Like many people I really have no use for my home phone land line anymore. Except, I have to occasionally use it to FAX documents to those who aren’t up with the rest of the world yet.

Does anyone have a recommendation on sending a FAX without a POTS line?

In theory you can do it over VoIP if you set the bitrate high enough however I've not personally tried.

Good idea. I didn't think of that

My thoughts were:

«» Scan the documents, then maybe there is a service on the internet somewhere that would fax for you
«» Hook the fax into a cell phone via a Blue Tooth adaptor added on the FAX machine.
«» Hook the FAX machine into my home WiFi and then somehow (VoIP sounds like the way) send a fax

Some online places that do email to fax:

http://www.a2.com/telecom/freefax.html

Some subscription-based and some free ones for the occasional use.

Not all VOIP providers will be fax-friendly. Some also have a feature that will capture incoming faxes and create an email with attached image for you.

Arooo? Which ones?

I have successfully used the scan-and-send-via-Internet-service before. I do not remember the name of the service but uncle google should be able to help you there.

If I recall, it was a free service to send a fax, and a pay service to receive one.

A review site. Thanks!

I'll probably go that way.

I only FAX about once a month.

My next challenge is to get Verizon to add my hone phone # to the cell phone.

I've used http://faxzero.com/ without problems for the very few faxes I send.

PhonePower, the guys I'm with, have this as an option. It used to be offered as standard as on my previous provider, Broadvoxdirect, prior to them selling off their residential business to PhonePower.

When I fist joined Broadvoxdirect, it used to work transparently. Basically the call would go to voicemail and if it heard a carrier it would treat it as a fax. Later they changed to prompting callers whether they wanted to send a fax or leave a voice message. I'm not sure how PhonePower's system handles it. The fax would then be delivered via email as a TIFF attachment - I also received all voice mails by email as well as wav attachments (still do right now too).

There's a button to enable it in my current control panel, but I'm not sure if it's a pay option. I'm currently waiting for them to fix a couple of caller ID issues, so I don't want to test any other options out right now.

We've found that some [outgoing] fax numbers still work since switching to VoIP here, and some do not work.

But mostly, we've discovered that, by asking, just about everybody can handle scanned documents send via email.

So we photograph/scan signed documents, use OpenOffice to save them as .pdf files, and email them as attachments.

Cheers

I just usually thank people that ask for a fax. I tell them it's a good thing they can take a fax, because my carrier pigeon is out with the flu.

I have a PDF of my signature that I paste into documents so I don't even actually print them to sign them.

Not that it helps directly, but my ISP supports outgoing faxes simply by emailing to <phonenumber>@ispname.com.au. Just email them a PDF. They also can providing a fax to email with a dedicated number. Maybe if you're lucky....

Unfortunately my company’s expense management system requires I fax my receipts. They require the first page be a special page with a bar code on it so they can match up my receipts to the on-line expense report I created.

If all the FAX services have their own cover page that might not work. I’ll have to do some more looking.

I don't know how the situation is in Canada, but here in Belgium, email does not have any legal validity should you ever need it. Faxes do. That's why a lot of people over here still use them, especially with official documents.

Everyone I've ever dealt with here will treat a Fax or email (if it requires a signature then an image or document in the email) as equally valid. I don't know if any of them have any "legal" status as far as documents go. For something truly important you have to be there in person with a witness.

For my insurance company I don't even need a signature, I can just send an email to my broker with the details I want changed/amended. Changed my car insurance with an email a few months ago.

A fax is less secure than an email, because while not everyone knows how to digitally manipulate a document, any bozo can cut and paste a few pieces of paper together, run them through a photocopier and then toss them into a fax.

I remember arguing with people in the early 90's to accept an email when Fax machines were already out-dated. Today that's no longer a problem as anyone who wants to be in business has a good internet connection. The government of Canada has pretty much most common documents one would require available online in PDF. Many of them can be filled out electronically too, but you'll still have to print them out and send them in by mail, or drop them off in person (passports, etc.)

There's no difference between a signed document, scanned in (after signing it) and emailed, versus a faxed scan of a document.

And our experience here is that _everyone_ prefers the emailed scan over the faxed scan, because it arrives already in electronic form, saving them from having to re-scan the faxed scan..

I'm not saying you don't have a point, it's just that emails are inadmissible here in court. The law simply does not allow them (for now). Blame the law maker.

That's the reason commonly given in the US, too, but it's not entirely true. Faxed signatures have legal precedent as being legal signatures. There are laws that state that electronics signatures in general are legal, but they vary from state to state (though most are equivalent), and I don't believe there is any case law backing up what, precisely, an "electronic signature" can be.

Ultimately, businesses tend to take the legal safe road of faxed signatures.

Regardless of the legalities, I've always thought that if a document was important enough to require a signature, it should be hand written on paper and not stored in electronic format.

It's not an email!!!

It's a scan of a signed document, exactly what a "fax" is.
Neither is truly acceptable for contract purposes -- an original signature (ink) is required.

But scanned copies (faxed or emailed) are often sufficient for most uses.

Cheers