Now SMS/MMS Gateway
The Now SMS/MMS Gateway is a fast track to deploying and developing SMS, MMS and WAP Push applications.
It is an easy-to-install SMS Gateway, MMS Gateway, WAP Push Gateway and Multimedia Messaging Center (MMSC) for Windows NT/2000/XP, but don't take our word for it, download the free 60-day trial version at http://www.nowsms.com and try it!
For information on new features in v4.0 of the Now SMS/MMS Gateway, please click here.
The gateway includes the following features:
Supports SMS connectivity via one or more GSM modems
(or GSM phones connected to a PC serial port), or over TCP/IP connections using
SMPP, UCP/EMI and/or HTTP protocols.
Supports least cost routing with pattern
matching to route messages to different SMS connections based on destination.
Supports easy generation and delivery of MMS
messages, and includes an MMS compiler for generating the binary headers and
message formats required for MMS content.
Includes a powerful MMSC for processing MMS
messages independent of the operator gateway.
The MMSC supports dynamic content adaptation and content conversion to
help simplify the process of delivering MMS content to devices with varied
characteristics. The MMSC also includes
a built-in SMTP e-mail gateway for bi-directional exchange of messages between
MMS compatible devices and internet e-mail recipients.
Supports Unicode (UTF-8) formats for both SMS
and MMS messages, enabling deployment in multilingual environments.
Supports easy generation and delivery of WAP Push
messages, independent of the WAP gateway being used.
Supports WAP OTA (“Over The
Air”) configuration settings and bookmarks.
Supports 2-way SMS for interactive application
development. SMS messages received by
the gateway can trigger either an executable program to be run, or an HTTP
request. Simple text responses back to
the user can be returned as output of the request. More complex responses, including MMS or
other binary SMS content, are also supported.
Supports 2-way MMS for interactive multimedia
application development. MMS messages
received by the gateway are parsed into individual file components that can be
easily processed by a user supplied tools.
For example, received MMS images could be automatically posted to a web
site.
Includes an SMPP server, simplifying the process
of connecting multiple gateways and applications.
Provides an SMTP interface with SMTP
Authentication support, allowing a user account to login via SMTP with an
e-mail client to submit bulk delivery of SMS or MMS messages.
Supports sending of other binary SMS formats,
including
Supports concatenated SMS for SMS text messages
longer than 160 characters.
Supports easy generation and delivery of new
voice mail notification messages, simplifying the integration of office voice
mail with mobile voice mail.
The Now SMS/MMS Gateway requires a connection to an SMSC (Short Messaging Service Centre) to interface with SMS and MMS networks. An SMSC connection can consist of one or more of the following:
GSM Modem – A GSM modem or phone connected to a PC serial port (or to a USB port with an appropriate modem driver).
SMPP (Short Message Peer to Peer Protocol) – A TCP/IP connection over the internet or a private network to a service that supports v3.3 or v3.4 of the SMPP protocol. (Note that the Now SMS/MMS Gateway also includes an SMPP server, which allows you to chain multiple gateways together.)
UCP/EMI (Universal Computer Protocol / External Machine Interface) – A TCP/IP connection over the internet or a private network to a service that supports v3.5 or v4.0 of the UCP/EMI protocol.
HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol, e.g., the standard protocol for the “web”) – A TCP/IP connection over the internet or private network to a service that accepts SMS messages via an HTTP “GET” based protocol.
GSM Modems
A GSM modem can be an external modem device, such as the Wavecom FASTRACK Modem. Insert a GSM SIM card into this modem, and connect the modem to an available serial port on your computer.
A GSM modem can be a PC Card installed in a notebook computer, such as the Nokia Card Phone.
A GSM modem could also be a standard GSM mobile phone with the appropriate cable and software driver to connect to a serial port on your computer. Phones such as the Nokia 6210 or 7110 with a DLR-3 cable, or various Ericsson phones, are often used for this purpose.
