Software Release Notice Version 7.0

Transcription

1 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 1 Software Release Notice Version 7.0 with commitment comes success Software version msxfax XP 7.0 October, 2004

2 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 2 Software Notice (SRN) Copyright 1996 to 2004 Better Network Services Group Pty Ltd, all rights reserved. Better Network Services Group Pty Ltd (BNS Group) ABN The software described in this Guide is supplied under a license agreement and may only be used in accordance with that agreement. msxfax-lite, msxfax msxfax xp, and Enotify-AI are trademarks or Registered Trademarks of Better Network Services Group Pty Limited (BNS Group). Other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Trademark acknowledgements: Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation Inc. Exchange 2000 Server is a Trademark of Microsoft Corporation Inc. Exchange Server 2003 is a Trademark of Microsoft Corporation Inc. Windows, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP are registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation Inc. Sportster & Sportster Messagemodem V90 are trademarks of US Robotics Inc. Acrobat is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. Netcomm and intra are trademarks of Netcomm Australia Eicon and Diva Server and trademarks of Eicon Networks Inc.

3 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 3 Table of Contents 1 Software Release Notice Summary of enhancements in version Functions removed in version More detail on Security Group fax access controls Fax Server Access Controls using Security Groups 6 3 More details - Dialing Rules and Least Cost Routing (LCR) Introduction Least Cost Routing (LCR) msxfax XP Setup routines Dialing Rules Dialing Rules Level 1 - Exceptions Dialing Rules Level 2 International Dialing Rules Level 3 Local Calls Dialing Rules Level 4 Long Distance Dialing Rules Level 5 Absolute number (Freeform) USA example showing 2 area codes (781 and 617) in Boston Other facilities of dialing rules and LCR Build a list of remote fax servers Build a list of fax number masks Build a list of test fax numbers Request a remote dialing rules view from remote fax servers Delete a Dialing Rule View Test Dialing Rules 17

4 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 4 1 Software Release Notice 1.1 Summary of enhancements in version 7.0 BNS Group is committed to ongoing enhancements of msxfax XP for Microsoft Exchange. BNS Group has been developing and selling Microsoft based fax solutions since Version 7.0 of msxfax technology has focused around specific needs of large enterprise customers and Hosted Exchange Service Providers. msxfax XP has been attractive to large customers because it does not extend the schema or impact on the Exchange infra-structure in any way. BNS is continuing to provide value added services to Microsoft s technology platform: Windows Server and Exchange Server allowing customers to gain significant benefits from their investments in Microsoft technology. The following is a summary of changes and enhancements which can be found in version 7.0: Tested on Windows Server 2003 in addition to Windows 2000 Server family. Tested on Microsoft Small Business Server Tested on Exchange 2003 SP1. Tested in functional Windows 2000/2003 forests. Tested in child domains and parent/root domains. Added dialing rules and least cost routing - including provisions for multiple local area codes in the USA. User authentication/access controls now supports a Security Group called Fax Enabled in Active Directory (AD). Cover sheet distribution to all fax servers in the enterprise can be performed via . A maintenance password has been added to allow that to happen. Customers can set up an Exchange Distribution Group of all msxfax XP mailboxes in the enterprise to send updated cover sheets. Rolled up registry settings for AD Performance tuning into Console property page settings.

5 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 5 Performance for large networks and Hosted Exchange Service Providers supporting many thousands of fax numbers, now introduces a high performance cache to reduce hits on Active Directory Global Catalog servers. Abort broadcast now included in Console. Rectified occasional error with msxpop3verify service exception error now fixed. Fax Sent Confirmations can now optionally include the first page or all pages of the fax image as it was transmitted back to the user in the Fax Server Confirmation message. Reports Truncation bug has been fixed. Included support to manipulate the DDI value received from the network to strip or insert leading digits to cater for different implementations between ISDN network providers. Telstra Australia use 8 digits no area code, Optus Australia use 10 digits inclusive of area code. Management Aid to Active Directory (MAAD Tool) upgraded to work with Windows Server Cover sheets can now be specified by the user using the CS#coversheet.rtf command in the Outlook memo or applications can send the command in message body. Render to Outlook upgraded to include a configurable to address for support issues. msxfax database file can now be compressed. A new database can also be created should the need arise. Code base has been primed to support Eicon Diva Server analogue cards. BNS conducted detailed tests on Eicon Diva Server analogue boards providing valuable feedback to Eicon Europe. msxfax XP version 7.1 will support Eicon analogue cards. 1.2 Functions removed in version 7.0 Removed tracing of processes. Tracing of processes does not provide the level of detail found in log files for each process. BNS decided to remove this because it no longer had value to trouble shoot or daily management of the fax server. BNS has added a high level activity summary for outgoing and incoming faxes to provide administrators with visual contact of activity flowing through the fax server. This is visible on the console. Of course, the log files provide absolute detail as usual. Customers with TAPI based technology will not be able to view multi-channel activity. However, customers with the new Eicon Diva Server analogue cards will be able to view line based activity via the Eicon Activity monitor providing real time line activity. More details follow next page!

