Tell me about receiving faxes via office network

[Kizarvexius]

The company I work for receives a lot of documents via fax. We try to discourage this and request that hard copies be sent in the mail (or scanned and e-mailed), but to little avail. Because the pages that emerge from our fax machine are so often illegible, our office manager is just about to ban faxed documents altogether. Personally, I am of the opinion that the poor quality of the documents has almost as much to do with our fax machine as with any factor that the clients might actually have control over.

Before I start researching specs on buying a new fax machine, however, I’d like to find out what it would take to have our faxes come in over our office data network instead of a standard fax machine – so that it appears onscreen instead of going straight to print. What is involved? Does this have to be set up by our local phone carrier? What are the pluses and minuses? And, most importantly, is the image quality much better?

[friedo]

All you need is a Fax Server. This is a special device that plugs into your fax line and your local network, and receives incoming faxes and stores them on disk instead of printing them. Depending on the options you get, the fax server may provide a web-based interface to retrieve the fax, or it may email them somewhere (all configurable, etc.)

Most fax servers also have the ability to act as print servers, allowing anyone on the network to send a fax via the "Print" command.

There are also very cheap services like uFax (http://www.ureach.com/home3/ufax_overview.htm) which will give you a toll-free fax number and email all incoming faxes to an address you specify.

[bkoochin]

Any PC with a modem plugged into your fax line running something like WinFax can be a very effective solution for you. Relatively cheap as well.

[MrFloppy]

FWIW, and not quite what you asked for, our office uses www.myfax.com - we are not affilliated with them etc.

Basically for a monthly fee, you 'fax' from your email program (by sending to an address) and you have a special fax number whereby faxes sent to it end up in your email program. If you want, it can go to two three or more poeple - to their email client.

We fax between 50 and 75 quotations per day. Now that it is done via email, the time saved standing by the printer and subsequently the fax machine is immeasurable. No cover sheets to fill out. Brilliant!

Your fax number will be different but it is a great service. We only reference the fax number on the quotes sent via the system. Our web site and all other documentation shows our 'land line' fax number.

Hope that helps.