WO1998023082A1

WO1998023082A1 - Facsimile transmission via packet switched data networks

Info

Publication number: WO1998023082A1
Application number: PCT/US1997/020541
Authority: WO
Inventors: Richard L. Anglin, Jr.; Edward A. Kent
Original assignee: International Data Forwarders, Llc
Priority date: 1996-11-22
Filing date: 1997-11-19
Publication date: 1998-05-28
Also published as: US5892591A; AU5433698A

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for transmitting documents and messages using the Internet are disclosed. Destination information (46) contained on a document (40) is automatically interpreted by an ICR character reader (36). A remote computer (10) then routes the document to a destination facisimile machine (16) using a packet switched network (12).

Description

Facsimile Transmission Via Packet Switched Data Networks

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the field of facsimile transmissions. More particularly, this invention provides novel methods and apparatus for enabling users of traditional facsimile machines to utilize high speed packet switched data communications networks for the transmission of facsimile communications. Utilization of the present invention can increase the speed of facsimile transmission, as well as lower the overall cost of transmissions.

BACKGROUND ART The pace of business, whether domestic or international, is accelerating. At the same time the geography of business has become increasingly global and its morphology more complex and intertwined. Time and information are the most precious commodities of business today. Hence, the tremendous increase in the use of facsimile transmissions, in many cases supplanting postal services. Pitney Bowes Corporation Facsimile Systems Division commissioned The Gallup Organization for three consecutive years (1992-1994) to conduct market research to determine a measurement of facsimile usage and applications of daily facsimile users at Fortune 500 Corporations and Dun & Bradstreet mid-sized companies in the United States. The Gallup Organization randomly sampled four hundred (400) daily facsimile users at Fortune 500 companies during the first quarter of each of the four going three years. In 1993 Dun & Bradstreet mid-sized companies (100 - 500 employees) were added to the study.

In 1994 the majority of facsimile users at both Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies stated that their facsimile utilization had increased over the past year and that it would increase in the coming years. The average daily outgoing facsimile volume for a typical facsimile user at a Fortune 500 company averaged 41.4 documents per day from 1992 to 1994, averaging 4.7 pages per facsimile transmission.

Thus, a typical user at a Fortune 500 company averaged approximately two hundred (200) pages of facsimile transmission per day during this period. During the same period a typical user at a mid-sized company sent an average of 33.8 documents per day via facsimile averaging 3.5 pages per document. The utilization of facsimile transmissions by typical users at mid-sized companies was approximately one hundred twenty (120) pages per day.

Eleven percent (11%) of Fortune 500 and seven percent (7%) of mid-sized company facsimiles were sent to international destinations outside the United States during the period of the survey. The top five countries were the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Canada and Mexico. It is interesting to note that no Asian countries were listed other than Japan. The same survey taken today would undoubtedly show higher facsimile transmission rates to Asia. Only five percent (5%) of 1994 Fortune 500 and two percent (2%) of mid-sized company users reported sending facsimile transmissions during the evening or night when dialing rates are cheaper.

In the first quarter of 1994 The Gallup Organization undertook a survey Fortune 500 telecommunication managers focused on facsimile costs and management policies. Fortune 500 telecommunications managers reported that thirty-six percent (36%) of their total telephone charges were related to facsimile transmissions, twenty point one percent (20.1%) for long distance and five percent (5%) for international. International long-distance is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over fourteen percent (14%) over the next two to three years. Half of the Fortune 500 companies expected their facsimile charges to increase in the coming years by an average of twelve percent (12%). These managers ranked facsimile as one of the most productive telecommunication systems within their company, second only to voice mail.

Fortune 500 companies spend on average $2.9 million per corporate location for annual telephone services. On this basis approximately one million dollars is spent annually per location for facsimile services of which approximately $600,000 is for long distance facsimile transmission and $150,000 is for international facsimile transmission.

Interestingly, even with the availability of electronic mail ("E-mail" or "e-mail") services and the ability to send facsimile transmissions directly from a personal computer ("PC") with a modem, hard copy, that is, using a traditional facsimile machine, facsimile transmissions continue to increase and are expected to do so for the coming years. Further, facsimile usage is just as high for companies that use e-mail as for those that do not.

