Email to fax in ICTFax lets you send a fax by emailing your document to <fax number>@<your fax domain>, for example 15550199001@fax.example.com. Sendmail takes the message in, ICTCore’s email gateway reads it, checks that the sender is a known ICTFax user, converts the attachment and sends the fax. You’ll get a confirmation email back.

This guide covers the whole path: what happens to the email, the server setup, who’s allowed to send, the address format, attachments, confirmation emails and the reverse direction, fax to email. The email flow is the same in the Service Provider Edition and the Community Edition, so the server steps work for both.

How email to fax works

There’s no separate email product to install. ICTFax handles email with sendmail and the email gateway that ships with ICTCore. When someone emails a fax, this is what happens:

Sendmail receives the message. Your fax domain’s MX record points at the ICTFax server, so mail for that domain arrives on TCP port 25. Sendmail delivers it into the local ICTCore mailbox, /var/spool/mail/ictcore.
The gateway reads the mailbox. ICTCore’s email gateway picks up each new message.
The sender is matched to an account. ICTFax looks at the From address and finds the ICTFax user with that email. That’s how it knows who’s sending. Mail from an address that isn’t an ICTFax account isn’t faxed.
The number is read from the address. Only the digits before the @ are used as the destination fax number.
The attachment is converted. PDF and image files go straight in. Office files are converted with LibreOffice first.
The fax is sent through your providers, the same way a fax sent from the web portal goes out.
A confirmation email goes back to the sender when the fax is accepted, when it’s sent, or when it fails.

You don’t need Postfix, and there’s no email2fax.php script to wire up. If you followed an older guide that told you to set those up, you can remove them. They aren’t part of ICTFax.

Server setup

You’ll need root access to the ICTFax server and access to DNS for the domain you want to use. Pick a domain or subdomain just for faxing, such as fax.example.com. Every address at that domain becomes a fax address.

1. Set the fax domain in ictcore.conf

Open /usr/ictcore/etc/ictcore.conf and find the [sendmail] section. Set domain to your fax domain. The default is localhost, which won’t work for mail coming in from outside.

[sendmail]
domain = fax.example.com

2. Add an MX record

In your DNS provider’s control panel, add an MX record for the fax domain that points at the ICTFax server’s hostname. That hostname needs an A record with the server’s public IP. Without the MX record, other mail servers have no idea where to deliver mail for fax.example.com.

3. Open TCP port 25

Allow inbound TCP 25 on the server firewall and on any cloud security group in front of it. Some cloud hosts block port 25 on new servers by default, so check your provider’s policy too.

4. Make sendmail listen on all interfaces

Out of the box, sendmail often accepts mail only from the server itself. It has to listen on all interfaces so mail from the internet can reach it. The ICTFax installation guide walks through the sendmail setup for email to fax, including this change. Follow that section, then restart sendmail.

5. Recommended: add an SPF record

ICTFax also sends mail out: confirmation emails and fax to email messages. Give the fax domain an SPF record that allows the server’s IP, or relay outgoing mail through your own mail server, so those messages don’t land in spam.

Who’s allowed to send

ICTFax trusts the From address. The email must come from the address stored on an ICTFax user account. In the Service Provider Edition, that’s the login email set on the user under Administration > User Management. The fax is then sent as that user.

So before anyone can email a fax:

Create their ICTFax user, or check that one exists.
Make sure the user’s email matches the address they’ll send from, exactly.

If someone sends from a second mailbox or an alias, ICTFax won’t recognise it and the email isn’t faxed.

Address format

Put the destination fax number in front of the @ and your fax domain after it. ICTFax only reads the digits before the @.

You want to fax	Send the email to
15550199001	`15550199001@fax.example.com`
15550199002	`15550199002@fax.example.com`
A number your provider expects with a different prefix	Type the digits as you’d dial them; the provider Prefix rules still apply on the way out

Write the number in the same format you’d type into the destination field when sending from the portal. The number then goes out through your providers, and each provider’s Prefix rules change it the same way they do for any other fax.

