How to diagnose error with outbound fax

[oddhack]

I'm trying (for the first time) to use the outbound fax service, but two attempts have eventually failed with

"-ERR NORMAL_TEMPORARY_FAILURE"

which, unfortunately, doesn't tell me anything actionable I've verified the fax # is correct with the recipient, and dialing it by hand gets me what sounds like a fax tone. The number is the fax claims # for my auto insurance, so I suspect they go to reasonable effort to keep it working 24/7.

Is there anything I can do to make progress on sending this? Or are there currently any issues with the outbound gateway that might be implicated?

[kgc]

Could you try again and see if it works now? The explanation of this error suggest that the queue system should actually not consider it a failure but retry like it would on a busy signal. If it occurs again, it probably indicates a configuration problem that we'll need to track down and resolve.

[oddhack]

Still getting that same error - here's the fax log:

Wed, 16 May 12 16:47:43 -0700 866-947-0044 submit.pdf failed -ERR NORMAL_TEMPORARY_FAILURE
Tue, 15 May 12 17:30:27 -0700 866-947-0044 submit.pdf failed -ERR NORMAL_TEMPORARY_FAILURE
Tue, 15 May 12 17:09:15 -0700 866-947-0044 receipt.pdf failed -ERR NORMAL_TEMPORARY_FAILURE

[kgc]

This appears to be a routing problem upstream of us. Our NOC is opening up a trouble ticket with the provider in question. I'll update this post when I have additional information.

[oddhack]

Thanks! Do you know if it's just affecting this specific number? I went ahead and mailed in the material instead but will doubtless want to try the fax gateway again sometime.

[kgc]

This specific destination is the only one that has had this problem recently. It is most likely a routing problem in our upstream provider's TDM network to this specific destination.

[oddhack]

OK, I'm just in curious mode now, but should I be surprised that I can successfully call the number on my Fusion voice line while Sonic itself can't reach that number?

[kgc]

Outbound faxes are routed directly out a PRI to one of our upstream providers to increase the likelihood of reliable transmission whereas calls through our normal voice infrastructure don't typically route out that gateway. The odd part is that we're able to complete calls to that destination via the normal path to that provider so it's clearly a routing problem on their end.

[kgc]

It turns out that the receiver uses the same provider as us and that one or more of their inbound PRIs were down. They're back up now and a test fax was transmitted successfully.