USB Data Cable
This page explains the advantages and disadvantages of using
a USB data cable to attach your GSM device to the computer for SMS messaging
using the Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway software. You are also provided with some
information about installing a USB cable driver, including a link to
a page containing step-by-step instructions on how to install
a USB cable driver on different Windows operating systems.
In order to send or receive SMS messages using your computer,
you can attach your phone to the PC with a phone-to-PC data cable (Figure 1).
The cable can be attached to the USB port of your computer. One advantage
of using USB connections is that you can attach quite a large number of phones
to the same PC with the help of USB hubs available at a low cost. One
disadvantage is that you have to install a driver for your cable. Some of the
drivers shipped with USB cables have errors and do not allow you to build a
reliable system.
Figure 1 - USB cable connection
If you install the driver software shipped with the USB data
cable, a new "virtual" serial port will be registered in your computer.
The name of this serial port will be COM3 or COM4 or some higher
number. This is the port you have to specify when configuring the GSM Modem
protocol for SMS messaging using Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway. One of the steps you
need to take is to select the GSM modem or
the COM port your device is attached to (Figure 2).
Figure 2 - Selecting the port in the Device settings tab
The USB cables available for cellphones are built on a special
chip called USB - Serial Bridge. This chip is located inside the cable
and is powered by the USB port. When you plug your USB cable into the PC,
the Windows operating system will detect this chip and will ask for the USB
driver. To find out how to install it, check out the
USB Driver Installation Guide. Also, you can
find a video guide here.
Some USB cables can use the power
current available in the USB port to charge the battery of
the phone. If you purchase a cable with this option, make sure that
it is charged automatically, and no special software
is required. If you have to install a software for charging, there is a high
probability that the installed software will lock the serial port and you won't
be able to use the cable for SMS messaging and battery charging
simultaneously.
If you do not have a USB data cable available for
your phone, but you can get a standard
RS232 data cable, you can
still use USB. For this, you should install a USB - Serial
converter (Figure 3). The USB-Serial converter can be attached
to the PC's USB port, and the data cable can be attached to it.
In this case the installation procedure will
be similar to the procedure you would follow when installing a
standard USB data cable. First, you attach the cable to the computer,
then you install the driver for the cable. The driver will create
the "virtual" com port you can use for SMS
messaging.
Figure 3 - USB - Serial converter
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