What is SMpower?

Features of SMpower

Design of SMpower is modular, so that different customers can choose different module to fit their needs. Currently, the following modules are supported:

·       Email to SMS gateway – support the sending and receiving of Email by SMS

·       File sender – just use one single SMS to instruct your PC to mail out a file

·       File lister – like the File sender, you can simply send one SMS to list the file and folders in your PC

·       Host monitor – periodically monitors the reachability of different host (which can be server or PC) in the network and immediately notify users by SMS if any host changes status

·       File access alert – immediately alert users if anybody access the selected files in their Windows PCs

·       Remote PC Shutdown – you can remotely shutdown or reboot any Windows XP or 2000 PCs in your network by just sending one single SMS using your mobile phone 

Who needs SMpower?

Any company who’s staffs have the need for reading/sending Emails on the road using their mobile phone. Nowadays, Email system is undoubtedly one of the important communication media that is indespensable. Similarly, immediately receiving Email using mobile phone becoming more and more critical function that company will require. SMpower can no doubt satisfy this important requirement.

Besides the above, security of the company network is also a great concern for most of the company. With the “File access notifier” module of SMpower, staffs can be immediately notified if someone has access their selected file. This will greatly improve any unauthorized file access risk in a company.

If you company have important servers or network equipments, and those servers or equipments are critical to your operation, you will need immediately attention if anyone of them goes down. In such case, SMpower is the product you are looking for.

Setting up the SMpower

SMpower is a compact size server. Just like all other servers (e.g. mail server), it needs to be attached to the company’s network. Moreover, it is recommended to have a fixed IP address assigned to SMpower. Since SMpower uses web interface for setup and configuration. Once, the correct IP address has been setup. You can use any Web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) to do any further configuration such as user management.

It is recommended to securely protect (both physically and logically) the SMpower just like all other servers. Thus, it will better place it in the internal network segment of the company which is usually protected by firewall.

In order to send/receive SMS, it will require to subscribe from any mobile phone providers. From cost point of view, it will better choose plans that provide the cheapest (or even free) price for sending/receiving SMS. 

For customers who need to use the file access notifier, another “agent” will need to be installed in the Windows system that need to be monitored.

SMpower against other mobile computing solution

SMpower provides a low cost mobile Email solution. As SMS is supported in most of the mobile phones nowadays, any 2G mobile phones can also using SMpower to receive/send Email. Currently, many of the mobile phone providers provide free sending/receiving of SMS within their own network, that means, if the SMpower and the staffs’ mobile phones both use the same provider, there is no additional charge for sending/receiving SMS. Moreover, only one SMpower server is required to support all the staffs for most small to medium size company.

Besides that, SMS uses “push” technique rather than “pull”. That means, once the SMpower detects that there is a new mail arrived in the mail server, it will immediately send out the mail using SMS. Thus the user will get the mail very soon. On contrary, other mobile mail solution will use “pull” method, i.e. the mobile phone periodically check if there are new mail arrive, depending on how frequent the checking (in order not to be charged for the air traffic, usually the period will not be short), it will have delay when getting the new mail.

In addition, as SMpower itself already built-in with a SMS sending/receiving device, it does not rely on the company’s network to delivery or receiving any SMS. While some other SMS solutions will require the use of an external SMS gateway which need to be reached by the company network and/or Internet. In that case, if there is any network problem between the company network and the external SMS gateway, it will be impossible to send/receive any SMS.

From the security point of view, using SMS to notify the corresponding staffs in case when a host is down is better than using Email. Since if there is really something wrong with the network, Email will fail. Using SMS will make sure that the information can immediately reach to the staffs.