X-no-Archive:yes
Yes and no.
I was given a certain company's pager, and asked to monitor the success of a
perl script that pulled files from our mainframe, encrypted them (PGP on
Linux), and sent them on their way to a partner's ftp server. When the
script detected any one of certain failures, it would email a message to
said pager, among other recipients. But those who had only monitored these
processes had noticed that said script would apparently fail, and yet, they
would not see a page. But they could see the same email message via their
email clients. I spent some time at the pager service's web site, and noted
that they warned against using their email interface for anything that was
time-sensitive, or words to that effect. Surprisingly, the only software
interface they offered was a sixteen-bit program for Windows 3.x and up. No
UNIX, nor Linux.
It was at that point that I went to my cell phone provider's site, who
happens to be Verizon, whose service I already described in this or a
related thread. I have already recommended to my department that we look at
just using whatever email interface our member's cell phones provide (if
there is a cost, CGI's policy is to reimburse it, although at $.02 per
message, I don't plan on bothering). I changed the script to email me a text
message, both when the script ends, and when there is an error. I have never
seen a delay of more a very few minutes, and, when I have been actively
monitoring, sometimes just seconds. The serendipity of this choice is I now
know the status of this script by the number of times my cell chirps to tell
me that I have received a text message.
Perhaps my experience with my provider is above average, but it just makes
sense to me that cell phones replace pagers by offering paging and messaging
options. I generally feel sorry for anyone I see carrying both. I certainly
wish I had or knew about this option at HP World 2000, where I was all too
often interrupted by less than urgent (and long distance) phone calls. In
any case, I welcome whatever light others have to shed on this, since
email-based notification seems like a popular and convenient means of
monitoring job and system status.
Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Tracy Pierce [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 12:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: automated paging
I don't know the details of why, but you'll discover that directly
interfacing to the paging network typically gets you MUCH better throughput
times than will using an email interface.
The html below butchers er customizes PageNet's send-a-page web page to hit
my pager (number changed, sorry!).
A similar web page is available at www.metrocall.com (which I don't use any
more) and there's one for AT&T Wireless that hits my cell phone at
http://www.attws-sf.com/content/Service_Features/Service/Digital_Benefits/Se
nd_a_PCS_Text_Message/send_a_pcs_text_message.html
Tracy Pierce
<html>
<head>
<title>Send a message to Tracy's pager</title>
</head>
Your message will appear on Tracy's pager, no email delays!
<body bgcolor="#ffffff">
<script Language="JavaScript">
<!--
function FrontPage_Form1_Validator(theForm)
{
if (theForm.Message.value.length > 240)
{
alert("Please enter at most 240 characters in the \"Message\" field.");
theForm.Message.focus();
return (false);
}
return (true);
}
//-->
</script>
<form action="http://www.pagenet.net/pagenet/page_gen" method="post"
onsubmit="return FrontPage_Form1_Validator(this)"
name="FrontPage_Form1">
<input type="hidden" name="Response" value="pagenet/mail_sen.htm">
<input type="hidden" name="Error" value="pagenet/pnet_err.htm">
<input type="hidden" name="Partial" value="pagenet/pnet_err.htm">
<input type="hidden" name="To" value="6503710040.pinsnipped">
<table>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#003399"><strong><font color="#ffffff" size="3">Enter
Message</strong> - </font>
<font color="#ffffff" size="2"><strong>Limit 240
Characters</strong></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><font size="3">
<textarea cols="42" name="Message" rows="8" align="middle"
wrap="soft"></textarea> </font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input type="submit" value="Send the Message"><input type="reset"
value="Clear"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
</html>
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