2K3 batch file to send alert

[James Newtons Massmind]

So you have a little batch file in a win 2003 server that gets fired up on a
regular basis by the job scheduler to do something or check something and if
it runs into a problem, it needs to contact a human for help.

Are there any good ways to do that? Here is what I can think of or find:

- Send an email by calling a CScript .vbs file and use CDONTs to contact a
local email server and SMTP a message to someone. This is a kludge on a hack
and you better hope you have the email server set up.

- Install a little program like blat to send the email for you. Again, make
sure you don't change the email server and forget about this script and its
(now incorrect) config.

- Net send, but that seems to have been removed or doesn't work unless the
user has a windows messaging client running.

- Copy a READMENOW.TXT file onto the administrators desktop and wait for him
or her to log in again?

There has got to be a better way, no?


James Newton: PICList webmaster/Admin
mailto:jamesnewton@...  1-619-652-0593 phone
http://www.piclist.com/member/JMN-EFP-786
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[Richard Prosser]

On 25/03/2008, James Newton <jamesnewton@...> wrote:

> So you have a little batch file in a win 2003 server that gets fired up on a
> regular basis by the job scheduler to do something or check something and if
> it runs into a problem, it needs to contact a human for help.
>
> Are there any good ways to do that? Here is what I can think of or find:
>
> - Send an email by calling a CScript .vbs file and use CDONTs to contact a
> local email server and SMTP a message to someone. This is a kludge on a hack
> and you better hope you have the email server set up.
>
> - Install a little program like blat to send the email for you. Again, make
> sure you don't change the email server and forget about this script and its
> (now incorrect) config.
>
> - Net send, but that seems to have been removed or doesn't work unless the
> user has a windows messaging client running.
>
> - Copy a READMENOW.TXT file onto the administrators desktop and wait for him
> or her to log in again?
>
> There has got to be a better way, no?
>
>
> James Newton: PICList webmaster/Admin
> mailto:jamesnewton@...  1-619-652-0593 phone
> http://www.piclist.com/member/JMN-EFP-786
> PIC/PICList FAQ: http://www.piclist.com
>
>

James,
Send an SMS (text) message to a cellphone? (via your cellphone
provider, or possibly one of the "free" services that (used to ?) let
you send x free messages a day. Not sure how well it works as it
rarely worked for me (in NZ) but I know I can set it up with Vodafone
or Telecom if I'm willing  to pay 20c a text.

RP
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[Dr Skip]

A cmd/bat file and blat always work for me. Use gmail as the smtp server
perhaps - it's always there. Write progress to a text file too, as a log. You
can send to cell phone via the domains the majors have set up for email to sms.

Use 2 servers to send the msg, so if you get the msg only once, one server was
done or the config wrong. Redundancy.

You can also have a second machine get email from a pre-assigned acct set up
just for this, and use perl or something else to parse the subject or body and
perform different actions based on what your blat-script sent. If another
machine could step in...

Or use nc.exe (netcat?) to send the command to a remote machine directly (if in
a secure network only).

Run your own mail server, like MailEnable (free for limited use) if getting out
would be a problem, and use the remote execute ideas...

There are other ideas, but knowing more about what actions are going on, what
problems need attention, and how the human wants to be contacted would help.



James Newton wrote:

> So you have a little batch file in a win 2003 server that gets fired up on a
> regular basis by the job scheduler to do something or check something and if
> it runs into a problem, it needs to contact a human for help.
>
> Are there any good ways to do that? Here is what I can think of or find:
>
> - Send an email by calling a CScript .vbs file and use CDONTs to contact a
> local email server and SMTP a message to someone. This is a kludge on a hack
> and you better hope you have the email server set up.
>
> - Install a little program like blat to send the email for you. Again, make
> sure you don't change the email server and forget about this script and its
> (now incorrect) config.
>
> - Net send, but that seems to have been removed or doesn't work unless the
> user has a windows messaging client running.
>
> - Copy a READMENOW.TXT file onto the administrators desktop and wait for him
> or her to log in again?
>
> There has got to be a better way, no?
>
>
> James Newton: PICList webmaster/Admin
> mailto:jamesnewton@...  1-619-652-0593 phone
> http://www.piclist.com/member/JMN-EFP-786
> PIC/PICList FAQ: http://www.piclist.com
>
>

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[James Newtons Massmind]

The gmail server is a point I hadn't considered... Great idea... I guess I
should get with the program and get a gmail account. I have been using
yahoo, but they require all sorts of security and pop before smtp garbage.

Can you share your blat setup for gmail? Without your password and email
included of course.

--
James.

-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@... [mailto:piclist-bounces@...] On Behalf Of
Dr Skip
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 22:54
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [EE] 2K3 batch file to send alert

A cmd/bat file and blat always work for me. Use gmail as the smtp server
perhaps - it's always there. Write progress to a text file too, as a log.
You
can send to cell phone via the domains the majors have set up for email to
sms.

Use 2 servers to send the msg, so if you get the msg only once, one server
was
done or the config wrong. Redundancy.

You can also have a second machine get email from a pre-assigned acct set up

just for this, and use perl or something else to parse the subject or body
and
perform different actions based on what your blat-script sent. If another
machine could step in...

Or use nc.exe (netcat?) to send the command to a remote machine directly (if
in
a secure network only).

