IT Baseline Protection Manual - The Information Warfare Site

Safeguard Catalogue - Organisation Remarks
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software, e.g. a word processing program, and this file then has to be sent to
the fax server. This can be done using E mail, an appropriate fax client
application or by copying to a shared directory on the fax server. It should be
borne in mind that conversion of the fax data at the workstation uses up
resources there. This is not generally a problem if only a few faxes are sent per
day. However, where serial faxes need to be sent, this can mean that the
workstation is tied up for a considerable time. On the other hand, if demand is
great at the fax server, conversion there will require appropriately highperformance
hardware and software.
A final consideration when selecting suitable application software is the
logging facilities which are available on the fax server. As well as error
reports, transmission reports are also of interest. As a first step the
transmission protocols for the relevant fax transmissions should be made
available to the users through the fax server. This is the only way to ensure
that users respond promptly, e.g. to connection errors. Furthermore it should
be possible to calculate the charges incurred from the transmission reports and
to distribute these to the relevant cost centres.
Another factor to be considered when selecting the application software is the
question of how incoming faxes reach recipients. Digital forwarding of
incoming faxes over the network is also referred to as fax routing.
The option that is simplest to implement from the technical point of view is of
course to print out incoming faxes at a central location (fax mail centre) and to
forward the printout to the recipient. The advantage of this solution is that the
incoming faxes are printed out centrally for the files. Moreover, the incoming
fax transmissions can be archived both digitally and manually. Furthermore,
existing procedures for dealing with staff absences can be accommodated
without problem. One disadvantage, however, is the workload at the fax mail
centre which it can induce. Again, this approach means that the faxed data is
not then available in electronic form at workstations.
Another option is for the fax mail centre to send the incoming faxes to
recipients by E mail. Once again, this solution has the disadvantage of creating
extra work for the fax mail centre. Nor is every incoming fax automatically
printed out. If such a printout is desired for organisational or other reasons,
appropriate procedures must be adopted.
The following options are available for the automatic routing of incoming fax
transmissions to recipients over the network:
a) Line routing
Under this method, a fixed recipient is assigned to each line. The number of
recipients who are directly accessible is limited to the number of lines which
are available.
b) Processing and interpretation of originator identifier
A second approach involves assigning faxes on the basis of the transmitted
originator identifier (CSID - Call Subscriber ID) of an incoming fax. The fax
server is instructed that incoming faxes from certain originators should be
routed to a particular recipient. The disadvantage of this approach is that only
incoming faxes from originators already known to the system can be
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IT-Baseline Protection Manual: Oktober 2000
Logging at the fax server
Transmission from fax
server to workstation
Printout on paper
Manual forwarding by
E mail
Automatic routing