It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
tia.
It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
tia. --------------------------------------------- Tia
We have a vsifax system on a SCO unix machine that we plan to move to Centos. I plan to evaluate efax that is opensource on Centos before we pay for the vsifax. You might try installing 'efax'.
I would be interested in following your progress
Greg Ennis
On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 10:18:18PM -0500, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
We have a vsifax system on a SCO unix machine that we plan to move to Centos. I plan to evaluate efax that is opensource on Centos before we pay for the vsifax. You might try installing 'efax'.
You may also wish to look into Hylafax; available from rpmforge.
John
At Sun, 27 Mar 2011 22:41:10 -0400 CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org wrote:
It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
Presubably you also have an analog modem? Almost all analog modems also understand sending and receiving faxes.
There are several packages that implement the host end of the fax protocol using an analog modem that supports faxing, including the CentOS base packages mgetty and mgetty-sendfax.
There are also all-in-one printers that implement faxing, but these can function standalone -- that is the all-in-one can behave like a regular fax machine without using a host computer at all (the HP OfficeJets can do all of this from either their front panel or though their internal web interface).
tia.
On 03/27/11 8:36 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
There are also all-in-one printers that implement faxing, but these can function standalone -- that is the all-in-one can behave like a regular fax machine without using a host computer at all (the HP OfficeJets can do all of this from either their front panel or though their internal web interface).
indeed. we have a Brother MFC that was inexpensive at Costco, its a standalone fax, copier, a networked B&W laser printer, and a networked color scanner. also has a sheet feeder. supplies for the Brother B&W laser printers are far cheaper per page than HP lasers or any inkjet devices.
On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 10:41 PM, ken gebser@mousecar.com wrote:
It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
tia.
There are plenty. "mgetty" is built-in. HylaFAX, written by Sam Leffler, who created TIFF and was one of the core authors of BSD, is still in popular and commercial use: It Just Works(tm). [I wrote the SunOS port of it years and years back, and broke down laughing at a job interview in England when the company said "oh, yes, we use some very old fax/modem software you'll need to deal with. It's called 'HylaFAX'".
The "viewfax" tool from mgetty still remains the best tool for viewing the special tiffg3 files used for sending and receiving faxes, and the mgetty "voice" tools can help HylaFAX or mgetty handle voice messages too. But if you just install HylaFAX from RPMforge, it should Just Work(tm).
On Sun, 2011-03-27 at 22:41 -0400, ken wrote:
It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
Hylafax; has been quietly running at work, without incident, for years. http://www.hylafax.org/content/Main_Page
On 03/28/2011 05:59 AM Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
On Sun, 2011-03-27 at 22:41 -0400, ken wrote:
It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
Hylafax; has been quietly running at work, without incident, for years. http://www.hylafax.org/content/Main_Page
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I remember both of these packages from years ago-- the last time I set up a fax. At that time I bought an internal modem-- not a Winmodem, one with jumpers on it to set the com port and I believe the interrupt also. Now, however, I'm working on a laptop with a serial chip on the mainboard and it's a different story.
I've been reading the Serial-HOWTO, but it's a huge doc and I hope I don't need to read this entire monograph to get the serial port set up for the modem so that the fax software can use it.
I've run minicom to see if I can dial out with it-- to test if I have the modem's serial port enabled and configured properly. So far, no joy. Anyone have tips to set up the modem so that efax or (more likely) hylafax can use it?
Much appreciated.
On 3/28/2011 2:53 PM, ken wrote:
It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
Hylafax; has been quietly running at work, without incident, for years. http://www.hylafax.org/content/Main_Page
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I remember both of these packages from years ago-- the last time I set up a fax. At that time I bought an internal modem-- not a Winmodem, one with jumpers on it to set the com port and I believe the interrupt also. Now, however, I'm working on a laptop with a serial chip on the mainboard and it's a different story.
I've been reading the Serial-HOWTO, but it's a huge doc and I hope I don't need to read this entire monograph to get the serial port set up for the modem so that the fax software can use it.
I've run minicom to see if I can dial out with it-- to test if I have the modem's serial port enabled and configured properly. So far, no joy. Anyone have tips to set up the modem so that efax or (more likely) hylafax can use it?
I've forgotten most of what I knew about serial ports (and hope to keep it that way...) but chances are that the motherboard ports are /dev/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyS1 and hylafax should be able to do its own initialization. I've always used ckermit to poke around and do manual things to serial ports because after the 'set line device_name' you can 'set carrier off' to keep from locking up when the modem doesn't have carrier yet. I think I had to rebuild a src rpm from somewhere for Centos5, though. It has an odd license and isn't in the distro any more even though the license does explicitly permit that.
At Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:53:50 -0400 CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org wrote:
On 03/28/2011 05:59 AM Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
On Sun, 2011-03-27 at 22:41 -0400, ken wrote:
It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
Hylafax; has been quietly running at work, without incident, for years. http://www.hylafax.org/content/Main_Page
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I remember both of these packages from years ago-- the last time I set up a fax. At that time I bought an internal modem-- not a Winmodem, one with jumpers on it to set the com port and I believe the interrupt also. Now, however, I'm working on a laptop with a serial chip on the mainboard and it's a different story.
Is this an RS232 port connected to an external modem or is it some sort of internal modem?
I've been reading the Serial-HOWTO, but it's a huge doc and I hope I don't need to read this entire monograph to get the serial port set up for the modem so that the fax software can use it.
