Automatic Routing: PBX and FaxPress Integration

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Integration with a PBX or DID trunk lines is considered by Castelle to be the most reliable form of fax routing, although Castelle also supports other forms of automatic fax routing including T.30 Sub-Addressing, manual DTMF from a Fax machine with a handset and Third-Party OCR routing.

FaxPress can be easily integrated with many popular PBX’s to provide automatic delivery of incoming faxes to the recipient's email mailbox or desktop. Using your corporate PBX eliminates the need to order additional outside lines and additional hardware for the FaxPress.

The Castelle FaxPress SBE, 2500, 5000, 7000/7500 are designed to work with standard loop start telephone lines. These models do require, however, the use of an Exacom or CTPX converter or a compatible PBX to interface to wink or loop start trunks, or to the PBX’s analog ports. See Appendix: Discontinued FaxPress Products for more specific information.

For this reason, FaxPress is an ideal product for use behind a compatible PBX that provides a loop start type interface. The FaxPress is easily connected to PBXs that support loop start integration for Voice Mail, with configurable DTMF transmission.

Preparing your PBX System for Automatic Fax Routing

Most PBXs can be configured to support multiple voice mail systems. The FaxPress, to the PBX, will be seen as a second voice mail system.

PBX systems differ in many ways but they do share the common principles of operation covered here. For more specific technical documentation on specific PBX systems, please view our library of technical documents on this subject on our support site:

http://www.castelle.com/support/documentation/

The primary concern when integrating FaxPress with your PBX is to make sure that the PBX can be configured to transmit only the dtmf digits of the Mailbox ID, and no other digits such as A or D tone, or a string of digits preceding the number. FaxPress can, however, strip unnecessary digits in the following cases.

For 4 digit mailbox IDs, FaxPress can:

For 3 digit mailbox IDs, FaxPress can:

In order for your PBX to pass the DTMF tones to the FaxPress you may be required to make some program changes to your PBX. The PBX should consider the FaxPress to be similar to a Third Party analog voice mail system. The vast majority of PBXs are able to make custom program settings to integrate with a variety of voicemail systems.

The analog fax modems used by the FaxPress requires your PBX to have sufficient standard analog ports installed in your PBX. One analog port is required for each FaxPress modem; please consult your FaxPress documentation to determine the number of modems in your FaxPress unit.

Once the FaxPress modems are connected to the PBX analog ports you will need to set your PBX to forward the DID or DNIS information to those analog ports as DTMF signals.

This is very similar to the way your voicemail system is set to work, with the last 3 or 4 digits of the phone number representing an extension number. This same principle enables the FaxPress to receive an incoming fax call to the correct FaxPress mailbox. A FaxPress user mailbox can represent a FaxPress client user, printer, email address or customer application. The sender of the fax simply enters a regular fax number and the FaxPress automatically delivers the fax to the correct mailbox (network user, printer, email address or customer application).

Most people will allocate a block of DID or DNIS numbers currently not in use and assign these to a hunt group. The hunt group is then tied to the assigned analog ports on the PBX. The incoming numbers should be set to automatically call forward to the hunt group and set to send the last 3 or 4 digits as DTMF signals when the line is picked up. The FaxPress allows a default 15 second timeout interval for the tones to be received, it will then verify that a mailbox matches those received tones and begin to handshake with the sending fax machine. To customize the timeout interval, see .

Configuring the FaxPress for PBX Integration

The FaxPress Server Properties and the FaxPress User Properties must both be correctly configured for FaxPress/ PBX integration. FaxPress/PBX integration requires the FaxPress to use the same settings used to enable Direct Inward Dialing (DID).

To set the FaxPress Server Properties for automatic routing via your PBX, follow these steps:

In the PBX Pre-dial edit box, enter the prefix your PBX system requires for accessing an outside phone line.

Many companies have a PBX which requires users to dial a digit, usually a “9” to get an outside line. FaxPress automatically inserts a 3 second pause after the PBX pre dial. This means that you do not have to insert a comma after the PBX digits.

