Notices

No, it is not possible.

Would it be possible to add the ability to issue an arbitrary command with smscon?

That way we could use it for anything. I am interested in using it for SMS based push for email and IM (where my server would monitor specific email folders and sms me if there is something interesting, then smscon would issue the dbus command to send/recieve email, which would establish a data connection).

Thanks for this awesome application, here's some feature requests to make it the best AIO Anti-Theft software ever:

* Alarm Mode: afaik, as of current SMSCON release, It sends SMS to target number if IMSI code is changed while booting up. Problem is, what if your mobile is out of GSM covered area or SMS failed for some reason? Then you will not notice it's stolen until you find out yourself. I think Alarm Mode would be better option, I mean, if IMSI code is changed, instead of a single SMS sent to single target number, try to use all possible connection methods to deliver information to multiple targets and keep doing it until receiving valid SMS command to stop it.

* Data Wiping: I understand that maybe developer of SMSCON (or any developer here) doesn't really want to introduce this function, because it could brick N900 easily if something goes wrong, but I think it's an essential function. Just make it an "option" with proper warning messages, and It would be beyond awesome if you make it customizable so we could wipe /home/user/MyDocs/somethingveryimportant and /home/user/.stupidplaintextpasswordfile instead of wiping/bricking the whole system.

* Stealth: I guess It's not going to be easy, but as for current SMSCON release it shows up every incoming/outgoing SMS on Conversations, notifies the thief about it, shows up messages if you try to use reverse ssh and shows up the Call UI if you make your device call you. If Joe The Thief is not the dumbest person ever seen in the face of the earth, he will notice that you're trying to remote access your device and he will power it off, take SIM Card away or even throw away/destroy your device.

* Advanced Tracking: It's not essential but making it possible to notify about Incoming/Outgoing calls (and their numbers) would help the owner A LOT about getting his device back. And maybe sending a copy of received/sent SMS messages to the owner could help too.

* Remove it from Menu: I'm pretty sure that It wouldn't be hard to add an option to remove smscon and smscon-editor from menu, because we already have an X Terminal, It is possible to start GUI apps from that terminal and most of thieves are not Linux guru's and in fact mostly they don't even know what XTerm is, but they do know to push buttons, select SMSCON from the menu or google it to see what it is. So, I would prefer removing smscon related things from the menu and start it from XTerm, if you think that it's not user-friendly enough, make it an option.

* Wi-Fi Autoconnect: afaik SMSCON supports 3G Internet but why not make use of Wi-Fi, since it's already a built-in feature of N900 and there's still some ppl out there using unsecured connections. This feature could be enabled by SMS or Alarm Mode (see: first idea) and It would try to connect to unsecured Wi-Fi access points to send valuable information to owner and allow reverse ssh, since It's using a Wi-Fi point, It means It has an IP address, so you can track that address too.

* Server File Check: Prey already implements this feature and I think it's useful, why not make SMSCON check a file from my webserver often to see if it's 0 (OK) or 1 (Stolen) and if it's 1, send information to backup number or enable the Alarm Mode (see: first idea) You can implement this feature as an option, since 3G Internet is not that cheap in some countries.

Well.. It seems like It would take a year or two to implement all of this things, I just wanted to notify you about "SMSCON of my dreams" and maybe help you if you liked any of this ideas and if they're easy to do, maybe you can add some of them in future releases

Thanks for this great app,

I can confirm that you can have multiple concurrent reverse ssh tunnels on the n900.

I've used this to:

1) set up a persistant reverse tunnel on 19999:localhost:22 on the phone
2) ssh into my phone from my PC on localhost:19999
3) in this shell, start a reverse tunnel #2 on 9999:localhost:5900
4) start a second ssh session on PC to 19999, then start x11vnc server within it
5) on PC, tightvnc into phone on localhost:9999

It all works OK (other than needing the phone's screen to be left permanently on for the vnc session, and failing to route some keyboard input to the foreground app) - so you can remote control the phone if you've left it somewhere inconvenient (eg. to access SMS/email/contacts/IM's etc).

A wonderful and very useful app. But I have a couple of simple questions, forgive my ignorance….just thinking out loud.

Now that someone have all this valuable information that could be used to track down the thief……

a) Is it legal to collect this information about the thief with all the privacy laws, spying on someone without their knowledge, etc, at least here in the US?
b) Assuming it is legal, then how would someone make good use of the information to get the device back? I am thinking but not sure, if someone is to take this to law enforcement would they cooperate to get me the device back? Or is it simply going to be ignored since they probably have more important things to worry about than a stolen phone?

Any ideas?

Because if the answers to the above is not promising I strongly support the “data delete” option, at least no personal information is left on the device.

@Pluto

I'm not living in US but afaik;

a) Common sense says it's not against privacy laws because it's your device not his/her, you can install spy software legally on it, for anti-theft, educational or parental control purposes. But I'm not %100 sure of course.

b) Police can return your phone if you know it's IMEI code, it's common knowledge, but in some countries (and maybe US included) they don't care much about it because it's expensive to do it and doesn't work in every case. Using SMSCON, you could get mobile number and IMSI code of thief, so you can just ask police to get his information (they just need to call his GSM operator and ask for it) then you will know who stole your device, and if you know it absolutely you can ask for help to get it back. And you can use SMSCON to locate the device/thief or make it call you, so it's really an easy task for them to get it back. They are not going to ignore it, since you're not forcing them to do track anything.

@Pluto,Aranel
I am not living in US either, but I know couple of EU countries where it is illegal to spy even your own stolen phone.

Or If you want to get a list of called phone numbers from a operator, because they of course are seen in your bill, they won't give you the list of phone numbers but only to police. I know it sounds like against common sense, but it is so. I know becase my phone was stolen 2 years ago and they made long distance calls of 500€ before the IMSI was closed. I had to pay, but couldn't get the list of the called numbers: "you know, ciriminals have rights too". It is a question of phone theft being a minor crime.

@Pigro:
I was thinking doing the two tunnels at the same time:
from N900:
ssh -R 19999:localhost:22 -R 18888:localhost:5900 user@pc.remotehost.org.invalid

@digitalvoid:
I will test the new test version tomorrow

ah - I see what you mean. Yes, that syntax works on n900, good thinking, batman!

Hello, I used to use my own N900 to test smscon. So I send to myself an sms with the correct keyword. Since a few version,0it seems that smscon go in a loop and keep sending back the same command acknowledgement endlessly. It seems to interpret the received acknowledgement as a new command ?
I used the command "Lock"

Hi, a few notes. It is a good idea to check if is is Wifi connection already acitvie - then send email via that connection, if not then first try to activate wireless , if not succeed, then enable gprs and send it through it.
lock command always send reply even config deifne "no"
EnableDeviceLock(True) I've changed it to EnableDeviceLock()
Good idea to update it.
Also I've receiving 6 messages for any command, but from log I can see
DAEMON ERROR: failed to send SMS to "+6421......"
It is look like the sms got send but reporting some error. How to debug it?

+5 for Stealth mode should be ON. any way to remove received sms?