Fax server on XP

[Guest]

We have a XP Professional server with 5 PCs connected to it. The fax console works great for an indiviual, but I want to set up the server:

- To share a common address book with Fax contacts, so that each of the 5 PCs can fax from their desktops without creating an asynchronous contacts

- To allow the server's fax console to be viewed and accessed by the 5 PCs

I don't want a lot of overhead, so I don't want to get WinFax if I could avoid it. It seems like the XP development team would have thought about this function, since XP Professional is for the enterprise market.

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

Fax sharing is not supported on XP. You would need to either use Windows
Small Business Server 2000, 2003 or a full Windows Server operating system
such as Windows Server 2003.

 

[Peter R. Fletcher]

I think that it would be more strictly correct to state that: "Fax
sharing is not supported by the bundled XP Fax Application". There are
a number of third party applications which run on XP and support
various levels of Fax sharing. The OP could simply do a Google search
on "fax server XP" to come up with a number of possibilities. He
mentions Winfax, which would, I think, do what he wants, but would
cost him a full license for each machine and also has a number of
other negative aspects.

Fax sharing is not supported on XP. You would need to either use Windows
Small Business Server 2000, 2003 or a full Windows Server operating system
such as Windows Server 2003.

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher

 

[Miss Perspicacia Tick]

I think that it would be more strictly correct to state that: "Fax
sharing is not supported by the bundled XP Fax Application". There are
a number of third party applications which run on XP and support
various levels of Fax sharing. The OP could simply do a Google search
on "fax server XP" to come up with a number of possibilities. He
mentions Winfax, which would, I think, do what he wants, but would
cost him a full license for each machine and also has a number of
other negative aspects.

*SIGH* not this old chestnut again! Cari is perfectly correct in what she
states. The sharing has to be supported at OS level, not application level.
Windows XP, Windows 2000 (workstation) and Windows NT do *NOT* support
sharing - it's inherent to the OS and installing a 3rd-party application is
not going to change that. If the OS doesn't support it, then it's not
supported, full stop. We've had this out on numerous occasions and, to the
best of my knowledge, no one has (yet) provided proof that WinFax sharing
works. You need a server level OS.

Now, either provide proof that WinFax hardcodes itself into XP (as that's
what it would have to do to do what you're claiming) or shut up.

 

[Peter R. Fletcher]

*SIGH* not this old chestnut again! Cari is perfectly correct in what she
states. The sharing has to be supported at OS level, not application level.
Windows XP, Windows 2000 (workstation) and Windows NT do *NOT* support
sharing - it's inherent to the OS and installing a 3rd-party application is
not going to change that. If the OS doesn't support it, then it's not
supported, full stop. We've had this out on numerous occasions and, to the
best of my knowledge, no one has (yet) provided proof that WinFax sharing
works. You need a server level OS.

Now, either provide proof that WinFax hardcodes itself into XP (as that's
what it would have to do to do what you're claiming) or shut up.

I think that you are being deliberately obtuse, as well as remarkably
rude. It is true to say that fax sharing has to be supported by the
OS, _if_ _and_ _only_ _if_ one defines fax sharing as necessarily
being precisely equivalent to printer sharing - i.e. the device is
declared as shared on the server system and is then usable from other
systems in much the same way as a local device without the remote
systems having to run special software to use it. This is, however,
not what most people need, want, or even expect in a "fax sharing"
system. There is absolutely no theoretical or practical bar to writing
non-OS server software which runs on a system with a local fax modem
and uses it to send and receive faxes, and client software which runs
on other systems and communicates with the server software over a
network. Such software can (and does) provide any or all of the
_functionalities_ that can be provided thrugh "native" fax sharing in
the OSes which support it, in addition to any extra bells and whistles
that the software authors may want to include. Most users are
interested in functionality, not hair-splitting!

The OP asks for the ability:

- To share a common address book with Fax contacts, so that each of
the 5 PCs can fax from their desktops without creating an asynchronous
contacts

- To allow the server's fax console to be viewed and accessed by the 5
PCs

These capabilities are provided by Winfax (albeit at a considerable
cost) and by a number of other network fax systems. All these systems
do require instances of the third party software that provides the
capabilities to be running on both the client and server systems, but
if it walks like a duck.....

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher