SendSMS is a small 32 bit command line utility which allows a SMS message to be sent to a mobile 'phone.

It was originally written as an add-on to an enterprise server monitoring system to provide SMS alerting in the event of networking or server problems. In order to be as resilient as possible, the message is sent via a local COM port (ie. dial-up modem) rather than through the Internet or over other network links (as these may be unavailable if there are LAN or WAN comms issues for instance)

It's completely self-contained and can be called with a simple command line manually or from any controlling software - even a batch file. Only two parameters are necessary, the mobile phone number to send to (in ‘International’ format) and a message of up to 160 characters. For instance, to send an alert to the UK mobile ‘phone 07775 1234:

eg.  SendSMS 4477751234,Warning - Server volume \\JBF\Accounts free space critical!

The message is send via Vodafones messaging service in the UK and messages have only been sent via this service from within the UK, however, it should be possible to send to virtually any mobile ‘phone number, UK based or not.  The actual number dialled by SendSMS to contact Vodafones messaging service is held within its INI file and can be altered to take into account special requirements, such as the need to dial a ‘9’ for an outside line or to dial  from a non-UK location.

Other configurable parameters include the numbers of attempts to deliver the SMS and the COM Port of the local modem to use - a full log of it’s actions is also written during each message send.