NETWORK MONITORING -ALERT VIA SMS

LOH JIN JING

This report is submitted in partial fulfillment o f the requirements o f the Bachelor o f Computer Science (Computer Network)

FACULTY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

ABSTRACT

This project is carried out about the Network Monitoring - alert via SMS: The main purpose of this project is to develop a monitoring system to monitor bandwidth and services which can alert the administrator via SMS when the amount of bandwidth is low and connection problem of service.

ABSTRAK

Kajian projek ini meliputi kepada memahami serta mengkaji mengenai pemerhatian rangkaian dan memberitahu pengurus rangkaian melalui SMS. Tujuari utama kerja kursus ini adalah untuk membanguankan satu sistem pemerhatian rangkaian yang digunakan untuk memerhatikan bandwidth dan perkhidmatanperkhidmatan rangkaian. Sistem yang dibanguankan ini akan menghubungi pengurus rangkaian melalui SMS sekiranya bandwidth yang dibawa melalui rangkaian adalah sedikit.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND

Bandwidth is often used for the data transfer rate. It is the amount of data that can be carried fiom one point to another in a given time period, usually in a second. The amount of data carried usually expressed in bits per second (bps). Occasionally, it does express as bytes per second (Bps). In general, the greater the bandwidth the faster the transfer speeds of the data, whereas low bandwidth means that the transfer speeds of data were slow and we have to wait relatively long time to transfer the same amount of data. Bandwidth monitoring is one of the most critical activities of an enterprise network administrator. Bandwidth monitoring tracks all the network connections and displays real-time download and upload speeds in graphic and numerical forms. Almost each process on the network is depending on the bandwidth of the channels and equipment used and the overall performance of the network depends on well configured bandwidth monitoring system. That is why it is so important to keep track of the bandwidth usage. By having an enhanced system that handled monitoring event, the lack of bandwidth or any bandwidth usage problem can be notified earlier and problem can be solved. The need of bandwidth monitoring tools begin when administrator realizes that there should be a specifj device for visualize the health of the bandwidth usage, flow of the current bandwidth usage and the traffic for the daily network activity.

The proposed system will specifl the LAN network environment. By develop a system with SMS alert mechanism to examine and monitor the health of the network environment, administrator may know if there is any problem and resolve the problem immediately.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Problem is the biggest factors that generate the ideas of creating a system to overcome all the constraint. Common problem of LAN network environment and the solution of the problem have been stated as below. Bandwidth availability needs certain mechanism to trigger the network environment.
**

1.

11.

Network health is unpredictable. So that, with an alert mechanism via SMS, it can alerts administrator when the amount of bandwidth is greater than the threshold that administrator define.

1 3 OBJECTIVES
Monitoring the health of the bandwidth in a certain network environment is the biggest event that needs to be seriously focused in every terms and condition of the selected network. Several objectives of the system have been stated as the guidance while developing the project (monitoring system), which are: To develop a bandwidth monitoring software that helps the administrator to monitor the condition of the current health of the network bandwidth environment.

1.

11,

..

To monitor the bandwidth and to alert administrator via SMS if the bandwidth is greater than the threshold that administrator define. So, administrator may take action to resolve and maintenance the problem immediately.

iii.

As the additional function, the system is establish to monitor services, such as WWW, FTP, SMTP, Telnet, DNS and alert administrator via SMS immediately to resolve the problem.

1.4 SCOPE

Overall of bandwidth monitoring - alert via SMS will take place in LAN field. Developer can do the monitoring experiment for the proposed system on two network environment, which are simulation environment and life environment.
A software is develop to be use to monitor the health of the bandwidth and

the services which is provided in the windows platform. There are 5 services to be monitor such as WWW, FTP, SMTP, Telnet and DNS. For bandwidth monitoring, an alert will be send through SMS to administrator when the download speed is greater than the threshold that administrator define. A Visual Basic-based will develop along with the system.

