SMS

[nanog at daork.net (Nathan Ward)]

On 23/09/2009, at 4:29 AM, William Herrin wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Scott Berkman <scott at sberkman.net>  
> wrote:
>> Some people use a serial interface to a specific model cell phones to
>> directly send the message over the carrier's cellular network.   
>> This is good
>> in the event of isolation of a location from any IP connectivity to a
>> carrier gateway.
>
> The Multitech Multimodem GPRS model MTCBA-G-EN-F4 has an ethernet
> port. Add a SIM card from your favorite wireless carrier and you can
> send and receive SMS messages via "AT" commands over a TCP socket.
> Problem is, it seizes up or otherwise founders every few weeks and has
> to be power cycled.
>
> Has anyone heard of other products with a good reliability record?

That is shocking.

I have had a fantastic track record with a Maestro 100 GSM modem with  
a serial interface.

One of my customers has one powered on for about a year now, and it's  
never missed a beat.

They apparently support TCP/IP and the datasheet mentions something  
about email, but I have no idea what that really means, and don't  
really care so much.
I send it standard GSM AT commands, and it just works.

I've done the whole old nokia handset thing in the past several times  
and it's *ok*. Now though, I say don't bother, this thing is maybe a  
couple hundred dollars, and saves you oodles of time fooling around  
making it work reliably.

--
Nathan Ward