Hi Russ
The original thread follows ...
Best regards
Loane

Hi there

I setup the shared fax service for the first time on a machine that has SBS
2003 SP1 applied. (On MSDN I see that there are potential issues that arise
when the shared fax service is installed AFTER SP1 is applied, so this may
make a difference.) I have experienced some problems on both the server and
clients.

Network setup: Our server has one network card connected to a wireless
access point/internet router device, which in turn is connected over a DSL
line to the Internet. The internal fax modem is directly connected to the
same DSL line, and the voice and data streams on the DSL line are separated
using a line filter following the hardware manufacturers' instructions.
Clients are connected to the server using a wireless LAN.

Server problem: After the intial setup (closely following the instructions
in SBSFax.doc located at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en),
the server itself could send faxes (from, say,
wordpad using the fax printer) and also receive faxes. To stress-test the
server-side fax capability, I sent 10 faxes to the server in succession from
a remote/independent fax location, waiting each time for about a minute
between sends (this should be about the maximum for our business purposes).
On the third send I got a communication error back from the server, and
somehow the telephone line was jammed up: the server's telephone number gave
a "busy" signal when dialed, and the server could no longer be accessed over
the internet (using Remote Desktop and RPC/HTTP for Outlook, for instance).
The server needed to be cold-booted, and trying the stress-test again the
same jammed-up result obtained.

Client problem: After setting up shared fax service on the server, logging
on to the client computers for the first time correctly prompted for setup
of the fax service. The SBS fax service setup began, and at the appropriate
time the Windows XP fax component setup began, and when asked I pointed to
the appropriate location on the server for the client setup .dlls. At the
very end I got a message that said "Applications not configured: Shared fax
service"; in Windows components the Fax service was unchecked, and the
Accessories Communication Fax menu was Empty. In the Application event
log, I found a message for Microsoft Fax with Event ID 32045 that read: "Fax
Service failed to initialize because it could not initialize the TAPI
devices. Verify that the fax modem was installed and configured correctly.
Win32 error code: 31." Following the suggested link, I got the following
message: "We're sorry. There is no additional information about this issue
...." (Incidentally the client machines do not have fax-capable modems.)

I'm assuming that the problem could arise from several sources:
(a) the fax modem and drivers may not be correctly installed on the server -
but if so, how could I send and receive faxes from the server itself?
(b) the shared fax service may not be correctly setup on the server - but if
so, how could the client computers be prompted to setup shared fax service
when logging on if the server-side setup was incorrect? (Incidentally, I
uninstalled the fax service from Windows Server 2003 components and then
installed the fax service from SBS 2003 setup)
(c) the DSL line may be problematic - but if so, how could clients connect
to the Internet (from within the local network) and to the server via VPN
and RDP (from outside the local network)?

Perhaps I've missed some other potential sources of the problem?

Please help!

Best regards
Loane