NetCFax Networked Fax System

1
NetCFax Networked Fax System

• This presentation has been designed to show you
  how to configure the system as quickly and easily
  as possible

We hope it will make your task plain sailing
2
The NetCFax server

• The server is of course at the very heart of the
  NetCFax system, and controls all of the sending
  receiving of faxes, and of course, provides the
  fax information to all of the fax clients on
  demand across the network.

• Therefore the choice of the machine and operating
  system the server is installed on is an important
  decision.
  
• The NetCFax server does not have to be installed
  on a Windows server system necessarily, as it
  will run very well on a standard Windows system
  such as Windows 98, ME, 2000 Pro, XP home and Pro
  (with SP1 /or SP2), but it can also be installed
  on Windows Server 2000 and 2003 if required.

3
The fax servers main windowThis is where you
can control all aspects of the server
configuration
Activity Control
Status panel
IP address TCP port
Installed Modems
Activity log pane
Fax cabinet totals
Clients logged in
4
The button bar

• Open the fax cabinet to view faxes
• Open selected modem configuration window
• Open network configuration window
• Open fax client login accounts creation window
• Stop any current modem connection
• Switch server into/out of secure mode
• Open help system
• Enable/disable Email-to-Fax SMTP gateway
• Enable/disable Email-to-Fax POP3 gateway
• Enable/disable Email-to-Fax processing checking
• All of these functions are also available in the
  various menus

5
The main window information panels

• This panel will always list all installed fax
  modems.
  
• (To check for modems after installing or
  removing a modem, just use the rescan for fax
  modems option you will find on the Modems
  menu)
• It shows the COM port it is attached to (selected
  by Windows automatically)
  
• It shows you the class of modem it is. The
  options are Class 1, Class 2 and class 2.0
  
• When not in use, it shows its status as idle, but
  this changes and shows you if it is sending or
  receiving a fax when active.
  
• Please read the notes provided on the modems menu
  if you cannot see your modem listed in the panel
  shown above, or if your modem fails to send or
  receive faxes. There are many possible causes of
  problems with modems that are all covered in that
  documentation.

6
The fax engine options panel

• This panel is provided to allow quick selection
  of the faxing tasks you want the fax server to
  perform.
  
• Typically the top option is checked, which lets
  the fax system both send and receive faxes.
  
• If the lower option is checked (as shown above)
  the server will only send faxes, but will not
  receive them, even though you may have one or
  more of the modems set to both send to and
  receive.

7
Other useful status panels
This panel shows you the IP address that the fax
server is listening for fax client connections
on. It also shows the TCP port it will
communicate on. If the machine is multi homed,
you can configure NetCFax to listen on all IP
addresses, or only on a single specified IP
address.
This panel is only activated when the fax
servers printer driver is being used to create a
faxable TIF file from another application.
These are the fax identifiers that are used when
sending or receiving faxes. The CLSID is
typically the name or phone number of your
business, and is sent back to the sender of a fax
you are about to receive. The CSID is a similar
thing, but this is what is sent to the fax system
to which you are sending a fax.
These panels will always show you at a glance how
many of each type of fax is in each drawer of the
fax cabinet. You can click them to open the fax
cabinet at the relevant drawer if you wish to do
so. The far right number shows you how many fax
clients are logged into the fax server at any
time.
The LEDs show you what faxing activity may be
occurring. The left one turns red when a fax is
being sent, the center when a fax is being
received, and the right when the fax printer
driver is being used.
8
How to install the fax clients
One of the first tasks you will need or want to
do is to install a fax client so that you can see
exactly how well (and easily) NetCFax works
We have tried very hard to make this as simple a
task as possible, and all the information and
options you need are contained on the Fax Client
menu shown at the right. The first thing you
should do is to select the very first option and
spend 5 minutes reading the contents of the
information file that is displayed for you. You
might even want to print it out for future
reference !
Now you are ready to install one or more fax
client(s). If you want to install a fax client on
the same machine as the fax server, thats just
fine, you can select the third option and the
client install system will start automatically.
The installer only asks a few very simple
questions, but we do recommend very strongly that
you read the dialogs that are displayed, as they
contain important information you may need to
know about. If you want to go ahead and install a
fax client on a different networked machine,
just select the second option. This will let you
navigate across your network to find the machine
using a standard Windows Folder selection dialog.
Select the folder on the target machine you want
to have the client install program saved to and
it will copy all the necessary files across to
that machine for you. Go to the machine, run the
install program you just copied to it, and then
start the fax client. It will have prefilled all
the necessary login information for you on the
first login (only) so you do not have to remember
anything at all. If you are installing a fax clie
nt on a machine that will allow it to be run
under multiple Remote Desktop Sessions, PLEASE
read the information file that can be accessed
from the fourth option. It contains very
important information on using the NetCFax client
in these environments.
9
The Fax servers menu

• Like virtually all Windows software today,
  NetCFax has a menu bar that contains a great many
  options. But initially at least, you will very
  probably not need to use any of the options when
  first starting to try NetCFax out, as most of the
  default settings work just fine for most
  environments.
• Possibly the most likely two menus you might care
  to look down are the two at the right hand end,
  the Help menu, which contains a great deal of
  useful information links including a link to our
  on-line help system. The other is the Fax
  Clients menu, which allows you to quickly and
  easily install the fax clients across your
  network, or even install one on the fax server
  machine itself.
• If you have a problem with a modem, please check
  the information links on the help menu in the
  Information vault, and those on the Modems
  menu itself. The answer you need is almost
  certainly available there.

