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Receive your first fax

This tutorial walks an inbound fax through the system so you can see each stage happen. You will watch a page arrive, get read, and land in the inbox.

The path a fax takes

Section titled “The path a fax takes”
flowchart LR
  A[SIP trunk] --> B[FreeSWITCH<br/>rxfax to TIFF]
  B --> C[Broker<br/>resolve DID to mailbox]
  C --> D[On-prem read<br/>OCR + classify]
  C --> E[Web inbox]
  C --> F[Email to mailbox]
  D --> G[Review queue<br/>suggested route]

1. Make sure a number is provisioned

Section titled “1. Make sure a number is provisioned”

Faxart only answers numbers it knows. The inbound dialplan is built from your directory on a schedule, so a number that is not provisioned is turned away at the trunk rather than answered and dropped. For this tutorial, use a number that resolves to a mailbox you can see in the app.

2. Send a fax to that number

Section titled “2. Send a fax to that number”

Use any fax sender, or the loopback proof harness if you are working from the repository. The page arrives over SIP and FreeSWITCH writes it out, then hands it to the broker.

3. Watch it get read

Section titled “3. Watch it get read”

If the on-prem reader is configured, the page is OCR’d and classified on your own hardware. The classifier always emits a few baseline signals for every fax:

  • whether it looks like junk
  • whether page one is a cover sheet
  • a priority read, with a reason

If the reader is not configured, the fax is held safely rather than guessed at. Nothing is ever silently dropped.

4. Find it in the inbox

Section titled “4. Find it in the inbox”

Open the inbox in the web app. Your fax is there with its classification, a preview, and any suggested route from your rules. From here a person can approve the suggestion, forward it, or print it.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”