Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 20:22:13 -0800
To: fax-faq-readers@sequoia.northcoast.com
From: savetz@northcoast.com (Kevin Savetz)
Subject: FAQ: How can I send a fax from the Internet?
Archive-name: internet-services/fax-faq
Last-Modified: 1994/11/20
Version: 0.7
FAQ: How can I send a fax from the Internet?
Version 0.7 - November 20 1994
Send comments & updates to Kevin Savetz <savetz@northcoast.com>.
This document is copyright 1994 by Kevin M. Savetz. All rights reserved.
More legal stuff is near the end of this file. If you notice that an
Internet fax service is missing from this list, or information herein needs
updating, please send e-mail to savetz@northcoast.com.
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*** Table of Contents
Can I send a fax from the Internet?
Free services
TPC.INT Remote Printing
Rabbit.rgm Sacramento Fax Service
University of Minnesota Fax Service
Swedish University Network
Commercial Services
InterFax
FAXiNET <updated>
Unigate
FaxLinq
Fax Services that are no more
Legal Stuff
Where to Find this Document
*** Can I send a fax from the Internet?
Indeed. There are several services for sending a fax via Internet mail -
some are free while others are pay services. At least one service even lets
you receive a fax via Internet mail. The e-mail-to-fax services that I know
about are discussed below. All the services require that you can send and
receive electronic mail to the Internet.
FREE SERVICES
*** TPC.INT Remote Printing
One fax-from-the-Internet service is the brainchild of Carl Malamud (the
creator of Internet Talk Radio) and Marshall Rose. They're doing research
on how to integrate special-purpose devices, like facsimile printers, into
the fabric of the Internet. It works simply enough - send electronic mail
to a special address, and soon after (if your recipient's fax machine is in
a covered area), out comes a freshly-minted fax. You can send a fax to
multiple fax machines, or even a combination of faxes and traditional
e-mail recipients. After the deed is done, you will receive electronic mail
telling you if your fax was successfully sent or not. The service is free.
You can't send a fax just anywhere with this service. A variety of
companies, institutions and citizens linked to the Internet have joined the
experiment by linking a computer and fax modem to the 'net. When an
organization joins as a remote-fax server, it specifies what areas to which
they are willing to send faxes. When you send an e-mail fax message, you
(naturally) must include the phone number of the recipient's fax machine. A
computer looks at the phone number and decides if any participating fax
machines cover the area to which you want to send a fax. If so, your
message is routed to the appropriate machine for faxation. Otherwise, you
will receive electronic mail informing you the fax couldn't be delivered.
To send a fax by e-mail, send a message
To: remote-printer.<info>@phonenumber.iddd.tpc.int
Where <info> contains information for the cover page. In <info>, "/" is
turned into a line break and "_" is turned into a space. For example, the
address:
To: remote-printer.Arlo_Cats/Room_123@12025551212.iddd.tpc.int
Would send a fax to +1-202-555-1212 with the cover page:
Please deliver this facsimile to:
Arlo Cats
Room 123
Note: There's another way to address faxes which seems to work more
reliable sometimes. Note that the phone number is backwards and the numbers
are separated by periods.
To: remote-printer.Arlo_Cats/Room_123@2.1.2.1.5.5.5.2.0.2.1.tpc.int
The following addresses can be used to obtain more information:
tpc-coverage@town.hall.org - Current fax coverage (automated reply)
tpc-faq@town.hall.org - Frequently Asked Questions (automated reply)
tpc-admin@town.hall.org - Administrative questions (human)
tpc-rp-request@aarnet.edu.au - Majordomo mailing list agent
tpc-rp@aarnet.edu.au - Mailing list contributions (mailing list)
There's a WorldWideWeb page which provides information about the TPC.INT
fax service. If your Web browser can display forms, you can even fill out a
form and send a fax interactively. Use your favorite Web browser to connect
to:
http://linux1.balliol.ox.ac.uk/fax/faxsend.html
*** Rabbit.rgm Sacramento Fax Service
This service is a feature of a Sacramento, California-based bulletin board
system. You can use it to send faxes to areas that are a local call from
Sacramento, including the California State Legislature. This service is run
as a hobby and is connected to the Internet by UUCP, so it can take from 12
to 24 hours for your fax to be delivered or for the help files to reach
you. It does not support multiple addressing: only one fax number per
message. It also does not send a cover page, so be sure to start your
message with a note directing it to someone's attention. It will truncate
faxes longer than two pages (that's 132 lines).
