You probably know that you'll be able to use an e-mail to fax if you've begun to make use of VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol services. By means of the internet as well as your computer, you're able to send and receive faxes as if you had a dedicated telefax line and fax machine at your disposal. But instead of waiting for fax tones and printing out reams of paper, you can manage your faxes by means of internet applications or special programs that function like e-mail clients. Then sending an online fax is very simple for you if you are familiar with using email.

On-line faxing can be a bit confusing for new users, though, who might anticipate a complex technique of integrating telephone functions with internet services. The thing is, it might even be less complicated than the traditional way of faxing. There isn't any paper involved in the process unless you really wish to print your fax, and you do not even have to wait for a fax tone.

Some things to help keep in mind if you are using your email to fax or exploring this option are:

1. Multiple sending and simultaneous receiving - utilizing your fax means that you can send a fax to multiple recipient with just a few clicks because there is not any fax machine involved within the whole procedure. You just need to specify the numbers along with the application will send the documents all at once, as if you had a fleet of machines working all at the same time. You no longer need to feed the document in each time. They will not get a busy fax tone because your fax service can deal with all of them if many people wish to send you faxes all at the same time.

2. Check your notifications - premium on-line fax services can provide you with several strategies to receive notifications that your fax was sent successfully or if you've received one in your fax email. You might be reminded via email or mobile telephone.

3. Limitations of free fax - take note of how many times you'll be able to send a fax in a day and how large the file size of the faxes are if you're just trying out the service for the first time or merely utilizing a free fax service. You aren't allowed to receive faxes simply because you won't be supplied with a fax number in case you use an online fax service at no cost.

4. Allowed file formats - internet fax services usually accept PDF or TIFF files, especially the websites who let you fax at no cost. Other service providers allow you to send JPG, DOCX and TXT files. You will usually need to upload these files like an attachment in an e-mail application. You'll be able to upload any number of files depending on the service provider as well as the type of service you use.

Subscribing to an internet fax service is very easy. All you have to do is look for the service provider that is right for you and subscribe, then start using your e-mail to fax.

Websites providing free fax services or email to fax services are becoming more and more popular with small businesses, which rely heavily on internet communications and use faxing on fewer occasions. These free of charge services prove to be too irresistible for infrequent fax users to ignore. Probabilities are good that you'd want to snag each opportunity to reduce operational expenses and maximize returns if you're just starting out with your business. After all, why pay for something you just need rarely if you can get it at no cost?\

Free, but what's the catch?

There is no such thing as a completely free fax, you might be enticed to make use of these sites in a heartbeat. These services really offer "almost free fax". These so-called email to fax services will, at first, appear free; complete with all the basic features of traditional fax machines. But like any other free service, they aren't devoid of limitations. At some point, you'll be asked to pay for certain capabilities or you may have to either pay for the complete service. Therefore, you might find it helpful to take the following things into consideration when choosing the best free fax service for the small company:

Carefully examine the features and limitations of your potential e-mail to fax service.

Find out if the service needs a maximum number of pages for sending faxes. Some free fax services impose a three-page limit for sending faxes each day, while some can go up to 15 pages a day. Find out if the service sends facsimile with advertisements on the cover page, or if they allow you to send fax messages cover pages at all. Keeping this in check will ensure that your messages could have the proper length, tone, and formality important for business correspondence.

Ascertain whether or not you'll be allowed to send international fax. Most email to fax services only permit sending messages within the U.S. and Canada, and will charge you an additional fee for sending fax messages overseas. You might wish to reconsider and opt for a premium fax service rather, if your small business needs you to communicate with customers abroad via fax.


Also, you have to check which document format(s) could be sent. Basic fax services supply the capability to send .TXT, .DOC, .DOCX, .PDF, or a mixture of one, two, or more file types with ease.

But perhaps the most essential factor is for the faxes to be sent over a secure channel during transmission. As you may have really confidential material contained within your fax, you will want your faxing service to guarantee that they use good encryption technology.

Take advantage of the free trial periods offered by on-line fax websites.

Most free fax services offer 30-day trial periods that let you test their service without any obligations. Ensure to cancel before your trial ends so you won't waste a penny if they cannot keep up with your faxing needs. Moreover, you have to determine if there are setup charges or hidden fees should you decide to continue with their service.

Or better yet, avail of the free fax service bundled using the professional phone system you currently have, which typically isn't as dull and limited as the supposed free services that abound elsewhere.

