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Do you spend a lot of money maintaining your fax equipment? Is your fax machine often down? Do you wish you can receive faxes even if you are away from your place of work? Do you wish you had free fax service?

If you answered yes to a minimum of one of the above criteria, you will Most certainly be interested in online faxing

 

What is online faxing?

 

This is an online or computer based electronic fax service which makes use of email,

Fax software and different web applications to deliver faxes online.

It’s also referred to Internet fax or Efax

 

As an online service, no fax machines or fixed land line is critical to

Sending or getting faxes. All fax transactions are done online. All you

Have to try and do is log in to an email account to send as well as receive faxes.

 

The Various types of online fax services

 

There are actually two basic types of online fax services:

 

Fax to email

Email to fax

 

Fax to email

 

Also known as fax2email is definitely inbound or incoming internet fax service that allows the user to acquire faxes via an e-mail account. This service is mostly offered free.

 

Email to fax

 

Also called email2fax. This is a web based faxing service that allows you to fax from your e mail account. Documents are basically attached on email and also faxed directly to the fax machine via the World Wide Web.

 

Other Online Fax services

 

These include:

 

1. Desktop to fax

2. Web to fax

 

Desktop to fax

 

This simply implies sending faxes using internet fax software. This free fax software allows the user to print the fax document into the fax printer driver and provides a field to enter the destination fax number. The software then sends the faxes as images over the Internet to the targeted destination fax.

This method which is also known as Pc2Fax is a more simplified approach to faxing than the attachment method of email to fax. In addition to web to fax the one drawback is the software has to be installed to make use of this service

 

Web to fax

 

As the name suggests it is a web based application which involves the

User login straight into her online account, affixing the fax documents in addition to destination fax number and sending over the internet. An email account is not required to send through this method. The progress of the fax can be tracked and confirmations received on the website.

 

The benefits associated with Online Fax

 

There are a wide range of benefits of using the various online faxing services. Some of which may include;

 

Portability- receives your faxes on any online device including mobile devices.

Privacy- faxes are generally delivered right into the email inbox

Environmentally friendly- documents are printed only if necessary

Saving in fax paper, toners, line rentals and fax machine repairs.

 

How to get Online Fax

 

There a wide range of internet fax service companies worldwide. If you would like to have a local Kenya fax to email number click here. These numbers are offered totally free.

 

Once you signup, your own working fax number will instantly be emailed to you. You may then send your clients or suppliers your new fax numbers. All faxes sent to the fax2email number will be received within your email account.

You may also assign about five additional email addresses if you would like the Faxes copied to many recipients.

Fax technology went (partially) high-tech some years ago, so some companies still operate dedicated in-house fax servers. Generally, though, this technology is aging and only meets expectations in a few ways, like convenience and savings on ink/toner and paper. They fail on other important measures, like maintenance and overhead. The fact is, managing a fax server and its diverse complexities takes important IT resources from your firm’s more important duties.

The move to faxing via servers did solve some issues with standalone fax machines, as mentioned above. Finally, there was no more worrying about ink or toner, no more loading paper and clearing paper jams, no more muss and fuss. Getting away from the standalone, phone-connected fax reduced capital expenses and maintenance costs, certainly, but simply moving fax services to another kind of hardware only went part way to a real solution. There were still some dedicated devices you still had to rent or buy, and you had to maintain (and worry about) them, too.

Maturing tech

Online fax services can take all of the pressure off your and your IT people. There is nothing to maintain, nothing to buy and just a small fee to pay each month. Even the faxing plans that offer unlimited in-and-out faxing are remarkably affordable, and the affordability index shoots up even higher when you realize you are through buying paper, ink, toner, etc. Those are only the most obvious advantages of the newly matured online fax services. Others are just as important, though.

One tremendous advantage offered by online faxing is security. You only print out a fax when you need to, and can otherwise safeguard your communications on your password-protected PC, smart phone or laptop/netbook. In the not-so-good old days of standalone fax machines, you would have to coordinate and schedule the arrival of a fax so as to keep it from prying eyes. This is no longer a problem.

Making the move

Today all the talk is about the cloud, Web apps, Google-this and Google-that. One day we may even have a single, efficient, integrated communications solution that brings audio, video, text, images and everything else through one interface that is easy to navigate and use. That time, in fact, is fast approaching, and online faxing is one of the technologies that is pointing the way. Clearly, any sort of Integrated Future Communications System will be developed in concert with the advances taking place in cloud computing.