To send a facsimile a person walks to the facsimile machine, inserts the document to be transmitted, dials the destination telephone number and activates the facsimile machine. The sending machine dials the receiving facsimile machine number and when it answers sends the document to the receiving machine. Traditional facsimile transmissions are sent over the Public Switched Telephone Network ("PSTN") just like a voice telephone call. Facsimile machines contain modems

(MODulator/DEModulator) which transmit and receive data transmissions over a voice telephone circuit. Like a voice telephone call, the entire end-to-end connection circuit capacity is devoted to the call for its duration.

The user pays the local and long-distance telephone company charges prevailing at the time he or she sends the facsimile transmission. This can be particularly expensive for international facsimile transmissions.

Advanced-featured facsimile machines, more expensive than basic machines, enable the user to store documents for transmission at a later time. This capability is constrained by the amount of memory in the facsimile machine in which to store documents and requires programming by the user. As is described above, deferred or delayed transmission is not widely utilized. For international transmissions the delay process is further complicated by the need to know or look-up the time periods in which cheaper international dialing rates apply, which are not often obvious. The most common modem speed in facsimile machines has been 9600 bits per second ("bps") for quite a long period of time. In many parts of the world, however, facsimile machines are still in use that transmit data at 4800 bps and slower speeds. Newer and more expensive facsimile machines today contain modems capable of operating at speeds up to 14,400 bps (14.4 kbps). However, the ability to use the higher speeds is dependent upon the quality of the telephone line connection between the originating and destination facsimile machines. The slower the speed of the modem, the longer it takes to send a facsimile transmission. In the United States today one page of text takes less than a minute to send; in some parts of the world the same page of text can take up to three minutes to send. The cost implications are obvious. What is today commonly referred to as the Internet began as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ("DARPA") project in 1969 (at that time "ARPA") entitled Resource Sharing Computer

Networks. The object of this project was to develop a robust network across the country that would keep military sites in communication in the event of a nuclear war. Since this project was funded by ARPA, it was generally referred to as ARPANET. The ARPANET, which operated until 1990, consisted entirely of 56 kbps lines linking sixteen cities across the United States. Its use was restricted to the United States Department of Defense ("DOD") and its contractors.

ARPANET was in every sense experimental. From 1969 to 1983 a lot of different packet switching schemes were tried. The term "Internet" was probably first applied to a 1973 research program that culminated in a demonstration system in 1977. It demonstrated networking through various media, including satellite, radio, telephone, ethernet and the like using packet switching. The Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol ("TCP/IP"), a packet switching protocol, is what grew out of

ARPANET'S experiments.

In 1984 the National Science Foundation ("NSF") established an office for networking with the objective of tying together universities and other research establishments. Their first efforts at a national backbone NSF Network ("NFSNet") was deployed in 1986 as a 56 kbps network. In 1987, NSF contracted with Merit, a non-profit corporation comprised of some eleven Michigan Universities, to build a national backbone network using T-l 1.544 Mbps links to sixteen cities. IBM and MCI joined together to form a subsidiary company entitled Advanced Network Services, Inc. ("ANS") and Merit awarded a subcontract to them to actually build a T-l network. In the interim, a number of universities and research groups got access to ARPANET. In a very real sense the NFSNet was more of an evolution of ARPANET than an entirely new network.

There was enormous controversy over the switching technology to increase the NSFNet backbone to T-3 speeds of 45 Mbps as late as 1993. In fact, for several years, the packet switches that ANS used did not really switch data packets fast enough to actually achieve 45 Mbps links. But by late 1993, the T-3 network was more or less working. On April 30, 1995, operation of the NSFNet backbone ceased. Backbone bandwidth refers to the carrying capacity of the top level links connecting various metropolitan areas around the world. Today the Internet consists of as many as eighteen national backbone networks operated by private companies, all interconnected in a few cities. These interconnections take place in several Network Access Points ("NAP's"). The backbones are almost all T-3 links operating at 45 Mbps. Furthermore, these backbones have been extended internationally.

In March 1996, MCI announced that it had increased the speed of its entire backbone to 155 Mbps. Other Internet Service Providers ("ISP's") have made similar announcements. The problem facing users of traditional facsimile machines is that they are designed exclusively for use in traditional telephone networks, the PSTN, including dialing like a voice call. There is no mechanism for accessing packet switched data networks where multitudes of facsimile transmissions can be seamlessly transported at high speeds all at the same time. A particular difficulty is acquiring the necessary routing information, the destination facsimile machine telephone number, in a manner to enable packet transmission.

