Originally Drafted: Sun Jun 23 17:55:14 MDT 1996
Revised: 29 August 1997
The
Linux Alphanumeric Pager Gateway Mini-HOWTO
by Chris Snell
chris@unm.dorm.net
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~chris
+-----------------------------------------+
| The latest version of this document is |
| always available at the Pager FTP site: |
| ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging |
+-----------------------------------------+
PREFACE & DISCLAIMER:
---------------------
This document sucks. I'm not a technical writer, nor do I plan to be one.
I had a hard enough time pasing my English Composition class last semester.
If anything, this document provides too much detail. If you have half a
brain, some sendmail experience and some experience with modems, skim this
thing. Otherwise, read on.
If you blow up your computer/pager/modem or ruin your company network trying
to set this up, go whine to your mother. Most likely, you won't mess up
anything but I should warn you that sendmail is a tricky thing to play with
and you will definitely be playing with it if you follow this document.
PURPOSE:
--------
This mini-HOWTO will describe how to set up an alphanumeric paging
gateway on any linux machine. Your gateway will be able to send messages
originating from both the World Wide Web and the Internet e-mail system
to your alphanumeric pager. This is especially convienent, because no
special skills are required for someone to send a message to your pager.
All they must be able to do is use e-mail or the World Wide Web.
**SPECIAL NOTE: **
This document does not cover the setup of paging gateways which are intended
to send messages to non-alphanumeric (ie numbers-only) pagers or voice pagers.
You'll need to look elsewhere for that information.
REQUIREMENTS:
-------------
- one or more alphanumeric pagers (see the ABOUT ALPHANUMERIC PAGERS section)
- a machine running linux
- a working modem (documentation reccomended!)
- a telephone line
- an Internet connection (if you wish to use the WWW interface and the
net-wide e-mail interface)
- compiler tools (gcc, make, etc. and some basic knowledge of their use.)
- the sendmail electronic mail handler (you probably have this)
- a working httpd (web server) if you want to create a WWW interface
ABOUT ALPHANUMERIC PAGERS:
--------------------------
Alphanumeric pagers are available from most reputable paging companies
(and even some non-reputable ones ;-)). The prices range, but you should
be able to pick up a good one for less than $200. I paid $180 for mine
(and probably paid too much).
Here are some things to look for when you go shopping for your pager:
- Is this a name brand (ie. Motorola or the like) pager?
- *MOST IMPORTANT* Does this pager support paging via a dialup line
provided by your pager company? (See THE DIALUP PAGING LINE section)
- Does it's memory have enough room for the pages you wish to recieve?
- How reputable is the company? (See THE DIALUP PAGING LINE section)
I don't work for any pager manufacturers but I wholeheartedly reccommend
the Motorola line of pagers. I own one myself and will testify to their
reliability and durability. In fact, mine has been dropped onto the
concrete on many occaisions and did not sustain so much as a chipped case.
You can find this line of pagers on Motorola's web site at:
http://www.mot.com/MIMS/MSPG/Products/Alpha/
THE DIALUP PAGING LINE
----------------------
In order for your gateway to work, we need a way to deliver the messages
to your paging company, which encodes them and transmits them over
the air to your pager. This is done via a dialup (modem) connection
with your paging company. Without this connection, you cannot setup
a paging gateway. Therefore, it is very important that your paging
company have such a dialup line. Unfortunately, many paging companies
either do not have such a dialup line or do not know about the line they
have. When inquiring with a paging company about this line, I found it
helpful to ask if they could provide "computer software to send an
alphanumeric page with". If they make available such software, you can
bet that they make the dialup line availble that is necessary to use it.