To use this fax service, send e-mail
To: faxline@rabbit.rgm.com
Subject: local (7 digit) phone number, without area code
Body: <text of fax>
For complete usage information, send e-mail
To: request@rabbit.rgm.com
Subject: 052
For a list of some legislators' fax numbers in the Sacramento area, send e-mail:
To: request@rabbit.rgm.com
Subject: 050
*** The University of Minnesota Fax Service
The University of Minnesota operates a fax gateway which allows students
and staff to send faxes anywhere. Even if you don't go to UMinn, you may
use the service to send faxes to folks at the University and exchanges
local to the campus.
The structure for e-mailing a fax is:
To: /pn=John.Doe/dd.fax=234-5678/@fax.tc.umn.edu
Put your recipient's name, with a period between the first and last names,
after pn= and put the seven digit fax number after the characters dd.fax=.
This name will be printed in the "To:" field on the fax cover page. The
area code for the University of Minnesota is 612, so you don't need to
supply an area code.
For more information, send e-mail to ccs@maroon.tc.umn.edu.
*** Swedish University Network
{Thanks to Fredrik Ekman for the info!}
The Swedish University Computer Network (sunet) has a national fax service
that can be used by anyone at no cost. Users in Sweden can use it to send
faxes all over the world but users outside Sweden can only use it for
telephone numbers within Sweden.
To send a fax to Arlo Cats at +46-87654321 (that's international notation
for Sweden, phone number 08/765 43 21) send e-mail to:
Arlo_Cats@F087654321.fax.sunet.se
Note that you will always have to preface the phone number with the letter
"F" for "fax".
Special characters in the body of your message are converted to Swedish
characters:
ASCII Becomes
} a with circle accent
{ a with diereses (two dots)
| o with diereses
] A with circle accent
[ A with diereses
\ O with diereses
` e with right accent
For more information, e-mail "faxmaster@fax.sunet.se".
COMMERCIAL (PAY-FOR-USE) SERVICES
*** InterFax
InterFax allows you to send faxes via e-mail within the US or
internationally. InterFax is a fee-based service (billed to your credit
card) but, unlike the services listed above, InterFax lets you send faxes
anywhere, not just select locations. As of this writing, InterFax costs $5
per month, which includes the first five fax pages. Additional pages cost
50 cents each. There is a one-time sign-up charge of $25. For further
information, send e-mail to faxmaster@pan.com, or contact InterFax at PO
Box 162, Skippack, PA 19474 USA. (215) 584-0300. Fax: (215)584-1038.
*** FAXiNET
Another fax-by-mail service is FAXiNET, which lets you send any text
(ASCII) or PostScript documents to virtually every destination that can be
direct dialed from the United States. For an extra fee, the company can
also receive faxes for you, which will be delivered to you via electronic
mail.
FAXiNET offers two rate plans. Plan 1 has a one-time activation fee of
$35.00, a monthly maintenance fee of $9.95 and a per-page transmission cost
(to US destinations) of 39 cents. Plan two, for lower-volume users, has a
one-time activation fee of $20 and no monthly maintenance fee; however
faxes cost 65 cents per page. International rates depend on the destination
country: from Albania ($2.25/page) to Zimbabwe ($2.52/page). Faxes to the
United Kingdom are 56 cents/page; Mexico is $1.52/page.
