Clive Long
25th-April-2005, 08:49 PM
A question for you Web heads.
A friend wants to receive in-bound fax as email and also get a mobile alert when the email arrives. Sending fax from email is secondary need.
Now, I know one can receive fax as email using JFax or Puma (and others). I know subscription services allow email to fax.
Also I know that some email services allow one to send SMS alerts when emails are received that match certain criteria - e.g. senders domain = "something"
However, I feel this solution that receipt of the email to trigger an SMS is clunky and prone to failure of one of the elements in the chain. Are such SMS alert services actually quite reliable and "speedy"? Anyone use them regularly?
Is there a "slicker" more "direct" solution" to deliver to the mobile the alert that email has arrived?
I am thinking WAPMail (much discredited) but I can't think how the service would be "presented" to the user. That is, would an inbound email "automatically" trigger an alert on the phone which when clicked would open the inbound email? Would one have to use particular email provider or could the mobile directly access her existing ISP and email account and still get the mobile alert?
An extra feature of using WAPMail is my friend could easily acknowledge receipt of the fax by sending a simple reponse email from the phone.
Any "better" solution?
What's the international (European) coverage for such services i.e. will the solution probably only get necessary coverage in an urban area?
Ta
Clive
A friend wants to receive in-bound fax as email and also get a mobile alert when the email arrives. Sending fax from email is secondary need.
Now, I know one can receive fax as email using JFax or Puma (and others). I know subscription services allow email to fax.
Also I know that some email services allow one to send SMS alerts when emails are received that match certain criteria - e.g. senders domain = "something"
However, I feel this solution that receipt of the email to trigger an SMS is clunky and prone to failure of one of the elements in the chain. Are such SMS alert services actually quite reliable and "speedy"? Anyone use them regularly?
Is there a "slicker" more "direct" solution" to deliver to the mobile the alert that email has arrived?
I am thinking WAPMail (much discredited) but I can't think how the service would be "presented" to the user. That is, would an inbound email "automatically" trigger an alert on the phone which when clicked would open the inbound email? Would one have to use particular email provider or could the mobile directly access her existing ISP and email account and still get the mobile alert?
An extra feature of using WAPMail is my friend could easily acknowledge receipt of the fax by sending a simple reponse email from the phone.
Any "better" solution?
What's the international (European) coverage for such services i.e. will the solution probably only get necessary coverage in an urban area?
Ta
Clive