Hello,

recently I have tried a trial version of Internet fax service from site Popfax.com, I have sent and received some faxes and it seems that it works well, but my question is: what is the difference between a simple fax and an Internet fax? because I have never used the last one...

thank you in advance

There really isn't a difference other than the fact it's more like e-mail and scanning than anything.

You still get the "crappy" fax quality and what not, only main difference is you can receive/send fax via the internet.

A simple fax being just a standard fax machine?
An internet fax service will send faxes out in bulk. Simply create or scan your document and then use the internet fax service to send it out to multiple recipients. Also I believe they charge a monthly fee rather than a per use basis. I use a company called metrofax.com, it's about $13 per month.

Hope this helps!
Cheers
Lex

Actually internet fax is pretty handy in some situations like if you can get your printer/copier to fax, you dont have a fax machine, etc. I dont have a scanner/fax at this time and I had to fax or scan something and email someone and the fax number they gave me didnt work went I went to kinkos so I signed up some trial account on some internet fax, sent it to the online fax number and it emailed me as atachment. I had to use their software to open it but was able to convert it to a tif fle then I sent it through email.

I just did this today actually so its a coincidence to see a thread like this

We use internet fax as a way to save on all teh junk mail that gets faxed to us. Our number is one we've got with loads of customers so don;t want to change it but get lots of junk mail. We can get round that by the faxes going to email - thus helping cut paper costs and saving a few trees :-)

While on this topic can someone recommend a good fax service? free or cheap that does not require any software to be installed? I used to have jfax and efax while back but both needed drivers installed. Hopefully there is something web based these days.

thanks
j

Popfax and Myfax don't require drivers.

Fax gave you copy of anything you send or recieve which id dull through internet

I use a fax service from vitelity.net. I think it's $5 a month and I can pick a local number. Faxes can get emailed directly to my phone, too. Since I have a scanner (and send maybe 1 fax a year), it's works perfectly for me.

- El Capitan

When you send and receive faxes on your PC, you're actually using a fax modem that is very similar to a regular fax machine. Sending a fax via an Internet fax service really isn't all that different — you still upload your document to the fax service through a modem, although you're using the Internet to deliver the fax instead of phoning the recipient directly.

Read more (http://www.allbusiness.com/business-planning-structures/starting-a-business/647-1.html)

I have never used such a fax service before, but from what I've read it simply works via email.
When you sign up with a company that provides such a service, then you will get a fax number. When someone sends a fax to that number (whether it is a real fax machine or another internet fax) then it is relayed to your email address, as a PDF or image file. If you want to send a fax then in most cases you need to send it to a specific email address, from where it is then relayed to either another internet fax or a real fax.
The bottom line is that it works just as a real fax would.

Yes Lex87 is right.

Simple Fax transmit data over phone line.

Internet Fax transmit data through internet.

As simple as that.

While on this topic can someone recommend a good fax service? free or cheap that does not require any software to be installed? I used to have jfax and efax while back but both needed drivers installed. Hopefully there is something web based these days.

thanks
j

http://www.proemtechnologies.com/fax/planandpricing.php this one looks good to me

We use Efax and have for a few years. Works great.

With Internet fax, you can receive fax via email. We also use efax now and works fine.

The below mentioned links are a good reference to clarify the working and main differences of internet fax and the normal fax

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_fax


http://www.internet-faxes.net/blog/difference-between-email-fax-and-internet-fax/

With fax email, it is cheaper. I mean, in my case, I no longer need to use an extra dedicated fax line, so that is one expense that I no longer have to deal with. And, the best part is that I get to receive faxes anywhere. So I guess, the main difference between a regular fax machine and a fax email is the huge savings that you incur with the latter. So far, I didn't have any problems with fax email, after having used it for several years now.