Postmaster @ vtext.com (or what are best practice to send SMS these days)

[David Ulevitch]

We've noticed that ***@vtext.com is no longer a very reliable
form of delivery for alerts from Nagios, et al. It seems as our volume
of alerts has risen, our delivery rate has dropped precipitously.

We don't expect much trying to actually reach a postmaster for vtext.com
so I thought the better question would be to ask what the current
best practice is to get SMS alerts out?

Back in the day, I remember a company I worked for had something called
a TAP gateway. Is that still a good route? I've also been told to
check out an SMS gateway/api service called clickatell.com -- anyone
using them to delivering timely notifications?

Is the best thing to do to try and get a programmable cellphone in a
datacenter?

What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?

-David

[Randy Epstein]

David Ulevitch wrote:

<snip>

Post by David Ulevitch
What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?

Get a pager! :) SMS is just not as reliable.

Post by David Ulevitch
David

Randy

[Derrick Bennett]

I still use and love qpage http://www.qpage.org/ with Nagios.

Your best bet is to also attach a modem to your system and let it dial out to the gateways.
http://www.notepage.net/tap-phone-numbers-u.htm

This site provides a central spot for TAP gateway numbers and SNPP systems. Use your Nagios parent configuration to send snpp when the Internet is working and fall back to TAP modem pages when your system can no longer reach the net.

It's the only modem I still have in use but it works great every time for sending out those text messages and pagers.

Derrick

________________________________

From: owner-***@merit.edu on behalf of Randy Epstein
Sent: Wed 4/16/2008 1:22 PM
To: 'David Ulevitch'; ***@merit.edu
Subject: RE: Postmaster @ vtext.com (or what are best practice to send SMS these days)




David Ulevitch wrote:

<snip>

Post by David Ulevitch
What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?

Get a pager! :) SMS is just not as reliable.

Post by David Ulevitch
David

Randy

[Patrick Shoemaker]

My solution is to use a modem / POTS line hanging off the nagios box
along with the qpage daemon to send alerts out through a TAP gateway. If
you need the specs and 800 number for Verizon's TAP gateway I can send
it offlist.

http://www.dynowski.com/blog/2006/05/19/using-nagios-with-quickpage-a-sms-tap-gateway/

This is important not only to avoid the inconsistency of the vtext
email-sms gateway but to get an alert out in case of a major network
disruption that breaks email functionality.

Patrick Shoemaker
President, Vector Data Systems LLC
***@vectordatasystems.com
office: [phone] x36
mobile: [phone]
http://www.vectordatasystems.com

Post by David Ulevitch
form of delivery for alerts from Nagios, et al. It seems as our volume
of alerts has risen, our delivery rate has dropped precipitously.
We don't expect much trying to actually reach a postmaster for vtext.com
so I thought the better question would be to ask what the current best
practice is to get SMS alerts out?
Back in the day, I remember a company I worked for had something called
a TAP gateway. Is that still a good route? I've also been told to
check out an SMS gateway/api service called clickatell.com -- anyone
using them to delivering timely notifications?
Is the best thing to do to try and get a programmable cellphone in a
datacenter?
What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?
-David

[Dominic J. Eidson]

My recommendation as of late has been to use WCTP with a TAP backup.
(using qpage at $WORK)

This way you get the faster delivery/rate of WCTP, with an OOB fall-back
should it be needed.

Most pager companies (and presumably many cell providers) provide
interfaces for one/both of the above.


- d.

Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:33:40 -0400
these days)
My solution is to use a modem / POTS line hanging off the nagios box along
with the qpage daemon to send alerts out through a TAP gateway. If you need
the specs and 800 number for Verizon's TAP gateway I can send it offlist.
http://www.dynowski.com/blog/2006/05/19/using-nagios-with-quickpage-a-sms-tap-gateway/
This is important not only to avoid the inconsistency of the vtext email-sms
gateway but to get an alert out in case of a major network disruption that
breaks email functionality.
Patrick Shoemaker
President, Vector Data Systems LLC
office: [phone] x36
mobile: [phone]
http://www.vectordatasystems.com

of delivery for alerts from Nagios, et al. It seems as our volume of
alerts has risen, our delivery rate has dropped precipitously.
We don't expect much trying to actually reach a postmaster for vtext.com
so I thought the better question would be to ask what the current best
practice is to get SMS alerts out?
Back in the day, I remember a company I worked for had something called a
TAP gateway. Is that still a good route? I've also been told to check
out an SMS gateway/api service called clickatell.com -- anyone using them
to delivering timely notifications?
Is the best thing to do to try and get a programmable cellphone in a
datacenter?
What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?
-David

[Peter Kranz]

If you stick with SMS messages, the weakest link will always be the carriers
SMS gateway. Since this is the last item in the chain, any upstream service
will still be handicapped by the gateway. I've worked with a variety of
carriers, and they have all had problems at one point or another with their
SMS gateways getting overwhelmed with SMS spam, etc.. causing long SMS
delivery queues or dropped messages. If you can find the SMS gateway admin
at Verizon they can probably comment on what the issue is and any planned
resolutions, else you may need to switch providers to one with a more
cluefull SMS gateway team.

