Zetafax is a 32 bit fax server which runs as service on NT/2000. The server will also run on Windows 95/98 machines. Client support for NT/2000/XP, Win ME/95/98 and others through the API. Zetafax can be installed on a laptop computer for use while disconnected from the LAN. Zetafax has an e-mail gateway for Exchange, MS:Mail, cc:Mail, Groupwise, Notes and MAPI compliant mail systems. This enables a fax to be constructed in exactly the same way as a conventional e-mail message which can be sent either as an e-mail, as a fax, or both. Faxes can also include e-mail attachments that are then rendered by the Zetafax server. Combined with DID routing the e-mail gateway can deliver inbound faxes direct to a users desktop or to the universal in-box. Other features include LCR, archiving of sent and received faxes, automatic recovery of faxes if transmission fails, automatic printing of faxes per user and group receipt of faxes. ODBC address book interface. Inbound routing (DID), custom coversheets and fax mail-merge to letterheads. Annotation of received faxes in client InBox. Sending of paper documents via integration with the HP 9100 Digital Sender and HP Network Scanjet 5 devices. Zetafax supports Class 1, 2 and 2.0 fax modems, active ISDN fax cards (EICON & AVM), as well as PCI and ISA versions of Brooktrout and GammaLink fax boards and ISDN (BRI and PRI) cards. 5-user version £ 350 UK $ 525 US, 500 user version £4,995 UK, $7,995 US. For other systems, check their web site.
"Error 1053 in zetafax" - Ali Reza [September 7, 2006]
I bought Zetafax version 7.5 together with a Brooktrout TR1034 BRI board about 2 months ago. Already during installation I had various errors. I also installed the Exchange 2003 connector but never understood how to use it. When I reboot the server I don't get any error message and the Zetafax service says that is has been started but in fact I cannot receive or send anything because the Brooktrout Board isn't initiallized correctly. To solve this problem I have to stop and start the Zetafax Server service manually. When I try to start the service manually it takes about 2 minutes until I get the message "Could not start the Zetafax Server service on Local Computer. Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.Fortunately afterwards the service is started anyway.
"Zetafax Group Membership Problems" - John [February 7, 2006] Product Rating: 3/5
We've had 3 major problems with Zetafax... 1. Users cannot be members of multiple groups. According to support, there are no plans in development for changing this. 2. We're a big Citrix terminal server shop and we've seen many times where the MSGDIR.CTL file (for a group) gets locked by a user which prevents any more incoming faxes for that group to be delivered to their inbox... Instead, faxes that come in (until the file is unlocked) are automatically sent to the administrator inbox. Again, according to support, there are no plans to fix this (this time they say it's a Microsoft issue). 3. Except for one female support person, the support is nearly useless. We paid a lot of money for a year's support contract and there have been several cases we opened and received zero follow-up. - - - Absolutely unacceptable!
"Zetafax SMTP Gateway" - Russell Howe [April 11, 2005] Product Rating: 1/5
OK, so we've moved off Exchange and thought this would be a godsend as we wouldn't have to use the Exchange Connector for Zetafax (v7.1) any more.
Bad news - the SMTP connector's a million times worse!
It crashes within seconds of starting, with no diagnostics, has one of the most cryptic control panel applets I've ever seen, and doesn't reliably gateway incoming faxes into emails.
It took a while just to figure out that I had to create a text file indexing all users on the mail server, with their names and email addresses and then use the Zetafax console to import it, and even longer to figure out the &$%"! format of said file.
Our fax volume? Oh, about 10 faxes a day!
Twice today I've had to manually email someone a fax that came in because the SMTP gateway was unable to handle it.
Soon this server's going to be running Debian, and then we can give the Hylafax brooktrout support a go. It can't be any worse than Zetafax, can it? ....
Maybe more recent Zetafax versions are better, but if unless they have sacked the developers and hired some people with clue since v7 came out, I wouldn't touch the thing.
"Zetafax won't switch paper sizes on the fly" - Sally Peters [April 11, 2005] Product Rating: 1/5
Zetafax will not print legal then letter. You must set the paper size to one size and let it go. Best case is to set it to Legal and print all legal. I am within the return period so I am going to return the software. I hope to find something else that will work, hopefully cheaper.
"Bad Business Practices at Zetafax" - Sally Peters [March 22, 2005] Product Rating: 1/5
I have some medical clients that use Zetafax and it stinks there. I recommended it to one of my real estate clients and they bought it. We found that it would not change from letter to legal on the fly so we tried to return it to them. They said they would return it. Now they act like they never talked to me. They won't return the product or respond. I have been emailing their general manager. I hope they are packing their offices up and closing shop. They need to. This cost me $1000 in experience with them.