The problem of providing an easy, reliable and low-cost method for automatically routing and transporting facsimile traffic at high speeds has presented a major challenge to persons skilled in the telecommunications field. The development of methods and apparatus that would overcome this problem would constitute a major technological advance and would satisfy a long felt need within the telephony and electronics industries.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION The present invention enables users of traditional facsimile machines to utilize high speed packet switched data communications networks for the transmission of facsimile communications. By automatically routing and transporting facsimile transmissions over high speed packet switched data networks instead of using the conventional public switched telephone network ("PSTN"), the speed of facsimile transmission can be increased and the overall cost of the transmission can be reduced. As the transmission distance is increased, the speed advantage of the present invention becomes ever more pronounced. The inventions described and claimed below are especially attractive for international facsimile transmissions.

One preferred embodiment of the present invention encompasses a network comprising a plurality of remote network computers located throughout the world which communicate with each other and one or more Network Management Systems ("NMSs"). In addition to other functions, the remote network computers provide an interface between analog dial-up telephone lines serving traditional facsimile machines, and a packet switched data network ("PSDN"), specifically the world-wide Internet backbone.

A remote network computer may be as simple as a personal computer ("PC") with a hard-drive for storing received facsimile transmissions, a modem for interconnecting with the local telephone network, and a router or other device for interconnecting with the Internet backbone. It may utilize one or more operating systems ("OS") of any type. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the remote network computers run Microsoft Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 or Microsoft Windows 95® as their operating systems. The network management system can likewise be as simple as a PC with a router or other device to interconnect with the Internet backbone. In the preferred embodiment, the network management system is a local area network ("LAN") with distributed elements for fail-over and fail-safe mission critical operation. The object is to ensure network robustness and full-time availability. It may utilize one or more OS's of any type. In a preferred embodiment, the OS of the network management system is Microsoft

Windows NT Server 4.0.

In accordance with the present invention, the user of the system (the "sender") feeds the document (the "message") which is to be transmitted to a recipient into his or her facsimile machine. The sender's document includes (1) a cover sheet containing information about the user and the destination facsimile number and (2) a number of sheets which contain the message to be transmitted to the destination. The sender then dials the local telephone number of a remote network computer system.

When the modem in the local facsimile machine connects to the modem in the remote network computer system via a local telephone line, the document is transmitted to the remote network computer. Software within the remote network computer then scans the cover sheet. A neural network based algorithm embedded in the software identifies the location on the cover sheet where the destination facsimile telephone number is printed, whether it is typewritten or handwritten. The cover sheet may include fixed fields to aid in ascertaining the required information, or software based on artificial intelligence ("Al") algorithms may be used to search a free form cover sheet to identify the fields having the required characteristics, that is, the destination facsimile number. Once the required field is located on the cover sheet, optical character recognition ("OCR") software scans the area containing the destination facsimile telephone number. This number is stored at a specific location within the remote network computer file which comprises the document in digital form. One preferred embodiment of the present invention uses software from Recognita for the OCR.

The cover sheet may also contain other data about the user, including, for example, the sender's name, voice telephone number, originating facsimile number, account number, number of pages comprising the document, the recipient's name and the recipient's voice telephone number. This data is appended to the remote network computer file which will be used to transmit a message to the recipient. In one preferred embodiment of the present invention RightFAX™ is likewise used to accomplish these tasks. The document in digital form in the remote network computer is then formatted for transmission via a packet switched data network, specifically Internet backbone network(s). After extracting the routing information and the user data from the digital document, the document is routed via the Internet to a remote network computer system near the destination facsimile machine.

When the document is received in the destination remote network computer, software resident in the remote network computer prepares the received document for facsimile transmission. In one preferred embodiment of the present invention RightFAX™ handles the formatting for facsimile transmission. The destination facsimile number is extracted from the document in digital form and sent to a modem which dials it. When the modem in the remote network computer system connects to the modem in the destination facsimile machine via a local telephone line, the document is transmitted to the destination facsimile machine. If the destination facsimile number is busy or otherwise unavailable, the document in digital form is stored in the remote network computer system until it is delivered or it is determined that delivery is impossible.

