I want my home security devices (alarm/cameras) to send me SMS alerts when alarms are triggered when I'm away from home. Does anyone know of a cheap or free SMS gateway in the UK? Either an email-to-SMS or HTTP-based service would be ideal.

These guys do email to SMS https://www.kapow.co.uk/services.html?view=send

Looks like it's 6.5p an SMS

Thanks. Unfortunately they require bulk credits to be purchased in advance, with a minimum of 100 (£6.50), and they expire in 12 months. So in reality it would cost me alot more than 6.5p per message for the low levels of usage that I expect (maybe 3-4 messages per year from experience, so > £1.50 per SMS)

Textlocal?

Could you DIY it with an old 3g phone, a Three 321 sim and a USB cable? Depending how geeky you feel that is..

I don't actually have a spare 3G phone but it's an intriguing idea. What method/software would enable me to do that automatically from my home security software?

What about a USB 3g dongle? You could pick one up for buttons (especially since with 4g dongles being desirable a 3g one should be cheap)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...em#Sending_SMS for instance could be worth a peruse!

Although I'll disclaim it now, this is fairly advanced in the grand scheme of things.

does it have to be SMS -- do the source devices offer any other kind of notification that could be co-erced into a push notification on your phone?

That's a good point; something like IFTTT could be used, or if your devices can speak HTTP then you could at least get an email out (which would be cheaper)

I got a Vodafone PAYG SIM on a 'classic' basis - no bundles. I had to get it in a store in the end. I have to use it occasionally so it doesn't expire but the credit once applied, lasts for I think, a year. I put £5 on.

Never touch it, apart from getting the alarm to send me an SMS once in a while.

I think with burglar alarms it's probably best to Keep It Simple (Stupid). They can be quite fickle and relying on IFTTT (which can have a huge delay / reliability issues) or similar is adding a serious amount of complexity. Plus, if you have a power cut (intentional or otherwise) at the same time, it's even less likely to work. If you're going to use 3G for IFTTT then you may as well just get it to SMS!

If my alarm goes off, I want to know straight away, reliably and totally possible to run on battery. I can then call my neighbour or look at CCTV etc.

My alarm takes a sim card so that it can SMS and call when activated, I can set and unset remotely and it tells me if the AC mains goes off and has a 12 hour backup battery.

Thanks for all the feedback. I've just had a quote from TextLocal and they also require purchase of a "bundle" - minimum price £4.50 - but in this case they roll over from month to month. I've asked them to confirm whether or not they would ever expire.

I do already use IFTT, which can alert me whenever I'm connected to the internet. This doesn't work so well when I'm abroad, where I can be disconnected from 3G for long periods. IFTT also often introduces a delay, which is not ideal when your home alarm has been triggered. I also have the iSmartAlarm system, which should give me more-or-less immediate alerts, but ONLY when I have data access (again, not so useful when I'm abroad).

The 3G dongle sounds like an interesting idea, but might be slightly beyond my means. I also haven't had great experience of using USB comms devices with my WIndows Server machine. I'll take a closer look at it to see if I can make sense of it...

Exactly. Exactly that.

Which is why a PAYG SIM without bundles is best.

Relying on IFTTT is over-engineering, no matter how cool it is.

This may be worth a look if you want to pursue the DIY angle...
http://www.serverfiles.com/Communica.../SMS-Gateways/