Voicemail For Nothing, Fax4Free!
Written: Jun 23 '00 (Updated Jun 23 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Free Service, Telephone Number
Cons: Voicemail is a bit shaky
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| rpllingrock's Full Review: Fax4Free |
Needing only to send an occasional fax, I decided to try Fax4Free about a year ago to see what this service can offer. I have been pleasantly surprised thus far with the results.
How It Works
This service offers not only free faxing but free voice mail. You are able to send faxes using the Internet to the U.S, Canada, UK and Australia and receive from anywhere in the world. The information that follows is for a Windows based system although it is compatible with Mac and Unix.
After completion of sign-up you are given a free telephone number to use as your fax and voicemail number. Telephone numbers are not toll free. The user will be charged for a toll call. But hey, they'll be paying for it, not you! Right?
The area code I was given is from the State of California.
Features
* Both your faxes and voice messages are sent via e-mail.
* Voicemail- For Windows users no download is necessary to receive Voicemail since it is sent as a wav file. You choose from three compressions, from fair quality to good quality. Even at the highest compression I found it to sound cleaner than most answering machines.
You can personalize your outgoing message by calling your number and entering your
security code.
* Receiving Faxes- Faxes are sent to your e-mail account in Tiff format. All the pages sent will be sent as one image so you'll need Kodak's Imaging Software or similar. This is bundled with newer versions of Windows 95 and all versions of Windows 98. You can accomplish the same feat using an image viewer such as ACDSee, which I tried but occasionally I will have a problem viewing faxes using this program.
So I would recommend using Kodak's product.
* Sending Faxes- Here it gets a little trickier. You can compose your fax online or upload your MS Word, Excel, Word Perfect or .RTF file. For this reason I rarely use it to send faxes but have in the past with no trouble.
After composing your fax and entering the necessary info, you can fax it immediately or preview it.
An example of how I used it:
I needed to send a signed statement to a company by fax. I typed it on Word, signed my name on a piece of paper, scanned my signature, and then imported it into Word as an image. I saved the document, and when prompted for the name of the file I directed it the document and it was on its way!
Seems like a pain doesn't it? Well for free it can't be beat, unless you use the fax machine at work. ;)
If you choose to compose your fax online, you're only required to type your message in the online box, input the receiver and number and you're done.
The Not So Good
* On the cover sheet that is sent, it has the Fax4Free logo above and an advertisement on the bottom. It's kind of tacky if you intend on using it for a business.
In the past they actually had PriceLine.com banners plastered on the cover sheet. For personal use I see no problem with it.
* Well, I can't get Fax4Free to forward my voicemail for some reason. After reading their FAQ on the subject, I still can't receive messages in my e-mail. And for this reason I can't recommend the voicemail portion. At one time it worked but hasn't in quite sometime.
Maybe someone reading this can tell me if it works for him or her? Getting desperate I tried everything from changing the forwarding e-mail address to re-doing my outgoing message. Obviously neither worked.
* Phone numbers originate from California. If you live in Connecticut like I do, then this is about as far away in the U.S. for me besides Alaska and Hawaii.
Friends will be a little hesitant to call a CA number to leave a message even though they may live 2 miles away from me. Most long distance calling plans charge the same amount whether it's one state away or twenty.
* The interface is a little awkward when navigating through the site. You may have to dig through cryptic FAQ's to get an answer to your question.
Believe it or not this site hasn't changed since I first signed up, which is pretty amazing considering how many sites seem to add or change content daily.
Overall
Besides the voicemail not working, the fax receiving portion works flawlessly when using Kodak Imaging. The sending part also works but a little tough if your don't have one of the above mentioned programs.
I could have gave it 5 stars, or is it red bubbles, but only gave it 4 because of the voicemail.
If you need to send or receive a fax and don't have access to a fax machine or haven't figured out how to use your faxmodem, then I recommend giving Fax4Free a try.
Recommended:
Yes
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