The system makes a number of attempts over a period of time to transmit the document to the destination facsimile. As soon as the document is delivered or after the prescribed number of attempts to deliver the document have failed, a message is generated stating the status of the facsimile delivery. That message is routed back to the originating remote network computer system over the Internet. The remote network computer system then transmits the delivery status message to the originating facsimile via a local telephone call.

The disclosed invention marries neural network, artificial intelligence ("Al") imaging technologies with packet data transmission technologies to provide seamless transparency of use. In other words, users of the disclosed invention do not have to alter their facsimile transmission practices to gain the speed and cost advantages of sending facsimiles via high speed packet switched data networks.

An appreciation of other aims and objectives of the present invention and a more complete and comprehensive understanding of this invention may be achieved by studying the following description of preferred embodiment and alternative embodiments and by referring to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRA WINGS

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram representing the network comprising a number of remote network computers interconnected via packet switched data networks to enable facsimile transmissions world-wide.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the one embodiment of the present invention, which enables traditional facsimile machines to utilize high speed packet switched data communications networks for the transmission of facsimile communications.

Figure 3 is a logical function diagram of one embodiment of the Network Operating System ("NOS") which is an element of the disclosed invention.

Figure 4 is a logical function diagram of elements of the NOS. BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Figure 1 shows the network which enables the functioning of the disclosed invention. The network comprises a plurality of remote network computer systems 10 deployed world-wide interconnected via packet switched data networks ("PSDN") 12, the Internet backbone, which operates using the industry standard Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol ("TCP/IP"). The network is managed and controlled via a Network Management System ("NMS") 14.

A user of a traditional facsimile machine 16 as shown in Figure 2 sends his or her facsimile transmission to a remote network computer system 10 via traditional telephone lines 18.

The remote network computer system 10 comprises a plurality of dial-up modems 20 connected via a multi-function input/output device 22 to the computer 24 which is in turn connected to a device 26 which provides a connection to the PSDN 12. The device 26 may be a router, an IP switch, an

Asynchronous Transfer Mode ("ATM") switch or other element which provides TCP/IP interconnectivity.

The NMS 14 comprises a plurality of interconnection devices 26 and a computer 28.

The Network Operating System ("NOS") 30 in each remote network computer system 10 and the

NMS 14 comprises facsimile gateway 32 functions, on-line storage 34, Intelligent Character Recognition ("ICR") 36, and transmission gateway 38 functions.

In the remote network computer system 10 nearest the sender of the facsimile transmission, the facsimile gateway 32 software receives the facsimile transmission from the traditional facsimile machine 16. It writes the facsimile transmission to on-line storage 34 and handles the bookkeeping functions such as assigning a unique transmission identification number. In the remote network computer system 10 nearest the final destination of the facsimile transmission, the facsimile gateway 32 software transmits the facsimile transmission to the traditional facsimile machine 16.

ICR 36 is used to acquire routing information for the destination facsimile machine 16. Transmission gateway 38 software handles the port-to-port TCP/IP connections between the remote network computer systems 10 and the NMS 14. As shown in Figure 4, to send a document 40 to a recipient, a user of the present invention first feeds a document into his or her facsimile machine 16. The document includes (1) a cover sheet 42 containing information about the user and the destination facsimile number and (2) a plurality of sheets comprising the message 44 to be transmitted to the destination into the input hopper of the facsimile machine 16. The user then dials the local telephone number of the remote network computer system 10. When the modem in the facsimile machine 16 connects to the modem 20 in the remote network computer system 10 via a local telephone line 18, the document 40 is transmitted to the remote network computer 10. The facsimile gateway 32 software logs the received transmission 40, assigns it a unique transmission identification and writes the document 40 to on-line storage 34.

ICR 36 software within the remote network computer system 10 scans the document 40 cover sheet 42. An algorithm embedded in the software identifies the location on the cover sheet where the destination facsimile telephone number 46 is printed, either typewritten or handwritten. Optical character recognition ("OCR") software scans the area containing the destination facsimile telephone number 46. This number is appended to the digital document 40 file stored on-line 34.

