Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!daemon
From: DIXON-R@OSU-20.IRCC.OHIO-STATE.EDU (Bob Dixon)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Fax over tcp/ip
Message-ID: <66172@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 11 Oct 89 13:33:58 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Lines: 28

This is a pre-announcement of a Fax over tcp/ip package we now have operational
here in prototype form, and which will be made available free to educational
institutions when it is finished and polished up.
 The basic scheme is to use a PC clone as a network gateway (total hardware
cost for PC is $2K). A fax card is used in the PC to communicate with a
co-located conventional group 3 fax machine. The fax machine thinks it is
using a telephone line to call some distant fax machine, but in fact it is
just talking to the PC. The PC stores the fax data as a binary file. The PC
then uses binary FTP to send the fax file out its ethernet port to any similarly
arranged system anywhere in the Internet, where the process is reversed.
The FTP portion of the operation is essentially instantaneous in comparison
with the normal time needed by the fax machine to scan a document.
 A scanner and graphics printer can be used instaed of the local fax macine if
desired. Both the fax machine and PC may also be used for other tasks if
desired, and need not be dedicated solely to this function.
 It is not terribly difficult to assemble such a system, and to operate it in
a crude manual mode. We have it operable in a somewhat automated mode now,
and are working on the necessary software to make it robust, error-tolerant
and very user-friendly so that it can be used as a routine tool by people
such as librarians. There is great need for such a capability among libraries
for inter-library loan.
 When the software is finished it will be distributed free to anyone who
wants it, along with a suggested hardware configuration.

                                Bob Dixon
                                Ohio State University

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