This guide instructs you how to set up an E-mail to SMS
Gateway using the
Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway software. In addition to an introduction explaining
the convenience of this service, you are provided with a list of prerequisites,
a description and depiction of the system architecture, an explanation of the
SMS to E-mail and the E-mail to SMS configuration steps and some troubleshooting
advice.
1.) Introduction
Using Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway you can realize a two-way E-mail -
SMS gateway service.
This service allows you to forward an incoming e-mail
as an SMS message to a specified phone number (or phone numbers), and an incoming
SMS message as an e-mail to a specified e-mail address (or e-mail addresses).
This service is highly convenient for office users, as it
enables them to communicate via SMS. Using automated IT systems that are
capable of sending or receiving e-mails, you can easily realize SMS-based
communication. After the list of prerequisites (Section 2) and the description
of the system architecture (Section 3), you can read a step-by-step explanation
of how to perform the SMS to E-mail (Section 4) and the E-mail to SMS
(Section 5) configuration. Finally, you are provided with some
troubleshooting advice (Section 6).
SMTP server information,
POP 3 server information (including
username and password)
3.) System Architecture
The figure below (Figure 1) depicts the system architecture
of the service described above (Section 1).
Figure 1 - System architecture of the service
The system depicted above involves different entities.
The mobile user is an external user that sends an SMS message from
a mobile phone to your system.
Your system includes a GSM modem or GSM phone attached to your computer with a
phone-to-PC data cable. Your computer runs the Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway program.
This program controls the GSM modem, thus being able to send
and receive SMS messages.
It also includes an E-mail user. This is an automated user
that can send and receive e-mails as an e-mail client. It uses an SMTP server
to send, and a POP3 server to receive e-mails.
The e-mails are sent to or received from an external
(human) e-mail user. The e-mails received from the external (human) user are
sent out by Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway as SMS messages over the GSM network to an
external mobile user.
4.) SMS to E-mail configuration
To configure the software to forward an incoming SMS message
as an e-mail, take the steps below Figure 2:
Figure 2 - Forwarding an incoming SMS message as an e-mail
Step 1: Install the Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway software. To find
out how to do this, check out the
Installation Steps page.
Step 2: Configure the GSM modem connectivity and the admin
user (who is a Standard user). To find out how, check out the
GSM Modem Connectivity and
the Standard user page.
Step 3: Check if you can receive SMS messages with the modem.
Send an SMS message to the modem, and then check if it has arrived in the
admin mailbox. To find out how to open the admin user's account
to check the Inbox, read the Standard
user page.
Step 4: Install and configure an E-mail user. To find out how
to install an E-mail user, read the
E-mail User page.
To learn how to perform the SMS to E-mail configuration, check out the
SMS to E-mail Configuration page.
Step 5: Configure the inbound routing: add an inbound routing
rule in which the destination is the E-mail user. To find out how to add and edit
an inbound routing rule, read the Inbound
Routing page. When you have added an inbound routing rule, an incoming SMS
message matching the rule will be delivered to the automated E-mail user (Figure 3).
Figure 3 - SMS delivered to the E-mail user
The E-mail user will send it as an e-mail
to a specified e-mail address. As a result, an incoming SMS message will
finally arrive as an e-mail in a human user's e-mail box.
Step 6: Send an SMS message and check if it has
arrived in your e-mail box.
5.) E-mail to SMS Configuration
To configure the software to forward an incoming e-mail as an
SMS message, take the steps below Figure 4:
Figure 4 - Forwarding an incoming e-mail as an SMS
Step 1: Once you have installed and configured the GSM modem
connectivity
(Step 1 and Step 2 in Section 4 above), all you need to do is check if you
can send SMS messages from the admin user's account
using the GSM modem connectivity. Click the Compose button in
the Management Console, and compose and send an SMS message to the mobile
phone you use for the test (see the Prerequisites section above). For
more details about using the Compose button in the Management
Console, read The Toolbar
page.
Step 2: Configure the outbound routing: add an outbound routing
rule in which the source is the E-mail user. To find out how to add and edit
an outbound routing rule, read the
Outbound Routing page. When you
have added an outbound routing rule, an incoming e-mail
will be converted into an SMS message by the automated E-mail user, and it will
be sent out using the GSM modem connection (Figure 5).
Figure 5 - SMS sent out from the E-mail user
Step 3: Perform the E-mail to SMS configuration in the E-mail
user of Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway. During this configuration you need to specify,
among others, information related to the POP3 Server, which is used to receive
e-mails. For information about the configuration steps, check out the
E-mail to SMS Configuration page.
Step 4: Test how it works: send an e-mail from Outlook Express
to the POP3 Server. Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway will download and send it as an SMS
message.
6.) Troubleshooting
If there are errors related to the E-mail user, you should start
troubleshooting by viewing the logs. You can use 3 related logs to debug errors:
Server Events log: this is where you can find errors related to routing.
GSM Modem Events log: this is where you can find errors related to the
GSM modem connection.
E-mail user Events log: this is where you can find errors related to the
E-mail user.
You can find the Server Events log in the Client area of the
Management Console,
below the Outbound routing table. See Figure 5 above.
You can find the GSM Modem Events log in the panel
to the right of the panel of the GSM modem connection.
To open the panel containing the Events log, click the Events link in
the panel of the GSM modem connection. (Check out Figure 7 and the explanations
below it on the GSM Modem
Connectivity page.)
To view the E-mail user Events log, open the panel containing
it by clicking the
Events link in the panel of the E-mail user. To find out how to do this,
check out Figure 3 and the instructions above it on the
E-mail User page.
In order to successfully debug errors, you should check the
Log low level communication checkbox in the configuration of the GSM
modem connection. (Check out Figure 4 and the instructions
above and below it on the GSM Modem
Connectivity page.
You can also access the log files in the file system by using Windows Explorer.
The default access path is: C:\Program Files\Ozeki\OzekiNG - SMS
Gateway\Logs For more details, read the Viewing log entries section on
the Login problems page.
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