10
The Fax Servers File Menu - 1

• As you can see, there are quite a few options on
  this menu.
  
• Login/Logout allows you to enter/exit the fax
  servers secure mode, which means that nobody can
  make changes to the configuration or close the
  fax server down unless they have the fax servers
  master password.
• Change security password is self explanatory ?
• Set startup mode allows you to chose how the
  server is restarted when Windows is restarted if
  you use it as a desktop application, and also if
  it should start in secure mode by default
  (recommended). Services usually start
  automatically when Windows restarts
• Confirm closedown lets you force the server to
  always request confirmation before it is closed
  down.

The fax server options lets you configure the
server to suit your preferences. It also has an
Advanced button on it that allows you to
configure the processors it will use if the
machine it is running on has multiple processors
or multiple processor cores. This lets you take
maximum advantage of the machines resources by
setting the NetCFax server to only use a subset
of the available processors. The set preferred
date option lets you chose to use the date
format in use by Windows for listings such as
Windows Explorer, or the more standardized
military format YYYY/MM/DD hhmmss.
The Auto close down/Restart option lets you conf
igure the fax server to close down at a given
time, and restart itself after xx minutes. This
is provided to allow overnight backups etc to
take place safely.
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The Fax Servers File Menu - 2

• The Backup fax database and files is a very
  useful feature we strongly recommend you take a
  look at. It will perform a FULL back up of ALL
  THE FILES required to reinstate the server system
  after a disaster such as a hard disk crash or
  Windows reinstall. The restore option below does
  the opposite and resets your fax server to the
  state at the time of the last backup.
• Windows version information may sometimes be
  requested by our technical support engineers. If
  so, this is the place to go to get exactly the
  information they require.

Add/Remove Send-To link from Window Explorer lets
you decide if you want that feature enabled or
not. If it is enabled, you can use this to
create faxes directly from Explorer by selecting
any TIF files or even an ASCII text file and
using the Send To link on the Context menus in
Explorer. Disable/enable Drag Drop is self ex
planatory, but please note that the types of
files you can use with this is limited to those
that have applications installed that can Print
them to the NetCFax printer. A perfect example of
this is if you have Microsoft Office 2003
installed on the machine. If so, you can Drag
Drop both Word files and even Excel files, and
the fax server will pass them to these programs
to be printed to the fax server (or fax client)
printer automatically to create a faxable TIF
file for you to send.
12
The Fax servers address book menu

• The address books menu is a relatively simple
  menu
  
• Open server address book does exactly that. The
  fax servers address book is made available to all
  fax clients on request, but normally, fax clients
  cannot add, edit or delete any entries in it.
• However, if a login account has full NetCFax
  administrator rights and is using a PRO v3.6 or
  later client, they can then maintain the Servers
  address book when using a fax client.

The Import addresses from CSV option lets you
import data from most existing address book
systems, including Outlook and others quickly and
easily. The Export option does the same thing i
n reverse, exporting all data in the fax servers
address book to a standard CSV file.
The format used by NetCFax is the industry
standard CSV format. This means that the top
line in the file is a list of what are called
field names or identifiers, and these are not
usually enclosed in double quote marks eg
recipient fax should be just recipient fax
, All other lines are one record per line, and e
ach data field MUST BE enclosed in double quotes
as shown above, and separated from the next field
by a comma. Eg 123 456 5678, John Doe, Ja
ne Doe, NetCFax Inc.. The Merge cached a
ddress books allows the fax server administrator
to append the contents of any fax clients address
books that are currently being stored on the
server to the servers address book.
13
The Service menu

• This is a new menu introduced with the release of
  NetCFax 3.16 and PRO v3.6 only.
  
• It allows you to configure and install the
  NetCFax Server to run as a standard Windows
  Service, meaning it will be started automatically
  whenever Windows is restarted, without anyone
  having to log into the machine to run it.
• In fact, the NetCFax Server can be run as both a
  Service and as a desktop application, but not of
  course at one and the same time. The new NetCFax
  Service Controller lets you switch between these
  modes almost transparently, and usually without
  forcing any connected fax clients to log off.
• However, there are a few important things you
  need to consider before installing the Service
  
• 1 What version of Windows is the server going
  to be installed on
  
• 2 - Will you want the NetCFax Server to use a
  networked printer to print out faxes sent or
  received.
  
