If you've never gotten around to buying fax software, you may be able to save your money. Windows 95's Microsoft Fax - unlike its abominable predecessor in Windows for Workgroups - is good enough for most of us. And even better, it lets you send faxes from any PC on a network.
It's worth mentioning that the Exchange client, required for Microsoft Fax, requires an absolute minimum of 8Mb of memory. If you only have 8Mb it will work, but very slowly. If you don't keep the Exchange client permanently loaded, whenever you send a fax your system will pause for several minutes while the Exchange client loads up. If you do have the Exchange client loaded, Windows 95 is likely to spend considerable time swapping memory to disk and back, and the delay may still be considerable. When you have 16Mb of memory or more, Microsoft Fax becomes a very usable option. If you need to send faxes on a lower-end system, you can consider spending money on a fax program, or another 8Mb of memory.
Microsoft Fax isn't installed by default. Go to the Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs, click the Windows Setup tab and check the Microsoft Fax box. Insert your installation disk and install both Fax and the Exchange e-mail client, which together take 6.4Mb of disk space. (You may not think fax and e-mail are necessarily related, but Microsoft does, so the fax setup is part and parcel of the Exchange setup.)
Your system will reboot, and eventually you'll end up in the Exchange Inbox Setup Wizard. When asked what to use to send faxes, check Modem connected to my computer, and in the following Add a fax modem dialogue box, check Fax Modem. Win 95 will try to detect your modem or let you pick it from a list. Once your modem is installed, you're ready to send or receive faxes from that PC.
To share your fax modem with the poor modemless souls on your network, you must first set up a peer server for sharing files. Why? Because Windows 95 copies the sender's fax to the hard disk of the PC with the modem before transmitting it.
Windows 95 has two flavours of peer servers: one for Windows networks and one for NetWare. To install, go to the Control Panel, double-click Network, click the File and Print Sharing button, click Give others access to my files, then reboot. (Here's an important caution for NetWare users: check with your network administrator before doing this, because you may cause major network problems if this isn't configured right. And in any case make sure print sharing is disabled.)
Now you can set up your fax modem for sharing. Return to the Control Panel and double-click Mail and Fax, then double-click Microsoft Fax to bring up the fax properties sheet, which you can use to change a myriad of configuration settings. On the Modem tab, check the box next to Let other people on the network use my modem to send faxes. Leave the default name for the shared directory (FAX).
Once you've set up your fax modem for sharing, you can install Microsoft Fax on PCs without modems. Go through the same steps as previously described, except when asked what to use to send faxes, check Network Fax Service, and in the Add a fax modem dialogue box, check Network Fax Server.
You then enter the network path of the shared fax directory, which must be in the form \\computer \share. If the PC with the shared modem is named, say, richard, then the path would be \\richard\fax. (Don't use a network drive letter like Q. This is Windows 95, and network drive letters are passé.)
You can now fax from any PC on your network whether or not that computer has a modem. In fact, you can do so in one of several ways: by sending e-mail from Exchange (confusing and slow); by printing to the fax printer from an application (better, but forces you to change the default printer and then change it back later); or (my favourite) by using the Compose New Fax Wizard.
You'll find this option under Programs- Accessories-Fax. If you plan on using it with any frequency, move the shortcut closer to the top level of the Start menu. This Wizard lets you customise your faxing procedures and cover pages, but it's simple enough to use instantly. Fax away!
- Richard Freedman and Neale Morison