[Gllug] Request for help.

[Alistair Mann]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Thus spaketh Sharon Kimble on Tuesday 02 March 2004 1:32 pm:
> I've recently joined the group because I know virtually nothing about
> Linux, but am still using it [sometimes a dangerous combination :) ].
>
> My system is White Box Enterprise Linux 3.0 [essentially the open-source
> variant of RHEL3] with an athlon xp 1800+, 1gig ram and 240gig h/d. I
> have a broadband connection going through a Netgear ADSL firewall router
> DG834 [its a combined modem/firewall/router] which is a lovely beastie
> but a right swine if I want to dcc a document to a friend whilst on IRC,
> or again run my eggdrop bot on IRC [dcc chat problems again].
>
> I'm now in the situation of wanting to send a fax to someone, and
> possibly getting a faxed reply from them [although I don't know how its
> going to get through the firewall]. Netgear have told me "If the faxes
> you are attempting to send are being transferred with TCP/IP then yes
> this unit will work fine." So does anyone know of a fax program that I
> can compile onto my box, that uses a GUI and TCP/IP please? I've
> searched on Google Linux [http://www.google.co.uk/linux] but I don't
> think that I was using the right keywords, or I didn't understand the
> replies that it gave.

There are two big methods of using fax: directly, or via the internet.

If you do it via the internet, you will generally be sending and receiving 
email -- a middle man will take care of converting your email into a fax and 
vice versa. The upside is that someone else takes care of the problem of 
doing the conversion, the downside is you might well be charged for that 
convenience.

If you do it directly, you will pay only for the telephone call to your other 
party.

To be honest, if there is only the possibility of a very few faxes changing 
hands, then I'd suggest getting the local newsagent to accept and receive 
them on your behalf -- they cost 50p a sheet or so.

If there are going to be many, or you just fancy the mental exercise of making 
it work, then the first question I have is: do you have a modem? The ADSL 
router you mention is insufficient as it handle DSL communications, rather 
than telephone communications. If not, I'd recommend external US Robotics 
modems. If you do, is it a winmodem? If so, your road just got rockier. 

Once you have a modem, minicom can help determine that it works properly. 
mgetty+sendfax can provide the software Linux can use to handle faxes. 
Ksendfax can provide a GUI, if you use KDE. Many other programs can do 
similar work.

Good luck,
- -- 
Alistair

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: As seen at http://search.keyserver.net

iD8DBQFARJ0GEz+/jt85AfsRApK/AJ9fon4y51XBEnOa8lIk8JLSyGuTiQCfUuEv
w3pLq1BnMh3OzASr1xX0WhY=
=Wwrn
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug