Using MagicJack hardware for other purposes...

[SirLogic]

I'm not particularly interested in using the MagicJack service, however, I would like to use the hardware.

What I would like to be able to do is to plug my fax machine into a MagicJack of something similar, and have some software on the computer that will automatically take any faxes I send with my fax machine through the MagicJack and convert them to TIFF or PDF and them either e-mail them directly, or e-mail them to a fax gateway service, depending on the phone number dialed...

[tada]

It might be feasible, but programmatically controlling a scanner would be a whole lot easier.

How good are you at programming?

[tony]

What I would like to be able to do is to plug my fax machine into a MagicJack of something similar, and have some software on the computer that will automatically take any faxes I send with my fax machine through the MagicJack and convert them to TIFF or PDF and them either e-mail them directly, or e-mail them to a fax gateway service, depending on the phone number dialed...

Hi,
For the moment let's ignore the mechanics of "how" and look at "what" you want to achieve. My understanding is you want to put hard copy in your fax machine, press send and then ultimately deliver images of the pages by email.

I would suggest forget about the MJ all together. Here are 2 alternatives. #1. Buy a dedicated page-fed scanner like the Fujitsu S500. It's between $300 - $400 and scans 50 pages at a time, double sided and in colour. It also OCR's the text.

Alternative #2 is considerably cheaper. Shop around for a multi-function printer/scanner. I picked up a Lexmark at Radio Shack/The Source for $39. I didn't even put in the ink cartridge, I'm just using the scanner portion. For outgoing faxes, scan to PDF and email. If you need a PDF printer driver, there are several free ones (see CutePDF).

[msiam]

There are lots of PDF converters out there for the finding.. I have one that is in my printer options that I can choose from a dropdown in the print window, it gives me the chi=oice of printing to the printer, to fax, to pdf doc.. lots of choices if you aren't interested in the actual MJ

PDFconverter
Enjoy

[SirLogic]

While using a scanner solution would work for me, it is not the optimal solution, the fact is there are several offices I support that have fax machines, and I need a no-brains, solution that can be dropped in to replace the phone line part of the existing fax equation what will not require any or little retraining of staff.