A number of questions arise when you start to consider moving away from hardware faxing to online faxing. You will need to consider a number of different factors, from financial ones to operational ones. You have to educate your employees to the new way of doing things, so management first needs to understand it all to explain it. The following questions can focus your thinking a bit:

What different approaches are there for moving from a fax server to an online fax solution, and how do they compare?
Are there ways to keep using your legacy systems, your old hardware or any associated software?
Logistically, how can you make the move smoothly and do so without interrupting the flow of business information (which is what drives every business)?
Is there a trustworthy and accurate way to calculate how much you might save in consumables, electricity, maintenance and such?
What sort of step-by-step plan can you develop to make the move as painless, seamless and efficient as possible?

Bottom line

It is never too soon to start saving money or increasing efficiency, and it may be that you should have made the move to online faxing long ago. Still, you cannot start any sooner that now (whenever that is), and there is plenty of help available from the people who have gone before you. As you start researching online fax services, you will quickly discover that there are entire forums, Web sites and online communities dedicated to discussing, explaining and helping out with the move to online faxing. You are not alone, and you are certainly not suffering from a lack of good information.

You may, however, encounter some resistance to the move. People become set in their ways, so it is your responsibility as a manager/leader to persuade office workers that online faxing will save them time, money, effort and worry. It is not a hard case to make once you start learning how much money other companies have saved, and how much trouble they have avoided, by making the move to a stable, mature and dependable online fax service.

Fax technology went (partially) high-tech some years ago, so some companies still operate dedicated in-house fax servers. Generally, though, this technology is aging and only meets expectations in a few ways, like convenience and savings on ink/toner and paper. They fail on other important measures, like maintenance and overhead. The fact is, managing a fax server and its diverse complexities takes important IT resources from your firm’s more important duties.

The move to faxing via servers did solve some issues with standalone fax machines, as mentioned above. Finally, there was no more worrying about ink or toner, no more loading paper and clearing paper jams, no more muss and fuss. Getting away from the standalone, phone-connected fax reduced capital expenses and maintenance costs, certainly, but simply moving fax services to another kind of hardware only went part way to a real solution. There were still some dedicated devices you still had to rent or buy, and you had to maintain (and worry about) them, too.

Maturing tech

Online fax services can take all of the pressure off your and your IT people. There is nothing to maintain, nothing to buy and just a small fee to pay each month. Even the faxing plans that offer unlimited in-and-out faxing are remarkably affordable, and the affordability index shoots up even higher when you realize you are through buying paper, ink, toner, etc. Those are only the most obvious advantages of the newly matured online fax services. Others are just as important, though.

One tremendous advantage offered by online faxing is security. You only print out a fax when you need to, and can otherwise safeguard your communications on your password-protected PC, smart phone or laptop/netbook. In the not-so-good old days of standalone fax machines, you would have to coordinate and schedule the arrival of a fax so as to keep it from prying eyes. This is no longer a problem.

Making the move

Today all the talk is about the cloud, Web apps, Google-this and Google-that. One day we may even have a single, efficient, integrated communications solution that brings audio, video, text, images and everything else through one interface that is easy to navigate and use. That time, in fact, is fast approaching, and online faxing is one of the technologies that is pointing the way. Clearly, any sort of Integrated Future Communications System will be developed in concert with the advances taking place in cloud computing.

A number of questions arise when you start to consider moving away from hardware faxing to online faxing. You will need to consider a number of different factors, from financial ones to operational ones. You have to educate your employees to the new way of doing things, so management first needs to understand it all to explain it. The following questions can focus your thinking a bit:

What different approaches are there for moving from a fax server to an online fax solution, and how do they compare?
Are there ways to keep using your legacy systems, your old hardware or any associated software?
Logistically, how can you make the move smoothly and do so without interrupting the flow of business information (which is what drives every business)?
Is there a trustworthy and accurate way to calculate how much you might save in consumables, electricity, maintenance and such?
What sort of step-by-step plan can you develop to make the move as painless, seamless and efficient as possible?

Bottom line

It is never too soon to start saving money or increasing efficiency, and it may be that you should have made the move to online faxing long ago. Still, you cannot start any sooner that now (whenever that is), and there is plenty of help available from the people who have gone before you. As you start researching online fax services, you will quickly discover that there are entire forums, Web sites and online communities dedicated to discussing, explaining and helping out with the move to online faxing. You are not alone, and you are certainly not suffering from a lack of good information.

