NDC comm user manual CompuFax Installation, Overview

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CompuFax Installation

1.1 Overview

Several configuration decisions should be made prior to installation of the CompuFax product. This overview has been provided for your convenience and may be used as a guideline in making those decisions. Fax modem hardware may be installed on one or more VAX or Alpha AXP computer nodes. Multiple fax modems may be connected to a single system or distributed over several nodes. Nodes with attached fax modems are referred to as Full Device Server nodes. In addition, you may elect to have other systems on a network or cluster use CompuFax to transmit files. The other systems may be configured as Remote Fax Server systems. Although Remote Fax Server systems do not have actual fax modem devices connected, they are part of the CompuFax system.

Full Device Server---the main function of the software is to transmit faxes via one or more fax modems to their destinations.

Remote Fax Server---the software is designed to send faxing information and fax commands to the Full Device Server node, from which faxes are then transmitted. On a multi-node system, prior to installation, you will need to establish which systems are to be Full Device Server nodes and which systems will be the Remote Fax Server nodes. In addition, it is necessary to distinguish VAX from Alpha AXP systems, when loading CompuFax software, as their executable files are unique (although functionally the same.) Typically, systems capable of higher traffic volumes would be assigned as the Full Device Server nodes. The decision of how many fax modems to allocate depends primarily on how many fax lines will be required to handle the estimated fax traffic.

The CompuFax installation procedures contain both hardware and software installation. The Hardware Installation section contains details on configuring the fax modem device(s), while the Software Installation section includes specific instructions for loading the software. The following sections provide explicit instructions pertinent to each operation.

The CompuFax installation procedures are identical, whether you are installing the VAX product or the Alpha AXP product, although there are distinct procedures depending on whether you are loading Full Device Server or Remote Fax Server software.

For limited evaluation purposes, the CompuFax software may be installed without a fax modem device, which means that faxes cannot be transmitted. However, the user interface features may be tested without the actual hardware. The fax hardware may be installed at a later date, if desired. If you are planning only to evaluate the product without the use of a modem device, please proceed to the section entitled Section 1.3.1.

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