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NowSMS Support Forums ⬆ NowSMS Support - SMS Issues ⬆ Archive through May 12, 2004 ⬆ |
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| Author | Message | |||
| Anonymous |
I have NowSMS installed, and simple text SMS sending is working when I submit a message through the web interface. While this is useful, what I really need is the ability to send SMS messages from e-mail. I understand that NowSMS can support this, but I'm lost for how to configure? | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Bryce Post Number: 2183 Registered: 10-2002 |
Hi, I've been meaning to write up a good explanation for how to setup this up for awhile now. I guess I don't have an excuse for procrastinating any longer. NowSMS has the ability to function as a simple SMTP server, receiving e-mail messages and routing them to SMS or MMS recipients. It is best to configure NowSMS first so that you can send messages from the NowSMS web interface to confirm that NowSMS is correctly configured before you move into the e-mail configuration. It is possible to setup NowSMS so that it only receives SMTP messages from local applications on your network, or you can make it internet accessible for messages to be routed to selected SMS addresses. The SMTP server is a component of the "MMSC" module. Even if you are not using any of the other MMS related functionality, you must activated the MMSC service in order to enable e-mail to SMS and/or MMS support. The SMTP and e-mail related settings are configured on the "MMSC" page of the NowSMS configuration dialog.  Unless you have a very specialised setup, you should configure the "SMTP Port Number" as "25". (Note that only one service can bind to a particular port number on a single machine. So you can have difficulty installing NowSMS on the same PC as an existing SMTP mail server. If your PC has multiple IP addresses, NowSMS does have the ability to bind to only one of the available IP addresses if you select that address in the "IP Address" field beneath the "SMTP Port Number" setting. However, any other SMTP server that you run on the same PC must have similar capabilities to bind to only one IP address in order to run multiple SMTP servers on the same PC. If you are confused by all of this, the just avoid trying to run NowSMS with this SMTP support on the same PC as an another mail server.) For now, leave "Require AUTH" unchecked. I will explain this setting later. "Local Host Name or IP Address" is the host name that is presented in SMTP dialogs. (It is also used for constructing URLs when sending MMS.) Under normal conditions it should be a host name defined in the internet DNS, which resolves to the PC running NowSMS. It could also be the IP address of the PC. "Domain Name for MMS E-Mail" defines the domain name that is to be used to identify messages that are to be routed as MMS messages. If NowSMS receives a message addressed to username@domain.name.mms, where "domain.name.mms" is the domain name defined in this field, then NowSMS will attempt to route the message to the recipient via MMS. If you want to be able to send to this domain over the internet, you must define a Mail eXchange (MX) record in internet DNS that resolves this domain name to the PC that is running NowSMS. If you are not using the MMS facilities, just enter a dummy value into this field. "SMTP Relay Host" is used for routing outbound MMS or SMS to e-mail. It is not used for routing e-mail to SMS or MMS. In order to send from SMS or MMS to e-mail via NowSMS, you must define an SMTP Relay Host. This is an SMTP server which will accept SMTP e-mail messages from NowSMS and act as a relay to deliver the message to the eventual recipient. (Consult the documentation for your mail server to find out about your mail server's abilities to function as a "relay host" if you are interested in using this functionality.) The next few "Enable" settings can be ignored, as they pertain to MMSC functionality. To enable e-mail to SMS support, check "Enable E-Mail to SMS Support". Next, specify a "Domain Name for SMS E-Mail". This defines the domain name that is to be used to identify messages that are to be routed as SMS messages. If NowSMS receives a message addressed to username@domain.name.sms, where "domain.name.sms" is the domain name defined in this field, then NowSMS will attempt to route the message to the recipient via SMS. If you want to be able to send to this domain over the internet, you must define a Mail eXchange (MX) record in internet DNS that resolves this domain name to the PC that is running NowSMS. Note that the "Domain Name for SMS E-Mail" must be different from the "Domain Name for MMS E-Mail". If the values are the same, NowSMS will attempt to route any e-mail for that domain via MMS. Also note that the "Domain Name for SMS E-Mail" must be different from the "Local Host Name or IP Address". NowSMS uses the "Local Host Name or IP Address" as an alias for the "Domain Name for MMS E-Mail", and NowSMS will attempt to route any e-mail for a domain name matching that host name via MMS. "Max SMS messages per e-mail" specifies the maximum number of SMS messages to be sent out for a single received e-mail message. If a message contains only characters in the standard GSM character set, you can fit 160 characters in a single message (or only 70 characters when any Unicode characters outside of this character set are included in a message). However, NowSMS can send out a set of concatenated messages which will appear as a single longer message on most handsets. Set this value to "1" if you do not want to use any concatenated/long SMS, or set a value to specify the maximum number of SMS to be sent in a concatenated SMS for a single e-mail message. (NowSMS will truncate any messages that include text longer than can fit into the specified number of SMS.) That describes the basic settings for e-mail to SMS or MMS. However, it does not cover user accounts and how to send to specific recipients. By default, NowSMS will only allow e-mail messages to be sent to SMS or MMS for user accounts that are defined in the "MMSC Users" list. (Yes, even if you are sending e-mail to SMS, these accounts are defined in the "MMSC Users" list.) So, if you only want to allow e-mail messages to be sent to a few addresses, you can define those phone numbers in the "MMSC Users" list. NowSMS then allows you to send to either phonenumber@domain.name.sms.or.mms or alias@domain.name.sms.or.mms. NowSMS will accept messages for any address defined in the "MMSC Users" list, but will reject attempts to send to any phone numbers that are not defined in that list. What if you have bulk sending needs, and want to be able to