SPECIFICS ON THE DIALUP LINE
----------------------------
The dialup line is simply a modem on a remote computer (or possibly some
kind of specialized box). The modem usually connects at
300-1200bps, although some (including my provider's) connect using v.22b
at speeds up to 2400bps. Once the connection is made, your computer
sends the page to the remote site by using a protocol known as TAP
(formerly known as IXO). You do not need to know the details of this
protocol, but if you are interested, check out the following document on
my ftp site:
ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging/ixo.txt
HOW YOUR GATEWAY WILL WORK
--------------------------
Before we proceed, I will provide a brief explanation of how the
e-mail->pager gateway will work. The WWW gateway is similar and will be
explained later.
1. A message intended for your pager is sent by someone via e-mail to
a special address on your linux machine.
2. Your machine, using sendmail, accepts the message and routes it to
a filter program, which strips the message of it's header and parses
out important information like the sender's name and e-mail address
and the subject of the message. This filter also strips the
message of any .signature lines so that they do not clog your pager
with unimportant information.
3. The paging filter passes the message onwards to the "sendpage"
paging software which queues it for delivery.
4. Sendpage then dials your paging company's dialup line and (using
TAP) sends the message.
5. Your paging company then beams the message to your pager over the
radio waves.
BEGINNING THE SETUP
-------------------
The setup of the gateway will consist of four parts:
- setting up sendpage
- (optionally) getting a special DNS entry added for your paging gateway
- setting up linux to handle multiple IP addresses
- setting up sendmail to handle the message routing
- setting up the World Wide Web interface
GETTING THE SOFTWARE
--------------------
Every peice of software necessary to set up this product can be obtained
from my home site, ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging. I will try to
keep these files current but will also list the alternate sites for
the packages required.
SENDPAGE SETUP
--------------
Sendpage is the most important component of your paging gateway. To get
anywhere in this project, you will need to obtain this software and
compile it on your machine. The sendpage software can be obtained via
ftp at:
ftp://ftp.net.ohio-state.edu/pub/pagers/sendpage7a.tar.Z
or from my machine:
ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging/sendpage/sendpage7a.tar.Z
Create a "paging" subdirectory somewhere. Fetch this software and unpack it
(tar zxvf) in the paging directory.
At this point, I would strongly suggest that you read over all the
configuration information and README and INSTALL files in the sendpage
package. However, you should probably ignore all the discussion on the
setup of sendmail and instead rely on my procedure.
Follow the instructions in the INSTALL file for compiling sendpage. Here
are a few notes about the settings in the sendpage.h file which you will
need to edit:
- Make sure you have the "#define ARSYSTEM_NOTIFIER" line commented out
(using "/*" and "*/") unless you own the commercial Remedy system monitor
package.
- Following the ARSYSTEM_NOTIFIER line, there are a few Linux (POSIX)
specific lines that need to be defined:
#define POSIX_SIGNALS
#define POSIX_OPEN
- For the modem definition, I recommend using:
#define MODEM_DEV "/dev/modem"
or "/dev/cua0" [com 1] or "/dev/cua1" [com 2] etc....
- For the modem init, I use the simple string and rely on NVRAM settings
instead:
#define MODEM_INIT ATEVXH
- I use RTS/CTS flow control:
#define C_FLAG CTRSCTS|HUPCL
- and DTR toggle
#define TOGGLE_DTR
*** If you are interested, my sendpage.cf is available in it's entirety
from my ftp site at:
ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging/sendpage/sendpage.h.example
CONFIGURING YOUR MODEM
----------------------
I use a ZyXEL 1496+ which seems to work fine with sendpage. With other
modems, your milage may vary (possibly for the better). Although your
paging company's modem (referred to by sendpage as "Paging Central")
could very well be different from mine, you may want to try this setup to
see if it works. You should have your modem manual handy as a reference
for the proper init string. Here is what I have set:
- Modem set to v.22bis 2400/1200 protocol (*no* auto-negotiate)
- Serial port at 1200bps
Your init string (sendpage.h) should already take care of:
- Numeric (non-text) responses [these are a must!] ie:
0 for "OK"
5 for "CONNECT 1200"
7 for "BUSY"
In order for sendpage to work, it must be able to access the modem. This
requires read/write permissions to the modem device. On my system,
sendpage is run set-uid to the username "sendpage". In my /etc/group
file, I have a group called "modem" of which the user "sendpage" is a
member. The device file for my modem (/dev/cua1) is owned by user "root"
and group "modem". It is readable and writeable by both the owner and
the group (chown root.modem /dev/cua1 ; chmod ug+w /dev/cua1).
