Sky Fax

• NOTE: This article is applicable to Sky customers. To access an article about the email-to-fax service that is applicable to MiCloud customers, see the Managing MiCloud Fax article.

Sky Fax is an email-to-fax service that is used as a cloud-based fax solution for the Sky phone system. With Sky Fax, users receive incoming faxes in their email inbox and send outbound faxes as emails with attachments. This fax service provides convenience and eliminates the cost and maintenance associated with a dedicated fax machine.

Table of Contents

Features
Requirements
Using Fax
FAQ
Activate Service
Manage Settings

Edit Account Settings
Add Users
Edit User Settings
Remove Users

Fax Usage
Fax Server Content Retention Policy

Features

• Send and receive faxes anywhere that you access your business email
• Incoming faxes are received in your business email inbox
• Outbound faxes are sent as emails with attachments:
  • Text typed in the subject and body of the email is sent as the fax cover page (unless the cover page option is not selected)
  • Each attached or embedded file is sent as a subsequent fax page
• Faxes can be saved or deleted just like the rest of your business emails
• Delivery confirmation can be sent via email
• Enables reducing or eliminating the use of paper for faxing
• Inbound fax number is a phone number within your company's range of numbers
• Choose any number assigned to your account and we will create it as a Sky Fax number

Requirements

• Managed profile
• Scanner or physical fax machine to send documents that are not a supported document type.

Using Fax

The following sections provide usage instructions and additional information to best utilize the Sky Fax service.

Sending a Fax
Cover Page
Attaching Documents
Using Your Email Address Book for Faxing
Fax Retry Schedules
Supported Document Types
Supported Languages

Sending a Fax

• faxnumber@shoretelfax.com - If you have an account that started using the Sky Fax service after May 1, 2014 (or if you have Geckofax service) and you send faxes to faxnumber@shoretelfax.com, see the Sky Fax Customers section below.
• faxnumber@faxmail.com - If your account started using the Sky Fax service before May 1, 2014 and you send faxes to faxnumber@faxmail.com, see the Legacy Fax Customers instructions further below.

Sky Fax Customers

1. Use your business email account to compose an email message addressed to faxnumber@shoretelfax.com.
2. Format the fax number as follows:
   • country code + area/city code + number (see the table below).
   • enter digits only (do NOT use dashes)
   • the country code for the U.S., Canada, and Caribbean is "1"
3. The subject of the email is displayed as the subject on the cover page.
4. The text in the body of the email is displayed on the cover page.
5. Attach the file(s) you want to fax.
6. Click Send.

Legacy Fax Customers

1. Use your business email account to compose an email message addressed to faxnumber@faxmail.com.
2. Format the fax number as follows:
   • country code + area/city code + number (see the table below)
   • enter digits only (do NOT use dashes)
   • the country code for the U.S., Canada, and Caribbean is "1"
3. The subject of the email is displayed as the Subject on the cover page.
4. The text in the body of the email is displayed as Comments on the cover page.
5. Attach the file(s) you want to fax.
6. Click Send.

Cover Page

The following sections explain what happens when the cover page option is selected or not selected. Note that the cover page option is labeled as "Cover" in Edit User Settings, "Include Cover" in Add Users, and "Include a cover page with your fax" in Edit Account Settings.

Cover Page Option is Selected

When the cover page option is selected for a user, a system generated cover page is included as the first page of each fax. A fax cover page consists of the date, the user's business email address, the number of pages in the fax, and the following sections, which are populated from the content in the email that is used to send the fax:

• From - Populated with the user's name
• To - Populated with the fax recipient's "To" email address, which is faxnumber@shoretelfax.com or faxnumber@faxmail.com
• Subject - Populated with the text typed in the "Subject" line of the email
• Comments - Populated with the text typed in the body of the email

If you type a lot of text in the email, the Comments will continue on a second cover page. Any documents that you attach, such as a Word doc, Excel file, or JPEG image, will follow the cover page with each document starting on a new page. If you do not include any text in your email, the cover page is still included, but the Comments area is not populated.

