Fax Access Unit
- Incoming and Outgoing fax support for 1-8 lines
- Incoming faxes can be automatically delivered to recipient’s mailbox
- Intelligent use of the X.400 backbone minimises outbound fax costs
- Configurable and pre-defined cover pages
- Configurable retry and status reporting
- Incomplete faxes retransmitted from last successful page
- Fully manageable, locally and remotely
- Easy to install
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The Fax AU is associated with a Route400 Message Server (MTA) and acts as a gateway between an X.400 messaging network and fax systems. The message server delivers messages destined for fax-based recipients to the Fax AU for onward transmission. Where such messages contain proprietary format documents, such as from Word Processors or drawing programs, advanced Route400 document conversion technology ensures that the visual appearance of the resulting fax is identical to that of the original document.
Incoming faxes can be received and routed automatically, or manually, to the desired X.400 recipients.
Provision of a Fax AU allows Route400 message client users - which can include message enabled applications - to uniformly address messages to both e-mail accessible (via X.400, Internet and proprietary systems) and fax recipients, in a single operation.
Overview
- The Fax AU is configured as a gateway associated with a Route400 message server (MTA)
- The MTA is configured to deliver all messages addressed to fax-based recipients (or those recipients in a particular country or area code) to the local Fax AU
- Fax costs can be minimised by using the X.400 backbone to route faxes to an MTA/Fax AU in the country or area code of the recipient
- If requested, a delivery report indicating success or failure and details of the fax transmission is returned to the message originator
- Incoming faxes are submitted to the MTA for onward routing
- Route400 message clients support the composition of messages destined for fax recipients in a manner uniform with e-mail destinations, and allow viewing the content of messages originating as incoming faxes
- The Fax AU can be provided either as an embedded part of a Route400 Message Server or as a separate application
- The Fax AU runs as a real-time application under Windows 3.1 and 3.11
- For greater throughput and availability the Fax AU supports up to 8 exchange lines
- Depending on the performance and throughput requirements, the Fax AU may be run in the same machine as Route400 document conversion systems
- The Fax AU converts an X.400 message to Group 3 fax format and transmits it to the specified recipients via the telephone network
- Messages can originate from a Route400 message client, or any other X.400-conformant User Agent, and be delivered to the Fax AU via its associated Route400 MTA
- Messages can also be created within a proprietary e-mail application (such as Microsoft Mail or cc:Mail) and routed to the Fax AU via the appropriate Route400 gateway and its associated Route400 MTA
- The fax recipient’s telephone number is held within a standard X.400 message address as an X.121 attribute
- The Fax AU has built-in support for messages containing any combination of text in IA5, General Text or Teletex (T.61) and also Group 3 fax body parts with normal or fine resolution
- Non-text body parts can also be handled using Route400 Body-Part Conversion facilities (see Document Conversion below)
- Messages with multiple addressees are transmitted to separate recipients individually
- Delivery reports are automatically generated if requested by the originator
- Successful delivery reports include number of pages sent, time of transmission and duration
- In case of connection failure, further attempts are made with the retry interval and number of retries being configurable. If the configured limit is exceeded, a non-delivery report is returned, if requested by the originator. This can optionally contain the original message
- If a connection terminates prematurely, retransmission resumes from the last successfully transmitted page, not the first page
- MTA archiving (option) can be used to keep an audit copy of all outbound faxes
- The X.400 message probe facility can be used to validate a destination fax address without sending a physical transmission, or to receive a fax from a "fax-on-demand" system
- Cover pages may be generated automatically by the Fax AU as outgoing faxes are transmitted. The cover page definition language provides for the inclusion of "conditional" text, allowing for example the generation of an alternative cover page for continuation faxes on retransmission
- A sender may optionally select (using a Domain Defined Attribute - DDA) an alternative, predefined, cover page where the default page is not appropriate
- Any number of distinct cover pages can be predefined by a system administrator to satisfy individual requirements
- Each cover page is designed individually and can include an organisation’s logo and/or other graphics held as Group3 fax images. A utility is provided to convert monochrome BMP images to Group 3 fax when designing individual cover pages
- The cover page designer can also specify the presence and position on the page of details such as sender’s name, recipient’s name, organisation name, department name, fax number, subject, number of pages, date and time
- Office documents in proprietary formats such as Word-Processor files and Spreadsheets can easily be transmitted via the Route400 Fax AU
- Before being transmitted by the Fax AU, proprietary body parts are converted to Group 3 fax image automatically by the Route400 Body-Part Conversion system or, by originator choice, at source
- Proprietary body parts can be converted to Group 3 fax image just prior to delivery to the Fax AU, using an automatic conversion application under the control of a Route400 Document Conversion Accelerator associated with the Route400 MTA and Fax AU. Since fax images are, in general, substantially larger than their equivalent original form, using this approach can lead to savings in file space and message transmission time through the MTA network
- At the choice of the message originator, messages destined for fax recipients may have their proprietary format content converted to Group 3 fax image at the sender’s workstation. This is achieved using the Route400 Fax Printer Driver in association with the Route400 message client before posting the message and gives the originator the possibility of viewing the exact appearance of the document that will be seen by the fax recipient
