Send SMS messages

FortiNAC has the ability to send SMS messages to administrators, guests or users. These messages are used to provide guests with user names and passwords, to notify administrators when an alarm has been triggered or to notify a user when an alarm has been triggered based on his host. FortiNAC sends SMS messages by sending email to a mobile phone number through a special email address provided by the mobile provider. For example, if you have a guest who is a Verizon Wireless customer and you need to send that guest an SMS message, the message is sent to xxxxxxxxxx@vtext.com (where xxxxxxxxxxxx is the guest's cell phone number).

Both the Mobile Number and Mobile Provider must be entered into the guest, administrator or user record. SMS messages are sent via email. Without provider information FortiNAC cannot send SMS messages.

Long SMS messages might be divided up into multiple messages or truncated depending on how the Mobile Provider and the mobile telephone process long messages.

Implementation

To enable the SMS messaging feature you must configure the following:

General

• Configure a connection to an out bound email server to send your SMS messages. See Email settings for instructions.
• Review the list of mobile providers. Enable the providers that should be available to assign to guests, users, and administrators. The list is long so you may not want to enable them all. Add any providers that are not included in the list. Providers can be modified as needed. See Mobile providers.

SMS for guests

• Modify your current guest templates or create new ones to include Send SMS message as an option. Two data fields have been added to the Data Fields tab on the Add/Modify Template dialog to accommodate Mobile Number and Mobile Provider. Make sure you do not remove these fields or guests will not have a place to provide their mobile information when they register. See Create templates.
• If you have existing guests that you would like to send messages to you must delete their guest records and recreate them using a template that has the Send SMS option enabled. Make sure to add Mobile Number and Mobile Provider for these guests.

• When guest accounts are created, you have the option to select one or more accounts from the list and send those guests an email and/or an SMS message containing their user name and password. See Provide login information.

  This is also true if you have set up a Kiosk for guests to create their own accounts. Guests can send themselves an SMS message with their credentials. To set up a Kiosk see Using a kiosk.

  If you have implemented Guest Self Registration and included Send SMS message in the template for those guests, guests can receive login credentials via SMS. See Guest self registration.

• Mapping events to alarms and setting an SMS user notification action allows FortiNAC to send an SMS message to a guest. For example, if you want to send guests a message when their host is marked at risk and their network access is disabled, you can map the Host At Risk event to an alarm and send a message. The guest account must be associated with a template that has Send SMS enabled and the guest must have a Mobile Number and Provider entered on the Add/Modify User dialog. See Add or modify alarm mapping.

SMS for administrators

• Add a Mobile phone number and Mobile provider to each administrator that should receive SMS messages. See Add an administrator. This information can also be added by exporting administrators and re-importing them with their Mobile information. See Import an administrator.
• Administrators that should receive SMS messages based on alarm mappings must be in one or more Administrator groups. Add administrators to the appropriate Administrator groups either from the Groups View or from the administrators view. See Group membership.
• Mapping events to alarms, enabling options for notification and sending SMS messages to an Administrator group allows FortiNAC to send an SMS message to every administrator in the group. For example, if you want to send administrators a message if the database backup fails, map the Database Backup Failure event to an alarm and send an SMS message notifying administrators about the problem. See Add or modify alarm mapping.

SMS for users

• Add a Mobile phone number and Mobile provider to each user that should receive SMS messages. See Add or modify a user. This information can also be added by exporting Users and re-importing them with their Mobile information. See Import hosts, users or devices.
• Mapping events to alarms allows FortiNAC to send an SMS message to a user. For example, if you want to send a user a message if their host has been disabled, map the Host Disabled Success event to an alarm and send an SMS message notifying the user about the problem. See Add or modify alarm mapping.