Setting up links to other Zetafax Servers

 

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The next stage in setting up the Zetafax Server for LCR is to enter some information about other servers on the network.

 

•Select Links from the LCR options dialog to display the Links to remote servers dialog.

 

The display shows a list of the currently configured links.

 

To add a new link

 

•Click New to display the Edit link properties dialog.

 

The first field in the dialog allows you to enter an informative Link description , 'New York server' for example. The tabbed section allows you to configure the other properties of the link.

 

When setting up a link between two LCR servers, there are several settings which must be identical on both servers in order for the link to perform properly. It may sometimes be a good idea to configure both ends of the links simultaneously, or make note of the important settings so they can be entered identically later.

 

General tab

 

The General tab allows you to specify what the link is and how it should behave.

 

The Remote server ID is the identity of the remote server to be linked to, and will be used in all communications on the link. It must be identical to the remote server's Local ID , defined in the General settings dialog on the remote server. This field must contain letters and numbers only, without spaces.

 

You can specify a Link password which Zetafax uses to secure all transactions on the link. It is vital that the same password is entered at both ends of the link, otherwise communication will not be possible. When you exit from this dialog and reopen it, the Zetafax Configuration program will hide the password.

 

Please note: The password field is an optional field, and may be left blank if you are not concerned about security.

 

Link functions

 

The next stage in setting up the link is to define what functions it will perform. Each link can be configured to submit outgoing faxes to the remote server and to accept faxes from the remote server which will be sent by this local server.

 

One or both of these boxes must be checked or the link is rendered redundant. If either of these boxes is left unchecked, care must be taken to ensure that the complementary box is also unchecked at the remote server so that the settings are compatible. For example, configuring both servers to allow sending but not receiving will result in a deadlock where no faxes are sent over the link in either direction.

 

Zetafax user account

 

If the link is configured to process incoming messages a Zetafax user account must be configured locally which will be used to send faxes submitted to this server by other remote servers on the LCR network. You may wish to set up a new Zetafax user for each link, or to use a single account for all links. In either case, a new account can be set up now by selecting (new) from the top of the list of available Zetafax accounts. When you close the dialog, or attempt to move to a different tab, you will be taken to the Add new Zetafax user dialog and prompted to enter some more information about the new account.

 

Link status

 

The final setting on this tab allows you to select whether or not you wish to start the link in a SHUTDOWN state. If the Zetafax Server is currently running, new links will normally be started up as soon as the setup is finished. You may set up a new link, but leave it shut down initially by checking this option. The link can then be opened later using the Zetafax Server (ZSERVER) program; see Using ZSERVER to monitor links.

 

WAN or email links

 

Use the Communications tab to specify whether you want the two Zetafax Servers to communicate using a WAN, or email connection. This choice is dependent on whether you enabled either WAN or email links in the General settings dialog when you enabled this LCR server; see Configuring the Zetafax Server to use LCR.

 

WAN links

 

To configure the link to use a WAN connection, you must complete the WAN Inbox field by entering the path of the remote server's Inbox on the network, as defined in the General settings dialog on the remote server. You may enter the path either as a Universal name (UNC) (e.g. \\Server_Name\Folder\WANInbox) or you can enter a network drive mapping (e.g. Z:\Folder\WANInbox), which Zetafax will convert to UNC format. The Test button behaves in a similar manner to that of the General settings WAN Inbox test, and can be used to ensure that the path is typed correctly, and that the server has the necessary access rights to copy files to the folder.

 

Email links

 

To configure an email link, you must first select the appropriate type of email from the Link type list. Internet mail is self explanatory and can be referred to as "slow" email, as it is less reliable and messages tend to take longer to reach their final destination than an internal email system, which can be referred to as fast email.

 

Whichever email link type you choose, you must specify the Email address of the remote fax server . This can either be a name from the email system's address book, or a standard SMTP type address of the form name @host .com. Use the Test button to check the email settings are working. Zetafax will attempt to log into the email account that was specified in the General settings dialog, and send a test message to the address of the remote server. Zetafax will report any problems logging in or attempting to send the message.

 

When you have used the test function, you should also check the email account itself to make sure that the message was processed and sent successfully and it was not rejected for any reason. You can do this by manually logging on to the specified account from the computer where the Zetafax Server is running.

 

Link delay

 

For both WAN and email links, Zetafax requires some information about the speed of transmission of messages over the link for LCR to work effectively. The Link delay should be an estimate of the maximum length of time it should take a message to pass from one server to the other. The Zetafax Configuration program suggests a default value, the length of which depends on the type of link configured, i.e. the delay for a slow email link will be longer than a WAN link.

 

Priority tab

 

The Priority tab allows you to control the type of fax traffic allowed over the link depending on the importance of the fax. It is only necessary to specify a setting here if you know that the remote server to which you are connecting has restrictions on the maximum message priority it can accept for incoming requests. This setting has the effect of preventing faxes above a specific priority ever being sent over the link to a remote server only to be rejected.

 

This setting may be used if the delay in transmission of a fax marked as Urgent caused by a slow email link may be unacceptable to the user. You can configure which types of faxes should be sent over this link to a remote fax server by changing the Maximum priority setting in the Messages submitted to remote server for sending section.

