Alive and Well, as a Matter of Fax | Hacker News Reader

Alive and Well, as a Matter of Fax

cacm.acm.org

23 pointssohkamyung11 comments

I was a fax server administrator in the early-to-mid 2000s in the forestry industry, and though we didn't have to justify fax usage to the company, I often advocated with my fellow techs on why fax was still relevant. We communicated with small sawmills and even logging camps where the only method of communication was a telephone line, and dialing a phone was the extent of a logger's high-tech knowledge.

Faxes have longstanding legal backing and case law. Research points to UCC 1-201(37). Not a lawyer.

Digital certificates could potentially fill that gap but there are technology hurdles in terms of familiarity and ease of use and additional infrastructure. A fax machine can be plopped down and hooked up to a POTS. It’s not encrypted but how many are really listening? It’s a bit of security by obscurity I suppose.

Digital certificates issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) could provide a higher level of security and authenticity. Digital signatures are legally recognized in many US jurisdictions.

I am not sure how many people have MFA tokens to meet the definition of “something you have” to associate to “something you are” plus faxing just works. Juice worth the squeeze?

> A fax machine can be plopped down and hooked up to a POTS.

Well, in many places, traditional copper pots is dying faster then the fax machines people still want to use. Fax over VoIP can work, but it makes for a lot of headaches if it doesn't.

> T.38 is an ITU recommendation for allowing transmission of fax over IP networks (FoIP) in real time.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.38

* https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-T.38/en

T.38 can help - but the codec reinvite process to switch to it when you detect fax tones can trip up a lot of machines .. And you still have to transcode the t38 back to 711 or tdm to send the call upstream which can be problematic as well on some switches.

You are right that traditional phone lines seem to be getting replaced by VoIP however it is possible to augment a traditional fax machine with like an ATA adapter and/or T38 support

I was recently helping an acquaintance with a very suspect debt recovery judgment. I got in touch with the plaintiff (the lawyer who owned the debt) and tried to reason with him, but he ended up getting belligerent and said "From now on, I will only accept communications by FAX!" and hung up.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Thanks free fax services that still somehow exist in 2024! Judgment was quashed.

From my understanding fax was safe to use since you had a leased line for fax, but now if you do fax over IP it is actually worse to use, but the regulatory had not kept up with it, yet?

While I like the reasoning of Japan's use, I think the other ones aren't strong enough to necessitate faxes being the method of choice for me.

Articles like this speak to the importance of things that "just work".

I don't think I have seen a fax in at least twenty years. It's curious how in one place or country a feature can be regarded as essential yet in others completely unnecessary.

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