Re: Modem/Fax

<danny_zink@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:n8h1e.3705$LF2.2828@prv-forum2.provo.novell.com...
> Why is it difficult to detect and setup a serial modem for faxing???
Why
> are new installed programs not listed in menus, or an icon placed on

> desktop???
> I use my computer to send/receive faxes. It seems that linux OS,
in
> general, shys away from anyone using their computer as a fax
machine. I
> sure hope SUSE 9.3 does something about this. How do they expect a
small
> business to work with Linux if a simple thing as sending/receiving
faxes
> is
> difficult to setup??? SUSE manual, that comes with 9.2, says
nothing
> about
> setting up a fax modem to use undered Linux. NOTHING! The only
Linux OS I
> found that I could setup with little dificulty was MEPIS 3.3. What
needs
> to
> be done to query and setup my modem for sending/receiving faxes.
Mgetty
> not working in SUSUE 9.2. Installed but not working, command line or

> otherwise. Where is a list of compiled program that will work with
SUSE???
> How do you setup SUSE to install programs downloaded to the hard
drive???

Umm. I helped *write* the first Linux port of the HylaFAX software,
and
wrote the original SunOS port of it, both of which are available at
www.hylafax.org, as SRPM's that compile and run quite well on almost
all
Linux RPM-based distros. They don't use SuSE's YaST middleware
strangeness
in /etc/sysconfig, but that's actually worth avoiding for most open
source
software because the extra layer of middleware in YaST often breaks
the
ability to configure or use more powerful and subtle features of the original software.

It's solid software. I prefer it to the mgetty package that SuSE
provides,
and am happy to point other users to it. I also answer polite
questions over
it on comp.os.linux.setup or comp.dcom.mocems. The setup where I did
the
original work ran from 1986 until, umm, let me see. Last Tuesday, when
they
finally turned it off.

Danny, I sure hope you are not trying to get a Winmodem working underLinux, that's notoriously difficult. Winmodems are named that way
because
some of the modem/fax hardware was replaced by software that runs only

under a windows environment. Less hardware = lower retail cost. GL

Nico, thanks for the tip on your product, I'll check it out.

<c_greenacre@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Lbl1e.3822$LF2.2571@prv-forum2.provo.novell.com...
> Danny, I sure hope you are not trying to get a Winmodem working
under
> Linux, that's notoriously difficult. Winmodems are named that way

> because
> some of the modem/fax hardware was replaced by software that runs
only
> under a windows environment. Less hardware = lower retail cost. GL

>
> Nico, thanks for the tip on your product, I'll check it out.

No problem: it's not "mine", it's an open source tool written
originally by
Sam Leffler, who wrote much of BSD itself and invented TIFF, which is
why he
got involved in fax-modems. Fax transmissions, at least as recorded in
the
computer world, are a TIFF format.

Winmodems are also becoming easier to use, fortunately, as the design
seems
to have stabilized and more of them are worked out as default kernel
modules
or software installations.