Sending Faxes from the Internet
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 1995 00:21:49 -0800
From: Kevin Savetz
To: fax-faq@northcoast.com
Subject: FAQ: How can I send a fax from the Internet?
Archive-name: internet-services/fax-faq
Last-Modified: 1995/3/15
Version: 1.1
FAQ: How can I send a fax from the Internet?
Version 1.1 - March 15 1995
Send comments & updates to Kevin Savetz .
This document is copyright 1994-1995 by Kevin M. Savetz. All rights
reserved. More legal stuff is near the end of this file. If you notice
that an Internet fax service is missing from this list, or information
herein needs updating, please send e-mail to savetz@northcoast.com.
Interested in sponsoring this FAQ? Announce your business to thousands
of interested readers _and_ support this overworked FAQ publisher. E-
mail to savetz@northcoast.com for details.
To learn about my book, YOUR INTERNET CONSULTANT - THE FAQS OF LIFE
ONLINE, send e-mail to savetz@rahul.net with a SUBJECT LINE of "SEND
YIC".
*** TABLE OF CONTENTS
Can I send a fax from the Internet?
Free services
TPC.INT Remote Printing
Rabbit.rgm Sacramento Fax Service
University of Minnesota Fax Service
Swedish University Network
Elvis - for faxes to Moscow
fax.air.org - faxing to Hong Kong
Commercial Services
InterFax
FAXiNET
Unigate
Interpage
Stupid Internet/Fax Tricks
Universal Access WebFax
Fax Services that are no more
Legal Stuff
Where to Find this Document
*** CAN I SEND A FAX FROM THE INTERNET?
Indeed. There are several services for sending a fax via Internet mail -
some are free while others are pay services. At least one service even
lets you receive a fax via Internet mail. The e-mail-to-fax services
that I know about are discussed below. All the services require that you
can send and receive electronic mail to the Internet.
FREE SERVICES
*** TPC.INT Remote Printing
One fax-from-the-Internet service is the brainchild of Carl Malamud (the
creator of Internet Talk Radio) and Marshall Rose. They're doing
research on how to integrate special-purpose devices, like facsimile
printers, into the fabric of the Internet. It works simply enough - send
electronic mail to a special address, and soon after (if your
recipient's fax machine is in a covered area), out comes a freshly-
minted fax. You can send a fax to multiple fax machines, or even a
combination of faxes and traditional e-mail recipients. After the deed
is done, you will receive electronic mail telling you if your fax was
successfully sent or not. The service is free.
You can't send a fax just anywhere with this service. A variety of
companies, institutions and citizens linked to the Internet have joined
the experiment by linking a computer and fax modem to the 'net. When an
organization joins as a remote-fax server, it specifies what areas to
which they are willing to send faxes. When you send an e-mail fax
message, you (naturally) must include the phone number of the
recipient's fax machine. A computer looks at the phone number and
decides if any participating fax machines cover the area to which you
want to send a fax. If so, your message is routed to the appropriate
machine for faxation. Otherwise, you will receive electronic mail
informing you the fax couldn't be delivered.
To send a fax by e-mail, send a message
To: remote-printer.@phonenumber.iddd.tpc.int
Where contains information for the cover page. In , "/" is
turned into a line break and "_" is turned into a space. For example,
the address:
To: remote-printer.Arlo_Cats/Room_123@12025551212.iddd.tpc.int
Would send a fax to +1-202-555-1212 with the cover page:
Please deliver this facsimile to:
Arlo Cats
Room 123
Note: There's another way to address faxes which seems to work more
reliable sometimes. Note that the phone number is backwards and the
numbers are separated by periods.
To: remote-printer.Arlo_Cats/Room_123@2.1.2.1.5.5.5.2.0.2.1.tpc.int
The following addresses can be used to obtain more information:
tpc-coverage@town.hall.org - Current fax coverage (automated reply)
tpc-faq@town.hall.org - Frequently Asked Questions (automated reply)
tpc-admin@town.hall.org - Administrative questions (human)
tpc-rp-request@aarnet.edu.au - Majordomo mailing list agent
tpc-rp@aarnet.edu.au - Mailing list contributions (mailing list)
There's a WorldWideWeb page which provides information about the TPC.INT
fax service. If your Web browser can display forms, you can even fill
out a form and send a fax interactively. Use your favorite Web browser
to connect to:
http://linux1.balliol.ox.ac.uk/fax/faxsend.html
*** Rabbit.rgm Sacramento Fax Service
This service is a feature of a Sacramento, California-based bulletin
board system. You can use it to send faxes to areas that are a local
call from Sacramento, including the California State Legislature. This
service is run as a hobby and is connected to the Internet by UUCP, so
it can take from 12 to 24 hours for your fax to be delivered or for the
help files to reach you. It does not support multiple addressing: only
one fax number per message. It also does not send a cover page, so be
sure to start your message with a note directing it to someone's
attention. It will truncate faxes longer than two pages (that's 132
lines).
