What are some alternative methods for sending faxes through PHP without relying on external services?

Sending faxes through PHP without relying on external services can be achieved by utilizing a fax server that supports the use of the Fax over IP (FoIP) protocol. This involves setting up and configuring a FoIP server on your network, which can then be accessed and utilized from within your PHP code to send faxes directly.

// Example PHP code snippet for sending a fax using FoIP server

// Set up connection parameters for the FoIP server
$server_ip = '192.168.1.100';
$port = 5060;
$username = 'fax_user';
$password = 'fax_password';

// Create a new connection to the FoIP server
$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);
if ($socket === false) {
    die("Error creating socket\n");
}

// Connect to the FoIP server
$result = socket_connect($socket, $server_ip, $port);
if ($result === false) {
    die("Error connecting to server\n");
}

// Send the fax data to the FoIP server
$fax_data = "This is the fax content to be sent";
socket_write($socket, $fax_data, strlen($fax_data));

// Close the connection to the FoIP server
socket_close($socket);