Send and Receive Faxes

Thanks to DSL, I haven't used my old dialup modem in years. But now I have to send a document to someone who apparently thinks it's still 1986 and can only accept it via fax. Isn't that modem supposed to let me send faxes? I'm darned if I can figure out how to do it.


Windows XP's built-in fax service actually works pretty well, but it's not installed by default, and it's not entirely obvious how to use it once you set it up. Here's how you do it.

Open the Add or Remove Programs control panel, and click the Add/Remove Windows Components button on the left. Place a check mark next to the Fax Services component, click the Next button, and then complete the wizard. (If the Fax Services box is already checked, the required software is installed; click the Cancel button and continue to the next step.)

Once the fax service is installed, you'll need to do a little setup. Open the Printers and Faxes control panel, right-click the Microsoft Shared Fax Driver icon (the name may vary), and select Properties. Choose the Devices tab, find your modem in the list (if it's not there, you'll need to install your modem driver), and click the Properties button. On the Send tab, place a check mark next to the "Enable device to send" option, and type your phone number in the TSID field.

Note: Rather than using your PC to receive faxes, set up a free account with an online fax service such as eFax (eFax - Email Fax Services ). You get your own dedicated phone number, albeit in a distant area code (local phone numbers are available for a fee), and any faxes you receive are emailed to you as attachments. You use the service's special advertiser-sponsored viewer to read and print your received faxes, all without tying up your phone line .

Next, choose the Receive tab. If you want to receive faxes with your PC, place a check mark next to the "Enable device to receive" option. Give this some thought, though, particularly if you use this phone line for other things (such as placing and receiving phone calls). You may not want your PC picking up the phone every time Mom calls (or then again, maybe you do). There's also a "Manual" setting in the "Answer mode" section, which causes the fax service to listen on your line but only pick up when you tell it to. But beware: this "listening" can wreak havoc with some phones and answering machines and may result in dropped calls.

When you're done with the fax modem properties page, click OK. Back in the Fax Properties window, choose the Tracking tab to configure the fax monitor. The fax monitor is the little progress window that pops up when you send and receive faxes, from which you can manually receive faxes, cancel an outgoing call, and so on. Finally, choose the Archives tab and specify where you want Windows to store your sent and received faxes (the defaults are subfolders of \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\MSFax\ ).

Finally, to send a fax, open your document in whatever application created it (e.g., Word or Excel), go to File --> Print, and select the fax driver from the list of printers. (A fax machine is nothing more than a remote printer, after all.) Click OK, and the Send Fax Wizard walks you through the rest of the process; type the recipient's fax number, choose a cover sheet, pick a time to send the fax, and you're off!