Going back to the transporter for a second, isn’t this exactly what the fax machine does? Takes a piece of paper and transports it to another location?

I guess I am being slightly disingenuous, because a fax machine does not move one object from one location to another, but copies it from one location to another. And if the fax machine was capable of doing this at a highly accurate level to any object, many items in the world would soon lose their value as people sought to duplicate original pieces of art and inflation would go through the roof as money was repeatedly copied on demand, again and again.

It initially sounds like a dream, but it would actually become a nightmare very quickly, very much like the scene from Bruce Almighty where the entire town suddenly wins the lottery and everyone gets nothing as a result.

But I guess the ability to actually move an object from one location to another would be extremely handy and would be the ultimate expression of the fax machine. But since the word fax is a short form of telefaxsimile, which means to make a copy at a distance, we couldn’t really use this word.

Could we even call it a transporter, as a transporter implies that there is some form of container?

Who knows? But one thing is for sure: when that day comes, when we can move from one place to another without traveling, I will be saying “Beam me up Scotty”!

And in the meantime, while we wait for the future to arrive, check out our comparison of what is available to us in the world of faxing software, click here now.

To this end, it is best to describe each component and then follow up with the control unit that makes it all possible.

The scanner is the name given to a device which scans text, barcodes, images, handwriting or any other organic or digitally determined image, converting it into a digitally stored piece of information. The scanners that were used in fax machines for the majority of the last 30 years were of the type known as drum scanners. These used a photo multiplier tube, type of vacuum tube which were extremely sensitive when it came to the detection of visible and ultraviolet light. Nowadays, scanners tend to use charge coupled devices, also known as a CCD, like those present within digital cameras.

The principal remains the same however. The scanner has an electrical charge pushed through it, and the imaging device converts the optical signals to electrical ones. This is then captured by the fax hardware.

As the image is scanned and converted into a digital file, the fax hardware engages the modem. The modem will use telephone circuits to connect to another modem and begin transmitting an audible analog signal. By modulating this signal, it is possible to transmit digital information to the modem at the other end of the line, which will then be demodulated and be fed to the receiving fax hardware. This modulation / demodulation process is where we get the name modem.

Finally, the fax machine passes the demodulated digital image file to the printer interface. This effectively reverses the scanning process, by passing a print head over blank paper in the positions that the optical scanner picked up areas of contrasted marking, then writing those marked areas back to the paper.

These systems are controlled by the fax hardware. It provides the logic and the flow control required for the information to pass seamlessly between the three interfaces. While the firmware and specific hardware involved may be propitiatory, fax hardware manufacturers adhere to a standard to enable all the fax machines all over the world to communicate with each other.

To check out our comparison of what is available to us in the world of faxing software, click here now.

The point is usually that, with the computer packages that many businesses buy from established retailers, there is usually a high-quality printer, a high-quality scanner and internet facilities that come bundled with the PC. When you combine all those facts together, it becomes possible to send any document as a scanned image, even ones that will not fit in the feeder tray of the usual fax machine, to any e-mail address in the world.

On top of that, it is easy to argue that there are far more people with e-mail addresses than there are people with fax machines!

Of course these are valid arguments. But the counter argument is that, as a business, we should always be striving to work with our customer in whatever way he or she sees fit. Yes, there are certain business areas that require faxes to be used as part of their daily operations, such as lawyers, recruitment professionals and government agencies. With these orgranizations, you have no choice.

But there are some businesses, including some very progressive and extremely large multinational conglomerates that I can think of, that like to deal with faxes. Whether this is a cultural thing, a technological thing or just out habit, if you have the ability to send and receive faxes, it makes doing business with them far easier when it comes to things like purchase orders and invoicing. In some cases, even if you can send an e-mail, the data security regulations mean that they prefer to receive faxes.

So the argument shouldn’t be about justifying why it is still necessary to have a fax machine. The argument is why businesses that complain about them haven’t found an alternative solution, especially considering all the very high-tech, hosted solutions that are available to us nowadays.

However, the ability to send identity or legal documents which prove the identity of a person or an agreement is invaluable to some businesses.

