Home Forums Discussions Problems Any suggestions on how to do faxes

1. currently I have brother MFC printer.
It hooks, USB connected, to one of the nodes and faxes goes into fax inbox where I can mark it inside paperport. Any faxes going out, up pops brother pc fax and out it goes.

Unforunately, I can only work on faxes on that one computer. I love the setup but I have tried putting the pc-fax on other computers but the fax pop up doesn't come on. I can see the fax inbox through the network but cannot fax back out on other computers.

I am debating 2 ways to do it.
Try to get paperport on all the computers and all share the fax inbox on the one node. Then call brother to see if pc-fax can work on a network.(I am not sure if it can.

Or use Updox. Any suggestions on which is the better way to do it?

Updox is much simpler, files directly into AC, has mark up tools, doesn't need a fax telephone line, works on any or all internet-connected computers (on your network or not).

I have a Brother MFC 8890dw, which is designed to be a network fax (unlike your USB connected MFC), and barely use it since my office got Updox.

I guess part of it depends on how much you fax per month, since I believe Updox charges a fee for faxes (4 cents a page over the 500/$20 or whatever plan you pick... and, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that 500 faxes outbound AND inbound)... and faxing from the Brother is "free" (besides the phone line charge).

I would check to see if your Brother is networkable, and if so, plug it into the network via ethernet cable rather than USB to the workstation. I believe it requires a different installation procedure (when you load the installation software, it should ask you if it's being installed on a network, or local-USB).
After proper installation of my Brother MFC 7820N on the network and stations, the "Brother PC-Fax" is an option printing destination from any of the workstations. Printing to it, the virtual fax machine "image" pops up on my screen and is used as any other fax.

If your Brother is not network-enabled... and you don't want to buy a networked MFC, there are other online fax options.
If not connected to my network, I may use my Onebox account (which is for me is primarily used as a virtual receptionist in place of an on-call service, but has lots of other uses).
A lot of users do like UpDox, and I may go there again one day myself. Would have to assess the pricing package closely though.

I use a Mainpine IQ Express fax modem in our server. Then I share the fax and install it on all the client computers. We average 35 faxes a day; anywhere from 3-40 pages. It just looks like a printer and when you send a fax, there's a whole wizard to include cover pages and what not. This modem is a bit pricey, but it works significantly better than our old USR modem. I have disabled printing faxes and now the faxes are stored as PDFs as they arrive.

CJHEITZMAN
Thank you so much for replying. I have the MFC7820N connected to the node via USB.Other computers can see the brother pc fax on the network and when the you try to click on it from another computer, the virtual pac fax pops up but nothing gets sent to the fax machine. It gets stuck as waiting.
SO you set yours up with ethernet cable and send it into one of the nodes I take it rather than USB?

What program do you use to sign off on the faxes? Paperport?

Your Brother MFC7830N should be hooked up using an ehternet cable.
Your cost for receiving & sending unlimited faxes will be the cost of your telephone line.
You need to assign a static IP address for your MFC machine.
You then install the MFC on each client computer as a NETWORK PRINTER.
Here is the instruction manual for yuor MFC printer
http://www.brother-usa.com/ModelDoc...20Manual/NUM_MFC_7225N_7820N_EN_1277.PDF
Hope this helps
Grenville

thank you so much grenvile,
Do I just set up 1 fax inbox and from there, all the other nodes would go into the fax inbox on the server?
What program would be a good program to view all the faxes in the inbox?
The MFC came with free paperport, do I just put paperport on all the computers and use it to view the fax inbox?

Thanks

You will have to set up the fax on your MFC machaine to receive faxes in whatever format it allows you- my machine allows me to receive it in PDF format.
If you have TIFF and no PDF then IRFANVIEW is a free software.
As to what program to view all faxes in the inbox, it depends where you decide to choose to receive your faxes.
Once you have chosen the designated Folder/File to receive the faxes , you just share the folder and your client computers should see the Folder/Files across the network.
I have setup my machine to receive fax to an email ,so that way I can get to my faxes wherever I am by remotely enetering the server.
If you set it up to receive it in PDF then Adobe Acrobat will do.
If you choose TIFF format then IRFANVIEW will do the job.
You will have to install ADOBE and/or IRFANVIEW on each client computer.
Have fun & hope this helps
Grenville

Grenville,
currently paperport can see both tiff and pdf files. You don't use the paperport that came with the printer?

