The ages of the fax
Fax technology comes in 3 flavors: old, old-fashioned, and modern high-tech.
Prehistoric faxing still continues. Whoever is using a fax machine with a dedicated phone line is running like a dinosaur. The beast must be fed paper and toner and must be pampered to keep fit. It’s slow, you can only send one fax at a time, it’s expensive, insecure, and more prone to failure than other types of faxes. This is the old model whose time has come and gone.
There is a more up-to-date faxing method. The outdated method is to use the fax modem on your computer to send faxes. Most modern computers no longer have fax modems, but if you have one, you can set up a fax printer and send a single fax on it. I have found that these faxes are even slower than a dedicated fax machine. If you want to receive faxes from the modem to your computer, you will need specialized software. This method is still limiting because it is slow, you can only send one incoming or outgoing fax at a time, the incoming one requires special software and blocks a phone line.
The modern high-tech method of sending faxes is to send a fax through a PC using an Internet fax service. This method has 5 advantages.
1. Flexibility – You can send faxes anywhere, anytime, and all you need is a machine that can be connected to the web. Since online faxing is based on email, you determine who receives a fax. You don’t have to carry your backpack with a fax machine and fill your briefcase with fax paper.
2. Economy – You don’t pay for a fax machine, a dedicated phone line, paper, toner, and you don’t have to worry about paper storage.
3. Green Machine – Helps the environment when you only print the faxes you need. You also don’t have to dispose of toner cartridges in special places. It uses less energy since it does not use the fax machine.
4. Reliability – Companies provide Internet faxing with secure computer systems and equipment so that if a part breaks down, another replacement takes over immediately. It does not depend on your local team see the list. If your computer is off or not working, your faxes will keep coming to your email, and you can send a fax from email.
5. Save time: no more waiting on fax lines. You can send and receive multiple faxes simultaneously.
The need for PC fax
The truth is, there really should be no need for faxing in modern times because everything can actually be done by email and other means. Steve Sagan of PC Magazine pointed out that Ethna Piazza, an attorney and partner at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, specializing in technology, told him that electronic signatures of various kinds are perfectly legal. Every time she clicks “buy” on an online shopping site, for example, she is running an electronic signature, she said.
However, some individuals and organizations still fear relying too much on electronic transactions and record keeping. After working at a major bank in the IT department, I can understand that someone would feel more comfortable if their life savings were recorded on a piece of paper instead of representing a signal on a large computer that could disappear with the next static lightning. electricity. (This fear is really irrational these days with all the safeguards and multiple copies of everything in place.) Standard fax somehow seems more secure to them. Faxing doesn’t seem like a crucial business communication method anytime soon.
Putting a signature on faxed documents used to be a problem, but is no longer a problem. Online fax services provide software that allows you to register your signature and place it on any type of electronic or office document.