GSM modem connectivity
You can send and receive SMS messages from
and to your computer with a GSM modem or a mobile device using Ozeki NG SMS
Gateway. With this solution you will be able to connect to the mobile
network simply and at a lower price. In this article you will find detailed
information on this solution.
With the use of this solution you do not need to connect
over the Internet to transmit SMS text messages. This process is very quick
so you can save time and money with it. Furthermore, Ozeki NG SMS Gateway
makes it
possible to attach more than one device to the computer so in this way you
can increase capacity.
If you usually do not send more than 15 000 messages per day you can use
Ozeki NG SMS Gateway with a GSM modem or mobile device connected to your PC
to send and receive SMS messages. In this case the Ozeki software
communicates with the mobile network through the attached device in the
following way: if the gateway sends a message, at first it arrives at the
GSM device and after this it is transmitted to the SMS Center of the GSM
service provider over a wireless link (Figure 1).
Figure 1. - GSM modem connectivity for SMS messaging
In case of receiving a message, the GSM device keeps it in
its memory or its SIM card and a notification is sent to Ozeki NG SMS Gateway
about it.
The SMS gateway reads this message and deletes it to make place for further
messages. The GSM device can be connected with a phone-to-PC data cable
(USB or a serial RS232 cable), BlueTooth, or InfraRed. The modem or
cellphone comes with a SIM card and its number will be the phone number the
messages are sent to. You can check the list of suitable GSM devices on the
Supported phones
page.
Configuration of the GSM modem connectivity
It is supposed that you have already downloaded and
installed a GSM modem. So now you can start to install and configure your
connectivity by using the Ozeki NG SMS Gateway's graphical interface. In it
click on Add in the right side of the Service providers panel in Management
console. You can arrive at the Management console right after you login the
Ozeki software; it appears automatically. The Add service provider pane
appears containing a list of protocols to install and to communicate with
an SMS service provider. Click the Install link next to the chosen entry in
the list to select a GSM protocol (Figure 2).
Figure 2. - Starting to install the GSM Modem
connection
After the installation of the GSM protocol, the
Configuration pane appears. The Device setting tab of it contains a
Connection and an Identification section (Figure 3).
Figure 3. - The Device settings tab
Select your GSM modem or the COM port (your modem is
connected to it) in the Modem or Port menu of Connection section.
You need to provide the phone number of the SMSC of your service provider
(it was given by the service provider) in the SMS service center edit box;
and into the Identification section type the telephone number of your GSM
device and the name of the service provider into its edit box. Please note
that if you do not provide the telephone number you cannot send messages.
In order to avoid confusion it is recommended to provide a name for the
connection after the service provider.
After this, click on General Settings tab to provide the settings of
messages using this protocol. A pane appears containing Send, receive and
delivery report options and the Timeout handling section. You can check
one or both of the boxes at the top of the pane depending on which one is
needed for you to use this connection. (You can use it for only sending or
only receiving messages or for both).
In the Timeout handling time you
can define the handling of your connection to the SMSC and the status of
your messages. In Submit timeout box you can define the waiting time for
a response about your successfully submitted message. The default time is
60 seconds.
You can also define what to happen if there is no response from the SMSC
after the given time so you can choose Sent, Not sent, or Retry options (
Figure 4).
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Figure 4. - The General settings tab
If you click on Logging in the Configuration tab you can
configure logging. This tab consists of a Logging and a Log file settings
sections. In the first one you need to select at least the first option
(Log sent and received messages in human readable format) as they can be
useful for debugging communication problems. If you choose the second option
it enables the program to produce log files containing binary codes for
communication data.
In the Log file settings section Log rotation saves
disk space and makes it possible to delete the old and not necessary log
files from the Log directory. It can be reached by default:
C:\Program Files\Ozeki\OzekiNG - SMS Gateway\Logs.
You also can provide the Maximum log file size (if you reach the given size
a new log file will be created) and the Number of rotated files
(the maximum number of them that are saved) (Figure 5).
You also can leave the boxes unchanged if you are satisfied with the
default options.
