How to Choose a Faxing Product

If you choose a team fax modem or a real fax machine? It is a multifunction device (scanner, printer and fax machine) it worth it? It depends on your needs

Things you need:

• Fax Modems
• Flat-bed scanners
• Multifunction fax machines
• Plain-paper fax
• Thermal fax machines

Step1Choose a fax modem to send and receive faxes if you create all or most of its documents on a computer, and if you do not send or receive faxes that often. Print received faxes if you need a printed copy. You can explore any nonelectronic documents you need to fax, but is a long time.

Step2Consider a fax machine if you receive a lot of faxes. To receive a fax, you can make your computer to slow down, and you might not be able to work in other materials until it is completely received the fax.

Step3Choose thermal fax machine if you send faxes over what you receive, or whether permanent copies of faxes received are unnecessary.

Step4Buy a plain paper fax if you send and receive many faxes per day.

Step5Choose the MFD if you need a simple document fax, a printer or printer secondary, and a limited use of scanner, and if your desktop space is very limited.

How to Save Money on Faxing

With the growing importance of the Internet as a communications tool, the fax has become less important. However, the fax remains a viable option for many people and businesses, thus reducing the cost of fax remains an important task for many.

Step1 Upgrade his fax machine. If your fax machine can not communicate faster speed industry standard, acquire a faster machine to reduce the time spent on sending faxes. This is particularly important for long-distance fax. If you receive a large number of faxes, invest in a fax machine laser instead of an inkjet to reduce the cost of printing.

Step2 Schedule faxes to off-peak. From long-distance costs are lower after the normal hours of telecommunications in many plans. Find out if his plan incentives to any fax at certain times, and schedule your faxes to those days, whenever possible. If necessary, negotiate lower long distance rates with its telecom provider, change your plan or switch to a provider with lower costs.

Step3 Open an Internet account fax. If you require a high volume of faxes that originate as electronic documents, open an account with an Internet fax service. These let you send faxes directly from computer applications, and some services to reduce their long distance by sending fax machines locally. They also receive faxes over the Internet or e-mail download files, thereby reducing printing costs.

Step4 Scan and email. If your typical recipients can accept documents by e-mail rather than fax, a scanner invest in exploration which includes e-mail capabilities. Many current fax machines and multifunction devices also offer the possibility of email, and can quickly pay for themselves by reducing telecommunications costs.

Step5 Accept electronic documents. Assess your business processes to determine whether it can accept electronic documents instead of faxes. Then publish an email address along with a fax number as a method for receiving documents.

How Internet Faxing Works

In this era of the paperless office and digital documents, it seems that the more paper and ink fax might finally be ready to retire. However, the fax remains an essential part of doing business in certain types of documents (legal contracts, for example) and some industries, such as public relations.

Desktop-fax software and services as possible to send and receive faxes without having to touch a real fax machine. With the fax desktop, cree any document on your computer can be sent to a fax machine via e-mail or the Web.

In this article we will talk about the Internet, fax, a kind of desktop fax in which outgoing email attachments become faxes and incoming faxes are converted into e-mail attachments.

Internet Fax Basics
With the Internet, fax any document that can be attached to an e-mail can be sent by fax to a fax machine analog. This includes Microsoft Word documents, PDF files and scanned images.

Internet fax is a hosted service, meaning they do not need to buy and install servers fax, modem and special software. Instead, you subscribe to a third party the Internet fax service that converts faxes and e-mails to faxes to e-mails for you.

Here are the three basic things you need to send faxes Internet:

1. An Internet connection
2. An e-mail account
3. A subscription to an Internet fax service

Once you have all three, here is like sending a fax using the Internet fax:

1. Since its desktop application or email Web, composing a message and attach the file you want to fax.
2. As the instructions of its subscription Internet-fax service, e-mail message to the recipient's fax number, plus a special extension (example: 18005551000@internetfax.com)
3. The service receives an e-mail attachment, encodes the attachment as fax data and sends it through a telephone line for the recipient's fax machine.

You can receive a fax on your computer in the same way:

1. Your subscription to Internet-fax service assigns you a free telephone line or regular fax number.
2. The sender mark that number, then sends the fax of a fax machine.
3. The subscription service receives the fax, converts the data into a an e-mail attachment and sends it to his email address.
4. To read the fax, simply open the attachment.

Since e-mail is the only application needed to send and receive faxes Internet, faxes can also be sent from a handheld device. Read on to find out more about the Internet fax of a PDA.

How can I receive faxes in my home office without paying for a fax machine and phone line?

-- Many small business owners and people working at home must be able to send and receive documents via a fax machine. In the past, that meant the purchase or lease of a fax machine and additional payment for telephone service. Now, several companies offer Internet-based virtual fax services. These services typically assign fax numbers to customers so they can receive faxes from the traditional fax machines. Normally, fax services charge a monthly fee. Many offer different levels of service, of which only accounts can receive faxes unlimited local fax. Some also offer additional services like voice mail.

Here's how it works:

• You subscribe to the service.
• The service assigned a fax number and provides instructions on how to send a fax from an email program or a Web interface.
• You send and receive faxes as attachments via email.
• The service bills on a monthly basis or by fax, depending on their service plan.

Sending and receiving faxes through these services in a manner similar to works with a traditional fax machine. To send a fax:

• You attach the document to an email address and message to the recipient fax number. Depending on your service provider, you can add a domain name (eg 18005551234@emailfaxes.com). The document can be an exploration of a paper document or other documents, if the service supports.
• The service translates the attachment so that the recipient of the fax can read it.
• The service sends data through the telephone line.
• The recipient's fax decodes the data and prints.

