Course10:Advanced - Book on Faxserver
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Book about innovaphone Faxserver Application and FAX-Interface.
Overview
The innovaphone Faxserver Application enables to extend the PBX functionality with an E-Mail to Fax Gateway.
Following components are engaged in the process of sending or receiving a fax message:
The Faxserver Application monitors via SOAP the Fax Gateway object for incoming calls trying to deliver a fax or starts a call from the Gateway object for outgoing fax messages.
The FAX-interface, registered at the Gateway object, terminates VoIP calls (RTP/T.38 streams) and converts the payload to a TIFF-file. The TIFF-files are stored on the WebDAV server, located at the same Linux Application Platform as the Faxserver instance.
The Faxserver Application daemon running on the Linux Application Platform converts the TIFF-files to PDF-files and sends them via a SMTP server to the appropriate E-Mail address. The E-Mail address is determined by the User object, which extension was appended to the number of the Fax Gateway object. For outgoing faxes, the Faxserver Application daemon converts the E-Mails and attached documents, received by the SMTP-Server, to TIFF-files and places them on the WebDAV server.
Following animation shows step-by-step how an outgoing fax message is processed by the Faxserver Application:
Sending Fax
An incoming fax message is handled similarly.
Following components are engaged in the process of sending or receiving a fax message:
- Faxserver Application based on the innovaphone Linux Application Platform
- SMTP Server
- WebDAV Server
- Gateway object in the PBX
- FAX-interface based on the innovaphone Gateway or IPVA
The Faxserver Application monitors via SOAP the Fax Gateway object for incoming calls trying to deliver a fax or starts a call from the Gateway object for outgoing fax messages.
The FAX-interface, registered at the Gateway object, terminates VoIP calls (RTP/T.38 streams) and converts the payload to a TIFF-file. The TIFF-files are stored on the WebDAV server, located at the same Linux Application Platform as the Faxserver instance.
The Faxserver Application daemon running on the Linux Application Platform converts the TIFF-files to PDF-files and sends them via a SMTP server to the appropriate E-Mail address. The E-Mail address is determined by the User object, which extension was appended to the number of the Fax Gateway object. For outgoing faxes, the Faxserver Application daemon converts the E-Mails and attached documents, received by the SMTP-Server, to TIFF-files and places them on the WebDAV server.
Following animation shows step-by-step how an outgoing fax message is processed by the Faxserver Application:
Sending Fax
An incoming fax message is handled similarly.
Requirements
System Requirements
To run the Faxserver Application an instance of an innovaphone Application Platform running on a VMWare host or an innovaphone gateway with Linux support is required.
Incoming and Outgoing Fax Calls
To terminate calls to other fax-capable endpoints, an innovaphone gateway or IPVA instance with a FAX-interface is required.
The FAX-interface supports only T.38 protocol, no "soft-fax" (fax via G.711) is supported.
Incoming and Outgoing Fax Documents
In order to send or receive E-Mails with Fax attachments, an email server with SMTP protocol and authentication support is required (e.g. Microsoft Exchange Server with SMTP Send Connector).
The SMTP authentication is required for incoming emails with documents, that are queued for sending via fax.
Licenses
For each PBX user a Fax PBX license is required and must be activated on the User object.
Mapping of fax numbers to E-Mail addresses
You may wonder, how the Faxserver Application knows which fax number extension is assigned to the E-Mail address of a PBX user.
In a V10 PBX every User object has a place to store an E-Mail address. You can configure multiple E-Mail addresses at the user object. The first E-Mail address is composed automatically by the PBX, by appending the domain name(i.e. System Name) after the users name. For example, if the System Name of the PBX is example.com and the Name of the User object is john, the resulting E-Mail address of this user will be john@example.com.
composed email address
In order to compose the E-Mail address from the users Name and System Name, the check mark at the Users object must be activated.
In a V10 PBX every User object has a place to store an E-Mail address. You can configure multiple E-Mail addresses at the user object. The first E-Mail address is composed automatically by the PBX, by appending the domain name(i.e. System Name) after the users name. For example, if the System Name of the PBX is example.com and the Name of the User object is john, the resulting E-Mail address of this user will be john@example.com.
composed email address
In order to compose the E-Mail address from the users Name and System Name, the check mark at the Users object must be activated.
Configuration
Before starting to configure the Faxserver, collect the following information:
After the requiered information is gathered refer the wiki article Step-by-step Faxserver installation to install and configure the Faxserver Application.
- which Domain name should be used as destination E-Mail address when a user sends a fax?
- which IP address should be assigned to the Faxserver?
- which extension number in the PBX will have the Faxserver?
- which credentials must be used for the SOAP connection at the PBX?
After the requiered information is gathered refer the wiki article Step-by-step Faxserver installation to install and configure the Faxserver Application.
Troubleshooting
First, try to call the extension number of the Fax Gateway, followed by a Fax enabled User extension, from an external phone - you should hear the typical fax tone.
If not, check the PBX and the Gateway:
Next, try to send an E-Mail to an external number followed by the Fax domain (e.g. 012345@fax.domain). A call should be started shortly.
In case that a call to a fax device is established but no fax pages are delivered, check the T.38 setting on the interfaces.
To see what happened with your test fax messages, check the Diagnostics page of the Faxserver Application. There you can see a list of your calls and their state.
Following errors could appear in the list:
If not, check the PBX and the Gateway:
- is the FAX-interface registered on the Gateway object?
- is a SOAP session of the Faxserver active at the PBX?
- check the HTTP client settings on the Gateway with the FAX-interface - it should have credentials configured to be able to access the WebDAV server
Next, try to send an E-Mail to an external number followed by the Fax domain (e.g. 012345@fax.domain). A call should be started shortly.
In case that a call to a fax device is established but no fax pages are delivered, check the T.38 setting on the interfaces.
To see what happened with your test fax messages, check the Diagnostics page of the Faxserver Application. There you can see a list of your calls and their state.
Following errors could appear in the list:
- call disconnected: release code 0 - usually, a call was accepted by a human and disconnected
- no FAX device - usually, a call from non fax device (a phone) was received
- by user: No user license - no Fax license is activated at the User object
- by user: NoAttachment - an empty E-Mail was sent
- by user: Unoconv failed, exit code 134 - an attachment was not converted (unsupported file format)
- file-open: authentication required - The FAX Interface was not able to Read/Write via HTTP on Linux WebDAV server. Make sure to configure correct credentials on HTTP client
Using a Printer Driver to send a Facsimile
As outgoing fax documents can be sent as PDF file to the fax server, you can use just any PDF printer driver with email support to send a fax from arbitrary applications. See Printer driver solution for innovaphone faxserver for an example.