Using your email to fax no longer needs you to have a fax machine, ink, paper, an existing phone line and a fax tone on the receivers own fax machine. You'll be able to send a fax using your e-mail with just your computer, a reliable internet connection as well as a dependable service provider.

VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol service providers let people to work with the internet to communicate much in the same way analogue technology does. People can call, text, send messages and fax people just the same, however, with new interfaces and new methodologies. to build communication infrastructure for their customers, VoIP service providers capitalize on the processing power of computers as well as the versatility of the internet. In fact, the firms do not even need to give the hardware essential for you to begin using their services. You basically need to select which service provider you would like to subscribe to or use in case you already possess a Computer and are connected.

You will find two ways to go about using your e-mail to fax:

• Free
Sending one or two faxes on the web isn't much different from uploading a file or sending an e-mail. A lot of websites provide free faxing, available right away by way of a GUI on a web page. You can upload a document as an attachment or type your fax directly into a text box they give. Remember the fact that not all file formats and sizes are accepted by free fax sites, though, and that the number of characters you'll be able to use for your fax might be severely restricted.

You'll be asked, of course, to supply a fax number. Free websites don't offer you a fax number your recipient could reply to, but others let you put in your email address.

• Premium
Paid services understandably have more features and free fax websites, but you frequently find advertisements for former on the latter. An immediate difference among a paid along with a free fax is the fact that you're assigned a fax number as well as a separate email for your faxes.

You might be asked to download an application to install in your computer which will likely be your GUI for sending and receiving faxes, similar to a virtual fax machine. This GUI operates mostly similar to free fax websites or applications, but with added functions. You can perhaps view your faxes before printing them, manage them into folders and also receive notifications on your computer or mobile telephone which you have received a fax.

As opposed to being limited to 1 to 2 faxes per day, you are able to select from a variety of plans that differ depending on the volume of faxes you wish to send and receive in a month, per week or a day. Some service providers even provide you with storage space on their servers for your faxes, which you can access across several devices.

When deciding among a free and a paid service, it really is important that you maintain the needs of your company in mind when deciding how to use an e-mail to fax.

_Almost every self-respecting business nowadays knows the important things about e-mail to fax capabilities over traditional fax functionality. With affordability, accessibility, and virtual mobility, this secure document transmission option bridges the gap between old and new technology by taking phone technology to the next level. Given the premium people put in efficiency, it is not at all surprising that this certain incarnation of fax has gained traction.

This does not mean, however, that you can completely free fax from its hardware trappings - at the moment, you can still find some people out there who hold on to those old fax machines. Internet-based faxing could be here, and it may be more convenient, but that doesn't necessarily translate to the complete an utter extinction of fax hardware.

Why is that? And shouldn't they know better by now?

Shouldn't They Get with the Program Already?

You really shouldn't anticipate to succeed in which makes them take a step forward by force if they couldn't get you to take a step backward. Preferring to make use of the fax machine doesn't automatically make a person impractical, or silly. For all you know, businesses and individuals that still use traditional fax devices have extremely good reasons for not quite jumping on the internet fax phenomenon.

They may not be as "stuck" as you may think. They might not need to free fax from its machine trappings, due to the fact they don't have reliable Internet connection (it still happens). They might want something more solid to work with, once they get a fax.

To them, the fax machine is still worth it.

So Are Fax Machines Really Still Needed?

Maybe fax machines aren't still required as much as they are still wanted by some people out there. Sure, there's still some logic to having physical phone lines and devices for fax under some circumstances, but offered the rate of communications progress, it is probable that those circumstances can be completely eliminated.

Why the Fax Machine is Still Alive

Regardless how convenient most of the world could find email to fax and its ilk, you may still find people out there who are far more confident with using the fax machine. It is all a matter of context and preference: to them, the traditional fax device is really easier to make use of compared to those new devices that other people are so excited to use. To them, personal computers, laptops, and smartphones are really more difficult than the fax machine, which can be essentially a telephone with a printer and a few extra buttons on it.

That is not to say that faxing the traditional way is not complicated, with all the different button sequences you have to deal with to transmit and receive fax. But you will find people out there who feel that booting up a computer or smartphone, connecting to the Internet, then accessing the relevant applications are clearly a few steps too many. And there is not even a guarantee that they can have a hard copy of the document!

In other words, for them, the fax machine is much more convenient - and not everybody is necessarily attached to an Internet-capable device at the hip.

Until then, at least email to fax still enables you to send and receive documents to and from traditional fax systems.

