Fax VoIP
Why It Doesn't Work
How to Fix It

Analog Faxes Not Meant
For Digital Transmission

With regard to this fax VoIP business, if you've read any of the other articles on this website, you know I'm a straight shooter.

Fax VoIP business gets deep into that place where only real Geeks and Gear Heads can go. So deep that if you and I endeavor to go there, we will get lost, go insane and be disowned by our families.

So. Since I don't want this to happen to any of us, I'll keep fax over IP real simple.

Fax over VoIP is difficult; exceedingly frustrating (in fact I'll bet you're frustrated right now, aren’t you? Admit it, you're frustrated…) and sometimes actually works.

Of course it's the sometimes part that really can make you mad, because just when you think you've got it working …

So here I'll let you know why VoIP fax doesn’t like to work – it's an analog fax signal, designed for a voice network that doesn’t like the digital nature of a VoIP network designed to carry digital voice, not analog faxes.

For those with a bit of Gear Head gel still in their hair – the combination of a low bit rate voice CODEC and a fast analog modem signal equals distortion that cannot be overcome by ECM or blah, blah blah…

Psssst – I'll let you in on a little secret. The only and best way to overcome fax VoIP problems if you want to use your "regular" fax machine is use an IP PBx w/ SIP trunks from a provider that supports T38 (your IP PBX should do the coversion.

If you're a small business or personal user, then you'll need a fax machine, fax ATA or fax gateway that supports T.38 protocol, which is designed specifically for fax VoIP - but only with VoIP providers who also do T-38! Must have both ends able to do T-38 - OK?

Oh - some providers will do the T38 for you on their end if you're buying SIP trunks for an regular "non IP" PBX, so you can still simply plug your fax machine into your PBX.

But hey, don't tell anyone I told you this, pretend like you didn't hear it or something and keep reading, because there are better ways to fax over IP using the Internet...

When To Use An Analog Transfer Adapter (ATA)

Let's say you have an "old" "normal" fax machine. Hey, anytime we have more than one set of quotes, we're getting into a problem area, know what I mean? That's an E-Dude-ism that ALWAYS holds true. What it means in this case is we need to buy some additional equipment.

So you have an old fax machine and you changed over to VoIP without even thinking about the fact that fax VoIP wouldn't work, and why would you? Actually the sales guy who sold you the VoIP phone service should have said something… But anyway.

Ok, well good news is, you can use an ATA to turn your analog signal from the fax machine into a digital signal that will then go over your internet connection to the receiving end and SOMETIMES works ok. If it's a T-38 ATA, and your VoIP provider can do T-38, then you're golden.

I say sometimes because it all depends on what CODEC your VoIP phone service provider is using. You may continue to have issues, you may not.

An ATA is a simple small device that basically has a phone number assigned to it from your VoIP service provider and will be the fax number people send faxes to you as well. To read more about ATAs, and even buy one visit my VoIP phone adapters page here.

If this isn't a possibility for you, or if you haven't yet made the switch to VoIP phone service, read on for other options.

When to Leave A Line Behind

In case you haven't heard me say this before LEAVE A LINE BEHIND!

This refers to keeping your fax line and alarm and elevator lines on analog service when you make the jump to business VoIP phone service.

If you haven't yet made the switch yet, just let your service provider know you'd like to keep your "old" fax machine on analog service, and you won't be porting the fax number to them for VoIP phone service.

There are other benefits to keeping a line behind, not the least of which is that if your VoIP goes down, you can plug in a $4.00 analog handset to your fax line and make a call, even if there's no electricity. Believe me; you'll thank me during the next thunderstorm or hurricane…

If you're open to leaving your old fax machine behind, and stepping completely into the 21st century, read on!

Below you'll learn about the many wondrous ways to send a fax without using a fax machine at all. This is of course pretty convenient if you're working on a document and need to fax something from your PC / desktop and don't even have to print it to send it!

Oh Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more!

Faxing from your PC saves money, time and lots of paper and ink (not to mention it avoids the whole fax VoIP issue entirely) It's been estimated the cost of running a fax machine at typical business location exceeds $1,200 per year and that's not even counting the cost of the fax machine itself!

So I believe if we can send the fax from our desktop, we're much better off.

For those times you have a hardcopy, well you're gonna need to keep your old fax machine around for "send only" or get a scanner to turn hard copies into a digital image that you can send over the internet. See below for how all this magic happens.

Internet Fax

How about fax VoIP without the VoIP?

Here we have a service that generally gives us a toll free number as our fax number and includes a certain number of pages send and receive for a low monthly rate. People wanting to fax to us do it as they always would, except they use this toll free number and the fax comes to us as a PDF file attached to an e-mail.

Many advantages of this, not the least of which is we can store this stuff easily, can read it without printing it (on our PC) can forward it as an e-mail to someone else, etc, etc.

This is the way I recommend for a smaller office, or even a larger one that wants everyone to have their own fax number and get their own faxes directly without having to leave their desk (or even have to come into the office!) Pretty neat – huh? You can get your faxes anywhere you can get your e-mail. The possibilities are endless.

A great service I use and can recommend is MyFax.com click the link or banner below for details on pricing and features. Sign up on line and get a special discount.

Fax Servers

This is for somewhat larger businesses. No monthly recurring charge for internet faxing as above, but you have to buy the fax server and software to run it. Also have to maintain this stuff, and of course at some point it's going to get old and become obsolete, and you're gonna have to replace it or go to internet faxing anyway (it's all going to the Internet my friend)

But here we have somewhat more control over our costs, since we're using an existing internet connection most likely and this fax server will nicely satisfy our fax VoIP needs.

So here you'll be using cards in the server that will do the faxing using one or more telephone numbers programmed into the server for use by your company. All faxes go out over phone lines, not the internet, so long distance and so forth applies - no VoIP happening here...

Scan To Fax
Scan To E-mail

Scan, Fax, Copy, Print. Hey, that's 4 in 1, isn't it?

Anyway, we had a 3 in 1 machine for a long while, and it was very nice for scan to e-mail needs. Why fax when you can simply stick the documents in, press a button (or maybe two) and the documents are turned into PDF files and attached to an e-mail that is automatically sent to the other person?

Saves on phone lines, long distance charges, especially to overseas destinations. In fact you can generally even program in a whole address book with e-mail addresses and fax numbers for everyone, so you can decide if you're gonna fax, e-mail or whatever to that recipient.

In this case, many of the newer 3 in 1 machines are T.38 capable, so you can forego the ATA need mentioned above. If you're wanting to do fax VoIP and it's an older machine then you'll need the ATA at least for the faxing part. Scan to e-mail however totally avoids the whole fax VoIP issue and saves all that money besides.

Final Thoughts

If you're a small or mid-sized business, get rid of the on premise fax machines and start moving towards faxing from the desktop and internet faxing for receiving via e-mail. You may have to scan hard copies to e-mail or fax when needed, but a 3 in 1 machine is a great way to go for that, chances are you need a copier anyway.

If you're still stuck with that "old" fax machine, and want to try and make it work with fax VoIP, then set the baud rate to lowest or 9600 and turn off ECM. Never try and do fax VoIP over a wireless internet connection, to unstable and simply won't work. Another no-no is satellite or cellular internet connections, same issues as wireless.

If you still need help with your fax VoIP, VoIP fax or even a fax over IP initiative, let me know how I can help - heh, heh, now that's a lot of IPs! Click here to contact E-Dude About Fax VoIP Phone Service

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