Products for small departments and multinational global enterprises
In my article last month, "Zen and the Art of Fax Servers," I described the state of the fax server industry as it relates to the Windows NT market. Over the next several months, I'll look at most of the mainstream fax server products available for NT. The fax server market has enjoyed tremendous growth in past several years; when we originally looked at fax servers in February 1996, the market consisted of six main products. Two years later, more than a dozen fax server products are on the market. These products address every working environment, from small departments to multinational global enterprises.
This article is the first installment in an ongoing series of fax server reviews. This month, I review the following fax server software products: Faxination 3.0 for Microsoft Exchange from Fenestrae, FAXport 6.0 from LANSource Technologies, RightFAX Enterprise 5.0 from RightFAX, and Zetafax from Zetafax USA. Also, because fax server software typically works with one or more dedicated fax adapters, the sidebar, "TR114 Series Universal Port Boards," page 98, reviews a popular adapter.
Faxination 3.0 for Microsoft Exchange
When you are searching for a fax server package that integrates with your Microsoft Exchange installation, ask anyone on the Internet and you'll get one answer: Faxination. Faxination 3.0 for Microsoft Exchange from Fenestrae is an integrated electronic messaging system that lets you send and receive fax transmissions from Exchange.
Two versions of Faxination are available: the Standard Edition and the Corporate Edition. The Corporate Edition contains all the features in the Standard Edition, with a few enhancements. For example, the Corporate Edition supports up to 16 fax lines per server, and the Standard Edition supports only 2 lines. The Corporate Edition also contains Directory Synchronization capabilities, an optional Cost Manager add-on, and Crystal Reports for report generation.
Faxination supports conversion of numerous document types for faxing. The software will automatically convert Rich Text Format (.rtf), plain text (.txt), 100 and 200 DPI DCX files (.dcx), and various CCITT Fax formats stored in TIFF (.tif) files. Faxination can also convert Microsoft Office document types; however, you have to have Office and Faxination's Conversion Printer installed on the Faxination server.
In addition to the basic features you expect to find in a fax server product, Faxination includes many advanced features usually found in high-end fax products designed for enterprise-level fax environments. These features include support for Least Cost Routing (LCR), Direct Inbound Routing, and numerous scheduling and cost management features.
Faxinstall. Installation is simple, although I had to repeat the process because I didn't select the proper devices during the first installation. Installing the software is a three-step process: You complete a series of pre-installation setup steps, copy the files, and perform the final setup and configuration.
Before installing the software, you must create a new user with local administrator privileges. Although you can use any name for this user, the software examples use Faxination, so I used it. Once you've set up the user with User Manager, you must also grant the user administrator privileges to the Organization, Site, and Configuration containers within Exchange. Run the Exchange Administrator, select the object to change permissions on, and click File, Properties to bring up the Properties window. In this window, click the Permissions tab, and add the Faxination user with the admin role to the list of NT accounts with permission to the container.
The software installs from CD-ROM with the InstallShield software installation utility. You have to log on as the user you created in the pre-installation preparation before you can run the setup program. When you launch the setup.exe program from the CD-ROM, you get a welcome screen, followed by a Choose Options screen. This screen has three options—Faxination Server Component, Faxination Devices, and Faxination Host—and each option has a small check next to the option to show you've selected it.
Rather than highlighting the Faxination Devices option and clicking Change, I clicked Next to continue. Unfortunately the software's device option for a fax-modem was not selected, and after completing the install, I had no devices to communicate with. Make sure you verify the installation options.
For the rest of the installation, you provide a license number, the name of the user account you created, the name of your Exchange Server host, the name you want to assign to the Gateway object, and a gateway profile name and password. The install program selects values to assign to each item by default, so you can click Next if each is correct. The file copy process commences. The process took about 10 minutes to complete on my Prioris test machine. For an example of setting up and maintaining your interfaces after the file copy process is complete, see Screen 1.
The CD-ROM also contains several utilities you can load. Crystal Reports and a special Exchange Wizard are on the CD-ROM in two distinct subdirectories. You can use the Exchange Wizard to install language support, e-forms, and additional address templates within your Exchange environment so you can customize your Faxination installation. Crystal Reports, available only on the Corporate Edition of Faxination, lets you produce reports on your fax server activity, so you can grill employees about their zealous use of company fax resources. You can load these utilities at any time after the main install is complete.