A dedicated GSM modem (external or PC Card) is usually preferable to a GSM mobile phone. This is because of some compatibility issues that can exist with mobile phones. For example, if you wish to be able to receive inbound MMS messages with your gateway, and you are using a mobile phone as your modem, you must utilize a mobile phone that does not support WAP push or MMS. This is because the mobile phone automatically processes these messages, without forwarding them via the modem interface. (Note: You may want to consider the e-mail interface of the built-in MMS e-mail gateway as an alternative interface for developing 2-way MMS applications.) Similarly some mobile phones will not allow you to correctly receive SMS text messages longer than 160 bytes (known as “concatenated SMS” or “long SMS”). This is because these long messages are actually sent as separate SMS messages, and the phone attempts to reassemble the message before forwarding via the modem interface. (We’ve observed this latter problem utilizing the Ericsson R380, while it does not appear to be a problem with many other Ericsson models.)
When you install your GSM modem, or connect your GSM mobile phone to the computer, be sure to install the appropriate Windows modem driver from the device manufacturer. To simplify configuration, the Now SMS/MMS Gateway will communicate with the device via this driver. An additional benefit of utilizing this driver is that you can use Windows diagnostics to ensure that the modem is communicating properly with the computer.
The Now SMS/MMS gateway can simultaneously support multiple modems, provided that your computer hardware has the available communications port resources.
To define which modems are to be utilized by the gateway, select the “SMSC” tab from the gateway configuration dialog:
If no modems are yet to be defined, only the “Add” button will be available on this dialog. Select “Add”, and then “GSM Phone or Modem” to display a list of available modem drivers on your computer.
Select an available modem and press the “Test and Add Modem” button. The gateway will then attempt to initialize the modem, and confirm that the modem supports the necessary interfaces to send and receive SMS messages. The modem will only be added to the configuration if the gateway confirms that it can properly communicate with the modem.
SMPP SMSC
The gateway supports the SMPP (Short Message Peer to Peer) protocol, version 3.3 or 3.4, to connect to an SMSC over the internet or other private TCP/IP network. Some mobile operators provide SMPP connections for higher volumes of SMS traffic.
To add an SMPP connection, select “Add” from the “SMSC” tab of the gateway dialog. Then select “SMPP over TCP/IP”.
“SMPP Version” specifies the version of the SMPP protocol to use. The gateway supports “v3.3” and “v3.4”.
“Server Host Name” specifies the TCP/IP address or host name of the SMPP server.
“Port” specifies the TCP/IP port on the SMPP server to which the gateway should connect.
“User Name” specifies the user name (sometimes called System ID) for the gateway to use when connecting to the SMPP server.
“Password” specifies the password for the gateway to use when connecting to the SMPP server.
“
“System Type” is an optional login parameter that should be set only if required by the SMPP server. The SMPP system administrator will provide this value, which when required, is usually a short text string.
“Sender Address” specifies the default sender address (phone number) to apply to outbound SMS messages. The SMPP server may override this setting.
Check “Allow Sender Address Override” if you want to allow messages submitted to the gateway to be able to specify a sender address. If this box is checked, and a sender address is present in a message being submitted to an SMPP based SMSC, the sender address in the message will be submitted to the SMSC. The SMPP server may override this setting.
Check the “Enable Receive Messages” box if you wish to receive messages from the SMPP server. When this box is checked, the gateway will connect to the SMPP server with two separate connections, one bound as a transmitter and the other bound as a receiver.
The “Routing” group of options is used when multiple SMSC connections are defined to the gateway. These options define what messages should be routed to this connection. The Routing options are common to SMPP, GSM Modem, UCP/EMI and HTTP connections, and are described in the Routing Options section.
When the “OK” button is selected, the gateway will attempt to connect to the SMPP server to verify the configuration information provided. Diagnostic information will be displayed if the connection fails. The connection will only be added to the configuration after a successful connection to the SMPP server.
HTTP SMSC
The gateway supports the HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol) protocol to connect to an SMSC over the internet or other private TCP/IP network. In addition to connecting to other services, this allows you to make connections to another Now SMS/MMS gateway, which can be useful for “least cost routing” of SMS messages between gateways over TCP/IP.
To add an HTTP connection, select “Add” from the “SMSC” tab of the gateway dialog. Then select “HTTP over TCP/IP”.
“Host Name” specifies a DNS host name or TCP/IP address for connecting to the service.
“Port Number” specifies the HTTP port number to use when connecting to the service.
