[aetherin]

i have been running WinFax pro for more than three years with no problems. i bought a second copy, so that i could use fax sharing on a second computer. when i had trouble with the installation, i went to the symantec web site, only to find that the technical support section for WinFax pro leads to a dead end. it accepts the product name and version, but when it goes to step 2, identify your issue, all i get is a blank screen. I’ve tried it in firefox 1.5 and IE 6.0 with identical results. email to technical support (once i found it, took me nearly 2 days) has gone unanswered for almost a week.

background information:
WinFax pro (controller .exe properties reports version 10.0.2002.1212) running fine on windows XP home SP2. it is on a wireless network through a Linksys WRT-54G. i configured it as a fax sharing server prior to trying to install the client. i also created an additional account on the server with the same name as the user on the client machine, according to the instructions, as i read them.

client computer is a tablet pc running XP pro SP2, connected wirelessly to the network. the properties of the controller .exe file reports version 10.0.2001.91).

the technical issues that I’m having are:

1. i tried to install a new copy of WinFax on the client. it’s an XP professional machine that has never had WinFax installed. it is connected to the server on a wireless network, and the 2 machines actively share files, as well as other activities that assure me that network connectivity is not an issue. when i reached the point in the installation that configures the fax device, i selected fax sharing client. i browsed to the server, and let it continue. in a status window i see the message “workstation found”, and an average response time counter that steadily increases until i receive an error message that it can’t find the server. the server is running McAfee security center, but I’ve opened it for wfxctl32, wfxswtch, WinFax pro (faxmng32), and WinFax pro serial modem driver (wfxmod32). after numerous attempts, i finally canceled the operation, expecting the application to install without a fax device. unfortunately, this aborted the entire installation. what did i do wrong in my setup that keeps the client from finding the server?

2. on the server, which had been running just fine for a lengthy period of time, the WinFax application no longer loads on startup. when i try to start message center, i get a message “this machine has been configured to host fax sharing services by other machines. fax sharing must be disabled in order to use WinFax locally.” so i go to program setup to disable fax sharing. this yields the message “WinFax is not active for this user account. please start the controller before running program setup.” this despite the fact that it has been running under this same user account for several years. next, i tried to start the controller, as suggested. this got me back to “this machine has been configured for…” so, i know i need to disable fax sharing, but no way to do it. now, if fax sharing really doesn’t work on both the client and server at the same time, then it doesn’t fill my needs. how can i restore the server to a working state for local use only?

3. if, as i suspect, i need to uninstall and reinstall, can i keep the faxes and fax logs from the current installation? how would i do that? would it be as simple as copying my current /program files/winfax/data to the new installation?

4. when i open microsoft word on the client machine, i get an error “compile error in hidden module: WinFaxPrintAndMerge”. i do not receive that error on the server.

5. under task manager, the processes wfxnt40.exe and wfxswtch.exe are running, but there are no application buttons in the taskbar or system tray to allow me to access them.

this issue is very important to me, as i am severely disabled, and cannot speak. last month i had an emergency, and used WinFax to call 9-1-1. without WinFax, i would not have survived that day, so when i say that WinFax is my lifeline, i mean it literally.

thank you

[Anonymous]

Hello Andy,

The first thing I recommend is that you uninstall the software on your client machine and reinstall using the same disk/version of WinFax PRO that you installed on the server. It appears you have TWO different versions of WinFax PRO installed. One is 10.02 (the client) and the other is 10.03 (the server), you want to use 10.03 on both machines.

You can uninstall WinFax PRO from the client without losing your existing data. Make sure you don’t say “yes” to removing the data directory contents.

[Anonymous]

@aetherin wrote:

i have been running WinFax pro for more than three years with no problems. i bought a second copy, so that i could use fax sharing on a second computer. when i had trouble with the installation, i went to the symantec web site, only to find that the technical support section for WinFax pro leads to a dead end. it accepts the product name and version, but when it goes to step 2, identify your issue, all i get is a blank screen. I’ve tried it in firefox 1.5 and IE 6.0 with identical results. email to technical support (once i found it, took me nearly 2 days) has gone unanswered for almost a week.

Yes , Its not a problem with IE 6 or Firefox, the Web site leads to a dead end. Symantec seems to have abandoned support for WinFax PRO.However, you can still search for technical notes using the search field on Symantec’s site.

