Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa16855; 16 Nov 92 2:26 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10254 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 15 Nov 1992 23:59:00 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04061 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 15 Nov 1992 23:58:43 -0600 Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 23:58:43 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211160558.AA04061@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #851 TELECOM Digest Sun, 15 Nov 92 23:58:45 CST Volume 12 : Issue 851 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson AT&T to Offer a 900 MHz Cordless Phone (Brent Whitlock) AT&T ISDN Buffoonery (David E. Martin) Third Party Billing (Richard McCombs) Book Review - Two Books About Telegraphy (Jim Haynes) InterOffice Trunk Help Needed (Bill Garfield) Severe Combinet Problem (David E. Martin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: AT&T to Offer a 900 MHz Cordless Phone Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 18:27:12 GMT I saw a post in another group saying that AT&T will be offering a 900MHz cordless phone soon. I was wondering if anyone else has more information about this. I apologize if this was already discussed here; I haven't read this Digest for a while, and I don't have access to any archives (at least none that I am aware of.) Thanks. --- INCLUDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --- From: grund@calypso.som.cwru.edu (Victor Grund) Newsgroups: misc.consumers Subject: AT&T to offer 900Mhz Cordless Phone Date: 13 Nov 1992 05:15:57 GMT This evening I asked about 900Mhz cordless phones at my local AT&T Phone Store. I learned that AT&T indeed has developed a 900Mhz model but has delayed introduction due to last minute changes in the FCC rules for the new frequencies. Look for an AT&T version in January, priced at approximately $280. They also claim a 1-2 mile range. Yeah, right. I'd like to see that in writing! They didn't know if the AT&T model would be standard analog, like the Panasonic, or digital, like the VTECH Tropez. Victor D. Grund | grund@pyrite.som.cwru.edu IBM Cleveland Mktg Ops | grund@vnet.ibm.com RISC System/6000 & AIX | DETVMIC6(VGRUND) (216) 664-7381 | FAX: (216) 664-7348 --- END INCLUDED MESSAGE --- * * * * * * --> DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself. <-- * * * * * * Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology bwhitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [Moderator's Note: You have access to the Telecom Archives, where all back issues of this Digest (eleven year's worth!) are stored. You can use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Then 'cd telecom-archives'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dem@nhmpw2.fnal.gov (David E. Martin) Subject: AT&T ISDN Buffoonery Date: 15 Nov 92 18:41:07 GMT Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, USA Reply-To: dem@fnal.fnal.gov I have had ISDN into my home since April. I use it to tie into the Fermilab network from my home PC. When I first had the service installed, I thought I might need to my some out-of-LATA ISDN data calls. Therefor, I called AT&T and asked what the rates would be. Unfortunately, no one at AT&T could give me a rate schedule, and supplying area codes and exchanges produced widely varying prices. Finally, I gave up and prefixed a circuit-switched data call with 10288 and decided to wait for the bill. The calls never showed up on my Illinois Bell bill and I forgot about it. Today in the mail I received a bill directly from AT&T for the three calls that I made using 10288 in April (Nothing like timely billing!). The interesting part of the bill: NO Date Time To Place Area-Number * Min AMOUNT 1. Apr 22 1110AM Batavia IL 708-840-xxxx D 10.3 4.22 2. Apr 22 1211PM Batavia IL 708-840-xxxx D .5 .30 3. Apr 23 635AM Batavia IL 708-840-xxxx N .5 .25 I called the customer service number listed on the bill (800-544-6514) and asked for an explanation. The woman I spoke with said they had no access to billing information, but if I faxed my bill to her (she has an 800 number for her fax) she would explain the bill. I asked if I could just get a rate chart, and she said the only one she had was put out in February and was out of date. She said that call cost was based on time and distance (in air miles). I asked to speak to her supervisor. I got Phil Huntley, who said I needed to fax him my bill before he could help at all. When pressed, he said that all calls in IL are charge at $0.20 for the first half-minute and $0.004 for each additional six seconds, regardless of distance or time. When I said this didn't agree with my bill or the woman I first spoke with, he demanded that I fax him the bill and he would call me right back. I faxed him the bill and half an hour later yet another woman called me back and said they are investigating and will call me next week. Anyone know how to beat a Switched 56/64 rate chart out of AT&T? David E. Martin National HEPnet Management Phone: +1 708 840-8275 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory FAX: +1 708 840-8463 P.O. Box 500, MS 368; Batavia, IL 60510 USA E-Mail: dem@hep.net ------------------------------ Subject: Third Party Billing From: rick@ricksys.lonestar.org (Richard McCombs KB5SNF) Reply-To: rick@ricksys.lonestar.org Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 21:02:28 CST Organization: The Red Headed League; Lawton, Ok I work at a motel and I just had confrontation with a customer because I would not allow her to charge a call to her home phone. She became verbally abusive and I almost didn't get to explain to her that when a call was charged to a third party unless it was verified at the time of the call that when that party's bill came they could say that it wasn't their call and it would be put on her bill. (That is maybe a run-on sentence but I'm still upset with the tone she used with me.) At the end I said "If you don't like it get a Calling Card." Why don't people get Calling Cards? Why don't they understand that if they are here and nobody is home then how can anyone tell if they are charging it to their own phone, or their enemy, or something they pulled out of the air? The real question is why do the phone companies continue to allow third party billing? I guess it is because they can always stick someone with the bill. Internet: rick@ricksys.lonestar.org, bo836@cleveland.freenet.edu UUCP: ...!rwsys!ricksys!rick, {backbones}!ricksys.lonestar.org!rick BITNET: bo836%cleveland.freenet.edu@cunyvm Fidonet: Richard McCombs @ 1:385/6 [Moderator's Note: Why didn't you suggest that she use the payphone and place the call? Why didn't you let the telco operator handle the matter and avoid the hassle for yourself? If the number she billed it to was the number shown as her home phone on her registration card at your motel, and you saw some form of identification from her when she checked in, I'd think that would be adequate protection for the motel. In addition, Calling Cards are quite phreakable; I presume if she had a phalse Calling Card number that could have posed a problem also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) Subject: Book Review - Two Books about Telegraphy Date: 15 Nov 1992 09:15:22 GMT Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz Review - Two Little Books about Telegraphy 1. Collectors' Reprint of Bunnell Student's Manual of 1884. privately printed by L. A. Bailey, 909 S. Evergreen Ave., Clearwater, FL 34616. 48 pp. $8.00 ppd. 2. Railroad Telegrapher's Handbook, by Tom French. Artifax Books, Box 88-D, Maynard, MA 01754. 60 pp. $11.95 ppd. I found these books advertised in "Dots and Dashes", the quarterly newspaper of the Morse Telegraph Club, Inc. (subscription $7.00 per year to R. A. Iwasyk, 12350 W. Offner Rd., Manhattan, IL 60442) The "Student's Manual" is a beautiful reproduction of the 1884 original, including the gray cover. J(esse) H. Bunnell & Co. was a leading manufacturer of telegraph instruments in the 19th century and remained in business, doing a lot of contract manufacturing for Western Union, until, I guess, the 1960s or later. In contrast to the reality reported by Edwin Gabler this booklet suggested excellent employment prospects existed for telegraph operators. The first topic covered is the technical explanation of the telegraph, consisting of battery, line wire, transmitting key, and sounder. The battery described in the wet gravity cell, containing copper sulphate and a zinc "crowfoot" electrode. Line wires are usually made of iron, for cheapness and strength; while copper insulated with silk or gutta-percha is used inside buildings. The earth is used as one conductor, so that a single wire may be used per circuit. They key and sounder are described next. Earlier practice was to use a register to record signals on paper tape. After several years of practical telegraphy operators discovered they could read the characters by the sound of the instrument as easily as by looking at the marks on the tape; so registers fell into disuse. Next the student is instructed in detail how to set up and care for the battery and connect and adjust the instruments. Then he or she is to practice alone sending, practice sending and receiving with a companion, and practice sending and receiving with the companion in another room, or in another house. Several pages are devoted to details of learning the code. This is followed by examples of messages and discussion of common abbreviations and telegraph office practices. The popular amateur radio signal '73', now usually rendered as "best regards", was in use in that day as "accept my compliments." Then there is a discussion of how to construct private lines, and the need for a lightning arrestor. It is noted that the total resistance of the sounders should nearly equal the total resistance of the line wire, showing that the maximum power transfer theorem was known (whether by theory or by trial-and-error) in that day. The book concludes with a catalog of instruments available from J. H. Bunnell, and page of testimonials to the excellence of Bunnell's keys. Keys, sounders, batteries, etc. are all illustrated. The back cover shows the appearance of Bunnell's store and factory at 112 Liberty Street, New York. The Railroad Telegrapher's Handbook is a newly-written (1991) book that tells all about how Morse telegraphy was used on railroads until nearly the present time. (An article in Dots and Dashes reproduces a train order that was received by Morse in 1982, on the Burlington-Northern, and may have been the last train order so transmitted.) Lists of operating rules are given, presumably taken from the rule books of actual railroads, along with sample train order messages. Railroad telegraphy is a lot more complicated than the ordinary Western Union office. Railroad messages are critical to safety; some messages are not complete until they have been repeated back to the sender, delivered to the addressees, read and signed by the addressees, and the signatures transmitted back to the sender. Most require multiple copies. A railroad operator would write with a stylus on thin, translucent paper, using double-sided carbon paper. Semaphore signals and the hooks for delivering messages to the crews of moving trains are described. Wiring diagrams are given for an operating table connected to several lines, and for a Morse repeater. There is a map of the New Mexico Division of AT&SF, showing how various offices are connected to several line circuits. A selector system is described, which allows calling up a particular telegraph office without requiring operators to listen constantly for their office call letters. (Most circuits were "way" operated, meaning that several offices were connected by the same circuit and sounders at all responded to all the traffic on the line.) The book is made all the more enjoyable with reproductions of advertisements that appeared in trade magazines: typewriters, telegraph instruments, Vibroplex keys, swivel chairs, shorthand instruction, and an attachment to enable a bicycle to be ridden on the railroad rail. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad was advertising for operators "able to copy Morse at 25 words per minute, and should be in good physical condition." as recently as 1954. Of considerable interest in this day when we hear so much about repetitive motion injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome, there is an advertisement for Telegrapher Liniment, which never fails where directions are followed implicitly. "Operator's Paralysis or Writer's Cramp comes like a thief in the night, and almost before you are aware of it you find it impossible to send any kind of readable Morse." Another advertisement is for the "Operator's Friend" a massage or exercise device whidh "prevents and cures telegrapher's paralysis and writer's cramp." The front cover reproduces an artist's illustration from the front cover of a 1904 telegrapher's magazine, showing a young man clad in white shirt, high collar, and vest working at his key while a uniformed trainman waits at his elbow for orders. There are two pages of railroad slang and two pages of bibliography. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ Subject: InterOffice Trunk Help Needed From: bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com (Bill Garfield) Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 20:13:00 -0600 Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569 Reply-To: bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com (Bill Garfield) Background: I have two MITEL SX2000SG 3-cabinet PBX's side-by-side in my office. Southwestern Bell service arrives via 44.736 Mbps (DS3) fiber terminating in Rockwell equipment. The PBX's are digital, The trunks are digital. There is no channel bank equipment at my end. Network synchronization is derived from SWB. Span status logs indicate *NO* frame slips, *NO* bit errors and no CRC errors. Everything is in sync, fat, dumb and happy. Two CO's across town (near a business associate) I have another MITEL three-cabinet SG. Just coincidentally, this machine is served by the same CO as my business associate (about more later). Only the PSTN service from SWB and my IXC feeds (USS) are non ISDN. All the MITELS derive network sync from one of the machines here at the corporate office, which in turn derives its sync from SWB. We've tried different sync sources, even let 'er go freerun without any change in the problem. Zero suppression is AMI -- throughout the network ... I've checked. The problem: For a _very_ long time now I have been having fits trying to RELIABLY receive 9600 bps FAX transmissions from a very large business associate across town. (Two central offices away). The brand of fax machine in use at either end has no bearing, as we've both tried several brands, multiple machines on multiple extensions. In desperation, I installed a copper POTS line (from SWB) direct to ONE of my 170 fax machines (yes, 170!). This works SWELL, but doesn't address the central issue of the business associate being unable to reliably send long, multiple-page fax messages from any of his 75 fax machines to any of the other 169 machines at my corporate office. In answer to the obvious question, neither we nor the business associate are experiencing any fax problems with anyone else that we know of. Testing and research: A few nights ago, the business associate & I attempted sending nearly 100 fax images from his location to mine via the SWB PSTN. As it was off-peak, all my PBX's were basically idle, so I was able to busy out selected DID T-1's, thereby effectively "steering" his inbound fax calls from SWB onto specific individual T-1's, and recording the span and channel number being seized. I thought I was going to find a bunch of bad trunks. I didn't. What I found was that whenever a specific trunk WOULD pass his fax image to me flawlessly, the next time the SAME trunk got selected the fax would fail. We tried these same tests on nine different SWB DID T-1's, busying out eight spans and leaving one span of 24 trunks open. The failure rate was nearly identical. Five of these spans are served by a 5AESS and the other four by a 1A, but that too seems not to matter. When things failed, as they did at an alarming rate of 50% of the time, the fax machines would experience difficult link negotiations and then sync up at 4800 or 2400. The received image captured from a marginal link contains SERIOUSLY misaligned pixels -- it looks like a noisey image, but at close scrutiny, it isn't noise, as no "extra" gibberish is present. The desired image was there, but with literally thousands of "holes" in it from "missing" pixels. The missing pixels are all there, but are scattered about the page, appearing as noise dots. The received image is so mutilated as to be virtually unintelligible. Brainstorm! I took an unused DID number on my downtown PBX (near the associate) and "routed" it via my internal ISDN trunks to send the call to the same fax machine on the same extension, cable and pair, but using my internal trunks instead of Bell's. This WORKS! - So WHY can't ma bell give me usable fax circuits over her PSTN? What's different? I strongly suspect inter-machine trunk trouble between the National and Clay central offices, but how do I prove this and how do I get through to the teledroid at repair service that we're experiencing this problem on ALL 216 DID trunks? Profound thoughts and ideas are welcomed. Ye Olde Bailey BBS Houston,Texas Node 1: 1 713 520 1569 yob.sccsi.com ------------------------------ From: dem@nhmpw2.fnal.gov (David E. Martin) Subject: Severe Combinet Problem Date: 15 Nov 92 18:24:25 GMT Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, USA Reply-To: dem@fnal.fnal.gov !!!!!!WARNING TO THOSE USING COMBINET ISDN-ETHERNET BRIDGES!!!!!! There is a severe problem with Combinet's ISDN bridges. In the event that the internal table of 1500 ethernet addresses gets filled up, the bridge echoes local LAN traffic back onto the LAN. This can cause massive problems in a large network. In fact, the Fermilab network experienced almost total outage until the problem was traced to the Combinet bridge. If your network has more than 1500 ethernet devices, you are susceptible to this problem. A quick fix is to set the aging time to a small value (like 60 sec). Combinet is working on a fix. David E. Martin National HEPnet Management Phone: +1 708 840-8275 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory FAX: +1 708 840-8463 P.O. Box 500, MS 368; Batavia, IL 60510 USA E-Mail: dem@hep.net ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #851 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa21591; 16 Nov 92 5:01 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25753 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 16 Nov 1992 02:17:16 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14542 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 16 Nov 1992 02:16:59 -0600 Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 02:16:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211160816.AA14542@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #852 TELECOM Digest Mon, 16 Nov 92 02:17:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 852 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Dialing Changes in New England Tel Land (Scott Fybush) New Area Code Blitzes Cell Phone User (Mark Earle) Transcontinental ISDN Project (TRIP '92) (Nigel Allen) MCI MAIL Announces "Full Support" of Internet Gateway (Randy Gellens) Dial Tone on CATV (Randy Gellens) Help With Locating DSP Expertise (tretech@well.sf.ca.us) British Telecom Profits (monty@vnet.ibm.com) Dumb Question About LATA/Toll (Bill Hofmann) NEC Electra-16/48 (Martin Zimmerman) Internet Conversion Document (Paul Robinson) Cross-Over Switch With RJ14C (Charlie Rosenberg) Source Wanted For Area Code Information (Daniel Furnier) 'Allo 'Allo; Paris, France Included in the New Los Angeles Area (R.Gellens) Measure Twice, Cut Once ... (David Lesher) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: fybush@unixland.natick.ma.us (Scott Fybush) Subject: Dialing Changes in New England Tel Land Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 19:51:38 -0500 (EST) New England Tel is getting ready for the introduction of NNX-style NPAs in a few years. This morning's papers announce that the end of 1-NNX-XXXX dialing for long distance within area code is imminent. NETel is replacing it with NNX-XXXX, which IMHO is a mistake, since there are some rather expensive calls that can be made within NPAs here, and the telecom-illiterate will have no easy way of knowing whether the NXX-XXXX they're about to dial is around the corner or 100 miles away. I would have preferred 1-NPA-NXX-XXXX, but I'll have to live with what they've chosen (and for me in 617 there are only about a dozen NXX's that will change anyway). The announced phase-in dates are: February 1993: Westfield, Russell, and Monson MA (413-562, 568, 572; 413-862; and 413-267). by December 1993: all of 413, 401, 603, and 802. by 1994: all of 207, 508, and 617. Accompanying this change in 508 will be a revision of dialing procedures for local calls which cross state lines. Consumers now dial just seven digits; henceforth they'll dial 1-603 or 1-401, as the case may be. Presently calls dialed with 1-603 or 1-401 are carried by an IXC and billed at toll rates; presumably NET will intercept those calls in the switch and carry them themselves. Anyone really wanting to pay toll rates will presumably be able to dial 10XXX first. No word on whether calls in the other direction will have to use 1-508, or whether seven digits will continue to be used. BTW, all the local media did a good job reporting the story accurately, noting the way the change will make 640 new NPAs available, and even mentioning that New England Tel will be able to add new NXX-style exchanges (although it obviously was not phrased that way). If anyone heard the version of the story that aired on WBZ radio Friday morning 11/13, I'd welcome comments ... I wrote it and tried to make it both telecom-accurate and accessible to the non-telecom listener. I hope it worked :-) Scott Fybush -- fybush@unixland.natick.ma.us These are not the opinions of WBZ radio or Group W. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 14:56:32 CST From: mearle@pro-party.cts.com Subject: New Area Code Blitzes Cell Phone User This last weekend (November 7) a friend and I were in Houston attending a conference. He is from San Antonio, which the week prior had officially cut over to area code 210 (from 512). He dutifully went and had his portable cmt reprogrammed, and reports calls in and out worked fine all week while in San Antonio. Upon arriving in Houston, he tried to make some calls, but got constant reorder -- no message. Upon checking with customer service, it turns out that GTE Mobilnet hadn't updated "something" and believed his phone number and esn not to match the data base, and thereby denied him service. He was unable to use his phone the entire weekend. No one in CS seemed to be able to do anything for him; it "might" be fixed by Monday, they said. Seems like, with over a year's advance notification of the exact date, and all the publicity, *someone* at GTE Mobilnet would have considered this and done whatever updates were required. Oh well. At least my phone (on the same carrier as my friend's, Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems) worked, since my home area, Corpus Christi, did not change with the new A/C. mearle@pro-party.cts.com (Mark Earle) [WA2MCT/5]-= + FidoNet at Opus 1:160/50.0 Bitnet adblu001@ccsu.vm1 Internet 73117.351@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Transcontinental ISDN Project (TRIP '92) Organization: Echo Beach Many telephone companies, including Bell Canada, will be offering ISDN demonstrations in connection with the Transcontinental ISDN Project (TRIP '92) next week. TRIP '92 will focus on three major elements - demonstrations of actual applications of ISDN, national interconnectivity of ISDN through the interexchange network, and a series of activities centered in the Washington area. For information about Bell Canada's participation in TRIP, call the Communications Seminar at (416) 581-2400 in Toronto, (613) 785-2020 in Ottawa or (514) 875-2511 in Montreal. For more information on ISDN demonstrations in your area, call the Corporation for Open Systems International (COSI) at 1-800-759-COSI voice or 703-848-4572 fax, or the ISDN manager at your local telephone company. A message from Bell Canada follows: The week of November 16-20, 1992 has been chosen as it coincides with the industry's most extensive event of the year - the Transcontinental ISDN Project 1992 (TRIP '92). TRIP '92 heralds the arrival of National ISDN-1, the first ISDN service based on standards accepted by all vendors in North America. The week-long program includes a number of two-hour tours scattered throughout each day, three or four per day, starting Tuesday, November 17 through Friday, November 20. Each tour will be hosted by numerous live demonstrations of the latest ISDN applications. Each day, except Friday November 20, will end with a one-hour Video Dial-up multipoint demonstration, between 5-6 PM and cocktail reception, sponsored by Canadian distributors of videoconferencing equipment. The program will be held simultaneously in the three Bell Communications Seminars located in Toronto - Bell Trinity Square, Ottawa - Place Bell Canada and Montreal - Place Victoria. As this is certain to be a busy week, please confirm your attendance by calling the Communications Seminar, listed below, and reserve for this most exciting event. Toronto : 416-581-2400 Ottawa: 613-785-2020 Montreal: 514-875-2511 We look forward to seeing you there. Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044 ------------------------------ From: MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 15 NOV 92 04:00 Subject: MCI MAIL Announces "Full Support" of Internet Gateway A flier in this month's MCI MAIL bill announces "Full support of MCI MAIL's gateway to the internet!" and notes that the connection was "previously experimental." I know when I've complained in the past about mail never arriving, MCI MAIL told me the gateway was experimental. I assume this announcement means it is now supported. Randy Gellens randy%mpa15ab@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com| A Series System Software if mail bounces, forward to| Unisys Mission Viejo, CA rgellens@mcimail.com| Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself| [Moderator's Note: I'll be happy if they can manage to deliver this Digest on a timely basis to our fifty-plus subscribers on that network without dumping the whole thing undelivered back to me. Hopefully part of their 'full support' includes compliance with Internet standards for delivery of mail. :( PAT] ------------------------------ From: MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 15 NOV 92 04:03 Subject: Dial Tone on CATV With all the talk about cable companies wanting to compete with LECs for local dial tone, I started wondering: how can a cable company offer dial tone, when their cable runs out from their office, with houses strung off it (instead of LEC wires, which form individual local loops with houses)? How can they keep everyone's calls separate? I guess they could put everyone on a different frequency, but that would probably use up all of the cable, and then some. Don't they want to leave room for TV? Randy Gellens randy%mpa15ab@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com| A Series System Software if mail bounces, forward to| Unisys Mission Viejo, CA rgellens@mcimail.com| Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself| ------------------------------ From: tretech@well.sf.ca.us (Tretech Solutions Inc) Subject: Help With Locating DSP Expertise Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 15:05:32 GMT I have a client in need of some expertise in Digital Signal Processing. They are developing algorithms for modem chips. They have specific needs for folks with V.FAST, V.32, or V.17 standards experience. There is an excellent career opportunity available with our client for the right person. Does anyone have any suggestions where I can find this expertise? Please E-mail response to: TRETECH@WELL.SF.CA.US. Thanks in advance, Frank ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 15:34:44 GMT From: monty@vnet.ibm.com Subject: British Telecom Profits Hello, I recently noticed this on teletext (textual information sent with the TV picture -- I don't remember the technical name!): British Telecom (BT) recently announced pre-tax profits of 1.027bn pounds (sterling) for the six months up to 30 September, this being 36.2% down on last years figure of 1.61 bn.(NB 1 bn = 100,000,000). This (apparently) works out at about 65 pounds profit a second (compared to last years 102 pounds). BTs voluntary redundancy program has led to a loss of thousands of jobs from the company and a reduction in profits due to their payments. With these sorts of figures, it is not surprising that BT is facing stiff competition from other providers (CATV). Perhaps due to this and/or excessive profits BT has charge all calls within the UK on Sunday afternoon/evening at local rates for two of the last Sundays. Maybe they are listening to their customers?? I don't suppose so! Cheers. ------------------------------ From: wdh@netcom.com (Bill Hofmann) Subject: Dumb Question About LATA/Toll Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 17:47:16 GMT It truly is a dumb question, probably a definitional one. Are all intra-LATA calls non-toll, and all inter-LATA calls toll, by definition? Following on to that, can anyone suggest some good basic documents about the structure of telecom in the US, so I don't ask these questions again? Also, various people have posted LATA information. Is information about what prefixes of a given NPA are in a given LATA (if there's > one LATA per an NPA) available, and if so, from whom? What's a good first phone number to call with questions like this? Inquiring minds need to know. Bill Hofmann (wdh@netcom.com) [Moderator's Note: LATAs are the geographic territories each telco is allowed to serve. It could sort of be compared to their 'franchise' territory. Usually you'll see one telco per LATA, but not always. LATAs can be and frequently do cover a wide geographic area. In such cases, there will probably be toll calls between various intra-LATA points. On the other hand, two communities which sit on opposite sides of some boundary line (such as a river, or a state line dividing an urban area in two parts) may well have a different LATA (and possibly a different telco) on each side of the boundary -- yet calls between the two sides will be treated as 'local calls' by mutual agreement between the telcos if there happen to be two of them. I guess it would be safe to say that with the exception of places right along the edge of a LATA, inter-LATA calls would in most cases be a toll call; not because of the different LATAs, but because of the mileage involved. Does anyone know the exact rule by which LATAs were drawn up? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun 15 Nov 92 16:04 From: Martin@wooga.cuc.ab.ca (Martin Zimmerman) Subject: NEC Electra-16/48 Our office just moved, and with our new building, we got a new phone system. Well, it isn't exactly "new", but it is newer than the one we had before. It is an NEC Electra-16/48. I am still new to all this PBX talk, and it is a bit of an annoyance that I have yet to discover how to program and use this thing, let alone any of it's capabilities. We have one manual called "INSTALLATION SERVICE MANUAL" which is rather cryptic. It assumes that you know all the PBX lingo and what you are doing. On top of all that the local telco no longer supports this beast so we have to get someone from a differnt company in to make any changes to the wiring or programming. We develop software and hardware here, so this is all right in line with the technical capabilites of myself and a few other employees. How do I do anything with this? Where can I find out more information? Does anyone still manufacture options for this? (The manual is dated 1983). All I have to do is learn, so where do I look first? Hopefully comp.dcom.telecom is the place to start. Cheers, Camz. [Moderator's Note: You've come to the right place. If anyone knows, the readers here will know. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 21:57:15 EST Subject: Internet Conversion Document I have sent to the Telecom Archives a combined document describing the correlation between Internet domain names, Telex Answerback codes, Country telex numbers, and international telephone numbers. This document is titled "internet.txt". I have submitted it also to the Internet RFC Editor, Jon Postel, for inclusion as an Internet RFC, and as such, it should be published there in about one month. Here's a sample from the first few lines: Telephone TELEX Country COUNTRY ANSWER Internet Name of Area/Country/Item Code CODE BACK Domain Abu Dhabi (UAE) ---- 949 EM AE Academic Internet clients ---- --- --- EDU Adeli Land ---- --- --- --- Adv. Res. Proj. Agc. - US DOD ---- --- --- ARPA Afganistan 93 930 AF --- Ajman (UAE) 971 949,958 EM AE Alaska (USA) 1907 --- UA AK.US Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM These opinions are mine alone. [Moderator's Note: This is now available in the Telecom Archives and is accessible using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then 'cd telecom-archives'. My thanks to Paul Robinson for sending it along. Other new files in the archives are revised Zone 7 and Zone 8 IDDD city codes and a file on MCI Mail interconnections throughout the world. Thanks to all who have donated files in recent days. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 19:23:33 PST From: Charlie Rosenberg Subject: Cross-Over Switch With RJ14C I am looking for a cross-over switch with modular phone connections. I currently have a tee attatched to both jacks of a two line phone and from those tees, one line goes to a fax and the other to a modem. I often need to swap those lines to make a long distance call on one device or the other. I am open to other scenarios to achive the swap, anything that avoids the unplugging of phone cords all the time. ------------------------------ Subject: Source Wanted For Area Code Information From: cccbbs!daniel.furnier@uceng.UC.EDU (Daniel Furnier) Date: 15 Nov 92 06:48:00 GMT Organization: Cincinnati Computer Connection BBS-Cincinnati,OH - 513-752-8248 Reply-To: cccbbs!daniel.furnier@uceng.UC.EDU (Daniel Furnier) I am a AT&T System 75 Administrator, I also run two predictive dialing systems. Does anyone know where I can find out each time a new area code comes out? The phone company never notifies me and I usually find out a few weeks after the fact by my phone operators. And a lot of the time, I am not sure if the areacodes I am dialing are correct or if someone made a data entry error. Thank you, Dan Furnier ------------------------------ From: MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 15 NOV 92 20:22 Subject: 'Allo 'Allo: Paris, France is Included in New Los Angeles Area This is from {Computergram} (Nov 5 & 6, '92) + 'ALLO 'ALLO: PARIS, FRANCE IS INCLUDED IN THE NEW LOS ANGELES AREA CODE Strange but true -- telephone users in Los Angeles have been trying to dial local numbers, only to find themselves put through to France. A slip of the finger? Apparently not -- Joshua Greenbaum, a freelance writer based in Paris has received eight different calls in the last month from callers in Los Angeles who dialed a local number. The final twist -- which propels the affair into the Twilight Zone -- came when a Los Angeles-based acquaintance tried to dial the facsimile machine on the desk next to him and found himself talking to his Paris-based buddy. The next day a call appeared on Greenbaum's answering machine, a recorded conversation in which a Pacific Bell operator explained to Greebaum's Los Angeles chum that she had just tried to call the number, had got no connection and that anyway "it is absolutely impossible to dial a seven-digit number in Los Angeles and get connected all the way to Paris, France". The problem seems to be a glitch in the implementation of a new Los Angeles area code: all of the callers who mistakenly got through to Greenbaum were trying to call a number within the new Los Angeles 310 area. The code for Paris is +331. Will the tangled tale ever get sorted? In the words of the immortalised PacBell operator "Well, sir, I'll just have to check into this." ------------------------------ From: David Lesher Subject: Measure Twice, Cut Once ... Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 21:51:46 EDT Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex ClariNet/UPI reports that AT&T's cable from Japan to Point Arena, California came up six miles short. Oops ... Hey boss... Suppose we yank hard and pull up the slack? wb8foz@scl.cwru.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #852 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29405; 16 Nov 92 23:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05607 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:09:19 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11759 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:08:45 -0600 Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:08:45 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211170308.AA11759@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #853 TELECOM Digest Mon, 16 Nov 92 21:08:40 CST Volume 12 : Issue 853 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Cable & Wireless Announces Major Alliance With BCE (Nigel Allen) Announcement: Short Course on MPEG Compression (Steve Haigh) AT&T Language Line -- A Practical Query (Will Martin) Testing Long Distance Connections (Tom Holodnik) Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone (John Simpson) NovAtel Cellular Systems (Gregory Youngblood) Nicad "Memory Effect" (was Cordless Phone Newbie Question) (Paul Cook) What Equipment is Required For Switched 56k? (Monty Solomon) Broadcasting Towers (Hector Salgado-Galicia) Dimension 2000 Guru Wanted (Patrick M. Landry) Telephone Lines Being Disconnected; Question (Paul Robinson) "Porthole" For Routing Cables Through Walls? (Don Jackson) They Love to Tell the Story (Mark Brader) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Nigel Allen Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Cable & Wireless Announces Major Alliance with BCE Organization: NDA Here is a press release from Cable & Wireless. An employee of the U.S. subsidiary of Cable & Wireless posted it in the MDF echo on Fidonet. CABLE & WIRELESS ANNOUNCES MAJOR ALLIANCE WITH BCE London, 11 November 1992 -- Cable & Wireless today announced the formation of a major alliance with BCE whose principal subsidiaries provide a full range of telecommunications services and systems to almost three quarters of the Canadian population. The new alliance is to be supported by BCE acquiring a 20 percent shareholding in Mercury for 480 million pounds and Cable & Wireless investing 30 million pounds into BCE's UK cable TV interests. Announcing the alliance, Lord Young, Executive Chairman of Cable & Wireless, said: "This advances the strategy of both Cable & Wireless and Mercury. Our partnership with one of the leading telecommunications companies will give us access to understanding research and development facilities. We look forward to working with BCE across the world, especially in Europe. "Our investment in BCE's cable TV interests will greatly enhance our ability to access residential customers and small and medium sized businesses reinforcing Mercury's role as the second force in UK telecommunications." BCE, Canada's largest company, recorded turnover of 10.4 billion pounds and profit before tax of 1.3 billion pounds in the year ended 31st December 1991. Its core business is in the provision of telecommunications services and the manufacture of telecommunications equipment. The corporation's principal subsidiaries include: Bell Canada, Canada's largest supplier of telecommunications services; Northern Telecom, one of the world's leading suppliers of fully digital communications systems; and Bell-Northern Research, Canada's largest research and development organization and a world leader in the design of advanced telecommunications systems. BCE's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. L.R. Wilson, commented: "This alliance represents a major step in BCE's strategy of expanding our global interests in our core telecommunications business. Cable & Wireless is one of the largest and most broadly based international telecommunications companies and is a strong partner. BCE's investment in Mercury will significantly enlarge our earnings base and open opportunities for further international investment in partnership with Cable & Wireless." The net cash to be generated from these transactions will be applied in reducing Cable & Wireless' gearing. Mercury will be substantially debt free after the transactions. Cable & Wireless will maintain management control of Mercury. However, BCE will have management involvement including the right to appoint two directors to the Board of Mercury and have a senior executive appointed to the company's Chief Executive's Committee. The Cable & Wireless investment in BCE's UK cable interests of 30 million pounds of long term capital will be a combination of equity and convertible securities. Cable & Wireless will have an initial shareholding of 12 percent, rising to 20 percent on full conversion. BCE has two major investments in the UK cable industry: an 80.4 percent interest in East London Telecommunications Limited and a 30.7 percent interest in Videotron Holdings Limited. Together the two companies hold 14 franchises in Central London covering approximately 60 percent or 1.6 million of London's homes, as well as franchises in Winchester and Southampton covering 200,000 homes. The franchise areas also give access to an estimated 120,000 small to medium sized businesses. Agreements covering the acquisition of the interests in Mercury and BCE's UK cable interests are expected to be signed shortly. Completion, which will be subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions including regulatory approvals, is expected in January 1993. Cable & Wireless has been advised by Lazard Brothers & Co., Limited and Lazard Freres & Co., Limited. Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044 ------------------------------ From: sh@cypress.com (Steve Haigh/VDSP) Subject: Announcement: Short Course on MPEG Compression Organization: Cypress Semiconductor/San Jose, CA Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 20:01:44 GMT Part 1: MPEG video. 9am - 5pm, Nov 30th -Dec 2nd 1992. $600. Part 2: MPEG audio and systems. 9am - 5pm, Dec 3rd - Dec 4th 1992. $500. Parts 1 and 2: $1000. At the Techmart. Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, California. This short course is designed for engineers, managers and professionals seeking an overview of the key concepts and techniques in video and audio compression for entertainment, communications and multi-media applications. The presentation will not dwell on complex mathematical proofs and no prior knowledge of video techniques or digital signal processing is assumed. Instead, the course will lead participants through a descriptive and substantive review of video and audio compression without getting mired in complexity. Presented by Steve Haigh, Director of video DSP, Cypress Semiconductor. Part 1 introduces transform based video coding and the draft ISO standard MPEG video compression algorithm. Day 1: o Applications for video compression. o Overview of spacial, temporal and entropy coding. o Motion video coding for MPEG and Px64 (h.261). o Transform based coding of images. Day2: o Motion estimation and compensation of moving picture sequences. o Entropy coding. o Quantization, rate buffer control and encoding techniques. o Performance requirement for real time coding and decoding. Day3: o MPEG 1 bit stream syntax. o MPEG 2 work in progress. Part 2 introduces MPEG audio compression layers 1 through 3 and the MPEG systems layer. Day 1: o Psychoacoustics. o Quadrature mirror filters. o MPEG audio layers I and II. o MPEG audio layer III. Day 2: o MPEG audio bit stream syntax. o Performance requirement for real time coding and decoding. o MPEG systems overview. Attendance is limited to 30 people. Payment can be made with Visa, Master Card or American Express. Call 408 943 2904 for more details and registration. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 8:47:41 CST From: Will Martin Subject: AT&T Language Line -- A Practical Query There's been some mention in recent Digests about the AT&T Language Line service, and I've seen ads for it in various law-enforcement magazines. While the people who've used it and reported on it here have given clear descriptions of how it works, I am still confused by one aspect of using it. While it is pretty obvious how one can set up a conference call when one knows what language interpretation will be needed, how does it work in the opposite situation -- when a call comes in to you in an unknown language? I usually see these ads in the context of something like 911 service, where a non-English-speaking individual is calling in an emergency situation. It has never been explained just how the caller's unknown language is identified. For example, suppose you are a 911 dispatcher for an agency that subscribes to AT&T Language Line. You get a call from a frantic-sounding individual and what you hear sounds like "Deegle bangle skoov YAWP!". What do you do if your inquiries in English (or any other languages you know) get no intelligible responses? After all, you have no idea if this is Uzbek, Tamil, Xosa, or whatever (and, face it, the average US native knows zilch of foreign tongues). Does the AT&T LL have some sort of "Identification Service" where you can patch in a person trained to recognize different languages who will then route the call to the proper interpreter? If so, how do you make clear to the individual on the other end that they have to wait and hold on while this conference call is set up? Considering that the caller is in some form of emergency, it is not unlikely that limited English-language skills may have deserted him due to the emotional state he is in. How long does this call set-up process take, anyway? (I can't see putting the caller on "hold" and then expecting him to still be there when the emergency center and the LL people come back on-line ...) I've never seen this situation addressed in any of the AT&T LL ads I've seen, so I suspect it might be an insoluble problem, or at least one they have not yet been able to cope with. Yet it would seem to me to be one of the prime reasons a government operation like a 911 dispatch center would subscribe to an LL-like service. Anybody know just how this situation is handled by AT&T LL? Regards, Will wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 10:57:32 -0500 (EST) From: Tom Holodnik Subject: Testing Long Distance Connections Is there a way I can test a particular modem over a long distance line, without travelling long distance? The things I'd like to test are: - whether a particular modem is sensitive to noise unique to long distance connections. - whether a particular modem works better over one long distance carrier than another. The gist of this is that I'd like to know, per long distance carrier, how to set up a long distance loopback. Is this possible? Would I need to enlist the aid of another party somewhere? Thanks (much), Tom Holodnik Network Development Carnegie Mellon University ------------------------------ From: jsimpson@darmok.uoregon.edu (John Simpson) Subject: Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone Organization: University of Oregon Network Services Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 17:54:25 GMT I've always enjoyed the sound of the coin bells inside the old three-slot payphones. I would like to own one for myself to use inside my residence. Of course I would want a coinbox key! I have two big questions, first, is it kosher to have a coin phone on a private residential line? Second, where can I buy one of these beasts? John Simpson Voice +1-503-345-0858 Fax +1-503-485-5712 CIS 74106,2203 Internet jsimpson@darmok.uoregon.edu ------------------------------ Subject: NovAtel Cellular Systems From: srcsip!tcscs!zeta@src.honeywell.com (Gregory Youngblood) Reply-To: srcsip!tcscs!zeta@src.honeywell.com Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 14:46:05 CST Organization: TCS Consulting Services I'm trying to compile a list of cellular networks that use the NovAtel cellular system. It should be noted that Northern Telecom bought NovAtel in July or so of this year. I know NovAtel systems, and am hoping to find a job with one of these people. If anyone can help out with this I would greatly appreciate it, and so would my wife. :) Thanks in advance. Greg TCS Consulting Services P.O. Box 600008 St. Paul, MN 55106-0008 ..!srcsip!tcscs!zeta ..!src.honeywell.com!tcscs!zeta . zeta%tcscs@idss.nwa.com tcscs!zeta@idss.nwa.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 22:00 GMT From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Nicad "Memory Effect" (was Cordless Phone Newbie Question) In a recent TELECOM Digest, betsys@cs.umb.edu (Elizabeth Schwartz) writes: > 4) Is this thing supposed to be left in the base or can I bring it > outside and wait for it to ring? Does it have to stand up in the base? wdp@gagme.chi.il.us (Bill Pfeiffer) responds: > No need to keep it in the base, except for charging. However, it is > best NOT to keep charging and recharging. Better to use the batteries > until the battery-low light comes on. Continued short charges can > cause the battery to aquire a short-memory, and begin to lose it's > ability to stay charged for a full term. Actually, the "memory effect" myth about nicad batteries has been pretty well debunked. Turns out that a memory effect can only be demonstrated under very carefully controlled lab conditions, where the cell is slightly discharged hundreds of times to exactly the same discharge point. Otherwise it does not exist. The most damage done to nicad cells by the memory effect is when users attempt to fully discharge the cells to avoid the mythical effect, and then drive it into reverse polarity, damaging the cells. Sorry I don't have references with me on this. There was an article in the past year in QST (a ham radio magazine, published by the American Radio Relay League) about this, and a few years back there was an item in QST Technical Correspondence from a battery engineer at Gould explaining that memory effect in nicads does not exist. The myth is quite popular though. I have seen ads for fancy microprocessor controlled nicad charges that carefully do a deep discharge before each charge. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5317 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 18:31:08 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: What Equipment is Required For Switched 56k? We have several sites around the country that we want to connect via TCP/IP using something like switched 56k service. What equipment is required at each location? What are the typical startup and recurring charges for this level of service. What other alternatives are available besides switched 56k service? Several of the sites are in the greater San Francisco area. What kind of services and rates does PacBell offer? Thanks. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 19:43:31 -0500 (EST) From: Hector Salgado-Galicia Subject: Broadcasting Towers A friend of mine is doing research for a group of clients. They want to keep communications towers away from their neighborhood. Could someone comment on regulations at the City, State or Federal level that could be employed to support their case? H. Salgado hs1c@andrew.cmu.edu ------------------------------ From: pml@cajun18.cacs.usl.edu (Patrick M. Landry) Subject: Dimension 2000 Guru Wanted Organization: The Center for Advanced Computer Studies Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 01:47:58 GMT If there is anyone out there who is very familiar with ATT's Dimension 2000 PBX and wouldn't mind answering a couple of questions I would love to hear from you. Please e-mail me as I do not read this group. Thanks!! patrick pml@cacs.usl.edu ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: Paul Robinson Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 00:19:43 EST Subject: Telephone Lines Being Disconnected; Question Several people have commented about alarm systems being cut and other such things. (I deleted the message I had from a gentleman in South Africa; I replied to him about telephone reliability). Other people have spoke about "pinging" lines and so on. In the original Die Hard (the one that started all of the competitors including Die Harder, Under Siege, Passenger 57, and so on) the opening scene involves a group of criminals intercepting certain phone lines with a briefcase sized device that apparently generated a tone on a certain frequency, probably to simulate a circuit being active for alarms that are triggered if cut. The other member of the group then cut all the phone lines for the building by running a chainsaw through the four conduits which are about as thick as a man's arm, cutting off everyone's phone service. I notice that in the first film, one of the people had either a cellular or older wireless telephone in a suitcase to call 9-1-1 with (looked like a cellular handset) but it was very large. I'm not sure if cellular has gotten much more popular recently than it was before, but then again most people don't have cellular phones at their desks when they have a fully working centrex system. In the second film several cellular phones were used, including some trick shots, like calling UP to a plane radiotelephone, nice try but not yet available. Question: Does anyone on here have a personal 800 number that shows ANI, and called it from a cellular phone, as well as a cellular phone on a plane, to see what phone number showed up on the ANI list? Or tried calling that special ANI id number on AT&T's private phone network (someone remember, it's a number in Atlanta on a special 10xxx exchange?) Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM These opinions are mine alone. [Moderator's Note: Cellular phones have gained a lot of popularity here in Chicago in the past few weeks because of several vicious attacks on motorists traveling alone on the highway who have been murdered by people who stopped to 'help them get their car going', etc. To Caller-ID in Chicago, a call from a cell phone registers as 'outside'; with 800 ANI, in the case of Ameritech Mobile, those calls show up with a phone number in the Illinois Bell CO in one of the soutwest suburbs. Try calling back to that number and you are told the number xxx-xxxx is not in service for incoming calls. Do a name and address check on the number and you are told it is listed to "Eye Bee Tea Co." at an address on West 87th Street in one of the suburbs which happens to be the street address of the CO. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: "Porthole" For Routing Cables Through Walls? Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 21:41:03 PST From: Don Jackson This is one of those "not really telecom, but some folks on this list will know the answer" questions: I have converted the closet in my study to be my "machine room". But I need to feed a number of cables through the wall (esp monitor and keyboard cables). I am looking for some sort of porthole or flange that I can mount in the sheetrock on the wall between my closet and study to satisfy the following requirements: 1) Looks better than a gaping hole; 2) Provides some sonic insulation (rubber gaskets?). Does anybody out there know of anything I can buy for this? ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: They Love to Tell the Story Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 17:28:46 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Oh dear me! This story has been around *so long* -- > it has appeared in this Digest at least a half-dozen times over the > past ten years. ...] And, I think, including on every occasion the assertion that there is such a place spelled "Winnepeg" and that it is in Ontario. At least this shows that people are generally repeating it the way they got it rather than adding new distortions! Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com [Moderator's Note: Yep, "Winnepeg, Ontario" always goes with it! :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #853 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa00390; 17 Nov 92 0:14 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07679 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:58:20 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18428 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:58:00 -0600 Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:58:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211170358.AA18428@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #854 TELECOM Digest Mon, 16 Nov 92 21:58:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 854 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: San Jose Mercury Again (Robert Lenoil) Re: San Jose Mercury Again (John R. Levine) Re: San Jose Mercury Again (John Higdon) Re: Help Needed With DTMF Tones (John W. Lydic, Jr.) Re: Help Needed With DTMF Tones (H. Peter Anvin) Re: Help Needed With DTMF Tones (Joseph T. Malloy) Re: Help Needed With DTMF Tones (Paul Cook) Re: Dumb Question About LATA/Toll (William H. Sohl) Re: Dumb Question About LATA/Toll (John Adams) Re: Dumb Question About LATA/Toll (Johnathan Rosenberg) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (Alan L. Varney) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (John Adams) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Organization: Catalogic, Mountain View, California [Voice: 415-961-4649] Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 03:44:47 -0800 From: Robert Lenoil Subject: Re: San Jose Mercury Again > So how about it, Bay Area folks? If you are tired of the {San Jose > Mercury} constantly calling you at the dinner hour, why not "call the > cops"? For those of you who think this is a bit drastic, remember that > I have already done the following: [laundry list omitted] > Any other ideas? Yes. Hang up when they call and go on with your life. I can't imagine this being worth all the trouble. Are you on a special hit list with the Merc? I've been at the same (listed) number for six years and can count the calls from them on two hands. > [Moderator's Note: Because you acted so strongly against this > originally, I have to wonder if the latest call(s)? were deliberate or > made in error by a new person or were due to an error in the software. > They surely could not be so willful as to deliberatly start the calls > again. Why not make some copies of your earlier correspondence and > send them by registered mail or courier to the telemarketing firm and > ask them what happened ... did something go wrong in their system, > etc, as you can't belive they are *willfully* violating your request. PAT] Although I don't agree with John that this is worth expending the energy that he obviously is, PAT's point is not really relevant. Of course the newspaper didn't *willfully* call John - they have nothing to gain from that but a migraine headache. The point is that if a firm has been repeatedly warned, then they are at fault for not implementing the proper systems to avoid calling numbers where they are not wanted. If a judge had issued a restraining order barring the Merc from calling John, you can bet that they would have been found in contempt for calling him even if it was the result of an "error by a new person or ... in the software." Pleading employee ignorance or equipment failure does not release a company from liability for its actions. Robert Lenoil ------------------------------ Subject: Re: San Jose Mercury Again Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 16 Nov 92 13:33:47 EST (Mon) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) > [Moderator's Note: Because you acted so strongly against this > originally, I have to wonder if the latest call(s)? were deliberate or > made in error by a new person or were due to an error in the software. Given their previous behavior, I'd expect that the only way to make them upgrade their equipment and procedures would be to put the principals of the company in jail until they do so. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl [Moderator's Note: You might expect that if you wish, but it won't happen that way. John explains why in the response which follows. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 02:40 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: San Jose Mercury Again On Nov 15 at 23:44, Robert Lenoil writes: > Yes. Hang up when they call and go on with your life. I can't > imagine this being worth all the trouble. Are you on a special hit > list with the Merc? I've been at the same (listed) number for six > years and can count the calls from them on two hands. I have sixteen phone lines in my home. I realize that you may not see any need for me to have those lines, and probably feel that if I am going to be so silly as to have that many numbers that I probably deserve whatever I get. However, as a person who can count the calls from the Merc on two hands, how do you feel entitled to judge the actions of someone who has endured literally hundreds of these calls -- sometimes ten in one evening. And on more than one occasion, I have done as you suggested and been called right back and had the person issue verbal abuse. And on one of THOSE occasions, the person was not satisfied with that and called back repeatedly, hanging up each time I answered. You should realize that whether your number is listed, unlisted, or whether you have had the number for two days or two decades, or even if you already take the paper, none of this influences whether you are called. The numbers come from a psuedo-random number generator. Supposedly they run a "reject list" but I had submitted my numbers not thirty days previously. On Nov 16 at 13:33, John R. Levine writes: > Given their previous behavior, I'd expect that the only way to make them > upgrade their equipment and procedures would be to put the principals of > the company in jail until they do so. It is a "square one" situation. The Mercury has changed telemarketing contractors. The new firm, Metro News, apparently did not inherit any of the reject lists from the previous nuisance company. There were profuse apologies and assurances that this would not happen again. When I threatened them with the cops, several people called back over the course of two days. There were promises and assurances to beat the band. This time I took it easy and only gave out the numbers that actually ring telephones in my house rather than giving the company every single phone number that appears here. I figure that if these people want to hear various flavors of modems screech at them, they are welcome to it. And who knows? Maybe one of the telesaleslime can sell a subscription to one of the ignorant animals that populate my "party line". John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: lydic@ka8lvz.uucp (lydic) Subject: Re: Help Needed With DTMF Tones Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 00:15:45 GMT In article Alistair Grant <100032.525@ CompuServe.COM> writes: > I have a program that creates the average of these tones for the > corresponding number but when I put it to the phone nothing happens. > Can you tell me what is going wrong? I have the tones last for 0.5 of > a second and seperated by 0.1 of a second. If you can shed any light > on the subject that would be cool. I think the averaging situation has been adaquately covered by the rest of the net. The standard durations for MF and I believe also for DTMF are .070 on and .070 off (yes - 70 milliseconds). John W. Lydic Jr lydic@ka8lvz.cmhnet.org ------------------------------ From: hpa@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (H. Peter Anvin N9ITP) Subject: Re: Help Needed With DTMF Tones Reply-To: hpa@nwu.edu (H. Peter Anvin) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 07:24:53 GMT In article of comp.dcom.telecom, Alistair Grant <100032.525@CompuServe.COM> writes: > The response about DTMF tones was great. Every one says I need > both tones, not the average -- ok -- but my physics book says that > when two pure frequencies are emitted then the resultant frequency and > frequency only is the average. > Anyway with just one speaker how do I emulate two tones so as to > fool the phone? I have seen watches that dial telephone number; how do > they do it? They do it by feeding the sum of two sinusoids to their single speaker. It is just that the phony square wave generator of the PC only can generate 0's and 1's, which is not good enough. Your physics book is correct, with a reservation. It all is due to the equation: cos(f1) + cos(f2) = 2 * cos((f1+f2)/2) * cos((f1-f2)/2) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Average freq. Difference freq. If the difference between the two frequencies is significantly smaller than the average, the waveform looks like the average frequency *modulated by the difference frequency*. These two frequencies are called _carrier_frequency_ and _beat_frequency_, respectively. I'd suggest putting this equation in a spreadsheet model and plot out the graph. It will be very clear, but do it over enough periods so the pattern is clear. Then go out and get a synthesizer board, preferrably one which handles digitized sound. Then all you need to do is compute the equation above and feed it to the DAC. hpa INTERNET: hpa@nwu.edu TALK: hpa@casbah.acns.nwu.edu BITNET: HPA@NUACC IBMNET: 16331@IBMX400 HAM RADIO: N9ITP NeXTMAIL: hpa@lenny.acns.nwu.edu ------------------------------ From: jmalloy@itsmail1.hamilton.edu (Joseph T. Malloy) Subject: Re: Help Needed With DTMF Tones Organization: Hamilton College - Clinton, NY Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 16:03:48 GMT DTMF requires both tones, no question there. But my ancient physics memory recalls that when two waves are combined, the resulting output is (unless filtered) four tones: the original two, another that is the sum of the first two, and a fourth that is the difference between the original two. Do I have this wrong? Joe jmalloy@hamilton.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 22:02 GMT From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Help Needed With DTMF Tones Alistair Grant <100032.525@CompuServe.COM> writes: > Can you tell me what is going wrong? I have the tones last for 0.5 of > a second and seperated by 0.1 of a second. koos!kzdoos.hacktic.nl@kzdoos.hacktic.nl responds: > Mark and Space times (On and Off) need to be of the same length > (>=0.5 sec) to be recognized as valid. For DTMF signalling, the tones do NOT have to be the same length as the quiet time, and the time does NOT have to be greater than 1/2 second. Most DTMF receivers will test down to an on-time or an interdigit time of 40 ms or less, although most claim a time of 50 ms. If the tones and quiet time had to be the same length in order to be valid, can you IMAGINE the complexities of manually dialing a touchtone phone? Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5317 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Re: Dumb Question About LATA/Toll Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 13:34:00 GMT > Does anyone know the exact rule by which LATAs were drawn up? PAT] As near as I can recall, LATA's were determined using population centers called SMAs. An SMA was a S(not sure what the S stands for) Metropolitan Area. I think the goal was to have a limited number of SMAs in any one LATA. Additional considerations were the existing geographic and political boundaries, existing telco service areas, etc. The intent was to indeed make all inter-LATA calls served by an inter-LATA carrier. The practicality of that lead, however, to numerous exceptions such as, NJ Hudson River communities and NYC, Camden, NJ and Philadelphia, etc. Those special exemptions allowed for existing non-toll calling that was handled by the two local exchange carriers to continue. There are something like 160 LATA's. Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's. Note - If email replying to me with an automatic addressing process bounces, manually address the resend using one of the addresses below. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!dancer!whs70 201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com [Moderator's Note: The /S/ is either 'Statistical' or 'Standard'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: Re: Dumb Question About LATA/Toll Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 14:45:45 GMT > Does anyone know the exact rule by which LATAs were drawn up? PAT] The Lata Design Requirements according to the Modified Final Judgment, Section IV, 9.1-4 (A sure cure for insominia): Any area may encompass one or more contiguous local exchanges serving common social, economic, and other purposes - even where such configuration transcends municpal or other local-government boundaries. Every point served by a BOC within a state will be included within an exchange area. Any area that includes part or all of one Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSAs are geographic areas defined by Uncle Sam for gathering and reporting various federal statistics), or a Standard Consolidated Statistical Area (SCSA) in the case of densely populated states, needs Court approval to include a substantial part of any other SMSA or SCSA. Except with Court approval, no exchange area located in one state may include any point located within another state. This last point has received a number of "limited corridor" exceptions. Jack (John) Adams Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Rosenberg Subject: Re: Dumb Question About LATA/Toll Organization: Bellcore Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 02:57:00 GMT I believe that the original LATAs were drawn up by AT&T at divestiture (submitted to Judge Greene for approval, of course. I saw a list recently of the rules that were used. There were only a few & if memory serves correctly, they were: 1) Any LATA that includes part of one "Major Metropolitan Area" may not include part of another. [I know the term in "" ain't the right term for what I want, but it's something like that. The term describes the major metropolitan areas as defined by the Gov't.] 2) No LATA may cross a state boundary without court approval. There may have been another rule, but I can't recall it now. I'll check when I get to the office tomorrow (where I have the source). JR [Moderator's Note: Actually, John Adams did a good enough job of it; thanks anyway. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 07:10:25 CST From: varney@ihlpl.att.com (Alan L Varney) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL In article capek@watson.ibm.com writes: > While trying to make a credit card call to a persistently busy number > recently, after typing in the card number for the n-teenth time, I > wondered if SS7 protocol would allow the calling exchange to "look > ahead" at the called number and inquire if it is (at that instant) > busy, before prompting me for the card number. Of course, I might > still get a busy if either the line became busy after I keyed in the > credit card number, or if the response to the query didn't make it > back to the originating exchange in time. The advantage (to me) would > be not having to repeatedly pound in the billing. The advantage > (small) to the carrier would be not having to do the credit card > verification, and perhaps getting the line on which I'm calling free a > bit quicker. If the call in question were third party bill, or > collect, the savings could be a lot greater. Brief answer: It's possible. SS7 supports a "primitive" query of 'distant line status'; the response indicates busy/idle and some other information. However, there are problems with this mechanism. 1) Only very recent standards changes support such queries over IC SS7 facilities (that is, between LATAs). Since your call probably would reach IC operator facilities on the larger ICs, this isn't a huge issue, but until such standards are implemented, ICs that use the LECs for operator services would have a problem. 2) There is currently no standard for "billing" an IC or LEC for the query, unlike the billing mechanism for queries about LEC calling cards and 'static' line information (e.g., line does not accept collect calls). If the query were billed similarly to the calling card database, it would likely cost more (in access charges) than the cost of attempting to complete a call to the line. It's true that when real operators are involved, the early query might save the IC some operator time and reduce costs. The current implementation at least slows down the number of uncompleted call attempts you can make :-). 3) Customer confusion about the meaning of "busy" during dialing. Today, such a tone usually means you mis-dialed the call. I would bet there would also be hundreds of "auto-dialing" systems confused by the tone. If the response to such confusion is to re-try the call, the IC has gained nothing. Such repeated attempts cost the IC a small sum, but generate no revenue. (Such auto-dialing systems might include "smart" coin phones, PBXs, credit-card POS units, etc. All this "smart" CPE causes lots of problems whenever the telephone network is changed in very small ways -- much of it was developed by trial and error using a few leased lines for testing, and it does not adapt as easily as humans to changes.) The obvious solution to repeated busy tone is also possible with SS7. The 'automatic recall' or 'repeat dialing' CLASS capability would permit one to request the network to call you when the line is available. This should work for most non-PBX and non-coin telephones when the 'query via IC' standards become widely implemented. For PBX and coin lines (most coin stations do not have CLASS), the solution is to "complete" the call even when the line is busy. The more obvious solutions are either voice mail, pagers, call waiting, a portable DTMF generator containing your credit card number (RISKY?), or a LEC/IC mechanism that provides for automatic repeated message delivery. Only the last two methods require no action on the part of the called party. AL Varney - just MY opinion. ------------------------------ From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 13:23:05 GMT In article , capek@watson.ibm.com writes: > While trying to make a credit card call to a persistently busy number > recently, after typing in the card number for the n-teenth time, I > wondered if SS7 protocol would allow the calling exchange to "look > ahead" at the called number and inquire if it is (at that instant) > busy, before prompting me for the card number. The protocol will allow this. Whether it ever comes to pass is another matter. Currently, line busy is returned from the distant office for a variety of reasons. > Of course, I might still get a busy if either the line became busy > after I keyed in the credit card number, or if the response to the > query didn't make it back to the originating exchange in time. The > advantage (to me) would be not having to repeatedly pound in the > billing. The advantage (small) to the carrier would be not having to > do the credit card verification, and perhaps getting the line on which > I'm calling free a bit quicker. This approach has merit, but would involve modification of OSPS or TOPS or whosever operator services system you are using and a corresponding change in the TRs which govern their functions. Another aspect of all of this is that "Carrier Connect Time", the period of time between your LD company accessing the distant (originating works pretty much the same way) LEC, is revenue for the LEC (The LD company pays) regardless of whether the call ever completes! Jack (John) Adams | Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} | (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com | kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #854 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02284; 17 Nov 92 1:08 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12662 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 16 Nov 1992 22:47:12 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02695 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 16 Nov 1992 22:46:51 -0600 Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 22:46:51 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211170446.AA02695@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #855 TELECOM Digest Mon, 16 Nov 92 22:46:50 CST Volume 12 : Issue 855 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Dial Tone on CATV (Marvin Sirbu) Re: Dial Tone on CATV (Marc Unangst) Re: No Caller ID in Texas (Alan L. Varney) Re: No Caller-ID in Texas (Dennis G. Rears) Re: Telco Handling Of Cable Cut (David G. Lewis) Re: Telco Handling Of Cable Cut (rfranken@cs.umr.edu) Re: AT&T's COLOR Videophone With Motion (Karl Denninger) Re: BC Tel Pay Numbers (John Higdon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 23:11:18 -0500 (EST) From: Marvin Sirbu Subject: Re: Dial Tone on CATV Excerpts from netnews.comp.dcom.telecom: 15-Nov-92 Dial Tone on CATV by RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.un > With all the talk about cable companies wanting to compete with LECs > for local dial tone, I started wondering: how can a cable company > offer dial tone, when their cable runs out from their office, with > houses strung off it (instead of LEC wires, which form individual > local loops with houses)? How can they keep everyone's calls > separate? I guess they could put everyone on a different frequency, > but that would probably use up all of the cable, and then some. Don't > they want to leave room for TV? Modern cable TV systems run fiber optic links out from the head end to an optical network interface (ONI) serving a neighborhood of 500 - 2000 homes. A community of 50,000 homes only requires 25 such fiber runs, so the added cost per household is cheap. Based on typical residential calling patterns, even 2000 homes would require no more than 400 voice channels at the peak hour. To provide dialtone, one can use frequency agile RF modems at each household which can select any one of 400 channels. Even allowing a generous 30 KHz in each direction for carrying a voice channel, 400 channels would occupy only 12 MHz or two TV channels worth of capacity for each direction. If the ONI serves only 500 households you can dedicate the frequencies and use cheaper RF modems. Some schemes assume Time Division Multiplexing: instead of 400 RF channels, a smaller number of carrier frequencies each handle multiple voice channels using TDM. At the optical network interface the voice circuits are connected to a channel bank and backhauled digitally over an extra pair of fibers to the headend. From the headend they may be further multiplexed to higher digital rates and either delivered to a carrier for switching (e.g an IEC) or switched by the telco with its own switch. Marvin Sirbu Carnegie Mellon University ------------------------------ From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) Subject: Re: Dial Tone on CATV Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 03:09:57 GMT Organization: The Programmer's Pit Stop, Ann Arbor MI In article MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA. tredydev.unisys.com writes: > for local dial tone, I started wondering: how can a cable company > offer dial tone, when their cable runs out from their office, with > houses strung off it (instead of LEC wires, which form individual > local loops with houses)? How can they keep everyone's calls > separate? I guess they could put everyone on a different frequency, Assuming that they use some sort of digital transmission on the coax (which is not altogether unreasonable), it would not be difficult at all to separate calls. I would be more concerned about the fact that anyone else on the same coax segment would be able to tap in and listen to your calls, unless they use some sort of encryption. Marc Unangst, N8VRH mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 07:21:06 CST From: varney@ihlpl.att.com (Alan L Varney) Subject: Re: No Caller ID in Texas Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL In article scm3775@tamsun.tamu.edu (Sean Malloy) writes: > The law that prevents the adoption of the service predates the > development of Caller ID (The No. 5 ESS?) and prevents anyone outside > law enforcement and some businesses from using trap-and-trace devices. Caller ID (and most other CLASS features) were invented for and first implemented on the 1A ESS(tm) switch in the early 1980's, using CCIS 6 (pre-SS7) signaling. Most trial areas did not allow Caller ID into customer hands because of all the un-resolved 'privacy' issues. (Harrisburg, PA was one of those areas.) Al Varney ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 9:28:01 EST From: Dennis G. Rears Subject: Re: No Caller-ID in Texas Jerry Blackerby writes: > Maybe if people in Texas would find out the phone numbers of the PUC > (Public Utility Commission) members and everyone start calling each of > them at "odd hours", they might decide there could be a reason to have > Caller-ID. This is great. The PUC does or does not something thet Jerry likes, and he suggests harassing all the members by phone. Depending on the extent of the harassment it is illegal. If that happens I suggest the telephone company traces those calls and cut off service to the harassers. If you can't use a phone responsibly, it should be taken away. Caller ID will not prevent harassment from determined individuals; it might stop the casual person but that's it. dennis ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: Telco Handling Of Cable Cut Organization: AT&T Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 22:50:30 GMT In article vixen!jadams@uunet.UU.NET (22475-adams) writes: > In article , rfranken@cs.umr.edu > writes: >> First, let me clarify exactly what I meant. The point I was making is >> that a switch need not know that anything has happened. >> ... >> I an fairly certain that supervision on the trunk will not be lost >> during the interval that the trunk is being rerouted. > The previous post (this issue) from Al Varney about signaling on DS1 > indicates a very short (less than 125 us) interval needed to maintain > supervision. Protection switching operates with switching times of at > least two orders of magnitude higher. As such, it is highly unlikely > that individual circuit supervision will survive such a switch. I missed Al's article, but I don't think the time needed to maintain a trunk in the active state is that short. Notes (BOC Notes on the LEC Networks -- 1990, SR-TSV-002275 -- the pfabulous repfrence with the pfunny name), Section 6.21, Carrier Group Alarm, says: "After a carrier failure occurs but before CGA trunk conditioning begins, it is desirable to maintain the same supervisory states on each trunk that existed before the failure. If the carrier cannot be restored in a reasonable time (for example, 2.5 seconds), trunk processing should be initiated to remove the trunks from service. However, since there is no fixed maximum in this case, the time could be longer or shorter than the 2.5 seconds given above. The time should be long enough to maximize the possibility of restoring the carrier before trunk processing begins, but short enough so that the customers using the facility are not more annoted by the effects caused by the delay in processing the failure than they are by the effects of the carrier failure ..." "Typical intervals between carrier failure and the beginning of trunk processing vary from 300 ms to 2.5 seconds ..." ("Trunk processing" refers to the application of on-hook to clear the call and stop charging, followed about ten seconds later by an offhook to prevent the trunk from being selected for a call.) So if a protection switch occurs in less than 300ms (not 125us), it is virtually guaranteed to occur prior to any trunk conditioning; a protection switch accomplished in less than a second is very likely to not cause trunk conditioning. > Moreover, in current digital facilties (FT3 comes to mind), this > protection switching is built in to automatically switch to a spare > line when the BER exceeds 10-6(?). I don't know the FT3, but most new fiber optic systems that use protection switching will switch on a BER threshold crossing or a loss of signal, or potentially other parameters. >> Do any telephone companies actually use this for voice circuits? I >> don't know, but my point was that it could be done if they wanted to. > Now that we've beaten this to death, I reiterate that I know of NO > telephone companies (this doesn't mean that none exist!) that use this > approach. Increasing the cost of trunking by a factor of two is not a popular thing to do. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ From: rfranken@cs.umr.edu Subject: Re: Telco Handling Of Cable Cut Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 20:01:29 CST >> Equipment to do this DOES exist. I work for a railroad, in the >> telecommunications department (although not the switched network >> group), and we have equipment (I can't remember the name - I'll refer >> to it as a DACS, although that is not really an accurate name) that >> does this. > If railroad signaling (I'm a RR wannabe as a hobbyist) is what is > carried, it is natural to have protection switching (What the telecom > industry calls its schemes to maintain reliable transmission > facilities) in place for safety reasons. In the public switched > telephone network (PSTN), the consequences of dropping a connection > are not as severe. Agreed. I remember a quote from some telco engineer after a fairly major outage (not sure which one) who said words to the effect of "We can make the telephone network as reliable as you want, but you'll have to pay for it." Actually, I believe it is being used for data circuits (important to the business, but not for safety - there are other protection methods for safety related stuff such as dispather radios, but that is irrelevant here), and I think the plan is to put voice trunks (PBX tie-lines) on it at some point (maybe) ... the point is it could be done. >> I an fairly certain that supervision on the trunk will not be lost >> during the interval that the trunk is being rerouted. If it was, > The previous post (this issue) from Al Varney about signaling on DS1 > indicates a very short (less than 125 us) interval needed to maintain > supervision. Protection switching operates with switching times of at > least two orders of magnitude higher. As such, it is highly unlikely > that individual circuit supervision will survive such a switch. I don't know what the requirements to maintain supervision are, but this equipment is better described as a packet switch, rather than a DACS. The voice signals are packetized and sent. (No packets when the line is quiet, supervision sent only when it changes, etc), and so the receiving end would (I believe) tolerate a second or two of no packets without dropping supervision. (Again, this is general info only - I am not the engineer in charge of this project). In this case, there would no NO loss of supervision (for any period of time). > Now that we've beaten this to death, I reiterate that I know of NO True. This is the last I'll say on this topic. Its certainly possible that NO telcos use this method. > telephone companies (this doesn't mean that none exist!) that use this > approach. (Well, at some point, you will probably be able to add the railroad's switched network "mini telco" (but bigger than some real telcos) to the list that do this). Brett ------------------------------ From: karl@ddsw1.mcs.com (Karl Denninger) Subject: Re: AT&T's COLOR Videophone With Motion Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 23:18:04 GMT Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc., Chicago, IL In article Jim.Rees@umich.edu writes: > In article , Tansin A. Darcos & Company > <0005066432@mcimail.com> writes: >> To put it into perspective, we think that SEVEN frames per second is >> terrible and we are trying to eventually get to THIRTY frames per >> second. Thirty frames per second is the same as the number of >> animation stills they use in cartooning. Supposedly, one cannot tell >> the difference between live video and thirty frames per second video. > In the US, broadcast video is 30 fps. Elsewhere it's 25 fps. Cartoon > animation is never done at 30 fps, even by Disney. 8 or 12 is > typical. Motion pictures usually run at 24 fps. Frame rates are important for interactive video (like videophones). Below 12-15 fps you can see visible "flicker" or "jump" in the image. This is perceptable at 20fps if you're real sensitive to it. I have >serious< problems with image flicker; more than an hour or so of it and my eyes complain profusely. Now, at REAL slow frame rates (5fps and below) its just annoying to me and doesn't give me headaches and the like. Its the median amounts that are troublesome for me. Most motion pictures are 24fps, as above. Broadcast video is 1/2 the line rate normally (30fps interlaced in the US, 25fps where power is 50Hz). However, if you run a high-res short-persistence display at 30fps you WILL see flicker in the image. The sharper the picture the worse the problem. This is why newer monitors for computer systems tend to run 72Hz non-interlaced displays (no flicker AND no "beat" or even multiple with the 60Hz beat of office lighting). Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, !ddsw1!karl) Data Line: [+1 312 248-0900] Anon. arch. (nuucp) 00:00-06:00 C[SD]T Request file: /u/public/sources/DIRECTORY/README for instructions ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 09:21 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: BC Tel Pay Numbers andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) writes: > It must be wonderful to be so perfect and smug and sanctimonious. You > moan and groan about the upsurge in crime, and about the downsurge in > people taking responsibility for their own actions. Yet you > consistantly excuse criminals who prey upon an unsuspecting public > with tricks such as this and the beeper scam. Methinks you are being a wee bit harsh on our Moderator. Responsibility is responsibility and demanding it from one group does not excuse the actions of another. If I have locks on my doors, cooperation from my neighbors, and a state-of-the-art security system to attempt to hang on to my toys, this is not a statement of approval of the actions of burglars. Rather, I would consider it an adjustment to the real world. Anyone who owns or rents a pager has already progressed to a plateau above the buck-novice telephone user. There are people who use pagers in lieu of an answering service or secretary (or even a smart answering machine) and these people have the responsibility to determine the nature and charges for the return calls they make. I carry a pager. Do I blindly return calls to every number that appears in the display? Absolutely not. And I have a better-than-average knowledge of the prefixes and locations in my region. And concerning systems that dial out such as BBS verification: how dare anyone fail to put restrictions and limits in the system, leave everything wide open, and then whine and moan about being bitten by a scam artist. Really, Andy, what would you say to someone who had an EasyHack (r) DISA on a PBX and then cried to your former employer to have the $22,000-worth of charges removed? And what makes that situation different from the BBS operator? Is the BBS operator "excused" because he is "just a little guy"? And how can any of these observations be construed to be approval of crooks and scammers? The fact is that they are out there and must be dealt with AT THE PREVENTION LEVEL first and foremost. Demanding more laws and punishment is akin to the passage and enforcement of laws proscribing the monitoring of cellular frequencies. Crooks and scam operators are bad guys; on that point there is no disagreement. But concerning the matter of responsibility: It is still ultimately in the hands of the customer. I have a toy "partyline conference" which is free to anyone who calls. It connects a number of people together on multiple lines. It is not designed to allow anyone to have access to the dial tone on another line. BUT, since nothing is perfect including hardware and certainly my software, I have taken just a few precautions. The lines are all ground start, absolutely preventing a stuck connection from returning wide open dial tone to a caller. They all have billed number screening for third-party and collect calls. The account is passworded. There are even a few other precautions that are not public. Taking these preventative measures is not a statement, explicit or implicit, that I approve of the actions of dishonest people. And because I take this responsibility seriously, I can scarcely remember a time when any of the nightmares described on this forum have become a matter of personal expense or inconvenience. But it is slightly irritating to have people excused from responsibility when scum inevitably strike. Rather than demand that "something be done" about crooks by law enforcement, it is more realistic to encourage citizens to avoid becoming victims. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #855 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05763; 17 Nov 92 2:35 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29846 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 17 Nov 1992 00:24:38 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13095 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 17 Nov 1992 00:24:17 -0600 Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 00:24:17 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211170624.AA13095@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #856 TELECOM Digest Tue, 17 Nov 92 00:24:15 CST Volume 12 : Issue 856 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: British Telecom Profits (Martin Baines) Re: Phone Harassment (a New Solution?) (Will Martin) Re: Third Party Billing (Paul Houle) Re: Listing of CLLIs (Alan L. Varney) Re: Source Wanted For Area Code Information (Alan L. Varney) Re: Dialing Changes in New England Tel Land (John R. Levine) Re: Fax Back From DTMF - Summary (Michael Rosen) Re: Airfone -- Phooey (Gordon Hlavenka) Re: New Area Code Blitzes Cell Phone User (Carl Moore) Re: Equal Access Codes: How To Find Them (David Leibold) Re: Cordless Phone Newbie Question (Tony Pelliccio) Re: Telephone Headsets and Cordless Headsets (skeeter@skatter.usask.ca) Wanted: Cordless Headset (Mark R. Jenkins) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: martin.baines@uk.Sun.COM (Martin Baines) Subject: Re: British Telecom Profits Date: 16 Nov 1992 12:44:20 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Ltd Reply-To: martin.baines@uk.Sun.COM In article 7@eecs.nwu.edu, monty@vnet.ibm.com writes: > I recently noticed this on teletext (textual information sent with the > TV picture -- I don't remember the technical name!): Teletext is the correct technical name: CEEFAX is the brand name of the BBC service ORACLE the brand name of the service on ITV and C4, SKYTEXT for that on Sky TV etc. > British Telecom (BT) recently announced pre-tax profits of 1.027bn > pounds (sterling) for the six months up to 30 September, this being > 36.2% down on last years figure of 1.61 bn.(NB 1 bn = 100,000,000). > This (apparently) works out at about 65 pounds profit a second > (compared to last years 102 pounds). BTs voluntary redundancy program > has led to a loss of thousands of jobs from the company and a > reduction in profits due to their payments. N.B. 1 Billion = 1,000,000,000 in this context. > With these sorts of figures, it is not surprising that BT is facing > stiff competition from other providers (CATV). I agree that the competition is a "good thing", but why does everyone think profits are such a bad thing? Profits represent how much business has grown not how much money has gone into greedy shareholders pockets. The dividend payed by BT is fairly modest (around 5% per share in line with most UK blue chip companies), not to mention the 33% Corporation Tax paid to the government on the proits (thereby reducing all our tax bills). The rest will be put back into the business for things like modernising the network and other investment for the future. BT is the largest company in the UK, so everything about it will be hugh. This does not mean that its profits are excessive. > Perhaps due to this and/or excessive profits BT has charged all calls > within the UK on Sunday afternoon/evening at local rates for two of > the last Sundays. Maybe they are listening to their customers?? I > don't suppose so! Or maybe they think that there can be a win-win situation: the promotion increases calls so that they make more money than on a normal Sunday; the customer gets to call cheaper as well. Not to mention taking some market share back from Mercury: I certainly didn't use Mercury to call my Mum yesterday :-) Martin Baines, Sales Support Manager, Sun Microsystems Ltd, 306 Science Park, Cambridge, CB4 4WG, UK Phone: +44 223 420421 Fax: +44 223 420257 JANET: Martin.Baines@uk.co.sun Other UK: Martin.Baines@sun.co.uk Internet: Martin.Baines@UK.sun.com X.400: g=martin s=baines prmd=sunir admd=mci c=us ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 8:26:20 CST From: Will Martin Subject: Re: Phone Harassment (a New Solution?) > Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell will put a trap on a line to catch > the person involved, but only on one condition: you must first give > them a written okay to turn their evidence over to the police and > agree to prosecute the offender ... no exceptions. IBT won't get in > the middle of it; it could be a total stranger, some sick person or > perhaps someone you know -- a relative or a 'friend'. IBT won't do a > trap and play detective for you just to satisfy your curiosity. I understand how this attitude would prevail in the old Bell System days, but I find it hard to understand the telco maintaining this position in the current climate. Why won't IBT just do it and charge you for it? After all, every other telco "service" or "feature" is now viewed as a money-making opportunity these days, from Directory Assistance to wiring maintenance. Why not just figure out what it costs to do this, and then charge double or triple (or more! :-) for doing it on a completely private basis, not inolving law enforcement. After all, this is really no different than Caller-ID, so if the telco is in a state where the local authorities have approved Caller-ID, then there should be no legal hassle to the telco in selling this service. Sure, I can see them not doing it on a no-charge basis unless you agree to follow-up with a criminal complaint. But if the customer wants the telco to put a trap-and-trace on his own line, and is willing to pay for it, why not just do it for the bucks? Regards, Will wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil [Moderator's Note: The difference is that with Caller-ID, the calling party usually can use *67 to avoid registering his call on the called party's device. On the other hand, with 'trap and trace', no one is able to avoid detection. So by collecting the information and selling it to the called party, Caller-ID and Name/Address information is being provided by a backdoor method. If the called party has no valid reason for the information, evidenced by his refusal to prosecute the caller, then the caller could claim *his* privacy had been violated and that normal procedures in effect to protect his privacy, i.e. *67 to block the Caller-ID display, had been circumvented. Telco is saying that if you expect *them* to put their neck on the chopping block you will begin by signing off on the whole thing and having *your neck* out there also. This is much like asking a police officer who did not personally witness a crime to arrest someone you claim committed a crime. The cop says if you are willing to sign a complaint, he'll arrest the person, not otherwise ... no fool is he when it comes to false arrest charges. Nor will telco put itself in a postion to have ugly charges and lawsuits brought against them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: houle@nmt.edu (Paul Houle) Subject: Re: Third Party Billing Organization: New Mexico Tech Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 15:29:39 GMT In article rick@ricksys.lonestar.org writes: > Why don't people get Calling Cards? > Why don't they understand that if they are here and nobody is home > then how can anyone tell if they are charging it to their own phone, > or their enemy, or something they pulled out of the air? > The real question is why do the phone companies continue to allow > third party billing? > I guess it is because they can always stick someone with the bill. Plus with the proliferation of alternative operator services, it has become very easy to abuse third party billing. I've heard stories of AOSes billing calls to drug abuse hotlines, police stations, telephone company test numbers and just about anything else. One time, a phriend of mine used an AOS to bill a call to a tone sweep, and the operator said to "Hold on for a minute so we can verify this ...", but it seems that she never did verify it since she let the call go through (after waiting a minute). It's just really disgusting to see how COCOTS and AOSes not only degrade service to honest people, but also allow dishonest people to sock anybody with the expense of a call. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 08:32:26 CST From: varney@ihlpl.att.com (Alan L Varney) Subject: Re: Listing of CLLIs Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL In article Cliff Sharp writes: > In article vixen!jadams@uunet.UU.NET > (22475-adams) writes: >> I'm not sure whether having a complete list of Common Language >> Location Identifier codes (CLLI) would be of much help in what you are >> trying to do. If your user is an average telephone subscriber, he/she > Actually, I'm cross-referencing one file against another by a > common field (not exactly relational database but similar idea); the > field could just as well contain ABCDEFGH as CHCGILCA but the latter > might come in handy some day. The CLLI(tm) and other such identifiers under the Common Language (rg.tm) are owned/managed by Bellcore, and are available in a myiad of formats, usually under a License agreement. For information about prices/services, contact: Bellcore Language Standards Division, (908) 699-3350 Any other source is likely to be out-dated, but cheaper. For switches, the CLLI is usually formatted as four-char city, two-char state, two-char/number building and three-char/number entity ID. Most switches have a two-character type and a one-digit sequence number (e.g., CG1 for the second 1/1A ESS(tm) switch in the building.) This was the scheme published in pre-divestiture documents -- Bellcore is free to change the rules. Al Varney - just a some-times customer of Bellcore documents ... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 08:52:52 CST From: varney@ihlpl.att.com (Alan L Varney) Subject: Re: Source Wanted For Area Code Information Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL In article cccbbs!daniel.furnier@ uceng.UC.EDU (Daniel Furnier) writes: > I am a AT&T System 75 Administrator, I also run two predictive dialing > systems. Does anyone know where I can find out each time a new area > code comes out? The phone company never notifies me and I usually > find out a few weeks after the fact by my phone operators. And a lot > of the time, I am not sure if the areacodes I am dialing are correct > or if someone made a data entry error. You can find out officially the same way others do: Subscribe to Bellcore's NPA/NXX Activity Guide. Available on paper or DOS floppy (1.44MB, 3.5 inch) for $250/year, it lists new NPA or NXX schedules, etc. Contact Bellcore's Traffic Routing Administration, (201) 829-3071. Al Varney ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Dialing Changes in New England Tel Land Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 16 Nov 92 14:18:28 EST (Mon) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) > NETel is replacing [1+NNX-XXXX] with NNX-XXXX, which IMHO is a > mistake, since there are some rather expensive calls that can be made > within NPAs here, and the telecom-illiterate will have no easy way of > knowing whether the NXX-XXXX they're about to dial is around the > corner or 100 miles away. One can always look it up in the phone book, since all NET phone books have complete prefix listings for the local NPA. Agreed, some intra-NPA calls can be expensive, particularly in Vermont. (From Burlington it's cheaper to call Los Angeles or Montreal than to call Brattleboro.) But I can say from experience in New Jersey that people live without 1+ for toll perfectly well, and there is a definite convenience factor in not having to remember what needs 1+ and what doesn't. I might also point out that due to the screwy local rates around here, from here in Cambridge on weekends it's cheaper for me to call Nantucket which is a 1+ toll call than it is to call Lexington which is allegedly local. But on my other phone line, calls to Lexington are free because I have "metro" service. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Re: Fax Back From DTMF - Summary Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 05:56:20 GMT Intel has such a "Fax-Back" service available by calling 1-800-525-3019. I believe you can have up to five documents faxed to you concerning Intel's products. Michael Rosen Tau Epsilon Phi - George Washington University mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu Michael.Rosen@bbs.oit.unc.edu or @lambada.oit.unc.edu ------------------------------ From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka) Subject: Re: Airfone -- Phooey Organization: Vpnet Public Access Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 04:51:42 GMT > ... but I find the process of setting up a call to be a bit > counterintuitive at best. Excuse me? You remove the handset from the holder, look for the green LED to come _on_, telling you a line is available. Then you run your credit card through the reader. Then you wait for the dial tone. Finally, you dial the area code and phone number. A bit long, but not confusing. The only two flaws of the Airfone system are that it's completely analog, and that all signalling is in-band. (That's the "beeps and boops.") Gordon S. Hlavenka cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 9:14:00 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: New Area Code Blitzes Cell Phone User What do you mean, "cut over" to 210? The archive file history.of. area.splits has only the PERMISSIVE dialing in effect now, meaning San Antonio could still be reached in 512. You're saying that 210 couldn't be reached from some other place in Texas? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 23:35:51 EST From: David Leibold Subject: Re: Equal Access Codes: How To Find Them The 10xxx+ 1 700 555.4141 seems to work for some of the codes, but certain carriers might not bother with such an announcement. I don't think there's even a guarantee that they won't try to soak a huge 900-style message charge from 700 555.4141 (700 is used by some carriers for special premium services such as conference calling, or 900-style numbers). The official 10xxx and 950.xxxx assignments may be found in the Bellcore's Telephone Area Code Directory, which I purchased last year for USD$30 (plus any incidental charges). Not only are various places listed with their area codes, but an appendix contains the Carrier Identification Codes (CIC) which are at the heart of 10xxx and 950.xxxx numbers. Even the various Domino Pizza numbers (950.1430 is one of them) are listed. dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca dleibold1@attmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 13:44:36 EST From: Tony Pelliccio Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Newbie Question RE: William Pfieffer's post about the Sony SPP-75 Cordless Phone: Your tip about recharding is correct for MOST cordless units which use NiCd batteries but not the Sony. They use a Lead-Acid Gel Cell in that unit and recommend leaving the phone in the charging stand at any time when it's not in use. Here's how it breaks down in time: A) Standby mode can be left active for seven days before the battery completely discharges. B) Talk time is 12 hours. In my opinion this is MUCH better than NiCd. Tony Pelliccio PJJ125@URIACC.URI.EDU ------------------------------ From: skeeter@skatter.USask.ca Subject: Re: Telephone Headsets and Cordless Headsets Organization: University of Saskatchewan Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 09:04:53 -0700 In article , bier@acuson.com (Jeff Bier) writes: > I'm seeking recommendations on telephone headsets. I have in mind the > kind that replaces the handset on a typical telephone. I'm also > curious to know if anyone makes a cordless telephone headset. Radio Shack sold a cordless headset phone, with FM radio! :) for about $400 last year or the year before. I use a DUoFONE 119 headset at work and it's great. I bought it for about $50. It has volume control and I installed a mute switch. skeeter@skatter.usask.ca ------------------------------ From: MARCUS@CPVA.SAIC.COM (Mark R. Jenkins 619.458.2794) Subject: Wanted: Cordless Headset Date: 16 Nov 92 11:17:05 PST Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego I would *really* like to find a cordless headset. I have an old Plantronics LiteSet(tm) which underwent 'destructive testing' by some individuals apparently interesting in its operation. Plantronics apparently no longer sells the LiteSet. I don't need fantastic range -- my office is only 10'x12'. Does anyone know of any source for a cordless headset? Mark Jenkins | My views do not necessarily match yours. SAICnet Logical Network Manager | My opinions are not necessarily SAIC's. Science Applications International Corporation San Diego, CA USA (619) 458-2794 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #856 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09322; 17 Nov 92 4:44 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28253 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 17 Nov 1992 02:24:22 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13796 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 17 Nov 1992 02:24:03 -0600 Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 02:24:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211170824.AA13796@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #857 TELECOM Digest Tue, 17 Nov 92 02:24:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 857 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Broadcasting Towers (John Higdon) Re: A New DMS-100 in Town (Todd Lawrence) Re: What Equipment is Required For Switched 56k? (Robert Lenoil) Re: Dial Tone on CATV (Paul Robinson) Re: Very Weird Telephone Problem (Cliff Sharp) Re: Music on Call (Cliff Sharp) Regulating Cellular (David Gast) PP 2000 and USWest (Roy M. Silvernail) Is Caller-ID an Illegal Trap and Trace? (Paul Robinson) Junk FAX (Nigel Allen) Wanted: Information on Personal 800 Numbers (Burt J. Guillot) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 22:17 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Broadcasting Towers Hector Salgado-Galicia writes: > A friend of mine is doing research for a group of clients. They want > to keep communications towers away from their neighborhood. Could > someone comment on regulations at the City, State or Federal level > that could be employed to support their case? The trendy approach is to claim "potential health hazards" from the EMR. After working in the broadcast business for many years around very high-powered transmitters, someone decided that it was "dangerous" to be exposed to radio frequency energy. Based upon inconclusive tests on animals and on some nifty sounding theories, the Federal government adopted the ANSI standards regarding "safe" EMR exposure. Harm based on "evil, mysterious forces" is in vogue. Even if science or reality is not on your side, it should be no trouble to convince governmental authorities that placement of communications towers in populated areas will produce a strain of mutants. BTW, you realize that we are all going to die of cancer from using our cellular phones, do you not? John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 [Moderator's Note: I think if I were going to make objections to a tower, the objections would be based on esthetic considerations and also on the difficulty of receiving radio signals other than those of the nearby tower due to the dense radiation it was emiting. As an example, I am thinking of the towers for WBBM (780-AM) and WGN (720-AM) in one of the western suburbs of Chicago. As we drive down the street within about a half-mile of either tower, the signal from each tower completely overwhelms our car radio. No matter where we tune on the AM dial, all we get is WBBM ... then a short distance later WGN overloads the radio in the same way. People living in the area have to have filters on their phone lines. In the northwest corner of Indiana, the residents of North Hammond get WYCA-FM in their telephones, on their computer speakers and everything else. The transmitter and antenna of WYCA-FM (Northern Indiana Christian Broadcasters, Inc.) is only four blocks away, in a large empty field in Burnham, Illinois. For more information on what living near a radio station transmitter/tower can do to disrupt your normal telephone, radio and television listening habits, see the article "Praise the Lord and Pass the RF Filters" in a 1989 issue of this Digest. Maybe I should reprint it. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: A New DMS-100 in Town From: todd@valinor.mythical.com (Todd Lawrence) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 17:30:18 CST Organization: (What? Organized??) - Mythical Computer Systems bo836@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Richard D. Mccombs) writes: > We have a new DMS-100 in town, is there anything in particular I > should know? DMS-100 is A Northern Telecom switch, the notes I have specify that it is a ISDN compatible "LOCAL" switch that has the capacity to serve 1500-100,000 customers, it can also handle an average of 350,000 calls per hour. (FYI) - DMS-200 is a tandem (TOLL) switch that has the capacity to function as a local switch as well and can serve 400-60,000 trunks. "PROTEL" is the switch programming language (if you wish to impress your local CO tech!). I had the opportunity to have DMS when I was in connectictt, and had no complaints with it whatsoever. Todd Lawrence LOD! Communications internet : todd@valinor.mythical.com IMF Acquisition Group uucp : uunet!valinor!todd ------------------------------ From: lenoil@catalogic.com (Robert Lenoil) Subject: Re: What Equipment is Required For Switched 56k? Date: 17 Nov 92 06:46:37 GMT Organization: Catalogic, Mountain View, California [Voice: 415-961-4649] > What other alternatives are available besides switched 56k service? Are your connectivity needs bursty or relatively constant? If you only need 56k at certain times of the day and *nothing* most of the time, then you should investigate dialup IP routers. Models like the Telebit NetBlazer offer inverse multiplexing, carrying traffic between two LANs over several dialup lines for effective baud rates of 56k and higher. The box makes connections transparently based on IP address, so all you see is a brief delay when the initial call is made. This solution will be exceptionally cost effective for your sites within local phone call distance from each other. ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 02:21:52 EST Subject: Re: Dial Tone on CATV In TELECOM Digest 12-852, on "15 NOV 92 04:03" Randy Gellens writes: > With all the talk about cable companies wanting to compete with LECs > for local dial tone, I started wondering: how can a cable company > offer dial tone...I guess they could put everyone on a different > frequency, but that would probably use up all of the cable, and > then some. Don't they want to leave room for TV? I'm not a hardware engineer but the answer seems -- to me -- to be quite obvious. One TV channel takes 6MHZ of bandwidth. One telephone channel takes up about 10KHZ of bandwidth if I remember correctly. This implies that if you separated each channel by an equal amount of spacing (to make it easy) that you can put 300 telephone calls on a single channel, simply by raising or lowering the frequency inband on that particular channel. For receiving telephone calls, it's really simple; there can be a dedicated channel that does nothing but send out the equivalent of Cellular phone "MIN/ESN" signals, telling a local phone to (1) ring (2) select a certain channel as the place where the call is originating from (3) start a "guard tone" while the call is in progress at a certain frequency above the regular channel. In fact, I suspect that a number of features used in cellular telephones may be useful for use in running telephone calls over cable TV. To make outgoing calls requires some synchronization, i.e. you could have a "guard tone" in the empty space between calls as an indicator that a channel is empty. The dial unit listens starting at a certain channel for a guard tone and if it finds one, climbs up by 10KHZ to the next channel, until it either finds an empty channel or reaches the top of the band. When it gets to the top of the band, it starts over at the bottom until it recycles. Assuming that a full search of the entire band of 300 channels can be done in, say, three seconds, if it can't find an open channel, it doesn't give a dial tone. Now, once you find an open channel, you send a guard tone and in that band a signal to request a dial tone by sending your id code. (Funny this is sounding more-and-more like cellular). If you get your code back and dial tone, you know you've siezed an outgoing trunk and can proceed to dial; you pass the dial tone on to the telephone. If you don't get your code back, then someone else has simultaneously grabbed the line; if the line does have dial tone now, you know that another party has the line because they got it first, so you go back and climb "up" the channel list looking again. There are other options, such as assigning a specific channel to a specific line and thus when the user sends a guard tone or whatever signal is used to indicate "off hook" he gets a dial tone if there are dial-tone senders available. What can be done is on the pole, they could reserve a whole coaxial cable - all 50 channels or so, which would allow 15,000 simultaneous telephone calls -- to run from the general location to the cable company's hub end. So what can happen is something like this: 1. Your phone is assigned a certain frequency on your wire. 2. When you pick up the phone, your "network interface block" sends a guard tone along that frequency's signalling band to request a dial tone. 3. The local sender converts your channel into the open slot for this area from the 15,000 open channels available. 4. The hub end sees if you're authorized and returns a dial tone. 5. You get the dial tone and dial a number. All of this happens within about one or two seconds from the time you pick up the phone. An article I read about four or five months ago in {Forbes} stated that for cable companies to offer telephone service, they would probably have to spend as much as $500 per subscriber to install the necessary equipment. On the other hand, the same article claims, using ordinary single pair, the phone company could run as many as three TV channels. I find it hard to believe that someone could run 18MHZ of signal through a pair of wire, or even two pair. Paul Robinson TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM These opinions are mine alone. ------------------------------ From: clifto@indep1.uucp (Cliff Sharp) Date: Tue Nov 17 00:03:04 1992 Subject: Re: Very Weird Telephone Problem In article phaedrus@unkaphaed. gbdata.com (James Hartman, Sysop) writes: > According to recent FCC blurbs, it is illegal for a radio station to > broadcast your voice unless you've either been asked and said OK, or > if you call as part of an obvious phone-in portion of a program. Seems that way around here. There's a program I like to listen to when I get up early, "Murphy in the morning", that does all kinds of whacky things to/with/for/by people, and whenever they contact someone by phone you never hear the voice of the callee until they've been asked if they can be put on the air. (Most say it's okay.) The fun happens after they agree ... > Follow-ups to rec.radio.broadcasting. Sorry, not only didn't I know that newsgroup existed (though I'm going to get it as soon as I can), I have no access to it so thought I'd answer here. Not to get a discussion started, but then that's why this is a moderated group. (I can be reached as clifto@indep1.chi.il.us for netmail followup.) Cliff Sharp clifto@indep1.chi.il.us OR clifto@indep1.uucp WA9PDM ------------------------------ From: clifto@indep1.uucp (Cliff Sharp) Date: Tue Nov 17 00:15:44 1992 Subject: Re: Music On Call? In article In article >> I came home recently to find a strange message on my answering >>> machine: Several minutes of music. There was no voiceover anywhere in > "Hello? Hello?" and end-of-message. Someone told me that several > companies are using a gadget that basically calls you and says a > canned message like "Hello, this is the X corporation. We'd like to > discuss something with you; please stay on the line and a > representative will be with you shortly.", then music, then somebody > appears on the line expecting a human. Their initial message seems to > be shorter than my outgoing one, so I never hear that part. > [Moderator's Note: The use of those dialers to pre-connect calls > before anyone is ready to talk to you is the height of rudeness. I > always disconnect instantly when one of those things calls me. I'll > gladly hold for a few seconds *if* you are already talking to me and > have a incoming call-waiting. I won't wait when you had no intention > of being available immediatly when you dialed. PAT] I agree wholeheartedly! I got two in a row one day when I was screening calls. The first was the canned music followed by the usual "Hello?" The second was the canned music followed by silence, then the remark "Cute." and a disconnect. Apparently he believes to this day that someone figured out a way to detect and deter his machine calls. To this day I don't know who did it, but since I've moved to another town I don't get those calls any more. (Maybe a collection agent? 1/2 :) Can't afford Caller ID and the associated hardware right now, and since the offending calls have stopped I can't say more. But had Caller ID been available at the time I would not have winced at pinching pennies and eating beanie-weenie stew for a few weeks just for the pleasure of finding out. (Then again, they've probably found a way to automatically block that; we in Illinois Bell territory have per-call blocking.) Question to the knowledgable: Incoming 800 service has ANI which can't be blocked. Does outgoing 800 service give a caller ID, and/or ANI? Cliff Sharp clifto@indep1.chi.il.us OR clifto@indep1.uucp WA9PDM [Moderator's Note: Usually outgoing WATS calls are inter-LATA, so they produce a response of 'outside' on a Caller ID display unit. These lines can produce various responses, depending on how they are wired, but rarely will they cause a Caller-ID box or ANI to give the right answer. It would not that often be ANI, since outgoing WATS lines can't call into 800/900 type service that I know of. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 14:31:26 -0800 From: gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) Subject: Regulating Cellular I don't believe anyone else has posted anything on this topic, so I'll take a stab at it. A couple weeks ago, the {LAT} reported that the CA PUC is considering regulating cellular rates because cellular remains too expensive. Representatives of the cellular industry said that cellular is priced at market, not cost. They also maintained that lower rates would increase demand and result in higher prices. The article noted, as I recall, that hardware prices have fallen 90%, but air time has not really changed at all over the last eight years or so. Could it be the real intent is to increase the number of cullular carriers beyond two? Of course, the PUC cannot do that directly. david ------------------------------ Subject: PP 2000 and USWest From: roy@cybrspc.UUCP (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 21:43:46 CST Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN I have now received two phone bills since my California trip, and the charges for my Public Phone 2000 calls have yet to appear. The other calling-card charges I made were on the last bill. It will be interesting to see when (or if) they do finally appear. Also in my USWest bill is a notice that, under the orders of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, tiered service rates are being discontinued, in favor of a modified single rate structure. Being in a formerly Tier I location, my basic rate increases from $14.17 to $14.59. Tier II saw a $0.03 reduction, Tier III was reduced $1.08 and Tier IV (which, I believe, is only far outlying suburbs of Minneapolis) was cut by $3.31. The enclosure noted old vs. new rates for business and residence service in all four tiers. Curiously, the business rates are all exactly three times the residential rates, plus or minus a penny. Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 01:27:28 EST Subject: Is Caller-ID an Illegal Trap and Trace? I would like to point out something that I noticed more than a year ago when I was wading through the Electronic Communications Protection Act, the law that (it is claimed) makes it illegal to intentionally listen to a cellular phone. I noticed another thing which I noted, and no one seemed to dispute. According to the ECPA, a "trap and trace device" is a device that is used for the purpose of picking up someone's phone number who is calling the line the T&T is on, is illegal without a court order. If this is a correct interpretation, it means that the decisions in various states about Caller-ID are all irrelevant since this Federal law has made any caller ID box illegal (except for calls which are not "in interstate commerce."). I'm waiting for some slick attorney who has a client who was caught with a Caller-ID box raise ECPA to not only have the evidence of calls excluded, but have the victim charged with a civil suit of violating the ECPA for installing an illegal trap and trace device without a court order, which if I remember, ECPA allows civil damages as high as $10,000. Not fun. Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM These (uninformed) opinions are my responsibility alone, no one else is (stupid enough to be) responsible for them. ------------------------------ From: ndallen@r-node.gts.org (Nigel Allen) Subject: Junk FAX Date: 16 Nov 92 05:35:37 GMT Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto [Moderator's Note: The original message for this did not appear in the telecom newsgroup. PAT] In article <1992Nov9.133800.24913@analsyn.gts.org> anton@analsyn. gts.org (Anton J Aylward) writes: > If some promotion company uses an autodialer and tape message to > keep calling me, soliciting for support for tax reform, to think of > just one subject I have been harassed by, I can call Bell and > complain, and eventually get something done. > How about FAXes ? > I am getting faxes sent in the early hours to my home number from: > Mark Muchnick > World Computers Ltd > Seattle, WA > Not only is this information of no interest or relevance to me, but it > comes a couple of times a week between 4am and 6am. If a legitimate business is sending you unwanted faxes, the best way to get the faxes to stop is to ask the company to stop. This will work quite well if the company is spending the cost of a long-distance call to get the fax to you. On the other hand, one Toronto-based company that operates several 976 numbers likes to send out faxes promoting those numbers. It seems to ignore requests to remove fax machines from the junk fax list. But in your case, a one-paragraph letter sent by fax should work quite nicely. The same thing applies for local travel agencies, computer dealers and office supply dealers, who don't generally want to annoy people unncessarily. Nigel Allen ------------------------------ From: st1r8@elroy.uh.edu (Guillot, Burt J.) Subject: Wanted: Information on Personal 800 Numbers Date: 16 Nov 1992 14:30 CST Organization: University of Houston I'd like to know what companies offer personal 1-800 numbers, the rates, etc. Does someone already have a list with this data? [Moderator's Note: Readers, please reply direct to this. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #857 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa16983; 18 Nov 92 3:39 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19121 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 18 Nov 1992 01:23:19 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07157 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 18 Nov 1992 01:22:58 -0600 Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 01:22:58 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211180722.AA07157@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #858 TELECOM Digest Wed, 18 Nov 92 01:23:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 858 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Apartment Callbox Ties in With Telco Line Annoyance? (Dave Tse) Fake Call-Waiting Product (Dave Levenson) Old British Callboxes (Ken Wheatley) Call Boxes (was Telephone Lines Being Disconnected; Question) (Carl Moore) MCI Service Outage (Ron Dippold) Collect Calls From County Jail: Which County? (Peter Kaplan) IBT Raises Pay Phone Rates to 30c "Temporarily" (Phydeaux) Lack of Dial Tone When Programming PC Fax (Thomas K. Hinders) Advice Needed on Wide Area Networking (Jeff Wasilko) Phone Customers Face Dialing Changes (Boston Globe via Monty Solomon) Washington Post and Caller-ID (Paul Robinson) Ring...Ring...Ring...If You Wish to Make a Call (David Lesher) "rrrringg-BOOP" (Steve Kass) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tpang@sfu.ca (Tsui Ting Debbie Pang) Subject: Apartment Callbox Ties in With Telco Line Annoyance? Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 13:15:14 GMT I live in an apartment complex which uses a callbox at the front door and it rings thru on my phone line (primary line). But there are some times when it has problems: 1. When I am using modem, disable call-waiting won't work if someone rings my call box, since I can't disable their stupid tie-in to the PBX. Luckily it doesn't happen much in my case. 2. When I am on a phone call, and someone rings my call box, I could 'flash' to the call box, and open the gate/door, but can't flash back. The other side was hung up when I flash to the call box! Is there any way for the apartment management to improve the hardware of the PBX to make it nicer? Call-waiting is called call-alert in B.C., which took me a while to get used to, having used to the term call-waiting when living in California. Also they charge CDN$0.75 extra per month for cancel- call-waiting! Before I have the V.32bis/V.42bis modem, my dial-in to the site I am using now has lots of line noise, now it doesn't but sometimes I got hung up after a few hours. My friend in San Diego was on his modem and has his call-waiting cancelled, but got broken thru from my long distance call, which never happened to him before. Later I had the same experience from a long distance call. For him, I had to dial many times before I got the break-thru. Any answers? Thanks to any answers to the above. David Tse [Moderator's Note: In your questions above, (1) put your modem on your second line, if you have one. Suspend call waiting is not supposed to override front door intercom service. (2) The control unit for the front door must be out of order, because flashing is supposed to work the same way as with 'regular' call-waiting; it is supposed to put the central office on hold while you respond to the door. Is the common equipment on the premises of the apartment complex or is it in the telco central office? (Both versions are in use.) Regards suspend call-waiting being overridden by a long distance call, this is a mystery to me. I'd think when the LD call is handed over to your local CO for delivery, it would be treated like any other call and passed through on call-waiting or bounced back to the sender if the line was busy. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Fake Call-Waiting Product Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 13:37:57 GMT A Mr. David H. Schmidt has invented a product called "Gotta Go". You can buy it for $14.95 and plug it into your telephone. When you've got someone on the line who won't let you go, you push the button and it makes a click-beep that sounds like a Call Waiting signal. You can then use that as an excuse to bring the unwanted conversation to an end. That's what it says in this morning's {New York Times}! It may well work with the general public. The telecom-literate, of course, will realize that the beep is only heard by the party who is receiving the call-waiting, not by the far-end. (Yes, with the 1ESS and 1AESS both parties get a click, but only the party receiving the call-waiting gets the beep. With the 5ESS, the party who is not receiving a call hears only silence while the other party gets a beep.) It should be easy enough to differentiate between a real call-waiting interruption and a fake created by the party who is tired of talking to us, and is embarrassed to say so. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: UXBAHA!KW@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 17 NOV 92 10:15 Subject: Old British Callboxes Someone recently mentioned the old coinboxes in the UK that had 'buttons A and B', and said he wouldn't go on to describe them as he was sure someone more knowledgable than himself would do so. That hasn't happened, so I'll start the ball rolling with my (non-expert) memories of them. They were black enamelled boxes with a bakelite headset connected via a twisted cloth-covered cord. On the top were slots for coins -- when in common use they took (pre-decimal) pennies, threepennies and sixpences. On the front was a large silver push-button labelled 'A'. On the right-hand side was another button (B) that had to be pushed away from you (i.e it actually slid). To use the 'phone you lifted the receiver and inserted some money (For a long time four old pence). These fell into the box with a satisfying clunk. You then dialed the call. When the called party answered you pressed button A, the money dropped, and you were through. If the call failed, or the wrong person answered, you replaced the receiver and pushed button 'B' to get your dosh back. Until you pressed button A the called party couldn't hear you. I only remember them in pre-STD days, when the 4d (old pence) local call was unmetered. Trunk calls had to be made through the operator who told you how much money you had to insert for a three-minute call. When your time was up you got discreet 'pips' on the line and would eventually get disconnected unless you deposited more money (i think the time unit after the initial three minutes was one minute). These disappeared in urban centres in the 1960s, but I was surprised to read that the last such box (in a remote Scottish village) was in use until THIS SUMMER. Does that mean they didn't have STD? I hope someone 'in the know' will fill me in on more details of these devices from a gentler age! Ken Wheatley, Unisys, Citygate, London +44 71 525 6283 (Unisys) E-Mail 7747, A-Mail Net2 731-6283 **All opinions are either my own or plagiarised** ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 11:07:35 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Call Boxes (was Telephone Lines Being Disconnected) Re PAT's note about cellular phones on Chicago-area highways: Some highways (including the interstate highways in Delaware) have call boxes, although I've seen it written up somewhere that you might not end up right at a call box. Maryland does not have this, and when my previous car broke down there with what turned out to be a blown head gasket, I had to wait on the shoulder for the state police who were on routine patrol. [Moderator's Note: The problem here is that it very unwise to get out of your car and wait by the side of the expressway. For example, on the Dan Ryan expressway, which runs next to several housing projects on the south side of Chicago has roaming maruders on it quite often who set upon stalled motorists, assaulting and robbing them, etc. Even when your vehicle is moving, they fire at you with assault rifles and the like from the buildings along the side of the expressway. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rdippold@qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) Subject: MCI Service Outage Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 20:31:29 GMT As I type, MCI long distance out of San Diego is sporadic. Apparently their cable up to LA has been damaged (no word on why), and their backup cable can't handle the load. No word on service resumption. ------------------------------ From: kaplan@sol1.lrsm.upenn.edu (Peter Kaplan -Yodh) Subject: Collect Calls From County Jail: Which County? Date: 17 Nov 92 21:02:37 GMT Organization: Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, U. of Penn. Recently my father-in-law was killed in his home. Amongst the varied horrors of dealing with this situation, a telecom question has cropped up. We are now collecting messages remotely from his answering machine in San Antonio, Texas. There are many messages which are the first few words of a recordings announcing something like "This is a collect call from the county jail. To accept this call ..." But the message doesn't say WHAT county the "county jail" is in. We can not actually answer the phone; it's a thousand miles away. Is there any way to find out where (or who) the calls are from? Many thanks, Peter (kaplan@sol1.lrsm.upenn.edu) [Moderator's Note: Our thoughts are with you in your grief. If any of those calls were actually answered by someone who accepted them, then they will eventually show up on the phone bill and that will identify the location of the correctional institution. Is there any way to have the phone put on call forwarding so it will ring direct to your line? If so, then you could answer the next such call personally. Under the circumstances, telco would probably set up the forwarding for you in the CO without someone having to go there to physically use the phone to set it up. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 14:36:15 PST From: reb@ingres.com (Phydeaux) Subject: IBT Raises Pay Phone Rates to 30c "Temporarily" I just heard on the radio that Illinois Bell plans to raise pay phone rates by 5c to 30c until they raise 30 million dollars. I forget what they "need" the money for, I think it was to pay for something they did that they shouldn't have. After they raise the money they "plan" to lower the rate back to 25c. reb -- *-=#= Phydeaux =#=-* reb@ingres.com or reb%ingres.com@lll-winken.llnl.GOV ICBM: 41.55N 87.40W h:828 South May Street Chicago, IL 60607 312-733-3090 w:reb Ingres 10255 West Higgins Road Suite 500 Rosemont, IL 60018 708-803-9500 [Moderator's Note: It was NOT to 'pay for something they did they shouldn't have ...'; it is to compensate for the dizzy ruling from a judge here saying that taxes have to be collected on pay phone calls. Since pay phones cannot accept pennies and there is a tax on local phone calls courtesy of our city council, IBT had been spreading the pay phone portion of the tax -- being unable to collect a penny or two from each pay phone user -- among all subscribers. All of us pay City of Chicago tax on our phone bills; it was perhaps ten or fifteen cents per month more than it would have been had pay phone users been paying the tax also. IBT had to refund several year's worth of pro-rated taxes collected from subscribers (I got, I think, fifteen cents per month refund covering several years of service) as a credit on the phone bill back in September. At the same time, pay phone calls were raised five cents so the tax could be collected. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 17 Nov 92 13:03:17-0800 From: /PN=Thomas.K.Hinders/OU=CCMAIL/O=CHAN.IS/PRMD=MMC/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com Subject: Lack of Dial Tone When Programming PC Fax I a trying to program a PC-Fax board to dial using my calling card. The problem I encounter is that the LD carrier uses voice/bong prompts that aren't "recoginzed" by the fax modem. I use Hayes ",,,'s" to delay the srting, but the response of the LD is so variable that often the Fax/modem is too early or late. We have the same complaint from our travelling types. They say that trying to use the laptops to connect to corp computer resources while on the road is difficult. We haven't had much success with pre- programming the laptop modems either. Do the LDs offer some sort of "data" or modem-compatable connection service? Would it be possible to have the carriers issue a "short" burst of dialtone between entries, so one could program a FAX/modem with a "w" command? Has anyone else figured out a way around the lack of dialtone? Thanks in advance. Thomas K Hinders Martin Marietta Computing Standards 4795 Meadow Wood Lane Chantilly, VA 22021 703.802.5593 (v) 703.802.5027 (f) ------------------------------ From: Jeff@digtype.airage.com (Jeff Wasilko) Subject: Advice Needed on Wide Area Networking Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 21:37:19 EST Organization: Univ of Fnord; Roslyn's Cafe Div. Reply-To: jeff@digtype.airage.com We need to connect our two offices (which are about five miles apart) together. We run a mix of TCP/IP and Appletalk. The remote site will have three or four NCD Xterminals, a couple of printers (hung off the NCDs) and five or six Macs. The Macs will be doing light work over the remote connection (printing, opening and saving small docs to the fileserver, email, etc). We could eventually end up with six or so Xterminals and ten Macs. A 56kb line is the same installation cost as a T1, and the monthly difference is only $250/mo ($250/mo for a 56kb line, $500/mo for a T1). What kind of demands does X place on the network? Will a 56kb line be sufficent, or should we jump to the T1? Our X users are using them as terminal replacements, and they're also running WordPerfect and Lotus on our Sun. I'm also looking for suggestions for routers. I'm familiar (by reputation only) with cisco (or is it Cisco this week?). What else should I consider? Is bridging worth considering, too? What should I look for in a good CDU/DSU? Are the all the same, or are there large differences from manufacturer to manufacture? Thanks in advance, Jeff Jeff's Oasis at Home. Jeff can also be reached at work at: jwasilko@airage.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 02:06:35 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Phone Customers Face Dialing Changes From {The Boston Globe} 11/13/92. Taking steps to replenish the depleted supply of area codes, New England Telephone Co. said yesterday it would begin phasing in several dialing changes in February. The changes will eventually permit phone companies to use area codes that don't have "0" or "1" as their middle numeral, freeing up 640 new possibilities nationwide. The additional area codes are needed to create new telephone lines, which are in scare [sic] supply bacause [sic] of the rising use of computers, facsimile machines, pagers and cellular phones. But for that central reprogramming to work, customers will have to learn new dialing habits, New England Telephone said. Today, callers dial some calls in their area codes with seven digits, while other calls require "1" plus the seven digits. But by 1994 area residents won't have to add a "1" before before [sic] making a call in their own area code. Customers will still have to add that digit when making calls to other area codes. That change will take effect Feb. 2, 1993, in western Massachusetts exchanges of Wesfield, Russell and Monson. Next year the new procedure will spread throughout the 413, 603, 802, and 401 area codes. In 1994 residents in 617, 508, and 207 will hear the calling. New England Telephone provides phone service in every New England state except Connecticut. The switch won't change local calling areas or rates. "A toll call is still a toll call," Cronin said. Another change over the next couple of years will include a shift in the dialing for operator-assisted and calling card calls. Under the new plan, customers will have to dial "0" plus the area code and the number even if they are dialing within the same area code. New England Telephone said that its effort to establish a uniform dialing pattern for all its customers coincides with similar programs elsewhere in the nation. By 1995, besides the new area codes, the changes will free up an additional 152 local exchanged codes within existing area codes. It will increase the supply of available phone numbers nationwide from 1 billion to 6.3 billion. End of article. One problem with this change is that callers won't automatically know that a call is a toll call at the time that they place it. For example, any non-local call which I dial within area code 508 yields a recording which states: "Sorry we cannot complete your call as dialed. To call beyond the local area you must dial 1 first. Do not dial 1 when dialing a local call. This is a recording." I always know that I will incur toll charges when dialing an inital 1 for calls within my area code. Unfortunately, I can't easily distinguish between calls dialed to area code 617 which are included in my calling plan at no additional charge and those that incur toll charges since I always have to dial 1 617 to reach them. Cellular One/Boston doesn't require the dialing of an inital "1" for calls within the same area code. They route the call to their closest point of interconnect and it ends up usually being a local call. Often it is cheaper for me to use my cellular phone than to use my land line. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ Reply-To: tdarcos@mcimail.com From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 02:57:25 EST Subject: Washington Post and Caller-ID A point that was made about a year ago was that before Caller-ID was available either from or to telephones located in the District of Columbia, the {Washington Post} was running articles about the horror stories of bad happenings due to Caller-ID being available. When C&P Telephone of Washington DC was allowed to offer Caller-ID, the {Washington Post} had it included along with the new telephone system they installed. The Post never told anyone that it had installed Caller-ID. It wasn't until {The Washington Times} (a competing newspaper in DC) broke the story that anyone knew what the Post had done. Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM (These opinions are mine alone.) [Moderator's Note: It is not unusual for people in the media to consider themselves so Special and Different that the editorials they print each day would agree with John Bunyan's description of his own life: " ... what I say, and what I do in real life are often two ..." Channel Two in Chicago (WBBM - CBS affiliate here) constantly takes a pro-gun control stance; yet their camera crews always have a weapon in the van when they go to the scene of disasters and other news worthy events in 'certain neighborhoods' (read: black ghetto areas). And talk about hypocrisy! My competitor {The New York Times} takes a pro-gun control stance, yet whenever Arthur Oakes Sulzberg deigns to come into the city to his office in his chauffer-driven limousine, he always carries a handgun. I guess what they mean is *you* should not be allowed to have Caller-ID or handguns; its okay for the lawyers, politicians and media mogels though; they Know What is Best For Us. Kay Graham with her {Washington Post} and News Weak is no different. PAT] ------------------------------ From: David Lesher Subject: Ring...Ring...Ring...If You Wish to Make a Call Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 23:12:21 EST Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex Over the last decade or so, it seems that rather than getting dumped into reorder, or SIT / voice intercept, you get what I titled this article ... Now this strikes me as a real pain and pointless. Why should I have to wait for three ring cycles to go by before getting told that the switch has lost my call? [Hey, *I* know I dialed it correctly ...] About the only reason I can think of for this deliberate misdirection is just that -- deliberate misdirection. Have the LEC's done this just to foil COCOTs and Demon Dialers? wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu pob 1433 20915-1433 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 21:56 EST From: SKASS@drew.drew.edu Subject: "rrrringg-BOOP" When I am using my IBX work phone and someone calls, I hear a tone, and the caller hears "rrrringg-BOOP rrrringg-BOOP ..." I know that at least some callers from outside our switch hear the BOOP, but I'm wondering how far it extends. I had always thought that the ring signal was generated locally, and if that's true, then my switch must be passing some signal for "phone in use, but call waiting ringing," to which the caller's switch generates the "rrrringg-BOOP." I think it would be a nice thing to have nationwide so I knew the difference between a ring/phone-on-hook and a ring/interrupting-a-call. Can someone in the know fill me in on the technical details of "rrrringg-BOOP" ? We own our own switch here, but I don't know what kind it is. Steve Kass/ Dept of Math and CS/ Drew U/ Madison NJ 07940 skass@drew.drew.edu 201-514-1187 [Moderator's Note: Actually, if you listen closely, when the called party answers you will hear a certain kind of click on the line if you interuppted them on call waiting which you won't hear if you did not. A few PBXs using Direct Inward Dialing have the special ring signal you describe when cal-waiting interupts an extension user. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #858 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18225; 18 Nov 92 4:24 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03798 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:10:47 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06092 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:10:29 -0600 Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:10:29 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211180810.AA06092@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #859 TELECOM Digest Wed, 18 Nov 92 02:10:30 CST Volume 12 : Issue 859 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Is Caller-ID an Illegal Trap and Trace? (Ben Harrell) Re: Broadcasting Towers (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Broadcasting Towers (Richard M. Greenberg) Re: Broadcasting Towers (Ted Hadley) More Tower Jive (John Adams) DBASE Program to Convert Area Codes (Paul Robinson) Any Advice For Large Move Order? (Christopher J. Ambler) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bharrell@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Ben Harrell) Subject: Re: Is Caller-ID an Illegal Trap and Trace? Reply-To: cmebh01@nt.com (Ben Harrell) Organization: Computers and Technologies Theme Program-NCSU-NC Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 00:59:37 GMT FZC@CU.NIH.GOV writes: > I would like to point out something that I noticed more than a year > ago when I was wading through the Electronic Communications Protection > Act, the law that (it is claimed) makes it illegal to intentionally > listen to a cellular phone. I noticed another thing which I noted, > and no one seemed to dispute. > According to the ECPA, a "trap and trace device" is a device that is > used for the purpose of picking up someone's phone number who is > calling the line the T&T is on, is illegal without a court order. > If this is a correct interpretation, it means that the decisions in > various states about Caller-ID are all irrelevant since this Federal > law has made any caller ID box illegal (except for calls which are not > "in interstate commerce."). Trap and trace laws generally (in the great majority of states) and in the FCC have been interpreted to mean that a device is illegally "tapped" into a line, usually without the knowledge of the party whose line is being tapped, for the purpose of "trapping" originating dialed digits and "tracing" terminating calls to their originating directory number. CLASS CLID, ISDN CLID, and 800/900 ANI do not fit this definition because 1) there is no "tapping" with illegal devices going on (it is an inherent network capability), and 2) it is always done with the full knowledge and consent of the telephone company and the terminating service subscriber in the form of a "payment for service rendered", and 3) the legality of the ANI delivery by AT&T, MCI, and Sprint to 800/900 customers (which they have been doing for several years) on inter-LATA calls has NEVER been questioned. I do understand that ANI is technically the "billing" number, whereas CLID is technically the "originating" number, but for most residential and single line business customers these two numbers are one and the same. Also, I would like for someone to explain to me the conceptual difference between someone calling me and someone knocking on my door. Unless I know who is on the other side of that door, I'm not likely to answer it, and if I do I'm going to be very careful about it. In the entire history of telephony, I having had that capability. But now with CLID, I do. I understand that battered spouse shelters, undercover policemen, etc. need protection, but for the average person or business, why is CLID any different "personal privacy" wise to my going and knocking on my neighbors door. Why would I expect him/her to answer that door, if he doesn't recognize me or my voice? I know that I don't have to tell him/her were *I* live, but I just don't see the difference and don't understand what people get so upset about with CLID. Maybe I'm just dense. Ben Harrell cmebh01@nt.com ........... bharrell@catt.ncsu.edu ... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 06:51:19 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Broadcasting Towers John Higdon writes: > Hector Salgado-Galicia writes: >> A friend of mine is doing research for a group of clients. They want >> to keep communications towers away from their neighborhood. > The trendy approach is to claim "potential health hazards" from the > EMR. After working in the broadcast business for many years around > very high-powered transmitters, someone decided that it was > "dangerous" to be exposed to radio frequency energy. Based upon > inconclusive tests on animals and on some nifty sounding theories, the > Federal government adopted the ANSI standards regarding "safe" EMR > exposure. > [Moderator's Note: I think if I were going to make objections to a > tower, the objections would be based on esthetic considerations and > also on the difficulty of receiving radio signals other than those of > the nearby tower due to the dense radiation it was emiting. A similar problem occurred not long ago when the National Weather Service wanted to put one of its new Doppler Radar systems in a community about 15 miles from my house. Naturally, there was a large hue and cry about all of the associated EMR problems and the local congresscritter (18 years seniority and bounced on Election Day just like his checks) took up the call. After a lot of wrangling and posturing, the new system is going to be installed at Brookhaven National Lab, about 20 miles away which is where it should have gone in the first place. Some people just don't think. These people live about 25 miles from the defunct Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant and BNL has two working reactors right now. Some of the protestors even work at these two places. Sheesh! What hypocrites. Dave ------------------------------ From: rmg50@ccc.amdahl.com (Richard M Greenberg) Subject: Re: Broadcasting Towers Date: 17 Nov 92 20:18:41 GMT Reply-To: richg@hatch.socal.com Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA > [Moderator's Note: > telephone, radio and television listening habits, see the article > "Praise the Lord and Pass the RF Filters" in a 1989 issue of this > Digest. Maybe I should reprint it. PAT] Please do. Rich Greenberg Work: rmg50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com N6LRT Play: richg@hatch.socal.com What? Me speak for Amdahl? Surely you jest.... [Moderator's Note: I am greatly overloaded with messages, but maybe I will soon. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tedh@cylink.COM (Ted Hadley) Subject: Re: Broadcasting Towers Organization: Cylink Corp. Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 20:49:48 GMT Hector Salgado-Galicia writes: > A friend of mine is doing research for a group of clients. They want > to keep communications towers away from their neighborhood. Could > someone comment on regulations at the City, State or Federal level > that could be employed to support their case? In Sunnyvale, CA, my neighbors and I successfully got CellularOne to not place a tower by involving the entire neighborhood. I read the technical specs filed with the city, which were full of errors indicating the one who filed was inept. I used the facts against them. We had a geologist from the USGS (my neighbor) report on seismic issues and safety due to collapse, and one other neighbor got a friend who was a real-estate broker to comment on property value impact with specific examples from other cities. We also had a petition signed by 150 residents opposing the tower. We then showed up in force at the preliminary City Planner's hearing. CellularOne was _Blown Away_ by the action, research, and the facts we presented. The city immediately rejected the plans. It takes planning & effort, but it worked for us. Ted A. Hadley tedh@cylink.COM Tertullian Cylink Corporation, 310 N. Mary Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA 408-735-5847 All opinions expressed are my own, and probably not liked by my employer. ------------------------------ From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: More Tower Jive Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 16:15:57 GMT Having just read John Higdon's response to the current EMI is causing my tomato plants to glow thread, I came across the following item in this morning's Bellcore Information Research Center report: INTELLECT: THE DAILY INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - PRODUCED BY BELLCORE'S IRC BOONTON TWP. PURSUES EXPERT ADVICE ON TOWER Star Ledger:Newark-NJ 11/17/92 P 64 Last night, the Township Committee of Boonton, NJ, directed its attorney to seek experts who can give testimony on whether a proposed NYNEX communications tower will affect the health of the township's residents. NYNEX would pay the township $25,000 per year for 10 years for the tower, which would be built on municipal land to relay mobile telephone transmissions. NYNEX would also allow the township the use of the tower for police communications. Some residents are fearful that microwave transmissions could pose a health risk. A citizens' group has requested that the Township Committee seek expert opinion on the matter. Copyright (C) 1992 Bellcore. All Rights Reserved. Jack (John) Adams Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 20:43:04 EST Subject: DBASE Program to Convert Area Codes There are a lot of places using DBASE or its clones to handle database work, so I thought I'd include the program I use to convert our organization's database whenever an area code splits. It's generic enough that I can run it against our database and update all changed records. I thought other people might be able to use it. Paul Robinson The following is a procedure in DBASE that I wrote to convert telephone numbers from one area code to another. Some people on the list may be able to use it, so here it is. This was created for a government agency so it is in the public domain. --- File CONVPHN.DBF --- Cut here --- * DBASE III PROGRAM TO CONVERT TELEPHONE NUMBERS * WHICH ARE CONVERTED FROM AN OLD AREA CODE NUMBER TO THE * NEW ONE. ALSO CHECKS THAT STATES LISTED FOR SPECIFIC * ADDRESSES ARE VALID. INACCURATE NUMBERS ARE NOT CHANGED. * * REQUIRES THE PRE-CREATED "PHONETAB" DATABASE FILE WHICH * CONTAINS ALL THE PREFIXES WHICH ARE CHANGING. THIS IS * A DBASE FILE CONSISTING OF THE OLD AREA CODE AND PREFIX * AND THE NEW AREA CODE AND PREFIX REPLACING IT. THE PREFIX * MAY BE THE SAME OR IT MAY BE DIFFERENT. * * BASED ON ORIGINAL PROGRAM BY PAUL W. ROBINSON, 8/9/90, 9/11/90 * WHICH CHANGED NUMBERS IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL AREA AND IGNORED * NON 703 VIRGINIA NUMBERS * * THE NEED FOR THIS PROGRAM OCCURRED WHEN AT&T ANNOUNCED AN * IMMEDIATE CHANGE TO CERTAIN TEXAS AND NEW JERSEY AREA CODES, * AND THUS PHONE NUMBERS IN SOME EXCHANGES NEEDED TO BE CHANGED * THIS WILL ALSO BE OF USE WHEN THE NEW 410 AREA CODE COMES INTO * EFFECT IN MARYLAND. * * THIS REQUIRES YOU MAKE A DATA BASE LISTING THE OLD NUMBERS BY * OLD AREA CODE AND PREFIX, AND THE NEW NUMBERS REPLACING THOSE BY * AREA CODE AND PREFIX. THIS CAN BE DONE WITH A SIMPLE TEXT * FILE MERGED INTO A DATA BASE USING THE IMPORT FUNCTION. * THIS FILE MUST BE CALLED 'PHONETAB', IT CARRIES 3 FIELDS: * 'OLD', 'AC', 'PFX' AND MUST BE INDEXED ON 'OLD' * TO FILE 'AC'. * * IT IS ASSUMED THE FILE TO BE EDITED 'HOME' IS INDEXED USING * 'NAME', AND CONTAINS THE FIELD OF 'STATE' AND 'PHONE' WHERE * PHONE CONTAINS 12 DIGITS NPA-NXX-XXXX IF THE NUMBER IS OUT * OF THE AREA CODE. * * PAUL W ROBINSON E-Mail: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM 6-MAY-1991 * This program is in the Public Domain. * CLEAR STORE .F. TO DEBUG SET TALK OFF SET ECHO OFF SET PRINT OFF STORE '$MDDCVATNALAKAZARCACOCTDEFLGAHIIDILINIAKS' TO STATES STORE STATES+'KYLAMEMAMIMNMSMOMTNENVNHNJNMNYNCNDOHOKOR' TO STATES STORE STATES+'PARISCSDTXUTVTWAWVWIWYCZ' TO STATES * NOTE: TENNESSEE (TN) MUST APPEAR EARLY BECAUSE OTHERWISE IT * WILL BE ERRONEOUSLY FOUND BETWEEN MONTANA (MT) * AND NEBRASKA (NE) * ADD OUR OWN ABBREVIATIONS FOR SPECIAL CASES STORE STATES+'**Z1Z2Z3Z4Z5Z6Z7Z8Z9' TO STATES SELECT 3 USE PHONETAB INDEX AC GO TOP SELECT 2 USE HOME INDEX NAME, XPHONE GO TOP DO WHILE .NOT. EOF() * CHECK THAT THE STATE NAME IS OKAY. STORE TRIM(STATE) TO S STORE TRIM(HOME_PHONE) TO P STORE ' ' TO NPA STORE ' ' TO NXX STORE ' ' TO XXXX STORE ' ' TO L I = AT(S,STATES)/2 IF I<>INT(I) .OR. I<1 IF .NOT. DEBUG SET PRINT ON ENDIF ? '***BAD STATE NAME:' DISPLAY SET PRINT OFF ELSE * STATE NAME IS OKAY, CHECK AREA CODE IF LEN(P)=12 STORE LEFT(P,3) TO NPA STORE SUBSTR(P,5,3) TO NXX STORE RIGHT(P,4) TO XXXX STORE NPA+NXX TO L SELECT 3 GO TOP FIND &L IF .NOT. EOF() STORE STR(AC,3) TO NPA STORE STR(PFX,3) TO NXX STORE NPA+'-'+NXX+'-'+XXXX TO P SELECT 2 IF .NOT. DEBUG SET PRINT ON ENDIF ? ' CHANGING RECORD ' DISPLAY REPLACE HOME_PHONE WITH P ? ' TO ' DISPLAY SET PRINT OFF ENDIF ENDIF ENDIF SET ECHO OFF SET TALK OFF SELECT 2 SKIP ENDDO CLOSE ALL --- Cut here The following shows the format of the DBF file PHONETAB. After creating this file, you will need to do "INDEX ON OLD TO AC" in order to index this file to make the above procedure work. . display structure Structure for database: C:phonetab.dbf Number of data records: 376 Date of last update : 11/16/92 Field Field Name Type Width Dec 1 OLD Numeric 6 2 AC Numeric 3 3 PFX Numeric 3 ** Total ** 13 Now the first three and last three records of the PHONETAB.DBF file. OLD AC PFX 301205 410 205 301208 410 208 301221 410 221 - Circa 370 records deleted 301996 410 996 301997 410 997 301998 410 998 301999 410 999 The following is the complete set of codes which have changed from Area Code 301 to 410. List of Prefixes changed from 301-xxx to 410-xxx 205 208 221 222 224 225 226 228 232 233 234 235 237 239 242 243 244 247 250 252 254 255 256 257 260 263 265 266 267 268 269 272 273 275 276 278 280 281 282 284 285 287 288 289 290 291 296 298 307 312 313 316 319 321 323 325 326 327 328 329 332 333 335 337 338 339 342 343 346 347 348 351 352 354 355 356 357 358 360 361 362 363 364 366 367 368 370 374 376 377 378 379 381 382 383 385 388 389 391 392 393 396 397 398 425 426 429 430 433 435 437 438 440 442 444 446 448 450 451 452 455 456 457 458 461 462 465 466 467 471 472 476 477 479 482 483 484 485 486 488 489 494 515 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 541 542 543 544 546 547 548 549 550 551 553 554 556 557 558 560 561 562 563 566 569 573 574 575 576 578 581 583 584 586 591 592 594 597 602 605 612 613 623 624 625 626 628 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 641 642 643 644 646 647 648 651 653 655 658 659 661 664 665 666 667 668 669 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 679 682 683 684 685 686 687 691 692 693 712 719 720 721 723 726 727 728 730 732 734 740 741 742 744 745 747 748 749 750 751 752 754 755 756 757 758 760 761 764 765 766 768 771 775 778 780 781 783 784 785 787 788 789 792 793 795 796 798 799 808 820 821 822 823 825 827 828 830 832 833 835 836 837 838 841 848 849 850 857 859 860 861 866 867 873 875 876 877 879 880 882 883 885 886 887 889 892 893 896 906 920 922 923 928 931 938 939 941 943 944 945 947 955 956 957 960 962 964 965 966 968 969 971 974 978 979 987 988 991 992 993 995 996 997 998 999 Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM #INCLUDE ------------------------------ From: cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu (Christopher J. Ambler, Phish) Subject: Any Advice For Large Move Order? Organization: Fantasy, Incorporated: Reality None of Our Business. Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 13:29:00 GMT I, and two of my three roomates will be moving on 1 January, and will have the following order to place: old house --> new house a. 2 measured in circ hunt --> (change billing) b. 2 measured in circ hunt --> (change billing) c. 3 flatrate --> (change billing) d. 2 flatrate --> (same billing) e. ISDN (2B2D-BRI) --> (same billing) f. --> add 1 new flatrate custom number g. --> add 700 link to 1 of the 3 flatrates (c) h. keep 2 existing in old house All lines are residential. a-e are MOVE orders, f and g are new installs. By change billing, I mean that they are currently in the name of the fourth roommate who will be staying and keeping the last two existing lines (as in h), and I want them changed to my name. Question is, is this an unusually large order for Pac*Bell? Should I expect trouble? How early should I call it in? Any tips or suggestions in placing the order (other than get ready to pay for it dearly)? cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu (805) 756-6634/ISDN ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #859 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18586; 18 Nov 92 4:29 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12322 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:25:13 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09746 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:24:54 -0600 Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:24:54 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211180824.AA09746@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Telephone Quotations Remember the request the other day for telecom quotations? Here is the results. PAT From: ecampbel@metz.une.edu.au (Ed Campbell) Subject: Telephone Quotations : Summary Date: 17 Nov 92 22:14:55 GMT > Do you know of any quotes concerning the telephone, that you are > willing to share , eg "Do you know who I've always depended on?. Not > strangers, not friends. The telephone. That's my best friend" - > Marilyn Munroe. Another well-known one is [picks up phone, not-ringing] "Hello! What! Yes!" [hangs up phone] Eric Morecombe, The Morecombe and Wise Show. (I think you have to see the show). THANKS FOR ALL THE REPLIES I RECEIVED. A list follows. First here are some I found while rummaging through Dictionaries of Quotations in the local library They (wives) are people who think when the telephone bell rings, it is against the law not to answer it" --- Ring Lardner , 1923 "La servitude. C'est ca, le telephone. Il sonne: tu accours. Ou bien tu n'accours pas, mais tu te ronges les sangs de regret ou de curiosite insatisfaite" --- Gabrielle Roy "Le telephone ne convient pas aux amoureux! Dans leurs conversations c'est le regard qui joue le role principal." --- Robert Hollier "You cannot settle the problems of Europe by long-distance telephone calls and telegrams. Round the table we must get ... " --- Ernest Bevin 1945. "Well if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone" --- James Thurber "Mr. Watson , come here, I want you" --- Alexander Graham Bell ( first telephone message) (obviously didn't have a good sense of occasion,... or a scriptwriter)) "It (the telephone) will unmake our work. No greater instrument of counter revolution and conspiracy can be imagined" --- Josef Vissarvonovich Stalin "Hello, Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made" --- Richard Milhous Nixon ,20 July 1969, speaking to first men to land on the moon. From: Rob Knauerhase Here are a few. The attribution is all the source I have, but I assume they are accurate. "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." -- Western Union memo, 1877 "Well-informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires. Even if it were, it would be of no practical value." -- Boston Post 1865 "The FTS2000 10-digit number will match the commercial number. In other words, your FTS2000 number will be the same as your commercial number." -- a USA-CERL bulletin on updates to the Federal phone system (USA-CERL is the Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Labs) From: tds@hoserve.att.com (Tony DeSimone) Sender: Antonio_DeSimone@ATT.COM (Tony DeSimone) "Communism must be like one big phone company." Lenny Bruce as quoted on "All Things Considered" 10/8/91 "The possibilities of a private home telephone system throughout the country is out of the question. Almost the entire working population of the United States would be needed to switch cable." unidentified NY telphone financier, 1887 quoted in C. J. Cain in vol 35 of the Fiber Optic Reprint Series, from Information Gatekeepers INC. "Well-informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires. Even if it were, it would be of no practical value." - Boston Post 1865 "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." -Western Union memo, 1877 -- "According to Judge Greene, "Despite AT&T's argument that Bell Labs was [a] leader in invention and innovation, and despite excellence and `scientific genius' of the Labs, they have produced few products of practical value." From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) "It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us - the high, the low, the rich , the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage - may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss -- except the inventor of the telephone." Mark Twain, 1890 From: John Boteler Organization: Express Access Public Access UNIX, Greenbelt, Maryland USA Operater: "Are you havin trouble with an operator in Virginia?" Frank: "I'm havin trouble with the tephone cumpny, PERIOD!" From: "Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr" A quich grope, errr... grep through my 20,000-plus item cookie file yields the following: Button: I don't mind being in touch with reality, so long as I don't have to pay the phone bill Automatic calling unit - teenager with a telephone -- Data communications glossary Hollerith - what thou doest when thy phone is on the fritzeth -- Data communications glossary %% One good reason why computers can do more work than people is that they never have to stop and answer the phone. %% We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company. %% As you know, birds do not have sexual organs because they would interfere with flight. [In fact, this was the big breakthrough for the Wright Brothers. They were watching birds one day, trying to figure out how to get their crude machine to fly, when suddenly it dawned on Wilbur. "Orville," he said, "all we have to do is remove the sexual organs!" You should have seen their original design.] As a result, birds are very, very difficult to arouse sexually. You almost never see an aroused bird. So when they want to reproduce, birds fly up and stand on telephone lines, where they monitor telephone conversations with their feet. When they find a conversation in which people are talking dirty, they grip the line very tightly until they are both highly aroused, at which point the female gets pregnant. -- Dave Barry, "Sex and the Single Amoeba: What Every Teen Should Know" %% Ask not for whom the telephone bell tolls... if thou art in the bathtub, it tolls for thee. %% Atlanta makes it against the law to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. %% For three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off. -- Johnny Carson %% People who are funny and smart and return phone calls get much better press than people who are just funny and smart. -- Howard Simons, "The Washington Post" %% Real Users know your home telephone number. %% Telephone, n.: An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance. -- Ambrose Bierce %% There were in this country two very large monopolies. The larger of the two had the following record: the Vietnam War, Watergate, double- digit inflation, fuel and energy shortages, bankrupt airlines, and the 8-cent postcard. The second was responsible for such things as the transistor, the solar cell, lasers, synthetic crystals, high fidelity stereo recording, sound motion pictures, radio astronomy, negative feedback, magnetic tape, magnetic "bubbles", electronic switching systems, microwave radio and TV relay systems, information theory, the first electrical digital computer, and the first communications satellite. Guess which one got to tell the other how to run the telephone business? %% To understand this important story, you have to understand how the telephone company works. Your telephone is connected to a local computer, which is in turn connected to a regional computer, which is in turn connected to a loudspeaker the size of a garbage truck on the lawn of Edna A. Bargewater of Lawrence, Kan. Whenever you talk on the phone, your local computer listens in. If it suspects you're going to discuss an intimate topic, it notifies the computer above it, which listens in and decides whether to alert the one above it, until finally, if you really humiliate yourself, maybe break down in tears and tell your closest friend about a sordid incident from your past involving a seedy motel, a neighbor's spouse, an entire religious order, a garden hose and six quarts of tapioca pudding, the top computer feeds your conversation into Edna's loudspeaker, and she and her friends come out on the porch to listen and drink gin and laugh themselves silly. -- Dave Barry, "Won't It Be Just Great Owning Our Own Phones?" %% "Here at the Phone Company, we serve all kinds of people; from Presidents and Kings to the scum of the earth..." %% BUG [from telephone terminology, "bugs in a telephone cable", blamed for noisy lines; however, Jean Sammet has repeatedly been heard to claim that the use of the term in CS comes from a story concerning actual bugs found wedged in an early malfunctioning computer] n. An unwanted and unintended property of a program. (People can have bugs too (even winners) as in "PHW is a super winner, but he has some bugs.") See FEATURE. -- From the AI Hackers' Dictionary %% Hokey Dial, n. (also called Pseudo-Leased). A means of connecting terminals over a switched-line network (usually the public telephone system), when the terminals concerned are designed to work only on a permanently connected ("leased") line. What happens is that the user manually dials the connection and then starts the communications, and the hardware at each end hopefully cannot detect the difference. Used as emergency fall-back in some cases where the dedicated lines fail; also used as a cheap substitute for proper lines. National communication authorities do not always approve. -- from the IBM Jargon Dictionary %% MSG, v. (message) To communicate via a computer-transmitted message, rather than by telephone. Usage: "MSG me when you are ready to go to lunch". -- from the IBM Jargon Dictionary %% To the habitual reader, reading is a drug of which he is the slave; deprive him of printed matter and he grows nervous, moody, and restless; then, like the alcoholic bereft of brandy who will drink shellac or methylated spirit, he will make do with the advertisements of a paper five years old; he will make do with a telephone directory. -- W. Somerset Maugham, "The Bum" %% Here at the Phone Company, we serve all kinds of people; from President's and Kings to the scum of the earth... -- Lily Tomlin %% Now, telephone companies are not stupid, at least for large values of 'stupid'. -- Michael O'Brien (Mr. Protocol) %% A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, a big TV with a hi-fi VCR and a nice stereo, a full fridge, a microwave, a UNIX system, two phone lines, a high speed modem, and thou. %% In recognizing AT&T Bell Laboratories for corporate innovation, for its invention of cellular mobile communications, IEEE President Russell C. Drew referred to the cellular telephone as a "basic necessity." How times have changed, one observer remarked: many in the room recalled the advent of direct dialing. -- The Institute, July 1988, pg. 11 %% This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. %% "You know you have answered too many Tech Support questions when your Pavlovian response to a ringing phone is to throw it out a window" -- mcmahon@tgv.com (John 'Fast-Eddie' McMahon) %% An agent is a vampire with a telephone. -- Any Editor %% I once met a lassie named Ruth In a long distance telephone booth. Now I know the perfection Of an ideal connection Even if somewhat uncouth. %% A mathematician named Hall Has a hexahedronical ball, And the cube of its weight Times his pecker's, plus eight Is his phone number -- give him a call.. %% I'm too shy to express my sexual needs except over the phone to people I don't know. -- Gary Shandling %% DOLL: operate a telephone. "Jes doll me up sometime!" -- Texan Dictionary %% Maybe Hamton's right. Maybe Buster is shy about inviting me to the prom. Maybe he's waiting until the last minute to call me. Maybe I should run home right now and sit by the phone like a drooling maniac so I don't miss his call! No, I'm way too cool for that. BUT I CAN'T TAKE THAT CHANCE!!! -- Babs Bunny %% [ring ring] "Hello?" "Hello, Babs. This is the President of the United States." "Get off the line, Mac! I'm waiting for an important call!!!!" -- Babs & George Bush %% If you want to understand your government, don't begin by reading the Constitution. (It conveys precious little of the flavor of today's statecraft.) Instead, read selected portions of the Washington telephone directory containing listings for all the organizations with titles beginning with the word "National." -- George Will %% In an attempt to kill a fly I drove into a telephone pole. %% %% Last Words of Advice: If you pay your taxes and don't get into debt and go to bed early and never answer the telephone -- no harm can befall you. -- Professor Charles P. Issawi %% Parkinson's Telephone Law: The effectiveness of a telephone conversation is in inverse proportion to the time spent on it. %% The honeymoon is over when he phones that he'll be late for supper -- and she has already left a note that it's in the refrigerator. -- Bill Laurence %% The phone will not ring until you leave your desk and walk to the other end of the building. -- Linda A. Lawyer %% The telephone pole was approaching fast, I was attempting to swerve out of it's path when it struck my front end. %% Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three -- and paradise is when you have none. -- Doug Larson %% Thoughts on Programming, Number 41: I know it. I know what needs to be done - but every time I try to tackle a technical problem, some bloody fool wants me to make a decision about trucks - or telephones - or some damn thing. -- Robert Heinlein, "The Man Who Sold the Moon" %% "Just for today" I'll do something I have been putting off for a long time. I finally write that letter, make that phone call, clean out that closet or desk or straighten out those drawers. -- Abigail van Buren (a.k.a. "Dear Abby") from the annual "The New Years Resolutions list" %% From: Richard Lucas Don't know if this is quite what you're looking for, but as a former and still occasional telecom consultant who has worked on local rate cases it was always one of my favorites (at least with regards to U.S. domestic situations): "Where is it somewhere embedded in the Constitution that the price of local telephone service should never be greater than the price of a big pizza?" - Prof. Alfred Kahn, ex-New York Public Service Commission & ex-CAB chief. (found in _Teleconnect_, 2/88, p. 154) Ever since then I've compared local phone rates to pizza prices - and he's right, there isn't much difference between local phone rates and large pizza prices. Rather frightening in a way... (Don't have the exact quote on my #2 comment, which I heard some time after the AT&T Divestiture split and the open market sale of telephone sets. One writer somewhere commented that the new lightweight sets just didn't feel right; if the handset wasn't heavy enough to be used as a murder weapon, it wasn't really a proper telephone.) Ed.   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02668; 20 Nov 92 3:14 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29724 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 20 Nov 1992 01:06:51 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22286 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 20 Nov 1992 01:06:31 -0600 Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 01:06:31 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211200706.AA22286@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #860 TELECOM Digest Fri, 20 Nov 92 01:06:30 CST Volume 12 : Issue 860 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Praise the Lord and Pass the RF Filters (Digest Reprint from 6/22/89) Re: Broadcasting Towers (Marc T. Kaufman) Re: Broadcasting Towers (Steve Forrette) Re: Broadcasting Towers (Doug Zolmer) Re: Broadcasting Towers (Alan Boritz) Re: Headsets, etc. (Cliff Sharp) Re: AT&T's COLOR Videophone With Motion (Cliff Sharp) New Version of History.of.area.splits (Carl Moore) Excuse my Error, Please (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Praise the Lord and Pass the RF Filters Date: Thursday, November 19, 1992 [Moderator's Note: This article first appeared in TELECOM Digest on Thursday, June 22, 1989. (Volume 9, Issue 208). I thought newer readers would enjoy seeing it and older readers might enjoy a repeat as part of the thread on Broadcasting Towers. Since this was written, most of the problems have been corrected. PAT] ----------- Indiana Bell service in the northeast section of Hammond, IN has gone to hell, but the telco says its not their fault, and they are trying to work with the people involved to correct the problem. For instance, consider the case of Steve Gescheidler, a resident of north Hammond, living just a few blocks from the Illinois/Indiana state line: he shares a party line with Jesus. When he picks up his telephone, a voice will often be on the wire reading from Ephesians, or bellowing at him to repent before he Burns In Hell forever. Sometimes the voice is trying to sell him spiritually enlightening audio tapes -- Visa and MasterCard accepted, of course. His neighbor around the corner, Judy Maruszczak, has a heavenly instrument also: When she tries to make a phone call, it will often times be drowned out by hand-clapping gospel music. Her VCR also likes to preach to her. The Hammond legal firm of Efron and Efron owns a pious dictaphone machine. When the secretary is in the midst of transcribing legalese, threats of fire and brimstone suddenly are heard on the tape. In addition, their phone system is electronic, and when they put calls on hold, as often as not a few seconds later the hold is broken and the call is lost. Several times per day the phone will ring, and no one is on the line at all. Linda Reynolds, another resident in the area said her television, her VCR and her cordless phone all began urging her down the righteous path last fall. She said sometimes at night the cordless phone begins ringing by itself, and going off hook for no reason, tying up their wire-line. Nine year old Tommy Kotul learned how to find salvation while he was trying to play 'Sports Baseball', an Atari game cartridge. He also said that one day in school, a choir started singing hymns over the school's public address system, which is in the form of speakerphones connected to the intercom phone on each teacher's desk. Although the sanctified interference shows up in the damndedest ways, on all sorts of electronic gizmos, it invariably is on the phone lines of the good (and presumably by now, God-fearing) residents of North Hammond, an Indiana community which straddles the Illinois state line with the communities of Burnham and Calumet City, Illinois to the south and west, and Chicago at it's northwest tip on the state line. So people began asking Indiana Bell, "what the heck is this, anyway?"... WYCA-FM Christian Broadcasters, Inc. ... that's what it is ... this religious station, operating at 92.3 on the dial, licensed in Hammond, IN, with transmitter facilities in Burnham, IL is the culprit. Operating with an antenna height of 500 feet, and 50,000 watts of radiated power, the folks at WYCA-FM Christian Broadcasters, Inc. are literally *saturating* a two mile area around the northern end of the Indiana/Illinois state line, 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Gescheidler lives about four blocks from WYCA's transmitter. He first began noticing the sanctified interference last fall, and it became louder and louder as the months went on, always on his end. "It seems like when I am in the middle of an important conversation, some preacher always comes on and tells me I'm going to Hell," he said, adding that the phone lines had already gone to hell, and no one seemed to give a damn about it. After complaining several times to Indiana Bell, Gescheidler and his neighbors complained to the Federal Communications Commission, the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission, and finally to the radio station itself. No one, he realized, least of all the radio station, was willing to take any responsibility for the problem. WYCA isn't breaking any broadcasting rules according to Paul Gomell, an FCC Chicago office technician whose duties include periodic examination of WYCA's equipment. "The home equipment is probably not adequately filtered," he said. "The problem has nothing to do with Indiana Bell's equipment," said Delores Steur-Wagner, Indiana Bell's community affairs manager for Hammond. "If there are complaints, they should go to the FCC." Chris Alexander, Dallas-based Vice President-Engineering for WYCA-FM Christian Broadcasters' parent corporation said, "The signal is so strong, you expect this kind of interference in devices that are not well-shielded. We try to advise people as best we can, and we have worked closely with Indiana Bell and Illinois Bell to resolve complaints." In November, 1986, the station raised its antenna to 500 feet from 400 feet, and increased its power from 30,000 to 50,000 watts, Alexander said. "We made these changes only after receiving permission to do so from the Federal Communications Commission." Alexander said that this change in power and antenna height created a so-called 'blanketing area' -- an area of about 1.7 miles in any direction of the transmitter and antenna -- where the signal is so strong and so permeating, it is literally everywhere, in everything. "Indeed this is the case," said one neighbor five blocks from the site. "I have gone for early morning walks in the open field where the antenna is constructed. In the crisp, early morning air, you can almost feel the signal; smell that ozone; sense the corona." Alexander said, "We operate completely within the law. We observe all FCC regulations at all times." He noted that one condition for the change in antenna height and power output being granted by the Commission was that WYCA was ordered to assume responsibility for correcting certain types of radio interference in an area 1.7 miles in any direction of the station for a period of *one year* afterward. Alexander said during that time they worked closely with the telcos involved and "....anyone who complained about interference was given free of charge the filtering devices they needed ... some of our people helped install them ... just what the FCC said we had to do, we did it, in the geographic area required, for the length of time required...." Alexander noted one of the first complaints about the increased power came when prosecutors in a federal drug trial in Hammond tried to play wiretap evidence for the jury: instead, the tape recorder offered up hymns and homilies. Paul Gomell of the FCC noted that they have received complaints about the station relating to answering machines, speed-dialing equipment, cordless phones, cheapie phones, hold buttons, Touch-Tone service, and VCR's. These appurtenances and others -- like the preaching Atari game -- lend to the appearance that God is everywhere, at least in Hammond. One Indiana Bell service representative spoke, on the condition that she could remain nameless, saying that the telco had handled over 130 WYCA-related problems in the past year, but Bell spokeswoman Steur-Wagner said the company does not keep track of such things and she had no way of confirming this report. The next step to reduce the interference -- with no guarentees that it will completely end -- is to have all the interior phone wire shielded in steel casings, said Tim Timmons, Indiana Bell's regional maintainence manager for northern Indiana, "...plus of course have good filtering where the phone lines come into the building..." "What a deal!", said Gescheidler. He recently priced the job at $300 per phone from an independent contractor. "Indiana Bell said *maybe* they could do it a little cheaper for us ... but they say it is not their obligation to resolve the problem any further." He mentioned that, "...one day some guy from WYCA came here with a phone man; they had some cheapie looking filter they plugged in ... it didn't seem to do any good." Although the parent corporation of WYCA in Dallas may have good public relations, the neighborhood says local staff at WYCA-FM Christian Broadcasters, Inc. isn't at all concerned any longer. "They have heard so many complaints I guess they quit listening to them any longer," said a neighbor. "When I called one day -- one day when it seemed like they were much louder than usual -- and asked them in a nice way couldn't they modulate their signal a little better, a lady there told me I was being blasphemous. She told me it was anti-religious to complain. She said I should be thankful that I was able to hear the Word of God, and she hoped I would someday realize I would Burn In Hell without accepting Jesus as my Savior. That's the last time I bothered calling *them* to complain. Now the FCC and Indiana Bell say *they* can't do any more either?" No madame, they cannot. As Chris Alexander, VP-Engineering has explained time and again when asked, the Corporation follows all FCC rules at all times. "We ALWAYS do exactly what the government tells us to do," he said. And Indiana Bell brings the wire to the drop by your house. They say the line is as clean as it can be at that point. You do the rest. An old folk-prayer says, "My Lord ... nothing is going to happen that You and I can't handle together. Amen." But one can have too much togetherness, as the residents of North Hammond will attest. Said Steve Gescheidler, "On the radio, they are praying for me. Meanwhile, I am praying for a phone line I can talk on without being disrupted by the choir and the organist." Radio Station WYCA-FM Studios and Executive Offices 6336 Calumet Avenue Hammond, IN 46301 92.3 on FM dial throughout northern Illinois and northern Indiana. [Moderator's Note, appended 1/1/91: Shortly after this article appeared, tbe FCC instructed WYCA to intensify their efforts to resolve the problems of the Hammond residents. 