"Zetafax 9.0, I would avoid this beta program. It is in the same class as Windows Me." - Warren Tripp [March 1, 2005] Product Rating: 1/5
Zetafax has poor tech. support, which firstly ask if you have a service contract before they will even talk to you. It crashed and locked up my Windows 2000 server costing me $1700+ to repair. The product did not work out of the box, and has a online manuel that does not help. Even with the help of a software enginer , the program would not run correctly using 2 recommended modems.
"Full of problems" - Tobias Fritz [February 28, 2005] Product Rating: 1/5
I bought Zetafax version 9.0.300 together with a Brooktrout TR1034 BRI board about 2 months ago. Already during installation I had various errors. I also installed the Exchange 2003 connector but never understood how to use it. When I reboot the server I don't get any error message and the Zetafax service says that is has been started but in fact I cannot receive or send anything because the Brooktrout Board isn't initiallized correctly. To solve this problem I have to stop and start the Zetafax Server service manually. When I try to start the service manually it takes about 2 minutes until I get the message "Could not start the Zetafax Server service on Local Computer. Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion." (on a dual processor 2.8GHz, 1.5GB MEM Windows 2003 Server) Fortunately afterwards the service is started anyway.
"Zetafax 9.0" - Dan J. [January 3, 2005] Product Rating: 2/5
I have been a happy user of Winfax 10.0 for several years, but after I upgraded my network to XP SP2, I had to look for a replacement. I have tried several demos and at this time I'm still without a Winfax replacement. -Impact Colorfax is cute, but doesn't work on a network, the mouse scroll wheel is useless, the viewer is very unclear, the preview pane seems to work only in zoom mode and can't be adjusted. If I can't network it, I might as well stay with Winfax, which still works fine, except for no communication between client and host (Symantec's fix didn't work for me). -Impact Fax server has a slow and much less than friendly interface, and lacks versatility and features. Doesn't allow attaching Word or Excel files. Cover Page Editor is useless. -Zetafax is very expensive and pretentious, and is the worst. Most problems are related to the very stupid interface, plus a few bugs I found in just a few minutes after installing it. There's no Wastebasket if you deleted something by mistake, you kissed it goodbye. The Folder List unnecessarily shows the contents of the entire computer, when it should only show the folders related to this application (Inbox,Outbox, Received, Sent, etc). It provides the opportunity to permanently delete some very important non-related files or folders. A total disaster! Clicking the tabs in the Menu Bar doesn't show the entire menu, it requires an extra click. A useless feature found in MS Office and IE, but at least MS gives you the chance to remedy it. Zetafax doesn't. The Toolbar is not customizable, you get some useless buttons (such as the View) and lacks the ones you need (Address Book, let's say). A deleted file stil lingers in the Preview Pane until you switch to another file. Cover Sheets can't be viewed in the Preview Pane, only in Editor. No buit-in OCR, Winfax has a very good one and it's much cheaper. Columns don't automatically resize when double-clicking on the area between the buttons. No supprt for Windows Address Book (OE), only for Outlook Contacts. No such problem in Winfax. When the client starts, it automatically goes to Inbox, but the caption above shows Outbox. The server cannot minimize to Tray, taking up 5-6 times as much space in the Taskbar. The Tidy up feature deletes your archived documents weather you want it or not. In Winfax, I can still find 5 year old transmissions that I decided to keep. Obtaining a report requires MDAC installed, OCR requires a third party app, Address Book requires Outlook, and they want $700 for it? It may be worth $70 after they fix all the bugs and make it more customizable. Winfax 10.0 still rules, except for the networking in XP SP2. But before I cough up $700 for this garbage, I'll consider installing modems on each computer on the LAN.
"Good, but could be better" - Jason [December 16, 2004] Product Rating: 3/5
Have worked with 4 majoir faxing solution and Zetafax works the best so far, but we do have many issues with it. My company uses it to send ~3000 and receive ~1500 faxes a day.
Worked extensively with the COM API and it works well, but the documentation could be a lot better. Support is friendly, but could be more knowledgable about the nuts and bolts of the product. Unfortunately all the engineering level support is out of the UK
"Glad im not a reseller" - Martin Clarke [December 7, 2004] Product Rating: 1/5
Have used the product for several years and dislike it for so many reasons. Looking around for something that works as I would expect. Actually surprised that Equisys are still around.
"Zetafax 7 connector for Exchange 2000 unstable and useless" - Russell Howe [July 6, 2004] Product Rating: 1/5
We have nothing but trouble with Zetafax's Exchange 2000 connector. Occasionally it will die and not recover.
The service is impossible to restart, and requires a complete server reboot! Very annoying on an Exchange server! Just looking at the program makes me think that the code has hardly been touched since NT4 was new, and has been left behind by Windows.
