Upon successful completing the sign up process, you must login to your fax service user account for the first time to activate your service. Once you login to your account, your service will be activated and you will be able to start receiving faxes through the fax number that you have chosen during the sign up process. Your login and password information is included in the sign up confirmation email, which is emailed to you after the sign up process is completed. If you did not receive your sign up confirmation email, it is likely that you have an email spam/junk filter that might be filtering out emails sent by Packetel. If you suspect that this might be the case, please refer to the section 'Issues Regarding Spam/Junk Email Filters' in this User Guide for more information.
After you have adjusted your spam/junk filter to allow our emails to come through, please visit our 'Forgot Your Password?' page to request for another copy of your login and password information to be sent to you in email.
Once you have received your sign up confirmation email, please follow the instructions in the email to login and activate your fax service. If you are having problems logging in, please make sure that you are entering your login and password exactly as they appear in the email (note that the Password field is case-sensitive).
Your user account contains information specific to your fax service. Therefore, it is important that you keep this information up to date during the length of your service. You can login to your user account from the Packetel main page or from any User Login link that is available.
Keeping Your Emails Up-To-Date
Since email is the main form of communication between you and Packetel, it is crucial that the email addresses we have on file is kept up-to-date. Please keep this in mind to ensure that your faxes and account-specific emails (such as 'Forgot Your Password?' and billing reminders) are delivered to you in a timely fashion.
Once you have logged in to your user account, please review and update all your emails on file under the Email tab. If any of these emails have changed, please make sure you login to your user account and update them at your earliest convenience:
Account Email - This is the email address where account-specific reminders will be sent to, such as 'Forgot Your Password?' and billing reminders.
1st Fax Email - This is the first email address where your faxes will be delivered to.
2nd Fax Email (Optional) - This is the second email address where your faxes will be delivered to.
Please note that you can specify up to two Fax Emails to receive your faxes. The first Fax Email field is required, while the second one is optional. If you specify both Fax Emails, you will receive all your faxes in both email addresses.
Changing Your Password and User Profile
You can modify your password and other user profile information under the Profile tab. After you have made your changes, please make sure you click the Save button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.
Making a Payment
Since our fax service uses a prepaid subscription model, you are required to renew your subscription by making a new payment before your current subscription period is over. If you choose to use the Automatic Payment option, your subscription will automatically renewed. Otherwise, to make a payment manually, login to your user account and click on the Payment tab. Follow the on-screen instructions to select a new subscription plan (or keep your current one) and complete the payment process.
For more details on our subscription renewal process, please refer to the section 'Renewing Your Subscription' below.
When your subscription period is over, you can renew your subscription in one of two ways:
Use the Automatic Payment option (recommended) - if you choose to use our Automatic Payment option, we will automatically renew your subscription by charging your credit card or PayPal account before your subscription period is over. You can activate this option during the signup process, or you can log in to your user account and activate this option under the Payment tab at any time.
Make a manual one-time payment - you can log in to your user account and make a one-time payment using your credit card or PayPal. When you renew your subscription manually, you may choose to renew using any of the subscription plans listed above.
Please note that if you choose not to use the Automatic Payment option, we will not renew your subscription by automatically charging your credit card or PayPal account when your subscription period is over. In order to continue your service with us, you must log in to your account and make a new payment.
For example, if you signed up with the 3 month plan, we will charge you $11.85 (one-time) at the beginning of the 3 month period. During the 3 month period, no further charges will be posted to your credit card or PayPal account. At the end of the 3 month period, you must login to your user account and renew your subscription in order to continue the service.
We will send you regular billing summaries each month to your Account Email to keep you informed about your subscription status. When your subscription period is over, we will send you two final billing reminders (one week and one day prior to the end of your subscription period). If you choose not to use the Automatic Payment option and do not renew your subscription by making a new payment, your service will become inactive, and faxes sent to your fax number will no longer be delivered to you.
For more details on how to login to your user account to make a payment, please refer to the section 'Making A Payment' above.
How to Renew Your Subscription
Since our fax service uses a prepaid subscription model, you are required to renew your subscription by making a new payment before your current subscription period is over. If you choose to use the Automatic Payment option, your subscription will automatically renewed. Otherwise, to make a payment manually, login to your user account and click on the Payment tab. Follow the on-screen instructions to select a new subscription plan (or keep your current one) and complete the payment process.
