Fax Management with RelayFax
Contents
1. cccccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesseeeeeeeees 22 Routing Rules for Outbound Inbound and Junk Faxes 23 ege oIcke C 24 Relay Fax CHOI asco cece 25 Fax VIGWGF scu daa daa da aa dad uat utut 25 rale TE oTa e ee ce Md 25 Fax Management 2 Alt N Technologies Abstract The fax server puts a digital spin on an old trustworthy analog technology It sends and receives facsimile transmissions to and from personal computers on a local area network wide area network or the Internet It allows users to share fax machines or fax modems or both if they are accessible through the network RelayFax integrates fax sending and receiving through almost any email server including Alt N s MDaemon email server Through the RelayFax authorized email users can send regular email attachments to a mailbox and have them forwarded as industry standard facsimiles to any fax devices in the world RelayFax uses client server technology with the server running on a network hardware platform and the clients operating on desktop or lap computers Fax Management 3 Alt N Technologies A long time ago when the telegraph was invented 19 Century Beginnings If you search the Internet for the history of the fax you will find several sites claiming the facsimile was born about the same time as email early 1970 ish Some even add 10 more years naming 19802. o cw Fax Management 17 Alt N Technologies Incoming Delivery Formats The administrator can set the delivery format for incoming faxes The default format is a multiple page tiff document Other options include one file for each page using the tiff jpg gif or bmp formats The illustration shows the maging Options tab of the Attachments Exporting Imaging and OCR dialog Attachments Exporting Imaging and ULA ITI x Attachment Faxing Automatic Fax Exporting Imaging Option OCF Option Fan image options a Remove lax images from desk altes they are sent LJ v Create fax images in enhanced resolution Most operations requre RF to keep a hires image copy on disk Fak image marspulah n Incoming faxes should be sent bo users as amp single mukrpage TIF image image tf delauk multiple TIF images image tif 1 image per faxed page multple JPG images inage ppg 1 image per lared page multiple GIF images mage gll 1 image pes famed page multiple BMP images image bmp 1 image per Fed page Always create lax images with this extension blank for default Scale image to 10T percent actual size 10 200 B gt NN awi Fax Management 18 Alt N Technologies OCR Processing OCR processing uses optical character recognition technology to extract destination information from inbound faxes This option requires a downloadable plug in for RelayFax OCR options include how to handl
3. messages for record keeping but a physical paper trail is often part of company policies and procedures The fax is familiar and personal People make Sergeant Friday jokes about it saying Just the fax please ma am Email can be viewed as a nuisance a source of junk mail and a carrier of viruses Faxes are universal Millions of people have no email but almost everyone has a place to receive a fax Going to an Internet caf is not the same as picking up a fax from the local office supply The cost is high and the technology can be confusing Computer generated faxes have the convenience of using of a word processor or spreadsheet application for example added to all of the other advantages of the fax Fax Management 9 Alt N Technologies RelayFax Blurring the Lines RelayFax blurs the lines separating facsimile and computer technologies This fax server software enables Information technology departments and service providers to integrate faxing into their digital networks The illustration represents how RelayFax works at the block diagram level 22d RelayFax Local Email Server Server Local Users Remote Users Remate Email Via Email amp Printing Via Email amp Printing Servers Fax Management 10 Alt N Technologies Creating Faxes In the illustration local and remote users send faxable documents to an email server The email server can be on the same network as RelayFax or on a remote network o
4. or so as the birth year of faxing While the fax ramped up into common usage during the last three decades of the 20 Century it is actually a greybeard in terms of modern electronic equipment The parent technology of the fax as it exists today came into being at the hands of a Scot clockmaker named Alexander Bain Mr Bain received his patent for a facsimile device in 43 1843 33 years before the patenting of the telephone and more than 150 years prior to the dawn of the 21 Century with all of its technological promise a Fax Management 4 Alt N Technologies Mr Bain s invention the facsimile machine was designed to send images and text using the facilities of the then recently invented telegraph It required two identical machines one to send the other to receive The illustration shows two 1843 fax machines working synchronized together The electric signals follow the arrows As with modern faxes the machine sending the facsimile scanned the original image point by point and line by line It sent different strengths of electric signals for dark and light points as it scanned The signals traveled at more or less the speed of light along telegraph wires The receiver plotted dark and light points depending on signal strength The facsimile image appeared similar to the original After Mr Bain s initial work the invention received some enhancements by its creator and others but pretty much sat unused for the next 20 years E
