Fax software

I have the following suggestions based on some threads on somersoft for a small biz.

Faxes in: Mbox
Faxes out: Winfax

Currently planning on getting these, any better ideas?
 
I have the following suggestions based on some threads on somersoft for a small biz.

Faxes in: Mbox
Faxes out: Winfax

Currently planning on getting these, any better ideas?

I have an account with MBOX,works fine,you can send and receive faxes with this.
I also just use Fax console on my computer for everyday faxes,
 
i just use fax function on my HP printer for sending when i need to send something (usually to gov), and i don't need incoming

FAX is so last century
 
Hi Strann

last Millenium evrn

youd be quite surprised though that lot of legal folks and lenders etc dont like email pdfs............they prefer fax,even when there is 400 pages :(

ta
rolf
 
youd be quite surprised though that lot of legal folks and lenders etc dont like email pdfs............they prefer fax,even when there is 400 pages :(
Yeah, see, I don't get that. I have also encountered several occasions where, for "anti-tampering" reasons, people wanted me to send them a fax rather than email a pdf... So I emailed a pdf to their fax number - which apparently was fine with them. I have no idea how their receiving it via a fax machine makes it any more "legitimate"; I assume they don't understand that sending a fax doesn't require you to ever have an actual piece of paper. Nor do they seem to appreciate that they could have received that fax as a pdf to their PC. :confused:

I want to yell: "Get with the PROGRAM!" :D
 
Hi Strann

last Millenium evrn

youd be quite surprised though that lot of legal folks and lenders etc dont like email pdfs............they prefer fax,even when there is 400 pages :(

ta
rolf

in cases like that it's easier to send it to them via courier, rather then spend few hours in front of fax machine trying to send 400 pages :)
 
mbox both directions - scan or print to PDF, attach it to an email and send it to the mbox email-to-fax gateway. Easy as.

I do find it somewhat ironic that an organisation who insists on recieving fax rather than a PDF attached to an email will be happy for me to attach an PDF to an email and send it to an email-to-fax gateway (mbox) so they can get their fax. Idiots. :rolleyes:
 
One thing about faxes vs email... it's much easier these days to find spyware and scripts on the internet to infect pcs and intercept people's emails / files.

Whereas it's probably still the same difficulty as it always was to intercept a straight fax to fax as far as I'm aware. You can't just be a 14yo with an internet connection.
 
by the way, does anyone know services which would provide you with a virtual land line number forwarded to your mobile?

How about a VoIP service?

eg: NodePhone2-Starter $5 per month gives $10 worth of call credits. Calls forwarded to your mobile cost $0.29 per minute with no flagfall charge.

http://www.internode.on.net/residential/home_phone/nodephone/pricing/

You get to choose which state and calling zone the number is in.

Unfortunately they don't yet support 1800/1300/13 numbers or multiple numbers on the same service (would need to sign up for multiple $5pm services).

I'm sure there's plenty of other ways to do this too.

Anyway, I use a NodePhone2 service for my business - means my 02 business number can follow me wherever I am around Australia (or even around the world - I was making and receiving calls while in South America earlier this year for the same cost as if I was still in Sydney).

I'm about to go interstate for a few weeks to visit family, so I'll forward my business number to my mobile and will just pay $0.29 per min for calls I receive - and nobody needs to know I'm not actually in Sydney - it's just business as usual. If I need to make calls I have a softphone and USB handset that I can use to call via my laptop ... 18c flat rate for calls Australia wide, doesn't cost me any more to call my clients even if I am interstate.

Again, there's plenty of other services like this out there - I'm just explaining what I use, to demonstrate the capability of the technology.

One word of warning: I wouldn't recommend a "cheap" VoIP service for business purposes. I have some friends who use a cheap VoIP service and I find it very difficult to talk to them on the phone, the quality of the calls is so poor. Make sure the service you use is good enough for business usage. I use NodePhone, but there are other good products out there too.
 
