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Sandeep or Bert,

I had a mainpine faxboard installed in an SBS server essentials. It accepts the incoming faxes OK but how do I send out faxes? can't find good instructions on this. How do I send a note I had made in Ac to another provider? Thanks for your help.

Rene

You need to add the shared fax printer to the client computers. It's pretty common for it to not show up with the add printer wizard.

On a Client Computer:
1. Go to Devices and Printers in the start menu
2. Choose Add a Network Printer
3. Likely it will not show up so choose "The Printer I want isn't listed."
4. Select a shared printer by name, type "\\YOUR_SERVER_NAME\\Fax"
e.g. mine would be \\luthraserver\fax

Sending the note would be the same as printing it. Print to the Fax printer and the wizard will pop up where you can specify a contact/phone number.

Thanks for the quick reply Sandeep. Will do.

Rene

As usual, he is exactly right. Of course, Sandeep has been using Mainpine boards for a while.

Make sure a couple of things on the server are set correctly:

You need to ensure that the Fax Service Manager is set up correctly with the IQFSP drivers. You can find it in a few places but best to use Fax Service Manager located in Administrative Tools. Once open, go to Devices and Providers and expand Devices. You only want to look at and edit the ones that have IQFSP in their names. It isn't quite intuitive that that the lines with Modem in their names aren't the ones you want. You can put a hint in description. Then in one of them, select properties and make sure Send Faxes is checked.



You want to make sure there is a fax printer shared in the Printers folder and it is shared. It is best to ensure that Listed in Directory is checked as well.


Always good to have at least 16 print drivers. (yes, some are redirected)
If you can't get it to work, you have a few options.

1. Sandeep can remote in and set it up.
2. I can remote in and set it up.
3. Support is excellent, and they can remote in and walk you through it.

Thanks Bert. Excellent advice as well. Nice screen shots. I should've probably included some.

As a side note for Rene, the reason why Bert has 2 IQFSP devices and 2 Fax Modems listed there is that he has the 2 line model. If you have the single line model which is the one in the recommended section, you should have 1 Fax Modem and 1 IQFSP Device listed. Make all modifications to the IQFSP device.

These things are workhorses. 2 Line Models should only be necessary if you are literally receiving faxes all day. They are amazing. My modem was never able to get over a 20 page fax. Always had issues with sending, receiving, etc. Fax boards are a different species. This thing can easily receive 100 page faxes without any issue.

You can really do a lot with these things. I have all incoming faxes optimized. They straightened, oriented-properly, optimized, and OCR'd when they arrive. Now, I don't have to hear about staff complaining that person A keeps sending the fax upside down.

I just like having one more part of the network in my server. It just seems natural. Faxes should come directly to the server.

UpDox is awesome as well. If I didn't use F.A.P., I would consider it strongly.

Lol everything comes directly to the server in your network. Faxes, emails, files, scans, etc. That's the way it should be.

If you get a ton of faxes, it might even be better to use a faxboard in conjunction with UpDox so you don't have to buy bundles.

True. I suppose I have said this a thousand times, but your post allows me to say it again. If you have AC and your billing software AND everything you just listed, then backing up the whole server or at least the data drive.

I say backup everything. Full image backup. You should be able to copy the files from the full image backup as well if that's all you need.

Can't hurt to do both.

Full image bare metal restore. Hell it even sounds good.

God bless you, Mr. Sandeep.

Sounds like a USMC war movie title. Just to hijack this incredibly long thread in another direction.

I think you are talking about Full Metal Jacket.

All hijacks welcome.

So how would you compare a "Full image bare metal restore" to a firefight in the jungle?

Both pretty harrowing?

Godspeed, Spider-Man.

Well, I found the setting. Amazing what a good night's sleep will do.

What was it called in the BIOS?

Virtualization Technology, but the other setting was right above it. And, it was enabled. I left it enabled. VT should be on by default.

Ha, yea. It's disabled for security reasons. Ever hear of the blue pill?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Pill_%28malware%29

I was close, "Intel Virtualization Technology" ha

Yikes! So, can I still get the rootkit? Rootkits are nasty. If you ever want to see 50 opposing view points on something, go on EE and tell them you have some viruses or worse, a rootkit.

How can one word be so opposite in helping and hurting technology.

Rootkit can just cause havoc with your computer.

But, if you root your smartphone, it works five times better.

