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NowSMS Support Forums ⬆ NowSMS Support - SMS Issues ⬆ Archive through January 22, 2009 ⬆ |
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| Author | Message | |||||
| Don Rosen New member Username: Dr10 Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2008 |
I'm using an ATT Sierra Wireless 881 aircard. I can send SMS from the ATT communications manager sw. NowSMS shows the aircard as the SMSC and if I test it says the modem successfully tested. However when I attempt to send an SMS from the web interface, it just goes into the outbound queue and remains there. I get no error messages. | |||||
| Don Rosen New member Username: Dr10 Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2008 |
When I look at the messages in the queue I see that there are multiple retires with ERROR - Modem REsponse (1) | |||||
| Des - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Desosms Post Number: 133 Registered: 08-2008 |
Hi Don, Unfortunately, we are hearing from Sierra Wireless that their 3G USB modems do not support SMS via the AT command interface (ETSI GSM 07.05, 3GPP TS 27.005). There was some recent discussion in another thread, and some feedback that a customer got from Sierra Wireless indicating that they did not support this in their 3G USB modems: http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/1/24242.html What's happening is that the modem returns OK responses to a lot of the AT commands, making us think that the modem supports them. But when it comes down to the actual task of sending a message ... NowSMS is sending the AT+CMGS command, which is a multi-step command. The modem is supposed to respond with a ">" character, indicating that it is ready fo rthe next step of the command. Instead, it is responding "OK" ... which seems to suggest that the modem does not really understand this command. We see this situation most frequently with Blackberry devices, which don't support these AT commands, but simply return "OK" to a variety of different commands that they don't really understand. In other discussions, I've suggested issuing some AT commands for further testing to see if maybe the modem has some support for SMS. If you have the time, I would be curious to find out the following... Is it possible for you to connect to the modem using HyperTerminal? I'd like to see the results of the following commands (press Enter after each command): ATE1V1 AT+CSMS=0 AT+CSMS? AT+CSMS=? AT+CMGF=1 (Above puts the modem into text mode for SMS for the next test ... NowSMS usually uses binary PDU mode) AT+CMGS="SomePhoneNumberHere" Modem should respond with ">" ... after getting the ">" prompt, put in some text and then press CTRL-Z If the modem just responds with "OK" instead of ">", then there's probably nothing we can do. But, it may still be worth putting in some text and then pressing CTRL-Z to see if the modem does send a message. -- Des NowSMS Support | |||||
| tomi New member Username: Anttom77 Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2008 |
i have problem with send sms, when i send sms file on folder q cannot be delete and on SMSout i found message "2008-10-10 20:22:59,48EF48AE.req,127.0.0.1,+6281513873156,Retry Pending - ERROR -- iTegno GPRS Wireless Modem"...please help me.. best regards tomi | |||||
| Des - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Desosms Post Number: 143 Registered: 08-2008 |
Hi Tomi, Normally, there would be a numeric error code (CMS ERROR ###) that would provide a little more detail on the problem. It would show that the response coming back from the modem ... however, in this case, it looks like the modem is simply replying "ERROR". I'd suggest turning the modem off and back on (remove power) to see if that makes a difference. It would also help to enable the SMSDEBUG.LOG (checkbox on the "Serial #" page of the configuration dialog). Try sending another message, and post the details from the SMSDEBUG.LOG in reply here. Generic error conditions like this can occur if the modem is not getting a strong signal connecting to the mobile operator, so if the modem has any tools for checking signal strength, that would be helpful. Additionally, maybe there is a credit problem with the SIM card in the modem. Try removing the SIM card from the modem and put it into a mobile phone ... verify that the mobile phone can send messages ok. -- Des NowSMS Support | |||||
| Jonathan Tindal |
Hello Des, Regarding the Sierra Wireless 881, I have had similar results to Don's. I connected to the device through HyperTerminal and sent the commands that you suggested in your post above. Here are the results: ATE1V1 OK AT+CSMS=0 +CSMS: 1,1,1 OK AT+CSMS? +CSMS: 0,1,1,1 OK AT+CSMS=? +CSMS: (0-1) OK AT+CMGF=1 OK AT+CMGS="##########" > THIS IS AN AT COMMAND TEST +CMGS: 48 OK I received the message immediately on my personal cell (whose number was replaced by ########## above). | |||||
| Des - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Desosms Post Number: 153 Registered: 08-2008 |
Hi Jonathan, I guess I haven't mentioned it in this thread. But have you tried editing SMSGW.INI, and under the [Modem - driver name] section for your modem, add ModemTextMode=Yes. What you've shown above looks like the proper sequence of commands for sending a message in text mode. NowSMS normally uses PDU mode, and I'm thinking that maybe there is a problem with PDU mode on that device. (It's a little more difficult to run the above tests with a PDU mode test, but if you're agreeable to it, I'd like to try. But first, let's see if ModemTextMode=Yes works.) -- Des NowSMS Support | |||||
