This post was last updated on October 20th, 2021 at 09:52 pm

A “good news/bad news” technical detour: the bad news is, it is impossible to fax through your Google Voice account. The good news is that if you wanted to turn your Google voice number into a dedicated fax line, you can transfer it to a dedicated fax service (including the one we discuss below). This is known as “porting” your number, but it would cancel your Google Voice account and make the number fax-only (no voice calls or voicemail). The even better news is that it’s far easier to get a Gmail fax number, which takes just 15 minutes to set up.

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What Is a Gmail Fax Number?

It might seem illogical that you can’t send/receive faxes on your Google Voice number, but you can via your Gmail. Though it works great for phone calls, there are many restrictions on Google Voice. Besides faxing, many online services (like banks) will not let you use it as a backup if you forget your password.

However, online fax services can integrate seamlessly with your Gmail account. In practice, it feels exactly like you are emailing the recipient’s fax machine. Let’s say you wanted to fax the White House at 1-202-456-2461. In Gmail, you would start an email and address it to 12024562461@rcfax.com. The first part of the address is the full phone number, including country and area codes. The second part is the fax service’s address.

What Is an Online Fax Service?

An online fax service handles the phone-line work of sending and receiving your fax. It simplifies your life by sending the faxes back and forth to you as Gmail. RingCentral is one of our favorite fax services for its sheer simplicity. All you really have to do is send and receive email with your recipient’s fax number. RingCentral handles the rest. Your recipient will never know you don’t have a fax machine.

30-Day Free Trial

RingCentral is a monthly subscription service, but they provide a no-obligation 30-day free trial so you can test it out. You can fax up to 1,500 pages during that free trial, which is a great way to send a fax for free if you really only have one to send.

Scan Your Documents

To fax a document with your Gmail fax number, you attach the document just like you would any other email. This means your document has to be in a common digital format, like a PDF file. If it’s currently paper, you need to scan it.

Works on Your Smartphone

Speaking of smartphones, because RingCentral is so well integrated with Gmail, you can use it directly from your smartphone. So, not only does it make faxes as easy to send and receive as emails, you can do so anywhere and anytime your phone is with you. Because your faxes are stored as emails, you can manage your faxes (sent and received) with the same search and sorting tools built into Gmail.

Bottom Line: Send/Recieve Faxes With Gmail

That’s the great news: You can send and receive faxes from your Gmail account just like they were emails. It’s like having a Gmail fax number. It’s so easy that it makes having a fax machine connected to a landline seem silly. And it may make you wish you could send and receive more faxes.

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This post was last updated on November 4th, 2021 at 03:31 pm

You successfully cut the cord. With Netflix and YouTube, you don’t need cable. Your smartphone handles all your communications, so you nixed the landline. That’s a couple of hundred dollars saved per month. But the pandemic chaos has you on extended work from home schedule. No problem: until you realize your job requires receiving faxes. Now you’re exploring options and wondering if you can email to fax with Gmail or get faxes to your inbox.

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Can I Email to Fax With Gmail?

Gmail does not have a built-in ability to send or receive faxes. This is weird, considering it has seemingly every other online technology built in. However, there are a number of fax services that can add this functionality to Gmail.

To explain how an email to Gmail fax service works, we’re going to use our favorite provider as an example. We like RingCentral because they make the Gmail faxing process so easy that you’ll quietly laugh to yourself whenever you hear about someone actually using a fax machine. When you sign up with RingCentral, fax numbers become email addresses.

Fax Numbers Become Email Addresses?

You read that right: fax numbers become email addresses. Suppose you need to fax the White House at 1-202-456-2461. In this case, you would just address your Gmail to 12024562461@rcfax.com. You put the full fax number (including country code and area code, but without any dashes) to the @rcfax.com suffix (RC = RingCentral). When you email your fax, RingCentral’s system instantly converts it to a traditional fax and sends it to the recipient at their fax number.

What About Receiving a Fax?

