Android modem WiFi issues with 40 Devices

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Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 8121
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Friday, August 07, 2015 - 06:17 pm:   
From the support mailbox:

quote:

Hi Keith,

I am having big issues with NowSMS. We are required to use OpenVPN on Android to connect to the NowSMS Server.
The problem is, it takes a very long time for the NowSMS Android Modem app to connect to the server. Is there a config where we can make this quicker? Like some kind of keepalive settings? Check for every 10 secs or so? When internet connection from the phone is lost, it takes Nowsms Android about 15 minutes just to connect back to the server.

Please kindly let me know urgently as we are about to start live traffic but unable to do so due to this.
Looking forward to your quickest reply.



And follow-up...

quote:

We are using 40 Android phones and about one or two lose wifi in an hour.
Once that link goes down and comes up again, nowsms doesn't connect immediately. Take about 20 mins for the red status to become green ok again.
Is there a better way to check whether the android is connected or not?
And is there a way to force connect them?

Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 8122
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Friday, August 07, 2015 - 06:19 pm:   
Hi Aung,

I am guessing that the VPN software is having some issue that is contributing to connectivity loss.

Are you using fixed IPs in the devices, so that NowSMS does not have to broadcast to discover them? That would probably help.

You are correct that there is a fixed timeout on recovery from connectivity problems. Specifically, the server polls the Android modems every 10 minutes to see if they are responding. On the app side, after about 12 minutes, various actions are taken to reconnect. At 15 minutes, a more complex set of recovery actions are initiated. And at 20 minutes, another type of recovery is attempted.

We agree that there may be scenarios like yours where more robust recovery timings would be desired.

To that end, we have made a small change to make timeouts configurable.

There is a new version of NowSMS at http://www.nowsms.com/download/nowsms20150807.zip. Note that the version still reports as 2015.06.24, as only one component is updated.

A new version of the Android app is at http://www.nowsms.com/apkdev

In this update, the timeout is configurable.

By default, NowSMS polls modems every 10 minutes (600 seconds). If the Android app does not see activity within that period, it asssumes there is a problem and begins to take corrective action. Previously, this would take between 12 and 20 minutes for recovery action to complete. This is now configurable. In SMSGW.INI, under the [SMSGW] header, add ModemAppCheckInterval=###, where ### is the polling interval in seconds. The Android app will initiate recovery attempts at interval + 10%, alternating between the previous 12 and 15 minute recovery processes. At interval + 100%, another type of recovery is attempted.

Hopefully this will help your situation.

-bn

Bryce Norwood
Now SMS/MMS Support
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