Email to fax services – sending and receiving faxes by email If you need to send or to receive faxes by email, you can use one of the many fast and easy services which now exist. Using one of these email to fax services, you can do use the email program on your computer (or smartphone) to do both of these: • receive faxes from a fax number you set up or specify, and then forward them to you as email attachments. • send faxes without the use of a fax machine, my simply sending the message you want to fax to a special email address. How exactly do you send a fax using email? Having joined an online fax to email service (try a 30 day free trial here) you would: • Create a new email • For the "To:" address use the recipient's fax number, plus an extra code • Attach the document you want to fax to the email • Send it! OK, how exactly do you receive a fax using email? • The sender sends a fax to your fax number (which the service provides for you) • The fax is sent on to your email as an attachment to a message • You open your email and view the attachment – simple! Using an email to fax service in this way means that you don't need to have a fax machine, or, if you do have a fax number already, you can have the faxes sent to your email inbox. Many businesses and individuals are choosing a fax to email service like this because it removes the need to have a fax machine and its associated costs. Also, the faxes can go to several email addresses at the same time, in the same way several people can receive the same email message. You need to be a member of a fax to email service, to send and receive emails this way, but anyone who wants to send you a fax does not need to be a member themselves – they just send off their fax to your number in the usual way. Recently this has become a common way of giving contacts or customers the ability to send faxes to you, without the need for you to own a fax machine or a dedicated phone line. Other points: many people who are used to fax machines need to know for sure that the fax sent by email actually went though, and for this reason the best fax to email services will let you confirm sent faxes via your login to their system, and by an email receipt you will get which confirms transmission of the fax. Another benefit of such a system is that faxes received and sent will be stored for a full year. Recently, with the rapid take-up of wireless devices, many people want to be able to receive faxes wherever they happen to be, using their smartphone, iPhone, or Blackberry. Many of the top faxing by email services now offer the ability to actually do this. What about your actual fax number? When you sign up with an email via fax service, you will get a local fax number, or a toll free fax number to use. To read more about sending and receiving your faxes by email, and to try it for 30 days for free, see my special fax to email page.