Fax to the Future — How to send and receive a fax in the 21st Century

[Admin]

Send and receive a fax from the comfort of your computer, no fax modem required.

Fax to the Future — How to send and receive a fax in the 21st Century : Read more

 

[Ralston18]

Overall, faxing seems a bit moot and well out of date.

I have not had to "fax" anything for many years and likely that was done via my multi-purpose printer.

Seems to be much more secure and simpler to just send (upload/download) a .pdf document via a https: URL.

I am wary enough about providing personal information online as it is.

Any entity asking for a fax would raise a lot of questions in my mind.

 

[ezst036]

Hehe

That graphic is fun. I like the upside down YOU'RE FIRED, nice touch.

 

[TerryLaze]

Well FUX me, here I was all this time taking pictures with my smartphone and g-mail'ing them for absolutely free, when I could have been spending money all this time to do the same in worse.

Also you failed to explain how I can send a fax into the future.

 

[Eximo]

Medical and Law in the US are still stuck on fax. Rightfax servers was what I used at a previous job, basically a way to fax PDFs.

 

[Dr3ams]

Just buy a multi-function printer with fax. I have a Brother MFC-L2960DW that can print, copy, scan...and fax. With it's duplex it can also do all that automatically on both sides.

Here in Germany we still fax.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

As insecure as fax already is, if I'm doing it for medical, tax, or legal things, I'm going to go to a library or UPS store and pay the $1 per page (sometimes free, sometimes less especially at a library) and not trust my sensitive information to a potentially insecure website.

Now if I'm going it for a mail I rebate or the like, and thankfully I think all of those are now digital, that's a different story.

 

[Gpz1100]

The problem is not all entities support a secure online document exchange portal. Emailing confidential documents using gmail is absurd! Gmail will scan, index, and profile any and all content that passes through its servers.

I run a freepbx/asterisk server to handle some voip lines. I have hylafax (backend) and avantfax (front end) installed. Using the native drivers, speeds are limited to 14.4 kbps. Not the fastest, but good enough for the occasional (few times a month) faxes.

Experiences will vary with different voip providers. I use callcentric. Sent or received faxes up to 30 pages long successfully.

 

[ravewulf]

I don't think I've used a fax for anything important but I have a fond memory of faxing my dad's work as a kid back in the 90s and receiving something back. Don't remember what we sent but it seemed a bit magical at the time watching it scan and then print something back through the phone line

 

[milleron]

Overall, faxing seems a bit moot and well out of date.

I have not had to "fax" anything for many years and likely that was done via my multi-purpose printer.

Seems to be much more secure and simpler to just send (upload/download) a .pdf document via a https: URL.

I am wary enough about providing personal information online as it is.

Any entity asking for a fax would raise a lot of questions in my mind.

I have. Every year, there's a communication with my health insurance (BC/BS, you may have heard of it) that requires sending a signed form. The only two options are snail mail and FAX. So many of us don't use FAX very often at all yet still need it occasionally, which is what makes this article's illumination of faxZERO so valuable. It's exactly what I've been looking for.

 

[milleron]

Just buy a multi-function printer with fax. I have a Brother MFC-L2960DW that can print, copy, scan...and fax. With it's duplex it can also do all that automatically on both sides.

Here in Germany we still fax.

Well and good, but that requires a land line, and most residences. in the U.S. no longer have one. Even many small businesses depend solely on cellular service. IF we all had land lines like we did 30 years ago, this article wouldn't have been necessary .

 

[RitiFamily]

Medical and Law in the US are still stuck on fax. Rightfax servers was what I used at a previous job, basically a way to fax PDFs.

Absolutely correct... I cannot speak for Law, but I can definitely confirm medical. Work for an IV infusion company and about 90% of the prescriptions we receive is via Fax... So, faxing is alive and well in the USA...

 

[Eximo]

Absolutely correct... I cannot speak for Law, but I can definitely confirm medical. Work for an IV infusion company and about 90% of the prescriptions we receive is via Fax... So, faxing is alive and well in the USA...

My understanding is a lot of paperwork/legal filing systems don't offer support for digitally signed PDFs, so you have to sign and fax them to be considered properly signed.

More retail law seems to have updated. Like title companies, banks, etc. It would be slow moving government and older law firms that don't see the need for improvements. (Still encounter the occasional story about old school lawyers who have their secretary handle reading and responding to emails)

 

[Dr3ams]

Well and good, but that requires a land line, and most residences. in the U.S. no longer have one. Even many small businesses depend solely on cellular service. IF we all had land lines like we did 30 years ago, this article wouldn't have been necessary .

In America, many of the landlines are still in place, but only about 20% of Americans use them. In Germany 90% of households still have and/or use landlines. You can get landline on DSL and fiber optic lines. If you are using Deutsche Telekom, your contract automatically comes with three landline numbers...regardless if you use them or not. I use one number in case of emergencies and one for fax.

 

[Ralston18]

It does indeed matter with respect to communication options, legal requirements, and the overall nature of the documentation itself.

Financial requirements likely being the most involved and strict.

We just had to replace our failed furnace and AC. To do so required a line of credit which in turn required us to submit scanned copies of drivers' licenses along with a short cell phone video clip of myself. Along with a couple of other scanned verification documents.

That was done via a PC and the internet.

Plus multiple back and forth confirmation texts and codes via my cell phone's email address along with signatures on the seller's tablet. Very cumbersome and the signature simply ended up being a scribble.

No use of our landline.

No faxing at all. Which probably would have been easier and simpler.

 

[LabRat 891]

Sadly, the last time (Win7 era) I tried to use the Windows Fax tool (with a PCI 56K Fax Modem connected to a Land Line) it didn't work. Then again, the home may have actually been on digital voice/VoIP line and not known it at the time.

Otherwise, 100% the most nostalgic way to send a fax, has to be through the PC, using a Fax Modem.

 

[Ralston18]

@LabRat 891

As a bit of an after thought, you reminded of those days when we all started getting spam sent to our fax machines.

All those beeps and audio tones to set up and configure the transmission. And that pad we set the handset into....

No nostalgia there. 📞

 

[AnimeMania]

Many ancient laptops have fax modems. I have one and bust it out and attach a scanner, if I ever need to send a fax. I don't know what I would do if I ever needed to receive a fax, even though it could, I wouldn't want to wait for it, unless I knew exactly when it would arrive. So I guess I would make them call ahead first.