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 FI BILLS FAXMAKER for Exchange 5.5 as an interim release,
tiding users over until the release of Version 6.0 later this
year. But don’t be fooled. Version 5.5 offers much more
than just compatibility with the recently released Microsoft
Exchange 5.5.
 FaxMaker for Exchange, which runs
on an Exchange server as a Windows NT service or an application,
lets users send and receive faxes directly from Outlook and
the Exchange client in the same way they send and receive e-mail
messages. When a user enters a fax address from an Outlook or
Exchange address book, FaxMaker converts the message to fax
format and sends it. Users can send faxes directly from any
Windows application by simply printing to the FaxMaker printer
driver.
FaxMaker will even automatically convert and fax any Office
95/97 documents attached to messages. And FaxMaker will take
advantage of Exchange Server’s least-cost routing to send
faxes from the appropriate Exchange server.
The product doesn’t yet have the remote-management and
scripted-routing capabilities of its main competitor, Omtool
Fax Sr. But it is significantly less expensive and a snap to
install and configure, virtues that will make it attractive
to anyone administering an Exchange shop.
Apart from compatibility with Exchange 5.5, the most obvious
reason for upgrading to FaxMaker 5.5 is its broad hardware support.
In addition to supporting an assortment of Class 2 fax/modems,
FaxMaker now supports some popular devices, including Brooktrout
fax cards and U.S. Robotics’ Courier line of modems and
ISDN CAPI 2.0 cards.
Version 5.5 also adds line routing for incoming faxes. The previous
version of FaxMaker let users route faxes from specified senders
to specified recipients with Caller Sender Identification.
You can also route faxes using direct inward dialing, which
employs virtual phone numbers assigned by the phone company,
or Dual Tone Multifrequency, which routes faxes according to
a series of digital tones entered by the sender. With the new
line-routing feature, you can stipulate that faxes arriving
on a specified fax line be delivered to a specified recipient,
printer, or both.
Additionally, GFI has enhanced FaxMaker’s mail-merge capabilities.
With the previous version you could perform fax mail merges
with Microsoft Word for Windows. Version 5.5 includes a new
and well-designed wizard that leads you through setting up a
fax broadcast to users listed in any ODBC database.
While testing FaxMaker, I was most surprised by how easy it
was to install. Configuring programs that work with messaging
systems is often a complicated, trying experience, but I found
it simple to get FaxMaker for Exchange running. I didn’t
have to remember anything, including domain or post office names,
and I only had to know whether I wanted to use one or more Exchange
servers.
To install on multiple servers, you are directed to create a
directory on one server to hold the files, then map that directory
to the other servers for installation. Installing the optional
optical character recognition (OCR) module is separate.
I encountered only one snag: When I tried to install client
software from the client directory on the server, I discovered
that the setup file was corrupt and needed to be replaced. That
done, everything ran fine.
GFI advises that FaxMaker for Exchange users should upgrade
to Version 5.5 only if they need one or another of these specific
features. If not, users should wait for Version 6.0. However,
because anyone who upgrades to Version 5.5 now will get a free
upgrade to Version 6.0, there’s nothing to lose. GFI promises
to add remote administration and load balancing among multiple
fax servers, as well as least-cost routing via the Internet,
in Version 6.0.
Patrick Marshall is an InfoWorld contributing editor.
He is senior technology analyst at Federal Computer Week’s
Test Center.
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  any of you have sent us
e-mail wanting to know what free port scanners are available
for a Windows 95 or Windows NT machine. For those of you who
shy away from Unix, there are a variety of freely available
Windows-based scanners on the Internet. Though none of them
is as robust or flexible as their Unix counterparts, all of
them do provide a surface view of the security holes in your
network. (For more on the Linux tool nmap, from Fyodor’s
Playhouse, see “Freeware scanners find network holes, thwart
detection solutions,” June 8, page 62D.)
Warning: no stealth scanning
The fundamental problem with all Windows-based scanners
is their current lack of stealth scanning such as Syn, FIN,
or fragmentation. Stealth scanning can trick a packet-filtering
router or firewall into allowing the scan through to your network.
So if you use Windows scanning tools, you may not be getting
the complete picture. Crackers love stealth scanning techniques
and use them extensively to try and get around your routers
and firewalls. Be forewarned: Windows scanners won’t tell
you the whole story.
At the bottom of the scanning food chain is IP Prober —
a freeware utility offered by Access Informatics (http://www.accinform.com/ipprobe.html).
IP Prober is the simplest of scanners because it does only one
thing: scan a single IP address with a range of port numbers.
There is nothing fancy with this tool — no name resolution,
no random port scanning, and it is often very slow (due largely
to its number of retries with non-responsive ports).
Port Scanner is a shareware utility offered by Blue Globe Software
(http://www.blueglobe.com/~cliffmcc). The product offers a range
of IP addresses for scanning and port numbers from a maintained
list (which provides some degree of randomness). In addition,
Port Scanner provides name resolution, target ranges, and list
scanning (pseudo-random), but it does not provide a means to
randomize your hosts. It can also be quite slow.
 Sam Spade is freeware written by Blighty
Design (http://www.blighty.com/products/spade). Sam is much
more than a scanner. We use it extensively in our security work
to perform zone transfers, Whois, lookups, PING, DNS, traceroute,
dig, Finger, SMTP VRFY/EXPN, and much more. It does offer name
resolution, target ranges, and list scanning (pseudo-random),
plus it’s very fast. But like the other Windows scanners,
it offers no stealth scanning and no random host or port scanning.
And we have found that large scans with Sam have a tendency
to overwhelm the system.
Internet Maniac is a freeware utility by Sumit Birla (http://members.tripod.com/~Sumit_Birla).
This utility is also much more than a port scanner; it includes
name lookups, traceroute, PING, raw connect, Finger, Whois,
POP3 check, and a port listener. The scanner does allow for
target host ranges and tends to be very fast. However, it offers
no random host or port selection, and along with the other products,
it offers no stealth scanning.
Great promise
At the top of the food chain we find Asmodeus, from Web
Trends (http://www.webtrends.com/wss). This freeware beta product
doesn’t have fancy features, but it’s one of the only
products that offers vulnerability checks such as banner, registry
permission, and OS checks. Other niceties include an Ethernet
sniffer and vulnerability scripting capability. But it offers
no host or port ranges (full domains only), no random scanning,
and only modest scanning speeds. It may be too early to tell,
but Asmodeus has the beginnings of a robust Windows-based scanner.
If your goal is to understand your network from a 40,000-foot
view, then Windows port scanning tools will suffice. But if
you’re serious about your security and looking for the
holes that crackers will find, then take the time to install
a Linux box and use nmap.
Test Center Support Manager Stuart McClure and Technology
Analyst Joel Scambray have managed information security in
academic, corporate, and government environments for the past
nine years. They currently test dozens of security products,
from firewalls to security auditing solutions, in search of
new ways to improve enterprise network security. You can reach
them at security_watch@infoworld.com.
Copyright © 1998 #172915
by InfoWorld Publishing Company, a subsidiary of IDG
Communications Inc. Reprinted from InfoWorld, 155 Bovet
Road, San Mateo, CA 94402.
Managed by Reprint Management Services (717) 560-2001. http://www.rmsreprints.com
— sales@rmsreprints.com
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