Fax schedule on SBS Server 2003

[dworley]

Hello!

I am using a fax modem set up on a SBS Server 2003, and want to set it to NOT send faxes between 8pm and 8am.

Faxing occurs through Outlook: users (domain, exchange) send a message to a 'Business Fax' contact using the Fax Mail Transport, which sends their fax to a shared fax modem on our server.

In the 'Fax Console' setup, there's a field where I can mark 'Discount Rate Hours', theoretically forcing all faxes marked 'Discount Rate only' to wait until discount rate hours to send. I don't know how to mark the faxes as such...

I'm not set on that solution, if you all have any other ideas that'd be swell too.

Thanks!
-Graham

[michaewlewis]

You could use task scheduler to run a batch file that turns on/off the fax service.

[dworley]

My concern is that doing so will 'fail' faxes that are still in the queue. It is VERY important that the faxing resumes where it left off at 8am.

Will turning off the fax service cause this problem? The environement (and fax queue) are in a state at the moment where it is difficult to test solutions that could potentially cause us to lose faxes.

Thanks for the quick reply!

[michaewlewis]

I've never used fax services, so I'm not sure what to do exactly. Check your services list and see if the fax spooler is different than the fax sending service.
I guess another option would be to use a batch file to turn off the modem connection at 8pm.

[dworley]

Once again, I believe that will 'fail' faxes in the queue, which wouldn't make that a viable option. The faxes will already be spooled (i.e. in the queue), I just need to make sure that they don't 1) get sent between 8pm and 8am, and 2) get 'failed'.

[Sid]

Hmm, got me stumped on this one.

Why is it required?  You could end up spending a lot of time sorting this out, so you need to be 100% sure it is required, and worth your time.

Off the top of my head, how about disabling, or switching off, the modem and leaving the service on?

It might be worth doing some testing.  As a rule, if you can do it in the GUI, there is normally a way to do it in the command-line, which means you should be able to script it.