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Faxing
Hardware for Fax Broadcasting, Fax Servers and PC Faxing
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Fax Broadcast
| Fax Server
| Home Faxing | Fax on Demand |
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Choosing the right Fax
Hardware
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Which Fax Software/Hardware should I use? |
In order to send and/or receive faxes on your
computer you need to have a fax modem or an intelligent fax board
installed and connected to a phone line.
Faxing takes place
over a voice connection (as opposed to a data connection). As
such, it is not possible to send a fax using a DSL or Cable modem,
you must use a fax modem connected to a phone line in order to send
and receive faxes from your computer.
Fax hardware comes in
a variety of different forms, from many different hardware vendors.
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Types of Fax
Hardware |
Description |
Soft/winmodems
|
The most basic and least expensive option, this is an internal
PCI card that installs in your PC and uses software to process
the inbound and outbound faxes. Softmodems are very common in
laptops due to the limited case space. These fax/modems are
notoriously unreliable and are not recommend for use even
for occasional faxing. |
Basic Fax Modems
|
This can be an internal PCI card or it can be an external modem
connected via a serial or USB cable. They appear in Windows
attached to a COM port and allow you to connect a single fax
line to the modem. Multiple fax modems can be installed in a
single machine however you may begin to run into hardware
conflicts when you try to install more than four modems
on a
single system. |
Multi-Port
Fax Modems
|
Multi-Port modems are internal cards that usually have two, four
or eight modems on a single PCI card. Typically multiple cards
can be installed on a single system to further expand the number
of available fax lines. Multi-Port Fax Modems are designed with
moderate to high volume fax broadcasting and fax servers in
mind. Many support the V.34 ITU standard for faxing at speeds
of up to 33.6 Kbps which is more than twice as fast as standard
fax modems. Multi-port fax modems are typically more
reliable and efficient than standard fax modems. |
Intelligent Fax Boards
|
These are Enterprise level devices that provide multiple fax
channels via analog (RJ11) interfaces, or digital (RJ45)
interfaces and provide anywhere from two to ninety six channels
on a single PCI board. For instance a twenty-four channel
intelligent fax board connected to a voice T1 line will allow
you to send/receive up to twenty-four faxes at a time. Multiple
intelligent fax boards can be installed in a single machine to
further increase your fax throughput. Intelligent fax boards
typically support the ITU V.34 standard for fax speeds and the
hardware will usually exhibit faster connection and handshaking,
resulting in the fastest possible fax transfer times. |
Black
Ice Software develops and supplies a variety of high quality faxing
software applications. When paired with appropriate fax
hardware, Impact Fax users can reliably reach all of their faxing
goals and needs.
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Types of Fax
Hardware |
Price |
Performance |
Throughput |
Soft/winmodems
|
Free (usually) |
0 |
* |
Basic Fax Modems
|
$ |
** |
* |
Multi-Port
Fax Modems
|
$$ |
*** |
*** |
Intelligent Fax Boards
|
$$$ |
**** |
**** |
A single fax port/fax
line in use 24 hours a day is capable of sending/receiving on
average 1440 faxes daily. To increase the number of
sent/received faxes, additional fax hardware/fax lines must be used.
1.
Do you want to perform high volume, reliable faxing software to fax
the same document or information to a list of fax numbers?
This is also referred to as fax broadcasting, fax blasting, and bulk
faxing
-
Please look at the
Impact Fax Broadcast
software, which
can be used with a Basic Fax Modem up through an Intelligent Fax
Board (Impact Fax
Broadcast Enterprise only). For Mid level fax
broadcast requirements, a multi-port fax modem is recommended
for increased performance. For high level fax broadcasts,
and intelligent fax board is highly recommended
2. Do you want to send and receive
faxes across a Windows Network?
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Please look at the
Impact Fax Server software.
Impact Fax Server can be used with a Basic Fax Modem up through
an Intelligent Fax Board. For best results, 2 or more fax
ports/fax lines should be used, one for sending and one for
receiving, although a single line can be used for both
3. Do you want to set up a system
allowing users to request documents to be faxed to them?
4. Do you want to send and receive
faxes form your home computer?
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Please look at the
Impact ColorFax
software application. The Impact ColorFax allows for PC
based faxing, allowing users to send and receive faxes directly
from their home or office computer, typically using their
existing fax modem.
Impact Product Line Overview
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