A plurality of user data 48 including, for example, the sender's name, voice telephone number, originating facsimile number, account number, number of pages comprising the document 40, recipient name, recipient voice telephone number and the like, is likewise obtained from the cover sheet 42. This data is appended to the remote network computer file comprising the document 40. Billing information 50 is generated and delivered to the facsimile gateway 32 software which writes the information to on-line storage 34 associated with the unique transmission identification number.

The transmission gateway 38 software reads the destination facsimile number 46 on the document 40 stored on-line 34 and determines the IP address 52 of the remote network computer system 10 nearest the destination of the facsimile transmission. The transmission gateway 38 software then opens a port-to- port connection between the originating remote network computer system 10 and the destination remote network computer system 10 and transmits the document 40 along with its ancillary information 48,50 via the TCP/IP connection 12. The transmission gateway 38 software in the destination remote network computer system 10 writes the digital file to on-line storage 34 there.

The facsimile gateway 32 software in the destination remote network computer 10 extracts the destination facsimile number 46 from the received document 40 and its ancillary information 48,50. The destination facsimile number 46 is sent to the modem 20 which dials the number. When the modem 20 connects with the destination facsimile machine 16, the document is transmitted to the destination facsimile machine 16. If the destination facsimile number 46 is busy or otherwise unavailable, the document 40 is stored on-line 34 in the destination remote network computer system 10 until it is delivered or it is determined that delivery is impossible.

A plurality of attempts are made over a period of time to transmit the document 40 to the destination facsimile machine 16. As soon as the document 40 is delivered or after the prescribed number of attempts to deliver the document 40 have failed, a message 54 is generated stating the status of the facsimile delivery. That message is routed back to the originating remote network computer system 10 over the Internet 12. The originating remote network computer system 10 transmits the delivery status message 54 to the originating facsimile machine 16 via a local telephone call 18.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention will provide an easy, reliable and low-cost alternative to current telecommunications system by providing methods and apparatus for automatically routing and transporting high speed facsimile traffic. CONCLUSION Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to particular preferred and alternative embodiments, persons possessing ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains will appreciate that various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the scope of the Claims that follow. The methods and apparatus that have been disclosed above are presented to educate the reader about particular embodiments, and is not intended to constrain the limits of the invention or the scope of the Claims. The List of Reference Characters which follows is intended to provide the reader with a convenient means of identifying elements of the invention in the Specification and Drawings. This list is not intended to delineate or narrow the scope of the Claims.

LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS

10 Remote network computer system

12 Packet switched data network

14 Network management System

16 Facsimile machine

18 Local telephone line

20 Modems (Modulator/Demodulator) in remote network computer system

22 Multi-function, multi-port input/output device 4 Computer in remote network computer system 6 Packet switched data network connectivity device 8 Computer in network management system

30 Network operating system

32 Facsimile gateway 4 On-line storage 6 Intelligent character recognition 8 Network gateway 0 Facsimile document 2 Facsimile cover sheet 4 Facsimile message 6 Destination facsimile telephone number 8 User data 0 Billing data 2 Internet protocol address 4 Facsimile delivery status message

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A facsimile transmission system comprising a transmitting facsimile machine (16), a telephone line (18) for transmitting a facsimile (40) from said machine to a first network computer system (10), the first network computer system (10) comprising means (32) for reading said facsimile, means (36) for detecting, from said facsimile, data relating to a destination facsimile receiver, and means (38) for routing said facsimile via a network (12) to a second network computer system selected in dependence on the location of said facsimile receiver as determined by said detecting means (36), the second network computer system comprising means for detecting said destination data and means for transmitting a received facsimile to said facsimile receiver.

2. A system according to Claim 1, wherein said destination data detecting means (36) comprises a character recognition system capable of recognizing data entered on a sheet (42) of said facsimile (40).

3. A system according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein said network (12) is a packet switched data network.

4. A system according to any preceding claim, wherein said first and second network computing systems are located remotely from the transmitting facsimile machine and the facsimile receiver.

5. A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the facsimile receiver is a second facsimile machine (16) and said destination data comprises the telephone number associated with said second facsimile machine.

6. A system according to any of Claims 1 to 4 wherein the facsimile (40) is delivered as a facsimile file to a destination computer.