2. on the server, which had been running just fine for a lengthy period of time, the WinFax application no longer loads on startup. when i try to start message center, i get a message “this machine has been configured to host fax sharing services by other machines. fax sharing must be disabled in order to use WinFax locally.” so i go to program setup to disable fax sharing. this yields the message “WinFax is not active for this user account. please start the controller before running program setup.” this despite the fact that it has been running under this same user account for several years. next, i tried to start the controller, as suggested. this got me back to “this machine has been configured for…” so, i know i need to disable fax sharing, but no way to do it. now, if fax sharing really doesn’t work on both the client and server at the same time, then it doesn’t fill my needs. how can i restore the server to a working state for local use only?

Try running WTNSETUP.EXE from the WinFax directory to reconfigure WinFax.

You can also try starting SETUPDCC.EXE in the WinFax directory to bring up the setup dialog box, here you can try to configure the machine as a Host.

If this doesn’t work then you might need to use REGACCES.EXE (also in the WinFax directory) to give access to the proper WinFax registry keys to the currently logged in user.

3. if, as i suspect, i need to uninstall and reinstall, can i keep the faxes and fax logs from the current installation? how would i do that? would it be as simple as copying my current /program files/winfax/data to the new installation?

You should only have to uninstall your client machine where you have WinFax PRO 10.02 installed. Uninstall will not remove data files, unless you tell it to. I always recommend backing up your winfaxdata directory first just incase. A reinstall overtop the existing version should use your existing data without problem.

4. when i open microsoft word on the client machine, i get an error “compile error in hidden module: WinFaxPrintAndMerge”. i do not receive that error on the server.

This is a problem with the macro installed with WinFax PRO 10.02 (which you installed on the client machine)
See “how to manually remove macros” in the WinFax Macros forum. This will solve the problem.

5. under task manager, the processes wfxnt40.exe and wfxswtch.exe are running, but there are no application buttons in the taskbar or system tray to allow me to access them.

These are internal programs used by WinFax, specifically the first is used to control the WinFax printer driver, and wfxswtch.exe is an application that was added for Windows XP support only. They are not programs that you interact with through the system tray or taskbar, so this is perfectly normal to see this applications active when WinFax PRO is running (actually, they are active all the time)

this issue is very important to me, as i am severely disabled, and cannot speak. last month i had an emergency, and used WinFax to call 9-1-1. without WinFax, i would not have survived that day, so when i say that WinFax is my lifeline, i mean it literally.

Amazing, thats good to hear that WinFax helped you out that way.

Edited By Moderator on 1163703936

[aetherin]

THANK YOU for the suggestions; I will try them this afternoon. 2 more questions:

1. is it really true that the fax sharing host cannot, itself, be used locally to send faxes with the WinFax printer driver?

2. i do remember upgrading the server to 10.03. unfortunately, i did it from a download, not a CD. fortunately, i never throw anything away. i found a file named wfzip.exe that, when clicked on, asks where to unpack the WinFax 10.03 installation files. can i use that to install on both computers?

thanks again for the help!

[Anonymous]

@aetherin wrote:

THANK YOU for the suggestions; I will try them this afternoon. 2 more questions:

1. is it really true that the fax sharing host cannot, itself, be used locally to send faxes with the WinFax printer driver?

2. i do remember upgrading the server to 10.03. unfortunately, i did it from a download, not a CD. fortunately, i never throw anything away. i found a file named wfzip.exe that, when clicked on, asks where to unpack the WinFax 10.03 installation files. can i use that to install on both computers?

thanks again for the help!

1. No, you can send faxes from the Host or the client once they are properly configured. The Host also has a WinFax PRO printer driver and operates exactly like a client, except it is the PC with the actual fax machine attached to it.

2. Yes, I suggest you burn those files to a CD and make an image for backup. You can then use these 10.03 files to install on the client. Since you already have 10.03 on your Host, you don’t need to reinstall there.

[aetherin]

i just want to thank you again for your help. i hope you know that now YOU are a lifesaver.

i uninstalled the client with no problem. when i went to run wtnsetup on the server, i got a message saying that controller was running, i needed to quit it before installing. sure enough, there was the icon in the system tray. right clicked on it to start message manager, and poof! everything was back!

i next tried to send a fax from another application, only to get the “winfax is not active for this user” message. so i ran wtnsetup on this user (after stopping controller). once again, all was right with the world.

i haven’t attempted to reinstall the client yet (once bitten…), but i was encouraged by the fact that the server was still configured as a fax sharing host. i may have to try it this afternoon. don’t be surprised if a new thread pops up later…

thanks again

[Author]

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