1.5 PROJECT SIGNIFICANCE While developing a project, developer will acquire the advantages and the disadvantages of the proposed system to ensure that the future develop system claims
as the system that can be rely on. A new feature will be developed in the proposed system, which is the alert

mechanism, where administrator will be alerted via SMS if there is any lack of

bandwidth or the amount of bandwidth is in the critical level. By having this feature, the administrator will be alerts of the condition of the network most of the time. This will ensure the availability in the network. Furthermore, the proposed system is use to monitor bandwidth and 5 services like WWW, FTP, SMTP, Telnet and DNS. Finally, the proposed system will be easy to use compare to other monitoring system such as MRTG that have a complicated installation steps. It has a simple interfaces where make the proposed system user friendly but integrated functioning.

1.6 EXPECTED RESULT

As the result for the proposed project, the project should be able to monitor the condition of the current health of the network bandwidth environment. Besides that, the system should able to alert administrator if the usage of bandwidth is greater than the threshold that administrator set or the amount of the bandwidth is in the critical level as well as there any error with the services. Furthermore, the system also manages to monitor 5 services such as WWW, FTP, SMTP, Telnet and DNS.

1.7 CONCLUSION Being a network administrator, bandwidth monitoring is one of the basic things that an administrator required to know. But to create a bandwidth monitoring tools, really need such a lot of thing that need to be focused. There's a lot thing that need to be understand before proceed another step of developing a monitoring tools. Finding wealgesses fiom the previous system is one of the best ways to enhance the system. This is because it will make the future system more reliable and specific. Rather than problem fixing fiom the previous, developers also has to fully understand and clearly prepared about the

scope, the advantages of the system and other materials so that the newly system can be dependable and usable in many aspect.

CHAPTER I1

LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROJECT METHODOLOGY

2.1 INTRODUCTION

Chapter 2 claim to be the most important chapter for any project that will be develops. Fact and finding is the main section as well as the methodology choosing will be the guidance through the entire project progress. The fact and finding play the role as the backbone or the main item of the section, where a lot of research have to be done on the proposed project. Every data that has gained need to revise and review during physical study. Moreover, assumptions, facts and conclusion for any review have to be made as the outcome while doing the research. The third section of the chapter is the project methodology where a methodology is use as the solution tree to the project. By having the proper project methodology, the project is able to be complete regarding to the required time period. For the project required section, where all the requirements such as software and hardware as well as the operating system requirement will be listed out. So, developer can understand all the features that are available in the requirement before proceeding to the proposed project. Finally, the fifth section of the chapter will be the project schedule and milestone. In this section, a Gantt chart will be attach along with this section as the

documentation that list details of all task and activity required during the progress of the project. And as usual, the conclusion section will end the entire explanation for this chapter.

2.2 FACT AND FINDING

Having a complete review of the material in the literature review is the main backbone of strength of this chapter. As an approval of research when organizing the planned project, literature review also will acts as guidance when completing the whole progress of the system when reaching the "project development" task in the selected methodology. Here, developers will completely elaborate the result of the review and all the matters of a fact that has been approval by the trusted source on the criteria of handling the bandwidth control and monitoring system. For the Fact and Finding, the author has do some research on the related field for the proposed project; the bandwidth, the existing software on market, the language to use, database, services, and the architecture of the GSM.

2.2.1 BANDWIDTH

Bandwidth in computer networking refers to the data rate supported by a network connection or interface. One most commonly expresses bandwidth in terms of bits per second (bps). Bandwidth represents the capacity of the network connection. The grkater the capacity, the more likely that greater performance will follow. Bandwidth monitoring is part of the network monitoring. Bandwidth Monitor tracks traffic of all network connections and displays real-time download and upload speeds in graphical and numerical forms.

2.2.2 EXISTING SOFTWARE ON MARKET Choosing software's on planning the whole project is one of the biggest challenge on all kind of the project. There are many bandwidths monitoring available in the market with the alert mechanism features such as ManageEngine OpManager Free Edition 5.5, GFI Network Monitor Server, Bello Network Monitoring WinGUI 5.3.3.642, and the other. Table 2.1: Manager Engine OpManager, GFI Network Sewer Monitor 7 and Bello Network Monitoring WinGUI 5.3.3.642 Product Name ManageEngine OpManager Edition 5.5 Version Free version of Version7.0 never XP/2000, Windows 4.x/2000/XP [q NT Windows 95/98/MEl2OOO/XP 161 License Size Support a Freeware [8] 26834 KB [8] for N/A Shareware [7] 13MB [7] Freeware [6] 1.26MB [6] ManageEngine OpManager expires. Platform Windows Linux [8] GFI Network Sewer Bello Free Monitor 7 Monitoring WinGUI 533.642 Version 5.3.3.642 [6] Network

Store monitoring data NIA to an SQL Server or MS Access database backend, remote accessing as well as report generation by third party tools such

SQL Sewer as database backend

as Crystal Reports or

MS Automatically monitor network servers failures Alert Mechanism Chart graph the and for NIA Support.

