Author Topic: Internet Faxing (Read 39,710 times)

KenR · « **on:** December 21, 2007, 08:18 PM »

A very warm hello to everyone and happy holidays!!!

I send the occasional fax from my house and wondered whether anyone knows of any public services that do internet faxing so I could send the faxes from my computer over the WiFi instead of having to connect my laptop to a phone line.

Thanks, Ken

TucknDar · « **Reply #1 on:** December 21, 2007, 08:49 PM »

Ummm... don't know. The one time I needed faxing I just used the fax machine at work.

Happy to be of service.

Just ask again if you need more help!

… and happy holidays, man!

tomos · « **Reply #2 on:** December 21, 2007, 09:03 PM »

one free webmail here (Germany - web.de) offers faxing but I've never used the faxing bits
so that's probably not much help
but
thought I'd post anyways and say happy christmas!!

KenR · « **Reply #3 on:** December 21, 2007, 09:07 PM »

Quote from: tomos on December 21, 2007, 09:03 PM

one free webmail here (Germany - web.de) offers faxing but I've never used the faxing bits
so that's probably not much help
but
thought I'd post anyways and say happy christmas!!

Hi tomos. There is also FaxZero which puts an ad on at least the first page. I was hoping to find something better than that though, so I thought I would post and see what others came up with.

Thanks, Ken

Darwin · « **Reply #4 on:** December 21, 2007, 10:22 PM »

The only services I am aware of are P-R-I-C-E-Y! I had an account with one for a bit courtesy of TrialPay (ie I signed up for a one month trial to get a free app) and it worked well but my God! it was expensive. I cancelled the account WELL before the trial was up becuase I didn't want to have to pay for it. Anyway, I would love to find a free internet based solution myself, so will start looking anew and will keep an eye on this thread as well.

PPLandry · « **Reply #5 on:** December 22, 2007, 11:12 PM »

eFax works great and it is free (if you're interested in receiving faxes only -- typical case) when you don't exceed your quota. If you do exceed, simply close and re-open a new one. I've used it for 5 years works great. No Spam, no junk fax

Darwin · « **Reply #6 on:** December 22, 2007, 11:19 PM »

I need the ability to send faxes, unfortunately... I wouldn't mind payer per use but object to monthly account fees. Of course, given how infrequently I actually need to send faxes, it's not really a tall order for me to pay someone else to send them for me...

dalchina · « **Reply #7 on:** December 25, 2007, 12:53 PM »

For sending faxes:

The first is web based, international: http://www.burnham-on-sea.co.uk/fax.html
(just came across it, not tried it)

And here you can find links to other free services
http://www.savetz.com/fax/free_fax.php#freeinternational

including
TPC.INT Remote Printing
The TPC.INT "Remote Printing Experiment" is the grandfather of Internet faxing services. You can send faxes via e-mail or a Web form. The web site hasn't been updated in ages and reliability is very spotty, but it does work sometimes. You can send mail to many parts of the world but not everywhere. Check the coverage list first:
http://www.tpc.int/fax_cover_auto.html
tpccover@info.tpc.int

which allows you to set up your fax as an email.

I've used this for a long time, almost always to my (non email/non PC) parents in the UK, but it does go through phases when it just doesn't work for me.

Darwin · « **Reply #8 on:** December 25, 2007, 02:17 PM »

Dalchina - thank you! Unfortunately, I often need to fax to South Korea, which I don't see on the list. Still, it's nice to know that such services are available so this gives me hope that there is something out there for me! I can also use this for the UK and Europe, so that'll help me right away

eriji · « **Reply #9 on:** December 25, 2007, 04:46 PM »

I've been using CallWave (http://www.callwave.com/landing/virtualFax_L1.aspx) for their virtual fax number for several years, and they just unrolled a send fax service also. It is a little expensive, but still far far less than you would pay for a phone line. I pay $10 month for more faxes than I use and the service is reliable and easy to use.

Before I used CallWave for outgoing faxes, I used them for incoming (with a private fax number) and used FaxZero to send faxes. The FaxZero service offers free faxing with an ad on the first page and a limit of maybe 3-4 pages total. You can pay $2 to send a fax with them and not have the ad and have more pages. The service worked great and the ads were only a minor inconvenience I could avoid when I wanted to. Although pay for one fax a month and I can pay for the upgrade to CallWave to get outgoing fax also.

