Fax: Sangoma FAXstation
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It's old school faxing with a twist.
The local machine send a fax to a local device. that device then sends the "fax" (really it's likely just a TIFF or PDF) via SSL to some other box somewhere on the internet. That box has a PSTN connection and calls the remote fax machine. The fax itself is never going over IP.
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@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
The FAXStation appliance comes pre-provisioned and
pre-programmed–no need to open rewalls, port forward
or set up proxies.They can't know this. My firewall could be setup to block all outbound traffic I don't specifically allow. Huge assumption here.
It wouldn't talk to your firewall, it doesn't appear to be a networked device. It needs POTS lines, from what I can tell.
Where does it say anything about needing POTS? Again, read the data sheets!!
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@fateknollogee said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@fateknollogee said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
Jeez, did you guys even bother to read anything?
We did, their website was pretty clear that there was no FoIP.
Agreed, there is no FoIP, there is faxing via IP, but it's definitely not FoIP.
Is there? I didn't see any option to Fax via IP. It uses terms like "use your old phone lines" and "keep your old fax machines" but never mentions any place where FoIP gear or communications happens.
Maybe you should try reading the data sheets
I did. If you see something on there that we don't, what is it?
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@fateknollogee said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
The FAXStation appliance comes pre-provisioned and
pre-programmed–no need to open rewalls, port forward
or set up proxies.They can't know this. My firewall could be setup to block all outbound traffic I don't specifically allow. Huge assumption here.
It wouldn't talk to your firewall, it doesn't appear to be a networked device. It needs POTS lines, from what I can tell.
Where does it say anything about needing POTS? Again, read the data sheets!!
Where does it say you don't? Again, show us where we are wrong.
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@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
The FAXStation appliance comes pre-provisioned and
pre-programmed–no need to open rewalls, port forward
or set up proxies.They can't know this. My firewall could be setup to block all outbound traffic I don't specifically allow. Huge assumption here.
It wouldn't talk to your firewall, it doesn't appear to be a networked device. It needs POTS lines, from what I can tell.
OK I'll ask, did you watch the video? It showed how data goes over the internet via a SSL connection.
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I see no mention of POTS:
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@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
The FAXStation appliance comes pre-provisioned and
pre-programmed–no need to open rewalls, port forward
or set up proxies.They can't know this. My firewall could be setup to block all outbound traffic I don't specifically allow. Huge assumption here.
It wouldn't talk to your firewall, it doesn't appear to be a networked device. It needs POTS lines, from what I can tell.
OK I'll ask, did you watch the video? It showed how data goes over the internet via a SSL connection.
The video says it is analogue to analogue, right in the intro.
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@fateknollogee said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
I see no mention of POTS:
Like I said, it doesn't say it. But it doesn't say what you DO need, ever.
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I agree that no POTS lines are needed, but there is also no FoIP going on here.
But actually, I'm now even questioning that, because as my picture shows... the faxes from the vendors DC could be going over ISDN PRI OR sip trunks (SIP trunks would then be considered FoIP - I think).
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@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
The FAXStation appliance comes pre-provisioned and
pre-programmed–no need to open rewalls, port forward
or set up proxies.They can't know this. My firewall could be setup to block all outbound traffic I don't specifically allow. Huge assumption here.
It wouldn't talk to your firewall, it doesn't appear to be a networked device. It needs POTS lines, from what I can tell.
OK I'll ask, did you watch the video? It showed how data goes over the internet via a SSL connection.
The video says it is analogue to analogue, right in the intro.
yeah, but the picture shows the break - and also why I said that any fax being sent will take twice as long or more because you 1) fax to the local machine 2) send over internet to vendors DC 3) vendor faxes to your recipient.
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@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
Store and Forward is just code for "email". Sounds like the Fax portion is just converting the faxes into scanners, then using email or an email-like tool that they don't disclose, to get the non-fax to them. Anytime that they mention fax, they mention analoge (aka POTS), and then store and forward which, by definition, isn't fax. You can do this yourself with an email to fax solution and achieve the same thing. This just adds a layer in front to make it not seem that way to casual observers, I think.
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@fateknollogee said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
I see no mention of POTS:
It's at the beginning of the video. Analogue and POTS are the same term in telephony.
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@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
I agree that no POTS lines are needed, but there is also no FoIP going on here.
None externally, it looks like. But all the Fax portions appear to be on analogue/POTS. It goes to something else in between, no FoIP.
It's not a bad idea, but their attempts to hide what it does and be weird about it are pretty obvious.
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@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
I agree that no POTS lines are needed, but there is also no FoIP going on here.
None externally, it looks like. But all the Fax portions appear to be on analogue/POTS. It goes to something else in between, no FoIP.
It's not a bad idea, but their attempts to hide what it does and be weird about it are pretty obvious.
Right - That's why I LOL'ed in my first post that this is NOT a FoIP solution. hehe
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Okay, looking through the data sheet over and over, and going through the video, I'm pretty confident that this is a solution that exists to do two things:
- Replace faxing completely while...
- Making the end users keep using legacy fax equipment.
This could make sense in a place where you need to trick management or just really want to keep using the fax machines as scanners. But behind the scenes, it's leaving fax behind and going to, for all intents and purposes, email. But then has an "email" to fax gateway in their datacenter in case you are sending to someone else that is using fax.
But in the middle, there is no fax.
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Bottom line, people want to keep & use their "old school" fax machines, be able to walk up to the damn machine & just send a fax.
How it gets there....as long as it gets there...faxing has never been fast!No one wants to pay the $40+/mo for a POTS line.
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@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@scottalanmiller said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
@dashrender said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
I agree that no POTS lines are needed, but there is also no FoIP going on here.
None externally, it looks like. But all the Fax portions appear to be on analogue/POTS. It goes to something else in between, no FoIP.
It's not a bad idea, but their attempts to hide what it does and be weird about it are pretty obvious.
Right - That's why I LOL'ed in my first post that this is NOT a FoIP solution. hehe
Right, FoIP never happens in the example. But wanting to call it that makes them act really weirdly about what it is doing. It's like doing VoIP, but actually making a CD at one side, running to another person and playing the CD for them.
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@fateknollogee said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
Bottom line, people want to keep & use their "old school" fax machines, be able to walk up to the damn machine & just send a fax.
This is where it differs from FoIP and why we are so confused. Normally, when people talk FoIP, it's partially to not have to maintain old legacy fax equipment, ink, analogue / POTS lines, etc.
So that's why we were so confused - because some of the big things we want to fix with FoIP don't get addressed at all. If you didn't have old fax machines, this solution would make you invest in them.
If you already own old machines and don't want to remove them, I could see why this would be interesting. If you are looking at FoIP generically, it seems crazy.
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@fateknollogee said in Fax: Sangoma FAXstation:
How it gets there....as long as it gets there...faxing has never been fast!
Sort of, but it does start instantly. This would behave a bit differently. The call setup would happen after the fact, rather than before hand. Just different behaviour.