Attachments and formats

Attach the document you want faxed. ICTFax accepts:

PDF
TIF / TIFF
PNG
JPG / JPEG
Office files, converted with LibreOffice: DOC, DOCX, ODT, XLS, XLSX, ODS, PPT, PPTX, ODP

PDF gives the most predictable result, because what you see is what gets faxed. Office files can shift slightly in conversion, especially complex layouts. If a page looks wrong on the other end, save it as PDF and send it again.

Confirmation emails

The sender gets an email back at each stage that matters:

Accepted: ICTFax read the email, matched the sender and queued the fax.
Sent: the fax went through.
Failed: the fax couldn’t be delivered.

No confirmation at all usually means the email never reached the gateway, or the sender wasn’t recognised. Check the troubleshooting table below.

Fax to email

The reverse direction sends incoming faxes to an inbox as attachments. You set it per number:

Open My DIDs.
Click the forward arrow on the number you want.
Under Select Service, choose Fax to Email.
Type the main address in the Email field.
To send each fax to more people, add their addresses in the box below the Email field, one email address per line. Each one gets a copy.
Save.

From then on, every fax that arrives on that DID is emailed to those addresses. In the Service Provider Edition, it also shows under Inbound Fax for the user the DID belongs to.

If you choose Forward to Extension instead, the call goes live to a fax machine or ATA, and ICTFax doesn’t store or email the fax. See the ATA and fax machine guide for that setup.

Service Provider Edition: tenants and users

In the Service Provider Edition, tenants manage their own users and DID numbers. A tenant who wants a user to email faxes adds the user with the right login email, and assigns DIDs that can then be set to Fax to Email under My DIDs. The ICTFax tenant guide covers adding users and forwarding DIDs.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	What to check
No confirmation email and no fax	The email never reached the server	Look up the MX record for the fax domain and confirm it points at the ICTFax server. Check that TCP 25 is open on the firewall and at your cloud provider.
Mail reaches the server but is rejected or not delivered locally	Sendmail only listens on localhost	Repeat the sendmail section of the installation guide so it listens on all interfaces, then restart sendmail.
Mail lands in `/var/spool/mail/ictcore` but no fax is created	The fax domain isn’t set, or the sender isn’t recognised	Check `[sendmail] domain` in `/usr/ictcore/etc/ictcore.conf`. Make sure the From address matches a user’s email exactly.
Email isn’t faxed	The sender isn’t an ICTFax user	Send from the address on the user account, or update the user’s email.
Accepted, then failed	No working provider, or the number doesn’t match the provider Prefix rules	Check that a provider is active and that its Prefix rules suit the number format you used.
Wrong or missing pages	Attachment type or conversion problem	Use one of the listed formats. Convert Office files to PDF and try again.
Incoming faxes aren’t emailed	The DID isn’t set to Fax to Email	Open My DIDs, check the forward setting and the email addresses, one per line.

Still stuck? Open a support ticket and include the time you sent the email and the destination number.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Postfix for email to fax?

No. ICTFax uses sendmail, which delivers mail into the ICTCore mailbox, and ICTCore’s own gateway reads it. You don’t need Postfix or any extra script.

Can anyone email a fax to my fax domain?

No. The From address has to be the email of an ICTFax user. Mail from anyone else isn’t faxed, so strangers can’t use your server to send faxes.

What file types can I attach?

PDF, TIF/TIFF, PNG and JPG/JPEG. Office files (DOC, DOCX, ODT, XLS, XLSX, ODS, PPT, PPTX, ODP) work too, because LibreOffice converts them first. PDF gives the most reliable result.

How do I know the fax went through?

You’ll get an email when the fax is accepted, another when it’s sent, or one telling you it failed. You can also check the fax history in the portal, as described in the ICTFax user guide.

Can incoming faxes go to more than one person?

Yes. In My DIDs, set the number to Fax to Email, type the main address in the Email field and add more addresses in the box below it, one per line.

Does email to fax work in the Community Edition?

Yes. The email flow and server setup are the same in both editions. The Service Provider Edition adds tenants, bulk fax campaigns and the other multi-tenant features on top.

How to Set Up Email to Fax in ICTFax