Third-party Fax Servers Integration in Cisco Unity Connection 10.x

Cisco Unity Connection supports third-party fax servers:

  • OpenText Fax Server, RightFax Edition, versions 10.x and later. For more information, see the www.opentext.com
  • Sagemcom Xmedius Fax SP version 6.5.5. For more information, see the www.sagemcom.com.
  • Cisco Fax Server, version 10.x
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Noteblank.gif For information on end-of-sale and end-of life dates for the Cisco Fax Server, see the information at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6789/ps5745/ps2237/end_of_life_notice_c51-630608.html.

See the following sections:

Overview of Third-Party Fax Servers

Unity Connection interacts with the third-party fax servers directly through Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). Inbound faxes are received by the third-party fax servers and routed to the Unity Connection server through SMTP. Similarly, faxes are routed to the third-party fax servers through SMTP for rendering and outbound faxing.

If attachments are included with a fax or an email message that is sent to the third-party fax servers, Unity Connection sends only the attachments that match the list of file name extensions that were selected during setup. third-party fax servers support.dcx,.tif, and.txt files. You can add other file extensions that are also supported by the third-party fax servers.

Note that the file name of any attachment that cannot be sent to the fax machine will appear at the bottom of the message.

Administration for Third-Party Fax Server

Administration of the fax service is performed on the third-party fax servers rather than in Cisco Unity Connection Administration. You use the third-party fax servers administration to handle the following functionality:

  • Routing inbound fax messages to a user mailbox.
  • Managing and logging inbound fax messages.
  • Managing and logging outbound fax messages.
  • Additional functionality such as running reports, creating cover pages, and evaluating least-cost routing.

Cisco Unity Connection Administration is not used in any way to administer the third-party fax servers or the services provided by the third-party fax servers.

Managing Fax Messages by Users

When you integrate third-party fax servers with Unity Connection, users are able to manage their fax messages using the clients listed in Table 15-1 . Note that users must be added to the third-party fax servers before they can, for example, manage fax messages over the phone or from the Messaging Inbox.

 

Table 15-1 Clients Used for Managing Fax Messages

Client Application
Details

Unity Connection phone menus

Users can hear new fax messages listed with other messages when they sign in to Unity Connection by phone. For fax messages, Unity Connection plays only the message properties (for example, the sender, date, and time) and any voice annotation. The contents of the fax itself is not played. Users can forward a fax message to another user (when the message is not marked private) or reply to a fax with a voice message (when the fax message is from another user).

Users can add or change their fax number.

When the system has a fax server and an outgoing fax number is configured, users can send their fax messages to a fax machine. If the fax message has attachments, Unity Connection renders only those attachments with file extensions that were specified during setup. Attachments with other file extensions are removed, and Unity Connection lists the file names at the end of the fax message.

Messaging Assistant

Users can receive notification of new fax messages by phone or pager. Although users can enable a notification device by phone, they must use the Messaging Assistant to do the following:

  • Set up notification of the arrival of a fax message.
  • Set up a notification schedule for the notification device that they choose.

Third-party IMAP clients

Third-party IMAP clients can download fax messages. To view fax messages on third-party IMAP client workstations, the workstations must have the third-party fax servers client viewer application installed, or the fax message must be supported for viewing on the client workstation.

Users can forward a fax message to another user in the same way that they forward voice messages, or reply with a voice message if the fax message is from another user. In the fax message, users can use the buttons on the message toolbar to manage the message the same way that they handle email messages.
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Noteblank.gif In order to prevent a user from sending a fax messages to a fax machine, do not configure a fax server in the Outgoing Fax Server field for the user on the User > Edit User Basics page in Cisco Unity Connection Administration. Even when prevented from sending a fax message to a fax machine, the user will still be able to receive and forward fax messages to another user.

Single Direct-Inward-Dial (DID) Number Support for Both Voice and Fax

Unity Connection supports using a single DID number to receive both voice calls and fax calls. In this configuration, incoming calls are directed to a Cisco gateway that can detect a CNG (fax) tone. When a CNG tone is detected, the gateway forwards the fax call to the third-party fax Servers. When no CNG tone is detected, the gateway forwards the voice call to the phone system.