[cisco-nas] using AS5300/MICA to send out faxes?

[Gert Doering]

Hi,

one or the other of you might have seen the thread below - it's about
"using AS5xxx devices to send outgoing faxes", and the non-workings of
it ("telnet $router 3001", send AT+FCLASS=2.0, ATD...).

Since I have a number of not yet fully production devices for my 
X.75/modem dial-in tests at hand right now, I decided to give this 
another try.

And lo and behold, there's news on this :-)

 - Fax *works* on the 3640 with NM-DM, with IOS 12.2(40a) and MICA
   portware 2.7.3.0

 - Fax does *not* work on the same device with IOS 12.3(26) and
   MICA portware 2.9.4.0 (bundled)

 - Fax does *not* work on an AS5300 with IOS 12.3(26) and MICA
   portware 2.9.5.0 (bundled)


In cases of "not working", the 3640 gives this message from "debug modem":

Jun 12 13:36:05 cisco-test daemon:debug 88: Jun 12 11:36:05: Modem 2/26 Mica: DISCONNECT after 00:00:07, due to reason (0x6104) No end of answer-back tone.

which hints at "V.92 stuff might be confusing the fax part" (the AS5300
doesnt' give this nice message, but there are many more debug options
there and I might not have found the proper one yet).


If I try to disable V.92 stuff (ATS29=0 or ATS63=0), the message changes
to:

Jun 12 13:54:25 cisco-test daemon:debug 164: Jun 12 11:54:25: Modem 2/28 Mica: DISCONNECT after 00:00:03, due to reason (0x4014) UNDOCUMENTED.

... which is "interesting", but not overly helpful...


Interesting enough, calling a different station, I *did* get the MICA modem
to report a fax connect, but with V.34 fax...

Jun 12 13:58:13 cisco-test.medat.de daemon:debug 230: Jun 12 11:58:12: Modem 2/28 Mica: CONNECT at 28800/26400 (Tx/Rx), V34, FAX, None

... which the receiving end doesn't support (V.34 Fax)... and so it
failed, of course.



There's more fun to be had here.  If I initialize the modem with
ATS29=4S63=0 and then initiate a fax call, my log shows...

Jun 12 14:06:37 cisco-test.medat.de daemon:debug 318: Jun 12 12:06:36: Modem 2/28 Mica: CONNECT at 2400/2400 (Tx/Rx), V22bis, FAX, None

... which looks nice :-) - but on the receiving end, this is actually
negotiated as a *DATA* call - the receiving modem reports:

RING
CONNECT 38400/V.22b 2400/NONE

... so "something" is missing that will kick the MICA modem to actually
initiate a *FAX* call when in Fax mode.


Staring at the available documentation and at the output of "AT%R"
from the modem, there is not really a documented "bit" to make the 
MICA modem enter "fax mode" - this should be automatic by selecting
AT+FCLASS=2 / AT+FCLASS=2.0.


Sooo...  maybe this is enough to ring a bell with someone?  Aaron, 
do you have any idea (or maybe a contact inside the Cisco MICA team
that would be able to help)?

Since these gateways can (supposedly) do T.37/T.38 fax, there must be
a way to get the modems in the proper mode...

gert





On Sun, Nov 06, 2005 at 01:45:12AM +0100, Gert Doering wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Sat, Nov 05, 2005 at 05:56:00PM +0100, Gert Doering wrote:
> > Hmmm.  It *seems* that I'm not accessing the modem properly - a few
> > seconds after my last attempt, with me still being in telnet (writing
> > this mail), suddenly I had this in my telnet window:
> > 
> > AT&F&D2S34=18000S40=10S54=456debugthismodemS71=4
> > OK
> > 
> > ... so it seems that "the router wanting to talk to the modem" and
> > "my telnet connection to line 21" are interfering here.
> 
> Assuming that "telnet to 2000+<line>" is not the proper way to do it,
> I did some more searching on cisco.com and found the page that describes
> how to setup a rotary group and telnet into 7000+<rotary>.
> 
> Went there, did that, same effect - dialout, remote side picks up,
> a few seconds of handshake, NO CARRIER on the AS5300 side (while the
> remote modem continues negotiating with "empty air" for some more time).
> 
> "term mon" displays this, in parallel:
> 
> 47w3d: %ISDN-6-CONNECT: Interface Serial0:30 is now connected to 35663087 N/A
> 47w3d: %ISDN-6-DISCONNECT: Interface Serial0:30  disconnected from 35663087 , call lasted 8 seconds
> 
> so the router seems to think "all is well".
> 
> I am able to establish a data connection (ATZ, AT+FCLASS=0, ATD...), but
> fax *just does not work*.
> 
> 
> IOS version is c5300-is-mz.123-12.bin, and we're using the MICA firmware 
> bundled with that IOS.
> 
> 
> So what I'd really like to hear now is a success report "we're sending
> faxes with an AS5300, this is our config, and *that* is the common
> problem..."
> 
> gert
> 
> -- 
> USENET is *not* the non-clickable part of WWW!
>                                                            //www.muc.de/~gert/
> Gert Doering - Munich, Germany                             gert at greenie.muc.de
> fax: +49-89-35655025                        gert at net.informatik.tu-muenchen.de
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-- 
USENET is *not* the non-clickable part of WWW!
                                                           //www.muc.de/~gert/
Gert Doering - Munich, Germany                             gert at greenie.muc.de
fax: +49-89-35655025                        gert at net.informatik.tu-muenchen.de
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