'Better' RF filters were devised and technical help was given in their installation. For about a month, WYCA was required to announce over the air at intervals that assistance would be provided freely on request to anyone within a 1.7 mile radius of the transmitter experiencing problems. There have been no recent complaints, so I assume things are better now. PAT] [Moderator's Note: Several people requested this reprint in recent days. When WYCA first went on the air in the late 1950's, not that many people in Hammond had FM radios. WYCA's solution was to announce that you could also hear them 'quite well' on your television set by setting the dial to channel 6 and running the fine tuning upward a distance ... of course, channel 6 comes in around what? 80 megs or so; the old television sets of the era could be warped up enough to reach 92.3 ... that's how eager they were to be heard, praise the Lord! :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: kaufman@xenon.stanford.edu (Marc T. Kaufman) Subject: Re: Broadcasting Towers Reply-To: kaufman@cs.stanford.edu Organization: CS Department, Stanford University, California, USA Date: 19 Nov 92 17:55:57 GMT tedh@cylink.COM (Ted Hadley) writes: > In Sunnyvale, CA, my neighbors and I successfully got CellularOne to > not place a tower by involving the entire neighborhood... I hope you don't have or use a cellular phone. To do so would be hypocritical, since the towers are necessary to cellular phone service and have to go *somewhere*. The same comment applies to your neighbors ... Marc Kaufman (kaufman@CS.Stanford.EDU) ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Broadcasting Towers Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 08:57:35 GMT > Hector Salgado-Galicia writes: >> A friend of mine is doing research for a group of clients. They want >> to keep communications towers away from their neighborhood. Could >> someone comment on regulations at the City, State or Federal level >> that could be employed to support their case? I wish they *would* place a Cellular One tower near my neighborhood so that I could decent cellular service near my home! :-) Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 13:37:00 +0000 From: Doug (D.W.J.) Zolmer Subject: Re: Broadcasting Towers This is a little off-topic for telecom, but the stories about people complaining about broadcast towers reminds me of a similar situation in the city of Kanata, a small suburban city west of Ottawa (Canada's capital city). Some high tension power lines were proposed about 100 metres from the backyards of a new subdivision. For two years people whined and complained. After the environmental study showed there would be no problems, the power lines were installed. Almost immediately, complaints about health problems and other mysterious goings-on (such as television interference, and appliances turning on and off by themselves) started appearing. The interesting things is that these complaints preceded the time (by about four months) when current was actually flowing through those power lines. Sheesh! Doug W.J. Zolmer Disclaimer: My opinions only, not BNR's 7N61 - Service Control Point - Number Services Design Voice +1 613 763 8217 or ESN 393 8217 ------------------------------ Date: 19 Nov 92 06:58:35 EST From: Alan Boritz <72446.461@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Broadcasting Towers hs1c+@andrew.cmu.edu (Hector Salgado-Galicia) writes: > A friend of mine is doing research for a group of clients. They want > to keep communications towers away from their neighborhood. Could > someone comment on regulations at the City, State or Federal level > that could be employed to support their case? Very few, as long as it's structurally sound. It's foolish to go on a "witch hunt" just because you don't like who's moving into the neighborhood. Communications towers are good for the local economy, since they bring in additional public-sector revenue and provide an additional business opportunity that wouldn't necessarily exist without it. Unless if someone's planning on pushing megawatts (no joke) of VHF or higher frequency RF power, there's not likely to be even a slight possibility of hazardous RFR exposure, as far as modern science can suggest. The "harmful non-ionizing radiation" story is an old sick joke used by immature idiots and ignorant fools to promote a hidden agenda. Alan Boritz 72446.461@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Headsets etc. Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 1:27:34 CST From: Cliff Sharp In article I'm seeking recommendations on telephone headsets. I have in mind the > kind that replaces the handset on a typical telephone. I'm also > curious to know if anyone makes a cordless telephone headset. Years ago, I was searching for one myself. After trying on several dozen types, from Radio Shack (like having my head in a clothespin; hurt after just a few seconds) to Plantronics (heavy, similar to large stereo headphones which cover the entire ear and shut out all outside noise, sweaty and generally uncomfortable ... at least the ones I could find up to $300), I happened to walk into a Heathkit store and found something not in the catalog. This little gem by Nady Systems (unfortunately, address and other info unknown) had a headset similar to foam-pad walkman-type headphones, VERY comfortable, small control box inserts between handpiece and phoneset and is switchable to use either handset or headset. Best of all, it was just under $40. I've seen a cordless headset (with DTMF pad) in one of the DAK/Damark type catalogs at around $200; they're out there. If anyone knows where I could get another Nady Systems headset, I'd enjoy knowing, since this one is years old and may not last too many more decades ... Cliff Sharp clifto@indep1.chi.il.us OR clifto@indep1.uucp WA9PDM ------------------------------ Subject: Re: AT&T's COLOR Videophone With Motion Date: Thu 19 Nov 92 1:33:05 CST From: Cliff Sharp In article All video is 30fps. All right, let's put the whole thing in perspective. The PAL and SECAM systems in use in other parts of the world use a (roughly) 50 Hz FIELD rate, or 50 fps, which equates to 25 FRAMES per second, or 25 Fps. The NTSC system in use in the US, as broadcast, is regulated strictly by the FCC and goes like this: The color subcarrier frequency is 3,579,545 Hz. The horizontal scan frequency is 2/455 times the color subcarrier freq. The vertical scan frequency (field rate) is 2/525 times the horizontal scan frequency. This makes the field rate right around 59.94 Hz. The frame rate is 1/2 that, or roughly 29.97 Hz. Now, go videotape a movie that was originally on film, or a Bugs Bunny cartoon, or something like that. In most cases, if you go "frame by frame" (actually field-by-field on most VHS VCRs), you'll notice that the film frames are shown something like this; film frame 1, three TV fields; film frame 2, two TV fields; repeat 3/2/3/2 to try to approximate 24 film frames per second (60/2.5 = 24; since they can't show 2-1/2 fields each time, they run 3,2,3,2). Because of the difference between 59.94 and 60 Hz, there's a correction factor that the film chain inserts every so often, but what it is and how often I haven't deciphered yet. Now, tape a Saturday-morning Hanna-Barbera cartoon and you'll find they usually run about four to five different pictures per second (or per 60 fields, or presses of the "frame advance" button on your remote). If you have an old-fashioned wind-up watch (most of which tick five times per second), you can listen to it, watch the picture and note that the watch ticks more often than the picture changes at full speed. Cliff Sharp clifto@indep1.chi.il.us OR clifto@indep1.uucp WA9PDM ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 15:41:28 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: New Version of History.of.area.splits Just installed in the Telecom Archives today, with the following changes: In list of areas which have N0X/N1X prefixes, I have shifted 212/917/718 and 512/210 to present tense. I already had a note about 813 having N0X/N1X prefixes, so I added that the instructions also apply to 305,407,904. For the 416/905 full cutover, I previously had Jan. 1994 with no exact date available and I now have 10 Jan. 1994. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 00:24:15 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Excuse my Error, Please I got his name wrong yesterday. It is Arthur Ochs Sulzberger. I stand corrected and apologize for the error. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #860 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03406; 20 Nov 92 3:48 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27920 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 20 Nov 1992 01:36:44 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02578 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 20 Nov 1992 01:36:18 -0600 Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 01:36:18 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211200736.AA02578@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #861 TELECOM Digest Fri, 20 Nov 92 01:36:15 CST Volume 12 : Issue 861 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Telecom Quotations (Mark Brader) Re: Telecom Quotations (Richard Cox) Re: Telecom Quotations (Rich Greenberg) Re: Telecom Quotations (Eric Weaver) Re: Telecom Quotations (Bart Z. Lederman) Re: Advice Needed on Wide Area Networking (Doug Faunt) Re: Advice Needed on Wide Area Networking (Lars Poulsen) Re: Advice Needed on Telephone Security Systems (Todd Inch) Re: Advice Needed on Telephone Security Systems (Gordon Burditt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Telecom Quotations Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 23:37:51 GMT > "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a > means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." > -- Western Union memo, 1877 This one is on the list three times! [Moderator's Note: Yeah, but it is the best one of all! I deliberatly did not edit it out. I should have left it in three more times! :) PAT] > BUG [from telephone terminology, "bugs in a telephone cable", blamed > for noisy lines; however, Jean Sammet has repeatedly been heard to > claim that the use of the term in CS comes from a story concerning > actual bugs found wedged in an early malfunctioning computer] n. An > unwanted and unintended property of a program. (People can have > bugs too (even winners) as in "PHW is a super winner, but he has > some bugs.") See FEATURE. > -- From the AI Hackers' Dictionary The document is properly called the Jargon File these days in its online form; in print it has been The Hacker's Dictionary and now The New Hacker's Dictionary. The version above is quite an old one is, but the expanded current version mentions telephony even less. FYI: :bug: n. An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware, esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym of {feature}. Examples: "There's a bug in the editor: it writes things out backwards." "The system crashed because of a hardware bug." "Fred is a winner, but he has a few bugs" (i.e., Fred is a good guy, but he has a few personality problems). Historical note: Some have said this term came from telephone company usage, in which "bugs in a telephone cable" were blamed for noisy lines, but this appears to be an incorrect folk etymology. Admiral Grace Hopper (an early computing pioneer better known for inventing {COBOL}) liked to tell a story in which a technician solved a persistent {glitch} in the Harvard Mark II machine by pulling an actual insect out from between the contacts of one of its relays, and she subsequently promulgated {bug} in its hackish sense as a joke about the incident (though, as she was careful to admit, she was not there when it happened). For many years the logbook associated with the incident and the actual bug in question (a moth) sat in a display case at the Naval Surface Warfare Center. The entire story, with a picture of the logbook and the moth taped into it, is recorded in the `Annals of the History of Computing', Vol. 3, No. 3 (July 1981), pp. 285--286. The text of the log entry (from September 9, 1945), reads "1545 Relay #70 Panel F (moth) in relay. First actual case of bug being found". This wording seems to establish that the term was already in use at the time in its current specific sense --- and Hopper herself reports that the term `bug' was regularly applied to problems in radar electronics during WWII. Indeed, the use of `bug' to mean an industrial defect was already established in Thomas Edison's time, and `bug' in the sense of an disruptive event goes back to Shakespeare! In the first edition of Samuel Johnson's dictionary one meaning of `bug' is "A frightful object; a walking spectre"; this is traced to `bugbear', a Welsh term for a variety of mythological monster which (to complete the circle) has recently been reintroduced into the popular lexicon through fantasy role-playing games. In any case, in jargon the word almost never refers to insects. Here is a plausible conversation that never actually happened: "There is a bug in this ant farm!" "What do you mean? I don't see any ants in it." "That's the bug." [There has been a widespread myth that the original bug was moved to the Smithsonian, and an earlier version of this entry so asserted. A correspondent who thought to check discovered that the bug was not there. While investigating this in late 1990, your editor discovered that the NSWC still had the bug, but had unsuccessfully tried to get the Smithsonian to accept it --- and that the present curator of their History of American Technology Museum didn't know this and agreed that it would make a worthwhile exhibit. It was moved to the Smithsonian in mid-1991. Thus, the process of investigating the original-computer-bug bug fixed it in an entirely unexpected way, by making the myth true! --- ESR] [1992 update: the plot thickens! A usually reliable source reports having seen The Bug at the Smithsonian in 1978. I am unable to reconcile the conflicting histories I have been offered, and merely report this fact here. --- ESR.] ESR is Eric Raymond, the current editor. Add to the list this one, which I use as one of my signature quotes: "I can direct dial today a man my parents warred with. They wanted to kill him, I want to sell software to him." -- Brad Templeton In one of Arthur C. Clarke's novels there's a beautiful throwaway line about the historic abolition of long-distance charges on January 1, 2001, or some such date. It's quoted in a recent nonfiction book of his which I've been meaning to review for Telecom; I'll find the quote if I remember. Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 15:49 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: Telecom Quotations Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk >> "Hello, Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room >> at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic >> telephone call ever made." And probably the most expensive. There was a rumour that he called collect! Richard Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Not diallable on 511 in mainland USA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 08:06:50 PST From: richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Telecom Quotations Organization: Hatch Usenet and E-mail. Playa del Rey, CA > We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company. This should be attributed to the late Lilly Tomlin. Rich Greenberg Work: rmg50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com N6LRT Play: richg@hatch.socal.com What? Me speak for Amdahl? Surely you jest.... ------------------------------ From: weaver@sfc.sony.com (Eric Weaver) Subject: Re: Telecom Quotations Organization: SONY Advanced Video Technology Center San Jose, CA USA Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 17:54:24 GMT > "Mr. Watson , come here, I want you" > --- Alexander Graham Bell (first telephone message) > (obviously didn't have a good sense of occasion ... or a scriptwriter)) I believe the occasion was that Bell had just spilled battery acid in his lap, and the message sounds fairly appropriate under the circs. Eric Weaver Sony AVTC 677 River Oaks Pkwy, MS 35 SJ CA 95134 408 944-4904 & Chief Engineer, KFJC 89.7 Foothill College, Los Altos Hills CA 94022 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 13:28:55 EST From: B. Z. Lederman Subject: Re: Telecom Quotations I missed your original request for telephone quotations. One of my favorites comes from the "Two Ronnies", an English television show where they used to do a pseudo news reading. "So many people have written to complain about the telephone service that the Post Office is actually going to show a profit this year." Bart Z. Lederman System Resources Corp. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 07:41:41 -0800 From: Doug Faunt Subject: Re: Advice Needed on Wide Area Networking It's cisco if you've been around a while, or Cisco if you believe the marketing people. You can send mail to cs@cisco.com, and your message should be forwarded to the proper people. 73, doug ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Advice Needed on Wide Area Networking Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 16:17:31 GMT In article jeff@digtype.airage.com writes: [Some questions about how to connect two offices five miles apart with TCP/IP (X terminals) and Appletalk.] > We could eventually end up with six or so Xterminals and ten Macs. > A 56kb line is the same installation cost as a T1, and the monthly > difference is only $250/mo ($250/mo for a 56kb line, $500/mo for a T1). > What kind of demands does X place on the network? > Will a 56kb >line be sufficent, or should we jump to the T1? If you have enough money in the budget to easily afford the bandwidth, go for the T1. While your average traffic will probably fit in the 56Kbps line, there will be times when you are waiting for the line. The performance needs of X terminals depend enormously on the applications. Some applications transfer enormous amounts of data to support what looks like modest displays. I recently saw an X dialog editor, which transferred about 250 KB before turning the window on. It had a lot of widgets and menus that were set up even though they were not going to be displayed anytime soon. We were working on evaluating whether X terminals could usefully be employed over a V.32bis link, and this application could not: It took almost two minutes from application launch for the window showed up, and users (even the programmers who knew the program) were killing and restarting the program over and over because their patience ran out. On a 56kbps link, this would take about 45 seconds to start. Uncomfortable but survivable. On the T1, about 3 seconds: No problem. Most applications won't be this hungry. But you have to try it before you know what YOUR applications will be like. With a T1, you can load your X terminals over the link, and you can painlessly remote-mount file systems. With a 56K, that is kind of iffy. With a T1, you may consider getting a pair of drop/insert muxes and pulling a couple of voice channels out, so that you can tie the PBXs together and save a couple of outside lines. This may pay for the increment in line costs. > I'm also looking for suggestions for routers. I'm familiar (by > reputation only) with cisco (or is it Cisco this week?). What else > should I consider? It is indeed Cisco these days. Cisco is the flagship of the industry, enjoying the kind of name recognition that IBM used to have in corporate computing. They are also enormously profitable, and have adopted IBM attitudes. They don't participate in comparative evaluations by magazines, and they don't participate in industry interoperability test labs any more. I don't like that attitude. There are about 50 manufacturers of bridges and routers in the market, and most of them are okay for your application. > Is bridging worth considering, too? Yes. Your network management will be much easier with bridging: There is just one LAN. Bridges are much less expensive. > What should I look for in a good CDU/DSU? Are the all the same, or > are there large differences from manufacturer to manufacture? CSU/DSUs are commodity items these days, and even different brands usually work together. If you choose to mix voice and data on the line, the multiplexer is the CSU (channel service unit) and the DSU (Data Service Unit) is a channel card that plugs into the mux. Don't buy the DSU until you have selected the router, because you need to order DSU and router with matching cable interfaces. There are actually about five standards for that connection. V.35 is becoming the most common, though RS422 (MIL-188) is probably better. RS232 is also often used for 56kbps. One thing to look for in the DSU if you decide to multiplex is whether the DSU card produces a "smooth clock" or a "gapped clock". Most DTEs don't mind a gapped clock, but some do (although I have only seen specific problems with video gear) and why invite problems. Have fun. Did you go to InterOp to look at equipment? Next chance will be in March in Washington, DC. And no, the routers that my company makes, do not (yet) connect to synchronous lines, so I am a somewhat neutral observer. There is, however, a decent product made by another Santa Barbara company, called Advanced Computer Communications. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 ------------------------------ From: toddi@mav.com (Todd Inch) Subject: Re: Advice Needed on Telephone Security Systems Organization: Maverick International Inc. Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 16:46:59 GMT In article khx@se44.wg2.waii.com writes: > c) Why were cable connections cut? The four-conductor underground phone cable I've seen looks a LOT like coax, especially underground coax. Assuming that most thieves are pretty stupid, it's easier to just cut all the cables just to make sure. One thought that came to me while reading this for a "cut phone wire detector" is to simply add another piece of underground phone cable from the demarc down into the ground a few feet. This dummy cable could then be connected directly to your alarm, either as an open loop or closed loop (or, better yet since you have four conductors, one of each) depending on how you terminate the stub in the dirt. If this gets cut, you KNOW someone is tampering with your phone cables. I suppose you could use any unused pairs in your actual phone cable as open-loop detectors, but someday the phone company will use them or short them or something and give you a false alarm. Of course real cut-line-detectors measure the voltage across the line, but those can be spoofed by carefully connecting a power supply of the right voltage to the demarc prior to cutting the wire. I would expect that most monitoring/alarm companies can install one of these at your request. Of course, most theives would rather find an open door or break a window than learn to pick locks, so a typical thief won't drag a variable battery-operated supply and voltmeter to the side of your house. If this type of problem goes on a lot in your area it might be worth setting up a "neighborhood watch" where everybody has a battery-backed CB walkie-talkie tuned to the same channel (9?) and left on all the time with the squelch turned up. You could always rig up a tape recorder and the push-to-talk button to your alarm to announce the situation and your address. This would work best if you have some reliable retired or otherwise home all the time people in your neighborhood. Just gotta keep the kids from playing "practical" jokes. ------------------------------ From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Advice Needed on Telephone Security Systems Organization: Gordon Burditt Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 06:41:37 GMT Has anyone considered a telephone line alarm? This thing would go between your house wiring and the phone company's demarcation point. It sounds an alarm (although you probably wouldn't want this to directly call the police) when: (1) The line is disconnected (loss of battery). Might misfire during CO cutovers -- or maybe you wanted to detect them. (2) The line is shorted. Might also detect a flooded CO. (3) If the line goes off-hook from OUTSIDE your house, but not inside. This may signal a lineman or phone service thief connecting a butt set into your line to make free phone calls, or a neighbor who found this extra live pair run into his house, or an incompetent cop or private detective installing a wiretap. Naturally, the alarm has to tolerate incoming and outgoing calls without false alarms. An optional function when the alarm detected (3) would be to jam the line by going off hook and sending a test tone to jam dialing. (What would happen if you jammed pulse dialing by sending a sequence of 15 pulses, timed just like dialing "0" but more of them? Would technicians at the central office get mad?) This you would need to turn off if you reported trouble and expected tests and/or repairs done on your line. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #861 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05042; 20 Nov 92 4:49 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00366 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 20 Nov 1992 02:26:30 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15854 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Fri, 20 Nov 1992 02:26:04 -0600 Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 02:26:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211200826.AA15854@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #862 TELECOM Digest Fri, 20 Nov 92 02:26:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 862 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson 950-0666 Becomes, Well, 950 (Brad S. Hicks) Privacy Has an Ed Tel Price-Tag (Richard Nash) Foreign Exchange Installation Alternatives? (J.L. Gomez) GE Quick*Net Gateway? (Alan Boritz) If it's Wednesday, it's NYTel Ad Day (Dave Niebuhr) Bellcore ADSI Specification? (Richard W. Desaulniers) Latency in Current Analog Phone Lines? (James Kempf) Cordless Phone Users Gain Some Privacy Rights (Jerry Leichter) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com Date: 19 Nov 92 16:10:49 GMT Subject: 950-0666 Becomes, Well, 950 Here at MasterCard, we received the following piece of incomprehensible bureaucratese from the office of Bellcore's Wendy K. Messer, NANPA Administration, LCC 1B231, 290 West Mt. Pleasant Ave., Livingston, NJ 07039. I'm forwarding it both because the content may be of interest and as an example of Bellcore's dealings with end-users. (Any typos or misspellings are almost certainly mine.) For those of you who really are interested in the content, I've affixed an attempt at a translation at the end. As you read this, remember that this memo as addressed to our Director of Operations Administration, a management, not engineering, position. - - - - - - - - - - North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) is responsible for the assignment of Carrier Identification Codes (CICs) to entities (interexchange carriers and end users). NANPA maintains records of the assignments and issues reports to the FCC and industry as required. Our records show that one or more CIC(s) have been assigned to your company. NANPA is contacting you via this certified letter in connection with the industry project to expand CICs from three to four digits, which is outlined in the Industry Carrier Compatibility Forum (ICCF) CIC Administrative Guidelines. The first phase affects FG B and is scheduled for 1Q93. At that time, two things will occur First, CICs will be split into two separate pools, one for Feature Group B (FG B) and one for Feature Group D (FG D). After this split occurs, any entity wishing to purchase both FG B and FG D access will have to request separate FG B and FG D CICs, and there is no guarantee that the CICs assigned for FG B and FG D service will be the same. Second those existing three-digit CICs which are designated as FG B CICs, i.e. CICs which are used in the carrier access code 950-WXXX (where the assignee has selected the W digit as 0 or 1), will be expanded to four digits by prefixing the three digit CIC with the selected W digit. New CICs will be assigned as 4 digits. FG D CICs will remain at three digits until FG D expansion, which is currently scheduled for 1995. At that time, they will be expanded by prefixing a 0 to the three-digit FG D CIC. Existing CIC assignments will be designated as FG B or FG D based on type of access as of 1Q93. Thus, FG B CICs will be expanded as follows: CIC XXX with W = 0 (950-0XXX) will become FG B CIC 0XXX. Likewise, CIC XXX with W = 1 (950-1XXX) will become FG B CIC 1XXX. If the CIC is currently in use for FG D, the entity will retain the assignment of the three-digit CIC for FG D. Usage will be determined from the quarterly usage reports submitted to NANPA by the local exchange carriers. If the CIC is not currently used for FG D, the CIC will be made available to another entity for FG D. The attached sheet lists the CIC assignment(s) on record for your company, as well as the type of use, i.e. FG B and/or FG D. It also lists your assignment(s) as they will look after FG B expansion occurs. Please check the information for accuracy, make any changes necessary, sign it, and return it to NANPA at the address indicated. If the information is correct, please sign the sheet and return it to NANPA also. If you believe the information is incorrect, please explain why. Your reply must also be returned by the date indicated or else we will proceed with the information as listed. You are also responsible for notifying NANPA if there are any subsequent changes to the information. New CIC assignment guidelines have been developed by the industry through the ICCF. These guidelines, which cover the transition from three-to four-digit CICs and assignment procedures for four-digit CICs, seek maximum industry cooperation in this important effort, and we ask that you help us accordingly. Copies are available on request. If you have any questions, please call Jim Deak on 201-xxx-xxxx or me on 201-xxx-xxxx. Thank you, (s) Wendy Messer - - - - - - - - - - Did you make it through that? TRANSLATION: Right now if a company owns both a 950-0nnn (or 950-1nnn) code AND a 10-nnn-0 code, the "nnn" is the same. Bellcore is breaking this so that they have more slack in the 950-nnnn pseudo-exchange ... and while they're at it, they're expanding the 0/1 after the 950 to any digit, so they can assign numbers like 950-7448 or 950-3825. So if you're at a company called (for example) Hellcore, and you own "FG B" number 950-0666, but you're not a long-distance carrier with the 10-666-0 prefix, then after early next year if somebody wants to start a long-distance carrier, say, "Ma Hell," and use 10-666-0 as their access number, then they can. If this confuses telecom-literate customers who are used to relating the 950-0nnn and 10-nnn-0 codes, so be it. Oh yeah, and some time in the 1995 (for example) Ma Hell's 10-666-0 will probably become 10-0666-0, too. As our in-house telephone guru put it when the memo finally got to him: "Why didn't they just =say= that?" J. Brad Hicks Internet: mhs!mc!Brad_Hicks@attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMAIL prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad I am not an official MasterCard spokesperson, and the message above does not contain official MasterCard statements or policies. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 21:42:52 -0700 From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) Subject: Privacy Has an Ed Tel Price-Tag From the {Edmonton Sun}, Nov 18, 1992 Comment section page 11 By Sun columnist Donna Marie Artuso Selective Call Blocking (SCB) seem to be the very latest in a series of wondrous developments that have delivered us from the days of black, rotary dial telephones and party lines (ah, the good old days) into the era of touch-tone phones that look like Mickey Mouse, take your messages and forward calls to anywhere in the world. SCB allows telephone customers to prevent their number from being known by people who subscribe to another technological wonder, the Call Display feature. It is particularly desirable for folks with security concerns. For example, victims of family violence who are in hiding from their attackers, and medical professionals who wish to keep their numbers confidential from the patients they counsel after hours - by phone from their homes. C O N C E R N S A B O U T P R I V A C Y Consumer groups too, have voiced concerns about the right to privacy of seniors and other shut-ins who shop by phone. Yesterday, Ed Tel president and CEO R.H. David appeared at a meeting of the city's utilities and public works committee in support of Ed Tel's request to extend the SCB service for the not-so-modest service charge of $17.70 per customer. Perhaps recognizing that many people who need SCB might not be able to afford the fee, David did allow that it would be provided free of charge whenever there was demonstrable need, such as when an individual has a restraining order against someone who has threatened them from the past. Ed Tel's fee-for-service rationale also included some reference to a "deterrent" factor which led David to distinguish between "legitimate" requests for SCB and requests from abusers, or those thousands of people who, every year, get on the horn to make threatening and obscene calls. It was an especially weak argument considering that such wierdos are now far easier to detect, thanks to a technology known as Call Trace which is available to everyone free of charge. Abusers, who have their calls connected by the 411 service, can now also be traced quite readily. Besides, if $17.70 was going to deter anyone from making an obscene phone call, we'd have licked the problem a long time ago. It was Ald. Tooker Gomberg who raised the subject of other telephone companies and their SCB strategies. He should be interested to know that AGT supplies Selective Call Blocking to any customer who asks for it, absolutely free of charge. Explains AGT product manager and spokesman Laurie Schultz: "We didn't want to have to make privacy decisions for our customers. We didn't want to have to play the role of judge and jury and decide who had a good reason for getting it free and who didn't." AGT was the first company in Canada to introduce call display and call blocking. They were first tested in Red Deer in 1990. R e s p o n s e t o R e s i s t a n c e Says Schultz: "Like all telephone companies, we were new to privacy impacts. But we found there was some resistance to call display, so we minimized it by providing call block for free." As is the usual proceedure in these matters, Ed Tel's request will be considered by city counsil at its next full meeting. There, aldermen will have to decide whether or not their constituents will have to pay for the privacy that, arguably, is their right. Charging for SCB, of course, would have the effect of raking in a little more dough for the city-owned corporation which last year reported a net profit of $270 million. It sure sounds as though Ed Tel has someything to learn from its country cousins at AGT. And on Monday, city manage Richard Picherack revealed that he was eyeing Ed Tel's cash reserves to help retire the city's deficit. Hello? Hello? end of article: Ed Tel is a wholly owned corporation of the City of Edmonton. AGT Ltd., a private share holder owned company, is the Alberta provincial provider of long distance service, and also all local services excluding the City of Edmonton. Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie%trickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca Amatuer Radio Packet: ve6bon%ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca@gw-1.ampr.ab.ca VE6BON @ VE6MC.AB.CAN.NA ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca [192.75.200.15] ------------------------------ From: gomez@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (JL Gomez) Subject: Foreign Exchange Installation Alternatives? Organization: Arizona State University Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 23:06:25 GMT Is there any alternatives to having a phone line installed in a different area code in which you live in? I've called my PacBell representative and they offer foreign exchange installation for a hefty initial installation fee and heavy monthly fee. One alternative someone mentioned is to use call forwarding but that will involve putting the line in someone else's home. What about a 900 phone number? By the way, this is for a friend's BBS. Thanks for the info. gomez@enxuha.eas.asu.edu [Moderator's Note: He could put in a 900 line and set the charge for calls to ZERO. The caller would pay nothing, but your friend would still have to pay the carriage fee to whichever provider he got the service from, and at 25-30 cents *per minute* this probably would not be any less expensive than FX. If he wants to use call forwarding, the phone could always hang on a wall in an answering service; he'd have to pay the service some fee (maybe $10 or $15 per month) to leave it there. If he goes with call forwarding, make sure the line doing the forwarding gets *untimed, unmeasured local service* to the BBS; if not, then this alternative will turn out to be more expensive than planned also. There is also a telco service in many places called Remote Call Forwarding. This amounts to a line terminated in the distant CO which is set to permanently forward calls at the DID rate in effect. But these are rarely if ever tariffed for residential use, and if it is a business line then the chances of having unmeasured local service outboound from it is not too likely. Personally, I'd stick with FX if he insists he wants to pay the phone bill for his users, or else go with an 800 number, and pay those rates. There is no inexpensive way to do what he wants; telco *always* gets their money regardless of your configuration. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 19 Nov 92 07:02:25 EST From: Alan Boritz <72446.461@CompuServe.COM> Subject: GE Quick*Net Gateway? Would anyone know of Internet or Compu$erve gateways to GE Quick*Net? And while I have your attention ;), would you also know of gateways into Sprint's public x.400 system (perhaps it may be the remains of the old Telemail system?). I have a few friends with mail accounts on both of those systems (which talk to each other) and was wondering if they accept mail from the rest of the world (yet). Thanks. Alan Boritz 72446.461@compuserve.com [Moderator's Note: In the latter case, 'address@sprint.com' will get you where you want to go. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 13:03:58 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: If it's Wednesday, it's NYTel Ad Day It seems that every Wednesday, NYTel takes out ads concerning upcoming services for various products. This week's entries are: 1. Directory Assistance Call Completion (the telco does the dialing for $0.35 US per call; 2. Clarification of Text for Restoral Charges; 3. Tariff Filing for the Introducion of Digital Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) Prime Service; 4. Tariff Filing for Blocking Service (more options) (970, 976, etc. numbers). Nothing earth shaking but interesting to read and to keep informed. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 11:58:59 From: desaulni@mprgate.mpr.ca (Richard W. Desaulniers) Subject: Bellcore ADSI Specification? I would like to get in touch with anyone out there who know anything or knows of a Bellcore contact who knows about the Analog Display Service Interface (ADSI) specification that Bellcore is supposedly developing. According to our sources Bellcore is trialling this in the US and Canada. As we understand it this is a specification for telephone sets or terminals equipped with programmable displays. Example: in the case of voice messaging, menus would be downloaded to your phone showing what keys to press for which function. Please contact me directly via e-mail if possible. Richard W. Desaulniers InterNet: desaulni@mprgate.mpr.ca MPR Teltech Ltd. ------------------------------ From: kempf@suntana.Eng.Sun.COM (James Kempf) Subject: Latency in Current Analog Phone Lines? Date: 19 Nov 1992 00:13:49 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Reply-To: kempf@suntana.Eng.Sun.COM Does anybody have an idea what the approximate latency is in current analog phone lines? By "latency" I mean the time between when you send off a signal down the wire and when it gets to the other end. Most useful would be if this could be categorized by transport medium (e.g. local wire, national microwave, satellite, cellular, etc.), but a rough figure will do. Please reply to me directly, since I don't regularly monitor this group. Thanks. jak ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 11:26:21 EDT From: Jerry Leichter Subject: Cordless Phone Users Gain Some Privacy Rights Cordless telephone users, whose conversations have been easy prey for electronic eavesdroppers, finally won a degree of privacy in a federal appeals-court ruling. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a criminal case, said that when such phone users reasonably expect their conversations to be private, the government can't listen in. But the court said the Fourth Amendment privacy right must be evaluated case by case, depending on such factors as whether the phone user had sought privacy by purchasing devices intended to foil eavesdroppers or by using phones known to be more difficult to tap. The ruling is apparently the first in which a federal court has allowed cordless-phone users any privacy rights. Previously, other appeals courts have said the phones are so easy to eavesdrop on -- with an AM/FM radio or even with another cordless phone -- that any expectation of privacy was ridiculous. The Eight U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the late 1980s that eavesdropping was allowed, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the decision. The New Orleans court noted that the previous opinions are all several years old, and that the technology has since advanced in the $1.39 billion cordless-phone market. Some phones on store shelves now, for instance, come with scrambling devices made to combat high-tech eavesdroppers. Other phones work within shorter ranges, so their frequencies can't be as easily intercepted as they were in the past. More than 18 million cordless phones are expected to be sold this year ... "The reasonableness of expectations of privacy for a cordless phone conversation will depend, in large part, upon the specific telephone at issue," the court said. It declined to spell out the technological features it considered most relevant. [The actual drug conviction, based on information recorded by a neighbor, was upheld since no evidence about the phone had been introduced.] Privacy-rights lawyers applauded the broader ruling, which they said is a step toward preventing eavesdropping by private citizens as well as police. The lawyers noted that cellular-phone conversations already are protected [though technically they are as easy to intercept.] ... [N]ow that cordless phones are more secure, they should be treated the same as cellular phones, Ms. [Janlori] Goldman [of the ACLU] said. "People who use these different kinds of phones do not make these kinds of distinctions," she said. "One circuit is willing to recognize that this might be an absurd distinction." ... [For those interested, the case citation is U.S. vs. David Lee Smith, Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, New Orleans, 91-5077. Can we expect future Willie Horton's who beat the rap to get hired by the maker of their phone to tout it as "private -- and a court agreed?"] Jerry ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #862 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa24566; 22 Nov 92 1:16 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23254 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 21 Nov 1992 23:17:18 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17589 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 21 Nov 1992 23:16:59 -0600 Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 23:16:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211220516.AA17589@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #863 TELECOM Digest Sat, 21 Nov 92 23:17:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 863 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Administrivia: Article/Subject Headers (TELECOM Moderator) Need Information on Aggregator (One Stop Financial) (Jeff Wasilko) Only One Phone Works ... Help! (Andy Wolf) International Dialing (Nigel Allen) Lilly Tomlin (Rich Greenberg) Apologies to Cisco (Lars Poulsen) Cisco's Participation (Bing Liao) Moving and Trying to Keep Phone Number (Dave Borden via Monty Solomon) High-Quality Voice Over POTS (Robert M. Hamer) FYI 215 NXX Additions (Cody M. Ries) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 22:26:14 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Article/Subject Headers Lately I've been receiving a lot of items from people who reply to the newsgroup rather than send their submission via email. Then there are people who send articles via email, but reply to the subject rather than construct it correctly. For example: "Re: TELECOM Digest V12 #850" is <> an acceptable title for an article. Neither are blanks where the subject is left out entirely. Since I don't have time for anything except a brief screening of articles, I will just skip over those that don't have subjects from now on. Likewise I am getting tired of people cross posting to a dozen other groups as well as telecom, and a variety of other articles which come here totally unedited, rambling on and on, etc. If there is no subject header, or the subject simply refers to an issue of the Digest, it won't get published. If the article comes to me from 'news@wherever' (meaning someone tried to post it to comp.dcom.telecom and it got caught and sent to me in multiples), then it won't get published. I am arranging my filtering program to take articles like these and dump them unread. I don't need a hundred plus articles daily to go through and not be able to arrange them by subject because the writer did not bother to include one. The one and only way to submit articles here is by addressing them in email to 'telecom@eecs.nwu.edu' AND including a valid subject header which either matches an earlier one with a 'Re:' in front, or by creating a new header entirely. I've got a couple dozen articles waiting for review now with no subject and my solution is to toss them out. This also applies to articles where the person simply captured the entire Digest as part of their reply, leaving me to yank a couple hundred lines out with my editor after reading it all to see what part he was replying to, etc. Thank you. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Jeff@digtype.airage.com (Jeff Wasilko) Subject: Need Information on Aggregator (One Stop Financial) Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 22:51:36 EST Organization: Univ of Fnord; Roslyn's Cafe Div. Reply-To: jeff@digtype.airage.com I got a call from a company called One Stop Financial. They claimed that they could save us an additional 29% on our AT&T 800 service. From the good folks in the TELECOM Digest, I knew he was an aggregator before he even started his sales pitch (thanks everyone!). He faxed me some info, and they seem on the up and up. Here's what it said: o 29% off from dollar one; o discounts appear as line items on AT&T bill; o No time/volume committments; o letter of agency allows me to continue to deal with AT&T for service problems/changes; o They claim to be insured by ACI (American Credit Indemnity, a D&B company) against "cases of insolvencies and slow pay by AT&T/One Stop Financial telecommunications end-users"; (from ACI letter to One Stop Finanical that was faxed to me). o Payments still go directly to AT&T. They take 30% of the savings as their fee, billed quarterly. They claim to have Merril Lynch, ADP, Airborne, Cigna Insurance, Roadway Package Systems, and The NY Mets (and lots others) among their Fortune 500 clients. They also offer a 31% discount on 1+ service (but we're on with MCI now). For example, on a $1,000 800 bill, the normal AT$T discount is $80. Their additional discount is $210. They charge $63 for the month. I realize AT&T has other discount plans. They are pushing me for a 15%-off term plan, with either 18 or 36 month committment. With portability on its way, I'd rather not be tied to any carrier right now. Has anyone dealt with them (they're located in Little Falls, NJ). What should I look at as we consider using an aggregator? I intend to check references and with the BBB in NJ. I'm also going to check their insurance policy out. Thanks in advance, Jeff Jeff's Oasis at Home. Jeff can also be reached at work at: jwasilko@airage.com ------------------------------ From: awolf@cit.hmc.psu.edu (Andy Wolf) Subject: Only One Phone Works ... Help! Organization: Milton S. Hershey Med Ctr / Penn St College of Med / Hershey,PA Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 02:28:55 GMT I have a problem in an apartment that I recently moved into. There is a phone jack in the kitchen that I have been using with a Panasonic phone/answering machine with no problem. There is a phone jack in the third bedroom that had been plugged in to a standard honest-to-god Western Electric tan 2500 set (everybody has one, right?). This phone I assumed worked correctly since I had used it to talk to someone at the same time the kitchen phone was in use talking to the same party (we have one line). However, my wife told me that she could not dial out on that line, and sure enough, she's right. If I hit the buttons, I hear the DTMF, but I still get dial tone no matter how many numbers I hit. To further complicate matters, there is a phone line in the wall between the master bedroom and the second bedroom. Right now, this line extends into the second bedroom and is tied in a loose knot. It is not terminated in an RJ-11 (some might say six-pin modular jack), it was just cut. The phone in bedroom three also rings on incoming calls. Now the questions. 1. Why doesn't the phone in bedroom three work? Bad phone cord? Is is because of the mess with the other line? Could it be the (bulletproof) phone? 2. In a rental situation, is it typical that the apartment company should fix this problem, or do I have the burden? 3. If I properly terminate the other cord (I am capable of doing this since I work with data communications) might this problem go away? 4. If it is my responsibility and I want the phone company (tm) to fix this (charging at the 1/4-hour interval, of course), should I first put the $2.00/month line maintenance service into effect, then not have to pay the big bucks, then remove it next month? My guesses are: #1 faulty wiring in the apartment, or the patch cord to the phone; #2 It is probably up to me to fix this; #3 only a factor if the lines are shorting; #4 the maintainence fee will eliminate the problem of the $$$ payout to fix the problem. Thanks for your time. Please mail your thoughts to awolf@cit.hmc.psu.edu T H A N K Y O U ! ! Andy Wolf Internet awolf@cit.hmc.psu.edu The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center BITNET awolf%cit.hmc.psu.edu@PSUHMC Penn State College of Medicine Phonenet 717.531.5825 Hershey, PA 17033 Footnet C5756A [Moderator's Note: Have you tried other instruments in BR-3 to see if they work on the line? If so, then your problem is in the phone. Even if you are hearing tones, they could be out of frequency. Have you tried the phone in BR-3 in the jack in the kitchen to see if it works there? The fact that you can talk on the BR-3 phone on the same call as the kitchen phone suggests the line is okay and the phone is also okay with the exception of the touch tone pad. Don't worry about the loose wires in BR-2 for the moment. If they were shorting out or crossed somehow, then you'd not be able to use the other phones at all. I'd begin with a different phone in BR-3 and see what happens. The landlord does not have to fix the problem. Telco is not as easily chiseled out of their fees as you suggest. Most telco maintainence plans require at least a few months on the plan in order to be covered. Much like insurance policies, telco maintainence plans may not always cover pre-existing problems. But I strongly believe your trouble is simply in the phone itself. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: International Dialing Organization: Echo Beach The following information from Stentor Canadian Network Management, the consortium of major Canadian telephone companies, was distributed through the Canadian Department of Communications' Terminal Attachment Program Advisory Committee as TAPAC bulletin 92-13. Advance Notice of Change in the Maximum Length of International Telephone Numbers: Beginning midnight December 31, 1996, CCITT Recommendation E.164 will be implemented. This recommendation allows the expansion of international telephone numbers from 12 to 15 digits. Although the North American Numbering Plan will not change, some foreign administrations may assign numbers up to 15 digits long to subscribers. Therefore, terminal equipment originating calls to these subscribers must be able to handle the additional digits. For more information on this change, please contact: Marion Norman Stentor Canadian Network Management 410 Laurier Ave. West, 8th Floor P.O. Box 2410, Station D Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1P 6H5 telephone (613) 560-3420 fax (613) 560-3226 Note from NDA: I think the "international telephone number" in this context includes the country code but excludes the access prefix, such as 011 in Canada and the United States. Readers in the United States should presumably contact the North American Numbering Plan Administration at Bellcore rather than Stentor. Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 13:17:17 PST From: richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Lilly Tomlin Pat, I have been advised by three other Digest readers that Lilly Tomlin is not "the late...". I thought I had heard of her death a while ago but I may well be wrong. My apologies to Ms. Tomlin if I am indeed wrong. Rich Greenberg Work: rmg50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com N6LRT Play: richg@hatch.socal.com What? Me speak for Amdahl? Surely you jest.... [Moderator's Note: As Mark Twain would say, the rumors of her death are greatly exaggerated! :) I don't know either way. If you say so. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Apologies to Cisco Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 21:30:04 GMT In article I wrote: > It is indeed Cisco these days. Cisco is the flagship of the industry, > enjoying the kind of name recognition that IBM used to have in > corporate computing. They are also enormously profitable, and have > adopted IBM attitudes. They don't participate in comparative > evaluations by magazines, and they don't participate in industry > interoperability test labs any more. I don't like that attitude. My basis for this was a recent comparative evaluation of router remote manageability by SNMP, I believe it was in {Data Communications} magazine; it came out during InterOp week. The article stated that despite repeated requests, Cisco had declined to participate. Unfortunately, I have purged my magazine shelf. Certainly, Cisco chose not to participate with 15 vendors in the PPP interoperability demonstration of routers at InterOp. On the other hand, Cisco did in fact show up for the PPP Interoperability Consortium's test lab the week before InterOp to check out the new (not yet released, I believe) PPP option for their new terminal server (CS-500 ?). In other words, my statement was overly broad, and I apologize. Every vendor must balance the benefit of what can be learned from test labs against the expense, and also must balance the benefit of a good review against the risk of losing credibility through a possibly ill-informed negative review. When you are in a leadership position, the risk can be significant. Lars Poulsen - eating crow at Rockwell ... Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 [Moderator's Note: I've received another comment on this subject as well, and it is included next. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bing Liao Subject: Cisco's Participation Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 13:06:40 MST > It is indeed Cisco these days. Cisco is the flagship of the industry, > enjoying the kind of name recognition that IBM used to have in > corporate computing. They are also enormously profitable, and have > adopted IBM attitudes. They don't participate in comparative > evaluations by magazines, and they don't participate in industry > interoperability test labs any more. I don't like that attitude. This is absolutely not true. We participated in Bradner Performance Tests, and Datacom Lab Tests just very recently. Results are published elsewhere. We did not participate in INTEROP Fall. '92 this year because we had done similar tests before at INTEROP. We will never adopt the IBM attitude if it means we are alienating our customer base. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 14:57:02 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Moving and Trying to Keep Phone Number [Moderator's Note: Monty passed this along from another newsgroup. PAT] From: borden@head-cfa.harvard.edu (Dave Borden) Subject: Re: Moving and Trying to Keep Phone Number - Need Advice Date: 19 Nov 92 18:57:10 GMT Reply-To: borden@m5.harvard.edu Organization: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA In article <1992Nov19.172109.9888@m5.harvard.edu> borden@m5.harvard. edu writes: > I'm trying to find out if I have any options for keeping my current > phone number if I move out of town. My situation is: I live in > Central Square, Cambridge. I really want to find another apartment, > and it has to be cheap, which makes it harder to find something in > Cambridge. I have a freelance business (I play piano), and there are > hundreds of flyers and cards out there with my Cambridge phone number > on them. I need to keep this number active in some sense, for an > indefinite period of time, maybe permanently. New England Telephone > will only put a message on the number for a few months, then they > recirculate the number; to get a Cambridge number in anyplace other > than Cambridge is extremely expensive. > So the question is: does anyone know a way to keep a phone number > without maintaining a residence? Thanks in advance for any help you > are able to give. I've been able to answer my own question since I posted this. In case anyone is interested, here's the answer: There's a service offered through New England Telephone's business service office (737-7000), which is also available to residential customers, called Remote Call Forwarding. This allows one to keep one's old phone number without the phone line, and have the calls forwarded to a new phone number, any number you want. You pay $41.54 for installation, $16.97 per month for the service, and for the phone line usage, whatever the call would normally cost, from your old number to your new number. For example, if you Cambridge to Somerville, as I might do, and someone calls you at your old Cambridge number, you would pay the local message units charge on their call. Hope this is of use to someone out there. Dave Borden borden@m5.harvard.