Sage 100

Customer is using Terminal Services and faxing. Suddenly they're receiving messages about not having rights when they try to change the fax in Company Maintenance. They can print ok from NON-TS workstations - it's just the TS ones that are causing problems. Of course nothing has changed and this is all a Sage issue - which maybe it is - but I tend to think this has to do more with TS printers. Isn't there a bugaboo with local and network printers in TS with Sage?

And of course significant push back around ""we haven't changed a thing and why did MAS 90 4.30 break all of a sudden"" ...

I can't recall any time that we've encountered this that it was NOT related to mismatched printers and/or printer drivers between the TS server and the local/network printers. Perhaps try reinstalling the printer driver on the local machine. Perhaps it was triggered by a Windows update?

In our experience, there should be no printers duplicated on the server by sharing from TS workstations.

@JohnBroadfoot That seems to be part of the issue - we logged onto the server and deleted two duplicate faxes (in session x) and now the error does not seem to occur. Any idea how to keep those extra fax sessions from appearing? I think this is more a MS TS issue but the customer has thrown this all on my back.

Can now call up the test box (Before it was erroring) but upon clicking to send it errors with same "" An error has occurred during faxing. Verify that the default fax printer entered in Company Maintenance has been setup correctly.

I have seen this when there is a driver mismatch. I think we fixed this by deleting the drivers on the workstation and the server and then reinstalling the exact same driver on both machines. I have not had the issue with Faxes, but have with printers,but same concept. Duplicates would steer me towards a driver mismatch versus security/GPO issues.

We're they redirected or were they just regular printers?

They're telling me that they are redirected. What makes me think that this is a TS issue is the regular network MAS90 can fax just fine. It's only the TS which have problems. As John suggested we logged to the server and deleted duplicate (in session) FAX setups and that allowed us to go to company maintenance on the TS and click ""test fax"" however as soon as we put the fax info into the system it errors. I'm at a loss as to what to tell these guys to try. I've not run into issues such as this on TS before or if it has happened there are IT folks who've fixed it without calling.

They also throw back in my face that this has worked since dinosaurs have roamed earth so why is it breaking now. We have a temporary workaround of faxing locally but I'm pretty sure they're gearing to roast me over the fire until I can explain why the problem exists.

We have several Clients where MAS is run via TS from multiple locations. If a location has only one workstation, we allow the TS client to share any printers at that location. If a location has more than one user, we do not allow that location's workstations to share printers to TS. Instead, we put a queues for that locations printer(s) directly on the terminal server. This results in only a single queue for each printer on the server. A side benefit (or problem) is that anybody running MAS can print to most any printer at any location if they need to.

I feel your pain. Maybe try to get some proof of the last time somebody faxed out from those computers. People confuse faxing from network computers and from the TS ones. Maybe it's actually been a long time since the TS instance was used to fax. Gently suggest that driver changes like this out of the blue are almost associated with Windows updates on either the TS or the local machine. Push to get update details from their IT support guy. Maybe change the conversation to where the focus is on changes to prevent it from happening again. Could be changes to some IT details. Better yet, encourage them to fax out via an email fax service and get rid of the faxing overhead completely.

@JohnBroadfoot That would require a hardware based VPN or router based infrastructure right? We have had issues where there is a software or on demand VPN which will cause invalid printers when they are not connected. This caused MAS to lock up in wierd places. It seems to work well when we have hardware based infrastructure. Ie., dark fiber and harware based VPNs.

Any suggestions on what to tell this customer to change?

@ScottHickman, I believe you are right. Our practice is to use VPN based on the routers. Most of the time we are also the one who sets up the routers and network. MAS definitely does not like invalid printers. @WayneSchulz, If the issue is with clients sharing printers on the TS, there is a setting in each workstations TS client to stop this. If the issues is they are getting errors on the server when they try to change Fax in company maintenance, it appears the Fax printer is not valid from where they are trying to change it. Determine if the Fax printer acutally works outside of MAS. If the issue is intermittant due to the VPN dropping regularly, I am not sure why they haven't had issues before. Something has to have changed if this was working before. New Workstations or update TS clients? Changes in the VPN structure if there is one? New Fax Printer? Is there a local working queue for the Fax Printer on the TS?