GSM cellular GPRS/SMS modems under Linux

[David McNab]

Hi all,

Has anyone worked with GSM cellular network modems under Linux?

In particular, I'm looking for a modem which:

* connects via USB
* can be driven programmatically
* capable of making/accepting GPRS TCP/IP connections
* capable of sending and receiving SMS messages
* voice capability optional :)
* is not a pain to get working under linux
* hopefully has an interface library with a coherent C API
* is cheap

Any ideas?

Cheers
David




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[Steve Holdoway]

Post by David McNab
Hi all,
Has anyone worked with GSM cellular network modems under Linux?
* connects via USB
* can be driven programmatically
* capable of making/accepting GPRS TCP/IP connections
* capable of sending and receiving SMS messages
* voice capability optional :)
* is not a pain to get working under linux
* hopefully has an interface library with a coherent C API
* is cheap
Any ideas?
Cheers
David

I use an old Nokia, bluetooth and http://www.gnokii.org

Steve

[Peter Harrison]

I use the cheap vodaphone sticks. They need a binary driver tho.

On 22/11/2010 6:10 PM, "David McNab" <***@rebirthing.co.nz> wrote:

Hi all,

Has anyone worked with GSM cellular network modems under Linux?

In particular, I'm looking for a modem which:

* connects via USB
* can be driven programmatically
* capable of making/accepting GPRS TCP/IP connections
* capable of sending and receiving SMS messages
* voice capability optional :)
* is not a pain to get working under linux
* hopefully has an interface library with a coherent C API
* is cheap

Any ideas?

Cheers
David




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[David McNab]

Post by Peter Harrison
I use the cheap vodaphone sticks. They need a binary driver tho.

Are you talking about the 'vodem' for $79?




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[Peter Lambrechtsen]

The Sierra Aircards on Telecom XT all work well (as well as Vodafone/2D on
2100Mhz).

http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/productsandservices/AirCard/SoftwareSolutions/aircardossupport.aspx#linuxembedded

And the cards mostly plug and play since the drivers are opensource in the
kernel.

You could pick up a Sierra 885 which is the USB version off Trademe for
~$50. Plus if your laptop/machine still has a PCMCIA slot there is a guy
selling the Sierra 880 for ~$40.

Post by David McNab

Post by Peter Harrison
I use the cheap vodaphone sticks. They need a binary driver tho.

Are you talking about the 'vodem' for $79?
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[David McNab]

Post by Peter Lambrechtsen
The Sierra Aircards on Telecom XT all work well (as well as Vodafone/2D on
2100Mhz).
http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/productsandservices/AirCard/SoftwareSolutions/aircardossupport.aspx#linuxembedded
And the cards mostly plug and play since the drivers are opensource in the
kernel.
You could pick up a Sierra 885 which is the USB version off Trademe for
~$50. Plus if your laptop/machine still has a PCMCIA slot there is a guy
selling the Sierra 880 for ~$40.

Thanks heaps for that Peter.

Any chance I could bother you for a few links to help get me started?

Especially, some info on getting the whole software stack set up and the
client library and utilities. For instance, how to send and receive the
ubiquitous "hello, world" SMS.

Cheers
David




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[Reed Wade]

Post by David McNab

Post by Peter Lambrechtsen
The Sierra Aircards on Telecom XT all work well (as well as Vodafone/2D on
2100Mhz).
http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/productsandservices/AirCard/SoftwareSolutions/aircardossupport.aspx#linuxembedded
And the cards mostly plug and play since the drivers are opensource in the
kernel.
You could pick up a Sierra 885 which is the USB version off Trademe for
~$50.  Plus if your laptop/machine still has a PCMCIA slot there is a guy
selling the Sierra 880 for ~$40.

Thanks heaps for that Peter.
Any chance I could bother you for a few links to help get me started?
Especially, some info on getting the whole software stack set up and the
client library and utilities. For instance, how to send and receive the
ubiquitous "hello, world" SMS.

Depending on how pretty a thing you're looking for -- http://wammu.eu/
is a little clunky but works for me on ubuntu with my vodem stick.

It uses gammu under the covers which might be what you're really after.

Wammu is in the ubuntu repository so you should be able to install it and
dependencies from the package manager if you're using ubuntu.

-reed

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[Reed Wade]

The other thing to know is that essentially every one of these devices
presents itself as a normal modem and is controlled via AT commands --
probably the oldest protocol still in daily use. So, almost any modem
can be made to work with almost zero effort.

-reed

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[Robin Sheat]

Post by Reed Wade
probably the oldest protocol still in daily use. So, almost any modem
can be made to work with almost zero effort.

You really need to do some Koha work, and meet Z39.50 ... then you won't
be making claims like that :)

Robin.


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[Daniel Pittman]

Post by Peter Lambrechtsen
The Sierra Aircards on Telecom XT all work well (as well as Vodafone/2D on
2100Mhz).
http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/productsandservices/AirCard/SoftwareSolutions/aircardossupport.aspx#linuxembedded
And the cards mostly plug and play since the drivers are opensource in the
kernel.
You could pick up a Sierra 885 which is the USB version off Trademe for
~$50. Plus if your laptop/machine still has a PCMCIA slot there is a guy
selling the Sierra 880 for ~$40.

Thanks heaps for that Peter. Any chance I could bother you for a few links
to help get me started?
Especially, some info on getting the whole software stack set up and the
client library and utilities. For instance, how to send and receive the
ubiquitous "hello, world" SMS.

FWIW, if you want to do SMS in and out I love the smstools daemons: they
provide MTA-like functionality, so you can drop an SMS message with
appropriate headers into the outbound directory and it will get them sent.

Their handlers for inbound messages and failures are also great; I use them
every time we have to build some automated SMS functionality, and they mean
all we need to do is interface whatever process to SMSd - the rest just works.

http://stefanfrings.de/smstools/index-en.html
http://smstools3.kekekasvi.com/

Regards,
Daniel

[Hadley Rich]

they provide MTA-like functionality, so you can drop an SMS message
with appropriate headers into the outbound directory and it will get
them sent.

Agreed, smstools is great.

hads

[Peter Lambrechtsen]

Post by Peter Lambrechtsen

Post by Peter Lambrechtsen
The Sierra Aircards on Telecom XT all work well (as well as Vodafone/2D

on

Post by Peter Lambrechtsen
2100Mhz).

http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/productsandservices/AirCard/SoftwareSolutions/aircardossupport.aspx#linuxembedded

Post by Peter Lambrechtsen
And the cards mostly plug and play since the drivers are opensource in

the

Post by Peter Lambrechtsen
kernel.
You could pick up a Sierra 885 which is the USB version off Trademe for
~$50. Plus if your laptop/machine still has a PCMCIA slot there is a guy
selling the Sierra 880 for ~$40.

Thanks heaps for that Peter.
Any chance I could bother you for a few links to help get me started?
Especially, some info on getting the whole software stack set up and the
client library and utilities. For instance, how to send and receive the
ubiquitous "hello, world" SMS.

I have used umtsmon.sourceforge.net to dialup and get an internet
connection, and that works well.

I have also used smslib.org for developing sms apps... it's a great
framework you can do pretty much everything and it nicely encodes your sms
messages and handles being a gateway.

Otherwise have a google for a free sms gateway via AT commands. There are
plenty of them out there.

Post by Peter Lambrechtsen
Cheers
David
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