Looking for a half decent fax program

[WX Man]

Is it just me or is every fax program supplied with PCs' fax-modems pants?!!

I have had a bit of a look around the internet for faxing programs, but can't seem to find any freeware (or shareware) ones.

Now I know that I'm being really retentive by not using the one supplied with my computer(it's called SuperFax or something like that). Me using it is like listening to Jeremy Clarkson talking about an Austin Montego, it really is possibly the worst piece of software I have ever tried to use.

If anyone has discovered a program that basically allows you to use the modem to send faxes from Word, I'd be very grateful if they could share the information here.

[spannersatcx]

I use Trio datafax that came with my Diamond 56K modem http://www.trio.com , pretty good, also winfax pro (V10 is the latest) from Norton/symantec.
for free ones the only thing I can suggest are places like tucows winfiles.com download.com etc.

[Feline]

WX Man,
I would suggest that you stop groping around for shareware and spring for a copy of Symantec's WinFax - I'm using version 8 but there could be later versions. Don't know the price in your part of the world, but it's not hugely expensive.
Very painless - it installs as a "printer" and you simply select "WinFax" as your printer and it then takes you through a menu system which asks you for the recipient's name and FAX number, offers to put them into its own telephone book, and sends the fax when you hit finish.

It can also do clever things like send the same fax to millions of people, and will also receive FAX's if you set it up properly.

Life's too short to mess around with half-baked comms software!

------------------
Feline
(I Sit, I Watch, I Smile)

[addinfurnightem]

Feline, help please, if you can. I use Word2000 and Winfax8,(Win98v2 as well), having composed a document in Word I then go Print and select Winfax and 'OK' but only about half the document ever transfers to Winfax, tried re-installing, had Winfax 9 when it was a free-bee download, same problem. When I used much earlier versions of Windows/Word and Winfax on and old '486' everything went like a dream!!!
Any useful ideas please?

[Tallbloke]

A note about WinFax, it does not support mobile telephony as well as the packaging might suggest. It will send faxes, however it would not receive them until I swapped networks (Vodaphone to Orange). Addinfurnightem, a wild stab in the dark type of guess, you may have a problem with the timeout settings. If it is the network timeout, I have no idea, but you could try increasing the values in the Printers properties. Go into Printers folder, right click WinFax, Properties, Details. The defaults are 15 secs for Not Selected and 45 secs for Transmission Retry. Do you get any error codes or messages in your sent items tray?

[addinfurnightem]

Tallbloke - thanks, new ideas, will try them out. Cheers.

[Feline]

Addinfurnightem, Just been on a trip and didn't feel like browsing on my cellphone (at 9600)so sorry for delay in responding.
I haven't had that problem myself but what Tallbloke says makes sense. I also can't help wondering whether it might not be an "undocumented feature" in Word2000. Has been known to happen!
The only other thing I can suggest checking (at this stage) is that WinFax is actually set up for the modem you are using and the port is set up for TAPI. You can check these out from the SetUp programme included with WinFax (it's a separate programme from WinFax itself). Hope that might help.

------------------
Feline
(I Sit, I Watch, I Smile)

[pilot999]

Just a note of caution about Symantec fax programs (admittedly not WinFax as suggested by Feline but I suspect not much different). Amongst other machines I have a Compaq laptop which came with Symantec "Just Connect" fax program - when it works it is VERY good, though it goes through phases when it refuses to work and has to be re-installed - the first time this happened I needed to get some original software to re-install it - Symantec MOST UNHELPFUL denying it was their program, Compaq (UK) also tried to deny it, then said the backup software provided with the machine included it (it did not), but eventually (after numerous phone calls) had to admit liability for it as it appeared on their US web-sites(!). Also appeared on some Symantec websites (and the users guide says Symantec all over it!) but Symantec did not want to know. After 3 deliveries of CD's fom Holland and the US (all the wrong ones) eventually got floppy disks (all 8 of them I seem to recall) to re-install the program. It seems to have a bug built in that requires re-installatioon every so often, re-installation also buggers up the sound card which then has to be re-installed! Hope win fax is a bit better????

[addinfurnightem]

Thanks Feline, will check it out and have done the other 'adjustments' suggested by Tallbloke too.

[blackadder]

www.efax.com (http://www.efax.com) is worth checking out, depending where you are based.

[OzmateBugsmasher]

If you want a smaller (and cheaper) alternative to winfax, try MightyFax
http://store.yahoo.com/rks/mightyfax.html


then go to astalavista and search for it to get it registered :)

www.astalavista.box.sk (http://www.astalavista.box.sk)