Share FAX Modem on OS X Server

Automatic sharing is only available on the same subnet as the server as I suspected.

Alternately, It appears that you can set this fax software up as an LPR printer. If anyone wants to try, see page 11 of the following documentation which is refered to in the link in my previous post here.

http://www.cce.com/efax/documentation/efax.pdf

Further searching has shown that the fax IS handled as a printer. I'm not sure how the machines differentiate printer and fax though.

For my VPN'd client, I browsepoll the server for shared printers and got the shared fax at the same time. From the client's logs it appears that the shared fax is being distributed by CUPS just like the printers. Going to localhost:631 in Safari gives access to the CUPS system and the "shared" fax is in the list of "printers."

So, if anyone has any ideas how to get anything shared by CUPS ("automatically" being shown as a "shared" printer or fax in the print and fax dialogs) off the server's subnet, it would be a great help to me as I have 1 server controlling client machines on several subnets.

So, if anyone has any ideas how to get anything shared by CUPS ("automatically" being shown as a "shared" printer or fax in the print and fax dialogs) off the server's subnet, it would be a great help to me as I have 1 server controlling client machines on several subnets.

Open /etc/cups/cupsd.conf, look for the <Location /> section and modify the 'Allow From' directive as explained here: <http://www.cups.org/doc-1.1/sam.html#Allow>.

Nicola,
Thanks for the reply. I'm still having trouble with this. Each time I change the cupsd.conf <Location /> section it appears to revert to its original settings. I must be doing something wrong.

I set browsepoll on the remote subnet clients but get client-error-forbidden for printers and classes listed in the cups error log on the client.

I think that part of my problem is that I may be editing cupsd.conf incorrectly somehow. I've seen some Linux discussion elsewhere where they use very short cupsd.conf files. I've been tempted to try that but don't want to lose any of the apple functionality and access control...which appears to be the other part of my problem with this.

If you are knowledgeable, and willing, can we persue this in the discussion I started about this issue?

http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@@.68b2d059

I have finally tested some of the settings and plugged a phone line into my server. Sharing the fax as I described in earlier posts works. The fax is shared in the same fashion as the printers. When Faxing via shared fax, the server does the faxing and retains a trail of what happened in the logs accessable via Server Admin.

Each time I change the cupsd.conf <Location /> section it appears to revert to its original settings.

Can you please be more specific?
You edit the file, save it, and... when does it revert to the old values? As soon as you reopen it? After using Server Admin (or Print Center or...)? At reboot?...

First thing that comes to mind is, of course, that your changes don't get saved. How do you edit the file? Are you the root user when you do so? What are you using (terminal, BBedit, Textedit...) for editing?

Sorry, clarity does help of course.

Editing "at" the server via Remote Desktop.

501 admin user.

*I've been shutting off print services in Server Admin and then quitting Server Admin.
*Edit cupsd.conf in terminal > sudo pico ..../cupsd.conf
*make changes
*write out
*Go back to Server Admin and start print services.

I have not generally made a habit of rebooting the server during my attempts at this.

I have tried numerous times to get the proper combination of features of CUPS turned on or off for the distribution of printers to other subnets. Using the manual you referenced, I had some trouble putting the big picture together. Using the comments in cupsd.conf got me a little further.

Each time I have started by taking cupsd.conf.default and saving as cupsd.conf and restarted print service as stated above. I assume that I am editing the files correctly as the defaults are available the next time I try to change something. This way I at least start with what Apple plans for in the print service. I have tried to change all of the <location /*> items to "allow all" and/or allow specific addresses. I've tried broadcasting, browseallow. My problem, in addition to being a non UNIX person, is the volume of options in CUPS I can change. I clearly never hit on the proper mix. My knowledge here is based only on the work I have done playing with the system, reading these types of discussions and no formal training.

Thanks for your time and assistance.

