4 ms·

Show HN: Fax Robot – a GPL'ed web app and API for sending faxes

63 points by rubbingalcohol 11y ago

mmastrac 11y ago
That's awesome. I can't believe that fax is still a thing, but sometimes there's just no easy way to get N pages into somebody else's hands. Scan-to-email is good, but the usability for various products is all over the map. edit: I think the Github link on the FAQ is busted. Should probably link to https://github.com/lyonbros/faxrobot-www https://github.com/lyonbros/faxrobot-www or https://github.com/lyonbros/faxrobot https://github.com/lyonbros/faxrobot
toomuchtodo 11y ago
How is this different from Phaxio [+]? [+] https://www.phaxio.com/ https://www.phaxio.com/
- rubbingalcohol 11y ago
  I found this was easier to answer with a bulleted comparison. The main thing is Fax Robot is free for anyone who wants to run it on their own network. Phaxio: - Just an API - More features than Fax Robot API - More expensive - Closed source Fax Robot: - An API and a web app - Less API features than Phaxio (send only) - Less expensive - Open source (GPL)
kevin 11y ago
There's so much to like about your execution here. I think my favorite is that the contact email for Fax Robot is human@faxrobot.com. I would highly recommend putting the information that you need to buy $2 worth up front. Finding that out in an FAQ doesn't feel right to me. http://cl.ly/image/0P270O2E2b39 http://cl.ly/image/0P270O2E2b39
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
infinitone 11y ago
Good execution. But I usually use hellofax [1], plus they give you up to 5 free docs to fax i think. [1] http://hellofax.com http://hellofax.com
SwellJoe 11y ago
I just needed to send faxes related to payroll taxes a few days ago, and ended up with another pay-as-you-go type service. Wish I'd seen this first. Since it's been three or four years since I've previously needed to send faxes, I'm unlikely to become a regular Fax Robot user, but the price is right (I'm paying .11 per page) and the simplicity of the thing looks great. Minimal hassle, no monthly fee, etc. were among my qualifications when I made a decision about which service to use. Historically I used MaxEmail which was always fine, and a good deal if you need incoming faxes, but since I didn't need that and canceled my account with them a few years back, it was unnecessarily expensive.
finnn 11y ago
>NOTE: The device for your faxmodem must be accessible by the user account you're running the worker.py process under. (hint: add your user account to the dialout group) So you have like, a server with a fax modem hooked up to a landline? Wouldn't this be much cheaper to do as VoIP?
- rubbingalcohol 11y ago
  You can use a virtual hardware device like IAXmodem[1] to go over a VoIP channel, while identifying itself to Linux as a normal dialup modem. That's outside of the scope of Fax Robot as a project, but certainly a good option for scaling it up. [1]: http://iaxmodem.sourceforge.net/ http://iaxmodem.sourceforge.net/
  - contingencies 11y ago
    Yep. True story: that's how I ran my hotel reservation network in China about ... oh ... 8 years ago now. E1 link (30 simultaneous lines) plus a Sangoma interface card, Asterisk, IAXmodem and a lot of configuration, custom web-based call center operator distributed web interface. Faxes would come in to a human workqueue based on caller ID (we could tell which partner hotel were sending them). We'd store them as PDFs, ask someone to pick a page and place to 'stamp' (hah!) them to signal agreement or receipt, then automagically digitally fax them back. Presto: paperless office! Usually 3-5 people, we scaled to about ~3500 partner hotels (at the time, the same network size as the 2x leading competition, both Nasdaq listed) by being more efficient. I'm seriously considering re-launching this now, if anyone's got a fat China-scale marketing budget lying around.
threeio 11y ago
Thanks Fax Robot! You served your purpose today when I got the random email asking for some data to be faxed to them for expedited service... (seriously, an email requesting a fax.. thanks world.)
ChuckMcM 11y ago
I think it is a great service and I built a manual version with a server and an old FAX modem. The challenge for me is that with a service, if your infrastructure gets compromised, and you have a fax that I sent to my bank asking them to say 'reroute my checking account', it becomes trivial to have my bank reroute it again. The problem for me with FAX is that it is both massively easy to spoof and considered so freakin' authentic by the folks who demand faxes.
Animats 11y ago
That reminds me, I should cancel my MaxEmail fax account. I haven't needed to receive an inbound fax in years.

