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Fax over IP (FoIP): The Ultimate Guide For Businesses

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Introduction

Fax over IP can help you send and receive faxes using a voice Internet Protocol system, but is it worth shifting from traditional faxing? Will it be the best solution for your business, especially for mass-sharing sensitive business documents? 

The system can be a great way to share business documents without using fax machines and phone lines, depending on your setup. However, it comes with its challenges, meaning you would still need a better option.

That’s where eFax comes in! With eFax, you can send and receive faxes online anytime and anywhere without all the problems of traditional faxing and VoIP faxing.

Discover eFax’s digital faxing solutions that help you cut costs and comply with industry-specific fax regulations.


What is FoIP (Fax Over IP)?

FoIP stands for “Fax Over Internet Protocol” and refers to a technique for receiving or sending faxes through the Internet. This process involves transforming analog fax signals into digital fax signals.

FoIP is also called VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) faxing or IP faxing. 

With fax over IP, you can do the following:

  • Send faxes between fax machines
  • Send faxes from your email to the recipient’s fax machine
  • Send faxes from your fax machine to the recipient’s mail. 

Let’s see how FoIP works for a clearer picture. 

How Does FoIP Work?

Fax over IP is based on Voice Over Internet Protocol, a communication system that sends voice through the Internet. 

Here’s how the underlying technology applies to faxing:

1. Breaking Data Down

When you want to send a fax, the information is first broken down into small data packets to be sent through the Internet. When these minute data packets reach their destination, they are reassembled before being presented to the recipient. 

For VoIP faxes, the fax is first converted to an audio stream, which is then relayed between fax machines in protocol sync.

Most fax machines worldwide use different fax protocols, such as G.711, T.30, and T.38. The T.38 protocol was designed for relaying faxes over IP through a data network, eliminating the need to convert the fax to an audio stream first. 

2. Fax Machines Connect Over VoIP with Fax Adapters

With the proper setup, two fax machines using the T.38 protocol should be able to connect and communicate with each other over VoIP. 

If you have a VoIP line, as most businesses now do, you can keep using your fax machine. 

You just need to connect it to a fax adapter or an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) because a fax machine can’t automatically use a VoIP line to send or receive faxes. 

3. Changing Analog Signal to Digital Signal

The fax adapter converts the analog signal from the fax machine into a digital signal and transmits it over the Internet. 

Note that the adapter also relies on T.38 capability. You connect it to a T.38-enabled VoIP gateway to help change the signal from analog to digital using a T.38-enabled fax machine, fax software, or fax card. 

4. Changing Digital Signal to Analog Signal

At the destination, another adapter receives the digital signal and changes it back into an analog signal that the destination fax machine will receive. 

It’s easy to see that the fax IP communication system can be complicated, meaning you must use the right FoIP provider to have the right setup. 

eFax steps in as a cloud-based fax alternative. Sign up for eFax now to deliver faxes over IP by converting them into email attachments that ride on an independent data network. 


Benefits of Using Fax Over IP

If implemented correctly, Voice Over IP fax can be a game-changer for organizations. 

Here are some benefits you can enjoy:

Cutting Faxing Costs

VoIP faxing is more affordable than traditional faxing because you don’t need to buy any ‘special’ fax machines. You can keep using your existing machines. 

Where you no longer have to use the dedicated phone line, that expense goes into paying for your Internet package. 

Additionally, FoIP taps into your existing network, eliminating the need for a separate analog network. The reduced number of hardware translates into reduced maintenance costs. 

Better Document Management

With virtual faxing using VoIP, you can manage your documents better. It’s easy to save, email, archive, share, and even store them online just by clicking a few buttons. 

You can also track your documents as you save them on the cloud using various cloud storage solutions.

Improved Faxing Security

Faxing over IP becomes more secure than traditional faxing because you can control who accesses, sees, and uses your confidential information. 

The system uses point-to-point encryption, which reduces the risk that your documents could be received and viewed by an unintended recipient. 

The Convenience of Faxing From Anywhere

Unlike traditional faxing, where you must be beside a fax machine, FoIP lets you fax from anywhere, at any time.

Seamless Workflow Integrations

Using VoIP, you can efficiently send a fax from your email address. 

You can fax any recipient from anywhere at any time, provided you have their email address. 


Challenges of FOIP and Ways to Overcome Them

Despite its usefulness, FoIP has unique challenges that may present new problems for your business

Let’s examine some of the challenges you may have to overcome:

Subject to the Limitations of IP Networks

Since FoIP relies on IP networks, it is subject to the limitations of IP networks in general as well as its specific IP network. 

Common IP-related challenges include jitters, latency, and packet loss. These can result in failed or incomplete fax transmissions. Additionally, you may be able to receive but not send faxes, or vice versa. 

This means that you might have to retain your traditional business phone line as a backup when the VoIP network fails. 

Fax Rarely Tolerates Packet Delay and Packet Loss

Fax doesn’t take well to packet delay and packet loss, meaning fax machines may experience tragic delays. 

A delay occurs when a packet of fax data fails to reach its destination on time. On the other hand, a packet loss occurs when a packet of data disappears during transit and fails to reach its intended destination. 

The receiving fax machine may interpret a packet delay or break in the packet sequence as an issue with the incoming fax and end the transmission prematurely. 

Understanding FoIP Can be Difficult 

New FoIP users may find the whole system difficult to understand, set up, and use. Fax over Internet Protocol works in multiple ways, with or without a traditional phone line. 

For example, we’ve seen how the T.38 protocol can help and how you would use a regular phone line connected to a VoIP gateway to fax. 

Note that you can also fax using a Session in Protocol (also known as SIP, a crucial component of VoIP). An SIP lets you fax documents through an IPv6 network. The fax machine must connect to an SIP-enabled phone number.

These protocols – phone lines and VoIP gateway combinations – can be confusing. 

So, how do you solve these challenges? Here are your possible options:

  • If you are having trouble with IP faxing, shift back to analog phone lines. 
  • If you haven’t shifted to IP faxing, retain your current traditional fax infrastructure and continue paying for your dedicated telephone line. 
  • If you have shifted to IP faxing, patiently wait for the introduction of new protocols to fix the jitters, packet delays, and packet losses associated with FoIP. 
  • Shift to a cloud-based faxing system like eFax, which still lets you send faxes over IP through a data network.

How to Send Faxes Over IP

Here’s how to send a fax over Internet Protocol:

Set up Your Fax Machine

If your fax machine has fax over IP functionality, set it up like an ordinary fax machine. The difference is that this time, you’ll use an Ethernet cable to connect the machine to the Internet. 

As mentioned, the setup can vary depending on the combination you use between phone lines, Internet Protocols, and VoIP lines or gateways. Some FoIP-enabled fax machines may also support phone lines, so they can work both ways. 

For the purpose of this article, let’s discuss the faxing process for two FoIP-enabled fax machines with a T.38 protocol from the same manufacturer enabled on each end of the network. 

Load Your Documents 

You’ll need to put your documents into the tray of the fax machine you are using to send the information. 

Input the Destination IP Address to Fax

Since you are faxing between two FoIP-enabled fax machines, you’ll need the IP address of the recipient’s fax machine. 

Wait for the fax machine to scan the document and send the fax. You’ll receive a confirmation page showing whether the fax was successful.


eFax Cloud Faxing – A Better Online Fax Solution

You’ll notice that even though faxing over IP is an effective alternative to traditional faxing, you still have to use fax machines between you and the recipient. Here’s why you’ll want to use eFax instead:

  • You Can Limit VoIP Hardware Usage: eFax lets you send faxes over IP networks, independent of the underlying VoIP network technology. eFax converts faxes into email attachments, which you can send over IP networks using a series of data packets instead. 
  • You Can Fax Conveniently From Anywhere: Your team members can receive and send faxes directly from their desktops with eFax Messenger or from their mobile phones with the eFax Mobile App.
  • Your Faxing is Secure and Compliant: eFax’s fax via email service improves your enterprise’s document regulatory compliance and security because it relies on a highly secure global network. At the same time, your IT team can outsource its entire faxing infrastructure to your trusted cloud provider. 

Knowing you have complied with regulatory standards can give you peace of mind. The platform ensures documents are sent safely using Secure User IDs and advanced TLS transmissions. These security measures and the full audit trails help you maintain PCI, SOX, HIPAA, and GLBA compliance. 

  • You Can Cut Faxing Costs: eFax also reduces your faxing expenses. The system connects with your current email network to eliminate the need for new hardware or software. You won’t incur any phone charges. 

Sign up for eFax today to cut costs, save time, and increase convenience with a new-age fax solution.


FAQ’s Around Fax over Internet Protocol

Here are answers to questions about fax over IP. 

Fax over IP is much more secure than traditional faxing if it’s configured correctly and the right precautions are taken. For example, you can ensure point-to-point encryption for all your faxes to prevent cyber criminals from intercepting them.

You can also use a private network to keep your information off the public Internet, where it may be intercepted easily.

Fax machines do not have Internet Protocol addresses.

However, a fax machine can have one through a fax over IP system, which relies on Internet-based VoIP.

Fax over IP is generally reliable as long as it is set up correctly and you have a strong Internet connection. Otherwise, it may create more profound problems for your business than it solves.

For example, protocols between fax machines are not always guaranteed to sync, which may lead to frequent transmission disconnections.

Other reliability issues include packet delays, jitters, and packet losses that may cause you to receive parts of your faxes late or lose them altogether. You can avoid such problems using a cloud faxing solution like eFax.


Conclusion

While faxing over IP ideally replaces traditional faxing in the sense that you can fax from anywhere at any time, it isn’t a perfect solution yet because you still need fax machines. 

eFax is an even better alternative to traditional faxing since it allows you to send faxes from anywhere, anytime, using Internet-enabled devices rather than bulky fax machines. 

Join eFax today and see how you can use eFax cloud faxing solution to cut costs and send business faxes securely from anywhere. 


Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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eFax Blog

What Is a Fax Number?

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Faxing has long been one of the preferred file-sharing methods due to the safe process of transmitting information over phone lines. With innovations like online faxing, file safety has only increased, thanks to protective measures like encryption.

But how exactly does a fax relate to phone numbers, and what is a fax number? And do you still need a fax number to fax online? We have the answers to those questions and more. Let’s dig in.


Fax Number Meaning

So, what is a fax number? 

A fax number is just a telephone number used for transmitting documents. It refers to the number you dial on the fax machine when sending a fax — or the number people use to send you a fax. 