If the PBX requires an access code on a per user basis, see  .

For Routing Type, make sure the PBX/DID radio button is selected.

If your PBX system requires passwords for access to an outside line, check Dial Access Code in the When dialing through PBX. From the pull down menu on the right select whether to insert the password Before or After the number is dialed.

Select I am using DID for inbound fax routing. When you enable this feature, an additional text box will be displayed at the bottom of the dialog box.

Specify number of DTMF digits your PBX passes by clicking the appropriate radio button for 3 or 4. The default value is 4. You must know precisely how many digits are being sent to the FaxPress from the PBX. FaxPress provides the To enable DID receiving diagnostic mode to determine the number of sent digits.

Check To enable DID receiving diagnostic mode to record, in a dtmf.log file, the mail box IDs of all fax recipients, the time of the incoming faxes, and the number of DTMF digits passed by the PBX.

To configure the User Properties for automatic fax routing via PBX, follow these steps:

In the User Properties dialog box, with the User Account tab selected, enter an identifier number in the Mailbox ID text box. The identifier number may contain 3 or 4 digits. If necessary, enter a PBX access code in the PBX Access Code field.

See Configuring the User Properties for more information regarding user configuration.

Receiving Faxes without a Mailbox ID

If a fax is sent to an identifier number for which there is no corresponding FaxPress mailbox, FaxPress will, by default, reject the incoming fax.

In FaxPress 6.3 and above you may configure the FaxPress server to accept faxes sent to an identifier number without a corresponding FaxPress mailbox. The received faxes will be stored in the FaxPress Unaddressed mailbox. (For information regarding the FaxPress Unadressed mailbox, refer to your FaxPress manual.)

To configure the FaxPress server to accept incoming faxes sent to identifier numbers without FaxPress mailboxes, follow these steps:

did_failure=1

as shown below to allow incoming faxes sent to DID numbers without corresponding FaxPress mailboxes to be received and stored in the FaxPress Unaddressed mailbox.

Conversely, type:

did_failure=0

to reject incoming faxes sent to DID numbers without corresponding FaxPress mailboxes.

Configuring the DID Timeout Interval

To specify the number of seconds the FaxPress should allow for incoming digit reception. The timeout range is 1 to 15 seconds. The default value is 15 seconds.

To customize the timeout interval, type:

did_timeout=9

as shown below.

DTMF Automatic Fax Routing

In DTMF automatic routing, the fax sender uses your mailbox’s four-digit Mailbox ID to address the fax. To send a fax to a specific mailbox, the sender dials the FaxPress’ phone number, and then addresses the fax using the recipient mailbox’s four-digit Mailbox ID.

If your FaxPress uses DTMF routing, any fax machine with a touch-tone keypad can use DTMF dialing procedures to address faxes directly to FaxPress user mailboxes. Faxes automatically routed to your mailbox appear in your personal Incoming fax list, and do not appear in the Unadddressed fax list. DTMF dialing can be used to address a fax to one mailbox per call.

Fax senders must know your FaxPress mailbox ID in order to use DTMF dialing. Faxes not specifically addressed with DTMF dialing are automatically routed to the Unaddressed mailbox, where they must be viewed and manuallly routed by a user with Router privileges. Be sure to provide your FaxPress mailbox ID to people who send you faxes.

Sending faxes via DTMF directly to a FaxPress mailbox requires the sender to use the following addressing procedure:

If the FaxPress does not have a mailbox with the specified ID, it replies with one long tone to signify a sequence error. If this happens, clear the error by pressing # #, then return to step 2.

In short, the DTMF dialing syntax is as follows:

fax number (fax squeal) * (3 tones) mailbox ID ## (3 tones)

For troubleshooting help regarding your DTMF automatic routing, please refer to the Automatic Fax Routing Troubleshooting link at:

http://www.castelle.com/support/documentation/