• WHY ?
• 1 - If the NetCFax Server is installed on a
  Windows 2003 server, it will not interact with
  the desktop due to a bug in the operating system.
  (It does interact with the desktop as expected
  on XP Pro and W2000 systems)
• 2 Due to a limitation in the support provided
  by Windows for Services, you can only have any
  service interact with the desktop if it is
  running under the LOCAL SYSTEM ACCOUNT.
• 3 If you want the server to print faxes to a
  networked printer, you MUST install the service
  to run under a named account, as the LOCAL SYSTEM
  ACCOUNT is not able to access networked printers
  at all.
• 4 Running under a named account always blocks
  any interaction with the desktop.
  

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Some information on networking

• NetCFax uses the industry standard TCP networking
  protocol (also used by Windows networking and of
  course the Internet) to allow communications
  between the fax server and all the fax clients.
• In most cases you should not have to worry
  yourself about these settings, as NetCFax
  automatically configures itself, but if your
  network has a firewall or proxy server, you may
  find that you need to do a little work to allow
  NetCFax to communicate across your network.
• By default, the fax server will use TCP port
  7488 as its main communications port. The fax
  clients must also be configured to use this same
  port to login or make requests to the fax server.
  Therefore, if your firewall blocks connections
  on this port, you have two options. The easiest
  is to simply change the settings in your firewall
  TO ALLOW THIS PORT TO HAVE TWO WAY
  COMMUNICATIONS. The other way is to configure
  the fax server to use a different port, (but
  please remember that if you do this all existing
  clients must also be reconfigured to use the same
  port.)
• The fax clients are also able to be configured
  to use a fixed or dynamic TCP port which is used
  to allow the server to send them messages and
  information such as the current fax totals in the
  cabinet and a lot more useful information at
  various intervals.
• A question we are often asked is whether NetCFax
  can be used across the Internet so that clients
  from anywhere can connect to the fax server on
  your network. The brief answer is YES,
  absolutely, but please read the notes provided on
  this topic to ensure you have your firewalls or
  routers configured correctly to allow this.
• Another often asked question is about the need
  for network shares. The brief answer is you do
  not need them for normal fax system use, although
  you may need to create a single share if you want
  the fax server to allow access to PDF copies of
  faxes. Again this is covered in detail in the
  notes provided

15
How can the fax clients work with their faxes

• Firstly, the fax clients do not hold their own
  faxes. All faxes are held by the fax server, and
  details of the faxes are sent to the clients on
  request.
• Once a fax client has logged in to the fax
  server, they can click the buttons at the top of
  the client window which will open the relevant
  cabinet drawer. The client sends a request to
  the fax server for the details of all the faxes
  that are in that drawer. The fax server checks
  the access rights of that specific login account,
  and then returns a list of fax ID s to the
  client, which then downloads the full details
  (but not the fax themselves) for each one of
  those faxes from the server, adds this
  information to a local database, and builds the
  list you see in the upper pane of the cabinet
  drawer.
• Naturally, if a login account only has the
  default Individual access rights, the only
  faxes the server will allow that client to view
  are those belonging to that account. Those login
  accounts with Administrator rights can see ALL
  faxes belonging to everyone. In terms of faxes
  that have been sent out, or have failed to go
  out, or are possibly waiting to be sent out, the
  list will only contain the faxes that were
  created by that login account.
• The received faxes drawer is treated as a rather
  special case for obvious reasons.
  
• Even the standard Individual login accounts can
  also be assigned the right to view ALL received
  faxes if required. As with the details above,
  those with Administrator rights can also view
  ALL received faxes.
• However, NetCFax offers you far more control over
  received faxes by the use of various features
  provided that allow faxes to be assigned to
  either an individual or even a NetCFax group.
  The server can even perform these assignments
  automatically based on the CSID or COM port a fax
  was received on if required.
• Faxes that have been sent, or have failed to be
  sent, can be resent very easily if required.
  
• Every cabinet drawer provides a context menu that
  is accessible by right clicking on an entry (if
  there is one or more entry in the list). These
  provide a large number of additional features for
  handling that specific type of fax.
• If a fax has one or more attached pages, and the
  view button is clicked, the client requests that
  fax data from the fax server and displays it for
  you in the fax viewer. Once the viewer is
  closed, that data is deleted from the clients
  machine again.
• If a fax is an outgoing fax, and only has a cover
  page, the details of the content of that cover
  page is displayed in a special cover page
  viewer.

16
This presentation is still a work in progress

• We are sorry, but we are still adding more and
  more information to this system.
  
• We hope the already existing coverage has been
  helpful to you ?
  
• Please check our web site regularly for updates
  to this system
  
• Thank you for trying NetCFax, the ultimate
  networked fax system for business networks
  running Microsoft Windows computers.
  
• We hope that you like NetCFax, and will want to
  register it before the evaluation period
  expires.
  
• To do so, you can email sales_at_netcplus.com, or
  fax it to 727 392 3216, or call 727 391 8966
  between 9 and 5 EST Monday through Friday, or use
  our secure web site registration system.
• We look forward to welcoming you as a registered
  NetCFax user in the near future