Hi,
I have setup Fax to email and have limited success. When I use an external fax to my setup the system answers and the fax is received. The issue is that this remains in the spool folder of the pbx rather than being sent on as an email. I can actually see the fax there and have successfully opened it. The files are .tif format.
Are voice mails and fax sent via the same system? I ask as voice mail works just great.
I’d appreciate any help with the troubleshooting of this issue
rgs
Brian
Voice mails and fax notices would be sent from the “same place”. IE, if you’re getting voicemail notices, you should be getting fax notices.
There was a point release/update that modified the dialplan concerning recieving faxes. make sure you check the module admin and get the latest versions of freepbx and fax configuration. Core should be at 2.7.0.3 adn fax config at 2.7.0.17.
I was running into the same problem with the earlier versions of 2.7.x. Fax would recieve but not email due to some error checking in the ext-fax context under extensions_additional.conf.
the line in question should look like this now:
exten => h,n(process),GotoIf($[${LEN(${FAX_RX_EMAIL})} = 0]?end)
brianza,
the tiff files are converted to pdf and emailed. You will need to check your log (or do a test and look at the CLI) to see if the fax processing script is properly converting and emailing the fax.
There is a bug in several Asterisk 1.6.x releases that would have resulted in that script not executing. The latest versions of the fax module has provided a work around the Asterisk bug since so many releases were effected and we did not want to just tell people “it’s Asterisk’s fault, go upgrade/downgrade…”
Thank you for your posts.
First off I think that it is important to tell you that the setup I am using is Trixbox v2.8.0.3. At first fax was not working at all for me. In fact dialing feature code 666 did not even give a fax tone. The I found the following post which seemed to solve the problem:
In your “/etc/asterisk/extensions.conf” file find section “[macro-faxreceive]”
find if you have line with text like this: “; exten => s,3,rxfax(${FAXFILE})”
change “rxfax” to “ReceiveFAX”
save/update file and reload asterisk
This partially solved the issue where faxes are being received and stored in the spool folder. I would really like to get this sorted as its been eluding me for three days now. Can you please tell me how I can upgrade the fax module please?
rgs
Brian
If I’m not mistaken that version of trixbox uses the forked FreePBX. If that is the case you are going to have to go bug Andrew at trixbox to make 2.7 available. (Good luck, that project has stalled significantly, Fonality is not investing anything into it and they aren’t even running a supported version of FreePBX last I noticed).
Your alternative is to get yourself off of their forked version and onto a genuine FreePBX. Doing that is a bit more involved though.
It would require installing 2.7 via tarball on top of your current version and when doing so, probably setting the flag --force-version=2.4 (to be safe), then forcefully installing all the modules from our repository even where they show lower numbers then trixbox.
Even doing all this could result in problems. The issue is that trixbox has purposely bumped up many of their module numbers to 5.x numbers. They do this for the express purpose of keeping you from “accidentally” installing one of our modules. Since parts of FreePBX use version numbers to make decisions on what schema migrations to run, you may not end up picking up all the conversions.
The fax module is not designed to work with previous versions of FreePBX so requires your base to be a 2.7.
Help!! looks like I am stuck here. There are various issues with this version of Trixbox which I haven’t experienced before. These being reporting, faxing, Hudlite and Music On Hold all have issues. I guess I must prepare for a rough ride!
rgs
Brian
We used to have a special version of an upgrade module just for trixbox that would allow people to upgrade their versions and at the same time, change to a genuine FreePBX.
However, Fonality and the trixbox team got very upset because they felt that we were ‘hurting’ their users by doing this so we did not continue with it in subsequent releases.
Now quite some time has passed. Back then, trixbox was actually moving forward with at least a little momentum. These days, it feels like it has just stagnated. (But to be fair, I really don’t pay any attention to what is going on over there so maybe I don’t know what I am talking about…)
If the trixbox community wants to strike up their own discussion thread as to if they would like us to resurrect the work that had previously been done on that “un-trixing-upgrade-module” and enough users are screaming (well asking nicely…) for us to make one, it’s definitely an option. I just don’t want to be in a position of doing this unless it is the trixbox community requesting it since there is no shortage of things to work on otherwise…
Part of the problem is trixbox has obfuscated the “Powered by FreePBX” to the point that CE users don’t have a viable option.
I will kick off a thread, as the module is sadly needed and I publicly have said that CE users need to have the option of using “real FreePBX”. trixbox users should not be denied access to this vibrant community and project.
I have been using Trixbox for nearly four years now and note that previous versions did indeed show Freepbx. In my mind Trixbox is a distro which brings Cent OS, Asterisk, FreePBX and others into one neat ISO which can be deployed in hours.
Personally if Trixbox CE was a product one would need to pay for I feel that a finite cost would be justified. I come from the Windows Camp and nothing on that platform works half as well as the products mentioned above. The latest install I have done which was last week was immediately upgraded but the issues are varied, faxing, music on hold, reporting which is now frozen and a Hudlite server refusing to start.
I dont know the financial state or implications of such projects but there was something fantastic going here and I wouldn’t like to see it go.
The current model is one which calls for Prepaid support in case of problems such as the ones I mentioned above though now an end user such as myself doesn’t know whether he can turn to Fonality, FreePBX, both or none at all.
Please spare a thought for those of us who feel they are drowing and need help and direction.
rgs
Brian
brianza,
first off, I obviously derailed this thread, it may be worth starting up a new thread to get into a deeper discussion here.
Now concerning your comment: We have no control or influence on what Fonality does with/to trixbox. Because it is a “closed” Open Source project, the community apparently has minimal influence either. That is something you would have to bring up on their forums and plead with them.
I guess the “good” think concerning their “fork” is that it is cosmetic in nature at least as of the last time someone had done a diff and told me so much. That means that 99% of the time other FreePBX users can end up helping you with their cosmetically changed version.
But again, they have chosen to go their route and apparently after that choice, they abandoned investment into the project. They appear content with that as they put plenty of investment in their proprietary products (pbxtra and the trixbox pro line which have nothing to do with FreePBX). As best anyone can tell, their motivation is to attract people to move to these paid solutions where they are investing. For some that works, for many it’s not what they are looking for (and not necessarily because CE is free but because there is so much that it can do that the others can’t).
As far as support, there is of course plenty of community members always willing to jump in and help. Paid support is another question and is always an option. They have a paid support team and there are probably some aspects of their specific ISO they know better. FreePBX offers paid support as well but it is a completely different beast. The FreePBX support staff are basically a subset of the developers of FreePBX and typically know the product inside out. It also means that you are at the source. For example, on occasion there are bugs found by the developers providing support. When this occurs the bugs end up going right into the code and updated so that they don’t re-occur and cost more people pain (and expense). In the history of Fonality’s support, they have never reported a bug back to FreePBX and you can be sure that in all this time they have found at least one. In fact you can be sure in all this time that they have seen the same bug come to them multiple times form different paying customers…
Can you go to FreePBX for support on trixbox. Sure and the support team sees plenty of trixbox systems, including ones that used to go to Fonality’s support and decided to move this direction for their own reasons.
Philippe,
Can I send you a private message somewhere please?
rgs
Brian
sure the site has a pm feature. Just try clicking on my name and it should get you that option somewhere. (but beware, I’m off to Maui tomorrow:)