GSM/SMS Pool Compatibility with FrontlineSMS

[Johnathon Hunter]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at alternative methods to buying single SMS dongles.

 

I've come across GSM/SMS pools which I'm really interested in purchasing, however I have a few questions.

 

Does anyone have any experience with these and are they compatible with FrontlineSMS?

 

Now I understand FrontlineSMS sends text messages out using a random connected modem device.

 

How would one of these appear in FrontlineSMS? as one device or as 8 - 16 etc seperate devices?

 

What I'm wanting to do is spread the load of my different text messages across 8 - 16 different modems and not use 8 - 16 modems to send the same message 8 - 16 times to one recipient.

 

I hope someone understands what I'm asking.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[kiwanja]

Hi Johnathon

Thanks for this - good questions!

Could you send a link (or two) for the modem pools you're looking at? I don't believe anyone has tried using these before, but we may be able to figure out whether they'll work or not.

When you attach multiple single GSM modems to FrontlineSMS they appear as separate devices/connections in the "Phones" tab (with their own uniquely assigned COM port). FrontlineSMS will use all available devices to send messages, cycling through all the messages you want to send. So, if you had four modems and wanted to send a message to four recipients, FrontlineSMS would send a single message through each of the four modems.

Hope that all makes sense (and I understood your question!).

Ken

[Johnathon Hunter]

Hi Kiwanja,

 

Thanks for the quick response, I've been specifically looking at this and this which both appear to run off Wavecom modules which as far as I know are compatible with FrontlineSMS.

 

I'm hoping that each module would have it's own COM port so the pool shows up as 8 modems in FrontlineSMS and that each pending message would be assigned to a random COM.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[kiwanja]

Okay, thanks for that. My hunch will be that FrontlineSMS needs to see each modem as a unique COM port to be able to make use of all of them, so if the module does that you should be fine.

 

I'll ask Alex, our Lead Developer, to comment on this.

 

Ken

[Johnathon Hunter]

I understand,

 

I'm talking to the seller now and she has stated that they have the following modules available: q24 plus, q2424 q2406 and q2403, any idea which one would be best for FrontlineSMS? The seller stated that the q2406 and q2403 are best for SMS only.

 

She has also stated that it when its plugged into the computer each module has it's own COM port.

 

The only thing which worries me is that I spend a fair bit of money on this to find it uncompatible with FrontlineSMS.

 

Thanks Ken.

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Johnathon,

 

Sounds like you should be alright.  Maybe the seller will let you try a modem in his shop?

 

Alex

[Johnathon Hunter]

Hi Alex, unfortunately finding a UK supplier is out of the question so it's a no-go I'm afraid.

 

Any idea on which modules would be best out of the above?

 

Regards,

 

Johnathon

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Johnathon,

 

No concrete advice, I'm afraid, but you can always ask the supplier or check on the manufacturers website whether the different models support sending and receiving SMS using the Hayes AT commandset.

 

Alex

[Johnathon Hunter]

Hi Alex,

 

I bit the bullet and bought it anyway, it is on it's way now.

 

I'll be sure to report back on my findings here, I really hope it works straight out of the box but time will tell. In the end I decided on the Wavecom Q2403 module.

 

Thanks for the help!

[kiwanja]

Looking forward to hearing how you get on, Johnathon! Hopefully it'll work straight out of the box, else it might need a little tweaking (if so, check out the "Troubleshooting" section in the Help files).

 

Ken

[Johnathon Hunter]

I eventually received my GSM Pool from Hong Kong, It works with FrontlineSMS software out of the box due to using wavecom modules. :)

However after a while of running, messages are getting stuck on "Pending" even though the connection to the modem remains successful.

The only way to solve the problem is to restart FrontlineSMS and reconnect to the modem.

I think this could be a bug with the software, is this possible?

I run FrontlineSMS 24/7 on my server.

Regards,

 

-Johnathon

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Johnathon,

This sounds like a bad problem.  Is there any chance you can send us your logs when the system changes from working to non-working?  We'll take a look through and see if there is an obvious cause.

 

Thanks,

 

Alex

[Johnathon Hunter]

Will do Alex!

 

Thanks.