Next Generation Faxing: Incoming Faxes Automatically Convert into PDF Documents

2008 July 1

by Urbain

Because I was so frustrated with spam faxes hogging up my machine and eating up trays of paper, I switched out my paper fax machine a few years ago to the computer based service offered by K7.

How Computer Faxes Work, from the Users’ Point of View

At K7, users are assigned a phone number, often a Washington state number, that receives faxes and voice messages. Once sent to the assigned number, incoming faxes are converted to images and sent by the K7 service as email attachments. Email notifications of voice mail are also sent.

Although it was an adjustment from a paper fax machine, I found that computerized faxes were much better than receiving faxes by a traditional fax machine.

Benefits of Receiving Faxes by Computer

One of the problems with paper fax machines is that you receive a fax once, and that’s it. If you lose it, you don’t have a backup copy anywhere unless you photocopied your fax. With computerized fax services, you have access to your faxes for as long as you store them on your computer. I would keep the emails in a special email folder instead of deleting them and could find virtually any fax, including transmissions from a couple years ago. The service also stored faxes online for several weeks in the K7 member’s area, offering additional peace of mind for those times when email can’t be accessed.

Spam faxes are not so much a problem with online services. You just delete them, saving money on toner and paper.

Problems with Computer Faxes

The problem with services such as K7 is that you can’t send faxes out with them. Having an out of state number might also be a problem if you receive a lot of faxes from local clients who do not like paying long distance telephone charges every time they send you a fax.

Overall, K7’s free service was extremely reliable. The service was so good that I wanted to upgrade to support their business. However, since no available phone numbers were in my area, I wasn’t able to upgrade. Nonetheless, the service worked fine up until a couple months ago. Now, my assigned number is busy all the time and the fax number is no longer valid.

Tollfree Fax Line + PDF Conversions

K7’s sudden interruption in service was actually a blessing in disguise. It forced me to find a better service: MyFax.

MyFax is only $10 a month (less than the paper I used in my machine fax) and there is no setup fee. Not only does it offer the benefits of computerized faxing outlined above, but I discovered that MyFax has even better services. For instance:

You get a toll free phone number — your clients who send you faxes will love this.
Faxes come in as email attachments — and the attachments are PDF files. If you share documents or have an off line or online electronic file system, saving incoming faxes as PDF files is great. You don’t have to scan your fax or convert it from an image file to a PDF file — it’s done on the fly by MyFax and saves a ton of time and work.
MyFax offers a spam reporting service, so if a spammer is clogging up your toll free line with junk faxes, you have some recourse.
You can send faxes with MyFax’s service, either by email or through MyFax’s web-based service. Not only can you send faxes on demand, but you can schedule when they go out. If there’s a failed transmission, no problem — MyFax will automatically attempt redelivery two times.

MyFax offers many other services and perks. I have been absolutely thrilled with them. Even large companies, such as Federal Express and AllState, are advertised as using the award winning fax service. If you have a small business — or want a reliable fax service for personal needs — you need to take a look at MyFax. There are no contracts, so you pay month to month for as long as you want the service and are not tied into a two-year contract like your cell phone. MyFax is available in the United States, the UK and Canada.

Buy 2 months get the 3rd FREE at MyFax