Fax numbers can be either analog telephone lines or online phone numbers — just like phone numbers can correspond to a physical landline phone or a cell phone.


What Is a Fax Number Used for?

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A fax number is used for sending and receiving documents. It offers an alternative to snail mail, email and other file-sharing methods. 

But why choose a fax number over something like email? Here are a few use cases:

  • Sending and Receiving Documents: Faxing — especially online faxing — facilitates file-sharing. Not only can you quickly share digital documents, but with eFax’s mobile app, you can scan physical documents and fax them in mere minutes right from your phone.
  • Increased Security: Since its conception, faxing has been an easy way to share documents without compromising security. Physical documents can get lost in the mail and email can be hacked. Standard faxing, though, sends information through telephone lines, which are much more protected. And online faxing offers even more protection with high-level encryption.
  • More Privacy: When physical faxes arrive at the receiving machine, they can easily be forgotten or fall into the wrong hands. This can result in confidentiality breaches and noncompliance. Online faxing with eFax uses safety measures like encryption and multi-factor authentication so that the data remains private.
  • Greater Accessibility: With online faxing services like eFax, you can send and receive faxes from anywhere. Just open the eFax mobile app or the Messenger desktop app and review your documents. This can drastically reduce turnaround times and cut costs. 

How Does a Fax Number Work?

Traditionally, fax numbers allow two fax machines to communicate and transmit information through audible tones.

A fax machine is plugged into a physical telephone line. When you dial a fax number to send a document, the fax machine ‘calls’ the other fax machine and uses a shared language of audile tones to ‘read’ the document. The receiving machine then prints out the transmitted language.

Online faxing is now becoming more popular, removing the dependence on physical machines. It uses a dedicated phone number to virtually transmit documents, with no physical connections needed.


Fax Number Format

Fax numbers have the same format as regular telephone numbers. In the United States, that means your fax number would have the same 10-digit format that standard phone numbers have. The first three digits would still be the area code, while the last seven digits would be the actual number. 

International Fax Numbers

For international faxes, the number might not have the 10-digit format. It depends on how phone numbers are structured in that country. For example, U.K. numbers include 11 digits, not 10.

You would also need to add the country code to the international fax number, just like you would for phone calls. The country code is the + symbol, followed by the geographical code assigned to your country. To send a fax to a U.S. fax number (from outside the country), just add a +1. Likewise, you must add +44 to fax to the U.K., +99 to fax to India and +52 to fax to Mexico. 

If you don’t know the country code for the recipient’s location, you can look it up with a quick online search.

Toll-Free vs. Local Fax Numbers

Fax numbers aren’t random phone numbers. You can get dedicated fax numbers with a specific area code corresponding to your business’s location. 

Businesses with a local clientele might prefer a fax number with a local area code to boost trust with their clients. Or, companies with multiple locations might select a local fax number for each branch. 

Larger companies might prefer a toll-free fax number for their diverse customer base. Toll-free numbers typically help build trust with clients, showing them that they are a well-established business.

Fax Numbers vs. Phone Numbers

Since fax numbers and phone numbers have the same format, does that mean they’re the same thing? 

  • Yes and no. 

A fax number is, technically, a regular phone number. To work, fax machines must be connected to a physical telephone line. If you plug a phone into that landline instead of a fax machine, it would work for calls. 

Some companies have even used the same number for faxes and calls, although that is no longer common practice. You could technically call a fax number and talk to a person or send a fax to that same number. The downside, of course, is that businesses couldn’t call and receive a fax at the same time. And if they picked up the phone on an incoming fax, it would stop the transmission. 

How to Tell If a Number Is a Fax Number

There’s no way to differentiate between a telephone and a fax number just by looking at them. They have the exact same format, with an area code and country code (for international communication). 

Companies usually label their telephone numbers so you don’t have to guess. You might find something like this on their website or business card:

  • Tel: 855-555-5543
  • Fax: 855-555-5544

If you can’t find that information, you can try calling the number. You likely won’t get through to a person if it’s a fax number because businesses typically keep their fax and calling lines separate now. However, if you call a fax number connected to a physical fax machine, a machine will answer with a series of beeps.


What Is a Fax Number for Online Faxing?

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An online fax number is the same as an analog one but without the physical telephone line. You don’t need to plug our fax machine into the landline — in fact, you don’t even need a fax machine at all. 

Instead, virtual fax numbers let you send and receive faxes anywhere and anytime. By getting an online fax number through a company like eFax, your phone, tablet, computer or laptop can become a fax machine. And the best part is that your recipient doesn’t need to have a virtual fax number. 

You can send a fax to any other fax number, even if it’s connected to a fax machine. Customers, clients and colleagues can also use a physical fax machine to send documents to your virtual fax number. You won’t physically receive the file like with a fax machine, but it will arrive in your inbox within minutes — if not seconds.

Online Fax Number Format

Virtual fax number formats are the exact same as a traditional fax number — and, therefore, a standard phone number. With online faxing companies like eFax, you can request any type of fax number: international, toll-free or local.


How to Get a Fax Number

Anyone can get a fax number — and it only takes a couple of minutes with online faxing provider eFax. But before exploring that option, here’s how to get a traditional fax number.

Traditional Fax Number

Traditional faxing depends on a physical telephone line connected to your fax machine. Unfortunately, landlines are now becoming less common, both for individuals at home and large businesses. It’s no longer the norm to have phone jacks in every room. 

That may mean you need to get a landline and phone jack installed in your home or office to start faxing. When you contact your phone company to get the landline installed, you can discuss your options for a fax number. 

Now, if you already have a landline phone installed, you can switch that to fax by plugging the fax machine into the phone jack. If, for some reason, you don’t know what the number is for that line, you can call your cell phone from that line before connecting your fax machine. The number will appear on your phone screen. Once you plug the fax machine into that phone line, that number will be your new fax number.

Virtual Fax Number

Getting a traditional fax number can be a bit of a hassle if you don’t yet have a traditional landline. Thankfully, there’s a simpler option: online fax numbers. 

With providers like eFax, you can find a fax number in less than five minutes. Just go to eFax’s website and start a trial. The first thing you’ll see is a suggested fax number based on your location, plus the option to select a custom fax number (toll-free, local or international). Pick the one you want, fill in your personal information and that’s it. You have a virtual fax number.


Why Choose eFax for Your Faxing Needs

Quickly getting a fax number is just one of the many benefits that eFax offers. Another is the increased flexibility in document-sharing workflows.

Once you’ve created your account, you can start faxing right from your email, the eFax mobile app, the Messenger desktop app and even a Word doc. Make sure to give people your virtual fax number so they can send you faxes as well. You’ll get a notification in your email and eFax account as soon as the fax arrives, allowing you to handle correspondences immediately from anywhere.

Ready to see for yourself how easy it is to get a virtual fax number? Start with eFax today.


Frequently Asked Fax Number Questions

A fax number refers to the number used to transfer documents via a phone line. Fax numbers were traditionally a physical landline, but they now include online fax numbers.

Getting a fax number is easy with eFax. Just sign up for a trial and choose the suggested fax number. You can also port an existing fax number or select a specific international, local or toll-free number. 

You cannot call a fax number if you want to have a conversation like a telephone call. When you dial a fax number and a successful connection is made, the receiver will hear a tone indicating that a fax transmission is about to start. Communication with the receiver is not possible because fax machines use a different frequency than regular phones.

Yes, a fax number is essentially the same as a phone number. You can either use the number for faxing or for calling. With physical fax machines, you can technically use a fax number as both a faxing and calling line, although it’s extremely inconvenient. Online fax numbers are only for faxing and have no correlation to a physical phone.

Here are a few examples of fax numbers: 

  • Toll-free fax number: 1-888-555-1234
  • International UK fax number: +44 121 1234 5678
  • Local fax number for Houston, TX: 281-555-4321

You need a fax number for any type of faxing, whether international or local. The good news is that you don’t need a fax machine. With a fax number from eFax, you can send and receive faxes right from your phone or computer.

If you have a physical landline, you can use that as a fax number by connecting a fax machine to the phone jack. However, you cannot use a cell phone number as a fax number. eFax makes it easy to get a separate fax number when you sign up for a trial — it takes less than five minutes.


Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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Online Faxing: What You Need to Know About Data Encryption and Cloud Storage

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People sent sensitive data over public fax machines and stored documents on-site in unsecured filing cabinets for many years. And many of them did it without a care in the world.

So, it’s safe to say that a lot of sensitive data has been exposed to unauthorized people. And organizations that continue to use fax machines are putting proprietary information at risk every day and opening themselves up to significant financial losses.

However, things are shifting as new digital technologies take root. Today’s companies are increasingly aware of the security risks of sending sensitive information via fax.

That’s why you should move away from using traditional fax machines to send and receive sensitive data. Online fax solutions with built-in data encryption can solve these problems. With data encryption, you gain a much more secure way of transmitting and storing data than traditional faxing.

Table of Contents

What Is Data Encryption?

Today, several major industries still prefer faxing information, including the government, health, financial services and manufacturing industries. Also, in large firms of 500 employees or more, over 80 percent of workers still use fax machines.

It would be wonderful if your intended recipient was the only person who could read your electronic data, wouldn’t it? That’s where data encryption comes in. It involves translating data into a different form or code so that only people with decryption or secret key can access and read the original message.

Online fax encryption technology works by scrambling any sensitive electronic so that it stays private. That makes it harder to tamper or steal. And if unauthorized third parties attempt to access your data, they’ll only see a nonsensical collection of characters and words. While they could try to make sense of it, that would be an impossible task without the data encryption key.

Another advantage of data encryption is that it keeps you compliant with several data protection laws. In the US, a mix of federal and state laws protect the personal data of residents, while the European Union (EU) has the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive, among others.

Violating these regulations, even if those missteps are unintentional, can have far-reaching consequences for companies. That’s why data encryption technology is instrumental in keeping your company legally compliant with all state and federal data security laws governing your industry. Also, having data encryption in place can help you navigate legal and security minefields in other countries where you do business, thus protecting you against having to pay large non-compliance fees.

Why Is Data Encryption Important?

By 2020, there were 44 zettabytes of data in the entire digital world. That equates to 40 times more bytes of data than there are stars in the universe as we know it. Every digital action your company takes, collecting, saving or disseminating information, contributes to the global data byte count. That includes all the data you send and receive via fax.

Depending on the nature of your business, you may collect and house private information, such as Social Security numbers, email addresses and financial account information. What’s more, you may have insights into customers’ previous purchase history and saved shopping preferences stored in databases if you are in the retail or eCommerce space. If your work in healthcare, you may have medical or insurance information about patients in your data sets. No matter what your business does, you have stored data.

