Integrating fax support into Outlook 2003/Exchange

[ddrueding]

That's what my client wants to do. Basically be able to write an e-mail, and instead of having an e-mail address in the line, have a fax number. Then have a public folder that's the inbox.

Any suggestions?

 

[time]

Yeah, don't use Outlook. At least, not entirely.

Standalone fax products like HotFax will do the sending to either fax or email part for you, either from entered text or as a printer driver. Similarly, they can generate an email to you from any received faxes.

Or, you could use one of the email-fax-email services around.

I wouldn't expect bleeding edge technology here - the fax era has passed.

 

[Fushigi]

We use RightFax to send & receive FAXes via Outlook/Exchange.

To send you compose the message and address it to something like name@faxnumber. It, or the way we have things set up, also 'expands' attachments so if you FAX a Word doc, the receiver will get the doc (and not an icon representing the doc).

Received FAXes come in as TIFFs.

 

[time]

Whoops! Missed the Exchange reference.

Rightfax pricing is cute, in that it appears to be volume based.

Just out of interest, without Outlook you wouldn't need Exchange, so heaps of options become available. You can probably script something for free on Linux, for example. Or off the top of my head, there's Software602 LanSuite ($300/25 users).

Never mind, I'm just trying to highlight what a lousy, restrictive piece of infrastructure Exchange is. IMHO.

 

[Tannin]

Why fax is better than email

1: no spam (well, not much)
2: never, ever has format incompatibilities
3: verifiable "from" addresses that can be traced if needed (see #1)
4: it costs something to send, so people only send you something if it might actually matter (see #1)
5: hard copy
6: cannot, no matter how hard you try, contain a virus or anything else nasty
7: most people actually know how to use it (more-or-less) properly - i.e., people don't generally try to fax you 14 dfferent 17MB 600DPI BMPs in 32-bit colour of an inter-office memo
8: it has absolutely nothing to do with Microsoft in any way, shape, or form
9: any program ever invented - no matter how weird or quirky - that can produce printed output can interface to your fax program with zero compatibility problems. (OK, DisplayWrite 1.0 might struggle, but then DisplayWrite wasn't weird or quirky, it was downright ridiculous.)
10: doesn't arrive with HTML formatting, blinking graphics, flash downloads, or any other crap

I like fax. Fax is 1000% better than email.

 

[ddrueding]

RightFax Enterprise Server looks promising...thanks!

 

[Handruin]

Why fax is better than email

1: no spam (well, not much)
2: never, ever has format incompatibilities
3: verifiable "from" addresses that can be traced if needed (see #1)
4: it costs something to send, so people only send you something if it might actually matter (see #1)
5: hard copy
6: cannot, no matter how hard you try, contain a virus or anything else nasty
7: most people actually know how to use it (more-or-less) properly - i.e., people don't generally try to fax you 14 dfferent 17MB 600DPI BMPs in 32-bit colour of an inter-office memo
8: it has absolutely nothing to do with Microsoft in any way, shape, or form
9: any program ever invented - no matter how weird or quirky - that can produce printed output can interface to your fax program with zero compatibility problems. (OK, DisplayWrite 1.0 might struggle, but then DisplayWrite wasn't weird or quirky, it was downright ridiculous.)
10: doesn't arrive with HTML formatting, blinking graphics, flash downloads, or any other crap

I like fax. Fax is 1000% better than email.

Don't want to go too far off topic. My father has a fax at his work and he gets spam faxes all the time.