I've run minicom to see if I can dial out with it-- to test if I have the modem's serial port enabled and configured properly. So far, no joy. Anyone have tips to set up the modem so that efax or (more likely) hylafax can use it?
Almost all *internal* modems (esp. on laptops) are Winmodems and are thus pretty close to useless under Linux. It might be easier / cheaper / less agravating to just go down to Best Buy and buy a Creative Blaster analog RS232 serial modem. Something like $50US. Note: most newer laptops don't have an external RS232 connection, so you will need to get a USB=>RS232 adapter, most of which work out-of-the-box under Linux. (Don't get a USB connected analog modem -- most of these are Winmodems or something equally odd.)
Otherwise, what does:
/bin/setserial -g /dev/ttyS*
display?
(You might need to be root to do this:
sudo /bin/setserial -g /dev/ttyS*
)
For example my IBM Thinkpad X31 gives this:
gollum.deepsoft.com% sudo /bin/setserial -g /dev/ttyS* /dev/ttyS0, UART: undefined, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4 /dev/ttyS1, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02f8, IRQ: 3 /dev/ttyS2, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03e8, IRQ: 4 /dev/ttyS3, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02e8, IRQ: 3
I think /dev/ttyS0 is the IR port, which I don't use. The Winmodem does not show up as a /dev/ttyS* port, since it is not really a serial port at all.
Much appreciated.
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On 03/28/2011 04:22 PM Robert Heller wrote:
At Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:53:50 -0400 CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org wrote:
On 03/28/2011 05:59 AM Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
On Sun, 2011-03-27 at 22:41 -0400, ken wrote:
It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
Hylafax; has been quietly running at work, without incident, for years. http://www.hylafax.org/content/Main_Page
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I remember both of these packages from years ago-- the last time I set up a fax. At that time I bought an internal modem-- not a Winmodem, one with jumpers on it to set the com port and I believe the interrupt also. Now, however, I'm working on a laptop with a serial chip on the mainboard and it's a different story.
Is this an RS232 port connected to an external modem or is it some sort of internal modem?
Internal... on a laptop... so a winmodem. :(
I've been reading the Serial-HOWTO, but it's a huge doc and I hope I don't need to read this entire monograph to get the serial port set up for the modem so that the fax software can use it.
I've run minicom to see if I can dial out with it-- to test if I have the modem's serial port enabled and configured properly. So far, no joy. Anyone have tips to set up the modem so that efax or (more likely) hylafax can use it?
Almost all *internal* modems (esp. on laptops) are Winmodems and are thus pretty close to useless under Linux. It might be easier / cheaper / less agravating to just go down to Best Buy and buy a Creative Blaster analog RS232 serial modem. Something like $50US. Note: most newer laptops don't have an external RS232 connection, so you will need to get a USB=>RS232 adapter, most of which work out-of-the-box under Linux. (Don't get a USB connected analog modem -- most of these are Winmodems or something equally odd.)
Yeah, I think you're right about the Winmodem. "setserial -g /dev/ttyS*" showed just two recognized serial ports. Rebooting and checking the BIOS told me that the second one was for the IR (InfraRed) device. This laptop does have a regular serial port on it (I insisted on it when I was shopping). I also have a PCMCIA slot and an old modem card from a previous laptop, so that might be a better option than wrestling with a winmodem. I don't know yet....
Otherwise, what does:
/bin/setserial -g /dev/ttyS*
display?
(You might need to be root to do this:
sudo /bin/setserial -g /dev/ttyS*
Did this (see above) and the "serial port" (or whatever) which the modem is supposed to be connected to doesn't even show up. From what I've gathered from the Serial-HOWTO, the modem (again, winmodem) is a PnP ("plug-n-play")... I'm guessing this thing (from "scanpci -v"):
pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x1f function 0x00: vendor 0x8086 device 0x24cc Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge STATUS 0x0280 COMMAND 0x010f CLASS 0x06 0x01 0x00 REVISION 0x01 BIST 0x00 HEADER 0x80 LATENCY 0x00 CACHE 0x00 BYTE_0 0x01 BYTE_1 0x08 BYTE_2 0x00 BYTE_3 0x00
I've hunted around for a driver for this, got some indication that there might be one, but I haven't found it yet.
)
For example my IBM Thinkpad X31 gives this:
gollum.deepsoft.com% sudo /bin/setserial -g /dev/ttyS* /dev/ttyS0, UART: undefined, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4 /dev/ttyS1, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02f8, IRQ: 3 /dev/ttyS2, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03e8, IRQ: 4 /dev/ttyS3, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02e8, IRQ: 3
I think /dev/ttyS0 is the IR port, which I don't use. The Winmodem does not show up as a /dev/ttyS* port, since it is not really a serial port at all.
I got exactly the same output. Rebooting and going into the BIOS, I found that my IR card was bound to COM2 (ttyS1) and so moved it to COM4, thinking maybe that would uncover the modem's port... but no.
I've got a couple dozen other things I need to do... and the person who was going to fax me something is scanning the doc and attaching it to an email, so I don't need the fax anymore. So I'm bagging this project for now. Down the road, however, I want to set up an answering machine app on this same machine, so I'll likely come back to all this. So in the meantime, if anyone has any info on the driver which is going to light up this winmodem, give me a little shout.
Thanks much to everyone who replied... all good tips... much appreciated.
On 3/29/2011 10:35 AM, ken wrote:
I've got a couple dozen other things I need to do... and the person who was going to fax me something is scanning the doc and attaching it to an email, so I don't need the fax anymore. So I'm bagging this project for now. Down the road, however, I want to set up an answering machine app on this same machine, so I'll likely come back to all this.