While all the information you gather can be vital to your operations, this data can include private or sensitive details about your clients. No one who does business with you would be happy to know their personal data has been exposed to unauthorized third parties. Unfortunately, cybercrime is on the rise as bad actors continually come up with new schemes to access personal and corporate data. No company is safe from the risk of cyberattacks today. It’s clear why data security should be a priority for your organization.

In fact, research shows that your clients expect you to safeguard their personal data at all times. For example, one study indicates that 87 percent of consumers would not do business with a company whose data security practices concern them. Also, research has uncovered that 78 percent of customers would stop doing business with a company that gives away their sensitive data.

You must take customer concerns about data privacy very seriously. How your company handles its data security can influence how customers perceive your business. Your goal is to present your company as an industry leader in data protection.

How can you do that? Encrypting sensitive data is a must. When you pledge to encrypt data, your customers gain the assurance that you will protect their data against unauthorized access.

A secure online fax service will use data encryption, thus enabling you to send and receive faxes confidently. That’s why partnering with a quality service provider is necessary to enhance your personal and business communication.

How Data Security Helps You Build More Brand Trust

Did you know that over 80 percent of customers prefer to buy products from brands they trust?  That’s why you should never underestimate the effect of brand trust in attracting and keeping customers.

Also, it’s worth noting that data privacy can make current and potential customers perceive you in a positive light. Case in point: 69 percent of consumers want brands to address the issue of personal data and how it is collected and used.

When you use cloud-based online fax encryption, you will improve your brand identity’s trustworthiness. At the same time, you will aggressively safeguard your electronic data and keep it safe from potential breaches. Also, your encryption technology makes it harder for third parties to invade your customers’ privacy.

Another advantage is that you can retain both original and backup digital fax copies for as long as you want. By doing so, you can enhance the accuracy of your business records and protect your business against anyone who wants to steal or tamper with information.

In addition, you will safeguard yourself from business record losses. And the good news is that cloud storage is compatible with PDF, Microsoft Office 365 files (examples include Microsoft Word and Excel documents) and other business document types.

Simply store or send your private files as secure faxes online, and data encryption technology will ensure they are kept safe and secure. The technology is effortless to use and can fit seamlessly into your team’s work routines.

Enhance Your Data Security with eFax

eFax is an internet-based fax technology that enables you to send and receive secure personal or business faxes from anywhere in the world using your smartphone, tablet or computer. You can use it via a mobile app, desktop app, email or a secure online portal on the web.

As an added benefit, you don’t need to invest in a dedicated fax machine to use eFax. You also will not require a multifunctional fax-enabled printer or an additional investment in a landline to send and receive faxes. Instead, all you need is an internet-enabled device and access to the web.

eFax is compatible with many types of business infrastructure, making it possible for them to integrate the cloud and advanced data encryption quickly. It utilizes secure socket layer (SSL) encryption within a secure server to optimize security when faxing, thus, protecting your business against dangerous data breaches which affect data integrity. You can safeguard internal company information along with your clients’ and partners’ data.

Another benefit of eFax is that there is no third-party human intervention to process your faxes. That means you won’t have to risk an unauthorized person gaining insight into your private financial or business data.

With the flexibility to use eFax on various devices, you can send and receive faxes wherever you are, on any device, 24/7. All you need is an internet-enabled device to send and receive your faxes, which you can then print later if the need arises. You’ll be able to conduct your business with speed and efficiency, giving you more opportunities to win business and excel at customer satisfaction.

The time is now to leave your outdated fax machine in the past and bring your communications into the 21st century. You can get started with eFax today and get the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your fax communications are always secure. In addition, you can achieve alignment with critical security and privacy laws to avoid any risk of non-compliance. Your client and partners will value your commitment to keeping their data secure, leading to greater loyalty and increased business opportunities.

If you need insight into the value eFax delivers to other organizations, you can read the many positive endorsements in our product reviews section.

Send and receive faxes in minutes. Start faxing now.

Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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Is Online Fax Secure in 2024? All You Need to Know

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An image of a phone faxing securely.

Many businesses aim to increase their productivity. When team members can perform their tasks more efficiently, that opens up new opportunities and empowers new business growth.

In 2023 alone, workplace productivity in the United States climbed by 5.4%. Although this percentage may seem like a small increase at first glance, it’s significant since productivity growth hasn’t increased more than 1.5% in a single year since 2004, surpassing the 2.9% pace seen during the last productivity surge in the 1990s. This increase in productivity is good news for many businesses, and the right technology is necessary to help them stay the course.

What can organizations like yours do to keep pace? Online faxing is an essential productivity-boosting tool that can help you increase efficiency and spark growth. But many people wonder about the security of online faxing. You might be surprised to learn that online faxing is one of the most secure forms of communication available today.

Here’s what you need to know about online fax security to make the best decision.

Can You Trust Online Fax Services?

While online faxing has become increasingly popular over the past few years, some people are still hesitant to use it because they’re unsure if it’s secure. We have answers. 

You can trust the safest online fax service, but it’s essential to choose an encrypted file-sharing service to protect your sensitive data. You should look for a service that offers AES 256-bit encryption, the highest encryption standard available.

With AES 256-bit encryption, both you and the fax server have a copy of the fax as you transmit using the internet. For faxes sent to you, once you receive the file, you’re the only person who can access it.

How Secure Are Online Fax Services?

If you’re using a traditional fax machine, you put any information you send at risk. Conventional fax machines use analog phone lines to send information, which has no encryption. They’re highly susceptible to data theft for this reason. If you risk sending a fax using a phone line, you could lose data and revenue and expose your company to fraud. 

Conversely, eFax Protect uses encryption technology that scrambles sensitive data and keeps it secured. The technology makes it harder for hackers to tamper with or steal your information. This is especially vital since your clients and partners expect you to protect their data at all times in today’s environment.

Plus, you can never guarantee your fax won’t fall into the wrong hands when it reaches its destination. Often, faxes sit on unattended fax machines, and anyone can pick them up. This can lead to a major breach of trust or compromised data. 

However, online faxes aren’t as vulnerable to unauthorized access. An unauthorized party will only find scrambled information if they try to access your fax. It’s impossible to decipher this information without a data decryption key. Only those with the decryption key can access the original message.

How to Securely Transfer Files over the Internet

If you want to know how to send a file securely, the answer is simple. You need to invest in a secure online fax service.

You must find a service with enough features to meet your needs. With secure file-sharing online solutions from eFax, you’ll feel at ease knowing your communications are safe and sound and your faxing solution can meet your demands.

How to Send Documents Securely over the Internet 

With online faxing, you can fax from tools you use every day, like your computer or smartphone. With either of these devices and eFax, you have everything you need to send a fax immediately. eFax allows you to send your fax using email or eFax Messenger.

You can compose and edit your fax and send it by email. You can then receive a response and sign documents using your mobile device.

How to Send Files Securely via Email

A secure online fax service provides military-grade, end-to-end encryption. You can send faxes using well-known email services like Outlook, Gmail, or Yahoo. You can also use your custom domain to send faxes with eFax. 

You can follow this simple process any time you need to send secure info over the internet:

Step 1: Enter the recipient’s number followed by “@efaxsend.com” in the “To” field.

Step 2: Add up to ten attachments.

Step 3: Click “Send Fax.”

The recipient will then receive your fax on their machine. For them, the process is just like receiving landline-based faxes.

How to Send Faxes from Your Desktop

You can send a fax from your desktop by downloading eFax Messenger Software. It works with both Windows and iOS

The steps for sending a fax from your desktop are as follows:

Step 1: Open eFax Messenger and log in.

Step 2: Go to the “File” menu and click “Create New Fax.”

Step 3: Select your recipient’s number from your contacts or enter it manually.

Step 4: Add up to ten attachments.

Step 5: Click “Send Fax.”

Your document(s) will arrive at your recipient’s fax machine.

How to Send Faxes from Mobile

eFax Mobile is available for both Android and iOS devices. You can download our official app on Google Play or the Apple App Store

Here’s how to send a fax using your mobile device:

Step 1: Open the eFax app and tap “View Faxes.”

Step 2: You can add your signature by tapping “Sign Faxes.”

Step 3: Save your signed fax.

Step 4: Tap “Send Faxes.”

Step 5: Choose your recipient.

The recipient will receive your document just as with faxes that originate from a landline.

Is Fax Secure for Sensitive Data?

Today’s professionals are tech-savvy. And many professionals need to handle sensitive information, including trade secrets, financial details, or private employee or client information. Security is always a top priority. Any compromised data can cause many unwanted consequences, including lost revenues, prolonged downtimes, breaches of customer trust, and reputational damage.

Using a traditional fax machine is far less secure, and malicious actors can gain access to sensitive information. If you want to send secure info over the internet, it’s much safer to use an online fax service.

Does Online Faxing Meet Mandated Security Standards?

An online fax service will enable you to comply with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The Graham-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA), or others. HIPAA rules safeguard personal health information, while GLBA requires that financial institutions protect their customers’ private data.

Suppose you handle this kind of sensitive information. In that case, you must ensure your online fax service meets regulatory HIPAA or GLBA compliance standards for all the vital work you can do with online faxing. At eFax, our online fax software empowers you to comply with these and other regulatory mandates or industry standards. You can rest assured that any confidential information you share stays protected.

Is It Safe to Fax Personal Information?

What if you’re not sending faxes for professional purposes? Many of us need to fax private information for various reasons, such as insurance claims or loan processing. No matter the intent, your best bet is to use a secure online fax service. 

With eFax, you can trust that your personal information stays encrypted throughout the entire transmission. You’ll never need to fret about your private data falling into the hands of bad actors.

Is Online Fax Safer Than Email?

A premium online fax service is more secure than standard email. Email passes through several networks and servers as it travels from the sender to the recipient. Every link in the network is a point of weakness. These points are vulnerabilities where hackers can intercept your faxes. This cyber theft tactic is called a middleman attack.

The answer is simple if you want to know how to send a file securely. Invest in a secure online fax service, like eFax.

Why Online Faxing Is the Most Secure Way to Exchange Information 

When you trust a leader like eFax, you get eFax Secure. It’s perfect for protecting sensitive and confidential files or forms.

eFax Protect uses 256-bit AES and Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption, the highest encryption standards available. Our service lives on Tier-3 secure servers, protecting your data 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We also use the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol to keep your faxes secure around the clock. HIPAA, GLBA, PCI, and SOC compliance with full data encryption.