Cover Page Option is Not Selected

If the cover page option is not selected, a system generated cover page is not included with each fax. Not using the system generated cover page enables you to include a custom cover page attachment. However, to ensure that your custom cover page appears as the first page of the fax, you can include only one attachment per fax. The Sky Fax system uses the first page of the attachment as the fax cover page. The following provides a more detailed explanation:

• When a fax contains multiple attachments, the order in which files are attached to the email is random. The system may use the first page of an attachment that is not intended to be the first attachment or contain the cover page. For example, if you attach three PDF files to an email, files A, B, and C, and you intend for the first page of file A to be the cover page, the system may attach file B first and use the first page of that file as the cover page. If you need to use a custom cover page and must include multiple attachments, send a separate fax for each attachment.

Attaching Documents

You can attach documents and other files to the email you are faxing, as many as you want, just as you do when attaching documents to regular emails. The following are a few things you can do to maximize your success when faxing attachments:

• Do not send password-protected documents. The Sky Fax network cannot convert a password-protected document into a fax because the network does not have access to the password that is required to "print" the documents to a fax-compatible format.
• Each attached file is displayed on its own page.
• The order in which attached files are displayed is random.
• Each image, whether embedded in the body or signature area of an email, is treated the same as a file attachment.
• It is recommended that you print documents to a PDF and attach the PDF to the fax email. Printing to a PDF ensures that graphics are embedded and eliminates issues with fonts. If you are not able to print files to a PDF before attaching them to the fax email, use the following tips:
  • Make sure any graphics or other files that are referenced in your document are embedded in the document and not just linked to another source such as your hard drive or a web site. Linked objects are omitted from faxed documents.
  • Avoid using unusual fonts. If you use a font that the email system does not contain and the font is not embedded inside your document, the system can only substitute another font.

To see a list of the types of files you can attach, see the Supported Document Types section of this article below.

Using Your Email Address Book for Faxing

Sky Fax enables you to use any existing email address book to store frequently used fax numbers, as explained below:

1. Create an address book entry. Give it a distinctive name that tells you the message is going out as a fax, like "Jane's Fax". That way, if "Jane" already has a traditional email address stored in your address book, the name "Jane's Fax" will let you decide easily between sending to her fax number or to her email address, or to both.
2. Type the person's fax number followed by "@faxmail.com" or "@shoretelfax.com" as the email address, for example, 16461234567@faxmail.com or 16461234567@shoretelfax.com. (See the Sending a Fax section above for clarification as to which @---fax.com address you need to use.) When you want to fax to this person, just compose an email to their "fax" email address. For example, send your email to "Jane's Fax" to reach her fax machine.

NOTE: When sending a fax to the U.S., Canada, or Caribbean, the fax number must start with a "1" plus the recipient's area code and local number. When sending a fax to all other international destinations, the fax number must start with the recipient's country code plus the city/area code and local number.

Tip: You can send someone a fax to both their fax number and email address at the same time by adding both addresses in the "To:" area of your fax email.

Fax Retry Schedules

Sky will try to deliver your fax for you several times, if necessary, to overcome common delivery obstacles like busy signals, fax machines that ring but do not answer, and so on. This is done automatically by the Sky Fax Network at no extra cost to you. On its standard retry schedule, the Sky Network tries to get through for about 15 minutes, if necessary, before ceasing its attempts and immediately emailing you a non-delivery notice describing the problem the network encountered.

Fax Completion Time

RingCentral cannot guarantee a fax completion time. There are many factors that will impact the amount of time a fax will take to complete including, but not limited to the following:

• Number of pages: The more pages sent the longer the fax will take to complete.
• Fax Destination: International faxes will take longer than domestic.
• Fax Contents: The fax server needs to convert the email and attachments prior to sending. A plain text document will convert faster than a PDF or image.
• Load on the Fax server: If sending a fax during peak times the delivery time will be longer. Faxes are queued for delivery in the order they are received by the server.

Supported Document Types

NOTE: If you need to use Sky Fax to send a file that is not a supported document type, it is recommended that you save (or print) the file to PDF format, and then fax the PDF.

