Faxing
Many DexterVOIP members enjoy using DexterVOIP service for small and home office needs - including faxing.
Feedback from our members has revealed that many members do not know that faxing is available with DexterVOIP today. However, faxing via any Internet phone service provider can be a bit of a challenge. The service provider must convert the fax transmissions into an Internet format, send them out, and translate them back at the other end. These complex hand-shakes make for a challenging transaction. This article contains some valuable tips on faxing with DexterMO Internet.
What to look for in a fax machine
The vast majority of current consumer grade fax machines and the increasingly popular all-in-one printer/fax/scanner machines available via national retailers provide a consistent level of service. Look for Fax Transmission Speeds described in terms like "G3 compatible", "sends 1 page per 6 seconds" or "modem speed at 9,600 bps or 14,400 bps" (sometimes shown as 14.4k bps). If your fax machine package indicates this level of performance, you should be in good shape to fax via DexterMO Internet. Remember, your fax reliability may vary depending on the speed of your broadband connection.
Avoid Super G3 speed
There is another fax speed out there called Super G3. Most consumer grade faxes don't offer Super G3 speed. Fax machines supporting Super G3 are most typically found in a corporate business environment. While sometimes a fax in Super G3 mode will go through using DexterVOIP service, longer faxes are more likely to have some sort of transmission problem, and we cannot guarantee reliable operation of Super G3 fax transmissions.
Some more technical speak and what the future holds
DexterVOIP wants you to have the best service quality possible. To accomplish this, we use the G.711 VoIP format to send both our voice and fax calls. G.711 is the closest format to the traditional telephone network and needs 80-90 kbps to operate which broadband easily supports. In addition, DexterVOIP supports the protocol T.38 for fax. This protocol was developed by Cisco Systems in the late 1990's and has become the industry standard for fax. Unfortunately, when you make a fax call using Dexter VOIP a combination of VoIP and traditional telephone companies may be involved to get your call to it's destination (hey - we didn't invent this complexity, we're actually trying to change it!), thus if the service provider you're calling doesn't support T.38 we're back to using G.711 (which everyone supports).
DexterVOIP is looking to make fax work all the time with any fax machine and be as fast as possible. To improve fax, DexterVOIP is challenging our equipment vendors and other service providers to work with us and make all kinds of calling, including fax, easier and more reliable for you.
