SMS-it !

Download fully functional evaluation copy

Please refer also to our online tutorial

 

What is SMS-it?
SMS-it allows you to send a short message (SMS = Short Message Service) to a mobile phone using your computer. The messages can be sent through an attached modem, through an internet connection or directly through an attached mobile phone. If a mobile phone is attached to the computer (IE through the IR port), the contents of the inbox can be downloaded and stored in folders. The phonebook can also be downloaded and synchronized with SMS-it.
Downloading and synchronizing the address book is possible on most mobile phones that can connect to a computer (either through Bluetooth or a cable link).
SMS-it can also integrate with MS Outlook in order to send SMS from the control bar or to send an SMS whenever a Reminder comes up.
 

How can messages be sent?

Messages can be sent either

 

What protocols are supported?
SMS-it supports a wide range of protocols (XIO/TAP, UCP, INET, PDU) hence can be used for most of the SMS services.

 

How does it work?

SMS-it accesses through your modem, the internet or the mobile phone an SMSC (Short Message Service Center) and submits the message you wish to send. Then the SMSC transmits this message to the desired mobile phone.

Sending directly through the mobile phone
When you send the message through your mobile phone (attached to the computer), SMS-it will use the parameters (Sender ID, SMS center, etc) of your phone to send the message.
Sending will work the same as when sending messages from your phone, except that you type the message on your computer.
Having the mobile phone connected to the computer has the additional advantage that you can transfer data from your phone to the computer and back. IE you can synchronize your phone book and archive received SMS on your computer.

Sending through the modem
Sending the message through a modem will connect to an SMSC (SMS center) that relays your message to its destination. There are several mobile phone providers that offer this modem dial-up. The connection is to a local server (not to the internet), hence you need to chose an SMSC that is within your region. Alternatively you may select to dial a server abroad, but the communication cost will be expensive. When dialing abroad you need also to change the access number of the SMSC, to include the international dial codes
There are two different protocols supported by the SMSC, either XIO/TAP or UCP. XIO/TAP is an older protocol initially designed for pager messages.
Only SMSCs that support the UCP protocol support sending of the SenderID.

Sending through the Internet
SMS-it can send messages through a number of commercial gateways (i.e. our own gatway => http://www.mawnet.com/inetsmsc.html or http://www.clickatell.com ). Those sites allow you to set up an account and buy blocks of SMS. You can then send the messages either through their web site or through our SMS-it.
 

Cost
The cost per SMS is more or less the same. With the mobile phone link and the modem link you pay on a per usage, while with the internet gateway you prepay blocks of messages.

 

Supported mobile phones
SMS-it will work with all mobile phones that come with a modem driver.

 

How do I configure SMS-it?
Once you launch the application the following pane is visible:



 

 


<= Status display

<= Message area

 


<= Menu buttons


Configuration
Before you can use SMS-it you need to configure the application using the System menu.
This opens the following window

Language: Choose your language
Skin: Choose the mobile phone cover you like
Sender ID: Your identification, usually your mobile phone number where people can reply to your messages.
Send SMS through Communication channel to use to send the SMS. Please select either Modem, Internet or Direct link. Please click here for an explanation of the different modes.
SMS central:

SMSC that relays your messages (Modem, Internet).
The internet link requires you to open an account with an Internet SMSC.
Once you have received your userid and password go to SMS centrals and enter those details in the corresponding fields. For more details on how to open an account please refer to http://www.mawnet.com/inetsmsc.html
Alternatively you can send messages through your modem to the SMSC. In this case your provider will charge you through the cost of the phone call, therefore please make sure to choose a provider in your own country.

Modem: Modem to use to dial-up the SMSC.
Outside line prefix: Prefix to be added to dial an external number (IE 9)
The mobile phone...

