Fax modem

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A fax modem enables a computer to transmit and receive documents as faxes on a telephone line. A fax modem is similar to a data modem but is designed to transmit and receive documents to and from a fax machine or another fax modem. Some, but not all, fax modems do double duty as data modems. As with other modems, fax modems can be internal or external. Internal fax modems are often called fax boards.

In the early 1990s small business PCs commonly had a PC-based fax/modem card and fax software (typically WinFax Pro). Largely replaced by email, PC-based faxing with a fax/modem declined at the turn of the century. Where faxing from a PC is required there are a number of Internet-based faxing alternatives. Where businesses still had one or more traditional fax machines churning out pages, they were usually outnumbered by PCs processing E-mail.