[styol]

Hey there everybodies,

im pretty new to the scene, pretty new to the phone, barely messed with developing... however, i have recently just got finished successfully compiling, configuring, setting up, and using an actual MMS proxy that the iPhone 3G appears to work well with, using SwirlyMMS on ATT.

Thus far my tests have established that the MMS proxy is capable of sending MMS using the full phone's email address. I know i know, this is just sending mail, you can just use mobile mail, blah blah, the fact is that the actual message, image, recipient, headers, etc actually got processed in a usable MMS fashion.

However, it is not capable, thus far, of sending MMS to actual phone numbers. This is the cornerstone for it obviously, but this is also where my research and testing is falling short. My guess is that to send MMS or any form of SMS messaging, some sort of actual crazy device is needed or something for the actual server? This area is the big gray area for me.

Again, currently I am capable of connecting from the iPhone to the MMS proxy using SwirlyMMS and am capable of sending MMS messages if/when the full phone email address is used. My test was from the iPhone on ATT to the MMS proxy to a windows mobile phone on Verizon using 10digitphone@vzwpix.com

So if anyone is interested in assisting me with getting this up and working with real phone numbers, if its even possible, i am interested in hosting an MMS proxy for the public (i think). I have the server means and such, i just need someone to join me that knows more about MMS and its setup.

I've got log information on whats occurring at each step, and where the sending of MMS to an actual phone number is failing. But yeah? anyone interested? contact me at kevin at vishun dot net or PM me here i suppose or respond to this thread (ill check my notification settings for the forum)

thanks

[styol]

ok, so, nobodies interested here... bunch of thread reads, only one recent response by PM which was suggesting that i take my idea to swirly's forum, which is a good idea apparently by comparison.

im just surprised that nobodies as interested in this as much as i am... being able to send picture messages (and more importantly, receive them) was one of my favorite things to do, just for the fun of it. so, off to hopefully greener pastures. i guess most of you dont have att and thats why no one cares? lol, all gravy... hopefully you guys will thank me later for caring

[sziklassy]

The prblem is the MMS needs to be sent to the cell tower in some way (as far as I understand) If it remains in the form of an email unless you have a device hooked to your proxy (im guessing your pc) which will send it out as an actual MMS we are no closer to truly MMSing than we were before

[skb875]

I am very interested in this, but I don't think I can help in any way that's why I haven't posted a reply, I'm sure its the same with many other people.

Trust me, we all would be in love with you if you made this happen, but I don't see the point to posting a post saying "great idea."

[styol]

Originally Posted by sziklassy

The prblem is the MMS needs to be sent to the cell tower in some way (as far as I understand) If it remains in the form of an email unless you have a device hooked to your proxy (im guessing your pc) which will send it out as an actual MMS we are no closer to truly MMSing than we were before

Yes, the intention is to not rely on email that was just the only test i was able to accomplish. I mean its because it could be as simple as me not doing one element right with the setup, cause granted this is obviously supposed to work for actual phone to phone (in some way shape or form, otherwise the developer of the proxy likely wouldnt make the proxy available). Its just also the lack of information from the proxy developer, and a lack of information available on the net in general that lead me to reach out anyone that may know more then me on this subject, which at this point my knowledge is still severely limited.

So indeed my hunch agrees with yours that there must be some sort of device that must be involved, because even by way of speculation i cant figure out a general method on how a computer could talk to a mobile phone, outside of email of course. Almost as if it were a device that essentially is a cell phone in a way, in that it can pseudo connect to other MMS proxies/gateways, and then send the message somewhat masking itself as the actual sender of the message. just yeah in general this is all above most of our heads, as we're not working with or for a major cell company. but see thats just the thing i just realized... i think all our proxy needs to do is connect to their proxy... so many the proxies just talk to each other, and our proxy needs a list of proxies to talk to? i really dunno

Originally Posted by skb875

I am very interested in this, but I don't think I can help in any way that's why I haven't posted a reply, I'm sure its the same with many other people.

Trust me, we all would be in love with you if you made this happen, but I don't see the point to posting a post saying "great idea."

its all good, it was just the lack of any interest that phased by own interest hehe... even with these 2 recent replies im already getting into it, i just wasnt sure if this was something people even were interested in. i mean i figured yeah, and i figured people might keep an eye on it and not be able to help, but... yeah.. sorry didnt mean to sound like a **** in my *bump* reply to my own thread, i was just making sure that i wasnt the only one yearning for picture messaging lol.

[skb875]

Hey, it's no problem I'm glad you brought it back up.

Maybe we could start on something easier, and then work our way up?
By this I mean..
The main problem with e-mailing a picture to someone is that it's just way too many steps. Photos app > Send with email > try to remember phone number > close out email and find phone number > repeat previous steps > forget what to put for @carrier > repeat previous steps

I think a much easier app would just be a simple stand alone application that you open up, it has a couple options:
[ phone number ] + (browse address book) [ select carrier ]
[ browse photos ]

[[ SEND ]]

That way you have 1 program to do it all. Receiving picture messages via e-mail isn't too big of a deal for me, it's the sending.
Once we have something fairly simple like that, then we can work on receiving the messages.

let me know what ya think

[styol]

right right, i think swirlymms might be semi capable of that... the only missing aspect would be some sort of switch on their program to allow us on ATT or other carriers capable of email only, to be able to select from a carrier list that alters the actual recipient address...

so kinda like... use swirlyMMS to take picture, select the contact (which pulls the numbers), but then we'd need the added step to select a carrier. better yet, it would be nice to associate something with the contact to designate the carrier. or simply use the persons email address as the basis, granted you have filled it out according to the number@carrier.com format

interesting... thats something that might make sense to swirlyMMS to add as a feature, being able to by default specify the recipient based on the contacts email address..... thats like exactly what would accomplish the above described, yah?