SENDPAGE MAKEFILE SETUP
-----------------------
Here are the build options I use for Linux:
CC = gcc
CFLAGS = -DLINUX -O2 -m486 -I/usr/include
LIBS = -ldb -lbsd
*** If you are interested, my Makefile is available in it's entirety
from my ftp site at:
ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging/sendpage/Makefile.example
CONTINUING THE SETUP
--------------------
Hopefully, you were able to get sendpage to compile correctly on the
first try. Now you must set up sendpage for the initial testing.
Following the INSTALL file's instructions, you will set up the queue
directory and begin setting up the sendpage.cf file (I keep mine in /etc).
A few notes on setting up the /etc/sendpage.cf:
- I had to comment out (using "#") the entire trMap section for "bofh",
leaving only the trMap section for "std" in order to get sendpage to work.
- My "Global Options" section looks like:
global maxMsgSize=480 maxMsgSplit=5 syslogFacility=LOG_MAIL\
timeFormat=dayFirst replyToSender=no\
emailFrom="sendpage@pager.unm.edu (UNM Pager Gateway)"
- My "Paging Central Definiton" section looks like:
pc name=westlink phone=92437243 speed=1200 parity=even\
databits=7 stopbits=1 protocol=pet-pg1 msgretries=10\
answertime=25 modemdial=atdt dialer=internal\
modeminit=atevxh modemdev=/dev/cua1\
emailFrom="sendpage@pager.unm.edu (UNM Pager Gateway)"
- Here is my "Aliases" section. The 'chrisauto' definition does not send
an e-mail reply when a page is sent and is used for hourly system stats
that are sent to my page.
alias chris 9246403.westlink
alias chrisauto 9246403.westlink emailReply=no msgIncTime=yes
alias nicolas 2515025.westlink
- And finally, the "Profile" section:
profile default emailReplyErr=yes emailReply=yes msgIncSender=yes\
msgIncDate=yes msgIncTime=yes
profile numeric emailReplyErr=yes emailReply=yes msgIncSender=no\
msgIncDate=no msgIncTime=no
set profile=default
*** If you are interested, my sendpage.cf is available in it's entirety
from my ftp site at:
ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging/sendpage/sendpage.cf.example
MOVING RIGHT ALONG...
---------------------
Alright. At this point, I am assuming you have been able to at least
send a page to your pager using sendpage's command-line interface. If
you haven't been able to do this, re-read the INSTALL file and re-check
your sendpage.h and sendpage.cf. If all else fails, subscribe to the IXO
mailing list and ask there.
SETTING UP A SPECIAL HOSTNAME
-----------------------------
If you want to have a special virtual hostname for your paging gateway (ie.
pager.yourcompany.com), there are a few steps that you will need to
follow. If you do not want to (or cannot) set up an extra virtual
hostname, skip ahead to the section entitiled "SETTING UP /etc/aliases".
***** UPDATED 11.12.96 ***********************************************
Setting up a separate UP address (as described below) is not necessary
if all you need is a mail->pager gateway [no www]. If this is all you
need, follow the instructions found at:
ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging/Sendmail-and-virtual-domains.txt
to set up a MX entry for your paging hostname. When you've done this,
skip ahead to the "SETTING UP SENDMAIL" section.
**********************************************************************
The first thing you need to do to set up your new hostname is to ask your
network adminstrator to add a new ip address and hostname to the DNS
tables. I would reccommend using the hostname "pager" but it really
doesn't matter.
