You will need to configure the MMSC in order to take advantage of the more advanced MMS functionality of the Now SMS/MMS gateway. Without the MMSC, you will still be able to “Send MMS Notifications” where the MMS content is stored on a separate web server, but you won’t be able to use the “Send MMS Message” feature of the “web menu interface”, or make use of the “E-Mail to MMS” gateway.

The gateway includes a powerful MMSC Messaging Server, integrated into the Now SMS/MMS gateway.

The MMSC supports sending MMS messages between mobile phones, and also supports sending and receiving MMS messages between mobile phones and standard internet e-mail systems.

Important
The gateway PC must be accessible via the internet in order to use its MMSC. Mobile phones will need to connect to an HTTP port on the MMSC in order to retrieve MMS messages. If your gateway PC is not accessible via the internet, you will not be able to use the MMSC functionality.

Step 4a - General MMSC Configuration

Configuration for the MMSC can be found under the “MMSC” and “MMSC Users” configuration pages of the gateway.

The “MMSC” configuration page specifies general configuration information for the MMSC:

 

The MMSC runs as a separate service process from the gateway. As you are configuring the MMSC service with the intent of using it, check the box next to the prompt “Activate MMSC Service”.

When a mobile phone sends or receives an MMS message, it makes an HTTP connection to an MMSC (usually through a WAP gateway). The MMSC contains an integrated HTTP server to process these connections. Please specify an available “HTTP Port Number” on the local computer for the HTTP server to accept connections from mobile phones.

Important
Some mobile operator WAP gateways have firewalls which prevent them from connecting to content servers that are installed on ports other than the default HTTP port of 80. Use caution when configuring the MMSC for a port other than 80, as this may prevent MMS messages from being received via some services.

MMS messages can be sent to and received from, standard internet e-mail accounts. To support this functionality, the MMSC provides message format conversions between MMS and SMTP. To accept messages from internet e-mail accounts, the MMSC contains an integrated SMTP server. Please specify an available “SMTP Port Number” on the local computer for the SMTP server to accept e-mail messages from internet e-mail recipients. Note that the standard SMTP port number is 25, and you will require special configuration of another SMTP mail server in your network to support relaying to a port other than 25.

The PC that is running the gateway might have other web and mail services installed. For this reason, the gateway allows you to specify which of the available IP addresses on the current PC should be used by the gateway. The “IP Address” prompt displays the available IP addresses on the current PC. To make the gateway service available via any address on the current PC, select “(all available)”, otherwise select a specific IP address.

“Local Host Name or IP Address” specifies the local host name or IP address of the computer that is running the MMSC service. The name or address specified here will be used to construct URLs when sending MMS messages to mobile phones. If a host name is used, this host name must be defined in DNS and resolve back to the computer running the MMSC service.

“Domain Name for MMS E-Mail” specifies the SMTP domain name that is associated with users defined to the MMSC. When MMS users exchange e-mail messages with internet recipients, this is the SMTP domain name associated with the MMSC users. Note that the MMSC acts as an e-mail server, and you will need to configure DNS for this domain name so that internet mail sent to this domain name is properly routed to the PC running the gateway.

When an MMS user sends a message to an SMTP recipient, the MMSC requires an “SMTP Relay Host” to transfer the message to the correct internet mail server for the intended recipient. Please define an appropriate SMTP mail server in your network that will perform this SMTP message relay capability.

Important
Enabling the MMS E-mail gateway requires coordination with other systems to enable the ability to send and receive e-mail. It is possible to operate the MMSC without the e-mail link, leaving the “Domain Name for MMS E-Mail” and “SMTP Relay Host” fields blank. You can always return to the MMSC configuration dialog pages later to complete these settings after coordinating settings with your e-mail administrator.

Checking “Enable Dynamic Image and Audio Conversion” enables the dynamic content adaptation and conversion services of the MMSC. The MMSC uses WAP/MMS “User Agent Profile” capabilities to determine the MIME formats that a device supports, as well as the maximum size of images supported by the device. Where required, the MMSC converts between common image formats (including, but not limited to GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP and WBMP) to deliver an image supported by the device. For images larger than the maximum size supported by the device, the MMSC will automatically scale the image to fit the device, speeding up download times. For audio formats, conversion between WAV and AMR is provided in the e-mail gateway interface. MIME types not supported by the receiving device, which cannot be supported, will be removed prior to delivery to the receiving device to prevent compatibility issues and unnecessary download delays.

Checking “Enable E-Mail WAV to AMR Conversion” enables conversion between WAV (audio/wav) and AMR (audio/AMR) formats when messages are exchanged between e-mail and MMS recipients. For audio recordings, the WAV format is more commonly supported for e-mail recipients, while the AMR format is more commonly supported for MMS recipients. When this setting is enabled, AMR sound files going from MMS to e-mail are converted to WAV format, and WAV sound files going from e-mail to MMS are converted to AMR format.

Checking “Enable E-Mail BMP to JPEG Conversion” enables conversion of files from BMP (image/bmp) to JPEG (image/jpeg) format when messages are sent from an e-mail sender to an MMS recipient. The BMP format is somewhat common in PC environment, but is not frequently supported in MMS environments. Even when supported in MMS environments, BMP files are very large, which makes them awkward and inconvenient to transmit to MMS devices.

The “Enable E-Mail to SMS Support” checkbox enables the SMTP interface to be used to send SMS messages. For more information on this setting, refer to the help file.

An administrative interface for adding, deleting and modifying users is available via the HTTP port of the MMSC if an “Admin User” is defined on the MMSC dialog. If an administrative user is defined, then the administrative interface is available by connecting via a web browser to “/ADMIN” on the MMSC HTTP port (e.g., http://127.0.0.1/ADMIN), and supplying the defined administrative user name and password. The administrative interface provides functionality similar to that described for the “MMSC Users” tab dialog, which is defined next, however it provides it remotely over a web interface.

Click the “Apply” button at the bottom of the dialog to activate the MMSC service. Make note of any error messages that are displayed. In particular, an error message will be displayed if the “HTTP Port Number” conflicts with another installed service.

Step 4b - Define an MMSC User

The “MMSC Users” tab defines users that are allowed to utilize the MMSC to send MMS messages from their mobile phone.

 

To define a user to use the MMSC, you must define a phone number using international format (e.g., +447778001210 instead of 07778001210), and an alias name for the user account. (The alias name will be used as the user name when sending and receiving SMTP e-mail, and when the mobile phone logs on to the MMSC to send messages.)

Note that for a mobile phone user to use the simple MMSC integrated with this gateway, the mobile phone user must configure their MMSC (MMS Messaging Server) to point to the address of the MMSC, and include their user name and password in the MMSC URL. Example:

http://x.x.x.x/username=password or http://host.domain:81/username=password

Include a port number (e.g., “:81”) in the URL if you have configured the MMSC HTTP port for a port other than “80”.

The username can be either the user’s alias name or phone number.

As you become more familiar with the Now SMS/MMS gateway, you will want to note that the gateway includes a WAP OTA (“Over The Air”) configuration capability, which enables you to send WAP configuration settings to Nokia and Ericsson mobile phones via special SMS messages, which can greatly simplify the process of configuring these settings on mobile phones.