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Overview
Most Carleton fax machines have been replaced by a digital solution that integrates with email. Using this new system, you can send faxes from any MFP on campus, and you receive faxes from a special email box created just for your department or group. Most departments on campus are using the new system and are happy with the results.
If you have any questions on the following information, or about your Carleton account in general, please call the ITS HelpDesk at 507-222-5999 or send email to: helpdesk@carleton.edu
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, contact the ITS Helpdesk at x5999 and request assistance configuring a new fax mailbox. You will need to select one of the following options in order to complete the configuration of your fax account:
- 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, the 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.
- Setup everyone in your department to receive faxes from the fax emailbox. All department members can go into the Google Group to retrieve any faxes. In addition, the contact person in your department will receive a copy of each incoming fax in their personal GMail inbox. Please be careful when managing emails in this account through the 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 message contained within it.
Important: by default, it is not possible to send a fax via the RingCentral system from your Carleton email account. We can whitelist specific accounts on-demand to enable this functionality; please call the ITS Helpdesk if you need assistance with this feature.
Sending a fax using an MFP (or via your own email if you have been whitelisted per the above)
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> @ rcfax.com
Where <phone number> is the ten-digit number (for US calls). For example: 5075551234@rcfax.com
Please note: you do not need to prepend a 9, as you would when calling from a Carleton phone, and you do not need the country code if you're faxing to a US number. The ten-digit number is sufficient.
Links and Useful Info
Our vendor, Ring Central, provides a number of articles related to faxing through their system that may be of interest. They are linked below for reference:
- International faxing: https://success.ringcentral.com/articles/RC_Knowledge_Article/How-to-Dial-or-Call-International-Phone-Numbers