Using MiCloud Connect Fax

MiCloud Connect Fax is an email-to-fax service. With MiCloud Connect Fax, users receive incoming faxes in their email Inbox and send outbound faxes as email attachments.

MiCloud  Fax includes the following 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:
  • Any text that you type in the subject and body of an 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 emails.
• Delivery confirmation can be sent via email.
• The use of paper for faxing can be reduced or eliminated.
• For information regarding page limits and overages, see MiCloud Usage and Overage Charges, Rates, and Fees

Fax Server Content Retention Policy: Faxes sent through the MiCloud/Sky Fax system are stored on the server for up to 30 days before being deleted. This system is protected by various layers of security, including a firewall.

Sending a Fax

You can use MiCloud Connect Fax to send a fax via email. For information about the cover page included with your fax, see Using a Cover Page.

1. 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 for examples
     The country code for the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean is "1"
   • use digits only; do NOT use dashes
3. Attach the file(s) you want to fax; see Attaching Documents for more information.
4. Click Send.

NOTE: If attempts to send faxes to international fax numbers are not successful, contact Support.

Using a 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 differently, depending on the level at which it is set.

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 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 email address the fax was sent to
• 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 document that you attach, such as a Word doc, Excel file, or JPEG image, will follow the cover page; each document will start 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, include only one attachment per fax. The Fax system uses the first page of the attachment as the fax cover page.

NOTE: If the cover page option is not selected, the body of the email must be empty. Any content in the body of the email will cause the fax to fail silently without a non-delivery notice.

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 and does not contain the cover page. For example, if you attach three PDF files (files A, B, and C) to an email, 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. Therefore, 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 as many documents and other files as you want to the email you are faxing, just as you do when attaching documents to regular emails. Here are some tips to facilitate successful faxing:

• The total file size for all attachments (combined) cannot exceed 20MB.
• Do not send password-protected documents. The 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 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 website. 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 substitutes another font.

Supported Document Types

NOTE: If you need to use MiCloud Connect 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.

Using Your Email Address Book for Faxing

MiCloud Connect 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 with a distinct name that indicates the message is going out as a fax; for example, "Janet's Fax".
   If Janet already has a traditional email address stored in your address book, the entry "Janet's Fax" helps you easily differentiate between Janet’s email address and fax number, and you can decide whether to send the email to one or the other or both.
2. For the email address, type the recipient’s fax number followed by @shoretelfax.com (for example, 17321234567@shoretelfax.com).
   See Sending a Fax for information about formatting the fax email address.
   To send a fax to this person, just compose an email and send it to their "fax" email address using the “fax” address book entry you created.
   For example, send your email to "Janet's Fax" to reach her fax machine.

TIP: You can send a fax to a person's fax number and email address at the same time by adding both addresses in the "To:" area of your fax email.

Fax Retry Schedules

The MiCloud Connect Fax service makes several attempts to deliver your fax to overcome common delivery obstacles such as busy signals, fax machines that ring but do not answer, and so on. This is done automatically by the  Fax network at no extra cost to you. On the standard fax retry schedule, the Fax network attempts delivery for approximately 15 minutes before ceasing attempts and emailing a non-delivery notice describing the problem that the network encountered.

• 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.
  NOTE: The total file size for all attachments (combined) cannot exceed 20MB.
• 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.

The current version of MiCloud Connect Fax supports email text and documents in English, plus the following languages: