How to Configure Fax Delivery on Microsoft Network Fax Server Transcript for Video:
Welcome to the video tutorial on how to configure PageGate to deliver faxes through a network available Microsoft Fax Server.
Before we begin, the Microsoft Fax Server must be installed and configured to accept faxes. For more information on how to do that, please see the Microsoft documentation here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj134193(v=ws.11).aspx
There are a few important things we need to go over as well. First, you will need to have a service account for PageGate to use in conjunction with the Microsoft Fax Server, even if it’s a local Microsoft Fax Server. If you do not already have a Windows User Account that PageGate can use for this purpose, please create one and grand it the “Log on as a service” policy.
Second, Microsoft Fax Servers can only be shared from a Server based operating system such as Server 2003, Server 2008, Server 2012 and Server 2016. According to Microsoft’s documentation, you cannot share a fax on a workstation based operating system such as Windows 7, 8 or 10.
Before doing anything on the PageGate server, there’s a bit of configuration you’ll need to go through on the server running the Microsoft Fax Server.
First, you’ll want to log in to Windows on that system as the account named Administrator. It is not recommended to log in as any other account, even if your account is an administrator or is part of the Domain Administrators group. The User Accounts Control in Server 2008, Server 2012 and Server 2016 requires you to log in as the account named Administrator for you to have access to certain security functions, such as configuring a Microsoft Fax Server.
After logging in with the account named Administrator, open go to Devices and Printers in Windows.
Right click on Fax and select ‘Printer Properties’. Go under the Sharing Tab. Click "Change Sharing Options". Put a check in "Share this printer". Give the Fax a share name. If you want the formatting of the faxes to be controlled by the PageGate system, leave "Render print jobs on client computers" checked.
Go under the Security tab and click Add. Add the user you are going to use for PageGate.
Note: If you do not already have a local system or domain user for PageGate to use, please create one and grand it administrative privileges and the ‘log on as a service’ policy, then add that account.
There's also a bit of standardization with the user account/username that PageGate uses on its own system that will need to be done since it will need to match the name of the Fax Service account. After configuring the domain or local user account for PageGate to use, we must next identify that account as a Fax Account. To do so, run the Fax Service Manager.
On the left hand side, select on Accounts. Right click in the available space, mouse over ‘New’ and select ‘Account’. Make sure the specified account precisely and exactly matches the service account the PageGate services will be using. This is very important because this account must match the name of the account that the PageGate services use to run, including any domain information.
Now that we've configured the Microsoft Fax Server, we'll need to configure the PageGate server to reference it. To do that, log in to the PageGate server as the service account. This is very important as there are elements of the Microsoft Fax Server configuration that require you to be logged in with the account configured in the Fax Server’s security.
In Windows, browse the network for the Server hosting the shared Microsoft Fax Server. In the list of folders and items listed under the server, you should see 'Fax'. Right click on this and left click on Connect. If prompted for credentials, provide them. This should also install the necessary fax drivers required to use this interface locally.
Open the Microsoft Fax Service Manager and go to Accounts on the left hand side. Create a Fax Account that matches the Windows Logon Name of the PageGate account, which should also be the user account you're logged in with.
Close the Fax Service manager and open Windows Fax and Scan
Go to Tools - Fax Accounts - Add. Select "Connect to a Fax Server on my network"
Enter the UNC path to your existing Microsoft Fax Server (\\IPorMachineName) and click on Next.
Note: When referencing a Microsoft Fax server across the network, you MUST share the Fax in Devices and Printers on the host system. If the Fax in question has not been shared, the PageGate Server will be denied access to it.
Enter a name or title for this connection, click on Done then click on Close.
The last thing you’ll need to do in Windows is go in to the Services list in Windows. Find the PageGate services. You’ll need to apply the username and password configured to access the Microsoft Fax Server as the service account for the PageGate, PageGate Scheduler and PageGate Connector services. To apply that username and password, right click on each relevant service, then go to properties. Once you’re in the properties of the service, go under the ‘Log On’ tab and you’ll see the available section for your required credentials.
So, now that we’ve told Windows how to connect to the network available Microsoft Fax Server, here’s how to tell PageGate to use it.
First, open the PageGate Admin. Next, right click on the Carriers section and select ‘Add’.
Give the carrier a name, something simple like MSFAX. Set the Protocol to ‘FAXSrv’.
In the Server field, enter the UNC path to the Microsoft Fax Server. For example, \\PGserver01
Click Apply. Now that we’ve told PageGate how to use the Microsoft Fax Server, we’ll need to tell it what fax machines to dial and how to format the transmitted faxes. To do that, right click on Recipients and select Add.
Give the recipient a name. Set the carrier to your faxing carrier. In the ‘Phone Num’ field, enter the fax number you want to dial. Click Apply.
Go to Recipients – your new recipient – Template.
You may want to modify the output so that the information maintains the look of a facsimile transmission rather than raw text output. Here in the "Message" section, you can enter the template and all important variables.
For example, you could structure the template like this:
FROM: <Your Name here>
TO: %Recipient%
%Comment1%
%Comment2%
%Comment3%
%Comment4%
SENT: %Date% %Time%
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBJECT: %Subject%
MESSAGE:
%Message%
When finished, click Apply.
This concludes the video tutorial on how to configure PageGate to deliver faxes with a local Microsoft Fax Server.
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