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NowSMS Support Forums ⬆ NowSMS Support - SMS Issues ⬆ Archive through September 15, 2003 ⬆ |
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| Author | Message | |||
| Anonymous |
I am currently using a Siemens MC35 GPRS modem (with a Vodafone LIVE sim card) and I am trying to configure it so that it can receive MMS messages. But I can't seem to get it working. I'm not too sure about some of the setting, especially when it comes to setting up the MMSC. Can anyone shed any light? | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support (Bryce) |
Well, let me give you some background on how the process of delivering an MMS message works, and that will give some necessary background on configuration issues that can come into play when receiving MMS messages. The process of delivering an MMS message to a handset works like this: 1.) You start with a content file that contains the content of an MMS message. This message may have been created by an application, or it may have been created by a user sending the message from a mobile phone. (When the message is sent from a mobile phone, a mobile phone connects to an MMSC via WAP and transmits the MMS message content to an MMSC and the MMSC then takes responsibility for further delivery.) 2.) The MMS message content is published (usually by an MMSC) so that it is accessible via a URL. 3.) An MMS notification message is sent to the recipient mobile phone using binary SMS. This MMS notification message contains header information about the MMS message, and a URL pointer that tells the mobile phone how to retrieve the MMS message content. 4.) The recipient mobile phone opens a WAP session, and retrieves the MMS message content from the URL contained in the MMS notification message. It happens this way whether it is an operator MMSC that is delivering the message, or another MMSC, such as the MMSC built into our Now SMS/MMS Gateway. So how does this affect receiving inbound MMS messages when using the Now SMS/MMS Gateway? Well, the receiving process starts with the MMS notification message coming in as a binary SMS message (usually 2 concatenated binary SMS messages). (Note that if you're using a phone that supports MMS, or even that supports WAP push, as your GSM modem, then the MMS software on the phone will usually intercept the MMS message before forwarding it to the modem interface. This is not an issue in your configuration, because you're using a dedicated GSM modem device, but I point this is out just in case you try other devices.) When configured to receive MMS messages, the Now SMS/MMS Gateway begins by parsing any MMS notification messages that are received. To complete the MMS receiving process, the gateway needs to fetch the URL referenced in the notification, which contains the content of the MMS messages. Unfortunately, in many operator systems, the URL that contains the MMS message content is on a private IP address internal to the operator network. To figure out if this is the case, you need to enable the debug log in the Now SMS/MMS Gateway, which you can do by manually editing SMSGW.INI, and adding Debug=Yes under the [SMSGW] section header. Then restart the gateway. Send an MMS message in to that phone. You should end up seeing some activity in the SMSDEBUG.LOG and a reference to the MMS message URL that the system is trying to fetch. Unfortunately, if you need to be able to retrieve messages from the operator MMSC like this, you either need to talk to the operator about getting access into their network ... or you need to setup a GPRS connection (with another modem) in your PC, which maintains a constant connection to the operator network so that the gateway can fetch the messages over the operator network. If you have a closed user group, another alternative is to have all of your users send the MMS messages through the Now SMS/MMS Gateway as their MMSC. This way you have access to the MMSC to retrieve messages, and none of this is an issue ... it's just an issue when you're trying to connect to some operator MMSCs which have limited (or non-existent) accessibility over the internet. -bn | |||
