Places that still use faxes, Grrr.. PC solution

[HenryD]

Faxes are sent completely in the clear. I don't trust them at all. When forced I use HelloFax though.

 

[Montecfo]

When I was working I used efax. Very convenient since it sent them to my computer.

Needed for board and legal stuff. And had a phone number on a local exchange.

 

[Katsmeow]

My printer does have fax capability...but I have no landline.

One option is to find someone to send the fax for you if you know someone who can fax. Before I fully retired I used to have my office send faxes for me.

If you don't know anyone go to a fedex store where they will send a fax to you. Website says cost starts at $1.89. Haven't done it so don't know the overall cost.

I have occasionally (very rarely lately) used one of the services where you can send an email and then it gets sent as a fax. When I was handling my mom's estate I had to use this at least once.

 

[audreyh1]

I just can’t bring myself to go to a store to fax something. Their fax machine would be scanning very sensitive financial documents.

 

[kcowan]

+1

FaxZero has been around for ages and works really well. I still use it on the (very) rare occasions I need to send a fax.

I adopted Faxzero when I cancelled my fax line 20 years ago. It still works fine. Mostly medical and income tax receipts demanded. Now the income tax accepts electronic receipts.

 

[disneysteve]

Anytime I need to send a fax, I just take it to work. Being a doctor, I have ready access to fax machines. As noted, faxes are secure and HIPAA compliant. Email is not (unless it's secure email but most people and places don't have that). Once I retire, I guess I'll need to find another option.

 

[RetMD21]

I have had to fax a lot of medical and legal stuff for family in the last couple of years and have used SRfax $3/month with 25 pages included. I tried to get a hospital to accept an encrypted pdf but it didn't work out. Part of the problem is that the workflow is such that the person you talk to is not necessarily the pone to deal with the document on arrival.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I like DocHub; it is pretty handy for filling in forms, and then you can fax one document for $1.99 or unlimited documents for one month for $4.99. (That came in handy when dealing with estate paperwork!)

 

[scrabbler1]

After I bought my ladyfriend an all-in-one (fax/scan/copy/print) laser printer 3 years ago, I took her old all-in-one device even though it couldn't really print because it was an inkjet and the cartridge dried up all the time (she lacked a land line so the fax was useless for her anyway). I already had a laser printer so it wasn't a big deal. Having something which could fax and scan was useful because I had to do those things a few times a year.

Still, it is an awkward process to fax and scan because I could not install the device's software onto my W10 PC. So, to scan, I have to boot up her old laptop I now have which was once connected to it, then save the file to a thumb drive, then copy it to my PC. This worked well when I had to provide documents to my state's health insurance marketplace to prove my reduced income in 2020 and 2021. Faxing is easier because no PC is needed, and I added a 2-in-1 phone jack I keep plugged in the phone line for the device.

An all-in-one laser device would eliminate this awkwardness, but my cramped setup would make this very difficult because my current printer is on a low shelf with little vertical clearance, so I would not be able to lift up the lid on a taller device to put the document on on the glass. One day, maybe, I will live in a larger living space so I won't have these obstacles.

 

[ERD50]

Are people having good results with faxing over a VOIP line?

I'm reading that it is not reliable, the analog-to-digital conversion algorithm isn't exactly 'fax-friendly'.

I've just used a service like e-fax when I needed. It's a shame some of these places still force you to use fax. For our home purchase, everything was done by signing into a (supposedly!) secure document site (dotloop), and my financial institutions use something similar, you log into a secure message center where you can up/download docs.

Fax was great when it became available to the masses in the 80's, and there were no better alternatives. Time has moved on.

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

Can't remember the last time I had to fax something.

I applied for a LTC policy recently and the process for the most part was done remotely. Digital signatures (with a couple of snail mail signatures) and Zoom call.

I do have an all-in-one printer that does have fax but I haven't hooked that up since I may never need to fax again as long as I live.

 

[niven]

Are people having good results with faxing over a VOIP line?

I'm reading that it is not reliable, the analog-to-digital conversion algorithm isn't exactly 'fax-friendly'.
-ERD50

It's dependent on things like your internet connection delay and packet loss, but if your connection has low jitter (there are test sites if you google) it will probably work fine. Ooma suggests dialing *99 before sending a fax so it can optimize the call for fax transmission, but I'm sure I normally haven't done that. You could also change the fax quality and speed if needed, but I've never had to reduce either. YMMV.

 

[scrabbler1]

Are people having good results with faxing over a VOIP line?

-ERD50

I have sent out faxes a few times from my clanky fax machine; they went through just fine and were readable at the other end.