TXT gateway

[Nick Rout]

I, being without a regular phone line and therefore without broadband at
present, have a 2 degrees mobile USB modem thingy, which is neatly attached
to a 3G capable router (Thanks Hadley!).

Having first used the USB stick as intended on a windows machine, I see it
does more than just act as a modem - it can send and receive text messages
and they pop up in the included gui interface.

Once my current broadband crisis is over, I would like to put the modem to
use in the office as a text gateway. Clients (we do a lot of legal aid work)
often can't call us, they can only afford to text. Up until now this has
meant giving our private cell number out, something we are often reluctant
to do.

It would be neat to have a server based solution so we could for instance:

1. Have incoming texts diverted to email, or forwarded to our own phones.

2. Ability to send texts from our own phone to the server, which would then
forward the text to the client (ie the server's cell number would be shown
to the client, not our private ones)

3. appointment reminders to the client - perhaps automatically generated
from our diaries (which are google apps based).

Naturally the server would run linux, and needs to have a web interface for
setting where the messages are to go etc.

Any hints on software to look at for the server?
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[Vik Olliver]

Post by Nick Rout
Naturally the server would run linux, and needs to have a web interface for
setting where the messages are to go etc.

Up to that point you were talking about the ERMS servers I work on at
Catalyst. ERMS is Open Source, but it's Erlang and that sometimes makes
grown programmers flee screaming.

Vik :v)

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[Nick Rout]

Post by Vik Olliver

Post by Nick Rout
Naturally the server would run linux, and needs to have a web interface for
setting where the messages are to go etc.

Up to that point you were talking about the ERMS servers I work on at
Catalyst. ERMS is Open Source, but it's Erlang and that sometimes makes
grown programmers flee screaming.

I have had great fun in the last few minutes googling erms, and have
managed to find Eagle Ridge Middle School, the Essex Rock & Mineral
Society, "Established in 1986, ERMS UK has become one of the most
highly regarded fresh produce companies in the industry", Emssions
Reductions Market Systems and others :)

Post by Vik Olliver
Vik :v)
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[Robin Paulson]

Post by Nick Rout
1. Have incoming texts diverted to email, or forwarded to our own phones.
2. Ability to send texts from our own phone to the server, which would then
forward the text to the client (ie the server's cell number would be shown
to the client, not our private ones)
3. appointment reminders to the client - perhaps automatically generated
from our diaries (which are google apps based).
Naturally the server would run linux, and needs to have a web interface for
setting where the messages are to go etc.
Any hints on software to look at for the server?

i think there may be something in one of the openmoko operating
systems which does this. check out http://wiki.openmoko.org for more -
the software is designed originally for their hardware, but anything
which follows the AT command set should work well too
--
robin

http://tangleball.org.nz/ - Auckland's Creative Space
http://openstreetmap.org.nz/ - Open Street Map New Zealand
http://bumblepuppy.org/blog/

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[Michael Field]

Post by Nick Rout
Once my current broadband crisis is over, I would like to put the modem to
use in the office as a text gateway. Clients (we do a lot of legal aid work)
often can't call us, they can only afford to text. Up until now this has
meant giving our private cell number out, something we are often reluctant
to do.

Best info I found was on http://www.developershome.com/sms/.

I have rolled my own (down to all that 'AT' command stuff), and put a PHP front end on it, but if your hardware works 'Gammu' might be a better way to interface with something like Apache/PHP...

The tough bit (system analysis wise) is working out what to do with incoming TXTs. I emailed them to reception, but they then need to match the sender's phone number to a name, and then send the message on to the intended person. Also, if you route a TXT directly to the end recipient you then need to work out what to do if people are absent.

The big problem is that people get grumpy when they expect a reply and don't get one quickly - much more so than email. They have a mental image of a person obsessively checking at the phone every time a SMS arrives, and then replying.

Mike

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[Hadley Rich]

Post by Nick Rout
Once my current broadband crisis is over, I would like to put the modem to
use in the office as a text gateway. Clients (we do a lot of legal aid work)
often can't call us, they can only afford to text. Up until now this has
meant giving our private cell number out, something we are often reluctant
to do.
1. Have incoming texts diverted to email, or forwarded to our own phones.
2. Ability to send texts from our own phone to the server, which would then
forward the text to the client (ie the server's cell number would be shown
to the client, not our private ones)
3. appointment reminders to the client - perhaps automatically generated
from our diaries (which are google apps based).
Naturally the server would run linux, and needs to have a web interface for
setting where the messages are to go etc.
Any hints on software to look at for the server?

Because the GSM AT command set is a standard software will work with any
modem so long as you have drivers. The 2Degrees USB modem should work in
any modern distro.

smstools[1] is pretty neat, it uses a spool directory which you drop
files in and it will send them out for you, also does the same in
reverse for incoming messages.

Although it would involve a little glue code it would be pretty straight
forward to implement what you describe with that as a base. Add an ALIX
board and you've got a neat little embedded solution.

[1] http://smstools3.kekekasvi.com/

hads

[Jim Cheetham]

Post by Nick Rout
1. Have incoming texts diverted to email, or forwarded to our own phones.

gammu, specifically gammu-smsd (http://wammu.eu/)
or something built around gnokii

Post by Nick Rout
2. Ability to send texts from our own phone to the server, which would then
forward the text to the client (ie the server's cell number would be shown
to the client, not our private ones)

Sure, why not.

Post by Nick Rout
3. appointment reminders to the client - perhaps automatically generated
from our diaries (which are google apps based).

email to SMS, just need some MTA config to pipe messages into gammu
instead of local delivery. Or perhaps procmail.

Do you have time to hack on this, or do you want some assistance?

-jim

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