[ale] phone notifications for homebrew automation

jc.lightner at comcast.net jc.lightner at comcast.net
Sun Nov 9 10:18:28 EST 2025


Correction:  
I meant to say I don't think I ever got spam as email to text.  I of course
got a lot email to text alerts in my years of on call.

I used to have ringtones with loud sounds such as fire engines so they would
wake me up at night.   When those alerts sounded during business hours in
the office they distributed my co-workers.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ale <ale-bounces at ale.org> On Behalf Of Jeff Lightner via Ale
Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2025 10:14 AM
To: 'Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts' <ale at ale.org>
Cc: jc.lightner at comcast.net
Subject: Re: [ale] phone notifications for homebrew automation

Yet another reason to dislike AT&T.  Maybe there were good reasons to do
this but doing it without notice stinks.  

I don't think I ever got email to text.

At a former employer we relied heavily on email to text both for our Nagios
monitoring alerts AND for text notifications to thousands of customers.   It
was a lot cheaper than using something like Telalert which an even earlier
employer had used for monitoring alerts.

Once at the later job AT&T suddenly blocked email from us due to the number
of texts we sent to customers via our email server.   They took the position
we should pay them for access due to our volume.  That wasn't an
unreasonable requirement but again they did it without notice to us, they
simply began rejecting all our email whether it was to text or just regular
email accounts.   Trying to find out WHY they were rejecting us was, like
most things with Awful Telephone & Telegraph, was exasperating. 

I have to laugh at the recent ads for AT&T where they claim to be the
original phone company.   While the name is theirs they are not the monopoly
that was mercifully broken up in the 80s.   In fact the Terminator 2
reassembled pieces of AT&T got the name because they brought the last 2
vestiges of AT&T that had the name back in with a couple of mergers.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ale <ale-bounces at ale.org> On Behalf Of Calvin Harrigan via Ale
Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2025 7:03 AM
To: ale at ale.org
Cc: Calvin Harrigan <calvin.harrigan at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ale] phone notifications for homebrew automation

On 11/9/2025 3:03 AM, Alex Carver via Ale wrote:
> Where did you hear that email gateways are going away?
>
> On 2025-11-07 03:40, Calvin Harrigan via Ale wrote:
>> I believe you can send texts via email (via a EMG) on most phone 
>> systems.
>> Just followed up, seems that this feature is going away this year or 
>> has already gone.
>> Shame. They claimed it was a spam magnet, but I've never gotten a 
>> spam via email to text.
>> I'm guessing they wanted to mothball the infrastructure.
>>
>>
>> On 11/6/2025 8:58 PM, Pete Hardie via Ale wrote:
>>> Anyone know of a system/tool that will send notifications to a phone 
>>> with low latency for such things as DIY/non-monopolistic home 
>>> automation?  Mainly for alerts when doorbell/security cam detection, 
>>> or flooding alerts
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Pete Hardie
>>> --------
>>> Better Living Through Bitmaps
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Ale at ale.org
>>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at 
>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>
>>
>> --
>> Calvin Harrigan
>>
>>
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https://www.androidauthority.com/atnt-email-to-text-feature-shutdown-3539223
/

https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1061254%20/


--
Calvin Harrigan

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