Traditional Versus Internet Faxing

The traditional fax machine, mainstay of modern office sends communications in the form of the printed word. The fax machine has been in existence for decades now and is very much alive and well. The disadvantage, however, comes in terms of time: often faxes both sent and received can be slow to arrive and even delayed significantly just because of the machine that is receiving them. That is why there are now several service providers who offer Internet faxing as an alternative to the traditional fax machine. If you're looking to make the switch from a traditional to an online fax service it is good to get an idea of how the two services compare in order to help make the decision easier.

These are the main differences between Internet faxing and traditional faxing.

Internet fax: this service is much quicker than the traditional fax and there's no waiting by the machine for a fax to arrive or send.

Traditional fax: has to be monitored by someone feeding the pages into the machine and waiting to see that each page goes through, which is both time consuming and frustrating.

Internet fax: allows the user to receive several documents at once and queue them up before they are received. This means that faxes are never lost or misplaced during sending and receiving. The reassurance to both senders and receivers is priceless.
Traditional fax: it's not always guaranteed that the user will receive every page that was sent with traditional faxes, which makes the potential for lost faxes greater.

Internet fax: because there is no single dedicated line for sending and receiving, the Internet fax is constantly able to receive faxes even when there is no one at the office. Faxes can be recovered during business hours when a live user is present, plus there's no waiting for a fax line to come online or to become free to accept faxes, since the faxes are sent via the Internet and not the phone line.

Traditional fax: requires either a dedicated line or a phone line that is free to send and receive faxes, a near impossibility in any busy office. Not only does the wait waste time, but it can actually be a deterrent to people wanting to communicate by fax with that office.

Internet fax: this is a green, cost-effective way to send and receive faxes. Internet faxing wastes no paper by printing unwanted spam, saving money and improving the image of any environmentally conscious office.

Traditional fax: prints everything that comes in whether wanted or not, a potential waste of paper, electricity and ink. Over the course of a year, a business can lose a great deal of money in office supplies just by receiving an average five to ten unwanted faxes a day.

Given the above comparison, in terms of speed, labor, guarantee of receipt, time, money, and patience, it's easy to see the many advantages and benefits associated with switching from a traditional fax to an Internet fax service.