Reporting Detect network and website failures early.

Services). [5]

Alerts via email or Alert sent via email, Notify

via

email,

through SMS.

pager or SMS. usehl NIA

SMS, pager or ICQ message. NIA

and Generates

charts and reports to analyze performance of your devices over a period of time [2].

2.23 LANGUAGE TO USE Choosing which language to be use for the proposed system is one of the biggest challenges on all kind of the project. There are many languages in order to create a system, such as Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition, Java and FeatureC*. Table 2.2: Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition, Java and FeatureC++ Language Platform License Fast applications Microsoft Visual Basic Java 6.0 Enterprise Edition Windows Complete package With native compilation provides fast Windows NIA code NIA NIA NIA FeatureCU

applications. [9]
Powerful Windows-based Support applications Simple and tightly NIA NIA NIA NIA

Support [13]

integrated support for concurrent programming Powerful, flexible, Support NIA NIA N/A simplified data access Solving the extensibility NIA problem

Solves problem subclass leaves subclasses

the

extensibility by creating a new the

class' existing outdated. [ 141

Improved coding Direct platform Cope Full constructs Mobile Applications the increasing NIA NIA N/A NIA access to

SUPPO~~ the Support

NIA NIA

NIA NIA

Support [14]
NIA NIA

complexity object-oriented Support

Support

2.2.4 DATABASE According to

The

Definitive

Guide

to

MySeL.5.

Refer

to

http://www.springerlink.comlcontent~jq44ww3844g21281fulltext.pdf. A database 1
can be a list of address residing in a spreadsheet program such as Excel, or it can be the administration files of a telecommunications firm in which several million calls are registered daily, their charges accurately calculated, monthly bills computed, and warning letters sent to those who are in arrears. A simple database can be a standalone operation where residing locally on a computer for a single user, while others may be used simultaneously by thousands of users, with the data parceled out among several computers and dozens of hard drives. The size of a database can range from a few kilobytes into the terabytes. In ordinary usage, the word database is used to refer to the actual data, the resulting database files, the database system such as MySQL or Oracle, or a database client such as PHP script. Thus, there arises a great potential for confusion as soon as two people begin to converse on the subject of database. A database is an ordered collection of data, which is normally stored in one or more associated files.

(http://www.springerlink.com/content/j1q44ww3844g21281fidltext.pdf)
Table 2.3: MySQL and Microsoft Access Database Relational database systems There are several SQL dialects. MySQL N/A adheres to the current SQL standard (at the moment SQL:2003), although Nth significant restrictions and a large number of extensions. Through the configuration setting sql-mode can make the MySQL Microsoft Access NIA

MYSQL
A relational database system. [lo]

SQL compatibility

server behave for the most part compatibly with various database systems. [lo]
Stored procedures Programming languages

Supported stored procedures since version NIA 5.0. [lo] There are quite a number of APIs Can be used as a (application programming interfaces) and back-end database libraries for the development of MySQL to other apps such applications. For client programming, the as apps written in languages C, C++, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Visual Basic, Delphi and Tcl can be use. [lo] or C++ etc or to web apps. [l 11 150,000 [Ill Very fast database program. [lo] Depends on the processor speed and memory of client PCs, the number of users connected at any one time to the database (it tends to degrade after about 10 or so users), and Local Area Network speed (LAN). [ 11] records

Database record speed

50 million records [12]

2.2.5 SERVICES
Table 2.4: Sewices Description Mail The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is used to send e-mail

