Hylafax Mailing List Archives
|
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
[Date Index]
[Thread Index]
Re: [hylafax-users] Fw: use fax machine as scanner
On 2004.07.23 02:36 David Evans wrote:
I'd ideally like to be able to connect a scanner directly to the lan
and
for a user to be able to pop a document in it and send it to
his/her
desktop. From here it could be sent as a fax or used in other ways.
I've a couple of clients that have a networked scanner that they access
from their browser. The scanner (anything would work, I guess, but
ones with ADFs seem to work better for them) is directly connected to a
Linux server running, among other things, SANE, Apache, and PHP. The
user drops the paper into the scanner. Then the user enters "scanner"
into the URL box of their browser. A PHP-produced page on the Linux
server connected to the scanner comes up with as many options as you
can conceive of (scan, copy, fax to numbers, etc.). They then complete
the HTML form, and press a button, and then the action occurs. In most
cases they simply have a copy of the scan pop-up in a new browser
window (in PDF, in Acrobat Reader), and then they do with it what they
will from there.
Sadly, if they had wanted to fax it they normally would have gone over
to the fax machine first, and thus they almost never use the networked
scanner device as an outbound fax client. In my experience, the only
way to convince offices of heterogeneous computer skills to actually
use the fax server for most of their outbound faxing is to actually
take the fax machine away. It's either a learning curve thing, or
there must be a certain feeling of accomplishment to see the paper go
through the machine, dial, and complete in that fashion. Maybe taking
that away from them is like taking the pacifier from a child. I
haven't ever yet been so brave because I have concerns about how much
productivity will be lost over the where-is-the-fax-machine squabble
and the coping with the new arrangement.
Lee.
____________________ HylaFAX(tm) Users Mailing List _______________________
To subscribe/unsubscribe, click http://lists.hylafax.org/cgi-bin/lsg2.cgi
On UNIX: mail -s unsubscribe hylafax-users-request@xxxxxxxxxxx < /dev/null
*To learn about commercial HylaFAX(tm) support, mail sales@xxxxxxxxx*