Comments on: Internet Fax Service

Question: Internet Fax Service

stubby phillips — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:31:43 -0800

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?

By: sciapod

sciapod — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:37:09 -0800

My dad, who works from home, uses e-fax and is quite pleased with it. Looks like it costs twenty bucks.

By: ssg

ssg — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:43:38 -0800

Myfax has worked well for my office. It's fairly cheap, too.

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:46:42 -0800

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.

By: advicepig

advicepig — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:49:46 -0800

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.

By: chundo

chundo — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:52:56 -0800

MyFax. $10/month.

Send through a web interface, or by just emailing an attachment to a special email address.

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:35:13 -0800

Thirding Myfax, works fine with just sending an email with attachment.

By: HotToddy

HotToddy — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:06:13 -0800

We use e-Fax in our business, never had a problem with it.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:45:00 -0800

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 15551112222@efaxsend.com, 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.

By: Corky

Corky — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:03:58 -0800

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.

By: twiki

twiki — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:13:37 -0800

I use GoDaddy's PDF service, 9.95/mo. and I have my own fax # to give to people. :)

By: twiki

twiki — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:13:55 -0800

Er, that shoudl be GoDaddy's FAX service. Erg.

By: cgomez

cgomez — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:17:50 -0800

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.

By: dcjd

dcjd — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:29:58 -0800

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.

By: dcjd

dcjd — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:30:29 -0800

that should be send-only

By: 31d1

31d1 — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:29:03 -0800

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).

By: PatoPata

PatoPata — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:04:34 -0800

I use Maxemail. $24 a year includes your own incoming fax number. Easy to use; faxes are attached as PDFs.

By: stubby phillips

stubby phillips — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:11:24 -0800

Thanks, all.

By: idlm

idlm — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:31:56 -0800

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.