Faximum Fax Messaging Server (FMS) 2

Fax Software for Linux (IA32)

It runs on...

README Updated 2003-08-30 for 2.0-35 (Linux)
COPYRIGHT © 2003 Faximum Software Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Faximum Software Inc.
1497 Marine Drive, Suite 300
West Vancouver, BC
Canada, V7T 1A6

If you received this README file as a printed version in your software media kit it may be more current than the version on the media. Please use this version rather than the version on the CD-ROM. The most current copy is always available from http://www.faximum.com/support/readme/fms-2-linux.html.

If you did not order a printed copy of the manuals for this product, you may obtain a PDF (i.e. Adobe Acrobat) version of the manual from the Faximum Software website at http://www.faximum.com/support/manuals

Please visit http://www.faximum.com/status for the latest news on this software release. This web page also contains information on any updates that might be released after this document was written.

Introduction

This README has been written to be brief and to the point in order to expedite the installation of the Faximum Fax Messaging Server in the most common situations. For more detailed information please see the FMS Reference Manual.

Upgrading from FMS 1

Please note that this version of the FMS software is designed for new installations only. It cannot be installed on top of an existing FMS 1 installation. If you are running FMS 1 then please contact support@faximum.com for special instructions on upgrading your installation.

Preparing to Install FMS

1. This version of FMS has been developed and tested for Linux Red Hat 7.x/8/9, Caldera OpenLinux Server 3.1 (with or without the Caldera Volution Messaging Server), SCO Linux 4, United Linux 1, and the SuSE eMail Server III. If you wish to install this software on other Linux distributions please contact Faximum Software Inc. (support@faximum.com) for the latest information.

NOTE: Customers planning to install FMS on the SuSE eMail Server III ought to see the special instructions below.

NOTE: Customers planning to install FMS on SCO Linux or other UnitedLinux distributions will need to obtain an update package from Faximum Software Inc. in order to successfully complete their installation.

NOTE: Faximum Software has noted problems with Red Hat 9 that affect the operation of Faximum FMS and has filed a bug report (#103453) with Red Hat. If you are considering installing Faximum FMS or PLUS on Red Hat 9 please email support@faximum.com for information on the current status of this bug with RH9 and suggested work-arounds.

2. Although this software will drive a wide range of Fax Class 2/2.0 modems, you may find that using a modem other than one recommended (see http://www.faximum.com/modems/) results in less than acceptable performance (owing to limitations in the modem's firmware).
3. Make sure you have sufficient disk space on your machine to install the software. Note that by default this software will be installed in the /opt directory. You may move it after installation if desired. The software requires about 20Mb of disk space.

4. In order to complete the installation and configuration of this software you will need to know the following information about your network and server:
   1. The domain name of the FMS server machine (i.e. mail.company.com).
   2. The name of the serial port on your FMS server machine that your fax modem is connected to (i.e. /dev/ttyS0).

Special Preparations for SuSE eMail Server III

FMS uses the X11 font server, when available, to obtain the fonts used to create cover sheets and to convert text to fax format. Unfortunately the SuSE eMail Server III does not ship with any of the scalable fonts needed by FMS. You can remedy this by installing the xfntscl.rpm package. For the convenience of its customers Faximum has made available a copy of this package on its FTP server. To install this package please run the following command on your SuSE system:

rpm -i ftp://ftp.faximum.com/rpms/xfntscl.rpm 

If your SuSE system is not directly connected to the Internet (or if the above command fails to download the needed RPM file), then please FTP the file from our server manually and then transfer it to your SuSE machine and type:

rpm -i xfntscl.rpm

Also please note that the default configuration of the Postfix email server that is part of the SuSE eMail Server III causes Postfix to tell our software that it is configured to handle fax email addresses even when it is not so configured. This means that when you get to the point of configuring your email server to accept email addresses (assuming you are configuring your FMS server to send faxes) then you will need to take the special steps outlined below.

Please contact Faximum Technical Support should you have any questions or problems with this.

Supported Email/Network Architectures - Outbound Faxing

It is necessary to understand the architecture of your existing email system since FMS integrates fax with your existing email infrastructure. If you have any questions about this then please consult with your network administrator or with Faximum Software.

