For those of you who don’t know, XDrive is an online backup service offered by AOL. You can get 5GB of storage for FREE (or for $99 a year you get 50GB). They offer both a web based file upload system or a program that you install on your PC. Whats nice about XDrive is through their interface you can send a outbound fax for free with no advertisements and I’m going to show you how using the web interface.

Once you have logged onto your XDrive account and launched the interface you should see you accounts folders. I created a new folder in XDrive for faxes so they were easier to track. Highlight the folder you want to put the fax document in and click the ‘UPLOAD’ button in the right hand corner of the toolbar (see the image on the left). It should open up pop-up with a file upload interface such as the one in the image below below which is the basic interface… there is also an Accelerator Plus interface if you are going to be uploading many or very large files but I find the basic one works well for small files.

Once you have uploaded your file go back to the main interface screen. You should see the document you uploaded in the folder screen to the left. Check the box next to the file you would like to fax - it can be a text file, Word Document, Excel file, PDF, image file, or another printable document - then in the toolbar at the top click and hold on the ‘SEND FILE’ button (don’t just single click on it or it will automatically bring up the email file interface instead of the fax interface). A dropdown will appear and click on the “VIA FAX” button - see the image below.

This will bring up another popup window where you fill in the information for your fax. A cover page will be automatically generated based on this information and whatever email address you put in the ‘Sender’ section is where the email confirmation of the fax receipt will be sent. You can send the fax to multiple recipients by using the ‘Add’ button under the ‘Recipient’ section. When you have filled out the form click the ‘Send Now’ button. Click the thumbnail on the left for a larger image of the ‘Send Fax’ screen.

And thats it! You should receive an email shortly to the address you provided letting you know if the fax was delivered successfully or if there was an error. In case anyone is wondering what the cover letter looks like to see if its up to their standards, I faxed myself and its a very simple one with no ads or other embarrassment. Click the image below for a larger look at the cover page generated.