Hi,

I've been reading a lot of comments about the "Fax Server Information Cannot Be Retrieved" because we have been struggling with the problem too (in Windows XP Pro, English, SP2).

We also have MS Office 2003 installed but it doesn't seemed to be related to the problem.

THE CAUSE:

Well, we're not entirely sure but the PC had been used for approx. 6 months before the installation of the fax software was needed. The fax software was installed through the Explorer window "Printers and Faxes" (available through the Control Panel or in the Start menu), and it went without any error messages as far as we can remember. (Of cause we were asked to locate a file; we selected folder D:\I386 on the SP2 CD-ROM).

When trying to send a fax we immediately got the "Fax Server Information Cannot Be Retrieved" message.

We tried to fix the problem by using the standard Control Panel window "Add or Remove Programs" and "Add/Remove Windows Components". But we where unsuccessful.

THE SOLUTION:

We solved the problem by

• first uninstalling the fax service though the Control Panel "Add or Remove Programs" and "Add/Remove Windows Components"
• and then reinstalling the fax service via the setup.exe program in the root of the SP2 CD-ROM (and we selected "Install optional Windows components"). Thus, we avoided to install via the standard Control Panel access.

The installation was without error messages, and this time the fax service worked fine.

LAST HICK-UP ABOUT THE WINDOWS FAX SERVICE:

There seems to be no way to get the "e-mail" field from the "Sender Information" (in the fax console) displayed on a fax cover page. The fax cover page editor cannot see this field.

I hope that this was useful to some of you out there.
I can't promise you that it will solve your problem since our investigation wasn't thorough enough.

Regards
Erik
www.progresso.dk

P.S.: I would much like to avoid faxing. It is technically outdated but still needed for lawyers etc. because faxes are legal documents in some cases.