Looking for recommendations: sending SMSs from linux

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

Yedidyah Bar-David wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am looking for recommendations for hardware to send SMSs from a linux
> server and connected through its USB port. It's important that it'll be
> stable and robust. I'd also like it to:
> 1. be easy to buy in Israel and get warranty/support
> 2. have good support in both the kernel and relevant user-mode tools
> 3. be able to manage from remote, especially reboot if it's stuck
> 4. be fast
> 5. not be expensive

I use a Hauwei (or is it Huawei?) dongle. The asterisk chan_dongle 
driver allows you to make and receive calls and send and receive SMSs.

I was able to find one for sale in Haifa using ZAP, after someone who is 
not on this list pointed me to,a I bought one from an eBay vendor 
selling them. He sells them for under $50 including registered mail from 
Hungary, and they take  less than 2 weeks to get here.

I paid about 300 NIS including postage for the one I bought here. It was 
the only one that store had at that time.

Since the dongle is managed by asterisk, you can send an SMS using all 
of the asterisk functions, or by the shell command "asterisk -rx dongle 
sms <dongle name> <number> message."

You can also query its status, the status of the connection, and load 
and unload the module with asterisk commands.

Only slightly related, I found that my unlimited SMS plan only covers 
SMSs to Israeli phones. It's about 1/2 a shequel to SMS overseas, even 
to numbers that include unlimited calls.

Geoff.


-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379
"Owning a smartphone: Technology's equivalent to learning to play
chopsticks on the piano as a child and thinking you're a musician."
(sent to me by a friend)