I'd sign up for a free google voice account (if you are in the US anyway) instead of fighting with a modem to make an answering machine, especially a modem without a driver... Unfortunately GV doesn't do faxes, but there are other services that will.
On 03/29/2011 11:55 AM Les Mikesell wrote:
On 3/29/2011 10:35 AM, ken wrote:
I've got a couple dozen other things I need to do... and the person who was going to fax me something is scanning the doc and attaching it to an email, so I don't need the fax anymore. So I'm bagging this project for now. Down the road, however, I want to set up an answering machine app on this same machine, so I'll likely come back to all this.
I'd sign up for a free google voice account (if you are in the US anyway) instead of fighting with a modem to make an answering machine, especially a modem without a driver... Unfortunately GV doesn't do faxes, but there are other services that will.
Hmm. Didn't hear about that (except for the google 411). But I've got a couple old answering machines which do the regular routine. I want to add some features to existing FOSS.
On 3/29/2011 11:25 AM, ken wrote:
I've got a couple dozen other things I need to do... and the person who was going to fax me something is scanning the doc and attaching it to an email, so I don't need the fax anymore. So I'm bagging this project for now. Down the road, however, I want to set up an answering machine app on this same machine, so I'll likely come back to all this.
I'd sign up for a free google voice account (if you are in the US anyway) instead of fighting with a modem to make an answering machine, especially a modem without a driver... Unfortunately GV doesn't do faxes, but there are other services that will.
Hmm. Didn't hear about that (except for the google 411).
GV has been around for years - but previously you had to get an invite from an existing user or go on a waiting list. Now you can just sign up and get a free number which you can send where you want with/without screening and when it acts as an answering machine it transcribes the message and emails it to you. Recent additions are that you can make (and I think answer) calls from your computer while signed in to your gmail account and if you have Sprint Cell service you can use that number as your GV number without terminating the cell contract.
But I've got a couple old answering machines which do the regular routine. I want to add some features to existing FOSS.
Modems are kind of ancient technology - all the features are going to voip (freeswitch, asterisk, 2600hz, etc.).
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 12:08:33PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
GV has been around for years - but previously you had to get an invite from an existing user or go on a waiting list. Now you can just sign up and get a free number which you can send where you want with/without screening and when it acts as an answering machine it transcribes the message and emails it to you. Recent additions are that you can make (and I think answer) calls from your computer while signed in to your gmail account and if you have Sprint Cell service you can use that
With the right software and hardware (asterisk and an ATA) you can even use the conjunction of google voice and google chat to act as a "real" phone line. Indeed I just wrote up a process :-) http://sweh.spuddy.org/gvoice/
But I think that's getting a little off-topic :-)
On 03/29/2011 01:21 PM Stephen Harris wrote:
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 12:08:33PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
GV has been around for years - but previously you had to get an invite from an existing user or go on a waiting list. Now you can just sign up and get a free number which you can send where you want with/without screening and when it acts as an answering machine it transcribes the message and emails it to you. Recent additions are that you can make (and I think answer) calls from your computer while signed in to your gmail account and if you have Sprint Cell service you can use that
With the right software and hardware (asterisk and an ATA) you can even use the conjunction of google voice and google chat to act as a "real" phone line. Indeed I just wrote up a process :-) http://sweh.spuddy.org/gvoice/
But I think that's getting a little off-topic :-)
OT OK. So how does this conglomeration work? Say I have an OpenMoko phone (openmoko.org) and connect to google voice on the web... can I talk like a human on a landline? What phone number do the other humans get... to call me?
ATA means https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/AT_Attachment or https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Analog_telephone_adapter or something else?
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 01:37:22PM -0400, ken wrote:
On 03/29/2011 01:21 PM Stephen Harris wrote:
With the right software and hardware (asterisk and an ATA) you can even use the conjunction of google voice and google chat to act as a "real" phone line. Indeed I just wrote up a process :-) http://sweh.spuddy.org/gvoice/
But I think that's getting a little off-topic :-)
OT OK. So how does this conglomeration work? Say I have an OpenMoko phone (openmoko.org) and connect to google voice on the web... can I
What I described, above, is how to make a real phone work with google voice. You pick up your phone and dial a number and it calls out via google chat; someone calls your google voice number and your phone rings as normal.
Basically it looks and acts like a phone line, but it's using google to do all the work.
With OpenMoko you need a SIP client and configure it to talk to the asterisk server (I'd _guess_ because I've never tried it).
It's possible you might find software for OpenMoko that can do the googlevoice/googlechat juggling all inside the phone. Dunno.
But I'm not sure this is the best solution for a _mobile_ device. You might just want to make your googlevoice number ring your cellphone for incoming calls (which will use minutes), and use a SIP client for outgoing calls (which will use data).
talk like a human on a landline? What phone number do the other humans get... to call me?
When you sign up with google voice you can pick (from their options) the phone number you want.
ATA means
[...]
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Analog_telephone_adapter
This one; it's a small device that lets you plug in a real phone and it will talk to a SIP server (asterisk, in this case).
