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Internet Fax and Web Fax BOTH give you the ability to send and receive faxes from your email. (see what is Internet Fax).
Internet Fax revolves around using your email client to get your email. This can be either a piece of client software like MS Outlook or Outlook Express or it could be a web based email like Yahoo! Or GMail .
Web Fax refers to using your Internet Fax Service’s online interface to create, send and receive faxes. The advantage here is you don’t need to be at “your” PC, any PC with an Internet connection will do. More on this later. If you use Yahoo! Mail or some other free web based email service to get and send faxes, you also get one of the key benefits of Web Fax, mobility. No matter where you are you can get and send faxes from almost any PC you can log on to.
Web Fax advantages:
Where Web Fax and free web based email id’s diverge is in functionality. Where as you can receive and send faxes from any free email account, your service provider’s Web Fax interface likely has many other useful features you just won’t find in using just your email.
Here is a partial list of some of the features Web Fax might offer that traditional email or web based email might not offerCreate, store and use custom cover pages View just your online faxes without having to sort through email create and store custom lists and settings for those lists
- Some have special features like “billing codes” and “addendum pages”
- Select the “quality” of the fax, standard or fine
What do you need to use Web Fax to receive and send faxes?
- You need an Internet Service, preferably a broadband service link DSL or High Speed Internet from you cable company
- A subscription to an Internet Fax ServiceWhether you use your email or Web Fax to send faxes via the Internet you will save time and money.
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This article covers what features and functions to consider when choosing an Internet fax service.
| Features for Intenet Fax |
| Local numbers |
Local numbers are important if you want to present a “local presence”. But in today’s world local numbers are less and less important since most phone companies continue to add “overlay” area codes to meet the growing demand for numbers due to exploding cell phone usage. Given this, don’t worry too much about getting a local number. Local numbers are also less important due to the “flat rate phone service” most people have these days. Almost no on is going to have a toll call to send you a fax.
Having a non toll free number is critical (though it does not have to be local) if you want to do international faxing. |
| Toll Free numbers. |
Toll free numbers are great because the area codes, 800, 888, 877 are so easy to remember. The only downside is that international faxers cannot fax to a toll free number in the US. Toll free fax numbers do work in the US and Canada however. |
| Size of the Company |
The size of the Internet Fax Company does matter. The larger the company the more likely they will have lots of “ports”. Think of ports as individual phone lines that allow the internet fax provider to accept and dial out to send faxes. The more ports the less likely it is that your fax will sit idly in their fax server waiting to be sent. Most free and many smaller companies have low prices but have very limited number of ports. RapidFAX, MyFAX , eFAX & RingCentral all have large corporate accounts (especially RapidFAX and eFax) which they need to maintain lots of ports to handle. This is good for all users on the system. |
| Online Interface |
Most Internet Fax providers offer the ability to send and receive faxes from an online interface. Although this is convenient it is not necessary to send and receive faxes online. The quickest and easiest way to send and receive faxes online is by using your email to send and receive faxes. You can even set up a Gmail or Yahoo! email account ONLY for faxes. The one advantage of the online interface is that it will only get faxes and never any junk mail. MyFAX, RapidFAX and RingCentral have some of the best web fax interfaces in the industry. |
| International Online Fax Pricing |
Pricing for using Internet Fax for International destinations varies greatly by provider. Your best bet is to check with each provider if you plan on email fax for sending lots of faxes. |
| Formats supported |
Internet fax providers can easily take almost any type of document you can attach to an email and turn it into a fax. They do this with conversion software. Most common formats are covered but if you have special software that you’ll need to fax from you should check the list of formats supported by the Internet fax provider before you sign up. The other option is to save your document in a common format or a PDF before attaching which will insure it will go through. BTW… All Microsoft Office applications as well as most graphics file formats can be sent with Internet Fax |
| Internet Fax software |
Some companies offer special Internet Faxing software that resides on your computer. In general The Fax Report does not recommend using special software unless you deem some benefit from it. We have not yet seen any faxing software that makes sending and receiving faxes online any easier than simply using email or an Internet fax providers web fax interface. |