Refer a friend to sign up for our fax service and each of you will get one month's worth of free credit (1 month's free service) after your friend signs up
There is NO LIMIT on how many friends you can refer and how much free credit you can get. The more friends you refer to us, the more free credit you will get!
How to Refer Your Friends
1. Login to your user account 2. Click on the Refer-A-Friend tab
3. Enter your friends' emails and names (up to 5 at a time)
4. Enter an optional personal message to your friends
5. Click the Send button to submit the page and that's it! 6.Repeat the process above if you have more than 5 friends to refer
In order for you to view your multiple-page fax file properly, you must use an appropriate fax viewer to open your faxes. This section lists out fax viewers that have been tested and approved by Packetel, and how you can configure your system to use them. Most of this section applies only to Microsoft Windows users. For Macintosh users, please refer to the subsection 'All Macintosh Users' located at the end of this section.
How To Select Your Fax Delivery Format (PDF or TIF/TIFF)
Faxes can be delivered to you in one of the following two formats:
Adobe PDF Format
Windows TIF/TIFF Format
In order to select your fax delivery format (PDF or TIF/TIFF), please login to your user account and select the desired fax delivery format under the Email/Fax Format Settings tab. Depending on the fax delivery format you have chosen, different fax viewers may be required.
Use An Appropriate Fax Viewer for the Adobe PDF Format (for both Windows and Macintosh Users)
If you have chosen to receive your faxes in PDF format, you can view them using the Adobe Reader. This applies to both Windows and Macintosh users.
Use An Appropriate Fax Viewer for the TIF/TIFF Format (for Windows Users Only)
If you have chosen to receive your faxes in TIF/TIFF format, the faxes that you receive are delivered as TIF/TIFF file email attachments. However, these TIF/TIFF files are specifically formatted for fax viewing, and you can only use viewer applications specifically designed for viewing faxes to open them. Depending on the Microsoft Windows version that you have, there should be at least one of the following fax-viewing applications that are already installed in your system:
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
Imaging Preview
Imaging for Windows
For most Windows systems you should not have to install these programs or perform any configuration procedures. However, if you are having problems viewing your faxes, or if you have recently installed programs which 'steals' the TIF/TIFF file extensions (such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat Reader, QuickTime, or many other graphics viewers), you might need to follow the instructions below to reconfigure your computer to open your faxes with the appropriate fax viewer.
Please note that using any programs other than the fax viewers suggested above will not display your faxes properly.
Find Out Which Fax Viewer Application You Are Using
To find out which program you are using to view your faxes, simply open a TIF fax attachment (from any fax email that you have received through our fax service) by double clicking on it, and see which program is being used (pay attention to the top-left corner of the window that shows the fax). Check to see if the program name reads 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer', 'Imaging Preview', or 'Imaging for Windows'. If so, then you are using an appropriate fax viewer. If not, please follow the instructions below to configure your computer to use the appropriate viewer.
Windows XP Users
1. Please go under 'File Types' (from 'Start' -> 'Control Panel' -> 'Folder Options') 2. There should be a list called 'Registered file types' where you can scroll
3. Please scroll down to the TIF and TIFF entries
4. Highlight the 'TIF entry' and click the 'Change...' button
5. A new list should come up, allowing you to select which program to open your TIF files 6. Scroll down until you see either 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer', or 'Imaging Preview', or 'Imaging'
7. Highlight 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer' (or one of the other 2 programs listed above), then click 'OK'
8. Repeat the same process for the TIFF file type. Finally, click 'OK' to close the 'Folder Options' dialog box
Next time you double-click to open our TIF file attachments, you should be using our suggested programs to open them.
Windows 2000 Users
1. Please go under 'File Types' (from 'Start' -> 'Control Panel' -> 'Folder Options') 2. There should be a list called 'Registered file types' where you can scroll
3. Please scroll down to the TIF and TIFF entries
4. Highlight the 'TIF entry' and click the 'Change...' button
5. A new list should come up, allowing you to select which program to open your TIF files 6. Scroll down until you see either 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer', or 'Imaging Preview', or 'Imaging'
7. Highlight 'Imaging Preview' (or one of the other 2 programs listed above), then click 'OK'
8. Repeat the same process for the TIFF file type. Finally, click 'OK' to close the 'Folder Options' dialog box
Next time you double-click to open our TIF file attachments, you should be using our suggested programs to open them.
