PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING NOTES CAREFULLY

We are afraid that it is not possible for us to offer detailed support on the configuration or setup of any particular modem for use with NetCFax as there are simply far too many different fax modems available, using too many different setups, so please do not ask or expect us to do so.

The fax modem(s) you are using were of course not supplied as a part of NetCFax, so if you find that by some mischance you do have an issue with sending or receiving faxes with NetCFax, you should consult your modem documentation, and/or call the manufactures or visit their web site to obtain whatever information on initialization and reset strings you may need to make the modem work correctly.  NetCFax supports and works well with most good quality, up to date hardware based Class 1, 2 and 2.0 fax modems or multi-port boards.

NetCFax is approved  to the MainPine Bronze level to support the high quality RockForce multi port boards produced by MainPine 

CLICK HERE to view PDF of the MainPine test lab report using NetCFax Pro.

NetCFax does not (currently) support what are known as "high end multi fax cards" such as those from BrookTrout and other similar manufacturers.

The default initialization string that we assign to each modem has been shown to work with the vast majority of fax modems, (or the default with hardware flow control shown in our list), but it is always possible that your particular modem may need a different initialization string.

We cannot recommend specific modems for obvious reasons, neither can we provide you with the correct initialization string for your specific modem, but what we can say is that the modems we use on our own live and test systems are as shown below, and these work just great with one or other of our default initialization strings :-

USR 56K FaxModem USB (Model 5633)
Creative labs Modem Blaster V92 External USB (DE5671-1)
        
These seem to work very well, but we do strongly recommend that you ensure that your PC is attached to a surge protector board, as we have lost three of these modems to power spikes or outages in less than three months on unprotected test machines, but rather strangely our USR modems on the same machines have not suffered any such problems with these same power outages.

Creative labs Modem Blaster V92 Internal PCI (D5633-x) where x can be any letter or number. We suggest that if the default modem init string does not seem to work, you try the NetCFax default init strings that uses hardware flow control with this modem.  One or other of these init strings will definitely make this modem work just fine.

All of these happen to be Class 1 modems, and they work extremely well with one or other of the default NetCFax initialization strings.  NB - This does NOT mean that these are the only modems that will work with NetCFax, or that only Class 1 modems will work, as we have been told of many other Class 1 and Class 2 modems that also work really well. !!

It is also the case that computer based fax systems using Class 2 modems can encounter some problems when sending faxes to some "older" fax machines, but our experience has been that using a Class 1 modem with NetCFax will often overcome these occasional problems.

If your modem is a software based "win" or "zoom" style device, it is quite possible that it will NOT work correctly with NetCFax.  
Computerized fax systems need to use a reasonable quality hardware based fax modem, which are available from your local computer store at a very small cost.

Please do not ask us to tell you if your modem 
happens to be one of these, as there is no way we can do so.

We are also not allowed to recommend any particular modem, but we do tell you what we use (shown above) but would suggest that you consider any of the many available hardware based modems produced by reputable modem manufacturers such as USR, Hayes and others, and you will find these will work just fine.

External modems may be connected by serial port, USB port, or they can be PCI or other internally mounted modem cards

WARNING - INSTALLING NETCFAX ON MACHINES THAT HAVE HAD OTHER FAX PRODUCTS IN USE OR INSTALLED

We have had several reports of problems with modems if the machine on which you have installed the NetCFax server has previously had WinFax from Symantec, (or indeed some other fax systems) installed on it previously.

NetCFax does not install any modem drivers, but problems can easily be caused if modem drivers etc that were installed by other fax systems are still there and operative despite these other products having been uninstalled.  In particular, it has been shown conclusively that quite often Winfax does not remove all its drivers correctly, and the proof of this was that systems with these problems that eventually had the hard disk reformatted immediately ran NetCFax with the same modems without any problems.

We can therefore only recommend that you contact the developers of the previous package to ensure that you are able to FULLY UNINSTALL any previous fax system if you wish to install the NetCFax server, or else we recommend that you install NetCFax on a different (and clean) machine.

IMPORTANT- FOR MANY GOOD REASONS,  NETCFAX DOES NOT USE ANY OF THE MODEM CONFIGURATION SETTINGS OR OPTIONS THAT YOU MAY HAVE SET UP IN THE WINDOWS MODEM CONFIGURATION SYSTEM, other than the "wait for dial tone" option, the serial port connection speed and the speaker volume.

