Sending a fax online is so much faster and more convenient than firing up that old machine in the back room: and way more convenient than hanging around the local office supply store waiting to be charged a couple of dollars a page. How can you send a fax online? It’s easy.
What Is the Best Way to Send a Fax Online?
Your email account won’t let you send a fax online, but you can easily sign up for a third-party service that can get the job done. All you need is a Gmail, Hotmail, or Outlook account and internet access, and you’re good to go.
How Does It Work?
To send a fax online, you’ll first sign up with a third-party service and then link your email account. The service will give you a fax number that’ll be yours for as long as you need it. You can choose a number that’s good for you: unique, local, toll-free, you name it. You can use this number to send international faxes, too, and you’ll receive faxes at the number if you keep it. Once you have your number, you just follow these simple steps:
Open and Address an Email
Open or Compose a new email. In the To section, you’ll put your recipient’s regular faxing phone number, minus any special characters. So, instead of (208) 249-5676, it’ll just be 2082495676. Follow this up with the suffix that your service gives you. In the end, it’ll look like something like this: 2082495676@onafax.com.
Attach your Documents
You’ll want to attach whatever documents you want to send, and these files can come from your computer, a GoogleDrive account, a Dropbox account, and more. They’ll get converted into .pdf if they aren’t already, once your service gets them. That makes them easy to send over phone lines (which is how faxes are transmitted) and easy to view on a computer if the recipient also has an online fax account.
Add a Cover Letter and Send
This is an optional step, but if you want to add a cover letter, just type what you want to say in the Subject line of your new email. Your service may have some great templates you can use if you want to make sure a fax is suitably formal.
What Happens Next?
Your email is shot over securely to the easiest online fax service, and they transmit your fax over phone lines according to Internation Telecommunications Union rules (ITU sets the standards for faxing). You’ll get a text message as soon as your fax is received, and it’ll take less than five minutes.
Faxing is a more secure method of transmitting documents, which is why some enterprises require faxes. The IRS, your hospital or doctor’s office, a lawyer or court, or even an international university you’re taking online courses for may all require a fax at one time or another.
Faxing from your computer, smartphone, or tablet couldn’t be easier. Sign up with a service and get started!