Supported Languages

The current version of the Sky Fax service supports email text and documents in English, plus the following:

Arabic
Baltic
Central European
Chinese (simplified)
Chinese (traditional)
Cyrillic
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Turkish
Unicode
Vietnamese
Western European

FAQ

Q: Why do I experience an error message when I try to activate Sky Fax service from the Add-on Features screen?
A: If your Sky Fax service was activated prior to May 1, 2014, you may see an error message if you try to activate Sky Fax again from the Add-on Features screen. If this occurs, please contact Support.

Q: Does the Sky Fax service support TLS encryption?
A: Yes, Sky Fax supports TLS encryption, but this encryption is not required. Additionally, a customer's mail server is responsible for enforcing encryption.

Q: When sending or receiving faxes, why does an email signature image appear on its own page?
A: All images, whether embedded in the body or signature area of an email, are treated the same as a file attachment, which is displayed on its own page when faxing. To prevent a signature image from generating its own page, remove any images that display with your signature before sending a fax.

Q: Can I enable multiple users to send and receive faxes using the same fax number?
A: Yes, however, each user who requires this functionality must have active Sky Fax service. See the Add or Remove Users section of this article for instructions to add each desired user to this service.

Q: What fax solutions are available?
A: Please see the list of Supported Configurations listed in our Fax article.

Q: Can I use my current fax machine?
A: Yes, you will need to use a fax machine if you do not have use of a scanner. The Sky Fax service eliminates the need for a fax machine when you have access to a scanner to scan and fax hard copies of documents that do not exist on your computer or are not a supported document type.

Q: Who will configure and install my fax solution?
A: The Sky team will configure the Sky Fax (email-to-fax) service. If not already installed, you will need to install your own fax machine or scanner. Note that a stand-alone POTS line is installed by your local telephone provider.

Q: What type of support is available for my fax solution?
A: Sky provides full-service support for the Sky Fax service, but does not provide support for a stand-alone POTS line or fax machine. Both phone support and on-site support is included with the Sky phone system. Most Sky Fax issues can be remotely resolved by our support team.

Q: What if the document I want to fax is not saved on my computer or is not a supported document type?
A: If the document is not saved on your computer, use a printed copy of the document and a scanner to save it on your computer as a supported document type. If the document is on your computer, but is not a supported document, you can either save the document as a supported document type, or you can print the document, use a scanner to scan it, and then save it as a supported document type.

Q: Can I keep my existing fax number?
A: Yes. All fax solutions allow you to "port" your current fax number to the Sky phone system.

Q: Is there a limit to how many attachments I can include in a fax email?
A: Yes, the combined total size of the fax email including all attachments, images, and any other embedded files cannot exceed 20 MB.

Q: When I send a word document as an attachment, why does the recipient only receive the cover page?
A: Check with your IT department to see if your email server is applying non-standard email headers. Email headers describe the content type, but if these headers are non-standard, the Sky servers will not be able to process the headers correctly. In the following examples, the green highlighted content-type in the Correct example will process correctly, while the yellow-highlighted content-type in the Incorrect example will not process correctly.

Correct

Content-type:application/msword;name="TEST FAX.docx"
Content-transfer-encoding: base64
Content-disposition: attachment; filename="TEST FAX.docx"

Incorrect

Content-type:application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document;name="TEST FAX.docx"
Content-transfer-encoding: base64
Content-disposition: attachment; filename="TEST FAX.docx"

Activate Service

Authorized Contacts (Decision Makers and Phone Managers) can do the following to activate the Sky Fax service in the Sky Account Portal.

1. Log in to https://portal.shoretelsky.com with your business email address (username) and user password.
2. Navigate to Phone System > Add-on Features
3. In the Add-on Features screen that appears, click the Activate button next to Email-Fax Box.
   • NOTE: If you do not see Email-Fax Box in the Add-on Features screen, see the Manage Settings section below.
4. In the Fax Settings dialog box that opens, review and modify settings as needed. You can remove the check mark from any of the options that you do not want applied to every new user added to the account.
   • For a list of settings, see the Edit Account Settings section of this article.
5. Click OK to save the settings.
6. Click OK again when asked to confirm the purchase of the license.