On 03/29/2011 01:37 PM ken wrote:
On 03/29/2011 01:21 PM Stephen Harris wrote:
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 12:08:33PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
GV has been around for years - but previously you had to get an invite from an existing user or go on a waiting list. Now you can just sign up and get a free number which you can send where you want with/without screening and when it acts as an answering machine it transcribes the message and emails it to you. Recent additions are that you can make (and I think answer) calls from your computer while signed in to your gmail account and if you have Sprint Cell service you can use that
With the right software and hardware (asterisk and an ATA) you can even use the conjunction of google voice and google chat to act as a "real" phone line. Indeed I just wrote up a process :-) http://sweh.spuddy.org/gvoice/
But I think that's getting a little off-topic :-)
OT OK. So how does this conglomeration work? Say I have an OpenMoko phone (openmoko.org) and connect to google voice on the web... can I talk like a human on a landline? What phone number do the other humans get... to call me?
ATA means....
Just read your webpage. It answered my one question and a couple others I didn't ask.
It's not what I'm looking for right now, but way cool enough that I'll have to check it out anyway. I didn't know a VoIP <-> POTS appliance could be had for $30. Last I checked (some years ago) just a card was something like $1000. How much is an actual phone number these days... if I don't care for google voice?
Thanks much!
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 02:17:58PM -0400, ken wrote:
On 03/29/2011 01:21 PM Stephen Harris wrote:
phone line. Indeed I just wrote up a process :-) http://sweh.spuddy.org/gvoice/
But I think that's getting a little off-topic :-)
Just read your webpage. It answered my one question and a couple others I didn't ask.
It's not what I'm looking for right now, but way cool enough that I'll have to check it out anyway. I didn't know a VoIP <-> POTS appliance could be had for $30. Last I checked (some years ago) just a card was something like $1000. How much is an actual phone number these days...
Line cards for PCs are still pretty expensive. They tend to be bespoke and modular (eg the PCIx card is essentially a carrier, with 4 or more plugin components). Also some of these cards need telecoms approval because they may plug into POTS, which adds to the cost. Simple ATAs are network-only equipment and so may not need regulatory approvals and so are cheaper.
if I don't care for google voice?
Normal phone numbers? Depends on your provider. Verizon may charge up to $50/month, depending on the service you get. VOIP providers such as Vonage charge $10/month (200 minutes/month) to $25/month (unlimited).
On 3/29/2011 12:37 PM, ken wrote:
On 03/29/2011 01:21 PM Stephen Harris wrote:
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 12:08:33PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
GV has been around for years - but previously you had to get an invite from an existing user or go on a waiting list. Now you can just sign up and get a free number which you can send where you want with/without screening and when it acts as an answering machine it transcribes the message and emails it to you. Recent additions are that you can make (and I think answer) calls from your computer while signed in to your gmail account and if you have Sprint Cell service you can use that
With the right software and hardware (asterisk and an ATA) you can even use the conjunction of google voice and google chat to act as a "real" phone line. Indeed I just wrote up a process :-) http://sweh.spuddy.org/gvoice/
But I think that's getting a little off-topic :-)
OT OK. So how does this conglomeration work? Say I have an OpenMoko phone (openmoko.org) and connect to google voice on the web... can I talk like a human on a landline? What phone number do the other humans get... to call me?
You probably need to understand bare GV first: they give you a new number (with the Sprint service exception or they can port other existing cell numbers which ends the contract with a likely termination fee), and a web page where you control what happens when people call it, which is generally forwarding to some other number(s) where you might answer. But it can also forward to a computer running google chat where you have the voice module installed, using the speaker/mic, a headset, or perhaps a bluetooth headset.
ATA means https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/AT_Attachment or https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Analog_telephone_adapter or something else?
The latter. If I followed the scenario correctly, the asterisk server (which acts as a PBX) logs into the google chat session pretending to be you at your browser, and when a voice call comes to the chat session it forwards it to a sip/voip phone. If you don't have a sip phone, the ATA adapter lets you use an analog phone instead. These would generally be land-line phones, although you can probably do sip over wifi. For cell phones, there are google voice apps that make outgoing calls show the GV number on the caller ID but I think they still use the cell plan voice minutes.
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 01:24:47PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
The latter. If I followed the scenario correctly, the asterisk server (which acts as a PBX) logs into the google chat session pretending to be you at your browser, and when a voice call comes to the chat session it forwards it to a sip/voip phone. If you don't have a sip phone, the ATA
Exactly correct. It also works the other way; pick up the phone and dial a number and asterisk routes it via google chat so you get your free US calls and cheap international calls.
On 3/29/2011 1:37 PM, Stephen Harris wrote:
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 01:24:47PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
The latter. If I followed the scenario correctly, the asterisk server (which acts as a PBX) logs into the google chat session pretending to be you at your browser, and when a voice call comes to the chat session it forwards it to a sip/voip phone. If you don't have a sip phone, the ATA
Exactly correct. It also works the other way; pick up the phone and dial a number and asterisk routes it via google chat so you get your free US calls and cheap international calls.
Do you know if asterisk (freeswitch, 2600hz, etc.) can do this over bluetooth? I've seen some base stations with wireless extensions that can connect to a landline and/or pair with a bluetooth phone that would ordinarily be your cell, but it would be kind of neat if it could be asterisk without the ATA intermediate or even a direct hardware connection.
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 02:52:16PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
On 3/29/2011 1:37 PM, Stephen Harris wrote:
Exactly correct. It also works the other way; pick up the phone and dial a number and asterisk routes it via google chat so you get your free US calls and cheap international calls.
Do you know if asterisk (freeswitch, 2600hz, etc.) can do this over bluetooth? I've seen some base stations with wireless extensions that can connect to a landline and/or pair with a bluetooth phone that would ordinarily be your cell, but it would be kind of neat if it could be asterisk without the ATA intermediate or even a direct hardware connection.
