.  INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE INTERNET 

More unbelievable, free or really cheap services

 Remember the days before everyone had to have a fax machine to do business? We're not quite at that stage with e-mail and Web pages yet. 

Many businesses, especially low-tech offices, do not yet depend on the Internet and e-mail. That will change soon, but for now the fax machine remains the ubiquitous tool for speedy written communication worldwide.

 We can't reach everyone with e-mail, but since the low-tech offices certainly have a fax machine there is a way to reach them for a fraction of the cost of using the regular phone system to send faxes.

 If you've been reading this column you know how to get free e-mail, free Internet services and free Web pages. Now I want to tell you about what I think is for businesses the most exciting cyber-goodie out there. Free and very low-cost fax via e-mail.

 If you send a one-page fax a day to Europe or the States (or a three-page fax twice a week) this article will show you how to cut that cost by 95 percent. And yes, you can send graphics, not only text, in many cases.

 For Middle East Times readers I have set up a link on my angelfire Web page to give you a free trial fax via e-mail to anywhere in the world with Faxaway. It's on one of the simplest, easiest to use services and it's completely worldwide. 

I have put the link on my home page: https://www.angelfire.com/ma/kilenm You can send a free fax via e-mail to any fax machine anywhere in the world. If you think the service is right for you, you can sign up for $20 and for a limited time, they'll give you $5 extra for free! Now, at 11 cents per page to the States, $20 ought to last you quite a while.

 In the information below telephone numbers are represented by #. Do not include country codes or punctuation unless the directions specifically say so.

 TPC (The Phone Company) is a volunteer-run project to provide worldwide Internet faxing. It is known as the "remote printing experiment" and is the grandfather of Internet faxing services. It epitomizes the spirit and capabilities of the Internet community. 

A collection of individuals, companies and organizations from around the world have joined this "experiment." 

Thanks to them and the list grows every month you can send faxes via e-mail or a from a Web form using your browser. 

When someone joins TPC as a remote-fax server, it specifies what areas they are willing to send faxes to. When you submit a fax via e-mail or the TPC Web site, the main server computer determines if any participating servers have agreed to service the area you need to send to. If so, your message is routed to the appropriate machine and your fax is sent. Otherwise, you will receive an e-mail message notifying you that your fax message couldn't be delivered. There are two options for using TPC.
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 Option 1

 E-mail to:Remote-printer.x/y@#.tpc.int

 Subj:Ignore.

 Body:Text of your fax.

 Notes:x = Put the name of the person 

or company here.

 y = second address line. If you want blank spaces, use an underscore. 

For this service, you must include the full fax telephone number including country and city codes, since it works worldwide.
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 Option 2

 Send a fax using your Web browser.

 Use http://www.tpc.int/, fill out the form and send a fax online.

 Right now the area includes most of North America, many European countries, South Africa, the UAE and parts of Asia.

 An up-to-date list of countries and areas covered by this service is available by sending a blank email message to tpccover@info.tpc.int.
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 For the countries below there are other fax services that work by e-mail or from your web-browser.
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 Sweden (full country coverage)

 Free service is offered by the Swedish University Computer Network to send text e-mail via fax anywhere in Sweden.

 E-mail to:Arlo_Cats@F#.fax.sunet.se

 Subj:#

 Body:Text of your fax.

 Do not include the country code, and you must include the "F" before the fax telephone number.
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 Costa Rica (full country coverage)

 Fax anywhere in Costa Rica from the Web site http://www.nacion.co.cr/cgi-bin/fax (text only).

 The Web site is Spanish only.
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 Romania (full country coverage)

 E-mail to: #@fax.kappa.ro

 Subj:Ignore.

 Body:Text of your fax.

 This system offers full coverage of Romania. It does not support graphics, you'll have to settle for text-only e-mail to fax. Alternately you can use the Web site http://www.pop3.kappa.ro/fax/windex.html. This is a free trial for unspecified period. If you need substantial use you have to pay for an account, which includes a small annual fee plus time charges.
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 Philippines (Iligan city only)

 E-mail to: fax@calitan.msuiit.edu.ph

 Subj:#

 Body:Text of your fax.
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 Philippines (Metro Manila only)

 E-mail to:firstname.lastname@mo.cyber.org.ph

 Subj:FAX #

 Body:Text of your fax.

 If the fax number in Manila only has six digits add a '1.' For example, Subj: FAX 824-0091 for fax to 834-009 in Manila. 
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 Kuwait (full country coverage)

 E-mail to:fax@kuwait.net

 Subj:#

 Body:Text of your fax.

