Test Your Faxing IQ
By Steve Adams
Before email, before instant messaging,
before texting and smart phones, there
was the fax. At one time it was THE way
to transmit important documents quickly from one location to another.
While it’s normal to think that faxing has gone the way of the typewriter, the truth is
faxing is still very much alive. In fact, it’s a big part of many industries and even
required by some.
So to make sure you have the most current information – and a good store of
knowledge should you appear as a contestant on Jeopardy! and the Daily Double is a
fax-related question – we offer the following quiz.
Q1. Faxing was invented in:
A. 1843
B. 1945
C. 1972
D. 1984
A. The correct answer is A, 1843. Surprised? The technology didn’t really become
common in offices until the mid-1980s, but the basic concept was patented more than
150 years prior by Alexander Bain. The device he used was quite a monstrosity and
had a cattle jawbone as one of the moving parts. That’s a far cry from today’s Internet
fax service which allows you to send and receive faxes anywhere you can get an
Internet connection.
Q2. The amount of money spent on faxing the last few years has:
A. Increased
B. Decreased
C. Remained the same
A. If you guessed B you’d be in good company. But you’d be wrong. The truth is
the dollar volume spent on faxing has grown steadily over the last few years, and is
projected to continue doing so. That’s why it’s important for small businesses to be
sure they have a reliable and cost-effective fax solution in place.
Q3. Faxes are still widely used in which of the following industries:
A. Construction
B. Healthcare
C. Real Estate
D. Law/legal
E. All of the above
A. The correct answer is E, all of the above. In fact, it is the primary method of data
exchange in the construction, and is used on a daily basis in real estate and healthcare.
In addition, lawyers use faxes for documents that require signatures. Others that are
heavy fax users include insurance brokers and companies, private investigators,
truckers, bankers and salespeople. These users are rapidly moving away from fax
machines and into Internet fax services since they provide greater mobility and
convenience at a far lower cost.
Q4. According to HIPAA laws, healthcare providers can transmit confidential patient
information via either email or fax:
A. True
B. False
A. HIPAA laws do not allow patient information to be transmitted via email
because it is considered too insecure, i.e. email can be intercepted or misdirected too
easily. Faxes, however, are immune to this type of interception by the nature of how
they are transmitted. Internet fax services that provide 128-bit encryption provide an
additional level of security for the confidential documents.
Q5. Fax machines and Internet fax services offer equal levels of privacy and security:
A. True
B. False
A. Again, the answer is false. Fax machines generally sit in common areas, where
anyone walking by can pick up and look at the information that’s been printed. An
Internet fax service, on the other hand, delivers the fax electronically to the intended
recipient’s email address and/or a secure online server that is password-protected.
Q6. The number of trees that could be saved each year by delivering just one percent
(1%) of paper faxes in America as electronic documents is:
A. 15 million
B. 27.2 million
C. 52.5 million
D. 73.5 million
A. It is 73.5 million. And again, that’s just one percent in one country. In addition,
moving from fax machines to an Internet fax service would save energy (a fax machine
consumes more energy than any other office equipment according to ENERGY STAR)
and cut down on the waste stream by eliminating the need to dispose of the machine,
toner containers and wasted paper. If you are committed to making your office
greener, an Internet fax service can help on several levels.
Q7. Some advantages of an Internet fax service over a fax machine are:
A. No need to go back to the office to read your faxes
B. Internet fax accounts never have busy signals on inbound faxes
C. Because they’re electronic, your faxes can travel with you more easily
D. Only A and C
E. All of the above
A. All of the above. Since Internet fax services are tied to your email account, you
can receive faxes anywhere you can get email. That also means you can store your
faxes on your laptop or other device so they’re always handy. And if multiple people
send you faxes at one time, your Internet fax service will never return a busy signal.
You’ll receive all your faxes promptly.
Q8. The monthly cost for an Internet fax service is roughly the same as using a fax
machine.
A. True
B. False
A. False. It’s actually a lot less. With a fax machine you have the cost of the
machine, plus a dedicated phone line, toner, paper and electricity. The only cost for an
Internet fax service is the service itself. While the exact amount can vary by the service,
you’re really looking at pennies per day for 24x7x365 access to your important faxes.
So how did you score? 7-8 correct: You are a faxing genius! 5-6 correct: You’re smarter
than the average bear when it comes to faxes. 3-4 correct: You need to bone up a bit
before the mid-term. 1-2 correct: Your old VCR is probably still flashing 12:00.
Steve Adams is vice president of marketing for Protus (), a provider of communications tools for
small-to-medium-businesses and enterprise organizations, including the MyFax internet fax
service; my1voice, a virtual phone service; and Campaigner, an e-mail marketing solution. He can
be reached at sadams@protus.com.
