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HelloFax Makes Faxing Painless (Even for Profs. Hacker)

April 13, 2011, 3:00 pm

By Ryan Cordell

abandoned_typewriter_fax_machineThe very idea of faxing a document seems outdated to me. I suspect that many ProfHacker readers wouldn’t willingly fax something were there any option to submit it electronically. Nevertheless, I find myself needing a fax machine several times a year. What’s more, the things that must be faxed are, inevitably, essential documents: often tied to my finances or academic records.

So I was thrilled when Lifehacker recently posted (yes, Lifehacker again!) about HelloFax, a service that allows you to fax documents straight from your computer. Once you register for an account with HelloFax, you simply type in the destination fax number, upload your document, sign it electronically (if you want to), and send it. HelloFax sends you an email when the fax is delivered (or if the delivery fails). When you log into HelloFax, you can see the status of all of your faxes, and resend faxes that failed.

Since I read Lifehacker’s post, I’ve scanned and then “faxed” three separate documents using HelloFax. Each time the service was easy to use and my documents were delivered safely. With a free account you can send up to 5 pages per month (about all I ever need). HelloFax also offers paid accounts for more frequent faxers.

[Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user mattjiggins.]

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  • gu555s

    Looks to me like it’s five pages TOTAL, not 5/mo.

  • http://cogdogblog.com/ Alan Levine

    I’m done with faxing, having ditched my landline. Came across today this comprehensive site for Faxing over the net
    http://www.savetz.com/fax/

  • wrappedupinbooks

    PamFax is also a very useful, relatively low-cost program for sending faxes directly from your computer. Unlike many free e-fax programs, it allows you to send faxes without junky coversheets and/or advertisements–absolutely essential when sending professional documents!

  • jabberwocky12

    Articles like this are appreciated, but please remember that you have an international readership. This service is not available for non-US numbers. So alerting your readers to that would be useful. (Also, as gu555s notes, it’s 5 pages in total, not 5 per month).

  • wbgleason

    I’d love to have that typewriter…

    Just wanted to point out that since you have to scan the document anyway, an all in one is available quite inexpensively that has a fax built in. It really is no more difficult to send a fax than it is to scan something.

    You also have a written record of sending the fax and don’t have to worry for a couple of days about whether stuff went through.

    Not that this service isn’t good to know about. Thanks.

    Bill

  • http://ProfHacker.com George H. Williams

    Yes, you are correct: with a free account, there is no charge for the first 5 pages. Each subsequent page is $1.99.

  • dguinee

    A while back I tried out FaxFresh (www.faxfresh.com) and was happy with it, too. It’s a fee per fax service – $1.99 for up to eight pages, $0.25 per page after that. (And they had a sale when I tried it.) It does allow international faxes. You can use the website, and there’s also a Mac application. (Not sure about Windows.)

    At first I was reluctant about the price, but then realized that otherwise I’d have to go to work to use the fax machine (which would only be legitimate for work purposes anyway). Given that I fax about 4 items a year, I figured $2 was not much to pay for the convenience of being able to take care of it quickly.

  • quacker

    A question for all of you using these web-based FAX services. Have your read the Terms of Service and are you comfortable with what happens to the copy of your document that resides with the service? What assurances do you have that any confidential content in your document is protected against improper exposure/disclosure by the service? Who is liable should such a disclosure occur?

  • http://ProfHacker.com George H. Williams

    Yes, the assumption with all of our ProfHacker posts about web-based services is that users will know to read the terms of service and to be mindful of any of their campus’ policies regarding privacy and appropriate online behavior. (See, e.g. Ethan Watrall’s “Understanding FERPA & Educational Records Disclosure.”)

    We do not, however, repeat this exact same information with every single post about an online service because that would be. . . well . . . kind of tiresome for readers.

  • halavais

    Lots of options for sending… easy options for *receiving*. Hasn’t happened to me recently, but every once in a while, someone insists on faxing me something…

  • mbelvadi

    Good point, and this has always been my problem with these online services. As the OP points out, very often the essential need for faxing, at least in the personal context, is exactly the kind of documents (like critical financial docs) that would be most risky in terms of identity theft. So for the 2-5 pages per year that I absolutely have to fax, I’ll pay Staples’ ridiculous charge per page to use their real machine if I don’t have access to one at work, knowing that to do otherwise would be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

  • http://hellofax.com Joseph Walla

    Hi George, Joseph here, the cofounder of HelloFax.

    I just wanted to clarify that it’s $1.99 / fax up to 10 pages and $0.25 cents per page after that.

    Cheers,
    Joseph

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