[Xymon] State of the art SMS alerting?

[Ralph Mitchell]

You can get cell modems in a USB thumb drive format.  They also used to be
available as PCMCIA cards, and one of those could be plugged into a regular
PC using a carrier that plugs into a PCI slot.  I believe either type
appears in the system to be a Hayes-type modem, which gives you the ability
to dial out.  I wouldn't be surprised to find the command set extended to
SMS messaging.

Here's a selection of cellular modems in mini-PCI express format:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-3004_7-0.html?filter=500284_14401104

I know this type would fit in my laptop.  I don't know if desktop
motherboards have suitable slots these days.  In either case, I imagine an
external antenna would be desirable.

I don't have one, so that's as much as I know.

Ralph Mitchell



On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 10:01 PM, Phil Crooker <Phil.Crooker at orix.com.au>wrote:

> We used to have an old nokia phone and used a script driving the gnokii
> linux driver and a serial cable. There were a number of issues with this
> approach:
>
> - the phone kept filling up with reply SMSs (we also used it for general
> business SMS)
> - the power supply would become unplugged or the phone would be powered
> off, serial cable unplugged, etc
> - queue handling was an issue as the local MTA hands the message over to
> the sms script
>
> It has been much more reliable using an external SMS service. We have two
> separate MTAs on two separate uplinks. I monitor both links for successful
> comms, if the primary goes down, I change the local mail server to point to
> the other MTA. I also monitor the queue lengths on all MTAs, so we are
> notified well before they get too full.
>
> I believe one can send SMSs to an android phone via a USB cable but after
> a quick look didn't find any useful programs. Probably looking in the wrong
> place.
>
> cheers, Phil
> ________________________________________
> From: Xymon on behalf of John Thurston
> Sent: Wednesday, 8 January 2014 11:29 AM
> To: xymon at xymon.com
> Subject: [Xymon] State of the art SMS alerting?
>
> Can anyone shed light on the current 'state of the art' for alerting by
> SMS from Xymon? Are there recommended usb-modem/software combinations to
> achieve this?
>
> I'd like to have the option of sending alerts from my Xymon server
> without relying on email->SMS gateways. (When I need to announce that
> the mail queue has reached critical, it seems foolish to try to dispatch
> that alert by mail.)
>
> I'm running Xymon on Solaris which will ultimately limit my options, but
> I'm interested in any information you have to share.
> --
>     Do things because you should, not just because you can.
>
> John Thurston    907-465-8591
> John.Thurston at alaska.gov
> Enterprise Technology Services
> Department of Administration
> State of Alaska
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