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1997-07-07
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22KB
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571 lines
Originally Drafted: Sun Jun 23 17:55:14 MDT 1996
Last Revision: Sun Jun 15 01:48:35 MDT 1997
The
Linux Alphanumeric Pager Gateway Mini-HOWTO
by Chris Snell
chris@unm.dorm.net
http://www.unm.dorm.net/~chris
+-----------------------------------------+
| The latest version of this document is |
| always available at the Pager FTP site: |
| ftp://ftp.unm.dorm.net/pub/paging |
+-----------------------------------------+
PREFACE & DISCLAIMER:
---------------------
This document sucks. I'm not a technical writer, nor do I plan to be one.
I had a hard enough time pasing my English Composition class last semester.
If anything, this document provides too much detail. If you have half a
brain, some sendmail experience and some experience with modems, skim this
thing. Otherwise, read on.
If you blow up your computer/pager/modem or ruin your company network trying
to set this up, go whine to your mother. Most likely, you won't mess up
anything but I should warn you that sendmail is a tricky thing to play with
and you will definitely be playing with it if you follow this document.
PURPOSE:
--------
This mini-HOWTO will describe how to set up an alphanumeric paging
gateway on any linux machine. Your gateway will be able to send messages
originating from both the World Wide Web and the Internet e-mail system
to your alphanumeric pager. This is especially convienent, because no
special skills are required for someone to send a message to your pager.
All they must be able to do is use e-mail or the World Wide Web.
**SPECIAL NOTE: **
This document does not cover the setup of paging gateways which are intended
to send messages to non-alphanumeric (ie numbers-only) pagers or voice pagers.
You'll need to look elsewhere for that information.
REQUIREMENTS:
-------------
- one or more alphanumeric pagers (see the ABOUT ALPHANUMERIC PAGERS section)
- a machine running linux
- a working modem (documentation reccomended!)
- a telephone line
- an Internet connection (if you wish to use the WWW interface and the
net-wide e-mail interface)
- compiler tools (gcc, make, etc. and some basic knowledge of their use.)
- the sendmail electronic mail handler (you probably have this)
- a working httpd (web server) if you want to create a WWW interface
ABOUT ALPHANUMERIC PAGERS:
--------------------------
Alphanumeric pagers are available from most reputable paging companies
(and even some non-reputable ones ;-)). The prices range, but you should
be able to pick up a good one for less than $200. I paid $180 for mine
(and probably paid too much).
Here are some things to look for when you go shopping for your pager:
- Is this a name brand (ie. Motorola or the like) pager?
- *MOST IMPORTANT* Does this pager support paging via a dialup line
provided by your pager company? (See THE DIALUP PAGING LINE section)
- Does it's memory have enough room for the pages you wish to recieve?
- How reputable is the company? (See THE DIALUP PAGING LINE section)
I don't work for any pager manufacturers but I wholeheartedly reccommend
the Motorola line of pagers. I own one myself and will testify to their
reliability and durability. In fact, mine has been dropped onto the
concrete on many occaisions and did not sustain so much as a chipped case.
You can find this line of pagers on Motorola's web site at:
http://www.mot.com/MIMS/MSPG/Products/Alpha/
THE DIALUP PAGING LINE
----------------------
In order for your gateway to work, we need a way to deliver the messages
to your paging company, which encodes them and transmits them over
the air to your pager. This is done via a dialup (modem) connection
with your paging company. Without this connection, you cannot setup
a paging gateway. Therefore, it is very important that your paging
company have such a dialup line. Unfortunately, many paging companies
either do not have such a dialup line or do not know about the line they
have. When inquiring with a paging company about this line, I found it
helpful to ask if they could provide "computer software to send an
alphanumeric page with". If they make available such software, you can
bet that they make the dialup line availble that is necessary to use it.
SPECIFICS ON THE DIALUP LINE
----------------------------
The dialup line is simply a modem on a remote computer (or possibly some
kind of specialized box). The modem usually connects at
300-1200bps, although some (including my provider's) connect using v.22b
at speeds up to 2400bps. Once the connection is made, your computer
sends the page to the remote site by using a protocol known as TAP
(formerly known as IXO). You do not need to know the details of this
protocol, but if you are interested, check out the following document on
my ftp site:
ftp://ftp.unm.dorm.net/pub/paging/ixo.txt
HOW YOUR GATEWAY WILL WORK
--------------------------
Before we proceed, I will provide a brief explanation of how the
e-mail->pager gateway will work. The WWW gateway is similar and will be
explained later.
1. A message intended for your pager is sent by someone via e-mail to
a special address on your linux machine.
2. Your machine, using sendmail, accepts the message and routes it to
a filter program, which strips the message of it's header and parses
out important information like the sender's name and e-mail address
and the subject of the message. This filter also strips the
message of any .signature lines so that they do not clog your pager
with unimportant information.
3. The paging filter passes the message onwards to the "sendpage"
paging software which queues it for delivery.
4. Sendpage then dials your paging company's dialup line and (using
TAP) sends the message.
5. Your paging company then beams the message to your pager over the
radio waves.
BEGINNING THE SETUP
-------------------
The setup of the gateway will consist of four parts:
- setting up sendpage
- (optionally) getting a special DNS entry added for your paging gateway
- setting up linux to handle multiple IP addresses
- setting up sendmail to handle the message routing
- setting up the World Wide Web interface
GETTING THE SOFTWARE
--------------------
Every peice of software necessary to set up this product can be obtained
from my home site, ftp://ftp.unm.dorm.net/pub/paging. I will try to
keep these files current but will also list the alternate sites for
the packages required.
SENDPAGE SETUP
--------------
Sendpage is the most important component of your paging gateway. To get
anywhere in this project, you will need to obtain this software and
compile it on your machine. The sendpage software can be obtained via
ftp at:
ftp://ftp.net.ohio-state.edu/pub/pagers/sendpage7a.tar.Z
or from my machine:
ftp://ftp.unm.dorm.net/pub/paging/sendpage/sendpage7a.tar.Z
Create a "paging" subdirectory somewhere. Fetch this software and unpack it
(tar zxvf) in the paging directory.
At this point, I would strongly suggest that you read over all the
configuration information and README and INSTALL files in the sendpage
package. However, you should probably ignore all the discussion on the
setup of sendmail and instead rely on my procedure.
Follow the instructions in the INSTALL file for compiling sendpage. Here
are a few notes about the settings in the sendpage.h file which you will
need to edit:
- Make sure you have the "#define ARSYSTEM_NOTIFIER" line commented out
(using "/*" and "*/") unless you own the commercial Remedy system monitor
package.
- Following the ARSYSTEM_NOTIFIER line, there are a few Linux (POSIX)
specific lines that need to be defined:
#define POSIX_SIGNALS
#define POSIX_OPEN
- For the modem definition, I recommend using:
#define MODEM_DEV "/dev/modem"
or "/dev/cua0"