A fax server is a set of software Computer software, or just software, is the collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions telling a computer what to do. The term was coined to contrast to the old term hardware . In contrast to hardware, software is intangible, meaning it "cannot be touched". Software is also sometimes used in a more running on a server computer In computing, a server is any combination of hardware or software designed to provide services to clients. When used alone, the term typically refers to a computer which may be running a server operating system, but is also used to refer to any software or dedicated hardware capable of providing services which is equipped with one or more fax A fax is a document sent over a telephone line. Fax machines have existed, in various forms, since the 19th century (see "History" below), though modern fax machines became feasible only in the mid-1970s as the sophistication increased and cost of the three underlying technologies dropped. Digital fax machines first became popular in-capable modems A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog (or dedicated fax boards) attached to telephone lines or, more recently, software modem emulators which use T.38 T.38 is an ITU recommendation for allowing transmission of fax over IP networks in real time ("Fax over IP") technology to transmit the signal over an IP network. Its function is to accept documents from users, convert them into faxes, and transmit them, as well as to receive fax calls and either store the incoming documents or pass them on to users. Users may communicate with the server in several ways, through either a local network or the Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by a broad array of electronic and. In a big organization with heavy fax traffic, the computer hosting the fax server may be dedicated to that function, in which case the computer itself may also be known as a fax server.
The fax server industry was pioneered by S.K. Ho, founder of Biscom. Early application of Biscom’s fax server, the FAXCOM Server, applied print output from mainframe applications to an electronic form, and merged this into a single TIFF Tagged Image File Format is a file format for storing images, popular among Apple Macintosh owners, graphic artists, the publishing industry, and both amateur and professional photographers in general. As of 2009, it is under the control of Adobe Systems. Originally created by the company Aldus for use with what was then called "desktop document which could be delivered electronically via fax. Before this innovation, the mainframe data would be printed to paper forms, and then mailed or sent via paper fax machine.
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User interfaces
For outgoing faxes, several methods are available to the user:
- An e-mail Electronic mail, commonly called email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages across the Internet or other computer networks. Email systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which email server computer systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to connect to the email infrastructure, message (with optional attachments An e-mail attachment is a computer file which is sent along with an e-mail message. The file is not a separate message, but now it is almost universally sent as part of the message to which it is attached. Attached messages may be sent in unencoded form, or encoded in a number of ways: base64, binhex, uuencoding, quoted-printable. In MIME, the) can be sent to a special e-mail address; the fax server monitoring that address converts all such messages into fax format and transmits them.
- The user can tell his computer to "print" a document using a "virtual printer A virtual printer is a piece of computer software whose user interface and API resemble that of a printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical computer printer" which, instead of producing a paper Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets printout, sends the document to the fax server, which then transmits it.
- A web The World Wide Web, abbreviated as WWW and commonly known as the Web, is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them by using hyperlinks. Using concepts from earlier hypertext systems, British interface can be used, allowing files to be uploaded, and transmitted to the fax server for faxing.
- Special client software A client is an application or system that accesses a remote service on another computer system, known as a server, by way of a network. The term was first applied to devices that were not capable of running their own stand-alone programs, but could interact with remote computers via a network. These dumb terminals were clients of the time-sharing may be used.
For incoming faxes, several user interfaces may be available:
- The user may be sent an e-mail message for each fax received, with the pages included as attachments, typically in either TIFF Tagged Image File Format is a file format for storing images, popular among Apple Macintosh owners, graphic artists, the publishing industry, and both amateur and professional photographers in general. As of 2009, it is under the control of Adobe Systems. Originally created by the company Aldus for use with what was then called "desktop or PDF Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. The file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system. Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout 2D document that includes format.
- Incoming faxes may be stored in a dedicated file directory Folder, directory, catalog, or drawer, in computing, is a virtual container within a digital file system, in which groups of computer files and other folders can be kept and organized, which the user can monitor.
- A website A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed relative to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL), often consisting of only the domain name, or the IP address, and the root path ('/') in an Internet Protocol-based network. A web site is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a may allow users to log in In computer security, a login or logon is the process by which individual access to a computer system is controlled by identification of the user using credentials provided by the user and check for received faxes.
- Special client software may be used.
Advantages over paper fax machines
- Users can send and receive faxes without leaving their desks.
- Any printable computer file can be faxed, without having to first print the document on paper.
