Jasiek’s Blog

SMS isn’t just for sending text messages from one phone to another — it’s also a great way to get email messages on your phone.

Yes, you can get email on your phone! All you need to know is your cell phone’s email address.

Most carriers have “SMS gateways” which take email messages from the Internet and deliver them to their customers’ cell phones as SMS text messages. The trick is that you need to know what carrier the recipient’s phone is on — it’s not enough to know their phone number. That’s because the carrier determines what the email address of the receiving phone is going to be. For example, Cingular phones’ address are all “something@cingularme.com” while Verizon phones are “something@vtext.com.”

Sound complicated? It’s not. All you really need to do is find your carrier in the list below, and then use the pattern shown there to figure out your email address. If you want to send email to a friend’s phone, just ask them which carrier they use, and off you go!

(Note: For each carrier, I’ll include a link to a page with more detailed information on how SMS works with that carrier, how much it costs, and where you can find more information. In the list below, just click any carrier’s highlighted name to find out more.)

Alltel
[10-digit phone number]@message.alltel.com
Example: 2125551212@message.alltel.com

AT&T (formerly Cingular)
[10-digit phone number]@txt.att.net
Example: 2125551212@txt.att.net

Boost Mobile
[10-digit phone number]@myboostmobile.com
Example: 2125551212@myboostmobile.com

Nextel (now part of Sprint Nextel)
[10-digit telephone number]@messaging.nextel.com
Example: 7035551234@messaging.nextel.com

Sprint PCS (now Sprint Nextel)
[10-digit phone number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Example: 2125551234@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile
[10-digit phone number]@tmomail.net
Example: 4251234567@tmomail.net

Verizon
[10-digit phone number]@vtext.com
Example: 5552223333@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile USA
[10-digit phone number]@vmobl.com
Example: 5551234567@vmobl.com

Note: If all this seems complicated, there’s an easier way to send email to any phone, no matter what its carrier. Just address it to [10-digit phone number]@teleflip.com
Example: 2125551212@teleflip.com
More information on Teleflip

In Group Policy:

\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files
Disallow use of the Offline Files feature

Policy update:
Microsoft has replaced this command in Windows 2003 and XP with the command
gpupdate

When getting an error:
SoapFault exception: [WSDL] SOAP-ERROR: Parsing WSDL: Couldn’t load from…
or similar. and SOAP over http works but over https does not, make sure that
“extension=php_openssl.dll”
is enabled in php.ini:

[PHP_SOAP]
extension=php_soap.dll
extension=php_openssl.dll

Sometimes Backup Exec fails or it is left in a state that does not generate an error of any kind. I saw instances where the backup job would go into “loading…” state and would remain in this state for weeks!
Of course any good network administrator should catch it assuming that his/her job is to check the backup every day. However with tens or hundreds of networks that one needs to monitor this translates to logging in and checking Backup Exec in tens hundreds of servers every day! This is not an option. This is my very low-tech “watchdog” script that solves the problem.

I am monitoring servers remotely using an excellent Intellippol Network Monitor

“Intellipool Network Monitor is a system for agentless server monitoring, alerting and reporting of a large selection of operating systems and SNMP capable devices”

This tool gives me a lot of info about the health of the server, however it still does not resolve an issue of Backup Exec - yes it can check if the service is running but like I stated before - this is not a problem. You just can not trust Backup Exec to let you know that it is or is not running correctly.

My solution is very simple:
I create a file using a batch script. This file - “checkfile.chk” is a copy of the script itself.
Another script: “backup_ok.bat” is executed by Backup Exec as a post-command.
One more script: “backup_check.bat” is run in the morning using Windows Scheduler. It is run after the job is completed (if the backup job runs between 11:00 pm and 2:15 am then run it for example at 6:00 am).
If the backup job was run and ended with errors or no - the “backup_ok.bat” script should be executed and this deletes the “checkfile.chk”. But if the backup job does not finish (or dos not run at all) then this file will be left untouched.

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@echo off
rem This utility deletes a CHECK file
rem in a driectory c:scripts
rem it is executed as post-command in Backup Exec
IF EXIST checkfile.chk (del checkfile.chk)

In the morning the scheduler runs “backup_check.bat” which checks if the “checkfile.chk” exists. If it does then an event log is being created. If it does not exist then the file is being created for the next cycle.

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@echo off
rem This utility will write to an Application log
rem if the file "checkfile.chk" exists
rem This file should be deleted at the end of the backup job
rem by Backup Exec
 
IF EXIST checkfile.chk (eventcreate /t error /id 999 /L Application /D "Backup failed") ELSE (copy backup_check.bat checkfile.chk)
 
rem create a CHECK file
rem in a driectory c:scripts
rem by making a copy of itself with extension .chk

Now using the built-in Application Error monitor in INM this can be detected and in my case I send it to my e-mail address and my cell phone to get a warning like this:

Time: 07/13/2008 18:56:38
Object: server.telaxus.com (192.168.X.X)
Monitor: Application error events
Status: Alarm
Message: Found matching eventlog record

Event id: 999
Computer: SERVER
Source: EventCreate
User: admin
Time Generated: 2008/07/13 18:56:11
Message:
Backup failed
=====================================
Distribution list:
admin@email.com

Setup:
Create C:\scripts directory. Put both batch files there. In Backup Exec in every job add post-command or if one already exists modify it to delete this .chk file. In Windows Scheduler add this backup_check.bat to run every day in the morning after scheduled backup jobs. Do not run it on days when the backup is not scheduled as it will generate false alarms.

Google Analytics code needs to be inserted before in the file:
phpBB 2: overall_footer.tpl file that located in /”forum folder”/templates/”template name”.
phpBB 3: overall_footer.html file that located in /”forum folder”/styles/”style name”/template.

like this:

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<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.")
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"))
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-YOURNUMBER")
pageTracker._initData()
pageTracker._trackPageview()
</script>
 
</body>

Every template installed should have the file modified. Once templates are modified the cache needs to be cleared: Styles -> Templates -> Cache in Admin Panel