Web to Fax the Way of the Future

Sending a fax used to mean printing off the documents, writing out a cover sheet and walking over to the fax machine to punch in a number and hit send. You were then left with documents printed off that were either filed, shredded, or recycled. Times they are a changing, now with web to fax services you can do it all form the desktop of your PC computer or MAC. All it takes is an email account, and a subscription to one of the top web to fax providers such as MyFax.

How exactly does Web to Fax work?

 Sending a Fax:

1. Open up your email account, and write the subject and body of the message. This is going to become the cover sheet for your fax that's sent to the recipient.
2. attach the files you want sent to the recipient. This could be a Word or Excel document, or an Adobe PDF. Most of the popular web to fax providers provide support for many file formats (MyFax offers support for over 100 different types of files)
3. For the email address you want to send the fax to, we'll use MyFax as an example of how to format the email address correctly. You take the fax number, and create an email address from it that looks like this 18889991111@myfax.com, where the 1-888-999-1111 is the fax number you want the fax sent to.
4. Click send and off it goes, some providers offer auto-retry (which is a good feature to have) this will retry sending the fax again and again if it rings busy on the other end.

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Receiving a Fax:

1. When you sign up with a web to fax provider you'll be given a fax number. Some companies offer local numbers, while others use toll-free. A company like MyFax will offer a local number if about 30 states, and for all others a Toll-Free number is available. You can also request a toll-free number for free if you'd prefer one.
2. When someone sends you a fax to that number you'll receive an email notification, with the fax attached to the email. You can receive faxes on up to 5 different email accounts, and some services even offer cell phone alerts when you receive a new fax.

Benefits of using Web to Fax rather then a Fax Machine

The most obvious of these benefits is that you don't need to have a fax machine in your office, but let's look at some of the other cost savings and benefits associated with it.

• Save money on paper and ink, this is also a very “GREEN” choice since you won't be wasting paper printing off documents to send to people they can all be sent from your desktop.
• Save money on a fax line in your office, as well as a fax machine. The cost of a fax line and the monthly cost to a service like MyFax (about $10 bucks a month) is similar.
• Free storage of your faxes so you don't need to file them away every time your receive one. Also you'll get auto confirmations once your fax is sent so you have proof of documents being faxed.
• Access to your faxes anywhere in the world you can get your email. (think Internet Cafe in Rome, or any other place you could be traveling).

Over all using a web to fax service makes this part of your communication and document storage a lot easier, and for less money. I can't think of any good argument as to why you'd go back to a fax machine.

Our top pick for a web to fax provider is MyFax, we like their blend of features, and support for the price. As mentioned their packages start at $10 bucks a month. That gets you 300 pages faxed (100 out, and 200 in). Give them a trial run for at least a month to see if it makes your life easier. You can contact your local phone provider and have the number forwarded to your new web to fax number and if it's not for you just change it back after a month. I don't think you'll be changing anytime soon though.

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