Check “Use HTTP Proxy” if the gateway must connect to the HTTP server via a proxy server, and supply the host name or TCP/IP address and port number of the proxy server in the “Proxy Server” field using a format of “host.name:9999”, where “host.name” is the DNS host name or TCP/IP address of the proxy server, and “9999” is the port number of the proxy server.
“User name” and “Password” specify a user account and password to use when connecting to the service.
“Send login credentials using HTTP Authorization headers” refers to how the user name and password information is sent to the HTTP server. The login information can either be sent as replaceable parameters in the URL request, or using the “HTTP Authorization” header. Check this box to use the “HTTP Authorization” header. This box should be checked when connecting with another Now SMS/MMS gateway.
“Server Type” provides pre-defined templates for connections to common gateway interfaces. If you are connecting to one of the servers with a pre-defined template, such as another Now SMS/MMS gateway, select its server type here. Otherwise, select “Custom” to define a custom template.
“URL Template Text” is a URL template that is used when sending text SMS messages. When the gateway has a text SMS message to send, it connects to the HTTP server and issues the URL request specified in this field, replacing the “replaceable parameters” with values for the message to be sent. A complete list of “replaceable parameters” is provided below.
“URL Template Binary” is a URL template that is used when sending binary SMS messages. When the gateway has a text SMS message to send, it connects to the HTTP server and issues the URL request specified in this field, replacing the “replaceable parameters” with values for the message to be sent. A complete list of “replaceable parameters” is provided below.
URL Template Replaceable Parameters:
|
@@UserName@@ |
The user name configured for this connection (optional) |
|
@@Password@@ |
The password configured for this connection (optional) |
|
@@PhoneNumber@@ |
The phone number of the recipient to receive this SMS message (required) |
|
@@Text@@ |
The text of the SMS message (required for text messages) |
|
@@Data@@ |
The data of the SMS message in binary format as a string of hexadecimal characters (either this or @@DataBin@@ required for binary messages) |
|
@@DataBin@@ |
The data of the SMS message in binary format as the actual binary data in URL escaped format (either this or @@Data@@ required for binary messages) |
|
@@UDH@@ |
The “User Data Header” of a binary message as a string of hexadecimal characters (either this or @@UDHBin@@ required for binary messages) |
|
@@UDHBin@@ |
The “User Data Header” of a binary message in binary format as the actual binary data in URL escaped format (either this or @@UDH@@ required for binary messages) |
|
@@PID@@ |
SMS “Protocol ID” field as a hexadecimal value |
|
@@PIDdecimal@@ |
SMS “Protocol ID” field as a decimal value |
|
@@DCS@@ |
SMS “Data Coding Scheme” field as a hexadecimal value |
|
@@DCSdecimal@@ |
SMS “Data Coding Scheme” field as a decimal value. |
|
@@Sender@@ |
Phone number to be included as the sender of this message. |
“Sender Address” specifies the default sender address (phone number) to apply to outbound SMS messages. The SMSC to which you are connecting may override this setting. (Note: The sender number is only transmitted if the @@Sender@@ variable is included in your URL template string.)
Check “Allow Sender Address Override” if you want to allow messages submitted to the gateway to be able to specify a sender address. If this box is checked, and a sender address is present in a message being submitted to an HTTP based SMSC, the sender address in the message will be submitted to the SMSC. The SMSC may override this setting.
Check “Remove ‘+’ from Recipient Phone Number” if the gateway should remove the “+” character from international phone numbers before submitting the message to the HTTP SMSC. HTTP SMSC interfaces based upon the Kannel product expect the “+” character to be removed.
Some types of messages processed by the Now SMS/MMS Gateway may require multiple SMS messages to transmit a single logical message. This is because the maximum size of an SMS message is 160 text characters or 140 binary bytes of data. The Now SMS/MMS Gateway automatically segments larger messages and submits them as multiple SMS messages that can be reassembled by the receiving client. Some HTTP based SMSCs prefer to split larger messages themselves. Check “Send long messages without segmentation” if you want the SMSC to split larger messages into multiple SMS messages, or leave this setting unchecked to allow the Now SMS/MMS Gateway to perform necessary segmentation of large messages.
