Linux Stands Behind the SMS FoxBox Appliance

The latest device I've heard to make use of the Linux operating system was the SMS FoxBox, a small gateway launched by Acme Systems and used for sending and receiving short text messages through a commercial SIM card. SMS FoxBox also offers support for email(smtp/pop3), mysql and web interfaces and it comes equipped with a GSM quad band modem, a SD/MMC memory card, which can store up to 1 million messages and it also takes in an Apache web server to handle the SMS queues.

FoxBox is based on a 2.6-series Linux kernel, developed by KDEV, with busybox providing also a shell environment. The devices' s primary user interface is provided by the Boa servers.The standard software coming with the device takes in: an SSH server, telnet server, SMS server, fetchmail, procmail, mailsend, PHP5, and an FTP server. Firmware is remotely upgradable via LAN, Web, FTP, or SSH. The SMS to TCP/IP functions provided by the gateway would therefore include: SMS to/from : email, Postfix, MySQL, web scripts, desktop widgets, MS Access, Macromedia Flash animation or MS Outlook.

Highlights:

- Radio or TV shows with live interaction with the public, such as real-time SMS polls
- Data processing for alarms and measure/control units
- Sending and receiving SMS from a web site
- Mass SMS message distribution
- Server control via SMS
- SMS-based order processing systems

The user interface comes with many message management facilities. It has an inbox and an outbox, and also provides an addressbook with group messaging facilities and tools for setting up polls as well as configuration tools. There is another aspect that is worth mentioning here, as it has proven very useful for many users. That would be the Custom application interface, which provides users the capability to write shell scripts and connect them to the system's event handler.