How Long Does It Take to Send a Fax Online?

You may want to send a fax online for more ease and convenience. As with many decisions, though, timing is indeed everything. What is the time frame involved for this type of fax service, and will it truly benefit you?

How Long Does It Take to Send a Fax Online?

Once you have a process in place, you can fire off a fax as easily as you send an email: in a matter of seconds. With traditional fax machines, on the other hand, it may take over five minutes to relay a fax from one machine to another. Factors such as the type of machine used and the speed of the phone line will impact a fax machine's effectiveness.

Online faxes largely avoid these issues. The total amount of time it takes to send off an online fax from start to finish will depend on a few factors, though.

Format

Online faxed documents are typically sent in a digital format, such as PDF. If the document is already digitized and in one of these file formats, you'll save time. Otherwise, you'll need to convert the documents. If they are hard paper copies, you will first scan them with either a scanning app or a printer that has scanning capabilities incorporated into them.

You'll also need to consider the complexity of the documents you are sending. Larger files that have more pages or that have a lot of pictures or graphs may naturally require a longer wait time. With an online fax, you don't have the barriers that often plague traditional fax machines, so, in most cases, transmission should still be almost instantaneous once the prep work is done.

Service

A faxing service will serve as the go-between for you and the recipient of your fax. If you only need to send a few faxes, many services offer a set free number of pages you may fax. If you intend to be a frequent fax user, though, you should sign up for a subscription service wherein you will pay a fee (typically monthly) for the service.

When you sign up for a service, you should incorporate the time required to sign up (including providing payment details) into your timing considerations. While initially signing up may increase the time it takes to send a fax as you become acclimated to the service, you will save time later as the process becomes more familiar and almost second nature.

Process

The easiest online fax service will streamline the steps you need to take (such as automatically converting file formats) and allow you plentiful choices in sending from your computer, tablet, or phone. Faxes may be sent online via website forms, apps, or email, among other options. Services that send a fax through email are among the fastest because you don't need to worry about potential problems like busy or disconnected lines. Plus, these faxes offer secure encryption.
 
A typical process might involve entering contact information for both the fax recipient and yourself. You would then attach your relevant documents, add a cover page, and send. Confirmation codes will enable you to track when your fax is sent and when it is received. Receipt can occur within minutes, and it will be made simpler when you have all needed fax numbers (including your own dedicated fax number) on-hand.

Never worry about busy fax machine lines or busy phones lines again. Visit aFax and set up your convenient, fast, and ultra-modern online fax service today.