6 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 6 2 More detail on Security Group fax access controls 2.1 Fax Server Access Controls using Security Groups Prior to release 7.0 of msxfax XP an administrator could only nominate selected users to send a fax using the Notes field keyword called [FaxEnabled]. This is fully described in the next section. Version 7.0 of msxfax introduced a new method of allowing administrators to nominate who is authorized to send a fax. This method uses group membership from Active Directory as follows: Customers who elect to use Group Membership to control access to send faxes and have multiple domains, must take care to understand the entire solution and how it fits into a global enterprise.

7 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 7 Change the DC=child, DC=parentdomain,DC=com to reflect what domain this fax server is located in. As can be seen from the above example, we have a domain called Americas.test.com. In the example shown above Americas.test.com you would change the value to:

8 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 8 Click save these values. Double click again on Global Fax Server Permissions, navigate back to the Active Directory tab. Click the Check Group button to verify that msxfax XP can connect to Active Directory and read the Group information. Note: If your Active Directory Domain name is only a parent root domain eg: TEST.COM then you would change the value to the example shown below

9 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 9 3 More details - Dialing Rules and Least Cost Routing (LCR) 3.1 Introduction Dialing rules and Least Cost Routing (LCR) is turned on in the Messenger Properties. Dialing rules and LCR allow administrators to define rules on msxfax XP fax servers version 7.0 or better to: Route international faxes to another msxfax XP fax server in another country to take advantage of lower rates. Specify specific rules to dial prefixes and strip digits from fax numbers. Manage long distance calls Specify a rule which defines a number of area codes which are considered to be local area codes. Dialing rules allow you precise control of outbound faxing including deferring faxes to certain times of the day or their priority. 3.2 Least Cost Routing (LCR) LCR is available at all levels. Any message which is actioned by a rule containing a LCR routing instruction will be stamped so that the receiving msxfax XP fax server will not attempt perform further LCR operations. A fax which is least cost routed will be notified to the sender s address. The LCR engine uses SMTP protocols to send the message on behalf of the sender. Therefore, the msxfax XP fax server responsible for this message will then send fax sent or fax failed confirmations directly to the sender s address.

10 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server msxfax XP Setup routines msxfax XP Setup places telephony values in the registry which are subsequently used by Dialing rules and Least Cost Routing (LCR). These values include: Country code, Area code(s), International dial prefix, Long distance code prefix. 3.4 Dialing Rules Dialing rules provides a simple but powerful rules engine to allow the administrator to define the prefixes and rules to be applied to certain fax number destinations. msxfax XP employs a hierarchical rules engine to easily understand the concepts and abilities of the technology. Faxes prepared in Outlook and other applications ultimately create an entry in the msxfax XP queue (database table). msxfax XP s dispatcher processes faxes off the queue and if activated will follow the dialing rules and LCR instructions. Historically, most telephony systems were implemented in similar ways to handle international, long distance and local calls. Nowadays, with increased competition,

11 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 11 an ever increasing de-regulated telecommunications industry, increased populations and consolidation or expansion of local area codes; msxfax XP provides the tools to manage most of the common requirements for public and private PBX prefix and suffix handling and number presentation. Least cost routing instructions can be applied at any level Dialing Rules Level 1 - Exceptions Rules are applied from level 1 to level 5. Level 1 rules are rules you create to specify any specific matches on Country, Area codes/numbers which are not covered by lower layer rule sets. Rule 1 above shows an example of an exception. Outlook users may have defined their local area code as (02). The correct setting should be 2 without the zero. This rule will handle the condition by stripping the country code and allowing the fax server to dial the presented number.

