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When planning your clients' Small Business Server
networks, you need to give careful thought to their fax server software
needs. Why? Because fax server software is a pretty tricky area that
bridges the "Worlds" of Small Business Server, modems, device
drivers, telephone lines, client software... and I almost forgot... stingy
small business clients that want to remain in denial that their companies
are still so "fax-dependent".
In order to assess the number of modem ports required for
the Small Business Server network's Fax Server software, and whether or
not modems can be shared across applications, consider the following Fax
Server software planning tips: |
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If your clients are
incurring a moderate to heavy daily fax use (over 50 faxes a day),
don’t commingle Remote Access Server and Fax Server software
hardware devices. (If your clients are serious about either
application, Remote Access Server or Fax Server software, don't let
them "go cheap" on this.)
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If your clients
utilize analog dial-up to connect to their ISP, don’t mix Remote
Access Server and Fax Server software hardware devices in the same
modem pool.
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If your clients are
fax “power” users, they can use up to four phone lines and modems
dedicated to nothing but Fax Server software (i.e. independent of
Remote Access Server functions).
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Look at inbound fax
calls. How will the Small Business Server 4.5 system be able to tell
the difference between inbound Remote Access Server and Fax Server
software calls on the same analog line and modem? Unless the
selected hardware supports adaptive answer, which can
distinguish between inbound Remote Access Server and Fax Server
software calls, dedicate one or more inbound modems for Fax Server
software. Even if the modem supports adaptive answer, you can tremendously
simplify installation and ongoing support by keeping Remote Access
Server-allocated devices separate from Fax Server software-allocated
devices.
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Consider outbound Fax Server software calls. In the
event your clients will be sending a large volume of both inbound and
outbound faxes (over 50 faxes a day), consider having more than one
fax modem. In this scenario, you could also allocate one modem for
inbound Fax Server software and one for outbound Fax Server software
traffic.
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