Sending Text Messages (Emails) to Your Cell Phone

To activate this option, click on the Email Check Box on the Setup screen ( The second screen shown on the previous page), and fill in the required information.  You will need to know at least three things to make the email option work:

  • You must know your email SMTP (outgoing/sending) address.  To find typical SMTP addresses Click Here. 

  • If a password is required for you to use your SMTP server you must know what your username & password are.   If you don't know whether one is required, try it without first, and if it doesn't work add the username & password.

  • You must know the text messaging address of your cell phone.  To find typical cell phone addresses Click Here. For a more extensive list Click Here

TIP:  The first two of these (SMTP server & username) can be found somewhere in your email program (Outlook, Windows Mail, Eudora, etc.), and the password had to be supplied to the email program at some point.

IF you later need to edit/change any of this information, click on the Email Check Box again.

Cell phone text messages are severely limited in size.  To deal with this problem, the information is tightly packed and may be a little difficult to read/understand. 

The Subject will look something like this:

GC10YR8 D1/T1.5 45miNW MICR-T

GC10YR8 = geocaching.com's identifying number
D1/T1.5 = Difficulty 1 & Terrain 1.5
45miNW = 45 miles North West of your home
MICR = container size, Micro
-T = cache type, Traditional
 

Container Size

Cache Type
MICR = Micro T = Traditional
SMAL = Small ? = Puzzle/Mystery
RGLR = Regular M = Multi/Offset
LARG = Large L = Letterbox
NoSZ = No Size Given ERTH = Earthcache

The body of the message contains as much of the cache name and hints as space permits.  You have the option of compressing the cache name and hint when they will exceed the available space.  The compression option gives preference to the hints, so the title will be reduced or deleted if there's not room for all of the hints.  Here's an example of what an uncompressed message might look like:

Skating Mystery

Pretty obvious were it is, but coor

Here's the same message compressed:

Sktng Mystry

Prtty bvs wre t is, bt cords r neded.

Here's what the cache page really says:

Title:  Skating Mystery
Hint:  Pretty obvious where it is, but coordinates are needed.

If you choose the compression option it's only used if necessary.  That is, if the title and hint will fit without compression they will not be compressed.

Events caches and caches that have already been found are not emailed.

Here are some tips when you first set up the email option:
  • Send to your computer email address until you know it's working.
  • You can force it to get new caches by increasing the Pocket Query radius/distance to reach out . [Remember to set it back to your preferred distance when testing is complete.]
  • While testing, you can force it to send 'new cache' emails over-and-over by
    • check the block to turn on error messages,
    • delete the 'NewCache.lst' file,
    • terminate the program,
    • restart the program.
  • The Tools Menu at the top of the page lets you delete the NewCache.list or edit it to remove only one cache that's not an event.  That's all that's needed to cause an email to be sent.
  • Turning on error messages causes it to send caches, even if found and also pops up error messages that may help you figure out what's wrong.  But, be sure to turn this feature off when you get email working.
  • After you check "Turn on Error Message" the Tools menu will appear.  In this menu you can delete the NewCache.lst or edit it to remove one recent cache so it will not send the entire list to your cell phone.
Note: A crude version of the entire cache description (uncompressed) is included at the end of the message just in case you're able to receive large amounts of text.  Normally this will be chopped off the message you get.  On some services the entire description will be sent divided up into many emails.  You can turn this feature off by checking the box that says "Suppress Cache Description"

Note: Sometimes due to changes at gc.com or your ISP the email feature will start failing in a way that won't let you start the program.  If this happens there is a utility named "StopEmail" in the program folder, run this utility and it will disable the email feature.

 

Advanced Text Messaging Options

The upper section of this screen was discussed above.  The bottom part contains some advanced options that are concealed until you click the "More" button. 

Coordinate Placement:  Depending on your particular cell phone and service you may want the coordinates presented in a different way than the default.  You can choose different placements by clicking one of the options in the Coordinate Placement box.  If you choose to put the coordinates in the Subject, the normal subject and the coordinates swap places. 

GC Short URL:  If you have an Internet phone you may want to include the GC.com short URL which you can click to take you directly to the cache page. 

Characters Sent:  Some services allow more content characters than others, or you may want to send two messages worth of characters.  You can specify how many characters to send.  You will have to determine this value by trial & error.

Use Port:  Some Internet services block port 25.  You can change the sending port.  NOTE:  The program is unable to send encrypted data to your SMTP server. 

If you are desperate to get this text messaging feature working and have been unsuccessful, you may want to email me -- I have suggestions for ways to get it working.