"But faxing is the only thing hippa compliant" whine

[KenB]

At one time FAX was the only accepted way for anything with a signature on it. It was believed that it was not easy to alter a "FAX" document. That was pretty much the truth with Group 1 and Group 2 facsimile transmission. That went out the window with the introduction of Group 3 digital FAX. And nobody was going to go back to older fax groups considering that Group3 was less than 1 minute per page. Group 2 ran at 2 minutes for high resolution and 3 minutes for standard resolution. Group 1 was double that.

Would you believe there was a Group 4?

It came out about 1990 and was short lived. It used data lines instead of phone lines, and could get down to about 2 seconds per page.

I don’t remember who else made them but Canon had 3 models: The L3300, L4600, and L6500. I had a total of about 7 in the field.

The L6500 was a monster. It used the printer portion of the NP9030 copier, which was a 30 PPM engine, but ran at 18 PPM for fax (which ran in LTR-R orientation). It used a DF IV doc feeder.

I don’t remember the prices of the 4600 or 3300, but the 6500 with all options had a list price of $32,000. It even offered a SCSI interface for printing.

Group 4 never took off in the US, but was quite common in Europe and parts of Asia.

[slimslob]

Would you believe there was a Group 4?

It came out about 1990 and was short lived. It used data lines instead of phone lines, and could get down to about 2 seconds per page.

I don’t remember who else made them but Canon had 3 models: The L3300, L4600, and L6500. I had a total of about 7 in the field.

The L6500 was a monster. It used the printer portion of the NP9030 copier, which was a 30 PPM engine, but ran at 18 PPM for fax (which ran in LTR-R orientation). It used a DF IV doc feeder.

I don’t remember the prices of the 4600 or 3300, but the 6500 with all options had a list price of $32,000. It even offered a SCSI interface for printing.

Group 4 never took off in the US, but was quite common in Europe and parts of Asia.

WOW. At 2 seconds per page, that would require at least a 30 pp, scanner if not faster.

I got started on facsimile equipment when we were a dealer for Exxon Office Equipment. QWIP Facsimile was one of their products lines. The receive paper was actually a multi-layer paper with a plain paper substrate, a lamp black middle layer and a chalky top layer, I used to know what it was but that was over 30 years ago. It used an electric spark to burn the coating off.

Qwip Facsimile Transceiver, 1975-1985 - The Henry Ford

[KenB]

WOW. At 2 seconds per page, that would require at least a 30 pp, scanner if not faster.

I got started on facsimile equipment when we were a dealer for Exxon Office Equipment. QWIP Facsimile was one of their products lines. The receive paper was actually a multi-layer paper with a plain paper substrate, a lamp black middle layer and a chalky top layer, I used to know what it was but that was over 30 years ago. It used an electric spark to burn the coating off.

Qwip Facsimile Transceiver, 1975-1985 - The Henry Ford

Yep, inbound faxes waiting to be printed would be stored in a queue on the HDD.

Fun fact: Group 1 is also known as “Old FM”. The early G2 Canon machines had it, such as the Fax 330. I don’t think any of the G3 models had it, although a lot of them did have G2.

I just found a Qwip on eBay…$9,500 smackeroos.

[rspicer]

I watched the movie "Bullitt" the other day with Steve McQueen. Near the end, the cops use a 70's era fax machine that used a stylus to transfer the image with carbon paper. I don't know the manufacturer or model, but it's fun to watch old technology like that. I got into the industry in the mid 90's, so I missed most of that early technology.

[emujo2]

keep in mind..if you offer a HIPPA compliant service, you better ensure that the only way for information to be mishandled is by the user. An MFP that is not locked down for document access because you used the generic 1-8 password, or used the generic password for Bizhub secure, didn't setup the system box auto deletions, did not add authentication, ect...and you don't have a signed configuration from the customer showing that's what they wanted just opens the door for your company to get sued/fined when a breach occurs. Many sales reps just don't want to bother asking any questions that might annoy..so they just don't..Ed

[tonerhead]

I think I am going to go the route many of my fellow techs are going. Fax a 1 pager to our office (never fails) then say "see it works" and leave. We have a fax similator at the office that many of my coworkers go out with on fax calls. Faxes back and forth on similator, pass the buck and blame the phone company. Tell them to run copper from Montana to Chicago.