software supports two modes, dedicated and non-dedicated.  Although
I had no problems getting the non-dedicated version up and running,
the program always bombed when running in dedicated mode.  I have a feeling
after talking with our VAR and Gammalink's tech support that getting the
stuff to work over ARCnet is futile (they got it to work over an
Ethernet network just fine).  On the plus side, you have a wide range
of conversions which work on the fly as long as the fax server is
dedicated, and expandablity by adding up to 8 boards on your fax server.
The fax server is a PC you designate on the network and works as a node
on your system.  This is just fine if we got the bloody thing to work,
but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  The program also supports incoming
faxes to be sent to email, I can't remember if it did it by DTMF codes or
if they had DID support, so if this interests you, you might want to look
into it.  They also have a C library that works with their fax server which
costs $2500 list.  The software was roughly $1200 list for GammaNet and
$700 list for GammaScript (although this is from memory, check with them
as to the exact pricing).

b) Our second examination was with the OAZ NetFax Manager.  This is a slightly
more polished program (installation wise).  The program runs as a dedicated
(workstation) fax server, at a cost of roughlt $2800 list which includes one
of their boards (I believe they have both ISA and MC versions).  This program
also takes some time to install and quite a bit of knowledge of your system.
It comes with MHS (if you haven't installed it yet) and a mail program called
PMail (Pegasus Mail) which allows you to view incoming and sometimes outgoing
faxes (depending on the options).  They have support for both DTMF codes
(which route faxes automatically without a fax administrator, given that
the sender adds the correct 4 digit code before sending the fax) and DID
(multiple phone numbers at a trunk where each person has their own personal
fax number, for routing purposes).  The program supports up to 4 boards in
the fax server at a cost of roughly $900 list per additional board.  We
took a 30 day trial of this product and it looks decent, although I was
extremely annoyed with the interface of sending the fax (something I didn't
get to check out with the Gammalink product because I couldn't get it to
work in dedicated mode, non-dedicated mode requires you to save to a file
and convert it after it's into a print file).  Another problem I had was that
it did not advance the date all the time (I had to go in and exit the server
mode and run SYSTIME to reset the date to the correct date, this could be
more of a local problem than a problem with the fax manager).  I didn't
get heavily involved in testing this product, partially because I didn't
care to set up MHS correctly and route faxes, set up a fax administrator,
etc.  Sending faxes seemed to be a major deal with the program though,
and it wasn't that easy (try training 10 or so people at a time to use
it, and then retrain them every time they send a fax because they forgot
how to, but then again, that's what help desks are for :-).  This is a nice
program if you need an e-mail program (it's nice, the complete program
sits as a TSR or runs as a non-TSR as well, and uses extended memory in
either mode).  It supports ASCII, their own G3 fax format, and converts
HP-PCL and uncompressed TIFF files.  They have an updated version coming
out soon but with what I saw, it seems to be too much trouble to be worth
while (come on, do I really have to deal with TWO email programs now?
We currently use cc:Mail and I have enough problems with people using
just cc:Mail :-).  Might be worth a look.  The company seemed to be at
quite a few conventions as of late so it might be a decent choice down
the road.

c) What we might end up with is the Castelle FaxPress (recently announced
in LanMan and some other network system, I can't remember if it was
Banyan Vines or IBM's PC Net).  This roughly $4000 list product is a self
contained box (doesn't require a PC) that sits on your network and looks
like a server (shows up on the SLIST rather that USERLIST).  They used
to have two versions of it, a 2.5MB and a 4MB box, but they phased out
the 2.5MB version because it only supported two HP fonts.  They recently
upgraded it so it supports the Netware Queue (which makes it a hell of a
lot easier on me in WordPerfect5.1) and some other features which helps
out.  One negative thing about this is that it's not cheap to expand to
additional lines, which require additional boxes at $4k, it's not cheap.
The good thing is that it's a breeze to install, with experienced installer
doing it within a couple hours and it's extremely reliable, at least from
what I've heard.  As I said before, we're in the process of getting this
product and I've had no hands-on experience with it except in a demo
situation which isn't ideal.  I don't believe they have a 10baseT version
of their box, only thinnet (and maybe thick ethernet) and possibly
token ring versions.

There are probably other products out there that doesn't have the
same features or probably more complex, but looking at the $2.5k to $4k
range for a decent fax server is no easy task.  The only comments I can
make are:

a) ALL the products supported ASCII and HP PCL formats (at minimum.  
   Additional formats are usually included, usually, native G3 format which
   seems to vary by board (after looking at the Hijack program) and
   uncompressed TIFF).  They also seem to support soft fonts for HP laserjets.
b) They had some kind of email support.
c) they use a port capture via a TSR (looks at a parallel port for fax) and
   adds necessary information via the TSR.  Conversions of print files is
   also available.
d) lack of support for some kind of prefix or suffix code, or an arbitrary
   limit to the size of the phone number (how about doing an international
   fax with your own AT&T or Sprint calling card?  Not possible with the
   above three products, since there are limits to the size of the field for
   phone numbers and requirements to get the timing of entering in access
   codes and such...).
e) Support for global and local group lists for easy inputting of relavent
   information on the cover page (so you don't have to enter the name,
   company, and fax number every time).  Additional support for distribution
   lists is probably there.

