Patent ID: 7576882

Claim:
A facsimile machine comprising: a scanner component operable to scan a physical document into a digital file; a printer component operable to print a digital file into a physical document; a facsimile component operable to receive a scanned digital file from the scanner component and to receive a telephone number associated with the scanned digital file, the facsimile component further operable to send a digital file to the printer component for printing; a local area network interface in communication with the facsimile component and a local area network, the local area network interface operable to communicate digital files from the facsimile component to a local area network and to communicate digital files from the local area network to the facsimile component; and a facsimile module associated with the local area network and interfaced with a telephone network, the facsimile module operable to receive the scanned digital file and associated telephone number from the facsimile component through the local area network and to send the scanned digital file to the associated telephone number through the telephone network, the facsimile module further operable to receive digital files as facsimiles from the telephone network and to forward the received digital files to the facsimile component through the local area network.