To receive a fax:

• The sender mark your fax number.
• The fax machine translates the data and transmits them over the phone line.
• The service receives data and translates into an image file.
• The service sends the image file to your email address.
• You open the email and the attachment and view the file.

Basic Idea Behind Fax Machines

Fax machines have been around in one form or another for more than a century - Alexander Bain patented the first fax design in 1843 (see Science Online: Alexander Bain and fax machine for more information). Looking back at some early designs, you can get a pretty good idea of how they work today. Most of the first designs in a rotating drum. To send a fax, you attach the piece of paper to the drum, with the impression outward faces. The rest of the machine worked something like this:

• There was a small photo sensor with a lens and a light.
• The photo sensor is attached to an arm and faced the sheet of paper.
• The arm can move down on the sheet of paper from one extreme to another as the road turn into the drum.

In other words, it worked something like a lathe.

The photo sensor was able to see and focus on a small piece of land on pieces of paper - perhaps an area of 0.01-inch-square (0.25 square millimeters). That small piece of paper would be either white or black. The drum would rotate so that the photo sensor could consider a line of the sheet of paper and then lose one line. He did so either in stages or in a long spiral.

To transmit information via a telephone line in early fax machines used a technique very simple: If the ground of the role that the photo cell was watching were white, the fax machine to send a tone, if it were black, would send a different tone (see How modems work for details). For example, it could have sent a 800-Hertz tone white and a 1300-Hertz pitch black.

On the receiving end, there would be a rotation similar mechanism drum, and a kind of pen to mark on paper. When the receiving fax machine heard a 1300-Hertz tone that would apply pen to paper, and when they heard a 800-Hertz tone to take the pen out of paper.

How to Buy a Fax Machine and tips

When looking for a fax machine, consider quality, price and special features. If you need to send faxes but not receive them, consider a fax modem as an alternative.

Step1 Determine the type of machine you want. Choose a film-cartridge fax machine to get mediocre print quality. Look for an ink-jet fax machine to get better print quality for a slightly higher price but the highest cost of use. Buy a laser fax machine for good print quality if you can afford to pay more. If you'll receive a lot of faxes, the higher purchase price will quickly be offset by the lower cost of use.

Step2 Look for machines with four choices for image quality.

Step3 Make sure the machine can print 64 shades of gray if you'll be receiving and copying both text and images. Color-capable machines are also available, but they're expensive.

Step4 Figure out how many speed-dial numbers you'll need, if any.

Step5 Decide whether you need an integrated digital answering machine.

Step6 Compare each model's capacity for feeding multiple pages, storing received faxes when the machine is out of paper and 'broadcast' faxing to a group of recipients.

Step7 Evaluate how easy the machine is to use.

Step8 Look for advanced business features, if necessary, such as delayed transmission, the ability to 'poll' other fax machines, copy reduction and enlargement, and 'shrink to fit' 8 1 /2-by-11-inch pages.

Step9 Budget for everything you'll need, such as paper, extra cartridges, a surge suppressor and a service contract.

Step10 Consider service contracts offered by the dealer if they include maintenance and loaner privileges and cover normal wear.
Step11Base your final decision on functionality and initial and ongoing costs.

Tips & Warnings

• You typically don't need to get a separate phone line (the fax or an attached answering machine may be able to tell incoming faxes from voice calls, or the sender can input a fax-activation code), but an extra line is convenient if you're doing a lot of faxing.
• Be sure to budget for consumable items, such as paper and cartridges or ink.
• A film cartridge typically produces 357 pages. Divide cartridge price by number of pages to figure out the cost per page.
• Toner cartridges for laser fax machines can produce up to several thousand pages, depending on the brand and model.
• Unusually low prices indicate low quality in parts and construction. Be wary of machines with 90-day manufacturer's warranties; most machines come with a one-year warranty.

Article source from eHow

What's Facsimile machines

Fax (short for facsimile, from Latin fac simile, "make similar", i.e. "make a copy") is a telecommunications technology used to transfer copies (facsimiles) of documents, especially using affordable devices operating over the telephone network. The word telefax, short for telefacsimile, for "make a copy at a distance", is also used as a synonym. Although fax is not an acronym, it is often erroneously written as such (“FAX”).

The device is also known as a telecopier in certain industries. When sending documents to people at large distances, faxes have a distinct advantage over postal mail in that the delivery is nearly instantaneous, yet its disadvantages in quality have relegated it to a position beneath email as the prevailing form of electronic document transferral.

A "fax machine" usually consists of an image scanner, a modem, and also offered as options for many high-volume workgroup printers and photocopiers.

Although devices for transmitting printed documents electrically have existed, in various forms, since the mid to late 20th century, modern fax machines became feasible only in the mid-1970s as the sophistication increased and cost of the three underlying technologies dropped. Digital fax machines first became popular in Japan, where they had a clear advantage over competing technologies like the teleprinter, since at the time (before the development of easy-to-use input method editors) it was faster to handwrite kanji than to type the characters. Over time, faxing gradually became affordable, and by the mid-1980s, fax machines were very popular around the world.

Although many businesses still maintain some kind of fax capability, the technology has faced increasing competition from Internet-based systems. However, fax machines still retain some advantages, particularly in the transmission of sensitive material which, due to mandates like Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA, cannot be sent over the Internet unencrypted. In some countries, because digital signatures on contracts are not recognized by law while faxed contracts with copies of signatures are, fax machines enjoy continuing popularity in business.

In many corporate environments, standalone fax machines have been replaced by "fax servers" and other computerized systems capable of receiving and storing incoming faxes electronically, and then routing them to users on paper or via a email (which may be secured). Such systems have the advantage of reducing costs by eliminating unnecessary printouts and reducing the number of inbound analog phone lines needed by an office.

Article source From Wikipedia