Internet Fax Service and the User Datagram Protocol

Internet faxing is a telephony innovation that enhances the method of sending and receiving of faxes through the internet. This communication enables the exchanging of faxes globally without incurring the high cost of international phone call charges.

The advantage of this modern service is the ability to use different models when broadcasting a toll free internet fax:

• E-mail to Fax – sending a fax via the e-mail to any fax machines.
• Web to Fax – sending a fax using a webpage GUI (Graphical User Interface) to any fax machines.
• Fax to Fax – sending a fax to and from a traditional fax machine by means of the internet.
• Web to Web – sending a fax to and from a webpage account.

Most of these models either utilize SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) or TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) where faxes can sometimes be delayed due to the design mechanism of these protocols. However, real-time faxing is now being developed using UDP (User Datagram Protocol) instead of the two standard protocols.

However, current UDP developments cannot guarantee the quality and reliability of the transmission due to its on-time delivery orientation and the environment of the internet. High packet and transmission loss of UDP is dependent on the performance of the underlying network. A decline in performance is particularly when it is experiencing too much load. Undesirable results that occur such as data deterioration, duplication and interference will likely have an effect on the quality of the internet fax service.

Further developments like ACR (Adaptive Control and Recovery), buffering, combined rate, control recovering and XOR mechanisms are now being devised to eliminate these problems.

Fax Over Internet for Low Cost Faxing

For the past decade, faxing has greatly evolved by merging with computer, internet and mobile technology. With the use of fax applications and the web, fax transmission has now become much easier, more efficient, and economical. Fax over internet now allows the sending and receiving of faxes globally. An estimate of about million of pages gets faxed all over the world every year with the use of this modern day fax transmission.

Internet fax is also known as IP (Internet Protocol) fax. IP fax uses the same operational concept as the traditional fax machine but instead utilizes the mechanism of the internet whenever it send or receive a document. But, it is not limited to it since IP fax is also capable of sending/receiving a fax that passes through the phone network.

The world of faxing is continuously being developed even if it is already technologically advanced. At present, some of the studies being made are on enhanced protocol, improved transmission, intelligent fax software and IP-enabled internet fax machine.

When compared with a traditional faxing method, the cost of faxing via internet is 50 to 70 percent cheaper when faxing internationally. Moreover, this present day method of faxing is so simple that it can utilize come in the form of an e-mail when broadcasting a fax. This faxing methodology is so flexible that it can be used in different ways: email-to-fax, fax-to-email, computer-to-fax, fax-to-computer and fax-to-fax.

800 toll free providers have now included this faxing capability with an added support for fax-on-demand as a feature of their toll free service in order to meet the growing communication demands of every business.

The Environment Friendly Internet Fax Machine

The fax machine is slowly losing its importance in today’s mobile and internet technology. And, with every country’s campaign in saving the environment, the fax machine has been labeled as non-eco friendly because it is known that this device consumes and wastes some office resources.

Paper is one of the necessities this machine requires because the sending and receiving of facsimiles involves the use of this material. Depending on the type of the machine being used, a successful fax transmission usually prints the document as an image on paper with the use of carbon, ink or toner. That’s not all; a fax machine needs to be connected to a phone line and powered on all the time in order to receive faxes.

With an internet fax machine the cost of an extra machine, paper, ink, electricity and phone bills are eliminated. All it need is an internet faxing service, an email account and any device with an online capability. Since facsimiles are sent via email, soft copies can be easily stored and distributed without the need to print them. Therefore, it helps in saving heaps of paper which in turn prevents the cutting of more trees to produce them.

Moreover, fax over internet is much secure when compared to a traditional fax machine. Sending a fax via email ensures that only the receiver has access to the document unlike its predecessor wherein a transmitted fax allows anyone to take a glimpse of it.

With all of the above mentioned necessities required by a traditional fax machine, there is no compelling reason to use this uneconomical device.