Internet Fax Service

September 16, 2008 3:31 PM

I need to send faxes without a land line.

Googling "Internet Fax" produces a pile of results, but it's hard to tell the skeezy from the cheap. I'm looking for the latter. I have DSL, a scanner and a PC running XP. I don't have a phone line.

I want to scan a document, fax it via the internet to a telephone number, and have it be easy enough that Mrs. Phillips can do it about a dozen times a week. Her PC skills are average.

I'm not looking for fax software that requires a fax modem and a land line. I'm looking for an internet fax service (with or without a client-side application).

I'm also not looking for spyware or adware. I'm not interested in viruses, either.

So here's my question:

Friend, can you point me to an inexpensive internet fax solution that I can trust?

posted by stubby phillips to technology (18 comments total)

My dad, who works from home, uses e-fax and is quite pleased with it. Looks like it costs twenty bucks.
posted by sciapod at 3:37 PM on September 16, 2008

Myfax has worked well for my office. It's fairly cheap, too.
posted by ssg at 3:43 PM on September 16, 2008

I rarely need to send faxes, but when I do, I use Fax Zero. You can send a 3 page .doc or PDF for free. They put an ad on the cover sheet. Up to 6 pages with no ad is $1.99. No contract, just pay via PayPal.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 3:46 PM on September 16, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

I've used Fax Zero when I really didn't care that the other side got an ad. I probably wouldn't do that in a professional setting, but there were several times recently where it was the perfect solution.
posted by advicepig at 3:49 PM on September 16, 2008

MyFax. $10/month.

Send through a web interface, or by just emailing an attachment to a special email address.
posted by chundo at 3:52 PM on September 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Thirding Myfax, works fine with just sending an email with attachment.
posted by Lemurrhea at 4:35 PM on September 16, 2008

We use e-Fax in our business, never had a problem with it.
posted by HotToddy at 5:06 PM on September 16, 2008

We also use eFax. Since we have a corporate account I can't say whether the pricing for one account would be competitive, but the functionality of the service is great. One very cool thing is that once you've set up your e-mail with the service you can send anyone a fax by composing an e-mail message to [e-mail], just supplying the appropriate fax recipient phone number as the first part of the address. An documents you attach to the message will also be faxed along with your message.
posted by odinsdream at 5:45 PM on September 16, 2008

Does it absolutely have to be a fax? Or, can you send whatever documents you've scanned via email?

Check out CutePdf.

From their site:

CutePDF Writer (Freeware)
Create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document. FREE for personal, commercial, gov or edu use! No watermarks! No popup Web ads! Now supports 64-bit Windows.

I use it all the time, and it's drop-dead easy. And FREE. (You did say you wanted cheap, right?)

All you do is PRINT a document to CutePdf. The program then saves your document as a pdf at whatever location on your computer you've chosen. You can send it via email as an attachment, and the recipient prints it out on their end.

Something to consider.
posted by Corky at 6:03 PM on September 16, 2008

I use GoDaddy's PDF service, 9.95/mo. and I have my own fax # to give to people. :)
posted by twiki at 6:13 PM on September 16, 2008

Er, that shoudl be GoDaddy's FAX service. Erg.
posted by twiki at 6:13 PM on September 16, 2008

Nth MyFax. I've been a customer for a bit over a year and love it. The best part is that you can choose to have a toll-free 866 number so that you can avoid imposing long-distance charges on your recipients. $9.95 a month, 200 pages in/out and the reliability has been top-notch. When you get a fax, it's sent as a PDF to you via email which you can view on your BlackBerry or whatnot. Love it.
posted by cgomez at 6:17 PM on September 16, 2008

FaxItNice.com is what I use. It's great, because if you get their send-on plan, there is no monthly fee. You basically just deposit some money with PayPal, and when you send a fax it draws on your account, at 18 cents per page. Your credit never expires, so it's great for needing to send an occasional fax.
posted by dcjd at 6:29 PM on September 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

that should be send-only
posted by dcjd at 6:30 PM on September 16, 2008

drop.io lets you send and receive faxes as kind of a side thing. Seems like sending used to be free, and may be again in the future, but is apparently only available to premium accounts at the moment (which seem to run about 10 bucks a year).
posted by 31d1 at 8:29 PM on September 16, 2008

I use Maxemail. $24 a year includes your own incoming fax number. Easy to use; faxes are attached as PDFs.
posted by PatoPata at 9:04 PM on September 16, 2008

Thanks, all.
posted by stubby phillips at 6:11 AM on September 17, 2008

MyFax is a great service. For $10 a month they assign you an 800 number to receive faxes at no additional charge. Those faxes come to your email in a PDF format. You can send faxes in 178 formats including PDF and Word documents. It's really easy.
posted by idlm at 11:31 AM on September 20, 2008