[kaboondy]

This makes sense. I will do the following (to confirm that I understood). When a fax is received, we will check the properties and then transfer the fax to Shared Fax and recheck the properties. We will then try to forward the fax and see if there is an error message. If yes, then we will copy the fax (as I done with the workaround discovered by accident) back to the Host Received Log and then check properties and try to forward and see what happens with the properties information. I will report shortly.

[kaboondy]

@Moderator wrote:

I suspect the problem is related to the moving of the fax log entries from the host receive log to the shared log. this is just a theory but I suspect that when you connect a client to a host, the client has made a copy of the received fax from the host and then you have another copy in the shared fax folder, which could pose a problem if there are conflicting files.

You can check the names of the fax files that are associated with the received fax log entry. Then compare the file names with the entries in the shared folder. If you click on the Received Fax, right click Properties, then click “Message Files” tab, it should give you a list of files for that fax log entry. For received faxes, you’ll see “.FXR” files. This may give a clue of what is going wrong…

I am sorry, perhaps I was not clear in my last post. We are not making a copy when we move the Received faxes from the Host Received Fax folder to the Shares Fax folder. In other words, once the fax has been moved – there is no fax in the Host Received folder to Right Click on to see the Properties – or am I missing something? Our main purpose is to have only one copy of the fax which every staff can then see and process/modify in a joint effort.

Also, just to be clear, we do not download a copy to clients received folder (which is an option when the window pops up on each client when the Host receives a fax).

Please clarify. Thanks

[kaboondy]

@Moderator wrote:

@kaboondy wrote:

When we click on the received fax in the Shared Fax folder, there is no problem in seeing the fax and even annonating the fax. HOWEVER, if there is a fax that we wish to forward to another receipient, there is an error message –

“Message Manager”
“One or more files are missing or invalid”

Of note we noticed (just by chance) the computer CPU Usage goes to 100% for much longer than normal when we take this action and it takes several seconds to return the error.

In addition (and amazingly), if we COPY the fax back to the original received folder in computer A (Server), we can forward the fax with no errors posted!!

Just so I am following you correctly, you created a shared message store (lets call it Shared Faxes) on computer A (server) but the files are stored on computer B? Then within WinFax Message Manager, you copy (not move) received faxes from the “Receive Log” message store in Computer A (Server) to this “Shared Faxes” message store (which is sorted into additional folders ).?

This is mostly correct except we do MOVE the received faxes from the Received folder on the Server A to the Shared Faxes on Computer B. The main purpose is to allow each client computer to be able to deal with (any or) all received faxes and any changes made on any client computer are then visible to all client computers. This allows staff to share their work output without having to move to another computer. In the past we would download faxes to each local client Received folder but then would have multiple versions of the fax. As part of our work, we annonate faxes with updates on its current status and what each staff has done to process the received fax. With different work shifts, it makes it much easier to follow each staff members activity without having to wait to ask them at the next shift.

This shared folder is visible on the other clients, and when you attempt to “forward” the fax to another recipient (or the same recipient?) the error appears?
Yes, some faxes are annonated and then sent back to the receipient or forawrded to another receipient from the Shared Faxes folder. When attempting to do this, the error is displayed.

In trying to find a solution, I copied the fax back to the Received Folder on the Server A and then there was no error when the fax was sent/forwarded to a receipient. I can continue to use this workaround; however, it would be nice to know if there is a way to correct this error.

If you click on the Received Fax, right click Properties, then click “Message Files” tab, it should give you a list of files for that fax log entry. For received faxes, you’ll see “.FXR” files.

I am not sure if I understand what you are advising me to do with the above suggestion on the Fax Log Entry. Please elaborate.

[kaboondy]

Fascinating. You describe exactly what happened to one of my client computers and in “hindsight” I now realize that what appeared to be a spontaneous resolution of the problem (at the time) was likely related to the fact that I had deleted and re-created the shared phonebook on the server (for another unrelated reason). I had (at the time) shrugged and just appreciated that the problem had resolved. Thank you for staying the course with all the problems along the way. I now have a much better understanding of WinFax as well as a greater confidence with its use. It is much less of a ‘black box’ than it used to be all because of your help and this forum.

[kaboondy]

You are absolutely right. Deletion of the shared phonebook and recreating (took very little time) and also solved the problem. yes, the shared phonebook has now become the default phonebook for all the client computers on the network. Thank you once again for all your help. This has been amazing.

[kaboondy]

I can now report the following:

1. Turning the server on first did not make any difference to the selection of the Phonebook (the local default My Phonebook was selected by each computer)
2. Clearing the registry was an easy step but did not make any difference. Once the registry was cleared, the program was reopened, send dialogue activated, Shared Phonebook selected and fax was sent. The program was closed, then reopened and the send dialogue reopened to find the My phonebook was again selected. I should note that once the Shared Phonebook is selected, it remains selected for future faxes as long as the WinFax session remains active. If the program is turned off (or the computer reboots) the default My Phonebook is again selected.

