UxFax Network Control Panel

Installation and

User Manual

• Introduction
• Server Configuration and Testing
• Procedure to install client software
• Information required during installation
• Install the UxFax client software
• Initial configuration of the client
• Install a printer called "UxFax Network Control Panel"
• Sending your first fax

The UxFax Network Control Panel allows users to submit faxes for transmission directly from their Windows desktop, as simply as printing a document.

Previous versions of the fax client relied upon Samba also being installed and configured on the computer that the fax server software was installed on. But as of version 1.5 of the client software and version 3.3 of the server software, faxes may be sent from the Windows client without Samba. This simplifies the installation and configuration of the software.

First of all, it is assumed that UxFax has been properly installed and tested on the server and that faxes can be sent from the server command line. The following description relates only to any additional configuration or testing that may be required for the Windows client.

During installation of the fax server software, the following entries will be added to the /etc/services file;

#################################### # UxFax network services faxsrv          22101/tcp faxstat         22102/tcp

And on a Unix system, the following entries will be added to the /etc/inetd.conf file (The Utools path will vary depending upon where the software was loaded);

#################################### # UxFax network services faxsrv stream tcp nowait root /usr/Utools/bin/faxdmn /usr/Utools/bin/faxdmn faxstat stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/Utools/bin/faxstat /usr/Utools/bin/faxstat

On a Linux system or a system which uses XINTED, you may need to manually craeate the following configuration file and restart the XINETD daemon. This file is ordinarily located in the /etc/xinetd.d directory and will be named "faxstat";

# description: faxstat provides a command interface # to the UxFax Windows client service faxstat {     port    = 22102     socket_type    = stream     wait     = no     user    = root     server    = /usr/Utools/bin/faxstat     log_on_failure    += USERID     disable = no }

If any changes are made to the INETD configuration, the server can be forced to re-read its configuration by sending it a SIGHUP (hangup or -1) signal. e.g;

[root@faxserver root]# ps -ef|grep xinetd root       891     1  0 Mar05 ?        00:01:10 xinetd -stayalive -pidfile /var/ root     31388 31265  0 08:36 pts/32   00:00:00 grep xinetd [root@faxserver root]# kill -1 891 [root@faxserver root]#

You can then test the configuration by manually connecting to the faxstat port, e.g.;

[root@faxserver]$ telnet localhost 22102 Trying 127.0.0.1... Connected to localhost. Escape character is '^]'. abc Client error 4: Unknown directive ^D EOM Connection closed by foreign host. [root@faxserver]$

The "Unknown directive" response indicates that the port is working. This response is the same as what you would receive if you issued a "faxcmd abc" command which indicates that the fax software is listening for connections to this TCP port.

The fax server will use the e-mail address supplied by the client to notify the user of successful or unsuccessful transmissions. This uses the "-reply" option of the faxcmd client command which is controlled and restricted by the "AllowReplyTo" environment variable setting in the server. To permit e-mail replies, the following setting must be configured in the fax menu, i.e. run "faxcmd menu", then;

• Select menu option "Administration"
• Select menu option "Configure"
• Select menu option "Custom Environment"
• Enter "AllowReplyTo=*"
• Press F1

UxFax 3.3a  191103 - Realtime Holdings PL  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │   Create/Send    Examine    Administration    Data Bases    Help    Quit   │  └────────────────────────────┌───────────────────────┐───────────────────────┘  ┌─── F5 - Current Queue ─────│                       │ 27/04/05 09:11 ───────┐  │                            │   S - Spooler ...     │                       │  │                            │   C - Configure ...   │                       │  │                            │   ┌─────────────────────────────┐             │  │                            │   │                             │             │  │                            │   │   D - Address Data Base     │             │  │ ── F6 - Transmitted ───────│   │   P - Permissions           │──────────── │  │                            │   │   E - Custom Environment    │             │  │ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │  │ │                           CUSTOM ENVIRONMENT            Page 1 of 1    │ │  │ │                                                                        │ │  │ │ No.  Environment Pairs (Name=Value)                                    │ │  │ │ 1   [AllowReplyTo=*__________________________________________________] │ │  │ │ 2   [________________________________________________________________] │ │  │ │ 3   [________________________________________________________________] │ │  │ │ 4   [________________________________________________________________] │ │  │ │ 5   [________________________________________________________________] │ │  │ │                                                                        │ │  │ │ F1 Done/Save   F6 Insert Line  F7 Delete Line  PgUp/PgDn Page  F4 Quit │ │  │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │  └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘     Use the cursor keys to scroll the display. Press F1 to Save, F4 to quit.

