Hello all. I'm trying to see if anyone knows of an alternative solution, commercial or non-commercial, to SpanDSP. I'm specifically looking for another software-based, DSP fax that doesn't require me to add a tie up a bunch of extensions on my PBX. Has anyone ever seen such an animal, or gotten such it to play nice with Asterisk?
Eric Wieling aka ManxPower
2005-Apr-25 10:07 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Alternatives to SpanDSP??
I wasn't aware that SpanDSP tied up a bunch of extensions. Jeremy Melanson wrote: > I'm trying to see if anyone knows of an alternative solution, commercial> or non-commercial, to SpanDSP. I'm specifically looking for another > software-based, DSP fax that doesn't require me to add a tie up a bunch > of extensions on my PBX. > > Has anyone ever seen such an animal, or gotten such it to play nice with > Asterisk?
I'd have to second this, it works flawlessly for us, the issues we do have are with devices not properly turning off echo cancellation... W. Kevin Hunt CCIE #11841 MCSE, Linux+ SME www.huntbrothers.com> -----Original Message----- > From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com > [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of > Steve Underwood > Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 7:13 AM > To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion > Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Alternatives to SpanDSP?? > > Why would you expect a bunch of fax modems to work any better > than spandsp? If spandsp doesn't work reliably your system is > very likely broken. > > I have had hundreds of complaints about spandsp reliability. > I have analysed at least 50 or 60 audio logs. I have found > maybe 5 or 6 which has real spandsp problems. The rest had > frame slips. Of the 5 or 6 with real problems, most have been > fixed in the latest version. I have one weird audio log from > a new HP combination printer and fax machine that i haven't > sorted out yet. >
>Having played around some with zttest (modifying the code to better >understand the issues), it would appear the TDM card consumes about >1.02 seconds to obtain one second of data. That would suggest theI would like to chime in with my experience: We are trying to use SpanDSP off of a PRI to recieve > 200 faxes a day. It's gone OK but not perfect. Some gotchas that I have found: 1. Timing (as others have said) is totally critical. I found a subtle timing error because our Asterisk box is behind an Adtran channel bank and the Adtran introduced tiny slips occasionally. Upgrading the firmware in the adtran and monkeying around with how the Adtran took it's timing from the PRI took care of it (after consultation with Adtran tech support which is first-rate BTW) 2. ZTTEST is a critical metric. I was getting disconnects on about 20% of faxes until I looked at the output of ZTTEST and found that it was dropping below 99.98% occasionally. Using setpci I changed the latency on the Zaptel boards (T100P & TDM04) to the max, 254 and cranked down the latency on everything else as low as I dared. Now, I get 99.9873% across the board as long as I run the test, and I even get the magic 100% on 1 in 10 test passes. 3. Yes, we have the HP problem, and I don't know how I'm going to deal with it yet. I'll probably set up a "problem fax" line with an analog fax and give that number to those people that have the problem. It's always the same guys. I'm getting a reject rate of about 2-3% which is ok but the endusers of course want no rejects. I have to offset that with the convenience of getting the faxes as PDF's (we would take the paper fax and scan it into our CRM if you can believe it) and the monetary savings of not printing the faxes; we have a click rate from our print vendor and he loves it when we make paper 'cause it's more money for him. No more busy signals on the fax line is a bonus too, people being people the fax will sit idle all day then 15-20 faxes will try to come in simultaneously.
Hello Colin, Did setting the latency timer really helped? What latency do you set for the rest of pci devices? just 0? Julian J. M. On 4/26/05, Colin Anderson <ColinA@landmarkmasterbuilder.com> wrote:> 2. ZTTEST is a critical metric. I was getting disconnects on about 20% of > faxes until I looked at the output of ZTTEST and found that it was dropping > below 99.98% occasionally. Using setpci I changed the latency on the Zaptel > boards (T100P & TDM04) to the max, 254 and cranked down the latency on > everything else as low as I dared. Now, I get 99.9873% across the board as > long as I run the test, and I even get the magic 100% on 1 in 10 test > passes.
Yes, I think it did. I measured it before and after and with default settings and changing the Zaptel cards to FF (254). With the default settings, I would get 99.9873% but occasionally dropping to 99.95XXX%. Changing latency_timer to FF on the Zap cards and everything else to 0 gave me 99.9873% consistiently with an occasional spike to 100%. We processed over 150 faxes today OK, with 2 rejected, both from the same guy and exhibiting symptom of the HP fax problem. YMMV. My config: Netfinity 5500 4-way 550 Xeon, 2 gig, RAID 5 with the cursed NetRAID, FC2-771smp, Asterisk 1-0 stable, LibPri 1-0, TDM400, T100P, latest LibTiff, the one that they say works good. AMP, Sendmail, MySql. Lightly loaded server, only handling a couple hundred (voice) calls a day. SIP on the LAN with IAX to a few locations, ALAW. -----Original Message----- From: Julian J. M. [mailto:julianjm@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 2:15 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Alternatives to SpanDSP?? Hello Colin, Did setting the latency timer really helped? What latency do you set for the rest of pci devices? just 0? Julian J. M. On 4/26/05, Colin Anderson <ColinA@landmarkmasterbuilder.com> wrote:> 2. ZTTEST is a critical metric. I was getting disconnects on about 20% of > faxes until I looked at the output of ZTTEST and found that it wasdropping> below 99.98% occasionally. Using setpci I changed the latency on theZaptel> boards (T100P & TDM04) to the max, 254 and cranked down the latency on > everything else as low as I dared. Now, I get 99.9873% across the board as > long as I run the test, and I even get the magic 100% on 1 in 10 test > passes._______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Jeremy Melanson wrote:>Hello all. > >I'm trying to see if anyone knows of an alternative solution, commercial >or non-commercial, to SpanDSP. I'm specifically looking for another >software-based, DSP fax that doesn't require me to add a tie up a bunch >of extensions on my PBX. > >Has anyone ever seen such an animal, or gotten such it to play nice with >Asterisk? >_______________________________________________ >Asterisk-Users mailing list >Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com >http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > > > >-- ----------------- Mike S. Lacanilao, msl@cybees.com, mike.lacanilao@gmail.com Hyperion System Group (Globalink Corp.) Registered Linux User: #242093 GPG public key: 0xDE01A745 ------------------ Read The Manual Before Asking!! "Not by might, nor by power.. but by Spirit, says the Lord"