When you sign up for RingCentral, you get to choose your very own local fax number. You could even put it on your web site and business cards. Whenever someone faxes you at this number, it delivers the fax to RingCentral’s system, which converts it to an email for you. Suppose the White House liked what you said and faxed you back. You would receive their fax as an email from 12024562461@rcfax.com. It stays tidy and easy-to-find in your Gmail inbox.

How Do I Get the Document in Gmail?

Once you have your RingCentral fax subscription, you treat faxes just like emails. Any documents you want to fax, you just attach to your email. Any you’ve received arrive as email attachments. You can even use your email’s subject line as a cover page.

What If My Document Is Paper?

Just as with regular email, you will have to scan your document if all you have is a hard copy. However, if you don’t have a scanner, you can easily turn your smartphone into one. Both iCloud and Dropbox have excellent scanner functions built right in. You just take a picture of the document (one page at a time), and it gets converted to a PDF file. There are also standalone scanner apps available for both iPhone and Android.

Worth the Free Trial

Besides the sheer simplicity, one of the things we dig about RingCentral is you can try it free for 30 days without strings or limitations. Their basic plan lets you send or receive 1,500 pages worth of faxes per month. It also includes your own local fax number. Even if you just need to receive one fax, the signup is so easy that it’s worth just doing the free trial. But your email to fax Gmail account might just become one of the most valuable tools in your work-from-home arsenal.

No Fax Machine, No Landline, No Problem

Now that you’ve mastered how to send a fax via Gmail, your work-from-home life is complete. No new equipment to buy. No pesky landline to have re-installed. Your cord remains cut. Bonus: You’ve gained a valuable new tool that lets you share documents the way others want to send/receive them, but totally within your existing Gmail ecosystem.  

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This post was last updated on November 4th, 2021 at 03:32 pm

Suddenly having to send a fax (and it’s always “suddenly”) is like traveling back in time. You went through every option under Isn’t there some other way to send this document? with that lovely bureaucrat on the phone. But, no, it has to be a fax, and you have no fax machine. Then you wonder, can I figure out how to send a fax from Gmail?

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How to Send a Fax From Gmail

It might surprise you to know that faxing via the Internet has existed since the 1990s. However, it was complicated, and only the true nerds knew how to get it done. These days, learning how to send a fax from Gmail is almost as simple as sending an email.

A Few Things You’ll Need

A Gmail Account

If you don’t already have a Gmail account, sign up at gmail.com. It’s free.

An Easy-to-Use Fax Service

Gmail itself does not have fax capabilities. However, there are several services that add fax functionality through your existing Gmail account. Due to its ease of use, our favorite service is RingCentral. You get a 30-day free trial that allows you to fax up to 1,500 pages through your Gmail account. You also get a personal, local (to you) fax number so that others can fax directly to your Gmail account. You get to fax/receive entirely through Gmail, but to those on the other end, it’s no different than using a fax machine.

RingCentral is a subscription service that provides a whole suite of virtual office tools for $17.99/month. This includes a dedicated fax number, 1,500 pages of fax/month, integration with major cloud services (including Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft Outlook), and 24/7 live telephone support. If you’re not thrilled with RingCentral, there are other options, however. Consider eFax or Nextiva, to name just a few others. Just make sure you’re getting a secure service and one that won’t plaster ads all over your recipient’s end document. 

How to Do It

Scan Your Document

You are going to attach your document to a Gmail, so it must be in a digital format. If it’s not, you need to scan it. If you don’t have a scanner, there are scanning apps that turn your smartphone camera into a scanner. Dropbox has one built right in. You literally just take a picture of a document with your phone, and the app turns the document into a flawless PDF file. The original PDF giant, Adobe, offers an app, but there are other choices as well.

Assuming you signed up for your RingCentral 30-day free trial (with your email address, of course), you now simply compose a new email in Gmail, attach your scanned documents, and address your fax. 

Address the Email Fax

The “to” address on your Gmail is your recipient’s fax number (including country and area code) followed by @rcfax.com. So the address looks like ###########@rcfax.com, but with the recipient’s fax number instead of the # signs. Anything you write in the subject line of your email becomes the fax cover sheet. If you leave the subject line blank, no cover sheet is delivered.

