[Freeswitch-users] Commercial Fax over T.30 for FreeSWITCH

[Alex Crow]

On 04/05/12 17:17, Steve Underwood wrote:
> On 05/03/2012 08:23 PM, Anita Hall wrote:
>> Hi Alex
>>
>> Thanks for the tip :)
>>
>> No, I am running FreeSWITCH on an Ubuntu 64-bit Quad core machine.
>> There is no VM.
>>
>> Is it possible to use Hylafax instead of or in combination to
>> FreeSWITCH if I am using Sangoma E1 Cards ?
>>
>> What all things should I check to ensure that the timing on my system
>> is good? Like, may be, my motherboard is bad or my kernel could be
>> tuned better ?
> Are you really interested in fixing your problems? It seems you have
> greater interest in tinkering with every possible solution. Many many
> people handle hundreds of thousands of FAXes per day with low failures
> rates using:
>       asterisk + iaxmodem/spandsp + hylafax, or
>       asterisk + spandsp, or
>       freeswitch + spandsp
> and some people are probably now carrying significant traffic with
> freeswitch + spandsp + hylafax, which is a recent addition to the
> options. They all work well when set up properly.
>
> Steve
>
>

Steve,

Forgive me, but to be honest I think that opening sentence is a bit 
harsh. Timing is important for fax, and I think the OP just wants to 
eliminate all the possible causes, which is commendable. I have had 
problems in the past with bad timing in the kernel on Ubuntu (although 
it may not apply here, I was on BRI) and it was a really difficult time 
with lots of complaints from users until I pinned it down.

I think we just need to point out the great capabilities of the Free/OSS 
software that is available. I have been stunned with the quality and 
stability of both FreeSwitch and HylaFAX, and having used the latter for 
more than a decade in a commercial environment cannot fault it. It also 
has great Windows clients such as WHFC, great reporting of fax outcomes 
built-in, and just seems to do its job without ever needing attention 
(We had one box with 5+ years of uptime). Moving to to a new 
softswitch/PBX can be very daunting for a new user, especially one that 
comes from the Asterisk environment (lots of baggage) or one not 
accustomed to telephony in general.

Cheers

Alex