smbfax

smbfax - print to a faxmodem on your Samba server via Hylafax without the need for any client-side software at all (other than a PostScript printer driver)

Sofware You Need

What it does

  • Allows users to "print" a document to a network printer. The Samba server then sends the document to smbfax, which prepares it and sends an e-mail to the owner inviting her to complete the fax via a web interface. The user then clicks on the provided link, fills in the fax information (recipient, comment, coverpage options, etc.) and clicks on the "send" button.
  • Allows users to manage the send (outgoing) fax queue using the standard Windows method of managing print jobs (you can even select your own jobs and kill them with the delete key)
  • You *don't* need to install any client software at all; no need to upgrade WINSOCK.DLL to the latest version or have some systray app running to intercept print jobs. You don't have to use any special drag-and-drop software or e-mail/web gateways with confusing attachments.
  • We've been running it for a (little) while here without any problems, it works just great;

  • It's as easy as Print => Check Email

Where to get it

Downloads:

smbfax-1.0.tar.gz (June 29, 2000) (MD5)

smbfax-1.1.tar.gz (August 11, 2000)(MD5)

smbfax-1.2.tar.gz (March 29, 2001)(MD5)

smbfax-1.3.tar.gz (May 2, 2001)(MD5) -- works with Perl 5.6.1 now

smbfax-1.4.tar.gz (Jun 7, 2001)(MD5) -- fixes multiple copies from Windows 2000

smbfax-1.5.tar.gz (Oct 23, 2003)(MD5) -- Taint checking and some debug statements removed. New configuration option PWENT_NAME allows admin to select which field from getpwnam() has the full user name.

Here's the announcement that was sent out: 


Subject: ANNOUNCE: smbfax

OVERVIEW
--------
Allows you to print via Samba to a hylafax-controlled faxmodem on your
server *without* any additional Win32 software for the client.  It's as
easy as File->Print from an application, choose the network fax printer,
then check your email's INBOX.

You can also view and delete jobs by the standard Windows methods.

DETAILS
-------

 http://inconnu.isu.edu/~ink/new/links/projects/links/smbfax/

Basically it does this:

 SMB Client -> Samba -> smbfax -> SMTP -> cgi-bin -> smbfax -> hylafax

The system basically uses 2 programs, one is a glue program that goes
between Samba and faxstat and the other is one that interfaces sendfax
with HTTP -- the two programs "talk" to eachother via a spool dir.  There
are no daemons running -- it's all stateless (unless you consider a cron
job that cleans up a daemon...)

There is one caveot:  The user accounts must be consistent between
samba, the hylafax server and the web server.  If this all runs on one
box, that's no problem:  but if you separate these out over many boxes
then NIS or somesuch needs to be present.

It may sound confusing, but we've been using it for a bit here and it's
been pretty easy to adopt.  Now, if I could only get netatalk to associate
a different user with each printer connection ala Samba, then the Mac
users could jump on board...