Of course, there is the red pill.

It can be difficult to log into an SBS computer with non-admin privilegs. It's complicated. Not sure about Essentials.

I will say I installed it to VMWare. Gotta love the client backups. Somehow, it always finds it's way onto my domain, which is a big no no with SBS. Only one domain allowed.

That's another good thing about SBS 2011 Standard with Premium Add-on. You can run more than one domain. That's when it gets really interesting.

So, I ran eMedware on 2011 Essentials as an admin. Not as a user with non-admin privileges. It worked fine, but I don't know if it were the same thing.

Bert and Sandeep--

I now have SBS-E running with the newest 6.33 beta, and three "clients" in my test network. Runs fine.

I did all you said:
C: - operating system only
D: - Client backup (another hard drive -- there isn't room on the SSD for the back partition that SBS automatically installs, but I found a wizard that migrated that partition to another drive.)
E: - Programs, including AC and MEDWARE.
Now I find that after installing MEDWARE into the "company" partition and running it once as "administrator" it will run without admin privileges subsequently. So I no longer have to log in as anything but a normal user. So you were right all along, Bert - I have no clue what was going on in my system before, but it's fine now.

The system with SSD and Xeon CPU is remarkably fast, and even wireless to another machine by remote desktop, to contol a third machine by RD which is connected by Ethernet to the server is about as fast as connecting directly to the server!

The last hurdle is Quest lab. They have to install the lab connector, then I'm ready to go. I assume UpDox just installs their connector to SBS-E like it did to Win-7, but I haven't tried. If I can get them to come in Thursday, I'll be up and running this week!

Thanks for all your help and encouragement. This has been, and continues to be an interesting project.

There still are issues like remote Web access that I haven't addressed, but Remote Desktop seems to work well enough for now, and I'll figure that out eventually.

Backup works slick -- it is totally automatic.
All those other bells and whistles you talk about -- Exchange, SharePoint, fax boards and the like. I'm sure that they might be useful, and I might look at them in the future.

However, UpDox works fine for faxing, and until we have a more computer-savvy patient group, we won't need much in the way of electronic communication with them.

Tom

Excellent work. I'm glad you're enjoying the speed. I've been wanting to put an SSD in my server :P

What's wrong with RWA?

The cool thing about the backup is that it backups up every computer on the network. Something a lot of people skip over.

Fax boards are for the heavy users/larger practices. Just can't beat the price/performance ratio for those things.

That is incredible! The cool thing is that you found the wizard.

Wizards, wizards, wizards. Almost as important as DNS. Well, maybe more important.

DNS affects connectivity in all spheres of computing and networking. Not using a wizard will have you looking for the 800# to Microsoft.

Ditto that on the SSD.

Sandeep--

I don't know what is wrong with RWA -- I haven't installed this thing in my office yet (where we have a static IP address.) Maybe nothing wrong. Haven't tried.

I'm not really even sure what it is. Does it allow me to run AC on a remote client and access the main database? Is that really any faster than Remote Desktop? The neat thing about RD is that I am running it in a window in my remote client, so Dragon Naturally Speaking will actually work in the RD window -- it doesn't recognize it as an EMR, so I don't have to buy the Medical Edition.

Basically, RDP and RWA use the same type of connection, something which was slightly different in 2003. SBS 2011 has what it is termed a RD Gateway or Remote Desktop Gateway over which both RDP or now RDC for Remote Desktop Client and RWA allow access from remote computers

In 2003 and 2008, the name was RWW for Remote Web Workplace. With each successive server, the functionality became greater. With RWA, the functionality is more than ever before. RDP is simply a small application which allows use to log in remotely to your client computers remotely or even from within your network. RDP connects over HTTPS (port 443) to allow an extremely secure connection. Probably the most secure you will fine. So, RDP allows one to connect to a computer desktop only. RWA, on the other hand, logs in using HTTPS and requires that port 443 and 987 (SharePoint -- which you don't need to have) are open. This is to ensure you can access the company web page, which is SharePoint.

There is a huge difference between RWA and RDP. Remote Web Access will bring you to a web page where each user can access the server or any client (they have permission to access) directly from the site. You can get to all of these things from London if you want. You don't have to worry if the computer you are using has RDC 6.1 installed, although it comes with Windows 7.

