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Domino Fax for i5/OS

Updated: January, 2006

  
Overview Products i5/OS integration Developers Support

Administering your Fax Windows Services System
When you install the Fax Windows Services software on a Windows server or workstation, two new Windows services are added to the system:

  • Fax Conversion Service
  • Fax Service Monitor

The Fax Conversion Service is the Windows service that does all the rendering and converting of outbound Notes mail and Notes attachments into the TIFF format required by fax. It also converts the inbound faxes into a format that can be displayed by your Notes client. The Fax Service Monitor is a Windows service that continuously monitors the Fax Conversion Service. If the Fax Conversion Service ever ends unexpectedly (i.e., an error or exception causes it to end), the Fax Service Monitor will automatically restart it.

Unless you change the configuration after installing Domino Fax for i5/OS, these two services start automatically whenever you restart the NT server or workstation. If the user ID for the Notes client on the Fax Windows Services System is password protected, you are prompted for the password during the very first startup of the services. You are not prompted for the password on subsequent system restarts unless you change the password or switch to a different user ID prior to the restart.

These two Fax Windows Services must remain active whenever Domino Fax is active. If the services are stopped and restarted (either intentionally or due to an error), the Fax server will continue to run as long as the Fax Windows Services are restarted within 5 minutes. You can adjust the time that a particular Fax server will wait for the Fax Windows Services. To adjust the time, modify the $FAXNTREBOOTTIME variable in the notes.ini file of the Fax server. Specify the maximum number of minutes (up to 120) that the Fax server should wait for the Fax Windows Services to restart.

If you suspect a problem with the Fax Windows Services System, you may want to stop the services so you can restart them again with the DEBUG option turned on. As long as you restart the Fax Windows Services within 5 minutes (or the number of minutes specified by the $FAXNTREBOOTTIME variable in the server notes.ini file), you will not need to restart the Fax servers.

Click on the following links for more information on how to administer your Fax Windows Services System:

Determining if Fax Conversion Service is Active
Starting Windows Fax Conversion Service
Stopping Windows Fax Conversion Service
Administering the Windows Fax Service Monitor

Related Fax Administration information:

Starting Domino Fax
Stopping Domino Fax


Determining if Fax Conversion Service is Active
From your Fax Windows Services System, complete the following steps:

  1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click the Services icon.
  3. Find the Fax Conversion Service in the Service column.
  4. The entry in the Status column for the Fax Conversion Service indicates its current state:

Status Column State Indicated
Empty The Fax Conversion Service is not currently active. Follow the Starting Windows Fax Conversion Service instructions to start it.
Started The Fax Conversion Service has been previously started. Follow the Stopping Windows Fax Conversion Service instructions if you wish to stop it for some reason.
Starting The Fax Conversion Service is in the process of starting. Continue to monitor its status to make sure its status changes to ‘Started’.

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Starting Windows Fax Conversion Service
From your Fax Windows Services System, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the Control Panel.
    Windows 2000: click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
    Windows XP: click Start and select Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Administrative Tools.
  3. Double-click Services.
  4. Select the Fax Conversion Service.
  5. If you want to use the DEBUG option to log Fax Conversion Service debug information, enter the following in the Startup Parameters box:
    -debug
  6. Click Start.
  7. If you started the Fax Conversion Service with the DEBUG option, monitor the following file for debug information: C:\QFXDrouter.log.

Notes:

  • Starting the Windows Fax Conversion Service also starts the Windows Fax Service Monitor.
  • When you restart the Fax Windows Services, you may need to stop and restart Fax on each Domino server that uses the system for fax conversions. If the Fax Windows Services are stopped and restarted within 5 minutes (or the number of minutes specified by the $FAXNTREBOOTTIME variable in the server notes.ini file), you will not need to restart the Fax servers.
  • The debug log is never deleted; additional debugging information is simply appended to it. If it becomes too large, you can stop the Fax Windows Services and then delete it.

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Stopping Windows Fax Conversion Service
From your Fax Windows Services System, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the Control Panel.
    Windows 2000: click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
    Windows XP: click Start and select Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Administrative Tools.
  3. Double-click Services
  4. Select the Fax Conversion Service.
  5. Click Stop.

Notes:

  • Stopping the Windows Fax Conversion Service also stops the Windows Fax Service Monitor.
  • If fax conversions are in progress for very large files, it may take a long time for the services to end. If one or more conversion threads hang, the services will never end and you must reboot the Fax Windows Services System to recover.

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Administering the Windows Fax Service Monitor
The Windows Fax Service Monitor is automatically stopped or started when the Fax Conversion Service is stopped or started. Do not attempt to stop this service directly. If you stop it, the service monitor automatically restarts. To stop it, you must stop the Windows Fax Conversion Service.

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