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There's an active project to update our aging fleet of dedicated, costly fax machines with Most Carleton fax machines have been replaced by a digital solution that integrates with email.  Using this new system, you can send faxes from email or any MFP on campus, and you receive faxes from a special email box created just for your department or group.  Many departments on campus are using the new system and are happy with the results.Much of this information can also be found in the Steps for Using the New Faxing Method at Carleton document available here

Important: receiving faxes has changed slightly as Carleton transitions away from Zimbra. Read on for more information about how to receive and send faxes in the Google world.

Receiving a fax through email

Fax mailboxes are configured as Google Groups. Google Groups are a special type of email account in Google that behaves like a combination of a mailing list and a shared mailbox. Each Carleton fax number is associated with an email address that corresponds to a Google Group. All incoming faxes are delivered as messages to the relevant Google Group. Based on the decisions that the owner(s) of that fax number make (see below for details), various people may have access to the Google Group to view and manage incoming faxes directly, and others may receive a copy of each incoming fax message in their own personal GMail account.

This service allows a department to get rid of a fax machine and receive incoming faxes through a special department emailbox. To set up this service, complete the Fax Server Setup Form and turn it in to Dave Flynn in ITS (while visiting, via campus mail, or via email). When filling out the form, the department must choose between two options for setting up the service:

1. Designate one person in your department to receive and distribute faxes to others by forwarding to the mailbox of each recipient or print out fax and give to recipient. With this option, only the designated person can get the faxes out of the fax emailboxthe designated individual will receive copies of any incoming fax as an email (with a PDF attachment) in their personal GMail inbox. They will also have access to the Google Group to which all fax messages are delivered, which will allow them to add additional individuals to the group and customize various aspects of the group's behavior.
   
   
2. Setup everyone in your department to receive faxes from the fax emailbox. All department members can go into the fax emailbox Google Group to retrieve any faxes.  In addition, the contact person in your department will also have full rights to this emailbox. A person receiving a fax should forward the fax to their own emailbox and then delete it from the fax emailboxreceive a copy of each incoming fax in their personal GMail inbox. Please be careful when managing emails in this account through the shared mailbox Google Group interface – everyone needs to be able to delete their own faxes, and so everyone has admin privileges on this share and will be capable of reading or deleting any email message contained within it.

These descriptions are also listed on the form itself. Be sure to carefully read the form and fill out all required information before turning it in. Once the form has been turned in, the process will proceed as follows:

1. You will receive an email in the next day or two inviting you to share the new fax mailbox. Open this email in Zimbra and click "Accept." Outlook users should now follow the instructions in Setting up your Fax mailbox in Outlook.
2. You will continue to receive faxes at your old fax machine until Telecom completes their step.
3. Dave Flynn will send a follow-up email to the department contact after Telecom has completed their step. At this point, faxes are now being received in your fax mailbox in email. Faxes will now longer be received at your dedicated fax machine. Dave will send a test fax to the new number with a document confirming that this is working.

Sending a fax from email

For a printout of these instructions, see Using Email to send a Fax.

Formatting the "to" address

• If you are on campus, you can use any email program to send a fax. While you are off campus, you must use the Zimbra web client to send a fax through email.
• To send a fax from email, simply use the fax number followed by "@f.x" as the address.
• You will need to pre-fix the phone number with the following digits:
  
  • The "9" is what gets you off campus
  • The "1" is the long-distance flag.
• Example 1: given the number 503-555-4537, you would send the email to 915035554537@f.x.
  
• Example 2:   If you're dialing a 1-800-XXX-XXXX number the "1" is the same and you only need to include it once, emailing 91800XXXXXXX@f.x.

Formatting the message and attachments

• Type plain text (no formatting in HTML or embedded images) into the body of the message,
• You can add a PDF as an attachment. 
  • At this time, only PDFs will work. If you need to send another type of file, consider sending to an email account rather than a fax number.

Sending a fax using an MFP

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Important: it is not yet possible to send faxes from email in the Google environment. This functionality will be restored soon; in the meantime, please see the MFP instructions below for sending faxes.

Sending a fax using an MFP

To send a fax using any MFP on campus, use the  "Scan and Send" feature to scan the document and send it via email. The email address to which a fax should be sent takes the following form:

<phone number> @ f.x

Where <phone number> is the exact number you would dial from a Carleton phone if you were attempting to call the destination from your own office phone. In particular, you must include a 9 (if you are sending to a non-Carleton number), a 1 (if dialing a non-local number), the area code, etc.