The “Routing” group of options is used when multiple SMSC connections are defined to the gateway. These options define what messages should be routed to this connection. The Routing options are common to SMPP, GSM Modem, UCP/EMI and HTTP connections, and are described in the Routing Options section.
When the “OK” button is selected, the gateway will attempt to connect to the HTPP server to verify the configuration information provided. Diagnostic information will be displayed if the connection fails. The connection will only be added to the configuration after a successful connection to the HTTP server. Note that although a connection attempt was successful, you should attempt to send a message through the interface to verify that the URL templates are defined correctly.
UCP/EMI SMSC
The gateway supports the UCP/EMI (Universal Computer Protocol / External Machine Interface) protocol, version 3.5 or 4.0, to connect to an SMSC over the internet or other private TCP/IP network. Some mobile operators provide UCP connections for higher volumes of SMS traffic.
To add a UCP/EMI connection, select “Add” from the “SMSC” tab of the gateway dialog. Then select “UCP/EMI over TCP/IP”.
“Server Host Name” specifies the TCP/IP address or host name of the UCP/EMI server.
“
“User Name” specifies the user name for the gateway to use when connecting to the UCP/EMI server.
“Password” specifies the password for the gateway to use when connecting to the UCP/EMI server.
Note: Some UCP/EMI systems may not require a username and password, and validate your account based only on the TCP/IP address of your system. If the username and password fields are left blank, the gateway will not send a UCP-60 bind message to the server to login.
“
“Sender Address” specifies the default sender address (phone number) to apply to outbound SMS messages. The UCP/EMI server may override this setting.
Check “Allow Sender Address Override” if you want to allow messages submitted to the gateway to be able to specify a sender address. If this box is checked, and a sender address is present in a message being submitted to an UCP/EMI based SMSC, the sender address in the message will be submitted to the SMSC. The UCP/EMI server may override this setting.
Check the “Enable
Receive Messages” box if you wish to receive messages from the UCP/EMI
server. When this box is checked, the
gateway can either receive messages using a single connection to the UCP/EMI
server, or the “
Some UCP/EMI servers may require that clients submit keep-alive messages to the server every so many seconds or minutes, or the server will time out the connection. To enable keep-alive messages, specify a value in seconds for the “Keep-Alive” setting. (Note: The gateway uses a UCP-31 message for the keep-alive message.)
The “Routing” group of options is used when multiple SMSC connections are defined to the gateway. These options define what messages should be routed to this connection. The Routing options are common to SMPP, GSM Modem, UCP/EMI and HTTP connections, and are described in the Routing Options section.
When the “OK” button is selected, the gateway will attempt to connect to the UCP/EMI server to verify the configuration information provided. Diagnostic information will be displayed if the connection fails. The connection will only be added to the configuration after a successful connection to the UCP/EMI server.
Additional SMSC Configuration Options
Once one or more modems are defined, additional options are displayed under the “SMSC” tab.
The “Properties” button allows you to configure properties for the selected connection. For SMPP and HTTP connections, the standard configuration dialogs appear. For modem connections, the Routing Options dialog will be displayed, defining what SMS message recipients should be routed via this connection.
The “Test” button allows you to test the selected connection and confirm that the gateway software is still able to communicate properly with the modem or service. Note that if the gateway service is currently active, the service will be temporarily stopped while the test is running.
The “Remove” button allows you to remove the selected connection from the configuration, so that the gateway will no longer attempt to use the connection.
After changes are made, use the “Apply” button to save any changes. Use the “Ok” button to close the dialog.
Routing Options
The “Routing Options” dialog for a modem connection contains a field to set the Phone Number of the GSM modem for that connection. This field is not required, but if the field is set, then the following will be enabled:
· Inbound messages arriving on that GSM modem connection will be associated with this phone number. For 2-way SMS applications, the phone number is included in the @@Recip@@ parameter. Additionally, all inbound messages arriving on this interface can be queued for delivery to an SMPP Client account that uses this gateway as its SMPP Server.
· When a sender address is included in a message submitted to the gateway for delivery, and the sender address matches the configured phone number for a particular GSM modem connection, the gateway will ensure that the message is sent via this GSM modem.
“Routing Options” are available for all SMSC connections defined to the gateway. For SMPP, UCP/EMI and HTTP connections, the “Routing” group of options is displayed on the standard configuration dialog. For modem connections, a separate dialog is displayed when “Properties” is selected for the connection.