What Is the Safest File Sharing Site?

eFax is the most secure way to transfer files. With eFax, all your faxes remain private and confidential. We’ll provide you with your own safe, personal email inbox.

Our servers have nearly 100% uptime. For this reason, you’re assured of secure, encrypted delivery of all your essential fax communications. eFax is the clear choice for secure sharing of documents and files. 

eFax Protect: A Scalable, Secure, and Reliable Cloud Fax Solution

eFax Protect not only conforms to strict standards for security and compliance across multiple industries, keeping you and your client’s data secure, but keeps your data safe, secure, and confidential with 256-bit AES encryption and multi-DID support, which allows you to manage multiple lines with a single account.

With uncompromised safety and unrivaled convenience, eFax Protect offers built-in price breaks for high volume usage, with the flexibility to combine inbound and outbound faxing.

Learn just how secure eFax is for yourself. Get started with secure online faxing today!

Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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faxing-by-computer

Phishing attacks via email account for 90% of all data breaches. That’s a scary statistic, but it doesn’t have to be your reality. Instead of relying on email, you can turn to online faxing services, like eFax. Online faxing offers an easy way to send and receive faxes without risking your sensitive information.

You can benefit from a safe, secure, and HIPAA-compliant way to send or receive faxes. With eFax, you can rest assured that your information is safe.

Read on to explore the security and efficiency advantages of eFax over email, helping you understand why eFax might be the better choice for your business communications.

Table of Contents

The World’s Reliance on Email vs Fax

Email has become the cornerstone of business communication. It’s the most common way we communicate with each other today.

For most people, email takes up more time than any other app. However, many people don’t know that it isn’t a safe way to send and receive information unless you take specific steps.

More than just a personal-use tool, email is commonplace in organizations, which creates an environment of complacency. Since email attachments can often have spyware or other malware injected into them, proprietary information is at risk when sent via email.

In contrast, faxing—especially online faxing—offers a more secure alternative for transmitting sensitive information.

By understanding the differences between email and fax, businesses can make more informed decisions about how to protect their data and ensure secure communication.

Is Email Communication Effective Compared to Fax?

Because of the substantial hacking problems that make headlines regularly, many companies have put in powerful filters that scan and send messages to junk or spam mailboxes. For this reason, an email recipient may wait for an attachment that never shows up.

Often, attachments get filtered because of simple oversights. For instance, the attachment is too big, has the wrong name or many other reasons. When these filters mistakenly think an email is spam, these events are “false positives.” While filtering can protect organizations from hacking attempts, it can hurt employees’ productivity, make a project late or even ruin sales opportunities.

Online faxing eliminates these issues. Suppose you send a document using online fax. In that case, it won’t get flagged by a spam filter, and the recipient will receive the document.

To send documents that someone must look at quickly, you should send them by fax instead of email. You can rest assured knowing your communication will get to the intended person with faxing. With email, however, there are no such guarantees.

You can even send urgent faxes easily while you’re on the go using our eFax Mobile App.


Difference Between Fax and Email

Several key differences between fax and email relate to their technological, security and compliance features. Understanding these distinctions helps you choose the communication method that best suits your business’s needs and aligns with your security protocols.

Email Advantages & Disadvantages

Emails offer benefits like instant worldwide communication, user-friendliness, multi-device accessibility, cost-effectiveness and easy archiving, which boost business communications. However, they also come with significant drawbacks. Emails are susceptible to cyber-attacks such as phishing and malware, risking data exposure. They can overwhelm users, reduce productivity and cause missed messages. Dependency on internet connectivity limits access in areas with poor service. Additionally, the informal nature of emails can lead to misunderstandings, and they lack the legal validity of signed documents or faxes, which is crucial in certain legal and business contexts.

Fax Advantages & Disadvantages

Online faxing leverages internet technology to enhance traditional faxing, maintaining robust security features that protect against cyber-attacks like phishing and man-in-the-middle. It adheres to strict regulatory standards, including HIPAA, making it suitable for industries requiring high levels of privacy and security. Online faxes are reliable and provide digital transmission receipts that are legally recognized, ensuring the integrity of communications even without physical records. 

Unlike traditional faxing, online faxing does not require the maintenance of physical machines or consumables like paper and toner, making it more appealing to modern businesses. However, it relies on internet connectivity, which can be a limitation in areas with unstable internet service. Despite some reliance on digital infrastructure, the security, legal validity, and compliance of online faxing continue to make it a practical choice for many sectors.


Email vs Fax: Which Provides Wealth of Information for Hackers?

When organizations send documents, they don’t want them to get intercepted and end up in the hands of the wrong people. In the case of email, a transmission breach can give hackers access to personal information like phone numbers, social security numbers, and financial records. Hackers can then do whatever they want with this information.

Hackers can also steal business secrets, costing a company millions of dollars. For example, inadvertently revealing customer records can make customers or partners angry and even cause lawsuits.

In contrast, faxing is generally more secure and less likely to provide such wealth of information to hackers, making it a safer alternative.


Is Faxing Safer than Email for Avoiding Phishing Attacks?

The biggest weakness of email is phishing attacks. They typically come in emails that look like they come from a trusted source, but malicious actors use them to steal all sorts of data.

Sometimes hackers are happy to get your personal and credit card information for money. Other times, however, they send phishing emails to obtain login credentials or additional information that they can use in more malicious attacks against a few people or a single company.

Getting into your online accounts and personal data can lead to hackers getting permission to change and compromise connected systems. This can give bad actors opportunities to hack critical systems—such as point-of-sale terminals or order processing technology. A hack can even paralyze an entire corporate network or steal data. What’s more, some hackers may charge you a ransom to restore your data and not return all your information even if you pay.

One of the best ways to protect your organization against phishing is using a secure fax service like eFax.

Unlike email, faxes are not susceptible to phishing schemes, providing a safer alternative for transmitting sensitive information


Online Faxes: Safe, Secure, and Reliable Compared to Email

Imagine a malicious actor breaks into an email account. In that case, they can get into any other account linked to that email address unless you’ve protected the accounts with two-factor authentication. By contrast, online fax is less likely to get hacked by people who use social engineering, like phishing, to get into your computer.

It’s not hard to get someone to click a link in an email. However, it’s extremely difficult for hackers to use this method to trick someone into giving away their passwords or other vital information with a fax machine. Online faxing is far more secure than email for almost every use case. It’s safe because it’s not as easy to compromise as an email.

Security and Privacy Measures of Fax & Email

When comparing the security and privacy measures of fax and email, it’s essential to understand how each technology addresses these crucial aspects. While both communication methods are widely used in business and personal contexts, their inherent security features differ significantly, often making faxing a more secure option.

Fax vs Email Security Measures

Online fax security benefits from robust data encryption protocols during transmission, making it less vulnerable to common cyber-attacks like man-in-the-middle. This method, which builds on traditional fax technology, includes stringent access controls and detailed audit trails, enhancing compliance and security monitoring. In contrast, email security, which often relies on Transport Layer Security (TLS), can be inconsistent, leaving gaps that cyber-attacks can exploit. Furthermore, emails are prone to spam and phishing attacks due to their widespread use, making email accounts frequent targets for breaches. Thus, online faxing offers a more secure alternative, particularly valuable in environments where data protection and regulatory compliance are paramount.

Fax vs Email Privacy Measures 

Faxes maintain high data integrity, with alterations being difficult. Physical fax machines are often located within secure environments, reducing the risk of exposure. Online faxes add a layer of privacy with password-protected access. Email, while convenient and accessible across multiple devices and locations, faces significant privacy risks. Email databases are prime targets for data breaches, and easy accessibility can lead to security issues if devices are compromised or networks are insecure.

Encryption

Encryption is crucial for securing fax and email communications by encoding data to protect confidentiality and integrity. Email often uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) for data in transit but lacks default end-to-end encryption, making it vulnerable to interception. In contrast, modern online fax services use strong encryption protocols like Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to secure data both in transit and at rest, ensuring that faxes are encrypted from sending to receipt, providing superior security compared to many email services.

Compliance (HIPAA, PHIPA)

Compliance with regulatory standards like HIPAA in the U.S. and PHIPA in Canada is essential in healthcare and legal sectors, where communication security and privacy are heavily regulated. Fax services, including online platforms like eFax, meet these regulations through solid security features like encryption, access controls and audit trails. These features help ensure that fax transmissions protect the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data, achieving HIPAA compliance. For Canadian contexts, online fax services also conform to PHIPA by employing secure transmission and data handling practices to safeguard personal health information.

User Authentication

User authentication is critical for ensuring that only authorized users can access and transmit information on communication systems. Email platforms usually use basic methods like passwords, and some offer optional multifactor authentication (MFA) that users must activate and manage. In contrast, online fax services enforce stricter and mandatory authentication measures, including MFA, strong password policies and sometimes biometric authentication. These stringent practices enhance the security of fax services, making them especially suitable for industries where unauthorized access could have severe legal and financial consequences.

Legal and Compliance Aspects of Faxes & Emails

Faxes are widely recognized in legal systems as valid documents due to their ability to generate verifiable transmission reports, which serve as proof of receipt and are commonly accepted in court. They adhere to strict compliance standards like HIPAA, making them suitable for sectors where security and regulatory compliance are crucial. While increasingly accepted legally, emails lack uniform confirmation receipts and often require additional security measures to meet compliance standards, which can complicate their use in legal and highly regulated environments.

Cost Comparison Between Fax & Email

Maintaining traditional fax systems involves hardware, maintenance, and consumables costs, whereas online fax services charge monthly or per-use fees but include robust security. Email is generally cheaper with low initial setup costs and offers free basic services, but adding advanced security features for compliance can significantly increase expenses. For industries prioritizing security and legal compliance, the higher cost of fax services may be justified by their reliability and lower risk of breaches.


Email vs Fax: Selecting the Best Communication Method for Your Needs

The choice between fax and email hinges on industry-specific requirements, the sensitivity of the information involved and desired operational efficiency. Industries with stringent compliance requirements, like healthcare and legal, may prefer fax for its secure transmission and legal reliability. Email offers greater speed and convenience for routine communications. Businesses should weigh the security risks, and compliance needs against the operational benefits to decide the most suitable communication method.


Encryption Makes Online Faxing Secure

Why is online faxing more secure than email? The technology encrypts fax messages at every step. Encryption scrambles content and makes it non-sensical to anyone who doesn’t have a decryption key. Many email services, however, don’t use end-to-end encryption. This means that people other than the intended recipients can read the contents of the email, exposing your network to various kinds of cyberattacks.