2. How did you set up the fax machine to automaticcaly convert it to PDF? Mine usually comes in as TIF file?

Thanks

Ttvo7
You can check if your fax machine can receive fax in PDF format.
1. You need to know the IP addrress of your MFC machine.
I presume you know that.
2. You then go to internet explorer and type http://..ip address of your MFC machine.
You can then see all the options that you can set for your MFC machine.
Grenville

tvo7,

Your machine will not receive in PDF mode. Your faxes need to be converted, which Paperport will batch do for you easily. You do have to download Paperport on all your machines and then add your shared "Received fax" folder to each machine. Go to "Folders", then "Add" then find your shared folder. Being free, Paperport is a very nice option. I use it exclusively. PM me if you would like more info or search "My Paperport" on these boards.

tvo7

I do not have a Brother , I have Samsung SCX 4826FN MFC machine that
does receive faxes in PDF format.
Grenville

Its a Samsung SCX 4826FN
Grenville

Chris,

UpDox does charge for inbound and outbound faxes....so the numbers do add up quickly I've found. Regardless, I find the covenience of UpDox with ability to file directly into Amazing Charts and ability to use UpDox at home or wherever I have my laptop, easily makes up for the $20 to $40 extra month I spend. I have had great customer service with UpDox whenever I needed to talk with someone as well.

I can see the benefit of not having to pay for faxes but to have everything all in one (being able to fax, file into Amazing Charts, secure portal email system to patients) is a huge benefit and time saver for my practice.

Just my 2 cents.

I would echo what John said. It is a great service and worth the extra money to me. Don't forget the cost is somewhat diminished by being able to eliminate your fax line. I will often get on line from home and sign off on labs on Sunday night to diminish the Monday morning bolus. Or if I am on vacation, I can get on for a few minutes and catch up so I am not so far behind when I return. I switched to Updox from Paperport about 6-8 months ago and I have no regrets.

I've been using Updox for about 3 weeks. I like being able to mark up the faxes and file them directly into AC. Also you can customize categories with Updox when you file stuff into AC.

I've never used paperport but have to say the transition to Updox was pretty easy. The customer service is awesome.

As with Bill, I sometimes look at faxes in the evening when I'm out of the office. So it makes it pretty easy to work when you are away from the office.

You only get charged for incoming/outgoing faxes. Scanning stuff into updox does not count against your incoming/outgoing pages.

There is a two week free trial. That's what we did and we signed up afterwards.

I think you need to check you setup on the other computes. We have a Brother and use PC-Fax on the other computers on the network. It took a little work to get it setup correctly and talking to Brother support but we are able to fax out from the other computers on the network using the USB connected fax/printer using PC-Fax.

Greg

I'm currently doing the Brother MFC / paperport thing, but spending more time than I would like on faxes. I'm considering updox, but my local fax number is not portable. I'd like to hear what others in this situation have done. I know this has been addressed on the boards before but maybe there have been new ways developed?
I seem to remember a solution where you keep your local fax line and forward faxes by email (or some other method?) to updox? Which is best program to use? I guess one advantage of this would be that inbound faxes would cost only the cost of phone line (unlimited) and one would could still have a physical fax machine and fax line to fax manually. Plus I'd like to keep my fax line as it also serves as burglar alarm line and refrigerator temperature monitor line.

We kept our fax line as it's the same one we use for using the credit card machine. We kept our fax # but forward it to updox.

It all depends on what you/your staff prefer. I have our faxes come in as PDFs (direct to PDF instead of TIFF, feature of our Mainpine fax modem) and the staff sorts them out/imports them to appropriate places. There's a shared folder on the desktop, they also all have the ability to access the shared fax printer if they have to fax something. There is a global address list as well which we all share, but we have private lists as well. Updox would be an extra cost for us because we get maybe 500 pages/week.