There are 2 types of faxes. There are incoming, and outgoing. For an outgoing fax, I will need a hosting company that would support a catch-all address. This is essential for the outgoing fax process. I understand that many don’t fax anymore, but this is actually the secondary function rather than the primary function. The primary function of this number and the telephony server will be to take in voicemail calls.
Incoming Faxes
When someone calls the 724 line, the server will pick up, and listen for a fax. If it hears that fax, it will collect the fax, convert it to a .pdf file, and email me the file. The sending address will be fax@fspsample.com. This address will allow me to know there is fax attached. I can read the .pdf file, and if it really needs printing, I will print the document and deal with from there. Considering I have never needed to receive a fax line, this feature will likely not happen much.
Outgoing Faxes
First thing I will need is to acquire a domain?, and host? that would support a catch-all system. This is very important. Let’s assume that this domain is fspsample.com. Anyone going to fspsample.com will be redirected to one of my websites depending on which site best reflects the purpose. This will likely be my phone contact information. The only reason for this will be the catch-all address. There will just be a simple .htaccess file with one line of code to do the redirect.
Now let’s assume I want to send a fax to +1 8553292377. Instead of me printing out the document and send it via a fax machine, I will write an email. This email will be to 18553292377@fspsample.com. The subject will be the subject of the fax, and anything written in the body of the email will be in the cover page of the fax. I will then attach a .pdf file from within my storage accesses, and send the email. The telephony server will check the catchall account, and see that I (because of email) sent an email for faxing. The telephony server will take the email, convert the body and .pdf file into a fax, and send it to the recipient. If the receiving fax recognizes the fax, it will print on their end, and that would be all. The telephony server will get a verification report that I will likely delete if the sending was successful. As long as I have a catch-all address system, that is all that matters. fspsample.com will not have any email address other than the catch-all address. This assures that the domain is not discovered. The fax domain will not be listed in my domains for security reasons.