Now that you have your new address and the associated IP number, you need
to add it to your machine. This will be done in one of two ways,
depending on the type of your linux distribution.
* If you use the Linux kernel 1.2.xx series
Get the IP aliasing patches from:
ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging/ip_alias
and follow the instructions in the file README.alias,
substituting your newly-assigned IP address and gateway
address for the ones mentioned in this README file.
* If you are using Linux kernel 2.0.xx and above
Enable the following options for your kernel and recompile:
Network aliasing
IP: aliasing support
In your startup scripts (/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 for Slackware users,
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-eth for RedHat users) add
the following lines:
ifconfig eth0:0 191.59.16.224
route add -host 191.59.16.224 dev eth0:0
replacing 191.59.16.224 with your new IP address
SETTING UP SENDMAIL
-------------------
We need to make some aliases so that sendmail can distinguish between a
message sent to you@somemachine.dink.com and you@pager.dink.com,
when "somemachine" and "pager" are actually the same machine. To do
this, we need to set up a sendmail alias database.
The following information is based upon the info I got from
http://www.qosina.com/~awm/apache/sendmail.html .
*** Create a file, /etc/domainalias with translations from the pager
hostname to the "real" hostname. On my machine (luckenbach), my translation
file looks like this:
chris@pager.unm.edu cjs-pager@luckenbach.unm.edu
droux@pager.unm.edu nicolas-pager@luckenbach.unm.edu
That's it for that file. We are almost done now. I hope you have a
sendmail binary that was compiled with the following switches:
-DNDBM -DNEWDB
These are to enable the database-handling code needed to read the
domainalias.db file that we are about to create.
*** Make sure that you have the makemap utility (part of the sendmail
distribution). Compile it like this if you haven't already:
( This may not be neccessary, check to see if hash, dbm, or
btree are supported or not, check next step on how to do this. )
# cd /usr/src/sendmail-8.7.x/makemap
# rm Makefile makemap
# make CFLAGS='-m486 -O2 -I../src -DNDBM -DNEWDB' LDFLAGS='-s
-lgdbm -ldb' makemap
# cp makemap /usr/bin
*** Add a line to your /etc/sendmail.cf to make sendmail accept mail for
the new virtual hostname:
Cw pager.yourdomain.com
*** Compile /etc/domainaliases into a database format:
makemap btree domainaliases.db < domainalisaes
*** Add another line to your /etc/sendmail.cf to tell sendmail about
the domainaliases.db translation file which we just compiled.
Kdomainaliases btree /etc/domainaliases.db
*** Now for the rule-set, make sure you type it exactly into /etc/sendmail.cf
The entries are seperated by a TAB field NOT SPACES!!!!
These are to be inserted INSIDE the S98 Ruleset.
PRE 8.7.1
R$+ < @ $+ . > $: $1 < @ $2 > .
R$+ < @ $+ . > $* $: (domainaliases $1@$2 $: $1 < @ $2 > $3 $)
R$+ < @ $+ . > $* $: (domainaliases $2 $: $1 < @ $2 > $3 $)
R$+ < @ $+ > . $: $1 < @ $2 . >
POST 8.7.1
R$+< $+. > $1< $2 >
R$+< $+ > $: < > $(domainaliases $1$2 $)
R< > $+ @ $* $: < $1 > $(domainaliases * @ $2 $)
R< $+ > * $* $: < > $1 $2
R< > $* $: $>3 $1
*** Now you must kill your sendmail daemon and restart it for the new
configurations to take effect.
