tpc.int Free Fax Service
What happened to the tpc.int free fax service?
First, a bit of background: the free Internet faxing service at www.tpc.int was the granddaddy of Internet fax tools: as early as 1994 (perhaps earlier) it allowed Internet users to send faxes for free to dozens of countries, via a web interface or e-mail. The service was built on a web of volunteer-run servers worldwide. As the years passed, the service fell into disrepair — reliability got spotty, e-mails to the support staff bounced, and so on. Although the site is still up (as of this writing) it doesn’t actually deliver faxes. Which is a shame, because the tpc.int “remote printing experiment” was a kind of institution of the early Internet.
In its absence, there are newer sites that let you send faxes for free, such as FaxZero.com and OneTimeFax.com.
(A side note: the .int top-level domain is one that you probably don’t see too often. .int domains are reserved for international treaty-based organizations, United Nations agencies and organizations or entities having Observer status at the UN. Although it didn’t technically qualify as one of those, the TPC fax service was grandfathered into the .int domain system.)
Do you have a question about faxing? Send me your fax question.