Faxing From Gmail Is That Easy!

Not only did you learn how to send a fax from Gmail, but it’s so incredibly easy that you will be Gmailing (and receiving) all future faxes this way. The 1990s-throwback bureaucrat you’re dealing with will stand at their fax machine never knowing you essentially just emailed them. Nice job!

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This post was last updated on November 4th, 2021 at 04:13 pm

Yay, you got a new gig! But, ugh, you’re required to send/receive faxes. Who faxes these days? It’s been so long since you’ve had to send or receive a fax that you finally donated your fax machine to Goodwill. Do you have to get a new one? No: you just have to learn how to fax from Gmail.

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How to Fax From Gmail

It is so easy to fax from Gmail that you may never want to (or have to) deal with a fax machine again. A Gmail fax account is essentially a no-effort way to add full fax capabilities to your Gmail account. For you, it’s just like sending or receiving an email with attachments. The person on the other end of the fax transmission sends or receives their fax via whatever fax machine they normally use.

15 Minutes Max to a Successful Fax!

Minutes 1-5: Sign Up for Gmail

This assumes, of course, that you do not already have a Gmail account. If you do, you’ll save five minutes by skipping to the next step. If you need one, hop over to gmail.com and create one. It’s free and you get a massive amount of free storage. You also get top-of-the-line spam filtering and some handy features like AI-generate reminders to reply to emails you might have accidentally ignored.

Minutes 6-10: Sign Up for a Fax Account

The one thing Gmail doesn’t have built in is faxing. However, that’s easily solved in this five-minute how to fax from Gmail step. You just need an online fax account. There are a number of services that provide variations on this. For pure simplicity, we favor RingCentral and its 30-day free trial.

Free 30-Day Gmail Faxing Trial

RingCentral is a subscription service that gives you your own local fax number that allows you to send/receive unlimited faxes up to a total of 1,500 pages. That means you could send 1,500 one-page faxes or a single 1,500-page fax. Most of us will send somewhere in the middle of that. The service is incredibly easy to use and even has 24/7 live telephone support if you need it.

The Fax Number Becomes an Email Address

One reason we love RingCentral is that it integrates seamlessly with Gmail. There is nothing to install. You simply address an email using the recipient’s fax number (including country and area code) as an email address @rcfax.com. For example, if your recipient’s fax number is 1-234-567-8910, you simply Gmail their fax machine at 12345678910@rcfax.com. It’s that easy. If they fax you back, it shows up in your Gmail inbox with the same fax number address.

Minutes 11-15: Scan Your Fax Document

The final step is to scan the document (assuming it is paper). With Gmail fax, you attach the document you are faxing just like you were emailing. This requires it to be a recognized format like a PDF file. There are great free smartphone apps that will turn your phone’s camera into a scanner. iCloud and Dropbox have them built directly into the system. A moment’s Googling will find you easy instructions.

You’ll Never Need (or Want) a Fax Machine Again

Fifteen minutes of effort and your new gig is safe. Your Gmail account is your new fax machine. It fits in your laptop. It fits in your smartphone. You can access it from anywhere you have an Internet connection. Bonus: it perfectly organizes everything for you. Not only do you not have to go buy a new fax machine, but you may never need (or want) a fax machine again.

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This post was last updated on November 4th, 2021 at 04:15 pm

In the 21st century, the number of devices and accessories you need to run a business grows every day. Yet when you need to send a fax from email, simplicity is paramount. The good news is you can send a fax via your email!

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How to Send a Fax From Email

1. Choose a Company

Your first step is to find an online fax provider who can give you a number and securely send your fax. There are free providers out there, but they aren’t secure and often severely limit what you can send. We recommend using RingCentral’s 30-day free trial as a way to send anything you need for free. If you like the service, you can simply keep your account. Other good providers to consider include aFax, eFax, and RapidFAX.

2. Compose and Address

To send a fax from email, use the “Compose” or “Write Mail” function on your email interface. Here, you simply compose the message you wish to transmit and type the fax number of the recipient you wish to contact in the “To” portion of the new message followed by the suffix provided by any of the reputable online fax providers, like RingCentral or RapidFAX.

