Mms reception

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Arne Lovius
New member
Username: Arne_lovius

Post Number: 1
Registered: 01-2004
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 09:56 am:   

I have been trying to use a nokia 6310i as a "modem" for sending and receiving MMS. Both the MMS settings test and the MMSC routing (routing via the operator (o2)) tests apparently pass okay. MMS's sent to the 6310i (but running as a modem) are apparently not received. MMS's sent to other numbers have notifications if sent direct but fail if sent via the operator. The Operator is adamant that the SIM has been provisioned correctly. Is there some vital step that I'm missing, or is the 6310i not suitable for the role, I have also tried with an ericsson T39M with the same results.
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 1588
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 02:15 pm:   

Hi Arne,

It is not possible to use a mobile phone as your modem to support receiving MMS with NowSMS. In order to receive MMS via a GSM modem with NowSMS requires an actual GSM modem, such as the Siemens MC35. (The reason for this is because the MMS client in a mobile phone always intercepts the MMS notification message, and prevents it from being forwarded over the modem interface.)

However, you should be able to send MMS with that configuration, either direct (which will work fine with O2 and Vodafone users), or through the operator's MMSC.

If the tests pass ok, but messages are not being received, the first thing that I would suggest is this:

Go to the "MMSC Routing" page. Highlight your route definition, and press "Edit". Make sure that "Default Sender Address" is blank, and that "Allow Sender Address Override" is NOT checked. Some mobile operators do not like it if a sender address is provided, as they expect to insert the address in this type of setup.

Another possible problem. There is a "Login Name" and "Password" field beneath the "Server Address" field in the routing definition. Leave that "Login Name" and "Password" field blank, as it is typically not used for this type of connection, and on some systems you can run into problems if it is present. (If a "Login Name" and "Password" is required, it is usually required for the GPRS APN, which is configured toward the bottom of that page.)

If this does not resolve the sending problem, then please create a file named MMSWAP.INI in the NowSMS directory. The contents of this file should be as follows:

[MMSWAP]
Debug=Yes

Restart the NowSMS services. Then attempt to send another MMS message. Wait a couple of minutes, and assuming that the message is not delivered, post the MMSWAPDEBUG.LOG as an attachment here (or e-mail it to nowsms@now.co.uk).


-bn
Mike Griggs
Unregistered guest
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 02:29 pm:   

Bryce,

Thanks for your reply. I'm working with Arne in an attempt to get this working. Just to clarify, we're not actually using an MMS phone to attempt to receive MMS messages - the Nokia 6310i and the T39m are both GPRS capable, but not MMS capable.

I've just made the changes you have suggested, and here is the output from the Debug.log (we already had it enabled, since that seems to be your first suggestion for every problem :-)
text/plainMMSWAPDebug.log
debug.txt (5.7 k)


I have also sent you an e-mail to nowsms@now.co.uk with our phone number, if that's helpful to you.

Regards
Mike
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 1595
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 04:55 pm:   

Mike,

You're still going to have problems receiving MMS using a phone as a modem. MMS notifications are sent over WAP push, and even if there is no MMS client to intercept the notification, the WAP push client generally will intercept it. (Theoretically, you could receive the notification on a phone that did not have WAP push support, but that is rare for phones that have GPRS capability, and many operators don't have allow you to retrieve MMS over a dial-up.)

But sending should work.

Your debug log looks like the sending was successful. The Vodafone MMSC accepted the message, and returned a message-id (not that there is anything useful that you can do with the message-id, but that is a good indicator that it was accepted by the MMSC).

Is the recipient still not receiving the message, or are you maybe trying to send to the phone that you are using as the modem (which isn't going to work because of the WAP push issue).
Mike Griggs
Unregistered guest
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 05:26 pm:   

Hi Bryce,

As you probably know by now I've been speaking to Keith in the London office for the last couple of hours.

My colleague is heading back with a (very expensive) Aircard 750 as we speak, so when he gets here we'll install it on his laptop and see what happens.
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 1597
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 05:28 pm:   

Mike,

I hear from Keith that you're off to pick up a Sierra Wireless Aircard 750 to handle the MMS receiving.

There are some instructions for configuring the 750 in the following thread:

http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/485/879.html

Basically, while you need the Watcher application to configure the card, once you have configured it, you want to disable watcher, then remove and re-insert the card to use it without the Watcher application active. (Otherwise the Watcher application will sometimes intercept recieved SMS messages.)

