[olug] hacking fax hardware to make compatible with AsterFax.sf.net

[Daniel Linder]

On Mon, July 31, 2006 10:22, Rob Townley wrote:
> I am hoping to get a sub $1000.00 multi function fax, copier, scanner
> (does not need to be a printer) that could handle the following
> scenario.  It may have to be hacked, so if anyone has pointers to open
> source firmware hacks to a multifunction fax, please let me know.

I'm not clear, are you looking for an all-in-one solution that is also
hackable?  Or are you looking at piecing something together to achieve the
same functions?

> How:  The physical paper fax machine would have an option to hardcode
> an email address to forward ALL outgoing faxes to, say
> faxqueue at asterfax on the internal local area network.  The subject of
> the email would contain the outgoing fax #.   Asterfax's email to fax
> gateway would take care of the rest by decoding the fax # and actually
> dialing a number to send out the fax.  All i need is the hardware and
> firmware.  HP and Brother both have had inexpensive multifunction
> machines for a few years that have the foundations for this, but i am
> not aware of any that have this exact solution of eliminating the need
> for the analog phone line except in the server room.

I would think that an old Pentium computer with a flat-bed scanner and
attached printer could be the basis for this solution.

Since you don't mention being able to see the scanned image at the FAX
machine, you can do all of this in text mode so using something like Perl
or BASH/ZSH/ASH/etc would be easy enough.

My steps...
1: Install text-based scanning software (SANE @
http://www.sane-project.org) and use "scanimage" to grab pages from the
scanner.  For the multi-page example you'll want to make sure the scanner
is one with supported ADF (automatic document feed).
2: Once you're scanning via command line, e-mail those to the Asterfax
gateway.  The Perl SMTP modules might be just what you need here without
setting up more complex mail handling pieces.
3: For printing in-bound faxes, you'll need to setup a local printer and
print daemon, then have the script monitor a spooling directory (local or
remote) for new files to print.

You might want to check out HylaFAX
(http://www.hylafax.org/content/Main_Page).  It's an open-source FAX
server, and it might be able to perform both ends for you (remote
scanning/printing station, and centralized send/receive).

Dan

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