Hope this helps.
--eric

Curt · « **Reply #10 on:** December 25, 2007, 04:51 PM »

Edit: I may have misunderstood the 602Pro company's praise of their product, because in the end of one of their pages it says about this fax feature that "Fax services can be provided through any standard TAPI fax modem. Give network users the ability to send and receive faxes with this easy-to-use fax server. All incoming faxes are delivered to user mailboxes (by Fax ID) or printed directly to a printer", and so maybe does not offer what you asked for.

Quote

602Pro LAN SUITE is an easy-to-install and manage all-in-one server application. Its standards-based SMTP/POP3 e-mail server provides effective e-mail communication without the risk of destructive virus infiltration and productivity robbing unsolicited e-mail. Fax services seamlessly integrate into user mailboxes to unify e-mail and fax message access.

- E-mail Server
- Fax Server
- Internet Sharing
- Firewall
- Web Server
- Administration

It supports a variety of access methods, from standard POP3 e-mail clients (i.e. Outlook Express) to built-in Web Mail access. The SSL SMTP/POP3 server provides secure encrypted transmission between the e-mail client and server.
The built-in firewall provides effective protection against unauthorized access. Shared Internet Access through LAN SUITE provides your network users with a secure connection to the Internet. Be in complete control of when and where your network users can go online! 602Pro LAN SUITE is fully controlled from a standard WWW browser. It can be easily managed across a LAN, WAN or the Internet. The included Configuration (...)

Please note, the 5 user version is FREE for commerical and non-commerical use!

http://www.software602.com/products/groupware/

- or what about using your camera cell-phone?: >"Turn your mobile phone into a pocket scanner, fax and copier"< http://www.comombo.com/

jdmarch · « **Reply #11 on:** December 27, 2007, 02:15 AM »

I use a $2.95/month plan from http://send2fax.com. It is a prepaid plan which I "recharge" in $20 increments every 6-7 months. It provides a unique phone number on which I receive incoming faxes (downloadable by email or web), and an outgoing fax service, with outgoing documents uploadable by email or web. The $2.95 monthly rate is the minimum, providing only a limited amount of usage, which is more than I need.

This low-cost plan is no longer listed on their website but when they removed it and raised my monthly rate to $7 I complained and they restored it, so it's possible that their customer service department would offer it in response to a direct inquiry.

They did say "limited time" offer so for all I know they will raise my rate again without notice and I'll need to repeat the exercise or quit, but for now it's quite satisfactory.

Darwin · « **Reply #12 on:** December 27, 2007, 02:26 PM »

Dang! That sounds perfect, jdmarch. Thanks for the link and the tip - I'll contact them.

Darwin · « **Reply #13 on:** December 27, 2007, 02:29 PM »

Dalchina - I missed the Burnham-on-Sea link the first time - that looks promising too, though I normally need to send forms, etc.! Still, very nice find, thanks!

Rover · « **Reply #14 on:** December 29, 2007, 01:39 AM »

I have not used this, I only found it mentioned in a Skype forum:

http://www.skax.net/

Fax via Skype.

hornet · « **Reply #15 on:** December 29, 2007, 02:12 AM »

In Australia, fax-to-email and email-to-fax services are provided by VSPs (voip), ISPs (broadband) and specialist providers.

When using my VSP, my fax sending cost is usually 10 cents per call. Receiving faxes is free, but you pay for a DID.

When using my ISP, my fax sending cost is 3 cents per fax (to 10 pages). Receiving faxes is free, but you pay for a DID.

When using my specialist provider (utbox.net), my fax sending cost 15 cents per page and my fax receiving cost is 5 cents per page. (The DID is covered by a minimum annual usage charge).

All services send locally (Australia) and internationally.

All costs are in Australian dollars.

These fax services have evolved quickly over the last 3 years (use of asterisk?).

Prior to that, I was paying a specialist provider over $25 per month before their usage charges!

