Software does something to modem

Software does something to modem SearchSearch
Author Message
Michael Blake
New member
Username: Mblake4u

Post Number: 5
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 03:56 pm:   

Hi,

I'm having problems using my Nokia E61 as a modem. This modem worked fine with NowSMS Gateway (full version) but with the trial version the phone disappears from device manager when the service is restarted, i.e. it's detected and works fine until the service is restarted. After restarting the service I'm unable to see the modem in the Windows device manager until restarting the server (unplugging/plugging the modem back in same/different USB port makes no difference).

As mentioned above - I didn't have any problems of this nature with the full version of the software.

Cheers, Michael
Des - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Desosms

Post Number: 1786
Registered: 08-2008
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 08:38 pm:   

Hi Michael,

That is very odd.

Do you know what version of NowSMS (full version) you were using before?

And what is the version of NowSMS Lite that you are using now?

The modem handling between the two should be identical. The only difference would be version changes that we've made over time.

We have added more code to recover from modem errors, and obviously something we've changed must be having a negative impact on that device. I just can't imagine what.

Can you enable the SMSDEBUG.LOG ... restart the server. (I'm assuming NowSMS is configured to automatically start as a service, if not enable it to do so.) Then stop the NowSMS service.

I'd like to see the resulting SMSDEBUG.LOG to look for clues of any unusual interactions with the modem.

I guess the good news is that there is a configuration option in NowSMS to reboot if the modem is inaccessible.

Oops .... I was about to post that and realised that this configuration option was not present in NowSMS Lite.

We need to add a configuration option to enable it.

We just uploaded a new version of NowSMS Lite in the last 24 hours, so please download http://www.nowsms.com/download/liteupdate.zip and install that version.

See if that version still has the same modem problem.

To enable the automatic reboot if the modem cannot be accessed, edit SMSGW.INI. Locate the [Modem - your modem driver name] section header, and underneath of it, add RebootOnModemError=Yes

I need to put in an engineering report to get this configuration option added to the menu.

--
Des
NowSMS Support
Michael Blake
New member
Username: Mblake4u

Post Number: 6
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 03:10 pm:   

Hi Des,

The lite version is 26 August 2009 and the full version was 9 July 2009.

I hope extracts from the logs are OK.

SMSOUT....LOG

2010-02-10 14:32:47,System,,Nokia E61 USB Modem,Modem Failure -- Unable to access modem, ensure that it is powered on and passes diagnostic tests.
2010-02-10 14:38:41,TESTCE27.REQ,,+447727151958,Retry Pending - ERROR -- Nokia E61 USB Modem
2010-02-10 14:38:43,TESTCE27.REQ,,+447727151958,Retry Pending - ERROR -- Nokia E61 USB Modem
2010-02-10 14:39:13,TESTCE27.REQ,,+447727151958,OK -- Nokia E61 USB Modem,Text="NowSMS Test Message"
2010-02-10 14:40:20,TEST4AB5.REQ,,+447727151958,Retry Pending - ERROR -- Nokia E61 USB Modem
2010-02-10 14:40:22,TEST4AB5.REQ,,+447727151958,OK -- Nokia E61 USB Modem,Text="NowSMS Test Message"
2010-02-10 14:44:26,System,,Nokia E61 USB Modem,Modem Failure -- Unable to access modem, ensure that it is powered on and passes diagnostic tests.

SMSDEBUG.LOG

14:57:33:125 [2] ThreadProcessModem: Before ModemAllocate - Nokia E61 USB Modem
14:57:33:125 [2] ThreadProcessModem: After ModemAllocate - Nokia E61 USB Modem - OK
14:57:33:125 [2] ThreadProcessModem: Re-initializing modem: Nokia E61 USB Modem ...
14:57:35:140 [2] HammerNonResponsiveModem: Begin
14:57:35:140 [2] HammerNonResponsiveModem: Unable to access modem at COM8: -- Error 2 -- The system cannot find the file specified.

14:57:35:140 [2] HammerNonResponsiveModem: FAILED
14:57:35:140 [2] ThreadProcessModem: Modem Failure -- Unable to access modem, ensure that it is powered on and passes diagnostic tests.

I'll try out the new version - can you please explain the reboot procedure? It doesn't reboot the server does it?

Is there perhaps a way to configure specific modem initialisation strings for different modems, or is that unnecessary?

Kind regards,
Michael
Des - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Desosms

Post Number: 1789
Registered: 08-2008
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 05:45 pm:   

Hi Michael,

I don't have an E61, so I'm going to run some tests with some other Nokia phones to see if I can recreate anything similar.

What I have found is that between those two versions, there was additional modem handling code added to perform resets if there were excessive modem errors.