If “Support any outbound message traffic” is checked, this connection is available to route any messages, unless the recipient of the message appears as a “Preferred SMSC Connection” for another connection.
If “Support any outbound message traffic” is not checked, this connection will only route messages when the recipient of the message appears in the “Preferred SMSC Connection” list for this connection.
The “Preferred SMSC Connection” list specifies one or more patterns to match to determine if a message should be routed by a particular connection. Patterns consist of a phone number string, and can include the wildcard characters “*” and “?”. The “*” character matches any number of characters, and the “?” character matches any single character. When a pattern is defined on a preferred connection list, it means that any messages to recipients that match this pattern will be routed ONLY by this connection (unless another connection shares the same preferred connection pattern).
In the example above, the connection will route any messages to recipients in the “+44” country code (because “+44*” is on the preferred SMSC connection list for this connection). Also, this connection will route messages for any other recipients where the recipient does NOT match a pattern on the preferred list for any other connection.
In the example above, any other defined connections would not route messages for recipients in the “+44” country code, unless “+44*” was repeated on the preferred connection list for another connection.
In the Windows environment, service processes are started automatically when the PC is started, so that it is not necessary for a user to logon to the computer to run a service program. The Now SMS/MMS gateway operates as a Windows service.
When you are configuring the gateway, and select “Ok” to close the configuration dialog, the gateway checks to see if the service process is active. If the service process is not active, the following dialog is displayed:
Select “Yes” to install and activate the service, or “No” to exit without activating the service.
The “Service” tab in the configuration dialog can also be utilized to install or remove the service.
The “Event Log” button displays a dialog that shows events related to the gateway which have been logged to the Windows Event Log. The gateway always logs when its services are started and stopped. Additionally errors are reported to the event log if a particular SMSC interface fails to initialize, and when a user account exceeds their defined message quota for sending messages.
When you wish to submit any type of SMS message, including MMS notifications or WAP push messages, you must submit the request via the gateway’s web interface. The “Web” tab of the configuration dialog contains settings relevant to this web interface.
You configure the gateway to listen for web/HTTP requests on a particular TCP/IP port number. The standard web port on the internet is 80, however you will most likely want to use a non-standard port for this service. The service defaults to the non-standard port 8800.
The PC that is running the gateway might have other web services installed. For this reason, the gateway allows you to specify which of the available IP addresses on the current PC should be used by the gateway. The “IP Address for web interface” prompt displays the available IP addresses on the current PC. To make the gateway service available via any address on the current PC, select “(all available)”, otherwise select a specific IP address.
“Enable menu driven web interface” specifies whether or not an HTML menu will be displayed when a user connects to the gateway via the web interface. This menu interface can be helpful when you are first exploring the features of the gateway. If this menu setting is disabled, then the gateway will require the appropriate URL parameters to perform any tasks. These URL parameters are defined elsewhere in this document.
Checking “Enable SMPP Server” enables the SMPP Server module of the gateway. While the gateway has the ability to act as an SMPP client, sending and receiving messages through an external SMPP server, it also has the ability to act as an SMPP server to provide message sending and receiving services to other SMPP clients. When you enable the SMPP server, you must specify a TCP/IP “Port number for SMPP Server”. This is a local port number on the gateway PC, which must not be in use by any other applications. The gateway will listen for SMPP clients to connect to the gateway on the port specified. User accounts for SMPP clients are defined on the “SMS Users” tab of the configuration dialog.
To prevent unauthorized access to the gateway, access should be limited. For most applications, it is recommended that this gateway be installed inside of your firewall, to help ensure that users on external computers cannot access the gateway. As further authorization measures, the gateway can also limit access by restricting address to a limited range of IP addresses, and by requiring a username and password for access.
To define that a username and password be required for access to the gateway, check “Require Authentication for web interface”. HTTP requests must include this username and password in order to issue requests to the gateway. (Note: A standard web browser will prompt for the username and password.) The “SMS Users” tab defines user accounts that can access the gateway.
To restrict access to the gateway to a limited range of IP addresses, “Allowed” and “Blocked” lists may be defined. When the gateway receives a new web request, it consults the “Allowed” and “Blocked” lists to determine if web access is allowed from the IP address of the machine that issued the request.
