How to send and receive faxes from a computer?

Yes. You can. You will need a telephone line, a modem and a scanner, along with your computer.

And before you can send and receive faxes from your computer, you will need to install the fax component. This fax component is not installed in Windows XP by default.

How to install the Fax Component:

Go to Start button -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs ->Click on Add/Remove Windows Components ->Click in the Fax Services check box and click Next. Now you will see a Windows Component Wizard, which will setup the Fax service in your computer. Make sure the modem and telephone line are connected to your computer, along with the Scanner.

Now you have to configure the Fax component in your computer. In order to do that, you have to go to the Fax Console which is located at

Start button ->All Programs->Accessories->Communications->Fax ->Fax Console.

In the Fax console, click on the Tools Menu and select Configure Fax – this will start the Fax configuration wizard. Click Next to start configuring the fax service in your computer.

Enter your Name, Your Company’s name and your fax (Telephone) number on the Sender Information page.

Your modem will be selected under Select Device for Sending or Receiving Faxes – if you have more than one modem, you will have to select the correct device to send and receive faxes in your computer. You will also have to specify if the send and receive options – whether you will manually answer incoming faxes or if you want your computer to automatically answer them for you.

Remember to enter your Company’s Name and Fax Number under Transmitting Subscriber Identification(TSID) and Caller Subscriber Identification (CSID). These fields are very important.

Now, under Routing Options, you will need to specify where incoming faxes are going to be stored in your computer. You can specify a local folder or just let it go to the default location, which is the Fax Console.

You can change these settings anytime you want by running the Fax Configuration Wizard again from Tools -> Configure Fax.

Sending Faxes from Your Computer

You can fax any document that is stored in your computer. You can also scan a document and fax it by sending it to the Fax Printer in your computer.

To fax a document from your computer, click on the File menu of the document and select Print. Then under print (or Print Setup), select Fax in the Printer Name box. This will open the Send Fax Wizard. You can also use the option called Send To and select Fax Recepient if you are using MS Office.

As soon as you hear your computer dialing, the Fax Monitor (as shown in the image below) will start up:

How to Fax Scanned documents:

Another way to send a fax from your computer is to scan documents and then fax it through your Fax Printer. This can be made possible by using your scanner software. You can also fax from a scanner using the tools provided by Windows XP.

For this, go to the Control Panel and click on Printers and Other Hardware, then select Scanners and Cameras and then, double-click on the icon for your scanner to start the Scanner and Camera Wizard.

Then, on the Choose Scanning Preferences page, click Grayscale Picture and then click Preview to start the scanner.

Provide a name and location for the scanned document.

Now, go to the saved image which you scanned just now and right-click on it and select print – This will start the Photo Printing Wizard.

Click on the check box for the image to be faxed and select Fax as the printer you want to use.

When you finish the Photo Printing Wizard, the Send Fax Wizard opens and you proceed as described in the procedure for sending a fax from your computer.

Faxing from MS Outlook:

You can also fax from MS Outlook by adding the Fax Transport Service as an email account.

Receiving faxes on your computer.

Remember, you have already specified where the incoming faxes should be located and also how you wanted the incoming fax calls to be answered – manually or automatically. The Fax Monitor opens up automatically when the modem detects an incoming fax.

To view an incoming fax, go to the Fax Console and click on Inbox. Double-click on the fax entry you have just received and it will open up in the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. Fax files are images in TIFF format so they cannot be edited. But u can print it out or email it to anybody else as an attachment.