Email to SMS gateway

Diafaan SMS Server is a full featured two-way email to SMS gateway. It can be used in combination with an email platform like Microsoft Exchange Server, Lotus Notes or Novell Groupwise but also standalone with email clients like Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird. Applications that are able to send out email alerts, like Network Performance Monitors, SCADA systems, Enterprise Resource Planner software or Database Servers are instantly SMS enabled.

Email to SMS

Diafaan SMS Server Email Connector

The Email Connector supports two ways to forward email to SMS messages. With the built-in SMTP server, Diafaan SMS Server functions as a regular email server. Incoming email is converted to an SMS text message using a user defined template. The phone number is extracted from the email address and the SMS message is sent with the connected GSM or 3G modem.

If running a dedicated SMTP server for SMS is not desirable, it is also possible to use a POP box from your company's email server or from your internet provider. Diafaan SMS Server periodically checks the POP box for new email messages, forwards the new messages to one or more GSM phones and removes them from the POP box. The messages can be sent to a predefined list of GSM numbers or to a list of numbers extracted from the email subject or message text.

SMS to email

Diafaan SMS Server Email Connector

SMS Messages received by one of the GSM modems can be sent to one or more email addresses. The SMS message is converted to an email message using a customizable template and the message is routed to the destination email address. Diafaan SMS Server has a flexible mechanism to determine the intended email destination. The simplest is to forward the SMS messages to one or more fixed email addresses. It is also possible to extract the destination email address from the SMS message text itself or to reply the SMS to the email address that sent a previous email to the matching SMS number. When the three options are combined the procedure is as follows:

  • If an email address is found in the SMS message, the email is sent to this email address.
  • If no email address is found in the SMS message and there is a GSM number match from a previous email message, the email is sent as a reply to the original email message.
  • If no email address is found in the SMS message and there is no GSM number match, the email is sent to the default address list.

Send SMS alerts from other applications

Orion Network Performance Monitor
1. Create Alert

Orion Network Performance Monitor
2. Add Email Action

Orion Network Performance Monitor
3. Set SMTP Server

A lot of applications like Network Performance Monitors, SCADA software or Enterprise Resource Planning software such as SAP or Oracle can send alerts by email when something goes wrong. The Email Connector in Diafaan SMS Server can be used to forward these email alerts to SMS messages.

A good example of such an application is Orion Network Performance Monitor from Solarwinds. Using a GSM modem to send SMS messages from network performance monitor software is ideal because it will send out SMS alerts even when the network fails.

Sending SMS messages from the Orion Network Performance Monitor is straightforward to set up. Just create a new alert, for instance when a node or interface goes down. Then add one or more email/page actions to the alert and set the email address (with the GSM phone number) and the host name of the Diafaan SMS Server SMTP Server. If Diafaan SMS Server is installed on the same PC/Server as Orion Network Performance Monitor you can use localhost as the SMTP Server.

The same procedure can be used with other software. In this case Orion Network Performance Monitor can send the alert directly to the SMTP server in Diafaan SMS Server. If your software does not support this, it is always possible to send the email messages to a POP box where the email connector in Diafaan SMS Server can retrieve them and forward them to SMS.