Printers (queues) availability for "other" networks, assuming that other options have not been changed (printers, classes, etc), should be assured by just adding 'Allow' directives in the <Location /> section: something like

<Location />
Order Deny,Allow
Deny From All
Allow From @LOCAL
Allow From 192.168.100.0/255.255.255.0
...
</Location>

But Server Admin indeed seems to revert your changes...
To verify if this is the case, you may try using the 'chflags' command.
That is:
- in Server Admin, configure the print service.
- stop the service if running.
- edit /etc/cups/cupsd.conf to taste.
- "lock" the file with this command:
sudo chflags uchg /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
(this will prevent changes from anyone, root included. Well, not exactly, actually... but should be enough unless SA forcibly removes the file as root).
- reopen SA and start the service.
- reopen /etc/cups/cupsd.conf with pico and cross your fingers while you verify if your changes are still in place 😉

If it works, leave everything as is unless you must edit the file again (with SA or the Terminal). If you want to edit the file, unlock it first with
sudo chflags nouchg /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

Björn,

"are you talking about Mac OS X Tiger SERVER ?"

Yes

"I can not share the FaxServer in Server Admin because the modem called FaxServer isn´t listed at Printserver > Setup > queues. "

It is not for me either. I did not actually tell the server to share the fax. As I mentioned in the posts above, it appears to do that on its own. It appears that Server Admin > Print Services > allows you to see items in the fax queue but you cannot actually set up any of the details for the shared fax.

"In the Tiger client version there is a share this fax button in system preferences. "

I agree, there is a share button for the fax in the client 10.4 System Preferences > Fax and Print. As mentioned in previous posts it appears that ANY 10.4 machine can "serve" a fax. 10.4 Client can do it presumably by simply setting fax sharing on in system preferences.

"I can NOT see the FaxServer on any client in the print > fax panel. There are no shared printers and no shared faxes in the drop down menu."

Do you have printers that are shared by the server that you cannot see on the local subnet? If so your server may not be serving any Printers/Faxes.

Just for clarity, this is where I find things: At the client, in the print dialog box, under the printer pop up you will have "Shared printers >" as a sub menu ONLY IF the client can see shared printers. The same happens in the Fax dialog box for me. If I shut off print service on the server the shared sub menu does not appear.

Bottom line. I am not confident about what mechanism is controlling this...however, you seem to have the same appearance as I do as far as where the 10.4 SERVER's fax appears in Server Admin. With all of the playing around I did with this I am not sure when, but I definately performed a restart to clear things out. Try that. After I got this to work once, I deleted everything and redid the procedure as listed in earlier posts to make sure. In retrospect I may have had the same problem, no shared fax. Restarted server, waited for complete boot, restarted client and then the "shared fax" submenu was available on the client.

Another detail, now that I'm looking around the setup of our machine. At the Server> System Preferences> Network> I have the modem available as a network item but "modem configured but not connected" appears in the network status list. I doubt this is relevant but just in case that's what I have.

Let's see if we can find what the difference is here and get yours working too so that we have confidence that it is not a fluke for me.

I do have DNS running on the same server hosting the fax. I do not know if that matters.

Where we differ currently is that I am not using Bonjour to share printers. I have shared printers via IPP. Bonjour is NOT where my shared fax is showing up. Both printers and fax are shared in a submenu called "Shared printers" or "Shared faxes" as appropriate to the dialog window. The "Shared printers" or "Shared Faxes" submenu appears just above "Bonjour printers" if and only if it is needed.

Try sharing the printer you set up with IPP. Server Admin>Print>Queues>select your queue>select IPP under "protocol."

IPP is how my printers are shared. Possibly this will kick on sharing of the fax since I see it the same way as I see the printers when they are shared by IPP. As far as I can tell the fax and printers are shared in the same manner on my system. I am using only IPP to share the printers.

Nicola,
Thanks for the idea here. I set the <location /> to allow the specific subnets I need (also tried "allow all") and locked the cupsd.conf as you suggested. No luck. It appears that there is something going on with apple's use of CUPS. In /etc/cups there is a cupsd.conf.O file which appears to be inserted/edited by the OS when the machine is rebooted. I have found serveral ".O" files around in the /etc folder like this. Is it possible that Apple just does not want us to be able to edit the Location items?

I will try again just in case I've done this wrong, but I don't think that this is going to work.

Try the opposite route:
SA surely has to grab a template somewhere, and chances are that it is /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.default. Edit that file (backup first, of course), and see what happens...