Auld Sk00l

So, I am starting this little project that will involve sending some SMS text messages from a web site. In investigating how one would do this I found three options:
1) Use a free, or commercial SMS gateway
2) Use one or more cell phones hooked up to the computer
3) Get a leased line from a cellular provider for major money

Using my cell phone from my computer sounded like a neat thing to screw around with so I started reading. This fit in nicely with the past weekend when I was using my phone for Internet access while driving across Missouri. Anyway, turns out that Sprint phones (and most phones) speak regular old Hayes AT commands just like a normal modem and that some phones even support a superset of Hayes that includes SMS commands.

I hooked up my handy, dandy USB cable to my phone, fired up ZTerm and lo and behold:

atz
OK

You all recognize that, of course!

So, I know that to get a Internet connection over Sprint Vision the number I have to dial is #777

atdt#777
CONNECT
~}#@!}!K} }4}"}&} } } } }%}&~:Ux}'}"}(}"%~~}#@!}!L} }4}"}&} } } } }%}&~:Ux}'}"}

And that, my friends, is Sprint’s server sending me PPP welcome packets. That’s completely hot and it really awes me that such new tech is using such old tech. The other cool thing is that when I run that command the phone totally shifts into data mode, showing send and receive bars and all. It’s really pretty cool.

Takes me back, it does.