Aircard 860 - Problem sending MMS

Aircard 860 - Problem sending MMS SearchSearch
Author Message
Venu
New member
Username: Venukb

Post Number: 14
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 07:15 am:   

After being patient for almost 2-3 months, I/We finally ditched Aircard 875.
http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/1/20216.html

It would just not work with NowSMS.

So I got a new Aircard 860. I am testing it from the past few days and I have no trouble sending/receiving SMS

Sending MMS is NOT working.
I added a new route in "MMS routing Tab" and configured a MM1 conection and set the new route as the default route.

Error:RAS Error 619 -- A connection to the remote computer could not be established, so the port used for this connection was closed. For further assistance, click More Info or search Help and Support Center for this error number.”


Configuration Details:
Cingular Aircard 860
Route Messages to VASP via - MM1

I looked up the operator setting and chose - USA Cingular.

Here are the settings for reference:
Server Address - http://mmsc.cingular.com/

Network Connection: Modem:Sierra Wireless Aicard 3G Modem.
WAP Gateway IP Address - 66.209.11.61

GPRS APN - wap.cingular
Login Name - WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password - CINGULAR1
Modem Used - Sierra Wireless Aircard 3G Modem

Any idea on why I am getting the RAS error. I checked in other threads and there seems to be no issue with the configuration data.

(Bryce did mention an alternate way of configuring MMS route using Network driver, however that also has problems)
Venu
New member
Username: Venukb

Post Number: 16
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 12:33 pm:   

application/octet-streamMMSWAP Debug Log
MMSWAPDEBUG.LOG (2.7 k)


Attaching the MMSWapDebug Log
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 7162
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 07:47 pm:   

Hi Venu,

When you use a Sierra Wireless Aircard, they usually don't let you have two simultaneous data connections open at the same time. That is why the connection is failing.

What do I mean by this?

Well, typically the "Watcher" app gets configured with a APN setting, and the related Sierra Wireless software driver automatically makes a data connection to the APN and makes it available via a network driver.

Because that data connection is active, the modem will not let you make another data connection via dial-up networking.

That's all a bit confusing ... but it's ok. Actually, this is good. You can configure NowSMS to use the network driver instead of having to use dial-up networking.

A few months ago I ran some tests with the Sierra Wireless Aircard 850 (the 860 is for North American frequencies, 850 is rest of the world, but otherwise they should be very similar).

My notes on this are in the following thread:

http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/485/19177.html

To cut to the quick, here is the relevant information from that thread:

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.

SMS seems to be working ok for you, but I had a problem sending SMS where I would get "CMS ERROR: 330" when trying to send SMS messages. To resolve this problem, it was necessary to manually configure the operator SMSC address in NowSMS.

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 many 3G modems ... but it may be an issue that is being fixed by updated modem firmware.

-bn
Venu
New member
Username: Venukb

Post Number: 17
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 09:52 pm:   

Hi Bryce,
Thanks for the detailed response. In fact I am trying to do the same thing that you have described.

initially i had got CMS ERROR:330 and I fixed it by putting in the SMSC number.

As of now my concern is regarding MMS. I have trouble connecting to the newly created profile.

This is how I created a profile in Watcher
Name : NowSMS
User Name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
User Password: CINGULAR1
APN: wap.cingular

Now when I tried to connect using this profile, its immediately disconnected saying "Invalid profile" !!

Am I creating the profile wrong? With Aircard 875, the profile was automatically created by NowSMS I believe and I had no trouble connecting to the profile. Its not the same situation now !

Can you please clarify on the profile creation ?
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 7175
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007 - 08:56 pm:   

Hi Venu,

When NowSMS creates the profile, it is creating a "dial-up networking" profile.

In that case, NowSMS is making a data connection over the modem.

This is different from the profile that you can setup in Watcher ... as this profile allows the data connection to look like a network card instead of a modem. (There is a benefit to this ... when NowSMS is making a data connection over the modem, it has to suspend SMS processing while the data connection is active. If you configure Watcher to make the connection as a network card, then NowSMS can continue to perform SMS processing while the data connection is active.)

All this said, I think the fact that the connection is failing in Watcher is telling us something.

Do you have a phone with a Cingular SIM in it, where you can successfully send/receive MMS with that phone?

If so, then try putting the SIM card from the modem into the phone. Are you still able to send/receive MMS using that SIM card (your phone number would, of course, change based on the SIM ... as the phone number is associated with the SIM not the device).

I'm thinking that it may be possible that if you buy the network card from Cingular, that they provision the SIM for data-only access. And when they provision it for data-only access, they are provisioning it for internet access only (isp.cingular APN), and not allowing access to wap.cingular APN.

If you move the SIM from the modem to the phone and the phone is no longer able to send/receive MMS ... then try putting the phone's SIM into the modem, and see if you can't make this connection.

If my theory is wrong here ... then try configuring Watcher to auto-connect to the APN isp.cingular (change the user name to ISP@CINGULARGPRS.COM). Can that connect ok?

-bn
Venu
New member
Username: Venukb

Post Number: 18
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 05:07 am:   

Bryce, sorry for the late update.
We infact changed the SIM and MMS started working.

The error information that was displayed gave no hints of MMS not being supported on the SIM.

Its been a long ride till now and what I found was that the nowsms forum has abundant information to resolve things, but its very difficult to search.

You guys should consider putting this into a knowledge base and this should help a lot of users

Thanks for your support.

Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 7315
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 05:53 pm:   

Hi Venu,

I'm sorry it took so long to suggest that the SIM might be an issue.

This used to be one of the first things that we would suggest checking, but we moved away from suggesting it, because it seemed to be a non-issue.

However, based on your experience ... and some experience that I'm suspecting with some other incidents, I think this needs to be moved up higher in the checklist.

Thanks for the feedback.

-bn