Estate agents and realtors have long been custodians of the fax machine, as they need to be able to quickly verify signings on the completion of the houses that they negotiate through to sale. Alongside them are the lawyer’s, solicitors and conveyance professionals who are involved in similar activities.

Recruitment consultancies also find use for fax machines, even above and beyond the scan and print method which has become so prevalent in the 21st century. This is due to data security legislation in various parts of the world. Their requirement to quickly access identity in agreement information has not changed.

Indeed it has actually increased with the change in border control in Europe, as each recruitment agent is now culpable if they mistakenly employ illegal immigrants. Thus their checks are more stringent than ever, and the fax machine is one of the tools in their arsenal. If a potential employee cannot fax the documentation through in a short amount of time, it is usually indicative of a problem.

But what if the candidate has not got a fax machine? The majority of ordinary people do not have a use for a faxing device on a regular basis. In this case, a visit to the local print shop or stationery supplies store will normally allow you to send a fax for under a dollar, thereby providing fax services to practically everyone.

To see what is available to us in the world of faxing software, click here now.

Thousands of documents can be compressed onto a USB stick. Hundreds of hours of video can be downloaded onto an array of hard drives in a matter of hours. DVD and Blue Ray discs can fit more graphics, text, sound and video on one disc than we ever thought was possible a few years ago.

Indeed there is a famous quote from Bill Gates where he thought “640k of memory should be enough for anybody”. And yet even the computer I write this upon has 4GB installed, around 75 times as much!

But in this world of high-tech, high capacity, high-speed content delivery systems, there is still a need to be able to access the images associated with paper-based documentation. All our technology has yet to eliminate the staple of how we identify ourselves in a legal manner: our signature.

And more often than not, it is this requirement, along with identification documents, that are needed when we fax. Contracts are written on paper and then signed in the presence of witnesses with a ballpoint pen. We may use a computer to type these contracts and we can even take pictures, but the purposes of acting in a legal capacity, a replica of the document and the signature is required.

Faxes provided the way to transmit and receive replicas of contracts, passports, driver’s licenses and other official signed documentation at high speed. Its installation all over the world will take some time to die out, it ever does. Consider that we have had VoIP for over 10 years, yet telephones still persist.

I imagine faxes will not die out, but merely evolve, becoming the paper based front-end to our digital communication systems.

To see where we are in the world of faxing software, click here now.

A piece of paper, or nowadays any item which could sit underneath the lid of a flatbed scanning device, is fed into the bay of the scanner. It is then either dragged over the imaging eye of the scanner or, if the scanner is a flatbed variety, the imaging eye will move over the document.

The scanner will help the fax machine encode the document into a data file which represents the position of any writing or markings on the document and its associated contrast.

The fax machine will then attempt to connect to the remote machine by way of a telephone number. The number, when dialled, will hopefully ring and if there is a fax machine on the other end, it will answer with the now very familiar carrier tone.

The carrier tone is an audio signal telling the fax machine that there is a fax presence on the other end of the line, and to change the settings to allow the most efficient transmission of data.

Once this carrier tone “greeting” period has passed, and the parameters for the transmission are established, the sending machine will feed the data file into the modulator. The modulator converts the data file into sound, compressing it and transmitting it through the phone line to the receiving fax machine. The receiving machine will then de-modulate and decompress the data file.

The fax machine then passes the data file to the printer, interpreting it so that it can reproduce the positions of any writing or markings on the received document, along with the required contrast settings.

Once the transmission has been completed, the receiving machine sends a confirmation signal to the transmitting machine, and both devices hang up, finishing the session.

If you would like to check out our comparison of what is available to us in the world of faxing software, click here now.

There are many people who do not use fax machines, and I myself would have, in times past, classed myself as one of these people.

Strangely enough, the people who don’t use fax machines are very much the same types of people who by my own definition would. You’ll find the very same types of secretaries, PAs and managers opposed to these clunky and archaic devices as you will those who think it’s is God’s gift to mankind.

It is a problem of generations and a condition of what time in history you may have been born in. In the middle of the 1990s, the Internet became a widespread phenomena in homes and businesses across the world. When this happened, anyone with an Internet connection and an imaging device could send a document anywhere in the world for almost no cost, at a ridiculously high speed and at a quality that would far surpasses the most expensive fax machine available on the face of the planet.

