Skip to main content

5 Free Online Services to Send an Email to a Fax Machine


bigfaxI’m not really the type of person that sends faxes all that often. There may be an occasion or two when I have to forward information to my insurance company or the Human Resources department at work, but those times are very few and far between. However, since I don’t fax very often, whenever I do have a need to send a fax I used to scramble to find an available fax machine. After I started writing for MakeUseOf, I decided to reassess this occasional need and come up with a solution that would make use of available free online technologies and resources. I started looking for an answer to the question, “Can I send an email to a fax machine?”
And so began my quest into the world of free online faxing. The only requirement that I set when I started this search was that the resource must be free, it must allow, at a minimum, a full textual document to be sent over the Internet. The ability to send formatted documents would be a plus, but since most of the time I just need to send over information, the ability to send an text email to a fax machine is really all I usually need.

Online Services – Free Faxing With Ads

So, you’re in a crunch and you really need to fire off a quick text document to a fax number. In this article, I’m going to cover 5 free services that let you send an email to a fax machine, but the three most common are in this first batch. The following three services are about as simple as they can get. Without any registration of any kind, you can simply visit the website, upload the file that you want to fax, type in the fax number and fire it off. The service simply faxes your document to the recipient you entered. Sound to good to be true? Well, it’s not. It is paid for by ad revenue on both the website and by placing ads on the cover page of your fax as well.
can i send an email to a fax machine
Using GotFreeFax is about as easy as it gets. Just enter your information as the sender, enter your recipient’s information and Fax number, and then either upload a PDF or DOC file, or paste your email (which can even include formatting) into the rich text box. There’s even the option to maintain an Ad-Free cover page. GotFreeFax is one of the few free services that allows this option.
can i send an email to a fax machine
FaxZero is almost identical to GotFreeFax in terms of how it works. You enter the sender and receiver information and then upload a DOC or PDF file, or insert the text message you want to fax into the text box. The free version of this online app does insert an ad onto the cover page, and you’re limited to two free faxes a day with a max of three pages per faxed document. For a $1.99 fee, you can send up to 15 pages per document without any ad on the cover sheet. Unfortunately, this service as well as GotFreeFax only works to send faxes in the U.S. and Canada.
can i send an email to a fax machine
PopFax, just like the previous two sites, asks for receiver and sender information, and then lets you upload a file or insert your text message. Just like the others, the services is quick, easy, and best of all free.

Can I Send an Email to a Fax Machine?

Now, when it comes to the question of literally sending an email to a fax machine, the next services easily takes the cake. By configuring the recipient email address in a specific way, you can deliver an email directly to any fax machine of your choice for absolutely free.
email fax online service
The service is called TPC Fax and it’s absolutely brilliant. Simply by formatting the section of the email address after the “.” with specific formatting, you can format the cover sheet. Since “_” is converted to a space and “/” is converted to a new text line, you could easily format three or four lines that describe the contact information of your recipient. The section after the “@” is where you insert the FAX number. The service is very simple and only for faxing the text within your email – but there’s no faster and easier free way to send an email to a fax machine than this very cool service.

Using Drop.io to Receive Faxes

I know I said I would provide 5 services that let you send an email to a fax machine, but this last resource is actually one that will allow you to receive Faxes in return. Often, the recipient of your fax may want to fax information back, and while there are some online fax services that will send for free, just about all of them charge some kind of fee to establish a Fax number where you can retrieve faxes online. All, that is, except for Drop.io, which David covered earlier. If you don’t have a Drop.io account, sign up for one now – it’s free and you get 100MB of storage.
email fax online service
To get your Drop.io fax number, from your main Drop.io page, just click on “Add.”
email fax online service
On the “Add” page, click “More” and then select the “this coversheet” link in order to see what your fax number is (it’s printed right on the coversheet. All you have to do is email the coversheet to the person who wants to send you a fax, and they can send the fax to your Drop.io box so long as they make sure to use the coversheet first, and according to Drop.io it’s also best to set the fax machine to the highest resolution settings. As far as I know, this Drop.io service is one of the few (if not only) truly free services where you can receive a Fax at no cost.
Do you know of any other free and useful online tools that you can use to send or receive a fax? Share your own resources in the comments section below.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Build Your Own Awesome Personal 3D Avatar with Avatara

Do you use social networks and want to build your own awesome 3D avatar? Maybe you want to send someone a cute cuddly image of yourself (kind of)? Or maybe you have your own ideas of what you would do with an Avatar… Well look no further than Avatara which I discovered from the MakeUseOf directory . You can create 3d avatars out of pre-set up templates or create your own from scratch. To start, visit Avatara’s homepage . You will see this screen: Click Get Started to umm, get started! That will take you to this screen: You see that you can build your own Avatar using an uploaded head shot like the Obama one above (just an example, guys). Or roll with one of their awesome avatars. I chose to start with a blank avatar by clicking Start with a blank avatar at the bottom of the screen. That takes you to here: I clicked on the filter at the top and told it to filter out everything but male characters and then I saw this: I rolled with Buck and continued. You need to click Select...

Fun Tools to Translate Your Name into Japanese Calligraphy

Japanese calligraphy is an artistic writing style of the Japanese language. Its Chinese origins can be traced back to the twenty-eighth century BCE. Calligraphy found its way into Japanese culture in 600 CE and is known as the karayo tradition. For Westerners, calligraphy is forever fascinating. However, it takes years to learn how to properly draw the signs. Two basic principles must be known to understand Japanese writing: there are different writing styles and different alphabets. Kaisho for example, is a writing style most commonly used in print media. Tensho on the other hand is used in signatures. Other writing styles are Reisho, Gyosho and Sousho. The alphabets include Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Katakana is used for writing foreign words. It can also serve to highlight words, in analogy to capital letters as we know them from the Roman / Latin alphabet (Romaji in Japanese). Each Kanji character has a meaning of its own, while Hiragana or Katakana characters merely repres...

Boom, the startup that wants to build supersonic planes, just signed a massive deal with Virgin

Have you heard about Boom? Boom is a relatively new startup that’s aiming to build something pretty crazy. They’re not building an app… or a social network… or even some new gadget for the Kickstarter crowd. Boom wants to build planes. Really, really, really fast planes. Specifically, they’re trying to design and build a supersonic passenger plane that goes 2.2x the speed of sound. If all goes to plan, they’ll be able to shuttle people from New York to London in 3.5 hours, and SF to Tokyo in 4.5. Sound crazy? I wouldn’t disagree. It’s worth noting that the company is in the very early days for something as intensive, massive, and hugely expensive as designing and producing a passenger aircraft. They’re still working on their first prototype, and hope to fly it by late next year. But it’s also worth noting that the team behind the plane has some serious talent in its blood: the company’s 11 employees have collectively contributed to over 30 aircrafts — having worked on thin...