Net Fax: All The Fax You Will Need

The Internet can cut your faxing expenses by more than sixty per cent. Heres how to go about it

The hype, as they say, is misplaced. Ever since the government approved the entrance of private Internet service providers, we have been inundated with stories on how voice communication over the Internet will cut into MTNLs revenue, as all and sundry use the Internet to talk to their friends, colleagues and customers across the globe. But real-time voice over the Net is still unreliable, and fraught with unacceptable time lags.

On the other hand, faxing is an entirely different story. Fax machines have avoided direct competition from PCs and the Internet so far, but things are going to change as Internet-aware fax machines, or any printer that is connected to a network will be able to receive and print high-quality colour prints. That is still a couple of years down the line, but right now, faxing over the Internet can still help you save up to 60 per cent on your fax charges and a lot of time with the fax machine.

 

In the United States, many Internet service providers offer fax services for minimal charges. In fact, faxing PC to PC is common, as a document open in any software can be e-mailed to another persons e-mail account. Faxing from a desktop computer to a fax machine is less common, but increasingly is seen as a threat to traditional faxing using fax machines.

Hardware and software requirements

Faxing over the Internet, of course, requires an Internet connection and at least a 486 desktop computer and modem. Some services require you to access their websites with your normal Internet browser software, key in a user name and password, and type in your fax message. E-fax from IIS Webnet is an example of such a service. More convenient are the services which let you download their software from their websites. With such software, all you have to do is to print your document the software fools your computer into believing that it is printing a document, when what it actually does is convert it into data and send it over the Internet. FaxFree and FaxSav are examples of such software which makes sending an international fax as easy as printing a wordprocessor document.

Hitches

Faxes are not transmitted instantaneously. The faxes that you sent are transmitted to the service, which faxes it to your destination fax machine. That causes a little delay, usually in the range of a few minutes. But the companies say that is all the time you actually spend at a fax machine, trying to dial a number and waiting till the fax goes through, and receiving the confirmation.

If you already have a printed document, you can still send it only by going through a couple of extra steps. It has to be scanned, converted into an image file, and sent over the Net. And that is stuff that can scare the technophobes off. But even here, the fax software can convert the scanner into a virtual, Internet-aware fax machine.

Local faxing is still easier using a fax machine, although there is software that will make it easier to send bulk faxes from your computer automatically, without spending hours at the fax machine.

Products

The most convenient, and feature-packed of them all are FaxSav and FaxFree. The FaxSav website can be accessed at www.faxsav.com. The service is easy to use, and all you have to do is download the software from the website. Then, you can use it to send a maximum of five trial faxes over the Internet. Once you are confident that the software and service delivers what it promises, you can register the product over the Internet itself. When the five pages of free faxes are over, the software will inform you that henceforth, you will have to register, receive an account name and password, and pay the charges. The charges will amount to 60 per cent of the standard international fax rates; and these vary depending on the distance of the calls. The company provides a rate sheet on its website, which lists the charges by destination country.

The total monthly charges can be paid in US dollars or in Indian currency. FaxSavs services provide the user with features which can be tailored to individual needs. Reliability through multiple fail-safe fax management systems, convenience and productivity gains by using familiar applications and methods, and significant cost savings through the use of integrated Internet and telephony networking make FaxSav services stand out.

Once your document is ready in your favourite wordprocessor, spreadsheet or even page layout software such as Quark Xpress, click on the print icon. In the dialog box that appears, choose FaxLauncher as your printer, enter a destination fax number and a subject, and the file is sent RSA encrypted over the Internet and ultimately delivered to any fax machine. The encryption ensures that your fax is safe, even if it is sent over the Internet which is considered relatively unsafe.

The software is available for free download for both Apple Macintosh and Windows PCs, so even if your office is predominantly Mac, international faxes are not a problem.

FaxSav also offers related facilities, such as fax to e-mail, e-mail to fax, and fax to fax services at the same low rates. In many cases, the savings can be as much as 50 per cent. The savings vary from country to country.

Other extra features for this software include sending an e-mail to any fax machine something that is extremely convenient, as you dont have to keep your e-mail and fax mailing lists separately, and FaxScan, which enables your scanner to send any scanned document as an RSA-encrypted fax via your Internet connection.

FaxFree is another option for users in India. The software, created by Tac Systems, has to be ordered on the Net, but this is inconvenient for the Indian customer, as payments over the Internet are still not a reality in India you will need an international credit card to make such a payment. On the other hand, if you order the software directly from the company, you have to pay a price of US $30 for a single user license and US $250 for a ten user license. The company does not have an Indian partner, but both FaxFree and FaxSav offer billings to a US number. So if your company has an office in the US, that saves you a lot of bother. Handling and shipping charges are extra. The World Bank and US embassies around the world are some of the more high profile FaxFree clients.

The software is available for computers that run on Windows 95 Mac users are out of luck here. The technical support manual can be downloaded from the website of the company.

FaxFree has its pains and gains, so to speak. While the user has to fork out an initial amount of US $30 compared to nothing for FaxSav, that is all there is to it. Once you have FaxFree installed, every fax you send over the Internet is absolutely free!

But faxes using FaxFree can be sent only to a fax machine or computer connected to the Internet. That would pose problems if you fax to anyone in India your documents have to be then sent the usual way over telephone lines. But Internet access is common abroad, and this requirement should not be a problem if the recipient is based abroad. After all, you pay nothing even if you fax a single page or a thousand!

The recipient has to have an email account with his local ISP in that country. Faxes sent via FaxFree are travelling on the Internet, not on regular phone lines. For the fax to reach an actual fax machine, it has to get out of the Internet at some point, and your recipient needs an Internet account for that.

For easier purchase and local support, FaxSav scores over FaxFree. But if savings are your ultimate priority, then FaxFree should be the product to plump for. However, what should be of more interest to the user will be the fact that both scores over traditional international fax!