Able to send MMS but unable to receive

Able to send MMS but unable to receive SearchSearch
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Yuska Deepak
New member
Username: Yuskadeepak

Post Number: 1
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - 03:01 pm:   

Hi,
I am able to send MMS by using a GPRS modem over MM1. However i am unable to receive any MMS. My settings are the same for both send and receive. It seems i do not receive the MMS notifications by SMS. This is borne out by the logs and by observing the port communications. However when i put the SIM card back in a MMS phone i am able to receive MMS.

What are the causes for such problems ? i've checked the settings they are alright. Could the telco detect the phone type before sending the MMS notifications ?

Thank you in advance. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
YD
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 4566
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - 09:55 pm:   

YD,

What is the modem type?

And what is the mobile operator?

We saw a situation in Singapore (can't remember which operator, as I'd have to search the threads here for a bit) similar to what you describe. But we haven't seen it anywhere else, and the person experiencing the problem wasn't able to try any other modems.

Before we troubleshoot this any further, if you send regular SMS messages to the modem, are those being received correctly?

What about if you send a WAP push message (even if you use NowSMS sending it out the modem back to the modem's own phone number)? Does the message come into the SMS-IN directory?

The reason I ask these two questions about receiving a regular text SMS and receiving a WAP push ... is because the problem might have to do with receive SMS settings instead of anything MMS related.

There are several different options for "SMS Message Storage" when you define a GSM modem connection. Some modems will require the "Direct to Modem" setting to deliver binary SMS messages properly (like WAP Push and MMS notification).

So let's start with this.

(Also, I just want to confirm that the modem is not a phone acting as a modem. I'm pretty sure it's not. But just for the sake of completeness, I should mention that a phone acting as a modem will not allow you to receive MMS messages over the modem interface.)

-bn
Yuska Deepak
New member
Username: Yuskadeepak

Post Number: 2
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 06:10 am:   

Hi Bn,

I am using Maxis in Malaysia.

1. Yes regular SMS are being received correctly

2. Yes a WAP push message does come into the SMS-ON directory as a binary message.

I've changed the storage to Direct-To-Modem instead of default but to no avail. Still cannot receive the MMS-notifications.

What should i try next?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
YD
Yuska Deepak
New member
Username: Yuskadeepak

Post Number: 3
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 06:12 am:   

Oh yes and one more thing,

the modem is an Enfora modem. It is not a phone acting as a modem. It is a GPRS modem as it can send out MMS.

Thanks

Best regards,
Yuska Deepak
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 4582
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 08:21 pm:   

Unfortunately, I don't have any good ideas.

I wanted to try the above tests to make sure that you weren't experiencing any problems specific to receiving binary SMS.

However, it certainly appears that the MMSC is deciding not to send you the MMS notification.

I just don't know what the MMSC could be looking at to make that decision.

It's a long shot, but you might want to try the setting to tell NowSMS to use SMS over GPRS. When this setting is enabled, we'll register the modem with the GPRS network on startup. It's definitely a long shot that this would make a difference.

I did some searching, and found the threads that discussed the problem that someone was having in Singapore (using Starhub). In that case, instead of an MMS notification, they were receiving a blank SMS message. If they moved the SIM to a phone, the phone would receive the MMS within a few minutes (presumably the MMSC was retrying the notification). In that particular case, I was suspecting that the modem was having some sort of problem with binary messages.

But in your case, not receiving anything at all, doesn't give much to go on.

If possible, I'd suggest trying a SIM from another operator.

I'd also be curious if maybe the problem is a long SMS problem. Try another WAP push, but this time, put over 140 characters into the "Text" field. I'm curious if that comes back into the SMS-IN directory ok. (2 physical messages should be received, but NowSMS will combine them into one file after both are received.)

I can't really think of anything else to try. But if you can try the above, maybe that will give us some clues.

-bn
Yuska Deepak
New member
Username: Yuskadeepak

Post Number: 4
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 09:10 am:   

Hi bryce,

i tried the long sms for wap push and it works.

An additional bit of information is that, after i put back the SIM card into my phone, the telco does not send me the MMS but redirects me to go to the webpage with a certain password to retrieve the MMS. Any clues here ?

Best regards,
Yuska

Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 4613
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 09:36 pm:   

Hi Yuska,

It sounds like your mobile operator does not have the account (associated with the SIM card) enabled for MMS. However, this is odd if you are able to send MMS using that SIM.

If the SIM is in the phone when you send an MMS to it, does it get downloaded as an MMS?

If No (arrives as an SMS with a link instead of as an MMS), then perhaps your operator needs to provision the account for MMS.

If Yes (arrives as MMS to the phone), then I'm not sure how to proceed. It would sound like they somehow are detecting that the device does not support MMS, but I do not know how they would do this.

-bn