So far this year, I have only had a couple instances of delayed/dropped SMS
delivery via the AT&T/Cingular SMS Gateway..

Peter Kranz
Founder/CEO - Unwired Ltd
www.UnwiredLtd.com
Desk: 510-868-1614 x100
Mobile: [phone]
***@unwiredltd.com


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-***@merit.edu [mailto:owner-***@merit.edu] On Behalf Of
David Ulevitch
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:00 AM
To: ***@merit.edu
Subject: Postmaster @ vtext.com (or what are best practice to send SMS these
days)


We've noticed that ***@vtext.com is no longer a very reliable
form of delivery for alerts from Nagios, et al. It seems as our volume
of alerts has risen, our delivery rate has dropped precipitously.

We don't expect much trying to actually reach a postmaster for vtext.com
so I thought the better question would be to ask what the current
best practice is to get SMS alerts out?

Back in the day, I remember a company I worked for had something called
a TAP gateway. Is that still a good route? I've also been told to
check out an SMS gateway/api service called clickatell.com -- anyone
using them to delivering timely notifications?

Is the best thing to do to try and get a programmable cellphone in a
datacenter?

What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?

-David

[Andrey Gordon]

I have one of these babies
http://www.multitech.com/PRODUCTS/Families/MultiModemCDMA/
with SMS Server Tools 3 running (hacked up for CDMA, cuz they dont'
support CDMA out of the box)

$40 a month does the trick

There was a good thread about sms notifications not so long time ago.
Here is what the summary was:



On Fri, Sep 7, 2007 at 6:54 PM, Alex Pilosov <***@pilosoft.com> wrote:

As an experiment, I wanted to try to summarize all the answers given on
this question, hope this helps someone.

Suggestions given:

* modem and TAP gateway
** TAP numbers at http://www.avtech.com/Support/TAP/index.htm
** Software: sendpage or qpage

* Mobile phone with a serial port and AT commandset
** Software: sms-tools gnokii gsmd
** Issues: not reliable because of battery drain

* Purpose-made GSM/CDMA modems
** Software: same as above
** Manufacturers: Intercel, Sierra 750 (PCMCIA), Falcom Samba 75 (USB)

* Purpose-made GSM-IP modems
** Manufacturers: http://www.acmesystems.it/?id=70

* Pages via DTMF
** Hylafax/asterisk

- -alex [for mlc]

- --
Andrey Gordon [***@gmail.com]

[Darryl Dunkin]

Yes, this is still a good route for those of us with old pagers
(cell/pager via e-mail have had horrendous drop rates for me, likely due
to the volume of messages). If the network issue is severe enough that
your Internet access is not working, you can still dial via a modem.
Even then things don't always get through the provider, so I have two
Nagios systems running in tandem. This means receiving two notices for
each outage, but often enough we still only receive one (even though
each Nagios/qpage server reports a success on both sides).

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-***@merit.edu [mailto:owner-***@merit.edu] On Behalf Of
David Ulevitch
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:00
To: ***@merit.edu
Subject: Postmaster @ vtext.com (or what are best practice to send SMS
these days)


We've noticed that ***@vtext.com is no longer a very reliable
form of delivery for alerts from Nagios, et al. It seems as our volume
of alerts has risen, our delivery rate has dropped precipitously.

We don't expect much trying to actually reach a postmaster for vtext.com

so I thought the better question would be to ask what the current
best practice is to get SMS alerts out?

Back in the day, I remember a company I worked for had something called
a TAP gateway. Is that still a good route? I've also been told to
check out an SMS gateway/api service called clickatell.com -- anyone
using them to delivering timely notifications?

Is the best thing to do to try and get a programmable cellphone in a
datacenter?

What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?

-David

[David Coulson]

In my experience, even with TAP, sending messages to a cell phone is
spotty at best. I have folks on both uni-directional pagers via TAP or
SNPP, as well as cell phones via e-mail and TAP. There isn't a
noticeable difference in delivery time between e-mail and TAP on the phones.

Cell to Cell is probably the best option if you want to stick with SMS
to cell phones. I have no idea how reliable it is between carriers. I
still get some comfort knowing that people have pagers with a TAP
gateway - I've no idea how the technology differs between a pager and
SMS, but it seems much more reliable. All of the pager problems I've had
in the last few years have been, erm, 'payment related'.

