Is there any way to do fax via a wireless network ?

[Seeker47]

I'm no IT guy, I just occasionally have to (pretend as though I can) replace one who is no longer in the picture.
We just replaced a dead printer in the office with an All-in-One that includes a fax capability. (This is the sort of office that can still make use of faxing -- both Outbound & Inbound.) This AIO unit is printing wirelessly, over the office network. There is also a (digital) phone line, but for various reasons we do not wish to connect that up wired to the AIO printer. Is there some way to do fax with this setup -- wirelessly ? (We'd particularly like to know of a solution that YOU have used, successfully.)

As another possible angle on this, I recall that there used to be something (a service ?) called e-Fax, by which your computer could send out an email, but have it come to the recipient's fax machine as a fax. Don't know whether that is still around or not.

[Cornucopia]

The latter option is still around, various services offer it (by different names).

The first question, pretty sure you're SOL there.

Scott

[johnmeyer]

A few ideas.

First, you can scan the pages to your computer. You then subscribe to eFax and use that for the fax. That's how you can send them. You may also be able to receive that way, but I do it differently.

Years ago, a nephew told me I could replace one of my landlines with a free VOIP number from Google. All I needed was an "ObiTalk" gadget which has an RJ-45 on one end to connect to my router, and an RJ-11/14 on the other end to connect to a handset. I have a PBX at the house and I connect the ObiTalk phone output to one of the Line ports on the PBX. When I dial "9" for an outside line, if the main landline is busy, the call goes out through this line.

With this setup I used the free number I got from Google Voice and made free domestic phone calls for years. Then, a while back, for a few months Google dropped support for my VOIP device, so I went looking for a company that would support my $30 VOIP hardware, and which would accept my Google Voice number. There are lots of options, but I ended up with PhonePower. They cost $30/year which, while not free, is actually a better deal because they have free voicemail and -- wait for it -- free fax. If some one sends you a fax, you get an email notifying you of the fax, and you can read it directly from your email.

[Seeker47]

Thanks for these suggestions, and any further ones that my come in.

We just tested and confirmed the wireless scanning, which is important. It turns out that the fax option is a distant priority for our office, at least for now, and that some sort of eFax possibility may prove to be sufficient.

[johnmeyer]

I forgot to mention that, if you are using Windows, there is some built-in fax capability. I have definitely used it to capture the fax from my 3-in-one printer/scanner/copier, so I know that part works. I don't know whether there is enough other capability to put together a full "fax machine" capability, but open it up and see what you find.