The Internet fax service provider services will give you a dedicated fax number and any fax message that received by your number will be forwarded to you as an email attachment.
Gone are the days when you had to invest in a clumsy fax machine and operate it with messy ink and paper. There are today Internet based fax services that will enable you to send/receive fax messages in a neat fashion. Furthermore,
you also do not require a fax modem or a separate traditional landline phone to enjoy fax facility.
The Internet fax service provider services will give you a dedicated fax number and any fax message thats received by your number will be forwarded to you as an email attachment. If you want to send a fax from your computer to another fax machine, you can send your document as an email attachment to the online fax service who in turn will forward it to the recipient's fax machine.
There are numerous
Internet fax service providers and most of them offering similar terms. When choosing a fax service provider, check out the following:
- What is the monthly fee or per fax fee.
- Whether there is any set up fees and if so the amount.
- The number of faxes you can send and receive for the monthly fees.
- The additional per-page cost for faxes beyond the set limit.
- All other hidden costs
If your business is operating in one area and you want to have a fax number with the same area code as your phone number, then check with the provider whether he can provide. Please remember that many fax providers will not able to provide you with a number in the area you want.
Next, it is important that you check the features offered by various providers. There are a number of features available with Internet fax system than traditional faxing. You must insist on at least the basic features, because very often, they come free. These features include account management, email address features, virtual presence numbers, etc.
If your business is critically dependent of fax messaging or if your volume of fax sending/fax receiving is high, it is essential that the service provider offers uninterrupted 24 x 7 back up support.
Many of you have confidential information to send through fax, in which case you will want to ensure there is secrecy during transmission. The most efficient way to achieve security is through encryption. Therefore, you will want your faxing service provider to offer mechanism for proper encryption.
It is necessary you check the formats you can fax in. Some businesses may like or want to send and receive fax in a specific format. Your fax service provider should be one that supports the different formats, like doc, pdf, image files etc.
Yet another important factor is flexibility of service. For instance, if you want to change some configuration settings in your account, or some other setup up or you simply wish to change the email address through which you receive your fax - check if it is acceptable to the provider.
Finally, ascertain whether the provider will offer any money-back guarantee trial period to enable you assess the reliability and quality of service of the provider. Most providers will be agreeable to extend a 30-day free trial period and if a provider declines, then chances are his services will be suspect.
