We have found the most efficient way to broadcast is to take your broadcast document and format it as a cover page. Then broadcast this cover page with no body. This makes for a short fax, much appreciated by recipients. NEVER use more of the recipient's paper than absolutely necessary.

Most "do it yourself" FAX broadcasters use Symantec's WinFax, which so dominates the Windows FAX market it might as well be the only one in that market. The WinFax people also run a FAX broadcast service, so they seem to have rigged their popular software to do a very poor job of broadcasting.

When we changed one client from WinFax to an OS/2 package, they were able to transmit at least twice as many faxes a night, and setting up their lists was a lot easier too. The OS/2 program can also handle multi-port FAX cards so it can be transmitting on 2 or 4 lines at the same time to increase volume.

There are laws regulating transmission of "junk FAX", so be aware of them or you could get into trouble. Basically, you fax to firms you already have some sort of business relationship with or from whom you have asked permission to fax something. Transmitting to other members of a group, such as a Chamber of Commerce, seems sufficient for some broadcasters.

I have noticed people sending us broadcast FAX very tightly target their transmissions. We rarely get fax that doesn't relate to our business. This makes sense, because the phone call does cost the sender money, even though it uses the recipient's paper. This is in marked contrast to junk email. I also find the faxes far easier to process. At a glance I can get more information from a fax than I could taking minutes to read an email.