RightFax and Dial-Plan

[JustForVoice_2]

Hi everybody,

I am preparing a dial-plan for a customer. They informed me that they are going to implement RightFax later,

anyone can tell me how I should consider the RightFax in the dial-plan design?

Shall I consider one number as a main number for right fax.

Is there any ports like Unity ports?

or what exactly?

thanks in advanced.

Regards,

[Chris Deren]

All you will have to worry about for Right Fax dial is the DIDs that point to it, if they do not have it yet, then they most likely have not assigned any DIDs to it.  Once they get the RightFax they need to allocate a DID for every user that is going to use it and you will simply have to build Route Pattners on CUCM to point to it as it will simply be either PRI/Analog or SIP integration in either way you will have to use Route Patterns to point to either the GW or SIP trunk.

Chris

[JustForVoice_2]

Hi

Thank you for your reply.

They have DID for phones. but I need to create a DID range for faxes????

In this case if I have 100 phone I need 100 extensions for phones and 100 for fax??

[Chris Deren]

Typically yes, alternatively you can use On-Ramp, Off-Ramp TCL scripting on the gateway which allows the GW to detect fax tones and depending on  the tone send the call either to the phone or fax, but unfortunately this does not work very well and I would stay away from it as far as possible unless you want to spend significant time on it. Simplest solution get a new DID for fax, DIDs are still very cheap in US.

Chris

[JustForVoice_2]

What if they do not have DID?

In case I have 5 FXOs for Fax?

how I can do the configuration?

Regards,

[Chris Deren]

Are you saying the integration is 5 FXO ports or you have 5 numbers to allocate?

First you need to decide if you want to integrate RightFax to CUCM or not, if you decide to integrate then you need to select integration method and this is driven by what you have on RightFax server, RightFax supports SIP via SR140 card, or PRI and analog integrations via Brooktrout boards, do you know which board you have?

Then you integrate CUCM to RightFax via the desired method, you may need Analog or PRI ports if SIP is not an option. 

And lastly depending on what you decide (my recommendation stands to use dedicated DIDs) re-route incoming DID calls from PSTN that arrive via existing circuits to the integration.

If on the other hand your CUCM to PSTN integration is just 5 FXO lines then you only have 5 numbers, if those are all used by phones then your only option would be either integrate RightFax to UCON as described below or use fax detection methods via TCL as described above, but you still have only 5 numbers to play with.

At the end of the day you map each fax inbox to a number.

Chris

[Rob Huffman]

Hey Chris & JFV,

Hope all is well with both of you +5 Chris for you exceptional work here buddy!

Have you ever looked into this Chris? Just curious as we have tons of "old school"

MFP's around here but DID's in our number range are getting scarce

Is this CUC info related to your "stay away" reference?

Single Direct-Inward-Dial (DID) Number Support for Both Voice and Fax

Revised June 3, 2011

Cisco Unity Connection supports using a single DID number to receive both voice calls and fax calls. In this configuration, incoming calls are directed to a Cisco gateway that can detect a CNG (fax) tone. When a CNG tone is detected, the gateway forwards the fax call to the Third-party Fax Servers. When no CNG tone is detected, the gateway forwards the voice call to the phone system.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/8x/design/guide/8xcucdg080.html

Cheers!

Rob

[Chris Deren]

Yeah, I am aware of it, but never had the pleasure if implementing it as this only supports RightFax (unless things changed recently) and not other fax server vendors, though since JustForVoice has rightfax this maybe an option. I suggest reading on it to ensure version compatibility, etc.

+5 Rob for great addition.

Chris

[JustForVoice_2]

Thank you Rob and Chris,

Actually, I read about the integration between CUC and Cisco Fax server 9.0 (RightFax)

this is supported in CUC 8.x

but it is using T.37 on-ramp faxing.

and I have to use a tcl app_fax_detect.2.1.2.3.tcl  or later.

and Chris did not recommend to use on-ramp. am I right?

and what if I need to use FXO and no DID? how I can do the integration.

[Chris Deren]

I have not tried it in few years, but for me and a lot of my colleagues it was very flaky in the past, perhaps it is different now, but I doubt it as I have not seen much information in any publications, so my "personal" opinion is not to use it.  To put it differently I would fight my customers not to do it unless they understand the risks and still insist.

Chris

[JustForVoice_2]

Thanks,

Did you try to do it with FXO?

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Rob Huffman]

Hey guys,

I think I'm liking our "old school" MFP's more and more now

One more headache is not what I need, especially for something that should

be simple like Faxing.

(BTW- who faxes these days ...hahaha! Just kidding)

Cheers!

Rob