I'm looking into Hylafax, but there appears to be no free support for the Brooktrout fax card we have in the machine, so we might have to spend yet more money on the fax system.
Oh, and the server reboots? This box has Exchange 2000, Citrix and Zetafax, running on Win2k advanced server. That takes 20mins to reboot. Sometimes we have to reboot it more than once to clear the queue.
"Amazing how such a poor Beta Version can be sold !!" - Charlie [May 20, 2004] Product Rating: 1/5
ZetaFax's poor Tech support, albiet with the exception of 1 female member are willing to Learn, The FAQ Site has no index, and limited knowledge. The product is flawed with large numbers of bugs, The API kit is totally useless, and for a defunct product is seriously hard work. As for 30 Days tech support - Amazing !!
"Zeta Fax Sucks" - R. Bell [January 5, 2004] Product Rating: 1/5
As a user of the product, I find that ZetaFax has a long way to go to before it will be a useful product under a networking environment. It does not integrate with Terminal Services or Citrix, and has High Overhead. We have one person forwarding Received faxes via E-mail attachments to our remote branches because the product will not deliver to the exchange server. Our remote users can send faxes, if you get your users use to the fact that your New York branch gets the pop-up message that your San Diego branches message was successful. Equisys tells us it is because our phone system is not a PBX.
"Zetafax" - Paul [November 18, 2003] Product Rating: 5/5
Zetafax is without doubt the best product available in this category. I have been a user and a reseller for 5 years and the product has never let me down. It is simple to install, use and incredibly robust. Their customer service is second to none. You can be confident when you buy Zetafax that it will do a fantastic job.
Well done Equisys!
"Client software is very problematic" - Pinco palla [November 6, 2003] Product Rating: 2/5
I had many troubles to make the client software work in differebt versions of windows OS (I actually had to install an older version than 7 with WinXP otherwise it would would just for a while and then stop). I had to switch, at times, the ZEtafax printer and the Zetafax merger devices or they would start crashing unexlicably. We actually bought a Brookthought ISDN card and after a while it stopped working with just a message in the server log saying the called number didn't answer. After checking the phone lines we managed to get the firmware from Equisys and have to reload it anytime the problem pops up (no way to find out why the card started having the problem in the first place and the only proposal from the equisys' helpdesk was to send them the card and let them check it for a few months (!??)).
"ZetaFax" - Chris Crosier [August 13, 2003]
Wow. I thought I was the only unhappy Zetafax user out there. We have had nothing but these issues and then some. Most recently, they told me to change the DCOM settings to get the Zetafax .net portion working. Well, it crashed the server, and their only explination was, "it works here".
Like many other people, looking for a replacement and don't care what it costs. We've wasted thousands with these people only to get the run around with the newest version!
If I was smarter, I would have done some research first
"ZetaFax" - Evan [August 6, 2003]
I tested for two weeks, had install problems with the upgrade, could not get support in a timely fashion and could not believe that people would charge money for a program that does nothing well. It locks up the phone line until the number of retries is met then it frees it up for the next fax. You cannot look at a multi document fax until you send it and if you forget where you are in it... start over. Error codes are just that, CODES, not english. Trying to use the address book is awkward and inconsistent, for example you can search the address book for organization but cannot for Names... etc. etc. etc. I do, however, like that you can monitor the server from any station. Of course you have no idea what file people are sending but at least you know client Dan sent a 4 page fax to someone at 14:12 on thursday...
"Does not work with Citrix" - Derek [June 16, 2003]
I have installed Zetafax outlook extensions on Citrix environment. I worked only 6 month then stoped. Vendor answer was that thay do not support Citrix - but on their web site is that they do!!!!
"Zetafax API" - Christopher P. Cooper [April 15, 2003]
Zetafax had us purchase an API so we could integrate Zetafax into our programs. The only problem is that it uses DDE which Microsoft is no longer supporting in its .Net Development tools. Also when you send a fax from a company program. You can only send it once to the same telephone number without a message box popping up and requiring user intervention.
This application stinks... Looking into other alternatives even though the company spent $$,$$$ dollars.
"Zeta Fax" - David Chadwick [February 25, 2003]
This Fax Program Sucks, Very poorly designed & developed, Crashes to much for me, had to return the product, Now going to try GFI FaxMaker
"" - Dr. Noah Chelliah [January 3, 2003]
This software is difficult to use and tends to interfere with other programs.
I wasted $1500.
"Zetafax annotation support under Windows XP" - Tim Sagstetter [October 30, 2002]
There is no integrated annotation included with this product under Windows XP and Equisys there won't be. If you want to annotate faxes under WXP, you need a third-party program. I think this is a very poor decision by Equisys. Even simple fax programs have built-in annotation. How tough can it be?
Showing comments 1-22 of 22
Post your own comments/reviews/experiences with Zetafax to this page:
