How do I send a fax long distance?
I have no problem sending faxes to other businesses in my area, but when I try to fax to different states, nothing goes through. What am I doing wrong?
Since a fax machine uses a phone line for communication, it has to be treated like a phone when dialing long distance. That means dialing the U.S. country code (1), followed by the area code, followed by the fax number, so that the whole thing looks like this: x-xxx-xxx-xxxx. Make sure you’re not including any hyphens when you enter the number, since hyphens add a three-second delay on most fax machines.
If you’re faxing from an office fax machine with many dedicated lines, you’ll have to dial “9” first to get outside of the network. You can also use an internet faxing service to send faxes long distance. Services like FaxZero allow you to send a free fax anywhere in the U.S. or Canada.
Do you have a question about faxing? Send me your fax question.