Re: [LUG] GSM Modems for sending SMSs

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 6:42 PM, Gordon Henderson <gordon+lug@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Any "3g dongle" ought to "just work". They all look like serial modems. Just need to get one that's unlocked (if you need a sim off the network it was prigoinally provided for) and make sure it's not one of the shitty ones that needs "mode switched", or if it is, that you can mode switch it (From USB storage to USB serial) from your PC. I know the software exists for the ZTE one I have..

Many of those that require "mode switching" can actually be turned into non-mode-switching dongles. I found a guide for my old Huwaii dongle - in the guide you essentially plug the device in, point a terminal (HyperTerminal under Windows is the recommendation, but as we know you can use others) to a specific virtual serial ports (my dongle presented 4, so I had to try them all) and issue a specific command (I believe it was an AT command, but I can't remember). After that, remove the device and re-plug and *bingo* it no longer shows the fake CD-with-software by default. Better than that, under Linux it no longer requires the mode-switch magic!

I'm looking for something I can drive via PHP ideally.

Look for a package under Debian called smstools - however the old one was merged into a big horrible blob some years back rather than the putsms and getsms indivdual programs (which I still use) They're command line which makes them trivial to call from anything.

Trivial:

putsms +447712191046 "Hello there"

I like it! Simple and useful - just as *nix tools should be.

Grant.