Technical information

FAX FUNDAMENTALS
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Note
Starting with version 6.0, VSI-FAX offers a new LanFax™ Windows Client with enhanced usability to replace VSI-
FAX Windows Client. VSI-FAX Windows Client remains available on the CD-ROM as an unsupported client.
The LanFax Windows Client is a front end to the VSI-FAX Server that provides an easy way for you to use VSI-FAX
on your desktop. The LanFax Windows Client lets you: send faxes, save drafts of outgoing faxes, view sent faxes
through an Outbox, view received faxes through an Inbox, manage phonebooks and customize cover pages.
Using the LanFax Windows Client, you can send faxes using one of two methods:
Send a fax directly from the LanFax Windows Client
Send a fax from an application that allows you to print on LanFax Windows Client Printer ("print to fax")
See also
Refer to the VSI-FAX LanFax Windows Client help for more information on installing and using the LanFax
Windows Client.
Outlook Client
The Outlook Client provides advanced desktop faxing capabilities for Microsoft Outlook and Exchange users.
The Outlook Client includes a custom form and fax status applet that tightly integrates with the Microsoft
Outlook messaging client
Use your Outlook Contacts folder or Personal Address Book to store your fax recipient information
Faxes are sent directly to the fax server via your network; they are not routed through the Exchange server.
Faxes are sent directly to the fax server via your network; they are not routed through the Exchange server.
vfx commands
The simplest way to send a fax is to log on to the VSI-FAX server, open a command shell, and enter a vfx
command. For example, to fax my_file.txt to local fax number 555-1212, enter:
vfx -n 555-1212 my_file.txt
Note
If you do not specify a device name, the default device will be used.
See also
For more information about vfx commands, see Basic Fax Server Administration
.
Autosend directory
The autosend directory is an advanced feature that allows you to send faxes just by placing special files (i.e., VSI-
FAX tag and batch files) in this directory.
Receiving faxes
Receiving faxes is quite different from sending them. Consider that when you send a fax, you begin with various
pieces of information, then you rasterize (image) that information into a document that can be transmitted over a
telephone line. However, once the document is imaged, it ceases to be anything other than pixels at various gray-
scale color depths (it no longer contains anything that can be understood as human-readable data).
Of course, when you receive a fax, the reverse is true. All you know for certain is that a particular fax device (i.e., a
modem or channel on a fax board) answered a telephone call and received a fax (i.e, a rasterized file). So while the
person sending the fax intends for it to be read by a particular person, in most cases the fax server doesn't have any
idea who that person is.
VSI-FAX handles this situation by creating a default inbox for all incoming faxes. It uses the only user account it is
certain exists on all systems (user vsifax). Therefore, until you change these settings, the default behavior is that all
incoming (received) faxes are placed in user vsifax's inbox as shown in this figure: