1.1 OPT_YAPS - Sending Of SMS Short Messages

1.1.1 Introduction

With YAPS SMS messages can be sent sent via an ISDN card or a modem with the fli4l router and depending on the provider lower costs arise as if sending SMS with a mobile phone. In addition, the typing of an SMS on the PC keyboard is more comfortable.

This package adapts the OPT_YAPS package by Ralf Dausend to fli4l 3.x. It is based on the Linux program “yaps” by Ulrich Dessauer and was originally developed by Stefan Rupprecht. Ralf Dausend has expanded it and wrote the original version of the manual.

1.1.2 Preconditions

YAPS requires a fli4l router with an ISDN card or a modem. YAPS is configured via the file config/yaps.txt. The file /etc/yaps.rc required by YAPS is created by the script rc500.yaps when booting the router.

Important: YAPS does not work over DSL or Internet! YAPS needs an ISDN card or a modem in any case!

1.1.3 Mobile Phone Networks

For Germany the following services for sending SMS messages are set:

D1 with the prefixes 0151, 0160, 0161, 0170, 0171, 0175
D2 with the prefixes 0152, 0162, 0172, 0173, 0174
E-Plus with the prefixes 0163, 0177, 0178

Viag Intercom or O2 offered no SMS gateway for a long time and now have only a poorly functioning and slow gateway (as of 2005), so O2 is configured in a way that D2 is used as the gateway. The prefixes are 0176 and 0179.

Peter Egli enhanced YAPS for Switzerland with the following services: Swisscom, Orange, Sunrise and Tele2 (Swisscom). Thank you, Peter!

YAPS is configured without international prefixes so users from Germany and Switzerland may reach their respective networks directly without further configuration. If someone from Germany wants to send over the Swiss network or vice versa, in rc500.yaps the relevant international prefixes have to be added for the respective networks.

1.1.4 Costs

Since the costs in the mobile sector are in constant motion and also depend very much on the chosen rates each user must decide for himself what the service of OPT_YAPS is worth and what it costs.

Important: Some time ago, several users have reported, that the connection to the SMS gateway is kept for several hours when using YAPS. Since this is a connection to a mobile phone number this can be very expensive. The fault was most likely the SMS gateway and not with YAPS, yet the people had to pay a high phone bill. Therefore, the Note: When using YAPS always check that after sending the SMS the connection to the gateway was closed. Sending usually takes three to four seconds, in exceptional cases, ten to twenty seconds.

Use YAPS at your own risk! The FLI4L team can and will not pay for any expenses incurred!

1.1.5 Configuration

OPT_YAPS: If this is set to “yes”, the package will be activated.
YAPS_USE_CID: This variable must be set to “True” or “False”. If “True” is specified, the Caller-ID will be activated when sending an SMS (see next option). The Caller ID is the originating address which is displayed on the phone that receives the SMS. Unfortunately, this seems to work only with D2, D1 always display the phone number (MSN) from which the SMS was sent. With E-Plus the number of the SMS center is displayed.
YAPS_CID: This variable contains the sender's number, without spaces or other separators.
YAPS_USE_SIG: This variable must be set to “True” or “False”. If “True” is selected, a signature is appended to the SMS (see next option).
YAPS_SIG: The signature to be used, please respect the max. length of 160 characters per SMS note. If the signature is 50 characters long, only 110 characters are left for the SMS. If a text message (including signature) is longer than 160 characters, YAPS will split it into several SMS of max 160 characters. So if you, for example, create a text 500 characters long, YAPS simply sends 4 SMS messages, one after the other.
YAPS_CBC: If you want to use a call-by-call provider, you may enter its prefix here. If your provider charges per minute, a CbC provider is useful if you have one that charges per second, because a text message is normally sent in three to five seconds.
YAPS_MSN: Here the MSN of your own telephone line must be entered (without prefix). This field must not be empty, but setting a wrong number is not a problem since the telephone switch of your provider will simply set one of the available MSNs for the connection.
YAPS_VERBOSE: This variable sets YAPS's debug level, choose a value of “1” to “4”. The debug level specifies how many information YAPS returns. Normally “1” should suffice here. If something does not work, you can set a higher value for debugging.
YAPS_LOG: This variable contains the path and name of the log file created by YAPS. The default is /var/log/yaps.log. The directory /var/log is situated in the ramdisk ususally and is therefore only available as long as the router is running, i.e. after a reboot it is gone. If you want to keep the log file you may, i.e. specify a file on the hard disk.

1.1.6 Operation

YAPS may be executed on the console or via Telnet/SSH:

yaps <number> "<text>"

i.e. yaps 0171xxx "Hello, how are you?".

If you execute YAPS without any parameters, a little help on possible parameters is displayed.

There is also an input interface for fli4l's httpd. This was originally written by Felix Eckhofer and may be activated with the variable OPT_YAPSGUI. It is documented in the next section.