Re: Recommendations on SBS 2003 External Modem

Hi Richard

With regards to the speed, faxing does indeed become slower: a 2 min fax,
after applying this hack, takes 5-6 mins.
With regards to faxing over VoIP, I also run an installation where the line
is suspected to be supported over VoIP by the Telecome Provider.
This is the reason why I've looked up this "hack" for ModemRecvSpeeds.

Before applying the hack we would have about 60%~70% failure arte in sending
and receiving faxes. This was due to the line as we have tryed with 2
different modems and both (did not) work in the same way.

After applying this modification to the registry faxing now works fairlly
well.
We have a sucess rate of about 98% but there are still some faxes (about 2%)
that refuse to send or receive. These failures happen with specific clients.
In the big picture faxing quality has improved dramatically.

Pedro.


"Richard K" <rkokoski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> escreveu na mensagem
news:O7sv42UgJHA.4900@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pedro,

I checked my values for the ModemSendSpeeds and ModemRecvSpeeds and had a
decimal 11 value (I'm thinking 1011 hex). I changed them both to decimal
2 and I'm going to give it another try. I know you talk about this
reverting back to older protocols (I don't really care what protocols as
long as it works), but what did you see, if any, in the transmission
speeds on this change? Does a 2 minute incoming fax of 5 pages turn into
a 4 minute time? Just curious. This client does not do alot of volume so
it won't make alot of difference. I have other clients who do a much
higher volume and if there is too much of a time difference it won't work
for them.

Thanks for the help. If this works I will add it to my "cheat ***" of
things I may need to do.

I have also been reading about possibly verizon adding in VOIP to the
lines and it is very possible, especially since all was working great then
one day at 11am things just went "bad". Nothing changed at the client
site but Verizon certainly could have changed things.

One last question.... with this change have you successfully been able to
get faxes to work on a VOIP line? I have NEVER been able to successfully
do this.

-Richard K

"Pedro CR" <pramilo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uXobKFNgJHA.3648@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Richard

I am not sure if it's in the HCL. I was looking for a replacemenet modem
but the ones I found on the HCL were all internal.
The modem does have drivers specific for windows server 2003.

With regards to the registry modification I mentioned, it should work
with any Fax Modem.
Those are "Microsoft" entries and they are a bitmask that lets the fax
service know which Fax protocols are supported by the device you are
using.
These values "ModemSendSpeeds" and "ModemRecvSpeeds" are copied by the
fax service from your modem driver files (if you look in the INF files
that came with your modem you will find these values).

Basically, what I've done, was read the values I had by default (that
were decimal 10 meaning binary "1010") to know which protocols my modem
driver supported.
I then disabled the high order bit for the V.17 protocol (14.400 bps),
making it "0010" (decimal 2). Naturally I could not enable any of the
bits that were already 0 because my modem would not support them.

"0010" leaves only protocol V.27 at only 2 800 bps enabled.

The meaning of this bitmask can be found here:
ftp://ftp.zyxel.com.tr/SURUCULER/ZyXEL/Software/Windows/efaxpump.txt
(search for "ModemRecvSpeeds" inside that file)

I'm quite confident that you can use this approach on any modem.

If you need assistance with understanding your own ModemSendSpeeds and
ModemrecvSpeeds, please post your values for and I'll help you tweak
them.

Also, the problem you are facing could be because your Phone Provider, on
their own infrastructure, is supporting your line over VoIP and not
traditional telephony. Some Telephone Providers are changing lines from
traditional copper to VoIP on their backends to improve density, etc.
Faxing over VoIP is a true nighmare and only really old, and slow
protocols seem to be able to work.

Thanks
Pedro.


"Richard K" <rkokoski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> escreveu na mensagem
news:eal0nvDgJHA.5556@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pedro, what model external USR modem are you using? Is it from the HCL?

I like your ideas and they are worth trying. A slower fax is better
then too many bad faxes. They are not a heavy fax user so it probably
won't matter that much. We have had Verizon check out the external
lines and a private company check out the internal lines and all has
been cleared. I'm shooting for any answer now.

