Distribution List - Fax Failes

[hutch]

We have a weird issue that just started. We have several contacts in
our Public Folders (Exchange 2003) that have fax numbers. These
contacts have been put into different Distribution Lists that contain
anywhere from 10 to 60 people.

We regularly use Outlook to send out important Faxes, via these
Distribution Lists. About a month ago, we started getting failures on
the faxes, almost 100% of the time. For example if we sent to the DL,
all of the faxes would fail. However, if we sent to just one or 2
contacts individually, the same fax would go through fine.

The failure message is almost immediate. It comes up as the
following:

The Microsoft Fax transport failed to deliver the message to the
recipient.
The print action to the Microsoft Fax Printer cannot be completed.

That is all we get.

NOTE: The original document is in MS Word, and we have tried it
through that program as well. This is not a rendering issue....at
least that we can tell.

Client is Windows XP with SP2. Server is Windows 2003 Enterprise.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Microsoft Fax has never supported sending to multiple recipients.

 

[hutch]

Microsoft Fax has never supported sending to multiple recipients.
--
Russ Valentine











- Show quoted text -

I have never heard that. We have been using MS Fax in this manner,
for 3 years now, with no issues. Is there a MS KB article on this??

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Nope. Just a well known fact. Microsoft does not usually document its
shortcomings.
Sending to multiple recipients on a reliable basis requires third party
software.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Microsoft Fax has never supported sending to multiple recipients.
--
Russ Valentine











- Show quoted text -

I have never heard that. We have been using MS Fax in this manner,
for 3 years now, with no issues. Is there a MS KB article on this??

 

[hutch]

Nope. Just a well known fact. Microsoft does not usually document its
shortcomings.
Sending to multiple recipients on a reliable basis requires third party
software.
--
Russ Valentine




I have never heard that.  We have been using MS Fax in this manner,
for 3 years now, with no issues.  Is there a MS KB article on this??- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well, interesting to note. I found a document on the MS Fax log
(forgot about it). It appears we have an issue with Line #2 on the
fax card. Once I disabled it from sending, it appears to have cleared
up our issue.

As a note, we just sent a fax out to 50 recipients (via a distribution
list), from Outlook. Appears to be working again.

 

[Andrew Rinaldi]

Microsoft Fax has never supported sending to multiple recipients.

Russ,

I'm not sure I understand because we regularly broadcast 10,000
multi-page fax's between systems running MS Fax in our lab.

Here's the process that we use;

How to Create a Fax Broadcast Contact List:

1. First create a list of your fax recipients in a comma delimited .CSV
text file format. The text file should include at least the name and
the fax number for each recipient. The header at the top of the file
should be “First Name, Business Fax”. The list of recipients after the
header should be the name and fax number of each recipient separated by
commas. Save the .CSV file to a known folder location on the system.
2. Go to Start > Programs > Outlook Express.
3. The initial program set up wizard may launch if Outlook Express has
not been used. Click Cancel to enter Outlook Express.
4. Go to File > Import. Choose to import an “Other Address Book”.
5. Click on Text File (Comma Separated Values) and click Import.
6. Browse to the .CSV file that you modified above, and click Open.
7. Click Next. The mapping should be correctly set to import First Name
and Business Fax. Click Finish. The contact list will import.
8. Click OK when the import completes. Close the Import Tool and
Outlook Express.

How to Start a Simple Fax Broadcast Test Job

1. Find the fax image you would like to fax, right click on the image
and click Print.
2. Click next 2 times and you should be to the Select Printer screen.
Choose the Fax Printer and click next 2 more times to enter the Send Fax
Wizard.
3. Click Next to get to the Recipient Information screen. Click Address
Book.
4. Hit the drop down to choose the Main Identity’s Contacts.
Shift-click on the last contact to select all of them, and hit the “To>”
button to move them all to the right pane. Click OK, and then Next.
5. Select and fill in the cover page if required. Click Next.
6. Set the priority of the fax broadcast job to Low if you would like
other single faxes to go out as needed during the broadcast. Otherwise
you can leave priority set to Normal. On this screen you can also set
the time or times you want your broadcast to send. Click next.
7. On the next screen you can preview the fax if you need to. Click
Finish when you are ready to start the fax broadcast.
8. The broadcast will start in a few seconds or a minute if there are
thousands of recipients. You can monitor the job progress in the Fax
Console. If you are using the Mainpine IQ Express with the Mainpine FSP
software, detailed logs can be found through the shortcut located in the
C:\Program Files\Mainpine\IQFSP folder.


