A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/faqs/faqfax.how

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Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!rahul.net!a2i!waffle.a2i!waffle
From: [e-mail] (Kevin Savetz)
Newsgroups: alt.internet.services,alt.online-service,alt.bbs.internet,alt.fax,alt.answers,comp.mail.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: FAQ: How can I send a fax from the Internet?
Followup-To: alt.internet.services
Date: 5 Dec 1994 11:00:12 GMT
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Summary: Answers the Frequently Asked Question "How can I send a fax from the Internet?"
Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu alt.internet.services:36482 alt.online-service:10740 alt.bbs.internet:19541 comp.dcom.fax:8784 alt.answers:6032 comp.mail.misc:10833 comp.answers:8734 news.answers:30573

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 <[e-mail]>.

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 [e-mail].

Interested in sponsoring this FAQ? Announce your business to thousands
of interested readers _and_ support this overworked FAQ publisher.
E-mail to [e-mail] for details.

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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/[e-mail]

Would send a fax to [phone] 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:
  [e-mail]  - Current fax coverage (automated reply)
  [e-mail] - Frequently Asked Questions (automated reply)
  [e-mail]           - Administrative questions (human)
  [e-mail]          - Majordomo mailing list agent
  [e-mail]     - 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: [e-mail]
     Subject: local (7 digit) phone number, without area code
     Body: <text of fax>

For complete usage information, send e-mail
     To: [e-mail]
     Subject: 052

For a list of some legislators' fax numbers in the Sacramento area, send
e-mail:
     To: [e-mail]
     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 [e-mail].

*** 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 [phone] (that's international
notation for Sweden, phone number 08/765 43 21) send e-mail to:
     [e-mail]
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 "[e-mail]".

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 [e-mail], or contact
InterFax at PO Box 162, Skippack, PA 19474 USA. [phone]. Fax:
[phone].

*** 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. [phone]. E-mail:
[e-mail] (for automated responce) or [e-mail] (for a human.)
Information is also maintained on FAXiNET's 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 "[e-mail]".

*** 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 [e-mail] 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.
- [e-mail] - no longer available due to hard drive
crash.
- Soviet FaxGate and PaperGate ([e-mail]...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 "[e-mail]"
(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
electronic mail, if you are so inclined. This is a low-volume list, with
updates every few weeks. Note that the following address is my personal
e-mail box, filtered by a very simple mail filter. Your request must go
in the SUBJECT line EXACTLY as shown below. Anything else will find its
way into my e-mail box rather than to the subscription program. To
subscribe, send e-mail:
     To: [e-mail]
     Subject: subscribe fax-faq
     Body: <ignored>

You can also receive it once via electronic mail (without subscribing to
automatic updates). Again, the request must be entered in the SUBJECT
line EXACTLY as shown below:
     To: [e-mail]
     Subject: send fax-faq
     Body: <ignored>

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

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