Want a cheaper fax solution? Send an internet fax

If you’ve been experiencing difficulty with your fax machine, you might want to know how to send an internet fax. Your company needs a fax system to operate, but when the fax machine breaks down or malfunctions for unknown reasons as it is wont to do, knowing an alternative way to send and receive faxes is very important.

So how do you send an internet fax?

You need a good computer with a browser that can support web applications and a stable internet connection. If you’ve sent and used email before, then online faxing is a cinch for you.
You have two options to choose from if you want to send an internet fax. You can either send a free fax or pay for your faxing with a monthly fax service. Depending on your usage and the amount of faxing you anticipate to perform in a month, a free fax could be enough for you.

Free fax

You know that there are cheaper solutions for your faxing when you can find free offers. Using a free fax website to send an internet fax is a great way to give the process a try and familiarize yourself with it. Trying this out first before deciding you want a paid fax service is always a wise move. You can send a free fax through a website with an embedded fax application. Searching online can yield many service providers.

Since the service is free, however, expect the website to impose some or all of the following limitations:

1. You can’t receive any faxes since you aren’t given a fax number.
2. You can only send one or two faxes per day.
3. Your document must be in TIFF or PDF file format. The website won’t be able to send your document correctly if it isn’t.
4. You won’t know if your fax was sent in order since you aren’t given any form of notification.
5. You can’t send an international fax.

If a few small, local faxes are enough for your daily faxing needs, then you may not have to pay for your faxing at all and simply enjoy the free service.

Premium fax service

If you want to send an internet fax that exceeds the restrictions imposed by free fax websites, then maybe the best option for you is to subscribe to a monthly fax service.

The main advantage a paid service has over a free one is the fax number. You’re given your own fax number that works just as if you had a dedicated fax line. People with fax machines can actually dial that number and send faxes to you.

Most of the restrictions previously placed on a free fax are eliminated. You can send JPEG, DOC, DOCX, TXT and even HTML files as your fax to anywhere in the world. You’re given a large volume of faxes to send and receive in a month. You can even send one fax to as many recipients as you want with one click.

These are just some of the benefits you can enjoy if you pay for your faxing. Who knows, sending an internet fax may be right for you.

Send an Internet Fax—A Cost-Effective Business Solution

Everyone knows how the Internet has made business and perosnla communication even more convenient. The Internet allows us to be constantly connected, and this is especially helpful for business owners who need to transact often with business contacts. You can also send and receive information through the Internet in a matter of seconds.

If you send an Internet fax, you are doing your business a huge favor. Using Internet fax saves you hundreds of dollars on paper and ink costs. To send an Internet fax is to send fax as if you’re sending an email, so there’s no need to print the document before sending it.

If you want to save more money without affecting your business operations, perhaps it’s time to join the paperless bandwagon. Through paperless business operations, you can retain your resources or allot them for other needs of the company. Your employees will surely find this business solution favorable, since this allows them to send fax messages regardless of their location.

Using Internet fax services is relatively cheap. You get huge savings, making it ideal for small start-up businesses.
The usual rate is between $10 and $15 per month. Some rates are even cheaper, depending on the features being offered. The rate mainly depends on the package and features being offered by the Internet fax service provider.

For you to send an Internet fax, you need to first look for a reliable Internet fax service provider. You can shop around first and compare their features and rates. While budget is often a big issue for small companies, the rate should never be the basis for choosing what is best for your business. There are cheap services with features that are not helpful at all. It’s better to invest in something that can give your business the benefits it deserves. The customer and technical support offered should also be your main consideration. If something wrong happens, service provider should be able help you promptly. You can start by checking out the options available online.

Running an efficient and cost-effective business is not impossible. You just have to be resourceful and creative in thinking of ways to make things work without spending too much money on basic business needs. Once you have decided on the fax service provider to partner with, you are ready to send an Internet fax.

The easiest way to fax: send an internet fax

When you’re looking for a quick and easy way to perform fax functions, you can choose to send an internet fax. It’s simple, fast and more reliable than traditional faxing.

How so? It makes use of the internet and VoIP service providers that allow internet telephony to be used by small and expanding businesses. As long as you have a good computer and a reliable internet connection, you can create your own phone system that fits the needs of your company.

You can send an internet fax in two ways:

1. Free internet faxing - You might be surprised, but free faxing is quite easy to perform. You don’t need a computer programmer, a sophisticated rig or a complex process to do so, since service providers really offer to let you send an internet fax for free. You need your document to be in digital file format and ready to be uploaded onto the service provider’s website. Finding a free fax service on the internet is quite easy. All you have to do is run a quick search and a host of free fax web pages are there for you to use.
   
    Before you can send your free fax, though, you need to take note of the following restrictions these web pages impose:
   
   • You can only send one or two faxes per day.
   • You aren’t given a fax number so receiving faxes is not possible through these web pages.
   • You can only send files in TIFF and PDF format. Uploading documents of different file formats may result in an unsuccessful fax or denial of the upload altogether.
   • You can only upload a limited number of attachments in small file increments.
   • You can’t send faxes to other countries.
   • You won’t get any notification that your fax was received properly by the recipient.
2. Premium fax service
   When you pay for your faxing, you immediately get a fax number that functions just like a dedicated fax line. People can ring this number and hear a fax tone over the line, signaling that you are ready to receive their fax. They can send their fax the traditional way, but your way of receiving is much different. The faxed document is sent to your email or an inbox provided to you by the VoIP firm.
   
