Reminders plugin not sending SMS in windows 7 starter

[Homer Uy Co]

Hi everyone,

 I am currently using the latest windows version of frontlinesms on an eeepc netbook with OS windows 7 starter for a research project. The research involves sending periodic SMS reminders to patients re: their medicine, etc. 

 I have noticed that everything seems to work fine, including the autoreply functions, but the reminders plugin had some problems. It was able to send out sms scheduled on the same day I set it up, but the messages scheduled to be sent the following days were not delivered, although in the reminders plug in, the status is "check", but in the messages tab, these messages are still pending. I thought the gsm modem 'hung', but the system succesfully autoreplied to my test SMS many times over. I tested the system while the computer is in "locked" mode, with the autoreply function working perfectly well, but reminders failing to send scheduled messages. 

 Are there issues with frontlinesms installed on windows 7 starter affecting the reminders plugin? 

 Thanks in advance for your help!

Homer 

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Homer,

As you probably noticed from the tab's label, Reminders is in beta. I'll give Dale (the developer) a nudge and see if he can help you.

Best,

Alex

[Homer Uy Co]

Thanks a lot Alex!
This afternoon I tried closing Frontlinesms program and re-starting it. Again it successfully sent scheduled messages that I set it to send a few minutes later. I hope tomorrow it will send the scheduled messages again.
I also noted another thing: the reminders plugin would show an error when I try to set a reminder-message that is long (prob exceeding 160 chars?). Does this mean the reminders plugin allows sending of SMS that is only "1message long"?

Thanks again for your quick response!

btw, the modem i use is hwawei e160.

Homer

[Homer Uy Co]

Hi everyone,
Just to update you on this issue..
I thought the problem was with the auto-"sleep" of windows 7, so I set scheduled "wake-ups". This only solved the problem 50%, because newly scheduled messages were sent, but previously scheduled ones were not sent or were ignored.
I tried it on a windows xp netbook, everything worked fine! Until I shut down the computer and opened it the next day, since then the previously scheduled sms and emails were altogether ignored.
I tried to read the error logs, but hehe I cannot understand them.
Should I upload these error logs? Is there a solution to this problem?
Thank you all in advance!

Homer

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Homer,

Thanks a lot for all the detail you're giving, and sorry to hear that things aren't working out.

Is the problem occuring e.g. when a message is scheduled, but FrontlineSMS is not running at this time? If you have a message scheduled for noon every day, and the computer is off for a week, would you expect 7 messages to be sent when the computer is turned on again?

Alex

[Homer Uy Co]

Hi Alex!
It's like this: I schedule several messages for different days in advance (in current and succeeding weeks). The messages are sent as scheduled perfectly well, until I close the program or shut down the computer. Even if upon restarting the program, and verifying that the scheduled messages are still stored, these messages are no longer sent as scheduled, as if it has "forgotten" after closing the program or computer.
It may become a problem, for example when there is a power outage or when I need to restart the computer for another reason.
I am not sure though if going through each scheduled message and saving them one by one "activates" them again.

I hope you can help me on this!
Thanks again!

Homer

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Homer,

Thanks for clarifying this - hopefully the Reminders developer can take a look and update you here.

Best wishes,

Alex

[Homer Uy Co]

Hi Alex,

 Just a thought...

 Does my anti-virus software interfere with the reminders plug-in?

 Is the behavior of the reminders plugin in any way similar to those being monitored by an antivirus software? I use Antivir free-edition. Do I need some adjustment in settings?

 Thanks again!

 

Homer 

[Alex Anderson]

Hi Homer,

 

I really doubt it's affected, but if you want you could try disabling your antivirus.  Not sure I'd recommend it, though!

 

Alex

[Homer Uy Co]

Hi Alex,

 I gave up on a windows netbook and installed ubuntu easypeasy on our eeepc 701. After installing java and usbmodemswitch, I installed Frontlinesms and got it started easily. This time around, the reminders plug-in worked without problems! I also tried using the test number in the reminders plugin to trigger a keyword and it also worked well. 

 So what could be the problem with windows? Anyway I hope I don't encounter any more problems.

 Thanks!

 

Homer