One of the simplest methods of converting your emails to SMS messages
is to make use of an email to SMS gateway. Many SMS gateway providers
offer a simple conversion which allow you to send through an email to
their servers which in turn spits out an SMS message and delivers it to
the various recipients.
In most cases one will first need to setup an account an SMS gateway
provider and then rehash your email into the correct format such that
the server can understand what it must do with each email. Generally
speaking, most providers will offer some messages with which to test
this service. Once these have run out you will need purchase more
messages with them.
One of the world’s largest gateway providers, Clickatell, offers a
fairly simple method of achieving this which I will outline below:
Step 1.
Logon to their site www.clickatell.com and find the “sms gateway" tab.
Register for an SMTP (Email to SMS) API account. Once having done this
you will be issued with what is called an API_ID. In order to convert
your emails to SMS you will need the following bits of information:
1.Username (this you select when registering)
2.Password (this you select when registering)
3. API_ID (this gets issued to upon completion of registration)
4. The mobile number/s you would like to send the message to in
international format e.g. a UK number would look like this: 448311234567
5. The message text itself e.g. “Meet at pub in 5 minutes"
Step 2.
Open your Email client (e.g. Microsoft Outlook), and open a new email.
Make sure the email is in plain text format and not html. Next, fill in
the following details:
1.In the email address field type in the address
sms@messaging.clickatell.com (this is the address of the Clickatell
server where the message will be converted)
2.Type in your account and message details in the body of the email laid out exactly as follows:
user:xxxxx
password:xxxxx
api_id:xxxxx
to:448311234567
text:Meet at pub in 5 minutes
3.Send the email and the message will automatically be sent as an SMS.
It should be noted that it may cost more or less for certain messages
since some network operators charge more to send messages to their
network than others.
Joe Macon writes about a variety of technology topics, with a focus on SMS technology. For Email to SMS he recommends http://www.clickatell.com .
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
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