MyFax Review
Video Review
Review of MyFax: a J2 Global Online Fax Service
J2 Global Communications is the juggernaut of online fax service providers. MyFax is one of the more popular offerings they own and operate. MyFax is run under the Protus IP Solutions banner. As of December 2010, Protus is a wholly-owned subsidiary of J2 Global Canada, Inc.
The MyFax website is full of useful information and is easily navigated. You are immediately presented with a ton of options. Tabs at the top of the page offer you links for Personal & Small Business Fax, Corporate Fax, Free Trial and Buy. You are also offered the option of receiving a test fax in your email inbox so you can see what they look like. Of course, you have to provide a valid email address to do this.
MyFax’s basic small business package costs $10.00 per month and includes 100 outbound and 200 inbound fax pages per month. If you’re willing to pay for a whole year at once, you wind up paying only $9.17 per month ($110.00 single payment).
All of MyFax’s plans include an online account management portal, 24/7 North America-based free customer support, a local or toll-free fax number, and one-year online fax storage. MyFax also has apps for Blackberry and iPhone smartphones. Unfortunately the user reviews of these apps are overall not very complimentary, and there is no Android app.
The Good Things About MyFax
MyFax will almost definitely meet your fax needs. Protus and J2 Global have both been in the online fax business for quite some time, and have had ample opportunity to iron out kinks in the transmission of networked data. Because J2 Global is so big, you don’t have to worry about your online fax provider disappearing suddenly.
As is true with nearly all online fax providers, faxing from email or from Microsoft Office is easy to set up and use. Simply attach nearly any type of file to an outbound email message and press send. MyFax also has a print driver available if you prefer this method. Since Microsoft included the ability to configure fax service provider information into the Office suite, you can add Send to Fax as one of your file options by putting the MyFax information in the appropriate fields in Office.
Each MyFax account has one email address that can receive faxes. (If you want to receive the same fax in multiple locations, you can set up an automatic forwarder with your ISP.) MyFax allows you to set up as many as five authorized email addresses for sending faxes. If you have multiple people sending faxes, you’ll want to monitor your account balance closely. After 100 outbound minutes (1 page = 1 minute), you will start getting charged 10 cents for each additional minute/page.
The Corporate offering adds online security and compliance with regulatory legislation like Gramm-Leach, HIPAA and PIPEDA. Support for TLS, PGP and VPN makes MyFax Corporate Fax work in nearly any business environment where information security is important.
Things to Consider
On December 6, 2010, J2 Global announced it had acquired Protus IP Solutions, the operator of MyFax.com. While Protus IP Solutions has a good customer service reputation with the Better Business Bureau, J2 Global does not. Protus’ BBB rating was A-, while J2′s was F. You may wish to consider what this may mean for the future of customer service at MyFax.
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