VoIP based communication tools are not restricted to just voice calls. Modern VoIP technologies can transmit any data type over internet lines. The virtual faxing solution is one of the unique solutions, which transmits faxes over internet lines instead of voice calls.
Businesses usually have their own infrastructure already in place and when they adopt new technology such as VoIP based communication tools, businesses often wonder if they can use their existing infrastructure or not. For example, when any business that uses faxing switches to fax over IP solution, the first question coming to their mind is, whether they can use fax machines or not with their new fax over IP service or solution or not.
Can I use fax machines with VoIP to send faxes?
The answer in one line is, yes and no.
Confusing?
Let’s explore this in detail.
Working models of traditional faxing and virtual faxing
Before we understand whether faxes can be sent via fax machines with VoIP or not, we need to understand how both of them work.
1. Traditional faxing
- Traditional faxing uses analog signals to send documents or images to the recipient.
- Usually, the legacy faxing mechanism uses PSTN lines to send and receive faxes.
- The analog signals sent by the sending fax machine get interpreted by the recipient fax machine and prints out as a scanned document or image.
2. Virtual faxing
- The virtual faxing solution works on a mechanism of digital packets, which is the same concept used by smart telephony platforms like ASTPP.
- In VoIP based faxing, the document or image gets transformed into digital packets, which get transmitted to the recipient via internet lines.
- The recipient may have a fax over IP software solution at the receiving end, which will show the fax as an email or virtual document. If the recipient uses a traditional fax machine, the faxed document will be transformed into analog signals to print it as a received document.
3. Can faxes be sent via fax machines?
Let’s understand in detail.
Yes, you can
If your fax machine is not too old and uses modern faxing protocols for faxing, then you can use fax machines with VoIP. You can also use some faxing software solutions available to transform analog signals into digital packets and transform digital packets into analog signals.
No, you cannot
If your fax machine is too old, then you cannot use that machine with your fax over IP solution. For example, if your machine supports only T.38 protocol, then it will not support faxing via fax machine with VoIP.
What is an ideal solution?
An ideal solution is to use a FoIP solution instead of using your old fax machine. When you have decided to use the benefit of virtual faxing, the best benefit is to get digitized and use a fax over IP software solution instead of lingering with old and unnecessary infrastructure.
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