5. Fax Management with RelayFax Alt N Technologies Ltd 2201 East Lamar Blvd Suite 270 Arlington TX 76006 Tel 817 525 2005 2002 Alt N Technologies All rights reserved Product and company names mentioned in this document may be trademarks Contents ADSITaCE s nsdonenoneteneegUODSUO EU Sean 3 A long time ago when the telegraph was invented 4 19 Century BBOIDFOS quo coto oet amnes bitter ores ncs Is SES MEOS 4 Early ADDIICaHOBS ae ais a ab ae e ana a as b aS uS aat 5 Image Quality and Fax Modems ssssHHHHHHHHHH 6 Fax Applications sins c 7 Email Killed the Fax IgE s dedo do na ada da qoae e Sie Manus 7 Faxing Meets Some Unique Needs sssseeene 7 Relay aN dew acess reser eee 10 Blurring the Lines ease ae alsa m 10 Creating RAKCS a 11 Relaying Faxes nika oer orca Bid T3 Receiving PaxeSsar tcu cc nei i i ta 13 Mors OCR a e a a ar bere beet bee bri bea bra bee 13 Emailing Bro aoi To ende 13 IselayFax FeatUrBS ces ete set ee nate See cache ib DN NND DD IN UE 14 Email SOURCCS c oteca deett tete nibs oll daa a eat o Arabe a Moa d o ola a M o A e Ma Dres 15 Ser ACCOUFIS 25 d odit ad tod tis uu ei ee Le 16 AltachmenbPrFOCBSSIP s esie oe OE OD ual 17 Incoming Delivery Formats eei neinean nannaa 18 P d d iror pre t 19 Processing Schedules P Note alas tial Nolet acetal 20 Dialup SeuingS xr eaa uH am bb 21 Fax And Coversheet Templates
6. arly Applications The first commercial long distance use of the fax spanned the 70 miles between the French cities of Paris and Amiens This happened in early 1860 something the exact year being up for debate Everyone does agree the event employed machines built on Mr Bain s principles and refined by the Italian Abbe Giovanni Caselli They used telegraph wire Mr Caselli added service to other cities and in one year transmitted 5 000 documents between Paris and the distant sites The telephone was still more than 10 years from being patented Other inventors added enhancements Picture transmission caught on with the media Near the turn of the 20 Century newspapers began to send and receive pictures using facsimile equipment The machines were complex delicate and expensive They used dedicated point to point wires or radio links By the 1920 s newspapers commonly used these devices to send pictures between cities countries and continents The illustration shows a picture of a transmission machine in use shortly after 1900 n le n i ini cr Still more refinements improved facsimile transmissions By the early 1970 s when email really did spring from an inventor s mind smaller and more affordable fax machines began to show up in some businesses The carrier for the fax signals migrated from the telegraph to the public telephone network Connections were still point to point but now through the local exchange and long distance tel
7. ax modems and free supporting software come standard with most modern computers These tools permit a user to send and receive a fax directly from a computer application Most of these products integrate with the computer Print command to convert a document into a faxable format The fax modem software simulates scanning Because the software works directly with the computer document not through a mechanical optical scanning device there is no loss of image resolution Depending on the quality of the receiving fax the results can look as good as direct output on a local printer Fax Management 6 Alt N Technologies Fax Applications Email Killed the Fax Right The fax is dead Long live email The e Town Crier belted out this message for about five seconds sometime during the closing years of the 20 Century Then someone handed him a page Printed on plain white business paper it was marked with a time stamp and the phone number of the sending fax machine Oops The embarrassed bellower had plenty of company though Since its invention by Ray Tomlinson in 1971 email has steadily improved in reliability flexibility speed ubiquity and ease of use It has metamorphosed from the domain of the government education business consortium through personal modem access by Fidonet to the dialup and direct connection service providers on the Internet Sending messages person to person requires only typing the text entering
