Multi-Tech Systems Multi-Tech FaxFinder FF820 - Manual (Page 195)

Appendix D: Example Systems
Multi-Tech Systems, Inc. FaxFinder Admin User Guide 195
Appendix D – 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.