The Built-in Value of Online Faxing

Fax is the winner between fax and email when it comes to efficiency. Most email services don’t have built-in features that let you check to see if you’ve successfully sent or delivered your messages. Conversely, you’ll only get a failure notification— known as a “bounce back”—when sending an email if you message a nonexistent address.

Faxing, especially online faxing, automatically tells you when you’ve successfully sent a communication. You can easily see which faxes you’ve sent successfully in real-time.

Also, an online fax service allows you to download and print transmission receipts. Transmission receipts are handy, especially when you need to record what you’ve sent to a recipient. At eFax, we even enable you to send faxes right from your workstation easily using our proprietary eFax Messenger interface.

Getting More for Your Investment in Communication

Faxes again have the upper hand over emails in terms of storage space. Most email services don’t offer free online storage when you sign up for an account. If you want more storage space, you’ll have to pay extra. Unfortunately, paying for more storage space isn’t cheap. In fact, most of the time, it’s pretty expensive.

With online faxing, you can store much more information. For instance, at eFax, we’ll give you free online storage at an affordable price. Also, as long as you have a subscription, you’ll get free online cloud storage.

In general, having free online storage is better. This means that you can store documents in the cloud without worrying about how much space you have on your devices. Many businesses and large companies use this feature regularly, as it’s beneficial for high-volume faxing needs.

Making document signing easy

Every day, business professionals need to get signatures on critical documentation, such as contracts or non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). This isn’t easy to accomplish by email, especially if you have a hard copy document that needs to be signed.

You’ll need to scan the hard copy, send it to a device and upload it to email to get the document out the door. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get any easier on the recipients’ end. All the people who need to sign it will need to use an external tool. That can mean downloading the document, uploading it into another solution to add a signature, then downloading it again and uploading it to email. Because of the multiple steps involved, some people may not put forth the effort to sign documents—and this can lead to missed opportunities.

By contrast, our online fax service simplifies the process of signature collection. If you need to send a hard copy document via fax, all you must do is put the document on a connected company copier and press a few keys. Our online fax app also has built-in scanner and e-signature tools.


Get Started with Secure Online Faxing Today

eFax has served as a leader in online faxing for more than 20 years. We make it effortless to send and receive HIPAA-compliant faxes from your computer, phone, or tablet in just a few minutes. Also, we have local, toll-free and international phone numbers available for your use.

eFax has a wide range of complete internet fax solutions tailored to your needs, and we can even help you choose the right one.


Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, fax is generally considered more secure than email. Fax transmissions, unlike emails, are more challenging to intercept, and many fax services offer enhanced security measures such as encryption and compliance with laws like HIPAA, making them a safer option for sensitive communications.

Fax often employs more robust encryption and better compliance with security regulations, making it less susceptible to cyber threats like phishing attacks. In contrast, email is more vulnerable to security breaches and hacking.

Faxing is deemed safer due to its direct transmission method, which minimizes exposure to hackers. Also, regulatory compliance and encryption in faxing safeguard sensitive information better than typical email security measures.

Many businesses and industries (like healthcare and legal) require secure document transmission, where faxing offers compliance benefits and security that email cannot match. Fax also legally acknowledges receipt of emails that are not reliably offered.

Yes, you can use your email to send and receive faxes through online fax services such as eFax. These services convert emails to faxes and vice versa, providing a seamless bridge between the two technologies.

Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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eFax Blog

Is Fax Secure? Tips & Best Practices

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fax-personal-info-resized

A convenient communication method that only requires a phone number to send, faxing remains the go-to method of document sharing for many businesses. From sending invoices, sales contracts, legal agreements, medical records and more, fax machines and online fax services still have a place in the world of business. 

Today, we have more faxing options than ever before. Instead of relying on a physical machine attached to landlines, people can fax directly from their computers or smartphones. Easy-to-use fax apps are also available to provide anytime, anywhere convenience. Best of all, these new options provide the same security and reliability as traditional fax machines. That means you get portability and proven security with a single faxing solution.

Are Faxes Secure?

One question people often ask: is faxing personal information safe?

Security is one of the main reasons why faxing is still regarded as an important form of business communication. Fax machines communicate via telephone lines—not the internet. This makes it difficult for unauthorized third parties to access your private documents.

Of course, as a further precaution after sending or receiving any hard copy documents, users should quickly archive or destroy them in order to prevent any unauthorized access to sensitive information. This is especially true if the document is shared using public facilities and devices (i.e., a fax machine at a library or office services store).

Why Should I Fax When I Can Just Attach the Documents to an Email and Hit Send?

You could, but we wouldn’t recommend it, for several reasons.

Risk of compromise. Email addresses, especially if used for multiple online services and social media networks, can easily be hacked and compromised, allowing access to your account, along with any messages and attached documents. 

Email is not encrypted. Even if your account isn’t hacked, your emails and attachments could still be intercepted. For example, while Google has strong security features built into Gmail, the actual content, including messages and attachments, of the emails you send aren’t encrypted and are vulnerable to exposure. For additional protection, you would need to incorporate a third-party solution that provides client-side encryption. 

People have become more cautious about email. Email has become of the largest attack vectors, as email malware attacks were up 600% compared to 2019, according to security publication CSO. As such, both personal and business users are relying less and less on email, especially when working with sensitive documents. If you send important documents via email, from an email address they do not recognize to your recipients, they might mark it as spam or simply delete it. That can lead to miscommunications and missed opportunities.

Large files in transit. Further, documents might be quite large, take a bit longer to transmit and take up space in both your and your recipient’s inbox as well. In fact, the send might fail, due to the document’s large size.

Greater organization and efficiency. Individuals and companies can find greater efficiency by sending and receiving important documents via fax, whether online or off. Documents are kept separate from email and cloud-based document sharing platforms (i.e., Google Docs, Microsoft OneDrive) and can be accessed faster and more easily because they are kept in one application.

No delivery confirmation. Unfortunately, there is also no delivery confirmation with email, so you may not know for sure whether or not your document ever found its way to its intended location. If you want to know whether the email was opened or not, as with encryption, you would need to incorporate a third-party solution into your email program in order to verify that your sender opened it.

How Secure are Online Fax Services?

Online fax services offer a safe and convenient way to send personal information and sensitive documents.

When you send a fax through an online platform like eFax Protect or eFax Corporate, your document is encrypted in transit to protect any sensitive information that it might contain. When someone sends a fax to you, it’s delivered directly to your eFax inbox, where your information will remain private and confidential.

Secure Online Fax Services

Who Uses Fax Machines or Fax Services Nowadays?

In many industries, including medical and legal, a faxed document is considered legally valid and binding. 

Some lawyers prefer dealing with faxes in order to create a paper trail for cases rather than digging through emails and attachments. Fax communication is instantaneous and serves as a time-stamped piece of evidence in court.

In health care, the mandates of the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act (HIPAA) govern the sharing of sensitive patient data. This is why cloud-based, document hosting and sharing services must demonstrate their adherence to HIPAA in order for their customers—caregivers, hospital administrators and patients—to use their services. 

eFax Features & Benefits

eFax provides the most comprehensive suite of features and benefits in the industry. We understand that users have several options to send documents and so we have added features that set our service parts from other options, like email or text. We also believe that eFax shouldn’t serve as a bottleneck to document workflows. Instead, eFax can serve as an enhancement that injects efficiency into operations that rely heavily on document production and communication. For document-intensive operations, such as those in the legal and medical fields, eFax can serve as a central document communications channel without the distractions or security concerns of email, text, or chat platforms (i.e., Slack, Teams).

Toll-Free & Local Fax Numbers

With toll-free and local fax numbers, businesses can increase their national and local presence. This helps businesses establish credibility and reach new groups of customers. 

For example, new customers may be reluctant to send important documents to a phone number with an area code that they do not recognize. However, if you have a fax number with an area code local to that new customer group, you can reduce some uncertainty and anxiety.

Electronic Signatures

The eFax electronic signature feature lets users quickly sign faxes from their devices, whether they be desktops, laptops, tablets, or smartphones. In this way, your recipients do not have the headache of having to print out documents and sign them before returning them to you. 

This electronic signature feature also removes the need to incorporate a third-party service to electronically sign important documents. This saves on the hassle of launching a third-party program and reduces cost, as electronic document signing services are for the most part not free.

Cloud Storage

The eFax mobile app also works with well-known cloud storage platforms like Dropbox, iCloud and Google Drive. Thanks to this integration, you do not need to download documents from the cloud, then upload them to the fax application. Simply grab them from the cloud, attach them to your fax message and hit Send.

Not needing to download then upload removes steps in the workflow and actually improves security. Another copy of the document in your hard drive serves to increase the attack surface

Better than a Physical Fax Machine

eFax is also more cost-effective and accessible than a standard, physical fax machine. Many of our customer reviews note that they appreciate not needing to worry about installation, phone lines, maintenance, ink cartridges, paper, or other materials. 

You also don’t have to worry about having extra space—a desk, tabletop, or area where the fax machine would sit. Simply log into your eFax account, send a fax and get notified in real-time when your fax is delivered.

3 Ways to Fax

eFax offers three ways to conveniently send and receive faxes. You can send faxes from your desktop through your eFax account, with the eFax Messenger app, or via email.

secure online faxing

FAQs

Yes, faxes are considered to be secure. Fax machines communicate via phone lines, which are more difficult to compromise than public internet and Wi-Fi connections. Online fax services use encryption, two-factor authentication, and other safety measures to protect your personal information.

You could, but we wouldn’t recommend it. Email addresses, especially if used for multiple online services and social media networks, can easily be compromised, allowing access to your account along with any messages and documents. Further, documents might be quite large, take a bit longer to transmit, and take up space in your recipient’s inbox as well. Finally, there is also no delivery confirmation with email, so you may not know for sure whether or not your document ever made it to its intended location.

Online faxing with a platform like eFax is safe. While an Internet connection can be hacked, online fax services like eFax encrypt documents so that they are kept secure and private in transit. Additional access controls, such as two-factor authentication, ensure that access is restricted to only authorized users in order to prevent misuse or compromise. 

Yes, faxing personal information is safe. As cited above, encryption and two-factor authentication are strong security measures to ensure safety, but users should always take precautions to prevent unauthorized access to documents and sensitive information.

Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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Office Depot Fax: How to Send and Receive Faxes with Ease?

