What if you have clients who insist on communicating through fax? Do you have to run out and buy a fax machine? No you don’t. There are Internet fax services that can come to your rescue.

What do Internet Fax Services offer? Internet Fax services eliminate the need for a fax machine and a dedicated telephone line usually reserved for one. All you need is an email address and you are in business – you can send and receive fax messaged through email.

When you sign up for the service, you will be given a unique fax number. When someone sends a fax to that number, you’ll receive your fax through email. Fax messages are usually converted to PDF. So, you can use your existing PDF reader without having to install additional software. Since you’ll only be using email, you can read your fax messages anywhere in the world.

What if multiple fax messages are sent to you at the same time? If you’re receiving via a fax machine, senders would get busy signals. With an Internet fax service you don’t face the problem. Internet fax services typically have servers with hundreds of incoming fax lines that could handle multiple messages sent to the same line without your senders getting busy signals.

MyFax

If you are in the United States and would like to test the waters with Internet faxing services, the award-winning MyFax is an obvious choice, especially if you run a home office or small business. You can get started for as low as $10 a month enjoying up to 300 faxed pages a month – 200 inbound and a 100 outbound pages. When that limit is crossed, the charge is ten cents per page. You’re provided with local numbers for up to 30 states. For $20 you get 200 outbound and 200 inbound pages a month. For $40 you get 400 outbound and 400 inbound pages. What makes MyFax attractive is there’s no setup fee.

MyFax is compatible with popular Internet browsers and can handle a multitude of file formats. It works with Internet Explorer, Netscape and Firefox. It supports web-based email providers like Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail. So, there’s no additional software needed to set up MyFax. Among the 178 file formats supported are : Microsoft Office, Adobe, Corel and Lotus. There’s also a MyFax plug-in that works with Outlook Express.

You are allowed up to three email accounts to work with MyFax. Incoming fax messages can be viewed in the PDF or TIFF formats. Alternatively, you could view them over the web. A high level of security is also provided as well with SSL encryption.

Support comes in the form of a toll free number, online demos and FAQs. A useful support service is online chat where you can log on to get your queries cleared. A 30-day free trial is offered where you get to enjoy 200 inbound and 3 outbound pages at no cost.

Other Internet fax services you can check out are eFax and MaxEmail.

eFax provides local fax numbers in over 3000 cities worldwide. Toll-free numbers are provided for USA, Canada or Europe starting from $16.95 a month.

MaxEmail has a $24 annual plan which allows up to 100 incoming faxes. Five cents per page is charged for faxes sent within the US per thirty-second transmission time.