Multi-Tech Systems FF820, FF420, FF120, FF220 Appendix C Example Systems, Sample FaxFinder Systems

Appendix C: Example Systems

Appendix C – Example Systems

Sample FaxFinder Systems

The FaxFinder system handles faxes in a non-conventional way. A regular fax machine is a centralized resource. The FaxFinder system decentralizes fax functions throughout a network of PCs served by the FaxFinder unit and by an email server in a common Ethernet network. Here we will give you the big picture of how the FaxFinder Server unit and the FaxFinder Client software can deliver this convenient functionality.

To show what you must do to implement FaxFinder functionality, we use a two fictitious companies as examples in this manual. The first “Acme99, Inc.,” is a small manufacturing firm that we describe in this chapter. We show, in this small sample system, the parameters that must be set in any FaxFinder system, both for the server and for clients. The second fictitious example entity is “Rocky Mountain Construction, Inc.,” a housing developer. References to this company will appear in later chapters of this manual.

A regular fax machine typically operates in a common office area and is shared by multiple parties. Usually no individual’s fax traffic is heavy enough to justify a dedicated personal fax machine. Commonly, many parties go to the same fax machine to send and receive on a single ordinary phone line.

Compared to the centralized and non-private nature of faxing with an ordinary fax machine, the FaxFinder system offers fax users decentralized functionality, autonomy, and privacy. For outgoing faxes, the conversion of documents into electronic fax files is now done by FaxFinder Client software (that resides on the PC of each user) working with the print output of any application program. Faxes can be sent to multiple parties with one mouse click. Outgoing faxes can consist of multiple documents and come from different application programs (word processors, graphics programs, spreadsheets, etc.).

For incoming faxes, the FaxFinder system works differently in “Automated Routing Mode” than in “Manual Mode.”

In Automated Routing Mode, each client on the FaxFinder network has a private phone number for receiving faxes. Available extension numbers on the PBX allow each FaxFinder unit to serve numerous clients from a single phone line. The FaxFinder transforms each incoming fax message into a graphics file and routes it, as an email attachment, to the intended recipient.

In Manual Routing Mode, all incoming faxes go to one or more fax attendants who then forward the faxes on to their intended recipients. (A separate fax attendant can be assigned to each of the FaxFinder’s fax modems. Or, alternatively, a single attendant could handle fax traffic from all of the modems.) In Manual Routing Mode, each of the FaxFinder’s modems has its own separate POTS line. For example, a 2-port FaxFinder unit (an FF220) could be connected to four separate POTS lines and have a separate attendant for each. Client users on the system could be divided into two groups. Each group would have its own fax number for receiving incoming faxes and each group would have its own attendant. In either mode, the fax recipients can be at any accessible email address, inside or outside of the local network.

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