Thinking about getting rid of landline phone service...

[IHAVEAQUESTION]

but wasn't sure how skype or any other VOIP handle fax send and receive. Not a heavy fax user but need the service from time to time (resume, application, whatnot). So can anyone elaborate on this? I rarely make calls and probably will go with prepaid skype account if switched. THanks.

 

[Crucial]

Our vonage fax capability is very spotty. I don't rely on it at all. It has gotten better in the last month or so but in the 6 months before that it never worked. Other than that I am very happy with the service.

 

[ELopes580]

From my own experience with residential VoIP and commercial VoIP solutions I have used and did tech support on; I would not recommend it if you rely on it for faxing. I just completed an intership/work-study at my school's IT dept. We just switched to a VoIP system, it has been a complete nightmare and faxes went down all over the place. Either faxes would not go through entirely or data corruption would occur. Just a plain mess.

The only solution I personally came up to fix this was to disable ECC on the fax machines. I had to fight tooth and nail to get this done since the owner of the company who was proving the service claimed that ECC needs to be on, the CIO thought we should listen to him, another dept IT thought I was an idiot. The only one who listened to me was my own supervisor; who was in charge of deploying and reporting problems with the phone system. We tried the fix on a few fax machines and they seemed to work, or we just never heard complaints back.

To make a long story short, if you want to go this route, I suggest trying it out with ECC mode disabled on the fax machine using the VoIP service before you drop your landline service altogether. Heck it doesn't even hurt to ask the VoIP provider's tech support.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

VOIP is a transitional crutch for people behind the times...

Cell phone + eFax

To quote the immortal Garth Algar... LIVE IN THE NOW!!!

 

[dartworth]

I use viatalk for our home VOIP service and also have a dedicated fax line with them. I don't fax a lot, but it works when I need it too.


They also have a Fax to Email Service which is around $2/month I think...

http://www.viatalk.com/voip_provider_fax_to_email.htm

 

[xyyz]

there's a certain feature that fax machines have that doesn't work well with VoIP. i think it's something to do with a faster transmission rate.

when i had lingo, i could never get a fax to go through unless i disabled that feature.

 

[Vette73]

Have vonage and works fine with our fax machine, send and recieve.

 

[HannibalX]

I gave up my POTS line last year. I miss it. Chances are when I move at the end of this year I'll get a POTS line at my new place. I had the same POTS # for many, many years and I hated to give it up.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
I gave up my POTS line last year. I miss it. Chances are when I move at the end of this year I'll get a POTS line at my new place. I had the same POTS # for many, many years and I hated to give it up.

It's a shame the Telephone companies ran the prices so high for a plan landline that everyone wanted out.

It's all about the greed.

 

[SpunkyJones]

Faxes should work fine, but there could be codec/bandwidth/qos issues on the carrier side that they might need to work out. I hate faxes now.

 

[freegeeks]

you need a CPE that has a good implementation of the T38 protocol

 

[IHAVEAQUESTION]

Originally posted by: dartworth
I use viatalk for our home VOIP service and also have a dedicated fax line with them. I don't fax a lot, but it works when I need it too.


They also have a Fax to Email Service which is around $2/month I think...

http://www.viatalk.com/voip_provider_fax_to_email.htm

That won't work for me. I would send an email with attachment instead of sending fax.



So Vonage is good at VOIP fax? Do they have a prepaid plan?

 

[dartworth]

Originally posted by: IHAVEAQUESTION

Originally posted by: dartworth
I use viatalk for our home VOIP service and also have a dedicated fax line with them. I don't fax a lot, but it works when I need it too.


They also have a Fax to Email Service which is around $2/month I think...

http://www.viatalk.com/voip_provider_fax_to_email.htm

That won't work for me. I would send an email with attachment instead of sending fax.



So Vonage is good at VOIP fax? Do they have a prepaid plan?

You can fax out on it normally. They have regular dedicated fax lines also...

 

[IHAVEAQUESTION]

Anyone can add to this? If not, i will have to keep my landline.