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The Stop Managing Server button will stop to manage
the server.
Note: The installation process will only create a single
database, VGSMDB on the local machine. If a separate
database is required on the same machine, you will need
to create it using the SQL scripts (a script for each
database) provided and then add the server to your
Manager Console as previous explained above. There are
no licensing implications for having several VisualGSM
database.
4.2.3 Starting VisualGSM Service
After you have successfully logon using the Console
Manager to the current VisualGSM database, before you
can start the service, you will need to configure the
modems or SMPP gateway and a host of other settings.
Most of the configurables come with default settings. Refer
to section 4.2.4 on how to configure these settings. Then
return to this section on how to start the service.
Unless you have configured an SMPP connection,
VisualGSM Service will start only after a modem with a valid
SIM card (with no password) is connected to a valid serial
COM port preconfigured into VisualGSM using the Console
Manager.
Note: If you are using VisualGSM solely with GSM modems,
VisualGSM service will not start if there is no working
modem with SIM card connected to the server. In
addition, the port settings and service connection setting
under Service Connecting Setting must be correct
before the service can start. If there is a problem with
starting the service, please refer to the log under
/programfiles/Visualtron/visualgsm/vgsmlog/sms_server_log
.txt. If you need to contact your dealer support, please
send your problem description as well as this log for their
reference.
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Note: There are other reasons that will cause VisualGSM not
to work even after it has started, e.g. GSM network failure.
To ensure full operational capability, please test both SMS
send and receive functions each time you start or restart
the server.
You can start the Server from the Manager Console (you
need to login first) or from Programs -> VisualGSM
Enterprise Server -> Start VisualGSM. Starting from the
Manager Console allows you to view system events/log
generated by the Server real-time. You can also write a
batch file to start VisualGSM from DOS by issuing net start
visualgsm.
Alternatively, you can start VisualGSM Service from the
Windows Service Control Panel under Settings -> Control
Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services (Win2k).
Note: To receive notifications of modem or server errors,
please configure your SMTP/Email settings under
Configuration (see 4.2.4.10 Email Tab for more information).
4.2.4 Basic System Configuration for VisualGSM
Enterprise
The following is a brief description of the main buttons
found on the VGSM Enterprise Manager module.
This is the Hide Server Tree button. It is used to collapse
the Server Tree window on the left-hand side, leaving only
the main working window. It is only available when the
Server Tree window is not collapsed.
This is the opposite of the Hide Server Tree and is called
the Show Server Tree button. It is only available when the
Server Tree window has collapsed and is used to bring up
the Server Tree window.
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This is the Configuration button. When clicked, it will show
the window below. There are several tabs. Some of the
settings come with default values.
Note: After changing, remember to click on the Update
button to commit these changes into the database. You
will also need to restart the service after updating these
changes for them to take effect. There is no need
however to restart your machine.
Figure 4.16 : The Configuration window (General Tab)
The buttons on the configuration window are described
here:
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4.2.4.1 General Tab Basic Settings Section
This We have grouped the most basic settings under this
section. Country Code is the only compulsory setting for
Configuration setup.
-
Enable Concatenated SMS (Long SMS); check this option
to allow VisualGSM to send concatenated SMS. If this
feature is not enabled, messages longer than 160
characters (for normal text SMS) and 70 characters (for
Unicode text SMS) will be truncated.
Most cell phones will display concatenated SMS as a
single long SMS. On some older phones, concatenated
SMS longer than 459 characters maybe displayed as 2
or more messages.
Although concatenated SMS may appear as a single
long SMS on the recipient cell phone, you will still be
charged by your SMS carrier for every block of 153
characters (for normal text SMS) of SMS message sent.
Note:- If you are using any of the Addons such as
Email2SMS or Text2SMS, and this option is unchecked,
you will only receive messages up to 1 SMS long. The
remainder of the message in excess of 1 SMS length will
be truncated regardless of your Addon setting.
