Count me in as well. eFax is fine, but expensive (US$13 per month, or $140 per year) relative to the cost of a fax machine. The fax software built into Windows still requires a phone line and modem. Why bother with an internal modem with wireless?

Develop Skype2Fax and integrate it with Outlook and Word and I'd pay $25 for that.

I would definitely pay for that as well. That's a fantastic idea.

Good idea, but I have doubts about carrying data over SkypeOut. If we have such trouble getting voicemail devices in some countries to correctly hear DTMF over the not-always-crystal-clear SkypeOut lines, won't we have the same problem with fax?

I tried to send a trackback but it was denied for "denied for questionable content."

Here's the link

Hmmm. That was automatic. Let me see what we can do. And you may be right, just setting up a modem would be a great value added.

Its a great idea, and I would buy it!!...

And...if Skype turned out to not be reliable enough for direct communications to Fax machines, the Skype2Fax could convert it to a file first, and use the File transfer feature to send it from one Skype account to another..then decode and print it on the other end... or Skype could even act as a Gateway to route faxes over the internet, and bridge to landlines on the other end...

Very good idea.

I'm waiting a program, or better a printer driver, able to send fax over Skype.

This should be for free because Skype company would take economical advantage by callout fax calls.

The problems are 2fold. The skype protocol will never work with real time FOIP, the rule is 'the better the voice quality the worse the fax quality'. Skype is to good at VOIP to work with real time FOIP.
Skype could be used to store and forward a fax file but SkypeOut does not support receipt of a fax file and retransmission as a fax.

Geoff, I suppose Skype could listen for the fax handshake and treat the incoming call accordingly; so it could choose codecs more appropriate to fax.

I do like the idea of exposing Skype to the rest of windows as a modem, a connection to the legacy world. So Windows/Mac/Linux communications apps have a familiar interface. Printing is a more comfortable and common user experience for users, and usable from more programs (at least for sending a document).

Hello Phil,
I like the idea too, enough in fact, to have developed prototypes for FaxToSkype and SkypeToFax for my own use, but neither employ SkypeIn or Skypeout for connecting to the POTS/PSTN as that would require the intervention of Skype themselves, and they've shown zero interest in ancient (but extremely usefull!) technologies. If there were to be enough interest I could develop as commercial products.
Geoff

please tell me efax isn't the best show in town??? what about one-off/infrequent faxing? I'd even pay a few bucks for that... just not $12...

I would also pay for Skype - feature allowing me to use SkipeIn number to get faxes as .pdf-file or .pdf e-mail attachment.

Definitely.. A lot of business still depends on fax. I currently use a fax to email service for incoming faxes (cost me AUD$95p.a). Saves me renting a seperate telephone line for a fax machine. You can get fax-to-email numbers for free in UK on premium cost lines. A Skype-In number that received a fax delivered to me via Skype as a file transfer would be great. This I exect would require hardware features at the POTS interface, or simply software on my PC which emulated a fax machine.
For sending faxes currently, I use NET2PHONE's Net2FAX capability. This installs as a printer driver on the PC, so any application that can print can send a fax. When 'printed' a message-box pops up and requests destination fax-phone number, and email address for disposition notifications. Works great. I'd love to see similar functionality (virtual printer driver) then fax delivered via my Skype-Out to a real fax machine; or to a Skype contact as an attachment/filexfer.
I don't consider the receiveing of faxes via Skype-in as important/desirable as the ability to send them via Skype-out. Would I pay for the ability to send faxes via Skype-out? For sure, but this funtionality appeals to people with no fax machine, ducking line-costs for running a real fax machine, or very occasional fax-users, so cost can't be too high.
--geoff

I send a lot of faxes. I tried sending them over VOIP with Vonage, and it was somewhat successful for one page, but never past page one.

I have since reverted to POTs just for the Fax capability. I'm paying $90 per month. I would love to have another option.

Bob McDaniel
AdSmartMedical.com

I'd love it if my SkypeIn # could receive faxes...seems like a pretty easy thing they could add but it doesn't look like it's on the radar. I don't get a lot of faxes but it's nice to have it when you need it.

I do use k7.net to get an incoming fax and voicemail #. Unlike efax this service is completely free although all the numbers available are seattle #'s (which is where i'd want one anyway!). I keep waiting for them to charge but it hasn't happened in like two years.

The only problem with this service is that if you don't use it in 30 days, they automatically release your # without warning you. I had a great vanity # (666-DOUG) which i had advertised but then didn't receive any incoming calls/faxes on it and now someone else has it... :(

Doug.

Yes Skype2Fax is a feature I would pay money for. I'm searching the web looking for a solution for this fax. I have an office were I'm using SkypeIn, it's great for what I use it for. Having an in/out fax woudl be excellent!

The first post was in August last year!! Is there a product yet?? Anything new on this??

Great Idea!! I travel globally and generally recieve/send faxes from my office in California. I have 8 skypein numbers around the globe and would pay for a fax service like this!!

When the Skype2Fax will be ready, please also post to my site, because maybe all users will need such a feature for their use.
Thank you.

Just click on "Free Fax" below to reach the page.

I would buy into this too! Definately

As I have a scanner that produces .pdf files, it would be useful is Skype2Fax could be recognised by Acrobat Reader. Of course, if Windows recognises it as a virtual printer, it would work with all Windows programs.

I'd pay a one off charge for some software to allow me to send faxes to a paper fax machine via skype. I think all it would need is a special faux modem driver or something so that i could use mirosoft fax wizard and select my skype modem to send with. This would have skype dial the number and then manage the fax from then on. This way any fax client could be used with Skype.

$25 sounds cheap...i'd be happy to pay upto $100 if it was fully featured.

What I'm looking for is basically the equivalent of E-fax (sending) but via SkypeOut...

Presently we convert documents to PDF files as attachments which we send (via E-mail) to Efax.

What I'd like to find would be a similar thing which we send the PDF files (probably by E-mail but FTP might work too, or for that matter even by interface to the local Skype client) to a SkypeOut gateway at the destination end which would then convert send the PDF file out as a fax.

We generate these batches of faxes for one of our consulting clients... they send maybe three or four hundred such faxes per day which are automatically generated by their invoicing, credits, EFT drafting and price quotations applications.

Part of the goal of course is reducing long distance costs, but it's also to speed up transmissions (using their higher-speed internet bandwidth) so they can burst out more faxes within a shorter period of time.

(And no, this isn't for spamming!) For example, they send several hundred price quotations at the end of the afternoon for the next day's orders, and previously using two fax machines, at a minute a page, takes several hours. Using Efax they can send everything in about 15-25 minutes, and we'd like to now do this via Skype instead to reduce costs.

And it needs to be something that we can submit the outgoing faxes easily in an automated way, ideally by batch files or similar scripting, and where we can get some kind of program-readable status reports back that we can use to manage automatcd retries, management reporting, and fault recovery.

It IS relatively important that we can use PDF files, since that gives us very good control over the page format we're sending... that's how all our outgoing faxes are generated at present.

I'd sure love to find a good Skype-based solution for this... (personally, we have little or no need for Skype-based incoming faxes... we handle those fine with the existing fax lines and machines).

(BTW, in case I don't get back here to check this, you can reach me directly at gep2 at terabites.com, please copy me there on any replies).

I would love a program like this. I no longer have any sort of 'normal' phone service; I used to use a fax-by-phone program to send faxes via my landline from my computer, but can no longer do that. If there were a fax program that would dial via Skype, that would be a marvelous solution. I don't need to send faxes often, but it would be great for when email doesn't work but snailmail is too slow.