How to deploy GFI FAXmaker for Exchange/SMTP 14

GFI FAXmaker has a very flexible SMTP based architecture enabling you to deploy the fax server in a way that best suits your network and type of mail server. You can also choose whether you want to install GFI FAXmaker on your mail server or whether you want to install it on a dedicated machine.

NOTE 1: For Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, you must always deploy GFI FAXmaker on a dedicated machine.

NOTE 2: Since GFI FAXmaker does not require a lot of resources it can run in the background on your mail server machine. It is however often considered good practice to separate your mail server from fax device hardware such as Brooktrout cards or ISDN cards. The choice will probably depend on the size of your network.

It is recommended that for smaller networks, GFI FAXmaker is deployed on the mail server, whilst for larger networks GFI FAXmaker should be deployed on a dedicated machine. This separate machine does not need to be exclusive to GFI FAXmaker.

How GFI FAXmaker works with Exchange 2000/2003/2007

If you have Exchange 2000, 2003 or 2007 as your mail server you can choose to install GFI FAXmaker on the mail server machine itself or on a separate machine.

Figure 1 - GFI FAXmaker installed on the Exchange 2000/2003/2007 server

When installed directly on mail servers running Microsoft Exchange 2007, GFI FAXmaker will automatically setup ‘Foreign’ and ‘Receive’ connectors to capture fax requests. When installed directly on mail servers running MS Exchange Server 2000/2003, GFI FAXmaker uses a ‘sink’ to capture fax requests.

Following the installation, no further configuration is required. The connectors and sinks will automatically forward all fax messages to GFI FAXmaker.

Figure 2 - GFI FAXmaker installed on a dedicated server

GFI FAXmaker can also be installed on a dedicated machine which is not running MS Exchange Server. To achieve this in environments where mail servers are running on Exchange server 2000 and 2003 you must:

1. Install GFI FAXmaker on the fax server machine (which will require the IIS SMTP service to be installed). The fax server software and a sink for the IIS SMTP service will be automatically installed.

2. Run the GFI FAXmaker set-up again this time on the Exchange server. This will create a standard SMTP connector, which will forward fax requests to the GFI FAXmaker fax server. Alternately, you can create an Exchange SMTP connector manually as described in ‘The Exchange 2000/2003 SMTP connector’ chapter.

To install GFI FAXmaker on a dedicated machine (i.e. machine which is not running MS Exchange Server software) in an environment where email services are handled through Exchange Server 2007:

1. Install GFI FAXmaker on the target machine.

2. On your Exchange Server 2007 manually setup the ‘Send’ and ‘Receive’ connectors which will relay fax queries to GFI FAXmaker. For more information on how to achieve this refer to ‘The Exchange 2007 connectors’ chapter.

Installing GFI FAXmaker on a dedicated machine retains Microsoft Exchange Server standard setup – no changes to active directory are made and no custom software will be running on Exchange server.

How it works at the client side

All faxes sent by users from the GFI FAXmaker Fax Message form or the New Message form of Microsoft Outlook are sent via Microsoft Outlook using the MAPI format [FAX:<number>]. The standard SMTP connector (which is created by GFI FAXmaker during set-up and is a completely standard Exchange connector) forwards the faxes via SMTP to the GFI FAXmaker Fax server.

How GFI FAXmaker works with Exchange 5.5

Figure 3 - GFI FAXmaker installed on a dedicated machine if using Exchange Server 5.5

GFI FAXmaker should be installed on a dedicated machine in installations where Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 is being used. This dedicated machine must be running Windows 2000 or higher and the IIS SMTP service. You must also create a routing rule to forward all mail sent to the domains faxmaker.com and smsmaker.com to the GFI FAXmaker Fax server. For information on how to create this rule refer to the ‘Configuring Exchange Server 5.5 for faxing’ chapter.

The GFI FAXmaker fax server receives the faxes via SMTP. Through the use of a sink it captures the fax, converts it to fax format and faxes it. Subsequently, it will mail back a delivery report to the user. The same principle applies to SMS messages.

NOTE: If Active Directory is being used, you must ensure that the email address of each GFI FAXmaker user is provided in Active Directory. Exchange Server 5.5 does not do this automatically. If you don’t use Active Directory you have to configure the name and email address of the GFI FAXmaker users.

How it works at the client side

All faxes sent by users from the GFI FAXmaker Fax Message form are sent via Microsoft Outlook using the SMTP format number@faxmaker.com. If the user wants to send a fax using the New Message form of Microsoft Outlook, the user has to address the email to number@faxmaker.com. Exchange 5.5 is then configured to forward mails sent to the faxmaker.com domain to the GFI FAXmaker fax server via SMTP.