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Office Depot

Introduction

Whether you ran out of supplies at the office or your home fax machine broke down, using the Office Depot fax service can be a great option to share business or personal documents. 

In this article, we’ll examine how to fax at Office Depot and whether the service is reliable and secure. We’ll also see its shortcomings and an alternative you can use when you need an even better service.

If you would like to shift from traditional faxing to a digital service, you can explore eFax. This service allows you to send and receive faxes anywhere in the world, anytime, from the convenience of your home, hotel, or office.

Sign up for eFax’s secure, convenient, and cost-cutting digital fax solutions today


Can You Fax at Office Depot?

Yes. You can fax at Office Depot’s Copy and Printing Center, where you can send international, local, and domestic faxes. 

The Office Depot fax cost varies by location, depending on how far the fax will go. 

Here’s a snapshot of how much you can expect to spend to send a fax with the service:

Office Depot Fax Service Pricing

  • Local faxes: $1.49 for the first page and $1.29 for additional pages.
  • Domestic faxes: $1.99 for the first page and $1.79 for additional pages.
  • International faxes: $7.99 for the first pages and $3.99 for additional pages. 

You won’t be charged for the cover page.


Pros and Cons of Using Office Depot Fax Services

Office Depot is a famous service provider, and its fax services make it even more desirable because you can access fax services when you are close to a store. 

Pros of Using Office Depot Fax

Here’s what to love about using Office Depot to fax:

  • No Internet Required: The service comes in handy even if your access to the Internet is limited. 
  • Option for Self-service: Self-service faxing gives you control, providing peace of mind for your communications because the chances of others accessing them are lower.

Cons of Using Office Depot Fax

Despite its usefulness as an offline fax solution, the fax at Office Depot has shortcomings:

  • It isn’t Ideal for Regular or High-volume Faxing: Sending an occasional fax would be economical using the service. But it isn’t the case if you send faxes regularly, especially when they involve many large documents. The cost for these can mount quickly. 
  • Faxing is Unsuccessful Sometimes: Connection errors and fax machine malfunctions increase the chances of failing to send a fax with the service. 
  • Inconvenience is a Significant Problem: The service is inconvenient because you have to travel to a fax machine. Traveling adds to the cost, which is already higher than what similar services like Staples, UPS, and FedEx fax charge for international faxes. 

Fortunately, eFax saves the day, allowing you to conveniently send and receive faxes anywhere at any time without using a fax machine or printer. 

Sign up for eFax today to share documents at your convenience while cutting costs using digital faxing solutions.


How to Find Office Depot Fax Store

Find Office Depot Fax Store

You can use Office Depot’s Store Locator to find one of the company’s many stores near you. 

Here’s how:

  • Access the Office Depot website and scroll to the bottom to find the Store Locator in the footer menu.
  • Click on the link to open the locator.
  • Enter your state, zip, or city in the search bar and click on the search icon. 
  • Select “Faxing Services” in the Filter section. 
  • The list of nearby places will show details such as Store number, address, phone number, daily operating hours, and fax number. 
  • Contact the store via phone to ask if their fax service is operational.

How to Send a Fax at Office Depot

Here’s how to send a fax from Office Depot:

  • After calling and confirming that the store’s fax machines are working, visit with your documents arranged in order with the cover page on top. 
  • Load the documents into the fax machine tray and dial the receiver’s fax number. 
  • Wait for the machine to build a connection, scan, and send the documents. 
  • Wait for a confirmation receipt showing whether the fax has been sent successfully. Double-check the details on the printed receipt. 
  • Pay for the service at the counter, showing the attendant the confirmation receipt.

How to Send a Fax Without Going to Office Depot

Faxing at Office Depot requires in-person visits. You can’t send a fax without visiting the store.

However, you can fax online using eFax, which lets you fax without a fax machine or printer. It makes it possible to conveniently and securely send and receive faxes anytime from anywhere, provided you have an Internet-enabled mobile phone, computer, or tablet.


eFax vs. Office Depot Fax Service

Let’s see how Office Depot’s fax service stacks up against eFax:

Office Depot FaxeFax
Bulk FaxingYou have to send faxes individually to each recipient, which is tedious.eFax allows sending faxes in bulk. You can attach up to 3GB of files and share them simultaneously among up to 20 email addresses.
ConvenienceYou have to travel to a physical location to use a fax machine, which is inconvenient.You can fax right from your mobile phone using the free eFax mobile fax app or on your computer using the free desktop fax app.
TrackingYou can’t tell if your intended recipient got the fax unless you call them directly.You can track your outbound or inbound faxes in real-time.
SecuritySecurity is less superior because the service relies on the simple end-to-end security of a phone line.Security is better because the service uses multiple security measures, such as Data Encryption at Rest for stored faxes and Data Encryption in Transit for en-route faxes.
ScalabilityNot scalable as your business or personal faxing needs grow.Scalability is guaranteed as the platform accommodates the faxing needs of large enterprises and small businesses.

Selecting the Ideal Fax Service for Your Needs

Modern faxing requires top-notch compliance, security, and affordability. Learn more about the features of eFax and how it works to help you secure faxes, comply with industry standards, and cut costs.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Let’s check out answers to questions about fax services at Office Depot:

Yes. Office Depot stores allow you to receive faxes. To do so, find a nearby store, call to confirm that they receive faxes, and ask for the fax number. 

Once you get to the store, ensure the fax machine is working properly and has enough ink and paper to print the document you expect to receive. 

Send your fax number to the sender and wait for the fax to arrive. Once you are done, pay for the service at the counter. 

The Office Depot fax is sufficiently secure because the communication lines between the printers and fax machines have end-to-end encryption. Only you and the recipient can access the message. 

eFax is an even better faxing solution! The platform ensures your faxes are secure and comply with regulatory standards, like HIPAA, during storage or transit.

Most Office Depot locations are open from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, but the actual office hours may vary from store to store and by day of the week. 

Pro Tip: While you can fax any day of the week, you can’t fax late into the night. You can only fax at any time of the night with eFax’s digital faxing service.

Yes, all Office Depot stores offer fax services. 

However, it’s important to call the store first to confirm that the fax machines are working.

You’ll need to bring a physical or digital copy of the documents you want to fax. 

Also, remember to have the recipient’s fax number on hand.

The fax machine you use at Office Depot should print a confirmation page showing whether or not your fax was sent successfully. 

If you find a newer model of the fax machine, it may also show the sending status on the display screen.


Fax at Any Time, Anywhere — Without a Fax Machine 

If you only need to fax occasionally, the Office Depot fax service near you is worth it despite the inconveniences of traveling and being unable to fax at night.

However, if you want to fax conveniently and seamlessly anywhere at any time across different Internet-based devices and platforms, you will be better off using eFax.

Sign up for eFax today to securely send and receive faxes anytime from anywhere, reduce costs, and comply with industry standards.


Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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Complete Guide to FedEx Fax Services

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A FedEx Office location offering fax services in New York City.

Faxing remains a good option when sharing personal or business documents. But what do you do when you don’t have a fax machine at home or in the office? 

You would have to turn to an on-site faxing service, such as  FedEx fax. But you would need to navigate the lengthy process of finding a nearby center, confirming if they offer fax services, and traveling to send or receive a fax.

Let’s discuss the process, costs, and some tips to efficiently use the fax service.

However, an even better option is to use an online faxing service — eFax, which allows you to securely share documents via the Internet using connected devices. Sign up for eFax today to send or receive faxes anytime from anywhere! The service even lets you share documents from your cloud storage using virtual faxes.


Table of Contents


Can You Fax at FedEx?

Yes, you can fax at FedEx using its FedEx Office subsidiary, which offers faxing and other related services, such as printing and shredding.

FedEx faxing lets you send local, national, and international faxes using its self-service fax machines or with the help of the attending personnel.


What is the FedEx Fax Number?

Finding the fax number for a specific FedEx location can be tedious because the company doesn’t list any store-specific fax numbers. 

You’ll have to call your nearby store to ask for the number it uses.


How Much Does it Cost to Fax at FedEx?

Here’s a tabular breakdown of how much it costs to fax at FedEx:

The first page of the documentEach additional page of the document
Charges for local faxes$1.89$1.59
Charges for national faxes$2.49$2.19
Charges for international faxes$5.99$3.99

Note: As with other in-store faxing solutions like UPS fax, the cost to fax at FedEx may vary between stores based on the distance between the sender and the recipient. 


How to Find a FedEx Fax Store

Here are two ways to find a FedEx fax store:

1. Search on Google Maps or Google 

Use Google or Google Maps to search for “FedEx Fax Store near me.” To refine the search, add your location at the end.

For example, “FedEx fax store near me in Rochester, New York.” 

2. Use the FedEx Website

Open the FedEx website and click “Find a Location” under the “Locations” menu. Enter your location in the search bar and click on “Search.” 

The search function brings up a map of the locations near the area you’ve searched for. To refine the search further, click “More Filters” and apply “Copy and Printing Services” from the drop-down. 

You’ll see several locations labeled “FedEx Office Print and Ship Center,” most of which offer faxing services under printing services. 

Each location shows the approximate distance from your position, business hours, physical address, and contact details. 

Note: Be sure to call to confirm that the store offers faxing services. 


How to Send a Fax at FedEx

Here’s how to send your document by fax from FedEx:

1. Gather the Required Items

Prepare the documents you want to fax and carry the recipient’s fax number. 

2. Find a FedEx Office Store Near You

Use the FedEx website or search on Google for stores near you (as mentioned above) and confirm that the one closest to you has faxing services before visiting them. 

3. Have the Attending Personnel Fax for You

Once you get to the store, tell the attendant that you need to fax a document. 

Complete the complementary cover sheet with your information. Add the recipient’s details, including their fax number. 

Give the cover sheet and your document to the attending personnel and wait for them to confirm the number of pages and the cost of the fax. 

The attendant will dial the recipient’s fax number and press the “Send” button.

Wait for the fax machine to connect, scan the document, and send the fax. 

4. Wait to Confirm the Delivery 

Wait for the fax machine to complete sending and confirm successful delivery. 

If it fails, the attendant will try faxing again. 

5. Retrieve Your Document

Collect your document from the attendant. If needed, you can shred it. 

6. Pay for the Fax

Pay the required fee before leaving the store. 

Additional Pro Tip

Declining the help of the attending personnel and faxing the document yourself can reduce the chances of leakage or mishandling. 

