Traditional Fax Versus Internet Fax:

It's amazing just how many people don't know what the fundamental differences are between traditional machine based, and electronic internet based faxing. Whilst on the surface it may seem obvious, people certainly do have a reason to be confused. After all, traditional faxing in itself is "electronic", so it's easy to get terms mixed up and intermingled. Let's set the record straight once and for all in this article. In the next few paragraphs we will break down the lingo barrier, and ensure that by the end of the article, you have a full understanding of the differences.

We begin our in depth analysis with the traditional faxing system.

Traditional Machine Based Faxing.

You've all seen it in the movies. A secretary is commanded to transmit an important document from the office in Washington to the one in London, and then let the boss know when a response comes back. The secretary seems to place a few sheets in the top of a machine, which then sucks them through, and ejects them out the bottom. After a few beeps, the process comes to an end.

This is indeed the traditional faxing method. What is happening here is that the paper is being scanned as it passes through the machine (much like a photocopier scans a document), and the information read off the paper is turned in to an electronic piece of data. The fax then connects to the recipient via a phone line, and once the call is picked up on the other end, the fax machine sends that piece of data to the other user, and it is then unscrambled and printed out somewhere else in the world.

This technology in itself has 2 benefits:

1. Instantly send documents back and forth with no waiting times
2. Low cost and reliable.

These two benefits are the main reason why most business offices have a fax machine handy at all times.

Internet Fax & Fax Software.

Not so long ago, a clever cookie decided that the internet could be used to send faxes more efficiently than the fax machine itself. Applying the same principals as above, a document was first scanned in to the computer, and then sent via internet fax software to the recipients land based fax machine, or their computer. The same happens for receiving faxes, except they are not instantly printed out. 

No only does this save money on the phone bill - it also saves you having to buy an entire fax machine!