PolyFAX™ is a patent-pending combination of technology
and a service.
It's the ONLY way to send and receive email using ANY REGULAR FAX
MACHINE without investing in any special equipment and without
setting up special fax numbers or server lists.
PolyFAX™ is composed of 2 parts, computer software and a service.
THE POLYFAX™ SOFTWARE
The PolyFAX™ software is very simple to use. It runs on any Windows 95/98 PC with a laser or ink-jet printer. The user enters his personal information, name, fax number, etc., a text message and any mix of email addresses and fax numbers. The PolyFAX™ software then prints 2 pages, one containing the address information, the other contains the message. The data are printed in a matrix of black and white squares and are illegible. Using any regular fax machine, s/he faxes the pages to any of 200+ PolyFAX™ enabled servers in nearly 50 countries.
THE PolyFAX™ SERVICE
The PolyFAX™ service receives the fax as a computer file from which it extracts the message and the recipients' email addresses and fax numbers. These are then re-formatted to create a standard email message (or fax) for transmission to the recipients. Any additional pages that are faxed with the address and message pages are attached to the e-mail message and may be viewed by the recipient using widely available image viewing software.
TO SEND email from a regular fax machine all you need is :
- a PolyFAX™
Address Page
- the paper document to be sent and/or a PolyFAX™ Message Page and
- a working fax machine.
TO PRINT the Pages you will need :
- a personal computer running
the Microsoft Windows
95 or 98 operating system
- the PolyFAX™
software
- a laser or
ink-jet printer.
NO
An email address is not essential. If your recipient replies by e-mail the PolyFAX™ server can convert the message to fax and send it to your fax machine. This is a paid service only available to subscribers.
NO.
All you need is a working fax machine and the PolyFAX™ Address
and Message Pages.
You MUST use either a laser or ink-jet printer with a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch).
Dot matrix printers do NOT work for printing the pages
YES, the pages are re-usable as often as you like for up to 360 days from the day you print them.
Keep in mind you MUST use the original page from your printer. Foto or facsimile copies do not work reliably due to distortions in the copying process.
NO.
In fact your PC need not be anywhere near the fax machine.
If you are a subscriber and you fax us VALID POLYFAX™ DOCUMENTS from a properly functioning fax machine and you do not receive from us a Negative Routing Notification you may assume your PolyFAX™ has been passed to the Internet's e-mail delivery systems.
Subscribers will be sent a Negative Routing Notification if they send us an invalid PolyFAX™ document and if we can identify the sender. The notification will be delivered by email if we have your address or by fax if not.
If the PolyFAX™ server is unable to identify the sender from the Address or Message pages, AND if the sender is a subscriber who has successfully transmitted a PolyFAX™ from the same fax machine on previous occasions then the server will use the sending fax machine's STATION ID to identify your account and send you a Negative Routing Notification. If all else fails the notification will be faxed to the number contained in the station ID if it is complete, includes the country code and can be extracted.
A fax for which a valid sending fax number or email address cannot be established may be silently ignored by the server, so if you experience problems please start by reading the 'most frequent problems section' of this FAQ.
If you provide an email address (on the 'From' tab) when you prepare the Address Page the email delivery system will return any notifications to that address free of charge. If you are a subscriber and you do not have an email address you may choose to have the server fax you receipts, notifications and even replies from your correspondent. There are supplementary charges for these fax services.
NOW
The same way as you 'know' that a recipient has received a letter
or a regular fax, i.e. when s/he provides some form of
response. Regular faxes may give the illusion that the 'message'
has been received at the moment it is sent, but in fact all that
is certain is that it has been delivered to a receiving device
that may be a fax machine.
SOON
PolyFAX will be offering secure document delivery in Q1 2001.
This service will also provide secure confirmation of receipt.
The information printed in the matrices is encrypted prior to printing and decrypted by the PolyFAX™ server. It would already be a substantial task to decipher the data matrix without this encryption.
Messages over the Internet are not private but delivery direct to the recipient's desktop may be preferable to a shared fax machine that is freely accessible to snoopers.
If you represent a Corporation that needs to encrypt your e-mail or faxes for transmission over the Internet please contact our sales staff.
YES.
The current limit is set at 50 for paid services and 2 during the evaluation period.
Can I use PolyFAX™ to send a fax to an Internet Enabled Fax Machine ?
YES.
Internet Enabled Fax Machines compliant with the new standard for Internet Facsimile Transmission should automatically print regular plain text email messages and tif image files.
We almost never have problems when the fax is a VALID POLYFAX™ document.
The most frequent problems are caused by incorrectly addressed messages. This is just like regular faxing.
We do occasionaly encounter other problems. Usually they are caused by one of the following.
THE NO-NO LIST.
1 Fax Machines that feed more than one page at a time.
When such a fax arrives at the PolyFAX™ server it may
assume that a page is missing and the document will not be sent.
If your fax machine does this frequently please have it serviced
or buy a new one if it is worn out. If it's new, check with the
manufacturer!
2 Old
or dirty fax machines that send more
speckles than not.
PolyFAX™ is very resilient to speckles on the pages, but
heavy speckling all over the page is asking a bit too much, so
please make sure the fax machine reading element is clean and
operating to specification !
3 Colored paper is NOT a good idea. With a clean white background PolyFAX™ functions impeccably.
4 Fotocopied Address/Message Pages. You MUST use the original Pages created by your printer.
5 Facsimile copies of Address/Message Pages. You MUST use the original Pages created by your printer.
6 Dot matrix printers. You MUST use a laser or ink-jet printer.
And in case you were wondering, we have not yet encountered a printer or fax machine that skews the paper enough to make the data irretrievable and yes, if you inadvertently fax with the pages inverted or out of sequence the message can usually be delivered.