Post by David Ulevitch
form of delivery for alerts from Nagios, et al. It seems as our
volume of alerts has risen, our delivery rate has dropped precipitously.
We don't expect much trying to actually reach a postmaster for
vtext.com so I thought the better question would be to ask what the
current best practice is to get SMS alerts out?
Back in the day, I remember a company I worked for had something
called a TAP gateway. Is that still a good route? I've also been
told to check out an SMS gateway/api service called clickatell.com --
anyone using them to delivering timely notifications?
Is the best thing to do to try and get a programmable cellphone in a
datacenter?
What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?
-David

[Deepak Jain]

Verizon at least, uses SS7 signaling to deliver on-network SMS. This
means they can provide delivery confirmation with their SMSes. I am not
aware of another US network that does this or interacts with Verizon
over SS7 for SMS exchange.

So, if you are using a phone's SMS capability on the same network (e.g.
Verizon) and it has delivery confirmation you might be very happy.

Deepak

Post by David Coulson
In my experience, even with TAP, sending messages to a cell phone is
spotty at best. I have folks on both uni-directional pagers via TAP or
SNPP, as well as cell phones via e-mail and TAP. There isn't a
noticeable difference in delivery time between e-mail and TAP on the phones.
Cell to Cell is probably the best option if you want to stick with SMS
to cell phones. I have no idea how reliable it is between carriers. I
still get some comfort knowing that people have pagers with a TAP
gateway - I've no idea how the technology differs between a pager and
SMS, but it seems much more reliable. All of the pager problems I've had
in the last few years have been, erm, 'payment related'.

Post by David Ulevitch
form of delivery for alerts from Nagios, et al. It seems as our
volume of alerts has risen, our delivery rate has dropped precipitously.
We don't expect much trying to actually reach a postmaster for
vtext.com so I thought the better question would be to ask what the
current best practice is to get SMS alerts out?
Back in the day, I remember a company I worked for had something
called a TAP gateway. Is that still a good route? I've also been
told to check out an SMS gateway/api service called clickatell.com --
anyone using them to delivering timely notifications?
Is the best thing to do to try and get a programmable cellphone in a
datacenter?
What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?
-David

[Frank Bulk - iNAME]

Piecing together the information I've learned over time, is it possible that
VeriSign handles some of that for Verizon?

Frank

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-***@merit.edu [mailto:owner-***@merit.edu] On Behalf Of
Deepak Jain
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 6:37 PM
To: David Coulson
Cc: David Ulevitch; ***@merit.edu
Subject: Re: Postmaster @ vtext.com (or what are best practice to send SMS
these days)



Verizon at least, uses SS7 signaling to deliver on-network SMS. This
means they can provide delivery confirmation with their SMSes. I am not
aware of another US network that does this or interacts with Verizon
over SS7 for SMS exchange.

So, if you are using a phone's SMS capability on the same network (e.g.
Verizon) and it has delivery confirmation you might be very happy.

Deepak

Post by David Coulson
In my experience, even with TAP, sending messages to a cell phone is
spotty at best. I have folks on both uni-directional pagers via TAP or
SNPP, as well as cell phones via e-mail and TAP. There isn't a
noticeable difference in delivery time between e-mail and TAP on the phones.
Cell to Cell is probably the best option if you want to stick with SMS
to cell phones. I have no idea how reliable it is between carriers. I
still get some comfort knowing that people have pagers with a TAP
gateway - I've no idea how the technology differs between a pager and
SMS, but it seems much more reliable. All of the pager problems I've had
in the last few years have been, erm, 'payment related'.

Post by David Ulevitch
form of delivery for alerts from Nagios, et al. It seems as our
volume of alerts has risen, our delivery rate has dropped precipitously.
We don't expect much trying to actually reach a postmaster for
vtext.com so I thought the better question would be to ask what the
current best practice is to get SMS alerts out?
Back in the day, I remember a company I worked for had something
called a TAP gateway. Is that still a good route? I've also been
told to check out an SMS gateway/api service called clickatell.com --
anyone using them to delivering timely notifications?
Is the best thing to do to try and get a programmable cellphone in a
datacenter?
What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?
-David

[Duane Wessels]

Post by David Ulevitch
What else are operators doing to get the pages out when things go wonky?

I added asterisk and a cheap X100P card to my Nagios setup. Now I
can get a voice call if things are really bad.

I started to install some text-to-speech tools also, but got depressed
by all the additional ports that were coming along for the ride.
So for now it just plays a prerecorded message: "go check nagios!"

DW