Symantec WinFax Pro Problems

[owensdj]

I'm trying to figure out why WinFax Pro 10.02 5-user is having major problems on a network. The network has 2 XP Pro desktop machines and 1 Win98 laptop. One of the XP desktop machines is the host and sends/receives the faxes for the other computers. The XP desktop machines are fairly new Dell towers with P4 processers with 256MB and 512MB(on host/server) of memory. The Win98 laptop is a fairly new Dell with a P3 and 256MB of memory.

Sometimes WinFax will lock up. Sometimes the WinFax client machines are unable to fax to the fax printer on the host machine. The users have experienced other issues. WinFax has been completely wiped out on all machines and then reinstalled, but the problems come back after a few weeks of use.

Anybody with WinFax Pro experience have any suggestions on making WinFax more reliable? Also, the XP desktop machine that's the fax Controller/host for the rest of the network is also used locally by the users to send faxes. Does that cause any problems?

 

[Bglad]

I've had the same problems but I've found a few tweaks to minimize it.

First disable any sleep or hibernation on the host machine. Then assign static ip's to your machines and manually set the ip of the host in setup of each client so that they don't have to scan each time. Put a shortcut to the controller in your startup folder on the host machine so it starts with windows and make sure the host is started on the network before the clients. Remove the controller from the startup folder on the client machines so it does not start with windows. It will start itself when you go to innitiate a fax.

It still seems to have trouble when the client loses contact with the host or vice versa but now this only happens once per day when one or the other machines is shut down first. I've been able to live with this.

Oh, and of course, make sure your router or firewall is not interfering and causing your problems.

 

[bsdavid]

Please tell me that your not using a software base modem or a winmodem on the host.Also make sure your modem is install on a standard IRQ setting.

 

[owensdj]

bsdavid, that's a good question. I wouldn't be suprised if it is a software modem. I believe it's some type of Conexiant(sp?) modem that came with the Dell Dimension computer. Why would using a software or Winmodem rather than a controller-based modem make a difference?

 

[bsdavid]

Winfax is a good program but it is pickey about modem.It will not preform well with a modem that is not configure right.The closer your modem is set to a standard hardware base modem,the better winfax will preform.
Most software base modems are not up to the demans of faxing.If your modem is not set to a standard irq of 3,4,5,you may have problems of sending and receiving.For a host computer-with more demand place on it,I would recomend a hardware base modem.
Also do you have a static ip address for the host?If not,give it one.Having a static ip address go a long way to fixing most host problems.