If an address is listed on the “Blocked” list, access will be denied, and the web interface cannot be used to submit an SMS message from that address.
If an address is not listed on the “Blocked” list, and an “Allowed” list is not defined, the web interface can be used to submit an SMS message from that address.
If an address is not listed on the “Blocked” list, and an “Allowed” list is defined, access will be denied if the address is not included in the “Allowed” list.
To add addresses to either list, enter an address in the appropriate text edit area and press the “Add” button. To remove an address from either list, highlight the appropriate address in the list, and press the “Remove” button. Wildcards can be used in a defined IP address to specify that any value in that portion of the IP address will be considered a match. (For example, 192.168.1.* would be considered a match with both 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.100.)
Defining SMS User Accounts
The “SMS Users” tab of the configuration dialog defines user accounts that are allowed to submit SMS and MMS messages through the gateway. Messages can be submitted to the gateway via HTTP (web interface), SMPP and/or SMTP (e-mail).
(Note: Mobile phone users that connect to the MMSC to send and receive MMS messages are configured under the “MMSC Users” dialog tab.)
When SMS user accounts are defined to the gateway, it is possible to define limits on the number of messages that an account is allowed to submit per day, and per month. It is also possible to define how the account is allowed to connect to the gateway, that is to say whether the account can login via HTTP, SMPP and/or SMTP.
The “SMS Users” dialog tab lists defined user accounts.
If you want to enable sending limits on your user accounts, you must check “Enable message sending limits on user accounts”, and specify a default limit for the maximum number of messages per day and per month, that users will be allowed to submit.
Individual user accounts can be allowed to have limits higher or lower than the default settings. However, you must enable the sending limits, and define default limits, in order to be able to define sending limits on any of the accounts defined to the gateway. After enabling message sending limits, click “Apply” to save the change before adding or editing any user accounts.
The “Stats” button displays information about the number of messages sent by the account that is selected in the list.
The “Edit” button is used to edit the settings for a defined user account. The “Add” button is used to define a new user account. The “Delete” button is used to delete a user account.
When adding or editing a user account, the following dialog will be displayed:
“User Name” and “Password” specify the user name and password that will be used to login to the account before sending any messages.
“Full Name” specifies a descriptive name for the account.
If the user account should be allowed to log into the web (HTTP) interface to submit messages, check “Enable Web Login for this user”.
If the user account should be allowed to connect as an SMPP client to the gateway’s SMPP server, check “Enable SMPP Login for this user”. In addition to allowing the SMPP client to send messages through the gateway, the gateway can also route received messages back to the SMPP client. To enable received messages to be routed to the SMPP client, check “Route received messages to user via SMPP”, and specify one or more phone numbers (separate multiple phone numbers with a comma), where if the recipient of a message received by the gateway matches this phone number, the message will be queued for delivery to this SMPP client.
If the user account should be allowed to log into the SMTP interface to submit messages using an e-mail client, check “Enable SMTP Login for this user”. This allows a user account to login via SMTP with an e-mail client to submit bulk delivery of SMS or MMS messages. The gateway uses the SMTP server from its built-in MMSC to provide this functionality. Therefore the MMSC must be configured and activated to enable this capability. When sending messages in this fashion, the sender must configure an e-mail client to connect to the gateway as an SMTP server, and to use SMTP authentication to login with the defined user name and password. The gateway does not provide an e-mail inbox, only outbound message sending via an SMTP interface. An authenticated SMTP user can send an MMS message by addressing the message to “phonenumber@mms.domain.name”, where “mms.domain.name” is the “Domain Name for MMS E-Mail” defined on the MMSC configuration dialog. An authenticated SMTP user can send an SMS message by addressing the message to “phonenumber@sms.domain.name”, where “sms.domain.name” is the “Domain Name for SMS E-Mail” defined on the MMS configuration dialog.
If message sending limits are enabled, check “Use Default Message Sending Limits for this User” to use the default limits defined for the system, or uncheck this setting to specify a maximum number of messages per day and per month that are allowed to be sent by this account.
When the menu driven web interface is enabled, it is easy to test the ability of sending various types of SMS messages.