You may, however, encounter some resistance to the move. People become set in their ways, so it is your responsibility as a manager/leader to persuade office workers that online faxing will save them time, money, effort and worry. It is not a hard case to make once you start learning how much money other companies have saved, and how much trouble they have avoided, by making the move to a stable, mature and dependable online fax service.

Copyright (c) 2007 Titus Hoskins

Internet Fax is simply using the Internet or your email system to send and receive faxes. Since it is web based, you can send your faxes anytime anywhere; as long as you have an Internet connection and these days that’s available just about everywhere.

You sign up with an Internet fax service provider to get your own fax number (local or toll free) which you use in the same manner as you would use any fax number. There is a small charge for this service but keep in mind you do not need an extra phone line to do Internet faxing since everything is done online.

Many small and large business owners are switching over to Internet Fax for some obvious advantages: it is very convenient, it is very fast, it offers more privacy, many faxes can be sent/received simultaneously (no busy signals) and it is available wherever you have the Internet. Plus there are no messy fax machines and no need for a second phone line.

One of the most asked questions about Internet Fax relates to the confusion over just how the whole thing works. Many traditional fax users can’t quite get their heads around the idea of having faxes without the traditional fax machine.

Basically, you sign up with a fax service provider and get your own fax number and you send/receive your faxes thru your email system – your fax is attached to an email as either a TIFF or PDF format file. You can access your faxes from an online interface (your fax login site) where your faxes are received and sent. You can also store your faxes online there.

What confuses most people who are not familiar with online faxing is the question: can I still send my faxes to the old traditional machines, since many of my business partners may not be using Internet Fax?

The answer is YES!

You can send your faxes to the old traditional fax machine and if they have your fax number, they can still return a fax to you via the old traditional manner or fax machine.

Here’s how Internet Fax works:

You use a fax gateway or Internet Fax provider/server to handle your faxes. For example, say if you were sending a fax.

Computer/Internet -> Fax provider/server -> Phone line -> Fax machine

You use your computer and the Internet to log into your online account/page to send your fax to your fax provider/server which then uses the phone line to send your fax to the receiving fax machine.

If you are receiving a Fax

Fax machine -> Phone line -> Fax provider/server -> Email message (thru Internet) -> Your Email account

Someone uses a fax machine to send you a fax which goes thru the phone line to your fax provider/server which converts it into a TIFF or PDF file and sends you an email message with your fax attached in your email.

If both parties are using Internet Fax, then your faxes can be sent/received using your email systems over the Internet.

Computer/email -> Fax provider/server -> Computer/email

What you really have to keep in mind, once you sign up for an Internet fax service you will have an online interface (login site) where you can send and receive your faxes. Then when you send or receive a fax, you get a confirmation in your web interface and/or by email.

This offers some great advantages such as receiving and sending your faxes whenever and wherever you access the Internet. No more busy signals, no more messy fax machines, no more nosy workers seeing the contents of your fax, and no extra phone line. Plus, many faxes can be sent/received simultaneously, even when your computer is turned off. No more missed faxes because your phone line was busy.

However, in order to get all these advantages you have to sign up for an Internet fax service. There are many well known Internet fax providers such as MyFax, eFax, RapidFax, TrustFax, Send2Fax… and some very good lesser known faxing companies such as MetroHiSpeed out of Seattle and Faxage out of Denver.

A word of caution, when signing up for any long term business service it pays to do your homework first. It pays to shop around mainly because even any small savings may prove significant over the long haul. Prices can range from very cheap (under a year) to around – a month depending on the kind of service you need. There are many different plans and services, and keep in mind, you will pay more for International faxing.

Internet Fax seems to be the way of the future as more and more businesses go online. Besides, as we become more and more modernized, computers are offering us simple and convenient solutions to many of our daily traditional business tasks such as faxing. Can your business or any company really afford to be left behind or not take advantage of the benefits of Internet Fax? Can you still remain competitive without Internet Fax? It’s your call?

Copyright (c) 2008 Titus Hoskins

Before acquiring any Internet Fax service you must ask some pertinent questions before you sign on the dotted line. Remember, getting a fax number and service for your business or company should have your full attention because this is a long-term service and doing your homework now can save you significant money over the long haul.

