How To Send And Receive Fax Online

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

If you work in a regulated industry, you’d have sent and received many faxes. Faxing offers several benefits, including legality, accessibility, and authenticity. Throw internet faxing into the mix, and you’d have ease and convenience.

Online faxing is a virtual tool that allows the transfer and receipt of fax messages through the internet. Unlike traditional faxing, no physical machine is needed for this. The processes take place on a fax portal which can be accessed using internet applications via computers and smartphones.

Traditional Faxing Vs. Internet Faxing

The traditional fax machine was invented before the advent of the internet and was linked to the old telephone, enabling documents to be typed and transferred.

Thus, document-sharing worked using a fax machine to call a specific number linked to another fax machine. The machine at the other end would pick up the call, and through that process, documents were shared.

Although the process was efficient at the time, it was also tedious. There were missing features, such as the absence of image quality during the transfer process and lack of proper file monitoring and collaborative functions.

Today, internet faxing answers many of the missing functions. An internet faxing machine accepts files and sends them to another fax machine. By not requiring the active presence of the other fax device, the process becomes easy and convenient. Faxes can be sent online through phones and computers.

Pros Of Internet Faxing

Internet faxing offers several benefits. These advantages are why many business owners don’t joke with the file-sharing method. Some of the thrills include:

• Internet faxing doesn’t need you to get a fax machine which you have to spend money on every week or month. All you need to do is renew your subscription. You won’t spend money on ink, course papers, and toners.
• A single document can be sent to multiple contacts at once. After preparing your file, make a list of the contacts you want to get the copy across to and forward them at once.
• To access your documents and files, all you need to do is get a mobile phone, PC, desktop, or tablet. You can work on your papers at any point.
• Your files are saved digitally on cloud storage, and you can easily access and send them to recipients. You can assign tags to your documents so you can fetch them easily when they’re needed.

Cons Of Internet Faxing

While there are benefits, there are also weaknesses. The following are some flaws you should know about internet faxing:

• Internet faxing needs a reliable internet connection. If you live in an environment where the network is poor, internet faxing may not serve you well.
• Even if you primarily store your files in cloud storage, an organization might need you to send the physical copy of your file. You need a printer to get this done.
• Internet faxing has a limited storage capacity. Online fax providers have plans that limit the fax that can be stored and the duration with which it can be stored.
• Signing up with internet faxing company requires research. You have to find out if you’re satisfied with their terms of service and operations.

How To Fax From A Smartphone

Fax providers, such as Metrofax.com, offer various options to send faxes, including smartphone faxing. But before you start sending faxes through your smartphone, here are 5 points to note:

1. Your smartphone connection can’t be used as a fax machine or a dial-up modem.
2. You’ll need an application or a faxing company to do the faxing job, even when using a smartphone.
3. There are no free apps that help you send many free faxes. The free ones only allow you to send several files.
4. You do everything electronically when you fax through a smartphone. You sign files and fill in documents with your phone.
5. You can scan paper documents and fax them to your phone. Faxing applications can be downloaded on the IOS or Android app store.

Faxing through a mobile phone requires you to use your phone to snap documents and send them to a fax machine with a mobile fax app. Again, there are no free faxing apps, so you’d need a faxing provider with a plan that works. If you’re not actively involved in faxing, you should use a service that’s not too expensive.

In a nutshell, to send faxes through your mobile phone means to engage the services of fax providers. These third-party services need funds to maintain an interface with phone networks and contacts before the service servers transfer files and documents. This will cost you some money, but the subscription is better than getting a fax machine or paying to use fax machines at a store.

How To Fax From A Computer

This method is not new; it has been in use for decades. Faxes can be sent and received through a computer. Before internet facilities became widespread, people sent and received faxes through an external fax modem. So, an extra modem is needed to fax through a computer, and it can be somewhat expensive.

To send a fax through a computer, you need to visit the third-party service provider where the faxing details will be provided. You also need to input your payment details for your preferred package. Then you can start transferring your fax.

Remember to enter your fax number, which is the file destination—faxing services to support various file formats like png, jpg, Xls, xlsx, and more. Before you’re eligible to send a fax, you need a fax number which you can get for free on the website of some service providers.

Before selecting an online fax service, you need to consider some questions. What faxing features do you need, and will you frequently send faxes? Do you need to send sensitive information often? Do you need to send to a large number of recipients? Do you need one integrated with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and Outlook? If you want to send a few faxes, you can sign up for a cheap plan and opt-out later.

Conclusion

Any remote technology that improves the quality of service and communication rendered by your organization should be considered for use, and faxing is one of them. To know how online faxing can benefit your organization, you should weigh the advantages and disadvantages. Some big firms only accept documents through faxing, and that’s one reason you need this technology.