[itdiscuss] Fax Service

[Bobby Stewart]

The IP phone system hasn't been selected. Considering everything from
Avaya's IP Office to Asterisk to Microsoft's Office Communications
Server and everything in between.

I'll have to check the options available with the new TELCO, PAETEC, to
see if they can deliver the specialized protocol. The pipe will be 10Mb
Ethernet. We will begin with a Cisco 2431 IAD to convert voice data on
the pipe to T1/PRI for our Avaya Magix and then transition either to a
system that supplements the Magix or replaces it. The change would
likely happen prior to Q2 '09.

Bobby Stewart
Network Analyst
Brentwood Baptist Church
Brentwood, TN
(615) 324-6149 office
(615) 830-0012 cell


-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org] On Behalf Of Justin Moore
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 7:38 AM
To: IT Discussion Forum
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] Fax Service

I'll go the opposite direction on this, just for fun. Fax over SIP
trunks *can* be reliable. I know of several organizations that use SIP
ATA's in house to plug their fax machines in on one side and plug into
the data network on the other side. The fax is carried via SIP back to
the Asterisk server where its sent out an analog line or channel on
their T1/PRI.

The issue to be concerned with is bandwidth. If you can somehow
guarantee bandwidth for your SIP trunks/channels between your fax
endpoint and your SIP provider, this may actually work quite well. The
only good situation I can think of where this may be a reality though is
if your telco is providing your trunks over a direct internet line back
to them (T1, MetroE, etc) and are able to QoS that traffic.

As an alternative, I'd suggest you look in to the T.38 protocol which is
a spec of how to send regular faxes over data networks (additional error
checking, etc). There are some providers out there providing
T.38 termination via SIP/IAX. This would allow you to continue to use
your existing fax machines.

I can provide more specific info if you want - what kind of phone system
is this for?

Justin Moore
aka wantmoore
---------------------------------------
www.wantmoore.com



On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 6:28 AM, Jeffrey Thompson
<jthompsonic at gmail.com> wrote:
> You are right about not wanting to put fax over SIP.  That is not
reliable.
> A fax service that converts your faxes into PDF and forwards it to you

> is a great idea I think.  MaxEmail has a good fax to PDF and vice 
> versa PDF/Word attachment to fax service.
>
> MaxEmail: http://maxemail.com/
> --
> Jeffrey Thompson
> jthompsonic at gmail.com
>
> On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 5:04 PM, Bobby Stewart 
> <bStewart at brentwoodbaptist.com> wrote:
>>
>> We are in the process of moving our telephone services. Eventually, 
>> this will mean that we are moving from a traditional PRI to SIP 
>> trunking. I am seeing that there is a potential impact on data over 
>> SIP (for faxes and MODEMs). Because of that I am considering a fax 
>> service to receive faxes. I'm also curious about outgoing fax
reliability.
>>
>> Those fax services are currently being handled through our PBX over 
>> traditional PRI which is uncompressed, therefore, no real impact on 
>> transmission.
>>
>> What might any of you be using or what might you suggest I consider.
>>
>> Bobby Stewart
>> Network Analyst
>> Brentwood Baptist Church
>> Brentwood, TN
>> (615) 324-6149 office
>> (615) 830-0012 cell
>>
>>
>>
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