Question
What are the limitations of internet faxing?
Applies To
- Internet Fax
Answer
Faxing has known limitations when implemented as a Fax over IP service. These limitations are technology-based and industry-wide. Several VoIP companies, including 8x8, use the T.38 standard for sending faxes over the Internet. Although the standard promises better reliability, that standard is still open to interpretation by various providers and cannot be maintained on an end-to-end basis.
8x8 is committed to delivering services that meet your needs. If your business relies heavily on regularly faxing large, multi-page documents, we recommend maintaining an analog line and a traditional fax machine for reliable and consistent performance.
8x8 includes Internet faxing free with 8x8 Work, and we also offer a Fax over VoIP service that connects a traditional fax machine to the Internet via an analog terminal adapter (ATA). For occasional faxing, many of our business customers find these best-efforts fax services to be cost-effective and more than adequate to serve their needs. We encourage you to assess your faxing needs to select the best option for your business.
Note the following:
- There is no Fax API available.
- Faxes cannot be sent over email.
- Faxes cannot be forwarded
- There is no caller ID for fax. A fax will always come from the assigned fax number.
- Once you receive a fax, 8x8 Work keeps it available for review for 60 days. After the fax expires, 8x8 Work still displays a record of when the fax was received, who sent it, and the number of pages received. If you want to keep the fax past its deletion date, you can download or print the fax from 8x8 Work for Desktop before it is deleted.
- You need a separate phone number for fax. A single number can not be assigned to both fax and voice.
- There is no print button. To print the fax confirmation, follow the same steps as you would for any other web page. ie: Control P.
- The fax time zone should match the time zone set up for that user in the Admin Console. You can log in to Admin Console > Users > Select the User (edit user) > Basic Settings to check the timezone (and update as needed). This cannot be done from 8x8 Work for Desktop.