Do you still need to send or receive faxes? My guess is probably not. Or certainly not every day. However, as soon as you get rid of your Fax machine or Fax line, that will be the day you either need to send or receive a Fax. Although I have an Epson Workforce 600 that can send and receive faxes, I almost never use it for that. I receive my Faxes via email and now I send them via the web for FREE! Often when I want to send a Fax, I’m looking at it right there on my computer display. So why should I have to print it out just to stick it in a fax machine and then either shred it or recycle it 2 minutes later?
–
Receiving Faxes via email for FREE
I’ve used a eFax for years to receive Faxes via email. After you sign up for a free account, you get a randomly assigned fax number that is yours. You have no control over what area code the number will be in. After all it is FREE! Any faxes sent to that number will automatically be sent to you as an email attachment. The email attachments come in as multi-page TIFF files and they give you a free viewer app. Now keep in mind that if you want more like the ability to choose your area code and the ability also send faxes via email attachments. However, their lowest package is $16.95/month and at that point you might as well look at getting your own dedicated fax line. Here are the features in case you are interested in their paid service.
–
Sending Faxes over the internet for Free
Like I said, I’ve used the Free (hidden) version of eFax for years to receive faxes via email, but they’ve never offered a free way to send faxes. In order to send faxes you have to use one their paid services. I send so few faxes that I just couldn’t see paying for a service. Also I do have the ability to send from my Workforce 600. However, I figured there had to be a way to send the occasional Fax over the internet for Free. After doing a little searching I found just such a service. FaxZero is a website that allows you to send up to two faxes per day with a maximum of 3 pages each for free. This has worked out perfectly for me! I can go months without needing to send a fax and when I do it’s usually on a couple of pages. If I did need to send more than 3 pages or more than 2 faxes then I could use my own fax machine or pay their low price of $1.99 (for up to 15 pages). You can upload either a PDF or Word doc (.doc or .docx). The cover page for the free fax will have an ad on it. If you use the paid version your cover page will be ad free.
–
The Bottom Line
I find that I’m doing less faxing each year as more and more businesses move to email and web services for communicating with their customers. So it doesn’t make sense to maintain fax equipment and fax lines anymore. There are both free and paid services out there to both send and receive faxes electronically over the internet. If your fax needs are low, you may want to look into these services.
Terry: Great post and solution! FYI There is a thread in the SlickDeals forum for people to swap the random eFax number to a local one. I did it successfully. Here is the link: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=634931&t=146762
I’m using Page Sender for receiving (and occasionally sending) faxes (in fact, I am waiting on one today). The insurance company for my pet insurance still prefers fax over mail (and doesn’t take email) for claims.
I also have an all-in-one that I use to occasionally fax stuff out if it isn’t already digitized (why go through the trouble of scanning it to send via Page Sender when I can just dump it in the fax machine and scan/send at once?).
Also, doesn’t OS X still have fax software built in? It’s not great but it works for the occasional fax – providing, of course, you have a modem (which new Macs don’t come with but many of my old ones have built-in).
I just use a USB modem and the built in fax software in OSX (10.5) to send stuff combined with a scanner for the odd stuff. It’s in the print dialog, where you would do the “Print to PDF”, when you attach the modem another option shows up of “Print to Fax” and in printer prefs you gain another printer with all the fax settings to play with.
I’m using TelaSip for inbound to email faxes, and it works like it should.
At my last place of employment there was an obvious digital divide. The non technical users (mostly over about 45 YO) sent faxes often, sometimes several times a day. The more technical users all used digital methods. Fax machines will soon be a footnote in history.
Good article, there are still businesses that either prefer or require faxes.
I’ve been using http://www.faxaway.com/ which is quite cheap and lets you send and receive as email attachments. Very satisfied!
I’ve also found eFax great for receiving faxes – the price is right. Don’t send enough to subscribe either, so I use either the Fax capability built into OSX, or an application called FaxCenter. Both do the same job but the interface in the latter seems more friendly. Some of the free online fax sending services seem fine, as long as you only need to send messages to the US or Canada.
What I do works for me because I’m running on an old iMac, when it’s retired I’ll need to adopt a new game plan.
GotFreeFax.com is another website that lets user send free fax online to the US and Canada. User can either upload a PDF/Word file or enter text to fax. Plus, it does not add Ads to the fax, which makes it more suitable for faxing formal documents.