Anyone using an on-line fax service?

[Mitchell Andrus]

Just wondering if anyone is using an on-line fax service?

I'm using my cell rather than my wire line, and if I can get rid of the fax machine, I could be wire free.

I'll assume I'll need a scanner but... otherwise, what are the mechanics of sending receiving? Do you get an email? Do you need to visit an account/password?

TIA
.

[Alan Trout]

Mitchell,

I got rid of my land line and use a Magic Jack. I had read that for some it works with the fax and others it does not. I figured I would give it a try. I turned my fax to the slowest settings and it works great. $20 a year is a lot better than $45 a month for a land line.

Alan

[Mitchell Andrus]

How do faxes get sent to you? Do you use your old fax #?
.

[Brent Leonard]

do you still use smoke signals too?

My work office isn't the most high tech, and we hardly ever send or recieve faxes. Its all pdf scans sent email.

[Mike Henderson]

do you still use smoke signals too?

My work office isn't the most high tech, and we hardly ever send or recieve faxes. Its all pdf scans sent email.
That's my feeling also.

But if you absolutely have to send and receive faxes, there are internet services that do it. If you want to get incoming faxes, they give you a phone number to give to your senders. The faxes are received, converted to pdf and e-mailed to you. You pay a monthly fee for this service.

To send, you go to their web site. Give the fax number and point to the file to be faxed on your computer. Just like SawMill Creek pictures, the file is uploaded and faxed for you. There are some free outgoing services but I think they add an advertising to the header page.

Do a search and you'll find the services. I've used the free services when I'm sending to a Neanderthal who doesn't use e-mail (usually doctors).

Mike

[Tony Joyce]

I have been using "eFax" for years. It sends me an email with the fax as an attachment. You can also send faxes this way.The free service does not let you pick a number, but you keep the same one all time. You can get a local number or they now let you bring your own number, but this is subscription based. Link for free internet fax service. http://www.efax.com/efax-free

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

I use MyFax. Seems to work good for me.
I do not know how it compairs to others.
They have a free side if do not need many faxes.

I only have a few suppliers that use only a fax, and 1 good customer, So I will keep the fax.

[David Freed]

I used efax before I lost my business and it worked great.

[Curt Harms]

do you still use smoke signals too?.......


Actually, in the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley(sp?) there was a mini resurgence of fax use. E-mail correspondence has to be preserved for so many years under S/O record retention provisions. Faxes can be shredded and they are gone, they don't go through any servers. The reason for wanting correspondence unrecoverable may or may not be legal or ethical but none the less.....

I personally prefer emailed pdf's; they're usually legible unlike faxes. Faxed photographs or Rorsach blots, sometimes it's hard to tell.

[Alan Trout]

With the magic jack it is voice over IP so you have a phone number. 99+% of my stuff is e-mail but I still have some diehard fax users so I need the fax. Could use efax or other Internet based fax services but the magic jack is cheap and still gives me a land line without the cost.

Good luck

Alan

[Brent Leonard]

Actually, in the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley(sp?) there was a mini resurgence of fax use. E-mail correspondence has to be preserved for so many years under S/O record retention provisions. Faxes can be shredded and they are gone, they don't go through any servers. The reason for wanting correspondence unrecoverable may or may not be legal or ethical but none the less.....

I personally prefer emailed pdf's; they're usually legible unlike faxes. Faxed photographs or Rorsach blots, sometimes it's hard to tell.

Never heard that.

My work place handles LOTS of legal and "confidential" correspondence. Although nothing we deal with falls under S-O, we are required to maintain a very high level of transperancy under other federal guidlines & laws. When confidentiality is required (employee social security #'s as an example), neither fax or email is used. It is courier or overnight USPS/UPS/FedEx.

Email, IMO, has never been 100% secure (notice I said 100%). Even with encryptions, there has always been the IT guy who is reading the CEO's emails to his mistress!!! :D. Just ask Mark Sanford.

[Scott Shepherd]

I have several vendors that will not accept an order any way other than a fax. I've tried calling it in, emailing. Nothing. One Friday afternoon I got a last minute rush job and needed to get the material here as quickly as possible. They emailed me the pricing info and I couldn't get my fax to send. Spent about 45 minutes trying to send a fax that wouldn't go and time was running out. Finally called them and explained the situation and they asked me to use a neighbors fax. I explained I couldn't do that, and asked what else could we did. I had to send an email saying that my fax was down and it was okay to place the order without them having a fax.

I've seen them at trade shows and complained about it, but they tell me that it's done because they want the paper trail. Apparently the fax is some sort of appropriate paper trail. I don't know, but I know it's a pain in this day and time.

[Matt Meiser]

For all fax reception at my company we use eFax. Since everyone works from home, that saves considerably on fax lines. For virtually everyone the 10 page/month limit for free is way more than enough. I think I've received 3 pages in the past year.

For sending, I use the fax built into my printer. The last fax I sent was a medical records request that had to be signed and went to my former dentist's office where I would also have proof of when I sent it and at least some proof that they received it.

Some small companies (like some contractors) don't have the technology or know-how to email quotes and the like. That accounts for 2 of the three pages I've received. The third was a web page showing some medical insurance information my wife faxed to me because she couldn't PDF it from her work computer and I needed to call a provider about it.