Please define here the driver/port your mobile phone is attached to, either through a cable (serial or USB) or wireless (Bluetooth or IR). This setting is used when synchronizing the handset SMS inbox with the SMS-it inbox and when sending SMS through a direct link.
Just select here the virtual modem driver installed for your mobile phone. This driver should be installed by Windows as soon as you connect the mobile phone to the computer. Otherwise choose the option "detect new hardware" in the Windows control panel and enter the support CD provided by your mobile phone manufacturer.
If no driver is installed, but you are sure which COM port is used by your mobile phone, you can also select the COM port directly.
If you set this value to (None) you will be unable to import anything from the mobile or to send a SMS through the mobile phone.
The default speed for most mobile phones is 9600 Bds, but there are some that require 19200 Bds. If your mobile phone does not seem to work with 9600 Bds you may need to change this value.
If you make sure that the auto-baud feature of your GSM modem is turned on, the modem will adapt its speed to the required value.
Character set Select here the character set to use when communicating with the mobile phone (IE importing messages from the inbox or sending messages through the handset). For support of latin characters (éèê ...) or German characters (äüö ..) please select the "ISO 8859 1" set.

Note: Your handset needs to support the selected character set.

 

PROXI Settings
SMS-it does not have its own PROXI settings as it takes the settings configured for the MS Internet Explorer. Therefore if your IExplorer PROXI settings are set, SMS-it will use those.

 


Address book
Enter here your contacts (Names of contacts and their mobile phone number)
If you use a Direct link or an Internet SMSC the mobile phone number must be in the international format
    "+"+Country code+Mobile

IE for the UK (country code 0044) and the mobile number 0791234567
=> +44791234567

For most of the dial-up SMSC through a Modem you are only allowed to use the national format
=> 0791234567
If they allow roaming to other countries you may also try the international format
=> +44791234567

 

Import/export addresses

You can also import/export addresses, either from a CSV file or directly from your mobile phone.
When importing from a CSV file please make sure that the entries are separated with semicolon (;)

IE
    MAW;+41 79999999
    Tom, Lee/W;+41 78888888

If unsure, please export the contacts before and then add your contacts to the exported file.

Important: Please check at the end with a text editor (i.e. notepad.exe) that the format is still correct.

If you have a direct link to your mobile phone you can also import/export the addresses from/to your mobile phone. Please make sure to select the correct character set.

 

Contact List
Allows you to create distribution lists for your contacts. In the send menu the contact lists are identified through a “>” at the beginning (IE >List1).

 

SMS central
Here you can add or edit the details for your SMSC. The following parameters are required:

Name: Identifies your SMS center


For Internet SMSC:  
Login: If you use our gateway (Internet) MAW Software then you do not need to change those values. Just order your additional credits using the "Order credits" button. Your current account value will be displayed under system->settings.

For the other gateways, please enter her the username and APP_ID as communicated to you by the Internet SMSC
For more information on how to use the Clickatell service please refer to http://www.mawnet.com/setupclickatell.html
For more information on how to use the Infobiiip service please refer to http://www.mawnet.com/setupinfobiiip.html
Access Password:

Password as communicated to you by the Internet SMSC
Supports:
 		Features supported by this gateway. Please do not change those values unless advised by our support.


For dial-up SMSC:
Access Number: Access phone number of the SMS center
Access Password: Password of the SMS center
COM Parameter: Serial parameters Baud, Parity, DB, SB. IE 1200,e,7,1
Protocol: Protocol to use, either XIO/TAP or UCP
Supports:
 		Features supported by this gateway. Please do not change those values unless advised by our support.
   
Note:
 		Please contact your local mobile phone provider for information about their settings

 

 

Message Folders

Here are listed all messages sent or currently in the message queue ready to be sent.
A message can have the following states:


Depending on their status they will be stored in the different system folders.
You may create your own folders by right-clicking on the "Folders" icon, then just drag the messages between the folders.
To display the full message just double-click on it.
You can re-send a message by clicking on the Re-send button.
If the message is a text, flash or ringtone, you will be able to edit the content before sending it.

To filter a folder and only display messages that include certain strings, enter the string to search for in the filter text box and press "Set filter". To delete the filter and show all messages delete the entry and press "Set filter" again.

