I agree with both EG's (Exchange goddesses) Can Exchange act as a fax server? Not exactly. Fax's can be transported by SMTP as a registered MIME type. This of course makes the server blind to the content, and means that it can be a client issue. However, Exchange Server can also have a FAX service or connector installed. This enables the server itself to drive a modem or high grade telephony board to either directly send or receive faxes. Outbound, MAPI clients (i.e. Outlook) or OWA clients can send to a fax recipient using ad hoc addressing, once the FAX address type has been created by adding such a service. Of course, permanent fax addressees can be stored in the AD/GAL or the PAB/CL. Inbound, is a little trickier. If the inbound fax has some DTMF supplemental addressing that maps (insert magic box here) to an AD/GAL addressee, then the MTA can deliver it. Alternately, they can be routed to a specific printer, or a specific secretarial addressee for manual forwarding.
Several vendors make one of these combination fax connector and magic box servers for Exchange. Microsoft Fax is a client tool. It is not Exchange Server aware. It's been awhile since I looked at it, but if it can save a document as a fax file, then presumably this could be attached to a mail message and the proper MIME type would get applied. But as the EG's said, this would be lame beyond belief or any human comprehension. Usually people are interested in transmitting digital data and getting non-digital data into some sort of intelligible format. To take a perfectly good digital document, then store it as a useless piece of raster junk, and then send it as an SMTP attachment to someone that has some sort of a junky raster-only printer, well, that would be sad. So it is hard to imagine a scenario in which someone would want to spend money integrating MS Fax to an e-mail service. The right way to leverage MS Fax is in a scenario in which you have a requirement for a small number of users to send or receive Faxes, but can't cost justify the incremental cost of something like OmTool for Exchange over the cost of some personal modems. Some organizations are going to be in a bind with this. Most good enterprise security policies prohibit using a personal modem to link to an external connection while at the same time being connected to the enterprise network. Obviously, something like OmTool solves this problem, but that does not make the cost story any prettier. -----Original Message----- From: Mike Carlson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 3:58 PM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: Fax Can Exchange act as a Fax Server? Does it integrate with MS Fax? I want to be able to Fax out of Outlook, but I want to avoid buying something like winfax. ******************** Mike Carlson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.domitianx.com Master Of The Spoon People Keeper Of None ******************** _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
