2009

NowSMS Release – 2009.07.09

This document provides release history information for the current release version of the Now SMS & MMS Gateway, which can be downloaded at https://nowsms.com/download-free-trial. This document covers changes between the last major 2008 release and version 2009.07.09.  An interim update may be available at the following link:   https://nowsms.com/nowsms-update. The release history...

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SMSGW.INI and MMSC.INI Advanced Parameters

Below is a link to a document that describes the latest advanced configuration parameters available for NowSMS in the SMSGW.INI and MMSC.INI files: https://nowsms.com/download/NowSMS2009Ini.pdf

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MM7 Schemas and MMS Version Number Confusion, revisited

Receiving this e-mail about a recent post got me thinking that it might be worth sharing these thoughts here. It’s got a little more opinion than other posts, but I think it is interesting for many people who are working with, or trying to work with, MM7. quote: Hi, I read the article, MM7 Schemas and MMS Version Number Confusion, and it answered the difference between mm7 verion and mms...

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MMSC Accounting Callbacks for Billing and Charging

MMSC accounting callbacks provide an interface between the NowSMS MMSC and external billing and charging systems. These MMSC accounting callbacks are HTTP-based. When accounting callbacks are enabled, the MMSC will issue HTTP requests to a customer supplied URL in order to interface with the customer billing and charging systems. To enable MMSC accounting callbacks, it is necessary to manually...

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Missing Text Parts from MMS Messages

A recent tech support incident where users were receiving MMS messages with missing text parts of the MMS content had us rather confused. The customer was using NowSMS as an MMSC, and encountered two devices, the Motorola RAZR V8 and ROKR Z6, which were unable to receive any text content within an MMS message. As a first step of troubleshooting, we recommended that the customer disable...

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Sending Multimedia Content Push Messages with NowSMS

One of the ways that NowSMS can be used for multimedia content delivery is a service that we refer to as Multimedia Content Push (also referred to as Multimedia WAP Push). When you send a Multimedia WAP Push message with NowSMS, you post all of the message content (e.g., images, video, text, applet) to the NowSMS server. NowSMS packages the content and dynamically generates a URL on the NowSMS...

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Send OMA Client Provisioning (OTA XML) via PHP

OMA Provisioing Content Messages are special SMS messages that contain information used to configure certain settings of a mobile phone, such as settings for the browser (APN, proxy, bookmarks), MMS client, IM client, or SyncML client. These messages are sometimes referred to as OTA configuration messages, where OTA is an acronym for Over-The-Air. These settings are specified in an XML format,...

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Send WAP Push from Java (or JSP)

The previously posted examples for sending SMS and MMS messages from a Java application with NowSMS can also be used for sending WAP Push messages. Normally, when we talk about WAP Push messages, we are talking about “Service Indication” (SI) messages, which are a common type of WAP Push message. MMS Messages also use WAP Push for part of the delivery process, but they are handled...

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Creating a Bookmark using OMA Client Provisioning

A recent posting on the NowSMS discussion board raised an interesting question. How do you use OMA Client Provisioning to add a bookmark to a mobile phone? The NowSMS web interface has a simple function for doing this using the old Nokia/Ericsson OTA format (WAP OTA), however the web interface for OMA Client Provisioning only allows a browser home page URL to be defined. While the NowSMS web...

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Sierra Wireless 881 USB Modem (881U) and NowSMS

The Sierra Wireless 881 USB Modem (881U) is a good modem to use with NowSMS. However, it can be a frustrating modem to get properly configured.  The reason for this is because the primary market for this modem (and other USB modems) is to provide internet connectivity. If you’re looking at using this modem (or a similar modem) with NowSMS, it’s probably best not to purchase the...

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MM7 Schemas and MMS Version Number Confusion

In a recent posting, I posted a reference to the SMPP specification, which is the de facto standard for application generated SMS, as well as for interconnecting SMS systems.  The most commonly used version of the SMPP specification was published 10 years ago. There are a few ambiguities in SMPP with regard to message encoding for long text messages, and delivery receipt formats.  But overall,...

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Premium Rate SMS (OPPC) with Verisign and NowSMS

Here at NowSMS, we make it a point not to endorse any particular SMS service provider. We like our customers to have flexibility to choose and change SMS service providers that best fit their needs. That said, some SMS service providers have unique configuration attributes, and you need to apply special configuration parameters in NowSMS in order to take advantage of features and flexibility...

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SMPP 3.4 Protocol Specification Archive

For archive purposes, I’m posting a copy of the SMPP 3.4 Specification here. The SMS standards organization that created the specification has disbanded, and there are plans for their web site to be shut down. This doesn’t mean that SMPP is not still important for SMS. It remains the de-facto standard for application based SMS messaging. It’s just that the SMPP v3.4...

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Provisioning MMS Short Codes on the NowSMS MMSC

When using the NowSMS MMSC as an operator MMSC, one frequently asked question is how to provision short codes for MMS content providers, or Value Added Service Providers (VASP). The MMS specifications from the 3GPP define MM7 as the standard protocol for Value Added Service Providers to interface with operator MMSCs. Since many MMS content providers are existing SMS content providers, it may help...

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Sending MMS Messages with NowSMS

Once you have succesfully configured NowSMS so that it is possible to send MMS messages via the web interface, you may want to explore APIs for sending MMS messages programmatically. The NowSMS APIs for sending MMS messages are based upon either the HTTP or SMTP protocols. However, before we go into details about these protocols, there may be an easy way to interface with NowSMS without learning...

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XML Status Query for SMSC Connection Status and Statistics

NowSMS 2008 added an XML-based status query interface that reports information similar to what is reported on the “Status” page of the NowSMS configuration dialog. The query results include information about SMSC connection status, the number of messages processed via the different connections, and the number of messages pending in the queues, among other information. The XML-based...

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Send MMS from Java (or JSP)

A Java example for sending MMS messages via NowSMS has been posted at the following link: https://nowsms.com/download/sendmms.java.txt This class supports all of the MMS related parameters available in NowSMS, most of which are described later in this posting. For a related PHP script, please see: https://nowsms.com/nowsms-php-example-send-mms-message To use this Java class, begin by creating a...

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Send SMS from Java (or JSP)

The following example Java class, sendsms, can be used to send an SMS text message via NowSMS from Java. This script can also be downloaded from https://nowsms.com/download/sendsms.java.txt. To send MMS messages from Java, please see: https://nowsms.com/doc/submitting-mms-messages/send-mms-message-with-java The sendsms class defined in this example can be used to send simple SMS text messages,...

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Connecting to an Operator MMSC with MM7

While NowSMS can function as an MMSC for direct MMS message delivery, this is not an option for most content providers, as most mobile operators block MMS message delivery from any MMSCs other than the mobile operator. In these situations, it is necessary to submit all MMS messages via an operator MMSC, or a service provider with operator MMSC connectivity. (For more information on how MMS works,...

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Dynamic SMS Message Routing with HTTP Callbacks

If you need control over routing to particular SMSC connections, the logic that NowSMS uses for SMS message routing is described in detail in the following article: https://nowsms.com/routing-sms-messages-to-a-specifc-smsc-route For some installations, the routing control offered by NowSMS does not provide enough control. For these installations, an HTTP based callback exists which allows an...

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