 

Delivery Report
The MAW Software Internet gateway (and only this one) allows you to set the option "Delivery Report". With this option SMS-it will access every time you open the Sent folder our server to check the status of the sent messages. If the message has been confirmed (received by the handset), the corresponding status in SMS-it will be updated to reflect this change.
With this you can check if your message has been actually transmitted to the destination number and if the handset is switched on.

 

Synchronizing
If you have a direct link to your mobile phone you can also import your mobile phone inbox and sent folder into SMS-it.

 

Terminal
This window shows all system messages and may be useful for trouble-shooting.

 

How do I send a message?
To send a message just type the text in the message area, select the Text option and press the Send button. The following window will appear:

Choose a contact from the list or type a new number and name. Then hit Send and the message will be queued for delivery. During the delivery you can write another message or check on the status in the System->Messages window.
If the message can not be delivered the Status display will indicate Failed.

Note:
The message size is limited to 480 characters (420 for direct link sending)
Due to the restriction on how many characters a mobile phone can receive, SMS-it will separate the whole message into blocks of 160 (140) characters and send them separately.
This means that if you send a message of IE 350 characters, the recipient will receive 3 messages, two with 160 characters and one with 30 characters

If you use a direct link or an internet SMSC the mobile phone number must be in the international format
    "+"+Country code+Mobile

IE for the UK (country code 0044) and the mobile number 0791234567
=> +44791234567

For most of the dial-up SMSC you are only allowed to use the national format
=> 0791234567
If they allow roaming to other countries you may also try the international format
=> +44791234567

... to a Contact List

To send a message to an entire list just select the list (starts with a >)
The message will then be submitted to all members of your list.

Note: Depending on your communication link, the sending of messages to a big list may take some time.


How do I send a Flash Message?
Flash SMS is just like normal SMS. The difference lies in the way it appears on the receiver handphone. The receiver of Flash SMS would see the message without the need to press any button on the handphone. It would appear on screen upon arrival. The downside is this message will be overwritten by the next flash SMS if it is not saved.
Almost all of the newer phones support Flash Message.

Note: The message size is limited to 160 characters

How do I download content from the web
Your PC needs to be able to upload a file to the Internet through FTP.

Check the Download option and select/enter the path of the desired file. The file will then be uploaded to our web site and you will receive a SMS indicating you from where you can download the file to your handset. Your handset must support the WML (WAP Markup Language) standard to read the cover file.
You must also make sure, that your handset is able to play/display the file format you send to it. Normally handsets can only display correctly JPG or GIF files and play RM or MID sound files.
Please note that the file will be automatically deleted again from our web site after 24 hours, hence you must download it before that.


To take a preview of the pictures currently uploaded to our server please go to
http://www.mawnet.com/upload/preview/preview.php

 

 

How do I send a message from an external application, through the command line?

SMS-it can be called from an external application through command line parameters.
The format is

SMS-it.exe
Type[SMST¦SMSF¦SMSWAP]
Recipient
{SMSOL:Operator}
Message¦File

 

IE     SMS-it.exe SMST MAW "Happy New Year"

will send a message by text message to the contact MAW with the contents "Happy New Year".

To send a message trough to a contact list use the format

    SMS-it.exe SMST >LIST1 "Happy New Year"

This will send a message by text message to all members of the contact list LIST1 with the contents "Happy New Year".

NOTE: When using a DOS CMD or BAT file you must enclose the >LIST1 in ""

IE     SMS-it.exe SMST ">LIST1" "Happy New Year"

otherwise DOS will consider the > as redirection flag.

To send the content of a file rather than the message itself use the format

SMS-it.exe SMST MAW C:\Filename.TXT

This allows you also to send messages on multiple lines.

NOTE: File sending is only possible for text and flash messages. The file extension needs to be TXT.

 

Calling SMS-it from a batch file
When using a complete path to the sms-it directory that contains empty spaces (IE "c:\program Files\sms-it\sms-it.exe), please make sure to enclose it with quotes (") in your batch file.