That's awesome. I can't believe that fax is still a thing, but sometimes there's just no easy way to get N pages into somebody else's hands. Scan-to-email is good, but the usability for various products is all over the map. edit: I think the Github link on the FAQ is busted. Should probably link to https://github.com/lyonbros/faxrobot-www https://github.com/lyonbros/faxrobot-www or https://github.com/lyonbros/faxrobot https://github.com/lyonbros/faxrobot

toomuchtodo 11y ago

How is this different from Phaxio [+]? [+] https://www.phaxio.com/ https://www.phaxio.com/

rubbingalcohol 11y ago
I found this was easier to answer with a bulleted comparison. The main thing is Fax Robot is free for anyone who wants to run it on their own network. Phaxio: - Just an API - More features than Fax Robot API - More expensive - Closed source Fax Robot: - An API and a web app - Less API features than Phaxio (send only) - Less expensive - Open source (GPL)

kevin 11y ago

There's so much to like about your execution here. I think my favorite is that the contact email for Fax Robot is human@faxrobot.com. I would highly recommend putting the information that you need to buy $2 worth up front. Finding that out in an FAQ doesn't feel right to me. http://cl.ly/image/0P270O2E2b39 http://cl.ly/image/0P270O2E2b39

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

infinitone 11y ago

Good execution. But I usually use hellofax [1], plus they give you up to 5 free docs to fax i think. [1] http://hellofax.com http://hellofax.com

SwellJoe 11y ago

I just needed to send faxes related to payroll taxes a few days ago, and ended up with another pay-as-you-go type service. Wish I'd seen this first. Since it's been three or four years since I've previously needed to send faxes, I'm unlikely to become a regular Fax Robot user, but the price is right (I'm paying .11 per page) and the simplicity of the thing looks great. Minimal hassle, no monthly fee, etc. were among my qualifications when I made a decision about which service to use. Historically I used MaxEmail which was always fine, and a good deal if you need incoming faxes, but since I didn't need that and canceled my account with them a few years back, it was unnecessarily expensive.

finnn 11y ago

>NOTE: The device for your faxmodem must be accessible by the user account you're running the worker.py process under. (hint: add your user account to the dialout group) So you have like, a server with a fax modem hooked up to a landline? Wouldn't this be much cheaper to do as VoIP?

rubbingalcohol 11y ago
You can use a virtual hardware device like IAXmodem[1] to go over a VoIP channel, while identifying itself to Linux as a normal dialup modem. That's outside of the scope of Fax Robot as a project, but certainly a good option for scaling it up. [1]: http://iaxmodem.sourceforge.net/ http://iaxmodem.sourceforge.net/
- contingencies 11y ago
  Yep. True story: that's how I ran my hotel reservation network in China about ... oh ... 8 years ago now. E1 link (30 simultaneous lines) plus a Sangoma interface card, Asterisk, IAXmodem and a lot of configuration, custom web-based call center operator distributed web interface. Faxes would come in to a human workqueue based on caller ID (we could tell which partner hotel were sending them). We'd store them as PDFs, ask someone to pick a page and place to 'stamp' (hah!) them to signal agreement or receipt, then automagically digitally fax them back. Presto: paperless office! Usually 3-5 people, we scaled to about ~3500 partner hotels (at the time, the same network size as the 2x leading competition, both Nasdaq listed) by being more efficient. I'm seriously considering re-launching this now, if anyone's got a fat China-scale marketing budget lying around.

threeio 11y ago

Thanks Fax Robot! You served your purpose today when I got the random email asking for some data to be faxed to them for expedited service... (seriously, an email requesting a fax.. thanks world.)

ChuckMcM 11y ago

I think it is a great service and I built a manual version with a server and an old FAX modem. The challenge for me is that with a service, if your infrastructure gets compromised, and you have a fax that I sent to my bank asking them to say 'reroute my checking account', it becomes trivial to have my bank reroute it again. The problem for me with FAX is that it is both massively easy to spoof and considered so freakin' authentic by the folks who demand faxes.

Animats 11y ago

That reminds me, I should cancel my MaxEmail fax account. I haven't needed to receive an inbound fax in years.