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How Does Internet Fax Work?
How Does Internet Fax Work?
Internet Fax technology should be added to the list of the greatest wonders of the world. It’s something like this that makes bridging old technology with the new a piece of cake. You might be able to do all of your work via email, but many of your customers and colleagues may still be stuck in the 90s. Believe it or not, but faxing is still prevalent in many companies despite the efficiencies and lower costs of Internet communication.
How Sending Works
Sending an Internet fax can be done through one of the following methods:
- Sending a text-based email to a special Internet fax account
- Scan in a physical document
- Print to a virtual fax printer
- Input text on a website for Internet faxes
If you want to type up a quick email or forward an existing email to a fax number, most services allow you to send an email to that phone number using their email-to-fax gateway. These gateways work much like SMS gateways that allow sending an SMS via email. Let’s say you want to send a fax to the phone number (213) 555-1212. If you were using the fictitious “Acme Internet Fax” companies gateway, you could send an email to 2135551212@acmeinternetfax.com and your recipient would receive it on his or her fax machine within minutes. Most gateways work for international fax numbers as well, although international rates may apply.
What happens when you want to send a physical document? No problem. Just scan the document into your computer using a flatbed or sheet-fed scanner. Once you have the document scanned in as an image file or document you can send it as an email attachment to the gateway. Some services offer a web-based solution, where you log in to an account on the web and upload it to a web page.
Many services offer what is known as a “virtual fax printer”, which behaves much like printer in real life does except the printer exists only in software; there is no printer to physically connect to your machine. Any application capable of printing will see this virtual printer in its print dialog selections. If you print a document to the virtual fax printer the printer’s driver will give you choices on where and how to send this document. Your application thinks it is printing to a real printer, sending it exactly what you would expect to see in a traditional printed document. The virtual printer takes this document, adds an option cover page or header, and sends it to the fax number of your choice.
Faxes can also be sent without the use of email accounts or fancy printer drivers. Simply log in to your Internet fax service’s website, and type up a message to send. This method is as easy as posting a comment on your friend’s Facebook page.
How Receiving Works
Receiving an Internet fax is even easier. It works the same way you would receive a traditional fax but without the hassles of a fax machine and landline telephone. Senders fax to your fax number as usual. In fact, they wouldn’t even know you didn’t have a real fax machine if you didn’t tell them. After the sender finishes faxing, within minutes you should receive the fax in your email. Typically an Internet fax service will send the fax to you as an email attachment. You may choose what format you want your faxes in. Most users choose the JPG image format or Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF). The received attachment looks exactly the same as a printed fax would, if not better. You may even log in to the service’s website to retrieve a history of your received faxes, in case you accidentally delete them from your email.
Received Internet faxes have many advantages. They are received almost instantly in their entirety, can be received anywhere you can get Internet access, may be saved to disk, do not consume printer paper (unless you want to print them out, of course), and can be immediately forwarded to multiple recipients.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Internet faxing has many advantages as previously mentioned. The flexibility provided with sending and receiving faxes by computer without the need for a fax machine or telephone line are not to be taken lightly. Internet faxing is a portable solution, ideal for many people who require faxing while on the road and those who work from multiple locations. Payment flexibility is an added convenience, with many services charging flat monthly fees for heavy customers and per-fax, “pay-as-you-go” fees for casual users. The downsides are few, but not zero. Gateways sometimes “lose” faxes in transit. Billing issues do come up from time to time. If for some reason you want to change providers, you may not be able to keep the same fax number when you switch companies.
Although many people are making the move towards total Internet-based communication, there are still many instances where a fax machine is still necessary. Many customers, vendors, and even government agencies still rely heavily on fax communications. Using an Internet based fax helps you accommodate these instances where faxes are used without giving up the luxuries of the Internet age.
This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 10:50 am and is filed under Fax, Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.