7. A method of transmitting a facsimile message (44) from a facsimile machine (16) to a facsimile receiver characterised in that:

the facsimile message (44) is sent together with data identifying the facsimile receiver via a telephone line (18) to a first network computer system (10),

the first network computer system (10) detects the receiver identification data, the first network computer system (10) sends said facsimile message (44) together with said receiver identification data via a network (12) to a second network computer system associated with the facsimile receiver, and

the second network computer system detects said receiver identification data and sends the facsimile message to said facsimile receiver.

8. A method according to Claim 7, wherein the receiver identification data is detected from a facsimile (40) incorporating said message (44) by a character recognition method.

9. A method according to Claim 7 or 8, wherein said network (12) is a packet switched data network.

10. A method according to any of Claims 7 to 9 comprising the additional step of routing a confirmation message (56) back to the sender of the facsimile message (44) indicating whether the facsimile message (44) has been successfully delivered.

1 1. A method according to any of Claims 7 to 10, wherein the facsimile receiver is a second facsimile machine (16) and the receive identification data comprises the telephone number associated with said second facsimile machine.

12. A method according to any of the Claim 7 to 10 wherein:

sending the facsimile message comprises feeding a document (40) into a local facsimile machine (16), said document (40) including a cover sheet (42) containing information about the user (48) and a destination facsimile number (46), said document (40) also including the message (11) and connecting to said remote network computer system (10) using a local telephone line (18) and a modem (20), and

detecting the receiver identification data comprises scanning said cover sheet (42) to identify said destination facsimile number (46).

13. A method according to any of Claim 7 to 10 wherein the facsimile message (44) is delivered as a facsimile file to a destination computer.

14. A method of transmitting a facsimile message (44) comprising the steps of:

extracting a destination telephone number (16) from a facsimile cover sheet (42) via imaging technologies; using said destination telephone number (46) to send said facsimile message (44) to a destination; and

routing said facsimile message (44) via a packet switched data network (12).

15. An apparatus for transmitting message comprising:

a local facsimile machine (16) for converting a document (40) to an electronic message (54);

intelligent character recognition software (36) for reading destination information (46) contained on said document (40);

a remote network computer (10) for accepting said electronic message (54) from said local facsimile (16) and for routing said electronic message (54) over a network (12) to its destination based on directions interpreted by said ICR character reader (36); and

a destination facsimile machine (16) for receiving said document (40).

16. A network for transmitting a facsimile message (44) comprising:

a packet switched data network (12);

a network management system (14) for supervising said network (10) and facsimile message (44); and

a remote network computer system (10) for originating and for delivering said facsimile message (44); said remote network computer system (10) being connected with other remote network computer systems (24) ; said remote network computer system (24) being connected with said network management system (14) via said packet switched data network (12).

17. A method of transmitting a facsimile message (44) comprising the steps of:

feeding a document (40) into a local facsimile machine (16); said document (40) including a cover sheet (42) containing information about the user (48) and a destination facsimile number (46); said document (40) also including a message (44);

dialing a local telephone number ( 18) of a remote network computer system ( 10);

connecting to said remote network computer system ( 10) using a local telephone line ( 18) and a modem (20);

transmitting said document (40) to said remote network computer system (10);

scanning said cover sheet (42) to identify said destination facsimile number (46);

routing said document (40) from said remote network computer system ( 10) to a remote network computer system (10) near the destination via said packet switched data network (12); and

transmitting said document (40) from said remote network computer system (10) to its destination facsimile machine (16).

18. A method as recited in Claim 17, further comprising the additional step of:

routing a confirmation message (56) back to the originator to confirm delivery of said document (40).

19. A method as recited in Claim 17, further comprising the additional step of:

routing a message (54) back to the originator to indicate that said document (40) was not successfully delivered.

20. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 15, in which said network is a packet switched data network (12).

21. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 15, in which said electronic message (54) is delivered to a destination computer as e-mail.

22. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 15, in which a confirmation message (34) is transmitted back to said local facsimile machine (16) to confirm receipt of said document (40).

23. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 15, in which an error message (34) is transmitted back to said local facsimile machine (16) to indicated that said document (40) was not successfully received by said destination facsimile machine (16).

24. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 15, in which said document (40) includes a cover sheet (42) containing destination information (46) which is read by said ICR character reader (36).

25. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 15, in which said document (40) is delivered as a facsimile file to a destination computer (10).