From: friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen Friedl)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.fax
Subject: Re: MultiTech Fax Modems could run Gnu NetFax if you call
Date: 8 Nov 92 22:41:45 GMT
Organization: Steve's Personal machine / Tustin, CA

I write UNIX fax software for a living, so I have some expertise
in this area.  I believe that the UNIX and DOS fax worlds are
fundamentally different markets, and they share surprisingly few
characteristics.  Please note, however, that I do not presume to
speak for anybody but me.

I suggest that moving to the Real Class 2 standard is going to be
a lot slower than many of us would like, and that the fax
software vendors (both UNIX and otherwise) will have a MUCH
higher impact on this than will individuals.  After my posting,
we see this response putting words in the mouths of the fax
vendors:

> Yea,  f*ck it.  I could care less whether or not my software will
> run on more than one fax modem.  Screw the standards.

Well, in a way, yes.  Most of the UNIX fax software vendors only
support a couple of modems -- V-Systems ONLY supports those from
Multi-Tech -- and I invite you to ask them why.  Most of them
undoubtedly work on other modems, they may admit this, but they
simply won't support them.  Why might this be?

The answer is that providing real live commercial support for a
lot of modems is a huge headache with very little benefit, and
nobody wants to deal with it.  Unlike data modems where there is
fairly little conversation between the host software and the
modem itself (most data is passed onto the other end), fax modem
firmware is quite complicated and always has bugs.

V-Systems has been fortunate that Multi-Tech has provided us very
high quality firmware and unbelievably good support, but we still
have to keep track of firmware revisions for the handful of their
modems that know about fax.  It is not a free ride even if you go
with the best.

We tested several other modems (which shall remain nameless --
don't ask), and we rejected all of them for miserable firmware:
when you buy a $100 fax modem, you get what you pay for, and we
are in the business of building commercial software, not toys
for PCs.

I write:
>We have invested a lot of time getting the software to work with
> these modems in a commercial environment, and we cannot for the
> life of us think of any reason to want to start over.

our poster responds:
> start over what? How about *ADD* adherance to the standard instead of
> starting over.  Then your crummy over-priced commercial products will
> run on more than one modem, broadening your market for more sales.  Wow,
> what a concept!

Obviously, a well-designed facsimile system will not have to be
rewritten from scratch, but the modem driver certainly will be: I
believe that that Real Class 2 standard is sufficiently different
that simply modifying the current driver won't work.  I do
believe, though, that this new driver will be much easier to
write than the first one, because the experience of the first all
applies to the second.

So, we are sitting here with solid modem firmware, a good host
modem driver, and happy customers: why would we want to do this
rewrite?  Not only will we have to do our stuff again, we have
to watch while the modem vendor does the same thing.  What is
means is that for a while, everything is shaky again until all
the bugs are worked out, but what do we have?  Support for a
standard modem that allows us to plug+play other standard
modems.  Why would we want this?

As I said, supporting fax modems under UNIX is a huge headache.
You cannot believe how much hassle it is trying to figure out how
to build the proper cable for an XYZ serial card (that the
customer may not have documentation for), spending hours tracking
down a bug and finding that it's in the kernel's tty driver, or
telling a customer that the only thing they can do is reboot
every so often to clear a locked port.  V-Systems supports dozens
of machines, and as the one who did the majority of the ports and
cable specifications, I know a lot about this.

Basically, the UNIX fax customers are not clammoring for support
for cheap modems (though they would not object to them if they
worked well), and Multi-Tech is working very well.  They are right
to see if the marketplace demands Real Class 2 before they do it,
and they are sure not getting pushed on this from us.  I hope we
don't have to think about it for a long time.  What Hayes does
will have a big impact on this (again, I hope I don't have to
think about it).

This is a lot of stuff, and the folks used to DOS faxing will
surely think this is arrogant or lazy or something like that.
I hope that the other UNIX fax vendors will kick in their two
cents worth (especially if they agree with me).

Let me say again that I DO NOT speak for V-Systms and especially
not for Multi_Tech.

     Stephen (hiding out in San Jose)

-- 
Stephen J Friedl | Software Consultant | Tustin, CA |     +1 714 544-6561
3b2-kind-of-guy  | I speak for me ONLY |   KA8CMY   | uunet!mtndew!friedl
 
Attorneys are paranoid because they assume everybody else is dishonest too