Re: flexfax: Setting up a Hylafax system.

[Nico Kadel-Garcia <raoul@cirl.meei.harvard.edu>]

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On Thu, 21 Oct 1999, Lou wrote:

> Our company is looking into setting up a fax server, and I have been given
> the task of researching our options. Hylafax seems to be the most viable
> option for our needs, and there is a dedicated computer to be used as the
> server with Linux(SuSE 6.1). We are a NT 4.0 organization, and most of our
> applications are built in-house. Our needs are as follows:
> 
> 	1. Presently pages are printed and manually faxed
> 	2. Anywhere from 100 to 150 faxes per day(expected to grow) - some single
> page some muti-page documents.
> 	3. Faxing is done at customer request, i.e. lost manual or invoice, and
> requests for sales quotes.
> A.	Manuals(30 - 40 per day) can be lengthy(some are 80+ pages), rarely is
> full manual faxed.
> B.	Manuals are in PDF format.
> C.	Manual requests may not include all pages.
> D.	Some multiple page requests may not be in order, e.g. page 4, 10, 11, 12,
> 18
> 
> I have one general and three specific questions:
> 
> Has this type of configuration been used, and with what success?

Not that I'm aware of, but it seems quite feasible with the current
state of the software. Talk to www.vix.com, that provide an electronic
faxing service based on HylaFAX.

> How would one determine the number of fax lines needed, and how easy or
> difficult is it to add lines to Hylafax?

Attachment is trivial. Adding modem lines to your server is the
expensive/hard part, depending on your server hardware and OS.

> Does the conversion definition to TFF files work with PDF successfully?(I
> would think so from the Hylafax web site, but would like to confirm this).

Not directly. PDF to Postscript tools are broadly available on the
net, including as part of ghostscript, but would add a significant
processing step that will somewhat load your servers. Not a hell of a
lot you can do about that in any case: there is no direct PDF to
tiffg3 converter that I've ever heard of.

> Is it possible to send pages that are not in numeric order?(i.e. 2.D above)

Certainly: you specify the pages of the document, and split them out of
the PDF or Postscript document for translation into a set of documents
in whatever order you desire.

Sounds like you need some technical support: some of us on the list
have done tech support for similar installations and may be available
for consulting work, if you need it.

			Nico Kadel-Garcia
			Senior Engineer, CIRL 
			Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary
			raoul@cirl.meei.harvard.edu

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