[cisco-voip] mixing FAX modes

[Matthew Ballard]

We're using Xmedius here at Otis College, and it's working well for us.
Boardless is nice, no analog lines running to a server, and it can be run on
a VM (which is what we do).  Xmedius (and probably the other boardless fax
servers) run T.38 for the protocol, and connect to UCM for the gateway (I
would assume it also works with CME, but I have no experience with that).
The only additional configuration we needed on our gateway (configured with
H.323) is:
voice service voip 
 fax protocol t38 ls-redundancy 0 hs-redundancy 0 fallback pass-through
g711ulaw
(note that g711ulaw is on the same line as fax protocol t38)

I also had to tweak one of the timing parameters in UCM (I don't remember
offhand but I can look it up if someone wants it) to allow for fax machines
that weren't picking up until 4-5 rings in.

We have also integrated it with our newer HP MFPs using HP's DSS software,
which can be quirky, but has worked well in general (in conjunction with the
XML Gateway option on Xmedius), and have been able to substantially reduce
the number of analog lines we need.

FYI, Xmedius (in our experience) pricing was based on the options and the
number of lines it will work with (ie number of simultaneous faxes, inbound
or outbound).

Fax over IP does indeed allow for > 9600 baud faxing.  Our system is
currently running smoothly at 14400.  Theoretically IOS 15, possibly with
corresponding changes in the fax server software should allow for even
faster than that, but I haven't even started to look into that.

Matthew Ballard
Network Manager
Otis College of Art and Design
mballard at otis.edu


On 3/17/10 10:00 AM, "Robert Kulagowski" <rkulagow at gmail.com> wrote:

> Just jumping in on this thread...
> 
> I've been looking at moving away from physical fax machines and so this
> thread is intriguing to me.
> 
> I looked at the Cisco Fax Server solution; is it just Captaris Right Fax
> that's been painted Cisco blue?  Is there a value-add in purchasing from
> Cisco rather than directly from Captaris?
> 
> As far as faxing is concerned, I'm wrapping my head around the
> following.  I've successfully used the fax TCL script to do some light
> testing.  I know that it's not supposed to scale well, and there are
> huge "don't do this in production" warnings on it.
> 
> The "boardless" faxing is most appealing, because it seems like it would
> eliminate additional analog-digital conversions.
> 
> If PRIs from Ma Bell are terminated onto a 2851, then what sort of
> dial-peer configuration have people found to work the best, and does Fax
> over IP allow > 9600 baud faxing?
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