_You're bound to have seen websites that provide free fax services in your search for cost-effective communication if you are working as a freelancer or if you've just started setting up your small business. And, given the fact that you don't expect to have to send and receive facsimiles on a regular basis, you most likely found the bargain attractive. After all, you don't expect a lot from your fax service at that point, and it is frankly a bonus that you simply do not need to spend any amount of money at all.

It's really hard not to say "yes" to free on-line faxing with the added perk of being allowed to send email to fax or having the strength to make use of the internet to deploy and retrieve fax messages.

But haven't you ever wondered WHY free fax is free? Hasn't it made you suspicious yet?

How "Free" Generates Money for the Service Providers?

In this situation, "free" is not exactly free for all the persons involved. This could be a little bit difficult, however the gist is this: the number which you get to use for free still costs money. It simply does not actually cost YOU money, unless you misuse the service or the fax system itself malfunctions and costs you a potential contact.

So who does all the shouldering if you do not shoulder the cost?

It is the people who send YOU faxes via that number.

A lot of the numbers that the "fax for free" or free email to fax service providers allow you to use are ones that cost more when called compared to numbers supplied by a traditional telecommunications company. And whenever someone sends a fax document to that number, the company that makes it possible for a fax to be sent to a user's e-mail account gets paid. Basically, they have to pay extra if anyone utilizes that fax number to deliver documents to you.

If it were used with a "normal" fax system, it must be noted, however, that they do not get the complete amount that is supposed to have been generated by the number. The profit is composed of the amount of "extra" money that comes in from the calls; often, they subtract the telecommunication rates from the overall earnings.

Is This an excellent Thing or a Negative Thing?

It all depends on how you look at it. You wouldn't really need to invest a cent on any fax document you send and receive through the number the free facsimile service assigned you, but you are in effect charging potential customers for contacting you. To paraphrase, you might look at the offer and see it as absolute convenience for yourself, or you can see it as a count against you when it comes to customer service.

If you are only thinking of utilizing this sort of service as a temporary communications measure, then maybe it wouldn't be so bad to charge your contacts for the faxes they've sent. But you have to make it clear that you're only utilizing that fax number temporarily.

In the end, what might truly be the most effective type of free fax is still the fax that comes free with a dedicated professional telephone system.

_It is 2012 already, so why are people still talking about the ability to use email to faxdocuments? Shouldn't everyone have an email account by now? Or, in the very least, shouldn't everyone have some form of access to the Internet, hence generating the Internet-based faxing more common? Given all this, why even imply that people are still faxing the standard way at all? We've all moved on…haven't we?

Well, that isn't exactly true. The world of communication might be moving forward, but that still does not mean that we've completely left the old ways behind. Due to this, there is still a pressing need for the new technology to acknowledge the usage of old technology. Much besides, we cannot say that the new world order in terms of telephony can free fax completely from its traditional roots. Among other things:

Filing Protocols may Vary

You might choose virtual filing systems to paper filing systems, but some people might think that hard-copy documentation is more practical. As such, sending them a fax message via your e-mail can really make things a lot simpler for customers. Once they get a document via their fax machine, they won't need to worry about going through the added procedure of printing out the details or contract you've sent. They get a hard copy version of the related details, which they can quickly transfer to their file folders and cabinets. It might seem like a small thing, but it is something that a lot of people still appreciate.

The internet is not Strong EVERYWHERE

The internet is in really wide use nowadays - it is so frequently used that it is easy to assume that everyone has Internet connection. For that reason, it's not difficult to come to the conclusion that everybody has the advantage of having Internet-based communication like e-mail and Internet fax.

The truth is, Internet prevalence does not necessarily translate to Internet reliability. In fact, there are some areas (in America, even!) exactly where the internet is fairly difficult to access. In cases like this, standard telephony and faxing is likely to be the preferred mode of communication by such customers. Taking this into account, email to fax capability is absolutely necessary in order to do businesses with as many clients as possible.

Some Still Think of Online Document Exchange as Unreliable

For those who have come to depend on traditional fax, the idea of sending and receiving documents over the internet can be outside their comfort zones. As far as they're concerned, traditional faxing continues to be much more secure since it has a more solid, "direct line" aspect which is hard to tamper with. To them, generating fax virtual will simply make it susceptible to corruption and hacking. It is probably that they've only tried a free fax service, that has its limitations, even if they have tried on-line faxing.

The best way to address this is to compromise - by sending your faxes to their fax machines by means of your e-mail, you are able to enjoy the convenience of virtual faxing without ignoring your client's peace of mind.

In other words, e-mail to fax capability continues to yield benefits in today's business world.