I would like to know what are sms gateways.

Gateways, typically channel the translation between two networks. Thus in this case its a combination of hardware and software which provides access to a wireless network for receiving and dispatching of SMS. On the same lines you can have gateways for a wide variety of technologies such as MMS and WiFi.

How do people at Indian Idol process incoming sms's.

Well it can be done as low end as getting a suitable data-cable for your mobile, plugging it up to the computer, installing a suitable protocol driver, writing your application to use this wrapper driver to retreive SMSs from the inbox of your mobile phone.

OR

Sophisticated versions include a complete hardware and software kit, which just requires you to write the app and be all set to send and receive SMS.

Is any special hardware required ?

For an entry level you just need, a mobile like Nokia 3330, A datacable to hook it to the parallel port of the desktop and gnokii or its clone installed and tested for loopback from the handset. Once you are done with this, you can write a command line PERL script to access the inbox and read the messages or store it into the database, etc.

What is a Gsm modem ?

Oh its meant to work like your normal modem, except that its for application in the wireless medium. It would typically operate for frequencies such as 900-1900MHz.

If you have a handset like Nokia 6600, then you have a GSM Modem inbuilt, else you can opt for a Hardware GSM GPRS Modem, which can manage GPRS, data, fax, SMS and voice applications.

If I ask Airtel or Orange to provide me a gateway, will they give me some special hardware or a sim card ?

You could try, but if you are looking at a SMS Gateway then you can look at the score of SMS service providers in India, like www.cellent.com,etc.

Alternatively use your mobile to setup a primitive SMS Gateway, which would be a great experience.

I need all this info for my project. I will be using gnokii for this. I will be developing this application on Linux. Thank you for your help. :)

GNOKII is great, you can however also try the various clones that have sprung up with similar sounding names. The thing is to get a suitable Nokia Handset and get it to give you a positive detection through GNOKII.

Best of Luck, Great going.

Once you are through, you could probably setup your own SMS Gateway Firm :)

Take care, Paul Alapatt

------------------------------------------------ The Mumbai Opensource Meetup

http://mtm-network.ryze.com/

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