ActFax and VoIP (Voice over IP)

When using ActFax with VoIP, no additional hardware (modem, ISDN board, fax board) is required, because the VoIP implementation is a pure software solution that communicates directly through the network interface of the fax server computer. An advantage of the missing modem hardware is, that you have no limitations when installing the fax server on virtual machines.

In case you cannot use or do not want to use Voice over IP, using ActFax in combination with a Web Fax Provider would be a cost-efficient alternative to VoIP that can be implemented very easily.

To run ActFax with VoIP connections, we recommend using the interface software XCAPI from TE-Systems. XCAPI acts as an interface between the fax server and the VoIP gateway that covers all operations normally done by the modem, ISDN board or fax board on an installation with traditional phone lines. XCAPI supports all important industry standards (SIP, H.323) and fax protocols (Softfax/G.711, T.38). The configuration of XCAPI on the fax server is identical with the configuration of a normal ISDN board, since ISDN boards and XCAPI are both based on the CAPI standard.

When sending fax documents through VoIP, the quality of the VoIP connection has great unfluence on the success rate of fax transmissions. It is recommended to use VoIP gateways supporting the T.38 protocol (Fax over IP), to guarantee failure-free data exchange between the fax server and the IP gateway. If the T.38 protocol is not supported by the VoIP gateway, a speech channel (G.711 protocol) is used for fax transmissions. In such a case, the success rate of the fax transmissions mainly depends on the quality of the VoIP connection; this is because run-time of data packets submitted in IP networks is variable. We recommend to contact your provider to make sure your VoIP connection is compatible with fax transmissions in that case.

Because XCAPI is a pure software solution, there are no restrictions for the installation of the fax server on virtual machines (i.e. VMware ESX, Citrix XenServer, Hyper-V). The installation is completely hardware independent that way. The communication with the outside world and the IP gateway is done directly through the network interface of the fax server PC.

To run ActFax with VoIP, you also need a license for the XCAPI software. This license can be purchased directly from TE-Systems. Because no additional modem hardware is required when using the XCAPI, the acquisition of the XCAPI license actually has no impact on overall costs. More information about system requirements, compatibility and licensing of XCAPI can be found on the XCAPI website.