Computers with fax devices that manage receiving and sending faxes are known as fax servers. Fax servers allow one to send and receive faxes over the Internet. Fax servers are one of the most efficient channels of business transactions and communications. Although the use of the Internet to transfer data and documents by individuals and companies has increased in recent years, the use of faxes is not going to end soon since many companies depend upon faxes for transferring vital information.

Many companies still depend on faxing through conventional faxing machines. The use of conventional fax machines is decreasing, and more and more people are relying on fax servers for their faxing needs. The reason for this is that sending a fax through conventional fax machines is cumbersome, time-consuming, expensive and unreliable. There are two types of fax servers, ones that merge with a companys email server and ones that doesnt merge. Typically, smaller companies that dont use emails for their business use the fax server that doesnt merge with companys email server.

Appropriate fax devices such as a fax board, fax modem (Class 1 or 2) and ISDN card are required to send and receive faxes via email to a fax gateway. Once the required devices are installed, fax servers runs just like any other Windows 2000 system. Some fax servers can also fax documents created in Microsoft Word and spreadsheets created in Microsoft Excel. The use of fax servers eliminates the problems arising from busy signals, out-of-paper situations and misplaced faxes. Fax servers reduce long-distance charges. Additionally, faxes are received securely and automatically directly on a computer, so the information security is maintained since the faxes can be received in the respective mailboxes of the recipients, thus preventing information leakage. Fax servers are a good option to consider if the faxing requirements of a business are considerably high, to ensure a good return on investment on fax servers.