-
Send International SMS; this toggle will allow you to
prevent SMS from being sent to overseas addresses. If
unchecked, only local messages will be processed.
-
Default SMS Character Set / Code Page; this is a global
setting that specifies the Character Set or Code Page
of the messages you feed into the SMS Gateway for
outgoing SMS, and the message received by the SMS
Gateway. If not indicated, the VisualGSM will use the
system default language set in Windows
Settings/Control Panel/Regional Options.
For example, if the system default is English, and you
want all messages to be processed using Greek
encoding (this is required if Greek characters are
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present), youll need to set Default SMS Character Set
as 1253 (short for Windows 1253). By setting Default
SMS Character Set to 1253, VisualGSM Enterprise will
treat all outgoing messages as Greek encoded, and
save all incoming messages in Greek encoding (see list
of common character set and corresponding Code
Page below).
Alternatively, you can also indicate the encoding to use
on a per outgoing message sent basis, by indicating the
Code Page to use using the CHARSET parameter when
sending a message. This parameter will override the
global encoding as defined in the Default SMS
Character Set / Page Code setting. You can send
messages in different encoding.
For the case of incoming messages, since its not
possible to individually indicate the encoding used, all
incoming messages are encoded using the Default SMS
Character Set / Page Code setting.
Note:- To allow incoming messages of different
encoding or languages to be represented properly, you
can set Default SMS Character Set / Page Code setting
to UTF-8 (Unicode).
Language / Character Set
Code
Page
Arabic
1256
Baltic (Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian)
1257
Central European (Albanian, Belarusian, Croatian,
Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak,
Slovenian)
1250
Chinese (Simplified)
936
Chinese (Traditional)
950
Cyrillic (Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian)
1251
Greek (ISO)
28597
Greek (Windows)
1253
Hebrew
1255
Japanese
932
Korean
949
Persian
1256
Thai
874
Turkish
1254
Unicode
65001
Vietnamese
1258
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Western European (ISO)
28591
Western European (Windows)
1252
-
Country Code; this is the country code of the local mobile
network, e.g. 62 for Indonesia or 32 for Belgium.
4.2.4.2 General Tab Advanced Settings Section
-
All mobile numbers can access all keywords (Enables
Mobile Security); this is a toggle that is activated by
default. Deactivating it will ensure that only keywords
with a defined user access list are available for use. The
user access list is defined under the Mobile Security tab
in the main dialog.
Note:- When this toggle is unchecked, Mobile Security
feature is in place, but you can still enable public
access to certain keywords by toggling the Public
Access checkbox on the respective keyword
configurations. (added in version 3.6.6).
-
Delete received SMS stored in SIM Card on Service
Startup; this will flush SMS stored in the SIM Card each time
you start or restart VisualGSM service.
- Deactivate Keyword; this will deactivate all keyword
actions in response to an incoming message. The
incoming message will still be recorded in the table loglog,
but no automatic response will be made. Uncheck this
feature to restore all keyword functionality.
-
Suspend low priority broadcast during sleep period;
enabling this setting will force VisualGSM not to send out
LOW PRIORITY messages during the preset period of time.
Suspended messages will be dispatched after the sleep
period is over.
Note:- This feature is especially useful when you are
performing a phonebook group SMS broadcast, and you
do not wish messages to be sent during the sleep period.
-
Delimiter(s) between keyword and message; this specifies
the delimiter between the 1st word of an incoming
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message and the 2nd word. If this field is not specified,
VisualGSM will treat space and carriage return as
delimiters. For example, for the phrase, SMS You! Again,
SMS is the keyword and You! Again the message body.
Note:- If this option is set, space will not be recognized as a
delimiter unless it is added as well. For example, if you set
the option to a value #, then for the following phrase,
SMS YOU!#123456, SMS YOU! is the keyword, and
123456 the message body. To enable VisualGSM to treat
both space and hex as delimiter, set the value # . Note
that space must be entered into the edit box although it
cannot be seen on screen.
