Does faxing require a landline?

My older HP printer requires a landline.
Now that we are in the 21st century I imagine there might be a way to send a fax over wifi but that would be very hardware specific. It is probably a function in the manual.

If you need something faxed (and don’t mind me seeing it) you can email it to me and I’d be happy to fax it for you.

You can get a voice over IP (VOIP) number, which acts like a landline over a broadband internet connection (not mobile). But if you don’t already have VOIP set up, it’s much, much easier to use internet services where you upload or email a document and it Is faxed for you.

I receive faxes free via eFax. I get about 2 faxes per year. But looking at their website, I don’t see a free option anymore. I may be grandfathered in as a longtime user.

I send faxes via GotFreeFax. Highly recommended by me. It really is free, there is no catch or hidden cost.

Lifewire – 7 Free Online Fax Services

VoIP Mechanic – Faxing over VoIP, the correct configuration settings that you need to make

I have a 20 year old fax machine that I tried to give to the Goodwill. They wouldn’t take it. It’s fully functional and I only used it less than 10 times.

Faxing seems obsolete nowadays as all you have to do is scan a document on your printer and send the document through e-mail.

@gondwanalon That was my thought too. Who even knows if the receiver has a fax machine any more?

Even VOIP isn’t perfect for faxing. You need a specific codec (decoder) to deal with analog signals over a digital line. Not worth the trouble.

Faxing persists in certain niches. I have to (rarely) use it for legal, financial, and medical documents.

I think the idea is that it’s more secure because it’s a direct phone call, that would have to be captured while it happens, as opposed to email where it’s sitting on multiple servers and end-user computers where it can be copied.

Which mostly isn’t true anymore, because online faxing means files are sitting on multiple servers and end-user computers where they can be copied.

That’s been true a long time. 20+ years ago I was managing a corporate fax server, where users sent and received faxes via email.

@Call_Me_Jay the other appeal to faxing, if i remember correctly, was that it was time-stamped proof of immediate delivery. It couldn’t be easily faked.

We still use faxing in the medical field. Sending some documents over internet is not HIPAA compliant.

There are other issues with sending a fax over VOIP. There’s a ceiling to the number of pages that can be sent reliably without failing (around 20 pages give or take). There are health insurance companies that will only process claims sent via fax, and they sometimes require large packets of records which exceed the limits, but the don’t offer a way to send 2 faxes for the same patient. It was a real issue for our office sometimes.

@gondwanalon “Faxing seems obsolete nowadays as all you have to do is scan a document on your printer and send the document through e-mail.”

Not if one deals with the IRS and certain state agencies and investment firms. Unlike scan/email, a fax is a direct and secure transmission. The IRS won’t accept any other form of electronic conveyance. I’ve had many conversations with IRS employees when I kept faxing documents, as needed, throughout the phone call.

And, yes, I have a dedicated landline for faxing.

The IRS is obsolete. HA!

I sent faxes recently using a web site that lets you upload PDFs and it will FAX them to people. Quite convenient. All you need is an Internet connection of any type, and the ability to save as PDF.

@Love_my_doggie A fax is the absolute complete opposite of secure. It is so insecure that I can’t even begin to explain how naive you would have to be to fax sensitive personal information in this day and age.

I just go to the library on the exceedingly rare occasion that I have to send or receive a fax.

@Lightlyseared Can you begin to explain how someone could intercept it, without a wire tap or physical access to the papers (or devices) at either end?

@LuckyGuy I don’t have a need to fax at the moment. I’m just asking because my new printer came with faxing capability but I don’t have a land line, so I was wondering if I would ever use it for faxing.
I know that iPads have an associated phone number if it’s cellular capable; I wonder if it could actually be used to receive and send faxes.