The functionality is incredible. First, you can access all computers. You can access your email (if using Exchange) using Outlook Web Access. For the first time, you can access shared folders including redirected folders, which is ultra cool. Again, unlike P2P, you as the admin, can decide what permissions to give out. For instance, you could have a folder just for you. To get to the screen with all of this access you first have to log in with the same username and password as the user has on the network. For this reason, you will want to always use very strong passwords. Never allow your staff to choose their own passwords or you will get Patsbrady1.

RWA is just as fast as RDP and just as secure. The only place where it is slower is the initial login.

You can use a non-public certificate but then anyone remoting into it will need a matching certificate and/or accept the risk (which won't be a risk). While you do get a free certificate from Microsoft, I would highly suggest you purchase a public certificate so you can use your exact domain name and remote computers will bypass the certificate checkpoint. So, say your domain is Astoria.com. Then all you would need to do to access RWA would be to open a browser and type https://remote.astoria.com (if it uses the same login verbiage. They seem to change it every time. For me, it is https://domain_name/remote.

So, at home you could make a shortcut to https://remote.astoria.com. Clicking on it would bring you directly to web access.

The really cool thing about using a static IP (although I believe there is a workaround) and a certificate is that while you can access your web mail and SharePoint from RWA, you could also have three URLs on your desktop:

https://domain_name/remote for RWW/RWA, /owa for Outlook Web Access and :987 for SharePoint. Note the colon instead of the /forward slash due to its being a port. I simply click on any of these to get to my desired destination. Right below them I have RDC just to show you how close they are.

Now OWA and SharePoint wouldn't apply to you since you don't have them and, even if you did, they would be in the cloud anyway.

Two excellent resources for this stuff are:

Windows Small Business Server from TechNet

and

Susan Bradley's blog (she is considered the SBS Diva)

Sorry this is so long, but as you can tell, Sandeep and I are very passionate about SBS. After you cut your teeth with Essentials and you move to what will then be SBS 2013, including Exchange and SharePoint along with a non-SBS server, you will see why SBS is the best deal Microsoft ever came up with.

So, essentially, they can both allow access to your computers via RD Gateway, but RWA will allow your users a lot more options without your having to remote to their homes to set up RDC.

PS Since I haven't set up RWA yet either (I am on a VM and haven't set up my network yet) I had to steal a few tips from TechNet

PS: Your users can customize RWA, moving things around and adding/subtracting certain features. And, if you are worried about a particular employee you can, that's right, go to the server and take away their privileges. This can be done per computer or every computer.

Wow, superb post, Bert. Very thorough.

For Essentials, your own domain name isn't really necessary. Unless you already have a website, I'd stick with the free domain name and SSL certificate they give you. It's not like anyone else will be using it besides you. It will be something like https://yourname.remotewebaccess.com. Again, this is essentially for your personal use so need to go out and buy a domain name. Some people complain that it's a long name to type. Use that site in conjunction with a link shortner. https://bitly.com/ or http://tinyurl.com/ For example, https://bit.ly/tomastoria or http://tinyurl.com/tomastoria . Which are both shorter than https://remote.domainname.org. For Standard, it's kind of necessary with email, SharePoint, and RWA.

It just seems like an unnecessary cost with $50/year for the SSL Certificate and $2-15/year for a domain name for Essentials. Standard is a different story. Again, I tend to buy them 5 years at a time. That way, when it expires, I know it's time to upgrade. You also get a bulk discount.

Bert and Sandeep--

Thanks again. Much for me to digest.

I am the only one who will be working remote in my office, so I am going to have to think about how complex I want all this to get. I will set it up with Remote Desktop, because I am used to it, then move on to RWA when I have had time to draw a few breaths.

My goal has been to understand the basics of server/client network, and put in a more secure, and hopefully faster machine than I currently have (which is no slouch, though it is pretty thin by today's standards.) This goal appears to have been met.

I think this is about to happen, thanks to your tutoring. I have to coordinate with QWEST Labs before I can really fully deploy -- that may be a while before they get out here, but so far, they have been extremely helpful.

No one else in the office gives a rat's [censored] about computers, no one else is interested or has any reason to work remotely, and with UpDox, I think we have the portals we need to satisfy meaningless use -- thought most of my octogenarian patients are completely clueless about computer access to their records.

I'm pretty sure that the next generation of doctors is more involved with this sort of thing than I am -- but I want to prove to myself that just because I am 69 years old, I am not totally over the hill.

Tom Duncan.

Tom,

I understand, but don't talk yourself out of RWA. It's another learning thing. It runs through RD Gateway, the same service as RDC.

Once you have your domain name (I disagree with Sandeep on this -- I would purchase one so you can customize your domain name). Just enable RWA. If your domain name is tomastoria.org

then just put https://remote.tomastoria.org. That simple.

Let him try the free one first. There's no way that can be easier than getting a Windows Live ID. What's the point of the custom domain name and certificate with Essentials?

Since you figured out how to open port 3389. Opening port 443 shouldn't be much more difficult

Open the port and run the wizard.

RWA Setup:
http://youtu.be/QqOJXIclpZI?hd=1&t=4m25s

Hats off to you, Tom. I'm really impressed and glad that you went through with it. Just for that I'm going to be making a tutorial on how to do unattended installations of Amazing Charts. It'll work for P2P users too. But for server users, it will be deployed via GPO to all computers simultaneously. For P2P users, it will be a single click installation.

Sandeep,

I shared/installed the fax like you said but when I try to send a fax no wizard pops up for me to type in the fax number I want to send to...

Thanks.

Rene

Rene,

A few things. There are a few steps if you are on a domain with a fax board installed. It sounds as though you have done a few. If you have created a fax driver and shared it, then you are all set, because in order to create the fax driver you would have had to create it using UNC. \\Server_Name. OK, the steps.

1. Create the fax driver:

You would go to printers and devices, select Add, then local printer, then use \\server_name\fax name. Personally, I just use the word "fax." Share it out.



2. Add user accounts to fax and scan on server. I do not think you did this step. Under administrative tools --> Fax Server Manager --> Accounts, right-click Accounts and select New Account --> or use Action on the toolbar, which does the same thing. Then manually add or browse to a user account.



3. On your Start Menu, select Windows Fax and Scan. At the bottom right, it should say, "No fax accounts are configured."



4. With the Windows Fax and Scan window open, select New Fax, and you will see the following window, because it has not found or been connected to the fax server on your server. It should say, "Choose a fax modem or server."



5. In the next window, it will ask you to type the fax server location. The is where Microsoft completely tries to screw you up. Their example is \\mycopanyfax, which would lead any normal person to enter any one of combinations such as the name of your office or server name and fax name without a backwards slash. What they should have put there was \\server_name whereby you would enter your server name. So, enter your server name.



7. This can be the trickest part. Make sure you only type in the server name and do not add the fax modem name. It just knows to find the fax driver. This will bring you to a similar window where it allows you to choose a fax name. You can do this here or, of course, change it in properties later. I doubt you will have more than one fax driver, so I recommend "fax" no matter what it is named now.

8. Clicking OK, should bring up a fax window which should work for you. If you look at the main Windows Fax and Scan window, at the bottom right where it said, "No fax accounts are configured, it now says All fax accounts are accessible."

Happy faxing!

If you still have difficulty I am sure Sandeep or I would be more than happy to remote into your server and client to get it working.

Definitely follow that guide above. Fantastic, Bert. We should probably turn that into a guide lol.

Just post back here and we can remote in and show you how to set it up. Mainpine support is pretty good too if you want to contact them.

Btw, if you are using XP and it's not working, I know why.

Rene,

I would be interested in seeing if you have had any sucess with faxing from your desktop.

Bert,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I apologize for not following up. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to work on the computers since my last email but will do so this weekend. I know a little bit about computers but most definitely not a pro. (I used a part time IT person who installed the hardware but I am not sure he knows the software that much either). After tinkering with it 2 weekends ago, I was able to fax out from the server but not from from the workstations. So for now, the faxes comes in automatically through the server but we fax out manually. Is your offer to remote in still good? That sounds real tempting...Perhaps if I can't get it to work inspite of your detailed instructions?
Thanks!

Rene

Sure, it is. How 'bout if Sandeep is in agreement, I give it a shot first, then if I am unsuccessful, he can follow-up.

Of course, I have confidence that you will figure it out.

We'll shoot for the weekend if not.

Just a little tip after you're done configuring everything:

HP has a test faxing service: 1-888-hpfaxme
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00259105&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us

Send a fax and they'll send back a confirmation.

Thanks. Will use that service too!

Rene

Just out of curiosity. Are you using 32 Bit Clients? Windows XP?

You're in good hands with Bert. Let me know how it goes.