DBWS.NET

The Scenario:

You have an application that uses Simple MAPI (from Outlook) to send Faxes.  The I.T. department then introduce SBS / Exchange Server into the company to manage users email accounts. Now Faxing no longer works.You get a NDR everytime you try and send.   Strange though as you can still send directly through outlook so your software gets the blame.

Sample Non Delivery Report:

  Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject:  E-MAIL FROM XXXXXXXX
       Sent:     10/25/2008 10:21

The
following recipient(s) could not be reached:

       '0XXXXXXXXXXXX' on
10/25/2008 10:21
The message could not be delivered because the
recipient's
destination email system is unknown or invalid. Please check the
address
and try again, or contact your system administrator to
verify
connectivity to the email system of the recipient.

<sbs.domain #5.1.2>

The Solution:

The problem is due to Exchange attempting to send the fax BEFORE the Fax transport gets a chance to.

To fix this, you need to make a registry modification on each workstation affected.

So in REGEDIT navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\MailSettings

and ADD a new DWORD key named StrictAccountOrder   

Set the value to 1

You may have to restart Outlook for the change to take affect but that should solve the problem.  Outlook will correctly identify the Fax transport before trying to send the Fax via Exchange.

Further reading can be found here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319820

Just a few short notes to remind myself and anyone else how I got faxing working on vista.

Firstly you must have Vista Business or Ultimate edition as they are the only Vista editions that ship with Windows Fax & Scan.

To configure Outlook to treat emails with the recipient format as [FAX:0123123] as faxes correctly, it must first be configured to use Fax Mail Transport. 

To do this first make sure you run outlook as an administrator, to do this use explorer to navigate to "/Program files/Microsoft Office/Office12", right click the Outlook application and select "Run As Administrator".  If you don't do this you will get errors when trying to add the fax mail transport.

Next when Outlook is loaded, Click Tools | Account Settings | Email tab - New… | Select Other - and highlight Fax Mail Transport and click Next.  You should be prompted to restart outlook and that should be it.

To test, fire up Outlook again (the usual way - not as administrator) , create a new email and address it to [FAX:000] and click send.  Once its sending you should see Windows Fax & Scan pop up and attempt to process it.

You will then also be able to send faxes via MAPI.

To enable the auto login feature in Windows XP do the following:

1. Click Start | Run | Enter “control userpasswords2″ (without quotes)
2. Uncheck ‘Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer
3. Click Apply - you will now be prompted for the username and password of the user you wish to automatically login as.

Thats it, just 3 easy steps. Be aware of the additional security risk involved.