Faxing from your PC

You can configure your PC to work as a fax machine. What you need is a fax modem, a telephone line and, of course, fax software. Win2000 and XP have built-in fax support, while for Win 98 and ME you need third-party software. Most modems come with fax software, but we have also given one called Just The Fax for Win 98/ME on this month’s
DVD.

In Win 98/ME

First, configure a fax modem on your Win 98/ME machine. To configure the fax software, go to File>Preferences. Then install Just the Fax shareware from the DVD and run it from the Start>Programs menu. This will pop up a window containing two tabs, one each for outgoing and incoming faxes. To send a fax, click on the New icon from the ‘outgoing fax’ window. This will open another window in which you give the recipient’s fax details, cover page and content to be sent. When you receive a fax, you get an alert. You can then go to Program Files\Just The Fax\ Receive folder to read your fax.

In Win 2000 Pro and XP

When you attach any fax modem to a Win 2000 machine, it automatically detects the device during startup and installs fax services and fax printing. If that doesn’t happen, then you can add the fax components from Add/Remove Programs. After installation, you’ll find a fax printer in your Printers folder.

You can see the fax components from Start>Programs> Accessories>Communication. To send a fax, open the document you want to fax and fire a print to the fax printer device. This will start a wizard that will ask you for your fax details, after which it will automatically connect and send your fax to the desired destination. 

In Win XP, you need to manually add fax services	In Win XP, you can send and receive faxes directly from the Fax console
Win 2000’s fax-management service displays all fax devices and the logs of faxes you send and receive	It’s very easy to manage your faxes using Just The Fax software

In Win XP, click on Start>Settings>Control Panel, run Add/Remove Programs and select the Add/Remove Windows Components tab. From here, find and tick the Fax services option to install it. You’ll require your XP CD after that. The Fax console can also be opened from Start>All Programs>Accessories>Communication>Fax>Fax Console. Just as in Win 2000, here too a wizard will open and ask for your fax details. You can even design you own fax cover pages from the Fax Cover Page editor. All faxes you receive are automatically stored in My Documents/Fax folder in .tif format. 

Sanjay Majumder