4.2.4.3 General Tab Delivery Report Section
- Check Delivery Report; this will enable status reporting for
each outgoing message when checked. When status
reporting is enabled, messages that are delivered to
the recipient will receive confirmation in the form of a
status report. This report is recorded in the server
database as one of the fields, and is used to trigger an
alternative action.
You can preset alternative actions (see 4.2.5.9, Delivery
Report Tab), if status reports are not received within
multiples of x minutes. Up to 10 levels of actions can be
defined for each x interval. This interval between each
action is set in the next feature.
Tip: the Delivery Reporting feature is available only for
Mission Critical License Users.
Tip: In most cases, Delivery Reports can only work if the
message is sent within the same carrier, e.g. Carrier A
handset to Carrier A handset. Modem auto-routing, if
properly configured, can ensure messages are sent
within the same network by matching recipient mobile
number prefix with the carrier (to which the prefix
comes under as defined in network code) that
corresponds to a particular modem port.
Tip: Status reports are treated as incoming messages
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and will contribute to the total amount of messages the
modem can handle within a specified period of time.
Hence, the number of messages each modem can
handle is reduced if status reports are enabled.
-
Interval of actions of DR; this indicates the interval in
which the server waits for a status report, before the
next delivery report action is triggered. Up to 10 levels
of actions can be assigned, and the interval applies to
every next action.
Tip: Try to use greater intervals if message reception is
expected to be slow. Reasons can be due to poor
network capacity.
4.2.4.4 General Tab Forbidden Numbers Section
Forbidden Mobile Numbers; numbers listed in this field will
not be handled by VisualGSM. For example, if a mobile
phone bearing a banned number sends a request to the
server, the number will not respond or further process that
request. This feature is useful in preventing DoS or Denial-
of-Service attacks from specific sources.
Tip: Wildcard characters such as * and ? can be used to
represent any group of numbers, and any single
character respectively.
For example, ???? will ban all numbers comprising of 4
digits. +61* will ban all numbers with country code +61.
Tip: Indicate both local and international numbers for
every particular number you wish to ban, e.g. 90621305,
+6590621305. This is required as sometimes, the message
received will have the number in international format. If
more number than the length of this field can handle is set,
you may increase the field length at the database level.
4.2.4.5 General Tab Message Processing Intervals
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-
Incoming SMS; this setting defines the frequency to which
the server will process incoming messages. Default is
1000 milliseconds or 1 second.
-
Outgoing SMS; this setting defines the frequency to which
the server will process outgoing messages (in other
words, access the database to check for pending
messages). E.g. if set to 10000 milliseconds, the server
will process pending outgoing messages once every 10
seconds. Default is 1000 milliseconds or 1 second.
4.2.4.6 Modem Tab Modem Settings Section
- Add; this will add a new (serial) port to the Enterprise
Manager module, together with its purpose and baud
rate. The newer version of VisualGSM (from v4.6.1) now
comes with port and modem baud rate auto-detect
buttons.
Note: the default baud rate for GSM/GPRS modem
(e.g. Wavecom) is 9600 bps (115200bps for new
models), and 19200 bps for mobile phones. If you have
problems connecting to the modem, always power on
and off the modem, and then try again.
The purpose is used for smart load balancing. IN
modems will not be used to send messages. Where
there are messages to be sent out, priority will be given
to OUT modems, followed by IN/OUT modems.
- Delete; this will delete an existing (serial) port on the
Enterprise Manager module
- Modify; this will modify an existing (serial) port for its
purpose and baud rate.
- SIM Card Telecom; this will select the GSM network which
the SIM card in the modem/mobile phone is using. It is
used for the purpose of sending smart messages using
the correct GSM network.
Tip: for Nokia smart messages such as ringtone, flash
and operator logo, you may need to send within the