SETTING UP VIRTUAL FAX

Transcription

1 SETTING UP VIRTUAL FAX Before setting up Fax over IP, I suggest that we should read this: and : While sending and/or receiving Faxes are the available functions in ELASTIX, there have been reports of various degree of success if you are sending or receiving Faxes via IP. However it has been proven that receiving and sending faxes via Elastix through ISDN or PSTN have been consistently reliable and of commercial grade. This was achieved by utilising Hylafax which is a mature product (instead of the more commonly used mechanism by some other ipbx distributions). One of the difficulties experience by many users are the inability to have the Fax (or voice mail notification) sent out by . One of the possible reason is that postfix need a valid relay host address which you will need to add to etc/postfix/main.cf relayhost = optusnet.com.au (or whatever your service provider is) Once this is done, changes are it may work (but then again it may not). FAX FOR ELASTIX Developers of Elastix have included this capability by using Hylafax, which allows incoming faxes to be received over SIP, IAX & ZAP channel (though it is recommended that ISDN or PSTN are more reliable). Faxing through IP is achievable however it is variable due to several factors which include hardware and bandwidth considerations and VSP support of T38. For commercial usage, it is not highly recommended. Elastix does not utilise the standard Asterisk Fax handler for Faxing, instead utilising a separate module to handle fax traffic, which we will be discussing here. As already stipulated, Elastix is using Hylafax. As such all tools and applications that interface to Hylafax can be used (you may even have 10 virtual fax machines). It is recommended that dedicated Fax lines be used for incoming and sending faxes although the same lines can be used for outgoing calls (not incoming calls) caveat: this assumption is made on the result of our testing. Configuring Elastix Fax Module Click on the FAX tab and the following screen will appear. Next is to Click on the New Virtual Fax selection see arrow.

2 In this example we have populated the virtual fax field as the illustrated below. Click on Save. Virtual Fax Name: Sydney Office (or whatever you wish) Destination I have used my address but you should be using yours or a group address. Caller ID Name: This should be your organization name. Caller ID Number: Your Fax number Fax Destination (IAX): Your extension which we will setup for receiving fax. Secret(IAX): This is the password of your extension. Country Code: In my case it is 61 for Australia, 60 for Malaysia etc. Area Code: 2 for NSW, 3 for Victoria etc. You will then notice the following screen with Running and idle on ttyiax1. Thats a virtual FAX machine setup and ready to go as soon as we create an extension. Create a Fax extension By now we should already know how to set up an extension. This extension that we will be setting up is an IAX extension, which differs slightly from the SIP extensions that you are used to. Select Generic IAX device at the Create new extension screen. You will be presented with the usual create new extension screen as illustrated below:

3 We have populated the various fields: User Extension: 1100 (same user extension when you setup your virtual fax) Display Name: Sydney Fax (or whatever you want to call it) Secret: 1234 (make sure this is the same secret you use when you setup your virtual fax) Fax Extension: Disabled Incoming/outgoing recording: Disabled Press submit when done. We have now created a complete working virtual fax machine. Directing Fax to the correct extension (Dedicated Line) If you have dedicated line for the Virtual Fax, under freepbx, all you do is set the incoming route of your Fax DID to go directly to extension Directing Fax to Fax extension on Non-dedicated Fax line (Auto Detect) This is where you wish to share one PSTN line for Voice and Fax. Your Elastix system will discriminate between Fax call and a voice call and send it to the appropriate extension for fax or pass it through to your normal handler if it is a voice call. The following is what need to be done to achieve this: In the freepbx General setting, ensure that the Extension of fax machine field is disabled (see below).

4 In the incoming route set your fax extension number to 1100 (the one we have set up) and set Fax Detect to Zaptel leaving your final destination to the voice call if it is not a fax call.. The last thing that you need to do is make a little change in zapata.conf or if you are using DAHDI, you will have to make this change in etc/asterisk/chan_dahdi.conf. 1. Use nano to edit zapata.conf (or chan_dahdi.conf) 2. Ensure that the line faxdetect=incoming (see illustration below) is not commented out.

5 3. If the line is not there then add faxdetect=incoming to your zapata.conf or chan_dahdi.conf file Even though we have only set 1 virtual fax, you can set several if needed using the same procedure as outlined above except you need to use separate fax extension numbers e.g. 1100, 1101, 1102 etc Reboot, and enjoy your new virtual fax. FAX VISOR The Fax Visor is used to check how many faxes have been received and to check their contents.. 1. Click on the Fax Visor Sub-Tab. The Fax visor screen will be displayed listing the Faxes that you have received. 2. Click on the blue link will open the fax. See Illustration below.

6 HYLAFAX FAX CLIENT Using your windows PC to send fax is possible if you have the Hylafax Fax client installed on your PC. For my purpose, I am using Yet Another Java HylaFAX Client, YajHFC in short *thanks to Dave Edwards for pointing out this extremely useful client to me, which can be downloaded from here After downloading, it is just a matter of installing the client on a Windows PC that is on your LAN. Ideally this PC would have a fixed Local IP address (in my case it is ) as this address will be required by the Elastix fax module. Preparing your PC to be the fax client Before you can operate YajHFC on your PC, you will have to ensure that Elastixknows about your PC so it can communicate with each other. Under the Elastix GUI Fax -- > Fax Client Tab, add the IP address of your PC (in my case it is as illustrated below) and apply the change. Preparing YajHFC Once installed, it will be recognised by your PC as a YajHFC Fax/printer. Click on the YajHFC icon to start the client and you will get the following screen: All you need to do to get started is to fill in the three fields as illustrated above: Host name: Username: Password: (my Elastix Box IP address yours may be different) 1100 (My fax extension yours may be different) The password for the fax extension

7 You may leave the rest of the settings at default. You can always explore once you are comfortable that the client is working correctly. Once that is done, the client will initialise and you will get the following screen. If you have already received some faxes prior to installing this client, they will be shown (as above) otherwise the screen will be blank. Your fax client is now ready to receive a fax transmission To send a Fax from your PC To send a word document from your PC, all you have to do is open the Word document and print it to the Fax printer (see illustration below). You will then be required to enter the fax phone number you wish to send the fax to. Once done click on send (see illustration below)