Sorry to hear you have had trouble with E-fax.  I have heard from others how great they are.  I have never used them.  I did a lot of research before I switched to an e-mail/fax service and it was really hard to tell who was most reliable.  They all pretty much tout the same features and there are plenty of positive comments about all of them.

We decided on DataOnCall and have never had any problems with sending or receiving.  Before we made that switch, we used WinFax and dual fax modems connected to two dedicated fax lines.  The phone lines were very expensive, and we have actually saved money since switching to DataOnCall.  We were able to get rid of two physical phone lines, long distance, plus we got a toll-free fax number for our clients.  We were also glad to get rid of WinFax - it was great when we first started using it, but I don't think it has been updated in several years and it kept locking up the fax modems and nothing could come in or go out.  We were constantly re-booting the computer.  We haven't had an "old school" fax macine in over 5 years - its been GREAT!

[Just checked and it looks like DataOnCall is now Fax.com]

For our phones, we switched to Vonage.  When we first got it, it worked OK, but the quality was not quite as good as our old phone lines.  Then we really started having problems; it seemed that almost half our calls were one-way.  We could hear the caller, but they couldn't hear us. 

Our set-up is far from typical.  With a DSL or cable modem, you would normally connect directly to the Vonage device then to your inside network.  However, we don't have DSL or cable Internet, we have a T1 line.  Therefore, it was necessary for us to connect the Vonage device to our router/firewall.  It took some complicated set-up to get it resolved, but everything seems fine now.  We have the occasional "bad connection" that cuts out a bit like a cell phone might.  But, we are saving over $200/month so I can overlook that.  For $110/mo we have two lines and no long distance charges. 

As I stated above, we have a cordless expandable handset two-line Panasonic phone system so we only have to have the base unit connected to the Vonage device and we all have handsets on our desks.  That part works great.

I'm not sure I would recommend Vonage, like I said we have had some problems and the solution was a little complicated.  But, all of the above have been a necessary part of our cost cutting measures.  We have to something to reduce our overhead and I think we made the right decisions.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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