Provider for Voip FAX to physical machine (not efax)

We have had a ton of issues trying to make fax work over voip. Done the baud rates, ECM, and worked with Cisco to make sure the ATA settings are correct. It works on some fax machines like cheap brother’s but on larger copiers, does not. Has anyone had success with doing this? We are trying to save clients money by porting fax.

If you are not actually using T38 (foip not voip) “end to end” on the network, your chances are greatly diminished.

T.38 is setup and supported by the provider

Then call the provider :wink:

already done that and they say it’s the copier LOL. The copier company says it’s the provider. Hence why I am looking for a provider and ATA that everyone uses and known to work

Look at the logs. What do you see there?

You might also want to play with the inbound route delay settings etc.

Baud Rate 14400 or 9600. Disable V.34 or V8. On the copiers sometimes you have to use service mode to do this. T.38 enable on the ata. Turn echo cancel off. Redudancy 3. Callee only.

Keep ECM on. Make sure your udptl ports are open on freepbx. Like 4000-4999 by default or something. There are other settings for udptl but basically set to redudancy mode. This isnt everything but hopefully a point in the right direction.

Also I use expensive carriers to guarentee fax success rates for outbound. The idea of saving money…lol. If the office faxes a ton you’ll wind up with $80 fax line bills. Cheaper to pay cable company $30 and have it be their headache. That being said it can work reliably its just not cheap.

I use T38fax.com with an HP multifunction laser, and a grandstream ATA that connects directly to my router. Their website gives specific directions for the ATA settings. Works great when we have to use outbound paper fax. We have an inbound fax cloud provider.

that’s who I called. It’s a bit pricey for heavy use

yeah you nailed it.

T38fax.com. I have excellent results with on spa112 on outbound. Inbound I use intelliquent and have good success using IQ for inbound at .0025 per minute. Outbound T38Fax.com is the only reliable choice. At .025 per minute 10X the cost of inbound. Flowroute I do use for fax forwarding successfully. Sometimes it goes G711 sometimes it goes T38 but with an ATA the success rates are just not there consistently. T38 does mention volume discounts but I havent inquired yet.

how are you setting it up for inbound and outbound?

It goes through freepbx and then to an ATA. T38fax.com also has guides for that which do work with other providers. Level 3, IQ, onvoy. Most T.38 inbound providers should work if they support T38. Its outbound thats an issue.

Are you using intelliquent for cost purposes? Are they cheaper?

Who do you use now? We tend to use IQ or level3 for all origination.

IMO you should just say ‘no’ to the fax machine. 90% of what I see put into fax machines came out of the printer just minutes before, usually a form that they filled in and/or signed. Learn to do this with software, use an inexpensive virtual fax service instead, and save some trees.

If the document to be faxed is not already on the computer (it came by postal mail or was delivered personally), it’s likely something important such as a real estate contract or insurance policy, where you would want a permanent record and scan it anyhow.

If the customer is stuck in the 20th century and insists on a fax machine, just say ‘no’ to T.38 and other flaky FoIP schemes. Get an HTTPS-based adapter such as https://www.nextiva.com/support/articles/setting-up-a-fax-bridge.html . You don’t have to configure the device – it’s plug and play. You don’t have to configure the fax machine – it negotiates baud rate and ECM automatically. You don’t have to configure the PBX – faxes bypass the PBX altogether. And you don’t have to configure the firewall; if the adapter can pull an IP address, do DNS lookups and make outbound TCP connections to port 443, it just works. Similar devices are available from Faxage, Vitelity and probably several others.

Yes, these services cost a bit more, but life is too short for failed fax headaches.

Just a fact check if you have hippa compliancy needs and a couple of thousand pages a day ?

If you aren’t committed to FreePBX then look at Hylafax+ and t38modem’s over a compliant carrier

Such organizations would not be using fax machines and have needs much different from what’s discussed in this thread. For low or medium volume HIPPA compliance, e.g. a physician’s office or small hospital, I’d recommend

OTOH, a large insurance company would likely be ultra conservative and using a PRI, though I agree that the Hylafax solution is less expensive and adequately reliable, especially if PAYG API faxing is available as a backup. You could still use FreePBX for voice, in a separate VM.

In not sure why voice is your consideration in this thread