- Using either of these conversion methods, a fax containing proprietary format documents will, when transmitted by the Route400 Fax AU, accurately preserve their original visual form. Message enclosures received by fax and e-mail (when viewed using the appropriate application) will appear identical
- The Fax AU can also receive incoming faxes from the telephone network. If the Fax AU is attached to multiple telephone lines, transmission and reception of faxes can occur simultaneously
- Incoming faxes are converted into standard X.400 messages with conventional recipient headers, and content encoded as a Group 3 fax body part. If the incoming fax is in more than one resolution, then one additional fax body part will be generated for each change in resolution
- Incoming faxes acquire the Calling Station Identifier (CSID) of the sending fax machine as the originator address (provided that the CSID has been correctly configured as the fax telephone number). This allows the recipient of a message arising from an incoming fax to reply directly via the Fax AU
- The intended message recipient can be determined and the message subsequently routed, automatically, on the basis of the originator’s fax machine Calling Station Identifier (CSID) or the port number that received the call (typically associated with the specific telephone number of the called fax modem)
- A "Fax Postmaster" is always defined as the default recipient of any faxes for which automatic determination of intended recipient is not possible
- The Postmaster can be one person or a group belonging to a distribution list
- The Postmaster can be notified of incoming fax messages by mail alert
- The Postmaster can be associated with any MTA in a Route400 message server network
- The Postmaster reads the incoming message (using a fax viewer), determines the intended recipient and forwards the message appropriately
- For automatic, pre-defined, routing of incoming faxes, the system manager supplies tables with the correspondence between CSID and/or modem port number and X.400 addresses
- Messages leaving the Fax AU are optionally assigned a priority which is configurable
- MTA archiving (option) can be used to keep an audit copy of all inbound faxes
- For users of Route400 message clients, fax creation and transmission is simple. Fax messages are createdted and transmitted in a manner identical to that for other e-mail messages
- Inter-personal message recipients and fax recipients are treated entirely uniformly when messages are composed
- Fax recipient addresses can be entered directly, simply by entering the telephone number of the destination fax, into the message client and can be conveniently saved in address books for subsequent use
- The content of messages received from the Fax AU can easily be viewed using the built-in "Group 3 Fax" viewer
- Office documents can be submitted for transmission to fax destinations, safe in the knowledge that Route400 document conversion systems will generate the required fax images
- MTA routing decisions for recipients supported via Fax AU(s) are made on the basis of the recipient’s X.121 address (fax number)
- Outgoing messages are routed by the X.400 MTA network to the chosen Fax AU(s)
- Discrimination on the high order (country and area code) digits of the fax number (X.121 address) allows the Route400 MTA routing to be configured so that faxes for a particular region are first routed via the MTA network to "the nearest" Route400 Fax AU serving that region. This enables long-distance telephone charges for fax transmission to be substantially reduced
- X.121 address routing takes precedence over other attributes (e.g. the recipient name, which can subsequently be rendered on the cover page)
- A Domain Defined Attribute (DDA) can also contain the telephone number to be used by the Fax AU (for compatibility with other mail clients)
- The Route400 Fax AU is simple to install using its Windows-based installer
- The Fax AU has commands for displaying its status and for manual intervention
- There is a continuous display of all line and modem status information and of current call state
- The output queue status can be displayed giving message arrival time, priority and length
- Manual intervention commands are available to delay, send now and cancel fax messages
- System activity logger saves details of all system component status changes
- Alarm viewer gives details of unexpected conditions and events
- A remote management option is available for the Fax AU via an asynchronous port equipped with a suitable fax/data modem (for systems with shared ports for incoming fax or data)
- Message and system activity logs are displayed and written to disk
- The system manager defines storage space for each daily disk log and the number of days for which logs are retained
- The activity log includes full details of incoming and outgoing fax transmissions with time, duration, number of pages, completion/termination status, originator name and recipient name
- Requires Class 1 fax modem (contact NET-TEL for an up-to-date list of verified modems)
- Supports transmission/reception at up to 14,400 bit/s
- Maximum of 8 modems can be attached to each Fax AU
- Each modem can be configured to send and/or receive
- Windows NT 4, where the Fax AU operates together with the Message Server as a native NT Service, exploiting the common service management and logging facilities of NT
- Windows 3.1 or 3.11
- Depending on expected message throughput, average message size, graphics content, and number of attached lines and modems, your supplier will advise on the processor power, disk space and RAM needed in individual situations
- As a guideline, an IBM compatible PC running Windows 3.1 or 3.11 requires a minimum specification of a 486 processor, 4 MB of RAM, with at least 4 MB of disk space for the Fax AU program and configuration files. For Windows NT, the minimum memory requirement is 24MB of RAM.
- Additional disk space, up to as much as a further 80 MB, may be required according to the number of ports used, the volume of fax traffic that is anticipated, the number of retained log files etc.
- Depending on the anticipated loading, the Fax AU platform may be shared with a Route400 Document Conversion Accelerator
- Access to a Route400 Message Server, for distributed use this may be via LAN and any network operating system supporting shared file access
- Route400 Document Converter (option) in the MTA when formatted documents are to be converted