How GFI FAXmaker works with Lotus Notes/Domino

If you have Lotus Notes or Domino you can choose to install GFI FAXmaker on the mail server machine itself or on a dedicated machine.

Figure 4 - GFI FAXmaker installed on the Lotus Notes machine

In either case GFI FAXmaker retrieves faxes via a dedicated POP3 mailbox. You will need to create a dedicated mailbox and configure GFI FAXmaker to retrieve the faxes from that mailbox. For more information refer to ‘Configuring GFI FAXmaker for Lotus Notes’ chapter.

Figure 5 - GFI FAXmaker installed on a separate machine

If Active Directory is in use, you must ensure that the email address of each GFI FAXmaker user is supplied in Active Directory. If you don’t use Active Directory you have to configure the name and email address of the GFI FAXmaker users.

How it works on the client side

All faxes sent by users from the GFI FAXmaker Fax Message form are sent via the email client to the dedicated fax mailbox. If the user wants to send a fax using the new message form of the Lotus Notes client, the user has to address the email to number@FAX. Lotus Notes will forward the mail to a POP3 mailbox. This “fax mailbox” must be dedicated to the fax server. GFI FAXmaker will download the email, convert it to fax format and fax it. Then it will mail back a delivery report to the user. The same principle is applied to SMS messages.

How GFI FAXmaker works with an SMTP/POP3 server

If you have an SMTP/POP3 server such as VPOP3 or Mdaemon you have to choose if you want GFI FAXmaker to collect faxes to be faxed via POP3 or if you want to configure your mail server to forward the faxes via SMTP to the GFI FAXmaker server.

If you choose to forward the faxes via SMTP then GFI FAXmaker must be installed on a separate machine (see figure 3). If you use an SMTP/POP3 server you can install GFI FAXmaker on the mail server machine it self (See figure 4). This however does not allow users to send faxes directly from their email client.

If Active Directory is in use, ensure that the email address of each GFI FAXmaker user is provided in Active Directory. If you don’t use Active Directory you have to configure the name and email address of the GFI FAXmaker users.

How it works on the client side

If GFI FAXmaker is configured to retrieve faxes via POP3, all faxes sent by users from the GFI FAXmaker Fax Message form are sent via the email client to the dedicated fax mailbox. GFI FAXmaker will download the email, convert it to fax format and fax it. Then it will mail back a delivery report to the user. The same principle is applied to SMS messages.

If you have configured your mail server to forward all faxes via SMTP to the separately installed GFI FAXmaker fax server, then all faxes sent by users from the GFI FAXmaker Fax Message form will be sent via the email client using the SMTP format number@faxmaker.com. If the user wants to send a fax from their email client, then address the email to number@faxmaker.com. The SMTP/POP3 mail server is then configured to forward mails sent to the faxmaker.com domain to the GFI FAXmaker fax server via SMTP. The GFI FAXmaker fax server receives the faxes via SMTP and using a sink captures the fax, converts it to fax format and faxes it out. Then it will mail back a delivery report to the user. The same principle is applied to SMS messages.

How GFI FAXmaker works with multiple mail servers

Figure 6 - GFI FAXmaker with multiple mail servers

If you have a large network with multiple mail servers that are independent from each other, you can configure your mail servers to forward faxes from all mail servers via SMTP (using the same methods as described above for each type of mail server). This enables you to provide fax services to users on several mail servers with a single GFI FAXmaker server.

How GFI FAXmaker works with an ISP hosted mail server

Figure 7 – GFI FAXmaker with hosted mail server

If you have a small network and don’t run your own mail server or have a hosted mail server setup, you can still deploy GFI FAXmaker. You however need to install the IIS SMTP service on the GFI FAXmaker server. The GFI FAXmaker client software will forward all faxes directly to the GFI FAXmaker Fax server via SMTP.

The GFI FAXmaker fax server receives the faxes via SMTP. Through the user of a sink, the fax is captured, converted it to fax format and faxes out. The same principle is applied to SMS messages. Delivery reports and inbound faxes will be forwarded to the user’s email address at the ISP mail server. Because of the small size of faxes files and relatively small amount of email traffic created by GFI FAXmaker, this will not pose a significant overhead on your internet link.

How it works on the client side

All faxes sent by users from the GFI FAXmaker client will be sent to the SMTP format number@faxmaker.com. The GFI FAXmaker client will know the name of the fax server machine and submit the fax directly to the GFI FAXmaker server. The user cannot send a fax from his email client.