let me explain,

I have web app written in .net that I would like to format and send
faxes from. I recently read a post that explained some of the basics.
It said, "fax uses other modulation schemes: CCITT V.21, V27ter, V29
and soon to be V.17... there is no way to "fake" a modulation scheme in
software -- your hardware has to support it". I am taking this a bit
out of context. The original question was "is it possible to do
standard faxes (send & receive) with software".
My question is what specific sort of hardware (be it modem or something
else) does an ISP have to have to send a fax (do not have to receive
one). Regarding software. What sort of software? Is their generic
software like faxmail that helps me format and send faxes to any sort
of fax hardware or is it matter of writing something that communicates
with some sort of controller for the fax hardware?

I woefully in need of an education and truly appreciate all help

thx Brian

On 11 May 2006 17:34:39 -0700, brian <brianstoffer@hotmail.com> wrote:

Well, if I understand you correctly, the machine on which your web app is
running needs to have access to fax hardware, the requisite phone lines, and
software to make it all happen.

There are lots of ways to accomplish this. Actually having hardware wired
to the ISPs servers is the obvious solution, but this would be a pretty hard
sell, even with your own colocated server. Difficult to implement,
difficult to maintain, and expensive as all get out.

You could also run your own fax server. You just have to get the data from
your web app somehow and fax it out using your own modem and phone line (I'm
leaving out loads of implementation details, obviously). Pretty easy to
accomplish with *nix but pretty darn difficult with windows would be my
guess.

By far the simplest and cheapest thing to do, particularly if you just want
to fax plain text, would appear to be to subscribe to a service like eFax
(www.efax.com). Your app need only email fax data to them in an appropriate
format and they do all the work.

Dear Mr. Horn

Thank you for the reply. I have started to look into efax.com. I'd
still like to contact a few ISPs regarding faxes just to see if it's
possible to accomplish all that our app does including faxing. But I'm
still unsure of what it is I'm asking for (hardware and software). You
specifically mentioned that it was "pretty easy to accomplish with *nix
but pretty darn difficult with windows". I agree and that's why we
might rewrite the app so that it can be served up on an apache web
server running linux. OSs aside,can you give me a better idea of what
it is Im asking? I know that sounds goofy but if I were to go on the
hunt for ISPs that are capable of sending faxes what should I ask them?
All I know today is that faxes use other modulation schemes: CCITT
v.2... Does that require a certain type of modem? dedicated phone
lines ect, ect...? Thank you again for your help.

Brian

On 13 May 2006 18:49:38 -0700, brian <brianstoffer@hotmail.com> wrote:

One important thing to remember is that dialup ISPs don't use the same
modems as the rest of us. For v.90/v.92 to work requires that at least one
side be directly connected to a digital line (trunk side T1 generally). In
other words, only a single DA conversion is allowed. Whether or not the
digital modems used by a given ISP are set up to originate faxes and, if so,
the implementation details are questions for someone else.

Best to just describe in detail what it is you wish to accomplish. The
difficult part is finding someone capable of answering your questions. You
need to get past the folks who answer the phones to the real IT gurus.
Sometimes that means showing up in person, so start with smaller local ISPs
that offer dialup service.

Don't expect to be greeted with open arms. Any kind of fax-on-demand via
the internet is likely to require something like several dedicated WATS
lines. That's why I still think efax is your best bet, as they already have
the equipment and expertise.

You needn't concern yourself with that level of detail.

brian wrote:
At last look, Efax actually runs HylaFAX, based at www.hylafax.org. It's a
pretty neat tool: it's also fairly easily integrated into a web-based
interface that allows you to set a recipient name, title for the cover page,
phone number, etc., and upload files to actually fax.

Most electronic faxing tools actually take the files and run them through
something like Ghostscript and/or libtiff to transform them into the tiffg3
format actually used. Every fax/modem in the last 10 years or so will
happily take that, so once you have your first setups and figure out what
you really want to do, it can be pretty robust. The last one I set up ran
for 5 years after I left the company, and only got turned off when somebody
reconfigured an intervening firewall and they decided it wasn't worth
preserving in this email based world.