I recently rolled out Rightfax 9.4 to a client that uses novell as their default email client.  When they open up Faxutil, they receive the following error:

“Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client cannot fulfill the messaging request. Please run Microsoft Office Outlook and set it as the default mail client.”

1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CLIENTS\MAIL.

2. Find key called PreFirstRun.

3. Rename this value to “PreFirstRun.Renamed”.

4. Close the Registry Editor. The error should no longer occur.
Once I have done this, the error stopped and everyone was happy!  Oh silly Rightfax and Microsoft for making your products act so retarded!

If you read prior posts, you might be wondering why I am refering to how to configure pop3 service for windows 2003.  This is a practice that should NEVER be used and anyone should be shot for doing it.  Why do I know this?  I configured it for a client over 2 years ago and the other day it broke.  HARD.  Of course, I had forgotten how I set up the environment, so I had to relearn everything.  The reason?  I was getting the following error from the Rightfax SMTP gateway and could not figure out why.
RFSMTP_ERR_LOGIN_REFUSED -504  I did a bit of research on what this means and here is what Open Text says:

The mail server was successfully reached, but the login was refused for some reason. This is usually due to a bad mailbox or password. Make sure that the mailbox the gateway is trying to use exists on the mail server and that the passwords match. Some mail servers may use case-sensitive mailbox ID’s and/or passwords.

The fix was to reset the password back as the company set the password to nothing as an attempt to troubleshoot the problem.  If I had known that, it would have saved me a few hours of troubleshooting…oh well, life lives on!

Really, this is a way to reserve any ports for windows, but this is specifically for Rightfax 9.3  Rightfax uses specific ports for its client configuration and if another program uses those ports, rightfax does not work correctly.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedt32.exe in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value.
4. In the Value Name box, type ReservedPorts.
5. In the Data Type list, click REG_MULTI_SZ, and then click OK.
6. In the Multi-String Editor dialog box, type the range of ports that you want to reserve.
7. Specify the range of ports; type 1052-1062; hit enter.
8. Specify the next range of ports on the next line; type 10520-10521; hit enter.
9. Specify the next range of ports on the next line; type 10062-10062; hit enter.
10. Specify the next range of ports on the next line; type 34987-34988; hit enter.
11. Click OK.
12. Quit Registry Editor.

Once done, reboot the server and rightfax will be able to utilize those ports again.

Installing RightFax servers to share a SQL database

To install multiple RightFax servers that share a SQL database, complete the following general steps:

1. If you are upgrading, print or make a copy of the Windows registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\RightFax so that you have a copy of any changes that have been made to customize the system. In a typical shared database configuration, customizations should be identical on each RightFax server.
2. Install the RightFax server on the first RightFax server computer. Define the SQL database as you are prompted during the installation.
3. Activate licensed features on the first RightFax server computer.
4. On the second RightFax server computer, run the RightFax server installation program.
5. During the installation, point the second RightFax server to the SQL database that you defined when you installed the first RightFax server.
6. During the installation, you will be prompted to delete the existing RightFax database or append to the existing database. Choose to append.
7. Activate licensed features on the second RightFax server, as described in step 2. To avoid license conflicts and violations, all of the RightFax servers that share a common SQL database must have the same licensed features activated.
8. Repeat steps 4 through 7 for each added RightFax server.

Providing access to shared resource folders

The following folders are shared among all the RightFax servers in the shared database configuration:

• Image (contains sent and received faxes stored as compressed graphic image files).
• SIG (contains graphic images of user signatures for placement on faxes).
• Papers (contains the names of overlay form files).
• FCS (contains fax cover sheets).
• Outgoing (contains outbound files from all submission methods that are held while being processed into fax images, such as temporary fax queue spool files).
• BFT (contains text files created by the OCR process).
• CmdData (contains transaction files for each fax sent via e-mail or via SecureDocs).

This is the abbreviated version of the captaris kb 4442

Just when you think you have seen all the errors that OpenText/Captaris Rightfax software could provide, it throws you a curveball.  A sales person came to me and said that he is receiving the error “Fax blocked by board” in faxutil.  Now I am like, WUT, wtf is fax blocked by board?!?!?!  Well after a quick search on the kbs, I found the following tidbit of information:

This may occur if you send a fax from FaxUtil with the ‘Recipient Fax ID’ field filled in.

In the Fax Information dialogue, select More Options, and remove the phone number in the “Recipient Fax ID” field.