To configure the modems for both sending and receiving, NETCFAX ONLY uses the INITIALIZATION and RESET strings entered in it's own modem configuration system (accessed easily from the Modems menu - Selected modem's settings), or by double clicking on a modem in the list. 

So it is PRETTY IMPORTANT for you to ensure that you do have the correct strings for your particular modem entered in this window.   NetCFax provides a default initialization and reset string, which works well with a large number of different modems, but it is possible it may not be correct for your particular modem(s).  This information should be available in your modem documentation, or of course from the modem manufacturers web site.

We also recommend that you go to Windows Settings, select Modems, and set the maximum serial port speed to 57,600 under the properties of each modem that is to be used by NetCFax, even if it appears that they are working correctly.

ALWAYS ensure that you have visited the manufacturers web site and checked that you really do have the latest modem driver, as those you installed from the CD ROM that came with your modem may well be consdierably out of date.

If you feel there may be a better initialization string available for your modem, or you want to try some others, we have provided some useful lists and links immediately below here that list a very large number of different modems and the init strings recommended for them.  NB - You try/use these init strings at entirely your own risk.

If NETCFAX SUDDENLY FAILS TO TRY TO MAKE CONNECTIONS TO SEND OR RECEIVE FAXES AND you CANNOT SEE WHY 

The very first suggestion we check that windows still lists your modem as being present. Yes, we know it was working yesterday, and its clearly still there, but our own experience, especially with XP systems, is that Windows seems to simply "LOSE" the modem.  On some occasions, we have seen this occur twice in a single day.  The only common factor seems to be if the modem is not used for one or more days. THIS IS A WINDOWS BUG, NOT A BUG IN NETCFAX.

To check for this, open the Windows Control Panel, select Phone & Modem options, or whatever your version of Windows calls it, and then go to the modems tab.  You may find that it reports your modem correctly, but also lists it as NOT PRESENT !!!!!!

If it is a USB device, then usually the easiest way to get Windows to recognize its existence again is to simply remove the USB connector and then reconnect it after a few seconds delay.  However, if this "trick" fails, you may have to reinstall the modem.

If you seem to get a lot of incoming faxes that get placed in the Bad Received faxes drawer

If these mostly appear to be OK, it may be due to a noisy phone line or a sub standard modem or using a bad or incorrect initialization string.

These problems are usually indicated when you see many error 18 or error 21 messages, but NetCFax does allow you to override this if you wish to do so.

If you have any of the current releases of NetCFax, you can change this setting very easily by going to the Tool - Received faxes options menu, and checking the option you will find on the first tab of the property sheet - "Assume partially received faxes are OK (if 1 or more pages)".

If this option is not available on your system, you need to open and edit the fax servers main configuration file which is named NCFXSERVER.DAT, and can be found in the following folder (by default) of the fax server installation tree.

C:\program files\netcfax.............\data\raw

This is a standard WIndows INI style file, so you must ensure that you use a standard text editor such as Windows NotePad.

First, you MUST CLOSE the fax server down, or you will have problems later.

Find a section heading in brackets like this [ ] exactly as shown below (it may not be in upper case, as none of these entries are case sensitive)

[RECEIVEDFAXES]

Add an entry IDENTICAL to the following line, with no spaces around the = sign immediately below the section heading.

OVERRIDEPROTOCOLS=1

If there is no section heading as shown (unlikely) then add one exactly as shown at the very bottom of the file and then add the OVERRIDEPROTOCOLS=1 line immediately below it.

Now save the file again. WARNING - Notepad will often try to add .TXT to the end of the file name, and this will destroy your servers configuration system, so ensure you select "All files" or whatever is available for the file type.  DO NOT LEAVE IT AT .TXT or you will lose your configuration system

Restart the fax server again.........

Now whenever these receive errors occur, and providing that NetCFax has received at least one page or more, it will save the fax to your normal Received faxes drawer instead of the Bad Received drawer. 

USEFUL HINT - If you are finding that your modem is giving "Unable to initialize modem" errors when NetCFax tries to send faxes, and you have it configured to both send and receive, the VERY FIRST THING TO TRY is to change the main fax engine setting options that can be found at the top right of the main NetCFax server window to "Server will only send faxes".  Then restart the NetCFax server and try to send again.  If it then sends successfully, change the engine setting back to "Server will Send and Receive faxes" and it should work just fine thereafter.

