Gustav Brock
gustav at cactus.dk
Sun Aug 7 04:17:19 CDT 2011
Hi Shamil Here we use fax so little that we skipped the in-house faxing completely and replaced it with a service offered by VOIP provider. They run a HylaFAX server to which you are granted access. At our side, a HylaFAX printer driver which installs at desktop level as a "printer". Lots of other clients are available: http://www.hylafax.org/content/Desktop_Client_Software To send a fax, we print to the HylaFAX "printer" which pops a messagebox for the receiving fax number and then pass the fax image and number to the server. This replies back to a new messagebox that the fax was received and queued. Very simple, and very cheap as cost per fax is charged as the normal (very low) VOIP charges only. In your case you would probably need something more advanced like an API or perhaps just the option to e-mail the server with the document as an attachment: http://www.hylafax.org/content/Email_to_Fax_Gateway The guys behind our VOIP are not smart youngsters but some old dogs that knows just about everything about VOIP and PSTN. I'll be happy to forward any requests you may have. /gustav >>> shamil at smsconsulting.spb.ru 05-08-2011 22:12 >>> Hi All -- I'm looking for the most cost effective international faxing solution (sending fax messages) controlled by custom coding - there are many AFAIHF but if generalize them then "just" two options are looking worth to be taken into consideration (?), namely: - (1) Internet Fax Service Provider, e.g http://www.interfax.net/en/lp3/uk-fax-over-ip (description) http://www.interfax.net/en/prices (costs) http://www.interfax.net/en/dev API) http://faxing-service-review.toptenreviews.com/ (top 10 fax service providers review) and - (2) Fax over IP (FoIP) "boardless" (virtual) Server Solution: http://www.biscom.com/products/fax-servers/fax-over-ip.htm (FoIP in general) http://www.biscom.com/downloads/Fax_server_virtualization.pdf (FoIP virtualization) http://www.ifax.com/shop/brooktrout-sr140-2f.html (FoIP software) http://www.biscom.com/products/fax-integrations/sdk-api.htm (API) http://voip-service-review.toptenreviews.com/ (top 10 VoIP providers) The former is looking simple and quick to start with but the costs per a fax page sent are rather high. The latter is looking rather complicated and a bit pricey to start with but it could provide significant costs cuts in long run I guess? Do you have any experience with using the second option? I think I don't understand in details how it works - would it be correct to write that it works this way: - a) custom code via API submits a fax message source (plain text or MS Word doc or .pdf doc ...) to a "boardless" fax server software (e.g. BrookTrout SR140 referred above), - b) the "boardless" fax server software makes conversion of the source docs to the fax message image to be sent via local (?) VoIP provider's hardware (which SR140 communicates with via IP) to the specified (international) fax number. (The destination fax device could be an old (T.30) fax machine connected to the PSTN lines), - c) (local) VoIP provider's hardware communicates with destination (international) VoIP provider's hardware via Internet IP gateways, - d) destination (international) VoIP provider's hardware via VoIP-to-PSTN gateway communicates with destination fax machine... The costs cuts in the long run (I guess) would be the result of lower costs of the local VoIP/FoIP services (with international faxing option included) per a fax page sent comparing with Internet Fax Services costs per a fax page sent... I can be completely wrong with my guessing about second (FoIP fax server) option - could you please advise/share your experience in that area? (The second option could also provide real-time reliable FoIP fax message transmittion?) Thank you. -- Shamil