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Faxing in Mac OS X
Written by Topher Kessler
Faxing documents seems to be one of those antiquated technologies that is here to stay. Even with many digital alternatives available for sending and receiving documents, faxing refuses to be replaced and instead has kept up with current forms of communication, integrating into email and IP networking. Perhaps the idea of having an original copy is what makes faxing more appealing than emailing a Word or even a PDF document, but regardless of the reason, faxing is still around and quite commonly used.
Sending a standard fax
To send a standard fax from your computer, you will need a fax modem such as Apple's USB modem (though most USB fax modems will work just fine). After connecting the device it should be recognized in the "Print & Fax" system preferences (you may need to manually add it), and while you can set it up for use with an ISP, you do not need to do this for sending faxes. With the modem now attached to your home phone line, you should be able to print from any document and select the fax as your printer device, then enter a proper fax phone number and send the fax away.
Faxing over VoIP connections
Unlike standard phone lines, VoIP connections use encryption and compression that are incompatible with the old faxing protocols.
Standard analog faxing uses the old T.30 faxing protocol, but to send document snapshots over IP networks you will need client devices that support the T.38 "Fax over IP" protocol. This can be done in two ways: Either the sending and receiving faxing devices (software or hardware) need to support T.38, or you need older T.30-only devices to send data to a T.30/T.38 gateway that will then relay the fax over an IP network to another T.38 device.
Modern fax machines may support the T.38 protocol, but it is also finding its way more and more into VoIP applications such as ZoIPer; however, as it currently stands the requirement for data translation makes sending faxes using T.38 protocols rather limited. For VoIP clients, faxes are generally sent client-to-client, so in the case of ZoIPer you cannot send a fax to any fax machine. Likewise, a local T.38 gateway requires another gateway on the receiving end for the transmission to work, which may not be implemented in the receiver's Fax setup.
Because of these limitations, the best option for VoIP faxing is if all the translation is done by the service itself. For instance, the popular Vonage VoIP service has a fax feature that can send faxes over their network to any fax machine, because they translate the fax data with their own T.30/T.38 gateways instead of relying on the client to have these gateways set up.
Alternatives?
Besides just scanning and emailing a document to someone, there are a variety of online faxing services that will take a document and send it to a standard fax machine. Some of these are free, and others require a small fee for extra services or large faxes, but should be able to take documents in various formats and relay them to digital or analog fax machines. A few of these services are the following, though you can search for one by Googling "Internet fax" or some similar query:
http://www.efax.com
http://www.myfax.com/
http://www.gotfreefax.com
Some of these services have desktop applications that let you send faxes from any document or application, instead of using a Web interface. Services such as Fossi let you use the system's standard print dialogue to send an Internet-based fax just as you would with a local fax modem.
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Topher has been an avid Mac user for the past 10-15 years, and has been a contributing author to MacFixIt for just over a year now. One of his diehard passions has been troubleshooting Mac problems and making the best use of Macs and Apple hardware both for family and friends, as well as in the workplace. He and the newly formed MacFixIt team are hoping to bring enhanced and more personable content to our readers, and keep the MacFixIt community going here at CNET. If you have questions or comments for Topher or the other MacFixIt editors, feel free to contact us at http://www.macfixit.com/contact
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No it does not support data transmission on a mac anyway.
MagicJack is a kind of hardware VOIP interface that connects to your highspeed Internet service connection, so it's not connected to a real phone line, which is what "real" faxes are transmitted over. There have been services for some time, that let you send faxes via your Internet connection, without using a MagicJack.
The last / recent documents I had to sign and return were sent via pdf attachments to e-mail. The only one who would not cooperate was a real estate agent who said his office could not do e-mail attachments. What's so difficult about that?
Maybe that real estate office was following some kind of misguidedly simplistic antivirus strategy of never allowing their employees to open an email attachment, for fear it might be an infected application, which happens on Windows. Or maybe they couldn't figure out how to open attachments.
Not sure what you mean by Faxing Application. I am faxing just fine with 10.5.8 using Print command and an Apple USB modem.
Lew
I've successfully sent faxes using the Print command, under OS 10.5.7 and 10.5.8, under File > Print > PDF > Fax PDF, without making any kext changes.
Well, the idea is that you don't need an analog line to send a fax. There are options besides the requirement for a fax machine or a fax modem.
As Topher says in his article, as far as using an analog phone line:
"To send a standard [phone line] fax from your computer, you will need a fax modem such as Apple's USB modem (though most USB fax modems will work just fine)....With the modem now attached to your home phone line, you should be able to print from any document and select the fax as your printer device, then enter a proper fax phone number and send the fax away."
While I tried some of the free fax solutions, they include an add on their cover page which isn't something I wanted to do.
Using Skype and my long-distance service - free to other Skypers with the option of $2.95/mo to any landline or cell phone in the US, Canada, and Mexico (with a 25% discount if you pay in advance) was my solution (in addition to my regular cell phone which I use for shorter calls to allow a low minute package).
I came across PamFax which integrates with Skype. On the Windows side you can even use your Skype credits. On the Mac side you have to have separate PamFax credits. And, you can even use it from the PamFax interface without Skype.
At any rate, I've found it to be very reliable and cost effective. They sell time packs - $14.95; which is really sold in 10 Euro amounts; or larger packs with bonus time included.
I usually send 1-2 pages plus a cover and it costs about 30cents. Not free, but worth not having an ad on the cover page since I've discovered those faxes tend to make their way directly to the trash.
PamFax is actually out of Germany (www.pamfax.biz)
- by valeae September 22, 2009 11:34 AM PDT
- There should be no free <a href="http://en.popfax.com/Internet%20fax%20home.html">internet fax</a> services really free, because all should have different limits of nr of sent faxes or of free days. It's called Free Trial that allows the users to see how the <a href="http://en.popfax.com/Fax%20to%20email%20faq.html">fax to emai</a>l service works. Popfax.com offers the Free Trial that doesn't require any credit card nr.
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