Can I Send and Receive Faxes with PhonePower?
I have a Canon MF4450 paper fax machine. I am wanting to get rid of my landline. Which VoIP providers will support my paper fax machine? One company in particular that I am looking at is PhonePower, which offers a second line. They say my fax will work but I’m worried that they may not be telling the whole story since faxes are sent analog, correct?
You’re right. A lot of old fax machines do not work with VoIP because VoIP sends information digitally while faxes are usually analog. You can buy a gateway configuration device that will convert analog to digital, but they start at around $200, so that is probably not a practical solution.
If your fax machine supports Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), then it will work with any VoIP provider. Some machines require a bit of fiddling with their settings in order to send and receive faxes well. You can make sure your machine is at the right settings by following the instructions found on the Canon website.
PhonePower does provide a free fax capability that can be used on the second line of the VoIP adapter. You just plug your fax machine into the second line and then you can send faxes pretty seamlessly. Unfortunately, their method for receiving faxes is more complicated. They provide a service called fax enabled voicemail, which has a few more steps. The incoming fax will ring on your phone line and you have to remember not to answer. It will leave the fax as a voicemail, which will then be emailed to you as a TIFF file, which can be accessed on your computer and printed.
Obviously, this solution only works for people and businesses who receive a low number of faxes. If you have a higher volume of faxes coming in then I would recommend that you switch to internet faxing. The services listed on my faxing guide are all great options.
Do you have a question about faxing? Send me your fax question.