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TheBlindBandit

Q: Receiving Fax Straight My Mac

I was wondering how (if even possible) to receive a fax directly to my iMac? Instead of having just go directly to the printer to print, could I have it downloaded straight to my computer?

Thanks in advance

iMac, 24 Inch 500GB, Mac OS X (10.6.2), iPhone 3GS 32GB, iPod Touch 64GB, Every iPod Model, Windows XPS

Posted on Jan 7, 2010 2:53 PM

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Q: Receiving Fax Straight My Mac

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  • by William Boyd, Jr.,

    William Boyd, Jr. William Boyd, Jr. Jan 8, 2010 10:40 AM in response to TheBlindBandit
    Level 6 (10,524 points)
    Jan 8, 2010 10:40 AM in response to TheBlindBandit
    TheBlindBandit wrote:
    I was wondering how (if even possible) to receive a fax directly to my iMac? Instead of having just go directly to the printer to print, could I have it downloaded straight to my computer?


    There is software to do this built into OS X (at least up to 10.5). See the "Print & Fax" panel of System Preferences. This requires a modem, which are no longer built into Macs. Apple used to sell an external USB modem, but seems to have discontinued it. You'd have to buy a third-party modem.

    Note that the OS X faxing capability has been a little unreliable over the past months.
  • by lnail,Helpful

    lnail lnail Jan 8, 2010 11:06 AM in response to TheBlindBandit
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 8, 2010 11:06 AM in response to TheBlindBandit
    First of all.. faxing is so 90's. This is 2010.

    In today's age of email and FTP, faxing has pretty much become antiquated. Apple still includes it in OS X, however I don't believe that they are still "supporting" it as it is an aging technology.

    If you really need to be able to receive faxes, get yourself an eFax account and have them sent to your email.

    lnail
  • by tibor.moldovan,

    tibor.moldovan tibor.moldovan Jan 8, 2010 12:54 PM in response to William Boyd, Jr.
    Level 1 (133 points)
    Jan 8, 2010 12:54 PM in response to William Boyd, Jr.
    Wow, I didn't know that they had discontinued it.
    But if you can get a hold of the USB - Fax adapter, it should definitely be capable of receiving faxes. The Printer and Fax preference pane allows you to select a checkbox to receive faxes on the Mac.
  • by Bruce De Benedictis,

    Bruce De Benedictis Bruce De Benedictis Jan 8, 2010 1:02 PM in response to TheBlindBandit
    Level 4 (1,690 points)
    Jan 8, 2010 1:02 PM in response to TheBlindBandit
    I know some all-in-ones will allow you to fax out directly from the computer, but I do not know if they will allow you to fax in. Since you might be able to access the fax memory the same way you can access a camera card in some printers, you should check with printer manufacturers to see if there is one that will allow you to do that.
  • by TheBlindBandit,

    TheBlindBandit TheBlindBandit Jan 9, 2010 2:24 PM in response to lnail
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 9, 2010 2:24 PM in response to lnail
    Inail,

    I do realize that faxing is a very old way of sending info, but apparently some people still prefer to fax me rather than email as an attachment or set up a ftp server...

    I don't need to fax to anyone, just receive it. I have a Xerox Phaser 6280 and an Epson V600 which just replaced my HP all-in-one. I love the new tools but the only problem is I can't get fax.

    Where do I get an eFax account?

    Thanks
    theblindbandit
  • by TheBlindBandit,

    TheBlindBandit TheBlindBandit Jan 9, 2010 4:00 PM in response to TheBlindBandit
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 9, 2010 4:00 PM in response to TheBlindBandit
    Actually, I do not want to use eFax. They are $14+ USD per month and I defiantly will not go with that option, since I only get about 1 fax per month.

    Message was edited by: TheBlindBandit
  • by TheBlindBandit,

    TheBlindBandit TheBlindBandit Jan 10, 2010 10:49 AM in response to tibor.moldovan
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 10, 2010 10:49 AM in response to tibor.moldovan
    tibor.moldovan wrote:
    Wow, I didn't know that they had discontinued it.
    But if you can get a hold of the USB - Fax adapter, it should definitely be capable of receiving faxes. The Printer and Fax preference pane allows you to select a checkbox to receive faxes on the Mac.


    All I have is a xerox printer & a epson scanner as mentioned above. Will this solution work, or do I have to have an actual fax machine?