Sewices Simple Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

between servers. SMTP is an Internet's standard host-to-host mail transport protocol that usually travels over TCPAP port 25, and is used to send messages, but not receive them. Thus we need to specify the POP or IMAP server as well as the SMTP server when configure the e-mail application. [I 51

Telnet

Telnet is a protocol that allows you to connect to remote computers (called hosts) over a TCPIIP network (such as the Internet). You use software called a telnet client on your computer to make a connection to a telnet server (i-e., the remote host). Once your telnet client establishes a connection to the remote host, your client becomes a virtual terminal, allowing you to communicate with the remote host from your computer. In most cases, you'll need to log into the remote host, which requires that you have an account on that system. Occasionally, you can log in as guest or public without having an account. [I 61

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

The underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web. H?TP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. For example, when you enter a URL in your browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the Web server directing it to fetch and transmit the requested Web page. HTTP is called a stateless protocol because each command is executed independently, without any knowledge of the commands that came before it. This is the main reason that it is difficult to implement Web sites that react intelligently to user input. This shortcoming of HTTP is being addressed in a number of new technologies, including ActiveX, Java, JavaScript and cookies. [I 71

File Transfer The protocol for exchanging files over the Internet. FTP works in Protocol (FTP)

the same way as HTTP for transferring Web pages from a server to a user's browser and SMTP for transferring electronic mail across the Internet in that, like these technologies, FTP uses the Internet's TCPIIP protocols to enable data transfer. FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server using the Internet or to upload a file to a server (e.g., uploading a Web page file to a server). [18]

Domain Name The most basic use of DNS is to translate hostnames to IP SystemPNS)

addresses. DNS assign Internet destinations to the human organization or concern they represent, independently of the physical routing hierarchy represented by the numerical IP address. Because of this, hyperlinks and Internet contact information can remain the same, whatever the current IP routing arrangements may be, and can take a human-readable form which is rather easier to remember than an IP address. DNS distributes the responsibility for assigning domain names and mapping them to IP networks by allowing an authoritative server for each domain to keep track of its own changes, avoiding the need for a central registrar to be continually consulted and updated. [2 1]

Post Protocol (Pop3)

Office POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is the most recent version of a

standard protocol for receiving e-mail. It is a clientlserver protocol

in which e-mail is received and held by the Internet server. This

standard protocol is built into most popular e-mail products, such as Eudora and Outlook Express. It's also built into the Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. POP3 is designed to delete mail on the server as soon as the user has downloaded it. However, some implementations allow users or an administrator to specify that mail be saved for some period of time. POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service. POP and IMAP deal with the receiving of e-mail and are not to be confused with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a protocol for transferring e-mail across the Internet. An e-mail is sent with SMTP and a mail

handler receives it on the recipient's behalf. Then the mail is read using POP or IMAP. The conventional port number for POP3 is
110. [23]

2.2.6 GSM NETWORK

According to Gunnar Heine and Holger Sagkob (2003), each GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) network can be subdivided into the base station subsystem (BSS) and the network switching subsystem (NSS), as well as the mobile station. Many characteristics of GSM are defined in terms of the mobile device: i. The cellular network configuration with relatively small cell sizes enables low transmission energy consumption on the mobile station side, which is why the mobile station battery can be kept small and light. ii. The GMSK modulation used in GSM enables the use of low-cost power amplifiers; this is basically a simple modulation process. Production costs should also be accordingly low. iii. The original GSM standard did not provide for GSM mobile stations being able to transmit and receive simultaneously. Duplex operation was not envisaged. Consequently, a duplexer on the interface between transmitting / receiving path and antenna was not necessary. This factor also reduces the complexity and costs of a GSM mobile station. iv. As opposed to other network elements in the NSS and BSS, detailed requirement, for example, of the man-machine interface (MMI), were defined for the mobile station. v. The clear definition of compulsory and optional features of the GSM mobile station with regard to performance allows for hundreds of test cases. These are specially defined for mobile stations in the GSM standards. Every GSM

mobile station must conform to these test cases before it is permitted to be retailed. At first glance, this restriction may seem to be a hindrance, but it proves to be most advantageous in the long run because it ensures customer confidence and reduces significantly the number of costly recall campaigns.
4
1 '

Gateway to external n e

I!