There are several steps required to install the fax client software on a Windows PC. In brief, They are;

1. Install the UxFax client software.
2. Initial configuration of the client.
3. Install a printer called UxFax Network Control Panel
4. Sending your first fax.

The client software is available from the Realtime Holdings web site at the following location;

ftp://ftp.realtime.com.au/realtime/Client/faxwin16.zip

The client software is installed using familiar "InstallSheild" tools. To start the installation, open or extract this ZIP file and double click on the "Setup.exe" program.

Click "Next" in each of the dialog boxes to complete the installation. After finally clicking "Finish" on the last window, the client program will be started and you will have a new "Fax" icon in the system tray at the bottom right corner of the screen, indicating the the client is running and waiting to accept faxes for transmission.

Several settings need to be made to configure the client and make it ready for use. To do this, double click on the "Fax" icon in the system tray, or right click on it and choose "Control Panel". This will bring up the full UxFax Network Control Panel window. In the menu at the top of the window, choose "Panel" and "Settings" to display the settings dialog box;

• Enter the "Fax server hostname" as the hostname or IP address that UxFax server software is installed on
• Enter an e-mail address for e-mail notifications to be sent to in reply to in reply to faxes sent from this PC.
• Nominate a spool directory on this PC. This will typically be "C:\windows\spool" or C:\windows\temp"
  
• Then click "OK".

Then if you click on any one of the four buttons in the "Fax queue status" box at the top of the window, you should see a resulting display of the server status displayed in the main window area. If this occurs, the client is properly installed and configured.

The window may be closed by clicking on the window close button or by choosing "Panel" and "Close" from the menu.

The printer will be installed with a file named "fax.pcl" in the spool directory configured in the client, e.g. "C:/windows/spool/fax.pcl" as the printer port, and "HP Laserjet III" as the printer driver. In Windows 2000/XP, use the "Add Printer Wizard" the following settings to create the new printer;

• Choose "Local printer attached to this computer"
• Choose to "Create a new port" and select "Local Port" type
• Enter the spool directory and "fax.pcl" as the port name. e.g. "C:/windows/spool/fax.pcl" or "C:/windows/temp/fax.pcl"
• Select the "HP LaserJet III" printer driver
• Name the printer "UxFax Network Control Panel"
• Do not choose to share this printer
• You may choose to print a test page straight away, in which case the "Fax Send Control Panel" should appear (see below).
  

The settings for Windows 98 are very similar. The newly created printer's properties should appear similar to the following;

You should be able to print to this new printer immediately, and if the printer installation asks if you want to print a test page, you can answer "Yes". Refer to the procedure to do this which is described next.

Sending a fax is as simple as printing to a printer. Open a document in any windows application and print the document, choosing UxFax Newtork Control Panel as the destination printer.

When the application has finished printing the document, the "Fax Send Control Panel" will be displayed, requiring you to enter a fax number. Type in a fax number that the document should be sent to and click the "Send" button to submit this to the fax server.

The UxFax Network Control Panel will then display the result of this fax submission. This will provide a summary of the fax details, and finish with a line identifying the "request ID" number that this fax will be delivered as, e.g.;

The above fax was accepted for transmission as request number 3846. This number may be used as the request ID to obtain further request information through the UxFax Network Control Panel.