8. chment couldn t you Email attachments from the most popular word processing spread sheet and presentation programs can and often do contain viruses without the creator s permission or knowledge Of course you can use virus protection software but a fax arrives virus free e Signatures on a fax are legal Therefore faxed contracts are legal This is coming to email but the arrival is slow e Faxing is secure While snooping a fax line is possible with wiretap equipment any knowledgeable kid with an Internet connection can watch email go drifting by Email can be made more secure with encryption technology but almost no one uses it because it s inconvenient Fax Management 8 Alt N Technologies e Although the fax was originally meant for brief communications modern faxes handle multiple pages just fine Some attorneys use the fax to send pre trail motions to a judge for example e A fax confirms its arrival If it does not arrive it often tells you the reason such as out of paper or paper jam While email reliability is very high you never know for sure if a mail arrived until you hear back from the receiver There is always plausible deniability with email The fax is fast Email is fast too Sometimes the fax is faster at other times email wins The speed depends on the availability of a connection and the size of the document Afaxtransmission creates a paper trail on both ends Email filtering can sort and save
9. cortan thes bead Then da this with the message Appl Hemplabe ta outbound lax Altech specie cover page Delete Fas Email Fax bo specie users Prt fax to specs porter j Add iule Fax Management 23 Alt N Technologies Billing Codes Billing Codes can help an enterprise or service provider charge users for fax services Here is the dialog for setting up billing codes Options include forcing the use of billing codes and setting up the codes Templates and Billing Lodes Fax Management 24 Alt N Technologies RelayFax Client The RelayFax Client is software residing on a user s personal computer It provides for sending faxes from the desktop Options include setting up the sender and destination specifying a cover page attaching documents and entering a transmission time for the fax The illustration shows a sample tab from the Client dialog Relayf ax SMTP Client v5 0 0rc4 MEI Scan Image Attached Documents Advanced Ophons Fax Properties Cover Pages Send Schedule Fax specifics Recipient s name N ancy Contacts Recipient s company Fax subject keyword Bling code p Comments for cover page up to 1000 characters Remove This field is required when sending cover page only fares Thanks for your help on this SendFax Cancel Hee Fax Viewer Fax Viewer comes with the RelayFax client It opens faxes converted to tiffs Conclusion Its unique features an
10. d familiar look and feel have kept faxing popular and growing even in the age of email Integrating fax processing into a digital network provides desktop management for this trusted technology It allows users to send and receive faxes with their regular software applications RelayFax can employ any email POP enabled email server to extend the reach of the server into the Internet RelayFax users can process faxes from wherever they have LAN WAN or Internet access Fax Management 25 Alt N Technologies
11. e known and unknown addresses The illustration shows the OCR Options tab of the Attachments Exporting Imaging and OCR dialog Attachments Ezporting Imaging and ULA OCA engine status The RelayF ax OCR engine iz supplied as a plug in module In onder to use OCA pou need to download and install the OCA engine Please vint our web ste in download the hes you need The RielayF ax home page is locabed at hip aes relatas com DCR options Flestrict OCR recognition to the fist T famed pages only 0 all pages Typically everything you need for inbound routing iz on the first page OCA recognizes documents wiber in jk Hormally OCA veok fies are removed from disk when they are no longer needed This aptior alkoss you to save them foe Future reference r Dick here to have axes which are addressed to know accourt automaticaly emaled there B i xil err Dick here to have even unknown addressees seraced Use vath caution ZEE ERES Fax Management 19 Alt N Technologies Processing Schedules RelayFax processes email according to schedules set up by the system admin The Event Scheduler dialog contains options for setting the hours minutes and days to do processing The illustration shows the Event Scheduler tab on the dialog P Event Scheduler a4 aad XI at Ohi _ Tareas ot 100 00 Fax Management 20 Alt N Technologies Dialup Settings Dialup setting
