LONG DISTANCE - land line

[MartyNeilan]

If you just want it for sending long distance faxes (and I an not sure if I inferred that correctly) there are many solutions that let you do so without a phone line. Google Fax Over IP and look at what comes up. This is how many businesses are sending their faxes these days.

If you are looking at making LD phone calls, you can always go to Sam's club and get the biggest / cheeepest phone card they have. That situation also works well when several roomies share the same phone line (back in the pre cell phone days) - there is no LD on the phone account and each roomie has his own phone card, so noone can accuse anyone else of running up phone bills.

[MartyNeilan]

OCCASIONALLY someone INSISTS that I send them a fax.

They won't let you scan it to PDF and email it?

I'm in the same boat as you. Luckily, I never need to fax anything, though.

PDF's of multiple page documents can quickly become too big to email, depending on the restrictions of the email servers on both ends. There is where one side needs to have an FTP server, or the use of a free document storage middleman online.
Marty "who just helped a user FTP a pdf of a new printing of an entire book to The Netherlands - and it only took 24 minutes "

[Rick F]

Joe,

I've been using 'eFax' for about 8 years. It's free for the level of service I have. They gave me my own personal fax phone number - but it's located in IL (area code 630). The only draw back for me is if someone locally here in S. Florida needs to send me a fax, they have to dial my long distance number. Hasn't been a problem so far because it's mostly a business that wants to send me a fax. For the free service, you have to agree to some ads from time to time. I get about one ad every 3 months. I only use efax to receive faxes, but I'm pretty sure you can send faxes too. When 'efax.com' receives a fax, they convert it to an image they can email as an attachment. I have some software on my PC called, "efax messenger" (free download) that opens the attachment so I can view it and print it out. Works great for the few times I need a fax machine... which is about twice per year.

They offer different levels of service... 'eFax FREE'; 'eFax Plus'; and 'eFax Pro'. Here's a link for more information:

How it works
http://www.efax.com/en/efax/twa/page/howItWorks

Product Overview
http://www.efax.com/en/efax/twa/productOverview

[Alex F]

I've used efax for about five years. My version is about $17 per month but it's a business expense. Incoming faxes are free to me. Outgoing faxes are 9 cents per page. I like efax because I can pull down faxes from several locations. For outgoing faxes, I use, generally, my standalone fax machine. I have my own fax number and do not need to have a second fax line in my office or home. Sometimes, there is a wait for incoming faxes due to internet traffic (all that SPAM and tubenet posts).

[bearphonium]

For long-distance issues, we did the same. Cancelled the LD service (that had been in place ever since once when I used a 10-10-220-type number) and use a CostCo phone card for long distance if we ever use the land line instead of the cell phone. Can't help with the fax issue.