Patent ID: 7440463

Claim:
An Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)-Internet Network Access/Service Provider device comprising: a fax gateway including, a storage device to store an e-mail message received from an e-mail sender for transmission to a fax recipient through a packet switching network, the stored e-mail message to be converted to a fax document for transmission thereof to the fax recipient; a database to store a fax number of the fax recipient where the fax number is to be associated with information corresponding to the e-mail message where the information corresponding to the e-mail message is independent of the fax number; and at least one fax modem device to transmit the fax document to the fax recipient through a public switching network, where the fax number designating the fax recipient is to be obtained separately from the e-mail message by associating the information corresponding to the e-mail message with the fax number stored in the database.