Internet Tips & Tricks
By MARK DAVIS
General Manager, CommSpeed Internet Service
Vice
President, Prescott Computer Society
Visit the Computer Society Website
www.prescottcomputersociety.org
Faxing using the
Internet
The
traditional method of sending and
receiving
faxes (using a
fax machine and a
phone line) has been around for nearly 25 years. With
cell phones and broadband Internet, many people are
dropping traditional landline phone service. One might
think this leaves no way to send or receive faxes.
Fortunately, Internet
services are stepping up to fill the void.
Internet fax services
provide many benefits. A phone line is unnecessary.
You can send or receive faxes anywhere there's Internet
access. You have an always-on fax that never runs out
of paper or ink.
There are many Internet
fax services at differing price points. You'll need to
choose a plan tailored to your needs. Here, we will
review some of the more popular Internet fax services.
www.efax.com - Subscriptions begin at
$12.95 per month, with a $12.95 activation fee. Pay
plans offer either a toll-free or a local number. With a
toll-free number, the sender does not have to pay, and
you are charged 20 cents per page received. If you go
with a local number, the sender pays any toll. Local
numbers aren't charged for the first 150 pages per
month. After that, it's 15 cents per page. eFax charges
10 cents per page to send faxes in the U.S. Faxes can
be sent from eFax's Web site or via e- mail.
Additionally, you can download eFax's program,
Messenger. It will send your fax, in addition to
providing editing options.
www.Send2Fax.com offers plans beginning at $1.95 per
month, with a $4.95 setup fee. At the low end, you must
also make a $20 prepayment. When your balance falls
below $5, you're charged $20 to refill your account.
Faxes sent or received are billed at 15 cents per
page. You can send faxes from the Web or via e-mail.
Also, if you use Outlook, you can send directly from
Microsoft Word. For $7.95 monthly, you get 100 incoming
or outgoing pages. There's no setup fee and no
prepayment. Extra pages are 10 cents each. With either
account, you can choose a toll-free or local number.
www.myfax.com provides Internet fax
service for $10 per month. There's no setup fee, and
you get a toll-free number. The plan includes 100
outgoing and 200 incoming faxes. MyFax allows you to
send faxes from your e-mail account or from the
Internet. You can access your incoming faxes via e-mail
or online.
To learn more about
Internet faxing and listings of other services, check
out
www.savetz.com/fax or
www.faxbeep.com.
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