Fax to Email Software - Anyone using?

Sky King

Anyone using software whereby you can send and recieve faxes on your computer?

We have several customers who like being able to sketch out a drawing quickly by hand and fax it through to us without the need for a computer.

However we'd like to digitise it at our end.

Can anyone recomend the best way to go? I would appreciate it!

CatFromHue

Other than the person who receives the fax scanning it to a computer and then emailing it internally I can't think of anything. The quality could be an issue though as received faxes tend not to be great.

Sky King

There exists software whereby if someone sends a fax to your fax number, it automatically creates something like a PDF of it and it arrives into your email - no paper or scanning involved

Similarly if you're sending a fax, you type a fax number into the email address bar on your computer and hey presto it faxes them.

I had a look online (google etc) but i just can't seem to find an impartial guide to this stuff from an irish perspective. Couple of american companies and an irish crowd with a very slick website but not much else.

I was just wondering if anyone here works in or owns a company which uses it, and how they find it, which package is best etc etc.

TylerIE

Ive used Goldfish Telecom

They are a part of some UK firm that does VOIP services. Iv found quality fine, no delays with outbound (or inbound)faxes, and its pretty cheap for the occasional user.

You rent a phone number of them for 2.50 per month ex. VAT and they forward faxes from it to you. Outbound faxes are priced here and they do packages if you use it a fair bit.

I still have an account but its 9 months since I sent a fax!

My only slight issue was that their payments server was having trouble handling credit cards, but when I rang them they sorted it on the phone.

Kendlebell Naas

You can set up an E-fax number which you divert your existing fax number into. When a fax is received it is converted into an email and emailed to 1 or multiple email addresses as an attachment. The cost of this service is €20 per month + VAT which is basically the line rental. By the way the line is an ISDN line not IP so quality is excellent. if you want more info just PM me.

You can then still use your fax machine for outbound faxes.

AndyJB

Sky King wrote: »

Anyone using software whereby you can send and recieve faxes on your computer?

We have several customers who like being able to sketch out a drawing quickly by hand and fax it through to us without the need for a computer.

However we'd like to digitise it at our end.

Can anyone recomend the best way to go? I would appreciate it!

Hi,
For a zero cost solution, why not just setup your laptop/pc as a fax server.

Windows has it all included, I'd imagine Mac machines are the same. Just plug the existing fax/telephone line into the pc modem, assuming you have a modem.

Received faxes are stored as "Tiff" files, most decent apps will open them. Auto answer and fax storage is done as part of the setup.

In Windows you'll find it all in Start-> Control Panel-> Printers and Faxes
Here's a screen shot to show you faxfrompc.JPG.

Hope this is of some help.
Andy

DublinDilbert

Blueface.ie will give you a "virtual" fax number for €45/year. You get a new phone number which is your fax number. Any faxes sent to this will be converted to PDF and emailed to you. For sending stuff, you generate it as a PDF and forward it to blueface and it will be sent out as a fax.

Its good cause you can get your faxes any where you get email, eg iphone etc. You can also have the incoming fax going to more than one person if you forward the email address.

mneylon

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Blueface.ie will give you a "virtual" fax number for €45/year. You get a new phone number which is your fax number. Any faxes sent to this will be converted to PDF and emailed to you. For sending stuff, you generate it as a PDF and forward it to blueface and it will be sent out as a fax.

Its good cause you can get your faxes any where you get email, eg iphone etc. You can also have the incoming fax going to more than one person if you forward the email address.

Do you have a link to that service?

DublinDilbert

Blacknight wrote: »

Do you have a link to that service?

Its a very good service, we use it a lot.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=blueface+virtual+fax&l=1

sorry couldn't resist

mneylon

I was on their site and assumed it would be under the "business services" section and couldn't see it

Need to check how much we're paying the current provider ..

Eoin

I use popfax.com for sending and receiving faxes. I have a Dublin number and it's about $50 a year or something like that.

Sky King

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply.

Renting a number isn't really an option since all our headed paper etc has our current existing fax number on it - plus i dont think it's worth 20 quid a month

AndyJB seems to have the answer though! But if it's that simple why do companies which provide the service exist!?

DublinDilbert

It's only €45 / year. Your existing line rental for the existing fax must be costing €20/month. You should be able to port your existing number to blueface.

It's definitely worth it for a small business, you don't want to be supporting lots of different systems.

TylerIE

Sky King wrote: »

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply.

Renting a number isn't really an option since all our headed paper etc has our current existing fax number on it - plus i dont think it's worth 20 quid a month

AndyJB seems to have the answer though! But if it's that simple why do companies which provide the service exist!?

Or goldfish also allow you to transfer for €2.50 a month ex VAT! saving your line rental!

TylerIE

Sky King wrote: »

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply.

Renting a number isn't really an option since all our headed paper etc has our current existing fax number on it - plus i dont think it's worth 20 quid a month

AndyJB seems to have the answer though! But if it's that simple why do companies which provide the service exist!?

Or goldfish also allow you to transfer for €2.50 a month ex VAT! saving your line rental!

AndyJB

Sky King wrote: »

Anyone using software whereby you can send and recieve faxes on your computer?

We have several customers who like being able to sketch out a drawing quickly by hand and fax it through to us without the need for a computer.

However we'd like to digitise it at our end.

Can anyone recomend the best way to go? I would appreciate it!

Morning,
For some odd reason people don't use it. Maybe it's just one of those well kept secrets that's actually in full view! I use it [not very often] and it works well. To get the most from it you will need a scanner for the non PC docs you might occasionally send.

Like the other posters I also use GoldFish.ie for calls, and as they've also mentioned porting numbers to GoldFish.ie for as little as 2.50 p/m also makes good sense. Their v-mail to e-mail service is great, so I'm sure their fax to e-mail would work just as well.

Best of luck.
Andy

Strings.ie

We used to use the Blueface fax, it certainly worked ok but we rarely send faxes so when ever we did I had to look the instructions up each time

These days I don't know anyone who cannot receive email attachments making the need for faxing somewhat redundant. Got rid of our fax number over a year ago and haven't missed it once. Another cha ching saving.

BidForFreight

Goldfish.ie great service use it myself