Question

Looking at the SMS utilities, I do not appear to be able to start a user script by SMS, or can I ?

Could I read the SMS by a user script that is run from CRONTAB and perform any script start from there ?

Answer 1

Hello,

No, SMS-Utilities don't run any user scripts for security purpose.

Yes You could periodically list all SMS via 'gsmctl -S -l all' command and start any user script. Make sure that SMS-Utilities don't delete all incoming SMS. Also I recommend to leave at least 5 free SMS slots in SIM that new SMS could come to SIM.

May I ask what functionality you want to achieve?

Maybe SMS-Utilities or another service could handle it for you.

Comments

Hello Mindaugas,

Many thanks for responding - we were hoping to use an SMS to initiate a reverse SSH tunnel to administer the device (I appreciate RMS provides this functionality but customer wishes to directly administer the device).

Could you see another way ?

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Please correct me if I understand wrong:

You want to get SSH access to your RUT device after you send SMS to it?

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Essentially, but I am looking to initiate the ssh connection from the RUT out to a server using ssh -R …

The scenario would be -

I need remote access to the RUT955 (not using RMS) without knowing the endpoint IP (Mobile Network Operator would drop unsolicited incoming connection attempt anyway)

Send a SMS containing a specific word / phrase

RUT955 initiates the SSH tunnel out to our server

Server can access the web GUI on port 80 using the SSH tunnel

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I suggest you to use OpenVPN instead of SSH tunnel.

First you need to set-up it ob your router.

Then configure SMS-Utilities rules to enable and disable openVPN service.

It should work as you expect.

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Good call and while we have used OpenVPN for this previously, I had missed the possibility of using SMS to enable / disable the service.

Many thanks !

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On the RUT955 I experience a LOT of issues with OpenVPN. it seldom runs for more than 72 hours before needing to
reboot the router. I think partly this is down to having needed some extra config lines in the client page , but  a few times now
I am seeing 2 instances of the openVPN client running in parallel (using top via SSH)  - causing a loss of connectivity..
Eventually the 955 crashes and reboots - then 9 times out of 10 the VPN re-establishes.

I'm still going through my logs (server and client) and will share what I find once I resolve it

Regards

BB

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Hi BB,

Interesting comments on your OpenVPN experience !

What firmware are you running on the RUT955 ?

May be worth opening a new thread on this as I would imagine there are many users who could benefit from a resolution to your issue.

Thanks ...