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 11:27 EDT From: Robert M. Hamer Subject: High-Quality Voice Over POTS A local public radio station stated recently that due to a lack of funds, they were changing their methodology with respect to interviews in which the interviewee was out of town. Their previous practice was to have the interviewee go to a local station and interview that person via satallite. They said the replacement methodology would be simple telephone, and that listeners would notice a decline in voice quality of the interviewee. Shouldn't it be possible to digitize and compress the voice with the proper equipment, and uncompress and reconstruct it at the station, producing quality comparable to satallite? Is it that POTS still has too little bandwidth to handle digitized and compressed voice? Is it that the long distance companies already digitize and multiplex the signal they pass so much that it can't handle signal that is already digitized and compressed? Is it just the practical consideration of getting the equipment to the site of the interviewee in time (although any of the express companies ought to be able to get it there overnight)? We use various compression schemes with modems via long distance companies, don't we? ------------------------------ From: Coby M. Ries Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 13:31:07 EST Subject: FYI 215 NXX Additions The following is taken from a letter that I received from our local bypass carrier(Eastern Telelogic): "Several new NXXs have been introduced into the 215 area. You may need to have these NXXs programmed into you PBX. NXX LOCATION EFFECTIVE DATE --- -------- -------------- 239 Norristown 12/15/92 305 W. Conshohocken 12/15/92 306 W. Conshohocken 12/15/92 413 Philadelphia 12/20/92 619 Ambler 12/10/92 815 Norristown 01/01/93 819 Philadelphia 12/01/92 916 Leesport 12/28/92 These are not the first NXX exchanges to go into affect in the 215 NPA. About a month ago my boss came into my office telling me he couldn't reach his wife's car phone at a 215-816-XXXX number. I am assuming other NXXs may have been added at that time (approximatly two months ago). I am also going to call Eastern Telelogic and request a copy of the "Updated NXX List". I post anything that looks relatively new/interesting. I also heard from my Bell of PA rep that 215 will be splitting some time in the near future. This was according to a Bell of PA internal letter. I think he said 810 was the new NPA. Any truth to this? Coby Ries, coby%deadlock@uunet.uu.net, Voice +1 215 963 7350 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #863 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27308; 22 Nov 92 2:07 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00149 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 22 Nov 1992 00:08:20 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24331 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 22 Nov 1992 00:07:54 -0600 Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 00:07:54 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211220607.AA24331@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #864 TELECOM Digest Sun, 22 Nov 92 00:07:50 CST Volume 12 : Issue 864 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Network Design Algorithm (Stephan Weber) Phone Harrassment (Rajesh Kumar Singh) Recommendations For Modems + Terminal Server Rack? (Shobhana) Characters on International Phone Keypads - Compilation (Andy W. Lafleur) Roving Laptops and Automatic Phone Number Conversions (Michael A. Shiels) Internships in SF Bay Area? (Neil Kruse) Telephone Costs? (Chris Bengtsson) Info Wanted on SNET Rate and Service Change (Seng-Poh Lee) Conference Calls (J. Philip Miller) 714fix: A Conversion Program For 714/909 Area Code Split (Paul Eggert) Ten Digit Dialing in Oregon (Leonard Erickson) A New Wireless Phone From Japan (New York Times via Monty Solomon) Any Free Calling Cards Left? (ronnie@media.mit.edu) How Do *You* Use ISDN? (Tom Perrine) Clarification Regarding BBS\APL (Paul Robinson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 09:40:58 +0100 From: Stephan Weber Subject: Network Design Algorithm Reply-To: weber@iam.unibe.ch Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Berne, Switzerland Help Wanted For Network Design Algorithms !!!! I am working on a project to design telecomunication networks. I found in the book "Data Networks " by Dimitri Bertsekas and Robert Gallagher (1987) the description of the Capacity Assignment Problem. There are a formal Description and a heuristic algorithm given. Now I have a question. Do you know other papers or books which describe this kind of problems (Design of Backbone - Network based on traffic matrices). Also I would like to get in concact with people working in thies area to discuss problems and questions. My interests are specially in people working with operation research methods and on the other side with artificial intelligence methods. My question is, how these two techniques can be used to design in a efficient way cost-effective telecommunication networks. I appreciate all the information you can provide me. Thanks a lot. Stephan Weber Institut fuer Informatik und angewandte Mathematik Universitaet Bern Laenggassstrasse 51 CH - 3012 Bern Telephone: ..41 31 65 49 03 TeleFax ..41 31 65 39 65 eMail weber@iam.unibe.ch ------------------------------ From: rsingh@goliath.Stanford.EDU Subject: Phone Harrassment Organization: Makalu Mountain Hermitage, Mt Makalu, Nepal Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 05:31:12 GMT A friend of mine (well, my friend's roomie) is getting life threatening phone calls, but the police won't do anything until actual harm is done ... they are keeping a log of each call. This is in State of Missouri. The callers DON'T know the dorm or room number or phone number. The operator has been asked to NOT TO give the phone number/address to any callers. HOWEVER, this university has a peculiar system that a student can call the operator and ask to be connected to "John Doe" and if John Doe is a student, the operator WILL put the call through. Thus, even though the number is not to be given out, the abuser is able to connect. So far, the abuser is trying to get the friend and my friend's roommate to DIVULGE address/number, but my friend and my friend's roommate have been very careful. My feeling is that something is fishy about an operator connecting to people based on a name only, but what do you all think? Especially, I'd like to hear from anyone from Missouri that knows about the local telephone company policies. Rajesh Kumar Singh E-mail: rsingh@goliath.stanford.edu [Moderator's Note: You are not dealing with 'local telco policies' in this case; you are dealing with how the university chooses to operate its telephone switchboard. Actually, most people would be pleased with the idea of getting calls through to them where the caller only knows the name but not the correct number. I can understand your friend's anxiety over the calls, but has he considered asking the university switchboard to NOT put the calls through? What happens when he just hangs up immediatly on hearing the first word from the harasser? The fun goes away fast when no one is there to listen and be abused. You say 'they' are keeping a log of each call. Who is 'they'; your friend, the police, the university operator? Has the university switchboard supervisor been tipped off that this problem exists and asked to try and derail the caller? PAT] ------------------------------ From: shobhana@shakti.ncst.ernet.in (Shobhana) Subject: Recommendations For Modems + Terminal Server Rack? Date: 21 Nov 1992 01:29:00 -0600 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway We need to have dial-up connectivity at our facility here -- we'll be looking to provide about 50 lines. Given that our facility has a TCP/IP based network with workstations connected over ethernet, what configuration you would recommend for a modem + terminal server rack? Is there any way to avoid using 50 modems? What about PBXes? Would they be useful? I would appreciate E-mail responses since our site tends to lose news sometimes. Please reply to shobhana@shakti.ncst.ernet.in. Thanks in advance, Shobhana ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 15:44:00 -0500 (EST) From: Andy W Lafleur Subject: Characters on International Phone Keypads - Compilation I need to internationalize a product which contains a phone keypad. From the research I have been able to do so far, it appears that a twelve key, four row * three column arrangement is pretty typical of keypads in various countries, and looks like: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 * 0 # There is, however, a lot of variation between countries as to whether alphabetic characters are also present with the numerals on these keypads; and where the alphabetic characters exist, there is much variation in the placement of different characters. CCITT Recommen- dation E.161 indicates that such variation is permis sible, however, I would like to determine what exactly these variants are. (There has been an ongoing discussion thread in comp.human-factors on this subject for those who are interested.) I'd like to survey telecom readers in different countries to compile these differences, and will post the results for any other people interested. So if you co uld take a minute to fill in the questionnaire below, it would be much appreciated. Please email reply to awl@world.std.com. ----------- Country:______ 1) Do typical phoneset keypads in this country depict alphabetic characters associated with the keypad's numeric keys? 2) Are these characters actually used for a purpose? If so, in what way? (For example, the characters could: - be part of the country's dialing plan -- i.e., some people's phone numbers have a "D" in them; - or, they could be used for mnemonic dialing, so that phone 'numbers' are more easily remembered as strings -- i.e., dial 1-800-NO-FLAME; - or, the characters are typically used to configure or modify non-connection features -- voice mail, etc.; - or, other (describe). 3) What is the relationship between the numeric keys and the different characters? Please indicate below, underneath the examples given. If an indicated character does not apply to your national language, please overtype it with a space character. If you need to indicate a hard-to-display character like a diacritical, just add a notation to that effect. If your keypad characters are laid out the same as one of the examples, please indicate which one. Examples: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CCITT Rec E.161 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 0 7 0 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 US Variant 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 US Variant 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 US Variant 3 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 0 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 0 US Variant 4 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 1 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 1 Your keypad: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Thanks in advance. Andy Lafleur awl@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: mshiels@TMSoftware.Ca (Michael A. Shiels) Subject: Roving Laptops and Automatic Phone Number Conversions Organization: MaS Network Software and Consulting Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 07:05:55 -0500 Is it possible to automatically edit a phone number (assuming it includes full area code information) based upon the user saying where they are now? I know here in area code 416 it was difficult during the change over where we went from just dialing 1-xxx-xxxx for long distance to 1-416-... How can you find out which area codes require dialing long distance as 1-areacode and which only use the 1? Thanks! Michael A. Shiels | mshiels@masnet.uucp MaS Network Software and Consulting | mshiels@tmsoftware.ca ------------------------------ Date: 21 Nov 92 06:47:00 +0600 From: KRUSE_NEIL@tandem.com Subject: Internships in SF Bay Area? My brother is a graduate student in Telecommunications Management at Golden Gate University. He was wondering if any telecommunications companies in the San Francisco bay area offered any sort of internships or college co-op programs, or entry level positions. Any lead would be greatly appreciated. Neil Kruse kruse_neil@tandem.com ------------------------------ From: bagus@elixir.e.kth.se (Chris Bengtsson) Subject: Telephone Costs? Reply-To: bagus@elixir.e.kth.se (Chris Bengtsson) Organization: U s e U S, Sweden Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 15:03:01 GMT In Sweden, the telephone company charges nearly US$30 to give the taxing-meter reading, inbetween billing periods. Does anyone know of a (cheap) device that can monitor taxing, allowing me to continually know what my telephone bill be, as well as controlling my telephone bill. I make a lot of overseas calls and hate the suprise of my telephone bill. (In Sweden the telephone company bills every three months.) Thanks in advance for any response! Chris Bengtsson voice/fax: +46 8 195904 email: Bagus@elixir.e.kthe.se ------------------------------ From: splee@pd.org (Seng-Poh Lee, Speedy) Subject: Info Wanted on SNET Rate and Service Change Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 11:03:29 -0500 (EST) I am interested in the recent rate and service change that SNET in Connecticut has just submitted to the CPUC. Apparently, it is supposed to equalize the rate businesses pay for service, compared to residential service (from 3:1 to 2:1). It also changes the basic local calling areas for most towns. I am more interested in the change in local calling area. SNET is proposing an Extended Calling Area (for about double the current cost). I'd like to know if the proposed basic rate keeps the current calling area, at a slightly raised cost, or whether the new rate cuts down on the current local calling area. Also, I'm interested in how wide an Extended Calling Area SNET is proposing for most towns. Thanks, Seng-Poh Lee ------------------------------ From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Subject: Conference Calls Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 08:32:07 -0600 (CST) We frequently have the need to set up conference calls involving 10-15 individuals scattered through the US. We have generally been using AT&T, but I had never looked carefully at the charges. We just finished talking with the Atlanta conference center. They charge $10.00/party plus $.49/minute/party for each call. It does not matter where the call originates or what conference center it is made from. This is about double the rates of standard long distance connections from each participant to Atlanta (or whichever center is being used). A 60 minute phone call will cost $39.40/person, no matter where they are located, so that a 10-15 person conference will cost $400-$600. Our local switchboard cannot support conferences of this size. Are there alternatives which we should be looking at that will give us good quality connections at a more economical charge? J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110 phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet (314) 362-3617 [362-2694(FAX)] ------------------------------ From: eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) Subject: 714fix: A Conversion Program For 714/909 Area Code Split Organization: Twin Sun, Inc Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 21:20:28 GMT Here's '714fix', a Unix Bourne shell script that reads standard input and writes standard output, converting telephone numbers to adjust for the split of California's 714 and 909 area codes on 15 November 1992. You can apply this program to arbitrary text: it modifies only the affected telephone numbers. There is NO WARRANTY with this program. This program is derived from data supplied by GTE, and it probably contains errors. Use it at your own risk. #!/bin/sh # Read argument files (or standard input if none), and write standard output, # adjusting telephone numbers to account for the 714/909 area code split. # $Id: 714fix,v 1.1 1992/09/15 07:53:17 eggert Exp $ # Please send corrections (with justifications) to eggert@twinsun.com. # The source is: # GTE CA 5706C phone bill insert # The following prefixs are duplicated in both 714 and 909 area codes, # so they are not included in the list below. # 555 long distance info # 561 reserved for future emergency use # 853 time # 950 long distance carrier access # 976 info providers # area codes from=714 to=909 # Compute the sed commands from the area codes and prefixes to be changed. sedsed='{ s@#.*@@ s@[ ]@@g /^$/d s@.*@s/\\([^0-9]\\)'$from'\\([-). ][-). ]*&[-. ]\\)/\\1'$to'\\2/g@ }' sed_commands=` sed "$sedsed" <<'EOF' # prefixes in $from that should be moved to $to 24[2-7] 27[2-9] 30[1-47-9] 33[5-8] 34[13] 35[0-9] 36[09] 37[01] 38[1-46-9] 39[0-9] 42[0-8] 43[19] 46[0-9] 47[3578] 48[1-8] 58[45] 59[0-9] 60[3-57] 62[0-9] 65[2-9] 67[246-9] 68[1-9] 69[4-9] 710 73[4-7] 76[35-79] 78[0-57-9] 79[02-9] 82[02-59] 84[59] 86[0-24-9] 87[2-8] 88[0-9] 899 92[02-9] 93[013] 9[48][0-9] EOF ` # Run the sed script. exec sed ' /'$from'/{ s/^/ / '"$sed_commands"' s/^ // } ' ${1+"$@"} ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 19:48:57 PDT From: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Erickson) Subject: Ten Digit Dialing in Oregon My new US West phone directory has the following buried inside on page A23: NEW DIALING PLAN COMING TO OREGON Oregon's traditional seven digit dialing within the 503 area code will be phased out beginning July 10, 1993. Starting then, you will need to dial 1 + 503 + the seven digits for all long distance calls within the 503 area code. This change is necessary because of telephone growth in Oregon. The new dialing patterm will allow these [sic] numbers currently reserved for area codes to be used for local prefixes, and make available more combinations when assigning telephone numbers. It will also allow you to know When [sic] a charge applies to your calls. After July 10, 1993, you will get a recording telling you how to dial if you have not dialed 1 + 503 + seven digits on long distance calls within the 503 area code. Local calls are not affected by the change. ---------- I note several things of interest here: 1. There's no apparent provision for a period where both methods will work. (I tried 1-503-NXX-XXXX and got an error recording). 2. It makes no mention of the *current* dialing method, which requires a 1 on long distance inside 503. 3. Unlike the other states mentioned in the list, we get to keep seven digit local calls. (And thus, a way to avoid inadvertant LD charges!) I understand that they've already done this with the 206 area code in Washington. In the same way ... Must be a "left coast" right coast" difference! uucp: uunet!m2xenix!puddle!51!Leonard.Erickson Internet: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 01:50:58 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A New Wireless Phone From Japan From the {New York Times} 11/18/92. Japan is experimenting with wireless telephones that are cheaper and possibly closer to availability than the latest versions under development in the United States, according to Japan's second-largest long-distance carrier. Dr. Sachio Semmoto, senior vice president with the DDI Corporation, said yesterday that his company was developing a new system called "personal handy phone." The Japanese phones may be commercially available as early as next year, he said. Equivalent United States phone systems called personal communications services may be three or more years away from market. Despite manufacturing most of America's cellular telephones, Japan has had until recently a fledgling domestic market for wireless telephone service. High service prices have discouraged all but the corporate customer. There are one million cellular subscribers in Japan compared with 10 million in the United States, which has a population double that of Japan. Japanese cellular phones, which can only be rented, cost the equivalent of $100 or more a month for access charges and $1.60 for three minutes of air time. By contrast, DDI's personal handy phones are expected to cost only $16.26 a month in access charges and 24 cents for three minutes of air time. Personal handy phones would resemble American cordless telephones, which operate on different radio frequencies from cellular. The Japanese phones, however, would use the same frequencies contemplated for American personal communications services. The handy-phone network would cost only one-hundredth as much as a cellular network to build, and the prices for service would be sharply lower than that for cellular, Dr. Semmoto, who has a doctorate in electrical engineering, said. Cellular "base stations" of radio transmitting equipment that make cellular service possible cost as much as $3 million; stations for personal handy phones might cost as little as $30,000. Personal handy phones, designed to weigh about half the smallest cellular phones, could be used only within 1,000 feet of the base station and could not be operated in a car or on the street. But because of common technical standards, Japanese users could operate their handy phones from building to building. Base stations could be installed in homes, office buildings, supermarkets, department stores and other buildings. "Our concept is to attack the consumer market, rather than the business market," Dr. Semmoto said. "But our ultimate goal is for this technology to spread around the world, especially to the United States and Europe." Dr. Semmoto is visiting United States companies to discuss the technology so they might consider adopting it. He said he had met with regional Bell companies, cable-television companies and long-distance carriers like the MCI Communications Corporation, which recently proposed building a national network of small wireless phones. ------------------------------ From: ronnie@media.mit.edu Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 02:40:45 -0500 Subject: Any Free Calling Cards Left? Are there any calling cards left that don't charge an initial fee? I remember Telecom*USA had one for a while, but I also remember hearing MCI took them over. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am living in a hotel for the next few months. Ron (ronnie@media.mit.edu) ------------------------------ From: tep@tots.Logicon.COM (Tom Perrine) Subject: How Do *You* Use ISDN? Date: 21 Nov 92 02:24:19 GMT Organization: Logicon, Inc., San Diego, California After hearing about how ISDN is going to "save us all", and seeing people in this group mention, "using my ISDN phone I ...", I have been wondering: Just what are the mechanics of establishing a data connection via an ISDN phone? I am in southern Pac Bell land, where ISDN is completely unknown, and I have never even *seen* an ISDN desk set. I know that you can use ISDN to connect a home machine to a LAN, but how do you *do* it? How would I establish a connection between two "home computers" in parallel with a voice call to the same person? Enquiring minds (and a victim od ISDN-envy :-) want to know! Tom E. Perrine (tep) | tep@Logicon.COM |Voice: +1 619 597 7221 Logicon, Inc. | sun!suntan!tots!tep | or : +1 619 455 1330 4010 Sorrento Valley Blvd| | FAX: +1 619 552 0729 San Diego CA 92121-1498 ------------------------------ From: Tdarcos@f120.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Tdarcos) Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 00:26:30 -0500 Subject: Clarification Regarding BBS\APL Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM There was a BBS in Baltimore called "APL" which was siezed by federal authorities for the unlawful distribution of copyrighted software. There is a BBS in Silver Spring, MD, called the BBS\APL which deals with issues involving the APL Programming language. That BBS, which is called at +1 301 384 3672, is operated by Dick Holt and has no connection whatsoever with the "APL" BBS that was raided. Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM These opinions ARE those of the owner of this account. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #864 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa01721; 22 Nov 92 4:11 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26127 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 22 Nov 1992 02:12:09 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19950 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 22 Nov 1992 02:11:51 -0600 Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 02:11:51 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211220811.AA19950@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #865 TELECOM Digest Sun, 22 Nov 92 02:11:45 CST Volume 12 : Issue 865 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson New NPA 210 Prefixes (Moving From 512) (David Leibold) CompuServe and Hutchison Provide Access From Hong Kong (Daniel K. Cheng) Dom Tuffy Tapes (Paul Migliorelli) Caller ID Devices For RS-232 Wanted (W. Gregg Stefancik) Caller ID in Area Code 516 (Dave Niebuhr) Cellular NPA-NXX List? (rizvi@paul.rutgers.edu) Tariff Comparisons Wanted (Richard Cox) ATT Boing: What is it? (Argun Tekant) Ringing My Own Phone (Ross Hayden) Distinctive Ringing Devices (Mike Bray) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 01:29:09 EST From: David Leibold Subject: New NPA 210 Prefixes (Moving From 512) With the new area code 210 in effect, splitting the Texas 512 area (currently in a "permissive" dialing mode, where both 512 and 210 may be used for a while), I finally dug up some information on what exchanges are changing from 512 to 210. I did not have a chance to check and sort out what's staying in 512, but that might be an Archives file for later. dleibold@vm1.yorku.ca ------------- Area Code 210 Texas (22 November 1992) The following exchanges are in the new 210 area code (Texas, San Antonio and area), following the split from NPA 512. Any other exchange in 512 such as in Austin remains in 512 if not listed here. NPA NXX Place --- --- ----------- 210 202 Harlingen 210 203 San Antonio 210 208 San Antonio 210 212 San Antonio 210 213 San Antonio 210 220 San Antonio 210 221 San Antonio 210 222 San Antonio 210 223 San Antonio 210 224 San Antonio 210 225 San Antonio 210 226 San Antonio 210 227 San Antonio 210 228 San Antonio 210 229 San Antonio 210 230 San Antonio 210 231 San Antonio 210 232 Frio Canyon 210 233 Los Fresnos 210 234 Barksdale 210 235 San Antonio 210 236 Westloff 210 238 Hunt 210 239 Range 210 240 San Antonio 210 246 San Antonio 210 248 San Perlita 210 249 Boerne 210 254 Karnes City 210 257 Kerrville 210 260 San Antonio 210 262 Edcouch 210 270 San Antonio 210 271 San Antonio 210 277 Charlotte 210 278 Uvalde 210 283 San Antonio 210 290 Harlingen 210 291 Harlingen 210 298 Del Rio 210 299 San Antonio 210 304 San Antonio 210 308 San Antonio 210 313 Del Rio 210 315 San Antonio 210 316 Edinburg 210 317 San Antonio 210 318 Edinburg 210 324 Sisterdale 210 330 Edinburg 210 333 San Antonio 210 334 Pearsall 210 336 Kenberg 210 337 San Antonio 210 340 San Antonio 210 341 San Antonio 210 342 San Antonio 210 344 San Antonio 210 347 Lyford 210 349 San Antonio 210 350 Brownsville 210 351 San Antonio 210 359 San Antonio 210 361 San Benito 210 363 D Hanis 210 365 La Pryor 210 366 San Antonio 210 367 Ingram 210 372 Seguin 210 373 Fowlerton 210 374 Crystal City 210 376 Batesville 210 377 San Antonio 210 378 Millett 210 379 Seguin 210 380 Edinburg 210 381 Edinburg 210 382 Edinburg 210 383 Edinburg 210 393 Floresville 210 395 Vinegarroon 210 399 San Benito 210 401 Seguin 210 402 Wetmore 210 405 Brownsville 210 407 Harlingen 210 408 Shavano 210 410 San Antonio 210 412 Harlingen 210 414 San Antonio 210 415 San Antonio 210 417 Dolores 210 418 Laredo 210 419 Laredo 210 420 Marion 210 421 Harlingen 210 423 Harlingen 210 424 Leesville 210 425 Harlingen 210 426 Hondo 210 427 Harlingen 210 428 Harlingen 210 429 Somerset 210 430 Harlingen 210 431 San Antonio 210 432 San Antonio 210 433 San Antonio 210 434 San Antonio 210 435 San Antonio 210 436 San Antonio 210 437 Cost 210 438 Bulverde 210 457 Big Wells 210 464 Donna 210 466 San Miguel 210 468 Asherton 210 470 San Antonio 210 481 San Isidro 210 484 Poth 210 485 Sullivan City 210 486 El Sauz 210 487 Rio Grande City 210 490 Wetmore 210 491 Wetmore 210 492 Shavano 210 493 Shavano 210 494 Wetmore 210 496 Wetmore 210 497 Elm Creek 210 498 Babcock 210 500 Rio Grande City 210 504 Brownsville 210 506 San Antonio 210 507 Brownsville 210 509 Culebra 210 513 Medical Center 210 514 Mercedes 210 518 San Antonio 210 519 Mission 210 520 Culebra 210 521 Culebra 210 522 Culebra 210 523 Culebra 210 524 San Antonio 210 525 San Antonio 210 530 San Antonio 210 531 San Antonio 210 532 San Antonio 210 533 San Antonio 210 534 San Antonio 210 535 Pine Creek 210 536 San Antonio 210 537 Sabina 210 538 Castroville 210 540 Saturn 210 541 Brownsville 210 542 Brownsville 210 544 Brownsville 210 545 Wetmore 210 546 Brownsville 210 548 Brownsville 210 549 Brownsville 210 551 Brownsville 210 554 San Antonio 210 557 Seguin 210 558 Babcock 210 561 Babcock 210 562 Tarpley 210 563 Brackettville 210 565 Mercedes 210 567 Medical Center 210 569 Pleasanton 210 570 Brownsville 210 579 Campbellton 210 580 Mission 210 581 Mission 210 582 Nixon 210 583 Kenedy 210 585 Mission 210 587 Smiley 210 589 Medina 210 590 Fratt 210 591 Uvalde 210 593 Medical Center 210 597 Camp Wood 210 598 Granite Shoals 210 599 Fratt 210 605 Edinburg 210 607 Edinburg 210 608 New Braunsfels 210 612 Lasara 210 613 Medical Center 210 614 Medical Center 210 615 Medical Center 210 616 Medical Center 210 617 Medical Center 210 618 McAllen 210 619 Fratt 210 620 New Braunsfels 210 621 Sandy Hills 210 622 Jarratt 210 623 Indian Creek 210 624 Oak Island 210 625 New Braunsfels 210 626 Thelma 210 627 Buena Vista 210 628 Palo Alto 210 629 New Braunsfels 210 630 McAllen 210 631 McAllen 210 632 McAllen 210 633 Southton 210 634 Center Point 210 635 Elmendorf 210 636 Santa Rosa 210 637 Fratt 210 638 McAllen 210 639 Kingsbury 210 640 Garven Store 210 641 Babcock 210 642 Lasara 210 644 Stonewall 210 646 Fratt 210 647 Culebra 210 648 Foster 210 649 Sayers 210 650 Fratt 210 651 Bracken 210 652 Universal City 210 653 Fratt 210 654 Fratt 210 655 Fratt 210 656 Fratt 210 657 Fratt 210 658 Universal City 210 659 Universal City 210 661 Martinez 210 662 Martinez 210 663 Devine 210 665 Waelder 210 666 Martinez 210 667 St Hedwig 210 669 Doss 210 670 Lackland 210 671 Lackland 210 672 Gonzales 210 673 Lackland 210 674 Lackland 210 675 Lackland 210 676 Artesia Wells 210 677 Montgomery Bexar210 678 Lackland 210 679 Potranco 210 680 Culebra 210 681 Culebra 210 682 McAllen 210 683 Rocksprings 210 684 Culebra 210 685 Willow City 210 686 McAllen 210 687 McAllen 210 688 Geronimo Creek 210 689 Raymondville 210 690 Babcock 210 691 Babcock 210 692 Babcock 210 693 Marble Falls 210 694 Babcock 210 695 Helotes 210 696 Babcock 210 697 Babcock 210 698 Leon Springs 210 699 Babcock 210 702 Pharr 210 703 Del Rio 210 717 Laredo 210 718 Laredo 210 720 San Antonio 210 721 Laredo 210 722 Laredo 210 723 Laredo 210 724 Laredo 210 725 Laredo 210 726 Laredo 210 727 Laredo 210 731 San Antonio 210 732 San Antonio 210 733 San Antonio 210 734 San Antonio 210 735 San Antonio 210 736 San Antonio 210 737 San Antonio 210 738 San Antonio 210 739 Kerrville 210 742 Poteet 210 743 Stillman 210 744 Laredo 210 745 Kosciusko 210 748 Rio Hondo 210 751 Medina Lake 210 755 Balcones 210 757 Eagle Pass 210 760 Harlingen 210 761 Port Isabel 210 762 Lacoste 210 763 Laredo 210 765 Zapata 210 769 Jourdanton 210 772 Lytle 210 773 Eagle Pass 210 774 Del Rio 210 775 Del Rio 210 779 Lavernia 210 780 Karnes City 210 781 Pharr 210 783 Pharr 210 784 Christine 210 787 Pharr 210 789 Gillett 210 791 Laredo 210 792 Kerrville 210 796 Bandera 210 797 La Feria 210 799 Dolores 210 803 San Antonio 210 804 San Antonio 210 805 San Antonio 210 807 San Antonio 210 820 San Antonio 210 821 San Antonio 210 822 San Antonio 210 824 San Antonio 210 825 Round Mountain 210 826 San Antonio 210 827 San Antonio 210 828 San Antonio 210 829 San Antonio 210 831 Brownsville 210 833 Blanco 210 839 Rocky Creek 210 841 San Antonio 210 842 McCook 210 843 McAllen 210 845 Hargill 210 848 Falcon Heights 210 849 Roma 210 861 San Antonio 210 864 Harper 210 866 Mountain Home 210 868 Johnson City 210 871 Fratt 210 875 Luling 210 876 Carrizo Springs 210 879 Cotulla 210 885 Smithsons Valley210 895 Kerrville 210 896 Kerrville 210 899 Cranes Mill 210 904 Smithsons Valley210 905 Cranes Mill 210 906 Hancock 210 907 Sattler 210 921 San Antonio 210 922 San Antonio 210 923 San Antonio 210 924 San Antonio 210 925 San Antonio 210 927 San Antonio 210 934 Knippa 210 935 Hancock 210 943 Port Isabel 210 944 Port Mansfield 210 945 Universal City 210 947 Sutherland Spgs 210 948 Encinal 210 951 San Antonio 210 954 San Antonio 210 961 Weslaco 210 962 Weslaco 210 963 Weslaco 210 964 Sattler 210 965 Dilley 210 966 Utopia 210 968 Weslaco 210 969 Weslaco 210 971 McAllen 210 974 Weslaco 210 976 [976 Service - external billing based in San Antonio] 210 977 San Antonio 210 978 San Antonio 210 979 San Antonio 210 980 Bulverde 210 981 Balcones 210 982 Brownsville 210 986 Brownsville 210 988 Sabinal 210 989 Medical Center 210 995 Comfort 210 996 Stockdale 210 997 Fredricksburg 210 999 Catarina ------------------- --------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 05:51 GMT From: Daniel K. Cheng <0004654269@mcimail.com> Subject: CompuServe and Hutchison Provide Access From Hong Kong Just released by CompuServe: Hutchison Information Services will start providing local CompuServe access from Hong Kong starting from December 1st. Network surcharge under this access option will be US$15/hr (vs. INFONET's US$50/hr previously). ***************** Welcome to CompuServe Hong Kong *************** a Service from Hutchison Information Services, Ltd. We are pleased to introduce "CompuServe Hong Kong" to our members in Hong Kong. Beginning December 1st, on behalf of CompuServe Incorporated, Hutchison Information Services will provide you with many new benefits to your current membership. CONVENIENT ACCESS VIA THE COMPUSERVE NETWORK After December 1st, you will be able to access the CompuServe Information Service through CompuServe's local node in Hong Kong. This node will support access up to and including 9600 bps. To logon to CompuServe Hong Kong via this CompuServe node using CompuServe Information Manager (CIM), just modify the phone number field to 304-1332, and select the "CompuServe" network option. To access the service using another communication software package, type GO LOGON to obtain logon information. COST EFFECTIVE RATES All your CompuServe Hong Kong charges will be translated into H.K. dollars by Hutchison at a rate of 7.8. The total communication surcharges for the CompuServe Hong Kong Service using the CompuServe access number listed above will be $15.00 (US) per hour. This is in addition to the standard connect rates of $12.50 (US) per hour, monthly fees for any billing option you may choose, and premium surcharges. Also, your monthly International Handling Fee of $10.00 (US) will be replaced by a $80.00 (HK) monthly handling fee beginning with your December billing. For a complete explanation of these rates, contact CompuServe Hong Kong Customer Service, or type GO RATES once online. LOCAL CUSTOMER SERVICE & SALES CompuServe Hong Kong offers friendly and convenient customer support and sales. Your current membership and billing information will be transferred to them. You can call them Monday through Friday (9 am to 6 pm) and Saturday (9 am to 12 pm) or send them a Feedback message (GO FEEDBACK once online) for assistance. Please contact CompuServe Hong Kong after December 1st for all your support needs. They will also have membership materials available for sale at the Sales telephone number listed below. Customer Support 867-0102 Sales & Inquiry 867-0118 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 10:34 est From: paul@migs.shecora.sai.com (Paul Migliorelli) Subject: Dom Tuffy Tapes Do any of you out there remember the Dom Tuffy Tapes? They were a number of skits poking fun at New York Telephone security, and such. I've been trying to find complete and good quality copies. Can any of you help? Any response via email would be appreciated. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: wstef@hubcap.clemson.edu (W. Gregg Stefancik) Subject: Caller ID Devices For RS-232 Wanted Organization: Clemson University Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 21:19:49 GMT We just got Caller ID here in SC. I understand that there are a variety of devices which can deal with Caller ID available. I am very interested in a device which would turn the Caller ID info into something my computer could use (RS-232 data). So I would be interested in a list of sources for various Caller ID devices. Please respond via e-mail. I will compile my responses and post. W. Gregg Stefancik wstef@hubcap.clemson.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 13:55:20 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Caller ID in Area Code 516 Caller ID was deployed in the 516, 718 and 914 Area Codes on Monday, November 16, 1992. I decided to take the list of exchanges that have that capability and derive some sort of figures concerning the breakdown of Area Code 516. Total Exchanges: 483 Nassau County: 191 Western Suffolk: 114 Eastern Suffolk: 41 Caller ID Avail: 209 The balance of exchanges are special cased (Telco, Cell Services, Time/Weather, etc.) I noticed that exchanges bordering the Nassau-Suffolk Counties and the Nassau-Queens Counties borders do not, in a majority of the cases, have Caller ID. This non-availability seems to be fairly solid going about two Central Offices away from the borders. Another interesting thing is that if a portion of an exchange is taken by a major employer, CallerID is not available (516-282 and 516-341 are good examples). My employer has 5,000 of the former and 100 of the latter). Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 [Moderator's Note: I don't think the key here is if the subscriber is a 'major employer', but rather, the type of phone system the subscriber has, and of course large firms tend to have large and elaborate systems. I think what you are experiencing is a large block of numbers used for DID, centrex or other purposes where the software is not presently compatible with what is needed to do Caller ID. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rizvi@paul.rutgers.edu (HGR) Subject: Cellular NPA-NXX List? Date: 22 Nov 92 05:22:51 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Are there fixed sets of npa-nxx from which cellular numbers are allocated (disjoint from non-cellular npa-nxx)? If so, is such a list available thru some source (electronic/paper)? Any help appreciated Raghib [Moderator's Note: The cellular companies get their number assignments from the local telco. Whatever they are, they are. Is there a complete list of the prefixes used in cellular service available by area code? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 21:38 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Tariff Comparisons Wanted Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk I am researching into the variations in telco tariffs across the USA and Canada. It would be a considerable help if readers of this digest could Email me as much detail of *their* *local* tariff as they can manage. The sort of detail I need includes: Different rates of line rental - does it matter what the line terminates on? What are the charges for ISDN lines, where they are available? Are ISDN calls charged at different rates? Calls within a LATA - when are they chargeable? 800 calls - how are these charged: do 800-portable numbers cost more per call 700 calls - ditto. Particular interest in calls that for whatever reason access carriers via the less usual channels ... is it Feature Group D on 950 numbers? I am trying to establish the width of the variation, not the average! (I want to include the material in a conference presentation in London soon, dealing with equal access, numbering, tariffing and billing. The stories in this Digest on carrier billing, 900 scams, etc have all been very helpful). All information will be gratefully acknowledged - but the identity of sources will remain confidential unless they request otherwise! Richard Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Not diallable on 511 in mainland USA ------------------------------ From: atekant@wimsey.bc.ca (Argun Tekant) Subject: ATT Boing: What is it? Organization: BC News and Mail Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 21:22:47 GMT This is probably a FAQ (Do we have a FAQ?), but can anyone tell me the frequency or function or whatever for the AT&T Boing? Thanks. Argun Tekant [Moderator's Note: The telecom FAQ is in the Telecom Archives and is available via anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. (frequent.asked.questions) PAT] ------------------------------ From: haydedr@wkuvx1.bitnet (Ross Hayden) Subject: Ringing My Own Phone Date: 21 Nov 92 20:47:36 CST Organization: Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY I'm new to this newsgroup, and know very little about telephony techno stuff. I do hope to learn more here, though. My question is this: Is there a way to find out a number I can dial that will make my phone ring (other than calling a friend and asking for a callback)? In the city I used to live in, you could dial 959-XXXX, where XXXX is your phone number suffix, do a little dance on the switchhook by hanging up three or four times quickly, and, viola, the phone would ring after the final hangup. I've since moved to another city, and the operators here don't seem to know what I'm talking about, and 959-XXXX doesn't work. Thanks in advance for any help! Ross Hayden haydedr@wkuvx1.bitnet [Moderator's Note: This changes from one town to the next, and sometimes the same telco may change it every two or three months. There is no standard. Perhaps someone familiar with Bowling Green will write you with details. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 16:37:30 EDT From: mike@camphq.FIDONET.ORG (Mike Bray) Subject: Distinctive Ringing Devices A while back someone graciously volunteered to collect data on the various "distinctive ringing" or "Ident-a-ring" boxes. Would that person kindly post their results? (or contact me) Mike Bray mike@camphq.FIDONET.ORG (or) ...!apple!camphq!mike ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #865 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa03315; 22 Nov 92 5:05 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28221 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 22 Nov 1992 02:57:52 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24149 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 22 Nov 1992 02:57:30 -0600 Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 02:57:30 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211220857.AA24149@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #866 TELECOM Digest Sun, 22 Nov 92 02:57:30 CST Volume 12 : Issue 866 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Headsets etc. (John Adams) Re: Headsets etc. (Tom Coradeschi) Re: "rrrringg-BOOP" (Dave Bonney) Re: "rrrringg-BOOP" (Bob Yazz) Re: "rrrringg-BOOP" (Thomas Brown) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (Vance Shipley) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (Richard Nash) Re: Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone (John Adams) Re: Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone (Todd Lawrence) Re: Fake Call-Waiting Product (Ed Greenberg) Re: Fake Call-Waiting Product (Jeff Wasilko) Re: Need Widget to Connect Two Faxes or Modems Together (Todd Inch) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: Re: Headsets etc. Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 12:53:48 GMT In article Cliff Sharp writes: > If anyone knows where I could get another Nady Systems headset, I'd > enjoy knowing, since this one is years old and may not last too many > more decades ... That goes for me too. Perhaps someone can help us all out on locating this. Domo Arigato! Jack (John) Adams Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 11:18:17 EST From: Tom Coradeschi Subject: Re: Headsets etc. Organization: Electric Armts Div, US Army ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ Cliff Sharp writes: > If anyone knows where I could get another Nady Systems headset, I'd > enjoy knowing, since this one is years old and may not last too many > more decades ... Surprisingly enough, I'd suggest that you start at your nearby motorcycle dealer! Nady is (big time) into wireless communication systems geared toward folks riding in groups. Ought to get you their address/phone, at the least. Better yet: a quick ftp check on the rec.motorcycles ftp site , grab the "yellow pages" and ... Nady Systems 510-652-2411 6701 Bay St. Emeryville, CA 94608 catalog free accessories--electronics tom coradeschi <+> tcora@pica.army.mil ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 17:27:58 PST From: dab@wiretap.spies.com (Dave Bonney) Subject: Re: "rrrringg-BOOP" In , Steve Kass, SKASS@drew.drew.edu wrote: > When I am using my IBX work phone and someone calls, I hear a tone, ^^^ > Can someone in the know fill me in on the technical details of > "rrrringg-BOOP" ? We own our own switch here, but I don't know what > kind it is. As you indicated. It's probably an 'IBX', manufactured by 'Intecom' near Dallas, Texas. > I had always thought that the ring signal was generated locally, and > if that's true, then my switch must be passing some signal for "phone > in use, but call waiting ringing," to which the caller's switch > generates the "rrrringg-BOOP." ... False. You've got your terminology backwards. In the current (normal) environment, the 'Ring-Back' signal is generated by the switch local to the called (ringing) telephphone, not the caller's switch or CO. (Unless of course it is a local call within the same system.) On the Intecom IBX (and TELARI) systems, the ring-back audible signal is controlled by matrix parameters in both the originating (trunk group in this case) and terminating (station) 'Class of Service' (COS) and 'User Group'. There are (literally) pages of parameters that can be altered to fit the needs of the system. (Users or administrators as the case may be.) Maybe you want a 'Priority Ring' (a triple [three short] ring)? No problem. It can even be altered to provide no ring at all. [Note: Kind of hard on the users though. :-) ] > We own our own switch here, but I don't know what kind it is. See above. It's probably an IBX. > [Moderator's Note: Actually, if you listen closely, when the called > party answers you will hear a certain kind of click on the line if you > interuppted them on call waiting which you won't hear if you did not. Not on the IBX. > A few PBXs using Direct Inward Dialing have the special ring signal > you describe when call-waiting interupts an extension user. PAT] Called, for some strange reason, 'Call Waiting Ring-Back' [ A Telecommunications Professional Now Unemployed In Westford MA ] [No Employer, No Disclaimer. Just My Own Thoughts. ] [ Inquiries To MCIMail 422-4552 or Internet ] [ or a guest account at (really!) ] [ Telephone +1 (508) 692-4194 ] ------------------------------ From: Bob Yazz Subject: Re: "rrrringg-BOOP" Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 03:07:13 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Actually, if you listen closely, when the called > party answers you will hear a certain kind of click on the line if you > interuppted them on call waiting which you won't hear if you did not. If you phone someone on a DMS switch that has certain older software revisions installed, there is a subtle difference in how you hear ringback tone if you've come in as a call-waiting beep. The first ring that you hear is short; that is, you come into the ring cycle at a slightly different spot. I regret that this feature was removed in later software revisions; what with Caller ID and all, I can't imagine how this would constitute an invasion of privacy. Does anyone know what Northern Telecom's rationale was for this change, or why a BOC like Pac Bell would request it? The same short-first-ring occurs with error recordings generated by the local switch, which I think is a 5ESS (619/587). If you listen carefully, these error ringback tones also waver in pitch slightly, like a slightly off-center record. Bob Yazz ------------------------------ From: Thomas Brown Subject: Re: "rrrringg-BOOP" Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 20:26:04 GMT Organization: Lehigh University You have an Intecom IBX switch; the ring-boop indicates that someone on the called line is on the phone. They receive a single or double ring once to indicate that someone is calling them from on-site or from off-site, respectively. If someone calls from outside, they only hear the normal ring (without any "boop"). The only other exception is a three-ring signal if someone returns a callback when you are on the line. Thomas Brown, KA2UGQ Internet: twb0@lehigh.edu Lehigh University UC Box 855 UUCP: ..!uunet!lehigh.edu!twb0 Bethlehem, PA 18015 AX.25: ka2ugq@ka2ugq.nj.usa.na ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Organization: SwitchView Inc., Waterloo, Ontario Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 21:27:29 GMT In article jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore. com (adams,john) writes: > Another aspect of all of this is that "Carrier Connect Time", the > period of time between your LD company accessing the distant > (originating works pretty much the same way) LEC, is revenue for the > LEC (The LD company pays) regardless of whether the call ever > completes! Is this true of regular calls or only operator assisted? Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@switchview.com vances@ltg.uucp ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 19:14:33 -0700 From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Peter Capek writes: > While trying to make a credit card call to a persistently busy number > recently, after typing in the card number for the n-teenth time, I > wondered if SS7 protocol would allow the calling exchange to "look > ahead" at the called number and inquire if it is (at that instant) > busy, before prompting me for the card number. Of course, I might > still get a busy if either the line became busy after I keyed in the > credit card number, or if the response to the query didn't make it > back to the originating exchange in time. The advantage (to me) would > be not having to repeatedly pound in the billing. The advantage > (small) to the carrier would be not having to do the credit card > verification, and perhaps getting the line on which I'm calling free a > bit quicker. If the call in question were third party bill, or > collect, the savings could be a lot greater. Unfortunately in a basic call setup message, 0+ wants to first secure the billing method before determining the state of the called party line. Yes, it would be possible to determine the line state of the called party first, but this would require actually connecting to the called party first, playing out an announcement to advise them to wait while the billing information was secured, and then either advising them that the calling party will be with them or that the calling party's credit check has failed. Correct me if I am wrong, but SS7 does not have a 'prober' style message that asks the far end to return information of the busy/idle status of a line. In fact, it is telco optional as to whether or not the treatment will actually be returned back to the originating end. Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie%trickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca Amatuer Radio Packet: VE6BON @ VE6MC.AB.CAN.NA VE6BON.ampr.org [44.135.147.206] ------------------------------ From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: Re: Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 12:47:38 GMT In article jsimpson@darmok.uoregon.edu (John Simpson) writes: > I've always enjoyed the sound of the coin bells inside the old > three-slot payphones. I would like to own one for myself to use > inside my residence. > Of course I would want a coinbox key! I have two big questions, > first, is it kosher to have a coin phone on a private residential > line? Second, where can I buy one of these beasts? Yes. Of course it will only function as a normal instrument ... it won't collect or reject coins without a coin service line from the phone company. My friend, Ken LaFreniere (AT&T Coin Telephone Product Manager), told me about three small companies who specialize in refurbishing (mechnically and electrically) old coin phones from Western Electric, Automatic Electric, Northern, etc. I have called for their catalogues and will be purchasing one of the old WE 233 multislot units as a present for a retiree! The names and telephones: PHONECO 608-582-4124 RUSSELL PATE 407-777-1759 A.W. MERRELL & CO 407-655-5417 Jack (John) Adams Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone From: todd@valinor.mythical.com (Todd Lawrence) Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 23:07:08 CST jsimpson@darmok.uoregon.edu (John Simpson) writes: > I've always enjoyed the sound of the coin bells inside the old > three-slot payphones. I would like to own one for myself to use > inside my residence. > Of course I would want a coinbox key! I have two big questions, > first, is it kosher to have a coin phone on a private residential > line? Second, where can I buy one of these beasts? John, Installing a coin-phone on a residential line should pose no legal problems whatsoever, however it will have to be used as a "residential" type phone, you will not unfortunately be able to use it as a coin station from your residence for two reasons (you may already be familiar with this but anyway ...) 1) a coin station is defined as such to the local switch software and you can not have coin/resident- ial on the same line. (you could bypass this problem by installing a second line though). 2) the software that is responsible for tallying the coin insertion (ACTS it's called), would no longer recognize the bell tones as coin deposits. However I know of several folks who have these things in their homes and they do make great phones. I believe they got them at antique stores, I'll ask them and see if I can find any more information for you and anyone else interested in em. Todd Lawrence LOD! Communications internet : todd@valinor.mythical.com IMF Acquisition Group uucp : uunet!valinor!todd ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Fake Call-Waiting Product Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 21:45:52 GMT In article dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > It may well work with the general public. The telecom-literate, of > course, will realize that the beep is only heard by the party who is > receiving the call-waiting, not by the far-end. (Yes, with the 1ESS > and 1AESS both parties get a click, but only the party receiving the > call-waiting gets the beep. With the 5ESS, the party who is not > receiving a call hears only silence while the other party gets a > beep.) It should be easy enough to differentiate between a real > call-waiting interruption and a fake created by the party who is tired > of talking to us, and is embarrassed to say so. I heard this demonstrated by the inventor on Marketplace (American Public Radio) last night. I couldn't tell the difference between it and traditional click-clunk call waiting. You don't heard a beep, just a click-clunk. You'd have to be really literate and know what kind of switch is on the other end in order to get wise to this. Edward W. Greenberg | Home: +1 408 283 0511 | edg@netcom.com 1600 Stokes St. #24 | Work: +1 408 764 5305 | DoD#: 0357 San Jose, CA 95126 | Fax: +1 408 764 5003 | KM6CG (ex WB2GOH) ------------------------------ From: Jeff@digtype.airage.com (Jeff Wasilko) Subject: Re: Fake Call-Waiting Product Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 20:48:34 EST Organization: Univ of Fnord; Roslyn's Cafe Div. Reply-To: jeff@digtype.airage.com Regards dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson)'s article in the TELECOM Digest: > A Mr. David H. Schmidt has invented a product called "Gotta Go". You > can buy it for $14.95 and plug it into your telephone. When you've > got someone on the line who won't let you go, you push the button and > it makes a click-beep that sounds like a Call Waiting signal. You can > then use that as an excuse to bring the unwanted conversation to an > end. I heard a demo on the radio this week (apparently the inventor is from Connecticut). The box simulates what the other party hears on a 1AESS or 1ESS -- just the clicks. From what I heard on the radio, it sounds just like the real thing. Jeff Jeff's Oasis at Home. Jeff can also be reached at work at: jwasilko@airage.com ------------------------------ From: toddi@mav.com (Todd Inch) Subject: Re: Need Widget to Connect Two Faxes or Modems Together Organization: Maverick International Inc. Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 17:11:00 GMT In article 0003991080@mcimail.com (Proctor & Associates) writes: > Randolph J. Herber, rjh@yclept.chi.il.us writes: >> A friend wants to connect two fax machines together via their telco >> connections so that the machines could be used as copiers. Also, she >> wants to connect a fax modem equipped PC to a fax machine so that the >> fax machine could be used both as a scanner and as a printer. >> She would like a small and inexpensive piece of euipment with two >> modular telephone jacks with just enough "smarts" to supply a dial >> tone and appropriate ringing signals. I have successfully connected two modems with ONLY a modular cable. You have to force them to go on-line, but once the connection is established it works fine. For two phones or speakerphones to be used as an intercom, I use a nine-volt battery in SERIES with two modular jacks to provide the talk battery current -- this doesn't provide ringing. Line powered devices may require a few more batteries. Depending on how "dumb" your fax/modems are and whether the software really insists on dialing and waiting for ringing, you might get away with one of these solutions. I suspect that it depends on your specific machines, but it would probably be worth trying before you go out and plunk down a few hundred bucks. Instead of the line simulators, which seem a bit pricey to me, I've often wondered if it wouldn't be more cost-effective and versatile to get a small PBX that supports single-line devices, such as the Panasonic 308, which should cost about $300 to $500 from someone in Telecom Gear magazine (write me for more info) and would allow up to eight devices to interconnect or connect to real phone lines as needed. In fact, I sold a PBX myself for this very purpose (well, testing modems, actually, but it was bought instead of a line simulator.) Even an AT&T Partner 206 module is only about $400 new, retail and will connect six devices and (if you choose) two phone lines. These have the modular jacks right on the side so you don't even have to know how to do phone wiring to use them. Depending on the size of your office, it might double as a fax/modem "courier" and the office phone system at the same time. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #866 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa04270; 22 Nov 92 5:32 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29149 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 22 Nov 1992 03:28:03 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31319 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 22 Nov 1992 03:27:30 -0600 Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 03:27:30 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211220927.AA31319@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #867 TELECOM Digest Sun, 22 Nov 92 03:27:30 CST Volume 12 : Issue 867 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Lightning Protection on Telephone Lines (Barton F. Bruce) Re: Lightning Protection on Telephone Lines (Kris Harris) Re: Lightning Protection on Telephone Lines (Pat Turner) Re: Lightning Protection on Telephone Lines (Joel Upchurch) Re: Help With Keyline System (Todd Inch) Re: InterOffice Trunk Help Needed (Steve Forrette) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bruce@camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) Subject: Re: Lightning Protection on Telephone Lines Date: 21 Nov 92 19:48:15 EDT Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. In article , rgt@beta.lanl.gov (Richard Thomsen) writes: > I live in the mountains, where lightning and my location are > synonymous. I have lost telephone equipment several times. Once, Add your OWN premium telco CO grade protection at the service entrance. Add arrestors to your power service entrance. Bond both grounds (as you have done) together with substantial guage wire without any sharp bends. That done you have a erected a first wall of defense, and by bonding the grounds have tried to limit the potential difference seen between ANY wires from ANY service within your equipment. Put some MORE protection, ideally on both power and phone line, at your equipment to clip anything that gets through the front line. This latter protection may well not be located where you can get a substantial ground (the 'green' ground wire in branch circuits is a joke in this situation). At least be sure both phone and power protection grounds are again connected together in this last ditch protection. Again you are trying to limit the voltage between any of the different wires entering your equipment. Some protection products contain both power and phone protection in a common package sharing a ground. This is goodness in theory, but most companies do one type of protection much better that the other. Most of the el-cheapo protected power strips are a joke, and the ones with fax or phone jacks, too, are hardly much better. Bare minimum for the outside phone block is a three electrode gas tube unit - NOT two of the two electrode gas tube assemblies. The three electrode design clamps BOTH sides of the line to ground on any arcing between any two of the three electrodes. Cook and TTI (or is it TII) make such devices. A common shape is a black log with three wires or lugs protruding. These come loose to add on top of some earlier design protector, or in a plastic or metal outdoor housing designed for one, two, or six, or even twelve units. Graybar, Anixter, AlTel, North Supply all carry these, but may not sell to you as an individual. Call from work. Inside, you can use even better hardware. CO grade protectors, also used in higher pair count situations such as office building entrances, use plug in modules. The are available in MANY grades. The cheap ones use carbon gaps. Better ones use two electrode gas tubes. Even better are the three electrode models. Beyond that there are premium units that take a three electrode gas tube and add fast diodes and sneak current fuses or heat coils. There are also some 'electronic' units that are very fast but that probably can't hack the blast a good gas tube can. If you get Porta System's "DELTA" series modules (three electrode gas + diodes + sneak current) you will be going VERY well. The diodes are very fast and protect til the gas tube fires. Diodes alone would get fried too easily. The DELTA modules we use are # 95BCDXN 230, and are rated for COs with electronic switching systems. This is the proprietary Porta Systems shape, but they also make an industry standard slightly less compact version that plugs into NTI (Cook), ATT, and Reliable blocks. All those vendors make some similar product. The normal blocks are 25, 50, or 100 pair! but there are some 6 and 10 pair units that can mount like a 66 M block. Something like this in the cellar just inside the entrance and VERY solidly grounded will nip off whatever the telco protector misses. Same supply houses as above. For home use, the power service entrance protector need not be the very expensive units you may have seen. GE makes a little grey fist sized blob that mounts in a standard 1/2" KO on your panel. Other companies like Delta, whose products are often found at deep well submersible supply or local electrical supply houses for well under $40 are very good, and you are not paying $10 or $20 more for the GE name. These may be silicon carbide units. At your equipment, there are folks like TripLite with their IsoBar filters that do a good job on the power, but won't be in the league with Porta System's CO grade phone protection with their integral phone line protection in their IsoTel combined unit. OTOH Porta Systems makes a "Six Pack +" that is a six-pair block to take the plugin protectors (get the Delta series not their lesser units) and that has a power protector built in. The power part may snub well but lacks the additional filtering of the TripLite units. The Six Pack + has open 66 type punch clips and is designed for WALL mounting, not for dangling behind your desk. It really targets small keysystems - power and phone lines together, and additional phone only blocks can be grounded to it for larger systems needing more than six-pair. The real bottom line is that there is NO ONE GOOD UNIVERSAL product. And protection at just one place in the fairly FAT guage power line is NOT enough. The Delta class phone protection may be enough at just one location, but more is better. Catching and dumping to ground as much as possible at the entrance is very desirable. Spit and polish cleanup of anything left on the lines can then more safely be handled by typically poorly grounded protection AT the equipment needing protection. This latter protection at least clamps ALL wires entering your box to be within modest voltage of each other -- reguardless of how many volts are between there and outside ground, or of which service's wires are guilty of carrying in the danger. If you have a direct hit, all bets are off. But anything further out, even a few poles away, and you have a good chance of being able to handle it. You spoke of driven rod grounds. No city water lines? Any well casings? Good wet earth? or rocky dry sandy soil? Sometimes an array of driven rods spaced some feet apart can help. ------------------------------ From: kah005@acad.drake.edu Subject: Re: Lightning Protection on Telephone Lines Organization: Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 02:20:29 GMT In article , rgt@beta.lanl.gov (Richard Thomsen) writes: > I live in the mountains, where lightning and my location are > synonymous. I have lost telephone equipment several times. Once, > about three feet of my telephone cord exploded, separating the wires > in the modular cable, and removing the copper in one wire. (It arced > to my X-10 controller, which did not do so well with the arc. There > was a black spot inside where the circuit board said "F1" should be :-)). > Does anyone know where I can get some *good* gas discharge tubes or > any other suggestions for protecting my telephone wiring? I live in > Contel (now GTE) area, so I am not sure how much good it would do to > call them. Other people in my area have come home to find pieces of > telephone all over their living room, so this is not an isolated > situation up here. Well, this may be an expensive option, but may get GTE's attention: GTE will be more than happy to RENT you telephone equipment and provide an inside wire maintainance agreement. That way, nothing is your problem. Every month, you will bring your melted phones in for exchange, and the maintainance agreement should cover jacks and such. Just a thought ... Kris Harris - P.O. Box 2410 - Des Moines, Iowa 50311-0410 - +1 515 254-2117 ------------------------------ From: turner@Dixie.COM Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 19:16 EST From: rsiatl!turner@rsiatl.UUCP Subject: Re: Lightning Protection on Telephone Lines Reply-To: turner@Dixie.COM > It seems to be arcing between the telephone lines and the electrical > system. The telephones themselves are not hurt, unless they are > plugged into the house wiring or touching something that is plugged > in. This is indicative of common mode surges, which is usually the case with lightning induced surges. The surge is between Tip and Ring and ground I would get some good AT&T or Reliance five-pin surge protectors such as the AT&T 3C1SC. They can either be mounted in a Small Pair Count Protector, or soldered to the individual wires. Connections to the Small Pair Count Protector are made with 110 blocks, but the grey "push like hell" caps are included, which will do the job if you don't own a punchdown tool (doesn't everybody :-)) six and 25 pair models are available and they can be had empty, or already populated with protectors. Protectors such as they AT&T model mentioned above should fail with tip and ring shorted to ground. Additional protection can be had by ataching them to your demarc with 26 or 28 ga wire to act as a fuse. You could also use a spark gap on the CO side of the protector, or use a common mode choke if you desire. Make sure the protectors are well grounded and avoid sharp turns in the lead. Bond all your grounds (CATV, telco, the protector and the lead from your power pannel, which should bond your neutral and power groung together. You may want to consider using multiple rods well bonded together. Pat Turner KB4GRZ turner@dixie.