Besides, picking the RIGHT fax service provider will help you avoid serious problems/headaches down the road. More importantly, like any business service you must make doubly sure you get a high quality reliable service that will enhance your business and not hinder it.

So with these concerns in mind, here are some basic questions you should ask before buying any Internet fax service.

* Questions About The Company

Who owns the company? How long have they been operating? How many customers/clients do they have? How good is their support? Basically, you want to do some research on the Internet fax company you’re thinking about using. Check out the company’s history by doing a BBB search to see if there are any major complaints about the company or service.

Check to see if there’s a trial period and if there is a 30-day money-back guarantee if things don’t work out. Most legitimate fax companies provide this feature.

Find out how long they have been operating and find out what their support is like? Check out the online fax forums to see how the different companies are rated? What problems are discussed? Check these forums to see what the support is like for a company and/or if there are any problems with using a particular fax company.

Keep in mind, many fax service providers have their own forums… check these to see how well questions are answered and how quickly problems are solved. You can even monitor these forums for a few days just to see how quickly problems are dealt with?

Remember to ask around to see if you can find actual users of a particular fax service, there is nothing as good as first-hand experience and advice when choosing a service. MicroSoft’s Office Marketplace is a good place to start.

* Questions About Your New Fax Number:

First, you will want to check to see what type of fax number is supplied by the fax provider – local number with your same area code or a Toll-free number? Can you get inbound numbers in a different country in case you want to create a virtual presence there?

Check to see if a fax provider recycles old fax numbers? On rare occasions this could present a problem with you receiving someone else’s faxes. Keep this in mind if you discontinue your fax number, especially if you were receiving sensitive faxes through your number.

* Questions About The Transmission of Faxes:

How do I send faxes? You want to know the exact procedure for your chosen fax provider? Is there a desktop or email application I can use to send and receive faxes? Does it work with Windows Applications?

Is there an online interface or site where I can send and receive my faxes? (Most fax services have this.) Can I store my faxes online? If so, how much disc space is provided and how long before my faxes are deleted? Can I track the process of my faxes online? Can I track how much each fax costs?

What attachment file formats are used by your prospective fax provider? Most use the TIFF (Tagged Image File) format but other popular ones are Acrobat PDF, JPEG/JPG and GIF. If you have or use a different format, check with the provider to see if they can handle it.

Can you change your email address to where your faxes are sent? Can you have multiple email addresses? Do you have control over your fax identifier (CSID) for outbound faxes? The CSID is used to identify the sender of the fax and is a legal requirement in many locations.

Finally, if security is a real concern, you must ask whether or not your fax provider can send encrypted/signed email? Encryption ensures only you and the receiver sees your faxes. Can your faxes be sent and received via email with PGP encryption?

* Questions About Fax Broadcasting:

Does your fax provider offer Fax Broadcasting – sending the same fax to hundreds or thousands of recipients? This is useful in a business setting for such things as Newsletters, Press Releases, Special Sales or Deals – not to be confused with Junk Faxes, which is similar to email Spam!

If you or your company does a lot of legitimate faxing, you must check to see if your fax provider is completely scalable to meet your company’s growing faxing needs? Can you easily get multiple fax numbers for different departments or agents? Can it handle high volumes on short notice?

* Questions About The Costs of Faxing:

Perhaps the most important questions you have to ask concerns the cost or price of your online faxing. Are there any set-up costs? Are there any hidden fees? Is there a trial version you can start with? Is there a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the service?

Fax services are paid for by subscriptions – you must check to see if it’s a yearly or monthly subscription? Most companies give you an option and if you buy an annual subscription, you usually get a discount – check this?

Regardless of how you pay, you must check how many faxes can you send and/or receive each month with your subscription? Fax companies all have different plans and fees… so it pays to shop around… most services go for around – a month. Heavier volume faxing will be more expensive. Also check to see if there is custom pricing for companies?

What are your provider’s international fax rates? This is something you should really check out as you will have to pay more for these types of faxes. If I go over my limit, what are the costs of sending faxes? Receiving faxes?

Remember, as a general rule of thumb, page calculations are done based on fax time with the 60-second per page limit as standard. Most faxes are less than 40 seconds, but faxes with large graphics may be counted as two or more pages. Some fax providers base their fax rates on a per/minute fee… 5 cents a minute.