To enable the menu driven web interface of the gateway, you must check “Enable menu driven web interface” on the “Web” page of the configuration dialog. When that option is enabled, you can connect to the web interface with a web browser. On the “Web” page of the configuration dialog, there is a setting named “Port number for web interface”. To connect to the web interface of the gateway, connect to http://ip.address:port, where “ip.address” is the IP address or host name of the PC running the gateway, and “port” is the port number specified for the web interface.
In a default configuration, the web menu interface can be accessed on the gateway PC by pointing a web browser to http://127.0.0.1:8800.
For more information on configuring the Web Menu Interface, see Configuring the Web Interface.
With a web browser, connect to the web port configured for the SMS gateway, and an interface similar to the following will be displayed.
This web page provides a menu driven interface for sending various types of SMS and MMS messages.
For information on how to send specific types of messages, please refer to the appropriate section below:
v Send Voice Mail Notification
Send Text Message
To send a text message, simply enter a phone number and the text of your message. If the message is longer than 160 characters, the gateway will automatically use concatenated SMS (“long SMS”) message support to send the entire message.
Send Binary Message
Sending a binary message through the web interface typically requires more knowledge of the binary SMS protocol that you are attempting to use. HTML forms are included for simplifying the process of sending Nokia Smart Messaging types, along with a general form for sending any binary message.
Send Nokia Ring Tone
To send a Nokia ring tone, you must have a hex string value for the ring tone data. The hex string format represents two characters for each binary byte of ring tone data. Documentation of the ring tone data format is beyond the scope of this document.
For those who wish to send ring tones programmatically via the Now SMS/MMS Gateway, note that this form includes the following hidden fields which are included as URL parameters when submitting the message to the server:
UDH = 06050415811581
PID = 0
DCS = F7
Send Nokia CLI (Group) Icon
To send a Nokia Group Icon, you must have a hex string value for an OTA Bitmap, as defined by the Nokia Smart Messaging specification. The hex string format represents two characters for each binary byte of OTA Bitmap data. Documentation of the OTA Bitmap data format is beyond the scope of this document.
For those who wish to send Nokia Group icons programmatically via the Now SMS/MMS Gateway, note that this form includes the following hidden fields which are included as URL parameters when submitting the message to the server:
UDH = 06050415831583
PID = 0
DCS = F7
JavaScript in the HTML form adds the hex string “30” to the beginning of the OTA Bitmap string and submits it as the “Data” parameter in the URL.
Send Nokia Operator Logo
Nokia Operator logos are one of the more complicated of the Nokia Smart Messaging formats. To send a Nokia Operator logo, you must have a hex string value for an OTA Bitmap, as defined by the Nokia Smart Messaging specification. The hex string format represents two characters for each binary byte of OTA Bitmap data. Documentation of the OTA Bitmap data format is beyond the scope of this document. You must also know the Mobile Country Code (MCC) and Mobile Network Code (MNC) values of the network operator to which the recipient is subscribed. A link on the form provides more information on MCC and MNC codes, and a pointer to the URL http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml, from which you can look up the MCC and MNC codes of various network operators.
For those who wish to send Nokia Operator logos programmatically via the Now SMS/MMS Gateway, note that this form includes the following hidden fields which are included as URL parameters when submitting the message to the server:
UDH = 06050415821582
PID = 0
DCS = F7
JavaScript in the HTML converts the MCC and MNC codes into the format required by the Nokia Smart Messaging specification, and combines them with the OTA Bitmap data to create a valid operator logo message in the URL “Data” parameter submitted by the form.
Send Nokia Picture Message
Nokia Picture Messaging should not be confused with MMS picture messaging. The Nokia picture messaging format typically only allows for the submission of small specially formatted black and white pictures, whereas MMS provides support for larger color images in a variety of different formats.
To send a Nokia Picture Message, you must have a hex string value for an OTA Bitmap, as defined by the Nokia Smart Messaging specification. The hex string format represents two characters for each binary byte of OTA Bitmap data. Documentation of the OTA Bitmap data format is beyond the scope of this document. A picture message also includes a short text message.
