MS Fax not communicating with certain fax machines

[joejance]

My organization has recently started using MS Fax Services to send out
faxes. For the most part we have had success. However, there are a
few recipient fax machines that tend to cause us a lot of grief.
About 5 numbers in our pool of about 100 numbers that we routinely
send faxes to do not work. When I turn up the volume on the modem I
can hear that the number dials correctly, and that the remote fax
machine does indeed answer with the normal tones. At this point MS
Fax Console reports that the fax failed, and tries again. It finally
quits trying based on the retry settings, and quits trying to send the
fax. While users have reported that a fax will occasionally get
through, I have never seen a fax get through to any of these numbers
during my testing.

Any ideas? I have been researching the idea that our modems may not
be entirely compatible with one of the various fax protocols used.
Since it is always the same 5 numbers, I tend to believe there is some
sort of an incompatibility with only those fax machines.

TIA.

Joe Jance

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

There indeed many incompatibilities with many modems. XP Fax is not a robust
program. It is intended for the occasional sending of a single fax in a home
environment. Few office or production environments will find it meets their
needs.

 

[Andrew Rinaldi]

My organization has recently started using MS Fax Services to send out
faxes. For the most part we have had success. However, there are a
few recipient fax machines that tend to cause us a lot of grief.
About 5 numbers in our pool of about 100 numbers that we routinely
send faxes to do not work. When I turn up the volume on the modem I
can hear that the number dials correctly, and that the remote fax
machine does indeed answer with the normal tones. At this point MS
Fax Console reports that the fax failed, and tries again. It finally
quits trying based on the retry settings, and quits trying to send the
fax. While users have reported that a fax will occasionally get
through, I have never seen a fax get through to any of these numbers
during my testing.

Any ideas? I have been researching the idea that our modems may not
be entirely compatible with one of the various fax protocols used.
Since it is always the same 5 numbers, I tend to believe there is some
sort of an incompatibility with only those fax machines.

TIA.

Joe Jance

If this is business critical then investing in decent fax hardware
will overcome many of the compatibility issues that you see....
interestingly the MS Fax application in Vista/2003/Longhorn is a lot
more robust in our testing, especially when using fax Class 2.0

You will also find that many of the third party fax applications will
offer greater levels of compatibility.

Regards

ANDREW RINALDI
Mainpine Limited - Support
USA +1 503 822 9944 | Asia/Europe +44 1225 869439
(e-mail address removed) | www.mainpine.com

 

[joejance]

There are a lot of choices out there when shopping for fax modems. Do
you have any recommendations for a good fax modem that will work with
XP. Unfortunatly I am stuck in a situation where I cannot dictate
that the machines (we have more than one fax server) be 2k3 Server,
but I can probably get us to purchase new modems if that will make the
difference.


Thanks,

Joe

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

That's what the WHCL is for, but I'm not sure that will solve your problem.
XP Fax still has trouble negotiating with other modems even when using
supported modems.

 

[Andrew Rinaldi]

That's what the WHCL is for, but I'm not sure that will solve your problem.
XP Fax still has trouble negotiating with other modems even when using
supported modems.
--
Russ Valentine





- Show quoted text -

Unfortunately, WHCL really is not up to the job when it comes to
measuring fax quality or compatibility. The only real way you can
have any confidence is to put the modems and fax applications through
compatibility testing. This we do for many third party fax
applications but not historically MS fax applications (because MS fax
has been poorly supported in our opinion). 2003, Vista, and Longhorn
now support Class 2.0 fax which allows the modem to do most of the low
level protocol work.... this allows the modem to take control and move
towards a robust solution on the MS platform for the first time.

We have recently released a range of PCI Express fax cards which use a
new fax chip from Agere (LSI). We have been working with them for a
number of years on fax firmware and have seen great results from our
testing in the lab and with beta customers.

I don't know whether XP SP2 also supports Class 2.0 but will ask our
engineering team. If it does then we should be able to offer you a
quality solution. If you are interested then please drop me an email.

Here's a link which gives you a glossy overview of our ISV test
programme;

http://www.mainpine.com/isv/lab/

Regards

ANDREW RINALDI
Mainpine Limited - Support
USA +1 503 822 9944 | Asia/Europe +44 1225 869439
(e-mail address removed) | www.mainpine.com