Here’s how to use the fax machine yourself:

  • Load the document into the fax machine tray
  • Wait for the machine to establish a connection and scan the document 
  • Enter the recipient’s fax number and dial the “Send” button
  • Wait for the confirmation message 
  • Retrieve your document to shred it or carry it with you
  • Pay for the faxing. 

However, you’ll notice that sending a FedEx fax is less secure, whether you do it yourself or have an attendant do it. Other fax machine users may see and leak your document. 

At eFax, we offer a more secure faxing solution that protects your information using Data in Transit and Data at Rest encryptions.

Sign up today to securely fax with eFax’s convenient, compliant, and cost-effective online faxing solutions. 


Tips to Efficiently Use FedEx Fax Services

Since FedEx’s fax service uses immobile machines, it’s easy to spend too much time dealing with each message delivery. 

Here are some handy tips for using the service efficiently:

  • Once you find a FedEx Office store close to you, call them first to confirm that their faxing service is still operational. You want to avoid reaching there and discovering you have to look for the services at another location. 
  • If you aren’t sure about using a fax machine, have one of the attending personnel from the store help you fax your document. 
  • Ensure you receive a printed confirmation of the success or failure of sending the document. If the delivery fails and you discover that later, you might have to come back to the store. 
  • If possible, ensure the recipient’s phone line is active to increase the chances of your documents reaching them. 

eFax – Online Alternative to Traditional Fax Services

As mentioned, eFax is a great digital alternative to traditional fax services, which are costly and time-consuming. 

eFax offers a comprehensive, convenient, secure, and compliant online fax solution. The service streamlines fax management, integrates with workflows such as email, and secures your data with in-storage and in-transit encryptions. 

You can send faxes from anywhere, anytime, reducing your faxing costs immensely. You only need to pay a low monthly fee for local, national, and international faxes. 

We also ensure you maintain industry regulations when sharing your data. 

For example, eFax helps you adhere to the System and Organization Controls (SOC), HIPAA, and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) regulatory standards. 


Fax Anywhere, Anytime with eFax – Without a Fax Machine

While FedEx fax is an ideal traditional faxing solution, it might not perform in terms of convenience, security, affordability, and compliance with industry-specific regulations.

eFax lets you fax conveniently using any Internet-based device anytime and from anywhere. It also integrates with cloud storage, email services, and business applications like Salesforce to improve operational efficiency. 

The service also ensures your fax communications comply with industry regulations such as SOX, GLBA, and HIPAA, which can help protect your company’s reputation. Sign up for eFax today and start sending or receiving faxes conveniently wherever you are without using any fax machine!


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are answers to common questions about FedEx Office’s faxing services.

You can send legal-size and letter-size physical documents using FedEx fax. The service also allows you to add a cover sheet at no extra cost. But if you need a solution that also faxes digital format documents, try eFax. You can even sign documents electronically before sending them!

It’s generally secure to send your documents via FedEx faxing. 

However, your documents may be prone to security attacks because the exchange is open and lacks reliable data encryption.

Yes. You can receive a fax at a FedEx location near you if that particular store’s fax machines are operational. 

When you receive a fax, a FedEx attendant holds it until you pick it up.

It can take one to several minutes to send a fax via FedEx. The duration of the transmission depends on several factors. 

For example, the usual scanning time is 30 to 60 seconds per page. However, if your document is too large, it can take longer to send. 

Other crucial time considerations include finding a store, traveling, and waiting your turn.

There aren’t any limitations on international faxing with FedEx. 

The only challenge is that using the service to fax internationally can be pretty pricey compared to other in-store faxing services like UPS.

Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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Walmart Fax Service: Everything You Need To Know

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A Walmart in Arizona. Walmart does not have a fax service.

Walmart would be a great option for faxing documents because of its wide reach as a multi-channel retailer with thousands of physical stores and neighborhood markets. 

But does Walmart fax? Can you fax papers to any of the multinational corporation’s stores?

In this article, we’ll find out whether the company offers faxing services, the drawbacks of in-store faxing, and what alternatives you can use. 

eFax is a top-notch online faxing alternative to the traditional faxing services you get in-store. 

With eFax, you can send important documents from anywhere in the world without time restrictions or fax machine availability. It’s a comprehensive and secure digital faxing solution that improves operational efficiency, maintains regulatory compliance, and reduces costs. Sign up for eFax today to cut faxing costs, secure your data, and send or receive faxes from anywhere at any time.


Table of Contents


Does Walmart Fax Documents? 

Unfortunately, Walmart doesn’t fax. You can’t send or receive faxed documents at any of the company’s many outlets. 

The good news is that you can fax using alternatives such as other in-store fax services and online faxing solutions. 

We’ll discuss each alternative in detail in the upcoming sections. 


Superior Options to Walmart Fax Services

Best Way to Fax Using a Nearby Fax Service 

The best way to fax using a nearby fax service is to use a self-service fax machine to send your documents without anyone else handling them. 

When you use the faxing machine yourself, you improve the security of the communication because only you and the recipient will see the document. 

However, some stores may prefer that one of their attendants helps you with the faxing. 

But first, what offline faxing places are available? How do you find one? How do you fax from there?

How to Find Fax Services Near Me

Here’s how to find a faxing service near you:

  • Search on Google Maps for fax outlets in your area. For example, “fax service near me in Frederick, Maryland”.
  • Search on Google using the same format. For best results, turn on your phone’s location feature. 
  • Check online directories such as Yellow Pages or Yelp. These also provide basic information about the center, including phone numbers. 

Where to Fax Something Near Me

There are several public or private places you can fax from:

  • Couriers, shipping centers, or office supply stores such as UPS, Mail Depot, Staples, Office Depot, and FedEx
  • Financial institutions like banks and credit unions which may allow VIP customers to send or receive faxes
  • Supermarkets and shopping malls
  • Education institutions like public schools and colleges
  • Public libraries
  • AAA clubs, if you are a member
  • Some travel agencies
  • Post offices
  • Truck stops, airports, hostels, marinas, town halls, pharmacies, and hotels
  • Some internet cafes and copy service centers in major cities. 

How to Send a Fax Offline

Once you find a fax service near you, call them to confirm that they offer faxing. 

Here’s what to do when you get to the center:

  • Tell an attendant you want to fax so they can show you a ready-to-fax machine. 
  • Load the document in the feeder tray, arranging the pages so that the recipient receives them in the correct order.
  • Dial the recipient’s fax number and wait for confirmation that the machine has established a connection. Once you see a flashing light or hear a beep, press the send button. 
  • Receive a confirmation that your fax has been delivered. Some machines print a receipt to confirm delivery, but it’s usually a flash on the display. 
  • Collect your original document for safekeeping or shredding. 
  • Go to the counter with the delivery receipt to pay for the service. 

How to Receive a Fax Offline

Here’s how to receive a fax at an in-store fax service:

  • Call the store in advance to confirm that they offer fax services. Ask for their fax number and confirm that they will receive and collect the faxed document for you. 
  • Ask the sender to send the fax to that number. 
  • Call the store to confirm the fax has arrived and make an appointment to collect it.
  • Go to the store and ask an attendant to retrieve the document for you. You may be asked for some details about the transmission to verify the fax is yours. 
  • Take your document and pay. 

It’s clear that sending or receiving taxes traditionally is a lengthy process. You would be better off using a digital faxing solution like eFax, which saves you time and money. You also get to sign documents electronically before sending them!


Disadvantages of In-Store Fax Services

Traditional faxing still faces many challenges, most of which have been there from the start:

  • Poor Safety: Fax machines communicate over unsecured phone lines that may be tapped. 
  • Tediousness: Businesses typically use traditional faxing to share signed documents or send them out for signing. Physically printing, scanning, signing, and faxing takes time, especially if you don’t have a fax machine near you. 
  • High Maintenance Costs: Fax machines require paper, ink, toner, a phone line, and repairs, which can be costly. 
  • Poor Scalability: Traditional faxing doesn’t grow as your business grows. For example, you can’t fax multiple recipients simultaneously or send high-volume faxes. 
  • Inaccessibility: You can only fax when you are at the machine. There’s no way to get urgent messages if you are outside your office, home, or fax center. 
  • Expensive International Faxing: Sending an international in-store fax is costly for both the first and additional pages. 
  • Not Environment-friendly: Since fax machines use paper, ink, and toner, they are not kind to the environment. Also, you have to burn gas to get to a faxing center. 

Advantages of Online Fax Services 

Online fax services are an excellent alternative to in-store fax solutions. 

Here are the main advantages you can enjoy when you use digital fax solutions:

  • Ease of Use: You can send and receive faxes from Internet-enabled devices. All you need is a fully set up online faxing account. 
  • High-end Security: Online faxes are encrypted and protected. Spam is also filtered. 
  • Lower Cost: You don’t need to buy a fax machine or maintain a physical phone line. Also, you don’t have to pay per fax but rather a recurring monthly subscription fee. 
  • Unlimited Free Online Storage: You can store and file digital faxes online for easy access at any time from anywhere. 
  • Cross-platform Synchronization: Online fax services typically integrate with digital workflows such as email services, business apps, and cloud storage solutions to enhance operations. 

You can enjoy these and many other benefits when you use a digital fax service – eFax, which comes in handy when you want to avoid using bulky fax machines. 


eFax – A Faster Alternative to Offline Fax

eFax is a cloud-based faxing solution that lets you quickly upload documents digitally and send them to any fax number. You can also receive faxes from any fax number. 

Here are seven reasons you’ll want to use the service:

1. Speed and Efficiency

The solution is a faster and more efficient alternative to offline fax services, saving you time and money. 

The service also saves you time with its email services integration, which allows for one-click faxing from Gmail and Outlook

2. You Can Comply with Industry Regulations

The service covers some key industry standards, including PCI DSS, HIPAA, GLBA, HITRUST, SOC, and SOC2.

You can enjoy peace of mind knowing that your sensitive documents are compliant and are handled responsibly and securely. 

3. Versatility

The service’s versatility makes it stand out among similar platforms in the industry. First, eFax Online is a web-based portal accessible from anywhere. You can use it to fax using any device connected to the Internet. 

Secondly, you can fax using eFax Messenger, the solution’s desktop app, which allows you to send faxes from your computer within minutes.

Thirdly, the desktop app accepts more than 200 file types, including images, word documents, and PDFs. You can deal with up to ten documents per fax!

4. Convenience and Affordability

Unlike in-store faxing, eFax is convenient and affordable. You can use it to fax from anywhere, any time of the day or night, from the mobile fax app, web portal, or eFax Messenger. You also don’t need to pause your workflows until you get to the office. 

