Frequently Asked Questions


Categories:

Installation Questions:

  • Question: Do I need to uninstall snappy fax before installing a new version ?

     Answer: No, this applies to both snappy fax desktop and snappy fax server. You can install the new version over your existing version without fear of losing any of your fax data files or settings.


  • Question: I received an error message during installation, the printer driver will not install, what shoud I do ?

     Answer: Restart your computer. After restarting, shutdown all running programs including snappy fax if it is set to run at windows startup and then perform the installation.


  • Question: I cannot find the 64bit installer sf64bitsetup.exe, what happened to it ?

     Answer: sf64bitsetup.exe has been deprecated. There is no longer a need for a different installer for 32bit and 64bit Windows. The installer sf4setup.exe will detect the Windows platform and install the appropriate printer driver depending on whether the Windows operating system is 32bit or 64bit.
Modem Questions:

  • Question: What modems will work with your software ?

     Answer: Most any modem will be fine except:

    1. US Robotics (fax implementation is flawed)
    2. Smartlink (some models do not support the E0 modem command)
    3. Motorola (modem driver is flawed)
    4. Diamond Supra/Modemblaster (poor reliability)


    The best modem we have used here is the Zoom model 3090 USB modem. They are hard to find, but you may be able to find one here.

    We have also been using the new Zoom model 4300 Bluetooth fax modem with excellent results, it also has a serial connector as well but will require a serial card for the connection to your computer.

    Please do not confuse the Zoom model 3090 with the 3095, we did not experience good results with the model 3095, it has a nasty habit of refusing to be reset from software and will not release the phone line after a period of fax activity.

    The only multi-port modem card that we have actually used here is the Multi-Tech model 5634 / 4 port board. It performed well and we are still using it.

    These comments should be used as a general guide only, there are literally hundreds of modems on the market and it is not possible to test all of them.


  • Question: Will your software work with Vonage ?

     Answer: Vonage and other VOIP (voice over internet protocol) providers do not fare well in the fax arena. With Vonage, in particular, you must have a Vonage *fax* line and you will need to reduce the desired baud rates in snappy fax's settings to 9600 or possibly lower in order to achieve any reliability. This is true of MagikJack and other VOIP providers as well. VOIP is optimized for voice, not fax. We have many users using VOIP with few issues, and some with little success at all, your mileage may vary. This is not a software issue, it is a compatibility problem with VOIP and fax modems.


  • Question: I don't have a fax modem, can I use my All-in-One machine to send and receive faxes with your software ?

     Answer: The all in one machines do not provide a way to interface with them for sending or receiving faxes, you will need a fax modem for use with our software.

    We can, of course, use them for scanning and printing, but not as the fax device.


  • Question: Snappy fax tells me that my modem is in use, what exactly does that mean ?

     Answer: Only one application can have access to the modem's com port at any given time. If you have other fax software installed or if the Windows fax console is set to receive faxes then it has already opened the modem's com port to listen for incoming faxes before snappy fax has started and is blocking snappy fax from accessing it. You will need to shutdown the other process that is using the com port so that snappy fax can use it. Note: there is no way for snappy fax to do this for you, Windows does not provide a mechanism to do this programmatically, there is not even a method of detecting which process or application is the culprit so a bit of user intervention is required. Another likely culprit is Windows Media Center. Certain media center tools may be enabled to detect caller id and report them on your computer's monitor when you receive an incoming phone call, these utilities will block our use of the modem so they must be shutdown. Refer to: this article for information on disabling the caller id functionality in media center.


  • Question: I am getting APRO Exception, what does that mean ?

     Answer: This is a problem with your modem configuration or your com port configuration, in Windows. This most commonly occurs because you have used control panel to change the port assignment of the snappy fax printer. The snappy fax printer does not need a port assignment. Some users mistakenly assume that the port should be set to the modem's com port. This is not the case, you should never change any properties of the snappy fax printer in control panel.

    If you have changed any properties of the snappy fax printer, you will need to reinstall snappy fax so that the printer driver installation can be repaired.

    If you have not changed any properties of the 'snappy fax printer', then either you have assigned the wrong com port in snappy's settings->modem settings or another device on your system (probably a printer) is assigned the same com port as the modem. Go to Control Panel->Phone and modems and verify the correct com port for the modem. If the setting in snappy fax for the com port is correct then find the other device which is also assigned the same com port and fix that problem. Note that two devices cannot be assigned to the same com port, it is a system conflict.


  • Question: The fax server's modem settings page is grayed out, why ?

     Answer: Go to settings->modems in the fax server's settings. First you need to create a new modem record. To do that right click on 'modems' in the settings categories listing on the left side of the screen and select 'add modem' from the popup menu. That will create a new modem record and you can then configure your modem, if you need to configure additional modems, repeat the process.


  • Question: I am getting the dreaded Blue Screen of Death when I try to send a fax, what can I do ?

     Answer: BSOD is always a low-level problem with a driver, most likely your modem driver. Your modem may not be compatible with the Windows version you are using. Check your modem manufacturer's website and see if they have an updated driver for your modem. If not you will need to replace the modem.

    BSOD's can also occur because of network card malfunctions or other system driver problems totally unrelated to your modem or to snappy fax. Carefully make a note of the error description and error code displayed on the blue screen, you may be able to Google on this and find information that will direct you to the system component that is causing the problem. BSOD's are almost never caused by application software, you should immediately suspect a low-level driver or hardward issue when this occurs.


  • Question: My fax sessions are failing with a BUSY result, why ?

     Answer: The modem reported BUSY. Either the line *is* busy or another reason might be that you are getting a 'fast busy' signal from the phone company which indicates the number cannot be dialed as entered, ie it is not a valid phone number in your area. If the number is, in fact, valid as entered and you are certain that the modem *must* be reporting a false busy signal then go to settings->modem and uncheck the 'detect busy' option in snappy fax. The 'fast busy' signal has gone out of style in recent times in favor of a phone company recording. In any event, that is why the session failed... the modem reported BUSY.


  • Question: I have call waiting on my phone line, is that a problem ?

     Answer: YES !!! Call waiting is your worst enemy ! You must enter the call waiting disable code in your settings->modem, dial prefix in snappy fax. A common disable code is *70, (note the comma, it is necessary). The disable code for your phone service may be different, check with your phone company to be sure. When a fax session is in progress and an incoming call occurs, a call waiting signal will be emitted on your phone line. This will almost always destroy the fax session and the modem will respond ERROR and that will be translated as 'bad response from modem' by snappy fax. For outgoing faxes, always use the dial prefix as part of the fax number to disable call waiting for the duration of the outgoing fax call. There is no way at all to disable call waiting for fax receiving since it is not known when a fax call will occur or how long it will last. If fax is important to you then have the call waiting feature removed from your phone line.


  • Question: Snappy fax will not answer incoming calls, what should I do ?

     Answer: It is the modem's job to detect the ring voltage on the line and send a 'RING' indicator to snappy fax. If the modem is connected to the phone line by means of a splitter, then connect it directly to the wall jack and see if that helps. If it is connected directly to the wall jack and still cannot detect the ring voltage on the line then first change the phone cord connecting the modem to the wall jack, if no luck there, have the phone company check the ring voltage on your phone line.

    Some users report that uninstalling their modem and then reinstalling it has resolved this issue, you might try that.

    Also, check control panel->phone and modems and verify the com port that the modem is connected to and make certain that that port is set in snappy fax's settings->modem. If the wrong com port is set there then the modem will be monitoring the wrong port and , of course, will not be able to 'hear' the ring.

    If that does not resolve the problem then you'll have to replace the modem.