Run your own mail server, like MailEnable (free for limited use) if getting
out
would be a problem, and use the remote execute ideas...

There are other ideas, but knowing more about what actions are going on,
what
problems need attention, and how the human wants to be contacted would help.



James Newton wrote:
> So you have a little batch file in a win 2003 server that gets fired up on
a
> regular basis by the job scheduler to do something or check something and
if
> it runs into a problem, it needs to contact a human for help.
>
> Are there any good ways to do that? Here is what I can think of or find:
>
> - Send an email by calling a CScript .vbs file and use CDONTs to contact a
> local email server and SMTP a message to someone. This is a kludge on a
hack
> and you better hope you have the email server set up.
>
> - Install a little program like blat to send the email for you. Again,
make
> sure you don't change the email server and forget about this script and
its
> (now incorrect) config.
>
> - Net send, but that seems to have been removed or doesn't work unless the
> user has a windows messaging client running.
>
> - Copy a READMENOW.TXT file onto the administrators desktop and wait for
him

> or her to log in again?
>
> There has got to be a better way, no?
>
>
> James Newton: PICList webmaster/Admin
> mailto:jamesnewton@...  1-619-652-0593 phone
> http://www.piclist.com/member/JMN-EFP-786
> PIC/PICList FAQ: http://www.piclist.com
>
>

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[Dr Skip]

James,
I'll assume you know blat and are looking for the way to make it work with
gmail... ;) I use another provider, but a quick Scroogle (scroogle.org ;) gave
some good answers.

The first is a program somewhat like blat but will handle the encryption.
The second is a discussion about the issues and using mailsend (from link 1).
The last is detailed instructions on using blat with gmail using stunnel.

I would use either, but have your 'problem' run a bat file which uses > (and
echo) to send time, date, and what it sees (env vars having been set, etc) to a
log file at each point along the way. Very easy to debug then.

There is another program -freeware- I use extensively called filenotify.exe
that will trigger on a file change, write, etc in a dir (you set the
parameters). I then can send an email based on a file being appended to,
created, etc. For instance, on a private secure email server, it can trigger a
blat email to send an sms msg to the user saying something arrived by watching
the spool dir...

Tell me if you need more. The 3 items are:

=======================================================================================

http://www.muquit.com/muquit/software/mailsend/mailsend.html

========================================================================================


http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-ABCs/browse_thread/thread/191506699330a069/7434d0b668b528e0?lnk=raot

========================================================================================
 From http://www.freepowerboards.com/yqb/yqb-about90.html :

1. install sstunnel from <a
href="http://www.stunnel.org/download/binaries.html">http://www.stunnel.org/download/binaries.html?lt;/ 
a>
2. Using a text editor like notepad, make a file containing what's in the text
box below. Click the Select text button to highlight the text. Note: Javascript
must be enabled for the button to work. Copy the information to your clipboard
by right clicking on the highlighted text and selecting Copy. Paste the
information into notepad. Note: Be sure that wordwrap is turned OFF. Save the
file as "stunnel.conf" (including the quotes if you're using notepad) and place
it in the C:\stunnel folder. Note: The quotes prevent notepad from adding .txt
to the end of the filename.
----------------------------------------------------------------
client = yes

[nntp]
accept = 119
connect = inetnews.worldnet.att.net:563

[pop3]
accept = 110
connect = ipostoffice.worldnet.att.net:995

[smtp]
accept = 25
connect = smtp.gmail.com:465
--------------------------------------------------------------------

3. blat

blat 1.txt -to johnyan.ca@... -f johnyan.ca@... -server 127.0.0.1
-port 25 -u johnyan.ca -pw 123465

Blat v2.6.1 w/GSS encryption (build : Nov 18 2006 11:59:59)

Sending 1.txt to johnyan.ca@...
Login name is johnyan.ca@...
Error: Connection to server was dropped.

4. Check your gmail. Hehe, you received a email!
=================================================================================


James Newton wrote:

> The gmail server is a point I hadn't considered... Great idea... I guess I
> should get with the program and get a gmail account. I have been using
> yahoo, but they require all sorts of security and pop before smtp garbage.
>
> Can you share your blat setup for gmail? Without your password and email
> included of course.
>
> --
> James.
>

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[Xiaofan Chen]

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Richard Prosser <rhprosser@...> wrote:
>
> Send an SMS (text) message to a cellphone? (via your cellphone
> provider, or possibly one of the "free" services that (used to ?) let
> you send x free messages a day. Not sure how well it works as it
> rarely worked for me (in NZ) but I know I can set it up with Vodafone
> or Telecom if I'm willing  to pay 20c a text.

SMS seems to be especially popular in Asia (at least East Asia
and Southeast Asia). Here people sent billions of SMS every
year. So this seems to be quite a popular solution here. For
example, a colleague just implemented a program which
sends out SMS alerts (along with emails) to alert inventory issues.
Here SMS is from 5c S$ (3.5c US$) down to free depending on the plan.

Reference: 10 Billion SMS were sent in one week during
Chinese New Year in 2006 in China.
http://switch.sjsu.edu/mambo/switch22/mobile_pac_rim.html

However it seems SMS is not that popular in USA. Maybe due
to historical reasons. It is said that last time CDMA did not
support SMS well.


Xiaofan
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