12. ecommunications switches Fax Management 5 Alt N Technologies As the sizes and prices of fax equipment fell during the succeeding 20 years millions of large and small enterprises began sending and receiving faxes often installing a telephone line dedicated to nothing but a fax machine Everyone started to fax images and text for business and pleasure In fact some of the best classic jokes of all time traversed the world via facsimile before most people had heard of the Internet Yet the basic work of the fax is more practical than that Image Quality and Fax Modems Copies of 19 Century facsimiles are difficult if not impossible to obtain Yet one thing is certain while the quality was great 150 years ago when all was new it would never due for current business or personal use Even today faxing a printed page from one location to another often results in fuzzy images and spotty text This is because scanning the original transmitting it and recreating it on the other end always causes some drop in quality Scanning resolution transmission line quality and the rendering ability of the receiving machine all effect how the facsimile fares The illustration shows a piece of a fax with low quality text results Test ONTT RN SIs Sls wa Ja UHR ATH YT C Improvements in technology and changes in industry standards have aided the quality but the tools available on personal computers have supplied the biggest image boosts F
13. ement T Alt N Technologies Putting commentaries aside businesses government non profit organizations and individuals prefer the fax in some cases for many understandable reasons Presented in more or less random order these reasons include Faxing pages from printed materials is easier and quicker than scanning and emailing them For large documents the fax itself may take longer to send than an equivalent email but the sender is concerned about preparation time not transmission time Printing is complete when the fax arrives Sure you can print an email but the fax is already printed for you Printed documents appeal to many people who prefer to read things they can touch and easily transport While notebook computers with email are definitely portable they do not offer the compact convenience of the printed page A printed document is easier to read on a commuter train or while waiting for your lunch to arrive as examples e Faxes are more formal than email A fax can contain a letterhead or logo While HTML formatted email can do the same thing it also slows down the email client and requires a live connection to a network to retrieve any graphics Plus HTML email opens the potential for security attacks using imbedded scripts Faxes are more casual than email You can hand write a note use black ink on white paper and fax it to someone With email you could hand write the note scan it in then send it as an email atta
14. is mail will be downloaded converted t Fax format and Feed aut To edt an entry cick on it make your changes and press the Heplace button Fax Management 15 Alt N Technologies User Accounts Each user must have an individual account to access RelayFax Users must also have corresponding accounts on one of the email servers RelayFax uses The system administrator can enter account information manually or import it if the email server is MDaemon 3 or later The illustration shows one tab of the Account Settings dialog Account information consists of the name email address and password Options provide for automatic account creation The Options Password tab includes security settings Account Settings ulrgdEwe5gs B uad bead icompanymal u amp igllEwW eV 5g thodo fredethobbton mal vHITSSSThesz gandalf gandolK amp hobbitan mail vNIT5S3Thwss gen Gennlcompany mad ubrodk wey Sos f Hap E bheninend meblenimerkXsicomp vMITS83Mjsos nancy nancpRcompary mall wBrodk wie 5gs F Par iram reer aie rnn uPradk id ak um Accounts sed 11 Accounls Left 488 Remove Real name Mary Elventtiend Add Emal address metventiend corpa Replace Import MD aal e Automalically add accounts when first Fax from them i recenved 4 only automaticaly add my MDaemon users The feature val be achive lor another 33 days Fax Management 16 Alt N Technologies Attachment Processing Whe
15. mpt to route a fax correctly OCR can look for names phrases or IDs as examples to use in routing a fax OCR typically works well for computer generated faxes and clean scanned typeset transmittals It works sometimes for fuzzy typeset faxes and not at all for handwritten text Using the extracted destination information RelayFax searches its accounts for a match It then attaches the fax to an email and sends it to the recipient If RelayFax cannot reconcile an incoming fax to a destination for any reason it can send the fax to a general delivery account Users have a Fax Viewer application for viewing and printing the faxes More OCR ing RelayFax can also use OCR technology on an entire incoming fax As with destination extraction OCR works only with clear and clean typeset text The OCR tools attempt to convert the fax to text and then send it to its destination Emailing Concepts Using email allows multiple users to send faxes from their computer desktops Users send and receive with their familiar desktop application programs and the easy to use RelayFax Client In some cases a user might send a fax from one email account to another email account totally bypassing a fax machine or fax modem This might happen when the user has a broadcast list containing some recipients with fax machines and others using RelayFax accounts for example If the users with RelayFax accounts receive their faxes by email those faxes would never go
