Administration

UCX Administration
  • Fax, UCX Administration
Virtual Fax

The Fax tab in UCX Administration contains pages that allow you to configure the virtual fax server on your UCX system. With UCX Virtual Fax, there is no need to have a traditional fax machine as faxes can be both sent and received electronically using this feature. You can also configure your inbound route to auto-detect a fax connection (the Fax Calling Tone – also referred to as the CNG tone) so you can share a single DID number for both voice and fax communications.

NOTE

Virtual Fax uses IAX-based SIP extensions. Therefore, each Virtual Fax requires an available Universal Extension License in order to operate.

Virtual Fax List

This page displays the list of virtual faxes configured on your UCX system. Each virtual fax requires one extension on your UCX system. The real-time status of all virtual faxes is shown on this page.

New Virtual Fax

The New Virtual Fax page allows you to create a new virtual fax for sending and receiving faxes from a particular extension.

Here are the steps to creating a virtual fax on your UCX system.

Step 1 – Create IAX2 Extension

To create an IAX2 extension for fax, perform the following steps:

  1. From the PBX tab, select PBX Configuration
  2. From the left side column, select Extensions
  3. In the drop-down list box, select the device type Generic IAX2 Device and press the Submit button
  4. Enter the extension number in the User Extension field
  5. Enter the Display Name (name of the extension/user, e.g. FAX)
  6. Enter the secret or use the default (password to be used for registration of the IAX2 device)
  7. Press the Submit button to create the IAX2 extension
  8. On the top right hand corner, click on the newly created IAX2 extension to edit it
  9. Scroll down to the Device Options section, ensure the field requirecalltoken is set to No
  10. Scroll down to the Fax section, ensure that Fax is NOT enabled.
  11. Press the Submit button and the Apply Config pink bar 
IMPORTANT

Make sure your IAX extension configuration has the option requirecalltoken disabled. Also make sure your IAX extension does NOT have Fax option enabled, this fax option is separate from the Virtual Fax Server, it allows the extension to receive Fax via email only.

Step 2 – Create Virtual Fax

To create a virtual fax, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Fax tab, select Virtual Fax
  2. From the left side column, select New Virtual Fax
  3. Enter a descriptive name for your virtual fax (avoid spaces or hyphens in the name)
  4. Enter the email address that will be used to receive fax transmissions
  5. Optionally set the Caller ID Name that will be sent over the telephone network when sending a fax
  6. Optionally set the Caller ID Number that will be sent over the telephone network when sending a fax
  7. Enter the IAX2 extension number that was created previously
  8. Enter the secret of the associated IAX2 extension
  9. Enter the Country Code (e.g. +1 for North America)
  10. Enter the Area Code (e.g. 214 for Texas Plano)
  11. Press the Save button
  12. Once created, click on Virtual Fax List to see its status going from initializing to Running and idle
    NewVirtualFaxWaiting1.png

    NewVirtualFaxRunningIdle.png

Step 3 – Create Inbound Route

Next fax detection needs to be configured on the UCX system on the inbound route to terminate on the IAX2 extension.

To configure your inbound route to detect fax transmission, perform the following steps:
  1. From the PBX tab, select PBX Configuration
  2. From the left side column, select Inbound Routes
  3. Add or edit an existing inbound route
  4. Scroll down to the Fax Detect section, set Detect Faxes to Yes
  5. Set the Fax Destination to the IAX2 extension that was previously created for fax
  6. Press the Submit button
NOTE

When fax detection is enabled, the system will determine the type of call; a fax call will be routed to the fax destination, otherwise it is routed to the normal destination. Use this configuration if your line receives both voice and fax calls.

NOTE

Make sure that your incoming trunk receiving the fax transmission has no network element such as an analogue gateway with Fax CNG tone detection enabled. Fax tone detection needs to be disabled on the analogue gateway and allow the UCX system to perform this function.

Send Fax

The Send Fax page allows you to send a fax from a defined virtual fax.

To send a fax, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Fax tab, select Virtual Fax
  2. From the left side column, select Send Fax
  3. Select the Fax Device from the drop-down list
  4. Enter the digits to dial as you would dial from a normal extension in order to reach the destination fax device
  5. You can select File Upload if you have a file to send (supported file formats are PDF, TIFF or TXT) or select Text Information to type the actual text to fax in the text box below
  6. Press the Send button
  7. A message will be displayed if the action was successful or an error will be displayed if the transmission was not successful

Example of a successful fax transmission.

Example of a failed fax transmission.

USEFUL TIP

See Fax Clients for details on sending fax from your PC using a 3rd party client.

Fax Queue

The Fax Queue page allows you to monitor the progress of fax transmission(s).

To monitor the progress of your fax transmission(s), perform the following steps:

  1. From the Fax tab, select Virtual Fax
  2. From the left side column, select Fax Queue

The Priority column represents the queue position and keeps increasing as you send faxes.

The Retries column shows the number of retries (for instance if the dialed number is busy).

To cancel a fax transmission, perform the following steps:

  1. On the Fax Queue page, select the job you want to cancel
  2. Press the Cancel Job button
  3. Confirm that you want to cancel the job

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