Since the heady days of the Internet Boom, fewer and fewer things are still free on the Internet. If you want to watch CNN broadcasts on Real Audio, you have to pay. Dialpad and Net2Phone no longer offer free phone calls to the United States.

One of the services that still is available for free on the Internet is free e-mail to fax. The service is called the TPC Project. Since 1993, it has been possible to send a fax by e-mail using the following format:

remote-printer.recipient_name@fax_number.iddd.tpc.int.

Suppose I wanted to send an e-mail to John Doe who works for the Acme company in room 111 with a phone number in the United States of 555-555-5555, I would format the e-mail as follows:

remote-printer.Acme_Company/Room_111@15555555555.iddd.tpc.int

In the above example, the first 1 is the country code for the United States.

This format can be used to send fax's from SMS or from a cell phone with GPRS. This is a very handy way to communicate with someone who doesn't have e-mail. There are many times when websites don't provide e-mail addresses. They avoid publishing these to avoid SPAM. The only way to contact these companies is by phone or fax. It is very handy to use the above format to send an e-mail to fax.

This service is not available everywhere. Unfortunately, it is not available in Thailand. Perhaps this article will change that. Before sending an e-mail, you can go to the following website and make sure that the phone number you are trying to call is covered.

There is also a webpage that allows you to send e-mail to fax from your browser.

There is a program that you can download for free called Scan Fax!. The publishers of this program do not seem to be around but there is still a copy of the program.

Scan Fax! works with most TWAIN based scanners. It will allow you to scan documents and then send them free over the Internet.

One might question how such a service is available for free. Basically, companies volunteer to act as a e-mail to fax gateway. It is not required that the service provider have a direct full time connection to the Internet. A UUCP connection is fine. Setting up a server doesn't require a great deal of expense and can generate a lot of goodwill for your company or organization.

A fax server operator is allowed to place an advertisement or sponsorship acknowledgment message on 1/3 of the coversheet sent with every fax from the fax server. After each fax is sent, your fax server sends an e-mail acknowledgment back to the sender. You can place a few sentences of text on this e-mail message as well. By providing the service, it is also an opportunity to advertise, promote or generate interest in your organization.

Suppose your company or organization has customers, clients, suppliers or partners in other countries. Setting up a fax server will allow them to send you faxes more easily and you promote your organization each time someone else sends a fax through your server.

If you are interested in setting up your own e-mail to fax server you can contact tpcadmin@info.tpc.int.