If you are planning to use FMS to handle incoming faxes only then skip to the section below and Inbound Faxing.

If your network meets the following criteria then you can follow the instructions in this README to install the software:

1. Your local network has its own SMTP email server.
2. The Linux server on which you are planning to install FMS is running either sendmail (the default for Red Hat and Caldera) or Postfix (i.e. the Caldera Volution Messaging Server). Note that your FMS server need not be the main SMTP email server for your network.

If your network meets these two criteria then you can proceed to install FMS confident that it will interoperate with your email infrastructure. If these criteria are not meet then please email the details of your email infrastructure to support@faximum.com and Faximum's engineers will determine if an alternate FMS configuration can meet your needs. For an outline of how to configure FMS to work with networks that have no local SMTP email server (i.e. that use an external email server) see the next section.

If you wish to test a server to see if it is an SMTP server then run telnet to connect to port 25 on the server in question. Under Linux or UNIX (including Mac OS X) you can merely run "telnet 123.123.123.123 25" (without the quotation marks, where 123.123.123.123 is replaced by the IP address or domain name of the server in question) from a terminal session. Using Microsoft Windows, click on the "Start" button, select the "Run" menu option, and type in "telnet 123.123.123.123 25" (again, without quotation marks).

If you are running an SMTP email server on the system in question then you will see a response of the form "220 fms.faximum.com ESMTP Postfix", or perhaps "220 fms.faximum.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.11.2/8.11.2; Tue, 20 Nov 2001 01:40:25 -0800" (obviously the hostname and software version reported by your server will differ from these examples).

If your Linux system fails the above test then please see TechNote 236 (http://www.faximum.com/technotes/236).

Once you have verified that the system on which you plan to install FMS is running an SMTP email server then you ought to test that you can send an email to (say) the root account on the machine. If the FMS machine's domain name is (for example) fms.company.com, try sending email to root@fms.company.com and make sure it arrives. If it does not then there may be a problem with (a) your domain name configuration, (b) your email configuration. In either case this problem will need to be resolved prior to installing FMS since if you cannot get email to this server then there will be no way your faxes can be passed to FMS for delivery.

Supported Email/Network Architectures - Inbound Faxing

To see if the Linux server on which you are planning to install FMS is suitable to deliver received faxes, verify that you can send email from this server to users on your network. On your Linux server run the following:

date | mail person@domain.name

where person@domain.name is the address of one of your users. If they receive an email message that contains the date and time, then your server's email is probably working fine. If not then you will need to work with your network administrator to get the email on your Linux server working otherwise FMS will be unable to deliver the faxes it receives!

How to Configure FMS to Work with External Email Servers

This section outlines how to approach FMS installations in organisations that use an external email server (such as one located at the organisation's ISP). This section is only relevant if you are planning to use FMS to send faxes and you do not use an email server on your local network to deliver email from your users' email clients. If you are going to use FMS to handle incoming faxes only you may ignore this section.

This discussion is, of necessity, relatively technical and intended for email network administrators. If you are not that person then this information ought to be passed to the appropriate person. If you do not have such a person inhouse, then it is necessary to discuss this matter either with Faximum Software or your reseller.

Faximum Software is committed to making your FMS installation a success and will work with you, your reseller, and your ISP to make it all work. Please do not hesitate to email us any questions (technical or otherwise) that arise during the planning of your FMS installation.

Before we proceed to the heart of the matter it will be useful to define some of the terms we will be using:

MTA

Mail Transfer Agent (technical term for an email server)

External MTA

An MTA located outside of the organisation (usually at the ISP's location)

FMS MTA

The MTA running on the system on which FMS is installed. Even if the system on which FMS is installed is not being used to handle email, it must have an MTA, usually sendmail or Postfix, installed -- if only to handle the messages FMS will deliver by fax.

Nomadic FMS user

an FMS user outside of the office who connects using an Internet connection external to the organisation.

When installing FMS in an organisation that utilises an external MTA a key task is to determine how to route email so that messages that are to be delivered by fax are passed to the server running FMS for delivery.

If the organisation's Internet connection is always up and it is possible to send email from the Internet to the FMS MTA then there is no problem whatsoever. The default FMS installation and configuration will work just fine.

If this is not the case then one of two alternate approaches must be taken.

If all of the FMS users are located within the organisation (i.e. there is no need to support nomadic FMS users) then the easiest method is to (a) configure the FMS MTA to relay all non-local email to the external MTA; and (b) configure all of the FMS users' email clients to send all their email to the FMS MTA to process or relay to the external MTA.

Another method that will work if the organisation's ISP supports ETRN is to define another domain name for the FMS MTA (i.e. fax.company.com) and have the FMS MTA poll the External MTA for messages to deliver by fax. This requires that the fax domain be properly set up and the FMS MTA set up for ETRN polling.

In summary, configuring FMS to work with an external email server can be done in a number of ways but may present challenges not present when working with an internal email server. We recommend contacting Faximum Software early in your planning so that appropriate preparations can me made for your successful FMS implementation.

Security Implications

The primary security issue related to email-to-fax gateways such as FMS is preventing unauthorised users from sending faxes through your gateway. Since it is possible (depending on the configuration of your server and phone system) to send long distance (indeed overseas) faxes through an FMS gateway, controlling access to an FMS server is important to prevent unauthorised people from incurring toll charges on your phone lines.

FMS itself performs only the most rudimentary of identity checks for incoming email messages that are to be delivered by fax (i.e. it looks at the From header in the email message). Since it is possible to generate messages with fraudulent headers, this mechanism alone cannot be depended upon to prevent unauthorised use. Therefore it is recommended that your network administrator ensure that it is not possible for an email message from an external unauthorised user to be routed to your (internal) FMS server. If you need further assistance in securing your network please contact Faximum Software (support@faximum.com) for pointers to useful information on this topic.

Installation and Configuration

Installation from the Faximum Web Server

1. Visit http://www.faximum.com/downloads/ and download the current version of the software into a temporary directory on your system. (Remember that if you have to transfer the software from the Faximum server to your system by way of an intermediary Windows system and are using ftp, then make sure that the ftp transfers are done in binary mode to prevent corruption of the files.)

Installation from the Caldera Solutions Showcase CD

Copy the faximum-4.0-25-linux.tar file from the Caldera Solutions Showcase CD-ROM to a temporary directory on your server and continue with the section Running the Installation Script below.

Installation from Faximum CD-ROM

1. Put the CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive

2. While logged on in as root (the superuser), mount the CD-ROM by running (on Linux):

       mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom 

3. Copy the installation file to an appropriate temporary directory on your server, for example:

   cd /mnt/cdrom/linux-fms
   ls
   cp faximum-4.0-25-linux.tar /tmp
   

   (Note that the exact name of the tar file may vary slightly so you will need to list the files in this directory -- as shown here by the ls command -- in order to determine the correct file name to use here and below).

Running the Installation Script

1. Login as the root user or use the su command to obtain superuser privileges.

2. To install the Faximum FMS software, change into the directory in which the FMS installation file has been placed and type (of course the exact name of the faximum...tar file will depend on the name of the file you downloaded or copied from the CD above):

   tar xf faximum-4.0-25-linux.tar
   sh fxm.install
   tail /tmp/faximum.installlog

   Note that the fxm.install script can take up to two minutes to run depending on your system and network response times. On some systems you may see informational messages from the X11 Font Server of the form:

   /usr/bin/X11/xfs notice: listening on port 7100
   /usr/bin/X11/xfs notice: ignoring font path element /usr/share/ghostscript/5.10/fonts (unreadable)
   

   These messages can be ignored.

   Normally no output will be observed while the fxm.install script is running.

3. If the installation was successful then the last line in the installlog file will be:

   Installation completed successfully!

4. If errors are reported and it is not apparent what caused the problem then please email the file /tmp/faximum.installlog to support@faximum.com for assistance.

1. To configure the software use your web browser and browse http://your.server.name:7437/ (where your.server.name is replaced with the domain name of your FMS server). If you are unable to connect to the FMS webserver on port 7437 then please refer to TechNote 235 (http://www.faximum.com/technotes/235).
   

2. Log in using admin as your Username and anything as your Password.

3. Complete the configuration tasks listed on the Home page of the FMS Administration Webadmin interface. If you have any questions at any point during these configuration tasks merely press the Help button on the appropriate page.

4. If you are installing FMS on a SuSE eMail Server III platform and intend to send faxes using FMS (i.e. not use FMS for receiving only), please take note of the following special instructions:

   When you get to the "Email Server Configuration" page, do not bother using the "Test Email Configuration" option as the Postfix MTA on the SuSE system will always respond as if it is configured for fax even if it is not. Just click on the "Configure Email for Fax" option.

Using the Software

Sending a Fax Without Using the FMS Print Driver

To send a fax using FMS merely compose an email message (in plain, not HTML, format) using any email client and address the message to:

Jane_Doe/ACME_Company/FAX=926-3600@fms.domain.name

where the name and fax number in the left-hand side of the address is changed to match your intended recipient and the domain name on the right-hand side is the domain name of your FMS server.

Note that the email address that you send the fax from must be associated with a FMS user account otherwise the request will be rejected as coming from an unauthorised user. For more information go to the Configure -- User Accounts section of the Webadmin interface, select a user, and check that the From email field matches the one you are using to originate the message.

Sending a Fax Using the FMS Print Driver for Windows

If all you need to fax are text messages then the instructions above ought to suffice. If, on the otherhand, you want to be able to fax from your Windows applications (i.e. Microsoft Word) then you will need to use the FMS Print Driver for Windows. You can download the FMS Print Driver from the webadmin interface.

Receiving a Fax

If you have enabled the fax line for receiving then you can test this facility by sending a fax to the fax modem and then checking to see if it has arrived by point your browser at http://your.server.name:7437/ (where your.server.name is replaced with the domain name of your FMS server) and select the Route -- Received Faxes link.

Integrating Faximum with your Application

The use of Faximum's APIs and issues related to the integration of Faximum with your application are beyond the scope of this document and product. Please contact sales@faximum.com with information on your needs and we can determine how they might be best addressed.

Removing the Software

To remove the the server software follow these steps:

1. Copy the removal script to a temporary directory. For example (as root):

   cp /opt/faximum/lib/fxm-remove.sh /tmp

2. Run the software removal script:

   cd /tmp
   sh fxm-remove.sh

Resolving Problems and Contacting Technical Support

Should you experience any problems with this software, please visit our Technical Support web page at: http://www.faximum.com/support. This page provides access to our library of TechNotes that describe solutions to common problems.

Please also visit the page: http://www.faximum.com/status which contains updated information on bugs and fixes available for this release (i.e. your problem may be the result of a bug that has already been reported to Faximum).

If you are still unable to resolve your problem after following those steps, please contact the company that supplied you with this software.

If your vendor is unable to assist, please contact Faximum Technical Support by fax at (604) 926-8182, by email to support@Faximum.COM or by phone at (604) 922-7311.

Please read http://www.faximum.com/support/policy for detailed information on the options available for purchasing technical support.

Note that if you are contacting Faximum Technical Support with a question we need the following information:

• the company name under which the product is registered
• your Activation Key Number (emailed or faxed to you by Faximum Software when you registered the product);
• the version and release number of the software (from the installation file name, for example 4.0-2) and the name of the fix file(s) installed (if any);
• the type and release of your operating system; and
• the manufacturer and model of your fax modem (and if using an external fax modem, the manufacturer of the intelligent multi-port card that the modem is connected to).

It can also help Faximum Technical Support if you also send us a diagnostic snapshot of your installation. You can create this and email it to Faximum by running the following command on your FMS server:

/opt/faximum/lib/diagnostic.sh

If your FMS server is behind a firewall that prevents it from sending email directly to Faximum, then please email the diagnostic output to one of your users who can then forward it to support@faximum.com. You can do this by running:

/opt/faximum/lib/diagnostic.sh user@yourdomain.com