Faxes To/From BlackBerry Or Any Email

This was originally posted in a thread, but there are many people who are figuring this out, so I have reposted this as a separate thread. It's more like "3rd party service with optional software". Most useful to self employed people, home office workers, and small companies that want minimal premises, etc.

There are tons of email-to-fax and fax-to-email services; You can even get a fax number with some of these services (so you don't have to have a fax machine on your premises) and you automatically get emailed a TIFF document or a PDF document or even a .DOC attachment as an attachment by email, CC'd to both your desktop and Blackberry. And keeps a copy of the fax on a fax webmail site. Some of these are viewable on the Blackberry itself, or if the attachment is not viewable on the Blackberry, it at least serves as a notification for you to login to the fax webmail service or to your desktop computer.

And many of these services allows you to send outgoing faxes simply by sending an email to a special email address, such as:And this works too:The phone number in the subject is automatically dialed.
Your email address is registered with the service, so they know it's you and caller-ID is automatically filled with your virtual fax phone number.
The attached .doc and the email body is automatically transmitted as a fax.
The transmittal pages are automatically added for you.
No software to download.
No software to install.
All allow you to send/receive faxes from any Internet connected computer.
No physical line or fax machine needed.
For incoming faxes, they are emailed to you as attachments.
You are billed to your fax account a specific charge.
There's dozens of services like this, just google 'Email Fax'. (example: www.efax.com)

Just find some easy-to-use service, there's dozens of services out there, and many of them don't even require any software at all! Don't bother with installing software, I prefer the ones that allows you to email attachments to (many accepts almost any format of attachments, automatically converting them to faxes). Many of them actually cheaper than paying for a fax phone line too -- and you get a dedicated fax phone number too in any area code, as if you had a fax machine there with no need for PIN's, etc.

The only time you really want to install software is simply if you want to convert fax image files into text files. (free OCR software included with some fax services). Other times, some fax services offer a special printer driver so you can print the document to a fax which automatically gets emailed to the service for the actual transmission. (This works with scanners too for those times you want to fax hardcopies over an email-to-fax service -- you press the "Print" button on the scanner and select the special printer driver). Works best with scanners that have a built-in document feeder so you can send multiple-page faxes just as easily as a real fax machine. A scanner is ONLY needed if you ever need to send hardcopies as faxes to a fax-to-email service.

Hope this helps explain to you exacxtly how email-to-fax services work. They are convenient when you need fax capability without a fax machine!

Sir, you have just saved me a headache. I am going to present this to a customer tomorrow, after I finish slapping myself in the forehead. I *totally* should have thought of this, I've been doing things bass-ackwards for a year.

The best service I have found is K7.net.

A seattle based company provides this service for free and the faxes come through to your email as TIFF file attachments.

Have not found out how to read them on the BB (also have not tried)

bes 4 can read tiff but them come in very small. when you enlarge it gets too blurry. how do you use this with tiff to read faxes???

Very good question! The BES server likes to downconvert the TIFF files. But there's a very good reason that there's a need to be able to read faxes in their full, original resolution. I wonder if this is a configurable BES option.

Some services have an OCR feature. Does your fax-to-email service have an OCR feature that allows text to accompany the TIFF file? Then you can just read the text in the fax, when you're away from a computer.

I have just emailed RIM. We'll see if they have a suggestion. No I dont have OCR on my fax program but i guess that would solve the problem b/c it would not longer be an image, correct?

Dude, go with efax (www.efax.com). I moved 2 years ago and found out that my apartment can only get 2 lines, so I was stuck w/o a fax machine for my business. I tried efax and dumped my fax machine!!! It is an awesome service. 2 years and no problems whatsoever. You can receive faxes as .efx (their sw), pdf and tif.

It might be important to note that the ability to receive faxes in PDF or TIF format is limited to eFax plus members only. I know there are other BB users out there with eFax free version that can't view faxes, and this is why.

<drops .02 in bucket>

Good news!

BES 4.0 and BWC 4.0 have new features that allow you to zoom. This means you can view the fine detail of TIFF fax attachments on BlackBerry now.

After upgrading to 4.0 on a BB 7750 with Verizon, I am able to see tif's BUT, when you zoom in you find they are unreadable. They are blurred, like you are trying to blow up 2 point type to read it, and it distorts so bad you can't.

