Cool Tools: Faxzero.com, K7.net

March 21, 2008.

As a former college student, I can remember moving nearly every six months and the stress of trying to find a fax machine for the scholarship applications, resumes, internship agreements, and other documents I was required to send and receive. Luckily I no longer have to run out of their house and search frantically for a fax machine.

FaxZero.com and K7.net are two websites that are making the need to own a fax machine seem obsolete. FaxZero lets you send a fax for free. Of course there are some restrictions. There is a maximum of three pages and only two faxes a day are allowed. And there is a FaxZero advertisement on the cover page. If you’re willing to pay a little more, you can use the premium version of FaxZero at a cost of $1.99 per page. Restrictions here are unlimited and there is no advertising on the cover page.

The process of sending a fax is simple. You can send a PDF, Microsoft Word (.DOC) file, or Excel spreadsheet (.XLS). You fill out a form online, a confirmation is sent to your email, and once you activate the link your fax is sent. You even receive an e-mail message letting you know when it's delivered.

Now, what happens when you need to receive a fax and you don’t have a fax machine? You don’t need to go to FedEx Kinko’s. You need to head over to K7 where you can channel fax messages directly to your email. The service works by assigning you a personal phone number. People can leave you voicemails and faxes at this number. K7 will forward to your e-mail address as attachments. Simple as that!

eFax.com is certainly the most known fax site right now, but if you’re looking for free service these two websites can provide a better solution. Unless you’re willing to fork over a monthly subscription fee, eFax does not let you send faxes by email, provide you with a local or toll-free number, let you receive voicemails, or provide wireless access. Using Faxzero and K7.net can give you these services at little to no cost.

So now that you have the power of fax without burning a hole in your pocket, you can fax all your friends and let them know how awesome you are, and you can even send a fax to yourself letting you know that very same thing.