[LINUX5250] fax solution

[James Rich <james@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

One of the companies I work with uses the iSeries Fax Support to send
faxes of spooled files.  It works okay but it is not the greatest.  Plus
it doesn't look like it is being actively maintained by IBM (I may be way
wrong on that).  It runs slowly and eats a lot of resources and is clunky
to work with.  I'm trying to see if tn5250 and hylafax can come to the
rescue.

I thought of this:
1.  Start lp5250d outputting to postscript (or text or pdf since hylafax
will automatically convert those to postscript).
2.  Use a hylafax client to send the generated file.

The only problem with this is that it is two steps.  The way it works with
Fax Support only takes one step (except sometimes it never works so it
takes lots of steps).  I would like to be able to set up an out queue that
will automatically fax things sent to it.

I could set up a cron job that could check a directory for files and
automatically fax whatever file it finds.  But then how do I know what
phone number to send it to, or who is sending it so that hylafax can send
email letting the sender know of the status?

Can anyone think of a way for the iSeries to communicate to hylafax the
phone number and sender?  Or maybe there is an easier way (just stick with
Fax Support is probably easiest, though ugly)?

James Rich
james@eaerich.com