1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system network communication, and more particularly to a system and method for redirecting facsimiles through an information handling system network.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
One common function performed by information handling systems is the management, storage and communication of documents. For instance, business organizations often set up networks centered around server information handling systems that allow employees to store and access documents from throughout the business. These networks include local area networks (LANs) supported by both wired and wireless access within a business location and wide area networks (WANs) that interface LANs to each other, such as through dedicated communication links or the Internet. Home networks have also become increasingly common as individual users and families continue to rely on information handling systems to track personal finance and busy schedules. Information handling systems having direct access to a server through a network can retrieve documents from the server and store documents on the server so that any other information handling systems interfaced with the server can retrieve the documents. In addition, various applications, such as e-mail systems, allow information handling systems to communicate documents outside of a network, such as in word processing, PDF, TIF or other formats. Communication of documents via e-mail typically results in transmission of flawless and identical copies of the document since the document communicates as digital information. However, communication by e-mail does present some difficulties that can make it unreliable. For instance, the sender of the document has no guarantee of a confirmation that the document is received by the intended recipient and e-mail systems sometimes fail with little warning, such as during network outages or if overwhelmed by large numbers of messages like spam.
Although information handling system networks provide many convenient, simple and secure ways to communicate documents, businesses and homes have continued to rely on facsimile machines for transmitting many documents. Facsimile machines scan a document to create a digital image, such as in a TIF format, and communicate the image by dialing a telephone call to another facsimile machine over the “POTS” telephone network using an analog modem. Sending and receiving facsimiles has become a common business and home practice with most businesses publishing a facsimile phone number and relying on confirmations returned from a receiving machine as proof of communication of the document. Essentially, a facsimile machine is a specialized information handling system having a scanner to produce an image of a document, memory to store the document, a processor to coordinate communication of the document, an analog modem to send and receive documents, and a printer to print documents. In order to leverage the use of these various components, some “all-in-one” facsimile machines support separate scanning and printing functions. Such systems often include a network connection that interfaces the facsimile machine with a network server information handling system. Typically, the facsimile machine will communicate scanned documents or documents received as facsimiles to the server and will receive documents from the server to print. In some systems, received facsimiles stored to the server are electronically forwarded to the intended recipient, such as an e-mail having the facsimile attached.
Generally, in order to support facsimile machines, businesses and homes have to maintain a dedicated analog phone jack to connect to the facsimile machine modem. Legacy facsimile machines typically do not integrate well with information handling system network-based phone systems, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems. The analog modem of a facsimile machine does not reliably transmit directly over such networks because of errors introduced during digital sampling by the network of the analog modem signal. This increases the expense of maintaining a facsimile machine due to the cost of installing and maintaining a dedicated phone line with related monthly or billed phone service. In addition, the facsimile machine typically has to be located near the phone jack, which sometimes is an inconvenience. Attempts by business and home users to move away from reliance on legacy facsimile machines towards network solutions for communicating documents have been stymied at least in part by the comfort of users with the legacy facsimile usage model and the perceived increased difficulty of network solutions.