(-&!%\
f
BSS

MSC Area

,
MSC Area

\ .

Figure 2.1: GSM network architecture

After all the research that relate to the proposed project in section 2.2 Fact and fmding, the author will continue with the project methodology that use for the proposed project.

2.3 PROJECT METHODOLOGY

Methodology is a solution tree, or a directed acyclic graph that rooted at the problem statement and includes the system acceptance test that satisfies all of the goals in the problem statement. In terms of software methodology definition, a methodology is the study of how to navigate through each phase of the software process model, which is determining data, control, or uses hierarchies, partitioning functions, and allocating requirements. And how to represent phase products in structure charts, stimulus-response threads, and state transition diagrams. Methodology is very important while developing certain software. It acts as a
guidance that may affect the entire progress of the project. A suitable methodology

usage may guide the developer through the whole project in order to meet the user requirement. There is a lot of methodology type that been created by the noble, such as Object Oriented and Design (OOAD), Structured System Analysis and Design Method (SSADM), Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and others. Each methodology represents a different approach to evaluation. The fact that there are so many approaches in common use simply reflects the fact that no single methodology is the best. So, based on the planned project, The Bandwidth Monitoring - alert via SMS, developer has chosen prototyping as the guidance through the whole project. Prototyping is the process of quickly putting together a working model (a prototype)

in order to test various aspects of a design, illustrate ideas or features and gather
early user feedback. The advantages of using prototyping are providing the proof of concept necessary to attract funding and the early visibility of the prototype gives users an idea of what the final system look like. Besides that, it also encourages active participation among users producer and enables a higher output for user. Moreover, prototyping is more cost effective. That is the development costs reduced. Lastly, it increases system development speed.

RequirementAnalysis

1
A r c h b d u n l Design

1
Pmject Developnent
Install Wndows XP. Wndow Server 2003

4
Create-interface using Miamoff Visual Basic 6.0 Create Script

___)I
Abil'i to handleincoming

=
Integrate the alett method

Run Script

Graph for Bandwidth

A alert SMS received by adminstrator

Figure 2.2: The Framework Methodology

The figure below shows the prototyping methodology for the proposed system. This prototyping methodology is the scripting methodology for the system.

i \ Planning

r-7
Analysis

Design
Implementation

System Prototype

Implementation

u
Figure 2.3: The Prototyping Methodology

System

2.3.1 REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS

Requirement analysis is the process of analyzing the information needs of the end users, the organizational environment, and any system presently being used, developing the functional requirement of a system that can meet the needs of the users. It encompasses those tasks that go into determining the requirements of a new or altered system, taking account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders, such as users. Requirements analysis is critical to the success of a project. All the need that requires in this project and the probabilities that may cause several hasslks while implementing the project will list out in this phase. The most important aspect while in this phase is to meet the user requirement. For this proposed project, developer has to study and acquire full concentration of system requirement. Furthermore, the requirement should be recorded and can be referred throughout the rest of the system development process to ensure the developing project aligns with user needs.

2.3.2 A R C H I T E C T U DESIGN

The architectural design is made after the phase of requirement analysis. Architectural design serves as a blueprint for the system. Besides that, it helps detect the problems before these errors or problems are built into the final system. The best way to describe this phase is through sketching or schematic blueprint. By using this method, developer able to sirnplifl a suitable interfaces that suits with the system.

2.33 PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Project development is the phase where developer develops the proposed project. All the software and hardware, along with the operating system requirement are uses in this phase. A lot of hardware is used in this phase such as switch, cables, PC's, and other. The activities in project development phase are:
1.

Install Windows XP, Window Server 2003 Create Interfaces using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. Create a script Integrate the alert method

111.

.. 11. ...

iv.

2.3.4 SYSTEM TESTING

The system must be tested to evaluate its actual functionality in relation to expected or intended functionality. End users will be the core in the determining whether the developed system meets the intended requirement. Developer will test the ability to handle the incoming amount of bandwidth and the alert mechanism via SMS.

2.4 PROJECT REQUIREMENT Project requirement consist of 3 major categories; Software Requirement, hardware Requirement and other requirement. As a requirement for the project completion, every item that need to be use in the requirement should be implements, analyzes and acquires details to ensure the right usefulness of the system.