I signed up for efax as they will send it out at a pdf or a tif but I still can't read them i (in tif) or open them (in pdf)

I'm still trying to get my faxes redirected from my desktop to my berry to read in the field. I've tried efax, but I believe you still have to have their reader to open and read their .pdf document.

I sent myself 2 test pdfs, one via regular email, and one faxed to efax, which converts it to a pdf and send to to your email.

The first one opened fine as a pdf, and you can really read it fine. The second one from efax just shows page1 and page2 but they won't display anything.

I suspect you have to have the reader to open or read them, and I don't believe that works with a Berry.

I think Winfax Pro should work to forward incoming faxes as pdf's so I could read them on the berry. I've got it, but not smart enough to get it running as advertised.

Rich

After numerous tries, I got it 90% figured out. I'm working on a BB7750 with a hosted BES through Mailstreet.

I downloaded and installed Reqwireless emailviewer. This program is most frustrating, but what they need to emphasize is you need to set up an an email pop 3 account and "pull" your email off their server. IF you want Yahoo, You HAVE to use Yahoo Plus, $20/year regular free yahoo won't cut it. For the way I want it, I wanted 1 site that doesn't get my regular mail, that I can forward my fax # to on a temporary basis.

Once you have entered in your pop 3 account information in Reqwireless, "the Big Black E" on your ribbon, you tell it to receive your email. It will pull down an email from yahoo's server.

I subscribed to a internet fax service (mine was data on call) $10.00/month, I call forward my fax line to their toll free number, so faxes ring to them. It forwards you an email with a tif attachment (1 page was 54 kb)

On my berry I can click on the link AFTER you have received your email from your pop 3. No passwords or other screens are required, you get your mail in one shot. It opens the email with the tif. On my berry, a box at the top of the screen automatically is highlighted in black called VIEW. Click the trackwheel to submit form.

On my berry it hourglasses for about 30 seconds on a 1 page tif but it will pop up in flyspeck size type. Here's the last 10% I've got to fix. If I click the trackwheel "OCR image" it will convert it, and I can read about 90% of the fax. That's usually enough for me to figure out what I have.

The other 10% I'm working through is I can't yet click the option "Full image" my berry goes into hourglass spinning mode for 10-15 minutes, and I don't have the guts to let it spin all night.

HOWEVER, you do have another option. Using that same Data on Call fax program, you open the email, not the attachment, click "Forward" and send an email to anyfax#@emailfaxservice.com and BOOM, it will send that email with the fax to any fax # you enter. Now their address or "to" is a little cumbersome, as it automatically loads with first namelast name alphabetizing, but it does work.

In short, you can receive a fax, and send it from your berry, as long as it comes in through the data on call site. You can forward it as a tif, in a regular email, or fax it down to the front desk at the fleabag motel you're stuck in, while doing the road warrior game. But the bottom line is, you can get it, and read it to figure if it's worth dealing with.

For you techie types, this might be no big deal, but for someone from Missouri, with a PHD in redneck, this is tall cotton. If I can arm wrestle Alain at Reqwireless about the "full page" issue, I can say I Got R Dun

I have been using Protus Virtual Fax for over a year and find it works flawlessly. You get an 800 fax #, which converts faxes to tiffs or pdfs and delivers via email to the berry. I can send faxes via to clients for signature or print-to-fax anywhere. Great service.
Also, you can use Metamessage, which allows for just the print-to-fax option, without the incoming fax #.

Smay

What are you using to read your .tif faxes on your berry? Aftermarket software or blackberry software?

I use protus as well. I get an 800 number, faxes delivered as pdf so I can easily view on my BB, and I get them delivered to 3 different email accounts (so my wife can see them too). All for like $10-$12 a month.

Print-to-fax and Fax to Email at $9.95/mo.,AND you can get an 800 or local ph# from Premiere Global Services,(formerly Xpedite), compared to Protus or eFax.

Has anyone tried Myfax.com?

Myfax.com only stores a fax history for a wk and Premiere Global Services, NYSE:PGI, stores for a month

plus you own the # not them so they don't resell them or sell to spammers.

Does anyone know the email address to do mail2fax with efax.com?

if anyone else is curious.

I cannot read / see the 2nd page of a 2 page fax on my BB. Can anyone else do this? These faxes are converted to a .tif file using Rightfax on an Exchange Server.

Thanks,

how do you see first page, mine is so small when try and zoom in goes all fuzzy so cant see anything