    This assumes that you have started receive mode in snappy fax, if receive mode is not on then snappy fax has not placed the modem in answer mode and it will not be listening for incoming calls.


  • Question: Can I receive faxes while my computer is turned off ?

     Answer: No.


  • Question: Will my US Robotics modem work with Snappy Fax ?

     Answer: While we do have some users using USR modems successfully, this is our official response regarding them...

    "We have given up on trying to support or otherwise troubleshoot US Robotics modems. If you are resistant to replacing the modem then make the following changes, they *might* help:

    Go to settings->modem setup and change the send and receive baud rates to 14400. If you have the 'modem type' option set to '3Com/US Robotics modem or winmodem' then change it to 'Default (no init string required)', and vice versa.

    Make sure that you have the 'reset after faxing' option checked and enter ATZ for the reset command.

    In some situations, checking the 'Renegotiate each fax page' may help in *sending* faxes, it has no effect on receiving faxes."


  • Question: How many modems does your software support ?

     Answer: Snappy Fax Desktop only supports one modem, however, the Snappy Fax Server software will theoretically support up to 32 modems. The most that we know of anyone actually using is 8.


Email Questions:

  • Question: How can I send a fax I've received to someone's email ?

     Answer: First make sure you have set up a default email account in snappy fax so it will know *how* to send the email, also in settings->fax options UNCHECK the 'Always use default mailer...' option. Once you have done this you can send a previously received fax to email by:

    1) Double click the item entry in the incoming fax log to load it into the image viewer.
    2) Click the 'fax current image' button on the main window's toolbar.
    3) From the 'Prepare Fax' screen, select the 'Email Attachment' fax routing method
    4) Enter your recipient's name and email address in the boxes provided
    5) Click OK


Scanner Questions:

  • Question: Why does Snappy Fax send unwanted documents in my fax when I scan documents to fax ?

     Answer: If an image is already loaded in the image viewer when you start a scan, Snappy Fax will assume that you want to append your scanned images to the image that is in the viewer. The Scan Manager's window has a checkbox near the top left of the window 'append to current image', that checkbox will default to CHECKED in this situation. When you click the Finish button it will append the scanned images to the image in the image viewer. If you do not want to append the scanned images then either uncheck the 'append to current image' checkbox on the Scan Manager window or clear the image viewer before starting your scanning operation.


How-to Questions:

  • Question: How do I set up and configure the fax server ?

     Answer: Perhaps this will help...

    Download the fax server software from
    http://www.snappysoftware.com/downloads/sf2netsetup.exe
    and install the fax server software on the computer that will act as the fax server. This does not have to be a network file server, it can be any computer on the network that has modem/telephone line access and that is accessible via the network from other workstations. Run the fax server software so that you can configure your modem(s) and enabled the client workstations. The fax server software will accept and process outgoing fax jobs submitted by the client software from workstations on the network, it will, however ignore any fax jobs submitted from client computers that are not listed as enabled network clients in settings->network clients in the the fax server software, so be sure to enable those computers in the fax server's settings. When you first run the fax server software, it will prompt you for a location to store its data files, the default is c:\faxserver, I recommend you accept this default location. The fax server software will create a share name of SNAPPYFAXSERVER for this chosen data folder.

    Important Note...
    If you choose a data location on a network drive and not on a physical drive on the computer where you have installed the fax server software, you will need to manually set the sharename SNAPPYFAXSERVER on the folder you choose, the fax server will not be allowed to programmatically set the share for you.


