Traditional fax machines were rather limited as to how you could send faxes, you had to manually stand by the fax machine and load up the document to be faxed, and then to make sure the fax was sent properly. With everything else in life technology fuels innovation and online internet email faxes providers have revolutionized how businesses now send and receive faxes, archive faxes effective for long term storage, and to maximize your business workflow process.

Send faxes from your email inbox

Sending a fax is as easy as sending an email on your computer. Online internet fax providers tracks who is sending a fax and your outgoing fax number by your email address which is associated with your faxing provider account. Because the system knows who you are based on your email address all you need is to supply the phone number to which you want to send the fax to, this is generally in the format of the outgoing phone number xxxxxxxxxx@send.faxingprovider.com or some similar email format specified by your internet fax provider. Most internet fax providers allow you to attach up to around 200 different file types that the internet fax providers can convert into traditional fax signals which it will then send to another fax machine or internet fax.

From the standpoint of running a business this technique for sending faxes from the internet is the best as all the outgoing faxes you send are archived by your internet email client as outgoing faxes in the form of an email. It is also very easy to take the next step farther and have folders for individual clients, vendors, and other business contacts.

The limitations to sending faxes from your inbox are that you need to have your email setup from where ever you're sending your fax from, however if you have Webmail or if you use an iPhone or smartphone which pushes or pops your email you can get around this limitation but the email faxes you send online won't be archived in your email client.

Send faxes from the web

The second method for sending online internet faxes is through your internet fax provider's web interface. Generally all you have to do is log into the website of whichever internet fax provider you are have chosen. Inside of their web interface there will be a section where they give you the ability to send faxes. In this section it should be as easy as entering the outgoing fax number into the To section, attaching which ever documents and cover letter you wish to send, and then hitting send.

The limitations to sending faxes from the web are that each internet fax provider supplies you with different archiving options so email faxing is the best way to be assured of all your faxes being archived. Advantages include being able to send faxes from where ever you are online as long as you have internet access.

Send faxes from a printer driver

Unlike the previous two methods of sending online internet faxes not all internet fax providers support this method for sending faxes, however this options gives you the best integration with your Operating System provided you are using Windows. Additionally this option requires you to install software / driver on your computer system. To utilize this method you need to open the document you wish to send, and then click on the print button and select the internet fax provider's printer driver. After you've selected the printer driver and clicked print a box should then pop-up asking you the details about how you wish to send the fax.

The limitations to sending faxes from a printer driver is that there is no method for archiving your faxes, your limited to the number of documents you can send at once, and with almost all online internet fax providers that support this feature some form of Microsoft Windows is required.

Conclusion

With so many possible ways of sending an internet fax it is easy to appreciate how an online faxing service can increase your company's productivity by not wasting so much time by that antique fax machine. With services starting at under $10 dollars a month not only will you increase your workflow process but you will also save money.