We are looking to replace our stand-alone fax machine with software on a computer. As it is we send less than 5 faxes a month and 99% of what we receive is junk. (to send we already have network scanning capabilities).

I was thinking of WinFax but the reviews on it are awful. Does anyone have any experience with decent faxing software? If we can send from each networked PC great, but that is not a must have. The receives will go to the admin computer and she will review/forward/print as appropriate.

Thoughts?

Merci,
MapleLeaf

I use eFax, the faxes come right to my e-mail in-box as pdf files.

If you're up for linux, Hylafax (http://www.hylafax.org) is fantastic.

hi,

there are a lot services out there , receiving is free, and sending costs money.

you get your own fax number and get it as pdf or tiff.

cheers dp

I also use eFax.com (have for a bunch of years)

I grabbed an 877 number to be 'national' rather than tied to one specific location. I have found however that many international locations (Chile, Japan etc) cannot fax to an 877 number. So I now have a 'local' number which unfortunately identifies me in MN vs a larger business location.

I LOVE the service and highly recommend it.

The other benefit (from the ease of receiving) is that you can compose a fax in Word or Excel and very quickly fax it directly from your computer. The only reason I have a scanner is for copying expense vouchers and scanning a signed copy of a document... I fax from Word directly most everything else.

We also love efax, we can have Taiwan local number and USA number and access to the faxes from anywhere that has internet access.

eFax is based on a subscription service. Considering we have a relatively new fax machine paid for, and only send a couple of faxes a month (but receive a ton of junk faxes), it would end up costing us $$ to switch to it.

I was thinking stand alone, like WinFax, but one that is good I can't see us paying a subscription fee to receive junk faxes.

Any other ideas?

Windows XP has Fax software as standard. It requires a "fax" device like a standard dial-up modem with fax capabilities. I have never used this, but it may be a cheap way of trying a "software" fax.

We use the standard windows fax software (console) on a server in the office. It stores TIFF files on the server and automatically prints on the main printer. We get about 3 faxes a month, so it's OK. We have a really cheap modem doing the receiving.

PDF to email sounds very cool!

Aidan

I've been using eFax Free for sometime. It's a limited service so there's a quota of 20 pages of incoming fax every month. I rarely need incoming fax so it works out fine. You mentioned receiving tons of junk faxes. I recalled eFax would filter spam/junk faxes (?). I did put my eFax # on the do-not-call list. Not sure which one did the job since I hardly get junk faxes.

Maybe you can give the free service a try and see if it works for you? Here's the link:

https://www.efax.com/en/efax/twa/sig...ncy=&currency=

efax. I use the free version, have for a very long time, probably get two faxs a month. Never had a piece of junk from them.

I have been using FaxDigits for quite some time now with excellent results for receiving faxes at no charge with a dedicated phone number. Faxes are send to your e-mail in a pdf format. Check it out.
www.faxdigits.com

When I had to pay for it myself, I had eFax, and loved it. Its so easy to use... sending and receiving faxes was always a breeze. Now the company I work for has some integrated telephone number/fax thing so we just get them in our emails anyway. I can't send faxes anymore electronically but we have printers in our buildings we can print to and select "fax" in the settings and they send the faxes for us... is a little tricky to figure out but it works okay. I'd definitely choose eFax again if I didn't have my company resources.

Speaking of which, it always surprises me these days when I have to send a fax somewhere. I really prefer just emailing over a PDF of whatever it is. Companies who require faxes these days just strike me as very backward technologically. If its a choice somebody prefers, I understand a company offering it as a channel, but its a little irritating when a fax is required.

MightyFax for outbound faxes -- cheap to buy and very reliable.

EFax for inbound faxes, especially the free version. One hint on Efax...make sure that you receive at least one fax a month or it terminates the free account. I have a reminder to myself to send myself a test fax on a certain day every month and never had a problem in years.

Leo

Don't use WINFAX!!!

Had it in an office I worked in. It was a mess. First it doesn't come in clear, lots of missed or dropped calls.

Boss liked it because it "saved" on paper but the maintenance to keep it going was not worth it.

I don't know an alternative but I do know that ANYTHING was a better system then winfax.