When considering the costs of your Internet faxing, you have to remember, with online faxing you won’t have the cost of a fax machine, or the cost of a second phone line. Plus, you won’t have to pay ink, toner and paper costs.

Overall, Internet faxing is a good viable alternative to the old fax machine. It offers some very distinct advantages because it is completely mobile, you can send your faxes anytime, anywhere. And since it is computer and Internet based, it can be much more efficient than the old fax machine.

Digital faxing provides you with secure faxing in which your private faxes remain private, delivered straight to your email inbox. You do not need a telephone line dedicated for your fax transmissions, and you save cost by doing away with the usual fax machine and the running costs that such a set-up requires.

The word ‘Fax’ has been derived from the Latin ‘fac simile’, which basically means ‘make a copy’. Fax is a telecom technology which provides the means to transfer printed or handwritten documents at affordable prices over the telephone network. As a synonym, the word ‘telefax’ is often used which signifies the process of transferring a document to a distant fax machine over the telephone line. With the advent of digital fax many advantages have come into faxing.

Faxing documents over the telephone network has the distinct advantage over postal mail in which the delivery of the documents faxed is almost instantaneous. However, the disadvantage being that this technology heavily depends on the condition of the telephone network and at times has been found to have degraded transmission quality. On the other hand digital faxing provides guaranteed quality delivery of your faxes to the recipients.

To find the best solution regarding Fax Over Internet, it is always worthwhile doing a little research.

A fax machine generally consists of a document scanner, a modem, and an in-built printer, in case of analog faxing devices. When digital fax machine was first introduced, it became very popular in Japan since it had a clear advantage over the existing teleprompter.

Before the easy-to-use input editors were introduced, it was much faster to write Kanji scripts by hand than to type the characters and this made faxing easy. Fax devices became gradually affordable, and by the mid 1980′s fax machines became popular through-out the world.

Today, the fax machine is being used in all corporate environments, and this stand-alone device has been replaced by “fax servers” and other computer operated systems in form of digital fax, which collect incoming faxes electronically and transmits them to the appropriate departments or people by email or as printed documents. These systems have the advantage of doing away with multiple telephone lines for the users, and also reduce costs by eliminating individual fax machines and unnecessary print-outs.

Digital faxing:

Fax servers:

A digital faxing system is essentially controlled by a set of software facilitating sending and receiving of faxes digitally. The server is equipped with fax modems which are connected to several incoming telephone lines. More recently the telephone lines have been done away with and replaced by “software modem emulators” which use fax over IP technology.

The function of this digital faxing system is to accept the documents meant for faxing, convert them into appropriate fax format and transmit them to the specified destinations. These devices also accept incoming faxes, storing them and routing them by email to the individuals or concerned departments as required.

Internet fax services:

Internet fax services are all TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface) compliant which allow business and individual users to send and receive faxes over the internet. You can access Internet faxing services on your computer, which provide you with the features to store and forward fax documents to Group 3 analog fax machines, and also receive or forward the fax documents as email attachments.

Fax services such as the ones offered on the Internet are quite cheap with a monthly cost depending upon the option you choose for an estimated total number of faxes that you intend to send per month.

Digital fax benefits:

As mentioned above, digital faxing provides you with secured faxing in which your private faxes remain private, delivered to your email inbox. A big advantage is you do not need any telephone line dedicated for your fax transmissions, and you save cost by doing away with the usual fax machine and the running costs that such a set-up requires.

The fax number allocated to you by any of the Internet fax service provider travels with you where-ever you go and you can receive and send your faxes from any part of the world. Your incoming and outgoing faxes are all stored for your later references which can be raccessed by you at any time.

Internet faxing follows the principle of digital fax technology which offers you with benefits such as, viewing your faxes from any computer after you log in with your secured Id and password, and also receive information about the status of the fax that you have sent out.

Internet fax allows you to choose your fax number, where you have the option to choose the area code which gives you a more professional look, no matter where your business might be based.

Summary:

Digital fax brings you faxing at a reduced cost. With a small monthly fee digital fax provides you with ample faxing opportunity at greater speed than ever without you spending any extra money. Digital fax does away with the usual faxing machine that we know of, cuts the cost on paper and printing, and lets you have incoming notifications on your cell phone or PDA, in case you can’t be in front of your computer at all times.