Fax board incompatibility detection and circumvention

1. A facsimile management system comprising:

a system server coupled to one or more fax servers, each of the fax servers being coupled to a configuration database storing records indicating a selected configuration of a corresponding one of the fax servers during a failed attempt at transmitting the fax image, and a carrier database storing records correlating a carrier to an incoming facsimile number; and, a carrier monitor module executing in a memory of the server, the carrier monitor module server comprising program code which when executed by a processor of the server enables to the server to:

monitor the incoming facsimile number transmitting a fax image by the carrier; and,

on condition that a threshold failure rate is met or exceeded for the carrier transmitting the fax image on the incoming facsimile number, adjust the carrier to a new carrier by changing a record to indicate the new carrier in the carrier database; and,

a fax server module executing in a memory of each one of the fax servers, the fax server module comprising program code which when executed by a processor of a corresponding one of the fax servers enables the fax server to:

respond to a failed attempt at transmitting the fax image by the corresponding one of the fax servers by writing a record to the configuration database that indicates the selected configuration of the fax server during the failed attempt;

receive, in a memory of the corresponding one of the fax servers, each of a new fax image to be transmitted to a recipient, a specified fax sender, and also at least a portion of a phone number,

retrieve, into the memory of the corresponding one of the fax servers, a current selected configuration stored for the specified fax sender,

query the configuration database to determine whether the retrieved current selected configuration of the specified fax sender matches a record in the database, and

on condition that a match is found, establish that a prior facsimile transmitted by the specified fax sender was unsuccessful, but on condition that no match is found, transmit the new fax image by the corresponding one of the fax servers.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program code which when executed by the processor of the system server enables the system server to determine that the threshold failure rate is met or exceeded comprises determining that a number of received transmissions over a time period for the incoming facsimile number is less than an average number of received transmissions for the incoming facsimile number over the time period.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program code which when executed by the processor of the system server enables the system server to determine that the threshold failure rate is met or exceeded comprises:

monitoring additional incoming facsimile numbers; and,

determining that a number of received transmissions over a time period for the incoming facsimile number is less than an average number of received transmissions for the additional incoming facsimile numbers over the time period.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program code which when executed by the processor of the system server enables the system server to determine that the threshold failure rate is met or exceeded comprises determining that a number of successful transmissions for the incoming facsimile number over a time period is less than an average number of successful transmissions for the incoming facsimile number for the time period.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program code which when executed by the processor of the system server enables the system server to determine that the threshold failure rate is met or exceeded comprises:

monitoring additional incoming facsimile numbers; and,

determining that a number of successful transmissions for the incoming facsimile number over a time period is less than an average number of successful transmissions for the additional incoming facsimile numbers over the time period.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program code which when executed by the processor of the system server enables the system server to adjust the carrier to the new carrier by changing the record to indicate the new carrier in the carrier database storing records correlating the carrier to the incoming facsimile number comprises first selecting the new carrier.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program code which when executed by the processor of the system server further enables the system server to forward the new carrier to the corresponding one of the fax servers.