Fax Server

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Overview

The pascom VoIP phone system software includes with a fully integrated fax server as standard.

The included fax server is HylaFax, which is connected to the Asterisk telephony server via virtual IAX modems.

The integrated fax server provides users with a number of UCC optimisating functions, which are described in this how-to:

• Receive faxes via E-mail.
• Send faxes via the pascom Client.
• Send faxes via Mail-to-Fax as an e-mail forwarding.
• Send faxes via Print-to-Fax using printer commands via virtual printer or without printer commands via virtual printer using the client.

Fax Server Configuration

Under Appliance > Services > Fax Server you will need to activate and setup the fax server:

Setting	Description
Number of fax lines	Defines the number of virtual modems and therefore the maximum number of parallel fax jobs.
Dedicated lines for inbound	Defines the number of fax lines reserved for inbound faxes.
Country Code	Enter the international country code for your country excluding the leading zeros, e.g. 44 for the United Kingdom.
Prefix without leading 0	Enter your area code without the leading 0, e.g. 203 for London.
Originating number	Enter your fixed line originating number, i.e. phone number without international or area codes.
Mail to Fax	Determines whether the fax to be sent should be the E-mail content or attachment.Default: Deactivated
Fax document storage / days	Enter the maximum time in days that a fax document should be stored. The default value is 30 days.
Number of Send attempts	Enter the maximum number of send attempts should, for example, the intended recipient temporarily not be available.

Overview of Sent / Received Faxes

Under Information > Fax Server it is possible to call up an overview of both Sent and Received faxes. It is also possible to download individual fax documents from the list of received faxes.

Under Apply > Clean up fax server it is possible to configure and automate the removal of older faxes. The default value is 30 days. That means that during the clean up process, all faxes older than 30 days will be deleted. You can automate the process via the Automate button which will allow you to setup a Cron Job to automate future fax server clean up tasks.

Add Virtual Fax Devices

Virtual fax devices can be added for both a User and / or a Team.

Virtual User Fax Device

Under Users > User list select the required user and press Edit. Under the Fax Device tab, it is possible to add a virtual fax device for existing users. Simply select the Configure personal fax tick box:

Settings	Description
E-mail	Enter the user’s e-mail address. The user will receive confirmations for all sent faxes and depending on the configuration also for all received faxes.
Fax extension	Enter the user’s fax extension number. Please refer to the following HowTo: Extensions.
Outgoing fax ID	Optional tool for setting an outbound fax ID.
Format	Determines in which format a fax should be sent. Options include: * PDF * TIF * File * INLINEGIF

Virtual Team Fax Device

Under Users > Teams select the required Team and press Edit. Under the Fax Device tab, it is possible to add a virtual fax device for existing Teams. Simply select the Configure team fax tick box:

Settings	Description
E-mail	Enter the team’s e-mail address. The team will receive confirmations for all sent faxes and depending on the configuration also for all received faxes.
Fax extension	Enter the team’s fax extension number. Please refer to the following HowTo: Extensions.
Outgoing fax ID	Optional tool for setting an outbound fax ID.
Format	Determines in which format a fax should be sent. Options include: * PDF * TIF * File * INLINEGIF

Mail-to-Fax

Preparation

Setup your mail server so that all e-mails are forwarded to your pascom server via the domain .fax per SMTP.

On your mail server, setup an inbox which can be retrieved via either POP3 or IMAP by the pascom phone system.

Example:
fax@mydomain.com

Configuration

In order to be able to use Mail-to-Fax, you will need to setup your virtual fax server using the following pascom phone system admin UI menu options: Appliance > Services > Fax Server.

Under Mail to Fax you can choose, whether the content of the e-mail or only the attachment should be faxed.

Regardless of which option you choose, further configuration fields regarding your pre-prepared e-mail inbox will appear.

Setting	Description
Mail Server	Enter the mail server on which the prepared inbox is located.
Mail Protocol	Enter whether the E-mails should be retrieved using POP3 or IMAP (Default setting).
Retrieval interval	Only for POP3 accounts: Enter the time interval in seconds at which e-mails should be retreived.
Remove from mailbox	Enter whether the e-mails should be removed from the inbox once retrieved or whether they should continue to be saved. Default: Yes
Mail Username	Enter the username for your pre-prepared inbox
Mail Password	Enter the login password for your preprepared inbox
Ignore invalid certificates	Enter whether or not your pascom phone system should ignore invalid certificates. Default: No

Check to make sure that your pascom phone system can correctly connect to your mail server inbox.

Sending Faxes

Once the setup has been completed, to send a fax simply send an e-mail with the following construction:

Field	Example	Description
To	fax@mydomain.com	Enter the e-mail address of your pre-prepared inbox.
Subject	00991123456999	Enter the to be used trunk prefix + the fax number of the recipient.
Attachment		This is the actual fax as PDF or TIF file.

Depending on your fax server configuration choices, the contents of the e-mail will also be sent in the fax.

Customisations

Currently, it is only partially possible to customise the behaviour of the Mail-to-Fax gateway and must be done directly in the configuration file. To this end, you will need to log into your pascom phone system via SSH and will require Root permissions.

Without any customisation, the default setting is to send out a plain-text e-mail whenever there is a change in a fax job (busy, failed, successful, etc.).

This setting can be changed to use an alternative format. As such, this generates an HTML e-mail with an embedded first page and PDF attachment. The fax itself will be sent as an attachment in PDF format. This format is the same as the one used when a fax is received by a virtual fax machine configured to use the format=“inlinegif” option.

• open the file /etc/hylafax/FaxNotify in a text editor
• remove the “#” comment in the line INLINE=true
• restart in the fax system using the web interface or the _ /etc/init.d/hylafax restart _ command

Print-to-Fax

The Print-to-Fax Gateway can be used to automatically send documents from, for example, ERP systems as well as for sending documents manually using the desktop client.

Updated on 16 Sep 2020