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NowSMS Support Forums ⬆ NowSMS Support - MMS & Advanced Issues ⬆ Archive through April 05, 2007 ⬆ |
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| Author | Message | |||||
| Peter Hanappe New member Username: Hanappe Post Number: 1 Registered: 11-2006 |
Hi, I'm trying to use NowSMS with the Sierra Aircard 850. NowSMS detects two modems associated with the card: a HSPDA modem and a 3G modem. Only the HSPDA modem seems to work. NowSMS replies that the 3G modem does not support SMS. So I use the HSPDA modem and the modem test passes fine. Testing the modem through the Windows control panel also works. However, I'm stuck with two problems: 1) I can't send SMS, and 2) I can't establish an GPRS connection to send MMS to the operator. More details below. For the record, I'm using the French SFR for the telephone service. 1) Sending SMS I've set up the "Web" settings and the "SMS Users". When the Web service starts up, the SMSDEBUG.LOG shows that the modem is initialized correctly: 10:07:29:247 [3] ThreadProcessModem: Modem initialization complete: Sierra Wireless AirCard HSDPA Modem The Web interface works fine. I can enter and send an SMS through the Web interface: no error message is shown. However, the SMS never arrives and the log file reads: 10:08:29:403 [8] ThreadProcessConnection: Processing connection from 127.0.0.1... 10:08:29:403 [8] ThreadProcessConnection: Processing request /Send%20Text%20Message.htm?PhoneNumber=0612345678&Text=Test+3011&InfoCharCounter =&PID=&DCS=&Submit=Submit 10:08:29:403 [8] Debug: 1 recipient entries 10:08:29:403 [8] ThreadProcessConnection: Before message loop 10:08:29:403 [8] ThreadProcessConnection: Before message loop 10:08:29:403 [8] ThreadProcessConnection: Begin message loop 10:08:29:403 [8] ThreadProcessConnection: End message loop 10:08:29:419 [8] ThreadProcessConnection: Request processing complete 10:09:29:247 [3] ReceiveModemCommand: Error - 3E4 10:11:29:247 [3] ReceiveModemCommand: Error - 3E4 10:11:29:247 [3] ThreadProcessModem: ERROR - Error waiting for response from modem (2) 10:11:29:247 [3] ThreadProcessModem: Error: ERROR - Error waiting for response from modem (2) 10:12:59:247 [3] ReceiveModemCommand: Error - 3E4 10:13:59:247 [3] ReceiveModemCommand: Error - 3E4 [...] I've tried to set the value of "SMS Access" in the Modem Connection panel to "Default", "GSM", and "GPRS" but I get the same error messages as above in all cases. Additionally, I tested Sierra's 3G Watcher application. It can send and receive SMS correctly and uses the circuit-switched network. (No, I don't run both applications in concurrently). A related question: when "SMS Access" is set to "GSM", does NowSMS have the correct telephone number of the messaging service? 2) Establishing an GPRS connection I would like to use NowSMS to send/receive MMS using the operator's MMSC. Unfortunately, I didn't make it through the "MMS Settings" dialog of the modem connection. First, I tried the settings found using the "Lookup Operator Settings". When I test the connection, I first get a warning that the modem does not respond to a GPRS command. Then, after a long time, I get the error message "Connection Failed. RAS Error 619 ...". I also tried the GPRS settings I found in my mobile phone (but which are probably for WAP-based Web browsing) but I get the same error. Clearly, the Aircard 850 is not responding to some commands. No doubt it's a trivial issue but I'm currently without a clue how to tackle it. Any help is highly appreciated. Best regards, Peter Hanappe PS: What are your experiences with the French operators? I could go out and buy a SIM for another operator if needed. | |||||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Bryce Post Number: 6862 Registered: 10-2002 |
Hi Peter, The "Error - 3E4" in the debug log looks a bit ominous. But basically, what is happening is a timeout error. The modem is not responding back after we give it the message to be sent. This is odd, because we have a very relaxed timeout of 3 minutes. Generally speaking, if there is a connectivity problem sending the message, a modem will give up and return an error response well before that timeout. Because the "3E4" errors continue, it would appear that the modem never comes back after the sending attempt. This seems to suggest something very fundamental going wrong ... and I haven't seen any problems like this previously with any of the Sierra Wireless Aircards. A colleague of mine has a Sierra Aircard 850, so I'm asking him to bring it back into the office so that I can run some more tests with it. Let me give you some manual commands to try sending with the HyperTerminal utility (usually installed under Programs/Accessories/Communications)... AT+CSMS=0 AT+CSMS? AT+CSMS=? AT+CMGF=1 (Above puts the modem into text mode for SMS for the next test ... NowSMS usually uses binary PDU mode) AT+CMGS="0612345678" Modem should respond with ">" ... after getting the ">" prompt, put in some text and then press CTRL-Z For the GPRS connectivity questions, I'd like to know the responses to the following commands: AT+CGDCONT? AT+CGDCONT=? Also, for GPRS connectivity issues, enable the MMSWAPDEBUG.LOG, and let's take a look at that for when you attempt the connection. -bn | |||||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Bryce Post Number: 6880 Registered: 10-2002 |