 The system only supports text (no graphics), allows up to five fax messages a day and each message must be less than 120 lines by 72 columns. The subject line should contain the seven-digit Kuwait local fax number. 
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 New Zealand (Auckland only)

 On-line faxing from your web browser: use http://www.faxmail.co.nz/freefax.htm.

 This is a fill-in-the-form fax service. You type in the seven-digit phone number and up to 40 lines of text, and send a fax from your Web browser. A small advertising message is added to your fax.
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 The Netherlands (full country coverage)

 E-mail to:Hansje.Blnker.#@E-FAX.nci.nl

 Subj:Ignore.

 Body:Text of your fax.

 You can also send your fax from the Web site http://www.nci.cl/e-fax: Fill in the form and send the fax anywhere in Holland. 

Up to 50 lines of text are allowed for each transmission. Another limitation is that you must be outside of Holland to send a fax to Holland. Faxes are transmitted from Monday to Friday, 18:00 to 8:00 and on the weekends. It's free, but they do add a small advertisement to your fax.

 Austria (businesses only)

 This Web-to-fax gateway covers commercial fax numbers in Austria. The entire site is in German. You need to search its directory of 150,000 businesses. If the business is in the database, you can send it a fax.

 If not, you can't. http://www.compnet.at/
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 There are many separate free services to send faxes to Canada; do not include the 1+ area codes for any of them. Here is a sample:
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 Calgary

 E-mail to: John_Jones@#.fax.ucalgary.ca

 Subj:Ignore.

 Body:Text of your fax. 
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 Vancouver

 E-mail to: #/Fred_Smith@fax.wimsey.com

 Subj:Ignore.

 Body:Text of your fax.
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 Quebec 

Email to:John_Jones@#.fax.cam.org

 Subj:Ignore.

 Body:Text of your fax.
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 Winnipeg City

 E-mail to: fax@umanitoba.ca

 Body of e-mail should contain:

 FAXnumber: #

 FAXto: recipient's name.

 FAXfrom: your name.

 FAXcontact: your phone number.

 FAXmemobegin:

 An option: gives you up to 20 lines for cover page.

 FAXmemoend.

 Body of your fax goes here.
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 There are many cities in America with their own free fax gateways services. Several exist for New York city (http://www.interpage.net/wwwfax.html is one), Phoenix, Los Angeles and many others. If you cannot use one of the other services listed in this article, contact me and I'll help you find free or low-cost faxing anywhere in the world.

 Commercial services

 Although these are not free, they are regional services that can save you a lot of money if you fax internationally.
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 Worldwide http://www.uniterra.com

 You can send a text-only e-mail message of up to 60 lines for one dollar. For two dollars you can attach graphics (PCX file). They also charge a small annual fee.

 India

 http://www.halycon.com/cal/indiafax or http://www.indiax.com/cal 

The cost is one dollar for 60 lines of text. A graphic (PCX file) uuencoded costs two dollars. They also charge a small annual fee.
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 U.K.

 http://www.fax.co.uk

 There is a 10-pound one-time setup fee. Costs for use are 13 pence/minute (£5/month minimum purchase).
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 Poland

 http://www.emit.com/pl/gateway

 One page of text costs a dollar. A graphic (PCX file) uuencoded is two dollars. They also charge a small annual fee.

 Other fax services

 How about using the Internet to receive faxes? Yes, it can be done. 

Services like those provided by FAXWEB (http://www.faxweb.net) allow you to receive faxes and voice mail and retrieve them from the web using your browser. You can retrieve your fax and voice mail messages 24 hours a day. And you can even have an e-mail sent to you anytime a fax is received and ready for viewing or downloading.

 There is a flat $15 per month charge for setting up a number at the FaxWeb location in Atlanta (area code 404). That's all you pay.

 If you want to have an 800 (toll free) number, you'll pay $0.30 (about E£1) per minute more to receive faxes and voice mails on it.

 So you can receive faxes and voice mail at a US telephone number without owning a phone line or a fax machine! Sign up at the Web site. Another good one to check out is HT-Net at http://www.htnet.com. These aren't the only company offering these services there are more companies coming out with new services every month. 

If you don't want a US-based number, how about Paris, or Toronto or Amsterdam? JFAX offers a service similar to FaxWeb but with a few international options: http://jfax.com//homepage.html.

 The main source of up-to-the-minute fax services on the Internet can be found at: http://www.netpower.no/frost/fax

 And it doesn't stop there. Integration with worldwide paging is just as easy. You can be paged worldwide anytime an e-mail or fax, or voice mail is received! The world is getting smaller every day.