3. Double-Check Before You Send

Because your intended recipient will not see your correspondence as an email, you must include the subject line of your message in the body of the email if you want your recipient to be aware of the topic in that way.

In addition to a proofread and a couple edits for the process, check your attachments to make sure you have ten or fewer attachments. That’s the maximum allowed based on available bandwidth.

3. Send!

If you have transcribed the correct fax number and included a workable number of files, all you have to do is hit send. It’s really that easy. The individual or business you have contacted will receive your message with the body of the email serving as the cover letter, while any relevant attachments will be included thereafter as the actual “body” of the fax.

FAQs About Fax via Email

Should I Pay for Service?

As we mentioned earlier, there are free services, but they limit your faxes and even add advertisements to your what your recipient gets. There are also serious questions about security.

With a subscription through RingCentral or a similar paid online fax service, you can do more than just send faxes using your PC or laptop. You can send and receive fax messages from any device on which you are able to log-in to your account, eliminating the need for a fax machine at all, and do it securely and without limitations on the number of faxes you can send.

What Will My Fax Number Be?

It’s up to you. Some business owners and individuals prefer a number with a local area code to demonstrate their commitment to their communities. Others prefer a toll free number, which projects a nationwide sense of relevance and confidence.

If you choose, you can even add fax numbers to your account at minimal expense. When you go to send a fax via email, you will be given the option to use any of the numbers associated with your account.

What Equipment Do I Need?

You don’t need any special equipment to send faxes with your email. All you need is a device to log on to your account and a reliable internet connection. If you want to attach specific files to your fax, you will need to use a computer on which you have permission to access those files. That’s it!

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This post was last updated on November 4th, 2021 at 04:28 pm

Need to fax documents but don’t have a fax machine? Online faxing services give you a way to send Gmail faxes, so it’s now possible to send and receive without a machine. Best of all, you can do it anywhere and from any device!

Test Drive Our #1 Recommended Choice and Fax Free for 30 Days!

To Fax or Not to Fax?

Faxing documents offers more security than emailing them. While email may be vulnerable to hacking or viruses, faxing has more security measures to protect important information. However, most people do not own a fax machine.

Luckily, several online services offer Gmail fax capabilities, so you get all the convenience of email with the security of faxing. With this programming, there is no need for the clunky hardware of a fax machine. All you need is a Gmail account and a web-based fax service!

How Gmail Fax Services Work

To fax from your computer, you will need a Gmail account and an online fax number. There are several web-based fax services to choose from. Our personal recommendation is RingCentral because their current promotion allows you to fax free for an entire month!  With this service, you will be able to send and receive faxes quickly and easily.

Receiving a Fax

Once you’ve signed up for service, any faxes anyone sends to you will appear in your inbox just as any email does. When you receive a fax, you can simply open it on your computer without having to print it out. Online faxing services are super easy to use and don’t require any printing or additional hardware. They’re a perfect addition to the modern business.  

Sending a Fax

Once you’ve chosen your service, you can compose your fax in your Gmail the same way you would compose an email. The only difference is that instead of sending the document to an email address, you will send it to the recipient’s fax number with your fax company’s extension. When entering the recipient fax number, be sure to only include the numbers and then the company extension with no spaces or dashes. Example: 2024336755@rcfax.com.

Choosing a Web-Based Fax Service  

When faxing began, the cost of hardware, extensions, and maintenance was a burden on users. Now, with the advancements of modern technology, the costs of online faxing services are much lower. No expensive machinery or upkeep weighs down modern users. There are a lot of services out there, but be cautious of the so-called free fax numbers. 

They often have less security and run ads on the documents you’re trying to fax. While there are other services that may be suitable for your needs, RingCentral is our personal favorite. They have a wide range of plans to suit each user’s needs, and their current promotion allows you to fax for free for an entire month. Best of all, for anyone in business, they are top-rated in security and consumer satisfaction.

They also have 24/7 help-line so you can contact them at any time, from anywhere. With their most popular plan coming in at an affordable ten dollars per fax line, they are a great investment for all of your faxing needs.  

