USB modem for Faxing

[Fritz]

In my past experience some VoIP is unfriendly to the fax thing.

[Fritz]

In my past experience some VoIP is unfriendly to the fax thing.

[mrlynn]

Fritz wrote:
In my past experience some VoIP is unfriendly to the fax thing.

That's a point to consider. Faxing is very sensitive to phone-line condition, so I could imagine an ersatz phone line might be a problem. Only way to tell is to try—or ask the VOIP provider.

/Mr Lynn

[modelamac]

Thanx, folks.

There is supposedly the ability built into the OS to send faxes.

I have a US Robotics USB modem on order. When it arrives, I'll experiment.

[kj4btkljv]

modelamac wrote:
There is supposedly the ability built into the OS to send faxes.

Yes, there is, but I think it's only available when there's either a physical modem in the machine, or a USB modem plugged into the machine.

I experimented with faxing on the Mac about 2 years ago. Then pulled the trigger on software and a dedicated phone line. The built-in faxing capability was very limited, so I bought PageSender. It has a real cool feature of network faxing - meaning if you've got more than 1 Mac on your network that needs to fax, you turn on fax sharing, and simply fax thru one machine. Check it out, it's much better that OSX's faxing capabilities.

The only problem with faxing over a computer is that you can't feed it actual paper, like you can on a physical fax machine. If you need to sign documents, as an example, you'd need to scan them into the computer, then fire up the fax software to send your document. If you never have this type of need, then you could use an email-to-fax solution like jfax, efax, and others. There was a thread here not too long ago that talked about those.

Jeff

[modelamac]

T'anx.

[Speedy]

Get a cheap laptop like a Powerbook 3400 which has a built-in modem and ethernet. Move the file over to the PB3400 and fax away. Or, on Craigslist, offer to take someone's old PowerMac 7200, 7300, etc., getting one with an external fax/modem, for free.

[modelamac]

Speedy-

I have a G3 PB (Panther) which has a dialup modem built-in. I don't want another item on my desk. I could get a Fax machine which would accomplish the same thing.

You did not address my questions. I did not ask for alternatives to a USB modem.