In my mind, it'd be very unlikely that Asterisk would talk bluetooth directly; that's not the Linux way. Instead you'd probably want to make your BlueTooth phone pair to the Linux server, and create an IP connection between the two, and then use any SIP client on the phone.
But I could be wrong :-) I'm an asterisk newbie!
On 03/29/2011 04:32 PM Stephen Harris wrote:
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 02:52:16PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
On 3/29/2011 1:37 PM, Stephen Harris wrote:
Exactly correct. It also works the other way; pick up the phone and dial a number and asterisk routes it via google chat so you get your free US calls and cheap international calls.
Do you know if asterisk (freeswitch, 2600hz, etc.) can do this over bluetooth? I've seen some base stations with wireless extensions that can connect to a landline and/or pair with a bluetooth phone that would ordinarily be your cell, but it would be kind of neat if it could be asterisk without the ATA intermediate or even a direct hardware connection.
In my mind, it'd be very unlikely that Asterisk would talk bluetooth directly; that's not the Linux way. Instead you'd probably want to make your BlueTooth phone pair to the Linux server, and create an IP connection between the two, and then use any SIP client on the phone.
But I could be wrong :-) I'm an asterisk newbie.
Les,
This was one feature I was interested in with the "answering machine" I spoke of before: I'd want to be able to pick up an incoming call with a bluetooth phone so I could walk around and not be tethered by a phone line. A friend of mine got a bluetooth/skype phone which works on PCs and Macs, a Qpe. I'd think if that phone would connect with skype, why not with something else like asterisk? Well, the answer depends on the state of development of the bluetooth drivers. Somebody on http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/bluetooth-headset-a... said he got his bluetooth headset working with skype using the bluetooth-alsa driver from http://bluetooth-alsa.sourceforge.net/. That site says:
"What we have working now is a scheme with two independent alsa-lib plugins and two independent daemons to run things. When you switch to the alsa-lib device that provides SCO (headset in the example configuration), you can do voice calls and two-way audio. When you switch to the device for a2dp (a2dpd in the example), you get one-way stereo to the headset."
What tames my enthusiasm about bluetooth though is its maximum range is said to be 20'. Gimme a wifi phone.
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 05:02:47PM -0400, ken wrote:
This was one feature I was interested in with the "answering machine" I spoke of before: I'd want to be able to pick up an incoming call with a bluetooth phone so I could walk around and not be tethered by a phone line. A friend of mine got a bluetooth/skype phone which works on PCs
That's what standard cordless phones are for. I plugged my existing 4-handset DECT basestation into the ATA, and it worked as expected. Any of the 4 cordless handsets could use the line.
On 03/29/2011 05:10 PM Stephen Harris wrote:
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 05:02:47PM -0400, ken wrote:
This was one feature I was interested in with the "answering machine" I spoke of before: I'd want to be able to pick up an incoming call with a bluetooth phone so I could walk around and not be tethered by a phone line. A friend of mine got a bluetooth/skype phone which works on PCs
That's what standard cordless phones are for. I plugged my existing 4-handset DECT basestation into the ATA, and it worked as expected. Any of the 4 cordless handsets could use the line.
I like it! As far as home telephony goes, a POTS cordless phone is much better technology than a bluetooth hand- or headset. And much less expensive.
What I'd hope to do is plug the analog output from the ATA into the input of my home's POTS (Plain Old Telephone System, i.e., the 1970s technology). That way all the cabling I have for extensions into nearly every room could still be used. Why abandon all of that? The only downside would be that I would be providing electric to all of that (rather than pulling all that power from AT&T). Would the ATA mentioned on your webpage handle that? I mean, I wouldn't be using all the phones at the same time... mostly just one phone at a time. It would just be a significantly longer distance to push the DC voltage than plugging a phone straight into the ATA.
On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 06:57:04AM -0400, ken wrote:
What I'd hope to do is plug the analog output from the ATA into the input of my home's POTS (Plain Old Telephone System, i.e., the 1970s technology). That way all the cabling I have for extensions into nearly every room could still be used. Why abandon all of that? The only downside would be that I would be providing electric to all of that (rather than pulling all that power from AT&T). Would the ATA mentioned on your webpage handle that? I mean, I wouldn't be using all the phones
That's kinda what I'm hoping it will do. But I haven't tested, yet!
Remember you'll need to cut the wire to AT&T before re-using the internal wiring.
On 03/30/2011 09:04 AM Stephen Harris wrote:
On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 06:57:04AM -0400, ken wrote:
What I'd hope to do is plug the analog output from the ATA into the input of my home's POTS (Plain Old Telephone System, i.e., the 1970s technology). That way all the cabling I have for extensions into nearly every room could still be used. Why abandon all of that? The only downside would be that I would be providing electric to all of that (rather than pulling all that power from AT&T). Would the ATA mentioned on your webpage handle that? I mean, I wouldn't be using all the phones
That's kinda what I'm hoping it will do. But I haven't tested, yet!
Remember you'll need to cut the wire to AT&T before re-using the internal wiring.
Yeah. Good point! You might fry your ATA before you even get to use it! In fact, it would be good to test the ATA by plugging a phone directly into it before doing anything else.
On 3/29/2011 4:02 PM, ken wrote:
Exactly correct. It also works the other way; pick up the phone and dial a number and asterisk routes it via google chat so you get your free US calls and cheap international calls.
Do you know if asterisk (freeswitch, 2600hz, etc.) can do this over bluetooth? I've seen some base stations with wireless extensions that can connect to a landline and/or pair with a bluetooth phone that would ordinarily be your cell, but it would be kind of neat if it could be asterisk without the ATA intermediate or even a direct hardware connection.