| Jonathan Tindal New member Username: Jtindal Post Number: 2 Registered: 02-2007 |
As a follow-on, I was also able to send an SMS with the device set in PDU mode (+CMGF=0). Here is the resulting text from HyperTerminal: at+cmgs=42 > 0001000B81##########F#000021493A283D0795C3F33C88FE06CDCB6E32885EC6D341EDF27C1E 3E97E72E +CMGS: 49 OK ------ The message, "It is easy to send text messages." was successfully sent to my cell. Again, I've taken the liberty of replacing the digits my phone number with #'s. | |||||
| Jonathan Tindal New member Username: Jtindal Post Number: 3 Registered: 02-2007 |
Hi Des, Heh, Oddly enough, I hadn't read your reply before I posted again. I'll try editing SMSGW.INI and let you know. -Jonathan | |||||
| Des - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Desosms Post Number: 154 Registered: 08-2008 |
Weird. Could I see an excerpt from a NowSMS SMSDEBUG.LOG trying the same thing? (Keep the initialisation bits from when NowSMS first inits the modem.) I'm guessing that whatever problem there is must be a timing problem. Is it also possible for you to try the updated version of NowSMS at http://www.nowsms.com/download/nowsmsupdate.zip ... adding ModemSendWorkaround=Yes under the [Modem - Driver Name] section of SMSGW.INI? That setting resolved a problem with a modem that didn't return the ">" after the AT+CMGS command (which is what the error code from NowSMS indicates that it is not seeing, even though it clearly seems present in your hyperterminal log). -- Des NowSMS Support | |||||
| Jonathan Tindal New member Username: Jtindal Post Number: 4 Registered: 02-2007 |
Hi Des, Here are a couple SMSDEBUG.LOG files. The first one is from before I set the ModemSendWorkAround=Yes and the second one is from after. The debug logs seem to indicate that NowSMS is getting back an "OK" response from the 881, but it usually returns "+CMS ERROR: 304" when something is wrong with a +CMGS command. ModemTextMode=Yes was set in both of the attached logs, but I see the "ERROR - Modem Response (1): OK" in logs where ModemTextMode=No. I'm currently running NowSMS version 2007.06.27
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| Des - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Desosms Post Number: 155 Registered: 08-2008 |
Hi Jonathan, This has me puzzled. When we send the command: AT+CMGS="##########" We seem to be getting back a response of OK. (We wait up to 15 seconds for ">", but we don't get that response.) When you do it via HyperTerminal, you get back the proper response of ">". I'm trying to figure out any explanation for why this could be. The only thing that comes to mind is that maybe there is a difference in timing when the commands are typed. Or maybe there is a difference in line terminators when the command is sent via HyperTerminal. We send a carriage return (^M) after each command, which I think is the same behaviour as HyperTerminal (there is an option in HyperTerminal to "Send line ends with line feeds" which is not enabled by default). Wait ... I do have one other idea. With Sierra Wireless PC cards, the modem driver has historically exposed two different modem ports. One of the modem ports supports SMS, the other does not (can only support data commands). I wonder if the same thing applies to the USB version? When you connect to the modem using HyperTerminal, are you connecting to a COM port number, or are you connecting via the named modem driver? NowSMS is connecting to the modem driver named "Sierra Wireless AirCard 881U HSDPA Modem". Is there any chance that this is associated with a different COM port than what you are using for the HyperTerminal tests? For the 800 series PC card, what we saw was that there were two modem drivers installed ... "Sierra Wireless AirCard HSDPA Modem" and "Sierra Wireless AirCard 3G Modem". In that case, the "HSDPA Modem" worked with NowSMS, while the "3G Modem" did not. I'm just wondering if there is something similar, but different, in this modem. It looks like I could pick up one of these modems pretty cheap in the US, so I could do some more detailed testing next Wednesday or Thursday. But before I start making those arrangements, is there a chance that HyperTerminal is talking to a different modem port than NowSMS? -- Des NowSMS Support | |||||
| Jonathan Tindal New member Username: Jtindal Post Number: 5 Registered: 02-2007 |
Des, You're hunch was correct. I had assumed that the Sierra Wireless driver would take care of sending commands to the proper port, but that does not seem to be the case. When I removed SMSC connection to the "Sierra Wireless Aircard 881U HSDPA Modem" driver and opened one to the specific COM port, the messages started going through. thanks, Jonathan | |||||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Bryce Post Number: 7668 Registered: 10-2002 |
