Computer Sales and Support

The Joy of Fax Through the Internet

Posted on 11. Jun, 2009 by admin in Fax, Internet Business

I recently read a book about recent inventions that was published around 2000. It was amazing to me the degree to which many of them were already obsolete or replaced. The original clunky LED based hand calculator has been replaced with much more classy units with multiple functions. The vintage 2000 computer system is a dinosaur compared to modern systems. Cell phones and PDAs have merged to the point that stand alone personal PCs and Palm pilots have just about disappeared.

The advance of technology has been so great and fast  that the old versions were totally outclassed by the newcomers. The same applies to the world of faxing.Faxing is an indispensable form of communication for businesses and people in their contact with professional organizations. However, the old fashioned way of doing fax has gone the way of the dodo.

Advantages

There is no longer any need to suffer with the expense of a fax machine and its maintenance, a dedicated phone line, paper supplies and messy toner. The advantages of Internet fax are numerous. This list details some of the benefits:

• Flexibility – Do your faxing anywhere with as little as smart phone. Direct your faxes to the individual that you want to get it. Multiple users can fax at the same time.
• Money savings – When you compare the cost of a fax machine, fax phone line, paper and toner against Internet fax service charges, you will see that Internet fax is cheaper
• Reliability – Online fax is provided by companies with large data centers which use multiply redundant systems so that if any piece goes down another substitute immediately takes over. Your fax doesn’t depend on your machinery or phone line. No more dropped or lost faxes.
• Secure – Faxes can be encrypted, no dropped pages and faxes don’t get lost in a queue.
• Time efficiency – No more waiting on fax lines. You can send multiple faxes at the same time. You can also designate multiple receivers and receive multiple faxes simultaneously.
• Environmentally Friendly – You help the environment when you don’t use paper unnecessarily and don’t waste paper on junk faxes. No more messy toner cartridges. Save on energy by not having a machine and a dedicated phone line.

How it Works

Internet fax services have set it up so that you send and receive faxes using email. Some of the providers will have you download some software. Others only require that you connect to their website and no software need be installed. You can send an receive most standard office documents. This includes word processor documents, spreadsheets, pdfs and presentations.

How to send Graphics, Drawings and paper documents that you don’t have an electronic copy of

You don’t need a portable scanner to get drawings, paper napkin scribblings and any other type of paper information into your computer. You can use a digital camera or the camera in your phone and download the picture to your computer. You can add a signature to a document by signing it before taking a picture, by pasting a graphic of your signature onto the picture using picture editing software or you can use special software such as that offered by eFax which allows you to add an electronic signature to a document.

For all the details of Fax on the Go, see my  Fax on the Go and Flexible Fax pages.

Fax Everywhere

You won’t have to drag your fax machine along with you or provide a fax number for each site that you visit.

Smart phones and Blackberries with connections to the Internet can support Internet fax. Wherever you can bring these devices, you can send and receive faxes. As mentioned previously, you can get documents into your computer by downloading pictures from a digital camera or your phone. You can even convert paper documents into electronic documents using software provided by a company called ScanR.

You can connect to the Internet anywhere that you can connect to a cell phone network with a mobile broadband adapter.

If you like the idea of portable scanners or printers, these are available also.

My Internet Fax Service Picks

eFax Internet Service

eFax is probably the granddaddy of the fax services. It’s the one that can say “been there, done that”. It’s a full featured and robust service that can handle anything that you throw up against it.

They provide a number of packages with the feature set that you choose. Their experience insures smooth and reliable service.

The provide for domestic and international fax numbers.

Take advantage of a 30 day free trial offer.

Faxage – the Best All Around Deal

The Best Internet Fax Services

They offer a selection of plans at very economical rates.

When you sign up, if you are not happy for any reason, you can get a full refund within the first 2 weeks with no questions asked.

There is no limit on the number of users

Faxage has an exclusive caller-ID blacklist feature that blocks faxes from numbers that you select.

Secure email allows you to specify certain faxes that can only be viewed with a login.

Faxage’s excellent customer service is outstanding

User satisfaction is very high.

You need to be aware that Faxage has limited local numbers and no international numbers but if this is not an issue for you, you can’t beat Faxage

Click on the image below to learn more about Faxage.

Tags: computer fax, Fax through the internet, internte fax, online fax