We have also had several instances where we have suddenly seen this error occurring on our own PREVIOUSLY WORKING NetCFax systems.  Further investigation of these issues have proved conclusively that Windows XP in particular still has a nasty and long noted habit of loosing all knowledge of the modem.  If you go to the  Control Panel - Phone and modem potions, and open the modems tab, only to find that your modem is listed but marked as NOT PRESENT, then you almost certainly have this same problem. 

If you do, reinstallation of the modem is about the only way to resolve this, but PLEASE NOTE - once you have done so, you will almost certainly need to use the "Rescan for modems" option on the NetCFax servers Modems menu to reset the Fax Server modems configuration as well.

KNOWN PROBLEMS & FIXES

MODEMS WITH DOCUMENTED PROBLEMS

Other than NOT USING so called "software modems" such as those with "Win" and "zoom" or similar in their names, we are currently only aware of the following modems that may have problems if used with NetCFax (and other computer fax systems as well.).

ROCKETMODEM III

The manufacturers of this modem have admitted that they a firmware problem exists with this modem, and it is therefore unlikely to send many faxes successfully due to this issue.  PLEASE CHECK THE ROCKETMODEM WEB SITE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Intermittent received faxes handling ( or failing to receive at all )

We have become aware of some intermittent but rather annoying issues when NetCFax is used with some Class 2.0 modems. These can cause the fax server to fail to log received faxes information, possibly stop receiving faxes, and when this occurs, it fails to print or email notifications either.

This issue was fixed in both the 2.65.4 and 3.00.4 releases (early September, 2005).

The other way around this problem is to use a Class 1 modem, or set your modem to use Class 1 if you are able to do so.  Many new modems, including as we understand it, a large number of the new USR modems,  are now only providing Class 1 support again.!!

USEFUL HINT - If you are having problems with sending or receiving faxes, one of the first things to try is to ensure that the modem initialization string you have in NetCFax for your modem contains the relevant AT codes to tell it to use HARDWARE FLOW CONTROL.  We cannot advise as to what the relevant codes may be for your particular modem, but for relatively modern modems such as the USR 56K FaxModem USB modems that we use in-house, you may want to try adding the additional AT codes of :

&H1 and also &B1 

&H1 is the setting (for most modems) to enable Hardware Flow Control, but the &B1 setting is to set the fixes the serial port rate, and may possibly not work with your modem or computer setup.

eg: the normal NetCFax default string:
     AT&FE0V1&C1&D2S0=0

The NetCFax default string with hardware flow control forced :     
      AT&FE0V1&C1&D2&H1S0=0

IMPORTANT - This does not mean that these codes will necessarily be the correct codes to force YOUR modem to use hardware flow control, and the serial rate command may also not work with your modem or computer, so please check your own modems documentation or contact your modem manufacturer.

USEFUL HINT - If you change the modem initialization string in the NetCFax modem configuration system, or even the reset string, you should ALWAYS restart the NetCFax server, as this should let it re-initialize the modem with the new strings correctly.  However, you may also need to restart Windows to let the modem reset it's internal registers to the default values again first. 

USEFUL HINT - If you have multiple identical modems installed on the machine NetCFax is installed on, and on reboot, Windows reports that one or more are NOT configured correctly, NetCFax will almost certainly not be able to scan for them correctly or use them, EVEN IF WINDOWS SEEMS ABLE TO DO SO....

The normal reason for such a warning being issued by Windows is because the modems have been installed using the same Interrupt (IRQ), or memory areas.  You need to go into the Control Panel - System and select the "hardware" option, and then check and reset these so no memory or IRQ clashes are occurring.  Then reboot the system and ensure Windows no longer reports these errors.  Finally do a full rescan for modems with NetCFax.

In fact the general wisdom on using multiple individual (internal or external) modems in a Windows system is DO NOT DO SO !

We strongly advise you to consider purchasing a reasonable multi port modem port such as those produces by DigiBoard, and the MainPine boards we have mentioned previously.  These types of multi port boards have been specifically designed to handle multiple modems, and usually will do so very much more effectively than trying to use several individual modems, due to driver conflicts etc.  A reminder - NetCFax does NOT support Brooktrout or other "high end" fax board at this time.

USEFUL HINT - If you find that your USB modem seems to "appear" and then reports "Not present" under Windows, and it is a USB device, we strongly advise you to first of all try changing the USB cable.  We have seen this problem with some mass produced modems, and this has usually corrected it very easily.  It seems that many USB cables are "less than perfect" sadly.

