Thanks to online fax tools, you no longer need a dedicated fax machine and a phone line for receiving or sending a fax. Instead, you can successfully fax documents across a variety of platforms using one account.
If you need to receive or send a fax online, you can easily do so without a machine. In fact, you can easily receive faxes for free through your supported email accounts, on your computer or laptop, or on your iOS or Android device.
To help you learn more using online faxing services to send and receive, keep reading. This piece will focus on ways to receive faxes. Those steps include:
- Why sending and receiving fax online is a good idea
- How to get your own fax number
- How to receive faxes directly to your email
- How to receive a fax through your Android or iOS
- How to receive incoming faxes on your PC or laptop
You’ll find that it’s both convenient and easy to receive fax using any device or platform.
WHY USING ONLINE FAX SERVICE IS A GOOD IDEA
Internet fax services have been gaining popularity for the last couple of years. More and more people decide that since they are doing the majority of things online anyways, adding one more wouldn’t hurt – and truth be told, there are several reasons why it is a good change.
Increased Efficiency
First of all, online faxing is a lot more efficient. Whenever you have to use a real fax machine, you have to print out the document that you want to fax. The fax machine needs to be free for you to be able to even use it – if someone else is using it, you need to wait for your turn. You also need to scan each page individually. With fax online, those problems are non-existent, as you don’t need to print out anything, you don’t have to wait for your turn, and you send multiple pages at the same time.
Increased Mobility
Online faxing offers a lot more mobility. When you receive and send faxes in a traditional way, you need to be near the hardware to be able to do it. With an online fax service, this problem disappears – all you need to send or receive a fax is a mobile device with an internet connection. Whenever and wherever you need to fax something.
Higher Security
It might seem like physical fax machines have an advantage over fax software in terms of security. However, the situation is slightly more complicated – phone lines have been a target for tapping for a long time, which means that if you are using one, your phone calls and messages are at risk of being intercepted.
Another security issue connected with fax machines is that the documents someone sends often spend some time in the fax tray, where they are accessible to everyone. Every person using the fax machine can just take the faxes without any permission, or check their content, which can be extremely unsafe, especially if the business document contains sensitive information.
When using fax software, this is no longer an issue, as every transmission is encrypted from beginning to end so that situations like the ones mentioned above don’t happen. Another thing is that in most cases, you need to set up an account with a password, which only you and people you decide to share it will know.
Lower Costs
When it comes to how much a fax machine costs, you cannot only think about the machine itself – you also need to consider potential repairs, ink, paper, dedicated phone line, and so on.
When it comes to online fax services, you don’t need to have additional hardware. All you truly need to send and receive faxes is an electronic device, which you most likely already have – it can be a laptop, smartphone, tablet, computer, etc. – and an internet connection. Additionally, you don’t need to have a separate line for faxing – your business phone number can serve a double purpose as your fax phone number.
Lower Chances of a Fax Getting Lost
Faxes can get lost – someone might take the documents unintentionally, or they might simply forget to send a fax. Unfortunately, with a traditional fax machine, it might be difficult to check whether faxes have been sent and received – and surely, you don’t want to send your fax just for it to get lost, do you?
Well, when you fax online, this isn’t an issue – you can easily log into your account and see the history of sent and received faxes, as well as their confirmation receipts.
GETTING AN ONLINE FAX NUMBER TO MEET YOUR NEEDS
Before you can receive faxes, you need a dedicated fax number or a temporary one. Once you have this, you’ll be able to use a fax service to send and receive faxes. To get started, choose the Faxburner package that works for you. Both free and paid packages are available.
Keep in mind that the free service offers a temporary number. This is a workable option if you think you’ll only need to receive faxes in the short term. Paid accounts are given a permanent number.
Once you’ve made your choice, you can finish the account creation process to get your fax number. One important note – you’ll provide an email when you create your account. Make sure this is the email where you want to receive inbound faxes.
RECEIVING FAXES VIA EMAIL (GMAIL, YAHOO, AND OTHERS)
Now that you have your number, you can configure your email to both send faxes and receive them as well. Fortunately, receiving and sending faxes via email is quite easy. Anytime someone sends faxes online to your Faxburner supplied number, a copy of that fax will be sent to the email address you used to sign up for your account. The fax tool uses special technology to convert incoming faxes.
Once this conversion has taken place, we’ll send you a notification that goes directly to your inbox. You’ll be able to access any faxed documents directly through your email without opening another web page or starting up a secondary program.
You can help ensure that your email notifications arrive in your inbox by adding Faxburner.com to your contacts. This will prevent incoming emails about faxes from landing in your spam folder. Email fax functionality supports any email provider.
HOW TO RECEIVE A FAX ON ANDROID OR IOS
The Faxburner app works on both Android and iOS devices. When you receive fax messages, you’ll get push notifications on your smartphone. This means that the incoming fax has been received and saved to the cloud. As mentioned above, a notification and copy will also be submitted to your email. Once you get the notification, you can view your faxed documents directly through the app.
After you’ve opened the faxed documents, you can take action on them immediately. You may view the documents, mark them up, apply your digital signature, and send them out again via fax, all from your mobile app. You don’t need any additional apps or programs to do this.
RECEIVE FAXES ON YOUR LAPTOP OR PC
You may receive a fax on any desktop or laptop computer using multiple operating systems. This includes Windows and Mac OS. The process is essentially the same as receiving and reviewing the fax via the app.
Instead, you can simply head to FaxBurner.com and log in. Any fax that is sent to your fax number will be stored under the “My Faxes” tab.
Handy.
Naturally, the fax to email feature is another way to receive faxes on your computer. Any fax listed under “My Faxes” will have also been sent to your registered email address. By using your PC or Mac computer to sign in to your email client you’ll have access to your faxed documents, which will be attached to the email for your convenience.
WHY SHOULD YOU GET A FAXBURNER FAX NUMBER?
Whether you send faxes on a regular basis, or your faxing is limited to an occasional fax every once in a while, it’s exceptionally helpful to have a fax number and account at the ready. This way, you are ready to send and receive fax messages without having a fax machine. You’ll also enjoy the following benefits.
- You’ll receive faxes 24/7 even when you are offline: As you have a dedicated fax number, you will receive faxes regardless of your connection.
- Faxburner uses the latest in encryption technology: Faxes that you send and receive are protected from data leaks with transport layer security protocols.
- Receive fax from a variety of platforms: There are ways to receive faxes online over your mobile device, email app, or your computer.
- Multiple pricing tiers: Choose the exact product that is the best fit for your needs. You can receive faxes for free (up to 25 pages per month) with a free account. You can use the free fax account as a free trial, to see if it is enough for you, or if you actually need to use it more than just for an occasional fax
- Appropriate for both personal and professional use.
If you need a scalable fax service that works without a fax machine, Faxburner is your number one choice. It is easy to use, secure, and reliable. Most importantly, it has several features that make it one of the most robust choices in fax apps.
Start receiving and sending faxes online, via an app, and in your email for free here.
