SMS gateway software

[Stooney]

Looking for some opinions here.  I'm working on a project requiring the site to be able to receive sms messages and respond. 

 

Based on what I've read, I assume I need my own SMS gateway.  So I am asking opinions on what is some good (free) software for this?  (For example, xampp is good for running a web server without in-depth knowledge of them, does something similar exist for an sms gateway?)

 

Also, if anyone has a better idea on how to go about getting a query from a phone (via text) to a website, then a response back to the phone let me know.  I've looked into using fsockopen with the pop3 protocol on a designated email address, but it seems like the wrong tool for the job; correct me if I'm wrong.

 

A good example of what I'm looking for is how Chacha.com works from the guides view.  (Guide=people who answer questions).  The guide sits there until an sms message is thrown at them, they respond.  Of course rather than a guide, the response will be automated (I have that all worked out).

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[.josh]

I don't really know what all a gateway offers you but I do know you can text back and forth between a cell phone and a plain old php script on a plain old server.  All you need is the cell phone's sms address.  You can google and find a list of the major companies' addresses like for instance a tmobile cell phone address would be like

 

[email protected]

[Stooney]

Thank you Crayon.  My only question to your response is how do you get the message from the phone to the php script?  I know you can send a text to another phone, or email address.  Can you also put a web address in the 'to:' field? 

 

If that's the case I could just set up sms.domain.com.  I read something that said the sms gateway would send a GET request to the script.

This was their example of how the sms gateway would send it:

http://yourserver.com/receiveSMS.php?sender=61234567&textmessage=It+is+easy+to+receive+text+messages&date_time=20060101+1830

 

Is this what you're talking about?

[.josh]

Yes you can use whatever email address you want.  I mean, all email addresses are "web" addresses...

 

What I am talking about is the cellphone sends the message to [email protected] and you would use php to access and read it and do whatever.  I don't really know the specifics or have any specific code for that, as I didn't look that far into it at the time.  I was just bored one day and made some little form for sending the msg to the phone and I sent a reply back to my [email protected] address.  I never got as far as parsing the email with php or nothin' though.

[Stooney]

Ah gotcha.  Yea that's what I've been looking into as my second option.  As I said in my first post I could use fsockopen to use pop3 to read it.  I just don't know what the best method would be for 'monitoring' the email address. 

 

The idea is that at anytime I can send a request to the email and get a quick response (for example: define apple would return the definition of apple to my phone).  My only thought would be either cron (I've read it's not good to set to run a job every 30 seconds) or open a script on the server itself that just loops through checking the email address all day.  Neither of these seem too practical though.

[WalidAhmad]

The problem with Crayon's solution is that it requires the cellphone be email-enabled, which most (outside the US) are not. Being able to receive SMS, therefore, requires a normal mobile number or short code which is connected to a computer system.

 

The solutions available to you, therefore, are dependant upon:

 

1. Which country you are in?

2. From which countries you want to be able to receive the SMS from?

 

Let me know those and I'll be able to advise you of the options

[Stooney]

I'm personally in the US.  As far as receiving goes, whatever will fit 'easiest' into the most basic system for what I'm trying to accomplish.  I'm better off starting off small considering I'm asking 'what do I do now' in forums.  Once I figure out what's going on I'll expand the idea.

[WalidAhmad]

If you only need to receive from mobile users in the US, the fastest & easiest way to get going would be to lease a keyword on a shared short code.

 

The other option available is to hook up a GSM modem, but that requires you to have the GSM modem and sufficient knowledge of software development and AT Commands.