And so there are a group of people in business who think that the fax machine could be consigned to the history books. Yes, in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the teleprinters and fax machines of the time were amazing devices, capable of sending a message across the world at high speed when a letter would take weeks, if not months. And even into the 80s, where faxes were still useful for sending signed documentation at high-speed, they could still seem to be something of a miracle as opposed to waiting for paperwork to arrive.

The question is when will businesses and the population as a whole give up on the beloved and embattled fax machine? It kind of bridges two worlds: the world of e-mail and instant messaging, and the world of paper-based postal services, binding them together with an easy interface.

And despite the people who don’t like it, until someone figures out how to do this in a computer to the same standard, fax machines will still be here.

If you want to check out our comparison of what is available to us in the world of faxing software, click here now.

The typical user is anyone who works at or with an office in an administrative function. Anyone from a secretary to a PA to a manager to a director to an administrative assistant will be a potential user of a fax machine.

In addition, fax machines also find use in amongst members of the population who have a form of disability or physical impairment, not least of which are those who are hard of hearing. The fax machine grants them the ability to use telephone lines to send images and writing instead of speaking and listening, giving these users a similar level of communication freedom as everyone else.

A trend which has emerged over the last 10 to 15 years has been to use the fax machine as a marketing tool, sending fax broadcasts to businesses and offices where it might be known that there is some interest in a product or service that a particular company might be interested in marketing.

However, there is also, along with this upsurge in marketing, a trend to utilize fax mechanisms to distribute spam. Very similar to the e-mail counterpart that most of us are now familiar with in one way or another, fax spam is the unsolicited sending a fax broadcasts en masse.

Consequently the recipients of these broadcasts usually find themselves inundated with messages that they are effectively paying for in paper and ink.

Unfortunately, there is little that can be done if the sender does not wish to comply with the law. For instance, hosting the fax transmission service outside of the country can eliminate most of the legislation put in place to protect businesses from unsolicited direct marketing of this type.

To check out our comparison of what is available to us in the world of faxing software, click here now.

With wireless hotspots growing in popularity and frequency, being sat in Costa whilst waiting for your appointment with the Bank Manager or a supplier, or being sat on a train for a couple of hours, or waiting at the airport for a flight, means that you can easily use your laptop to send that vital fax off and keep the wheels of business turning.

The use of faxing software means that you can actually remain in contact for what may have been a ‘lost’ time spent in commuting or waiting for appointments. With the internet modems now built into many business grade mobile phones, and the small notebook laptops and internet dongles that are becoming ever more popular for business people out and about, there are no further restrictions on communicating in any form.

You may be a sole trader with no office administration support, no “Person Friday” at the office that you can call to ask them to send the fax for the latest shipment off to the suppliers, oh and by the way, the deadline is in 5 minutes!

Even as a back up to when email systems are broken, or when a company may not have email systems in place as yet (believe me there are still a few out there!), having the capability and ability to send a fax message from your computer is a reliable back up when all other methods of communication are down!

To check out our comparison of what is available to us in the world of faxing software, click here now.

Do you know where YOUR nearest fax machine is?

No – seriously – do you? A while ago I had to fax some information off to my mortgage provider, and the only way I could get the request to them in time, was to send them a fax message.

I didn’t have a fax machine as I didn’t run a business from home. I had no idea where to locate my nearest fax machine, in time before the close of play.

Eventually I found a post office counter a few miles away that did provide a faxing service, and I had to pay a tidy sum to get the 6 pages of information off to the mortgage company!

Later on, I was telling a friend about the situation, and she asked if I knew about faxing software that I could install onto my computer. I had to admit – I didn’t!

But since then it seems, everyone I know has had to send or receive a fax from one company or another, and now they’re using my fax software that I installed!

For example:
• A car insurance company wanted proof of a like for like quotation from another company that had to be faxed.
• A solicitor company required proof of ID be faxed over to them in the interim before an appointment.
• An employment agency requiring a fax of a P45.
• Mortgage company wanting a faxed copy of a letter that wouldn’t make the deadline if sent by traditional post.