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.
Additional Fax Emails (Optional) - This are the other email addresses where your faxes will be delivered to.
Please note that you can specify multiple Fax Emails to receive your faxes. The first Fax Email field is required, while the additional ones are optional. If you specify more than one Fax Emails, you will receive all your faxes in all email addresses.
Setting up Fax Alert
Our pFax Alert™ feature allows you to receive a text message (SMS notification) on your cellular phone whenever a fax arrives. Once you have purchased the Fax Alert feature, you access your Fax Alert settings under the Email tab.
Enable/Disable Fax Alert - The Enable check box allows you to temporarily turn this feature on or off. When this feature is turned off, no text messages (SMS notifications) will be sent to the corresponding cellular phone number.
Cellular phone number - This is the cellular phone number where you want your text messages (SMS notifications) to be sent to when your faxes arrive.
Cellular phone company - This is the cellular phone company that your cellular number belongs to.
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. Back To Top
Configuring Your System for Viewing Faxes
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
Please go under 'File Types' (from 'Start' -> 'Control Panel' -> 'Folder Options')
There should be a list called 'Registered file types' where you can scroll
Please scroll down to the TIF and TIFF entries
Highlight the 'TIF entry' and click the 'Change...' button
A new list should come up, allowing you to select which program to open your TIF files
Scroll down until you see either 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer', or 'Imaging Preview', or 'Imaging'
Highlight 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer' (or one of the other 2 programs listed above), then click 'OK'
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
Please go under 'File Types' (from 'Start' -> 'Control Panel' -> 'Folder Options')
There should be a list called 'Registered file types' where you can scroll
Please scroll down to the TIF and TIFF entries
Highlight the 'TIF entry' and click the 'Change...' button
A new list should come up, allowing you to select which program to open your TIF files
Scroll down until you see either 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer', or 'Imaging Preview', or 'Imaging'
Highlight 'Imaging Preview' (or one of the other 2 programs listed above), then click 'OK'
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
Please save any Packetel fax file (an email attachment with a .TIF extension) to your computer
Open Windows Explorer or My Computer, and locate the Packetel fax file you just saved
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
The 'Open With' dialog box should come up, allowing you to select which program to open your TIF files
Scroll down until you see 'KodakImg'
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:
Try to locate our emails in your Spam, Junk, or Bulk mail folder
If you find them in the folders listed above, try to identify them as 'Not Spam' or 'Not Junk' emails
Add our emails (listed above) to your address book or email whitelist/safelist
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:
Go to your Bulk mail folder by clicking the Bulk folder link on the left
Locate one of our emails in your Bulk mail folder
Open the email and click on the 'Not Spam' button near the top or bottom of the message
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
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:
Go to your Junk E-Mail folder by clicking the Junk E-Mail folder link on the left
Locate one of our emails in your Junk E-Mail mail folder
Open the email and click on the 'Not Junk' button near the top of the message
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:
Go to the 'Options' page (the link is located at the top-right corner)
Click on 'Safe List'
Enter our domain, 'packetel.com', into the input box
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.
You can send faxes by logging in to your user account and select the Send Fax tab. Simply enter the destination fax number (the fax number where you want to fax your document to), and select a file that is currently stored on your computer. Once you click the Send Fax button, your file will be automatically faxed to the fax number you specified.
Document types that we currently support include txt, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, vsd, jpeg, jpg, bmp, gif, png, tif, tiff, pdf.
Faxes sent are charged on a per-page basis (click here to view our send fax per-page rates). Charges for sending faxes are deducted from the send fax balance, which is separate from the subscription balance for receiving faxes. This ensures that your service for receiving faxes remain uninterrupted even if your send fax balance runs low. You can replenish your send fax balance at any time by
logging in to your account and add credit for sending faxes. Please note that our Automatic Payment Option for renewing your service only renews your subscription for receiving faxes.
