Outsourcing Inbound Fax Service?

bergeron76 asks: "Does anyone know of a way to provide a large company with inbound fax capability via email? We're a linux shop and I'd like to be able to have inbound faxes come in as .JPGs via email. I've seen this before I think , but I'd like to know if anyone out there could recommend anything in particular." Anyone out there had luck in sorting out the wheat from the chaff among the many fax-related applications?

Castelle Faxpress -- You need a HARDWARE solution

[Llama Keeper]

I have had great luck in my consultance with castelle's line of faxpress stand alone network faxing appliances. Thye do both inbound and outbound faxes, are a HARDWARE product (all the software fax solutions I've tried, suck), have a decent linux client, integrate seamlessly with MS Exchange, and are reasonbably priced! Check em out @ www.castelle.com [castelle.com].

The Castelle box will import any fax into TIFF and one other image format (can't remember which one). The software interface is a tiny bit clunky, but once you figure it out it works great. You can also hook any laser printer or dot matrix printer up to the parallel port on the FaxPress and print your faxes as they come in. On the out going side, your client sees it as a network printer. I got the castelle to work via samba e-mail me if you want more info.

I would absolutely stear away from the panasonic products, they are nothing but trouble.

efax

[phutureboy]

efax.com [efax.com]

--

Re:hmmm incoming faxes?

[technos]

All of them can, per se.. A tif file is just a handy wrapper around the CCITT compressed data that a fax machine would normally send..

PMFax

[LordNimon]

The OS/2 version of PMFax (www.kellergroup.com) supports emailing incoming faxes. I used to do this at home. They have a Linux verion, but I'm not sure if it has the same capability, since the OS/2 version relied on OS/2's built-in Rexx support.
--
Lord Nimon

Re:J2 Communications, formerly jfax.com

[scj]

I have used J2 [j2.com] for more than two years now, and their service has been very good. I would recommend them without hesitation.

The price (from free to $12.50 per month) will be cheaper than a second phone line, and the service will probably be more reliable than your own fax machine. You don't have to worry about running out of paper or people getting busy signals while others are faxing you.

J2 has fax numbers available in many countries. If you have international friends, family, or customers, you can get one of these numbers and they can fax you or send voice mail without long distance toll charges.

The faxes come in your email as compressed .tif files of between 15-30k per page. With the right software, you can view, edit, and resend the faxes on your computer without printing. You can store thousands of old faxes on CD-R, which has saved me many times.

J2 Communications, formerly jfax.com

[stilwebm]

J2 (www.j2.com) has a the following services:

Receive faxes and voicemail in your email inbox, and store them on your PC. No fax machine required.

Send faxes from your email, the web, or a Palm VII. Record your voicemail message and send it as an email attachment to one person or broadcast to a group.

They have several other services too.

hylafax

[crazney]

we do this at work, just check out hylafax faq's, theres a fair bit of info in there about what to do for _incomming_ faxes.

hmmm incoming faxes?

[candrade]

I know that Panasonic has fax machines that can send documents that are scaned in as .tif files. But that is outgoing. DX 2000 [panasonic.com]
Besides that I really cant think of anything.