Fax as printer in cups

[Mike McMullin]

On January 3, 2011 05:19:40 pm James Freer wrote:
> On 3 January 2011 16:03, Tommy Trussell <tommy.trussell at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 6:38 PM, Mike McMullin <mmcmullin at cogeco.ca> wrote:
> >>  Is it possible to configure a fax modem as a printer in CUPS, shunt
> >> jobs to it and have it launch the appropriate fax user interface?
> >> 
> >>  Failing that, where's the docs on setting up a fax/server in 10.04
> >> desktop?
> > 
> > On this netbook running  Ubuntu 10.10, I went to the System --> Help
> > and Support menu and searched for "fax." The first item indicated the
> > package is called efax-gtk, which should do what you want, as long as
> > you have a supported fax modem. It may take some work to get the setup
> > working as you expect, though.
> > 
> > A few weeks ago I needed to receive a fax, so I created a new phone
> > line with my VOIP provider and connected an older Macintosh laptop. I
> > was surprised it did exactly what I needed, including forwarding the
> > received documents via email. The old Mac is new enough to be using
> > CUPS behind the scenes, and of course its own internal modem was
> > completely supported.
> > 
> > YMMV :-)
> > 
> > --
> > ubuntu-users mailing list
> > ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> > Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
> > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
> 
> I've used efax-gtk for several years now and not had any problems -
> although you do have to convert to pdf first. However, i do find it
> best to use efax for receiving (you can use any one of a number of
> such services - free!).
> 
> I did try and configure a winmodem which was recognised in linux but
> quite frankly it's not worth the time. Much better to just buy a
> serial hardware modem which i found worked immediately and cost little
> more than £5 - new on ebay (i bought two to be on the safe side!).
> 
> I find fax very useful and use it a lot despite some folk claiming
> it's old technology. Fax is secure and email is not - and you know
> it's always received. Most of the time folk email me back so i don't
> receive many.

  I have an older model USR Fax/Voice/Data modem, which I had set up under 
OpenSuSE, I know this works with Linux, but setting up hylafax was a bear, and 
I was hoping that despite it being "ancient" technology some advances might 
have been made.  Googling for 10.04 and fax setup yields very little results 
of any worth.