Am I missing something here?

Regards,

Andrew Rinaldi
Mainpine Developer Support
USA +1 866 363 6680 | UK +44 1225 807 807
(e-mail address removed) | www.mainpine.com

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I have no idea which iteration of "Microsoft Fax" you are using. Most have
been unreliable when it comes to broadcast faxing. None of the personal fax
software has ever worked. I would expect server based fax modules to do
better, but most users who need broadcast fax seem to migrate to boards and
third party software.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You never clarified which Microsoft Fax module you were using. Server based
software should work better. Fewer people seem to run into problems with
them.
One thing I would recommend is to group your recipients differently than by
using DL's. DL's with more than a handful of members have a habit of
becoming corrupt, although if you've created them in the AD they may be more
reliable.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Nope. Just a well known fact. Microsoft does not usually document its
shortcomings.
Sending to multiple recipients on a reliable basis requires third party
software.
--
Russ Valentine




I have never heard that. We have been using MS Fax in this manner,
for 3 years now, with no issues. Is there a MS KB article on this??- Hide
quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well, interesting to note. I found a document on the MS Fax log
(forgot about it). It appears we have an issue with Line #2 on the
fax card. Once I disabled it from sending, it appears to have cleared
up our issue.

As a note, we just sent a fax out to 50 recipients (via a distribution
list), from Outlook. Appears to be working again.

 

[Andrew Rinaldi]

I have no idea which iteration of "Microsoft Fax" you are using. Most
have been unreliable when it comes to broadcast faxing. None of the
personal fax software has ever worked. I would expect server based fax
modules to do better, but most users who need broadcast fax seem to
migrate to boards and third party software.

We currently test XP, Vista, 2003, and 2008 in both 32-bit and 64-bit
versions. Today, most of these tests are run with the Mainpine Fax
Engine which replaces the Microsoft Fax Service Provider ('FSP') and
while this helps enormously with stability I would disagree with your
blanket statement that "Microsoft Fax has never supported sending to
multiple recipients"... it does!

Microsoft Fax is seeing a resurgence in demanding applications such as
Medical. Here's a link to a high volume application that's using MS Fax
and the Mainpine hardware/software;

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/business/11record.html?_r=2

I would be happy to provide you with more test data or user feedback if
that would help.

Regards

Andrew Rinaldi
Mainpine Developer Support
USA +1 866 363 6680 | UK +44 1225 807 807
(e-mail address removed) | www.mainpine.com

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

The group in which this is posted is frequented only by standalone end users
concerned with integrating personal fax with Outlook. That is what posters
in that group mean by the term "Microsoft Fax." In that context the
statement is true. Microsoft Server Fax is another situation entirely, and I
was not talking about Microsoft Server Fax. Server Fax is supported in the
respective server newsgroups.
Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Andrew Rinaldi]

The group in which this is posted is frequented only by standalone end
users concerned with integrating personal fax with Outlook. That is what
posters in that group mean by the term "Microsoft Fax." In that context
the statement is true. Microsoft Server Fax is another situation
entirely, and I was not talking about Microsoft Server Fax. Server Fax
is supported in the respective server newsgroups.
Sorry for the confusion.

We regularly send 10,000 multi-page fax's with both XP and Vista which I
would not consider "Microsoft Server Fax". Your statement is wrong and
many people in this group successfully use Microsoft Fax for "sending to
multiple recipients".

Regards,

Andrew Rinaldi
Mainpine Developer Support
USA +1 866 363 6680 | UK +44 1225 807 807
(e-mail address removed) | www.mainpine.com

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

And many more cannot, nor have we ever been able to find a solution for
them. I do hope you'll pop in and figure out how to fix the problem for
them.