Personal and Group Fax Services

Standalone fax users have many choices today, both in add-ins for Outlook/Exchange and in alternative Internet faxing services.

Most of the programs listed here do not work with Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000 in Internet Mail Only mode. The exceptions, WinFax and BitWare, are noted.

See Internet Fax for services you can use to send faxes using your Internet connection. Many support sending faxing from Outlook using a specially formatted email address, usually in the format of [fax_number]@fax_service.com.

More Information

Tools

Fax4Outlook	Improves integration between Outlook/Office and the fax service in Windows 2000/XP, making it possible to receive faxes in the Inbox, fax Office documents easily, and use custom cover pages.
Microsoft Fax	This is the free component that comes with Windows 95 and, if you know where to look, Windows 98. It is essentially unsupported and has seen no new features added since its release with Windows 95.
OLfax	OLfax allows each user to receive incoming faxes via email and to respond to faxes via email. If more than one telephone line is available for fax, different users can connect to different fax lines. OLfax also works as a single computer solution without a network.
Simply Messenger PRO	Integrates voice mail and fax with either Exchange and Outlook. Also notifies your pager of incoming messages and allows you to compose pager messages. Logs incoming and outgoing calls and supports Caller ID.
TeleMessage MS Outlook Plugin	Use the global TeleMessage messaging service to send messages from within Outlook to telephones (using a text-to-speech engine), fax machines, pagers, SMS devices, email addresses, and instant messaging applications.
VoIP Plug-in for Microsoft Fax	VoIP Plug-in is a driver for Microsoft Fax that enables Microsoft Fax (Windows Fax and Scan) to connect to either phone lines or Internet services that support SIP T.38 (the industry standard network VoIP fax transmission protocol). Connect to PHONE LINES (PSTN) with VoIP gateways that support SIP T.38 (the industry standard network VoIP fax transmission protocol). Connect through INTERNET/VoIP services that support SIP T.38 pass-through. FREE.
Windows 2000 Fax	Windows 2000 includes this fax service, essentially the successor to Personal Fax for Windows NT.
Windows XP Fax	Details on how to configure and use the fax service in Windows XP with Outlook, by Outlook MVP Russ Valentine.
WinFax SE	Very "lite" version of WinFax PRO, available only in Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000 Internet Only Mode. Not recommended for anything but occasional personal faxes.

Group Fax Services

Tools

2Point FAXserve	Fax server integrates with Exchange and Active Directory.
Castelle FaxPress	Fax server software. This is a complete network fax server in a standalone hardware package. The Exchange Direct software operates as a MAPI transport.
Esker on Demand Fax & Mail Services	Network fax server that supports both MAPI clients (via LanFax Outlook client) and connections to any various e-mail servers, including Notes and SMTP/POP3.
GFI FAXmaker for Exchange/SMTP	GFI FAXmaker makes sending and receiving faxes a simple, efficient, and cost-effective process and allows users to receive and send faxes directly from their email client. With thousands of customers and dozens of awards, it is a leading fax server for Exchange Server, Lotus and SMTP/POP3 servers. With GFI FAXmaker, less time is spent on sending, collecting and distributing faxes, saving your company noticeable costs. Faxes sent/received are also saved in digital format as an email.
Zetafax	Fax server that either integrates with any standard POP/SMTP server or operates an Exchange Server gateway. Includes Outlook forms for sending and receiving faxes. Outlook users can also monitor the status of sent faxes.