Hello! I apologize about the very basic questions which I am sure most of you know intrinsicly, but for some reason I am having a hard time grasping faxing in the 3CX system.
I am planning for a new 3CX install on a new Windows 2012 R2 server. We have an analog key phone system now and our old server has a Mainpine fax board with GFI Faxmaker software that handled the inbound and outbound faxing through our computers. Manual faxes dial straight out as normal.
I would move the fax board over to the new server, but it is a standard profile used in a tower server and the new server is a rack mount and it will not fit. So I am trying to plan out how faxing is going to work and what I do or do not need to make everyone happy and functional.
We are running 6 analog lines, 5 voice and 1 dedicated fax (no SIP Trunks), so I have planned for two Patton Gateways (since they only make them up to 4 FXO) to handle the lines coming into the network/3CX system. I gather from the documentation that the 3CX system can function to handle the incomming faxes to email just like the GFI faxmaker software did.
However, I am stuck on the outbound faxing. We are used to faxing from both the computer and manual fax machines as needed. It is not 100% clear to me:
1) If I get a Patton with FXS ports and hook up a fax machine directly to the FXS port, is that all I need to do to send manual outbound faxes (other than some configuring/routing of the lines in the Patton or 3CX system)?
2) To send faxes via computer, the GFI Faxmaker software processes our emails and prepares them for fax transmission. Per the manual: GFI FaxMaker: Resolves and formats the number to dial
Converts content to fax format and adds any coverpages
Adds any headers and footers
Delivers content to fax device ready for transmission
GFI FaxMaker transmits the fax:
to an installed fax device which in turn transmits the fax over the telephone line
or to a hosted fax service.
Is there any way to utilize this functionality through the 3CX or Patton devices without buying a new fax board?? The faxmaker software is paid for and good for life, so I hate to start paying for a fax service, and it seems a waste to buy a new fax board, hence the questions.
Again, I apologize if this is plain and obvious, I am still learning some of these things as we have only ever had analog key system phones, so all the back and forth conversions analog to IP are getting me stuck.
I am planning for a new 3CX install on a new Windows 2012 R2 server. We have an analog key phone system now and our old server has a Mainpine fax board with GFI Faxmaker software that handled the inbound and outbound faxing through our computers. Manual faxes dial straight out as normal.
I would move the fax board over to the new server, but it is a standard profile used in a tower server and the new server is a rack mount and it will not fit. So I am trying to plan out how faxing is going to work and what I do or do not need to make everyone happy and functional.
We are running 6 analog lines, 5 voice and 1 dedicated fax (no SIP Trunks), so I have planned for two Patton Gateways (since they only make them up to 4 FXO) to handle the lines coming into the network/3CX system. I gather from the documentation that the 3CX system can function to handle the incomming faxes to email just like the GFI faxmaker software did.
However, I am stuck on the outbound faxing. We are used to faxing from both the computer and manual fax machines as needed. It is not 100% clear to me:
1) If I get a Patton with FXS ports and hook up a fax machine directly to the FXS port, is that all I need to do to send manual outbound faxes (other than some configuring/routing of the lines in the Patton or 3CX system)?
2) To send faxes via computer, the GFI Faxmaker software processes our emails and prepares them for fax transmission. Per the manual: GFI FaxMaker: Resolves and formats the number to dial
Converts content to fax format and adds any coverpages
Adds any headers and footers
Delivers content to fax device ready for transmission
GFI FaxMaker transmits the fax:
to an installed fax device which in turn transmits the fax over the telephone line
or to a hosted fax service.
Is there any way to utilize this functionality through the 3CX or Patton devices without buying a new fax board?? The faxmaker software is paid for and good for life, so I hate to start paying for a fax service, and it seems a waste to buy a new fax board, hence the questions.
Again, I apologize if this is plain and obvious, I am still learning some of these things as we have only ever had analog key system phones, so all the back and forth conversions analog to IP are getting me stuck.
