System and method for sending, delivery and receiving of faxes through computer based networks with a publicly switched telephone network as a backup

摘要

Embodiment of systems and methods for the sending, delivery or receiving of faxes are disclosed herein. In particular, certain embodiments include a fax connector that may be deployed at users' sites, and a fax registration system that may be deployed remotely from these users' site. The fax connector can be accessed at a user's site over a computer based network in order to perform functions associated with faxing, including sending, receiving and obtaining status on faxes. The fax connector deployed at a sending user's site communicates with the fax registration system to obtain destination data associated with a recipient user's fax connector and transmits the fax to the destination fax connector over the computer based network based on the destination data obtained from the registration system. The fax can then be presented to the recipient at the recipient user's site.

主权项

1. A system for faxing, comprising:
a computer device with a processor, wherein the computer device is coupled to a fax registration system over a network and the computer device comprises a computer readable memory having instructions executable for implementing a fax connector configured for:
receiving at a sending fax system, from a separate client device, a request to send a fax to a destination on a publicly switched telephone network (PSTN);determining a location on a computer based network associated with the destination on the PSTN by sending a request for the location associated with the destination on the PSTN to the fax registration system and receiving the location associated with the destination on the PSTN at the sending fax system, wherein the location associated with destination on the PSTN comprises a URL;receiving a public key for the location associated with the destination on the PSTN from the fax registration system;encrypting the fax with the public key prior to transmitting the fax to the URL;connecting to a fax receiving system at the URL; andtransmitting the fax from the sending fax system to the URL over the computer based network, including:
transmitting the fax as a plurality of chunks;calculating a sent chunk checksum for a chunk of the fax;receiving a received chunk checksum for the chunk from the fax receiving system;determining if the sent chunk checksum and received chunk checksum match; andin response to determining that the received chunk checksum and sent chunk checksum do not match, transmitting the fax over the PSTN.