One thing about faxes vs email... it's much easier these days to find spyware and scripts on the internet to infect pcs and intercept people's emails / files.

Whereas it's probably still the same difficulty as it always was to intercept a straight fax to fax as far as I'm aware. You can't just be a 14yo with an internet connection.

You're much more likely to have someone steal the information directly from your PC than from an email. Why bother trying to hack into a relatively secure mail server just to read someone's email, when it's generally far easier to gain access to someone's compromised machine and read anything on it?

I still don't recommend sending highly sensitive information by unencrypted email - but don't get overly concerned about email security in general terms ... it is the PCs at either end you need to worry about, not the email itself.
 
how is the quality?

Superb - better than my old landline ... I remember my mum commenting that it sounded clearer when I first swapped over - you'd never know it was a VoIP call (which is kind of the point).

If you use Internode as your ISP, they have specially tuned their network to give priority to NodePhone VoIP calls to ensure there are no lost packets which causes dropouts or jitter, etc. Not that this would matter much if all you ever used it for was to forward calls to your mobile.

Like I said - there are cheaper services out there, but you want to be careful that they are reliable enough and give good enough quality to be used for business purposes. On a good day, even Skype is superb ... but on a bad day, it is horrid. NodePhone doesn't have bad days (unless you have an unreliable or overly congested internet link).

You should probably check out services such as Skype as well, Skype-in and Skype-out allow you to call landlines or mobiles - I'm not sure how the costs compare. I know plenty of people who use it for their small business ... depends on the nature of your business and how important quality and reliability are to you.

You need to test them out to see what works best for you ... don't just make one or two calls - live with the service for a couple of weeks and see whether you're happy with the quality and functionality.
 
Another useful option that can work if you have a phone system( PABX style ) installed.

We have a GSM router on that which contains a Telstra Sim. Most of our co mobiles are on Telstra,and on the plan we are on, interaccount calls are free

Incoming calls are on a 1800 via 3rd party provider.

Works while in country.

When offshore I get a SIM card before I go and one of the lines is diverted to that Sim. Depends on country but is usually affordable. This way u can mobile phone convo without having access to net

ta
rolf
 
mbox both directions - scan or print to PDF, attach it to an email and send it to the mbox email-to-fax gateway. Easy as.

I do find it somewhat ironic that an organisation who insists on recieving fax rather than a PDF attached to an email will be happy for me to attach an PDF to an email and send it to an email-to-fax gateway (mbox) so they can get their fax. Idiots. :rolleyes:

Hi Sim,

Just looking into the email to fax with Mbox - LOVE Mbox but have only used it so far for incoming. Can you tell me if this is how you send faxes out.

Attach the document you want to send to a new email.

Send to [email protected]

Obviously the number being the receipents fax number.

Is this how you do it????

Thankyou!
 
Can you tell me if this is how you send faxes out.

Yes, this is exactly how I do it.

I only ever send PDF files ... you can do Word and other formats, but I prefer to see it in PDF format before I send it and be sure it will look how I intended when they receive it - I also archive all my documents in PDF format anyway, so this is just part of the workflow.

I like that I then have a copy of the fax I sent in my email sent folder. I actually save all sent correspondence (including faxes) in a folder for each customer ... so I can track all inbound and outbound written communication in one spot. This is one of the main reasons I prefer mbox over a software solution like WinFax.
 
Yes MBox is excellent.

I have had a play with the $1.00 free trial and it worked really well. The only thing I can't seem to see is the option for sending it with more than one email address, i.e. sometimes I might want to send a fax from my computer and sometimes my hubby will want to send a fax from his computer.
 
The only thing I can't seem to see is the option for sending it with more than one email address, i.e. sometimes I might want to send a fax from my computer and sometimes my hubby will want to send a fax from his computer.

Yes, you can have up to 5 email addresses registered as valid sending accounts.
 
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