Additional services, including adding your custom logo and signature to
your faxes, are available at extra cost. Corporate accounts are also
available. More information is available from AnyWare Associates, FAXiNET,
32 Woodland Road, Boston, MA 02130. (617) 522-8102. E-mail: info@awa.com
(for automated responce) or sales@awa.com (for a human.) Information is
also maintained on FAXiNETs web server:
http://www.awa.com/faxinet/
*** Unigate
Unigate is another pay-for-use service that allows you to send faxes to
Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It also allows you to
receive faxes as electronic mail. Unigate also handles e-mail-to-postal
mail conversion. Here's their price structure:
For fax service USA to Russia: $1.59 / page
fax service from Russia to Canada: 1.79 / page
fax service from Russia to Europe: 2.59 / page
For postal-mail service USA-Russia: $1.00 / page
snail-mail service from Russia to Canada: 1.50 / page
snail-mail service from Russia to Europe: 1.79 / page
For more information, e-mail "yuri@atmos.washington.edu".
*** FaxLinq
This service doesn't quite fit into the e-mail-to-fax arena, but it's close
enough to mention here. With FaxLinq, you may receive facsimile messages as
e-mail. Your correspondents send a fax to the service's machine, which is
converted to a TIFF file and sent to you in a MIME-compliant e-mail
message. (Your must be able to handle MIME e-mail and view TIFF files - you
can't receive faxes as ASCII text.) FaxLinq is a one-way ticket: it doesn't
handle e-mail-to-fax transmissions.
There is an annual subscription fee of $39, which includes 10 pages of
facsimile transmission. Additional pages received cost $1 per page. FaxLinq
uses "deposit" accounts: you must pay in advance for any faxes you expect
to receive. Should a fax be received for you when your account balance is
not sufficient to cover the number of pages received, you will be notified
by e-mail.
For more information, e-mail info@antigone.com or write: Antigone Press,
1310 Clayton Street, Suite 15, San Francisco CA 94114.
*** Fax Services That Are No More
Don't tell me about these. They have ceased to be.
- Digital Chicken was a service that let users send faxes to Canadian
government and citizens. Use TPC.INT instead.
- fax@cssnet.sanford.nc.us - no longer available due to hard drive crash.
- Soviet FaxGate and PaperGate (gatemaster@elvis.sovusa.com...host unknown)
***Legal Stuff
This document is copyright 1994 by Kevin M. Savetz. All rights reserved.
Permission for the following types of distribution is hereby granted,
provided that this file is distributed intact, including the above
copyright notice:
- non-commercial distribution
- posting to Internet archives, BBSs and online services
- distribution by teachers, librarians and Internet trainers
- inclusion on software/FAQ/Internet-oriented CD-ROMs
Permission for commercial distribution may be obtained from the editor.
SHARE THIS INFORMATION FREELY AND IN GOOD FAITH. DO NOT DISTRIBUTE MODIFIED
VERSIONS OF THIS DOCUMENT.
This document is new and in transition. If you notice that something
important is missing, or information herein needs updating, please contact
the editor.
The editor and contributors have developed this FAQ as a service to the
Internet community. We hope you find it useful. This FAQ is purely a
volunteer effort. Although every effort has been made to insure that
answers are as accurate as possible, no guarantee is implied or intended.
While the editor tries to keep this document current, remember that the
Internet and its services are constantly changing, so don't be surprised if
you happen across statements which are obsolete. If you do, please send
corrections to the editor. Corrections, questions, and comments should be
sent to Kevin Savetz at "savetz@northcoast.com" (Internet) or "savetz"
(America Online/eWorld.) Please indicate what version of this document to
which you are referring.
*** Where to Find this Document
This file is posted twice monthly (on the 5th and 19th of each month) to
the Usenet newsgroups alt.internet.services, alt.online-service,
alt.bbs.internet, alt.answers and news.answers.
You can receive each new edition of this document automatically via
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To: savetz@rahul.net
Subject: subscribe fax-faq
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You can receive it via anonymous FTP:
rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services/fax-faq
ftp.eff.org:/pub/Net_info/Technical/net-fax.faq
You can get it using Gopher:
gopher://gopher.eff.org/11/Net_info/Technical, net-fax.faq
###end of document###
--
[ Kevin M. Savetz -- savetz@sequoia.northcoast.com ]
[ Author, "Your Internet Consultant - the FAQs of Life Online" ]
[ Sams Publishing, ISBN 0-672-30520-8 ]
[ FAQs/articles/info: http://www.northcoast.com/savetz/savetz.html ]