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Date:      Tue, 17 Nov 1998 12:29:14 -0500
From:      "Lanny Baron" <beef@cybertouch.org>
To:        chat@FreeBSD.ORG, jkh@time.cdrom.com
Subject:   (Fwd) Info on replacing Windows NT with Linux or FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <199811171731.MAA06543@freedom.cybertouch.org>

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Hello Fellow FreeBSD'ers
	
	I am forwarding this message to the list for a reason. Why 
could the people involved below, recommend OUR system, 
FreeBSD???   As I am trying to get into setting up networks for 
small offices, its a shame I can't put this type of a letter right on 
my web site. (Although my site is not fully finished 
http://freedom.cybertouch.org) it would have been a big help. Some 
how the good name of FreeBSD must get out to the business 
community.

Regards to all,
Lanny Baron

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 17 Nov 1998 11:44:49 +1000
To:             	beef@cybertouch.org
From:           	Richard Sharpe <sharpe@ns.aus.com>
Subject:        	Info on replacing Windows NT with Linux or FreeBSD

>Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 17:54:45 +0000 (GMT)
>From: Matthew Kirkwood <weejock@ferret.lmh.ox.ac.uk>
>Subject: Re: flexfax: replacing an exchange fax server
>Sender: owner-flexfax@celestial.com
>To: Nico Kadel-Garcia <raoul@cirl.meei.harvard.edu>
>Cc: flexfax@sgi.com
>
>On Mon, 16 Nov 1998, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
>
>> > I'm helping someone to replace an NT box with
>> > a RedHat system, and we're satisfied that we can
>> > get Linux to do everything that his current dying
>> > Small Business Server can, with the exception of
>> > fax services.
>>
>> I've set this up on a consulting basis for several sites. Let me know
>> if you need help.
>
>Thanks,
>
>> > His users work almost entirely from Outlook 98,
>> > and send faxes by mailing word documents as
>> > attachments to email addresses which look like
>> > '[fax:NUMBER]'
>>
>> So far, so good.
>
>Apart from the Outlook bit :)
>
>> > It seems that Outlook then sends the document
>> > through to Exchange which hands it to the fax service
>> > for rendering and faxing.
>> 
>> ***GACK***. Exchange is one of the most unreliable products
>> known to modern computing, beaten for poor service only by
>> its predecessor MSMail and a misbegotten product called
>> "First Class" written for the Macintosh.
>
>And one of the reasons that the bloke wants a Linux server :)
>
>> > I was wondering if anyone had done something like
>> > this before; I suspect that it could be done quite
>> > simply with some VBA at the client side, but he
>> > doesn't want to have to alter the clients and
>> > especially his users way of working.
>>
>> It can be done with built-in tools for HylaFAX and
>> a modern Linux system. Incoming mail goes to "fax@linux-server",
>> and includes an extra header for "Fax Recipient:"
>
>Yep, that's what I suggested.
>
>> > Ideally, there would be a Linux word->tiff renderer
>> > available, but I suspect that to be a pipe-dream.
>>
>> Definitely. There are some tools for Word document translation, but
>> what you really want to work with is Postscript output.  Instead of
>> sending the documents as Word documents, the easiest solution is to
>> print them to the Fax server. The Star Office suite
>> (www.stardivision.com) may be able to translate Word documents
>> directly to Postscript: you might write to them and ask.
>
>That's a good idea - thanks.
>
>> The same functionality may be available via "WHFC", which uses
>> *printing* to send a job to the fax server instead of email. This
>> raises security issues of protecting your fax server, but no greater
>> than those of letting email be sent through your fax server.
>
>I've been trying to convince him that this is the answer, but he's
>(unreasonably, IMHO) convinced that this will require significant
>changes in his Outlook/Access application.  (In a past life, I did
>a disturbing amount of VB/VBA, and I'm not convinced of the truth of
>this one.)
>
>Thanks - I can now safely claim that the hf experts say I'm right
>and that he should let me to a half-hour client hack instead of a
>six-month-plus Word document renderer... :)
>
>Matthew.
>
>

Regards
-------
Richard Sharpe, sharpe@ns.aus.com, NIC-Handle:RJS96
NS Computer Software and Services P/L, 
Ph: +61-8-8281-0063, FAX: +61-8-8250-2080, 
Samba, Linux, Apache, Digital UNIX, AIX, Netscape, Stronghold, C, ...


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