In the past once the Shared Phonebook was selected, it remained the pre-selected option in the Send fax dialogue (top right window) even after a reboot.

I am sorry this did not work. I have another idea but did not have time to try it. I will delete the Shared phonebook and recreate it and see if this help and will report back. There may be a problem at that end. I have come to realize that we settings can get corrupted easily. I will report to the forum. Thank you.

[kaboondy]

Wonderful and thank you. I think you are saying ‘I can have my cake and eat it too’. I will attempt your solution and report back to you. My steps will be –

1. Turn on the server FIRST and see if this solves the problem (to ensure the connection is established on bootup).
2. If this does not work, then I will clear the registry value in the WIN2K clients and use the Maintance Utility for the XP client to clear the registry.

I will report back in a couple of days. Thank you once again.

[kaboondy]

@Moderator wrote:

As you mentioned, WinFax will (or should) remember the last phone book that was open (in the Phone book window in the Send dialog screen) and in the Phone book window. It does this automatically, so there is no setting to save.

All this phone book specific information in the Send Screen is stored in the Windows Registry
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareDelrinaWinfax7.0PhonebookSendFaxSpreadSettings

Perhaps there is something wrong with the entries stored in this registry location.
You can reset all the Phone book registry settings easily on the Win XP client by doing the following:

Start WinFax PRO Message Manager.
Click Tools , Maintenance Utility.
Click Restore Default Settings
Scroll down the list to “Phonebooks MDI settings” and select this option.
Click Reset.

This is very helpful information. But can you please clarify. When you said

WinFax will (or should) remember the last phone book that was open (in the Phone book window in the Send dialog screen) and in the Phone book window. It does this automatically, so there is no setting to save.

Do you mean that it should remember the Shared Phonebook was the last Phonebook used even after the program is restarted (or computer is re-booted the next day)?

I will review the registry settings in each of the client computer and report to you. You did not state however what the registry field

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareDelrinaWinfax7.0PhonebookSendFaxSpreadSettings

should be filled with (especially in the Win2K clients).

Also, would making the change in the XP Client as you suggested using the Maintainance Utility in WinFax – would this simply revert the client computer back to the local “My Phonebook”? Are you suggesting that I then select the Shared Phonebook on the Host and see if the client “remembers” this as the Phonebook to use after the program has been reset? A clarification would be helpful in terms of what I can expect. Thank you.

[kaboondy]

This is interesting information. For the past year, I found that the Shared Phonebook became the default phonebook when (while on the client computer) I clicked on the Shared Phonebook and then closed the window. This was not a formal setting change but simply clicking on the phonebook (when there is a local and Shared Phonebook) in the menu. Once this was done, WinFax chose the Shared Phonebook first by default saving the time/trouble of having to chose it manually for each sent fax dialogue. This “setting” change remained in effect even after shutting down and starting the computer the next day. In other words, it seemed to be a permanent change until recently. I wonder if I deleted the shared phonebook and recreated it, if it would revert the system back to the above function.

On the other hand, this remains partially true even now – once we click on the Shared Phonebook – as long as the program remains active, the “default” phone book remains the Shared Phonebook. If we exit the program (complete shutdown and exit from the program), then we have to chose the Shared Phonebook again.

This change seemed to occur after we worked on the XP – Win2K issues although I can not see how that would be related.

Thank you once again for your help.

[kaboondy]

As you have done in the past suggestions – you were absolutely correct! Doing the settings once again and then carefully exiting resulted in a functioning connection between Win XP client computer and WIN2K Host (with the Windows Firewall turned ON). Thank you once again.

I have one additonal question relating to the install – I would like to have all the client computers use the Shared Phonebook rather than the local phonebook. It seemed that when logged onto a client computer, if I clicked on the shared phonebook (once connected to), the WinFax program would continue to use the Shared Phonebook. However, when we log out of WinFax and then restart (the next day for example), the program goes back to using the local phonebook.

Is there a way to force a client computer to only use the Shared phonebook. With 5 client computers, it is much easier to update one shared phonebook rather than 5 local phonebook every time there is an additonal entry.

Thank you once again for your continued help and support. This has been a very positive experience. You have solved many of the problems with the use of WinFax and improved our efficiency.

[kaboondy]

This is absolutely wonderful information and will help oprganize our office in a much more productive way. I can’t tell you how many times we open/read/review a series of faxes in the Received Log etc. when looking for a specific fax. Thank you!!

