eFax (Electronic Faxing)

What is eFax?

The college moved from traditional paper faxing to electronic faxing (eFaxing) to send and receive faxes by faculty and staff.  To provide this service, ITS contracted with XMediusFAX.

Recipients will see faxes arrive as in their usual format.  

Some benefits of eFax are:

• Security of faxing from your computer.
• Removing confusion of paper faxes mixed up or missed.
• Confidence in sending the pages you want to include, including confirmation afterwards.
• Send completed forms electronically as an attachment.
• Ability to attach all sheets/pdfs to e-mail, eliminating wondering what pages were sent.
• Sent items appear in your e-mail sent folder, verifying what was sent and when.
• Can schedule faxing for a later date and time.
• Can send one fax to multiple fax numbers.
• Faxes delivered to your department’s shared e-mail account.
• Ability to retrieve a fax from your shared e-mail account when not in your office.

Fax Numbers

Ask your coordinator for your department fax number and shared e-mailbox name if you don't know them. 

Should you determine there is a need for a new fax number, you may request one by contacting Telephone Services or submitting a Web Helpdesk ticket with

• the reason including

• all information in the Set-Up Form

eFax How To's

Description of how it works.

Sending a fax

• From your e-mail, attach the pages you want to fax. 
  • NOTE:  If you have printed documents to send, you will need to scan & send them to yourself first.
  • You will receive a copy of the fax in your inbox.
• Enter into the TO field the faxnumber@fax.middlebury.edu.
• Click send.

Examples

2067@fax.middlebury.edu, where 2067 is the fax number or 

9378656502@fax.middlebury.edu, where (937) 865-6502 is the off-campus phone number to My Cafeteria Plan’s for flexible spending submissions.

The fax number can be in any phone format (numbers only):

• 4-digit (extension)
• 7-digit (local)
• 10-digit  or
• more (for 011 international calls) format.
• There is no need to enter a 9 before the phone number.
• Recipients will not be aware you are using an eFax system.
• If the receiving number is a phone tree, add the letter p between the phone number and digit.  This adds a 3 second pause to the dial string before dialing the tree’s fax digit.
  • Example  If 2067 had a tree with option 4 the fax machine, the format would be 2067pp4@fax.middlebury.edu  The two “p”s provides a 6 second delay (2 pauses, 3 seconds each) before sending the tone for option 4.

Cover pages

• A cover page is automatically generated, including the number of pages and your name.
• Information entered in the body of your email will be included on the cover sheet.

Remove embedded macros in documents or save as a PDF.

Attachments, which will included in the number of pages in the fax, may be attached using any of the following formats:

Receiving a Fax

Provide your fax number as you had before. 

Within the college:  Your 4-digit-fax-number

Outside the college:  In the 802443xxxx format (where xxxx is the fax number).

Senders will be unaware they are sending to an eFax system.

Please request your name be included in the cover sheet.

Incoming faxes will be delivered to your shared e-mail account. 

To see incoming faxes to your department’s fax mailbox:

• ask your coordinator or account owner to confirm you are on the membership list.
• add your department’s fax e-mail account to your Outlook list.  Your coordinator can provide you with your shared fax e-mailbox name.  This name is also listed in Outlook; search fax and review the list until you find your department. 
• Remember, this is a shared mailbox account and as such 
  • You can MOVE the fax to your personal mailbox, which will remove all trace of the fax from the shared fax mailbox.
  • You can FORWARD the fax to a mailbox, which will leave the fax in the mailbox and display the sent fax in the “Sent Items” folder.
  • If a fax is deleted, the fax will move to the “Deleted Items” folder, waiting for final deletion.

When you are expecting a fax:

• Watch your shared e-mail account for a new fax/e-mail delivery.
• Move your fax from the shared e-mail account to your personal account as soon as possible to avoid confusion and mix-ups with others using that account.
• For a paper copy of a fax, print it.
• If you forward a fax and want to remove it from the mailbox, delete it from the inbox and also the “Sent Items” folder.

Protecting Your Security

• ITS opted for a zero-retention policy of faxes in the fax server.  The only copy will be in your e-mail.
• You have control over which of your faxes are kept and deleted.
• If you forward a fax and want to remove it completely from this shared mailbox:  delete it from the inbox also from the “Sent Items” folder.
• Only members of your fax shared e-mail account are able to retrieve its faxes.
• No more faxes sitting on a machine for anyone to find.
• You may retrieve a fax while you are away from the office just by monitoring your shared e-mail account.
• No pages to worry about losing since you will print a fax only when needed.
• No shredding of pages to recycle.