Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!hayes!tnixon
From: tnixon@hayes.uucp
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.fax
Subject: Re: PC Fax Command sets
Message-ID: <3710.277e71f8@hayes.uucp>
Date: 30 Dec 90 23:02:16 GMT
References: <7918@hub.ucsb.edu>
Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA
Lines: 37

In article <7918@hub.ucsb.edu>, jim@piggy.ucsb.edu (Jim Lick)
writes: 

> Is there some sort of standard way of sending faxes of PC boards?

Yes, there is, but your modem probably does not implement it.

Technical Committee TR-29 of the Telecommunications Industry 
Association recently adopted a new standard, ANSI/EIA/TIA-578, which 
specifies the commands (in Hayes AT command set format) to control 
serial-interface fax modems.  TIA-578 is a very simple set of 
commands which requires virtually all of the intelligence to be in 
the PC software; this level of "service" from a fax modem is known 
as "Class 1".  The committee is close to completion of work on a 
"Class 2" set of services, which moves virtually all of the T.30 
protocol management out into the modem (but the T.4 image handling 
is still in the PC).  The first round of balloting on the Class 2 
standard failed because a few companies thought it still required 
too much T.30 support from the PC software, so the standard is being 
refined and should go out for ballot again within a couple of 
months.  The Class 2 standard is the one that is likely to be widely 
implemented in modems from a variety of manufacturers.

I have no idea what the interface is for your modem.  Since there's 
been no standard until very recently, most fax modems use 
proprietary interfaces, and require you to use only the software 
that came with the modem.  That will change once the standard is 
promulgated, but it will probably be a year before standard modems 
and software are available and interchangable.

	-- Toby

-- 
Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer    | Voice   +1-404-449-8791  Telex 151243420
Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. | Fax     +1-404-447-0178  CIS   70271,404
P.O. Box 105203                   | UUCP uunet!hayes!tnixon  AT&T    !tnixon
Atlanta, Georgia  30348  USA      | Internet       hayes!tnixon@uunet.uu.net