send text messages through modem

[Hoang H. Nguyen]

Can I send a text message to a pager using only modem attached to a HP server with HPUX 11.0.
Thanks

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Not without great difficulty but you can easily send a numeric code that represents a text message. Normally you send pager messages via email but if the network is down that obviously fails. My convention is to use pager/cell phones to leave a callback number and that can be done with nothing more than delays and numbers sent via the modem. For me, any number that starts with a '9' is critical, '8' severe, and so on.

[Florian Heigl (new acc)]

yes :)

You need some software daemon for the paging and a dialup configured, though.

I'll search for the utility I was recommended some months ago.

[Florian Heigl (new acc)]

Hmmm... the one I was looking into is meant for SMS messages, I do not know if it's compatible with regular pagers, but quite probably yes...

http://www.alamin.org/en/index.html

[Florian Heigl (new acc)]

I read the docs one more time, it will only work for SMS, but IMO that's the better way anyhow ;)

[Hoang H. Nguyen]

Thank A. Clay and Florian for the quick replies.
A. Clay, you give me good idea. What command I should use to send out a numerical message?
Thanks.

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

Actually, you dont need anything special at all. You need a process to hold a seriual port open (kermit can do this quite nicely) and then all you do is echo to the port. I've written a C program call "holdport" which can set the baudrate and parity and then keep the port open. After that, just an echo command from the shell will do the trick with standard modem commands.

[Hoang H. Nguyen]

Thank A. Clay.
I do have the Kermit and csz. I used to send text file to remote server via the modems at both ends. I will try to send to the pager using kermit as you said.

[Bill Hassell]

Check with your pager company. Virtually every pager company and cellphone company offer email messaging, that is, you send a plain text email message to your pager's phone number (at some cpu.domain.com) and the pager company converts the message for you. Most people who have played with SMS in the past are quite happy to drop the setup and reliability problems in favor of email.

[Hoang H. Nguyen]

Thank All for helping me.
Using Kermit, I was able to send the "nemerical messages" to a pager.
Now I have another chalenge. With only modem,
how can I send SMS messages to the cell phone.
My company uses Cingular provider and Black Berry SMS services. I assume that my remote Center only communicate to the outside world through the Analog phone line.
Thanks

[Bill Hassell]

It is better to ask your cell phone company about the email address but for Cingular cell phones that can receive text messages, the address is: 1234567890@cingularme.com where the numbers are your phone number (area code and number). This is for US phones.

[Bill Hassell]

Note: my recommendation is for email to your cell phone. If your computer has no LAN card and is not on a network, then I doubt there is any text interface available without special software. If your HP-UX system is on a network, then you can configure your sendmail to forward to your email server which in turn can foward the messages to Cingular.

[Hoang H. Nguyen]

Thank Bill,
You are right. I have one very isolated Center with only analog phone line to communicate with outside world. Everyone in my group has a Black Berry which is cable to receive email, voice messages and SMS messages. So, I try to send the SMS to the BB instead of "numerical messages" to the pager.

[Hoang H. Nguyen]

Thank you all of you. It works by using Kermit VIA paging services provider.

[Hoang H. Nguyen]

Using Kermit VIA paging services provider.

[Alan Meyer_4]

I must make a comment on using the internet to as a medium for sending pages. Please keep in mind that those messages are at the mercy of internet traffic and could take a long time to actually be delivered. I once had a server down page take over 4 hours to be delivered. so just be advised and aware.

[Hoang H. Nguyen]

Hi Alan,
Thanks for the comment.