By Steve Adams
Before email, before instant messaging,
before texting and smart phones, there
was the fax. At one time it was THE way
to transmit important documents quickly from one location to another.
While it’s normal to think that faxing has gone the way of the typewriter, the truth is
faxing is still very much alive. In fact, it’s a big part of many industries and even
required by some.
So to make sure you have the most current information – and a good store of
knowledge should you appear as a contestant on Jeopardy! and the Daily Double is a
fax-related question – we offer the following quiz.
Q1. Faxing was invented in:
A. 1843
B. 1945
C. 1972
D. 1984
A. The correct answer is A, 1843. Surprised? The technology didn’t really become
common in offices until the mid-1980s, but the basic concept was patented more than
150 years prior by Alexander Bain. The device he used was quite a monstrosity and
had a cattle jawbone as one of the moving parts. That’s a far cry from today’s Internet
fax service which allows you to send and receive faxes anywhere you can get an
Internet connection.
Q2. The amount of money spent on faxing the last few years has:
A. Increased
B. Decreased
C. Remained the same
A. If you guessed B you’d be in good company. But you’d be wrong. The truth is
the dollar volume spent on faxing has grown steadily over the last few years, and is
projected to continue doing so. That’s why it’s important for small businesses to be
sure they have a reliable and cost-effective fax solution in place.
Q3. Faxes are still widely used in which of the following industries:
A. Construction
B. Healthcare
C. Real Estate
D. Law/legal
E. All of the above
A. The correct answer is E, all of the above. In fact, it is the primary method of data
exchange in the construction, and is used on a daily basis in real estate and healthcare.
In addition, lawyers use faxes for documents that require signatures. Others that are
heavy fax users include insurance brokers and companies, private investigators,
truckers, bankers and salespeople. These users are rapidly moving away from fax
machines and into Internet fax services since they provide greater mobility and
convenience at a far lower cost.
Q4. According to HIPAA laws, healthcare providers can transmit confidential patient
information via either email or fax:
A. True
B. False
A. HIPAA laws do not allow patient information to be transmitted via email
because it is considered too insecure, i.e. email can be intercepted or misdirected too
easily. Faxes, however, are immune to this type of interception by the nature of how
they are transmitted. Internet fax services that provide 128-bit encryption provide an
additional level of security for the confidential documents.
Q5. Fax machines and Internet fax services offer equal levels of privacy and security:
A. True
B. False
A. Again, the answer is false. Fax machines generally sit in common areas, where
anyone walking by can pick up and look at the information that’s been printed. An
Internet fax service, on the other hand, delivers the fax electronically to the intended
recipient’s email address and/or a secure online server that is password-protected.
Q6. The number of trees that could be saved each year by delivering just one percent
(1%) of paper faxes in America as electronic documents is:
A. 15 million
B. 27.2 million
C. 52.5 million
D. 73.5 million
A. It is 73.5 million. And again, that’s just one percent in one country. In addition,
moving from fax machines to an Internet fax service would save energy (a fax machine
consumes more energy than any other office equipment according to ENERGY STAR)
and cut down on the waste stream by eliminating the need to dispose of the machine,
toner containers and wasted paper. If you are committed to making your office
greener, an Internet fax service can help on several levels.
Q7. Some advantages of an Internet fax service over a fax machine are:
A. No need to go back to the office to read your faxes
B. Internet fax accounts never have busy signals on inbound faxes
C. Because they’re electronic, your faxes can travel with you more easily
D. Only A and C
E. All of the above
A. All of the above. Since Internet fax services are tied to your email account, you
can receive faxes anywhere you can get email. That also means you can store your
faxes on your laptop or other device so they’re always handy. And if multiple people
send you faxes at one time, your Internet fax service will never return a busy signal.
You’ll receive all your faxes promptly.
Q8. The monthly cost for an Internet fax service is roughly the same as using a fax
machine.
A. True
B. False
A. False. It’s actually a lot less. With a fax machine you have the cost of the
machine, plus a dedicated phone line, toner, paper and electricity. The only cost for an
Internet fax service is the service itself. While the exact amount can vary by the service,
you’re really looking at pennies per day for 24x7x365 access to your important faxes.
So how did you score? 7-8 correct: You are a faxing genius! 5-6 correct: You’re smarter
than the average bear when it comes to faxes. 3-4 correct: You need to bone up a bit
before the mid-term. 1-2 correct: Your old VCR is probably still flashing 12:00.
Steve Adams is vice president of marketing for Protus (), a provider of communications tools for
small-to-medium-businesses and enterprise organizations, including the MyFax internet fax
service; my1voice, a virtual phone service; and Campaigner, an e-mail marketing solution. He can
be reached at sadams@protus.com.
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