Get Faxing!

Online faxing is a great alternative to both email and traditional faxing. Web-based fax services are more secure than email and much more affordable than setting up a traditional fax machine. While there are many web-based fax services, some of the ones that advertise free services could be scams, insecure, or run ads over your important documents. Be sure to choose a company that you can trust with your important fax documents.  

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This post was last updated on November 4th, 2021 at 04:28 pm

What should you do if you need to fax a document, but you do not own or have easy access to a fax machine? Fortunately, there are several options available. Your local UPS, FedEx, or post office have fax machines available for public use. They will provide fax services for a small fee. However, there is an even more convenient way to send faxes: you can fax documents directly from your Gmail account.

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How Does Faxing Through Gmail Work?

Faxing through your Gmail account is quite simple. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

Step 1- Obtain a Gmail Account (if You Don’t Already Have One)

This is pretty straightforward. If you do not already have a Gmail account, you will need to register for one.

Step 2- Choose a Web-Based Fax Company for Your Account

This company will handle your incoming and outgoing faxes. There are several online fax companies for you to choose from. RingCentral offers a 30-day free trial, is easy to use, and offers great security: all of which makes them a nice option, especially for first-time users.

Step 3- Compose Your Fax Just Like You Would Write an Email

• Log into your Gmail account
• Enter the destination fax number in the email address
• The subject line will act as your fax cover page
• Add fax information/documents/photos/etc. to the body of your email

Step 4- Send Your Fax

Just click “send” like you would any other email. There you have it! You have just sent your first online fax.

Why Send a Fax Through Gmail?

You might be asking yourself, “Why should I sign up for a web-based fax service? Why can’t I just use a local business?”
There are a couple of reasons why sending faxes online might appeal to you more:

No Extra Landlines

If you are reading this article, you probably do not already own a fax machine with a dedicated landline. A web-based fax service will ensure that you will never need to acquire a separate line. This is an excellent benefit, especially if you do not send faxes regularly.

Convenience

Utilizing an online fax service means you will not have to worry about taking time out of your day to wait in line at your local UPS, FedEx, or post office during their business hours in order to send your fax. You can work at your own pace and send that fax as soon as it is ready, or whenever it is most convenient for you.

Ease of Use

Signing up for a web-based fax service takes about five minutes. You will not need to purchase any extra equipment. And best of all, you can view your faxes directly in your email without having to print them out first. You will be saving time, money, and paper!

Our Choice for “Fax Services Near Me”

RingCentral is the #1 online fax service because of the features they offer:

• Send faxes from your smartphone, tablet, or laptop
• Review faxes that you’ve sent or received
• Block faxes that don’t have caller ID
• Access an encrypted internet connection
• Enjoy 24/7 support

Faxes are still a necessary part of business and life, even in today’s digital world. Fortunately, there are digital options for sending and receiving faxes, and RingCentral is one of the best digital fax services available to you today. Now you know the answer if you ever find yourself asking, how do I send a fax when there aren’t any fax services near me.

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This post was last updated on November 4th, 2021 at 04:37 pm

In the year 2020, it may appear as though faxing is a dated art, but there are many reasons you may still need to send and receive faxes. Fortunately, there are companies like RingCentral that allow you to fax from a computer.

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Online Fax Sending and Receiving

When you first sign up for RingCentral, you can choose a toll-free or local number. Then, you can download the convenient app or log in to the website. After that, you’re able to send and receive faxes whenever you need.

Sending a Fax From a Computer

When you’re logged onto the website, click on the “FaxOut” icon in the top right, which looks like paper being printed. Here, you can put in the information of the person you want to send a fax to, including the country code, area code, and phone number. Alternatively, you could simply add the person from your contacts. Then, select the file you want to fax and press send.

It’s that easy!

Sending a Fax From Email

Though you can send faxes through the website, RingCentral also allows you to send faxes through your email. You just have to update your user details to include your email address on your account and you’re good to go.

In the “To” field, put in the recipient’s fax number with the suffix “@rcfax.com”. If they have an international number, add a plus sign at the beginning. If you’d like, you can use the subject line to add a fax cover message.

