WinFax Pro 10 - Pro by name, Pro by Nature
Written: Dec 30 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Simple to set up and use
Cons: Why don't more people use it!
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| gkeenan's Full Review: Symantec WinFax PRO |
Many companies still use the tried and trusted method of having a single fax machine in the office, and usually some poor person has to send and retrieve documents day in and day out. Imagine what it would like to have the ability to send and receive faxes straight from your own PC! Sounds good? Well we thought we would try out Symantec WinFax Pro 10 to see if this would be an answer to your prayers.
INSTALLING
Nothing could be simpler than running Setup.exe and being promoted all the way through the whole process. It took around 5 minutes to install the software onto a Windows 98SE machine, then it moved to phase two in which the software gets ready to configure itself for operating on your computer.
You are presented with the CSID, Fax Number and Phone number settings for you to fill in. So, 0141 etc.. was added, then there was the option set configure the machine for WinFax Pro Fax Sharing, Onto the modem on the machine, ISDN device, Concord Internet Fax and NetCentric Internet Fax.
I chose the Zoom V90 USB Fax Modem that I had attached to the system and the software then went into a diagnostic mode to test the modem to see if it was suitable or not.
Once it tested and passed the modem, the option to add the software to the startup group or to launch manually was given. After this, the option to configure faxing by email is presented. This is not a feature that we would use, simply because anything related to imagery etc, we would use email by using Outlook Express.
Once this is completed a range of menu's appear asking you to register the software then Live Update tries to install. Again, we chose to ignore these option for testing purposes. After this, the software offers you the choice of launching the application or dropping back to windows. Launching the software presents the Message Manager. Anyone who uses Outlook or Outlook Express will feel at home with the look and feel of the interface of the program.
NETWORK FAX SHARING
To configure another computer on your network to send and receive a fax is simplicity itself. By bringing up the Program Setup option from the WinFaxPro icon that sits at the bottom right hand of your desktop you are presented with an easy to follow screen of icons. Selecting the Fax Sharing Host option brings up the next screen that gives you the details on the IP address of your computer, and it's name. Once this is done, the computer is ready to accept other CLIENTS to log on and use the services.
SETTING THE CLIENT
The client side to the installation is straight forward as well. You basically just follow the same installation sequence, and rather than choosing a modem to link into, you select the FAX SHARING CLIENT option.
Then you only need type in the HOST IP address and in theory you ready to go.
When we typed in the IP address of the other workstation the system started to scan for the available IP address, but for some reason it would not detect it and timed out. We continued with the installation, ignoring the fact that the software had reported an error, and the rest went smoothly. On launching WinFaxPro on the client system, it scanned and found the IP address and then waited for something to fax. We can only assume that there was something running that possibly made the software miss the IP address, or it was just one of those great software "features" that we all know and love.
USING THE SOFTWARE
Sending your first fax is very simple. Using Microsoft Word, we loaded a document, then went to FILE and PRINT. You are presented with your usual printer, but if you click the select tab, you will see that you have two news print components, WinFax and WinFax (Photo Quality). Clicking on WinFax brings up the option screen for who you are sending the fax to. You are given the option to type the name of the person you are sending the fax to, company name and whether you wish to send a cover sheet or not. After typing the information in you then click on the send button and the system send s the fax out to the main machine that will do the dialing. A dialog box appears on the screen of the main machine that is sending the fax, not the client that was used. Once the fax has been sent the box disappears, and the software sits idle waiting for a fax to be sent or received.
DISASTER!
Because a computer is being used as a server for sending and receiving of all fax's, it is important to remember that you must keep the computer on at all times with the WinFaxPro software running. To see how WinFaxPro would react if the machine was switched off we powered the server down and the clients immediately came up with a warning box. howing you an alert in this way means you can get the matter sorted out quickly, as everyone will have this appearing on their computer screen. No excuses for not taking action!
The software guides you through what to do, but we did find that some of our Windows 98SE machines froze and would not operate correctly until they had been shut down and re-started. This is something would treat as normal and most network related software tends to get very upset when it's main server is lost without any warning!
FROM THE ASHES
We re-powered the main machine back up, restarted the main clients and everything was back up and running perfectly. All faxes we had received had still been stored, so no disaster after all!
A feature that we never really use because we have a manual fax for paper documents is the scan to fax feature. Now to be honest, it's easier for us to use a manual fax machine but if you don't have one this option is simply superb! When you click the Scand and Send option another box appears telling you exactly what to do.
We ran off 3 pages of documents, and when we closed the scanning software application down it dropped us back to the main manger window for us to type the name and telephone number in. A few seconds later, the fax was sent. Absolutely simple to do and if you don't have a manual fax machine, pick up a cheap scanner and place it onto any machine in the building.
FINAL VIEW
With all of these software packages you tend to have an overkill of options available on how to configure the software to your own needs. Like any good piece of software a well written program means you don't have to go searching for the manual very often, and WinFax certainly wins here.
To quote the official blurb from Symantec, WinFax PRO 10.0 makes faxing as easy as printing. You can preview faxes before sending them, rearrange or remove pages while composing a fax, and even merge documents from multiple sources, including your scanner, into a single fax. In addition WinFax PRO 10.0 allows you to easily schedule your faxes for transmission during hours of low telephone activity and inexpensive long-distance rates.
We can't argue with any of that, this software is simply a must buy if you are looking for fax software for a stand alone machine or to kit out your whole office. And, it gets better, you can download an evaluation copy of this software from the Symantec web site, so why not give it a try yourself and be amazed at how simple the setting up and configuring can be.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
gkeenan
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Member: Gordon Keenan
Location: Glasgow - Scotland
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Dealing with technology on a daily basis, we just want help others out.
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