computerworld.com — Voice over IP may be getting more attention right now, but fax over IP could be a quick, simple way to enter the VoIP network realm and save money in the process. In some industries, such as health care, this can be a surprising amount of your traffic. I have seen 30% to 40% fax traffic among the offices of a multicenter health system.
Aug 22, 2006 View in Crawl 4
gemineyeAug 22, 2006
I use a local ISP that gives me a static IP and VOIP for the same price I was paying the telephone company and the cable company. I have had ZERO problems with this.
johnchapinAug 23, 2006
Faxing today is considered secure for healthcare because it is (basically) point to point. You don't have as many possible third party service providers in the middle that can intercept and view the data (without doing something obviously breaking the law). For any document transfer over IP to be useful to healthcare it has to feature encryption. HIPAA says that any vendor dealing with your private medical information has to make their best effort based on standards currently available to secure such information... The law is really vague... just because they want to try and make it relevant as technology progresses. So in my job we send a lot of things via SCP, HTTPS, and in some cases we can deliver via e-mail as long as we can ensure the deliverly uses TLS. We accomplish fax delivery using plain old phone lines, because if they have an Internet connection "FOIP" is simply pointless. Now on the client side... Having an electronic fax reception system is what counts.If anyone needs a medical dictation provider, give us a call.<a class="user" href="http://www.basesys.com">http://www.basesys.com</a>
gabrielsondAug 23, 2006
Fax is a technology that SHOULD have died long ago. Why do we not have standalone machines, like fax machines, that have RJ45 connections and send scans directly to email? Wouldn't that be better?I work in the VoIP industry and I have spent a great deal of time trying to get fax to work with various VoIP systems and the only thing I can say for certain about it is that it is unreliable at best. If you have a great connection from one end to the other using g711, then it will probably work. If you don't, then it may work...It is time for someone to come up with a technology to replace this antiquated system!
johnnybluejeansAug 23, 2006
I use vonage and have my fax machine hooked up to my phone line. Works just fine, have never had a problem.
origclubsodaAug 23, 2006
People send text instead of just calling. Its not about speed, its about need.
tardmongersterAug 23, 2006
Geez, who runs the IT departments at these sad, sad companies? If you can't afford a real copy machine with scan to email capabilities, at least get one of these cheap ones, or an HP Digital Sender.<a class="user" href="http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/mfc_detail_AREA=MFC_1&PRODUCTID=MFC8860DN.aspx">http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/mfc_detail_AREA=MFC_1&PRODUCTID=MFC8860DN.aspx</a><a class="user" href="http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF02a/15179-64175-64404.html?jumpid=re_R295_prodexp/busproducts/printing/digitalsender">http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF02a/15179-64175-64404.html?jumpid=re_R295_prodexp/busproducts/printing/digitalsender</a>
iheartbeerAug 23, 2006
@hazlett I didn't mean your fax number, I meant the other person's number. Either sending or receiving, they have a record of both.
raccetturaAug 23, 2006
In my opinion Fax over IP will always be called Email.
botraxAug 23, 2006
<a class="user" href="http://www.faxserver.com">http://www.faxserver.com</a>I work on a product that does Fax over IP for large companies. The T.38 description of the article seems a bit off. Actually is the diagram for T.38 that is incorrect. T.38 is not done by email. The computer actively opens a Fax channel over ethernet to the router.What we actually do with T.38 is call setup to then open a SIP or H323 transport from a computer to the router, who will route the call to the proper destination. The router can be connected to a T1 and ethernet, to then route the call to the right place.The setup can be, as an example:COMPUTER ---> ROUTER ---> T1 ---> TELCO ---> FAX MACHINECOMPUTER ---> ROUTER ---> INTERNET ---> ROUTER ---> COMPUTERThe connection is basically like Voice over IP, but fax tones are used instead of voice. What we do is not store and forward with T.38. We have live fax tones over IP.Our product actually manages software T.38 channels without any T.38 hardware. 480 channels on our latest product with a machine that can handle that CPU load.Some actually have routers spread over the US to route live fax calls over the internet to save call cost. Cisco routers can perform this, among others.You need to configure Dial-Peers in the router to route the calls to the proper destinations for inbound and outbound. Certain phone number ranges can go different places.