OT Why is the fax machine not dead

[Mark Lloyd]

I would suspect some "security" reason. That seems to be one of the more common reasons for making you do something the hard way.

[The Daring Dufas]

Some folks consider a FAX to be more secure than E-mail. In some ways it is. It's a lot harder to intercept a FAX than an E-mail. I know how but I'd have to have access to your phone line. Someone who knows how, can access your E-mail or computer from the other side of the world.

TDD

[metspitzer]

When I bought my printer, I got it with a fax machine because I still need it. Many people will let me scan something and email it to them to avoid a long distance call, but not everyone.

I called the bank today to dispute a direct draft charge to my checking account. The girl said she would fax me a form. I asked her if she could just email it to me. She said....no sir, we can't do that.

So I am waiting on a fax as we speak. I only have one line so my fax and voice share the same phone number.

Fax machines should have died 15 years ago. They should at least give them an email address.

[Bryce]

Businesses are faxaholics. I've never owned a FAX machine or even a scanner/printer with FAX capability. I just use a faxmodem card in my computer to send/receive. For many communications, I can go paperless by faxing the output file from my wordprocessor or doing an on-screen display of an incoming fax saved to disk.

Like you, I have only one phone line, but for occasional fax use, it's enough.

[Nate Nagel]

Up until maybe a year or two ago, people would fax me stuff all the time. Due to the fact that our fax machine at work was an unreliable POS and possibly also due to the onward march of technology, more and more people are printing directly to .pdf and/or scanning and emailing, and I am glad of this.

Of course, my work email account has a 2MB quota, because our IT people don't see the need for employees to be emailing large files, so that creates other issues, like I can't leave more than a week or so worth of emails on the server or my mailbox fills up and I can't receive any more email. OK if I'm in the office, but if I want to leave stuff on the server so I can deal with it from home over webmail... well not so much.

nate

[Bob F]

Get an account with one of those online fax companies. There used to be freebie one's available, but they may be no more.

My printer is also a fax machine. If I expect a fax, I turn it on. Otherwise, it isn't on unless I'm printing, and doesn't bother the phone machine.

[gfretwell]

People who like fax, like it because it is not a computer. They tend to refuse. The construction industry still runs on fax. When I was an inspector that was the only communication that worked on the government side too. Maybe after this shake out the next generation will embrace Blackberries and abandon the fax.I still bet there will have to be one in every construction trailer anyway.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 4/13/2009 4:40 PM metspitzer spake thus:

Speaking of astounding things, along with why fax hasn't gone the way of punch cards and acoustic modems is how much *spam* you'll get if you set up a dedicated fax #. I worked for a guy recently with a separate fax line, and every day the "vacation in Cancun" and "refinance now" shit filled up the fax machine's tray.

[HeyBub]

It's a lot harder to make copies of a fax transmission (not the resultant fax, the electronic signal) and replay or reproduce it. It's harder to archive a fax. A fax is designed to be a one-to-one communication, wherease emails are often one-to-many.

[gfretwell]

That may have been true in the olden days when a fax machine was a stand alone box with a lousy thermal printer and a crude scanner but now anyone who gets a fax on a PC has the TIF file forever if they want it. When I was working and using fax communication every day I archived everything I sent or received. The folks on the other end were always amazed that I could send them back a perfect copy of anything they sent me. They always assumes a "fax of a fax" had to be lower quality. I couldn't really even explain the PC thing to some of them. (somewhat senior guv'mint workers). Of the 14 documents I ended up sending for every inspection, only one was really a scanned original document. The rest were completely computer generated and exported to fax application on my PC.. Email would have certainly been a lot easier and more efficient.

[Tony Hwang]

Hmmm, I use fax a lot on my small business operation. Also fax being sent over copper line, in a way it is secure. We also have distinct ring feature on our line. Fax answers automatically when fax is incoming.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Sending signed document via email involves more than simply just fax'ing it.

[Ed Pawlowski]

While you say you prefer email, you just gave a lot of reasons that the fax is still a major tool for communicating. Sounds like your IT people are morons also. 2MB limit made sense in 1985, not today.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, You can register on Do not Call List. Or you can program the machine to block certain numbers. If I get junk email or fax, I trace it and I'll send 1000 replies.

[The Daring Dufas]

Perhaps That's the reason the bank prefers a FAX.

TDD

[aemeijers]

They still let you bump your work email from the outside world? They killed our webmail interface a couple of years ago. If I want to work from home, I have to drag the company laptop home and VPN in. They even locked out the USB ports so we can't use external drives.

-- aem sends...

[mm]

I think they are still available for free. I periodically get spam offering it, and I signed up for one. There is Fax-to-pc and there is pc-to-fax I'm not sure if both are available free from the same company, but you can sign up for each free half at two different companies if you really want.

I used to send out about 10 faxes every 2 or 3 months, hiking schedules to newspapers. Somewhere after I stopped doing that, my Fax-modem software stopped working and now less than once every 2 or 3 years I go to a cell phone store or staples or something to send or receive. A dollar a page last I looked, and if you call them, they'll tell you their fax number. Sending at Staples is self-service.

[Mortimer Schnerd]

OTOH, how many times has a fax machine dialed an incorrect number. If that number happened to also have a fax machine on it, the fax goes to them. It's not a farfetched an idea as you might think. In my hospital, we've gotten faxes meant for others many a time. I assume we've sent a few as well.

Mortimer Schnerd, RN mschnerd at carolina.rr.com

[Mortimer Schnerd]

If you have scan capability, save your document as a pdf file. It's the rare computer that can't handle one of those.

Mortimer Schnerd, RN mschnerd at carolina.rr.com

[metspitzer]

How would it be any different than just scanning it into the computer?

While it is true that there may be a security reason I am not aware of for some documents, the form I needed would certainly not have needed any.