For those who wish to send Nokia Picture Messages programmatically via the Now SMS/MMS Gateway, note that this form includes the following hidden fields which are included as URL parameters when submitting the message to the server:
UDH = 060504158A158A
PID = 0
DCS = F7
JavaScript in the HTML form combines the message text and the OTA bitmap data to create a valid picture message in the URL “Data” parameter submitted by the form.
Send Binary Message Other
The “Send Binary Message Other” form allows for the submission of other types of binary messages. This typically requires more knowledge of the binary SMS protocol that you are attempting to use, but this web form can be convenient for testing.
Send WAP Push Message
It has never been simpler to send a WAP Push message. Simply enter a phone number, a WAP URL (if the “http://” prefix is not included it will be added automatically), and some text to be included in the informational message displayed to the user. The gateway will automatically generate and send a WAP Push “Service Indication” (SI) message to the specified phone number.
Send MMS Message
It no longer requires a degree in rocket science to send an MMS message.
The menu interface provides two methods for sending an MMS message. The “Send MMS Message” option allows you to define a subject, message text, and optionally include multiple content files (uploaded via the browser). Content files may include text files, audio files, image files, SMIL files, and/or other supported MMS content types. The gateway automatically compiles the MMS message file and uses the gateway’s built-in MMSC to send the message.
Note that this menu interface also allows for the sending of a pre-compiled MMS message file. If you are sending a pre-compiled MMS message file, that file should be submitted as the only content file for the message, and it should have a “.mms” file extension.
The alternative MMS interface, “Send MMS Notification” is intended for more advanced developers. After creating a binary MMS message file (don’t worry the gateway includes tools to help you do this!), and storing the message file on a web server with a MIME type of “application/vnd.wap.mms-message”, this dialog shows how the gateway can be used to send a notification to the message recipient that instructs the recipient’s phone to connect to the specified URL to retrieve the MMS message content.
Note: When the “Send MMS Notification” function is used, the MMS Notification is sent to the recipient independent of the MMSC built-in to the gateway. The message recipient will fetch the message directly from the URL specified. As the message is not routed through the MMSC, the MMSC cannot provide dynamic content adaptation and conversion services.
Send WAP OTA Settings
The gateway supports sending WAP OTA (Over-the-Air) configuration information to WAP compatible mobile phones. The “Send WAP OTA Settings” option allows a complete WAP configuration profile to be sent to a compatible mobile phone (the gateway supports the Nokia/Ericsson OTA Settings specification).
The web menu interface provides support for GPRS and GSM/CSD (GSM dial-up) configurations.
Settings are operator specific, so please refer to your operator for information on settings that are appropriate for your environment.
Send WAP OTA Bookmark
The gateway supports sending WAP OTA (Over-the-Air) configuration information to WAP compatible mobile phones. The “Send WAP OTA Bookmark” option allows bookmarks to be sent to compatible mobile phones. Simply specify the WAP URL, a title for the bookmark, and a phone number to which the bookmark should be sent. Be forewarned that many phones do not yet support this bookmark feature.
Send Voice Mail Notification
Voice Mail Notification Messages are special SMS messages that are used to tell the user that they have voice mail waiting. On most mobile phones, the phone displays a message prompt, and the user can press a single key to be transferred to voice mail. This voice mail phone number is configurable via the mobile phone settings.
This dialog supports sending special SMS messages to turn on and off the voice mail waiting status.
To send a text SMS message via a menu driven interface, please see the help section titled “Web Menu Interface”. This section describes how to send a text message programmatically via URL parameters.
To send a text message via SMS, use the following URL format:
http://127.0.0.1:8800/?PhoneNumber=xxxxxxxx&Text=abc+def+ghi
For 127.0.0.1, please substitute the IP address or host name assigned to your gateway PC. (Note: 127.0.0.1 is a local loopback address that can be utilized when you are connecting to the gateway from the same computer.)
For 8800, please substitute the port number that the gateway is configured to use.
Substitute the phone number that you wish to send the SMS message to for the “xxxxxxxx” in the “PhoneNumber” parameter. Use either the local phone number format, or the international phone number format (your network provider may or may not allow you to send to international phone numbers). If the international phone number format is used, note that you must substitute “%2B” for the “+” character, because of URL escaping restrictions. For example, to send an SMS to +447778001210, use the following URL format: