GaiaGeek

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but there are still people out there who insist on using faxes, despite the fact that it would be much easier and quicker to send the information through email or some other means over the internet. Fortunately, if someone insisted on sending you a fax, or insists that you send them a fax, these days it can be done without having a fax machine. Once again, the internet comes to the rescue.

First, if you need to send a fax, there are two services I recommend which will allow you to do so through their websites for free: MyFax.com and GotFreeFax.com. GotFreeFax.com doesn’t make the fax cover sheet into an advertisement for the service (see sample cover sheets below), making it my service of choice. However, you are limited to three pages per fax, so if you need to send something longer you may want to go with MyFax.com which will allows you to send a fax which is nine pages in length. Both services limit you to two faxes per day unless you pay for a premium account.

GotFreeFax.com sample cover sheet:

MyFax.com sample cover sheet:

To send a fax, simply enter in the necessary information, choose the document to attach, and hit send. In order for the fax to actually send, you need to check your email and click on the confirmation link that’s sent to you. Look in your spam folder if you don’t see an email within a few minutes. After you click the confirmation link in the email, the fax will be on it’s way.

Keep in mind that if you need to send a document containing sensitive information, such as something containing your social security number, you may want to send it using a real fax machine instead.

On the receiving end of faxes, the best free service I’ve found is eFax.com. When you sign up for their service you get a free fax number which appears to be loosely based on the phone number you provide in your contact information, though probably not in your area code. For example, if you gave your contact phone number as 608-555-1234, you might get a fax number of 619-545-1234. If you want a number in your area code, you can get one with a paid, premium account, which also allows you to send faxes.

After you sign up, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a link you need to click, and after this, another email which includes your new fax number and your PIN number. This second email ended up in my spam folder, so check there if you don’t find your PIN. Once you complete these steps, your fax number should be up and running, and you can test it out using one of the free faxing services above. You should receive an email when you’ve received a new fax which will also tell you to download eFax Messenger. If you don’t want to install the software, you can ignore this and instead log in to your eFax.com account and then click the link for the eFax Message Center. Once there, you should see the new fax, and when you open it, you’ll again see a message telling you to download the eFax Messenger software. Ignore this and instead, click on the filename at the bottom of the message and you should see the fax. Faxes only stay in your inbox for 30 days, so if you’d like to save it you can right-click it (or hold down Apple and click on a Mac) and save the graphic file.

Not only can you get an incoming fax number in the US with eFax.com, but you can also get a number in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK, making this a great option if you’d like to have an incoming fax number overseas.