Is it Possible to Receive SMS messages via E-mail

[Squintz]

We use T-mobile cell phones and i know it is possible to send text messages via e-mail but is it possible to receive the messages via e-mail. Are there any services that will allow you to setup a virtual phone number that receives text messages and then sends them to your e-mail address?

 

[TonyNo]

I'm not quite sure what you are asking.

I have Cingular and can receive email's as text messages (my HA system sends my cell phone email updates).

I can also send text messages to my HA system (via email address) to control things.

Is one of these what you are trying to do?

Tony

 

[Squintz]

Yes,

My wife has a TMobile Phone which is not very high tech. It send text only messages and you need to enter a phone number of the person who you want to send the message to. As far as i know there is no way for her to send a Text message of email to a standard e-mail account. Her phone is a samsung. Not sure of the model number right now.

Basically she is always calling me asking me about traffic conditions and I want to make it so that she can send My Homeseer machine a text message and HS will respond with traffic information. Based on certain conditions homeseer could tell her the best possible route to take in order to get to and from work.

 

[electron]

Have you tried sending an email to [email protected], where xxx... is the area code + phone number? Should work. You do realize that this is a very dangerous WAF project, don't you? Imagine Homeseer sending her the wrong way because the page changed the layout a little, breaking the script, and decides to send your wife the wrong way because it still had old directions

 

[Squintz]

LOL, Never looked at it like that.

I have no problem sending her an e-mail to her phone.

The question i have is how can she send me one to my homeseer system?

 

[smee]

My cheap pay-as-you-go cell phone service (Virgin Mobile) allows me to send email from my phone to any email address (not just SMS messages to phones). 10 cents a message. Messages received on the phone are free.

To answer your question, you may be able to set up something yourself if you want to. I think someone around here has talked about having a dedicated cell phone for their HS machine.

 

[electron]

LOL, Never looked at it like that.

I have no problem sending her an e-mail to her phone.

The question i have is how can she send me one to my homeseer system?

Why not just call your house and ask Homeseer for directions? If you are smart, you can reroute her, so she will pass the food place of your choice to pick up dinner as well

 

[TonyNo]

I think the easy way would be to have your system send a message to her, then have her try to reply.

Tony

 

[Squintz]

Ill try to have her reply.. We'll see what happens...

I dont have any phone system setup on HS yet and since the wedding is coming up in about a year i dont have the money for any spare hardware. Trying to keep this one free.

 

[electron]

If you find out she can't send emails for sure, what about sending her one around the time she leaves work (assuming she leaves around the same time every day)? I would definitely try TonyNo's suggestion tho.

 

[Squintz]

Thanks guys... Her replying to the message worked. Sent it right to my g-mail account. Now I wonder if it cost us anything

 

[Squintz]

Next question and iv think i asked this befor and got nowhere with it. What software is there thats free that will allow me to accept e-mail directly to my Homeseer machine.

I use g-mail for my personal stuff now and i cant seem to get HomeSeer to work with it. I figured instead of signing up for another e-mail provider that i would just setup my own.

If you don't know of any free ones then how about ones that are fairly easy to setup and are not free.

 

[smee]

Next question and iv think i asked this befor and got nowhere with it. What software is there thats free that will allow me to accept e-mail directly to my Homeseer machine.

I use g-mail for my personal stuff now and i cant seem to get HomeSeer to work with it. I figured instead of signing up for another e-mail provider that i would just setup my own.

If you don't know of any free ones then how about ones that are fairly easy to setup and are not free.

Can't you set up email through your web site?

If there's a pop server there, you should be able to get HS to retrieve email from it.

 

[Squintz]

I could but i guess im sorta a control freak I think it would be fun to have my own e-mail server.

What do you guys think about this
http://www.hmailserver.com/?page=features

 

[electron]

Keep in mind that most broadband providers block the standard mail server ports for residential customers. Gmail offers pop3, so that should work.