From: mark@infocomm.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: T-3000 + Fax Upgrade
Date: 23 Nov 92 11:10:05 PST
Organization: INFO COMM - Computer Consulting, Redwood City, Ca

In article <Bxv6GG.DLI@gator.rn.com>, larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes:
> ja@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Jay Ashcraft) writes:
> 
>>I already have $850 in my WorldBlazer don't know if $149 more 
>>for Fax is worth it?  Any ideas?
> 
> $149 is cheaper than a FAX machine, and modem high speed
> FAX modems.  If you don't have any plans to use the FAX,
> then no, it's not worth the upgrade fee.
> 
> The question is, does this $149 include any software?

I'm pretty sure it doesn't include any software, but the key concept 
is not simply the $149, since when allowing your modem to be used for 
inbound FAX, that is it ONLY role, so your real cost for a "FAX machine" 
is $149 PLUS the original cost of the modem.  Not such a good deal 
(especially without software, yet).

It is my impression that, at least amongst the readers of
comp.dcom.modems, that most of the Worldblazers & T3000s that are in use
here are general purpose inbound/outbound modems that are connected to
multi-user (or multi-user capable) systems.

I'm VERY satisfied with ALL the current capabilities of my existing modems.

I know that in order for me to be interested in a FAX capability for any
of these modems, I am certainly NOT willing to sacrifice ANY of its
current capabilities.

The process of sending outbound FAX is rather simple to extend from the
existing use model, and can indeed be utilized without sacrificing any of
the existing functionality since the software which is sending the FAX
merely act like any other outbound user of the modem device, and allocates
it upon demand.

The real problem is for inbound use. . . 

Normally, my modems are configured so that when they receive inbound
calls, they send NOTHING to the host serial port other than what the
remote system is sending as serial data.  This allows remote users (or
software (i.e. uucp)), to establish the desired login context and to
proceed.  In the case of incoming FAX, there really is not any remote user
who is expecting the a serial connection, so in order for this capability
to be useful, the local modem will need to be configured to actually send
a sequence of data to the serial port to cause a login which will run some
host based FAX software to receive the FAX data.  Since we all have
different kinds of hosts with different login requirements, the "strings"
that the modem sends to the host port when an incoming FAX connection is
being established need to be reasonably configurable.

I'm not sure if any other FAX/data modems on the market offer this kind of
functionality since I'm a loyal Telebit customer and currently have only
WorldBlazer modems.  One of the reasons I bought so many WorldBlazers was
because of the promised future FAX functionality.

I have come to expect that Telebit does have fully featured and fully
functional products, I hope they can eventually get this feature to be
fully functional or having it is rather useless.

--
Mark Pizzolato - INFO COMM Computer Consulting, Redwood City, Ca
PHONE:	(415)369-9366	UUCP:  decwrl!infopiz!mark or uunet!lupine!infopiz!mark
DOMAIN:	mark@infocomm.com