[skb875]

I like the idea of adding it to SwirlyMMS, but think they would have to add the option so it sends via your e-mail instead of a text message, no clue how hard that would be.

One thing that might interest someone into making it a standalone program, would be the ability to sell it in the app-store as I don't think it would do anything against the rules.

I mean, I don't know much about coding, but this really doesn't seem like too hard of a app to make, just simple inputs that would grab the phone number and puts it as the address, selecting wheel for carrier, and then grabs a photo from your gallery and adds it as an attachment.

[styol]

yeah indeed, it would be a good idea for a standalone app.. im also not savvy at the coding, i have looked into it but its definitely also a bit beyond me at this point. im just a web site developer, and although i dabble in php, xcode and what not is just yeah, something i want to get good at just havnt had the time to look into due to other work and what not.

but yeah also i dont wanna give up on the proxy idea, because not only does it mean mms messaging for att, but it means free mms messaing for anybody... i think a bunch of people would use it for that alone.

ok heres the basic problem i already see in how this is probably not even possible without some other means (the mms proxy)... because... when someone sends a MMS message to 1234567890 -- it resolves that number, from their carrier, to your carrier, by whatever means that it already does -- so at the carrier level, receiving of messages via MMS from anyone, is likely not possible because we cant sidestep the receiving number as far as whatever gateway currently handles MMS for whatever carrier.

so, i may be leaning more towards your idea... one thing we know for sure, is that ATT needs a solution. and if we can come up with any solution that neat and works, then im all for it regardless of approach.

[drewgaren]

Ever since SwirlyMMS first came out on iPhone v1 I was trying to get MMS to actually work. The data is somewhat part of the problem with AT&T on the iPhone's plan. I never got it to work because it would not log me into the mms server to send the message because MMS was not on my account. I attempt 7 different times to add it to my account with different excuses like I use my old razr sometimes but AT&T could not add the mms to my plan because it would not only interfere with the iPhones billing but it would also affect the data plan. They would even let me do pay per mms which was rediculous. However with a my tmobile sim card in it worked fine. So my point is that AT&T restricts iPhone users from having the MMS feature on their account at the same time that will enable them to use SwirlyMMS to it's potential. I have heard of some people having good luck with AT&T but hey everbody I know has email on their phone nowadays.

[styol]

right right, but what about like receiving a MMS and stuff like that... you cant rely on regular people to think of sending their picture to you via your phones email. i mean yeah ive read everything possible regarding why it doesnt work on ATT, its all crap, thanks ATT you're cool but you still suck ***, just like any major corporation.

but the fact still remains that using an ALTERNATE MMS proxy as opposed to ATT's MMS proxy, may be an option... i think that if we were to use an alternate mms proxy to send and receive mms, that they would have a hard time blocking that because they wouldnt have control over the third party server.

i dunno. all i know is this is whack. everyone ive ever come across that tries to send me a picture message i have to tell... yeah ive got the new iphone 3g, but it doesnt do picture messaging... everyones always like WTF?! you kidding me?! its ridiculous

[skb875]

I have AT&T a few times and have gotten lucky and talked to nice people every time.
Here is what the problem is (For me at least)

MMS is NOT enabled. I was able to get it Enabled, but after a couple hours it switches back to disabled.
One tech support guy said that the problem is with the data plan. When AT&T recognizes the data plan, it will disabled MMS.

Call AT&T,talk to tech support, and ask nicely for them to enable MMS capability, which if I remember correct, is located in "Snooper".
Swirly WILL work, but only for a couple hours.

I can't stress this enough.. Make sure you speak respectfully to these employees, it's not their fault. No one wants to help someone that's yelling at them.

[styol]

no yeah, i understand that for sure. ive gotten that working. for a day. right. but see this is controlled basically, at THEIR mms proxy... they can tell their proxy to tell your phone to go cram a walnut.

the idea is to use a different proxy, that is not controlled by ATT, that will not deny access. its their actual MMS proxy thats telling your phone "nope". which is of course is connected to whatever other mindboggling systems they have. but see its not the outgoing or incoming data, or port, or protocol that is being blocked (i dont believe) -- its the actual proxy that is saying, ok, an iphone is trying to connect, deny it access to using the MMS features. this would not be the case if we got an alternate proxy to work properly, such as the one im trying to setup.

EDIT: for instance, the proxy im trying to setup (mBuni) has the capability to deny access to specific numbers. they just live update this list with information gathered or collected by other means such as their specific account and phone number management.... im not saying they use mBuni, although it is possible, its just likely that this is the approach that is being taken. this is all speculation. we dont work for att and we couldnt get ahold of the people that would know exactly what to tell us about this issue. customer service reps are just the front men. for instance, level 3 tech would likely know more but getting to a level 3 is tricky and they're probably already well aware of our intentions. mind you, all these sites are public, so nothing really stops any ATT employee from keeping a close eye on this thread for instance.

[skb875]

I don't think a proxy would work, to be honest. I'm not 100% sure how the AT&T system works, but MMS is an actual setting that gets enabled and disabled.
Note, you can't even send a MMS from another cellphone.. This is because the setting actually gets disabled when the system realizes you have an iPhone data plan.

I think what would have to be done, is having our own MMS servers. Something that is completely separate from AT&T.

[styol]

Originally Posted by skb875

I think what would have to be done, is having our own MMS servers. Something that is completely separate from AT&T.

right, thats what im trying to do i have setup an MMS server (aka proxy, gateway, or mmsc <- real name) and have got it semi-working, with att, and swirlyMMS... please refer to the first post of this thread