Fax-to-Email Setup

Two Approaches to Faxing over VoIP

When you move to VoIP, you have two options for handling fax: fax-to-email (the recommended approach) or connecting a physical fax machine through an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter). Both work, but fax-to-email is more reliable over internet connections and eliminates the need for a physical machine entirely.

Fax-to-Email (Recommended)

With fax-to-email, incoming faxes are received by the system and delivered to one or more email addresses as PDF attachments. There is no physical machine involved — the fax arrives in your inbox just like any other email. This is the most reliable method because it avoids the timing-sensitive handshake that traditional fax machines require.

Benefits of fax-to-email:

• No physical fax machine to maintain, supply with paper, or replace toner.
• Faxes are stored digitally — easy to search, forward, and archive.
• Multiple staff members can receive the same fax simultaneously.
• Works reliably regardless of internet speed or jitter.

Sending Faxes from Your Computer

Depending on your fax-to-email provider or 3CX configuration, you may also be able to send outbound faxes by emailing a document to a special fax gateway address or using a web-based fax portal. DVGVoIP can advise on the best outbound fax option for your setup during deployment.

ATA Adapter for Physical Fax Machines

If your workflow requires a physical fax machine — for example, in a medical office that receives high-volume faxes — an ATA adapter converts the analog fax signal to work over your VoIP connection. The ATA plugs into your network and your fax machine plugs into the ATA, just like it would plug into a phone jack.

ATA-connected fax machines require T.38 fax relay support, which handles fax signals differently from standard voice calls. DVGVoIP configures T.38 settings on your SIP trunk and ATA during deployment to ensure compatibility.

Why Standard VoIP Is Not Ideal for Fax

Traditional fax relies on real-time analog signal exchange between two machines. Standard VoIP compresses and packetizes audio in ways that can disrupt this handshake, causing failed transmissions, partial pages, or garbled output. The T.38 protocol was designed specifically to solve this — it re-encodes fax data for reliable delivery over IP networks. Without T.38 enabled, fax success rates over VoIP drop significantly, which is why DVGVoIP always recommends fax-to-email as the primary approach and configures T.38 when a physical machine is required.

How DVGVoIP Configures Fax

1. During your free assessment, we identify which phone numbers currently receive faxes and how your team processes them.
2. We recommend fax-to-email for most use cases, or T.38 ATA configuration if a physical machine is required.
3. Fax routing is configured during deployment — your fax number is ported and pointed to the correct destination (email or ATA).
4. We test inbound and outbound fax to confirm everything works before go-live.