Faximum TechNote #221

(http://www.faximum.com/technotes/221)

TITLE:    #221 - Configuring a fax line for "send only" operation

KEYWORDS: fax line, modem, send-only, faxgetty, uucplock file, data/fax sharing

RELEASE:  All

CLASSIFICATION: All

PROBLEM:  Customer wishes to disable line for receiving faxes (i.e. wishes
	  only to send faxes and does not want modem to answer the line).

CAUSE:    N/A

SOLUTION: The solution is to disable the faxgetty process which is
	  responsible for configuring the modem to answer incoming
	  calls and for handling incoming calls.

	  The faxgetty process is started by the init daemon. To
	  tell init not to run faxgetty it is necessary to edit the
	  /etc/inittab file and locate the line(s) which start the
	  faxgetty process on the fax line(s) you wish to configure
	  as "send only".

	  Note that you will need to be the super-user (root or use
	  the "su" command) in order to perform the following functions.

	  Then change the second field of the line from "respawn" to
	  "off". For example, change the line from:
		fxm1:234:respawn:/usr/faximum/fms/lib/faxgetty fax-line-1
	  to:
		fxm1:234:off:/usr/faximum/fms/lib/faxgetty fax-line-1

	  (The appearance of your inittab file may differ slightly from
	  this example depending on your product and operating system.)

	  Once this has been done you need to run the "telinit" command
	  with the "-q" argument so that init rereads the inittab file
	  and takes the appropriate action (i.e. terminating faxgetty
	  and not restarting it automatically).

	  For example:

		/sbin/telinit q
	
	  (Note that the exact pathname needed to run the telinit
	  command depends on the operating system being used and
	  may differ from the above example. To locate telinit on
	  your system try running "whereis telinit" or "man telinit"
	  for additional information.)
	  
	  On SCO OpenServer systems there is a shortcut available that
	  both edits the inittab file and runs telinit. First you need
	  to determine the name of the inittab entry you wish to
	  disable (the name comes from the first field of the line and
	  in the example above the name is "fxm1"). You then merely
	  run the "disable" command, for example:
		disable fxm1


	  NOTE - If your intent is to disable the fax software from
	  answering the modem so that you can enable a normal getty
	  on the line to handle incoming data calls then the above
	  instructions alone may not be sufficient.

	  For more information on how to configure a Faximum fax server
	  to handle data/fax sharing, please see the companion TechNote
	  #222

TechNote: 221 - Copyright 2001 Faximum Software Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Last Updated: Tue Jan  9 19:32:47 PST 2001
The complete set of Faximum TechNotes are available on the Internet
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© Copyright 2001 Faximum Software Inc. All Rights Reserved.