How to Receive Faxes With a Fax Server

Better Ways To Get Your Faxes

Fax servers are an efficient and cost-effective way to receive and send faxes and provide greater flexibility when compared to a tradition fax machine. Fax servers offer several different ways to receive incoming faxes, each with its own benefits. Not all of these options are available to every business who has a fax server installed as the receiving methods depend on how the fax server is set up on your network. The option discussed here are the most common and beneficial ways most companies receive incoming faxes from a fax server.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Fax Server
• Networked Computers

Methods To Route Incoming Faxes From A Fax Server

1. A Fax Clerk Can Route All Faxes office-worker image by Patrizier-Design from Fotolia.com

   Send To A Fax Clerk. A fax clerk is a PC that serves as a central point that all incoming faxes will be sent to. All received faxes can then be checked by an employee, then routed to the correct person or department, printed, archived or deleted. This is usually the least expensive way to receive incoming faxes but does not greatly increase productivity or security.

2. Network Printers Can Print All Incoming Faxes writing image by DBarby from Fotolia.com

   Route Directly To A Printer. This method sends all incoming faxes from the fax server directly to a networked printer, where all the faxes are printed out. This method saves money as printers are usually less expensive to print from than are fax machines. This method does nothing to eliminate junk faxes, nor to increase productivity or security, but does take the need for an employee to route faxes out of the process.

3. Email Reduces Printing And Improves Productivity email image by Hao Wang from Fotolia.com

   Route Directly To Email. Depending on your phone system, you may be able to assign each department or employee their unique fax line. If so, incoming faxes will be routed directly to the designated person's email. By far, this is the greatest benefit of fax servers, but does require a more robust phone system and network. If you have DID (Direct Inward Dialing) set up already, then this is a very effective method to receive incoming faxes.

4. Networked Folders Serve As A Storage Area global computer network image by Michael Brown from Fotolia.com

   Route Directly To A Shared Folder. With this method, all faxes are sent to a shared network folder. Employees can then check the folder to see they have received any faxes. If so, they can retrieve the fax and do with it as they choose. The fax will come across as an electronic file so they can view it on their desktop, print it, or archive the file.

References

• Open Text; Workflow Solutions