Windows Me/98 Users
1. Please save any Packetel fax file (an email attachment with a .TIF extension) to your computer 2. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer, and locate the Packetel fax file you just saved
3. Highlight the Packetel fax file and right-click to choose the 'Open With' option. If 'Open With' is not an option, hold down the SHIFT key while right-clicking the entry. 'Open With' should now be an option
4. The 'Open With' dialog box should come up, allowing you to select which program to open your TIF files
5. Scroll down until you see 'KodakImg' 6. Highlight 'KodakImg', click the check box that says, 'Always use this program to open this type of file', and then click 'OK'
Next time you double-click to open our TIF file attachments, you should be using our suggested programs to open them.
All Macintosh Users
There are no built-in TIF/TIFF fax viewers in the Macintosh operating systems. In order to view our faxes, please use the utilities 'NIH Image', 'Tiff Sight', or 'Graphic Converter'.
You can download all of the above fax viewing utilities from the external web site http://phoenix.gov/tiffview.html (only if you do not already own any of these programs).
Spam/junk email filters set by you or your email service provider might inadvertently filter out emails sent to you by Packetel. To ensure that you will receive your incoming faxes, sign up confirmation email, 'Forgot Your Password?' reminders, and billing reminders, your spam/junk email filters must accept the following emails:
billing@packetel.com
pfax@pfax.packetel.com
support@packetel.com
General Instructions
In most cases, in order to accept emails sent from the addresses listed above, you can either add them into your address book or to your trusted email whitelist/safelist. If you cannot find our emails in your email's Inbox, you can:
1. Try to locate our emails in your Spam, Junk, or Bulk mail folder
2. If you find them in the folders listed above, try to identify them as 'Not Spam' or 'Not Junk' emails
3. Add our emails (listed above) to your address book or email whitelist/safelist 4. In some cases, you can simply add our domain 'packetel.com' to the whitelist/safelist to allow all emails sent from Packetel to come through. In this case, there is no need to add our emails to the list individually
However, due to the large number of email filters that exist in the market today, these general suggestions might or might
not apply to your situation. Included below are more specific instructions that apply to the more popular email services.
If your email service is not provided by these providers, please contact your specific provider for the necessary
documentation or instructions.
AOL Users
For AOL users, adding our emails (listed above) to your AOL address book will allow our emails to come through. If this method does not resolve your problem, please contact AOL for more specific instructions.
Yahoo! Mail Users
For Yahoo! Mail users, please follow these instructions:
1. Go to your Bulk mail folder by clicking the Bulk folder link on the left
2. Locate one of our emails in your Bulk mail folder
3. Open the email and click on the 'Not Spam' button near the top or bottom of the message 4. Once you do this, the email will be moved to your Inbox. Repeat the same steps for all other Packetel emails that you can find in your Bulk folder 5. Add our emails (listed above) to your Yahoo! address book
From this point on, emails sent from Packetel should end up in your Inbox rather than your Bulk folder. However, if you think there are missing emails sent by Packetel in the future, please check your Bulk folder again and repeat the suggested steps.
Hotmail Users
For Hotmail users, please follow these instructions:
1. Go to your Junk E-Mail folder by clicking the Junk E-Mail folder link on the left
2. Locate one of our emails in your Junk E-Mail mail folder
3. Open the email and click on the 'Not Junk' button near the top of the message 4. Once you do this, the email will be moved to your Inbox. Repeat the same steps for all other Packetel emails that you can find in your Junk E-Mail folder
You should also add our domain name, 'packetel.com', to your Safe List to ensure reliable email delivery. To do that:
1. Go to the 'Options' page (the link is located at the top-right corner)
2.Click on 'Safe List'
3. Enter our domain, 'packetel.com', into the input box 4.Click the 'Add' button. Our domain is now added to your Safe List
From this point on, emails sent from Packetel should end up in your Inbox rather than your Junk E-Mail folder. However, if you think there are missing emails sent by Packetel in the future, please check your Junk E-Mail folder again and repeat the suggested steps.
