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Re: SMS (+ Linux Script)



So after learning how to SMS in Israel to Cellcom and Partner-Orange,
please let me remind that the only cellular network to allow *REAL*
direct SMS messages to be sent to its customers, is Pelephone. No
Mail@Push/Mivzak's flames (Omer, where are you?), no charges, no web
forms and need to script lynx' complex queries from these web sites,
etc.

I'm completely not a fan of Pelephone, and I even have a lot of
criticism of them, but in this issue - they are the only to supply
the real thing, and I use it heavily. If there is a reason to prefer
Pelephone over the rest, it is this.

What is a "real" solution:

1. A real e-mail address for your phone, AT THE COMPUTER OF YOUR
   VENDOR (and of course not on a computer of a 3rd party like
   Mivzak, Cellcom, etc.). A number which is automatically reserved
   for you when you get your number at Pelephone. BTW: The address of
   the phone 050-123456 is 9720123456@msg.pelephone.co.il, and the
   number of 051-123456 is 9723123456@msg.pelephone.co.il.

2. No need for pulling messages from POP3 servers: Since you have a
   real address, you can forward your messages from your ISP or your
   mail server DIRECTLY to your Pelephone.

3. No need to give your password to the flamers of Mail@Push or
   Mivzak.

4. Your password is not travelling hundreds of times per day between
   Mail@Push/Mivzak's server and your ISP's server (plus zillion of
   gateways/routers/sniffers in the middle).

5. The message is sent in real-time (under the "competitors", they
   don't get any indication that a new mail was received, so they
   sample your POP3 server many times, and only after a sampling with
   results, the message is "forwarded" to you).

6. The "competitors" allow you to send messages through a web form,
   to bypass some of the mentioned above problems. However, this
   option yields new problems. Of course, Pelephone supplies this
   option too, but only to prevent people complaining: "they have
   this option and you don't!", but nobody considers this option
   seriously (unless in hard conditions, when you don't have e-mail
   access, or when a TV ad of Pelephone is created).

7. Free!  No charge for nobody!  You don't have to pay anything per a
   message, not to the cellular vendor, not to Mail@Push/Mivzak/
   whoever, etc.  You can even bomb yourself with hundreds of
   messages per day, and nobody will say anything.

8. No flames!  You probably remember the long thread at linux-il
   regarding to the flames of Mail@Push (Omer, how did this thread
   end?). The flaming problems led almost everybody in this list to
   agree that such a service is BAD.

Now to my ".procmailrc" at my Linux:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
:0
* ^To:.*marmor
{
        :0 c
        ! 9720123456@msg.pelephone.co.il
}
---------------------------------------------------------------------
(Of course, my number comes instead of "123456").
It works amazingly, especially when I'm at Ze'elim for army reserve
(Miluim).

Like the "competitors", the messages are limited in size (the
overflowing characters are cut), but I found a way to bypass it.

P.S.  You need a digital phone (CDMA), like "Sam", or mine (Motorola
725). Hebrew is supported.

-- 
Eli Marmor