Hi Jonathan, Wow ... this is all very odd. I'm curious, how did you determine which COM port you should use for connecting to the modem? Were there two modem drivers installed (like on the Sierra PC cards)? Or did you find the COM port referenced somewhere else? Just curious, because we'd like to let others know how to resolve the problem. Des is still working on getting one of these modems to test with next week, because we're going to want to also figure the optimum way to configure the modem for MMS. If the modem is exposing more than one COM port interface, then that could make it a good solution for sending/receiving MMS. (With conventional modems, we have to turn off SMS access while sending/retrieving MMS ... but with this modem it sounds like we might be able to do both simultaneously, like we could with old Sierra PC cards. That would be the first time we've seen this type of support in a USB modem.) Thanks for the info! -bn | |||||
| Jonathan Tindal New member Username: Jtindal Post Number: 6 Registered: 02-2007 |
Hi Bryce, Sierra Wireless provides a program called "3G Watcher" that allows you to setup internet connections an manage (view and send) SMS messages on the 881. Somehow I determined that it used one of the COM ports specifically for that SMS control. It was a while ago and I don't remember exactly how I managed it. This is the COM port that I connected to with HyperTerminal. When I was setting up the SMSC connection between NowSMS and the 881 (on a different PC than the one on which I did my initial HyperTerminal testing), there were two drivers listed in the pull-down menu, "Sierra Wireless AirCard 881U HSDPA Modem" and "Sierra Wireless AirCard HSDPA Modem." The former successfully passed NowSMS's modem testing while the latter did not. I chose the "working" driver assuming that it would handle the COM ports, but I ran into the same issue that everyone else has seen. After I had communicated with Des, I started the process of adding another GSM modem SMSC connection and noticed several COM ports listed under the Sierra Wireless drivers that only were present when the 881 was connected. I did not know which was the SMS interface on this new PC, so I just tried to create a connection with each. The one that passed the initial test that NowSMS runs turned out to be it. After that I was able to send SMS messages from the NowSMS Web Interface out to the network through the 881. I haven't had any success receiving messages from the card yet though. Does NowSMS periodically poll the modem for new messages, or does it rely on some kind of notification system? If it's the former, there may be an issue in that the 881 does not seem to put any incoming messages in the "REC UNREAD" (0 when +CMGF=0) bucket, but instead dumps everything into "REC READ" (1). | |||||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Bryce Post Number: 7672 Registered: 10-2002 |
Hi Jonathan, Historically, "Watcher" has been a problem. It has a tendency to grab all of the received messages from the modem. You raise an interesting point that perhaps we should process messages that are considered "read" as well as those that are "unread". As that might resolve some issues ... perhaps not in an optimal way, but in a practical way. Things tend to work best if the messages are never saved on the modem. You configure this by setting "SMS Message Storage" to "Direct to Modem" under "Properties" of the modem in the "SMSC" list of NowSMS. That said, even with that setting in place, with Sierra modems, we would still see some SMS messages end up in Watcher. (Usually this would happen if the NowSMS service was stopped, or the machine was rebooting and Watcher started up before NowSMS.) So NowSMS does still poll the modem message storage for these messages, and Watcher can get in the way. I posted my observations of configuration issues with a Sierra Wireless PC Card 850 in the following thread: http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/1/20216.html You might find the advice in that thread helpful with regard to Watcher ... and also MMS. Although, some things may be different in this USB implementation. Des is scheduling time to do some in-depth testing with the 881 late next week, so we'll probably have some better feedback after that. If Watcher is only marking the messages as read, an option to retrieve both read and unread messages with NowSMS could be quite useful. I'm intrigued by that thought, because back in the early days of NowSMS, we found Sierra Wireless Aircards to offer the best overall performance, but configuring them, especially the Watcher issue, was a constant tech support struggle. Maybe we just missed the obvious, which you have pointed out here. We're going to take a closer look at that when we test the 881 for ourselves. -bn | |||||
| Tohir Ismail New member Username: Tohizma Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2008 |
In my experience using sierra aircard (875), here's how to determine correct port to use by NowSMS: Go to Device Manager, Ports(COM&LPT) section, look for Sierra Wireless AT Command Port (COMx), Use that port, not the Sierra Wireless Application Interface ports or other else. Found which port, then try with hyperterminal (don;t forget to stop NowSMS service first), issue some AT command there. | |||||
| Jonathan Tindal New member Username: Jtindal Post Number: 7 Registered: 02-2007 |
Yes, I can confirm that this is also true for the 881U. In the Device Manager, the correct COM port is labeled "Sierra Wireless AT Command Port (UMTS)(COMx)." | |||||