As my usage has dwindled in recent years (I am now semi-retired), I now only use my ISP's fax service.

As an aside, all of the above also provide SMS services using both web and desktop applications.

Regards,

Harry.

mikiem · « **Reply #16 on:** December 29, 2007, 08:33 PM »

Since it's inception a few years back, we have been happy with ureach.com

They provide more than faxing (that's just one of their services) including toll free phone numbers, voicemail, call forwarding, email, calenders, contacts, file sharing etc. depending on the service level you pay for.

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #17 on:** December 29, 2007, 09:04 PM »

I use MyFax. Not fancy, but it does what I need.

KenR · « **Reply #18 on:** December 29, 2007, 10:45 PM »

I wanted to drop back in and say thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. The input from everyone has been interesting, helpful, and informative.

Ken

jdmarch · « **Reply #19 on:** December 30, 2007, 12:48 AM »

Just looked up http://ureach.com (thanks mikiem)
Prices start at $6/month plus 10 cents/page.
More affordable than most.

jdmarch · « **Reply #20 on:** January 24, 2008, 01:23 AM »

And here's an even cheaper one that I just stumbled across:
http://www.trustfax.com/landing_firewall.asp
"Prestige" plan, $4.95/month:
* 100 Receive Pages
* 50 Send Pages
* Faxes Sent To Your Email
* Fax Inbox - Unlimited Storage
* US Local Fax Number

dr_jake · « **Reply #21 on:** January 24, 2008, 04:20 AM »

But this one's cheaper, more affordable, and definitely more reliable: 101FAX -
*UNLIMITED Receive Pages
* 8 cents per minute outbound
*Faxes sent to your email
* Local Fax Number (or TollFree with the tollfree plan) - selectable!!
* fax broadcasting
* International Faxing
check it out: http://101fax.com/packages.html

a lot of people could attest that 101fax provides the best online faxing service around. ... and i wouldn't be this bold if my experience with this provider was nothing but very satisfactory! kudos!

Quote from: jdmarch on January 24, 2008, 01:23 AM

And here's an even cheaper one that I just stumbled across:
http://www.trustfax.com/landing_firewall.asp
"Prestige" plan, $4.95/month:
* 100 Receive Pages
* 50 Send Pages
* Faxes Sent To Your Email
* Fax Inbox - Unlimited Storage
* US Local Fax Number

jdmarch · « **Reply #22 on:** January 24, 2008, 05:32 PM »

dr_jake, many thanks for the tip. 101fax looks great. No monthly fee is a huge benefit. One small issue: they have only a few area codes available for incoming faxes, so most users will not be able to get a local number. I get so few faxes that it's not a real problem for me; others may find this more problematic.

alexa1973 · « **Reply #23 on:** February 18, 2008, 01:17 PM »

Hi,
I use http://www.faxsv.com to receive my faxes for free and http://www.faxzero.com to send. Both free and you don't have to subscribe.

app103 · « **Reply #24 on:** February 18, 2008, 09:36 PM »

Quote from: eriji on December 25, 2007, 04:46 PM

I've been using CallWave (http://www.callwave.com/landing/virtualFax_L1.aspx) for their virtual fax number for several years, and they just unrolled a send fax service also. It is a little expensive, but still far far less than you would pay for a phone line. I pay $10 month for more faxes than I use and the service is reliable and easy to use.

I have been using Callwave for a number of years too (just like eriji), for receiving faxes and voicemail. The 2 biggest issues with their service is 1.) the fact it is only available for people that have a home phone number within the US and 2.) the fax number they issue to you is in Nevada, which can be a long distance charge for most people, especially those local to me.

On the plus side of receiving faxes, is that you get them as .pdf files (voicemail as .wav), and they can be delivered to you through their software, which can be run on any Windows pc anywhere, even if you are traveling outside the country on business, or you can receive them in your email, or both.

I have not tried the fax sending service, and I have no plans on it since I really don't need it. (My other pc has a nice data/fax/voice modem that came with some great software that I can use when needed.)

The Callwave service and software is quite reliable and I have never had any issues with it, not even running on dialup on my old 9x pc. So if their outgoing fax service is as good as the rest of what they offer, it's probably excellent.