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by Jayaram V
Online fax services help you save money on paper, toner, long
distance charges
and fax machine maintenance. Besides you can access
your messages from anywhere which is advantageous if you operate your
business from multiple locations or travel frequently. Besides, with the
advances in web based technologies, it is now easier to send faxes digitally
rather than through traditional methods, either by installing software in your personal
computer or by using web based services that do not require any software
installation or even a computer of your own.
With the online fax services you have to use your email address to
send your outbound messages and a local phone
number or a toll free number (provided by the fax service) to receive inbound fax messages sent by
others which are then sent to your designated email address either in a
document format or image format. You can also send or receive messages
directly from their websites by using a web based form. Many online fax
services enable
sending fax messages to your cell phones, pagers, PDAs and other
handheld devices.
Most services make a provision to store your messages in their
databases up to a certain time so that you can organize them and
retrieve them according to your convenience. Some companies provide
these services free, while others charge a nominal fees, usually either
on monthly basis or on annual basis or per document basis. If you
are not interested in sending faxes but only receiving them, you can
limit your expenses by opting for inbound message service only. One of
the best ways to become acquainted with these services is to take
advantage of their 30 day free trial period during which you can test
their features and take an appropriate decision to continue or not. Apart from
sending and receiving fax messages to and from individual addresses,
you can subscribe to broadcasting services to send your fax messages
simultaneously to hundreds of destinations. Different types of fax services
and the websites where you can find them are listed below.
Free Services
- US and Canadian Destinations
- Fax Zero :
With FaxZero you can send a fax to any fax machine in the USA
(including Puerto Rico) or Canada for free without owning a fax
machine. To cover their expenses, FaxZero displays ads on on the
cover pages of your free fax messages. You
can use this service with a valid email address, which of course
is a must. To
send a fax message you have to go to their website and fill in an
online form, providing details of the message you want to send,
whom to send and from where. Once you submit the form, a confirmation code will be
sent to your email address which you have to enter in
the message form to complete the process.
- International Destinations
- The Phone Company's Remote
Printing Service : With the TPC service you can send faxes to many
locations around the world, using an email or
a web form available on their website. Before sending a fax,
please verify their listing to see whether the fax number
or the area code is covered
by them, because not all countries
are covered. Included in the list are some European, African and
Asian countries and India and
China. On their website there are links to download freeware software
to
create and send faxes using this service.
Commercial Services
- Sending Faxes From the Web or Your Email Client:
You can use any browser and valid email address to send faxes using
these services without the need to install software. However these
services also give you an option to install their proprietary
software to send and receive faxes.
- eFax provides different
packages and options to send and receive faxes to suit your
budget. You'll get a local or toll-free fax
number tied to your email with an option
to store your messages online up to a certain period. Messages
are sent as TIFF or PDF files. With Free eFax
Messenger software you can create, annotate and send faxes. Users can also view, zoom and rotate
their received faxes.
- MaxEmail
MaxEmail Plus and MaxEmail Lite offers some good features. With
MaxEmail Plus you can have a
local fax number and send more faxes per month. With MaxEmail
Lite you can only have a toll free number. In addition there is MaxEmail Corporate
which offer wider optionsto corporate clients and a central
account administration.
- FaxAge
With FaxAge you can send faxes via their web site, as email attachment and/or custom web API.
They support multiple documents per fax and allow unlimited unique users
at no additional per-user fee
- FaxMicro FaxMicro
offers FaxMicro Plus and FaxMicro Toll Free. They charge a set
up fee, a monthly fee and a charge per each outbound fax message
with in the US. The outbound fee for international destinations
vary. You can send fax messages either by downloading their
software or using their online control panel.
- Send2Fax
With their Email2Fax,
You can send a fax using any email client including Outlook,
Outlook Express, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AOL, MSN and many more!
With their Web2Fax - you can access your Send2Fax account via
the web interface and send faxes especially. This is useful when
you are traveling. They also support the Office 2003 "Send
to Recipient Using Internet Fax Service" feature.
- Metro Hi Speed
Faxes are sent to and delivered from your existing email
account. They charge a monthly fee and allow a certain number of
faxes each month, exceeding which you need to pay extra. They also
charge onetime activation fee. You can add Toll-Free phone numbers
for additional fee. Messages are received in PDF or TIFF format.
- AircoMusa.
Aircom USA provides Fax to Email Service, Email To Fax Service,
Fax Broadcasting and voice services. They also provide Fax On Demand Services
- Green Fax
Provides a personal
virtual fax number in the area code of your choice for receiving
inbound faxes. You have web access to inbound faxes with 90-day storage.
You can also use GreenFax to send faxes world-wide.
- TrustFax Services are
more or less same like others. You can add a digital version of
your handwritten signature to faxes. You also have the option to
send your faxes to nearly 200 international destinations. Faxes
are sent to your email in PDF format.
- RapidFax: Services are
similar like the previous ones. They do not charge extra fee for
toll-free numbers like other services.
- Sending Faxes From your Computer Desktop
- You can download and install eFax
Messenger and PaperMaster Pro to view faxes,
- Go to Fax1 Using
FaxBlaster software you can send faxes right from your PC. It
works like any print driver you may have on your PC. To send a fax, simply open it up, go to Print, and
select 'Fax1.com' as your printer
- For Receiving Faxes only
- CallWave Visual Fax-to-Email
converts incoming faxes to Adobe® PDF files and delivers them
directly to your email. They also provide other services like
sending mobile phone voicemail to your email inbox
- FaxMicro FaxMicroPlus
is meant basically for inbound fax services while FaxMicro Toll
Free is meant to send and receive faxes. However by paying extra
for each message FaxMicroPlus subscribes will have the
capability to receive and send fax out of state and
internationally
- Kall8
You may set Kall8
Mailbox to receive both Voice Mail and Faxes, or limit it
to accept only Faxes or only Voice Mail. Kall8 also allows you
to record a personalized voice mail greeting, specify how many
seconds before voice mail answers the call, and set the maximum
length of your callers’ messages.
- Broadcasting Services : If you are intending to
send hundreds or thousands of fax messages simultaneously to several
destinations from your PC or phone line the broadcasting services provide you
with an easy to use interface to broadcast fax messages to multiple
destinations.
- Protus Fax
Broadcast Fax Messaging campaigns can be directed from
your email or web account. You can convert all popular file types into fax broadcasting
format and also personalize your fax broadcast by merging
information from other data sources.
- Broadcast Fax Service
To use this service upload a list of fax recipients and their fax numbers,
along with the document you wish to send. Launch your broadcast
from the internet or any phone from anywhere and at any time!
- Launch Fax Supports
both email broadcasting and fax broadcasting. You can also get
Inbound Fax messages to Your Email
Benefits
Following are some of the benefits of using Fax Messaging and Fax
Broadcasting Services
- Easy to use interfaces and ease of operations.
- Cost benefits
- Advantages in storing and organizing.
- Save money on paper, toner and fax machine maintenance
- Available to multiple personnel in any location through the web
site and/or email and or desktop.
- Messages can be accessed from anywhere with internet connection.
- Advantages of customization.
- Your telephone lines will remain free for other services.
Disclaimer: Information presented here is for information and educational purposes only and not
intended to make any specific recommendations about any particular service or
product, nor to be relied upon as a substitute for your own research or independent advice. No responsibility
is accepted for any errors, omissions, or misleading statements on these pages or any site
to which these pages connect
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