-Richard

"Pedro CR" <pramilo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uar78IDgJHA.5556@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've also faced a similar problem. My problem was a bad line.

My solution was do to a little "tweak" on the Fax Service and force it
to always send and receive faxes in the slow (yet reliable) G3
protocol.
Please note this solution was discovered after looking into the
registry and googling a lot. It is not an official Microsoft solution.

To force the fax service to always work in G3 protocol do this:
1) Go to Administrative Tools->Services and Stop the Fax Service.

2) Open Regedit and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fax\TAPIDevices\

3) At this point I recommend you backup this registry key just in case
you need to go back to the previous settings. To back it up, select
TAPIDevices and go to File->Export. Make sure in the Export dialog you
choose "Selected Branch"

4) Under TAPI devices you will have one or more subfolders with a name
made of letters and numbers. Please repeat the process bellow on all
subfolders inside TAPIDevices:
4a) Expand the subfolder
4b) Inside that subfolder, you will find another folder called "Modem".
4c) Click on "Modem"
4d) On the right pane you will find two keys: "ModemRecvSpeeds" and
"ModemSendSpeeds".
4e) Double click "ModemRecvSpeeds" and change the value to 2. Repeat
the procedure for "ModemSendSpeeds", setting it to 2 as well.

5) Close Regedit
6) Start the Fax Service (in Administrative Tools->Services)

This solution has worked for me with EXTERNAL modems (US Robotics 56K
Fax) and has really fixed faxing.
We had about 60% failure rates in sending and receive faxes due to poor
line quality and after this change we only have about 2%. The line
quality is still poor :( but the G3 protocol, despite slower and old
(dates back to the 80's), is very reliable and it's compatible with
virtually all fax machines even the modern ones.

Best Regards
Pedro Ramilo

PS: If you decide you want to revert to the previous settings, stop the
Fax Service, double click the file you saved on 3) to merge the data
into the registry and re-start the fax service.


"Cliff Galiher" <cgaliher@xxxxxxxxx> escreveu na mensagem
news:21328025-AF37-446C-800F-C518B4B8643F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There are a couple of notable things, in no particular order:

1) I recommend external modems. HCL or not, hardware can lock up. An
external modem can be power cycled independly from the server, so
generally speaking it is nice to have that option.

2) A 'real' fax machine is a very dumb device. They (usually) have a
very small buffer and do little or no attempts at error correction.
So a fax may come through fine on a 'real' fax machine, but fail on a
modem that is probably adhering to the actual standard better. So you
probably shouldn't assume it is the server or the modem.

3) Your post wasn't specific if you hooked up the fax to the same
port, using all the same cables, as the modem. In many small server
closets this isn't even a possibility, but again, unless you are
replicating *every* part of the connection, you are introducing the
potential for discrepancies.

4) The fact that it used to work and broke would make me think that a
recent external change has introduced line noise. Anything from a
change by the phone company to an installer nicking a wire behind the
wall while installing for a new tenant to a change in the phone system
(PBX changes are notorious for this.)

In any event, the problem you are describing, particularly the
'sometimes works, sometimes doesn't' aspect makes this sound like line
noise specifically...and tracking that down would be beneficial.

-Cliff




"Richard K" <rkokoski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OAP8NeCgJHA.4560@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have been having issues with an SBS 2003 internal modem when it
comes to faxing. The logs are telling me there is a bad connection
(some faxes work, some don't, partial results) but when I hook up the
line to a regular fax machine all seems to work fine so it's the
server and/or the modem. The modem I am using is an internal USR
modem that is on the HCL and I have been successfully working with on
multiple other SBS 2003 installations. I have tried to replace the
modem with another one thinking maybe it went bad but no luck.
What's even more odd is they whole set up has been working fine for
almost a year then one day last month problems started. I don't know
if some config/software setup on the SBS 2003 broke this.

I'm open to ideas on how to fix this and if anyone has had these
problems. Possibly try an external modem instead? Any
recommendations on a good replacement hardware (external or
internal)?

Thanks!

-Richard K












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