Email Fax Phone

Traditional Fax

The traditional method for sending faxes over phone lines(PSTN).

• Fax machine ? Phone line ? Fax machine

A fax machine is an electronic instrument composed of a scanner, a modem, and a printer. It transmits data in the form of pulses via a telephone line to a recipient, usually another fax machine, which then transforms these impulses into images, and prints them on paper.

The traditional method requires a phone line, and only one fax can be connected to send or receive at a time. Then came email fax phone.

Internet Fax

The email fax phone concept achieves a dramatic reduction in communication costs especially when long faxes are frequently exchanged with overseas or distant offices.

Since there is no telephone connection charge when sending a fax over the Internet, the cost of sending faxes is covered entirely by the fixed line Internet connection fee. The recipient machine must also be compatible with Internet Fax.

Hardcopy is converted to TIFF or PDF data and attached to an e-mail in MIME format. Then, taking advantage of a connection to the office LAN, data is sent via TCP/IP directly to any Internet Fax on the intranet or Internet.

IP Fax and IP Address Relay

IP Fax transmits data over an office intranet from a networked multifunctional device to the IP address of another. Taking advantage of an established LAN / WAN infrastructure, IP Fax eliminates costly connection and transmission fees.

Also, IP Fax does not require a dedicated server or make use of the office mail server. IP Address Relay forwards to a multifunctional device for relaying to a local G3 fax machine.

Email Fax Phone

As modems came into wider use with personal computers, the computer was used to send faxes directly. Instead of first printing a hard copy to be then sent via fax machine, a document could now be printed directly to the software fax, then sent via the computer's modem. Receiving faxes was accomplished similarly.

• Email ? Phone line ? Fax machine
• Fax Machine ? Phone line ? Computer

A disadvantage of receiving faxes this way is that the computer has to be turned on and running the fax software to receive any faxes.