Fax to email

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

If the recipient says 'fax' & gives a specific office/phone #, then
that's
what I use. Especially if an offer to scan/email is greeted
doubtfully.
Even if the document to be signed was emailed to me. I'm more
interested
in getting the transaction done than trying to proseletize a point
with
(the last time I did it) a clerk in a hotel billing office.

Oh, I wasn't advocating proselytizing the point. If it says FAX and
has a number, and I was greeted with doubt at the offer to scan and
email it, I'd FAX it too - print, sign, scan, and use one of the free
trials for online print/email to fax services if a real fax machine
wasn't convenient.

 

[Aretwodeetwo]

That would be a handy feature

I use Maxemail. I think $25 a year. Unlimited incoming and 25 or so outgoing,
more for a fee. I forget cause I PDF almost everything I can and send it that
way.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Ken Blake

Yes, but note the following two points:

1. He said fax modem. A fax modem is *always* a dial-up modem. There
is no other kind.
Agreed.

2. There's really no such thing as a broadband modem. The term "modem"
is short for "modulator-demodulator." Technically, it's a device that
converts the analog signal on the telephone line to the digital signal
needed by a computer, and vice-versa. Technically, any device that
doesn't do that analog to digital conversion is not a modem (but see
below).

My broadband comes via a device connected to my telephone line. It
(among other functions, such as I think NAT, and certainly wifi and
ethernet hub) converts the digital signals into, and from, signals on
the telephone line. Those signals are above the audio-frequency ones -
on the same pair of copper conductors - that carry 'phone calls,
granted.

A device that connects to a high-speed internet connection is properly
called a "gateway," not a modem, because that high-speed internet
connection is digital to begin with. So there's no analog to digital

I don't think mine is. Of course, it depends what you mean by "analogue"
and "digital"; I doubt it's a two-tone signal like the early dial-up
MoDems, probably a large-constellation QAM signal. It certainly isn't a
two-voltage signal like most of what goes on on the motherboard.
[]

widely used for this, I think insisting that a gateway not be called a
modem is just rigid and inflexible. Despite the original meaning of

[]
And wrong.

 

[VanguardLH]

Give these people a try. 30 days for free.
http://www.efax.co.uk/

Ed

P.S. Let us know what you think after you've sent a few.

Well, that'll be okay for the 30-day trial. To continue after that mean
having to pay.

 

[charlie]

If a regular telephone works, then a fax machine should work. FAX is
designed specifically to imitate a regular telephone, transmitting
signals as audible tones, like touch tone dialing on steroids. Even if
the signal is digitized for transmission, it will be converted back to
audio for delivery to the receiving instrument.

Unfortunately, without the old analog "POTS" line, Phone companies are
free (Deregulation, you know!) to do more or less what they want, such
as having filters that screw up fax. This can be true even for a modem
that digitizes audio, and sends it over conventional pots lines or a
cable providers phone system. Our "old line" hardwire phone company
routinely allows more high frequency attenuation than the pre
deregulation rules permitted. They even have the higher frequencies
locked out on the tone test generator used to check line levels. When
the fax speed drops to far, I have to start complaining.

 

[Mikey]

I guess I'm in the minority, but it boggles my mind why these days
there are still fax machines, fax modems, fax software, etc. Doesn't
almost everyone have e-mail and a scanner?

Boggles mine too. I think the biggest stumbling block is the same one that causes
digital document storage and retrieval to be looked on as a tad risky.

There is the perception that faxed documents could not possibly be altered, while
digital ones are fiddled with very easily.

Old ideas (right or wrong) die hard in the ultra conservative business world.

Mike

 

[Gordon]

Boggles mine too. I think the biggest stumbling block is the same one
that causes digital document storage and retrieval to be looked on as a
tad risky.

There is the perception that faxed documents could not possibly be
altered, while digital ones are fiddled with very easily.

Old ideas (right or wrong) die hard in the ultra conservative business
world.

Mike

And yet over ten years ago, a very large multinational Merchant Bank had
ALL their documents scanned in and stored on servers owned and run by
the company I worked for....

 

[charlie]

Boggles mine too. I think the biggest stumbling block is the same one
that causes digital document storage and retrieval to be looked on as a
tad risky.

There is the perception that faxed documents could not possibly be
altered, while digital ones are fiddled with very easily.

Old ideas (right or wrong) die hard in the ultra conservative business
world.

Mike

Actually some versions (Win 7 Prof. as an example) have fax support. The
problem can be that an older model internal Fax modem may not have win 7
compatible drivers. Another gotcha with external fax modems is that most
used a serial port, which seems to be fast disappearing.

The fax modem I currently use is part of a networked Epson all in one.
Send Fax is supported, however received fax is always printed.
You can then scan and store the received fax. This avoids the many
problems we used to have in getting a P/C based fax modem to reliably
receive faxes.

Some USR internal modems that worked with XP don't with Win7.
Seems there was a firmware update and who knows what else.
(I have one of these brand new in a box somewhere.)

 

[Art Todesco]

Actually some versions (Win 7 Prof. as an example) have fax support. The
problem can be that an older model internal Fax modem may not have win 7
compatible drivers. Another gotcha with external fax modems is that most
used a serial port, which seems to be fast disappearing.

The fax modem I currently use is part of a networked Epson all in one.
Send Fax is supported, however received fax is always printed.
You can then scan and store the received fax. This avoids the many
problems we used to have in getting a P/C based fax modem to reliably
receive faxes.

Some USR internal modems that worked with XP don't with Win7.
Seems there was a firmware update and who knows what else.
(I have one of these brand new in a box somewhere.)

Take a look at my other reply in this thread. The modem I bought was
only $15 plus $2 shipping, plus tax. It works easily with W7. And, I
know there are others out there. If you have a dedicated line that you
are willing to use for Fax, the all-in-one printer/scanner/fax is
probably a good thing. In my case, I have only one land line. So, it
gives me the option, when the phone rings, to answer as a fax. Plus I
just keep the fax on the computer and only print it when I have to.
When you only receive maybe 2 faxes per year, that works well for me. I
do send out more faxes than I receive, usually to doctors or medical
insurance companies.