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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 +1-612, so you don't need to supply an area code.


For more information, send e-mail to ccs@maroon.tc.umn.edu.


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 (that's area code +1-916) including the California State Legislature. This service is run as a hobby and is connected to the Internet via 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:



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
Swedish University Network

The Swedish University Computer Network (called sunet) operates 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 use it for telephone numbers anywhere within Sweden.


To send a fax to Arlo Cats (wow, this cat gets around, doesn't he?) 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. For more information, e-mail


faxmaster@fax.sunet.se
Commercial Services

The following services charge for use, but you may find they're easier to use because they cover much larger areas than any of the free services. You can pick one service and use it as a sort of "one-stop-shop" for all your e-mail-to-fax needs, without worrying whether your fax's destination is in a covered city or area code.


FAXiNET

Another fax-by-e-mail service is FAXiNET, which lets you send ASCII text or PostScript documents to fax machines worldwide. FAXiNET can currently send faxes to more than 50 countries and plans to add more. The company can also receive faxes for you, which will be delivered to you via electronic mail.


Accounts for individuals cost 75 cents per page, plus a one-time $20 activation fee. 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: sales@awa.com


InterFax

InterFax enables 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 already listed, InterFax lets you send faxes anywhere, not just select locations. As of this writing, InterFax costs $5 per month, which includes your 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. Phone: (215) 584-0300. Fax: (215)584-1038.


RadioMail

This e-mail-to-fax service lets you send faxes to just about any country you can name. Prices vary accordingly—it's much less expensive to send a fax to a "well-connected" country (like Canada and Sweden) than less-connected places like Laos and the Solomon Islands.


All fax messages are charged on a per-page basis. Faxes to the U.S. and Canada are billed at the rate of 99 cents per page. The rate for international faxes depends on the destination country: $0.99, $1.99, $3.99, or $4.99 per page.


RadioMail stands out because the service doesn't require that you have access to a telephone line—it can work using a wireless modem. To become a RadioMail subscriber, users need a wireless modem and the special RadioMail software. According to the company, "RadioMail supports DOS computers, Macintosh computers and HP Palmtops in addition to providing one-way communications on the Newton." For more information, send e-mail to radiohelp@radiomail.net.


Unigate

Unigate is another pay-for-use service that enables you to send faxes to Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. (It offers other interesting services as well, including the ability to send e-mail that turns into postal mail and the ability to receive faxes as electronic mail.)


Most of us probably don't need to send faxes to Russia, but if you do this is probably cheaper than however you're doing it now. Fax service from USA to Russia (or back) is $1.59 per page; from Russia to Canada is 1.79 per page. For more information, send e-mail to:


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. (You 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.


Note: For updates on how to send faxes via e-mail, check out my FAQ called (appropriately enough), "How can I send a fax from the Internet?" This file is posted twice monthly to the Usenet newsgroups alt.internet.services, alt.online-service, alt.bbs.internet, alt.answers and news.answers. You can also receive it via electronic mail by sending e-mail in the following manner:

To: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu

Subject: subject line is ignored

Body: send /usenet/news.answers/internet-services/fax-faq

By the way, George Pajari maintains another interesting fax FAQ list. That document is concerned with fax standards and computer-based faxing systems but does not focus on faxing from the Internet. Here are some of the topics it covers:

Can I use my * data modem to send/receive faxes?

Can my fax modem transmit data?

How can I fax PostScript or PCL documents using computer-based fax?

How can I view incoming faxes on my computer?

How can I print incoming faxes on my computer?

Can fax modems also handle data or voice calls?

What resolution are fax images?

Can I take a fax file and edit it?

Is there a standard program interface (API) for fax communications?

How can I share my single phone line with voice, fax, data, and so on?

You can grab a copy from the Usenet groups comp.dcom.fax, alt.fax, or news.answers. It's also available via FTP at rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/fax-faq/*