This feature can be summarized as: ‘the fax will not be sent unless the CSID (Caller Subscriber ID ) of the fax machine you are sending to matches this number.’ This is the programmed alpha-numeric identifier of the receiving fax machine. Please note that the match is case-sensitive.

To avoid this error, do not populate the “Recipient Fax ID” field.

Answer ID 76

Once I removed the Recipient Fax ID field, it worked without a charm.  Go figure?

I have a client that would like to add email contacts to an address.  I told him that it wouldn’t work properly, but did forward him the following information:

Microsoft Exchange

The RightFax form supports two different address formats for addressing faxes: the FAX format, and the RFAX format.

To Send a Document to a Fax Number Using the FAX Addressing Format:

1. Specify a destination name and fax number in the To: or Cc: box of a new message using this format:

[FAX:Name@FaxNumber]

(You must include both the Name and FaxNumber as well as the enclosing square brackets.)

2. Separate multiple FAX addresses with semicolons.

Example:

[FAX:Jane Doe@555-1212];[FAX:John Smith@(520)555-1000]

RFAX Addressing Format:

1. Specify a destination name and fax number in the To: or Cc: box of a new message using this format:

[RFAX:Name@/FN=FaxNum]

(You must include the opening and closing square brackets.)

2. The name and fax number are required. You can also add these parameters for display on the cover sheet:

SMS Number:    /SMS=Number (replaces /FN for a fax number)

Billing code 1:    /AN=Code

Billing code 2:    /MN=Code

City and state:    /CI=City, State

Company:    /CO=Company

Voice phone number:    /VN=Number

3. Separate multiple RFAX addresses with semicolons.

Example:

[RFAX:JaneDoe@/FN=555-1212/VN=555-2345/CO=Acme, Inc.]

The rightfax server is 9.3 and has the exchange gateway configured.

Important Services

faxdb.exe – Rightfax Database Module

faxserv.exe – Rightfax Server Module

worksrv.exe (default is 3 processes) – Rightfax

RflsoConv.exe – Captaris Conversion Engine

Doctransport.exe – Document Transport Service

Rightfax.API.Remoting.Service – Rightfax Remoting

Rightfax Email Gateway – I do not have an exchange service installed on my server.  Unsure what service runs this.

Passive Services

Porthand.exe – Rightfax Queue Handler

CapaSync.exe – Captaris Sync Module

faxrpc.exe – Rightfax RPC Module

MIMESEND.exe – eTransport Module

I prepared this list for a client and figured it would be good thing to have around.  Ironcially enough, another client requested this 2 hours after I sent this information to them as well.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a SQL administrator and I have not done this migration.  I have installed Rightfax on servers that had multiple SQL services on it, so this should work.  I am going to perform this procedure in the upcoming weeks so if it blows up, I’ll update the post. 

1. Install SQL 2005

2. Use SQL manager (not sure of exact name. Your DB people should know) to backup rightfax database. Stop the Rightfax services before backing up the database.

3. Use SQL manager to restore rightfax database to SQL 2005

4. Reconfigure the ODBC connection to point to the new location.

1. Go to Enterprise Fax manager.

2. Double Click Rightfax Database Module

3. Click on the three dots under SQL Connection

4. Click the three dots in ODBC Data Source

5. Go to the System DSN tab

6. Configure Rightfax (or whatever naming convention was used)

7. Under SQL server you want to connect to, select the SQL 2005 server\Rightfax. You can find the path by using the SQL manager. It will prompt which server service to connect to.

8. Start the services.

For those of you that are unaware of what Rightfax is, it is an enterprise faxing solution. Feel free to check them out at Captaris.com. Almost all the big boys has one, why not you?

Well regardless, version 8.7 is going to not be supported anymore on September first. This is significant because that is the last version that used their own proprietary database. Now, granted, their database sucked, but that is besides the point. If you want to use rightfax at this point, you better know SQL. Speaking of SQL, never EVER use version 9.0 without SQL, it is horrible, but that is for another time and another rant.

I am going to miss 8.7 since it came out right when I started to learn Rightfax and I got my feet wet on it. I have good memories of trying to install 8.7 until 1 AM in the morning on the friday before memorial day, and going to a client to assist with installing a remote board server and ended up doing the whole install.

Version 8.7 I will miss you! Enjoy these last months before retirement and try not to get your database corrupted (again)