Manage Settings

Two fax platforms are supported, but self-service functionality is available for only one of these platforms at this time. Please note the following:

• If your Sky Fax service enables sending faxes to faxnumber@faxmail.com, an Authorized Contact (Decision Maker or Phone Manager) will continue to contact Sky Support to make any changes or additions to your Sky Fax service. You can also create a Support Case to communicate the necessary information to Support.

• If your Sky Fax service enables sending faxes to faxnumber@shoretelfax.com, you can now self-manage this service in the Add-on Features screen.

Your organization's Sky Fax service is built with default settings that are applied to every new user. Authorized Contacts (Decision Makers and Phone Managers) can manage settings for Sky Fax by using the instructions in the following Edit Account Settings, Add Users, Edit User Settings, and Remove Users sections:

NOTE: When viewing the Fax screen that appears after clicking the Manage button on the Add-on Features screen, the tabular formatted screen that opens enables you to customize your view of data on the screen. You can drag columns to different locations, change column width, and right-click within the column headings area to make selections to show or hide any of the columns of data that are displayed on the screen. Additionally, tabular formatted screens provide a "Multiple values search" field.

Edit Account Settings

Authorized Contacts - Use the following instructions to edit the account settings for new Sky Fax users. (Note that changing account-wide settings only affects newly added users, not existing users.)

1. Log in to https://portal.shoretelsky.com with your business email address (username) and user password.
2. Navigate to Phone System > Add-on Features
3. In the Add-on Features screen that appears, click the Settings button next to Email-Fax Box.
   • If you do not see a Settings button next to the Manage button, contact Support to change the default account settings that are applied to each new user.
4. In the Fax Settings dialog box that opens, the following option check boxes are selected by default. You can remove the check mark from any of these options that you do not want applied to every new user added to the account. (Note that existing users will retain their current settings.)
   • Include a cover page with your fax - Select this option to add a cover page to every fax that is sent
     • NOTE: See the Cover Page section of this article for details about the content that is included in the system generated cover page. Not selecting the "Include cover page with your fax" check box allows a user to include a custom cover page instead of the default cover page. However, the order of attachments in the fax email is not always the order in which the attachments are printed by the fax machine. This is important to note in cases where a user attaches a separate file that is intended as a cover page, but is not always printed first when a fax is delivered.
   • Get a confirmation when a fax is sent - Select this option to enable the user to receive a confirmation email for every fax that is sent
   • Get a confirmation when a fax is received - Select this option to enable the user to receive a confirmation email for every fax that is received
   • Notify of changes - Select the "Send email notification" option to enable the user (and optionally others) to receive a notification email whenever changes are made to these settings.
5. Click OK to save the changes.

Add Users

Authorized Contacts - Use the following instructions to add users to your Sky Fax service:

1. Log in to https://portal.shoretelsky.com with your business email address (username) and user password.
2. Navigate to Phone System > Add-on Features
3. In the Add-on Features screen that appears, click the Manage button next to Email-Fax Box.
4. In the Fax screen, click the Add button, which opens the Add Fax User wizard displaying the Select User panel.
5. Use the Name and Email search fields to find and select the desired user.
6. Click Next, which displays the Settings panel.
7. Select the check box next to each of the desired options shown below:
   • Include Cover - Select this check box to create a cover page for all faxes that are sent (using the subject and body of the fax email)
   • Confirm Sent - Select this check box to enable the user to receive a confirmation email for every fax that is sent
   • Confirm Receipt - Select this check box to enable the user to receive a confirmation email for every fax that is received
8. Click Next, which displays the Select Numbers panel.
9. Select the check boxes next to each of the desired fax numbers that the selected user needs to use for this email-to-fax service. Both unassigned and assigned numbers can be selected (the same fax number can be assigned to multiple users if desired). Each fax number assigned to a user provides up to 500 fax pages (combined sent and received) per month.
10. Click Next, which displays the Summary panel.
11. Review the details for the selected Fax service.
12. Click OK, then click OK again when asked to confirm the purchase of the Sky Fax license.

