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Faxing with Obi 100

Started by BillMcNeal, November 18, 2015, 04:58:02 PM

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BillMcNeal

I'd like to use my printer/fax combo with my Obi 100 that is on Google Voice.  Are there any settings I need to change on Obitalk.com to optimize this?


SteveInWA

No; there are no settings on the OBi 100 to change to make this work.  You'll need to buy an OBi 2xx device (200 or 202) for reliable faxing.  The 100 may or may not work with your fax machine.  You can experiment by setting your fax machine to use 9600bps or slower (not 14.4Kbps), and turn error correction off.

-DC-

I've got an OBi200 and a multifunction fax/printer with Google Voice. In my experience, sending faxes is less than reliable (I haven't tested receiving). I've lowered the baud rate and turned off ECM with no success. (Turning off ECM was actually a bad idea because I ended up sending garbled faxes without knowing it.)

Fortunately my house phone has bluetooth and I can switch to my cell phone for the primary line. When I do that, the faxes go through. With GV it's about a 20% success rate.

What I'm curious about are the fax star codes that I can't find any documentation on.

From firmware release 4581: Added star code variables $fax1 and $ufax1 to support enabling fax and disabling fax respectively, for the immediate next outgoing call only.


Mango

Quote from: SteveInWA on November 18, 2015, 05:20:41 PM
[...] and turn error correction off.

Don't forget that while disabling ECM may make faxes appear to go through, you have no guarantee that they will arrive successfully at the other end.  They may arrive, but be unreadable, they may partially arrive, or they may not arrive at all - even if your fax machine says it was sent successfully.

Quote from: azrobert on February 08, 2016, 09:27:25 AM
You can try this: http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=6625.msg41922#msg41922

Unfortunately, the OP's OBi110 is not compatible with $NOJI1 and $NOEC1.  This will work on OBi200 and OBi202 for outgoing calls only.

The OBi200 and OBi202 support T.38, the fax protocol, but good luck finding a service provider that also supports T.38.  (Freephoneline does in Canada but I'm unaware of a good American service provider.)  Really the best solution is a fax-to-PDF service.

LTN1

Quote from: Mango on February 16, 2016, 09:21:22 AM

The OBi200 and OBi202 support T.38, the fax protocol, but good luck finding a service provider that also supports T.38.  (Freephoneline does in Canada but I'm unaware of a good American service provider.)  Really the best solution is a fax-to-PDF service.

A 30-second Google of US service providers that support the T.38 fax protocol yields the following:

CallCentric: http://www.callcentric.com/faq/30#205
Phone Power (under Overview of SIP Trunking): http://www.phonepower.com/sip-trunking.aspx
And a list of lesser known providers both in the US and Canada: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Service+Providers+T.38

So now you are more aware.

SteveInWA

#6
Quote from: Mango on February 16, 2016, 09:21:22 AM
Quote from: SteveInWA on November 18, 2015, 05:20:41 PM
[...] and turn error correction off.

Don't forget that while disabling ECM may make faxes appear to go through, you have no guarantee that they will arrive successfully at the other end.  They may arrive, but be unreadable, they may partially arrive, or they may not arrive at all - even if your fax machine says it was sent successfully.

...

Really the best solution is a fax-to-PDF service.

I agree with you 100%.  I only mention turning off ECM, because, for those people who insist on using fax, it can make the difference between sending a "dirty" fax with some portion of the page having errors, to being unable to send a fax at all, because ECM turns the fax call into a hopeless death spiral of retries,.

Mango

Quote from: LTN1 on February 16, 2016, 12:01:35 PMCallCentric: http://www.callcentric.com/faq/30#205
Phone Power (under Overview of SIP Trunking): http://www.phonepower.com/sip-trunking.aspx

Callcentric doesn't support T.38 on all of its routes and all of its DIDs.  Your link to PhonePower showed a starting price of $55/month, greater than the cost of a business POTS line here.  I don't know if their residential service supports T.38; I tried to ask their chat but received a message that said "Your chat session was disconnected because it was idle for too long."

Quote from: LTN1 on February 16, 2016, 12:01:35 PMAnd a list of lesser known providers both in the US and Canada: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Service+Providers+T.38

Many of the links in that list are dead.  Many are not American.  Most of the Americans are wholesale providers that won't work directly with an OBi ATA.  A few did not actually mention T.38 on their website.  This is why I say "good luck finding a service provider that also supports T.38."  You may be astonished to know that I can use Google too.

I found three that looked like they might work: T38Fax.com (starting at $7), Babytel (starting at $10), and VoiceMeUp (no monthly fee).  If anyone tests these, I would be interested to know the results.


LTN1

#8
Quote from: Mango on February 17, 2016, 02:04:06 PM
Quote from: LTN1 on February 16, 2016, 12:01:35 PMCallCentric: http://www.callcentric.com/faq/30#205
Phone Power (under Overview of SIP Trunking): http://www.phonepower.com/sip-trunking.aspx

Callcentric doesn't support T.38 on all of its routes and all of its DIDs.  Your link to PhonePower showed a starting price of $55/month, greater than the cost of a business POTS line here.  I don't know if their residential service supports T.38; I tried to ask their chat but received a message that said "Your chat session was disconnected because it was idle for too long."

Quote from: LTN1 on February 16, 2016, 12:01:35 PMAnd a list of lesser known providers both in the US and Canada: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Service+Providers+T.38

Many of the links in that list are dead.  Many are not American.  Most of the Americans are wholesale providers that won't work directly with an OBi ATA.  A few did not actually mention T.38 on their website.  This is why I say "good luck finding a service provider that also supports T.38."  You may be astonished to know that I can use Google too.

I found three that looked like they might work: T38Fax.com (starting at $7), Babytel (starting at $10), and VoiceMeUp (no monthly fee).  If anyone tests these, I would be interested to know the results.



The point is that there are more than 1 VoIP service provider compatible with OBi's T.38 faxing. As for your Google capabilities, try this for a review on PhonePower--and yes, you have to read a bit to see the reviewer's comments on T.38: http://www.whichvoip.com/voip/user_reviews/phonepower-voip-review.php

I could tell you that PhonePower told me that they fully support T.38 even for their residential services but then I'd get a wise-ass reply that you'd need to read it or hear it from them.

BTW, PhonePower is the only 1 out of 2 residential VoIP providers being promoted by Obihai from the beginning. I find it incredible that one would need "luck" to find a VoIP provider compatible with OBis T.38 fax protocols when it is in your f###ing face when you sign up.

SteveInWA

Peace, brothers...

As I've said consistently:  fax is a technology that needs to be put out of its misery.  Faxing over VoIP is a crap-shoot; it may or may not work, depending on the quality of the transit carrier(s) (VoIP), and of the terminating (PSTN) carrier.  For those situations where a business requires it, the best solution available today is to use a service that uses image files (TIFF, JPG or PDF) for input on send, and output on receipt.  The cost-per-page of fax server/mailbox services is so small that it's not even worth debating.

Almighty1

Doesn't faxing from a landline by dialing the Google Voice number first, sending *, then 2, PIN and the phone number actually still use VoIP as that works fine...

Ostracus

T.38 (Faxing over IP) is usually PSTN but isn't a requirement. There are IAF (Internet Aware Fax) devices that can talk to each other. T.37 being one of the ways of doing so.

Alyson61

I have been sending faxes with my OBI 100 using Google Voice for the past 3 or 4 years without any problems.  I have never tried to receive a fax.