It may also be that you re overloading your USB system and need a new "powered" USB port to handle it correctly.

Just click on the topic you are interested in below, and you will be taken to the answer automatically...

Return to main NetCFax FAQ page...

The NetCFax server doesn't seem able to find my modem ?

We are using a Win Modem (software based) but it doesn't seem to work correctly with NetCFax ?

Can the NetCFax server take advantage of "High end" fax modem boards such as BrookTrout, Dialogic or Natural Microsystems ?

When sending a fax, we sometimes find that it cannot be sent because the receiving end has voice before fax messages etc.  How can that be overcome ?

We seem to sometimes have problems sending faxes, and cannot seem to find out what the problem is ?  

When trying to send a fax, we sometimes get the error "NO DIALTONE" 
How can that be overcome ?

What are the recommended setup (initialization) strings for the most common modems ? 

We have just installed the fax server, but although we do have a fax modem installed and working, the modem scan performed by the NetCFax Server does not seem to be able to identify it ?

OR the NetCFax server has been using an installed  modem just fine, but now it cannot seem to find it and the NetCFax modem rescan tells us there are NO INSTALLED MODEMS ?

We have a requirement to be able to specify the modem/phone line that is to be used to send faxes out on.  Can NetCFax do this ?

We need to be able to specify that NetCFax only picks up the line after x rings ?

Can the NetCFax server take advantage of "High end" fax modem boards such as BrookTrout, Dialogic or Natural Microsystems ?

We are sorry, but it will not do so at present.

We are looking at providing the necessary special support for these devices, but currently NetCFax does support virtually all Class 1, Class 2,and class 2.0 modems that may be  installed internally or externally on a PC, including USB, PCI and and Serial connections.

Return to list of modem questions...

When sending a fax, we sometimes find that it cannot be sent because the receiving end has voice before fax messages etc.  How can that be overcome ?

Quite easy really.   The phone number that you enter for the fax machine you wish to send to in the fax creation dialog can contain any of the numbers and other (control) characters you might use to dial a phone number, including such modem specific codes as commas to create pauses, "*70," to turn off call waiting, and others.

Just check your modems documentation and add these as required.  Don't forget that you can also save these to your address book for future use.

Return to list of modem questions...

When trying to send a fax, we sometimes get the error "NO DIALTONE". How can that be overcome ?

The NO DIALTONE error is generated directly by the modem. We've seen a couple of issues that can cause that:
1. If there is a "stutter tone" of some type on that line, some modems will return NO DIALTONE.

2. Have you verified that there is indeed a dialtone by plugging in a regular phone to the modem Phone jack ?

3. You can try blind dialing by adding X1 to the init string.

We seem to sometimes have problems sending faxes, and cannot seem to find out what the problem is ?  

The solution is normally quite easy.  NetCFax is designed to meet modern telephony standards, and it does therefore expect to be using a "reasonably modern" fax modem to connect to.

It has been shown in testing that fairly old and out of date modems, and the very cheap modems such as the so called "Win Modem" (software driven) series that are often built in to PC's from Dell, Gateway etc do not work well with NetCFax, or indeed  many other computer fax systems.

We strongly recommend that you invest the small amount they cost to obtain a reasonable (full hardware) modem for use with computerized faxing systems such as NetCFax.  These may be external or internal, and even most of the  specialized multi-modem fax cards are supported as well..

Return to list of modem questions...

What are the recommended setup (initialization) strings for the most common modems ? 

These are the most commonly used init strings, but please see your own modem documentation as your particular modem may require different initialization strings to work correctly. 

Please note that we cannot provide technical support on the correct setup of individual modem initialization strings, as there are far too many fax modems available.

With the release of 2.61.0.19 we have included a reference list of all of these initialization strings that you can select from quickly and easily.  Just click the Select button alongside the init string field and a list will be displayed for you automatically.

Our default Init String - works pretty well with most "standard" modems:
AT&FE0V1&C1&D2S0=0

US Robotics Sportsters:
AT&F1E0V1&C1&D2S0=0

Alternate USR string to enable both hardware 
and software flow control.
AT&F1&H3&I2&R2E0V1&C1&D2S0=0

Practical Peripherals:
AT&FE0V1&C1&D2&K4S0=0

MultiTech:
AT&FE0V1&C1&D2&E5S0=0

or for both Hardware & Software flow control:
AT&FE0V1&C1&D2&E4&E11S0=0

Hayes:
AT&FE0V1&C1&D2/Q1S0=0

If you are also receiving faxes with NetCFax, You may also need to ensure that you have enabled Hardware Flow Control in your init string.   

