Internet Faxing - eFax

A document transmission mechanism, which makes use of the IP network, is known as Internet faxing. This mechanism uses the Internet for the transmission and reception of faxes and can also be referred to as online faxing. Owing to the easy availability of the Internet and the communication facilities it provides, Internet faxing has a competitive advantage over traditional faxing technologies.

How does Internet Faxing Work?

One of the major differences in traditional and online faxing is in the medium used. While traditional faxing methods involve a telephone line, online faxing uses an Internet connection to bring about fax communication. As online faxing is carried out over an Internet line, both the sender's and the receiver's machines require possessing the capabilities of Internet access.

Internet fax communication can take place between two fax terminals connected to a telephone network with an IP network in between. It can also be carried out between a fax terminal and an Internet node. In the first case, the communication set up requires the use of a PSTN-to-IP or an IP-to-PSTN gateway. For a fax communication between a fax terminal and an Internet node, the initial part of the communication takes place over a telephone network while the latter part takes place over an IP network.

In case of Internet faxing, the document that is to be sent over the network is converted to a TIFF or a PDF file before it can be transmitted over the Internet. It is then attached to an email in MIME format and sent over the TCP/IP network. Internet offers an extension to computer-based faxing to include a fax gateway to look after the interconversion between faxes and mails. When sending a fax from a computer to a fax machine, the document travels over the Internet and reaches the fax gateway from where it is transmitted to the recipient's fax machine over a phone line. For communication from a fax machine to a computer, the fax document needs to be transmitted from a fax machine to a fax gateway over a phone line. The fax gateway converts it into an email message that can be sent across the Internet. The email message is then delivered to the recipient's email account.

Some commercial Internet faxing services allow the sending of faxes using a web browser or an email client while others require installing special software to enable online faxing from an Internet-connected computer. eFax is a fax program designed for use on Unix-like operating systems. This software allows the users to send and receive faxes through a computer, a fax modem and a telephone line. It supports both a command-line as well as a graphical user interface. It is open-source and free software that is included in major Linux distributions. Recent years have witnessed the development of Internet applications that enable online faxing without the use of a fax modem. They also facilitate the exchange of graphical faxes.

Advantages and Disadvantages of eFaxing

Since online faxing can be integrated with emails, it enables paperless communication. Moreover, the Internet facilitates a speedier communication. The speed and bandwidth of the Internet allows the users to store, send and receive multiple faxes simultaneously. However, the storage periods differ with service packages. Some Internet fax users are allowed to store the faxes online for 6 months while some have a storage period of about 8-12 months.

Internet faxing does not require a dedicated telephone line. The communication takes place over the existing Internet connection line. As no extra phone line is needed, online faxing results in a substantial reduction in communication costs. The users are only required to pay a fixed Internet connection fee. Although Internet faxing is cost-effective, the users are required to pay a fixed monthly fee regardless of the amount of line usage.

True, Internet faxing provides a user-friendly interface that makes Internet faxing easy to learn and operate. But, those who have been using traditional fax machines for long years find it difficult to switch to online faxing.

There are two sides to everything and Internet faxing is no exception. It is you to decide whether to restrict yourself to the 'old' or greet the 'new'.