16. n a user sends RelayFax an email attachment the fax server can convert the document to a faxable format To accomplished this RelayFax uses the creator application of the document based on the file extension such as bmp or doc The creator applications must be accessible by RelayFax The illustration shows the Attachment Faxing tab of the Attachments Exporting Imaging and OCR dialog RelayFax converts only those attachments with extensions listed on this dialog In addition each file extension must have an entry in the Windows Registry An entry associates a file extension with a creator application Attachments Exporiing Imaging and ULA Aitschmen Faing Automatic Fax Exporting Imaging Options OCR Options Attachment laing hy v Convert and fax attached documents found whin email messages Reyect fox completely if attachment conversion results in an emar Wait this many minutes for printing applications to finish 5 Document types Only attachment with these fle extensions wil be converted and fazed Eech document type listed here requires a print regishry associalion pointing to a piece of saltware capable of printing that document type For example a print registre entry poinbnig to Microsoft Excel iz required io convert and ax an SULS document type Black andavhie 2 color TIF DIC and TXT attachments ane native bo FielayF ax they do nol need bo be listed here and no other solare it required t rendes Ehem
17. nived well Thanks fo your help Print to Fax Print a document from any application using the RelayFax Printer Driver This emails a faxable copy of the document to a RelayFax account Poel cot Prier Durees Fax Management 12 Alt N Technologies Relaying Faxes RelayFax can access faxable content from multiple email accounts on multiple email servers The email accounts receiving the faxable documents must allow Post Office Protocol POP access Periodically RelayFax retrieves the email and sends the faxes doing some conversions along the way e For text only emails the fax server converts the text to a faxable format e For email attachments RelayFax opens each document using its creator application or a compatible program and converts it to a fax Output from the RelayFax client and printer driver are ready to fax when they reach the email account RelayFax sends the faxes to the receiver by dialing up a fax machine calling a fax modem or sending the fax as an email attachment It can access faxes from multiple accounts on multiple email servers Receiving Faxes RelayFax can also receive and route transmittals from outside fax machines or fax modems When it receives an outside fax RelayFax can route it using port mapping or destination extraction Port mapping routes all faxes from a specified incoming port to a specified destination Destination extraction uses optical character recognition OCR technology to atte
18. r both The illustration shows local and remote email servers Users have four ways of sending documents to an email server Email Message Create an email and send it to a RelayFax account such as fax faxmail net eo Airport Schedule co 4 llAO9 L Send Attach Address Fonts Colori Save Aa Draft Tac 572 555 1212 Faye X Router IT fax faxmail metz Cc Subject Airport Schedule Account Pen Dragon lt pendragor company mail A Signature Aine Flight number 8514 durival 7 54 Terminal E Cann ya Email Attachment Add an attachment to an email and send it to a RelayFax account Ws Article Pails ES Fae Ed View met Foma Took Message Help From tab Bcompany mal MDaemon Bobi This is the article promised you Fax Management 11 Alt N Technologies RelayFax Client Message or Scan Open the RelayFax Client on a computer enter a message and send it This sends an email to a RelayFax account The client software provides for scanning in a page and sending it Scanimage AmachedDocumenis Advanced Options Fax Properties Cover Pages SendSchedue Fax specifics e Fax number 917 555 1212 Add Recipient s name N ancy Contacts Recipient s company Fax subject keyword Biling code Default Recipient lest 817 555 1212 Nancy 2 Comments for cover page up to 1000 characters Remove This fald is required when sending cover page only lanes Al a