@echo off
"c:\program files\sms-it\sms-it.exe" SMST MAW "Hello world"

or for a list

@echo off
"c:\program files\sms-it\sms-it.exe" SMST ">LIST1" "Hello world"

 

Return value
SMS-it.exe will return 0 if the message was sent successfully or -1 otherwise.
You may check for this error code in your calling application.

IE when submitting through a BAT file:

REM Run SMS-it
"c:\program files\sms-it\sms-it.exe" SMST MAW "Hello world"

if not errorlevel 0 goto Fail
goto Success

:Fail
echo SMS-it sending failed.
goto Exit

:Success
echo SMS-it sending succeeded.

:Exit

 

 

Download content
The format for content sending through the command line is

C:\SMS-it\SMS-it.exe SMSWAP [SMS:+44123456789] "C:\SMS-it\jlo.jpg"

Content sending is only supported when you have an active (credits available) account with an Internet account.

 

Types
The different link types are defined as follows:

SMST SMS Text
SMSF SMS Flash
SMSWAP Content

 

Direct sending
Instead of specifying a contact you can send a message directly to a number. To do so, use the following syntax instead of the contact name:
[SMS:0123456789]

Note:
In the unregistered version SMS-it will display a reminder message from time to time when using the command line option.

 

Microsoft Outlook integration
(To enable this feature you need to install the provided Outlook Add-in under ..\SMS-it\MS Outlook Interface\setup-exe)

SMS-it can integrate with MS Outlook in two ways:

 

1) Sending SMS from the Outlook Standard menu bar
You can send SMS directly from the Outlook menu bar under "New".

 

NOTE: Under Outlook 2010, the SMS-it menu item can be found under the Add-ins tab.

 

After selecting SMS the following screen will appear:

The interface will list under "Recipient" all contacts from the Outlook Contacts that have a mobile phone number configured. Just press Send and the SMS will be submitted to SMS-it for sending.
All SMS sent through the interface will appear in the Outlook "Sent Folder". If they can not be sent, they will be listed with the status "@SMS@ failed" and you can check in SMS-it the reason for the failure.

 

 

2) Sending SMS from an Outlook reminder
You can configure the interface in order to send an SMS whenever an Outlook reminder comes up. Like this it is possible to predefine SMS that are sent in reaction to a specific event.
One use can be to pre-define birthday messages and allocate them to the individual birthdays. As soon as the Outlook reminder comes up, an SMS is automatically sent with the birthday message. The SMS is sent before the reminder and does not need any confirmation, hence it will also work on unattended systems.

To configure an SMS to be sent on an Outlook reminder, please define a new reminder with the following fields:

Field Format Example
Subject: (any subject)



Location: @SMS@ recipient @SMS@ Wanderer, Marc when sending to a defined contact
@SMS@ [SMS:0123456789] when directly sending to mobile number



Text The text to be sent on one line Happy Birthday Chris. Best Regards, your brother

Note:
When you send a message to a defined contact use either the same name as defined in SMS-it or the "SaveAs" name in Outlook. To send a message to a group defined in SMS-it use the format "@SMS@ >GroupName".
All SMS sent through the interface will appear in the Outlook "Sent Folder". If they can not be sent, they will be listed with the status "@SMS@ failed" and you can check in SMS-it the reason for the failure.

 

 

FQA

Connection
You may select to send SMS through the Internet, through your modem using a dial-up or a direct link.

Internet
You may choose to send SMS through the Internet by choosing one of the Internet SMSC. This will send the SMS through your Internet connection.
For this you will need to set up an account with one of the Internet SMSC on www.mawnet.com/inetsmsc.html.

Modem
SMS uses a modem to dial-up an SMS central. Therefore you need to have access to a modem on your computer that is able to dial an outside number.

Direct link
Your modem needs to support a connection to a PC (IE through IR or USB).

