What is Internet Fax?

What Is Internet or Online Fax?

Internet or online faxes use the internet or your email system to send and receive faxes. The nice thing about internet faxing is that you can send a fax from anywhere, anytime that you have an internet connection. There are online fax services that you can sign up with. They give you a number, which you use just like a regular fax number. You just don't need a fax machine because all the faxing is done over the internet. The online fax service provider charges a fee, usually monthly, but sometimes per fax.

So what does the online fax service actually do? You may be wondering why not just use email on your own. The advantage of the service provider comes because not everybody is using internet faxes. There are still lots of traditional fax machines out there. If you need to send a fax to someone that is still using a traditional fax machine, you log in to your online fax service and send your fax to the number of the traditional fax machine using your service's interface. It goes via email to the service provider and from there, through the phone line to the traditional fax machine. If you need to receive a fax from a traditional fax machine, you just give them the fax number provided by your online fax service provider. The fax travels through the phone line to your service provider, then from there to you via the internet using email.

Using an online fax service, you can streamline your faxing and make it much more mobile and convenient. But consider Internet faxing carefully. You'll be missing out on some things like busy signals, messy fax machines, nosy workers trying sneak a peek at your faxes, missed faxes because your phone line was busy, and spending lots of extra time waiting to send multiple faxes to different numbers. If you’re willing to leave those things behind though, Internet faxing is definitely something you should consider. Start looking for an online fax service provider today!