In several responses to Paul Nauman's request to fax from the HP3000,
permit me to snip in my comments:

>I simply do not know how to dial out from the HP3000.

Not an easy task - one in which the HP3000 wasn't truly designed.  If you
contact Ross Scroggs and Randy Medd of Telamon, [log in to unmask],
[log in to unmask], 888-TELAMON or 510-987-7700,(the ultimate authority for
data communications on the HP3000, HP9000, other UNIX, etc.), they can help
you with hardware and software which does wonderful things to permit send
and receive communications between the HP3000 and other computers.  We have
sold and installed hundreds of their equipment to do what you are asking.


>My main requirement at this time is to send faxes to customers and vendors
>from the HP3000.  We currently print the documents on a laser printer and
>then send them using a fax machine.  There must be a way to eliminate the
>manual steps and send the documents directly from the HP3000.


Response #1: Ewart North

>HP used to have a product called Desk manager that had a direct fax
>link.  When I was at a UK University we used this facility to replace
>our failing BT fax service.  Never had any problems with it.  It
>certainly didn't need any frontend, Pc or otherwise.  I don't know if
>deskmanager is still available though.

Yes it did need a "front-end".  There is no simple "fax card" installable
in the HP3000 I/O cabinet.  It's front end was a simple "fax modem".
HPDeskManager missed the boat entirely with customer fax requests.  Most
companies want to fax application output!


Responses #2,3,4,5: Michael Hone, Phil Anthony, Steve Weber, Dane Bodamer

Each of these gentleman discuss their respective knowledge and use of
FAX/3000, a product of STR Software Company and TAGFAX from TAG Computing.
They incorrectly provided STR Software's telephone number.  You may find it
at the end of this message.


Response #6: Paul's acknowledgement to Shawn Gordon's response:

>Shawn Gordon was right, it isn't cheap and it is not easy and none does it
>on the HP3000 directly.

Not entirely correct.  Price is always a term of perception and value.  I
believe that products such as ours provide reliable document delivery at a
fair price.  Customers tell me that their cost savings easily pay for the
system in as little as a few months.  Some transmit as high as nearly
10,000 pages per day!


>All solutions I have found require the HP3000 to be
>connected to a "FAX servers" which is always a Windows (yuck) PC.

Again not entirely correct.  It is important that you understand that a lot
of things have to happen to simply fax a document from the HP3000.  The
primary job is to convert the document to faxable format, i.e., Group III
image format.  You have two choices:

1. Do it on the HP3000 and use an inexpensive fax modem.

Although cheaper, this requires the program on the HP3000 to perform quite
a bit of CPU and disk manipulation to complete its task.  An alternative to
this solution, is to simply use fax modems which perform conversion of text
only data.  Our entry level solution does just this!

2. Do it on a fax server.

The fax server then becomes a slave to the HP3000 providing the document
conversion to Group III, transmitting the image, and returning an
ackowledgement.  This is a far better solution for improving HP3000
performance.

The system doesn't have to be Windows!  Early versions were DOS-based,
Windows-based, and even UNIX based.  Only in the past two years have
Windows NT-based fax servers really taken off in acceptance.  I still
believe that UNIX is a much better OS than Windows; we simply offer either
both and let the customer make the choice.  And where will Linux go?

Finally, for what you want to do, have you considered other features:

- no modifications to your source code
- fax any kind of text data (80, 86, 132, and more columns) in any page
mode
- PCL output (from packages such as Fantasia, Formation, Starjet, Flexform,
etc.)
- pre-printed forms such as Purchase Orders, invoices, etc.
- green-bar reports
- general correspondence using letterhead and signatures
- send and receive capabilities
- desktop faxing
- e-mail interfaces


>FAX/3000 from STR Software and Office Extended Fax from 3k Associates seem
>to be the most popular.

Yes I would agree.  Other products (and companies) have come and gone.  We
have both been in this business for a long, long time with healthy happy
installed bases.  We each have our strengths and weaknesses.  I encourage
you to decide for yourself.  Call us both!  (You can find us both in the
product directory for HP3000 solutions in http://www.3k.com.)

Sincerely,

Ben

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ben Bruno * STR SOFTWARE COMPANY * President

11505 Allecingie Parkway * Richmond, Virginia  23235
P: 804.897.1600, x100 * F: 804.897.1638
E: [log in to unmask]

Come visit us on the World Wide Web: http://www.strsoftware.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~