Countries
Internet SMSC and direct links can be used in all countries.
For the dial-up SMSC by modem, please note that SMS-it requires a valid dial-up to an SMS centre to send its messages.
Under System->SMS centrals you find a list of all known (to us) SMSC sorted by countries. If your country is not in this list, this means that we have currently no information about a dial-up number for it. You may  still use SMS-it by using the SMSC of a country near you. To do so you  need however to change the number of this SMSC to include international  dial codes (ie +44 for the UK) and be aware of the additional phone costs.
You may also contact your local mobile phone provider and ask them if they offer a dial-up number for sending SMS through modems. If they do, please send us the details (Phone number, parameters) and we will add it to our list.

Mobile phone SMSC (+411234323)
The phone number listed as SMS centre in your mobile phone is not the same than the one used for the dial-up. Mobile phones use a different structure to send messages.

Providers/Roaming
Most providers allow you to send SMS to users on another providers network.
IE you may use the UK,Orange to send an SMS to a user on the UK,Vodaphone network.

Settings
Before you can use SMS-it you need to configure the System->Settings.
Most importantly select the correct modem and the correct SMS central.
Leave the "Outside line dial prefix" empty unless you use a PABX and need to dial a O to get an outside line.
The Sender ID is not used for XIO protocols and need to be numeric only i.e. your own mobile phone number. For Internet SMSC you can also use text strings as sender ID i.e. mawnet.

Cost
Sending SMS through a mobile phone is not free, neither is sending the message through the modem (using SMS-it). The provider will charge you for the dial-up usually the same amount than for sending through a mobile. The cheapest way is through our own internet SMSC.

 

 

How much does this application cost?
SMS-it used to be freeware, but now we need to charge you a license fee. This is necessary to be able to survive and continue to provide you with top quality software! The unlicensed software has no functional restrictions. There is only a reminder at startup and some "NAG" screens from time to time. So you may use it even without registration if you do not believe that it is worth the license fee.

 

 

Order and registration

To order a copy of SMS-it or to check its current price, please go to
www.mawnet.com/order.html

After your order has been approved, you will receive from us within 24 hours an e-mail with your serial key that unlocks your evaluation copy into a fully licensed version. This key also entitles you to future upgrades, so please store it in a safe place.

 


How can I get more information?

Support
For all support questions please refer to our support forum on www.mawnet.com/support.html

Please note:
- We can not provide phone support for our evaluation copies, please use the forum above
- Always indicate your name and e-mail address whenever you contact us


 

MAW Software Ltd. International
E-Mail   info@mawnet.com               (general inquiries)
Web     http://www.mawnet.com

 

European Headquarters Switzerland

MAW Software Ltd.
Hofacker 19
8808 Pfäffikon
Switzerland

Phone:
Fax:		 +41-(0)55-4201386
+41-(0)55-4201387

 

UK Support line

Phone:
Fax		 +44-(0)7092288534
+44-(0)7092288539

 

 

 

Thanks
Our special thanks to the following people that helped us with the translation of SMS-it into several languages:

Arabic Hentati Mahdi <formula.reverser@gmail.com>
Dutch Jan Paul Dekker <info@janpauldekker.nl>
German Andreas Wisler - GO OUT Production GmbH <wisler@goout.ch>
Magyar Jozsef Tamas Herczeg <hdodi@freemail.hu>
Csonga Zoltán <csongazoli@freemail.hu>
jb <jborsos_dr@yahoo.com>
Portuguese (BR) Gabriel <gb_dread_boy@yahoo.com.br>
Romanian Cristoi Costin <yo_snoop2003@yahoo.com>
Russian Wolotko Dimitry <korvin.dimitry@mail.ru> at http://eve.madpage.com
Swedish Peter Nyqvist <tihasit@tiscali.se>
Hassan Zaigham <hassanz@telia.com>
Spanish Miguel Vega R. <mavero@cantv.net>
Luis P. Rodríguez <luiz_r9@yahoo.ca>
Filipino Miguel Abriol <miguel@translatechannel.org>
 

There are still a lot of languages missing (IE Spanish!) and some of the above need reworking. Hence if you are interested in becoming a part of the SMS-it! community and contribute with a translation, please have a look on our web site at our translator page. Every contributor will receive a free license and a mention in the help file!