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Faxing is a method through which any document is transferred from the sender to the receiver within few seconds. Documents can be faxed through phone line or internet, where internet faxing is becoming more popular as it provides more functionality and reliability than phone faxing.

Traditional Faxing:

Traditional faxing method requires a phone line and a fax machine at both ends, where data is sent through phone line in the form of pulses. Also only one fax can be received or sent at a time and multiple faxes cannot be sent.

A traditional fax machine is a device which is a combination of a printer, a modem and a scanner; where the sender’s fax machine scans the document, converts it into an image and sends it along the telephone line in the form of pulses. The receiver’s fax machine receives these pulses, transforms them into an image and then prints it. The major disadvantage of traditional faxing over internet faxing is that it requires telephone line and only one party can send or receive a fax at a time.

Internet Faxing:

Internet faxing uses internet connection for the transmission of faxes, hence no additional telephone line is needed which saves the extra cost of an added telephone line. Some of the wonderful features of internet faxing are such that it can send multiple faxes from any location which has internet access and it can send paperless fax in case of fax to email transmission.

While sending an internet fax, the document is first converted into PDF or TIFF data, which is send in MMIE format through email, to the receiver using TCP/IP internet communication. In case of intranet (LAN network such as an office), internet faxing can be established on IP address without the use of a dedicated server where IP Address Relay technique is used to communicate between all fax machines. As modems are widely used with computer for internet connection, faxes can be sent though fax software in the computer instead of scanning and printing those documents.

Gateways (fax computer/server) are used to communicate between computer and traditional fax machine, where the document is converted to email or email is converted in to document. In case of fax to computer communication, the receiver receives the document as an email attachment on his email account, and sometimes he is also informed on about the new mail on his mobile phone. In case of computer to fax communication, the document is first converted to PDF format and then transferred to the recipient on his fax machine. The receiver sometimes also receives the delivery confirmation message on his email account, after the receiver receives that document.

Fax using VoIP:

Since voice communication over internet is becoming popular, a new standard called as T.38 was introduced to use fax over VoIP; since voice signal compression is different than fax signal compression. This standard is also referred as ‘store forward fax’ or ‘iFax’. The document is first converted in to TIFF-F image and then sent to the email address in the MIME format using SMTP (email transmission over internet). The receiver’s fax machine receives this email and it prints out that document. If the gateway and VoIP adapter are T.38 compatible, then the fax machine can be directly attached to the adapter rather than to the phone line.

Advantages of Fax using VoIP:

• Integration of Voice and Data: Voice, image and data transfer is handled efficiently by the server, which gives excellent quality.
• Remote access: Home and office network can be shared so that important documents can be received even at home.
• Network Efficiency: Using VoIP tunnel system, bandwidth can be consolidated.
• Cost: Cost is reduced as VoIP technology is used.
• Simplification: All forms of communications are entertained with minimum devices.