Skip to main content

The Fax of life .... Fax over ADSL

I've been looking into getting a Fax setup at home, I know what you're thinking why? The truth of it is here in Thailand faxing is still very popular. You cannot assume that any of your business partners have an internet connection (other than dialup) due to the low penetration of broadband outside of Bangkok, so....?

Normally you would say get a Fax modem and use some sort of fax software.

Problem: It took almost 1 year to get one telephone line put into the house, I can't afford to wait that long for a second analog line.

Other options include the online services such as MBox, which looks good but I would still like to find a solution.

Well I think I have two options:

  1. A pure old school hardware solution: Andy Abramson over at VoIP Watch put me onto this with his posting which led me to the Engadget page for the Sharp Broadband fax machine. The UX-B800SE provides the usual fax machine features that you would expect from an analog machine, it also has an Ethernet connection and hosts the same software that you would normally put on your PC hosting a fax machine. Something like this is long overdue. If the cube is the Fidel Castro of office furniture then the fax machine is definitely the Fidel Castro of office machines.....Let's start the revolution
  2. A SoftPBX with fax options: I have talked about Asterisk before now it has been joined by SIPCat. You can find some more information about it on Om and Andy, but I went and had a look. It looks like a pretty good alternative in the new target for disruptive technology in a tried and tested arena. SIPCat has a fax server as standard, only last week while I was searching around for real options I stumbled upon the AsterFax plugin for Asterisk. At some point in the near future I am going to do a parallel run of both and do a compare and contrast.
The test for both will be the platform of install. I have an old Dell laptop that is beyond upgrade due to the SDRAM on board. I have found a likely light Linux candidate; it would be interesting to see if I can get either of these products to install on it.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In the overlap of technology, marketing and social media the QR Code is critical

Outside of consulting on telecommunications, CIO advisory, and the business adoption of technology I also completed an MBA.  One of the projects was on the potential use cases of two dimensional barcodes. Today the QR Code , one of many types of 2D codes, is seen as being a critical component of any good marketing plan.  As a natural integration between social media and devices I would extend VMob Bob's question " What can a mobile operator learn from Facebook ?" and also ask how can they step and start to make innovations with the extensions to social media that already exist today?
Post a Comment
Read more

Thailand's long evolution to Long Term Evolution - the 4G Saga

While much of the world, including some countries that Thailand thinks of as less technologically advanced, are reaping the benefits of 4G; Thailand has yet to get beyond the dabbling stage and jump in with both feet. It seemed to take an eternity to get on to 3G and at least one operator has made the jump to 4G trials.  Now the local regulator has finally (re)set the date for the long awaited auction of the spectrum and details are set to be announced in February. Normally I would be a strong supporter of a free market and all that a regulated market should bring in the way of competition, and therefore when market forces kick in what that then means for consumers in terms of value for money.  However, in this case I am wondering if there is a different answer to the problem. Having watched the mast alliances in Europe and regulator interventions in New Zealand and Australia I think that the antiquated Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) agreements that Thai mobile opera...
Post a Comment
Read more

PC over IP - The Teradici Effect

Teradici are hoping to blur the lines between PC and Data Centre. Their solution allows a use to view multiple screens and control the blade PC over IP. This is kind of like the dumb terminals with a new edgy deployment. The intention is that all of the computing power is performed offsite in a centralized area, the Data Centre, and this will save on power and maintenance costs as the engineers are co-located with the hardware and therefore don't have to go out to the client site for basic maintenance. The Teradici Company Article found in the Wall Street Journal
Post a Comment
Read more