Earlier this year we have discussed some technical aspects of the SMS services, like: Anatomy of a Short message where we discussed encodings and message sizes and parts, then Technical Aspects of Starting SMS Service and more general about Starting SMS Business if you come from VoIP field. This time we would like to share practical steps how to make SMS sending happen with your SAARA partition or installation within few minutes. The step by step guide is published on our Documentation Site and here I will only highlight most important aspects.
First and most important is to have access to the SMS carrier/vendor which will accept SMS traffic from you. SAARA uses SMPP protocol to interconnect with carriers, so it is necessary requirement to start with. Check with the carrier of your choice if they offer SMPP accounts. You will need a SMPP server host, account username and password, and some other minor settings like bind type, encoding, whether to use encryption etc. Have this data with you before starting.
Next, many SMPP carriers will be quite strict on what Sender ID (a.k.a caller ID) you are allowed to use. This is made to prevent fraudulent use. Sometimes Sender IDs must be purchased from the same carrier, sometimes you only need to do online verification process to prove that the Sender ID you are useing belongs to you. Please check this requirement before staring the configuration. The quick start guide omits setting the Sender ID part, but there are cases where it is essential.
The setup explained in the guide discusses one way sending, i.e. from clients SMPP connection or Web GUI to the destination via Carriers account. However, if you possess valid Sender ID purchased from the carrier, it will work 2 way, i.e. you will also be able to receive inbound messages to your Client SMPP connection or/and GUI. Even more, GUI allows to simply click "Reply" and respond to inbound messages. It is very convenient if you would like to set up Customer support or marketing campaigns. More tools are in the pipleline (like campaign sending, scheduling, chats, etc so stay tuned).
And finally, here is the likt to the SMS step by step guide again, and a screenshot from message sending and receiving GUI:
{$image1}