Edit User Settings

Authorized Contacts - Use the following instructions to edit individual user settings for your Sky Fax service:

1. Log in to https://portal.shoretelsky.com with your business email address (username) and user password.
2. Navigate to Phone System > Add-on Features
3. In the Add-on Features screen that appears, click the Manage button next to Email-Fax Box.
4. In the Fax screen that opens, which displays a list of active users, to find the desired user, you can filter your view of data displayed on the screen by doing the following:
   • Users - To find a specific user, type search criteria in the Name, Email, and Fax Number columns, filter by selecting the check box for Cover, Confirm Sent, and Confirm Receipt, and sort users by clicking any of the column headings.
     • NOTE: If you do not see the Name, Email, or Fax Number columns displayed on the screen, right-click within the column headings area and select the check boxes next to the unselected column(s).
   • Locations - To view users from a particular location, select the desired address from the "All locations" drop-down menu (located above the toolbar).
5. When you find the desired user, you can select from the following:
   • Disable options - See the Remove Users section below for instructions explaining how to use the Disable Fax Number and Disable User options.
   • Edit current fax options: Click within any of the Cover, Confirm Sent, or Confirm Receipt columns to display a check box, then click the check box to change the current setting. Note the following for these options (which are applicable to all fax numbers assigned to the selected user):
     • Cover - Select this check box to include a cover page to every fax that is sent.
       • NOTE: See the Cover Page section of this article for details about the content that is included in the system generated cover page. Not selecting the "Include cover page with your fax" check box allows a user to include a custom cover page instead of the default cover page. However, the order of attachments in the fax email is not always the order in which the attachments are printed by the fax machine. This is important to note in cases where a user attaches a separate file that is intended as a cover page, but is not always printed first when a fax is delivered.
         • Confirm Sent - Select this check box to enable the user to receive a confirmation email for every fax that is sent
         • Confirm Receipt - Select this check box to enable the user to receive a confirmation email for every fax that is received.
   • Add numbers / Edit email address / Select fax options - Right-click anywhere in the row of the desired user and select the Edit Fax User Settings option to do the following in the Edit Fax User Settings dialog that opens:
     • Add additional fax number(s) - Select the desired number(s) from the Available Fax Numbers panel.
       • NOTE: Both unassigned and assigned numbers can be selected (the same fax number can be assigned to multiple users if desired). Each fax number assigned to a user provides up to 500 fax pages (combined sent and received) per month.
     • Edit the email address used to send and receive faxes - Use the Fax Email Address field to update the existing email address.
     • Select the desired fax options (applicable to all fax numbers assigned to the selected user) - In the Settings panel, select the check boxes next to the desired options, which include Include Cover, Confirm Sent, and Confirm Receipt. See Edit current fax options above for details about each option.

Remove Users

Authorized Contacts - Use the following instructions to remove users from your Sky Fax service:

1. Log in to https://portal.shoretelsky.com with your business email address (username) and user password.
2. Navigate to Phone System > Add-on Features
3. On the Add-on Features screen that appears, click the Manage button next to Email-Fax Box.
4. On the Fax screen, which displays a list of active users, search for the desired user.
   • You can also sort users by clicking any of the column headings.
5. When you find the desired user, right-click anywhere in the row of the user and choose one of the following options:
   • Disable User - Select the Disable User option to remove the user from this service and close all of the user's associated fax numbers.
   • Disable Fax Number - Select the Disable Fax Number option to close only the selected fax number.
6. Click OK to confirm the delete.

NOTE: When multiple users are assigned to the same fax number, if the fax number is disabled for one user, the service remains active for the other users.

Fax Usage

The Fax Usage screen enables Decision Makers, Phone Managers, and Billing Contacts to search for and optionally export usage data related to all users of your organization's Sky Fax service.

Fax Server Content Retention Policy

Faxes sent through the Sky Fax system are stored within the fax server for up to 30 days before being deleted. This system is protected by various layers of security including a firewall.