 

Messages with higher priority than specified will not be routed via this link but they may be routed via another link if there is a rule permitting it.

 

Protecting locally submitted faxes

 

The other purpose of the Priority tab is to allow the network administrator to restrict certain faxes from being submitted to your server from other servers. You can use the Maximum message priority box in the same way as for submitted messages. In addition, you can reject or reduce the priority of higher priority messages submitted to your server. This protects any messages submitted by this fax servers own Zetafax users, ensuring that they are sent first. For example, you may choose that any messages submitted from a remote server is given background priority.

 

Watchdog tab

 

The Watchdog tab allows you to set up a link watchdog, which sends regular check messages to the remote server so that the integrity of the link can be monitored. If an expected message is not received, the remote server will mark the link as failed and route faxes elsewhere to other LCR servers or send them itself. Using the watchdog on unreliable links is not recommended, since the link may be closed unnecessarily (although it will restart automatically as soon as messages are received again).

 

To start the link watchdog, check the Enable link watchdog box on the Watchdog tab. You will also be prompted for a Watchdog message frequency . This is the maximum amount of time that the remote server cannot be contacted before the link is marked as failed by the remote server. A default value of 15 minutes is suggested, which would allow an administrator to restart the remote computer if they wanted, without affecting the link.

 

As with many of the link settings configured using the Edit link properties dialog, it is necessary to configure the remote server with identical settings to successfully monitor link integrity.

 

Managing links

 

Once you have set up a new link you will see it listed in the Links to remote servers dialog. From within this dialog you can change the link properties by selecting it and clicking on Edit , or by double-clicking on the link description.

 

To create a new link based on a previously configured link, select the link from the list of remote servers, and click Copy . This will copy all the information from the selected link to a new link definition. It will not copy the Remote server ID information , as each link must be to a unique remote server. You will be prompted to change this.

 

The Links to remote servers dialog also allows you to delete any of the configured links, by highlighting them and clicking Delete.

 

Testing links

 

Before you proceed to the next stage of the setup process, you should first test the links you have configured in this section to ensure that you can establish connections to remote servers. In order for the link to work, both ends of the link need to have been configured. That is to say, it is necessary to have created an identical link to your server from the remote server.

 

To test the link successfully, you will learn about monitoring links using the Zetafax ZSERVER program and setting up a simple rule to route one Zetafax user's faxes (the network administrator) over the link.

 

Using ZSERVER to monitor links

 

The Zetafax Server monitor program, ZSERVER, allows you to monitor and control the link status of all of the links you have configured using the Zetafax Server configuration program.

 

When you start the Zetafax Server, the ROUTER program checks the status of each link in turn and displays the status next to the link icon in the main screen. When you create a new link a new icon will be displayed automatically without the need to restart the Zetafax Server.

 

New links appear in an Initializing state. This means that they have sent an initialization message to the remote server and are awaiting a response. The link will remain in this state indefinitely until it receives a response from the remote server. When a response has been received from the remote server, the link is put into an ONLINE state whereupon it can begin to forward messages.

 

The following table summarizes the various link statuses:

 

 

   

For more detailed information about a link or to change the status of a link, click Links (Options menu) in the main ZSERVER program. The Link status dialog will be displayed, showing the status of all of the currently configured links together with logged information, such as the number of messages which have been sent and received over the link.

 

The Link status dialog also allows you to send an offline or online request to a specific link. The online request can be used to attempt to reestablish communications with a remote server. The Offline… button should be used to close down server links gracefully if you intend to close down the Zetafax Server for any amount of time. This ensures that all links are marked as failed at remote servers which will not attempt to route faxes over these failed links. The Offline All… button can be used to offline all links simultaneously.

 

Creating a simple rule

 

If the link successfully establishes a connection with the remote server and shows an Online status, the next stage of testing is to route a fax over the link to the remote fax server and have it submit a fax for you. To do this, you need to configure a simple rule which will route to all faxes sent by a specific user, the network administrator over the link. This will allow you to test the link without interfering with other Zetafax users' faxes. See Setting up routing rules to configure more complex rules that allow sophisticated choices of which messages will be submitted over the link.

 

Return to the Zetafax - configuration options dialog and click Rules… from the LCR panel. The Routing Rules dialog will be displayed, and this will initially be empty as you have not previously created any rules on this server.

 

To create a new rule:

 

•Click New .

 

The Edit Routing Rule dialog will be displayed.

 

•Type a description in the Rule description field.

•Select the Users tab and select the Rule applies to the following users only option; then select your Zetafax user name from the list.

•Click the Servers tab and select the Zetafax Server to which you want to route your test fax.

 

This should be the same server to which you configured a link earlier.

 

•Click the Summary tab and check that it looks similar to the screen above.

 

The rule has been configured to route all faxes for your Zetafax user over the new link.

 

•Click OK to accept the new rule and open the Zetafax client.

•Send a fax to your own office fax number.

 

You can monitor the status of the fax in the Zetafax Client Out window. The fax status icons will change at each stage of the fax transmission to record the progress. If the link has been configured correctly, the fax should get submitted to your remote server and sent by one of its devices.