Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
|
|
|
|
Communicado: Fax for the desktop Merlin Software Technologies’
Communicado is designed to allow Linux systems to send, receive, and manage
faxes from the desktop. Communicado is available in two versions: personal (for
a single desktop) and enterprise (for a five user basic license). The two behave
the same way differing only in user support. Communicado runs under most versions of
Linux, and requires either GNOME or KDE (or some other X environment).
Communicado requires a minimum RAM complement of 32MB on the system,
although more is recommended. Disk
space requirements are lenient at 10MB. A modem capable of fax transmissions is
required, of course. Wintel modems
are not supported, and neither are any soft-set modems.
Supported modems tend to be based on the Rockwell Class 2 chipset,
although Merlin suggests most Class-2 compliant non-Wintel fax modems will work. We tested Communicado on two systems,
one equipped with RedHat 6.2 and the other with Mandrake 7.0.
The software worked equally well under both environments, as well as
under both KDE and GNOME. Our review version of Communicado was supplied on a CD-R with
no accompanying documentation, obviously a pre-production version.
However, we were assured the software was out of beta. Installation on a
RedHat 6.2 system proceeded smoothly. Under
GNOME, the RPM package manager launched the install routine, displaying a couple
of progress bars on the screen. Afterwards, a printer configuration window
appears, and after establishing basic modem parameters such as phone number and
dialling prefixes, the Communicado system is ready.
The configuration routine is simple and the entire installation and
configuration procedure can be completed in five minutes. Communicado integrates fax capabilities
into existing applications. If you
are running StarOffice or Corel WordPerfect Suite for Linux, the ability to send
a fax comes through the Print option. Instead
of selecting a physical printer, the fax device is chosen instead.
This procedure will be familiar to anyone who has worked under Windows
with software such as Symantec’s WinFax or similar software.
The interface is intuitive and requires a minimal learning curve. Faxes that have been sent or received
can be viewed through a thumbnail viewer, and expanded if necessary.
The fax inbox and outbox is easily managed, allowing you to save or
delete faxes as necessary. For sending quick faxes, a neat feature is Quick Text
Editor, which pops up an ASCII editor that allows for short, non-graphical faxes
to be created in a few seconds and sent immediately, rather than go through the
process of opening a word processor and going through the print routine.
We found this feature wasn’t used often, but it was very handy when
quick one or two line faxes have to be sent.
Communicado includes a Quick Attach feature that allows any existing file
(ASCII or supported formats) to be attached to a fax and sent. Small touches like e-mail notification
of fax transmission or receipt, an option to automatically print incoming faxes,
priority levels, personal and public address books, call screening to ignore
selected numbers, and fax forwarding all add to the attractiveness of
Communicado. Multiple fax devices
can be supported by a single installation of Communicado, allowing you to expand
your fax capabilities on a single fax server machine if the need arises. The
enterprise edition can be installed on multiple workstations and requires only a
single engine on the network for support of all the clients. The management routines built into
Communicado are good. Not only can
the fax devices be managed from under GNOME or KDE, but users and their
abilities under the software can be specified. A client authentication scheme
can be implemented to provide some measure of control over fax system users.
Logging and accounting can be implemented to keep track of fax system
usage. Fax broadcasting is supported, and can be controlled through the
management software to prevent misuse. One of the new features built into
Communicado version 4.0 is multiple platform support.
Clients under Windows and Solaris can all fax through a Linux workstation
under the Enterprise release. This
would allow administrators to establish a fax server for an entire workgroup or
LAN using a low-powered PC and Communicado Enterprise.
The cost of setting up such a server with left-over or redundant hardware
would be minimal, making this an attractive solution. We worked with Communicado for a week,
replacing our usual Windows NT-based fax software with Merlin’s for that time.
During the week, Communicado behaved perfectly causing no problems at all
for the workstation’s Linux system or having any impact on suite software.
Faxes arrived and were sent on demand, as expected, and after a day we
forgot whether we were using a Linux-based system or our older Windows system.
One of the attractive features of Communicado for a developer is the
inclusion of an API for customization of applications.
Although we didn’t play with the API during our testing, we could see
the ease with which we could include fax capabilities in custom applications. Communicado is a cost-effective and attractive fax solution for Linux-based systems. For a single workstation, it worked well. We didn’t try the Enterprise setup, but would imagine the same experience would apply. If you need a solid graphical fax package which integrates easily into office suites, check out Communicado. Communicado Personal Edition $49.95 Summary: Inexpensive and talented fax solution for Linux workstations and entire LANs. |
|
Send mail to
tparker@tpci.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
|