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| Author |
Message |
clb
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suggestion
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Jun 18 03:28 UTC 1995 |
can grex add online faxing for members?
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| 17 responses total. |
scg
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response 1 of 17:
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Jun 18 04:59 UTC 1995 |
This response has been erased.
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scg
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response 2 of 17:
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Jun 18 05:00 UTC 1995 |
How do you suggest that Grex pay for that?
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robh
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response 3 of 17:
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Jun 18 09:06 UTC 1995 |
And exactly how much bandwidth is this supposed to take?
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gregc
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response 4 of 17:
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Jun 18 09:41 UTC 1995 |
I guess this is the point to once again repeat: "Grex is not an Internet
Service Provider. We are a conferencing system with limited IP access to
allow users to Telnet in and to provide a limited set of IP servies for the
convienence of the membership."
Fax service is outside the scope of Grex. If you need it, I suggest you check
out Compuserve, America Online, or some of the real Internet Service Providers.
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ajax
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response 5 of 17:
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Jun 18 16:39 UTC 1995 |
Hm...if it's just to send text files as outbound local faxxes, I don't see
where the cost (#2), bandwidth (#3), or IP services (#4) are big factors;
it would just take beaucoup time to set up a secure fax gateway that would
send only a limited number of faxxes per member. And I doubt anyone has
the time or interest to set it up, even if it were judged a desirable
addition.
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mju
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response 6 of 17:
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Jun 18 18:22 UTC 1995 |
Er, it would cost something. We would have to buy a FAXmodem to
dedicate to the service. We would have to pay for each outgoing
FAX, since we are a business and businesses can't get flat-rate
calling. (Neither can residences for the past 3-4 years, as a
matter of fact.)
If you need to send FAXes via the Internet, I'd suggest you
check out the TPC.INT e-mail->FAX gateway. http://town.hall.org/fax/
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ajax
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response 7 of 17:
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Jun 18 19:53 UTC 1995 |
We have fax modems, and could queue faxes until a line freed up.
As they said in the Six Million Dollar Man, "we have the technology."
Local calls are cheap; that's why I think cost isn't a big factor,
if calls are limited. Especially compared to time this would take!
I'm not advocating it though; if it's limited to local calls, then
it's mainly helping out-of-area members send faxes in the area. I
doubt there's much demand for that, and since their modems are likely
fax-capable, it's a lot of work just to reduce their phone bills a bit.
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marcvh
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response 8 of 17:
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Jun 18 20:06 UTC 1995 |
The most likiely "easy" application might be a crude download approach for
local users who can't/won't download and print a file but instead want
it faxed to them. A few people might find it handy to be able to do something
like
define pager "fax 555-ooga"
read all pass
Or, more likely,
cat grex_manual | fax 555-ooga
to get information on how to use the system.
However, the value seems limited, the potential for abuse high (probably
would need to restrict it to members, and might need to impose
restrictions on what numbers one can fax to) and the cost to set it up
(more in time than money, I suspect) probably too much. (I dunno, is it
possible to turn one of the existing phone lines into an outgoing fax
line for a short time during non-peak hours and just queue requests
until then?)
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srw
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response 9 of 17:
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Jun 20 06:54 UTC 1995 |
There is an email --> fax gateway you can use for free.
I forgot the address, though. :-(
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tsty
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response 10 of 17:
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Jun 21 15:41 UTC 1995 |
i agree with gregc.
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peacefrg
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response 11 of 17:
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Jun 25 18:52 UTC 1995 |
I would be real nterested in that address if you could find it Steve.
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sidhe
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response 12 of 17:
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Jun 25 19:57 UTC 1995 |
I tried it a few times.. or at least one of them. It didn't work.
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srw
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response 13 of 17:
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Jun 25 21:48 UTC 1995 |
I dug around in my old mail and found a message about "Fax-by-email"
also known as "tpc". This is from a friend of mine in Wellington NZ.
generic:
To: remote-printer.first_last@xxxxxxxxxxx.iddd.tpc.int
example:
To: remote-printer.Steve_Weiss/Comshare_Inc@13139945199.iddd.tpc.int
Where "first" and "last" are supposed to be the first and last
names of the recipient of the fax. The two special characters
"_" and "/" are usable to get spaces, and to get multiple
lines on the cover sheet recipient name, (i.e. The "Please
Deliver This Facsimile To" message).
and xxxxxxxxxxxx is the total phone number for the fax
country city number
1 313 9945199 for you
ignoring all other things which might be entered to get
various direct dialing or similar
The above was excerpted from his mail which is why it says "for you"
meaning me. This worked a year ago. I haven't tried recently.
I was able to specify his country and city code and fax him in NZ this way,
though.
He also mentioned the following source of info (which I never looked at):
> For further information, there is a file on our BBS available as
> TPC-FAQ.ZIP which was from Arlington Hewes at tpc-faq@town.hall.org
> The current coverage of where the email faxes can be sent is available
> thru tpc-coverage@town.hall.org
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scg
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response 14 of 17:
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Jun 26 04:50 UTC 1995 |
Who funds this thing?
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srw
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response 15 of 17:
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Jun 26 14:03 UTC 1995 |
I don't know. I wondered about that last year a bit, when I was using it.
Faxes came to me from ITD at the U of M.
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mju
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response 16 of 17:
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Jun 26 16:32 UTC 1995 |
The funding is distributed over all the people who make it happen.
It is a volunteer effort. People in different parts of the world
each volunteer to take a certain portion of the telco "address space"
and handle FAXes within that space. Most systems just take the
telco exchanges that are a local call for them, or maybe just the
parts that are inside their Centrex or PBX. The TPC.INT folks
take care of managing the central DNS stuff and delegating the
phone exchanges to the appropriate people. So, the phone charges
are paid by whatever organization has taken responsibility for
the telco exchange that your FAX is addressed to. (This is why
they don't have 100% coverage for all FAX numbers -- not every
exchange has someone who has volunteered to take FAXes for it.)
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sidhe
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response 17 of 17:
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Jun 29 00:50 UTC 1995 |
Right- tpc is what DID not work for me- and I was faxing Detroit!
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