Error When Using Serial Hubs

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M.A.M.F
New member
Username: Mamf

Post Number: 9
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - 01:07 am:   

what i mean by serial hub is a PCI device that you put in your computer and gives you number of serial interfaces.
when i used one of these products (brainboxes - 8 ports) nowsms can't deal with it and i got a strange Error (Error reading memory instruction ....), and some other times nowsms tell me to ensure that the modem is powered on.
i tested the modem assigned to one of the boards of my pci device using hyperterminal by sending the command "AT+CMGL=ALL" and i got the OK.
Is it known that now sms has any problems with this types of devices, what exactly is problem and how can i solve it because i already purchased the device and i was planning to buy nowsms to complete my solution.
your urgent reply is appreciated.
thanks
M.A.M.F
New member
Username: Mamf

Post Number: 10
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - 05:24 pm:   

hi bryce,
i have one question related to my previous one in this post Plus on suggestion.
My question is:
After so many retries i could define some of my gsm modems (5 from 10) but only one was initiated at a baud rate of 15200 and the rest were initiated in 9600 bps even the ones attached directly to the pc serial port (not to the serial ports hub or distributer mentioned in my previous post) - I'm using wavecom fastrack 1203B.
when i follow up the SMSOUT file i relized that checking modem connection for the defined modems fails most of the times.
i know it's getting more confusing!!!
is it normal to intialize modems in this baudrates and is there is any way in nowsms that i can control baudrates to communicate modems with.

Ok, now for My Suggestion it's to implement a mechanism of routing (balancing) outbound sms in away that debends on cost but consider the waiting queues at the same time, and to clarify my point lets take this as a sample.
i've an smpp connection with an sms gateway (bulk sms) that's very fast but expensive. and also i'm using gsm modems. i want to tell now sms that use gsm modems as long as waiting queue is under 50 message (configurable value) and if it goes over that use the smpp connection until it comes back to the specified level.
So the factors are cost and speed (Queues) and the importance of each factor (weights) can be configurable also.
i think implementing a such way of routing outbound sms will give now sms a great advantage in decreasing cost without forgetting the performance (speed) during peek times.
K/Regards
ashot shahbazian
New member
Username: Animatele

Post Number: 29
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Sunday, October 17, 2004 - 11:02 am:   

Most obvious reason for this behavour is faulty power supplies, both in your computer and one used to power your modems. Grounding your computer and modems and using a high-quality (grounded too) power supply may solve the problem. If modems use external antennas mounted outdoors the antenna cables must also be securely grounded.

We had successfully tested Quatech 8-port PCI adapters, Digi Neo adapters, serial concentrators and port servers with NowSMS and Wavecom 2026B Wismo-based modems. All work without a hitch, and only problems we ever had were due to bad power supplies or bad reception.


Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 3595
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 07:34 pm:   

We're looking at how we can define some priority weights in the future. Mostly, however, we're looking at controlling priorities of submissions from different user accounts, so that bulk submissions from one or more accounts don't hold up other priority traffic.

We haven't really thought about the idea of having a connection that is activated only if the threshhold of queued messages is above a certain limit. That is an interesting thought.

But back to the PCI hub issue. I'd wonder if there is some sort of driver issue or resource conflict.

Regarding the baud rates ... we generally do auto-baud rate detection to find the fastest speed at which we can reliably talk to the modem. So the differing speeds suggests some communications problems. That said, there is a way to fix the baud rate. But it involves installing Windows modem drivers for all of the modems/COM ports. You then configure NowSMS to talk to the Windows modem driver instead of directly to the COM port. If your modem doesn't have a driver, the "Standard 33600 bps Modem" driver tends to work best with newer modems ... despite the name it defaults to 115200 bps. (The 57600 drivers don't give you any better speed, but they send extra AT commands during initialisation that don't work with most GSM modems, that's why I suggest sticking to the 33600.)

-bn
M.A.M.F
New member
Username: Mamf

Post Number: 11
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 08:00 pm:   

hi Bryce,
- thanks for ur reply, sorry but i haven't read your post until today (it was a little bit late but i know you are doing more than your best to catch up all posts - thanks).

- for the driver issue and resource conflicts there is nothing like that in our setup for sure.

-i tried to define my wavecom fastrack 1203B using the standard 33600 standard modem driver as u advised and it was installed correctly, but when defining the modem in now sms it gives am error during intilization like this ( error no.... , error from getlineid() ).

- is the grounding issue and signaling issue mentioned in the upper thread by ashot is correct and if so should they cause low speed only or they may prevent modems to be difined with now sms, because i have a modem for my tests attached directly to a com port of a computer but it takes power from the same source of other modems in our production environment and it's antina is in the same place also, and this test modem is also has the problem of intilization at 9600 bps.

- Pls Bryce remember that i have 2 problems:
1- Slow baudrates, even for modems attached directly to the computer com port (without using the pci serial hub).
2- i can't define all my modems (attached to the hub) with now sms, actually only 2 from 10 were defined although i can access the rest from hyper terminal.
Please hellllllllp!
M.A.M.F
New member
Username: Mamf

Post Number: 12
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 12:36 am:   

?????????? I'm still waiting, i'm planning to start my project commercially and buy NowSMS within the next month.
I installed NowSMS in a server with 2 processors (2X2.8GHZ) And 1GB RAM and Windows 2000 Advance Server installed.
My problem is not form the brainboxes serial hub because even modems attached directly to computer serial port are not defined (i got the message: Please insure that modem is powered on and ...etc).
From Hyper terminal i can access all this modems and issue commands like AT+CMGL or AT+CMGD successfully.
i knew that Nowsms doesn't have any limitation on Number of Modems, but this is realy driving me crazy because only 2 modems are now defined out of 10 and nothing should cause nowsms not to define these modems attached directly to the pc or even those attached to the serial hub as they were accessed from hyperterminal with no problems at all.

Please help asap.