Wireless faxing is easier today than it has ever been before. Whether you’re faxing wirelessly from a tablet, smartphone, or computer, wireless faxing is pretty much as easy as sending an email.
There are three broad ways to wirelessly send a fax:
- Use your cellular network
- Use Wi-Fi
- Wirelessly connect to a fax machine via Bluetooth or your wireless network
We’re going to break down each of these faxing options down below and explain everything you need to know about wireless faxing.
Wirelessly Faxing Over your Cellular Wireless
If you’re trying to fax from your smartphone or tablet, then you’re likely going to be faxing over a cellular connection.
There’s only one way to fax over a cellular connection: online faxing.
Online faxing services act as a virtual fax machine. You communicate with this fax machine over the internet. That fax machine receives emails for you and sends them to your inbox. Then, you email the fax machine whenever you want to send a fax to a recipient.
With online faxing, there’s really no restriction to the number of wireless devices you can use. As long as your device has an internet connection and the ability to send an email, you’ll have no trouble wirelessly faxing over your cellular wireless network.
Aside from online faxing, there are no other ways to wirelessly fax over your cellular wireless network. You can’t turn your mobile device into a modem. There’s also no smartphone software that transforms your mobile device into a fax machine hardware platform.
Put simply, you can’t receive faxes over the same number as your cell phone. It’s impossible.
Using Wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) to Send a Fax
Using wireless internet (Wi-Fi) to send a fax is as straightforward as sending it over a cellular connection.
The best option is to use online faxing. Online faxing lets you send a fax over Wi-Fi as easy as sending an email.
You sign up for an computer fax provider, then send an email just as you would normally send an email. Here’s a quick step by step guide:
Step 1) Pick an online fax provider and sign up
Step 2) Compose a new email over Wi-Fi as you normally would send an email
Step 3) In the recipient section, type the fax number of your recipient followed by the online address of your fax provider, like by typing 1234567@nextiva.com.
Step 4) Add a cover letter to your fax by typing something into the body of the email
Step 5) Click “Send” after you’ve verified all of the information is complete.
That’s it! You’ve just sent a fax over Wi-Fi using an electronic faxing service. If you’re only sending a small number of faxes, then you might not even have to pay for faxing – many providers offer free trials or let you send a small number of faxes for free.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to use online faxing, then you may be able to connect to your wireless fax machine over your Wi-Fi network (provided you’re both connected to the same home or office network).
Some multi-purpose printers (with scan, copy, fax, and print capabilities) will have wireless connectivity.
Both fax machines and multi-purpose printers will also sometimes have Bluetooth functionality, which means you can connect to those devices outside of your wireless network.
Use a Fax Machine with A Wireless or Cellular Connection
Some fax machines can connect to your home’s wireless network over Wi-Fi, or they can connect to your computer over Bluetooth.
However, some fax machines go beyond this and connect to a cellular network on their own. These wireless fax machines are physical fax machines that have a dedicated cell phone connection.
These machines also go by names like GSM fax machines or CDMA fax machines, depending on the type of network they use.
If you use a wireless fax machine like this, then your fax machine will have a separate fax number and cellular service account. Faxes are sent and received over the cellular network just as they would be received using a traditional fax machine.
This type of wireless fax machine is ideal for situations where you don’t have a phone line but have good cell service. These fax machines require a strong cellular connection, as any static or loss of quality on the connection may prevent the fax from being accurately transmitted.
These are all the ways to send and receive a fax wirelessly!