To use this fax service, send e-mail
To: faxline@rabbit.rgm.com
Subject: local (7 digit) phone number, without area code
Body:
For complete usage information, send e-mail
To: request@rabbit.rgm.com
Subject: 052
For a list of some legislators' fax numbers in the Sacramento area, send
e-mail:
To: request@rabbit.rgm.com
Subject: 050
*** The University of Minnesota Fax Service
The University of Minnesota operates a fax gateway which allows students
and staff to send faxes anywhere. Even if you don't go to UMinn, you may
use the service to send faxes to folks at the University and exchanges
local to the campus.
The structure for e-mailing a fax is:
To: /pn=John.Doe/dd.fax=234-5678/@fax.tc.umn.edu
Put your recipient's name, with a period between the first and last
names, after pn= and put the seven digit fax number after the characters
dd.fax=. This name will be printed in the "To:" field on the fax cover
page. The area code for the University of Minnesota is 612, so you don't
need to supply an area code.
For more information, send e-mail to ccs@maroon.tc.umn.edu.
*** Swedish University Network
The Swedish University Computer Network (sunet) has a national fax
service that can be used by anyone at no cost. Users in Sweden can use
it to send faxes all over the world but users outside Sweden can only
use it for telephone numbers within Sweden.
To send a fax to Arlo Cats at +46-87654321 (that's international
notation for Sweden, phone number 08/765 43 21) send e-mail to:
Arlo_Cats@F087654321.fax.sunet.se
Note that you will always have to preface the phone number with the
letter "F" for "fax".
Special characters in the body of your message are converted to Swedish
characters:
ASCII Becomes ASCII Becomes
} a with circle accent [ A with diereses
{ a with diereses (two dots) \ O with diereses
| o with diereses ` e with right accent
] A with circle accent
For more information, e-mail faxmaster@fax.sunet.se
*** Elvis - for faxes to Moscow
This service allows you to send free faxes to Moscow, Soviet Union. It
offers a WorldWideWeb interface at:
http://www.elvis.ru/english/faxgate_interface.html
Or, you can access the service via an e-mail interface. For more
information, send e-mail to
To: faxgate@elvis.ru
Body: helpenglish (for help in English)
or Body: help (for help in Russian)
You can reach a human via e-mail at:
To: gatemaster@elvis.ru
*** fax.air.org - faxing to Hong Kong
To send a free fax to Hong Kong, send e-mail
To: number@fax.air.org
Don't include are or country codes, just the local Hong Kong fax number.
Attempts to dial numbers starting with 0, 1 or 99 will be rejected.
The service offers do-it-yourself logo and signature registration as
well as a "secure mode" compatible with PGP. For help or more
information, send e-mail:
To: help@fax.air.org
COMMERCIAL (PAY-FOR-USE) SERVICES
*** InterFax
InterFax allows you to send faxes via e-mail within the US or
internationally. InterFax is a fee-based service (billed to your credit
card) but, unlike the services listed above, InterFax lets you send
faxes anywhere, not just select locations. As of this writing, InterFax
costs $5 per month, which includes the first five fax pages. Additional
pages cost 50 cents each. There is a one-time sign-up charge of $25. For
further information, send e-mail to faxmaster@pan.com, or contact
InterFax at PO Box 162, Skippack, PA 19474 USA. (215) 584-0300. Fax:
(215)584-1038.
*** FAXiNET
Another fax-by-mail service is FAXiNET, which lets you send any text
(ASCII) or PostScript documents to virtually every destination that can
be direct dialed from the United States. For an extra fee, the company
can also receive faxes for you, which will be delivered to you via
electronic mail.
FAXiNET offers two rate plans. Plan 1 has a one-time activation fee of
$35.00, a monthly maintenance fee of $9.95 and a per-page transmission
cost (to US destinations) of 39 cents. Plan two, for lower-volume users,
has a one-time activation fee of $20 and no monthly maintenance fee;
however faxes cost 65 cents per page. International rates depend on the
destination country: from Albania ($2.25/page) to Zimbabwe ($2.52/page).
Faxes to the United Kingdom are 56 cents/page; Mexico is $1.52/page.
Additional services, including adding your custom logo and signature to
your faxes, are available at extra cost. Corporate accounts are also
available. More information is available from AnyWare Associates,
FAXiNET, 32 Woodland Road, Boston, MA 02130. (617) 522-8102. E-mail:
info@awa.com (for automated response) or sales@awa.com (for a human.)