When you complete the file load process and restart your NT server, you must run the Faxination Server Administrator program (in the Faxination Program Group) to complete setup. The number of items you have to complete using this administration program varies depending on your installation. In general, you need to define your fax device configuration, set up directories and transmission defaults for the Faxination server, and define which Exchange users have permission to send faxes.
Use. Once you've set up Faxination, using the software is simple. In Exchange, you create addresses within your personal address book (or have the administrator create them in Exchange's global address book). You create these addresses as Fax Addresses and provide all the basic information, such as the fax number, recipient name, company name, and postal address.
When you want to send a fax, you have two choices. If you are running the Exchange client, you compose a new message. From the address book, you select the recipient, type in the text of any message you want to send, and attach Office documents to the message. You can even simultaneously send a message to a Mailbox and a Fax recipient. Within Exchange Server, the Faxination Gateway recognizes the destination address as a fax destination and handles it accordingly. You can also send faxes from remote workstations if you install a special printer on each client. This process is similar to how Windows 95 users use the Microsoft Fax product to send faxes from applications.
Tools. Through the Faxination Server Administrator, Faxination has several tools available that let you customize your environment. These tools include an address manager, cover sheet editor, service routing, fax scheduling, and trace utilities. To launch any one of these applications, click it within the Faxination Server Administrator Tools option.
The coversheet editor is a basic GUI utility you can use to create new coversheets and edit existing coversheets that come with Faxination. You can add pre-defined fields, such as a from name, address, phone number, and pager number. Unfortunately, the only way to add a graphical image such as a company logo to a coversheet is to create an intermediate file with the logo and save it as a TIFF image. The software will let you specify the image as a background image.
Service routing is a feature you can use to deliver inbound faxes automatically to their proper recipients. Faxination lets you specify different routing information for a variety of delivery methods. The software supports Customer Service Identification (CSID), Service Routing, Direct Inward Routing (DIR), SCAN, and Sitatex routing capabilities.
The fax scheduling feature is useful in cutting fax transmissions costs. Faxination lets you bundle faxes for transmission to one fax number. This structure eliminates the need to redial the same number over again. For customers that you routinely do business with, you can create a schedule. The schedule defines when Faxination will send transmissions to a particular number, letting you save money by delaying transmissions during peak business hours.
EOT. I encountered two concerns—really, one problem and one concern—with Faxination during my testing. The problem was related to uninstallation of the software, and the concern had to do with the package's pricing.
The problem cropped up when I started uninstallating the software. After I finished testing, when I was running the software's uninstall program, InstallShield was invoked again to remove the program and all its components. Unfortunately, the install program was not able to remove everything (this situation was not completely unexpected because often dynamic link libraries—DLLs—and other system files are in use, and you must restart NT to remove them; this situation happens often on a functional NT box when you're uninstalling software). However, even after I shut down and restarted my NT Server test machine, many Faxination components remained. For example, I still had applet selections on my Control Panel for Faxination Server. Furthermore, several Faxination services were still in my startup services (even though I ran the special program Fenestrae provides to remove them). To fully eradicate the program from my server, I had to manually delete the control panel .cpl add-ins, and manually hack the Registry to get rid of the Faxination services.
Another potential problem for consumers is the pricing schedule Fenestrae uses for Faxination. Although the company has suggested market prices for the software, the reseller determines the price. When I was attempting to get a price for the software from the company, company representatives were hesitant to provide one, stressing that the reseller network sets prices. I ultimately managed to get an approximate price for a single-server license with support for 500 users.
This pricing structure for client access illustrates a major concern many companies will have with Faxination. It supports only per-user licensing and not per-server (where an unlimited number of users have access to a fax server) or per-seat (where you can purchase a license for each computer) licensing. For example, suppose you have an NT network with 150 personal computers but 600 users who work on those computers in four shifts. To let all your users access Faxination, you must purchase 600 user licenses, rather than 150 licenses to assign to each workstation.
Even with the minor problems I encountered, Faxination is an excellent tool and integrates well with Exchange. To take advantage of all the features Faxination offers, however, you must use the software with a dedicated fax communications board, rather than with a fax modem. Coupled with a professional fax board, the software makes for a professional, smooth-running system usable in almost any business environment.