Outbound fax using c# or 3rd party library?

Question

I'm developing a fax solution wherein the application sends out fax. I have been researching about how to handle cases where the other line is answered by a person (and not a fax handshake). How did you handle this case?

Answer 1

I just use an E-fax service. My C# application just sends out an email with the pdf document to fax in an attachment, and the fax number in the subject. I don't know if that would work for your case, but it's so much easier than writing a whole fax client from scratch.

If you really want to develop your own solution, there are probably some existing libraries that would help you communicate with the fax machines, but there are even E-fax solutions with flexible APIs that would let you do anything you need without futzing around with modems and whatnot.

Answer 2

I use a fax server that has a C# API (Facsys) - firstly i use an API call to send it a fax (in GIF format). Then, polling every 5 minutes, i ask the API what the status of that fax was: success, wrong number, no answer, no handshake (eg a person answered), etc. Works quite well.

Our research gave us two main options, being FacSys and MessageManager. I've had reasonable success with FacSys, but i've heard MM has better support.