In my mind, it'd be very unlikely that Asterisk would talk bluetooth directly; that's not the Linux way. Instead you'd probably want to make your BlueTooth phone pair to the Linux server, and create an IP connection between the two, and then use any SIP client on the phone.
But I could be wrong :-) I'm an asterisk newbie.
Les,
This was one feature I was interested in with the "answering machine" I spoke of before: I'd want to be able to pick up an incoming call with a bluetooth phone so I could walk around and not be tethered by a phone line. A friend of mine got a bluetooth/skype phone which works on PCs and Macs, a Qpe. I'd think if that phone would connect with skype, why not with something else like asterisk? Well, the answer depends on the state of development of the bluetooth drivers. Somebody on http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/bluetooth-headset-a... said he got his bluetooth headset working with skype using the bluetooth-alsa driver from http://bluetooth-alsa.sourceforge.net/. That site says:
"What we have working now is a scheme with two independent alsa-lib plugins and two independent daemons to run things. When you switch to the alsa-lib device that provides SCO (headset in the example configuration), you can do voice calls and two-way audio. When you switch to the device for a2dp (a2dpd in the example), you get one-way stereo to the headset."
I haven't kept up with asterisk, partly because they kept changing the apis all the time so it was hard to use it for anything, but I thought that even a long time ago someone had it connecting the 'other' way through a cell phone - that is to use the cell connection as one of its lines. I'm not sure about about using the dialer and audio side, though.
What tames my enthusiasm about bluetooth though is its maximum range is said to be 20'. Gimme a wifi phone.
That was the point of the base station with wireless handsets. I've seen those with 3 or 4 handsets for well under $100. They are intended to be used as house extensions while your cell phone is charging near the base. And at least some take a landline too.
On 03/29/2011 05:23 PM Les Mikesell wrote:
....
What tames my enthusiasm about bluetooth though is its maximum range is said to be 20'. Gimme a wifi phone.
That was the point of the base station with wireless handsets. I've seen those with 3 or 4 handsets for well under $100. They are intended to be used as house extensions while your cell phone is charging near the base. And at least some take a landline too.
Les,
I'm not understanding the role your cellular phone is playing here.
On 3/30/11 6:04 AM, ken wrote:
On 03/29/2011 05:23 PM Les Mikesell wrote:
....
What tames my enthusiasm about bluetooth though is its maximum range is said to be 20'. Gimme a wifi phone.
That was the point of the base station with wireless handsets. I've seen those with 3 or 4 handsets for well under $100. They are intended to be used as house extensions while your cell phone is charging near the base. And at least some take a landline too.
Les,
I'm not understanding the role your cellular phone is playing here.
That's just what the base station with remote extensions are designed to use because they are common. http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-KX-TG7623B-Bluetooth-Cordless-3-Handset/dp/t...
Maybe I misunderstood - I thought they could use the cell phone's connection for calls, and you could possibly replace that with a GV->asterisk-bluetooth path but maybe these go the other way and use the cell phones as extensions.
This description does sound like it uses the cell's in/outbound connection: http://www.frys.com/product/5916034
On 03/30/2011 08:55 AM Les Mikesell wrote:
On 3/30/11 6:04 AM, ken wrote:
On 03/29/2011 05:23 PM Les Mikesell wrote:
....
What tames my enthusiasm about bluetooth though is its maximum range is said to be 20'. Gimme a wifi phone.
That was the point of the base station with wireless handsets. I've seen those with 3 or 4 handsets for well under $100. They are intended to be used as house extensions while your cell phone is charging near the base. And at least some take a landline too.
Les,
I'm not understanding the role your cellular phone is playing here.
That's just what the base station with remote extensions are designed to use because they are common. http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-KX-TG7623B-Bluetooth-Cordless-3-Handset/dp/t...
Okay, when you said "cell phone" you were talking about bluetooth. I was taking you too literally, thinking you knew some way to connect an actual cell phone, like an iPhone or Blackberry, into the system. Okay, I think we're in sync now.
Maybe I misunderstood - I thought they could use the cell phone's connection for calls, and you could possibly replace that with a GV->asterisk-bluetooth path but maybe these go the other way and use the cell phones as extensions.
This description does sound like it uses the cell's in/outbound connection: http://www.frys.com/product/5916034
Again, I remember reading that bluetooth's range was 20 feet max. That's not much. It'd be cheaper and easier and better just to get a cordless phone... or?
On 3/30/11 8:15 AM, ken wrote:
This description does sound like it uses the cell's in/outbound connection: http://www.frys.com/product/5916034
Again, I remember reading that bluetooth's range was 20 feet max. That's not much. It'd be cheaper and easier and better just to get a cordless phone... or?
The point of these systems is that only the base station needs to be in bluetooth range of the cell phone. The extensions are DECT which has the same range as wifi and can be scattered around the house without worrying about wires.
At Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:35:49 -0400 CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org wrote:
On 03/28/2011 04:22 PM Robert Heller wrote:
At Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:53:50 -0400 CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org wrote:
On 03/28/2011 05:59 AM Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
On Sun, 2011-03-27 at 22:41 -0400, ken wrote:
It's been many years, but it seems that I have to receive a fax and might have to send one too. Is there a way to do this on CentOS 5.5? (Hope so.)
Hylafax; has been quietly running at work, without incident, for years. http://www.hylafax.org/content/Main_Page
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I remember both of these packages from years ago-- the last time I set up a fax. At that time I bought an internal modem-- not a Winmodem, one with jumpers on it to set the com port and I believe the interrupt also. Now, however, I'm working on a laptop with a serial chip on the mainboard and it's a different story.
