Dumb question about faxing with all-in-one printers

I'm thinking of purchasing a new all-in-one printer with Christmas
money along with a new computer system. I do have a question about
sending faxes.

Can I use an all-in-one printer to send a fax in a similar manner to
using a fax modem? Having the computer send the fax to the printer
without wasting my own paper and ink printing it first? Cartridges are
expensive, much more so than ribbons used to be for my old Apple
ImageWriter II.

Do they come with the software, or do I need to find it myself? For
over 11 years I've been using my old PowerMac 6500 to send all my
faxes. Since I have had broadband, none of my newer computers have had
modems, forcing me to rely on that old computer. Nor do I think they
have the necessary software to use a fax modem. It's a getting to be
bit of a PITA to export to an older document format and transfer it to
the Mac.

wrote:
> I'm thinking of purchasing a new all-in-one printer with Christmas
> money along with a new computer system. I do have a question about
> sending faxes.
>
> Can I use an all-in-one printer to send a fax in a similar manner to
> using a fax modem? Having the computer send the fax to the printer
> without wasting my own paper and ink printing it first? Cartridges are
> expensive, much more so than ribbons used to be for my old Apple
> ImageWriter II.
>
> Do they come with the software, or do I need to find it myself? For
> over 11 years I've been using my old PowerMac 6500 to send all my
> faxes. Since I have had broadband, none of my newer computers have had
> modems, forcing me to rely on that old computer. Nor do I think they
> have the necessary software to use a fax modem. It's a getting to be
> bit of a PITA to export to an older document format and transfer it to
> the Mac.

Most of the all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax devices I've ever
touched allow you to send a fax directly from the computer without
printing it first. (It helps to be able to put an electronic signature,
probably a scanned real signature, on some documents.)

These devices also include all the necessary software to send faxes,
scan, etc.

My only complaint is that they become throwaways if one of the
components fails. One of my clients had an expensive HP all-in-one and
the modem failed. It was not a standard computer modem of course, and
HP's charge to repair was the same as the cost of a new replacement unit.

If you are sending and receiving faxes only irregularly, I would like to
suggest an alternative. For $120/year, you can sign up for eFax, which
I have used for a few years. Using eFax, you prepare whatever it is you
want to fax, call up the efax program, tell it the number(s) to receive
the fax, and let efax do the rest. efax will assign you a fax number to
which your incoming faxes will be sent. Incoming faxes arrive as TIF
files, which can be read and printed by the efax reader as well as
several other software packages. Once again, to make best use of efax,
you have to be able to add your signature to documents.

Finally, a 56K PCI modem is dirt cheap. Why not add one to your
computer to send faxes? There are inexpensive and freeware software
packages that allow you to send faxes directly from your computer which
dials the recipient's number... Ben Myers

On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:20:41 -0800 (PST), wrote:

>I'm thinking of purchasing a new all-in-one printer with Christmas
>money along with a new computer system. I do have a question about
>sending faxes.
>
>Can I use an all-in-one printer to send a fax in a similar manner to
>using a fax modem?

No. Printers cannot be used to send faxes.
You need either a fax machine or a computer with a fax modem.

>Having the computer send the fax to the printer
>without wasting my own paper and ink printing it first?

If the computer sends the fax to the printer you will be using your own
paper and ink. The function of a printer is to print.

>Cartridges are
>expensive, much more so than ribbons used to be for my old Apple
>ImageWriter II.

Do you want to save money on printing costs by printing every fax?

>Do they come with the software, or do I need to find it myself?

All new printers come with drivers for printing.
You cannot use a printer to send a fax.

>For over 11 years I've been using my old PowerMac 6500 to send all my
>faxes. Since I have had broadband, none of my newer computers have had
>modems, forcing me to rely on that old computer. Nor do I think they
>have the necessary software to use a fax modem. It's a getting to be
>bit of a PITA to export to an older document format and transfer it to
>the Mac.