    Once you have done the above, download Snappy Fax Desktop/Client from:
    http://www.snappysoftware.com/downloads/sf4setup.exe
    and install it on each workstation that will need to send faxes or retrieve incoming faxes from the fax server. This may include the server machine, it can act as a client as well as a server. In the client software, go to settings->fax server and check 'Enable fax server'. Enter the server's computer name. Note: if you have selected a data location for the server that is on another machine (network drive), enter that computer's network name, not the network name where the fax server software is installed. Once the 'path to server's data files' edit box is focused, Snappy fax will insert the UNC path \\SERVERNAME\SNAPPYFAXSERVER the server's real computer name that you entered in that box will be substituted for SERVERNAME in my example here. You should not need to change this. The other options on that settings page are optional. When you send a fax from the client software, the user is presented with a 'Prepare Fax' screen where you either select one or more recipients from address book entries already established or you enter the name and fax number. You'll notice a 'Fax routing' section. If you have checked 'Enable fax server' in your settings, 'Submit fax server' will be checked by default. You can send a fax in several ways, most likely you'll be printing from another application, in that case you just print your document as normal but select 'Snappy Fax printer' as the destination printer. Snappy fax will intercept the printed output, prepare the data for faxing and present its 'Prepare Screen' screen. Once you click OK on that screen, snappy fax will write the outgoing fax job record directly to the fax server's jobs table. The fax server scans the table every 10 seconds or so to see if there is any work to do, if so it processes the job. From snappy fax you can use the 'Server' menu item to see the status of any jobs that have been submitted to the server and update the client's local database or to view and retrieve any incoming faxes from the server over to the client.

    The fax server does not adhere to any dialing rules, doesn't even know about them so you need to enter phone numbers exactly the way that you would dial the number yourself on the telephone manually.

  • Question: How can I combine faxes from different applications into one fax to be sent in one transmission ?

     Answer: Capture mode will allow you to include the output from multiple print operations (even from multiple applications) into one multi page document that can be faxed in one transmission.

    Click the 'capture mode' button to turn capture mode on. While capture mode is on, perform your print operations from your applications. When you are finished with the last print operation, go back to snappy fax and click the 'capture mode' button again to turn off capture mode. Snappy fax will assemble the individual documents from the various print operations into one multi-page document and load the document into the image viewer. You can then click the 'fax current image' button to fax that multi-page document.

    If you are performing only one print operation from one application, do no use capture mode.

    Example:

    1) Click the 'capture mode' button.
    2) Go to Word and print a word document to the 'snappy fax printer'
    3) Go to Excel and print a spreadsheet to the 'snappy fax printer'

    [STEP 4 IS CRITICAL]...
    4) Go back to snappy fax and click the 'capture mode' button to turn capture mode OFF

    Snappy fax will assemble your pages into one document containing the Word document and the Excel spreadsheet and load it into the viewer. Click the 'fax current image' button to fax it.


  • Question: How can I delete entries from the fax logs ?

     Answer: You can delete entries from any of the fax logs by selecting the desired items with the mouse and then right clicking and selecting 'move selected items to trash'. To select multiple items, hold down the shift or control key while clicking with the mouse. You can also drag the selected entries from the log and drop onto the Trash bin in the navigation (folder) pane on the left side of the main window.

    To empty the trash bin, right click on the trash folder and select 'Empty Trash' from the popup menu.


  • Question: How can I change the order in which the log entries are displayed ?

     Answer: You can sort data in the logs by clicking on the column header for the column you want to sort on. You can additionally sort on other columns within a column by holding down the shift key and clicking additional column headers. For example, you can click on the Date column to sort by date, then hold down the shift key and click the Time column to sort by time within date. When you click a column header and then click the same column header a second time, it will reverse the sort order from Ascending to Descending and vice-versa.

    In addition, you can 'filter' a column by clicking the down arrow button at the right edge of a column header. This will show a drop-down box with all values in that column from which to choose. Select a value and the log will be filtered to display only items matching the selected value. The filter criteria will be displayed in a panel at the bottom of the log. Click the 'x' box there to dismiss the filter. Once you apply the filter, it will remain in effect until you dismiss it.

    You may also group items in the log by dragging a column header and dropping it onto the group panel above the column headers, you can group by multiple columns in this manner. To ungroup, drag and drop the column header back to its original place. Grouping will remain in effect until ungrouped.