12 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 12 This rule requires only the country code to be stripped because the user has supplied the number inclusive of long distance code Dialing Rules Level 2 International Level 2 deals with International numbers because these are easy to indentify because the Country code in the number is different to that contained in the local fax server settings. Rule 2 above shows the reserved name International automatically created by msxfax XP when dialing rules is turned on. This rule is the next logical hierarchical rule to be applied to the number.

13 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 13 The International rule does not strip the country code and prefixes the number with the international dial prefix Dialing Rules Level 3 Local Calls Level 3 deals with local calls. Local calls are determined by local area codes in the number string which match the rule pattern. msxfax XP setup stores the local area code(s) in the registry allowing a level 3 rule to be defined when you turn on Dialing Rules and LCR. Telephone companies are combining many local area codes and advising customers that they are now considered to be eligible and charged as a local call. As such there is no long distance code required for these numbers. msxfax XP allows customers to define an alternate substring. Example: Area codes in the USA of 781, 782 and 783 are considered to be a local call and no long distance code is required. String pattern for the rule would be ^1( ). the string pattern. The full stop is part of Rule 3 above is automatically created by msxfax when dialing rules are turned on. The rule is created to handle the local area code(s) defined during the setup of msxfax XP Dialing Rules Level 4 Long Distance Since rules are applied from level 1 to level 5, the previous levels have dealt with Exceptions, International and local areas. Therefore, by elimination there can only be long distance or a freeform number encoded into the Number portion with no country or area code. Typically all long distance codes require a single digit such as 1 or 0 to signal that the number is a long distance number. Rule 4 above is automatically created by msxfax when dialing rules are turned on. The rule is created to handle calls to other area codes in the country.

14 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server Dialing Rules Level 5 Absolute number (Freeform) Level 5 rule will generally be applied to freeform addresses which encode the absolute dial string (from a user perspective) into the number portion of the fax destination (ie: Country code and area code fields in the database are blank). Applying rules at this level may be appropriate if customers have connections to a PABX where a digit must be dialed to obtain a line. The rule may be as simple as: Pattern =. Prepend a USA example showing 2 area codes (781 and 617) in Boston The 1 st rule deals with the exceptions. This customer has a large msxfax XP server in London. Any fax from Boston to the UK will be routed via the fax server in London over the WAN. Rule 2: International numbers will be handled in accordance with standard dialing rules. Rule 3: manages the local area codes (no long distance digit required). Rule 4: Long distance calls will be controlled by this rule. Rule 5: any other number will be dialed as is.

15 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server Other facilities of dialing rules and LCR Build a list of remote fax servers This is simply a list of msxfax XP fax servers in your enterprise which is used for administrative purposes. An IP address or DNS host names can be defined Build a list of fax number masks This is simply a list of msxfax XP fax servers in your enterprise which is used for administrative purposes.

16 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 16 This is a reference list which you can build to suit your organization. The Fax Number Mask is used when defining rules. The Fax Number Mask can be selected as the Fax Phone Number Pattern when defining dialing rules. The above examples are: ^ = at the start of the fax number 61= Australia With either a 2 or 3 or 7 or 8 in the area code Followed a full stop = any other series of digits that follow. ^ = at the start of the fax number 1= USA With either a 781 or 782 or 783 in the area code Followed a full stop = any other series of digits that follow. These examples can be used to define dialing rules to determine if long distance prefixes need to be dialed Build a list of test fax numbers This is simply a list of fax numbers which can be selected when performing tests via this interface. It is important that Country code followed by area code then number is defined as a single string. Above example shows 61=Australia, 2=NSW/ACT = the fax number.

17 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server Request a remote dialing rules view from remote fax servers The list of Fax Server IP addresses (or DNS host names) defined in the Build a List of Remote Fax Servers option is presented in this function. Select any remote fax server to review its dialing rules. Press Send Request. msxfax uses SMTP protocols to exchange information with remote fax servers Delete a Dialing Rule View Remote fax server views can be removed by right clicking on the Dialing Rules under the Remote Fax Server Views and selecting Delete a Dialing Rule View. This simply removes the view from which has been established Test Dialing Rules The list of Test Fax Numbers defined earlier can be selected from this function.

18 msxfax xp for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 Server 18 Nominate the test fax number inclusive of country, and area codes which is to be tested against rules at a nominated fax server. Select Run Test. Results are shown including the priority that the fax will have and the dial string which the fax server will use.