The most common settings for flow control (and the matching portion of the initialization string) are listed below:

• Rockwell settings: &K3 (hardware), &K4 (software)

• U.S. Robotics settings: &H1 (hardware), &H2 (software), HCF/HSP settings +IFC=2,2

• AT&T/Cirrus Logic settings: \Q3 (hardware), \Q1 (software)

If you are really having problems with your modem, and your modem is reasonably modern, we suggest that you try the init string below. We  have over time experimented with many different strings on various modems, and this one "MAY" also work for your modem.

AT&FE0V1S0=0&C1&D2+MR=2;+DR=1;+ER=1;W2

You may also be able to use this as the reset string as well, although normally AT by itself is just fine.
Please ensure that you copy this string EXACTLY AS SHOWN....

Please check your own modem documentation for more details on all of these settings.

Return to list of modem questions...

We have just installed the fax server, but although we do have a fax modem installed and working, the modem scan performed by the NetCFax Server does not seem to be able to identify it ?

OR the NetCFax server has been using an installed  modem just fine, but now it cannot seem to find it and the NetCFax modem rescan tells us there are NO INSTALLED MODEMS ?

This is usually caused by a documented bug in Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP. There are two possible ways to overcome this.

To identify the installed and available fax modems, NetCFax makes a standard and documented API call to the Window's RAS system, and then simply lists whatever fax modems Windows returns as being installed, after confirming they are Fax capable devices.

However, it has been documented by Microsoft that BOTH  Windows 2000 and XP have a known but intermittent issue with correctly reporting installed modems.  To force them to provide information on these via the system calls we have to make to identify them, all you normally need is to :

1 - Reboot the machine using a full cold boot.  This will normally reset the internal table of modems stored by Windows on startup.  Sometimes even logging out and then logging back in to the machine will correct the issue.

2 - If both of the above fail, we suggest you go to the  Control Panel, select the modems entry and then highlight the modem that is not being reported, and finally use the REMOVE button to remove it from the windows list.

Then (if it is an internal modem [card], physically remove and replace the modem  in the slot.

Most modems are "Plug and Play" compatible, so all you may need to do is to reboot the operating system and let Windows find and reinstall the modem for you. If yours is not PnP compatible, you will need to follow the modem manufacturers installation instructions that came with your modem.

You should then find that NetCFax will have the modem reported correctly by Windows during it's modem scan.

Sadly, there is no way for us to  correct or bypass this bug in your Microsoft Windows operating system !

Return to list of modem questions...

We have added international codes in our address book, but the faxes are not being sent out ?

The only reason  this may occur is if you have chosen to prefix these numbers with different characters such as a + or surrounding them with () before the dialing code.  eg :+1 727 392 3216 or(1) 727 392 3216  to fax us at NetCPlus.

The + sign is after all not a part of any standard dialing system, and you cannot and do not enter these when you are making a voice call either, so you should not assume that a computer based fax system such as NetCFax will be able to either.

To fix the problem quickly and easily,  try  removing all + or () characters  in your address books and just leave the international codes eg: 1 727 392 3216 (for US toll calls).  These should then  be sent without any problems.

HINT - You can also add standard dialing control numbers to the fax # list, such as ,9, to obtain an outside line if required, but please remember that it is ONLY the fax server that makes these calls, and it is possible that the machine it is running on **may** not need to use these.  Check with your network administrator before adding these to your address books or your faxes may not get sent out !

Return to list of modem questions...

We have a requirement to be able to specify the modem/phone line that is to be used to send faxes out on.  Can NetCFax do this ?

Yes indeed, we have added this feature to the latest 2.61 release  that was made available on our web site  on May 5, 2005.

All you need to do is to download the latest full upgrade, and upgrade BOTH the SERVER and ALL THE CLIENTS.  The fax creation window now provides a modem selection list to let you do exactly this.

Get it from  our downloads page now.

Return to list of modem questions...

We need to be able to specify that NetCFax only picks up the line after x rings ?

We are afraid that you cannot set this at his time 

The NetCFax modem control system always picks the line up on the first ring, even if you specify an S0=x setting in your init string.  This may be changed in later releases..

Return to list of modem questions...