Hylafax (Download of the Month)

Hylafax

If you're anything like me, you've probably got an ancient fax machine that sees less and less use each year - yet you need to keep it just for those troglodytes who insist on sending you bitmap images of documents. And you've probably got a modem sitting around that does very little now that you have a broadband connection. Why not use the modem as a fax gateway on your Linux server?

Hylafax is a terrifically capable fax gateway which is supported by an extended community that develops add-ons like Windows clients, fax viewers for Linux, and more. Hylafax uses a client-server architecture; you can run it on a server and then send and receive faxes from Linux, Mac and even Windows clients with any of several client programs. In our office, incoming faxes are sent as emails to FaxMaster, who will forward them to the correct recipient. You can also configure Hylafax to store the inbound fax TIFF or PDF files in a directory on an FTP server.

Post-installation configuration is mostly done by the faxsetup script, which checks that all required software is installed, user accounts are correct , etc. and then starts the hfaxd daemon. It then runs the faxaddmodem script which configures the modem, sets up the phone number, etc. Some knowedge of Linux configuration files, most notably /etc/inittab and a little knowledge of modems and AT-commands. is helpful for debugging and configuring the hfaxd daemon to respawn after each connection. Setup is well documented at the Hylafax site (http://www.hylafax.org/setup.html) and there is a comprehensive FAQ which documents advanced configurations.

There are various Linux clients for Hylafax, though I've most often used it from the command line - it's incredibly easy to script fax transmissions or via the faxmail interface, which provides an email-to-fax gateway. On WIndows, we're using WHFC, but Cypheus looks interesting and we might switch to it. There are also many other clients, some written in Java for cross-platform capability amd some with web interfaces.

Nightly emails summarise faxes sent and received, faxes and files purged, etc. so you know just how well the system is working.

Hylafax provides all that you will need to dump that old fax machine and provide fax services at everyone's desktop.

Hylafax

Download from: http://www.hylafax.org

Price: Free

WHFC

Download from: http://www.uli-eckhardt.de/whfc/1.2/download.shtml

Price: Free

Cypheus

Download from: http://www.cypheus.de/

...........................