Modem Busy or unavailable

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alex chan
New member
Username: Alex_chan9

Post Number: 6
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 07:31 am:   

Hi,

I developed a software to send and receive MMS via NOW SMS/MMS Gateway using HTTP GET periodically. However, I found that there is a error message "Modem Busy or unavailable" on the SMSC status sometime and will disappear after a while. Is it some configuration problem on the Now SMS/MMS gateway so that the MMSC or SMSC service lock the modem sometime.
Since I want to test the network performance by calculate the duration to send and received the same MMS itself, this problem will make the Now SMS/MMS Gateway take much more time to receive the MMS.

Thanks in advance for your suggestion..
Alex Chan
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 7481
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007 - 10:21 pm:   

Hi Alex,

What is the exact text that you see?

The reason I ask is because I do see where there is a status message of "Modem Busy or Unavailable" ... however this message would not be displayed in the status log ... it would be written to the SMSOUT-yyyymmdd.LOG file. This particular message only would occur if the modem is busy for several minutes sending and/or receiving MMS.

The reason for this is because with most modems, NowSMS needs to switch modes between AT command access for SMS sending/receiving and GPRS/EDGE/UMTS packet data access for MMS sending/retrieval. The SMS component logs this message if it has to wait more than approximately 5 minutes for the MMS subsystem to release the modem.

Unfortunately, the design of most modems makes this the way that things have to work. The MMS receiving trigger comes in over SMS, and there is the necessity of mode switching.

The only modem that I've seen where this is not required are the Sierra Wireless modems. However, older Sierra modems seem to be more reliable than newer ones in this regard (750 and even the 850/860 ... avoid the USB models).

-bn
alex chan
New member
Username: Alex_chan9

Post Number: 7
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 01:18 pm:   

Hi Bryce,

Following are the part of the messages from the SMSOUT log file for your refernce:

2007-09-19 16:00:35,System,,Standard 33600 bps Modem,Modem Busy or Unavailable
2007-09-19 16:01:54,System,,Standard 33600 bps Modem,Modem Failure -- Unable to access modem, ensure that it is powered on and passes diagnostic tests.

Now I am using Fargo Maestre 100 GSM/GPRS modem for my testing which is the only program running in my computer and also without connect to the network.
In the testing, the program will send a MMS every 15 mins and it was running for more than 2 days without any problem.
However, when the message "Modem Busy" or "Modem Failure" exist, it seem that then modem will not release again even I restart the MMSC and SMSC service. I need to unplug the modem and restart the computer to solve this problem.
One more thing, I can send the AT commands to the com port which connected to the modem after I restart the services. However, the NOWSMS gateway still keep the error status "Modem,Modem Failure ..."

Thanks a lot for your help
Alex
alex chan
New member
Username: Alex_chan9

Post Number: 9
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, November 07, 2007 - 02:22 am:   

Hi,

Anyone have some idea about this problem? I just have the same problem again after running the NowSMS/MMS gateway for 3 weeks without any problem.

Thanks in advance
Alex Chan