- The number of fax lines in an organisation can be reduced, as the server can queue large numbers of faxes and send each when any of a number of lines is free.
- Faxing capability can be added easily to computer programs, allowing automatic generation of faxes.
- Transmitted faxes are more legible and professional-looking.
- There is less clutter of office equipment; incoming faxes can be printed on a standard computer printer.
- Printer jams on malfunctioning fax printers may be reprinted without being re-faxed.
- Faxing may be monitored and/or recorded, so that users may be allocated quotas or charged fees, or to ensure compliance with data-retention and financial laws.
- Fax Servers can be located centrally in an organisation's data centres A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression) and security devices providing resilience and disaster recovery Disaster recovery is the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster facilities to a traditionally desktop technology.
- Incoming junk faxes Junk faxes are a form of telemarketing where unsolicited advertisements are sent via fax transmission. Junk faxes are the faxed equivalent of spam or junk mail. Proponents of this advertising medium often use the terms broadcast fax or fax advertising to avoid the negative connotation of the term junk fax are not as much of a problem; the server may maintain a blacklist A blacklist is a list or register of persons who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle. Conversely, a whitelist is a list or compilation of numbers it will not accept faxes from (or a white list A whitelist or approved list is a list or register of entities that, for one reason or another, are being provided a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to whitelist can mean to authorize access or grant membership. Conversely, a blacklist is a list or compilation that identifies entities that are denied, listing all the numbers it will accept calls from), and those that do get through do not waste paper.
Public fax services
There are many companies (internet fax providers) operating fax servers as a commercial public service. Subscribers can interact with the servers using methods similar to those available for standard fax servers, and would be assigned a dedicated fax number for as long as they maintain their subscription. Fees are normally charged on a flat monthly rate, with a limit on the number of fax pages sent and/or received. Organizations, and individuals in particular, may find this more convenient or cost-effective than operating their own fax systems.
Integrated fax programs
An integrated fax program is a complete set of faxing software which operates on a single computer which is equipped with a fax-capable modem connected to a telephone line. Its user interfaces may be similar to those used to communicate with fax servers, except that since the entire operation takes place on the user's computer the user may be made more aware of the progress of the transmission. Integrated fax programs are aimed at consumers and small organizations, and may sometimes be bundled Product bundling is a marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as one combined product. This strategy is very common in the software business , in the cable television industry (for example, basic cable in the United States generally offers many channels at one price), and in the fast food industry in which multiple with the computer's operating system.
See also
- Internet fax A fax machine is an electronic instrument composed of a scanner, a modem, and a printer. It transmits data in the form of pulses via a telephone line to a recipient, usually another fax machine, which then transforms these pulses into images, and prints them on paper
- Unified messaging Unified Messaging is the integration of different electronic messaging and communications media (e-mail, SMS, Fax, voicemail, video messaging, etc.) technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of different devices. While traditional communications systems delivered messages into several different types of stores such as
Categories: Fax software | Servers Categories: Network-related software | Distributed computing architecture | System software | Classes of computers
Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:20:29 GMT+00:00
TMCnet He will be in the EVE Booth (#510) today to meet DAC attendees and discuss the benefits of ZeBu- Server , an affordable, flexible and scalable emulation ...
GeckoFly
Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:26:10 GM
Which is the best Microsoft Windows . fax server. software? How to send faxes via email? Where to download . fax server. appliance? How do I set up a fax to email server? GFI FAXmaker is a network . fax server. software for small.
Q. Hello Im looking for information on how to setup a Fax Server. I already have the Network up and running, a free telephone line. I know I will need a fax modem. But what is the best OS to use? and how do i configure it properly?
Asked by MarcK - Mon Mar 29 04:29:24 2010 - - 4 Answers - 1 Comments
A. Are you using Windows Server 2003 or 2008 or Small Business Server? This feature is included and FREE. On your server, go to Add/Remove Programs. Install the Fax Services. After you install the services, you must go through the configuration (The company name, number, device, etc.) Now you will notice in your server's printers section you will have a Fax icon. Share it like a printer. Now on your workstations, go to Add Printer, and browse network printers. You will find the Fax printer. Your users basically print to the fax device. Another solution is to buy a seperate product like Castelle. They make a two-line fax server product (or more) for about $3,000. It has a lot more features and capabilities than Microsoft's.
Answered by JeffB - Mon Mar 29 13:52:30 2010