My guess is that an error condition is occurring, and for some reason this modem does not handle a reset properly.

I would really like to see an SMSDEBUG.LOG that shows NowSMS accessing the modem and then shutting down. That way I can see if there are any conditions that are triggered NowSMS to reset the modem, and we can see which reset command was triggered.

The RebootOnModemError=Yes setting under the [Modem - your modem driver name] section header setting does restart/reboot the server.

A lot of NowSMS servers run unattended, and some modems are prone to crashing, where the only way to get them back is to restart the server. We resisted adding this option for several years, but with some USB devices, this is the only way to get them to reconnect.

The Windows shutdown API is used, so it is a graceful restart.

What intrigues me in your case is that there is such a behaviour difference between NowSMS versions.

While I try to find a device that exhibits similar behaviour, there is another setting that you can try. Under the [SMSGW] header of SMSGW.INI (not the [Modem - driver] section used by the other setting, you can add ModemHardResetAfterError=No to disable the new modem reset code that was added into NowSMS. That might provide a temporary workaround for you.

--
Des
NowSMS Support
Des - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Desosms

Post Number: 1790
Registered: 08-2008
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 06:14 pm:   

Some more follow-up info ...

Nokia phones don't support receiving SMS messages on the GSM modem interface. Be sure to uncheck "Receive SMS Messages" in the modem attributes. Otherwise, the SMSDEBUG.LOG will fill up with a lot of errors. These errors do not seem to trigger the hard modem reset that I mentioned above, but this constant polling for a feature that the modem does not support may be contributing to the problem.

In earlier versions NowSMS would automatically determine that the modem did not support receiving messages, and it would stop polling. But changes in the time period mentioned above changed this so that polling would continue.

--
Des
NowSMS Support
Michael Blake
New member
Username: Mblake4u

Post Number: 7
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 02:42 pm:   

Hi Des,

I got the modem working again, and was able to receive 7 SMS's before it started failing again.

I didn't make any changes in the .ini file, but disabled processing of incoming messages.

I'll now try the ModemHardResetAfterError=No setting, but can't use the reboot option as there are other services on the server that I don't want to be restarted automatically.

I've attached the SMS debug log showing when I started the service this morning and the errors.

Kind regards,
Michael

application/octet-streamSMS Debug Log
SMSDEBUG_edited.LOG (21.5 k)
Des - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Desosms

Post Number: 1803
Registered: 08-2008
Posted on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 - 04:59 pm:   

Hi Michael,

Ok ... so the modem appears to be crashing at some point after some messages are sent.

We've seen this behaviour with Nokia Series 60 devices as modems before.

We actually have some logic that slows down the speed at which we communicate with the modem if a Nokia phone is detected.

However, there were some timings changed last summer to speed up modem interaction. And I expect we might be overwhelming the modem.

Edit SMSGW.INI, and under the [Modem - Nokia E61 USB Modem] header, add OldPollingLogic=Yes

This setting will restore the timing logic of earlier versions.

I'd also suggest making sure that "Receive SMS" is not enabled. As I mentioned above, this modem does not support receiving SMS via the GSM modem interface, so we don't want NowSMS to bother sending commands to the modem to poll for messages.

I'd also like you to try another setting to slow down the speed at which NowSMS interacts with the modem. Under the [SMSGW] header of SMSGW.INI, try adding ModemMaxBytesPerSend=1

Hopefully this will make a difference. I will say that the S60 GSM modem interface is not very stable, but we did spend a lot of time studying its quirks in the past, so hopefully the answer is in one of these settings (most likely OldPollingLogic=Yes).

--
Des
NowSMS Support
Michael Blake
New member
Username: Mblake4u

Post Number: 8
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Monday, March 01, 2010 - 02:47 pm:   

Hi Des,

Thanks for all the advice - I've tried different combinations but I'm not sure exactly what worked. I'm now on the latest version 2010.02.10 and it's working fine without any of the 3 parameters.

At one stage I was using all of them and it seemed better, but there could have been an issue with the phone USB cable. At the same time when things became stable, a colleague did something to fix the cable, so I'm not sure if it was the three parameters, the cable (or a combination of both) that solved my problem.

At least we know the E61 works with 2010.02.10 and no paramters ;)

Thanks again for your help - it's been up for about a week now without any problems.

Regards,
Michael
Des - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Desosms

Post Number: 1888
Registered: 08-2008
Posted on Monday, March 01, 2010 - 05:10 pm:   

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the follow-up.

I wouldn't hesitate to suspect a problem with the modem cable in this case. The behaviour described was just too unusual.

--
Des
NowSMS Support