| Pricing for Internet Fax |
| Flat rate Internet Fax pricing |
Most good Internet Fax providers charge a flat rate of $7.95 to 416.95 per month. These package usually include some amount of incoming and outgoing faxes. Check our Internet fax comparison page for details on what the top Internet Fax Providers are offering. |
| How many received and sent faxes are included in your package. |
If you send or receive a 100 to 200 of fax pages online you’ll do just fine with the $9.95 to $16.95 packages offered by the biggest Internet fax providers. If however you need to send or receive more than that you’ll want to be sure they have low price per page cost for overage or purchase a larger package. Price per extra fax page usually run from 6 – 12 cents per page after you’ve exceeded your package. |
| Fax Spam |
The cold hard fact is that Fax Spam will find you no matter what you do. Providers try to stop it but few succeed. Read more here about fax spam. |
| Customer care |
Internet fax is very easy. Once you get going it is highly unlikely that you will need to use their customer service. But if you do run into a problem sending or receiving faxes online you’ll want to get fast attention. All the big Internet Fax providers offer 24 by 7 services either by phone, chat or both. |
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The benefits of Web Faxing and Internet Faxing over traditional Fax machines are many:
- No Fax hardware to maintain (that’s right, you do not need a Fax machine)
- No Ink to purchase (you’ll still need printer ink to print faxes sometimes)
- You can send an receive multiple Faxes at the same time
- No paper and ink wasted on fax spam
- Faxes are sent Instantly
- You can get your Faxes from ANY PC with Internet access
- No paper jams
These are just a few of the advantages of Internet Faxing over using a Fax machine.
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How fast is internet fax? Internet faxes can take from 3 to 20 minutes to go from your email to the recipient’s fax machine. You may ask why does it take so long for an Internet fax to go to the fax machine. After all when you send a fax from a fax machine it comes out on the other fax machine almost instantly! This requires some explanation.
How Internet Fax works-
When you send a fax via an Internet fax provider they first receive your email, then they need to turn it and the attachment (if you’re sending one) and turn it into a “fax” so the fax machine can accept it. (this is part of what makes Internet faxes legal) . Then they have to dial out to the fax machine you want to send to. What you don’t know since you’re not standing there is how many times the Internet fax provider has to try to send the fax due to busy signals, paper out and so forth.
Why do incoming Internet faxes take so long?
After receiving yoru fax the Internet fax provider needs to turn it into a PDF (Portable Document Format from Adobe) since almost every PC on the plan. Then it has to fire up an email system to send it to you as an attachment. The conversion usually only takes a few minutes depending on the time of day, how busy the Internet fax provider is, how many “ports” they have, and the whims of the Internet which all email is subject too.
Why Internet faxes are FASTER than using a fax machine!
One day last year we tested sending a 5 page document via a fax machine vs. Internet fax. To fax it with the fax machine we had to print the document, get it from the pringer, walk it to the fax machine (hopefully no one else is there!), load the pager, input the number, wait for it to finish (hopefully it did not jam or get a busy) then walk back to our desks. It took over 7 minutes! With Internet fax I attached the document to an email, typed in an address and hit send. It took less than 30 seconds and I didn’t have to get up!
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A common question is what is the difference between fax and email. Here are the basics…
Faxes are considered a legal document
Fax has been around for a long time. In fact the first patent for a fax machine was in 1843! But what makes fax significant is that faxes are a legal document. That is why when you apply for a mortgage or do most business transactions the faxes start flying.
Internet Fax is faster and safer than a fax machine
Emails generally are not considered legal documents for transaction purposes and thus the forever old fax is still with us and may be for a long time. Internet faxes are legal documents. The big advantages of Internet faxes are they are faster, easier to store and are infinitely more secure than traditional faxes on a fax machine. Think about it; with a regular fax machine you need to be out in the open sending secure documents or if you’re on the road you need to trust your documents to a hotel clerk to deliver to you! With Internet faxes faxes come directly to your email and no one else sees them. also see How to send an Internet fax. Also see how to send a fax from Microsoft Office
To summarize:
- Faxes and Internet faxes are legal
- Email, not so much.
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