Hopefully I can have something more complete later on.

Bob
-- 
   Bob Kusumoto                               | I just come from the land of
Internet:  kusumoto@chsun1.uchicago.edu       | the sun/ from a war that must
Bitnet:    kusumoto%chsun1@uchicago[.bitnet]  | be won in the name of truth.
UUCP:  ...!{oddjob,gargoyle}!chsun1!kusumoto  | - New Order, "Love Vigilantes"

robertl@bucsf.bu.edu (Robert La Ferla) (02/21/91)

>  Someday, I would like to provide networked fax facilities that would
>  allow PC users, Mac users, Unix users and any other authorized (tcp/ip)
>  network user to send out fax documents from a selected number of popular
>  applications -- as if they were submitting print jobs. I can picture
>  documents created by MS-Windows applications (eg. PageMaker, Word),
>  WordPerfect, MacWrite, MacDraw, Quark Xpress, FrameMaker, troff,
>  TeX and miscellaneous email software being faxed out. If I choose
>  PostScript as the document transport vehicle, I would only need
>  a little program (a la print selection) running on the different
>  boxes connected to an Ethernet wide area network that would basically
>  get the phone numbers and PS files to send to the fax server, which
>  in turn would convert PostScript to G3 FAX (time consuming) before
>  faxing out.

>>  Does this make any sense? Is this too much pie in the ski?
>>  Are there better ways of approaching the problem?

It makes perfect sense.  NeXT workstations do exactly that.  All applications
have a print option from a menu that brings up a panel that asks which
printer or FAX to print to.  It's a wonderfully useful feature.  Incoming
faxes are converted to PostScript and look great on the 400 DPI NeXT laser
printer.  It is simple to send print requests from other UNIX boxes to
the NeXT for printing or FAX.

Robert La Ferla
Lotus Development Corporation
robertl@bucsf.bu.edu

"Improv-ising in the NeXT dimension."

rossc@extro.ucc.su.oz.au (Ross Cartlidge) (02/27/91)

U12570@uicvm.uic.edu (Ed Garay Computer Center) writes:

>I am very interested in network fax servers and I have a few questions.

>1) Are there any fax network/server configurations that facilitate
>   charging back for the facsimile transmissions? Is anybody charging
>   real or fake money for the fax documents sent out?

	We use a product called OSFAX from Osiris Australia.
	It is software for a UNIX system and a fax modem
	which allows the sending of PostScript documents.
	Both the PostScript and the fax sending software is
	very good. It logs the phone number and the time taken.
	We charge at three rates - local, Australia-wide or Overseas.
	We just use an average for the three rates.

>2) Someday, I would like to provide networked fax facilities that would
>   allow PC users, Mac users, Unix users and any other authorized (tcp/ip)
>   network user to send out fax documents from a selected number of popular
>   applications -- as if they were submitting print jobs. I can picture
>   documents created by MS-Windows applications (eg. PageMaker, Word),
>   WordPerfect, MacWrite, MacDraw, Quark Xpress, FrameMaker, troff,
>   TeX and miscellaneous email software being faxed out. If I choose
>   PostScript as the document transport vehicle, I would only need
>   a little program (a la print selection) running on the different
>   boxes connected to an Ethernet wide area network that would basically
>   get the phone numbers and PS files to send to the fax server, which
>   in turn would convert PostScript to G3 FAX (time consuming) before
>   faxing out. Does this make any sense? Is this too much pie in the ski?
>   Are there better ways of approaching the problem?

	I have set this up on our system like this:-
	We have a sysV printer called fax which
	accepts options to set the phone number, To, From, Comments, etc
	like this "lp -dfax -o'PH=6606557 TO="Ross Cartlidge" ...'
	
	This makes the sending of faxes from UNIX the same as 
	printing - works for Troff, Tex, Frame etc

	We have a BSD printer which takes the first line of the job
	as the options to the sysV printer

	We have a CAP lwsrv and a PC/NFS printer called fax
	which read a file in the user's home directory to
	get options for the lp line. So all a PC or mac user
	has to do is have his home directory on the UNIX machine
	mounted and use his favourite editor to set the options.
	He then uses the normal print mechanism (setting the device
	as a LaserWriter) to send the fax.

	Thus users on UNIX, Mac or PC can all fax using
	the one fax modem and without any special software at
	the client side.

	rossc
--
________________________________________________________________________
Ross Rodney Cartlidge			    |   rossc@extro.ucc.su.oz.au
University Computing Service, H08	    |   Phone:     +61 2 6923497
University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia   |   FAX:       +61 2 6606557