send to any phone number? Well, the first consideration is that you want to limit who can do this, so that you do not run up your SMS bill. NowSMS supports two approaches for allowing for sending e-mail to any phone number via SMS or MMS. The first approach uses SMTP AUTH (SMTP Authentication). Accounts can be defined in the "SMS Users" list. If SMTP access is enabled, an SMTP client can be configured to connect to NowSMS and authenticate itself with a defined username and password. If the client authenticates with a defined username and password, NowSMS will allow the client to send to any phonenumber@domain.name.sms.or.mms. (Technical note: Many PC workstation-based virus scanners intercept outbound SMTP e-mail connections, and remove the SMTP AUTH! If you experience problems trying to use SMTP AUTH, disable the outbound e-mail filtering in your virus scanner. You can, of course, continue to use inbound e-mail filtering in your virus scanner.) The second approach involves defining "trusted" IP addresses that are allowed to submit messages to NowSMS via SMTP without requiring authentication. This might be the IP address of particular workstations, or it might be the IP address of an internal corporate mail server that is configured to relay mail to NowSMS. To define trusted IP addresses which are allowed to submit e-mail messages to any phone number, you must manually edit the MMSC.INI file. Under the [MMSC] section header, you can add a parameter: SMTPIPAddressList=ip.address.1,ip.address.2,192.168.1.* This parameter can have a comma-delimited list of IP addresses (no white space, if you specify multiple addresses, separate with a comma only) that are allowed to connect via SMTP and send to *any* phone number using an addressing format of phonenumber@domain.name.sms.or.mms. The IP addresses specified, can also include a "*" place holder as a wildcard match for all addresses in that network (for example, *.*.*.* would open access to any address, so you could use that value if you have complete confidence in your firewall). Let's see, have I forgotten anything? I did say that I would provide more explanation of the "Require AUTH" setting. Basically, this setting allows you to also require authentication before being able to send to any phone numbers defined in the "MMSC Users" list. So if "Require AUTH" is checked, even if a user account is defined in "MMSC Users", NowSMS will only route SMS or MMS for that phone number if the submitting SMTP client authenticates via SMTP AUTH with a valid account, or the submitting IP address is defined in the "SMTPIPAddressList" setting. Now I think I've covered everything. Well, almost. That's everything that I can think of for routing e-mail to SMS or MMS. However I also alluded to support for MMS or SMS to e-mail. MMS to e-mail is part of the standard MMSC functionality when a mobile phone is configured to use NowSMS as an MMSC. An MMS client can address a message to either another phone number or an e-mail address. When NowSMS receives an MMS addressed to an e-mail address, it automatically tries to route the message via e-mail. (And it will try to relay the message to the "SMTP Relay Host" setting described above.) SMS to e-mail is a different story. The "2-way" facility in NowSMS, which is used to process received SMS messages, is normally used to deliver received SMS messages to an HTTP script or executable program. However, it can also be used to route received SMS messages to an e-mail address. When defining a "2-way" command in the "Received SMS Command Table", it is possible to define a "mailto:" link in the "Command to Execute" field. Possible "Command to Execute" values for this purpose include: "mailto:user@domain.com" - The SMS message will be put into an e-mail message and sent to user@domain.com. "mailto:@@SMSPREFIX@@" - NowSMS will look for an e-mail address to be the first text of the received SMS message. NowSMS will send the text of the SMS message after this e-mail address to the e-mail address that appears as the first text of the SMS message. (Example: SMS message text = "nowsms@now.co.uk This is a test" -- e-mail message will be sent to "nowsms@now.co.uk" with text "This is a test".) If "mailto:@@SMSPREFIX@@" is used, and NowSMS does not see a valid e-mail address at the start of the SMS message, NowSMS will reply with the following text: "Invalid e-mail recipient. Please specify a valid e-mail address to start the text of your message." Effective with the v5.50 version of NowSMS, the "Received SMS Command Table" can have different commands for different phone numbers, which provides more flexibility for mixing this "mailto:" support with traditional "2-way" facilities on the same system. I'm sure that I'm missing something, but that's about everyting I can think of related to "E-Mail to SMS" functionality in NowSMS. -bn [Admin Note: Additional information on e-mail to MMS can be found at http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/485/4207.html.] | |||
| Karla Reyes Unregistered guest |
hello!! is it also possible to receive email on my phone through nowsms? thanks! | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Bryce Post Number: 2228 Registered: 10-2002 |
As an SMS (or MMS), yes. You would need to setup a rule in your e-mail client to forward selected e-mail messages to the e-mail address of your phone through NowSMS. Or, you would need to send messages directly to the e-mail address of the phone through NowSMS. | |||
| Svennis Unregistered guest |
We´re running an Exchange 2000 Server. I have set up the MX records as you wrote, but when I try to send a message inside our network to username@sms.domain.com I get the following message back: 550 Sender not authorized, authentication required. We´re using Outlook 2002. Whats can be the problem you think? | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Bryce Post Number: 2240 Registered: 10-2002 |
You need to define the IP address of your Exchange 2000 server as a trusted IP address, meaning that it is allowed to submit e-mail messages to any phone number. To do this, you must manually edit the MMSC.INI file. Under the [MMSC] section header, you can add a parameter: SMTPIPAddressList=ip.address.1,ip.address.2,192.168.1.* (You can either enter a single address, or multiple addresses in a comma-delimited fashion.) You can also look at the MMSC-yyyymmdd.LOG file, and it should show "SMTPIN" transactions with a status of "REJECTED". The IP address of the server submitting the message is included as the parameter that follows the "SMTPIN" parameter. So you can add that IP address to the MMSC.INI file. Note that you do need to restart the NowSMS MMSC service after making that edit to the MMSC.INI. -bn | |||