Also, I recommend removing a PIN if you have one configured on the SIM. While NowSMS can be configured to send the PIN automatically, my experience has been that while this works reliably for SMS, it is not sufficient for activating GPRS functionality of the card. Generally, it expects the user to enter the PIN via Watcher, and since you're not using Watcher, I suggest not using a PIN.
Mike Griggs
Unregistered guest
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 05:32 pm:   

OK, we'll do that. He's waiting for a bus as we speak...
Mike Griggs
Unregistered guest
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 06:45 pm:   

We're having major hardware issues with this new Aircard 750. It fails to recognise that a new device has been inserted when we put it into the PCMCIA slot on the laptop. We know the slot works, as we've got another PCMCIA that works in it.
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 1606
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 06:53 pm:   

I hate to say it after that rush trip, but maybe
it's defective?

Try rebooting the PC as a first step.

I'd also suggest installing the software for the Aircard and see if that makes a difference.

I can't imagine what would stop the device from being recognised at all. I would still expect at least a notice that an unknown device was inserted in the slot.
Mike Griggs
Unregistered guest
Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 12:51 am:   

Yup, we've ascertained that it's DOA. This is not good! We're getting another card delivered on Thursday, but it's going to make our next Tuesday deadline even more interesting.

Bryce, so that I can carry on working whilst waiting for the card, I'd like to ask a couple of questions. When I was speaking to Keith, he seemed to imply that when an MMS message arrives in the MMSIN directory, it will be split into a number of files each containing a particular part of the message - i.e., one for text, one for binary data, one for headers (not sure about the last). Is this the case? If so, what do I need to do to the binary part in order to ascertain that it's an image and be able to turn it into a viewable format? If you could attach an example of an MMS message containing an image I'd be most grateful.
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 1609
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 02:59 pm:   

Mike,

There are three different choices for how to handle received MMS messages:

http://www.nowsms.com/documentation/ProductDocumentation/2_way_mms_support.htm

For most people, the easiest option for a prototype is the "Receive to MMS-IN Directory" option. In this case, what happens is that received messages get written to the MMS-IN subdirectory of the NowSMS installation. (Or this directory can be changed with a config parameter on the "2-way" page of the configuration dialog.)

The format is that there is a text file that has the MMS message headers in text format. This file has an extension of ".hdr". An example of the format is shown at the following link:

http://www.nowsms.com/documentation/ProductDocumentation/mms_notifications_and_c ontent/Creating_MMS_Message_Files.htm

(The format that we convert these messages to is compatible with the format that is input to MMSCOMP.)

Each of the message components (including any text components) are written to a separate file. They are referenced by an "X-NowMMS-Content-Location: filename" header (one for each component). "filename" is relative to the directory in which the ".hdr" file exists. Generally, NowSMS creates a separate directory to hold these content files for each of the content files, so here's an example of one off of my PC.

In this case, the filename in the MMS-IN directory is 3F287A4A.hdr:


Message-type: m-retrieve-conf
Transaction-id: 3F287A46
MMS-version: 1.0
From: +44xxxxxxxxxx/TYPE=PLMN
To: +44xxxxxxxxxx/TYPE=PLMN
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2003 20:28:37 GMT
Message-class: Personal
Message-size: 20796
Subject: Test MMS
Content-type: application/vnd.wap.multipart.related; start=<testmms.smil>; type=application/smil
X-NowMMS-Content-Location: 3F287A4A\testmms.smil
X-NowMMS-Content-Location: 3F287A4A\testlogo.gif
X-NowMMS-Content-Location: 3F287A4A\catchy_g.amr
X-NowMMS-Content-Location: 3F287A4A\testmms.txt


In this case, the X-NowMMS-Content-Location header includes a directory name in the file path, and that means that the file is in that named subdirectory beneath the MMS-IN subdirectory. (NowSMS creates a subdirectory name that matches the ".hdr" file without the extension, so after processing the ".hdr" file, delete the corresponding directory.)

One other note. In the link above, you'll see that there can be parameters after the filename in the "X-NowMMS-Content-Location:" header. So if you encounter a ";" character, that should be considered the end of the header. I hope that at some point in the future, we will add some of those optional parameters (such as content type for each content piece) to this header when receiving MMS messages. Currently, you can only determine the content type based upon the name of the file.

Hope that helps.

-bn
Mike Griggs
Unregistered guest
Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 03:23 pm:   

That's excellent, thanks Bryce. I can get to work on the second part of the application whilst we wait on getting the MMS delivery problem fixed.