Click here to download FaxEmailHelper 1.3.1 for Mac OS X 10.3 to 10.4.1. FaxEmailHelper is donation ware.

LEOPARD COMPATABILITY: Unfortunately, changes that Apple has made in Leopard have not removed the need for FaxEmailHelper and have also been sufficient to cause FaxEmailHelper not to work. I do plan to release a Leopard compatible version of FaxEmailHelper. However, this is a very busy time for me in the job that puts bread on the table, and I do not expect to have time to devote to the task of rewriting FaxEmailHelper before the beginning of December.

TIGER COMPATABILITY: The current version of FaxEmailHelper will work with OSX 10.4 throught to 10.4.6 on both PowerPC and Intel (under Rosetta) Macintosh Computers.

If you have used FaxEmailHelper prior to upgrading to OSX 10.4, you will need to choose Recheck Configuration from the FaxEmailHelper menu as the upgrade to 10.4 will have undone some of the reconfiguration performed by FaxEmailHelper. Apple has incorporated some of the "corrections" made by FaxEmailHelper in 10.4 but has not provided a user interface for specifying the from address or a means of setting an SMTP relay host.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR OSX 10.4.7 & 10.4.8: In this upgrade, Apple introduced some changes which cause the SMTP configuration textbox in FaxEmailHelper to be initially disabled. To enable it, choose Enable SMTP configuration ... from the FaxEmailHelper Menu. A warning dialog will appear, but you should allow the changes to be made unless you have configured your machine as a mail-server. [You will know if you have done this. In that case, you should read the technical information in the Help menu and use it to work out the changes you need to make to your configuration yourself and make them manually to avoid any possible conflicts with your mail-server set up.]

USEFUL TIP: If you want your faxes to be sent to multiple addresses, this can be easily accomplished. If, for instance, you wanted them to be sent to user1@domain1.com and to user2@domain2.com, you should type <user1@domain1.com,user2@domain2.com> in the To: field in the Print & Fax System Preferences window. The comma and the absence of spaces are essential.

FaxEmailHelper does 6 things:

• It fixes some configuration problems, usually due to upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3 from earlier versions of the operating system. In particular, it fixes the problems mentioned in

  • Mac OS X 10.3: Can't Send or Receive Faxes Without "/var/spool/lock Folder" -- http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n25676 and
  • Mac OS X 10.3: "/spool/cups/" Alert When Printing or Faxing -- http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n25623
• Fixes a bug in Mac OS X 10.3 - 10.3.1 which prevents many email clients (including Mail) from recognizing the attachment to the emailed fax.
• Fixes a bug in Mac OS X 10.3.2 - 10.3.3 which prevented many users behind a firewall from forwarding faxes by email.
• Allows you to specify the e-mail address from which faxed appear to be forwarded. Without this, the fax appears to come from FaxNotify@your.machine and many ISPs will reject such mail as it comes from an invalid address.
• Allows you to specify an outgoing mail server to be used for fax forwarding. Without this, the fax is forwarded directly from your computer and many ISPs will reject such mail from an untrusted mail server. Advanced settings allow you to specify a non-standard port and or authentication method if required.
• Allows you to simulate what will happen when a fax is received, so you can test that everything is working as expected.