/sbin/killall sendmail
sendmail -bd -q15m
*** Finally, test your new configuration to make sure you did it correctly,
Check /var/log/maillog for any possible error messages.
lonestar~> sendmail -bt
ADDRESS TEST MODE (ruleset 3 NOT automatically invoked)
Enter <ruleset> <address>
> 0 chris@PAGER.phys.unm.edu
rewrite: ruleset 0 input: chris @ pager . phys . unm . edu
rewrite: ruleset 98 input: chris @ pager . phys . unm . edu
rewrite: ruleset 98 returns: chris @ pager . phys . unm . edu
rewrite: ruleset 97 input: chris @ pager . phys . unm . edu
rewrite: ruleset 3 input: chris @ pager . phys . unm . edu
rewrite: ruleset 96 input: chris < @ pager . phys . unm . edu >
rewrite: ruleset 96 returns: chris < @ pager . phys . unm . edu . >
rewrite: ruleset 3 returns: chris < @ pager . phys . unm . edu . >
rewrite: ruleset 0 input: chris < @ pager . phys . unm . edu . >
rewrite: ruleset 98 input: chris < @ pager . phys . unm . edu . >
rewrite: ruleset 3 input: cjs-pager @ lonestar . phys . unm . edu
rewrite: ruleset 96 input: cjs-pager < @ lonestar . phys . unm . edu >
rewrite: ruleset 96 returns: cjs-pager < @ lonestar . phys . unm . edu . >
rewrite: ruleset 3 returns: cjs-pager < @ lonestar . phys . unm . edu . >
rewrite: ruleset 98 returns: cjs-pager < @ lonestar . phys . unm . edu . >
rewrite: ruleset 0 returns: $# local $: @ cjs-pager
rewrite: ruleset 97 returns: $# local $: @ cjs-pager
rewrite: ruleset 0 returns: $# local $: @ cjs-pager
*** If this didn't work or you just don't understand, consult your local
sendmail expert.
SETTING UP /etc/aliases
-----------------------
We're almost done. I swear.
Now you need to set up your /etc/aliases file to handle the piping of the
e-mail message to the filter which sends the message to sendpage. In the
previous section, I demonstrated how I made chris@pager.unm.edu
point to cjs-pager@luckenbach.unm.edu. To make this work, I had to
add a line to my /etc/aliases file to send all mail to cjs-pager to the
filter. That line is:
cjs-pager: "|/usr/local/bin/sendpagefilter chris"
^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^
This is the This is the full path to the This is a username that
alias that paging filter. (see below) you defined in your
you created sendpage.cf
The filter used in this example can be obtained at:
ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging/paging_filter.tar.gz
Read the instructions in the included README file, compile the filter,
and place it in a directory such as /usr/local/bin.
You must now run the 'newaliases' command to process your new alias(es).
With this complete, your paging gateway should be working. Try sending
mail first to the alias which you created in /etc/aliases (in my example,
cjs-pager). If this works, try sending mail to your virtual mail alias
which you created in the previous section (in my example,
chris@pager.unm.edu). If this works, you are done!!!
THE WWW GATEWAY
---------------
I am not going to write much here. I'm assuming that you have some HTML
skills and have used CGI scripts before. Your gateway will use a CGI
script to communicate between the web browser and the sendpage program.
I have made an example script and HTML page available:
ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/paging/example_www_gateway.tar.gz
This script utilizes two additonal programs, uncgi (to translate CGI data
into shell environment variables for easy CGI programming) and d2utxt to
strip out the ^M characters in a page message that make sendpage choke.
These utilities are available in the same directory on the ftp site that
the example HTML is found in. Read the instructions that come with them
to compile them. This should be easy.
GETTING MORE HELP
-----------------
The IXO mailing list
To subscribe, send email to ixo-request@plts.org with the single word
"subscribe" in the first line of an otherwise-blank message.
The Sendpage mailing list
To subscribe, issue this command from your unix prompt:
echo 'subscribe' | Mail sendpage-hackers-request@lists.net.ohio-state.edu
Me
I'm a busy college student and employee so think three times before asking
me for help. However, if you are a company and wish to hire me for
consulting, I will be happy to talk with you.
Chris Snell
chris@cs.unm.edu