Re: Hylafax without modems - SIP?

 Content preview:  Hi John, Thanks for your comments. On Wednesday 27 January
    2016 15:26:08 John Hudak wrote: > just a few comments from a hw perspective....
    > "I've just had to replace my Hylafax server as the cooling fan in the rack
    > case > has died and could not be replaced." > > I find this very very odd.
    There should be absolutely no reason why the > fan itself cannot be replaced,
    or the fan(s) assembly itself cannot be > replaced. It may take a little
   time to search out a workable replacement. > At most, a little creative metal
    bending & removal may be required. [...] 
 
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Hi John,

Thanks for your comments.

On Wednesday 27 January 2016 15:26:08 John Hudak wrote:
> just a few comments from a hw perspective....
> "I've just had to replace my Hylafax server as the cooling fan in the rack
> case
> has died and could not be replaced."
>
> I find this very very odd.  There should be absolutely no reason why the
> fan itself cannot be replaced, or the fan(s) assembly itself cannot be
> replaced.  It may take a little time to search out a workable replacement.
> At most, a little creative metal bending & removal may be required.

I could have found a replacement fan for the old server - I have done so 
before for another of the same make/model.  However I chose not to do that 
for a number of reasons. 

1) The old server is *very* old - read from this probably not much more 
procesing power than the Pi that replaced it.
2) The 1U case contained a number of fans which were all of the same age and 
lifespan. No doubt other fans would have failed at some point.
3) This server was in a 42U cabinet that is *very* full.  This causes both 
noise and temperature problems.
4) The modems, power cables and phone lines were already in situ, and the USB 
converters were already in stock.

Since Lee mentioned PCI and PCIe multi-port cards I've had a look around.  
There are some USB to multi-serial port cables that are supported by the 
Linux kernel which look good.  The problem with using 3 single port USB 
converters is that occassionally the Linux kernel on one of my other fax 
servers will resequence the ports meaning the wrong modems are on the wrong 
phone numbers.


> "USB to seral converter (new box doesn't have any COM ports.
> 9pin->25-pin serial cable"
> "With the new server this isn't a option as I'm using a Raspberry Pi micro
> computer"
>
> You have overly constrained the problem by choosing a PI (why would you
> ever do that? you spent $50 to save $300 and you spent more than $300 in
> time/energy trying to "fix a problem" that followed from a poor choice of
> hardware). 

I chose this hardware not because of it's cost (although that is attractive) I 
chose it because of it's small footprint, both physically and thermally.

I'm not "fixing a problem", but investigating possible better alternatives, 
prompted by the necessity to tidy up all of the cables after the install.

> A more direct solution would be to use a SFF PC or a 1U blade 
> populated with 2/4/6 line serial RS232 PCIe/PCI cards.  The modems plug
> directly into the PC and you eliminate the serial/usb cables (which, IMHO,
> are troublesome hacks because most of them are not done correctly-but that
> is another story).

I have used these USB converters in a number of locations and roles, including 
connecting point-of-sale credit card terminals and older serial printers. The 
POS terminals and the modems are by far their more common use here. I can say 
that none of them have given me any problems.  

Although I have a number of makes (Startech, NewLink etc.) they are all 
basically the same animal, and all use the same Prolific Technology, Inc. 
PL2303 Serial Port.  Maybe I'm just lucky.

As I've said above, the only issue I have is that on one of my fax servers, 
the Linux kernel occassionally resequences the ports at bootup.

>
> Good luck
> J
>


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