Do you know more than 17 million trees are cut down yearly just for the usage of faxing papers in United States? Ever thought of cutting down your paper usage, especially in office? Now here's a simple way to do so: Switch from conventional fax machine to Internet faxing. Yes, and I mean cut down all conventional fax machine usage!

What is Internet faxing?

In general, Internet faxing is known as a web service that allows users to send out and receive faxes in email forms. Faxes are transmitted via Internet and no fax machine is needed during the process. The very first Internet fax services are started since mid 1997 by PSI Net. Back then, Internet faxing was better known as InternetPaper. The technology then revolved and developed into a multimillion industries where more than dozens of merchant popped up to provide similar services. Nowadays Internet services are available worldwide.

Can I really send fax over Internet?

The answer is yes! In fact there are more than couple ways to send and receive faxes via Internet.

When you are shopping Internet faxing services, your choices are wide. Some service allows you to fax for free; while some require monthly subscription fees. Some Internet faxing services require you to install special software on your computer; while some allows you to send fax directly on the web. The right thing to do is to review and select the one that suits your needs.

What are the benefits of Internet faxing?

When compare to conventional fax machine, Internet faxing is so much easier and more affordable.

Firstly, there's no need to waste money on an extra fax line. Also, no extra cost for fax machine, fax paper, as well as printing ink. All Internet faxes come in as email attachments - softcopies are easier for circulation as well as file organization. More over, do you know according to research, 17 million trees (as said) are chopped down annually just for the faxing paper in United States? Sending virtual faxes save more than just your money, the technology save more trees as well!

If you use a conventional fax machine, you should know that using those old fax machines can be very tiring. The frustrations cause by paper jam, extra phone line cost, cuts off page text, and fax transmission failure are always bothering the users. Isn't terrible? You bet! On the other hand, while comes in cheaper operation cost, Internet fax provides an easy faxing method where the service is 24 hours ready, no more engage tones, and no more paper jamming.

With Internet faxing services, you can send faxes as long as you have an active Internet faxing account and a computer connected to the Internet. The flexibility and mobility of Internet faxing is a valuable feature for frequent business travelers. Just imagine finishing all your faxing works while waiting for boarding in the airport - you wouldn't have this done if you are still using the old fax machine, right?

Using Internet faxing services

For commercial usage, setting up an Internet faxing needs nothing more than just an email account (well okay, you do need a computer with Internet connection). Most Internet faxing service providers offer immediate activation - this means you can start receiving and sending faxes right after you register for the services.

Once activated, you can construct your outgoing faxes like how you compose your email with Yahoo Mail or Hotmail. What's different is on the recipient address bar - instead of email address, you will need to input recipients fax number with fax service name. Say we are sending fax to 1234567890: the recipients will be 1234567890@myfax.com for MyFax; while for eFax, it will be 1234567890@efax.com. Email subject line will be converted to fax header, while email content will be the fax content.

Before you ask, yes, Internet fax service is very much similar to sending and receiving the email. In fact some services allow you to setup your virtual faxing service on popular mail agent like Outlook. For most Internet faxing services, a user friendly GUI (a toolbar or something similar) will be installed in your system during setup. Upon receiving the email to the Internet fax service providers the automated programs convert the email messages to the fax format and send the fax to the recipient fax number. On the other hand, the recipient receives the fax on their fax machine normally.

Shopping for the right Internet faxing services

Now in case you are looking for a suitable virtual fax service provider, here are some names you should know: eFax, Fax Away, MyFax, Ring Central, CallWave Virtual Fax, Max Email, Zip Fax, Fax (UK), Fax Mate, Inter Fax, and so on.

Although these services are offered based on the same technology, their service and pricing could be quite different from each other. Some of these services work perfectly well for heavy fax users, while some are more to small business owners where faxing needs are minor. At the time of writing, standard Internet faxing priced $10 - $20 monthly depends on the number of faxes you can receive and send monthly. Also, shoppers should be aware that not all service providers offer their service world wide. Thus, you need to be very sure that the merchant service is available in your country before purchasing.