19. s enable RelayFax to receive and send mail using dial up email servers The illustration shows the Dialup Settings tab on the Event Scheduler dialog Dialup uses RAS profiles Event Scheduler HE Event Schedule Dialup Settings Dialup control Enable RAS dilup dialdown engine gt Belo dialing make sure port 0 is freed from inbound monitoring Dialup athemples Make this many altempts to establish a session 1 Alber dialing wait this many seconds for a valid connection B ES profile Logon name Use this RAS dialup profile Logon passwarnd New peotie Edit profile n Connection persistance Once established AelayFax will not chee the RAS session ae Keep sessions alive for at least minutes 0 immediate close Hanguo Fax Management 21 Alt N Technologies Fax And Coversheet Templates Templates for faxes and coversheets make the user s job easier and provide for a consistent appearance for an enterprise or department RelayFax has many options for setting up custom templates Fax templates contain variables for setting the cover page banner text and company information plus controls for dialing and redialing among other items RelayFax uses the Microsoft Cover Page Editor for creating and changing cover pages The illustration shows one tab from the Fax Templates dialog Faz emplate HE Template Description Template Properties Template Options Fax server defaults The is the line of bet tha
20. t appears at the top of each faxed page Fax machine CSID png This is the CSID string that RielayFax vall use when il sends the fax Company inbormationi mj Company name Bob City State ZiIP or postal code Far number N Fax Management 22 Alt N Technologies Routing Rules for Outbound Inbound and Junk Faxes Routing rules allow RelayFax to format and route faxes based on their source destination and content The rules can be applied to inbound outbound and junk faxes An inbound rule might route a fax to a specific group of users if the incoming fax came from an identifiable phone number or company for example Another rule could apply a billing code to an inbound fax based on its source or destination Rules can be simple or complex containing one instruction or multiple instructions The illustration shows an simple outbound fax rule For complex rules the instructions are processed in sequence Knowing some processing logic is helpful but not necessary for successful set up of rules Mail Sources and Hules x Mail Sources Default Rules Outbound Fas Rules Inbound Fax Rules Junk Faxes Existing rules HT S01 d the TU header contains CEDE Hen Fato Set Aemove Dear all gt Edit rules Mew nude ithe message header Header routing C Ifthe message body Body routing C the receiving Fax number Fax number routing C phe macro within meg Macro routing
21. the email address and using the send command Broadcasting a message to multiple users means merely adding more addresses to the email The ability to attach files to email empowers users to exchange documents spreadsheets pictures and computer programs at network speeds Email is wonderful So who needs a fax Faxing Meets Some Unique Needs Fax marketing literature is filled with some viable as well as some ah well very interesting reasons to keep on faxing One of the least convincing arguments goes something like this An email is easy to delete a fax is difficult to ignore This proverb appears to assume the receiver is hoping to avoid a message If the communiqu arrives by email pressing delete puts it out of sight and out of mind Meanwhile the insuperable fax sits boldly on the machine as a daily reminder of things undone Hum Perhaps a contrasting proverb might be this The finger that presses delete belongs to the hand that crumples the page Mr Tomlinson was helping the United States Defense Department build ARPANET the ancestor of the Internet He is also the person who chose the symbol to separate the name of the email account and the machine hosting the email account The symbols shows where the account is at FidoNet consists of approximately 30 000 dialup systems world wide making up a network for exchanging email and files with the Internet Fidonet on the web http fidonet fidonet org Fax Manag
22. through a physical fax machine But all recipients would receive the same content Fax Management 13 Alt N Technologies RelayFax Features While RelayFax has a simple design it contains flexible configuration options for Email sources User accounts Attachment processing Faximage delivery formatting e OCR processing e Processing schedules e Fax and coversheet templates e Routing rules for outbound inbound and junk faxes Billing Codes e RelayFax Client e Fax Viewer By understanding the options a system administrator can create a flexible nearly invisible facility for handling almost all faxes for almost any business organization or service provider Documentation for these features resides in the RelayFax User Manual The following descriptions highlight some configuration features and functions Fax Management 14 Alt N Technologies Email Sources RelayFax can check multiple email accounts on multiple email servers for outbound faxes The accounts must have POP access The server name plus the account name and password is all RelayFax needs to retrieve faxable documents The illustration shows the Mail Sources tab of the Mail Sources and Rules dialog Hal Sources and Hules Paseword En Enabled Aem nivaluaigdl Yes Yer Logon Bisfes si Disable 7 Enable this entry Replace F Remove downloaded mail from this server These are the mailboxez which FielayF ax wil check for new mal Th
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