Is this an RS232 port connected to an external modem or is it some sort of internal modem?
Internal... on a laptop... so a winmodem. :(
I've been reading the Serial-HOWTO, but it's a huge doc and I hope I don't need to read this entire monograph to get the serial port set up for the modem so that the fax software can use it.
I've run minicom to see if I can dial out with it-- to test if I have the modem's serial port enabled and configured properly. So far, no joy. Anyone have tips to set up the modem so that efax or (more likely) hylafax can use it?
Almost all *internal* modems (esp. on laptops) are Winmodems and are thus pretty close to useless under Linux. It might be easier / cheaper / less agravating to just go down to Best Buy and buy a Creative Blaster analog RS232 serial modem. Something like $50US. Note: most newer laptops don't have an external RS232 connection, so you will need to get a USB=>RS232 adapter, most of which work out-of-the-box under Linux. (Don't get a USB connected analog modem -- most of these are Winmodems or something equally odd.)
Yeah, I think you're right about the Winmodem. "setserial -g /dev/ttyS*" showed just two recognized serial ports. Rebooting and checking the BIOS told me that the second one was for the IR (InfraRed) device. This laptop does have a regular serial port on it (I insisted on it when I was shopping). I also have a PCMCIA slot and an old modem card from a previous laptop, so that might be a better option than wrestling with a winmodem. I don't know yet....
The old PCMCIA modem card might not be a fax modem. If the laptop does have a "good old" DB-9 serial port connector, then going to Best Buy (or CompUSA, etc.) and getting something like a Creative Blaster analog RS232 serial modem might be also quite easy and painless.
Otherwise, what does:
/bin/setserial -g /dev/ttyS*
display?
(You might need to be root to do this:
sudo /bin/setserial -g /dev/ttyS*
Did this (see above) and the "serial port" (or whatever) which the modem is supposed to be connected to doesn't even show up. From what I've gathered from the Serial-HOWTO, the modem (again, winmodem) is a PnP ("plug-n-play")... I'm guessing this thing (from "scanpci -v"):
pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x1f function 0x00: vendor 0x8086 device 0x24cc Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge STATUS 0x0280 COMMAND 0x010f CLASS 0x06 0x01 0x00 REVISION 0x01 BIST 0x00 HEADER 0x80 LATENCY 0x00 CACHE 0x00 BYTE_0 0x01 BYTE_1 0x08 BYTE_2 0x00 BYTE_3 0x00
I've hunted around for a driver for this, got some indication that there might be one, but I haven't found it yet.
)
For example my IBM Thinkpad X31 gives this:
gollum.deepsoft.com% sudo /bin/setserial -g /dev/ttyS* /dev/ttyS0, UART: undefined, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4 /dev/ttyS1, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02f8, IRQ: 3 /dev/ttyS2, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03e8, IRQ: 4 /dev/ttyS3, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02e8, IRQ: 3
I think /dev/ttyS0 is the IR port, which I don't use. The Winmodem does not show up as a /dev/ttyS* port, since it is not really a serial port at all.
I got exactly the same output. Rebooting and going into the BIOS, I found that my IR card was bound to COM2 (ttyS1) and so moved it to COM4, thinking maybe that would uncover the modem's port... but no.
I've got a couple dozen other things I need to do... and the person who was going to fax me something is scanning the doc and attaching it to an email, so I don't need the fax anymore. So I'm bagging this project for now. Down the road, however, I want to set up an answering machine app on this same machine, so I'll likely come back to all this. So in the meantime, if anyone has any info on the driver which is going to light up this winmodem, give me a little shout.
Thanks much to everyone who replied... all good tips... much appreciated.
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
....I also have a PCMCIA slot and an old modem card from a previous laptop, so that might be a better option than wrestling with a winmodem. I don't know yet....
The old PCMCIA modem card might not be a fax modem. If the laptop does have a "good old" DB-9 serial port connector, then going to Best Buy (or CompUSA, etc.) and getting something like a Creative Blaster analog RS232 serial modem might be also quite easy and painless.
I have a strong aversion to external peripherals dangling off a box... looks too much like a high school science project. And external modems are known to get very hot. I used one somebody gave me to keep my coffee cup warm. :)
That Blaster is pretty much the internal modem I had in a previous machine I built. Maybe I should just revive that old dog with a new motherboard and CPU. But hmm, I think that Blaster card needed an ISA slot. Don't know if new mobos have those anymore. (?)
Robert, you're probably right all 'round.
Thanks.
At Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:47:50 -0400 CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org wrote:
....I also have a PCMCIA slot and an old modem card from a previous laptop, so that might be a better option than wrestling with a winmodem. I don't know yet....
The old PCMCIA modem card might not be a fax modem. If the laptop does have a "good old" DB-9 serial port connector, then going to Best Buy (or CompUSA, etc.) and getting something like a Creative Blaster analog RS232 serial modem might be also quite easy and painless.
I have a strong aversion to external peripherals dangling off a box... looks too much like a high school science project. And external modems are known to get very hot. I used one somebody gave me to keep my coffee cup warm. :)
Oh, internal modems *also* get hot -- this is not something partitular to external modems -- 'real' (hardware) modems (internal or external) have lots of analog circuts including resistor networks that get hot -- this is part of dealing with analog phone lines, which are still very 19th century in their signaling methods (eg voltage and current levels). And a cooking internal modem can cause other problems, like fried motherboards... One *major* advantage of an external modem is that it can be disconnected, turned off, unplugged, etc. without shutting down the host machine (ditto for reconnecting). Sometimes modems (internal OR external) become confused and need to be 'rebooted'. With an external one, this just means flipping the power switch on the modem, with an internal one it means rebooting the system (which is not always convenient).
