Online fax services convert documents into a format that is compatible with all fax machines and does so over the internet. It uses a bundle of open and accessible standards like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for low-cost business faxing.

Online fax works by compressing documents into data packets and sending them over the internet to various telephone service providers. Historically, faxes used to be sent at a 9600 baud rate, but today's transmission speeds are monumentally faster by comparison.

All you need is an internet connection, and you can send signed contracts, invoices, agreements, and more to your recipients. Likewise, you can receive as many faxes as you want without tying up any business phone lines.

Read this in-depth article on how to send faxes over the internet to see step-by-step the processing for sending and receiving faxes online.

Nextiva vFAX saves all your faxes in a searchable archive for up to six months. You can search faxes by date, fax number, and other filters. You can access the online fax portal from your computer or any mobile device.

To keep faxes longer than 180 days, you can easily download or export the faxes as digital documents.

With Nextiva vFAX, you can send and receive faxes from your computer, tablet, or mobile phone. You can also forward incoming faxes directly to your email inbox.

As long as your device supports using a browser like Chrome, you can send and receive faxes. Also, keep in mind that you can have your online faxes delivered to your email instantly.

You can also keep your standard fax machine. With a special adapter known as an ATA or fax bridge, you can exchange faxes just like before. Such an adapter uses the correct codecs and error-correction modes (ECM) to ensure reliable performance. Fax bridges let you exchange faxes over the T.38 protocol.

For optimal performance, consider disabling any bandwidth saver settings that might apply within your fax machine or VoIP phone service.

Yes, you can send faxes from your email account. With a little extra configuration of your online faxing service, you can quickly fax others on-demand. Fax numbers can be connected to an authorized email address for sending faxes.

Send a fax from your email by providing the phone number with no spaces or dashes and @nextivafax.com. For example, to send a fax to (480) 555-1212, you would email [email protected]. Nextiva’s business-grade VoIP network will take it from there.

Unlike traditional faxing, you won't need to worry about packet loss, jitter, or baud rates.

Yes, through Transport Layer Security (TLS), online faxing ensures that your faxes arrive safely without third-parties reading them. Analog phone lines do not offer this encryption. Cloud-based phone systems provide encryption for phone calls and recipients.

Only authorized users with the correct credentials may send and receive faxes over VoIP. This method prevents unwanted disclosure of documents to random people or unauthorized staff.

Advanced internet technologies such as Session Information Protocol (SIP) and various transport protocols ensure security and privacy when communicating over the public internet and between VoIP devices.

With Nextiva, you can send unlimited faxes to any fax number in the United States, Canada, or Puerto Rico without a fax machine. In short, Faxing over VoIP ("FoIP") works regardless of the recipient's phone number.

You can send faxes regardless of whether the recipient uses digital or analog phone lines. Your outbound faxes must meet certain basic requirements for recipients to receive your entire message.

You can send up to 10 attachments and 5 MB per fax message. Nextiva’s internet fax service does not currently support international faxing.

With Nextiva, you can use your existing business phone number for faxes. The process of moving it over to another VoIP phone system is known as porting. Nextiva provides free porting to all new customers.

You don’t need to have a fax number to benefit from online faxing. Nextiva provides you many different fax numbers that you can choose for your business. It's perfect for small businesses that just need something that works.

It's worth mentioning that Nextiva's online fax solution is a fraction of the cost of other eFax services. And even better — Nextiva's phone customers get it for free.

By default, the online fax service from Nextiva automatically generates a cover page for each fax. You can turn off this setting and include custom cover pages in the files that you send as outbound faxes.

You may want to turn off cover pages to save on paper and toner costs for the receiving fax machine.