How To Send AND Receive Faxes ...For FREE From Your Computer!
Chances are, you'll want to send (or receive) a fax or two this year. Right?
If you don't do enough faxing to justify buying a fax machine and hooking up a separate fax line, here are your options:
1. Use the fax machine at work (...not always convenient, or private)
2. Use the faxing services available at places like Kinkos (...for a fee)
Neither of the above options is very attractive if you just need to send a short fax to someone in a hurry.
There is a better alternative... and it's FREE!
First, Why Online Faxing Services Aren't Perfect
You may have heard about a number of different online faxing services that let you send OR receive faxes for free.The catch: None of them permits free faxing both ways.
Either you can send for free or you can receive for free, but not both.
Good news!... Lee Seats at Freebies.about.com has done his homework and found the best options for sending AND receiving faxes... for FREE!
Best FREE Online Faxing Services
"All you need to do is use two free services, one to send your faxes and another to receive faxes."
To RECEIVE incoming faxes without a fax machine... use eFax. I've used it for years. It's simple and very quick.
When you sign-up for eFax (for FREE), you get your own "fax number". The area code for your fax number will most likely not be the area code for where you live, but it doesn't really matter since most businesses & individuals don't think twice about sending a fax long-distance.
Then, whenever someone sends you a fax, it arrives in your inbox as an e-mail attachment!
The best thing about eFax:
- It's completely FREE
- There's no limit to the number of incoming faxes you can receive
- It shows up in your e-mail, which you already check regularly anyway
- There's no need for a separate phone line just for faxing
- There are no "busy signals"
- You can now organize all your faxes online
- It works instantly, seconds after you sign-up
(If you would like a local or toll-free fax number and/or the ability to send and receive faxes all in one place, you could sign-up for eFax Plus. You can try a FREE 30-day trial of eFax Plus.)
Lee actually prefers to use FaxDigits (also FREE) for receiving faxes. When you use FaxDigits, faxes that others send you appear as a .pdf file in your email inbox. Like with eFax, there is no limit on the number of FREE faxes you can receive.
To SEND outgoing faxes without a fax machine... use FaxZero.
"FaxZero allows you to send a limited number of short faxes for free. At this writing you can send two faxes per day of up to three pages each. It may not be high volume, but it can come in handy when you need to get few pages faxed out. The free faxes have an advertisement on the cover page. There is no registration required and you can send faxes for free to anywhere in the US and Canada."
I actually haven't tried FaxZero yet, but I look forward to trying it the next time I have to send a fax.
Another reputable computer guy who uses both eFax and FaxZero is Rick Broida from PC World. Here's his review of eFax and FaxZero.
NOTE: One nice thing about these FREE online faxing services is that it doesn't take long to sign up and start sending or receiving faxes. We're talking a matter of minutes... so the next time you have to send or receive a fax, have no fear. Just sign up & go, without a lot of headache!
I tried both of these and it worked great! seems like a good solution for people who only need to send occasional faxes.
Its because of such "free" services that the world has ended up hating American style businesses. More hype less substance. Everything is with a catch. Be honest and put price first. What you get here is a fake number, and a chargeable fax. They say businesses dont care about the fax number. Ofcourse they do. Its also your identity.
Im better off walking to my office fax machine and doing it old style.
in response to melanie's comment, eFax has 2 kinds of accounts -- one lets you send and receive faxes but this is the 30-day free trial that reverts to a paid account if you don't cancel within the 30 days. The other is an always free account that only lets you receive faxes. Zerofax lets you send faxes for free (but with ads). haven't yet tried gotfreefax.com
GotFreeFax.com is another website that lets user send free fax online to the US and Canada. User can either upload a PDF/Word file or enter text to fax. Plus, it does not add Ads to the fax, which makes it more suitable for faxing formal documents.
NOTE: Everyone looking at this should READ the Terms of Service for Efax. Section 4 states that the free account is limited to 20 inbound pages and anyone who breaks that "agreement" can be terminated or solicited to upgrade.
nice info about "fax digits" the problem is :nobody can sign up to use their services,they still"working" in upgrading their site....for how long?maybe forever,too bad! march 14,2009
If you do decide to sign up with eFax with a question. The lady I talked to offered to waive the activation fee.
FaxDigits has been 'offline' for a couple months will they make some registration upgrades. I've tried jConnect but the free receive fax service but it is not very good. Very poor Fax quality, lines of information overlay each other. Comes in a jfx file and you can save to tif. Also slow and a little unreliable. I'll keep checking back with FaxDigits. Currently I use the paid version of CallWave. Initially it was a great service with lots of features and a good price. The number of features have decreased and the price has gone up. It is reliable, fast and in pdf format.
efax is not really free. They will give you the "free" trial but if you cancel even one day after the trial is up, you are CHARGED for your "free" month and then the next month of service.
Wow, this is awesome! That's for the info.
You just saved me from a trip to Kinko's just to send and receive a fax. Thanks!
I have used both of these fax services. (Free versions). They both work just fine (for me). I'm a little bummed about the limitation on the number of faxes/pages I'm able to send with "Faxzero", but, hey-it's free!
Hey thanks so much! I was looking for services just like this to get a quick bit of sheet music from a friend in a pinch.
Thanks again =) Great article!
Hey, thanks for your awesome links and reviews. Saved my butt, I googled and found your page and it saved my bacon. Muchly appreciated!
I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds cool and it looks like it should work. Thanks for the TIP