MMSC Routing – MM1 (GPRS Modem)

When adding an “MMSC Routing”, the options on the dialog box will change, depending on the type of MMSC connection. Below is shown the configuration for an “MMSC Routing” using an MM1 connection using a GPRS modem:

“Account name” and “Account Description” are settings that identify the connection to the Now SMS & MMS Gateway only. These settings are not transmitted externally.

“Default Sender Address” specifies the default sender address to applied to any MMS messages that are transmitted over this connection. The “Default Sender Address” is used only if the message being transmitted does not include a sender address. This address can either be a standard e-mail address, or a telephone number. If a telephone number is specified, it must be specified in MMS messaging format (+phonenumber/TYPE=PLMN). If “Allow Sender Address Override” is checked, then submitted messages can include their own sender address. If this setting is not checked, the sender address for all messages transmitted via the MMSC connection will be changed to the “Default Sender Address”.

When sending to an operator MMSC over GPRS, the operator MMSC will usually not allow a sender address other than the MSISDN of the sending phone. In these cases, it is usually best to leave the “Sender Address” field blank, and allow the MMSC to assign it automatically. To do this, leave the “Default Sender Address” field blank, and uncheck “Allow Sender Address Override”.

The “Route messages to this account for recipient phone number(s)” field is an address mask for defining which recipient phone numbers should be routed to this account. For example, “+44*” would route all messages for the UK country code (44) to this connection. Multiple address masks can be defined. When multiple address masks are defined, they should be separated by a comma only (,) and no white space characters.

If this field is left blank, no messages will be routed to this connection, except under special circumstances.

The “Route Messages Via” option defines the protocol that will be used for routing the MMS message. Messages can be routed to an external host using the MM7, MM4, MM1 or EAIF protocols. Other options for message routing include “Direct Delivery” via the gateway’s internal MMSC, or an option for the MMS to be converted into a Multimedia WAP Push message to be received by the WAP client on the recipient phone instead of the MMS client.

For MM1 connections, the “Server Address” field should contain a URL for posting to the MMSC. (The “http://” portion of the address is optional.) For example, http://192.168.1.1:8080/mm1. Note that when you are using MM1 to connect with an operator MMSC over GRPS, this “Server address” is the “MMS Server URL” that would normally be configured on a mobile phone to connect with the operator MMSC.

If the MMS message content needs to be sent over a specific network connection, such as a GPRS modem, check the “Use Specific Network Connection (GPRS Modem)” checkbox.

In the “Network Connection”, select the name of the network connection that is to be used. NowSMS can use any of three different types of connections to make a GPRS connection. The different available connections are listed in the drop-down field associated with this configuration field. The different types of connections are prefixed with the text “Modem:”, “Dial-up:”, or “Network:”, and are described below:

a.) “Modem:” refers to a standard GPRS connection to be initiated over a GPRS modem. Select the modem that should be used for this connection. (Note that only modems that have a Windows modem driver defined for the modem can be used. If your modem does not have a modem driver supplied by the manufacturer, you can use one of the “Standard” or “Generic” modem drivers available when defining a modem in the Windows Control Panel.)

b.) “Dial-up:” refers to a dial-up networking connection defined on the current PC. This setting can be used if you have advanced requirements and wish to create a custom dial-up networking profile.

c.) “Network:” refers to a particular network interface card installed in the PC. Some PC card GPRS modems, such as the Sierra Wireless Aircard 750 provide GPRS access via a network driver interface. To tell NowSMS to use that specific network driver for connecting to the MMSC, select the named “Network:” driver.

The “WAP Gateway IP Address” field should contain the IP address of the operator WAP gateway which will act as a proxy for connections to the MMSC. If the gateway uses WAP2/HTTP instead of WSP, prefix the address with “http://”, using the format “http://ip.address:port”.

For most GSM/GPRS modems, it is not possible for the Now SMS & MMS Gateway to connect to the modem to send/receive SMS messages as the same time as a GPRS connection is active (Network Connection type = “Modem:” or “Dial-up:”). For these situations, the “Modem Used” setting should specify the name of a modem that is used by the Dial-up networking profile. If the Now SMS & MMS Gateway is using the modem to send/receive SMS messages, it will automatically release the modem when it needs to initiate a GPRS connection, otherwise the GPRS connection will not be able to be properly established.

The “GPRS APN” field specifies the GPRS Access Point Name (APN) to be accessed for connecting to the MMSC. This setting is operator dependent, and it may be advisable to check the MMS configuration settings on a working mobile phone to determine the correct settings. Note that your mobile operator possibly has multiple GPRS APNs and multiple WAP gateways, and you need the settings that are appropriate for MMS, not for WAP browsing or general internet connectivity. Note that this setting is only available when using a Network Connection of type “Modem:”. For other connection types, the GPRS APN must be configured for the connection using some configuration means external to NowSMS.

The “Login Name” and “Password” parameters specify a username and password to be used for connecting to the GPRS network.

The “Test Connection” dialog verifies that the Now SMS & MMS Gateway can make a TCP/IP connection to the specified “Server Address”. Or, when an MM1 connection is used with a dial-up connection (“Use Specific Network Connection (GPRS Modem)”), the gateway will initiate a network connection to the specified profile, and that it can make a connection to the specified WAP gateway over the connection, and the “Server Address” is not tested at this time.
“MMS Version” specifies the version number of the OMA MMS Encapsulation Protocol to use when communicating with the operator MMSC. Note that support for read receipts requires version 1.2.

The “Embed Original Sender in Subject Header” is a special setting that can be used when NowSMS is operating as an E-Mail to MMS gateway with MMS messages being sent via a GPRS modem. When this option is checked, the original message sender is preserved in the subject header of the MMS message, so that if a reply is received back from the message recipient, NowSMS can route the reply to the original sender. For more information on this type of configuration, see E-Mail to SMS/MMS Connectivity.