Faxing Options Today
Most of us only have occasional needs for sending or receiving faxes, so typically residents in our area take advantage of storefront outlets or public facilities that offer fax access.
Currently a lot of us have curtailed such outside errands if there are alternatives. Many business and professional offices are closed or semi-closed, and a lot of organizations are insisting on remote transmittal and retrieval of documents, files and information. This is forcing a lot of people to use technologies in place of the more personal on-site visiting and phone calling we may prefer.
Using your printer as a fax is one alternative. Most all-in-one printers have a workable faxing option. On the down side, it involves another set up cable connections, steps to learn, and occasional loss-of-printer-connections. But it may be a good option if your work station allows room to hook things up and your equipment otherwise works without frequent complications. Generally a printer with a sheet-feeder as well as a flatbed will work better if you need to fax multi-page documents.
You can set up your printer to fax by following the prompts in your printert setup program, either on a setup disk or downloaded from your printer manufacturer's website. The program should take you step by step through the setup process.
Using an online fax service is an alternative for frequent faxers. These typically require learning to use your printer's scan function for outgoing faxes. These services use a web platform that you access through your web browser. This is the option I use to help out others with faxing and for my own occasional faxing.
Using a fax machine that you already have on hand is a third alternative. Not every phone setup will accommodate a conventional fax machine, but the typical landline will still work with a fax machine the same as it has for years.
A primary factor in weighing alternatives is how often you need to fax. Most remote transmittal of documents today is done by email attachments. However, there are cases when a business or professional office either requires that you send something by fax or insists on sending you something by fax rather than by email attachment.
Another obvious factor currently is the need to handle things at home - either for your own precautionary reasons or because the office you're dealing with is not open to walk-in visits.
A third factor - cost - may be less important than in the past. Since faxing is done far less frequently than in the past, when it is required typically it's important enough that cost is an incidental consideration. Faxing tends to be required for certain limited types of transmittals among financial institutions, legal offices and medical practices.
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