1) What hardware do I need?
2) My GSM modem hangs often
3) Why do I have to set the dial prefixes of the providers?
4) What can I do if the program does not work?
5) Can I use smstools with gnooki?
6) I need help from the programmer!
7) Problem moving files in endless loop
8) How fast are the SMS server tools?
9) My Nokia phone does not work
10) My Modem does not answer to AT-Commands
11) Error Message: Modem is not cleat to send
12) Incoming SMS files have wrong permissions
13) Error loading libmm.so.11
14) Which GSM modem do you recommend?
1) What hardware do I need?
You need a Linux server with a least one serial port an one GSM Modem. It does
not matter how fast the CPU is and how much memory you installed. An old 486
with 32 MB memory is enough. I prefer GSM modems from Falcom, for example Falcom A2-1.
Every GSM Modem with AT command set should work if it is GSM07.05 complatible
but I tested only Falcom and Siemens. The Siemens modems hang often while the falcom modems
run very stable. Please notice that most mobile phones are not
supported.
2) My GSM modem hangs often
This is mostly caused by a weak power supply. The GSM modems of Falcom and Siemens
work both with a 12V 800mA power supply. The Siemens devices are not as stable
as the Falcom devices. You may try a capaciator at the power supply (2200 yF
25V).
3) Why do I have to set the dial prefixes of the providers?
You can save money using one modem for each provider. Sending SMS to a "foreign"
provider may be more expensive than sending SMS withing the "home"
provider. If the providers in your country share the same dial prefixes (I heard
that about Singapure) you cannot use this feature.
If all SMS should be sent through the same provider without checking of the dial-prefix you can configure one provider and set the dial prefix to "0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9". In this case all dial-prefixes are assigned to that single queue. Connect all GSM modems to that queue.
4) What can I do if the program does not work?
Check the modem using a terminal program (e.g. minicom) or look into the syslog messages (/var/log/messages)
when calling putsms or getsms. Notice that some GSM modems work
only with 9600bps and some work only with 19200bps. Check the mode option (ascii, old or new).
Here are some interesting AT-commands for testing with minicom:
Command | Answer | Meaning |
AT+CPIN? | READY | No Error |
PIN | The modem needs the PIN number | |
PUK | The modem needs the PUK (the pin is locked) | |
ERROR | The SIM card if not found | |
AT+CPIN=1111 | OK | Enter the PIN |
ERROR | The PIN is wrong or it was entered before | |
AT+CPIN=12345678,1111 | OK | Enter the PUK and set a new PIN |
ERROR | The PUK is wrong | |
AT+CREG? | 0,1 | The modem is connected to the phone network |
0,2 | The modem is connecting to the phone network | |
other | The modem is not connected to the network |
Look into your modem's manual to find out what the error messages of the modem mean.
5) Can I use the smstools with gnooki
No but there is another project of a smstools version that is compatible to gnooki. You can get it from
the authors homepage Juraj Bednar.
6) I need help from the programmer
You can contact me by eMail. If your smsd does not send or receive
messages, I will need your config file and a full logfile. See logging for informations how to do this.
7) Problem moving files in endless loop
If smsd moves files between spool directories again and again in an endless loop, you have wrong
file permissions to a spool directory or the SMS file. Please ensure that the user who starts smsd has enough
permissions to the spool directories (rwx).
8) How fast are the SMS Server Tools?
The performance depends on the number of modems that you use and on the modem itself. Sending messages
takes between 5 and 10 seconds for each message. You can increase the performance by using more
modems. There is no software limit how much modems you can use but your phone network provider
allows only a limited number of connections. Please ask your provider for details. In normal cases
there are at least 30 channels available.
9) My Nokia phone does not work
Some old Nokia phones (for example the 6110) have no internal modem with RS232 port and AT-Command set.
You need gnokii if you want to use them (See Question 5).
Most newer Nokia phones (for example 6210 and 7110) haven an internal modem with RS232 port and they
also support the older FBUS protocol. Ensure that you buy a RS232 cable and not an FBUS cable. Most
non-original cables are only for the old FBUS protocol and do not work with the SMS Server Tools!
10) My modem does not answer to AT-Commands
Fine, you took a look into the debug log. If your modem does not answer to AT-Commands you probably set a wrong
baudrate or the wrong serial port or your modem cable does not support hardware handshake. You can disable handshake in the configuration file.
11) Error Message: Modem is not clear to send
Your modem cable does not support hardware handshake or you use the wron serial port. You can disable
handshake in the configuration file or buy another cable. This happens often with not-original cables for mobile phones.
12) Incoming SMS files have wrong permissions.
I spent a lot of time finding out why that happens on some Linux systems but without success. This
problem seems to be caused by the fork() system call. Smsd seems to ignore the umask setting. As a
workaround you can install an eventhandler that changes the permissions as you want. The example
eventhandler in /usr/local/bin does exactly this.
13) Error loading libmm.so.11.
If you see an error message like this when you start smsd, the library loader does not find the libmm.so.11 file.
Add the path (probably /usr/local/lib) to the envirronment variable
LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Linux users can also set the path in /etc/ld.so.conf. If you
have a program called ldconfig then run it once after modifying the config file.
To search the file: find . -name 'libmm.*' 2>/dev/null
14) Which GSM modem do you recommend?
I recommend Falcom modems. All models work fine with my software. They all support binary SMS (ringtones, etc)
and status report. Falcom modems run very stable. I had never problems with them.