I've been doing some additional testing with a Sierra Aircard 850, and I am reminded of two other issues ... First, there seems to be an issue with 3G modems where you need to manually configure the operator SMSC within NowSMS. There's another thread out here discussing some issues with the Sierra Wireless Aircard 860, which is the US version of this particular card: http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/1/17076.html When I configured the Aircard 850, I experienced the same problem as in the above thread. All of my SMS sending attempts returned "CMS ERROR: 330". This is different from what you experienced where the modem seemed to "hang". But maybe there is a different firmware version issue. You can usually determine the operator SMSC number that you need to use by looking in Watcher. Go to the Tools/SMS page and look for "Service Center Number". Edit SMSGW.INI, and in the [Modem - Sierra Wireless AirCard HSDPA Modem] section, add SMSC=+xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, where +xxxxxxxxxxxxxx is the SMSC number for your mobile operator. (Normally this SMSC number is read automatically from the SIM card, but for some reason that does not seem to be happening automatically with most 3G modems.) There are other issues with the Aircard 850 and 860 which are very similar to issues with the earlier Aircard 750, as described in the following thread: http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/485/2265.html For MMS access, you are best off configuring the Aircard to automatically connect to GPRS using its network card driver ... as opposed to having NowSMS access it via dial-up networking. To do this, you want to click on the "New Profile" button next to the "Profile" drop-down list on the main screen of the Sierra Wireless Watcher application. Configure the APN name to be the appropriate MMS APN for your mobile operator. You can use the "Lookup Operator Settings" in NowSMS to determine the MMS APN name for most of the common mobile operators. Note that some mobile operators require you to specify a username and password. After configuring this MMS APN name, check the "Auto Connect" button ... then press "Apply" to save your changes in "Watcher". My experience at this point is that Watcher does not actually "Auto Connect" until you reboot (this might change in a future update). But for now, manually press "Connect". Back in NowSMS, when configuring the MMS settings for sending or receiving MMS, you want to set the "Network Connection" field to be "Network: 3G Aircard", instead of selecting a modem connection. Note that this causes the "GPRS APN" field to be grayed out because the network driver is responsible for establishing which GPRS APN is used. Also, leave the "Modem Used" setting blank or set to "(none)" ... because the Aircard network driver operates independently of the modem. (This is a very good thing about the Aircards.) At this point you should be ok for sending SMS or MMS messages, but receiving will be a problem, because the "Watcher" application has a nasty habit of automatically grabbing all inbound SMS messages and removing them from the modem. To deal with this, you need to disable "Watcher" from automatically loading ... do this under Tools/Options, where you UNcheck "Auto launch on card insertion" and also UNcheck "High speed connection lost warning". Reboot after saving these changes. Note that none of this addresses the strange problem in this thread where the modem seems to be hanging. But maybe adding the "SMSC" setting will address this. -bn | |||||
| Eugenio Tisselli New member Username: Tisselli Post Number: 1 Registered: 01-2007 |
Hi, I am working along with Peter, and still having the same problem. We tried the following things: 1. The AT commands didn't seem to work on Hyperterminal. When I wrote the AT+CMGS="0612345678" command, I didn't get the ">" prompt. 2. Peter tried the 850 card on Linux, and it worked! He was able to send SMS messages using the AT commands you suggested. Now we know that the card is OK, but we still want to use Windows. 3. I installed the card on a different laptop, and had exactly he same problems. I also followed your suggestion of including the SMSC=+xxxx line in smsgw.ini, but it didn't solve the issue. I believe there must be a configuration issue with NowSMS. I am sending you the smsgw.ini and smsdebug.log files, I hope it helps... Thank you in advance, Eugenio Tisselli.
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| Malcolm - Now Support Moderator Username: Malcolm Post Number: 89 Registered: 12-2006 |
Hi Eugenio, If HyperTerminal doesn't see the ">" prompt, then it doesn't sound like a NowSMS problem, it sounds like a problem with the Windows driver for the modem. That is very odd, as when I did my tests with the Aircard 850, I didn't run into any problems like this. What did the modem respond with when you tried the "AT+CGMS="0612345678" command from HyperTerminal? Also, the SMSDEBUG.LOG gets reset every time the service is restarted, so I didn't get any information in your posting of it. Could you try again and post another SMSDEBUG.LOG? -- Malcolm Now Wireless Support | |||||
smsgw.ini