Information is also maintained on FAXiNETs web server:
http://www.awa.com/faxinet/
*** Unigate
Unigate is another pay-for-use service that allows you to send faxes to
Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It also allows you to
receive faxes as electronic mail. Unigate also handles e-mail-to-postal
mail conversion. Here's their price structure:
For fax service USA to Russia: $1.59 / page
fax service from Russia to Canada: 1.79 / page
fax service from Russia to Europe: 2.59 / page
For postal-mail service USA-Russia: $1.00 / page
snail-mail service from Russia to Canada: 1.50 / page
snail-mail service from Russia to Europe: 1.79 / page
For more information, e-mail "yuri@atmos.washington.edu".
*** Interpage Fax Gateway
Interpage has a unique slant on the faxing-via-email: instead of
charging the sender of the fax, Interpage charges the recipient (who
must have an Interpage account.) The idea is that you can use Interpage
to forward your regular e-mail to you via fax, or you'll give your
Interpage e-mail address to correspondents that don't have access to a
fax machine.
Interpage also offers the more common service of letting its customers
send text or postscript e-mail that turns into a fax.
Each Interpage Fax Gateway customer receives an e-mail address and a
configuration account. Customers may forward their regular e-mail to
Interpage for faxing, have correspondents send e-mail directly to their
Interpage accounts, or both. Interpage allows users to filter incoming
electronic mail in order to only fax messages from specific individuals,
for instance.
The charge for basic service is $5 per month plus $.20 per minute for
faxes destined for the United States or $.30 per minute to Canada. If a
fax is dispatched to an 800 number, there is no charge. There is a $10
sign-up fee. There is a one week free trial period, although users will
be responsible for any toll charges they incur.
For more information:
http://interpage.net
info@interpage.net
1-203-499-5221
*** STUPID INTERNET/FAX TRICKS
*** Universal Access WebFax
This service doesn't have much to do with sending a fax via e-mail e-
mail, but it's interesting anyway: The Universal Access WebFax server
allows retrieval of most World Wide Web documents using any fax machine
- no Internet connection is necessary. It works this way: you dial the
phone number using the handset of your fax machine and enter the URL of
the site you wish to see on the Touchtone keypad (for instance,
www.northcoast.com is "99966784266") and, when prompted, press the
"start" button on your fax machine. The selected document will then be
transmitted. It supports text and display of forms, inline images, and
will even play Web audio files over the phone. The service is free, but
you pay for the phone call to Southern California.
For more information:
http://www.datawave.net/
or call 1-805-730-7777 from the handset of your fax machine
*** Fax Services That Are No More
Don't tell me about these. They have ceased to be.
- Digital Chicken was a service that let users send faxes to Canadian
government and citizens. Use TPC.INT instead.
- fax@cssnet.sanford.nc.us - no longer available due to hard drive
crash.
- FaxLinq, which used to let users receive faxes via e-mail, was
discontinued in Jan 1995.
*** LEGAL STUFF
This document is copyright 1994-1995 by Kevin M. Savetz. All rights
reserved.
Permission for the following types of distribution is hereby granted,
provided that this file is distributed intact, including the above
copyright notice:
- non-commercial distribution
- posting to Internet archives, BBSs and online services
- distribution by teachers, librarians and Internet trainers
- inclusion on software/FAQ/Internet-oriented CD-ROMs
Permission for commercial distribution may be obtained from the editor.
SHARE THIS INFORMATION FREELY AND IN GOOD FAITH. DO NOT DISTRIBUTE
MODIFIED VERSIONS OF THIS DOCUMENT.
This document is new and in transition. If you notice that something
important is missing, or information herein needs updating, please
contact the editor.
The editor and contributors have developed this FAQ as a service to the
Internet community. We hope you find it useful. This FAQ is purely a
volunteer effort. Although every effort has been made to insure that
answers are as accurate as possible, no guarantee is implied or
intended. While the editor tries to keep this document current, remember
that the Internet and its services are constantly changing, so don't be
surprised if you happen across statements which are obsolete. If you do,
please send corrections to the editor. Corrections, questions, and
comments should be sent to Kevin Savetz at "savetz@northcoast.com"
(Internet) or "savetz" (America Online/eWorld.) Please indicate what
version of this document to which you are referring.
*** WHERE TO FIND THIS DOCUMENT
This file is posted twice monthly (on the 5th and 19th of each month) to
the Usenet newsgroups alt.internet.services, alt.online-service,
alt.bbs.internet, alt.answers and news.answers.
You can receive each new edition of this document automatically via
electronic mail, if you are so inclined. This is a low-volume list, with
updates every few weeks. To subscribe, send e-mail:
To: fax-faq-request@northcoast.com
Subject: subscribe fax-faq
Body:
You can also receive it once via electronic mail (without subscribing to
automatic updates).
To: fax-faq-request@northcoast.com
Subject: archive
Body: send fax-faq
You can receive it via anonymous FTP:
rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services/fax-faq
ftp.eff.org:/pub/Net_info/Technical/net-fax.faq
You can get it using Gopher:
gopher://gopher.eff.org/11/Net_info/Technical, net-fax.faq
###end of document###
John E. Bonine
jebonine@law.uoregon.edu