Analog fax machine over network?

Easius

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
356
Is there any box/service/adapter I could get to make an analog fax machine be able to plug into my network to send/receive faxes? I don't want to get a land line.

Thanks!
 
Just about any VoIP provider that provides you with an ATA will work. Vonage, callcentric, etc. It won't be a "land line" but it will provide you a phone line for the fax. You don't have to get all the bells and whistles either, or even unlimited minutes. The one thing you have to pay attention to is if your fax supports t38. That helps ensure that the fax works reliably. Both the sending and receiving machine have to support it though.

Another (often cheaper) alternative is going with an eFax company. I don't have any first-hand experience with them but I know several people that have gone with them. They give you a number to receive faxes on (you also put that in your cover page) and the faxes get emailed to you. To send a fax you can either email it to a special address (from a specific email), use their web portal or use a "print to fax" option that most providers have available.
 
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You could get a VoIP ATA & a SIP trunk from any number of providers. However, faxing over VoIP can be problematic. Landline is the gold standard for reliable faxing (and I use that term loosely). Really depends on your level of patience and tolerance for incomplete or garbled faxes.
 
Tell that to all of the medical folks, they're a bit hamstrung by HIPAA.

Holy crap... sorry to hear.

Even in this little backwards country of 5 million we're using electronic records...
 
Holy crap... sorry to hear.

Even in this little backwards country of 5 million we're using electronic records...

Electronic records? yes. (nice assumption btw, a BAD one) The snag is the "secure" transmission of anything health related. Faxes are on the secure list and they're the lowest common denominator. Would you want to have to explain how to scan and encrypt something to Joe average clueless? Thus, Faxing is still being kept around. (and in a zombie like state, not quite dead but not quite alive either)
 
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In the end went with vonage... Paying ~$10/month (+$100 hardware) for the fax line and was able to port the number.
 
Ugh... Faxes.. The industry I am part of has a hard on for them as well. (retail lumber dealers/lumber yards).

Many of our suppliers either prefer or require faxes for orders and order acknowledgements. Is it really that hard to just setup a generic email address to receive orders?

We regularly receive 30+ page faxes from a handful of vendors. Modern digital phone lines are not kind to faxes, these long faxes generally fail about 15% of the time.
 
Doing FAX over VoIP is a pain and dodgy at best, either buy a service or tell them to use e-mail. As someone said, it's 2016.
 
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