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SMS with a webserver...

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 7:57 am
by mikusan
Hi, i would like if someone would point me to an open source project that uses PHP to send SMS messages to people, i need somewhere to start. I would like to write my own, but I need some understanding first. I know that you can send sms messages to people via the email address if you sign up for onw with your cell phone company, but i need to be able to do it to anyone.

Thanks in advance.

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 8:11 am
by []InTeR[]
I did it by fake'ing a existing sms form from some other provider.... 8)

It worked well for about 2 days.... After that my servers ip cannot even ping the other server :lol:

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 8:16 am
by Stoker
bigfoot.com offers an API for sending SMS messages, they charge per message (5 "credits" per message for most of the ones I send) and you need an account, I am using this myself (as some of the free senders can not reach certain networks).. I have the code for doing this from PHP, would need some polish for commercializing..

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 8:56 am
by mikusan
I know there are free services out there, but i would like to write my own, partly because of curiosity and the wish to be able to do it myself too and partly because i need to send multiple ones.

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 9:04 am
by Stoker
What do you mean by "doing it yourself"? Setting up your own SMS-Gateway and get deals with telecommunication companies?

As an individual I wouldnt go much further than e.g. using Bigfoot's API... (http)

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 9:31 am
by mikusan
Let's say for one second i wanted to do that, i would like to know how to do that even though i would eventually stop at the part where i get deals from companies. But i would love to know how to do it. For myself at least...

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 10:08 am
by Stoker
I really dont know much about doing that, but if you do not plan on selling such services i dont think you want to..

A quick google search gave a couple of links, e,g, a SMS-gateway-software vendor, more for the GSM-operator side of things, then there is http://www.smsxchange.com/ which is more of a solution provider I believe.. I don't think you want to dig further into it than using a providers API, doing business with the global operators and implementing such stuff I think will be difficult unless you plan on doing thousands or millions of messages per month.. I have a friend workiong for a small ISP (5K clients) that operates a small GSM network with services for business/inhouse etc, even they outsource all SMS and GSM related services..

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 10:37 am
by mikusan
The thing that bugs me BIG time is the fact that there are tons of those kinda services out there, but i don't know how they do it. Now I REALLY want to find out how it's possible. I mean if you have a webserver, why can't you somehow send data to a cellphone...

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 6:23 pm
by m3mn0n
phice posted a topic in the General forum, it has a script that works perfectly.

I've developed it more but my project isn't open source. :wink:


http://www.devnetwork.net/forums/viewto ... hlight=sms

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2003 3:14 pm
by mikusan
I don't know why so many posts came up with this... but that's EXACTLY what i DON'T want to do. That is rely on someone else's service. Thanks for your suggestion, but i prefer the old fashioned do it all yourself no dependencies kinda approach.

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2003 3:39 pm
by twigletmac
mikusan wrote:I don't know why so many posts came up with this... but that's EXACTLY what i DON'T want to do. That is rely on someone else's service. Thanks for your suggestion, but i prefer the old fashioned do it all yourself no dependencies kinda approach.
I've deleted that post, it just seems to be advertising spam for an SMS gateway.

Mac

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2003 4:00 pm
by mikusan
Agreeed thanks a bunch...

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2003 4:23 pm
by Heavy
A Windows guy I know just wrote a DLL to communicate with a cell phone hardware-cable-connected to his server and talked to this DLL with the web server.

If you use linux. there's got to be a way to do it similarily. I have no clue how and have not tried that myself. Of course, you could try to get a deal with the cell phone operator to get away cheaper then the ordinary pricing for SMS.

It would work, wouldn't it? relying only on your own cell phone and its operator. If it would become expensive, is up to the application design.

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2003 4:53 pm
by cactus
Dependant on the mobile operator, the comm's company has to create API's to the SMS Gateways (SMSC).

These API's are then opened to 3rd parties at a (ahem) nominal fee, developers at these 3rd parties then create simple PHP scripts using socket functions to talk to a given port (like telnet) by sending specific command to the API (such as sending an SMS).

The API does all the hard work of interfacing with the OS/App's on the SMSC's.

Hope this partially answers your OP.

Regards,

[Edit: The commands you need to send down the socket and the port number varies wildly between operators, hence this will be the part of any code you create that won't be complete. None of the UK operators have "open" API's, it's one of their biggest incomes! :roll: ]