If all you are doing is the occassional faxing, leave the external modem off, unplugged, and stashed on a shelf. Oh, and it will be less bulky than a all-in-one printer or a real-live fax machine (imagine lugging something like that around). I expect that unlike me, you don't depend on dial-up internet access, so the external modem is not going to be an essentual external peripheral.
That Blaster is pretty much the internal modem I had in a previous machine I built. Maybe I should just revive that old dog with a new motherboard and CPU. But hmm, I think that Blaster card needed an ISA slot. Don't know if new mobos have those anymore. (?)
Unless you spend serious bucks, ALL *PCI* modems are win modems (there are one or two very high-end 'industrial grade' PCI 'hardware' modems). Many older *ISA* modems were 'hardware' modems and were meant for old i586 and i486 systems that lacked the CPU cycles to handle a controllerless modem (winmodem). And ISA slots are pretty much non-existent on modern motherboards.
Robert, you're probably right all 'round.
Thanks.
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Tuesday, March 29, 2011 02:07:46 pm Robert Heller wrote:
Unless you spend serious bucks, ALL *PCI* modems are win modems (there are one or two very high-end 'industrial grade' PCI 'hardware' modems). Many older *ISA* modems were 'hardware' modems and were meant for old i586 and i486 systems that lacked the CPU cycles to handle a controllerless modem (winmodem). And ISA slots are pretty much non-existent on modern motherboards.
I have a couple of 'real hardware' PCI modems, neither of which were very expensive. One is an ActionTec, and I bought it new-old-stock for $15. The other is by Digitan, a DS560-558 that I got with a Sun Ultra 10 workstation. Both are Lucent Venus chipsets and are full hardware controller PCI modems.
I have a third one here somewhere that is a more expensive one, a Multitech, I think, but I haven't been able to lay hold on it. There is a Multitech on eBay right now for $19.99; a real deal for an industrial-grade modem.
For more information about modem chipsets, see http://www.modemsite.com/56k/chipset.asp and http://techpatterns.com/forums/about483.html
On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 3:21 PM, Lamar Owen lowen@pari.edu wrote:
On Tuesday, March 29, 2011 02:07:46 pm Robert Heller wrote:
Unless you spend serious bucks, ALL *PCI* modems are win modems (there are one or two very high-end 'industrial grade' PCI 'hardware' modems). Many older *ISA* modems were 'hardware' modems and were meant for old i586 and i486 systems that lacked the CPU cycles to handle a controllerless modem (winmodem). And ISA slots are pretty much non-existent on modern motherboards.
I have a couple of 'real hardware' PCI modems, neither of which were very expensive. One is an ActionTec, and I bought it new-old-stock for $15. The other is by Digitan, a DS560-558 that I got with a Sun Ultra 10 workstation. Both are Lucent Venus chipsets and are full hardware controller PCI modems.
I have a third one here somewhere that is a more expensive one, a Multitech, I think, but I haven't been able to lay hold on it. There is a Multitech on eBay right now for $19.99; a real deal for an industrial-grade modem.
For more information about modem chipsets, see http://www.modemsite.com/56k/chipset.asp and http://techpatterns.com/forums/about483.html
Not so much for laptops, but for anyone with servers, RocketPort makes the cream of the crop. They make fabulous 8-port serial PCI and PCI-e cards that just work, with all the standard modem software.
USB modems are going for less than $20 these days, and may present a workable alternative if our original poster cannot find Winmodem drivers.
On Tuesday, March 29, 2011 11:56:17 am Robert Heller wrote:
At Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:35:49 -0400 CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org wrote:
Internal... on a laptop... so a winmodem. :(
Almost all *internal* modems (esp. on laptops) are Winmodems and are thus pretty close to useless under Linux.
Yeah, I think you're right about the Winmodem.
The old PCMCIA modem card might not be a fax modem.
There were a number of PnP PCMCIA winmodems, too.
There are drivers for some winmodems for Linux for some really popular ones. The hard part with a laptop is determining what kind of modem it is, since they all hang off the AC'97 interfaces like a sound card would. You could have a Lucent, a Motorola, or even a 3Com chipset there.
In my case, my laptop is a Dell Precision M65; Dell Precision workstations, including the mobile ones, are fully supported (and have been for a long time) under RHEL, and thus under CentOS. This includes 'linmodem' drivers for the Conexant chipset used in my M65; you can get that from Dell at: http://linux.dell.com/files/ubuntu/hardy/modem-drivers/hsf/ While the directory is under the 'Ubuntu' section there is an RPM there you can try, if you have a Dell with a Conexant HSF winmodem, that is.
You can also get commercially supported HSF modem drivers from Linuxant. See http://www.linuxant.com/drivers/modemident.php
A few years back I actually was successful in using a Conexant modem under a version of Fedora (I think it was FC5 or FC6); but I've not used dialup in a long time, so I never kept that updated.
For more information in the subject of using winmodems on Linux, check linmodems.org
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Adam Tauno Williams -
Gregory P. Ennis -
John R Pierce -
John R. Dennison -
ken -
Lamar Owen -
Les Mikesell -
Nico Kadel-Garcia -
Robert Heller -
Stephen Harris