SUMMARY: multi-purpose dial-in/-out port setup

From: Stefan Jon Silverman (sjs@sunthing.sjsinc.com)
Date: Thu May 25 1995 - 10:26:38 CDT


Folks:

        The votes are in (all 4 of them) and this is what was suggested:

        1 vote buy a Xylogics Annex III terminal server and modify
                        gnu fax
        2 votes use mgetty+sendfax from sunsite.unc.edu
        1 vote use hylafax from sgi.com:/sgi/fax (sun binaries and
                        source)

        Because of budget issues, the terminal server approach cannot be used. I
have downloaded versions of both of the packages above and both seem able to
meet my needs; the mgetty+sendfax looks very flexable but the hylafax seems
to have a better user interface.

        I do not know which I will end up using because good-old Pacific Bell is
in the process of upgrading the switch my new phone line is running into and
for the moment, it can handle voice traffic but not a modem. They say it
should be working "__real-soon-now__".....UUUGGGHHH!!! & GROAN!!!

        Anyone who is interested in my specific experiences once the phone
problems are cleared up should e-mail me for a limited distribution RE-SUMMARY.
If there is enough interest, I will post a general SUMMARY to the list.

        Many thanx to:

                Nico Garcia raoul@mit.edu
                Gregory M Polanski gmp@adc.com
                Syed Zaeem Hosain szh@zcon.com
                Alex Murray alex@yang.yinyang.net

        My original query and edited responses are below...

        thanx,

        b c++'ing u,

        %-) sjs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stefan Jon Silverman - President SJS Associates, N.A., Inc.
                                                             572 Chestnut Street
Distributed Systems Architecture & Implementation San Francisco, Ca. 94133
                                                             Phone: 415 989 2741
E-mail: sjs@sjsinc.com Cell: 415 298 6568
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                  Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down!!!
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------------------------ Start Original Query ----------------------------------
Folks:

        On a SS2 (SunOS 4.1.3) I am trying to setup one of the serial ports to
talk to an Intel 14.4 FAX modem with the following constraints:

        o Must support out-going slip / ppp / tip / kermit sessions
        o Must support out-going FAX transmissions
        o Must support in-coming slip / ppp / terminal sessions
        o Must support in-coming FAX transmissions
        
        I have studied the source for the GNU fax-3.2 software and know that I
can make some of the necessary modifcations to put the port monitoring daemon
into a secondary role.

        I have modified a version of login to present a third prompt to users
(after Login/Password) to select slip / ppp / terminal-session.

        So my question is:

        Do any of you have or know where I can find a modified version of
"uugetty" or something like it that can:

        o Set up the modem to receive FAX or login session traffic.
        o Distinguish between in-coming FAX traffic or session traffic
                and launch the appropriate program (ala' inetd) such as my
                modified login or the FAX daemon.
        o Re-set the port to state 1 after a session / FAX disconnect
                (the Intel seems to want to stay in FAX mode after it receives
                one, making session logins impossible w/out a modem power cycle)
        o Support standard port locking when in receive mode so that an
                out-going attempt will fail on a lock-detect.

-------------------------- End Original Query ----------------------------------

----------------------------- Start Responses ----------------------------------

From: gmp@adc.com (Gregory M Polanski)

We use Xylogics Annex III terminal servers. The Annex supports
PPP, Slip, dial-in, dial-out.

We have extended the gnu fax software to send and receive faxes.

A bit spendy, but workable.

*******************************

From: szh@zcon.com (Syed Zaeem Hosain)

You need "mgetty+sendfax" (you should look for version 2.X on the Net -
if you want my sources, let me know). This should do the fax and modem
switching pretty cleanly. You can certainly try it out - it is a highly
recommended program (although this is hearsay since I have not used it
myself yet - have not found a need).

The modem is designed to work well with the ZyXEL modems (where one
extension of mgetty - called vgetty - can also handle voice calls using
the ZyXEL voice modes), but does support other fax/data modems.

***
***
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a little later:

I would recommend using ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de, since I believe
that it is the author's home system, and it is most up to date over
there. If you have difficulty, let me know and I will send along the
source I have. But this may be a rev (or few) out of date, which is why
I suggest looking at the other sites.

Here is the information from the file "FTP" in the source distribution:

mgetty+sendfax can usually be found at:

sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/system/Serial/mgetty+sendfax*
tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/sources/sbin/mgetty+sendfax
ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:/pub/comp/usenet/alt.sources/mgetty+sendfax/

***
***
***

and later still:

I just checked over on ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de and it looks like
the mgetty there is way out of date. Try the one on sunsite.unc.edu
instead - this looks like version 2.2 (which is later than my version
2.0 sources).

***********************************

From: raoul@MIT.EDU

GACK! NO, NO, NO! Get hylafax, from sgi.com:/sgi/fax. You can use
the binaries from the binary directory, and read my INSTALL-sunos4.1-*
notes there. This will provide fax-in or fax-out use or both depending
on setup, and can handle routing to a fax handler or getty as desired.

It supports out-going slip/ppp/etc. automagically, although you
must install that software separately. It will be much easier to use
and modify this, which is pretty complete and robust now, than to
muck around with gnu-fax.

Also, go to SunOS 4.1.4 for the security patches and included hardware
flow control patch.

My opinions are my own, not MIT's or my employer's or my cat's
(Well, maybe my cat's....)

***********************************

From: Alex Murray <alex@yang.yinyang.net>

You're probably going to get a thundering response to this; but, in case you
don't, I use (and would recommend) installing "mgetty+fax". It's very
flexible in terms of what it does upon receiving a call, performs locking
(either binary or 10-character alpha), does a modem reset between calls, etc.
Works for me.

>From the file "FTP" in the distribution, the author claims it can be found
at:

sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/system/Serial/mgetty+sendfax*
tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/sources/sbin/mgetty+sendfax
ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:/pub/comp/usenet/alt.soures/mgetty+sendfax/

----------------------------- End Responses ------------------------------------



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