2.4.1 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT Certain software will be used to design and develop the monitoring system in the proposed project. It consists of 3 division of software: Equipmentldevelopmenttools a. Microsoft Project Microsoft Project is a project management software program developed and sold by Microsoft which is designed to assist project managers in developing plans, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing budgets and analyzing workloads. The application creates critical path schedules, although critical chain and event chain methodology third-party add-ons are available. Schedules can be resource leveled, and chains are visualized in a Gantt chart.

I.

b. Microsoft Visio 2003

Easier function able software that supports on either concept draw or the smart draw, such as shape, graphic size can easily turned, turning new arrowhead on each side, creating into a connector simply by dragging each arrowhead to touch a connect point on another shape. c. Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition Visual Basic that able to create interfaces and integrated it with the VB scripting language.

ii.

Operating system/ server a. WindowsXP Windows XP Professional is designed for productivity at home, school, or the office with improved networking and remote access tools. Windows XP Professional able to manages your system resources, such as memory, CPU time, and file operations, in a way that keeps your system running as quickly possible when you are working with several programs at the time. So the project can be worked well in Window XP Professional.

b. Window Server 2003

Windows 2003 brings compatibility and other features fiom Windows

XP. It allows older code to run with more stability. It also includes
enhancements to various services such as the IIS web server. Windows 2003 brought in enhanced Active Directory compatibility, and better deployment support, to ease the transition from NT 4 to Windows 2003 and XP. iii. Database system a. MS Access Microsoft Access is a powerful program to create and manage databases. It has many built in features to assist user in constructing and viewing the information. Access is much more involved and is a more genuine database application than other programs such as Microsoft Works.

2.4.2 HARDWARE REQUIREMENT

To develop this monitoring system, certain hardware will be used. Basic hardware's that will be used are: Personal Computer (PC) PC will be used to install and run all the software that has been mentioned before. The minimum requirements for each PC are: a. Processor: Pentium 4 The Pentium 4 processor - Intel's "next generation" of processor to succeed the Pentium I11 and Celeron processors. The Intel0 PentiumB 4 Processor is designed to deliver performance across usages. It is a powefil processor available for PC. b. Hard Disk Drive Hard disk drive is the mechanism that controls the positioning, reading, and writing of the hard disk, which furnishes the largest amount of data storage for the PC. c. Memory: 256 MB RAM

I.

RAM is perhaps the most important of the input/output

devices. The higher capacity of RAM in a PC, the faster the each program is executed. ii. Switches Switch is a device that filters and forwards packets between LAN segments. Switches operate at the data link layer (layer 2) and sometimes the network layer (layer 3) of the OSI Reference Model. Therefore, it supports any packet protocol.

iii.

Network cables
Short for Category 5, network cabling that consists of four twisted pairs of copper wire terminated by W45 connectors. Cat-5 cabling supports frequencies up to 100 MHz and speeds up to 1000 Mbps. It can be used for ATM, token ring, 1000Base-T, 100Base-T, and 10Base-T networking. Cat-5 is based on the EIA/TIA 568 Commercial Building Telecommunications Wiring Industry Association in 1985. Standard developed by Electronics Industries Association as requested by the Computer Communications

iv.

Network Interface Card (NIC)

Expansion board that inserts into a computer so the computer can be connected to a network. Most NICs are designed for a particular type of network, protocol, and media, although some can serve multiple networks.

v.

GSM Modem or GSM Phone

A GSM modem is a wireless modem that works with a GSM wireless network. A wireless modem behaves like a dial-up modem. The main difference between them is that a dial-up modem sends and receives data through a fixed telephone line while a wireless modem sends and receives data through radio waves. A GSM modem can be an external device or a PC Card, PCMCIA Card. Typically, an external GSM modem is connected to a computer through a serial cable or a USB cable. A GSM modem in the form of a PC Card / PCMCIA Card is designed for use with a laptop computer. It should be inserted into one of the PC Card / PCMCIA Card slots of a laptop computer. Like a GSM mobile phone, a GSM modem requires a SIM card from a wireless carrier in order to operate.