A VALID PolyFAX™ Document is composed of -
The FIRST page
must be an original PolyFAX™ Address Page printed on white paper using a laser or ink-jet printer
The SECOND Page
may be EITHER -
an original PolyFAX™ Message Page printed on white paper using a laser or ink-jet printer
OR
any faxable sheet of paper that is not an Address Page.
Subsequent Page(s)
may be any faxable paper document.
Examples of NOT-VALID documents are :-
1 A single Address Page;
2 A single Message Page.
3 A document without an Address Page.
4 A document with mis-matched Address and Message Pages.
5 A document with more than one Address Page.
6 A document with more than one Message Page.
7 A document with out-of-sequence Address and/or Message Pages (although the server can sometimes fix this problem).
8 A document where either/both the Address and Message Page(s) is/are a foto or facsimile copy of the original Page(s);
You may evaluate PolyFAX™ totally free of charge for 30 days from the day you transmit your first message.
To continue using the PolyFAX™ Service after 30 days you may either subscribe to the PolyFAX™ service or purchase a block of messages. The subscription is US$12.95 per month for unlimited email messages transmitted to regular PolyFAX™ servers. For infrequent use you may also opt to purchase 20 messages for US$4.95
Some supplementary charges may apply when using some PolyFAX™ servers, if you choose to receive replies and notifications by fax or if you use PolyFAX™ for regular fax broadcasting. For the details please check Prices, Server List and FaxTariff.
What is the Fax Machine STATION ID ?
Every modern Fax Machine is programmed to store self-identifying information. This typically includes the personal and or company name of the sender and the number of the telephone line to which the fax machine is attached. This 'Station ID' is set up by the user of the fax machine and the information is permanently stored in the Fax Machine's memory. When a fax is transmitted the Station ID is sent with every page and appears as part of the very first line of small print at the top of every received page. In the absence of any other sender information the PolyFAX™ server attempts to send negative Routing Notifications to the number contained in the Station ID. We would strongly recommend you ensure that the Station ID is current and that the number be surrounded by # signs for easy extraction. It should of course include both country and area codes. e.g. #1 212 202 4311#.
Is there a maximum message size ?
YES
The maximum message size is 3000 bytes. We are working at increasing this capacity.
Why are some servers listed as 'All' and others as 'Paid Only'
We may need to divert traffic away from a heavily loaded server and reserve it's use for paying customers. In this case we may silently ignore 'Evaluation' messages sent to 'Paid Only' servers.
What should I do if my area code has the status 'Available' on the Servers List ?
1 Evaluate the PolyFAX™ service using a server with status 'All'.
2 When you are ready, fax a regular subscription application to ANY PolyFAX™ server, (no restrictions or supplementary charges are applied to subscriptions).
3 When your subscription has been accepted we will notify you of the 'local' server number you may use for your regular PolyFAX™ messages. The number will be selected based on your Area Code and, if applicable, the first 3 digits of the number as entered by you when subscribing. The Server Number Notification will be a separate message from those that advise you your PIN and Account Number.
For US numbers the whole process will usually take less than one hour but should never take more than 24.
What is an 'Un-listed Server' ?
PolyFAX™ is for personal use. If you wish to set up a Corporate Account with a higher level of activity we can provide you with your own private server number. We can also provide alternative solutions with end-to-end encryption. Please contact our sales staff for further information.
Can you trace a PolyFAX™ that did not arrive ?
The most frequent reason for this is an incorrect recipient E-Mail Address. But if you are a subscriber and send us the correct information we will attempt to establish what happened to your message. See Support Services for details on how and where to send support requests.
Can PolyFAX™ be used to broadcast regular faxes ?
YES
PolyFAX™ will send
to any mix of up to 50 email addresses and fax numbers. If you
prepare an Address Page containing only fax numbers any
additional pages (not the Address Page) will be broadcast to the
recipients' fax machines. If you also prepare a Message Page the
text content will be converted to fax format. This is much
simpler and more flexible than setting up a fax machine for
broadcasting. In addition the fax itself is sent only once from
the originating fax machine, which saves both time and money. For
international faxing savings can be substantial as final delivery
takes place from a fax server in the USA where international
telecom charges are lower than in most other countries.
Is the Message Page obligatory?
NO
Only the Address Page is obligatory, but it must be followed
either by a Message Page or by a paper document or both.
If I do not have an email address how can my correspondant reply by email ?
When you send a PolyFAX™ to your recipient's email address the PolyFAX™ server inserts a special return email address. If the recipient replies by email it is directed to your account on the PolyFAX™ server. The server looks up your fax number, converts the email to a fax format and delivers it to your fax machine. This service is only available to subscribers, and only if they check the appropriate box on the 'Setup' tab of the PolyFAX™ software.
Can PolyFAX™ deliver e-mail messages and paper documents securely over the Internet ?
SOON
How can PolyFAX™ save the lives of millions of trees.?
In 1999 the world sent around 550,000,000,000 fax pages. This is forecast to grow at 13% CAGR through 2004.
Over 90% of these fax pages are sent from one fax machine to another. For every page sent another is printed by the receiving machine, hence the annual consumption of paper is around a trillion... 1,000,000,000,000 pages.
A 'standard' tree (loblolly pine) provides 10,000 pages so faxing consumes around 100,000,000 trees a year.
The average fax is 2.5 pages long, hence paper cosumption is 5 pages per fax. The average PolyFAX adds one page at the sending end and requires no pages at the receiving end reducing the total number of pages per fax to 3.5
When everyone in the world uses PolyFAX™ only the sender will be consuming paper, not the recipient, hence the world will consume 300 billion fewer paper pages potentially saving the lives of around 30 million trees per year.
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