SMSGW.INI: LongSMSAlt=Yes meaning?

SMSGW.INI: LongSMSAlt=Yes meaning? SearchSearch
Author Message
Peter01
New member
Username: Peter01

Post Number: 6
Registered: 10-2020
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2021 - 01:37 pm:   

Hi,

When I configure an SMPP connection, NextGen always adds LongSMSAlt=Yes to the SMPP section in SMSGW.INI. Is this normal? What does it mean?
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 8394
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2021 - 07:19 pm:   

Hi Peter,

As you might surmise, this setting has to do with how long text messages (over 160 character)s are encoded.

While the actual over the air encoding and segmentation is performed is very well-defined, the SMPP specification is ambiguous. Different SMPP implementations have different encoding expectations.

In the early days of NowSMS, our experience was that more SMPP implementations wanted to see segmented messages submitted via SMPP using the actual over-the-air encoding format (7-bit packed encoding).

(Side note: 7-bit packed encoding is also used over-the-air for short messages, but long SMS is a combination of 8-bit segmentation headers with 7-bit packed encoding for the text...and it's a bit confusing.)

As the environment shifted to more aggregators (as opposed to SMPP connections directly to the operator),SMPP implimentations preferred normal-text 8-bit encoding. As such, we changed the default encoding in NowSMS to use this format.

For compatibility with existing customer installations, the server side of NowSMS defaults to 7-bit packed encoding. But the configuration side of NowSMS, when creating a new SMPP connection, defaults to 8-bit plain text encoding by setting LongSMSAlt=Yes by default.

The bottom line is that you shouldn't need to think about this, but if you're having problems sending long messages, you may need to try different settings to find what works for a particular provider.

There are 4 encodings that you might encounter. Try the following:

1.) “Use 7-bit Packed Encoding for long text messages” – NOT CHECKED
“Use TLV Parameters for Port Numbers and Segmentation” – NOT CHECKED
“Send Long Messages without Segmentation (WDP Adaptation)” – NOT CHECKED
2.) “Use 7-bit Packed Encoding for long text messages” – CHECKED
“Use TLV Parameters for Port Numbers and Segmentation” – NOT CHECKED
“Send Long Messages without Segmentation (WDP Adaptation)” – NOT CHECKED
3.) “Use 7-bit Packed Encoding for long text messages” – NOT CHECKED
“Use TLV Parameters for Port Numbers and Segmentation” – CHECKED
“Send Long Messages without Segmentation (WDP Adaptation)” – NOT CHECKED
4.) “Use 7-bit Packed Encoding for long text messages” – NOT CHECKED
“Use TLV Parameters for Port Numbers and Segmentation” – NOT CHECKED
“Send Long Messages without Segmentation (WDP Adaptation)” – CHECKED

Note slightly different wording in our Windows version.

1.) “Encode long messages with 7-bit packed encoding” – NOT CHECKED
“Use TLV parameters for port numbers and segmentation” – NOT CHECKED
“Use WDP Adaptation for WAP Push and MMS” – NOT CHECKED
2.) “Encode long messages with 7-bit packed encoding” – CHECKED
“Use TLV parameters for port numbers and segmentation” – NOT CHECKED
“Use WDP Adaptation for WAP Push and MMS” – NOT CHECKED
3.) “Encode long messages with 7-bit packed encoding” – NOT CHECKED
“Use TLV parameters for port numbers and segmentation” – CHECKED
“Use WDP Adaptation for WAP Push and MMS” – NOT CHECKED
4.) “Encode long messages with 7-bit packed encoding” – NOT CHECKED
“Use TLV parameters for port numbers and segmentation” – NOT CHECKED
“Use WDP Adaptation for WAP Push and MMS” – CHECKED



If your SMPP provider can support long messages, at least one of these combinations of settings should work.

Regards,

Bryce Norwood
NowSMS Support

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