Figure 5. - Logging options
In the Port settings tab of the Configuration pane you can
reach the port settings and the modem initialization commands. Please note,
that several GSM devices allow only the default settings, check them on
Figure 6.
Figure 6. - The Port settings tab
The last tab in the Configuration pane is Message handling,
which makes possible to make and modify settings of incoming messages,
outgoing messages and
SMS coding (Figure 7).
Figure 7. - The Message handling tab
In the Incoming message section you need to provide the
Preferred memory for incoming messages first. By making a choice you can
select where to read these messages from: the SIM card, the mobile device
or both. You can select the right one according to the memory capacity of
your device.
In the Method to use to read incoming SMS you can choose
from CMT, CMGL or CMGR methods. The first one makes the device possible
to send notification about incoming messages. This is the standard option.
The CMGL is used to request the list of incoming messages and the last one
to read the content of memory cells.
In the next box you can define
the number of memory cells that are checked for SMS messages in the phone.
The cellphone or the SIM card stores the incoming messages in
memory cells. The Ozeki NG SMS Gateway needs to check and read these cells to
get the messages. This means that the program needs to check them
one by one, if it finds a message then read it and also deletes it to make
place for the next incoming message and goes to the next cell. After it
finishes, it starts checking again from the first cell. So if there are
empty cells the program wastes time by checking them so do not provide
a large number in the edit box to be checked. If you already have messages
on your phone when you start to use Ozeki NG SMS Gateway then give a high
number to be
checked and after the process is finished provide a lower number. Please
also note the fact that the program will read and also delete your messages
from your phone ( and also from the SIM card) unless you check the "Leave
messages" on the device checkbox. The default (and optimal) setting is 10
messages.
Next define the number of memory cells on the SIM card. In the Delay between
reading messages box you can give a specific length of time in seconds to
wait for between reading messages, but specify it to 0 if you would like to
get the highest performance.
In the Outgoing messages section, you can
define a specific length of time between sending out messages. Again by
setting it to 0, you can have the highest performance. The Request delivery
report SMS checkbox is an option to get a delivery report from the SMS
center after forwarding the message to the recipient. The Do not allow
loopback outgoing messages checkbox prevents the software from sending
messages to yourself (to your phone number).
In the SMS coding section you can find the Do not use PDU mode and
the Include SCA in PDU checkbox. You can receive SMS messages in the
following ways: by text mode and by protocol description unit mode (PDU).
If the latter one is used then any encoding can be implemented.
In Line feed characters section you can choose from Delete line feed
(LF), Replace LF with space or Leave LF in the message.
At the bottom of the page you can find Connect automatically on startup
checkbox. If it is checked the connection with the SMSC is automatically
initiated by Ozeki NG SMS Gateway, while if it is unchecked the connection
needs to be initiated manually.
If you want to connect a service provider connection you can do it by
clicking the green play button next to the name of the service provider
in the panel of installed service provider connections and if you want to
disconnect you need to click on the red disconnect button next to its name
(Figure 8).
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Figure 8. - Connecting the service provider connection
The connection also can be initiated manually by clicking
on the Connect link in the panel of the service provider connection
(Figure 9).
Figure 9. - Links to operations
In the Service providers panel in the Management Console
click on the name of the service provider connection to open it. It contains
three sections: In the upper one you can see the name of the service
provider connection and its protocol in brackets next to its name. Next
there is an icon showing if there is a connection or not (in this case an x
sign marks it). To the right of the icon you can find different options.
Configure: to configure or modify the connection. It takes you to the
Configuration panel.
Events: to check the logging of the latest server
events related to the connection. It takes you to the Events panel.
Connect: to connect your connection with the SMSC.
Disconnect: to disconnect from the SMSC
Uninstall: to uninstall the service provider connection.
Below in this section you can see General, Provider specific, Logging, and
Usage information those are (re)activated during the configuration are
marked with a tick. The x marks those that are not activated or deactivated
during the configuration.
In the lower section you can read some
protocol information.
If you follow the steps of the configuration you will get a
stable and well-working program.
To learn more about the possible connections to
the mobile network, please go to Modem vs IP SMS connection page.
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