    I am running snow leopard; 10.6.2
  • by William Boyd, Jr.,

    William Boyd, Jr. William Boyd, Jr. Jan 10, 2010 1:25 PM in response to TheBlindBandit
    Level 6 (10,524 points)
    Jan 10, 2010 1:25 PM in response to TheBlindBandit
    TheBlindBandit wrote:
    tibor.moldovan wrote:
    Wow, I didn't know that they had discontinued it.
    But if you can get a hold of the USB - Fax adapter, it should definitely be capable of receiving faxes. The Printer and Fax preference pane allows you to select a checkbox to receive faxes on the Mac.


    All I have is a xerox printer & a epson scanner as mentioned above. Will this solution work, or do I have to have an actual fax machine?


    You'll need something that can serve as a fax modem and connect to your phone line. If your printer can't do that, then you'll need a USB fax modem.
  • by Matthias Krauss,

    Matthias Krauss Matthias Krauss Feb 25, 2010 1:22 AM in response to William Boyd, Jr.
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Feb 25, 2010 1:22 AM in response to William Boyd, Jr.
    Please know that in some countries fax is still heavily in use. I live in Germany, half of the business relies on faxing, we even use snail mail. It's very old school, but it's not up to me to change that. So it is of no help telling there exist alternatives. That is just not the point.
    Faxing works in Leopard 10.5.7 after fiddling around with time machine, replacing the i/o kernel extension with the one taken from 10.5.5.
    Now I would like to upgrade to Snow Leopard but am afraid this could disable faxing. I can't find any hint if it works or not in Snow Leopard.
    Thank You for listening.
  • by William Boyd, Jr.,

    William Boyd, Jr. William Boyd, Jr. Feb 25, 2010 12:23 PM in response to Matthias Krauss
    Level 6 (10,524 points)
    Feb 25, 2010 12:23 PM in response to Matthias Krauss
    Matthias Krauss wrote:
    it is of no help telling there exist alternatives.


    I wasn't the one saying that.

    Now I would like to upgrade to Snow Leopard but am afraid this could disable faxing. I can't find any hint if it works or not in Snow Leopard.


    I haven't switched to Snow Leopard yet, so I can't comment on that.
  • by cjwitt,

    cjwitt cjwitt Feb 27, 2010 5:04 PM in response to William Boyd, Jr.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2010 5:04 PM in response to William Boyd, Jr.
    I have an Apple USB modem, and am running Snow Leopard 10.6.2. I can send faxes without a problem, but for some reason, I'm unable to receive faxes. In fact, when I check the "receive faxes" option in System Preferences, it doesn't stay checked after I close the window. Didn't have that problem with 10.5.8. I'm looking for a solution because I too don't want to spend money for efax.
  • by William Boyd, Jr.,

    William Boyd, Jr. William Boyd, Jr. Feb 27, 2010 6:58 PM in response to cjwitt
    Level 6 (10,524 points)
    Feb 27, 2010 6:58 PM in response to cjwitt
    cjwitt wrote:
    I have an Apple USB modem, and am running Snow Leopard 10.6.2. I can send faxes without a problem, but for some reason, I'm unable to receive faxes. In fact, when I check the "receive faxes" option in System Preferences, it doesn't stay checked after I close the window.


    This may not help, but you might try moving out onto the Desktop the file com.apple.print.FaxPrefs in /Library/Preferences, then restarting your Mac and reapplying the fax settings. If that helps, you can trash the file you moved to the Desktop.
  • by cjwitt,

    cjwitt cjwitt Mar 16, 2010 5:09 PM in response to William Boyd, Jr.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2010 5:09 PM in response to William Boyd, Jr.
    Thanks for the advice William, but no luck. I still lose my setting as soon as I close the preference window. Oh well. If need be, I can reboot in Leopard.
  • by William Boyd, Jr.,

    William Boyd, Jr. William Boyd, Jr. Mar 17, 2010 7:31 AM in response to cjwitt
    Level 6 (10,524 points)
    Mar 17, 2010 7:31 AM in response to cjwitt
    cjwitt wrote:
    Thanks for the advice William, but no luck. I still lose my setting as soon as I close the preference window. Oh well. If need be, I can reboot in Leopard.


    It may not help either, but you might try again after you install the next update to OS X 10.6 when it's released.
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