Are Fax Machines Compatible With VOIP? No - Computer Fax is the Fix
By Lee Simonson
There's a little surprise waiting for you when you switch your office to a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) network. Chances are your fax machine won't work. While VOIP might work fine with voice, it still has its problems with fax.
Large and small businesses are attempting to cut costs by switching their analog phone lines to the newer broadband digital connections the Internet offers through their cable companies. However, there is one casualty that will be sacrificed in this technological transformation -- your old fax machine, which will be rendered useless. While there are some exceptions and few success stories, the problem is that you can't mix analog with digital, and fax machines are analog. Even with some recommended fixes like G.711 u-law or A-law codec (sorry for the tech terms) things are probably not going to work.
So what are businesses doing to get around this problem? There's an easy answer and it's called "computer faxing" or pc fax, or fax to email. It's an inexpensive service you can get that automatically converts incoming faxes into a PDF file which is sent to you email as an attachment. It's fast, convenient, and less expensive than buying and maintain fax hardware, fax servers and paper.
Fortunately computer fax is a proven technology and millions of offices have already converted to the new computer fax world, even before they converted to a VOIP network for their voice usage. In past four years, a substantial number of large and small businesses have adopted computer faxing as the preferred method of receiving and sending faxes. The advantages and benefits are numerous, and include:
-- no fax machine tie-ups or busy signals.
-- no phone line expenses, toner, ink jet or paper costs.
-- no hardware or software to buy
-- much greater security since faxes are sent directly to the inbox of the recipient
-- automatic digitization of incoming documents that can be stored, printed or forwarded.
-- ability to edit and sign documents and send faxes from your computer.
-- ability to retrieve faxes anywhere you can receive email.
-- ability to print out faxes on the road, or remotely.
-- detailed reporting and disaster recovery so faxes are never lost.
-- online account administration and compliance.
Computer faxing is gaining in popularity and is proving to be popular with law firms which sometimes deal with lengthy and unwieldy faxes, financial and insurance services, health care and pharmaceutical industry, transportation, travel and hospitality, association and non profits and the government and military for all sorts of applications.
Using a computer fax service will allow you to use the Internet to send and receive faxes and secure important documents, such as contracts, statements and confirmations. So whether you're on the road, or in the office, this is the perfect solution to manage and secure the delivery of document and messages.
The combination of the best of the fax and email world is the next logical step you can make to provide yourself with the most advanced and economical document management system, without the need for additional hardware of software.
You can obtain more information on computer faxing here: http://www.orangepoint.net/computerfax.html
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