You can still buy a fax modem to connect to your new computer.

Barry
=====
Home page
http://members.iinet.net.au/~barry.og

On Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:30:13 GMT, (GMAN) wrote:

>In article <>, wrote:
>>On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:20:41 -0800 (PST), wrote:
>>
>>>I'm thinking of purchasing a new all-in-one printer with Christmas
>>>money along with a new computer system. I do have a question about
>>>sending faxes.
>>>
>>>Can I use an all-in-one printer to send a fax in a similar manner to
>>>using a fax modem?
>>
>>No. Printers cannot be used to send faxes.
>>You need either a fax machine or a computer with a fax modem.
>>
>
>
>
>WTF are you talking about, An all in one printer/fax/scanner/copier like the
>OP was describing will allow you to send a fax from a PC using fax software

A printer can only print.

>
>
>
>
>
>>>Having the computer send the fax to the printer
>>>without wasting my own paper and ink printing it first?
>>>If the computer sends the fax to the printer you will be using your own
>>paper and ink. The function of a printer is to print.
>>
>>>Cartridges are
>>>expensive, much more so than ribbons used to be for my old Apple
>>>ImageWriter II.
>>
>>Do you want to save money on printing costs by printing every fax?
>>
>>>Do they come with the software, or do I need to find it myself?
>>
>>All new printers come with drivers for printing.
>>You cannot use a printer to send a fax.
>>
>>>For over 11 years I've been using my old PowerMac 6500 to send all my
>>>faxes. Since I have had broadband, none of my newer computers have had
>>>modems, forcing me to rely on that old computer. Nor do I think they
>>>have the necessary software to use a fax modem. It's a getting to be
>>>bit of a PITA to export to an older document format and transfer it to
>>>the Mac.
>>
>>You can still buy a fax modem to connect to your new computer.

Barry
=====
Home page
http://members.iinet.net.au/~barry.og

"Barry OGrady" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:30:13 GMT, (GMAN) wrote:
>
>>In article <>,
>> wrote:
>>>On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:20:41 -0800 (PST), wrote:
>>>
>>>>I'm thinking of purchasing a new all-in-one printer with Christmas
>>>>money along with a new computer system. I do have a question about
>>>>sending faxes.
>>>>
>>>>Can I use an all-in-one printer to send a fax in a similar manner to
>>>>using a fax modem?
>>>
>>>No. Printers cannot be used to send faxes.
>>>You need either a fax machine or a computer with a fax modem.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>WTF are you talking about, An all in one printer/fax/scanner/copier like
>>the
>>OP was describing will allow you to send a fax from a PC using fax
>>software
>
> A printer can only print.
>
> Barry
..
But some of the all-in-one "printers" include a fax machine and a scanner.

Robert

On Dec 22, 10:20*am, slickrcbdn...@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm thinking of purchasing a new all-in-one printer with Christmas
> money along with a new computer system. I do have a question about
> sending faxes.
>
> Can I use an all-in-one printer to send a fax in a similar manner to
> using a fax modem? Having the computer send the fax to the printer
> without wasting my own paper and ink printing it first? Cartridges are
> expensive, much more so than ribbons used to be for my old Apple
> ImageWriter II.
>
> Do they come with the software, or do I need to find it myself? For
> over 11 years I've been using my old PowerMac 6500 to send all my
> faxes. Since I have had broadband, none of my newer computers have had
> modems, forcing me to rely on that old computer. Nor do I think they
> have the necessary software to use a fax modem. It's a getting to be
> bit of a PITA to export to an older document format and transfer it to
> the Mac.

Yes. When you install the driver for an All-In-One with fax
capability, there will be two new printers in the printers & faxes
control panel. One for the HP (product line) (printer model), and the
other for the HP (product line) (printer model) fax. If you print your
document to the one with the fax suffix, it will pop up a dialog to
ask what number to dial, etc, etc.