Then, just attach the file you want to send like you usually would. Press send, and then you’ve successfully faxed someone via email.

Why You Need the Freedom to Fax

While many people don’t use faxing every day, there are some real benefits to having the option.

Security

Faxes are much more secure than emails, which are prone to data breaches on an uncomfortably regular basis. Companies that deal with legal situations or medical practices are more likely to use faxing for essential documents over email due to its security.

Confirmation

One of the reasons people and companies still use faxing is because it means automatic confirmation when a fax is received. With email, you have to send another followup email to find out if the first was read yet. With faxing, you receive the date and time the fax was received.

Legalities

As technology evolves, important documents are constantly filled out online, meaning that signatures have become electronic too. This can lead to more forgery, but faxing allows you to send your actual signature instead of typing it. A fax can also be a legally binding document, while an email can be considered non-binding in some circumstances.

Why Should I Choose RingCentral?

RingCentral is easy to use and convenient, and you can even send faxes from business apps. And RingCentral uses an encrypted internet connection to ensure all of your information is kept safe.

You can also send the same fax to a group of people at the same time, which is faster and simpler than on a traditional fax machine. There’s no need for a fax line, which means that you can enjoy talking on your phone without being interrupted, and you’ll still seamlessly receive your faxes.

With RingCentral, it’s convenient to use your computer to fax, and you never have to waste paper printing things out. If you’d like to learn more about how to fax from your computer, give RingCentral a try free for 30 days!

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This post was last updated on November 4th, 2021 at 04:39 pm

The fax machine would pass for a perfect example of obsolete technology—one that has been long superseded by the introduction and advancement of computer networks. But, there is a growing interest in faxing nowadays, as it is easier to use, more secure, and better suited in terms of work habits compared to computer-based messaging.

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How to Send a Fax in Three Different Ways

Use a Fax Machine

Fax machines are still useful even in the digital era. For you to send or receive faxes from your machine, you should have it set up and configured properly. The first thing is to plug it and connect it to your landline phone. If you intend to send faxes regularly, get a dedicated line since it is not possible to use the phone and fax machine simultaneously.

Follow these simple tips to send a document using a fax machine:

1. Place the file you intend to fax in the document feeder
2. Input the fax number of the recipient (don’t forget to include an extension to dial externally and the applicable international dialing codes)
3. Once you have entered all the details and pressed “go” or “send”, your file will be scanned and send
4. You will get a confirmation page for machines that have the feature enabled
5. After your file is faxed, you can pick the original document and switch off your fax machine

You will need to have plenty of paper and toner if you will need to receive faxes. In case you don’t intend to send faxes regularly, you can opt to use a fax machine at the local library or a UPS store.

Use Your Computer to Send a Fax

Don’t let the unavailability of a fax machine prevent you from sending that important fax if you have a computer! Most people today are replacing fax machines with computers. All you need to do is install a fax service like RingCentral on your computer. Then follow these steps:

1. Open the program you intend to use when faxing
2. Choose the file to fax
3. Create a cover page for the document
4. Choose the “fax” option
5. Input the recipient’s fax number and click the send button

Send a Fax Using Your Email

All you need is a Gmail account to send a fax with RingCentral.

• Sign up for Gmail (and RingCentral)
• Identify the file you are planning to fax
• Open a “compose email” page in your Gmail account
• Enter the recipient’s fax number instead of an email address in the “To” box, followed by the RingCentral suffix
• Enter whatever you’d like for a cover letter into the “Subject” line
• Attach your documents
• Press send and get instant confirmation that your secure fax has been sent

It really is that simple, and RingCentral is fast, easy to use, and very secure. You can also fax from anywhere, at any time, and from any device: even a mobile phone!

Faxing is an effective communication method, especially in the business world. Even with advanced technology, there is no doubt that faxing is here to stay, especially considering the shift to computer-based faxing services. When you work with an online service, you don’t have to go through nearly as many steps in learning how to send a fax. All you have to do is sign up.

Test Drive Our #1 Recommended Choice and Fax Free for 30 Days!