Additionally, you only need to pay a low recurring monthly fee to send as many faxes as possible without additional charges when you use the service. You also save money because you don’t need a dedicated phone line or costly hardware. 

5. Advanced File Sharing

You can use the service to send signed documents, any paperwork you can’t send through email, and files that are too big to attach to an email. The solution’s large file-sharing option allows you to simultaneously share up to 3GB of files among 20 different emails. 

Moreover, you can convert inbound faxes to emails to distribute around your office or to all the necessary stakeholders. 

6. Electronic Storage

The converted faxes can be stored electronically, saving you time.

If you used an in-store option, you would have to print and type the document to turn it into an email. 

7. Instant Email Notifications

Lastly, the service sends you an email notification when you send or receive a fax. It’s faster because you don’t have to call the recipient to ask if they got your fax. 

Discover the power of eFax today in reducing costs, securing documents, and ensuring compliance with industry-specific standards. 


Conclusion

Although Walmart doesn’t fax, you have plenty of solutions when it comes to in-store faxing. You can fax from on-location solutions such as Staples, FedEx, UPS, and Office Depot. 

However, if you prefer an online fax service because of its many advantages over in-store faxing, you can use eFax. The service lets you fax at any time from anywhere using your Internet-enabled smartphone, tablet, or computer. 

Sign up for eFax today to send faxes faster, reduce costs, protect your documents, and comply with industry standards like HIPAA.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Let’s check out the answers to some questions about in-store faxing:

In-store fax services are generally secure. Telephone lines are difficult to hack or spam, and they establish an end-to-end communication channel accessible to only you and the recipient. 

However, your documents may leak because the machines are used by the public or operated by center attendants. The people may access your information and leak it.

You’ll need to visit the store with your digital or physical format document and the recipient’s fax number. You may also need a fax cover sheet, depending on the store.

Sending a fax in-store can take a few minutes to hours, depending on the size of your document. A larger file will take longer to scan and fax. 

Typically, each page takes 30-60 seconds to scan and fax.

It’s possible to send international faxes from in-store fax services. 

For example, UPS and FedEx faxes allow international faxing. The only shortcoming is the high cost of sending such faxes.

You can’t fax from your mobile device using in-store fax services. To do so, you need an online fax solution like eFax, which lets you fax from your phone via email or a free mobile phone application.

Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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eFax Blog

Staples Fax Service: An Easy Guide To Send and Receive Faxes

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A closed Staples store.

Most people and businesses know Staples as a chain of office equipment and supplies in many countries, including the US and Canada. However, you can do more than just buy office supplies at Staples. 

We’ll explore Staples fax services, which most businesses and people need regularly, especially when sharing sensitive financial, legal, or medical information.

It’s important to note from the onset that Staples’s fax services are much better than other on-location faxing services from companies such as FedEx and UPS. 

Nevertheless, the service has flaws, making it necessary to use a digital faxing solution – eFax – instead. eFax is ideal for sending faxes of your documents anytime from anywhere at a low recurring subscription cost without using a fax machine. Discover how to reduce costs with eFax’s online fax solutions to securely and conveniently share documents.


Table of Contents


Can You Fax at Staples?

You can fax at Staples using the company’s Copy and Print service, which lets you send international, national, and local faxes.
All Staples locations have self-service faxing and printing machines. However, it’s best to call earlier to ensure the center you wish to visit currently offers the service.
The company lets customers fax physical documents as well as digital format documents. You must save your documents into an SD card, USB drive, or compact flash if your documents are digital.
You can also directly import your documents from OneDrive, Google Drive, or DropBox because the faxing service allows access to cloud storage. You can even print your documents via email by sending them to [email protected].


How Much Does it Cost to Fax at Staples?

The Staples fax service shares almost the same pricing system as FedEx fax.

  • To send a fax locally, you’ll spend $1.79 for the first page and $1.59 for every additional page.
  • National faxes cost $2.39 for the first page and $2.19 for each subsequent page.
  • International faxing is the costliest at $5.99 for the first page and $3.99 for each extra page.

Here’s what the pricing looks like at a glance:

First PageEvery Additional Page
Cost for Local Faxes$1.79$1.59
Cost for National Faxes$2.39$2.19
Cost for International Faxes$5.99$3.99

The Staples fax cost can be higher or lower, depending on the location.
Remember to budget for other on-site faxing costs, such as traveling to the center. You may also be tempted to buy other items you hadn’t planned for at the store!
If you receive a fax at Staples, you’ll pay about $1 for every page.


Does Staples Fax for Free?

Staples doesn’t offer free faxing. You’ll be charged a fee for every page you fax. The total cost will depend on the center and the number of pages you fax.


How to Find a Staples Store to Send a Fax

Finding a Staples store to send a fax is easy. 

Here are the steps to follow:

  • Go to the Staples website to access the Official Store Locator.
  • Type your city, state, ZIP code, or a known Staples store number into the search bar and click on the search icon.
  • You’ll see a list of stores near your location, each item showing the distance to the store, the services available, and business hours.
  • Check from the list that the store nearest to you offers Printing Services. 
  • If clicking on the location on the list or the map doesn’t open to show you the directions, Google the address. Add “Staples” at the end to refine the search. 
  • Once you open the page for the location, use the phone number to call them and confirm that faxing services are available.

How to Send a Fax at Staples

Sending a fax at Staples can be time-consuming and tiring. 

Here’s the process to follow:

1. Prepare Your Documents and Requirements 

Prepare your document for faxing so the cover sheet will be faxed first. 

If you have a digital document, download it into a portable USB drive or SD card. Save it as a PDF because that’s the most suitable digital method for faxing. Note that you can also fax photos and spreadsheets using the service. 

You’ll also need to find the recipient’s fax number. 

2. Locate the Nearest Store and Visit It

Use Staples’ Official Store Locator to find a nearby faxing center. Once you’ve confirmed faxing services are available, visit the store and find a self-service fax machine. 

If you would like a store employee to use the fax machine on your behalf, ask for their help. 

3. Fax Your Document

If you choose to fax the document yourself, follow the instructions on the machine for a smooth experience. 

Place the document in the loading tray and press the Fax button. Dial the recipient’s fax number and wait for the machine to connect. Then, scan the document and transmit it.

4. Wait for the Fax Confirmation Page

Once the machine is done, it will usually print out a confirmation page showing whether the fax has been sent successfully. If the process fails, try faxing again.

5. Collect Your Document

Retrieve your document from the feeder and keep it safe. If you would like to destroy it, you can use the store’s shredding services.

6. Pay at the Cash Register

Go to the cash counter and show the fax confirmation page to make the payment. 


How to Receive a Fax at Staples

Here’s how to receive faxes at Staples:

  • Locate the nearest store and call them beforehand to ask for their fax number. You may find the fax number immediately using the store locator method discussed above. For example, the fax number for the 111 North Wabash Avenue store in Chicago, Illinois, is (312) 641-1227. 
  • When you call the store, confirm that they will retrieve the fax pages and hold them safely for you.
  • Ask the sender to fax the document to that store’s fax number. 
  • Make an appointment with the store to collect your fax. 
  • You’ll need to provide the store employee with the necessary fax transmission details to ensure you collect the right fax. 
  • Collect your faxed document and pay for the service.

eFax – Most Reliable and Secure Fax Service

eFax differs from Staples’ self-service faxing machines because you can fax from Internet-enabled devices like personal computers, laptops, or mobile phones. You don’t need a fax machine to send or receive faxes. 

You can do the following using eFax:

  • Send and receive faxes anywhere, anytime, using your smartphone, tablet, computer, or laptop.
  • Share files online from cloud services like iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox by downloading them and attaching them to your virtual fax.
  • Add electronic signatures to your faxes by swiping your finger across your mobile phone’s screen or dragging and dropping a pre-saved signature.
  • Store your incoming and outgoing faxes online for free across the life of your eFax account. 
  • Use eFax Protect, an encrypted online fax solution that improves the security of your faxing communications and ensures you comply with applicable standards such as SOX, HIPAA, and GLBA. 
  • Efficiently receive, send, and sign faxes online from your phone or tablet using a free mobile app.
  • Receive and send faxes online using email, which is convenient, flexible, efficient, and accessible. 
  • Protect your documents using data encryption at rest or in transit and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
  • Send and receive faxes globally.
  • Receive a notification once the recipient gets your fax.
  • Get a toll-free fax number

eFax is convenient because you don’t have to leave your home or office to fax. You can fax on the go, anywhere, and at any time. 

The service is also cost-effective. You only pay a recurring monthly subscription rather than pay for every fax you send or receive. Additionally, you don’t have to travel to a store, which costs you time and gas money. 

Join eFax today to secure your communications, reduce costs with eFax’s digital fax solutions, and enjoy industry-compliant faxing. 


Fax at any Time, from Anywhere without a Fax Machine

Staples offers a faxing service that is superior to other on-location solutions like FedEx and UPS. 

However, the service fails when it comes to ensuring the security of faxes. You must also travel to a physical store to use the service, which can be costly and time-consuming. 

eFax is much better because you can fax from anywhere at any time without a fax machine. It’s easy to fax online from your mobile phone, laptop, or tablet, regardless of the time of the day. Sign up for eFax today to reduce communication costs, comply with industry standards, and securely share sensitive information over high-level encryption.


FAQ’s Around Staples Fax Service

Let’s check out answers to common questions about faxing at Staples.

Unfortunately, you can’t fax documents online at Staples. You’ll need to visit a nearby store instead, carrying your physical documents by hand or digitally in an SD card or USB drive. Online faxing is possible with eFax, which lets you send or receive faxes digitally using an Internet-enabled device from anywhere and at any time. Sign up for eFax today to start sending online faxes from anywhere, anytime you need!

It’s generally safe to fax from Staples. However, your documents are still at risk because there is no encryption over the phone line. 

The fax machines are also used by the public, and other people may see the documents you fax, resulting in a loss of privacy.

To send a fax from Staples, you must bring your document in physical or digital format. Ensure you also have the recipient’s fax number. You’ll also need some money to pay for the service.

You can track the status of an incoming fax at Staples by calling the store and asking if they have received it. 

There is no way to track the status of an outgoing fax. You’ll have to call the recipient and ask if they have received it. 

Tracking the status of an outbound fax is easy with eFax because you get an automatic notification when the recipient receives it.

Staples doesn’t limit the size or number of pages you can fax. However, consulting one of their experts is recommended if you have a large project.

Send and receive faxes in minutes.

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