asterisk users - May 2005 - Re: SpanDSP TXFax and multipage faxes problems (aditional info)

Hi everyone !

I have some aditional info on problem with TXFax and sending multi-page 
TIFFs.

I have made 6 different multi-page TIFFs (Group3 1D with fillbits EOL 
aligned - 3 pages one TIFF in lowres and one in hires, Group3 2D -3 pages 
againg in both resolutions , and Group 4 - 3pages in both resolutions), and 
then tried to send them to Panasonic KX-F1100, Panasonic KX-F500 and SpanDSP 
RXFax on different Asterisk server then sending one, over POTS.

Results are:

1. KX-F1100 always gets first page and if fax is in HIRES it delivers empty 
second page and hangs up (report say communication error).

2. KX-F500 gets always gets only first couple of centimeters of first page 
and hangs up (again communication error).

3. RXFax on the other Asterisk always gets all 3 pages no matter of 
resolution of the fax.

Both Asterisks receive faxes OK (one over TE110P and the other over X100P) 
and I have treid to send this test TIFFs from BOTH machines with the same 
results.

Also to be sure that problem is not in the generator of TIFF files I made 
those 6 files, 3 times using different software (all of them are evaluation 
versions of commertial TIFF printer drivers for widows, and all of them 
support TIFF/F specification). Again, after sending them I have same results 
summarized above.

Interestingly, even I set verbose to 99 and debug to 99 and added |debug 
switch to TxFax command, I don't see any debug info on console nor in debug 
log file when I use TxFax (I see it when I use RXFax).

LibTIFF is 3.7.2 (also tried with 3.7.1 couple of days ago), and SpanDSP is 
0.0.2pre18.

Here is context for sending faxes in asterisk:

[ Context 'fax-out' created by 'pbx_config' ]
  '750' =>          1. AbsoluteTimeout(300) 
[pbx_config]
                    2. DBGet(LOCALSTATIONID=faxlsid/199) 
[pbx_config]
                    3. DBGet(LOCALHEADERINFO=faxhinfo/199) 
[pbx_config]
                    4. Wait(5) 
[pbx_config]
                    5. txfax(${FAX_FILE}|caller|debug) 
[pbx_config]
                    6. Hangup() 
[pbx_config]
  'T' =>            1. SoftHangup(Zap/32|a) 
[pbx_config]

here is .call file:

Channel:Zap/32/xxxxxxx
MaxRetries:1
RetryTime:60
WaitTime:20
Context:fax-out
Extension:750
SetVar:FAX_FILE=/var/spool/asterisk/fax-out/fax.tif

If anyone had a similar problem and managed to figure it out or resolve it, 
please let me know.

Steve, if you are reading this and have time/interest to try to fix this, 
I'm willing to test further and provide you with information you need, in 
order to resolve this.

Regards,
            Nenad

Nenad Radosavljevic wrote:
> Hi everyone !
>
> I have some aditional info on problem with TXFax and sending 
> multi-page TIFFs.
>
> I have made 6 different multi-page TIFFs (Group3 1D with fillbits EOL 
> aligned - 3 pages one TIFF in lowres and one in hires, Group3 2D -3 
> pages againg in both resolutions , and Group 4 - 3pages in both 
> resolutions)

You can't send G4 (MMR) images with spandsp yet.  MMR support requires 
ECM support.  So if it actually transmits, then txfax is probably 
converting the image on the fly.
> , and then tried to send them to Panasonic KX-F1100, Panasonic KX-F500 
> and SpanDSP RXFax on different Asterisk server then sending one, over 
> POTS.
>
> Results are:
>
> 1. KX-F1100 always gets first page and if fax is in HIRES it delivers 
> empty second page and hangs up (report say communication error).
>
> 2. KX-F500 gets always gets only first couple of centimeters of first 
> page and hangs up (again communication error).

These sound like the receivers are detecting carrier losses when they 
shouldn't.  Meaning that the communication path is not clean.  Somewhere 
between sender and receiver there is significant audio loss or audio 
corruption occurring.  But that is not happening between your two 
Asterisk boxes.

Lee.