To set up your cell phone number and start receiving alerts, visit your User CP and then Edit SMS Options. Use the link at the top of the options page to set up your number. The setup process will guide you through each step.

When you get to the step that sends a test message to your phone, you must wait to receive a text that contains a PIN number. Once you've received this text with the PIN, return to your SMS options to enter the PIN number. This verifies that your settings are working, and that you own the number you are trying to send notifications to.

If you don't receive the test message, you can resend it or try a different set of options using the links on the PIN entry page.

Once you have successfully set up your number, you can select what type of contact you want to receive from the forums. You can choose things like receiving a text message when someone sends you a private message, or allowing other users to send you a text message directly using a secure form on the forums that will not show your number.

You can select these notifications on the Edit SMS Options page in your User CP. Until you set up your number successfully, you will not receive alerts.

If you do not receive free text messages or you wish to limit the amount of texts you receive each day from the forums, you may do so in your SMS options.

Your daily texts will be shown next to your text limit. You may reset this at any point if there is a day where you wish to receive more than the number of texts you have specified, but you don't want to change your limit setting.

If you run into a carrier that you cannot get to work, or even a carrier that you can verify works, you can report this to the developer of the DF SMS System RobWoelich.com) so that it may be fixed in future versions. Links to report bad or good numbers can be found in the SMS options as you set your number up.

You may also report a correction to a cell phone email address, if one is wrong, or suggest a cell phone company to be added in the future by clicking here.

Q: I'm not receiving my PIN number or the test text message. Help!

You can try resending your PIN number or clearing your settings and selecting a different cell email address, if more than one was available for the company you selected. Sometimes, it may take a while to receive the message. If you are not receiving the message, it means the settings you selected are not working.

Before you report non-working settings, please make sure your cell phone company does not require you to activate MMS services or anything else before you are able to receive text messages through your email-to-text address. Also make sure you do not need to include any special area or country codes, or anything else like +44 in your number for the MMS address to work. You can generally find this information on your carrier's web site or by calling them.