   Advantages of paying for your faxing could be:
   
   • You’re given a large volume of faxes that can be sent and received each month.
   • You can send an internet fax in a wider selection of file formats such as DOC, DOCX, XLS, TXT, HTML, and JPEG as your attachments. You aren’t limited to TIFF and PDF anymore.
   • You can send faxes to other countries as long as you have the complete fax number of your recipient, country and area code included.
   • You can send more and larger files.
   • You can view, edit and choose which faxes to print from your email. This saves you from maintaining ink and paper for a fax machine.
   If you’re interested in sending an internet fax, the best way to begin is to use a free fax service.

Different ways to send an internet fax

If your fax machine is malfunctioning, you don’t actually own one or your phone line is having problems and you need to fax, then you can send an internet fax instead. You don’t have to panic and rush out to an office supply and service store to send a single-page fax. As long as you have a working, up-to-date computer and an internet connection, you can send an internet fax.

One important thing to remember is that your document has to be in a digital file format, preferable PDF or TIFF. These two are the most widely accepted internet fax formats, depending on the service provider, you can use.

Where do I do this?
Searching the web for free fax and online fax websites will yield a long list of service providers. Some will let you send an internet fax for free, while others will ask you to pay a premium for their services. It’s up to you to decide if just sending a single fax is enough or you want a permanent internet fax service to use in your home or office.

What are my options?
Trying out an online fax service is usually free. Some websites let you send one or two faxes per day directly from a GUI on their website. The GUI looks a lot like any email application with a field for a fax number instead of an email address. You might be asked to provide your own fax number (if just for reference) or email address.

You can then either upload your document like an email attachment or type your fax in a text box provided when you send an internet fax. Take note of the file formats, file size restriction and number of files the website lets you upload.

Free fax websites usually let you send one or two faxes per day and never let you receive faxes or notify you if your fax has been received properly. If you choose to subscribe to a paid fax service, however, you will undoubtedly be able to do more than send one or two faxes in a day.

An important feature of premium fax services is that you will be given a fax number as if you had a phone line dedicated to a fax machine. Contacts can send you faxes through this number and even call you, depending on the features you subscribed to. You can then receive and send faxes more efficiently than with a conventional fax machine. The service provider will also notify you if your fax was received successfully on your PC or mobile phone.

Since you don’t rely on the physical capabilities of a fax machine, you can also send and receive multiple faxes simultaneously. You don’t have to feed the document into the machine for each recipient nor will anyone who wants to fax you ever get a busy tone.

Next time you’re in a bind with your fax machine or don’t have one, why don’t you try to send an internet fax?

Send an internet fax using the right medium

One of the basic things to consider when you’re looking to send an internet fax is the medium or channel you want your fax message to pass through. Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan coined a famous phrase, “the medium is the message,” to highlight how the form of a medium embeds itself into a message. Most people would argue that the message is always more important than the medium, but in the context of electronic faxing, the medium is as indispensable as the message and can inevitably make or break your enterprise.

The Means
Obviously, you can’t send an internet fax if you don’t have the means. The first thing you have to do is to choose the right internet fax service for you. If you look around, there are hundreds of fax providers online that offer most of the basic things you’ll need in a fax service. Plus, most of them have their features detailed on fine print so you can’t miss out on anything. Another option is to ask your virtual phone service provider if they offer faxing services (they most likely do). If you’re still not at ease, you can always ask around. Read reviews, and pit different fax services against each other, using their capabilities and limitations to make a pros and cons list.

The Method
Once you’re subscribed to the fax service of your choice, you’re almost ready to send an internet fax. But before that, you need to consider the limitations of your recipient. You have to make sure it reaches them, and that it reaches them correctly. Most fax services provide you with the ability to send fax depending on who you're sending your messages to, for instance:

1. You can send an internet fax to a recipient who relies on a traditional fax machine. This option is ideal if you’re dealing with clients or suppliers who still use the old-fashioned way of sending and receiving fax messages. They will be able to receive your messages in their conventional fax machines even if you don’t send them through the same equipment as theirs.
2. You can send an internet fax to a recipient who uses a dedicated fax number similar to yours. Like you, some business people employ paperless faxing in their respective workflows and have retired their bulky fax machines entirely. Transmitting faxes over the internet to someone who will receive them in the same fashion makes transactions easier and hassle-free.

The Manner
The importance of the medium over the message extends beyond choosing which channel through which you send an internet fax. Usable messages must also be clear, timely, and appropriate for the intended recipient. On the surface, it may seem that the medium greatly influences and shapes how messages are sent and received, but form is just as important to relay the message properly. As a small business owner who needs to send an internet fax, it is your duty to embrace the medium and the form upon which your message takes shape in order to communicate with your clients better.