Hey Techovity I need to fax a document to this insurance company, but I don’t have a fax machine. Can you help me with that ?

Yes, you can send a fax without a fax machine. There are different options available.

What do you mean by options, can I send a fax from my computer ?

Well, Yes and No. Yes because technically your Windows and Mac operating system can send a file to a given Fax number,  No because your PC can send a fax only if it is connected to a phone line using a fax Modem.

This sounds interesting, but what is this fax modem and how can I send a fax using my PC.

Fax modem is a piece of hardware responsible for sending and receiving digital information over an analog phone line. You can either buy an internal fax modem which is a card (like Graphics or Sound card) and will fit on the Motherboard of your PC or you can buy an external Fax modem which can be connected to your PC through a USB port.

Once you have a fax modem connected and configured with PC, process of sending a fax is not difficult, here are the basic steps –

Windows OS –

1) Go to Start menu and search for ‘Fax’ in Start menu

2) It will show you ‘Windows Fax and Scan’.

3) Open it and click on ‘New Fax’ option.

WindowsFaxandScan

 

Mac OS –

1) Open the file you want to send (can be a PDF or image file)

2) Click on File Menu > Print option

3) Now choose Fax PDF as your printer, if it is configured properly your document will be faxed.

 

But I don’t have a fax modem. Is there a way to send a fax without a modem, and also I don’t want to buy a fax machine for this stupid work. I thought it to be as simple as sending an email, just open a web page and send fax to any given number. Do you know how to do it ?

 

Ok, now I got you. You want to send a fax over the Internet and not by using actual telephone line. Yes, we can send a fax over the Internet by using a PC.

All you have to do is to find a website which allows you to send online faxes. And yes, I remember you do not want to spend money on that, so I will tell you only the websites which has got free options. One major point you should remember is that fax is delivered using the phone lines, so you must check which countries are supported by the website. Most of them support USA and Canada, however there will be countries where they will not deliver the fax.

 

1) MyFax –

 

MyFax_Free

MyFax

MyFax allows sending free fax to 41 different countries including USA and Canada. Free fax option has few limitations-

1) It allows only 2 free faxes in every 24 hours.

2) You can send only 10 pages of document at a time.

3) Also file size can not be bigger than 10MB.

This free option is good enough if you do not need to send many faxes everyday. However if you need to send more faxes or if you want to receive a fax, you can choose their paid option. Paid option which starts from $10 per month, you get a Fax number to receive your fax, you can send 100 pages and receive 200 pages in a month. MyFax also gives you 30 day free trial period to check their service. There are other plans also if you want more options, you can check here.

 

2) FaxZero –

 

FaxZero

FaxZero allows send free fax only to USA and Canada numbers, and it will allow only 3 pages in free fax with their branding/ads on the cover page (which you may not like). You can send 5 such free faxes per day.

If you don’t like these restrictions, you can pay $1.99 for a single fax, which allows to send 25 pages to any US or Canada number. Also there will not be any branding on cover page.

FaxZero support sending international fax but it is not free. Again it will cost you $1.99 per fax. Check the list of supported countries here.

 

3) GotFreeFax –

 

GotFreeFax

Here you can send free fax to any USA or Canada number. Free option allows you to send 2 faxes per day with 3 pages in each fax. GotFreeFax does not put ads in your fax.

If you want more option they allow you to fax 10 pages for $0.98, 20 pages for $1.98 and 30 pages for $2.98. If you need even bigger options then you can buy 100/300/1000 page credits which never expires and you can use as per your need.

Fax to International numbers are not free and the rate will vary depending on country where you want to fax. Click here to see the list of countries and click on it to see their rates.

 

4) PDF24Fax –

 

PDF24Fax

Free option allows you to fax 5 pages per month. However it is not clear to which countries it allows for free fax. If you require to send more faxes, there are other paid options available.

For a list of countries supported by PDF24Fax , you can check here.

 

5) HelloFax –

 

HelloFax

HelloFax requires you to sign-in before you could use their services. It has got many advance options for the users, however HelloFax offers only one time 5 pages fax for free. After that you can fax up-to 10 pages for $.99 or pay 20 cents for a single page fax.

HelloFax supports to send faxes to more than 70 countries, and you can also integrate it with your cloud storage. Other eye catching features are encrypted data transmission, number portability to keep your old fax numbers while moving to digital service and APIs available for corporate. Check their list of features and pricing here.