Faxing a document from a Mac?

[Cubytus]

Hi community,

digging through less-known OS X capabilities, I had a question about the Fax option. Now, this may sound as a very silly question these days, but a few institutions still rely on this old-time technology.

Does it really need a hardware modem connected to a traditional, active phone line in order to work? Or can a fax be sent simply through a suitable iPhone connection? I always thought cell phones had some fax capability, sometimes disabled, but still present.

Alternatively, what application would allow
1- give a local fax number to dial to
2- send pages free of charge?

I don't use it often enough for it to be cumbersome since local convenience store can do that for a flat, $1 or less fee. Just curious.

 

[Gregg2]

Yahoo!/Google are your friends:


http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13945

 

[ScoobyMcDoo]

This article might be of some help.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

So fax zero for free outgoing and fax burner for free incoming

 

[Cubytus]

Yahoo!/Google are your friends:

No, Google is not. Between unrelated/unwanted commercial links, most of its results are just low-quality.

So fax zero for free outgoing and fax burner for free incoming

I just didn't like how Fax Burner required a subscription before everything else, even knowing if the fax number would be working North-America-wide. 8xx type numbers may not work outside of a specific region.

But Fax Zero seems interesting for these administration who never made it to 1990.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

No, Google is not. Between unrelated/unwanted commercial links

I just didn't like how Fax Burner required a subscription before everything else, even knowing if the fax number would be working North-America-wide. 8xx type numbers may not work outside of a specific region.

But Fax Zero seems interesting for these administration who never made it to 1990.

I have fax burner app on my ipad. When someone says they want to fax me and I'm too lazy to mess with my fax upstairs I just open fax burner and it gives me a temp fax number and the fax comes to email. It's free each time. At least last time I used it.

 

[Cubytus]

I have fax burner app on my ipad. When someone says they want to fax me and I'm too lazy to mess with my fax upstairs I just open fax burner and it gives me a temp fax number and the fax comes to email. It's free each time. At least last time I used it.

Usually I would convince them to send a proper email instead, but given how cubicle-dwellers can be clueless about their own machines, documents scanned at 10K dpi, uncompressed TIFF are not unheard of.

But basically it doesn't answer the question if the number they give is active North-America-wide, or just in the US.

 

[Gregg2]

No, Google is not. Between unrelated/unwanted commercial links, most of its results are just low-quality.

Um, did you notice the link in my post to a page on Apple's website? It says it's about how to send a fax from a Mac with Mavericks. I didn't read it, just found it with Yahoo!.

 

[r0k]

I have one of those all in one printers that prints, scans and faxes (Brother MFC 7400 series). I have an Ooma VOIP box for my home phone. I ran a phone line to the fax machine from my Ooma box and set the all-in-one printer to NEVER answer. This way when I must send a fax, I can walk over and send it. I suppose there might be a way to do it directly from OSX but I don't mind printing something out and faxing it "ye olde fashioned way" since I have to do this at most about once or twice a year. If anybody is sending me a fax, I tell them to scan and email the thing. I suppose if some refugee from 1960 came along and insisted on sending me a fax I could stand there and tell the machine to answer THIS ONE TIME.

I was using efax or one of those other fax to email services but found $3 a month to be way too much to spend on something I rarely used.

 

[Cubytus]

Um, did you notice the link in my post to a page on Apple's website? It says it's about how to send a fax from a Mac with Mavericks. I didn't read it, just found it with Yahoo!.

I did, and I'm not using Mavericks. I guess instructions haven't changed much, and yeas, I've read it, and all it refers to is hardware modem, POTS wiring.

I have one of those all in one printers that prints, scans and faxes (Brother MFC 7400 series). I have an Ooma VOIP box for my home phone. I ran a phone line to the fax machine from my Ooma box and set the all-in-one printer to NEVER answer. This way when I must send a fax, I can walk over and send it. I suppose there might be a way to do it directly from OSX but I don't mind printing something out and faxing it "ye olde fashioned way" since I have to do this at most about once or twice a year. If anybody is sending me a fax, I tell them to scan and email the thing. I suppose if some refugee from 1960 came along and insisted on sending me a fax I could stand there and tell the machine to answer THIS ONE TIME.

I was using efax or one of those other fax to email services but found $3 a month to be way too much to spend on something I rarely used.

Well you already spend on your fixed VoIP service. Besides, many VoIP providers don't have fax capability. I guess it's a codec issue.

PicnicTutorials provided an good insight, although he didn't say if incoming numbers would work across North-America, and be reachable from other countries.