[kaboondy]

I will complete this setting again (I already did this twice) and report back to you. I suspect that if I opened this window and closed it – I might have corrupted the settings as stated in another section of the forum by someone’s very detailed post. I did not think about that possibility until your post.

Thank you and I will report back after the long weekend.

[kaboondy]

Thank you.

1. Yes, there are 4 WIN2K client computers connected to the WIN2K host. This has been operational for the past several years with no connection issues.
2. Disabling the Windows Firewall on the WIN Xp computer completely resolves the problem and re-enabling the Win Firewall reliably and consistently reproduces the problem. The WIN Xp client works very well with the WIN Firewall disabled.
3. The WIn firewall on the XP client has the execptions of the Controller and WFXPING (have tried both for the subnet as well as all computers in the customization).
4. The IP address of the Host is 192.168.1.66 while that is the client is 192.168.1.73 (both can PING each other with no problems). Both have the same subnet (I think).
5. All computers – Win2K Host and Win2K clients and WIn XP client have WinFax 10.03 installed
6. The error message when WIN Firewall is turned on – relates to the RPC server not available as the message states that the computer Host with the name stated does not exist on the network. This is strange as the computer can be PING’ed in DOS prompt as well as seen in Win Explorer while the Firewall is active. I am sure the WIN Firewall must be creating a block of some sort.

Thank you once again for your suggestions and interest.

[kaboondy]

Thank you. Unfortunately, I do not have (I think) useful information to report. The WIn Xp Client and WIN2K Host issue remains a problem.

When Windows Firewall is active (there is no other 3rd party firewall present on any computer), the error message is as follows: “WinFax Pro is unable to connect to the WInFax Host station. RPC server is unavailable. No computer with this name has been found on your network”

Yet, when we open Windows explorer on the WIN XP client, we can see the Host computer and the shared drive on it as well. Another note is that when I tried to PING the Host station in DOS Prompt – there was a failure.

When reviewing the Event Log in System – there were NO DCOM errors reported.

When Windows Firewall is shut off on the XP client, WInFax works perfectly. In the Exceptions list I have listed the Controller as well as the Ping program. Perhaps I should list them for all computers rather than those on the subnet only. Please note – all the computers are on the same subnet.

I am sorry I am not able to provide useful information and I am also confused with this scenario. Thank you for your continued help. If you have further ideas or suggestions, I would be most appreciative.

[kaboondy]

Thank you. I have attached the error message . As an aside, are only Pictures uploaded on to the website? Just curious. Please see the message below from the Host XP computer and I will also find the same window on the XP client. I checked all the DCOM error messages and each says the exact same information.

Please note this is not the same setup in the office where I am dealing with a WIn2K Host and WIN XP client. However, if this works, it would be very very helpful as well. Again, thank you.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: DCOM
Event Category: None
Event ID: 10021
Date: 8/27/2012
Time: 6:22:15 PM
User: N/A
Computer: MAIN
Description:
The launch and activation security descriptor for the COM Server application with CLSID
{17EAB2A0-70E2-11CE-A7FB-008029E0ABE9}
is invalid. It contains Access Control Entries with permissions that are invalid. The requested action was therefore not performed. This security permission can be corrected using the Component Services administrative tool.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Addendum: I checked the WIN XP Client and there is no DCOM error listed in the System Event log (or any of the other system logs) at the same time as listed above. In fact there is no DCOM log at all. Only the following is listed at the approximate time of the error above (the computer clocks of the two computers are not exactly the same).

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: mfehidk
Event Category: (256)
Event ID: 516
Date: 8/27/2012
Time: 6:22:23 PM
User: N/A
Computer: FAMILY
Description:
Process **VSTSKMGR.EXE pid (1560) contains signed but untrusted code, but was allowed to perform a privileged operation with a McAfee driver.
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00 03 00 58 00 ……X.
0008: 00 01 00 00 04 02 00 81 …….
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ……..
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ……..
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ……..

I am not sure if this has anything to do with the DCOM error issue and WinFax. Thank you again.

Addendum #2 – Please accept my apologies. I am not sure why I did not consider this earlier. I have a second software firewall installed on each of the WIN XP computers at home (Comodo). When trying to connect the Client to the host – the client kept failing to ping successfully during the initial setup despite “computer found”. When I went to a command promt, I was AGAIN not able to Ping the computers (despite being able to see each other in Windows Explorer and the the drives and contents). That is what threw me off. When the PING with the DOS Prompt did not work, I realised this has nothing to do with WinFax. I changed the settings in Comodo to widen the range of the network to include both computers IP Addresses (on the Host computer) and now the connection works and I was able to send a fax from the client through the Host! Thank you very much for your help and patience.

Now if I can set up the office computer systems as well. There is no Comodo installed in the office – hence the problem in the office is quite different. I look forward to your thoughts once I review the event log in the office XP and Win2K computers.

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