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Lightning Protection on Telephone Lines From: upchrch!joel@peora.sdc.ccur.com (Joel Upchurch ) Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 18:01:29 EST Organization: Upchurch Computer Consulting, Orlando FL rgt@beta.lanl.gov (Richard Thomsen) writes: > years ago, so they do not seem to have done much good. Last weekend, > I wired the telephone ground line outside to the electrical ground > outside (the copper rod driven into the ground just under the > electricity meter), and I hope that this will help some. I suspect that the phone company may take a very dim view of anybody fiddling with the ground lines on their protectors. I wouldn't be surprised if any damage happened to their equipment they might hold you liable. From what I understand the wire only belongs to you after it comes off the protector. If you aren't happy with the phone company's ground it might be a better idea to call them and see if they'll change it. Does anybody know more about this? (If your mail bounces use the address below.) Joel Upchurch/Upchurch Computer Consulting/718 Galsworthy/Orlando, FL 32809 joel@peora.ccur.com {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd,ucf-cs}!peora!joel (407) 859-0982 ------------------------------ From: toddi@mav.com (Todd Inch) Subject: Re: Help With Keyline System Organization: Maverick International Inc. Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 00:45:02 GMT In article infmx!jms@uunet.UU.NET (Jack Stephens) writes: > I'm about to move into a house that is currently outfitted with an > older phone system ("key line", I think). It uses older phones and > five lighted push buttons connecting to some sort of central trunk. In phone system lingo, "key" means "button" or "switch", so a key telephone system has buttons to select features and lines. A "line key" would be a button to select a particular line. If yours has the "a little longer than single line" phones with the huge 1/2" diameter cables and the 25 pair (50 conductor) connectors, it's probably a 1A2 system, which was very popular and reliable. These usually have a Key Service Unit (KSU) under a big beige housing bolted to the wall with a grey power supply and lots of model 66 connection "punchblocks" nearby. I have done a little work on these and installed one in my home. Some "gotchas" are: How/where to find the cable and 25 pair connectors. I usually scrounge these. In one case, I was able to remove the 25 pair cable from an office where they had modular adapters plugged in their ends and replace them with cheaper three-pair cable and proper modular jacks which I purchased. I calculated that if I had to buy all the cable and connectors to wire my house, I could have bought a small PBX phone system for the price and used cheaper wire and jacks! Whenever possible, leave the connectors attached to the cable ends. The older connectors solder on, which you can do with a solder iron, but it's a lot of work. The newer ones use insulation displacement/ piercing connections which are supposed to use a special tool but can be done manually with pliers/screwdriver if necessary, but you have to be very careful and it also takes time. Another gotcha: The 66 punch blocks, usually white with 25 rows of little metal clip/fingers. If there are five columns, all five of each row are internally interconnected. If there are four columns, the left two are probably separate from the right two- - wiggle them and see if the entire row wiggles. DO NOT spread apart the metal fingers to insert wire or shove anything into the clip cracks other than the wire. You should really buy the special tool for this -- the cheap ones are about $25. If necessary, you can shove the wires in by straddling the clip with needle-nose pliers. Don't strip them first, the clip will rub the insulation out of the way and make contact with the conductor. I'd highly recommend powering down the system when making connections unless you have the proper punch tool -- it's too easy to short the rows of clips together. A sharp wood chisel (that you aren't particularly fond of) can be used to trim the wire beside the clip after shoving it in. If you are adding an extension, you can just split off an existing jack, except if you have individual intercom numbers to buzz/ring individual phones you will either have both phones on the same extension, have to disconnect the bell or buzzer in one phone, or have to wire the bell/buzzer of phone phone onto a non-standard unused pair and connect it to an unused intercom ring pair back at the KSU. I REALLY prefer to run a separate "home run" to each jack directly from the punch-blocks because it makes wiring so much easier than trying to splice and increases flexibility. Example: I'm running serial RS232 over some unused pairs of some jacks, but use those same unused pairs for the VCR remote control at other jacks, and run audio between speakers and the amplifier at other jacks. Also, if you try to run too many phones off one cable the lights keep getting dimmer as you add phones and the brightness depends on how many lights are lit, etc. It's asthetically unpleasant if one line on hold flashing on-off causes another line in-use to flash dim-bright. It looks like there's a photon shortage or something. If you have to, you can run some 50, 100 or 200 pair wire into a closet halfway between the jack and KSU and install more punchblocks there (if, say, you can get a bunch of cables with ends but they aren't quite long enough.) In fact, I'll give you some of this cable (got a nice hunk of 400 pair about 100 feet long out of a dumpster) if you want to pay shipping -- I keep tripping over it in the garage. Remember -- the bells (or ringing phone lines) are operated by about 100 volt dc pulses which will wake you up (on the wrong side of the bed) if you aren't paying attention. And, these voltages are present on those uncovered 66 block and the connectors -- don't let small children (or coerce your delinquent teenagers to) put their fingers in them. The following accessories might come in handy. They are available from places like Graybar, or maybe try a local small business phone installer: - Two-way splitters for 25-pair connectors. - Extension cables with male and female connectors on opposite ends. - 66 punch blocks with connectors built into their sides. - Phone jacks (25 pair connectors) inside little boxes that mount on the wall and have the 66-type clips inside for connection to the cut end of a cable. Send me e-mail if you have specific questions or need names/numbers of suppliers of used phones/equipment. You can even buy used 66 blocks. Now you know why the phone company will charge you so much. :-) ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: InterOffice Trunk Help Needed Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 08:38:43 GMT In article bill.garfield@yob.sccsi.com (Bill Garfield) writes: [description of problem deleted] > I strongly suspect inter-machine trunk trouble between the > National and Clay central offices, but how do I prove this and how do > I get through to the teledroid at repair service that we're > experiencing this problem on ALL 216 DID trunks? Profound thoughts > and ideas are welcomed. Last summer I was having a lot of problems with my home POTS service from Pacific Bell. Often when I would try to dial, I would get a reorder. Also, callers to me would report that my line had been busy when I know it was not, and sometimes callers would get reorder when calling me. This was happening on all of my lines. Since I was served from a brand new 5ESS Remote that had been cut over just recently, I suspected a lack of facilities problem between my CO and the one that it was slaved off of. My first call to Repair Service resulted in my cordless phone being to blame, or perhaps my tone generator in my phone was broken, or perhaps any number of causes that were not Pacific Bell's responsibility. While I was on the line with Repair, they checked my line and reported that it was fine (their line test of course would not show a lack of inter-office facilities problem). I went along with the program, filed my trouble report, and was promised resolution by "5pm tomorrow." When the same problem happened a few days later, I called back Repair, and entered another report, since the first one had been cleared. When it started happening again, I called Repair again, and this time insisted to be allowed to talk to someone technical, since I had followed all of their suggestions (such as unplugging my cordless phone, using separate instruments, etc.), and they just kept clearing out the tickets without fixing it. I again posed the possibility of inter-office lack of facilities, and asked the Repair operator if they have access to reports that would indicate times when all facilities were full. She said "no," and I then said "Well you can't rule that out then, can you, since you don't know!" I was polite but firm, and they finally agreed to have a technical person call me back. The next day, I got a call from an obviously technical CO person, who had obviously not been through the "telephone manners" training that the normal reps go through. Not that he was rude, but it was obvious that this person's primary job was not to talk to customers on the phone, which is exactly the kind of person I needed. I could discuss the technical details, and suggest what I thought the problem was, and he understood and agreed with my suggestions. He called back the next day to tell me that this was exactly the problem -- my switch had way too few trunks to the switch it was slaved off, and there were frequent times when no facilities were available. He thanked my profusely, and said that by being persistant, "You have saved Pacific Bell millions of dollars" in lost revenue and problems in the future. Perhaps a bit of overkill, but he could not thank me enough, and within a week, the problem went away. The moral to the story is to go with the regular Repair Service program for a couple of cycles, and after the ticket gets cleared a couple of times with no resolution, be polite but firm and insist that your problem be escalated and that you be allowed to talk with the level of person you need. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #867 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18793; 23 Nov 92 4:24 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00897 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 23 Nov 1992 00:11:19 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04970 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 23 Nov 1992 00:11:01 -0600 Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 00:11:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211230611.AA04970@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #868 TELECOM Digest Mon, 23 Nov 92 00:11:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 868 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Panasonic and Tropez 900 MHz Phones (Wayne Sung) FCC Wants Comments on Area Codes (Bart Z. Lederman) Unitel LD Service and Data (Ian Evans) Seven-Digit Repair Service Numbers (Robert S. Helfman) Can I Use a US Modem in Switzerland? (Radu Hambasan) Help on Settling an Argument About Leased T1 Lines (Mark C. Tucker) Information Providers Seek Monopoly (Omni Magazine via Christoper Schmidt) Not Your Typical Telecom/Radio Station Story (Roy M. Silvernail) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 21:56:52 -0500 From: Wayne Sung Subject: Panasonic and Tropez 900 MHz Phones I recently had the chance to use both the Panasonic and Tropez 900 MHz phones. Here is a quick comparison. Note that these are subjective -- I didn't try to make any measurements. Range: Tropez gives almost three times the range outdoors, a small amount extra indoors. I can get two houses down the street with the Panasonic, more than six with the Tropez. Indoors, I cannot get from my desk to my machine room with the Panasonic (less than 100 ft but through several walls). The Tropez makes it, although there are some dead spots. As long as it rings, I can always take it into another room to answer. Fidelity: Panasonic sounds better than Tropez, although both are very good. In particular, under some circumstances the Tropez audio will have a low level clicking to it. There is also some gating noticeable on the Tropez in a noisy room. Neither had any static (49 MHz phones do not work at all in my machine room - all they do is buzz). Dropouts are quite abrupt on both, i.e. near the range limit the audio will come and go rather than have increasing noise. Convenience: Panasonic is smaller, and has a belt clip. It is smaller because the mouthpiece folds, and also the antenna is shorter. The clip that holds the mouthpiece looked flimsy, though. Also, Panasonic supplies two batteries with the phone. There is a charging slot in the base for the spare pack. No wires are used in the Panasonic packs, the Tropez pack has a pair of wires and a connector. The Panasonic can be switched totally off, the Tropez is always in standby (even though there is an off button). Operation: The Tropez has a dial in the base, the Panasonic does not. Both have page/intercom. The Tropez further allows the handset to prevent the base from conferencing into a call. Normally a tone indicates that the base has been added. When out of range, the Tropez will start beeping as you exceed range whether a call in in progress or not. The Panasonic only indicates during a call. Both allow you time to get back in range before disconnecting. The Tropez has a problem (perhaps only with documentation) with the out-of- range signal. The manual says press any key to stop this signal. Pressing 'off' does _not_ stop it, nor does pressing any of the function keys. Only the main pad keys do it. Also, if you stop the out-of-range signal and then attempt to get a line while still out of range, the phone seems to buffer up the line button: press line, no dial tone, press again (maybe a few times). This can result in the phone beeping several minutes (a fast beep, different from the out-of-range signal). Also if you disconnect the base to move it, you will cause the security code to change in the base but not necessarily the handset. You will have to put the handset in the base for maybe half a minute for them to resync. Otherwise you get either no response or a lot of noise. There are three pins that connect the base to the phone -- two carry DC and the third is a data link. The line is answered upon removing the phone from the base, no separate switch is required. The Panasonic necessarily requires opening the mouthpiece to answer. Misc: Both phones state that they run at maximum power allowed for their respective types of operation, but that maximum range may not be attainable in actual oeration. However, neither one specifically says what range to expect. There is also no mention of battery operation time. Tropez doesn't even say how long the warranty is. I would judge the Tropez to be the more capable phone, especially since the voice is digitized. However, it is quite a bit less costly than the Panasonic even considering I saw the Panasonic at two discount stores and the Tropez at a phone store which normally has everything priced higher. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 12:50:56 EST From: B. Z. Lederman Subject: FCC Wants Comments on Area Codes I don't think I've seen this discussed here, though it ought to be of interest. According to an article on page 29 of the November 9, 1992 issue of {Network World}: "The FCC has kicked off an inquiry into a massive overhaul of the way in which telephone numbers are assigned in North America, a change that may have a substantial impact on users." It talks about the limitations of the "1 and 0" limit on area codes, that switches have to be re-programmed, that there are few numbers reserved for country-wide numbers and that the only such numbers now (976, 555, 520) were originally for diagnostic use, and so on. More important: there are 60 days for users, carriers, and other interested parties to offer suggestions and comments. So keep those cards and letters flowing in! Bart Z. Lederman System Resources Corp. Burlington, MA (working on contract for the U.S. DOT, hence the mail address). [Moderator's Note: Something seems strange here. The plan to begin using area codes with assorted digits in the middle space has been known about for years. Did the FCC just now find out about it? Do the activities of Bellcore fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Unitel LD Seervice and Data From: ian.evans@bville.gts.org (Ian Evans) Date: 23 Nov 92 00:40:00 GMT Organization: Baudeville BBS - Toronto, Canada 416-283-0114 2200+ conferences Reply-To: ian.evans@bville.gts.org (Ian Evans) Anybody here from Canada using Unitel's long distance service? How are they in handling data calls? I'm thinking of getting the 'black box' service, as the thought of adding all those access codes to the dial string gives me the willies. CompuServe ID: 73117,545 UUCP: bville!ian.evans| Ian Evans - Sysop INTERNET:ian.evans@bville.gts.org | Baudeville BBS - Toronto OTHERS: ian.evans@canrem.com | 416-283-0114 (v32bis/HST) * DeLuxe2 1.26b #5896 * Baudeville BBS - The Economical Email Emporium ------------------------------ From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) Subject: Seven-Digit Repair Service Numbers Date: 22 Nov 1992 21:30:15 GMT Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA Last week, I was in Washington, D.C. and called home to collect messages from my answering machine. The machine seemed to have gone off-hook, then suddenly I got a telco message that they were "unable to complete your call as dialed". When I called again, my line was busy, and stayed that way for at least 20 more minutes -- much longer than could be ascribed to the answering machine finishing its cycle. Normally, I would have assumed that my answering machine had died, but in this case, the fact that I got a telco-generated message made me think the switchgear was doing something wierd. I wanted to call repair service for my CO but of course, I surely couldn't dial 611 in Washington, D.C. and expect to get repair service for a CO across the country. I in fact have a seven-digit number for the repair service guys at my CO (I have needed it before when reporting my home number from my office) -- but it was in my office in L.A. I called AT&T LD information for L.A. and asked for a seven-digit number for repair service (giving them my home prefix). It turned out that the number they gave me is for a PacBell center in San Diego, but they took the information and must have cleared the line, because 30 minutes later I found my line worked AND a message had been left on my machine by my local CO. In the message they gave me THEIR seven-digit number, which needless to say, I've enshrined in my briefcase in case this happens again. Moral: All you children should get your seven-digit repair service number from 611 NOW so that you can report your home phone when you're away. It would save a real hassle. ------------------------------ From: rjh2@crux1.cit.cornell.edu (Radu Hambasan) Subject: Can I Use a US Modem in Switzerland? Organization: Cornell Information Technologies Date: 22 Nov 92 07:41:58 GMT Does anyone know if there is any reason why a modem made for use in the United States would not work correctly in Switzerland? The Swiss government says you must use modems that are "homologue" (approved) by the PTT, the Swiss postal/telecom authority. However such modems cost hundreds of dollars more and I am skeptical as to whether there is any functional difference -- it seems more like a form of economic protectionism. Then there is the problem of jacks: Swiss phones apparently do not plug into the wall via the tiny plastic connectors used here, but use much larger connectors that would never find room on the back of a PC, much less a modem card. I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me, from experience or otherwise, if Switzerland uses a different voltage in its phone lines, if touch tones are of the same frequency as here, and where I could get the appropriate connectors, or would simply patching the wires be OK? Thanks in advance for your help. (I'd rather not pay $500 for an "approved" 2400 baud modem!) Radu Hambasan --> rjh2@cornell.edu ------------------------------ From: mct@philabs.philips.com (Mark C. Tucker) Subject: Help on Settling an Argument About Leased T1 Lines Organization: Philips Laboratories, Briarcliff, New York Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 20:12:09 GMT A colleague and I were having an argument about leased T1 lines. Perhaps some experts can settle this issue for us. Let's say I lease a T1 link from the LEC. So I have 24 DS0 TDM slots going to the the LEC's CO. My data has to go across two CO hops to our downtown site where again we have 24 contiguous DS0 slots being delivered from the terminating CO to our downtown building. Now, the question is whether the contiguity of the original 24 DS0 TDM slots will be maintained across the links between the originating and terminating CO's. In other words, will a dedicated T1 link (or a fixed T3 slot) be allocated to me and my individual DS0 slots never demultiplexed at the originating CO? Or will my 24 slots be chopped up and carried over separate portions of the inter-office T3 links, only to be reassembled at the terminating CO and delivered as one chunk of 24 DS0's again? Do the answers change if I lease T1 circuits from an IXC and go directly to their POP instead of going through the LEC's CO ? Please help us resolve this issue. Thanks in advance. Regards, Mark Tucker email: mct@philabs.philips.com Member of Research Staff tel: (914) 945-6564 Philips Laboratories fax: (914) 945-6552 ------------------------------ Subject: Information Providers Seek Monopoly Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 15:00:15 EST From: Christopher Schmidt INFORMATION PROVIDERS SEEK MONOPOLY "Today's fat cats, like the robber barons of old, get ready to carve up cyberspace -- and your future." by Tom Dworetzky Contributing Editor, Omni Magazine [This editorial originally appeared in the August 1992 issue of {Omni Magazine}.] Trolleys were electric trains, clean running, as environmentally sound (or sounder than) buses. Years later, I find out that the disappearance and destruction of the country's trolley systems was the result not of free-market forces and consumer preference, but of a callous, monopolistic deal to crush the trolleys nationwide. To make their deal secure, the industrialists paved over trolley rails from coast to coast. Now the land is carved up with highways; trolley cars, if you can find them at all, exist only in museums. As we head into the Information Age, we'll soon find ourselves in a parallel situation. Two great technologies now battle it out for the transport of information: telephone and cable companies. Recently, matters came to a head when the Baby Bells started a push to change their original deregulation mandate and offer information services. Newspaper companies across the continent swelled with indignation. Turns out most cable in the United States is owned by media elephants such as Time Warner. While busy on the one hand reporting on the evil phone companies' attempts to crush newspapers and other information organizations with monopolistic muscle, these media companies with their other hand have been shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars into a race to beat the local Bells at the information business. In fact, 30 cable companies have reportedly obtained federal licenses to construct wireless phone networks that will employ cable wiring and cellular phones as an alternative to the standard phone company. Back when the country was new and the frontier's bounty stretched forever, rails and roads competed for profits from the transport of grain, steel, cattle, and oil -- the fruits of the blossoming industrial revolution. That was, or seemed to be, good: It brought a surge of development and wealth that fed, housed, and clothed us all. Unfortunately, a century later, we find the frontier despoiled and spent, plundered by the greedy and reduced to the present economic and environmental morass. As we enter the Information Age, let's look at the war shaping up "between" cable/newspaper and phone giants. Are their interests ours? Are they really concerned about our information needs? Or are they just colluding to provide us with a Hobbesian choice between two lesser evils? -- between one overpriced, moderately bad system and another. Just because they own the patents, do they have the power to carve up the future between them and squeeze out any newer, fairer, cheaper, more-useful technologies that might actually serve us all and make for a better information landscape? Look at your phone bill, then ask yourself: If they all start delivering information, as in the electronic workplace, won't the bills run hundreds of dollars a month, and won't we have to pay them? And won't that be a sort of hidden tax, the price of entry to becoming a worker in the Information Age? The resolution won't be the flurry of proposed legislation in DC to block, free, or regulate the move of data carriers into the information businewss. I don't know what the answer is. But I do know that if you listen quietly, you can hear the metallic whisper of knife edge on sharpening stone as today's fat cats, like the robber barons of old, get ready to carve up cyberspace -- and your future. ---------------- [Moderator's Note: The author's comments are worth thinking about. One minor error was his reference to 'trolley tracks': Streetcars ran on tracks, while trolleys ran on the street with regular rubber tires on their wheels. Both methods of transportation used overhead wires to draw their electrical current through a 'catenary', or pole hoisted in the air above the vehicle. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Not Your Typical Telecom/Radio Station Story From: roy@cybrspc.UUCP (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 23:32:47 CST Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN [Moderator's Disclaimer: The article which follows contains language which may be offensive to some readers. Although it *is* funny, it is a little out of character for the Digest. This is the final article in this issue, and if an excessive amount of profanity or vulgar expressions would offend you, then you should quit reading this issue at this time. PAT] ------------- Many of the telecom/radio stories on the Digest have a technical theme. Not this one ... I was going through some old tapes from my radio days, and dug out a little gem I obtained years ago in Nome, Alaska through a very strange route. An ex-staff member hailed from Providence, Rhode Island, and had returned after his stint was over. A few months later, the station got a letter from him, with a little enclosure. 100 or so feet of tape, wrapped around a piece of cardboard. There was a note on the cardboard ... "It will be worth it." We laboriously wrapped the tape onto a reel, and threaded it onto a deck in the production studio. We found a hilarious parody of a New York Telephone commercial, obviously done at the same session with some legitimate spots. (radio pros already know that we passed these things around a lot ... ask anybody with a copy of a PAMS Christmas party). The spot isn't anywhere near politically correct. I'm including a copy with this article, but I leave it to PAT's discretion whether this belongs in the Digest or the Archives. (but if you divert it, PAT, please try to summarize :-) New York Telephone Parody Commercial: New York City ... it's still a hell of a town. (music in and up. The girls sing "New York Telephone, mmm mmm mmm...") At New York Telephone, we know that getting a malicious or obscene phone call can really piss you off. If you get such a call, fuck it! Hang up immediately. In most instances, that's enough to stop the caller from becoming a pain in the ass. Too often, though, people unwittingly encourage the caller by talking back. Don't be a prick! You can't argue with a sick mind, so don't try! If hanging up quickly doesn't work, for shit's sake, don't panic. Just call our business office. You'll find the number in the front of your telephone directory. In persistant cases, our Annoyance Call Bureau takes over to try and trap the fucker. Working with the police, our Annoyance Call Bureau has been responsible for 844 arrests and 54 abortions. And defendants have learned that a 10 cent phone call can cost them as much as thousand dollars and jam their ass in prison for a year. At New York Telephone, we're in business to give you service ... and part of our obligation is to see to it that no mother fucker abuses that service! After all ... the service we give you is obscene enough. (Music up, the girls sing again, and out.) Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu [Moderator's Note: Blush. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #868 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20056; 23 Nov 92 5:09 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08227 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 23 Nov 1992 01:21:38 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08087 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 23 Nov 1992 01:21:20 -0600 Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 01:21:20 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211230721.AA08087@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #870 TELECOM Digest Mon, 23 Nov 92 01:21:19 CST Volume 12 : Issue 870 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Is Caller-ID an Illegal Trap and Trace? (Andy Sherman) Re: Is Caller-ID an Illegal Trap and Trace? (Jack Decker) Re: No Caller ID in Texas (Sean Malloy) Re: MCI Service Outage (Bob Yazz) Re: At NYNEX, CNID is Coming Before E911 (Bob Turner) Re: Only One Phone Works ... Help! (Marc Unangst) Re: Only One Phone Works ... Help! (Michael Heggen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) Subject: Re: Is Caller-ID an Illegal Trap and Trace? Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 12:49:55 EST > [ Description of section in the Electronic Communications Privacy > Act that makes trap-and-trace devices illegal without a court > order. ] > If this is a correct interpretation, it means that the decisions in > various states about Caller-ID are all irrelevant since this Federal > law has made any caller ID box illegal (except for calls which are not > "in interstate commerce."). Do note that the decisions about Caller ID in the various states *only* apply to calls which are *not* in interstate commerce, since the state utility agencies and courts have no jurisdiction to allow or disallow Caller ID on interstate calls. > I'm waiting for some slick attorney who has a client who was caught > with a Caller-ID box raise ECPA to not only have the evidence of calls > excluded, but have the victim charged with a civil suit of violating > the ECPA for installing an illegal trap and trace device without a > court order, which if I remember, ECPA allows civil damages as high as > $10,000. First off, since Caller ID is only available for in-state calls, the slick attorney would need a dunce for a judge to succeed. But further, anybody who used a Caller ID service which was tariffed by the phone company and approved by the state would have the defense of having in good faith acted in accordance with state and local law. Meanwhile, I'm surprised you don't mention a potential conflict between 800 number ANI delivery by inter-exchange carriers and the ECPA. Since the FCC has approved the service I assume that delivery of the calling number to the party accepting a collect call (which is the legal description of ANI delivery to an 800 subscriber) does not constitute trap and trace since the party getting the number is the party paying for the call. Pat, I suspect that it's time for this thread to move to the privacy list, but, hey, you're the editor. :^) Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com "These opinions are mine, all *MINE*. My employer can't have them." [Moderator's Note: Every once in a while, an article on Caller-ID and 'privacy' comes along; I should know by now there is never going to be any consensus. We'll have two more replies, then that's it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 11:29:24 EST From: Jack.Decker@f8.n154.z1.fidonet.org (Jack Decker) Subject: Re: Is Caller-ID an Illegal Trap and Trace? In message , bharrell@garfield.catt. ncsu.edu (Ben Harrell) wrote: > Also, I would like for someone to explain to me the conceptual > difference between someone calling me and someone knocking on my door. > Unless I know who is on the other side of that door, I'm not likely to > answer it, and if I do I'm going to be very careful about it. In the > entire history of telephony, I having had that capability. But now > with CLID, I do. I understand that battered spouse shelters, > undercover policemen, etc. need protection, but for the average person > or business, why is CLID any different "personal privacy" wise to my > going and knocking on my neighbors door. Why would I expect him/her > to answer that door, if he doesn't recognize me or my voice? I think where your analogy falls flat is that Caller ID is delivered to ALL users of that service when you call them, not just those you want to have your number. Let's think about your "person at the door" analogy a bit more. Consider the case of a stranger at the door: You have the right to refuse to answer the door if you don't know the person there, but you don't really know anything about him or her, certainly not their address. But let's suppose that the door in question is not the front door to your home, but rather the front door to a place of business. Let's suppose, just to make things interesting, that it's an insurance agency that sells auto, life, and health and accident insurance. Let's suppose that you walk by and see a sign that says "Low rates on Auto Insurance - Inquire Inside" (the equivalent of a yellow pages ad?) so you attempt to enter. But, you are met at the door by a greeter who says that you cannot enter, cannot ask a question, or cannot talk to anyone there about anything until you have provided your name and current address. Now, I don't know about you, but at that point I'd probably start thinking that once they have my name and address, they can come to my door and harass me about my need for various types of insurance, and if they can't give me a estimate on their "low auto insurance rate" without giving me the third degree, I'll take my business elsewhere. Or, alternately, I might consent to give the information, but at least I've given it with my full knowledge and consent. In the case of Caller ID, the information (my phone number) is just taken from me and given to selected people that I call, but I have no way of knowing who's getting my number, nor do I get a chance to pre-approve the giving of that information (unless per-line blocking is available, and I gather that's what you object to). Generally, if I call another residential customer, I don't really mind them knowing that it's me calling (though there may occasionally be exceptions). But what I REALLY object to is the giving of my number to businesses that may capture it and then use it later on for unsolicited "cold" sales calls. Just as you don't normally identify yourself when you walk into most places of business, I do not want my phone number automatically provided to businesses that I call. If they request my phone number, I may well give it to them, but *I* want to make that decision. By the way, some have asked how come folks don't object to ANI information going out on 800 number calls. I think it's partly because folks don't realize it's happening, and partly because folks who do realize it's happening also understand that when you are paying for the calls, you need to know where the calls are coming from in order to avoid fradulent billing. But if I'm paying for the call, or if it's a local call, that argument falls flat, because Caller ID data is never used for billing verification. > I know that I don't have to tell him/her were *I* live, but I just > don't see the difference and don't understand what people get so upset > about with CLID. Maybe I'm just dense. You're not dense, but you possibly haven't considered that Caller ID data is delivered to both businesses and residences, and you don't even know that it happens. It's a different situation with the stranger at your door ... if you choose to answer your door, you still don't know their home address unless they tell you, and if you're a business owner you probably aren't going to demand their home address when they walk in your door! Jack Decker, via the Great Lakes Internet <=> FidoNet Gateway Internet: Jack.Decker@f8.n154.z1.fidonet.org UUCP: ...!umich!wsu-cs!royaljok!154!8!Jack.Decker ------------------------------ From: scm3775@tamsun.tamu.edu (Sean Malloy) Subject: Re: No Caller ID in Texas Date: 22 Nov 1992 06:00:26 -0600 Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station Well, the Nov 17, 1992 {Houston Chronicle} has an editorial supporting the recent PUC decision to not allow Caller ID in Texas. I won't include it here (I didn't call to get permission) but I will quote a paragraph or two ... grammar is theirs, spelling is mine. "It is true that Caller ID would offer a measure of convenience to those residential customers receiving unwanted telephone calls. But that would come at the price of changing long-held public notions of rights of privacy. The identifier's potential to put callers in life-threatening situations has led to opposition from groups such as the Texas Council on Family Violence. Law enforcement agencies have also opposed Caller ID on the grounds that it would make those who want to remain anonymous - who do not wish to be identified through their telephone numbers - less willing to cooperate with authorities in crime-solving efforts. These concerns override any "service" [Quotes theirs] Caller ID may offer customers." They also continue to say that the choice is one of privacy v. gimmickry and that the PUC has "wisely chosen to uphold Texans' privacy rights." The editorial doesn't mention that the PUC is composed of three members. One declared it illegal, another said it's legal, and a third said that it's legal, but only for some businesses under current law. I called my local GTE office, and also talked to a SW Bell representative who said that tracking a number can currently be done by means of a "Call Trace" service, which costs $10 (US) per trace. The (somewhat more informed) SW Bell rep also said that the results of the trace can only be turned over to their "Security Department" and not to the customer. GTE did not say this, but my understanding is that this is because of state law, and not a Telco policy. Why am I not surprised that a newspaper that uses telemarketers to drum-up subscriptions is opposed to the adoption of Caller ID? Anyone wanting to send a letter to the {Chronicle} should send a fax to {Viewpoints} at (713) 220-6575. Include Name, full address and phone number. Sean C. Malloy - Texas A&M University - scm@tamu.edu [Moderator's Note: Enough already! No more Caller-ID pros and cons. This will never be resolved. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bob Yazz Subject: Re: MCI Service Outage Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 02:49:56 GMT rdippold@qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes: > As I type, MCI long distance out of San Diego is sporadic. Apparently > their cable up to LA has been damaged (no word on why), and their > backup cable can't handle the load. No word on service resumption. It's a day or two ago now, but where I work here in San Diego, we couldn't use AT&T either. Most calls were blocked, both in and out. Unfortunately, our phone consultant has yet to reprogram the company switch to permit 10xxx dialing, so we couldn't even try other carriers. We did get an AT&T operator who explained that "one of the other carriers" was having a problem (likely cable cut) but that the Pacific Bell office couldn't handle things. Seems to me they should have been able to. Bob Yazz ------------------------------ From: turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu (Bob Turner) Subject: Re: At NYNEX, CNID is Coming Before E911 Organization: Univ. of Dayton, School of Engineering Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 02:55:24 GMT In article rocker@vnet.ibm.com (Joshua E. Muskovitz) writes: > To their credit, the rep understood everything I said, but pointed out > that in this area, at least, we do not have enhanced 911 and so I must > dial *67 911 in order for them to be able to find me. She claimed > that the delay in setting up E911 ("we've been working on it for three > years") is from the post office -- they have to convert all the Rural > Route addresses and such to street addresses before an E911 system can > be installed. > Personally, I don't believe it. Why not simply install it now for the > more urban addresses, and update it for those addresses when they are > converted? Oh you better believe it!!! And thank god they are not putting a E911 system up without address rectification. This is a difficult problem that my company and my joint venture partner deal with on a daily basis. There is nothing worse then an E911 system that cannot be trusted. Waiting for the post office is a typical problem, eavne worse with the current round of lay-offs. In Kentucky, a big market for us, the addressing support person in Louisville was "early retired" on Sept 15. So for addressing support your on your own in Kentucky. Address rectification is only one aspect of putting a E911 database together. And it has to be done. The phone company records are inaccurate (at best). This usually isn't a problem because the addresses they have are for billing purposes not Location ID. However the legal and operation ramifications are tremendous. Try to convince your Emergency crews to kill themselves to get to an address that the ALI computer spitout. Especially when the past performance has been less than 45% (Actual occurance). Plus the liability potential is horrendous. > [Moderator's Note: If she told you 'you must dial *67-911 in order for > them to find you' then I would question how much she understood about > what she was saying. *67 usually toggles the status of CLID delivery, > but in any event it *never* affects the 911 display (if there is one; > some older 911's don't have it.) PAT] Correct. E911 is driven off the billing systems for calling number delivery. Thats why the trunks going into a PSAP are generally CAMA or TSPS. CNID and CLASS don't have anything to do with this. Bob Turner Senior System Engineer 513-434-2738 turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu CommSys, Inc. 77 West Elmwood Drive, Suite 101, Dayton, OH 45459 ------------------------------ From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) Subject: Re: Only One Phone Works ... Help! Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 20:33:25 GMT Organization: The Programmer's Pit Stop, Ann Arbor MI In article awolf@cit.hmc.psu.edu (Andy Wolf) writes: > 1. Why doesn't the phone in bedroom three work? Bad phone cord? Is > is because of the mess with the other line? Could it be the > (bulletproof) phone? This sounds like tip and ring are reversed in the BR3 jack. Most newer phones have a rectifier circuit so they are polarity-immune, but older phones can be polarity-sensitive. DTMF tones not breaking dialtone is a symptom of a polarity reversal. To fix this, just take the jack off the wall and reverse the connections of the red and green wires. Marc Unangst, N8VRH mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us [Moderator's Note: But he said he could hear the tones. In the old style phones where polarity mattered, if tip and ring were reversed the CO could not hear the tones, but then, neither could you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mike@percy.rain.com (Michael Heggen) Subject: Re: Only One Phone Works ... Help! Organization: /etc/organization Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 00:05:00 GMT awolf@cit.hmc.psu.edu (Andy Wolf) writes: > I have a problem in an apartment that I recently moved into. There is [stuff deleted] > 2. In a rental situation, is it typical that the apartment company > should fix this problem, or do I have the burden? > [Moderator's Note: Have you tried other instruments in BR- to see if [stuff deleted] > The landlord does not have to fix the problem. Telco is not as easily With all due respect to the Moderator, I would suggest that Andy Wolf check his rental agreement as well as the landlord-tenant law in his state. In Oregon telephone service can fall under the portion of the landlord-tenant law regarding maintenance of necessary services. This is sort of a grey area, as I discovered with a somewhat senile (but definitely obnoxious) landlady at a previous residence. I had had a second line installed. The apartment complex was wired using multi-pair cable (8-pair? Don't remember ...) and there were twelve units in the complex. The phone guy just found an unused pair and we hooked that up as the yellow-black pair on our regular jacks in apartment. After a few weeks, I started getting noise on the line and it degraded to the point that you couldn't hear dialtone. I spoke to my landlady about it and she said that it was her responsibility to keep the wiring maintained, so she would pay to have it fixed if it was determined that that was where the problem was. Great! So I called the phone company (Pacific Northwest Bell) who came out and determined that the problem was probably at a junction somewhere in between the first and second floors. They also discovered that all the rest of the unused pairs were just as bad as mine was (if not worse) and that the wiring was really awful (complex was probably wired by a independent contractor during construction). It would require that they go into several other apartments, etc. and would run a couple of hours time in all (in addition to the $90 already spent to track down the problem). Now the fun starts: my landlady claims that the installation of a second line was "an unauthorized modification" to the apartment. She claimed that it was "tampering" and therefore in violation of the lease. She claimed that her responsibility was only for my first line and that she would not pay for the repair service (any of it), nor would she allow repairs to be made. End result: I had to disconnect my second line and pay a $90 repair bill (the phone guys -- yes, there were two of them) were nice enough to knock an hour's time off the bill, but it was still $90. And, I had no data line. Storal of the mory: get it in writing from your landlord beforehand. Michael Heggen ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #870 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20426; 23 Nov 92 5:22 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07884 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 23 Nov 1992 00:41:02 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08327 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 23 Nov 1992 00:40:45 -0600 Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 00:40:45 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211230640.AA08327@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #869 TELECOM Digest Mon, 23 Nov 92 00:40:45 CST Volume 12 : Issue 869 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Telecom Quotations (Mark Brader) "How the World Was One", by Arthur C. Clarke (a review) (Mark Brader) Internet Question (Richard Budd) Internet Services in Former USSR (Richard Budd) Encrypted Cordless Phones: How? (Randy Sales) Re: New Area Code Blitzes Cell Phone User (Mark Earle) Re: Microsoft/Intel Team up on Video for PCs (Richard Nash) Re: Who Are the Major Players in CT2 Phones and Equipment? (David Tse) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 21:48:00 -0500 From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Telecom Quotations I have one more quote, from the same book. > In one of Arthur C. Clarke's novels there's a beautiful throwaway > line ... Found it. I'll give the context where I found it, because I think it's interesting too. He quoted himself in a short 1988 speech, which he then printed in his new book "How the World was One". He first talked about how the British post office, by converting to a flat-rate system for domestic mail, was able to adopt in 1840 a postage rate of only 1d, with immeasurable benefit to commerce and society. Then: I'm sure you'll see what I'm driving at, and because I can never resist an opportunity for a commercial, I'd like to end by reading to you a paragraph from my *latest* last book: "...In the beginning, the Earth had possessed the single super-continent of Pangea [sic], which over the aeons had split asunder. So had the human species, into innumerable tribes and nations; now it was merging together, as the old linguistic and cultural divisions began to blur.... With the historic abolition of long-distance charges on December 31, 2000, every telephone call became a local one, and the human race greeted the new millennium by transforming itself into one huge, gossiping family." ("2061: Odyssey Three", Chapter 3) Here are a few more quotes from "How the World was One". Clarke prints in the book a speech he gave at the United Nations on World Telecommunications Day, May 17, 1983. It begins: There is always something new to be learned from the past, and I would like to open with two anecdotes from the early days of the telephone. They illustrate perfectly how difficult -- if not impossible -- it is to anticipate the social impact of a truly revolutionary invention. Though the first story is now rather famous -- and I must apologize to those of you who've heard if before -- I hope it's unfamiliar to most of you. ... When news of Alexander Graham Bell's invention reached the United Kingdom, the chief engineer of the British Post Office failed to be impressed. "The Americans," he said loftily, have need of the telephone -- but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys..." The second story I heard only quite recently, and in some ways it's even more instructive. In contrast to the British engineer, the mayor of a certain American city was wildly enthusiastic. He thought that the telephone was a marvelous device and ventured this stunning prediction: "I can see the time," he said solemnly, "*when every city will have one*." And from his speech on the occasion of the Intelsat agreement: For today, gentleman, whether you intend it or not -- whether you wish it or not -- you have signed far more than yet another intergovernmental agreement. You have just signed the first draft of the Articles of Federation of the United States of Earth. Then there's this one; this isn't Clarke writing, but an electric engineer named W. E. Ayrton. There is no doubt that the day will come, maybe when you and I are forgotten, when copper wires, gutta-percha coverings, and iron sheathings will be relegated to the Museum of Antiquities. Then, when a person wants to telegraph to a friend, he knows not where, he will call an electromagnetic voice, which will be heard loud by him who has the electromagnetic ear, but will be silent to everyone else. He will call "Where are you?" and the reply will come, "I am at the bottom of the coal-mine" or "Crossing the Andes" or "In the middle of the Pacific"; or perhaps no reply will come at all, and he may then conclude that his friend is dead. Mr. Ayrton said this at a lecture at the Imperial Institute ... in *1897*. Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 23:00:00 -0500 From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: "How the World Was One", by Arthur C. Clarke (a review) In another item which I expect Pat will run in the same Digest as this one, I gave several quotes from Arthur C. Clarke's latest book. Here's the full description ... "How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village", 1992 Bantam hardcover, approx 300 pages. US price $22.50. ISBN 0-553-07440-7. I think this book will be of considerable interest to many Telecom readers, although those who are voracious Clarke fans may find that they've read considerable parts of it before. The book contains five main parts. The first and longest one tells about the early history of submarine telegraph cables, culminating with the tribulation-filled laying of the first successful cable across the Atlantic; and the second part rapidly takes the story forward to transoceanic telephony and radio. Most of this material was taken from Clarke's 1958 book "Voice Across the Sea", but I had not read that one, and I found it fascinating. Perhaps the most interesting thing was the many kinds of technical difficulties encountered in the early days. Cables were too light, too heavy, too short; they broke, they leaked; they even sabotaged themselves (no, I won't explain that one!). And then there were people problems -- wrong assumptions about technology went untested until after they had been embedded in thousands of miles of cable. On one of the cable-laying attempts, two ships started out in the middle of the ocean and sailed in opposite directions with the two ends of the cable, each paying it out as it went. Their only communication with each other was by telegraph through the cable itself. At one point the connection broke and the ships returned to their starting point -- and each hailed the other with "How did the cable break?" Something had happened on the seabed, and they never did find out what. Then when the first cable was finally laid and the technology finally tested, it hardly worked: after 12 days of trying to adjust the instruments, the operators still needed over 16 hours to transmit a 99-word official telegram. Depending just how they timed their Morse-like code, I figure that the transmission rate must have been somewhere between .05 and .1 baud! The remaining three parts of the book do not really tell a continuous story as do the first two; there are many distinct essays and speeches and even a few pieces of fiction. I had read several of the pieces before, and some of them overlap to some extent. So for these reasons I didn't enjoy the second half of the book as much as the first; but I still found it well worth reading. The third part deals with Clarke's own involvement in the early development of communication satellites. As most of you will know, he invented the idea of using the geostationary orbit for comsats -- though it didn't occur to him then that they might be unmanned! This part puts the idea in context of what he was doing at the time and of what had already been invented by others, and includes the short story "I Remember Babylon" where he anticipated some less savory uses to which comsats might be put. The fourth part concerns the impact of comsats as it has turned out in fact, and Clarke's thoughts on where how they should develop in the future; and the short fifth part is about the renaissance of submarine cables with the appearance of fiber optics. The thesis of the book is simple, and one with which most of us on Usenet will agree. I know *I* do. Better communication unites societies, reduces ignorance, and generally benefits everyone; and it is, accordingly, something on which the expenditure of time and money is well worthwhile. Mark Brader "... There are three kinds of death in this world. SoftQuad Inc., Toronto There's heart death, there's brain death, and utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com there's being off the network." -- Guy Almes ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 13:09:12 EDT From: Richard Budd Subject: Internet Question Organization: CSAV UTIA Since arriving in Prague, Czechoslovakia, I have had to improvise many times from previous habits while using the facilities of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Among them was routing Internet messages through a different mailer than the one where it would normally be sent. In the case I described below, the message would have been sent through SMTP at INTERBIT at the Universitaet Wien, but instead I addressed it to City University of New York on BITNET. As I learn more about telecommuications and the Internet, I wonder if explanations I previously have made were correct, or if I had just attributed a phenomenon to another cause. If the explanation I gave my friend was incorrect, could you set me onto the right course. Thanks. ------------Original Message---------- You can select the computer path from which to route messages, if the default link is not available. From Marist, email messages normally route through University of Connecticut (UCONNVM) or Yale (YALEVM). However, you can specify a machine at another campus by writing the destination node as userid, percent sign, node; and then write "at" sign and the node whose mailer you want to use. For example, if you wanted to send a message through CUNY's machine rather than Yale's, you would address the note as follows: budd%cspgas11@cunyvm.bitnet (you would probably drop .bitnet) By specifying cunyvm or maristb as the mailer of choice, it got me around the problem with SMTP/INTERBIT at the University of Vienna. You may want to try it sometime. I may want to write to the TELECOM forum to learn more why it works. ------------End Message--------- Let me know if there is a different explanation for this. If readers are interested, I can write something on the calling cards available in Prague for making long distance phone calls from local booths. Richard Budd | USA klub@maristb.bitnet | CSFR budd@cspgas11.bitnet | 139 S. Hamilton St. | Kolackova 8 | Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 | 18200 Praha 8 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 12:42:34 EDT From: Richard Budd Subject: Internet Services in Former USSR Organization: CSAV UTIA There was a question several days back about Internet Facilities in the former Soviet Union and whether WorldNews was being received there. An excerpt from a recent article written for the RIPE Connectivity Working Group could answer that question. My apologies for being unable to reproduce the original posting in TELECOM Digest, but I probably erased it sometime back. ----------- The 9.6 kbit/s leased line from Moscow to Copenhagen, Denmark which used to connected the EARN node in Moscow to the EARN/BITNET network has been replaced by a dial-up link to Stockholm due to funding problems. A considerable effort undertaken by the RELCOM networking organization has brought e-mail connectivity to several thousands of sites all over the former Soviet Union. The growth of the network was several 100% a year. RELCOM has been operating some IP links in the Moskow and St. Petersburg areas and in other communities (Novosibirsk Barnaul in Altai). Other national IP connections are expected to connect Ukraine, Siberia, St. Petersburg, Soviet Far East, and other regions to setup a kernel of a nation wide IP backbone. The whole network has about 60 regional centres, some of which connect more than 500 sites. RELCOM's international traffic is split over two dial-up lines, one to the Finish EUnet backbone and one into the central EUnet node in Amsterdam. Both operate as gateways on application level. The rapidly growing volume of international mail traffic makes the need for a medium speed IP channel to Europe urgent. Part of the international traffic is carried by the filtered IP line to AlterNet. The first EARN node started its operation in Moscow late in 1991, but the increasing availability of EARN services is still expected. An e-mail gateway now exists between RELCOM DEMOS and SUEARN. SUEARN also provides international mail relay services for FREENET, a national research IP network which interconnects some 45 institutes of the Academy of Sciences mostly in the Moskow area with international connections to Jaroslavl and Baku. The current situation has been badly affected by the split of RELCOM into two independent entities (RELCOM RelTeam Ldt. and RELCOM DEMOS). Each of them holds a part of CIS network users and part of their international connectivity. While RELCOM RelTeam Ldt. has inherited the RELCOM's membership in EUnet, RELCOM DEMOS seems to position itself as a partner of AlterNet in CIS. Negotiations are still underway to find a cooperative approach to national and international connectivity. Contact persons: Valery Bardin - EUnet - RELCOM Misha Popov - EUnet - RELCOM Demos Andrej Mendkovich - CIS EARN director Nickolay M.Saukh - EUnet - RELCOM Igor Sviridov - EUnet - Ukraine contact. Oleg Tabarovsky - EUnet - RELCOM Dima Volodin - EUnet - RELCOM Demos Prague School of Economics e-mail : Milan.Sterba@vse.cs I have the whole article on file. It is a survey of network connections and services available in every country in Central and Eastern Europe. It is quite a long article - over 900 lines. Pat may have to put out a special issue of the Digest to accommodate it. Richard Budd | USA klub@maristb.bitnet | CSFR budd@cspgas11.bitnet | 139 S. Hamilton St. | Kolackova 8 | Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 | 18200 Praha 8 ------------------------------ From: alpha@vpnet.chi.il.us (Randy Sales) Subject: Encrypted Cordless Phones: How? Organization: Vpnet - Free Usenet access Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 05:00:18 GMT I am interested if someone could tell me generally how they are encrypting these cordless phones I have seen by Motorola and Phone Mate. The Phone Mate one says it helps with interference and cross signaling. It seems like a good idea for also keeping the scanners from listening in and if it is digital I could see how it could help with noise. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 21:21:45 CST From: mearle@pro-party.cts.com (Mark Earle) Subject: Re: New Area Code Blitzes Cell Phone User No, I'm saying, despite it being permissive, the SA cellular providers made a deadline, and told everyone to get their phones re-programmed. Then, aparently, the GTE mobilnet switches in Houston were not updated in a timely manner -- we later found out the ESN of my of my friends phone was declared "bad" because it no longer matched the data base entry. Regular land line type non-cmt phone companies are, thankfully, doing better than GTE Mobilenet. mwe mearle@pro-party.cts.com (Mark Earle) [WA2MCT/5] FidoNet at Opus 1:160/50.0 Bitnet adblu001@ccsu.vm1 Internet 73117.351@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 19:28:58 -0700 From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: Microsoft/Intel Team up on Video for PCs In article >Paul Robinson writes: > Microsoft and Intel are putting together a combined software and > hardware package to allow people to work with video, including editing > and retrieving video footage into documents, thus allowing a PC to > etc..... > Note: The article -- either because the writer thinks it's dead, or > because he's never heard of it -- fails to say anything about the > Video Toaster that has been out for the Amiga for two years and > already does this stuff. As usual the Amiga is not recognized by the PC media. Is it really free unbiased reporting or rather the extreme ignorant mentality of the industry that refuses to acknowledge the exceptional work of Steve Jobs' Next or the Amiga from Commodore that even today the PC MS Windows crowd is trying to mature above? Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie%trickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca ------------------------------ From: tpang@sfu.ca (Tsui Ting Debbie Pang) Subject: Re: Who Are the Major Players in CT2 Phones and Equipment? Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 11:48:32 GMT CT2 has been testing in Hong Kong for a while, but handheld cellular is by far still most popular. David Tse ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #869 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07693; 24 Nov 92 4:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05584 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 24 Nov 1992 01:31:46 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26799 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 24 Nov 1992 01:31:24 -0600 Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 01:31:24 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211240731.AA26799@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #871 TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 Nov 92 01:31:25 CST Volume 12 : Issue 871 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Administrivia: Closing For the Holiday (TELECOM Moderator) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (John Adams) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (David G. Lewis) Re: FCC Wants Comments on Area Codes (Jonathan Rosenberg) Re: FCC Wants Comments on Area Codes (Arthur Rubin) Re: Headsets etc. (Julian Macassey) Re: Headsets etc. SUMMARY (Jeff Bier) Re: Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone (Jim Rees) Re: Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone (Andreas Meyer) Re: Telecom Quotations (Richard Cox) Re: Can I Use a US Modem in Switzerland? (Keith Bechard) Re: High-Quality Voice Over POTS (Robert Eden) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 01:24:22 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Closing For the Holiday I'll be taking a few days off to enjoy the Thanksiving Day holiday this coming weekend, so the remainder of this week will be spend emptying the queue of the many articles waiting for publication. ** Please do not send any further articles to telecom until Monday, 11-30. I'll put out an issue or two early Monday if I can, or sometime Monday at the latest. ** If there are any urgent messages which must go out, someone will be attending to it for me. Thanks, and happy holidays to all. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 13:03:15 GMT In article vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) writes: > In article jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore. > com (adams,john) writes: >> Another aspect of all of this is that "Carrier Connect Time", the >> period of time between your LD company accessing the distant >> (originating works pretty much the same way) LEC, is revenue for the >> LEC (The LD company pays) regardless of whether the call ever >> completes! > Is this true of regular calls or only operator assisted? In a word, yes. Bellcore's TA-NWT-000394 Switching System Requirements for Interexchange Carrier Interconnection Using the Integrated Services Digital Network User Part (ISUP) provides lots more details on this. Briefly, the elapsed time for Interexchange Carrier equal access billing ($$ that IXC's pay LEC's) is determined by the total of the "Carrier Connect Time (CCT)" - the "Disconnect Time (DT)"equal. Note that this works with Feature Group D - Circuit Associated Signalling as well as SS7. In article rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) writes: > Peter Capek writes: >> > implemented soon> > Unfortunately in a basic call setup message, 0+ wants to first secure > the billing method before determining the state of the called party > line. Correct! > Yes, it would be possible to determine the line state of the > called party first, but this would require actually connecting to the > called party first, playing out an announcement to advise them to wait > while the billing information was secured, and then either advising > them that the calling party will be with them or that the calling > party's credit check has failed. Not entirely correct. See example below. The only case where an actual *CONNECTION* would be required to the called number would be in the case of collect billing. > Correct me if I am wrong, but SS7 does not have a 'prober' style > message that asks the far end to return information of the busy/idle > status of a line. In fact, it is telco optional as to whether or not > the treatment will actually be returned back to the originating end. You stand corrected. For instance, consider the CLASS (SM of Bellcore) Automatic All Back Service, when the distant office cannot support called line scanning, the AC feature is implemented by the originating office via a query sent to the terminating office containing the number of the distant subscriber (among other things). The distant office performs a busy/idle test on the called number and returns the results to the originating office in a response to the query. Therefore, it is technically feasible to extend this method to the case the original poster proposed. Jack (John) Adams Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Organization: AT&T Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 14:42:03 GMT In article rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) writes: > Peter Capek writes: >> While trying to make a credit card call to a persistently busy number >> recently, after typing in the card number for the n-teenth time, I >> wondered if SS7 protocol would allow the calling exchange to "look >> ahead" at the called number and inquire if it is (at that instant) >> busy, before prompting me for the card number. > Unfortunately in a basic call setup message, 0+ wants to first secure > the billing method before determining the state of the called party > line. Yes, it would be possible to determine the line state of the > called party first, but this would require actually connecting to the > called party first, playing out an announcement to advise them to wait > while the billing information was secured, and then either advising > them that the calling party will be with them or that the calling > party's credit check has failed. > Correct me if I am wrong, but SS7 does not have a 'prober' style > message that asks the far end to return information of the busy/idle > status of a line. In fact, it is telco optional as to whether or not > the treatment will actually be returned back to the originating end. Not exactly correct. SS7 TCAP supports a "query" message. No connection attempt is needed; one switch sends a TCAP query to the other switch asking for line status. This is how the (pick your favorite name) Auto Recall service works (call someone, get a busy signal, enter a *XX feature code, get a special ring when the far end goes idle, pick up the phone and automatically place the recall). 0+ calls just aren't designed to work that way. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Rosenberg Subject: Re: FCC Wants Comments on Area Codes Organization: Bellcore Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 13:46:45 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Something seems strange here. The plan to begin > using area codes with assorted digits in the middle space has been > known about for years. Did the FCC just now find out about it? Do the > activities of Bellcore fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC? PAT] Seems strange to me, also, since as you point out, this plan has been around for quite a while. And to answer your last question: yes, Bellcore's activities in number administration fall under the FCC's jurisdiction. JR ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 08:56:41 PST Subject: Re: FCC Wants Comments on Area Codes From: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) Organization: Beckman Instruments, Inc. > According to an article on page 29 of the November 9, 1992 issue of > {Network World}: > "The FCC has kicked off an inquiry into a massive overhaul of the way > in which telephone numbers are assigned in North America, a change > that may have a substantial impact on users." > It talks about the limitations of the "1 and 0" limit on area codes, > So keep those cards and letters flowing in! What's the docket number? Considering all the "modem tax" rumors going around, the FCC probably won't see any letters without a specific docket number; the staff will count them but file them under "crank letters". Arthur L. Rubin: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (work) Beckman Instruments/Brea 216-5888@mcimail.com 70707.453@compuserve.com arthur@pnet01.cts.com (personal) My opinions are my own, and do not represent those of my employer. My interaction with our news system is unstable; please mail anything important. ------------------------------ From: julian%bongo.UUCP@nosc.mil (Julian Macassey) Subject: Re: Headsets etc. Date: 23 Nov 92 04:25:55 GMT Reply-To: julian@bongo.info.com (Julian Macassey) Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood California U.S.A. In article Cliff Sharp writes: > If anyone knows where I could get another Nady Systems headset, I'd > enjoy knowing, since this one is years old and may not last too many > more decades ... I have never seen NADY phone headsets that I recall. I do know that Mr Nady was interested in producing them. I once had a rather strange meeting with him about this. His company "NADY Systems". Was based in Oakland, California. His product line when I met him consisted of wireless microphones and Infra Red headsets. All his stuff was produced in the Far East. There are various companies in the U.S. that specialise in headsets. Here is one that comes to mind. There are many others. Communitech Inc. 110 Gordon Street Elk Grove Village Illinois 60007 Phone: (708) 439-4333 They carry headsets by Plantronics, UNEX (Not UNIX), ACS, GN Netcom (GNT), and VXI. Julian Macassey, julian@bongo.info.com N6ARE@WA6FWI.#SOCA.CA.USA.NA 742 1/2 North Hayworth Avenue Hollywood CA 90046-7142 voice (213) 653-4495 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 10:34:20 PST From: bier@acuson.com (Jeff Bier) Subject: Re: Headsets etc. SUMMARY I recently posted to comp.dcom.telecom, asking for sources of corded and cordless headsets. Below is an edited summary of the responses I received. Just about everyone suggested contacting "Hello Direct," which I did. I got a copy of their catalog about two days later, and they carry both corded and cordless headsets. *** From: Jeff@digtype.airage.com (Jeff Wasilko) Hello direct has cordless headsets. They're not cheap--around $300 or so. You can get them at 800-HI-HELLO. I'm also looking for reccomendations, so I'd appreciate a copy of replies you get. Jeff *** From skeeter@skatter.usask.ca Mon Nov 16 08:43:10 1992 Radio Shack sold a cordless headset phone, with FM radio! :) for about $400 last year or the year before. I use a DUoFONE 119 headset at work and it's great. I bought it for about $50. It has volume control and I installed a mute switch. *** From jgb@mcm.com Mon Nov 16 10:42:44 1992 I STRONGLY recommend Plantronics headsets. I have no connection with Plantronics, but you may wish to consider: 1. They're considered the leader in the field 2. AT&T and local bell subsidiaries use Plantronics 3. Plantronics stuff is very rugged; we exclusively use their product lines on our switch. Jeff Bennington *** From max@besami.esd.sgi.com Tue Nov 17 11:46:34 1992 Jeff, 'Hello Direct' sells a Cordless headset (product name Hello Set Cordless) for $369.00. Their telephone number is 1-800-444-3556. I believe it is 900Mhz type and has 32 channels. Max Torneros *** From fernwood!uunet.UU.NET!mtndew!friedl Wed Nov 18 05:14:14 1992 Hi Jeff, AT&T makes/sells some nice ones, but be aware of some options that may make a difference. The cheap ones literally do replace the handset, which means that you have to find some way to muck around with the switchhook to pick up/hang up a call. You end up having to flip a switch (to select handset -vs- headset) AND mess with the switchhook to take a call. This is a hassle and often confusing. The better units have a switch that completely controls the switchhook, and are much less confusing. You just punch the button to pick up or hang up the phone, and the handset just stays in the cradle. These almost always cost more, and often specific to one particular kind of telephone instrument, but are much nicer. Good luck, Stephen ------------------------------ From: rees@dabo.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) Subject: Re: Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone Date: 24 Nov 1992 02:18:10 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI Reply-To: Jim.Rees@umich.edu In article , todd@valinor.mythical.com (Todd Lawrence) writes: > Installing a coin-phone on a residential line should pose no legal > problems whatsoever, however it will have to be used as a > "residential" type phone, you will not unfortunately be able to use it > as a coin station from your residence for two reasons ... That's true in the strictest sense, but I would expect the phone itself could be rewired in such a way that the dial and transmitter don't get cut through until you insert a coin of some kind. This would obviously be for fun rather than profit, but would certainly lend some authenticity to the phone, and might work well enough to fool visitors. ------------------------------ Reply-To: ahm@spatula.rent.com (Andreas Meyer) Organization: Meyer residence, Dunellen NJ Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 05:46:18 GMT From: ahm@spatula.rent.com (Andreas Meyer) Subject: Re: Looking For Three-Slot Coin Phone jsimpson@darmok.uoregon.edu (John Simpson) writes: > I've always enjoyed the sound of the coin bells inside the old > three-slot payphones. I would like to own one for myself to use > inside my residence. Damark is advertising a three-slotter replica on page 37 of their 1992 Holiday Issue catalog. Item # B-6008-322936 is Thomas model #PP8 and sells for $59.99 The ad says "... It even accepts quarters, nickles and dimes with a brass bell jingle, but it doesn't require money to make a call. Features push button dialing disguised as a rotary dial and locked change storage compartment ..." (My only association with Damark is as an occasional customer). Andreas Meyer, N2FYE ahm@spatula.rent.com "Been there. Did that." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 12:22 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: Telecom Quotations Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk lederman@dts66.uscghq.uscg.mil (B. Z. Lederman) writes: >> "So many people have written to complain about the telephone >> service that the Post Office is actually going to show a profit this >> year." To fully understand this, you need to know that, at the time that was broadcast, the telephone service in the UK was *run by* the Post Office! Richard Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Not diallable on 511 in mainland USA ------------------------------ From: keithb@advtech.uswest.com (Keith Bechard) Subject: Re: Can I Use a US Modem in Switzerland? Organization: U S WEST/Advanced Technologies Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 14:19:10 GMT In article , rjh2@crux1.cit.cornell.edu (Radu Hambasan) wrote: > Does anyone know if there is any reason why a modem made for use in > the United States would not work correctly in Switzerland? I had the same problem in Germany this summer. Supposedly, any modem used in Germany must be approved by the German PTT. However, I was using a PowerBook 170 with an integral modem and it worked fine. The biggest problem I had was that Germany doesn't just use one type of plug -- there must be about five different types!! So, I went to the local electronics store and bought as many adaptors as I could find. I would use those whenever I could. However, there were still situations (especially in hotels) where I could not match the adaptor. In that case, I had a four wire modular plug with just the four wires sticking out of one side. I could then use wires with alligator clips to connect to tip and ring. A little messy, but was flexible and worked. The other problem was with my fax or modem software. The European dial tones do not correspond with the US. So any software looking for dial tone before it will dial out will not work. So make sure your software has a mechanism to dial immediately. Keith Bechard U S WEST/Advanced Technologies keithb@advtech.uswest.com (303) 678-7867 ------------------------------ From: Robert Eden - 0491 Subject: Re: High-Quality Voice Over POTS Date: 23 Nov 92 09:31:17 CST Organization: Texas Utilities, Glen Rose TX In article , Robert M. Hamer writes: > A local public radio station stated recently that due to a lack of > funds, they were changing their methodology with respect to interviews > in which the interviewee was out of town. Their previous practice was > to have the interviewee go to a local station and interview that > person via satallite. They said the replacement methodology would be > simple telephone, and that listeners would notice a decline in voice > quality of the interviewee. When I saw a radio station using a remote setup in College Station, TX (about seven years ago) they had a box that provided the necessary bandwidth by using two POTS circuits. I doubt the expense is justified for interviews. They were spinning the music at this remote. Robert Eden 817-897-0491 Glen Rose, TX Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station robert@cpvax.cpses.tu.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #871 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29159; 24 Nov 92 23:08 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29023 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 24 Nov 1992 20:56:33 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06468 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 24 Nov 1992 20:56:02 -0600 Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 20:56:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211250256.AA06468@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #872 TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 Nov 92 20:56:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 872 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson International Premium Teleservices (Niall Gallagher) *69 in NJ Bell Land (John J. Butz) Paging in 708/312 (Bob Frankston) Email to Prodigy (Louis Schmittroth) SMDS DXI Local Management Interface (LMI) (Myron Hattig) CPC Detection and Purpose (Edwin Slonim) Integrating PBX's With Voice Mail (Michael D. Corbett) Information Wanted on Allied Telecom Corp. (ATCO) (Stu Labovitz) Telemarketing Again (Syed S. Haider) Searching For Simple Two-Line Patch (Jerry Black) Use Coins For Your Next Call? (Carl Moore) 800 Privacy (Andrew Klossner) Intercepts and Verifications (Paul Migliorelli) From Our '...' Department (Paul Robinson) Administrivia: Closing For the Holiday (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 11:03:00 +0000 From: Niall Gallagher Subject: International Premium Teleservices There have been a couple of postings recently on the topic of international premium services -- how do the telco and the service provider make money? I came across this tidbit from Australia ... "OTC, the international business unit of AOTC, is already in the business, known generically as audiotex, but its information is only accessible from outside Australia. Information provided on OTC's World Info service includes a weekly message from the Pope and soft porn for the Italian market from Maurizia, billed as Italy's newest X-rated movie star. According to the {Sydney Morning Herald}, hundreds of thousands of people in 25 countries, mostly European, call the service every week to hear a host of messages from soft porn to horoscopes. The SMH said the service was highly lucrative for OTC. OTC cannot charge premium rates for calls to its World Info service, nor can it bill callers. It makes its money because the call is a normal international call which would not otherwise be made, and the usual cost component for domestic termination of the call is not present. Information providers are paid a commission on the income OTC receives." --------------- For your information, OTC's major international gateways are in Sydney and Perth. The international access code for Sydney is +61-2, Perth is +61-9. So now you know! Niall Gallagher niall@bnr.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 11:31:08 EST From: jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John J Butz +1 908 949 5302) Subject: *69 in NJ Bell Land Here's a puzzler: The Return Call Class feature (*69) offered by NJ Bell will call back the number of the last person to call your phone. (When used to screen calls can be considered a poor man's Caller ID). When my friend Ali calls me from his home across town (intra-lata), *69 after his call will ring his phone, as expected with $.75 applied to my bill. When my parents call me from NY (inter-lata), *69 after their call will play an announcement that says, "You cannot activate this feature, since the number is outside the class calling area." No bill is generated for this call. When I place a call from an intra-lata payphone to reset the "register," *69 from my home phone will ring the payphone. However, when I place a call from an intra-lata payphone using a calling card, *69 will give me the inter-lata "... cannot active this feature ..." message? Go figure. Return Call also does not work on my Centrex-ISDN phone in the office. Does anyone (Bellcore folks perhaps) know the complete specs for the operation of this feature? J Butz ER700 Sys Eng jbutz@hogpa.att.com AT&T - BL [Moderator's Note: The same service is available here in Chicago, but we pay a flat monthly rate with no additional charge per use other than paying for the phone calls generated in return. We sometimes get a message saying, "I'm sorry, you cannot use this feature with the number you are calling." This will typically be if the number is outside the Chicago 312/708 area, but also included are DID and centrex numbers (sometimes). Also, there seems to be only one buffer used for both the Return Last Call and Automatic Redial features. If you get a call and *place an outgoing call* prior to returning the received call, the response is "I'm sorry, that number has been forgotten", or words to that effect. Calls which cannot be repeat dialed or auto called back likewise cannot be identified with Caller-ID nor blocked with Call Screening. And oddly enough, when trying to add certain numbers to the Call Screening list (such as from places with DID) a response will be "I'm sorry, that number is temporarily unavailable. Please try again in a few minutes to add it to your list." The trouble is, those numbers never become available; you are always told to 'try again in a few minutes'. ??? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Paging in 708/312 Date: Tue 24 Nov 1992 11:52 -0400 Perhaps our Moderator would know more about this. I just returned from a few days in Chicago. I have a pager number that works when I'm in the area -- it is on the 312-365 exchange. Within 312 it is a free call. But from 708, it seems to be a $.35 call? Or is that an artifact of the particular pay phone I was using. The reason I was using a pay phone was that the hotel phone could not reach the pager -- dialing 8-1-312-365 etc got me a recorded message telling me that my access code did not allow me to make the call. I presume there either an error in the hotel's PBX exchange tables or that there is a bug in the billing protocols. Does anyone know more about this? [Moderator's Note: Where were you in Chicago when it was a 'free' call? And by 'free' do you mean the pay phone did not ask for any money, or you only saw a local unit on your home phone, or what? There are lots of places in 708 which are toll charges to 312 and vice-versa. Then too, it could have been the COCOT you were using. There is no special rate to call pagers that I know of. All cellular phones in 312 cost 25 cents from a payphone in 312 regardless if they are on Ameritech or Cellular One; but a cellular phone with a 708 number costs more from a payphone in 312 and vice-versa. PAT] ------------------------------ From: louis@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca (Louis Schmittroth) Subject: Email to Prodigy Date: 24 Nov 92 16:56:11 GMT I want to find out if Prodigy offers service to Alberta, and if so is there a email address of an administrative unit of Prodigy where I can find out what the rates are? Louis Schmittroth louis@cs.athabascau.ca NW 1/4 18 67 21 W4 Alberta. ------------------------------ From: kentrox!myron@uunet.UU.NET (Myron Hattig) Subject: SMDS DXI Local Management Interface (LMI) Organization: ADC Kentrox, Portland OR Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 00:26:52 GMT Hello, Does anyone know of Router or DSU vendors that support Local Management Interface (LMI)? I'm building a LMI test bed. LMI is an SNMP-like scheme to network manage a DSU through a router. LMI does not require an Ethernet or Slip connection to the DSU. LMI uses the SMDS DXI interface between the router and the DSU. I would appreciate all e-mail responses coming directly to me, just to be sure I get them. Thanks in advance, Myron Hattig myron@kentrox.com Phone: (503) 643-1681 FAX: (503) 641-3321 ADC Kentrox, 14375 NW Science Park Drive, Portland, OR 97229 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 09:35:10 PST From: Edwin Slonim Subject: CPC Detection and Purpose My Panasonic KXT30810 PABX system at home has programmable settings for CPC on each CO line. I think CPC is Call Progress something ... How can I detect if my exchange(s) support CPC? What are the benefits of CPC? What default should I set if I am unsure whether CPC is present? I have two lines to a digital exchange, and one to an old crossbar. Thanks, Edwin Slonim, Connectivity & Systems Software, Intel Israel, PO Box 1659, Haifa, 31072 Israel voicemail (916)356-2005, slonim@iil.intel.com phone (011)+972-435-5910, fax (011)-972-435-5674 [Moderator's Note: CPC = Called Party Control. This means the called party detirmines when the connection is broken by hanging up the phone. In older systems the connection would stay up at least awhile longer if the calling party did not disconnect. Your answering machine can be set so it will disconnect immediatly when there is a loss of the battery on the line (which is caused when calling party hangs up.) The reason you might not want to use this feature is because call waiting causes the same reaction from your answering machine which will disconnect when it senses the battery is gone, which is what happens for just a second when you get a call waiting tone. So you set the switch on all the time and leave it that way *unless* you have call waiting on the answering machine line and are likely to have the answering machine get 'call-waited' and disconnect on someone trying to leave a message. On the old crossbar system you mention it does not matter either way; on the newer exchanges it does matter. Experiment with it both ways and see which works best for you. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 14:21:52 -0800 From: Michael D. Corbett Subject: Integrating PBX's With Voice Mail Greetings TELECOM Digest readers. I have been reading the Digest for over two years and finally got real access to the internet and thought I should submit something. I work for a company called Applied Voice Technology located in Kirkland WA. We produce PC based Voice Mail, Automated Attendant etc. system called CallXpress. I personally am responsible for writing integration software which provides the Voice Mail system with calling/called party ID, setting and clearing of Message Waiting Indicators, in some cases transfers. I thought some of you might find a description of one of our latest products interesting. It involves integrating both a Northern Telecom Meridian PBX and NT Norstar Key System with our Voice Mail system. We produce a hardware card (called an NTDIU for Northern Telecom Digital Integration Unit) which plugs into the bus of a PC (for power) and emulates NT digital phones. The NTDIU has a jumper, so it is setup to emulate either a NT 2008 handset in the case of the Meridian PBX, or an M7310 in the case of the Norstar. Both the Norstar and the Meridian are ISDN (with minor variations) and they were close enough to use the one card to emulate either phone type. Each NTDIU can emulate four digital phones. By properly programming the PBX i.e. into a hunt group with appropriate class of sevice etc. you have four ports of integrated voice mail. The analog audio portion of the signal is passed into industry standard cards made by Dialogic and they are used for the actual digitization and compression of voice in both integrated and non-integrated systems. The key to the whole setup is the LCD display on the 'phone'. The scenereo goes something like this: A trunk call comes into VM (Voice Mail). The display is read by the NTDIU, and the trunk group, id etc. is passed to the integration software via RS-232. I pass the trunk id, VM port number etc. to the VM system. VM knows there is an external trunk call and plays the annoying chimey audio trademark. Now picture the display on a forwarded internal call i.e. Bill X333 calls Sally X334 but X334 is forward all to VM. The display in the NTDIU will have the calling and called party ID, which again is passed via RS-232 to the integration, and on to the VM. The first spoken prompt in this case is the personal greeting recorded by Sally to leave a message ... Bill however, _hates_ VM and hangs up, *grin*, the display in the NTDIU goes back to time date, the integration gets a digital on-hook from the NTDIU, which is passed to VM and a nearly instantaneous on hook condition is achieved for the VM port. It actually works quite nicely. I hope this description is clear enough and that I have not used terms too loosely. You have to understand that before 1988 I literally didn't know what DTMF meant, and now I routinely program PBX's. Let's just say there was a bit of a learning curve. :) I still can't keep up with some of the CO jargon and acronyms. Please apply trademarks liberally to CallXpress, Norstar, Meridian, Northern Telecom, Dialogic and anything else I may have forgotten. As is customary, my opinions are soley mine and I do not speak for my employer. Mike Corbett Applied Voice Technology 11410 NE 122nd. Way Kirkland WA 98083 mcorbett@halcyon.com ------------------------------ Subject: Information Wanted on Allied Telecom Corp (ATCO) From: stu@valinor.mythical.com (Stu Labovitz) Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 18:40:15 CST Organization: (What? Organized??) - Mythical Computer Systems I have just received a brochure from Allied Telecom Corporation (ATCO) of Cranston, Rhode Island, attempting to sell me discount long distance service. To be honest, I probably would have tossed it right away, except I noticed that the return address on the envelope was that of an old grade school/high school classmate. This gentleman seems to now be one of ATCO's marketing reps. The marketing sheet that I received claims that ATCO provides 100% digital fiber optic service. The example daytime rates that they show on the sheet (most likely selected to best demonstrate their rates) indicate that they enjoy an average price advantage of 23.5% over AT&T (MTS and Pro WATS), MCI (Prism and Preferred), and SPRINT (Basic and Plus). To give my old friend the benefit of the doubt, I am posting this request for information on and experiences with ATCO. If you have anything to share, please post to this newsgroup or mail it to my account (in which case I will submit a summary to our esteemed moderator at a later date). Many, many thanks in advance! Stuart L Labovitz home: stu@valinor.mythical.com (insert standard disclaimer here) or uunet!valinor!stu ------------------------------ From: allegra!ssh@allegra.att.com (syed s haider) Subject: Telemarketing Again Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 21:40:56 GMT Last Sunday's {Parade} supplement carries an article on telemarketing. One item caught my eye. Basically, it stated that many come-ons give you an 800 number making you think that the call is toll-free. But after you call you're switched to a 900 number and get a hefty bill the following month. Is this possible? I was under the impression that 800 calls are toll-free no matter what. [Moderator's Note: They are free unless an unethical person answering the call patches you through to a 900 number in the process of answering you. It is not the 800 part to be concerned about -- those are free. It is the resulting 900 number to which the 800 number has been forwarded. We covered this in detail several months ago here. You might want to look for the "USA Today" and "Mystic Marketing" threads in the Telecom Archives (ftp lcs.mit.edu). PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jerry Glomph Black Subject: Searching For Simple Two-Line Patch Organization: E. Power Biggs, et al. Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 10:40:14 -0500 I'm facing a situation where I'll have two phone lines, one with decent dial-out capabilities, another with none. I want to be able to call in to the latter, be patched to the former, and be able to dial out on the capable line using tones generated by my distant handset. This patching is preferably triggered by keying some security code. I vaguely remember seeing a fairly cheap box (Radio Shack? Hello Direct?) which would do this task. This weekend I checked both catalogs, and found nothing like this. Please post answer, and email to black@LL.MIT.EDU Thanks! Jerry Black [Moderator's Note: E. Power Biggs has been gone about ten years now, but I liked him, so I left your 'organization' line intact. You know how it is with we Moderators and our arbitrary editing of things. Virgil Fox he wasn't, but he was okay. Fox has been gone now for about a decade also :( Between them, I've got a couple hundred recordings; in Fox's case, even a couple 78's (the 1933 stuff he did at the Chicago World's Fair) and the very early 1947-49 stuff recorded on 33 rpm for Columbia Records at Riverside Church. I've got the 1949 recording that Biggs made at Columbia University also. Meanwhile, in these United States, the people have elected a president who is actually *younger* than I am. I need a vacation. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 12:36:04 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Use Coins For Your Next Call? This is from a leaflet from TeleCoin Communications Ltd. (Keystone Commons, 525 Braddock Avenue, Turtle Creek, PA 15145; tel. 412-825-6006), found in a service area along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Use COINS to place your next call and SAVE up to 50% over calling cards. Call the 48 States; deposit $1 for 3 minutes for calls outside this calling area. The TeleCoin Difference... --Discount Coin Calls: Save up to 50% by using coin to make calls out of this calling area--$1 for 3 minutes. --Resaonable Rates for all other calls. --Full access to all long distance carriers. --24-hour operator assistance --Courtesy phones at selected Marriott Plazas. --Facsimile machines at selected Marriott Plazas. --Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf (TDD) at selected Marriott Plazas. ------------------------------ From: andrew@frip.wv.tek.com (Andrew Klossner) Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 15:36:30 PST Subject: 800 Privacy Reply-To: andrew@frip.wv.tek.com Organization: Tektronix Color Printers, Wilsonville, Oregon John Higdon writes, regarding real-time ANI on 800 lines: > For some reason, it makes the "privacy" activists very happy > to have business customers the only entities than can have > caller number delivery." This is a misrepresentation. We privacy nuts are not at all happy about 800 ANI. But we concede that the person paying for the phone call deserves the information, so we make our 800 calls from behind PBXs. Andrew Klossner (andrew@frip.wv.tek.com) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 02:42 est From: paul@migs.shecora.sai.com (Paul Migliorelli) Subject: Intercepts and Verifications I'm aware that for certain parts of New York Telephone, (areas 212 516 914 and 718), the 9901 suffix is used for digital switch verification readouts. Do any of you have such standard numbers for other areas of the country that might be interesting to hear? What about for other parts of New York where 9901 doesn't do this? A very funny one that was passed on to me was for Carmel. It's 408-624-0624.) [Moderator's Note: In Chicago, many exchanges have a funny tone signal on xxx-1xxx. Try 312-332-1332 and 528-1528 as examples. This is not the case on every exchange, but on quite a few. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 20:25:18 EST Subject: From Our '...' Department "From our 'If it's not on TV it didn't happen/doesn't exist' dept." Monday's {USA Today} notices an advertisement for a Sony TV in front of the Grand Canyon. A small child goes by and doesn't realize where he is at UNTIL the TV set goes on where it is showing the exact image of 10 feet behind it. The child then says (at the TV set) "Look! It's the Grand Canyon!" Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM - These opinions are mine alone. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 01:24:22 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Closing For the Holiday I'll be taking a few days off to enjoy the Thanksiving Day holiday this coming weekend, so the remainder of this week will be spend emptying the queue of the many articles waiting for publication. ** Please do not send any further articles to telecom until Monday, 11-30. I'll put out an issue or two early Monday if I can, or sometime Monday at the latest. ** Thanks, and happy holidays to all. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #872 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09575; 25 Nov 92 5:07 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05461 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 25 Nov 1992 02:49:20 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14917 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 25 Nov 1992 02:49:01 -0600 Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 02:49:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211250849.AA14917@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #873 TELECOM Digest Wed, 25 Nov 92 02:49:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 873 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Moscow and Data Compressors (Hank Nussbacher) Police Officer Impersonators Running Scams in Virginia (Nigel Allen) LAN Capable Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf Info (Gene Cartier) Question About Strange Recording on Answering Machine (Yonsook Enloe) Cellular One TV Commercial (Hey, Mom, That's Me!) (Anthony E. Siegman) AT&T Telephone 764 and Canadian Caller ID Question (Alex Leyn) ** Attention Internet Radio Journal Subscribers ** (Bill Pfeiffer) Accessing Internet to Bitnet Addresses (Paul Robinson) Comm Software/Protocol (Chou Sui Lin) Re: Ringing My Own Phone (Todd Lawrence) Re: Ringing My Own Phone (Daniel Drucker) Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? (jdg111@psuvm.psu.edu) Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? (John Murray) Administrivia: Closing For the Holiday (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Organization: Bar-Ilan University Computing Center, Israel Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 11:37:14 IST From: Hank Nussbacher Subject: Moscow and data compressors > There was a question several days back about Internet Facilities in > the former Soviet Union and whether WorldNews was being received > there. An excerpt from a recent article written for the RIPE > Connectivity Working Group could answer that question. > The 9.6 kbit/s leased line from Moscow to Copenhagen, Denmark which > used to connected the EARN node in Moscow to the EARN/BITNET network > has been replaced by a dial-up link to Stockholm due to funding > problems. After reading in the network about Moscow's disconnection from EARN due to increased line costs, ILAN has decided to donate a set of data compressors for use on a 9.6kb line that can effectively run up to four 9.6kb virtual lines. This will allow various networking organizations in the Moscow area to share a single 9.6kb line to Denmark and run IP as well as EARN traffic over the same line -- each at 9.6kb speed. The data compressors are already in the mail to Moscow and Denmark. Hank Nussbacher ILAN - Israeli Academic Network Tel-Aviv, Israel ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Police Officer Impersonators Running Scams In Virginia Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto. (Since this deals with Western Union's money transfer services, I though Telecom readers might want to see this.) Here is a press release from the Virginia State Police. Police Officer Impersonators Running Scams In Virginia Contact: Information Office, Virginia State Police, 804-674-2016 RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 23 -- Col. Carl R. Baker said today that the Department of State Police has received reports concerning various scams involving individuals posing as police officers. In one scam, a person claiming to be a state trooper indicates he or she is raising funds for the Virginia State Police. In another, persons identifying themselves as state troopers or police officers call local businesses requesting money for an accident victim who is known to the person called. The scam involving accident victims has been reported throughout Virginia, according to State Police. Police have received reports of this scam from Pennsylvania, California, Arkansas, New York and Missouri. In one case, Virginia investigators traced a telephone call to Atlanta. A person claiming to be a state trooper or police officer calls a local business requesting money for an accident victim. The caller explains that a relative, friend, or business associate has been involved in an accident and needs money wired as soon as possible. The amount of money is generally between $250 and $500 and is said to be needed for auto repairs or charges for minor treatment at a hospital. The victims are told to go to a nearby Western Union office and to instruct that office to waive identification of the person picking up the cash by using a test question or password rather than a name. The callers usually call collect and primarily target businesses, although the type of establishment varies. In most cases, they ask to speak with whomever is in charge, claiming that the company president or chief officer is the accident victim. The callers are professional con men and control their delivery; they have familiarized themselves with background knowledge such as the names of the victims' coworkers and the roads nearby the victim's place of business. State Police said that several intended victims have thwarted the callers' efforts by asking for additional identification and telephone numbers through which they can verify the request. Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 08:23:27 EST From: Gene Cartier Subject: LAN Capable Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf Info In order to comply with the new Disabilities Act we are looking for a Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) that is LAN capable. They will be used mostly by our hearing customer support staff. The ideal device would be one that could have and audable ring, a visual screen "RINGING" signal and be answered by any workstation on a small customer support LAN. Even better would be a TDD that could configured via software to use a defined LAN workstation so that person could be the "TDD Operator of the Day". Our current basic environment for customer support are IBM Token Ring LANS running OS/2. If no products exist then any suggestions on how to "tweak" existing products to gain the same capability will be appreciated. Please respond direct to the list or to me and I will combine the answers and post them back. Gene Cartier Systems Research & Applications Corp Arlington, VA cartierg@smtplink.sra.com (703) 803-1734 ------------------------------ From: yonsook@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov (Yonsook Enloe) Subject: Question About Strange Recording on Answering Machine Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 8:40:51 EST Hello! I have had the same two or three very strange recordings on my answering machine at home this last month. When I play back the recorded message, I hear a phone ringing, then the phone gets picked up and a recorded message there says, "Your number cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the area code ..." How is it possible to get this message on my answering message? No one was home so no one could have dialed out on my telephone line. I'd appreciate help on this. Thanks. Yonsook Enloe [Moderator's Note: You might want to check out the messages on this same topic from earlier this month. Back issues of TELECOM Digest are available using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. It is possible someone called you and upon hearing the answering machine decided not to leave a message and go on to their next call instead. They flashed very rapidly and got a conference dial tone by accident. They dialed their number, but did so incorrectly and disconnected. For a couple seconds there would be a three way connection between your answering machine, the calling party and the distant intercept message. That is one possibility. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 12:53:33 PST From: Anthony E. Siegman Subject: Cellular One TV Commercial (Hey, Mom, That's Me!) Wasn't it pop artist Andy Warhol who said that in this world everyone -- even lowly telecom lurkers -- gets 15 minutes of fame? You may soon be seeing a Cellular One TV commercial showing a aerial view of a yuppie type in a red convertible, top down, talking on his car phone while descending a steep cliffside road above the Pacific, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. The yuppie's not actually me (a professional stunt man, in fact); but the gorgeous classic '67 Mustang he's driving -- that's my baby! (rented for a couple days by the ad agency). If anyone happens to catch this on videotape, well ... (I don't happen to own a TV set myself; just reading comp.dcom.telecom is enough). [Moderator's Note: Ah, that's nice of you to say that! :) Yes, Warhol said everyone gets fifteen minutes of fame. Your fifteen minutes will be an aggregation of many three or four second glimpses over the several weeks the commercial will be running. Mine was the same way: about thirty years ago a local television station here made a homebrew version of the Star Spangled Banner for use when they signed off the air at night. The Marshall Field and Company Choral Society (a group of several dozen employees of the downtown Chicago department store who enjoyed singing as a group) sang it with an orchestra, and the television people superimposed a couple dozen still photos of Chicagoans onto the film. One photo was of myself and a friend standing in the entrance of the old Greyhound Bus Station downtown. Four seconds of fame once a day at 2:00 AM for a few years until the station started using another film version of the anthem. And I looked *so awful* in that picture. The MF&Co. Choral Society disbanded years ago; the bus station was torn down five years ago at the urging of the City Fathers, and the president of these United States is younger than I am. :( :( I need a vacation. PAT] ------------------------------ From: maysoft@r-node.gts.org (Alex Leyn) Subject: AT&T Telephone 764 and Canadian Caller ID Question Organization: R-node Public Access UNIX Information System (416-249-5366) Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 01:23:02 -0500 I have recently come into possesion of a fancy new AT&T 764 phone. This phone will boil, broil, and flip your eggs for you. However, the most useful features use the Caller ID (aka Call Display) service. I know that there are differences between the US and Canadian standard for Caller ID. Strangely enough, the 764 does not work in Canada. Does anyone know if there exists an official (AT&T sponsored) or an unofficial patch, workaround, or upgrade to allow this phone to work with the Canadian Caller ID service. I have not opened the phone up yet, but if that is required, I have no qualms about modifying the internal microcontroller code -- if I have the source and if the microcontroller is something relatively widely available. As a side question: The differences between the Canadian Caller ID message format and the US equivalent is very small. From the specs, it appears that a Caller ID receiver could easily determine which format the incomming message is in and make appropriate decoding/ processing. To increase market exposure, why would AT&T and other manufacturers not add this simple code as a standard feature? Am I missing some logical or marketting issue here? Thanks for all replies, Alex Leyn MaySoft Engineering Internet: maysoft@r-node.pci.on.ca maysoft@r-node.gts.org rampage@electrical.watstar.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ From: Bill.Pfeiffer@gagme.chi.il.us (Bill Pfeiffer) Subject: ** Attention Internet Radio Journal Subscribers ** Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 15:27:29 -0600 (CST) A massive disk crash at my host mailing system for the Internet Radio Journal (the e-mail echo of rec.radio.broadcasting) has rendered my mailing database almost two months out of date. The last backup of data was October 11, 1992. Anyone who has subscribed, or cancelled a subscription, since then should re-submit their request again. The last issue of the journal, before the system was backed up, was 202. All issues have been sent, but the file of addresses is way out of date. Please re-send if you fail to get issue 223, or if you GET 223, even though you have cancelled your subscription. The address is journal@airwaves.chi.il.us. Thanks, William Pfeiffer Moderator - rec.radio.broadcasting - Internet Radio Journal [Moderator's Note: Now you know why backups are so important. I've got this mailing list backed up along with all my software; and it is duplicated on other sites where I have accounts. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM, TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 16:10:33 EST Subject: Accessing Internet to Bitnet Addresses In TELECOM Digest 12-869, Richard Budd (BUDD@CSPGAS11.BITNET) writes that he has trouble getting through from Internet addresses. I submitted to the Telecom Archives a conversion chart between Internet Domain names (two, three and four character), telex answerbacks (two or three) and telephone and telex country codes. I submitted this same document to Jon Postel for inclusion as an Internet RFC. When Mr. Postel wrote back, he stated that two entries I had, .UUCP and .BITNET were invalid because they are NOT INTERNET DOMAINS. Bitnet is a separate network that has gateways to and from Internet but is not a part of the Internet. Therefore unless one is on a system that is on both networks, one MUST either send to a gateway to get from BITNET to Internet, or if on Internet and sending to a Bitnet address, go through the gateway. Mr. Budd is wrong on one point. He is already _on_ BITNET, he should only need to address someone directly, i.e. as in BUDD@CSPGAS11.BITNET (some will even allow BUDD@CSPGAS11). His use of an address such as BUDD%CSPGAS11@CUNYVM.BITNET isn't needed because he's already ON bitnet. Only someone on Internet who wanted to reach a BITNET ONLY address would need to do this, and they would use the full internet routing. Also, there are two routings: user%system.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu and user%system.bitnet@pucc.princeton.edu So you would use: budd%cspgas11.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu or budd%cspgas11.bitnet@pucc.princeton.edu (Most of the BITNET lists I get on MCI come through Princeton.) Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM - These opinions are mine alone. ------------------------------ From: chou@csd.csd.hku.hk (Chou Sui Lin) Subject: Comm Software/Protocol Date: 24 Nov 1992 09:51:31 -0600 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Hello netters: We're looking for way of doing remote printing over a X.25 connection connecting to a packet-switched network from a remote PC with a printer attached to our Sun SPARCserver. The remote PC will run a terminal emulator (vt100) and run our application. We would like to be able to do background printing while the remote user is on-line. We've tried using the vt100 printing escape sequences. It worked but not reliably especially when the printer is off-line or switched off. Either the PC got hung or an DOS abort message returned. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone From: todd@valinor.mythical.com (Todd Lawrence) Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 00:04:25 CST haydedr@wkuvx1.bitnet (Ross Hayden) writes: > My question is this: Is there a way to find out a number I can dial > that will make my phone ring (other than calling a friend and asking > for a callback)? > [Moderator's Note: This changes from one town to the next, and > sometimes the same telco may change it every two or three months. > There is no standard. Perhaps someone familiar with Bowling Green will > write you with details. PAT] Also, In every NPA I ever had the privilege to be in, I've simply called the operator (TSPS/OSP/ETC..) and asked the ever popular: "Can I have a ringback please ..." Todd Lawrence LOD! Communications internet : todd@valinor.mythical.com IMF Acquisition Group uucp : uunet!valinor!todd ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone From: mertwig!xyzzy@uunet.UU.NET (Daniel Drucker) Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 16:23:49 EST Organization: Odd Parity Hacker's Group haydedr@wkuvx1.bitnet (Ross Hayden) writes: > In the city I used to live in, you could dial 959-XXXX, where XXXX is > your phone number suffix, do a little dance on the switchhook by > hanging up three or four times quickly, and, viola, the phone would > ring after the final hangup. Try 660-XXXX. Thats what works here. Xyzzy T. Plugh mertwig!xyzzy@jaflrn.uucp Daniel Max P. Drucker, the 14 year old networks wizard. ------------------------------ Organization: Penn State University Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 16:40:44 EST From: JDG111@PSUVM.PSU.EDU Subject: Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? > Are there a ny free calling cards left? I just got a SPrint FonCard, and it costs me nothing. No initial fee, no yearly or monthly charge either. COurse, it's $.75 each call, PLUS the LD fees. SO I have yet to actually USE the thing ... :) ------------------------------ From: jxm@engin.umich.edu (John Murray) Subject: Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 17:00:17 EST Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor In article ronnie@media.mit.edu writes: > Are there any calling cards left that don't charge an initial fee? I > remember Telecom*USA had one for a while, but I also remember hearing > MCI took them over. Aren't the calling cards issued by local phone companies usable for this purpose? I've used mine in a variety of situations without a problem. In fact, the card number is just your own phone number plus a four-digit code, from PacBell and Ameritech anyway. (Not sure about use with foreign telcos directly, but one can call AT&T Direct from lots of places and use the card then.) Which reminds me -- isn't the AT&T card also free, provided you use it once in a while? And since it's a credit card and separate from a phone account, it would be usable by someone who did not have a phone at home to charge the calls to, right? Hope this helps, JM, Univ. of Mich. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 01:24:22 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Closing For the Holiday I'll be taking a few days off to enjoy the Thanksiving Day holiday this coming weekend, so the remainder of this week will be spend emptying the queue of the many articles waiting for publication. ** Please do not send any further articles to telecom until Monday, 11-30. I'll put out an issue or two early Monday if I can, or sometime Monday at the latest. ** Thanks, and happy holidays to all. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #873 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa14640; 26 Nov 92 2:25 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10555 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 26 Nov 1992 00:24:28 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30475 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 26 Nov 1992 00:24:09 -0600 Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 00:24:09 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211260624.AA30475@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #874 TELECOM Digest Thu, 26 Nov 92 00:24:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 874 Index To This Issue: Happy Thanksgiving Day, Everyone! AT&T Smart Phone 2100 (Steve Diamond) Article: The Numbering Crisis in World Zone 1 (K. M. Peterson) COCOM Limit Fibre (Terence Cross) Strange Busy Signal (Bob Bracalente) Canadian LD Carrier Numbers Needed (g5100035@nickel.laurentian.ca) Need 486-Based Customer Support Environments With ANI (Ralph Hyre) New England Tel Plans to Drop 1+ Dialing For Local Area Toll (T. Pelliccio) Caller ID Modification (Joe Smooth) Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? (Matt Holdrege) Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Fake Call-Waiting Product (Mark D. Wuest) Re: 950-0666 Becomes, Well, 950 (Richard Cox) Re: FYI 215 NXX Additions (Carl Moore) Re: Ten Digit Dialing in Oregon (Carl Moore) Re: Advice Needed on Telephone Security Systems (Jack Winslade) Re: ATT Boing: What is it? (Andrew Little) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: diamond@forever.Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Diamond) Subject: AT&T Smart Phone 2100 Date: 25 Nov 1992 21:02:50 GMT Organization: SunSoft, Inc. Reply-To: diamond@forever.Eng.Sun.COM In the April 20, 1992 issue of {Fortune Magazine}, the AT&T "Smart Phone 2100" which apparently incorporates "DSP technology" and a large soft key LCD screen, is pictured with the caption "Smart Phone 2100 with touch-sensitive screen for access to banking and information services (AT&T, $499)." What's the status of the Smart Phone 2100? Is it available anywhere? Have any of you used it? With special services or standalone? Steve Diamond SunSoft, Inc., 2550 Garcia Ave, M/S MTV08-221, Mountain View, CA 94043 uucp: steve.diamond@Eng.Sun.COM The opinions expressed are my own. ------------------------------ From: KMP@Logos.Prime.COM (K. M. Peterson) Date: 25 Nov 1992 13:48:55 EST Subject: Article: The Numbering Crisis in World Zone 1 {The Sciences}, a magazine published by the New York Academy of Sciences, has an interesting article this month (November/December 1992) called "The Numbering Crisis in World Zone 1" which talks about the scarcity of phone numbers. Being a somewhat infrequent follower of this list, I was filled in on some of the history of the numbering plan here in North America, with some additional insight on [very] basic telephone switch theory. An entertaining article that I'd like to recommend. I'm sure the contents are not new to PAT, but I did get a better feeling for some of the topics discussed here. Also, good to send along to others you might know as a primer on some of the North American switching/naming issues. {The Sciences} is available on newsstands for $3.50, and is recommended in general. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 14:00:16 GMT From: eeitecs@eeiuc.ericsson.se (Terence Cross) Subject: COCOM Limit Fibre I found this in a news item. Isn't it a little bit paranoid, by the west, limiting fibre in Russia? After all cheap communications helps democracy to flourish. I suppose COCOM are just trying to save their own jobs. ------------------- COCOM TO RELAX RESTRICTIONS. The Coordinating Committee (COCOM) for establishing export controls on Western technology to the former East bloc has revised its regulations, Reuters reported on 24 November. Countries currently subject to restrictions may apply for exemptions for next year if they apply by year-end 1992 and pledge specifically not to re-export or use sensitive technology for military purposes. It is not clear, however, how far COCOM is now willing to relax restrictions; it is still insisting that it will make judgments on a country-by-country basis. Although there has been some relaxation over the last few years, COCOM technology embargoes still handicap significant projects in the region, including the Trans-Siberian fibre optic communications line. from: Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull The RFE/RL Daily Report is produced by the RFE/RL Research Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc.) with the assistance of the RFE/RL News and Current Affairs Division (NCA). ---------------- Terence Cross +1 353 902 74601 Software Engineer ECN: 830 1498 AXE Operations & Maintenance Committee Ericsson Systems Expertise Irl. Ltd. eeitecs@eeiuc.ericsson.se Athlone, Ireland eeitecs@memo.ericsson.se ------------------------------ From: bbracal@gandalf.ca (Bob Bracalente) Subject: Strange Busy Signal Organization: Gandalf Data Ltd. Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 14:22:30 GMT I live in southern NJ, and my LD carrier is Sprint. Last night, I tried to place a call to Philadelphia via Sprint. The call didn't connect, and I heard a "high-pithched" slow busy signal (not a reorder). I called a Sprint operator, and she got the same results when she placed the call. Next, I tried to dial the call using New Jersy Bell's "Pensy-Link" service (10652 - some kind of intra-LATA lines between NJ and PA that I don't really understand), and got the same results. When I placed the call using good old AT&T (10288), I received a normally pitched slow busy. When I tried again a few hours later and actually got connected, it turns out that the party I was calling was in fact on the phone during the time I called. So why did I get this strange busy from Sprint and New Jersey Bell? ------------------------------ From: g5100035@nickel.laurentian.ca Subject: Canadian LD Carrier Numbers Needed Organization: Laurentian University Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 14:55:49 GMT Could someone email me the telephone numbers for the new long distance carriers in Canada? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: cinpmx!cdid!rhyre%major@attmail.com Date: 25 Nov 92 15:05:42 GMT Subject: Need 486-Based Customer Support Environments With ANI I'm looking for information on 486-based packages that assist with Customer Support tasks in a Direct Marketing environment. The usual scenario is as follows: Customer receives product information, calls an 800 number to order or further inquire about products. Calls go to an Automatic Call Director (ACD), where they are queued for a Customer Service Rep (CSR) to become available. It is desirable to capture the caller's number (ANI) in real-time to bring up the appropriate customer record on the chosen CSR's PC. (I belive American Express and Mac Warehouse do something like this today.) The technical environment envisioned involves an AT&T Definity PBX, with quasi-ISDN AT&T instruments. (Believed to be 7400-series phones with a Data Stand (serial port that can send PBX data to the user's PC)). DOS or 486/Unix packages are acceptable, although DOS/Windows is preferred. (If the Unix product is a multi-user system, then it should scale to a user community of around 100 users on networked PC's.) A nice-to-have feature would be the ability to interface with the ACD to influence the choice of CSR's with the ANI information (so that the same customer has a chance at getting the same CSR each time they call.) Would also appreciate lists of trade publication with ads and other information on these type of products. I will summarize responses back to telecom. Thanks (in advance) for your help. Ralph Hyre (rhyre@attmail.com) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 14:50:56 EST From: Tony Pelliccio Subject: New England Tel Plans to Drop 1+ Dialing For Local Area Toll An article in the November 23, 1992 {Providence Journal-Bulletin} states that as of June 1993, New England Telephone will be dropping 1+ dialing for toll calls within Rhode Island. Here are some notes about it though: 1) 1+ dialing will still work for three months after the changeover; 2) They plan to adjust customer bills for at least six months after the cutover because of possible mistaken toll dialing. All in all, it seems pretty fair to me. And it won't be that difficult to figure out what's toll and what's not. It's a small state. I feel sorry for places that have a wider toll area though. Tony Pelliccio PJJ125 @ URIACC.URI.EDU ------------------------------ From: Joe Smooth Subject: Caller ID Modification Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 22:47:40 GMT Is it possible to modify a Caller ID box somehow to let you receive the numbers that are calling you with *69 and call blocking? [Moderator's Note: No it is not possible. You can't get blood out of a turnip, as 'they' say, nor can you get information out of a Caller-ID box which was not sent by the CO. Did you mean *69 (call back last call received) or did you mean *67 (block ID)? In any event, if the calling party blocks his identification, either by default on the line or by *67, then the CO will not pass the information to you, regardless of what tampering you may have done with the box. The box is only a receiver of what is sent: nothing sent, then nothing received. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 19:49 GMT From: Matthew Holdrege Subject: Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? > Just what are the mechanics of establishing a data connection via an > ISDN phone? I am in southern Pac Bell land, where ISDN is completely > unknown, and I have never even *seen* an ISDN desk set. I wouldn't say that ISDN is unknown in So Cal. In fact one of the largest ISDN users in the country is in Pasadena. JPL has (I've read) thousands of BRI lines. The problem here is that California has no single line tariffs. You have to order at least two-line Centrex service to get ISDN. That unfortunate situation should change by next summer (I hope.) Ideally Pac Bell and GTE will price BRI connections the same as Ameritech has. About $35 per month and $6 per hour of connect time. Or they could go really far and price it cheaper. 8-) > I know that you can use ISDN to connect a home machine to a LAN, but > how do you *do* it? There are a lot of methods for connecting to a LAN. Bridges, routers, and terminal adapters are all available. One method I used last year was to connect the NT1 to a Gandalf Terminal Adapter which connected to a Vitalink WAN bridge. This effectively utilized both B channels as one 128K WAN link. I expect that you could do it cheaper now. But I have another question. I would like to use one B channel for data and one for voice. I would like to connect the voice channel to our Rolm PBX. Does anyone know of a slick way to do this? I guess that I need an adapter to split the B channels, run the data channel to a bridge/router and the voice to ????? Matt Holdrege 5156065@mcimail.com 714-229-2518 ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 03:04:46 GMT In article , tep@tots.Logicon.COM (Tom Perrine) writes... > Just what are the mechanics of establishing a data connection via an > ISDN phone? I am in southern Pac Bell land, where ISDN is completely > unknown, and I have never even *seen* an ISDN desk set. > I know that you can use ISDN to connect a home machine to a LAN, but > how do you *do* it? Well, it's all up to how your ISDN Terminal Equipment does it. Generally, there's no point to using an "ISDN Telephone" at home, unless it's a home office. And certainly not for data ... I am right now using a Gandalf Premier 5510 LANLine personal ISDN bridge. It takes Ethernet and maps it over ISDN, but it currently requires a big multiport bridge arrangement to dial into (at the LAN end). That'll change soon, I suspect. And there are similar bridges made by other vendors such as Digiboard (Minneapolis) and Combinet (Sunnyvale). On the Gandalf, a front panel three-button panel lets me initiate and terminate calls. I can also use my async port into a control port on back of the bridge. Digiboard and Combinet don't have front panel controls. THey can (like Gandalf) be programmed to dial when they see LAN activity and hang up on prolonged inactivity. Or they can be controlled via a serial port. Digiboard's IMAC lets you talk to it using RSHELL, which is nice for Unix weenies if not readily available on DOS or OS2. Or you can get an integral ISDN card. There are a number of them out there; in this case, the driver has some kind of control program. Some are (too) modem-like, other LAN-like, or can be used either way depending on the software. And some workstations (like the DEC3000) have integral ISDN jacks. I've played with that one; it has a cute X-windows control panel that paints a fancy phone on your screen. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: mdw@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (mark.d.wuest) Subject: Re: Fake Call-Waiting Product Organization: AT&T Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 14:07:01 GMT [device which simulates the "click/chunk" a 1ESS makes for call waiting]. If you're on a 5E, you can just use the "mute" button many phones now have. "Wow, it's already? Oops, got another call." ;-) Mark Wuest *MY* opinions, not AT&T's!! mark.wuest@att.com mdw@cheshire.att.com (NeXT Mail) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 12:22 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: 950-0666 Becomes, Well, 950 Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@m (better known as J Brad Hicks!) writes: > Oh yeah, and some time in the 1995 (for example) Ma Hell's 10-666-0 will > probably become 10-0666-0, too. Now I thought (from previous Digests) that 10-666-0 was going to change to become 101-0666-0. Which is right? I had understood that a simple change to 10-0666-0 would make it difficult to trap misdialing? Richard Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 222 747111 Fax: +44 222 711111 VoiceMail: +44 399 870101 E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Not diallable on 511 in mainland USA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 10:23:16 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: FYI 215 NXX Additions 810 already appears in history.of.area.splits as coming into use in 1994 in split of 313 in Michigan. 910 is unassigned. Given that 610 and 710 and N11 are not available as geographic area codes, the last resort (before NNX area codes become available -- deadline 1 Jan 1995) would be to use 200,300,400,500,600 as area codes. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 10:34:16 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Ten Digit Dialing in Oregon OK, so this means that Oregon has to prepare for N0X/N1X prefixes, although the system has to be ready for NNX area codes by Jan. 1, 1995 anyway. As noted, 206 in Washington state already has this, and I noticed that 509 is to get this when it's time to get ready for the NNX area codes. > Unlike the other states mentioned in the list, we get to keep seven > digit local calls. (And thus, a way to avoid inadvertant LD charges!) What does this mean? Local calls within own area code are seven digits (no change in this method), and you have to inquire locally about local calls to a different area code. Using 1 + NPA + 7D for within-area long distance does have the advantage of retaining "leading 1 = toll call", because the alternative would be to remove the leading 1 from 1 + 7D, as happened in area 215 in Pennsylvania. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 20:49:28 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Re: Advice Needed on Telephone Security Systems Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha In a message dated 15-NOV-92, Dave Ptasnik writes: > Several people have asked me about the telco feature that notifies > alarm monitoring compaines that your line has been cut, so I called US > West to get a few more details: > US West offers the service under the name Scan Alert. Installation is I wonder if I didn't stumble on this about a month ago without knowing what it was. For the local Computer Faire sponsored by the Omaha User Group Association, we rented the gymnasium at a local high school. They gave us permission to borrow all phone lines in the building for those displays that needed modems, so I and another volunteer (you listening in there, Splice ;-) rigged up some temporary connections to what appeared to be a stone-age house cable. (It was an ancient double-cotton insulated cable multipled umpteen times between the high school, a tunnel under the street, and the elementary school across the street.) A Merlin system and who knows what were connected to one of the junction boxes. After the event took place we pulled out all of our temporary wiring, checked all of the local phones to make sure they worked, and split. About 15 minutes later I got paged by the school custodian who got a call from the alarm company saying that their fire alarm was showing as being disconnected from the line. I went back, poked around a bit, and paged my cohort who knew more about how those alarms are hooked up. To make a long story short, it turned out that one of the old conductors had broken and become intermittent. I also remember the night before when we were setting up, hearing some tones on one of the lines while checking them out with a butt set. This was maybe a burst of 1.5-2 kHz tones. I figure that there is one of two ways the alarm company can know it's off line, and that is to have the alarm dial the alarm company every so often, or some kind of a special arrangement. Anyone know for sure? Good day. JSW Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.14 r.1 DRBBS (1:285/666.0) ------------------------------ From: andy@balr.com (Andrew Little) Subject: Re: ATT Boing: What is it? Organization: BALR Corporation, Oak Brook, Illinois. Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 22:39:51 GMT In article atekant@wimsey.bc.ca (Argun Tekant) writes: > This is probably a FAQ (Do we have a FAQ?), but can anyone tell me the > frequency or function or whatever for the AT&T Boing? From Notes on the Network (an older copy - I don't think its changed): Automatic Credit Card Dialing - Prompt Tone Frequencies Temporal Pattern Levels 941 + 1477 60 msec -10 dBm/frequency at followed immediately by -3 TLP 440 + 350 940 msec (exponentially decayed from -10dBm per frequency at -3 TLP at time constant of 200 msec) Enjoy, Andy Little andy@balr.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #874 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa20289; 26 Nov 92 5:48 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24503 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 26 Nov 1992 02:54:15 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29705 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 26 Nov 1992 02:53:58 -0600 Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 02:53:58 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211260853.AA29705@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #875 TELECOM Digest Thu, 26 Nov 92 02:54:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 875 Index To This Issue: Happy Thanksgiving Day, Everyone! Closing For the Holiday (TELECOM Moderator) Re: Seven-Digit Repair Service Numbers (Eli Mantel) Re: "rrrringg-BOOP" (Thomas E. Lowe) Re: Paging in 708/312 (John Gilbert) Re: Telemarketing Again (Steve Forrette) Re: Help on Settling an Argument About Leased T1 Lines (Richard Nash) Re: *69 in NJ Bell Land (Tom Coradeschi) Re: At NYNEX, CNID is Coming Before E911 (Kevin Herrboldt) Re: Encrypted Cordless Phones: How? (Vance Shipley) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (Laird Broadfield) Re: Email to Prodigy (David Baird) Re: Searching For Simple Two-Line Patch (Jim Rees) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 01:24:22 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Closing For the Holiday I'll be taking a few days off to enjoy the Thanksiving Day holiday this coming weekend, so the remainder of this week will be spend emptying the queue of the many articles waiting for publication. ** Please do not send any further articles to telecom until Monday, 11-30. I'll put out an issue or two early Monday if I can, or sometime Monday at the latest. ** Thanks, and remember, wherever you are today, and whatever you are doing; whatever circumstances you may find yourself in, you have lots of things for which to be thankful. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 22:22:19 -0500 From: Eli.Mantel@lambada.oit.unc.edu Subject: Re: Seven-Digit Repair Service Numbers Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service In article helfman@aero.org writes: > I called AT&T LD information for L.A. and asked for a seven-digit > number for repair service (giving them my home prefix). It turned out > that the number they gave me is for a PacBell center in San Diego, ... > this happens again. > Moral: All you children should get your seven-digit repair service > number from 611 NOW so that you can report your home phone when you're > away. It would save a real hassle. Getting a seven-digit phone number for repair service or for any local phone company function (e.g. business office, customer complaint bureau) is not necessarily going to enable you to reach them. This is because at least some of the phone companies have designated special prefixes, for exclusive use by the phone company, which provide for toll-free access from within their service area. Outside of their service areas, these special prefixes are absolutely, positively, not dialable. Worse (in my experience), when you call long distance directory assistance, these numbers come up on the operator's screen as if they were perfectly valid numbers, and the operator may or may not be smart enough to advise you of this fact. As an example of how this works, here in Raleigh, North Carolina, served by Southern Bell, the white pages listing for Southern Bell lists 780-2355 as the number for the business office. If I take a trip to Durham, NC, served by GTE, there is no way to reach that number. OTOH, if I travel to Charlotte, NC, which is in another area code but is served by Southern Bell, the 780-2355 number will get through. BTW, when calling 611 from any Southern Bell area in North Carolina, you will always reach the same office in Winston-Salem, NC. If you call the business office number, you may reach any of several offices. Eli Mantel (eli.mantel@launchpad.unc.edu) ------------------------------ From: telb@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (thomas.e.lowe) Subject: Re: "rrrringg-BOOP" Organization: AT&T Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 14:22:33 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Actually, if you listen closely, when the called > party answers you will hear a certain kind of click on the line if you > interuppted them on call waiting which you won't hear if you did not. Not always true ... I can't tell any difference at all when call waiting is in effect at my home. I just tried calling someones car phone in Atlanta (404-403-xxxx) and got the rrrrringggg-BOOP. I assume they are on their phone, but I don't know if they have call waiting or not. Tom Lowe tlowe@attmail.com [Moderator's Note: Here in Chicago, if I call someone and they are already on the line, when they flash to bring me in, there always seems to be a couple extra 'click click' sounds in the second or two before they say hello, as they are flashing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johng@comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Paging in 708/312 Organization: Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 05:43:47 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Where were you in Chicago when it was a 'free' > call? And by 'free' do you mean the pay phone did not ask for any > money, or you only saw a local unit on your home phone, or what? I have seen paging telephone numbers that are free from Illinois Bell payphones. For example, pagers in the 708-881-XXXX exchange seem to work this way. If the paging company equipment simply didn't return supervision, IBT would still ask for the coin, but should then return it. IBT never wants coins when calling pagers in this exchange. This exchange appears to act like a "local" 800 number, so it must be set up by IBT. Any ideas how is this done? John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 23:34:05 -0800 From: Steve Forrette Subject: Re: Telemarketing Again Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article allegra!ssh@allegra.att.com (syed s haider) writes: > Last Sunday's {Parade} supplement carries an article on telemarketing. > One item caught my eye. Basically, it stated that many come-ons give > you an 800 number making you think that the call is toll-free. But > after you call you're switched to a 900 number and get a hefty bill > the following month. > [Moderator's Note: They are free unless an unethical person answering > the call patches you through to a 900 number in the process of > answering you. We covered this in detail several months ago here. How this was technically accomplished was never explained. Assuming that the IXC, and not the information provider, is generating the billing data for the 900 service, I don't think we ever figured out how this was actually accomplished. Can someone elaborate? If the IP used the standard "call forwarding" feature, then the ANI for the final leg of the call to the 900 number would show the IP's billing number, not that of the original caller. Also, as far as I know, it is not possible to place a call to a 900 number via dedicated trunks to the IXC. So, how was this done? Would anyone who got stuck by the Mystic Marketing ploy care to comment on whether the 900 charge was billed from one of the major IXCs, or was it from an AOS type of outfit that perhaps would allow the IP to submit the billing data for calls to the 900 number? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com [Moderator's Note: By the way, the company changed its name, or perhaps it merely has a new subsidiary called Myriad Marketing, also based out of Reno on the same office phone numbers as Mystic. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 20:43:00 -0700 From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: Help on Settling an Argument About Leased T1 Lines > A colleague and I were having an argument about leased T1 lines. > Perhaps some experts can settle this issue for us. > Let's say I lease a T1 link from the LEC. So I have 24 DS0 TDM slots > going to the the LEC's CO. My data has to go across two CO hops to our > downtown site where again we have 24 contiguous DS0 slots being > delivered from the terminating CO to our downtown building. Now, the > question is whether the contiguity of the original 24 DS0 TDM slots > will be maintained across the links between the originating and > terminating CO's. In other words, will a dedicated T1 link (or a > fixed T3 slot) be allocated to me and my individual DS0 slots never > demultiplexed at the originating CO? Or will my 24 slots be chopped up > and carried over separate portions of the inter-office T3 links, only > to be reassembled at the terminating CO and delivered as one chunk of > 24 DS0's again? Multiplexing/demultiplexing only serves a purpose when something is to be gained in maximizing bandwidth. For no obvious reason could I see the telco wanting to slice and dice a T1 only to have to reconstruct it back into one contiguous stream. The telco's aren't exactly noted for their ambitious nature. All of the wiring necessary to effect what is described above would require a very warped self flagilation attitude. > Do the answers change if I lease T1 circuits from an IXC and go > directly to their POP instead of going through the LEC's CO? At a higher multiplexed rate (T3) yes, but why would they bother for a lower rate? Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie%trickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca Amatuer Radio Packet: ve6bon%ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca@gw-1.ampr.ab.ca VE6BON@VE6MC.AB.CAN.NA ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca [192.75.200.15] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 8:08:00 EST From: Tom Coradeschi Subject: Re: *69 in NJ Bell Land Organization: Electric Armts Div, US Army ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ writes: > The Return Call Class feature (*69) offered by NJ Bell will call back > the number of the last person to call your phone. (When used to > screen calls can be considered a poor man's Caller ID). > [Moderator's Note: The same service is available here in Chicago, but > we pay a flat monthly rate with no additional charge per use other > than paying for the phone calls generated in return. We sometimes get > a message saying, "I'm sorry, you cannot use this feature with the NJ Bell gives us the option of flat-rate monthly or per-usage billing. The per-usage kicks in if you choose not to subscribe to the monthly plan (I opt for per-usage, myself). Sorry I can't help with the original question. tom coradeschi <+> tcora@pica.army.mil ------------------------------ From: kksys!mpls911!kevin@uum1.UUCP (Kevin Herrboldt) Subject: Re: At NYNEX, CNID is Coming Before E911 Organization: City of Minneapolis Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 15:14:48 GMT turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu (Bob Turner) writes: > In article rocker@vnet.ibm.com (Joshua > E. Muskovitz) writes: > Address rectification is only one aspect of putting a E911 database > together. And it has to be done. The phone company records are > inaccurate (at best). This usually isn't a problem because the > addresses they have are for billing purposes not Location ID. > However the legal and operation ramifications are tremendous. Try to > convince your Emergency crews to kill themselves to get to an address > that the ALI computer spitout. Especially when the past performance > has been less than 45% (Actual occurance). Plus the liability > potential is horrendous. We have E911 here in Minneapolis, but it is SOP for our 911 operators to ask the caller for the address to verify what USWEST sends us. The major benefit to E911 is for those calls where someone dials 911 but is unable to talk or if the line gets cut. Kevin Herrboldt mpls911!kevin@mishima.mn.org Emergency Communications Center City Hall Room B-911, Mpls, MN 55415 (612) 348-7216 ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: Encrypted Cordless Phones: How? Organization: XeniTec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, CANADA Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 17:53:07 GMT In article alpha@vpnet.chi.il.us (Randy Sales) writes: > I am interested if someone could tell me generally how they are > encrypting these cordless phones I have seen by Motorola and Phone > Mate. The Phone Mate one says it helps with interference and cross > signaling. It seems like a good idea for also keeping the scanners > from listening in and if it is digital I could see how it could help > with noise. The Motorola unit INVERTS the analog audio signal. Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@switchview.com vances@ltg.uucp ------------------------------ From: lairdb@crash.cts.com Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Date: 25 Nov 92 19:31:15 GMT In deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g. lewis) writes: > Not exactly correct. SS7 TCAP supports a "query" message. No > connection attempt is needed; one switch sends a TCAP query to the > other switch asking for line status. This is how the (pick your > favorite name) Auto Recall service works (call someone, get a busy > signal, enter a *XX feature code, get a special ring when the far end > goes idle, pick up the phone and automatically place the recall). Will there be a way (legitimately) for an end user (perhaps an ISDN user?) to issue SS7 messages? For example, could I take my ISDN card and send these "query" messages and receive the responses? (All this assumes I move out of PatheticBell territory, so I can get ISDN at all ...) Laird P. Broadfield lairdb@crash.cts.com ...{ucsd, nosc}!crash!lairdb ------------------------------ From: xdab@midway.uchicago.edu (David Baird) Subject: Re: Email to Prodigy Reply-To: xdab@midway.uchicago.edu Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 21:37:23 GMT In article louis@aupair.cs. athabascau.ca (Louis Schmittroth) writes: > I want to find out if Prodigy offers service to Alberta, and if so is > there a email address of an administrative unit of Prodigy where I can > find out what the rates are? The last I knew the people who ran Prodigy were not hooked into any other network, nor were they going to be in the future. It seems that either one was on Prodigy to communicate with a Prodigy user, or one did not communicate with the Prodigy user using Prodigy's service. Or to put it another way, there are no gateways between Prodigy and Compu$erve or the InterNet. Give Prodigy a call and complain about this situation. It is one of two primary reasons why I never signed on to Prodigy. David Baird xdab@midway.uchicago.edu University of Chicago d-baird@uchicago.edu University Computing Organizations (312) 702-7161 ------------------------------ From: rees@pisa.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) Subject: Re: Searching For Simple Two-Line Patch Date: 25 Nov 1992 22:52:18 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI Reply-To: Jim.Rees@umich.edu I didn't know you were an organ fan. I heard E. Power Biggs play the tracker organ at Harvard a few years back and was much impressed. I too have some of his stuff on 78. I helped restore a theater organ once, about 15 years ago. My job was to clean the relays. At that time, I wondered if it would be possible to use telephone switching gear to reduce the amount of wiring needed. Relay systems tend to want to switch an entire manual (59 wires) to an entire bank of pipes (30-100 wires). I reasoned that if you could somehow multiplex the 59 wires, you could then switch the whole thing with a telephone crossbar. The resulting system would be much more flexible than the hard-wired relay system, since any manual could be switched to any rank easily. These days, the switching is all done electronically, just like in an ESS. I still find the parallels between pipe organ wiring and telephone wiring quite interesting. [Moderator's Note: There have been experiments such as you describe, but I don't know of any which were taken to completion. One that comes to mind was the renovation/restoration of the instrument at the Mormon Tabernacle in 1948. I don't remember ever reading/hearing why they decided against it, although Alexander Schriener had some comments on it at the time. The Chicago Temple also considered it when they did repairs and restoration around 1960 at a cost of about forty thousand (1960) dollars. The idea was advanced back in the 1920's by Henry LeMare during his tenure as municipal organist for the City of Atlantic City, NJ. He did not refer to it as 'crossbar' but he made analogies to 'wiring in the style of a modern telephone exchange ...' Virgil Fox also commented on the 'virtual telephone exchange driving the mechanicals at Riverside ...' Not *all* switching is done electronically; in the newer organ installations, yes, but my interest is more in the older (circa 1910-1930 era) installations of E.M. Skinner and those from the later merger with Aeolian. Such is the instrument at the Chicago Temple, there from the building's opening about 1925. The strands of wire from the console to the pipe chambers on the second and third floor form a bundle as thick as my wrist. The relays are very sensitive to dirt and dust; the pipes to changes in humidity. The relays are noisy, and they tend to stick at inappropriate times, unless you think in the middle of a 'sing along Messiah' is an appropriate time for a cipher; the cipher started near the end of one of the choruses and stuck until the end of that piece, and the only way the organist got rid of it then was by cycling the power (with the resulting 'whoosh' as the wind pressure started rising again) for a few seconds before starting the next part. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #875 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07015; 26 Nov 92 16:05 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15493 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 26 Nov 1992 14:14:16 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31983 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 26 Nov 1992 14:13:59 -0600 Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 14:13:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211262013.AA31983@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #876 TELECOM Digest Thu, 26 Nov 92 14:14:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 876 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Romania Joins BITNET (Richard Budd) LD Costs, ANI, Modems etc (John Pettitt) Re: Two Cellular Phones on the Same Number (George Goble) Re: LAN Capable Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf Info (Kevin Barth) Re: Police Officer Impersonators Running Scams In Virginia (Michael Heggen) Re: Computerized Sales Call "Locked" My Line (Steve Hutzley) Re: CPC Detection and Purpose (Irving Wolfe) Re: Telecom Quotations (Jack Winslade) Re: Seven-Digit Repair Service Numbers (David W. Tamkin) Re: Info Wanted on SNET Rate and Service Change (Nigel Allen) Re: Characters on International Phone Keypads - Compilation (Carl Moore) Re: Roving Laptops and Automatic Phone Number Conversions (Carl Moore) Re: Telemarketing Again (John Higdon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 17:50:46 EDT From: Richard Budd Subject: Romania Joins BITNET Organization: CSAV UTIA This message came this morning from the Czech Technical University (where I may soon be working in telecom coordination). It is to announce the connection of Romania, namely the University of Bucharest, to BITNET. (EARN is its European equivalent). I especially want to address this to TW Hinders, who asked me off-line about IP in Romania. Unfortunately, I lost his email address (it was misplaced in the deluge of mail that came from the CIS posting) and was not able to send him the whole article personally. So now Bucharest has something else from the West to savor besides Michael Jackson. ================Original Message=========== This information (sent by Mr. Rastl, the Austrian EARN director) may be of interest: Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 18:00:11 MEZ Reply-To: EARN Board of Directors Sender: EARN Board of Directors From: Peter Rastl Subject: EARN connection to Romania I'd like to inform you that the EARN connection to Romania (leased line 9600 bit/s connecting ROEARN with AEARN) is operational as of today. The announcement of the Romanian EARN nodes will be effective with the new tables on Dec 1. [Moderator's Note: Readers are also referred to the special mailing from TELECOM Digest Thursday discussing Eastern European connectivity in more detail. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jpp@StarConn.com (John Pettitt) Subject: LD Costs, ANI, Modems etc Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 9:54:58 PST I'm putting together a business plan for a new venture. One of features of the service we will be offering is going to involve lots of phone lines and LD calling. What I need to know is what sort of price can I expect for national calling if I get a T1 (probably several) from one of the LD companies? We will be making one to five minute calls at close to 100% duty cycle on as many as 100 lines once this thing starts rolling. Numbers would be useful for fixed cost and cost per minute (with billing increment). Is is sensible to use the same cost numbers 800 service inbound or do they charge on a different basis for this? Second, does anybody know of a modem `channel bank' that will give me ANI `in band' with the modem data from an 800 service. I would like the caller number to appear in the form "CONNECT 9600 from 415 967 8682" or some such. If this is not possible then I can live without it. (N.B. Caller ID wont do it because A) You can't get it in CA and B) until everybody gets SS7 it does not work nationally). Thanks in advance. John Pettitt Mail: jpp@StarConn.com Voice: +1 415 967 UNIX Fax: +1 415 967 8682 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 09:21:57 -0500 From: ghg@ecn.purdue.edu (George Goble) Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones on the Same Number Pat, I know this goes against everything said so far, and the current "fraud detection" schemes, but some GTE Mobilnet Agents in Indiana are talking about offering the service in December. I talked to a couple of engineers I know at the switch, and here is what I came up with: 1) GTE Mobilnet Indianapolis just cut over to ATT switches/cell sites for Indy, Lafayette, and of much of the rest of the state. (The switch runs UNIX :). They had been using Motorola equipment, which was mostly assembly language. 2) They have more software capabilities now. 3) The new switch has the software capability of having multiple ESNs (you have to register them) of being associated with one MIN (phone number). This doesn't interfere with fraud detection, since the ESNs are pre registered. Fraud detection has now speeded up to where it can be done during call setup, and the call is dumped before it is connected on bad ESNs. Older switches allowed ONE call to make it out before red flagging the ESN/MIN as bandit. I asked what happens when both phones are on and an inbound call comes in, and "which one rings?". I was told the one which responded first would "ring", and the other call [phone] would be dropped. This was not stated, but this may mean they will BOTH RING, and the first one to answer would get the call, and the other one would drop. [It would obviously not be a "party line" with multiple portables answering]. Also, they stated, that it might not be limited to just two phones, but maybe three or four may be possible, for office "work groups" which have a person "on call" (three or four phones), and any one of them can take the call. Also [two phone case], I asked them if one tried to call the "other" phone, and they thought it would work OK, since the switch would know YOUR ESN was originating the call, and would ring the "other" ESN. Lots of my friends, and I am sure on TELECOM Digest have wanted this feature (spare phone in the car for emergency use only, but don't want to pay for another full blown account). I don't even want to think of the ramifications of all this when roaming (follow me roaming?) happens. I bet some switches get mighty confused. ghg ------------------------------ From: barth@wam.umd.edu (Kevin J. Barth) Subject: Re: LAN Capable Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf Info Organization: Workstations at Maryland, University of Maryland, College Park Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 03:05:08 GMT In article Gene Cartier writes: > In order to comply with the new Disabilities Act we are looking for a > Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) that is LAN capable. They > If no products exist then any suggestions on how to "tweak" existing > products to gain the same capability will be appreciated. TDDs, by and large, are simple terminals with no capability to interface with anything except, in some cases, a printer. On the other hand, TDD-compatible modems are available from a number of sources. Your solution seems to be to attach such a modem to a PC, write a driver (which would have to do code conversion, since TDDs use Baudot code rather than ASCII) and connect the PC to your LAN. A sample of code (in C) to handle to conversion can be downloaded as BAUDOT.C from the HEX BBS, whose phone numbers are given below. I notice we're both in the DC area, so this should impose no problems. HEX - the Handicapped Educational Exchange BBS 301-593-7033 (TDD and 300 baud ASCII 301-593-7357 (300-2400 baud, ASCII only) ------------------------------ From: mike@percy.rain.com (Michael Heggen) Subject: Re: Police Officer Impersonators Running Scams In Virginia Date: Thu, 26 Nov 992 00:07:59 GMT Nigel Allen writes: > Police Officer Impersonators Running Scams In Virginia > The scam involving accident victims has been reported throughout > Virginia, according to State Police. Police have received reports of > this scam from Pennsylvania, California, Arkansas, New York and > Missouri. In one case, Virginia investigators traced a telephone call > to Atlanta. I might add that the exact same scheme has been used in Oregon recently as well, according to a recent article in {The Oregoninan} newspaper. In all cases, the money was wired to a Western Union office with a code word to release it to the "proper" person. Michael Heggen ------------------------------ From: hutzley@ranger.dec.com (Steve Hutzley) Subject: Re: Computerized Sales Call "Locked" My Line Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 02:42:23 GMT In article , rayj@Celestial.COM (Ray Jones) writes: > In birmingh@fnalf.fnal.gov writes, > quoting others: > I too had this problem several years ago in San Jose, CA. I waited > and left my phone number and address. They called the next day and I > set up an appointment -- but -- insisted that they come to my house at > 5 PM on Friday. That time assured that the salesman would spend at > least two hours on the freeway. When the salesman did show (late as > expected), I told him I was NOT interested in his product (solar hot > water heater) I just wanted them to get my name OFF the call list. > You take my time -- I take yours. Ahh yes ... one time at about 2:30am the phone rang. Fearing the worst with older parents 600 miles away, I jumped from the bed, just to hear "Hello, My name is Tom, I'm a computerized messaging service ..." ... WHAM!, I slammed the phone down. Now in retrospect, I wish I would have stayed on the line to find out who owned TOM. The only thing I can figure is that the boss told the intern to have the machine start calling at 2:30, and not realizing it, told the machine 02:30, not 14:30 (like computers think). Now YOU try to go back to sleep.! Steve ------------------------------ From: irving@happy-man.com (Irving_Wolfe) Subject: Re: CPC Detection and Purpose Reply-To: Irving_Wolfe@happy-man.com Organization: Happy Man Corp., Vashon Island, WA 98070-7399 Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 03:18:53 GMT Okay, since PAT stepped into this with more information, let me also expand the question about CPC. Aspect 1: What _exactly_ is going on, and how does this differ between modern CO switches and the older ones some of us are forced to endure? Does the service depend on the switch? Aspect 2: More advanced phone systems allow one to set a time in milliseconds for CPC reaction, without explaining anything about what this means or how to decide. I guessed that this was a way of having the phone system dump a dead call, since CPC wouldn't carry through to an answering machine beneath the (Panasonic 1232) phone system; failure to dump a dead call results in the CO line being held active at our end and we eventually get either a nobody-there when someone answers or else the answering machine gets a message from the local "telco" saying "your call could not be completed as dialed". What on earth is the time referring to, and can I set it, somehow, to eliminate the dead calls from caller hangups that we aren't letting go of fast enough? Or is my understanding all wrong? Irving_Wolfe@Happy-Man.com Happy Man Corp. 206/463-9399 x101 4410 SW Pt. Robinson Rd., Vashon Island, WA 98070-7399 fax x108 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 12:21:50 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Re: Telecom Quotations Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha In a message dated 19-NOV-92, Eric Weaver writes: >> "Mr. Watson , come here, I want you" >> --- Alexander Graham Bell (first telephone message) >> (obviously didn't have a good sense of occasion ... or a scriptwriter)) > I believe the occasion was that Bell had just spilled battery acid in > his lap, and the message sounds fairly appropriate under the circs. However (comma) taking a trip to the real world we would find something more along the line of this for the first telephone call: 'Oh $#!+, *^&$%#$ Watson, come here, throw me a rag, I just spilled this &$%#ing acid all over the &$%#ing place. Owww. ^&$%#. Hurry, this $#!+ is eating the %^#$ out of my &*($^%$^. ($^$#@$%^%% !!!' ;-) ;-) Somehow, I think the history writers have cleaned it up just a bit. ;-) I still like the version of it that appeared in {MAD} a while back. Bell: Mr Watson, come here, I want you. Phone: Boop-boo-beep We're sorry, you have not reached a working number. Of course, I took the liberty of adding the SIT tones. ;-) Good day. JSW Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.14 r.1 DRBBS (1:285/666.0) ------------------------------ From: dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (DWT) Subject: Re: Seven-Digit Repair Service Numbers Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 01:33:59 GMT Organization: Contributor Account at ddsw1, Chicago, Illinois 60657 helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) wrote in what became of volume 12, issue 868: > Moral: All you children should get your seven-digit repair service > number from 611 NOW so that you can report your home phone when you're > away. It would save a real hassle. It might not be so easy. Of the two landline providers here, Centel freely admits in its directory that 611 translates to 708-698-9955 (and they give an 800 number as well) so that you can report a problem with a Centel line from outside their satrapy. On the other hand, Illinois Bell personnel disavow any knowledge of a way to get to their repair service other than dialing 611; they say that if you're outside Illinois Bell's service area, you should travel into it or call someone with a working Illinois Bell line and ask him or her to report the problem. On the other hand, if you're reporting a problem with a Centel line to Centel repair but they're backed up and can't answer your call right away, their recording while you're on hold will tell you that if you're trying to report trouble on an Illinois Bell line, you should call Illinois Bell repair at 312-509-2510. David W. Tamkin Box 59297 Northtown Station, Illinois 60659-0297 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com CompuServe: 73720,1570 MCI Mail: 426-1818 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 18:44 EST From: ndallen@r-node.gts.org (Nigel Allen) Subject: Re: Info Wanted on SNET Rate and Service Change Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto splee@pd.org (Seng-Poh Lee, Speedy) writes: > I am interested in the recent rate and service change that SNET in > Connecticut has just submitted to the CPUC. In general, regulated companies that apply for a rate increase will supply a copy of their application free of charge to anyone who asks for one. Simply contact the company's regulatory department. As well, the application may be available for inspection at the company's business offices or storefront locations. I routinely receive copies of applications to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission from Canadian telecommunications carriers. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario ndallen@r-node.gts.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 14:47:23 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Characters on International Phone Keypads - Compilation In the U.S. (and Canada, too?) phone numbers were commonly expressed as two capital letters followed by five digits (and in many earlier cases as three capital letters followed by four digits), but this has been replaced by ANC (all-number calling). The number/letter mapping I know to be on U.S. dials is "U.S. variant 1", which has no representation for Q and Z (thus, when someone ran a telephone poll regarding the major U.S. vice-presidential nominees in 1988 and told callers to hit B for Bentsen or Q for Quayle, the poll failed for lack of the letter Q). ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 14:54:42 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Roving Laptops and Automatic Phone Number Conversions The history.of.area.splits file in the telecom archives describes the changes made to dialing instructions because of the coming of N0X/N1X prefixes in many areas, which is why 1+7D for long distance within 416 gave way to 1 + 416 + 7D. An ideal which is not in universal practice is that you should be able to dial ANY call within country code 1 as 1+NPA+7D, since the system should be smart enough to capture the particular area codes and prefixes which signal a local call, and I believe Washington DC and its suburbs have such a system in place now. I don't have a list of dialing requirements for other areas, but it doesn't take that much to know what the possible requirements are. I got tripped up recently when I had to place a 0+ long distance call within area 804 in Virginia; 0 + 804 + 7D failed, and I forgot that I was calling within 804 and thus had to use 0 + 7D, which is still in use there. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 08:54 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Telemarketing Again Steve Forrette writes: > So, how was this done? Would anyone who got stuck by the Mystic > Marketing ploy care to comment on whether the 900 charge was billed > from one of the major IXCs, or was it from an AOS type of outfit that > perhaps would allow the IP to submit the billing data for calls to the > 900 number? If memory serves, this was done by none other than good ole AT&T. It involved a special arrangement for both the 800 and 900 service and, of course, used dedicated trunks. At the time of the original broohaha, you had AT&T spokespersons piously decrying such sleazy tactics simultaneously with marketing reps pushing customers to the new, lucrative billing scheme. It all seems to have faded into the background now. But I vividly remember AT&T people intoning on the media that this practice "struck at the heart of public confidence in the toll-free 800 service." And all along it was AT&T who was offering the scam. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #876 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08165; 26 Nov 92 16:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04402 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 26 Nov 1992 13:23:08 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29998 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 26 Nov 1992 13:22:49 -0600 Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 13:22:49 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211261922.AA29998@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Internet Connectivity in Eastern Europe Richard Budd sent this along before the holiday and I thought you might enjoy seeing it. PAT Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 10:43:25 EDT From: Richard Budd Subject: Internet Connectivity in Eastern Europe Organization: CSAV UTIA This is the article from Milan Sterba for the RIPE Connectivty Group containing information about the state of international connectivity in the nations of East and Central Europe. I have edited the article to try to make it easier for American audiences to read without taking away the meaning Professor Sterba is trying to express. Any comments or corrections, please forward to me. Professor Sterba would also appreciate any updates or comments you may want to make. His address, repeated several times in the article, is on Internet. The article was not copyrighted, and can be reprinted. Out of courtesy to the author, please leave his name and address on the header. Common abbreviations: ECE=East and Central Europe IP=Internet Protocol RIPE=Regional Internet Protocol Orgnization (I believe) EARN=European version of BITNET Richard Budd U.S.A. C.S.F.R draft version 5 September 1992 An overview of East and Central European networking activities Milan Sterba 1. Introduction This paper is based on work of the RIPE Connectivity Working Group. It summarises the main issues of international connectivity of East and Central European countries (ECE). It is based on reports and information gathered by network representatives of these countries, who have been present at the meetings or contacted on other occasions. Thanks are due to all those who helped us to gather the information. Some countries however, are not represented in this report, due to lack of information. Please contact the author if you have amendments or suggestions. This report contains lists of people who are responsible for international networking in each of their countries and a map of the current situation in IP networking in the those countries. The map doesn't show all existing international lines of those countries but it seeks to be complete for IP lines and other leased lines without usage restrictions for the academic and research communities. This report has been written by Milan Sterba and it does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the authors of the national reports nor those of the RIPE community. 2. Present situation This chapter gives as detailed as possible description of the various network activities in the East and Central European countries. The sections for particular countries will be subject to regular amendments or changes. Considerable progress has been made during the last year in IP connectivity of ECE countries. Czechoslovakia and Poland have today several hundreds of connected hosts each and are the most advanced ECE countries with respect to IP connectivity. Bulgaria, Estonia and Hungary also have IP connectivity today and have several tens of connected hosts each. By the end of 1992 IP connectivity will probably also reach Latvia and Lithuania through NORDUnet and maybe also Romania and one of the CIS republics. In all the connected countries the initial capacity of international lines has rapidly become insufficent and an upgrade of existing lines and set up of reasonable backup solutions is being sought. Internetworking is rapidly spreading and good IP connectivity is considered as the first priority by the national academic network organisations. All the countries considered have at the present time some (often more than one) connection to international networks. Certain countries have only a dial-up e-mail connectivity, others have low or medium speed leased lines. The present state of international leased lines to ECE countries is represented on the map in Appendix A. RIPE broadly contributes to this rapid evolution by technical advice and by coordination efforts. 2.1 Albania Curently an electronic mail connection exists between the University of Tirana and the Internet. The gateway and relay function resides at CNUCE, Pisa, Italy. Contact Persons: Maksim Raco - University of Tirana Francesco Gennai - CNUCE, Pisa, Italy 2.2 Estonia Estonia works in close co-operation with NORDUnet in setting up external IP links. Currently a 64 kbits/s IP satellite link is operational between Tallin and Stockholm, and between Tartu and Stockholm. These lines connect the Baltic backbone network (BaltNet) to the rest of the Internet. Another 19.2 kbit/s IP line is operational between Tallin and Helsinki. Inside Estonia IP links are currently planned between the Institute of Cybernetics and the University of Technology in Tallin and the Tartu University. Contact persons: Ants Work - Institute of Cybernetics, Tallinn 2.3 Latvia An international 14.4 kbit/s IP line connects the Institute of Informatics and Computer Science of Latvian University in Riga to the Institute of Cybernetics in Tallin, Estonia. This line is part of the Baltic backbone network (BaltNet). Other networks active in Latvia have only dial-up connections (FidoNet to Tallin and Helsinki, RELCOM to Moscow). Inside Latvia X25 services are available from the public X25 network Latpak and Sprint, UUCP services are available from JET and Versia, who are the Latvian partners of RELCOM-EUnet. FidoNet also is very active. Contact persons: Guntis Barzdins - BaltNet Ugis Berzins - BaltNet Sergei Rotanov - Institute of Electronics Sergey Dmitrijev - JET (RELCOM Riga) (Note from RB: Egons Bush and his father, Harlis have been very much involved in bringing the Internet to Latvia. The elder Mr. Bush is advisor to the President of the Bank of Latvia and was instrumental in putting an IP node in that institution.) 2.4 Lithuania A dial-up EUnet connection exists between Vilnius and Helsinki (Finland). A 9.6 kbit/s X.25 link, used for X.400 electronic mail and sponsored by Norwegian Telecom, exists between Vilnius and Oslo (Norway). Contact persons: Laimutis Telksnys - Institute for Mathematics, Vilnius Algirdas Pakstas - Institute for Mathematics, Vilnius The Baltic states are coordinated within the BaltNet body which plans to build a backbone connecting Baltic states with NORDUnet. A LISTSERV mailing list exists for this purpose at (NORDBALT@searn.sunet.se). 2.5 Bulgaria A switched international X.25 connection connects the Bulgarian EARN node in Sofia to Linz (Austria). A dial-up connection over public X.25 connects the Bulgarian EUnet via the backbone node in Varna to the Internet via the EUnet node in Heraklion (Greece). This connection will be converted to IP/X25 and will be the first IP connection in Bulagaria. Coordination between both projects, resulting in a shared fixed IP connection, is under study. Several tens of EUnet sites are now connected over dial-up links to the national EUnet backbone. A public X25 service is available to a limited extent. EARN services have been opened recently at Sofia University but no gateway exists between the two services yet. Contact persons: Daniel Kalchev - EUnet backbone manager BG, contact for BG. top level domain Anton Velichkov - EARN president for Bulgaria Alexander Simeonov - Center for Informatics, Sofia 2.6 Commonwealth of Independent States. Dial-up connections between Helsinki, Finland and Amsterdam, Netherlands on the one hand, and Moscow on the other hand connect the RELCOM network in Russia and a few other former USSR republics to the Internet. Currently the services consist of electronic mail and Network News. A medium speed IP line to Amsterdam is planned in the near future. Recently another 14.4 kbit/s IP link has been put between Moscow and AlterNet (USA). On this link only SMTP traffic is allowed. A 4.8 kbit/s leased line between Moscow and DESY in Hamburg, Germany, supporting IP, delivers HEPnet services to two research institutes in Moscow. Low speed links between Moscow and ESOC (Germany) and CNES (France) serve the space physics community. All existing IP links to CIS have full connectivity only to the European part of Internet. The 9.6 kbit/s leased line from Moscow to Copenhagen, Denmark which used to connect the EARN node in Moscow to the EARN/BITNET network has been replaced by a dial-up link to Stockholm due to funding problems. A considerable effort undertaken by the RELCOM networking organization has brought e-mail connectivity to several thousands sites all over the former Soviet Union. The growth of the network was 400% a year. RELCOM has been operating some IP links in the Moscow and St. Petersburg areas and some other places (Novosibirsk, Barnaul in Altai). Other national IP connections are expected to connect Ukraine, Siberia, St. Petersburg, Far East and other regions in order to set up the kernel of a nationwide IP backbone. The whole network has some 60 regional centres, some of which connect more than 500 sites. RELCOM's international traffic is split over two dial-up lines, one to the Finish EUnet backbone and one the central EUnet node in Amsterdam. Both operate as gateways on application level. The rapidly growing volume of international mail traffic makes the need for a medium speed IP channel to Europe urgent. Part of the international traffic is carried by the filtered IP line to AlterNet. The first EARN node started its operation in Moscow late in 1991, but proliferation of EARN services is still expected. An e-mail gateway now exists between RELCOM DEMOS and SUEARN. SUEARN also provides the international mail relay services for FREENET, a national research IP network which interconnects some 45 institutes of the Academy of Sciences mostly in the Moskow area with international connections to Jaroslavl and Baku. The current situation has been badly affected by the split of RELCOM into two independent entities (RELCOM RelTeam Ldt. and RELCOM DEMOS). Each of them holds a part of CIS network users and part of international connectivity. While RELCOM RelTeam Ldt. has inherited RELCOM's membership in EUnet, RELCOM DEMOS seems to position itself as a partner of AlterNet in CIS. Negotiations are still underway to find a cooperative approach to national and international connectivity. Contact persons: Valery Bardin - EUnet - RELCOM Misha Popov - EUnet - RELCOM Demos Andrej Mendkovich - CIS EARN director Nickolay M.Saukh - EUnet - RELCOM Igor Sviridov - EUnet - Ukraine contact. Oleg Tabarovsky - EUnet - RELCOM Dima Volodin - EUnet - RELCOM Demos 2.7 Czechoslovakia A 64 kbit/s IP link between Prague and Linz (Austria) is operational today. The line is full IP carying general IP, EARN and Czech EUnet traffic. A second link, 14.4 kbit/s between Bratislava and Vienna is shared between EUnet traffic and general IP traffic and IXI. (Note from RB, The IP link out of Prague was transferred from Linz to the University of Vienna in November, 1992.) The upgrade of this link to 64 kbit/s is planned for the near future. Both links connect into the upcoming national academic backbone networks CESNET (Czech Educational and Scientific Network) and SANET (Slovak Academic Network). Both networks are interconnected with IP links with the aggregate capacity of 28.8 kbit/s (19.2 kbit/s IP link between Prague and Banska Bystrica and 9.6 kbit/s Prague-Bratislava). Both CESNET and SANET are now setting up national backbone infrastructures connecting major academic towns in the country. 64 kbit/s lines are used wherever available and considered necessary, 19.2 kbit/s on all other links. The first protocol supported is IP. Connected to the backbones are appearing metropolitan networks in major cities. The major coordinating bodies are CESNET and SANET where universities as well as Academy of Sciences, EARN and EUnet are represented. A good cooperation exists between both separately funded projects as well as between ACOnet, EARN, EUnet, WIN, INRIA France and others. Contact persons: Jaroslav Bobovsky - SANET Gejza Buechler - EUnet backbone manager CS Karol Fabian - SANET Jan Gruntorad - EARN director for Czechoslovakia and CESNET coordinator Vladimir Kassa - SANET Jiri Orsag - CS NIC and EUnet Prague Peter Pronay - president of EUnet Czechoslovakia Pavel Rosendorf - contact for .CS top level domain Ivo Smejkal - CESNET - user services Milan Sterba - author of this report, CESNET 2.7 Hungary Hungary is connected to EARN by a 9.6 kbit/s IP line between Budapest and Linz (Austria). For the time being the same line is used also for the Internet and EUnet connection. It is planned to upgrade this line to 64 kbit/s in 1992. The High Energy Physics community has access to HEPnet services via a 9.6 kbit/s leased line between Budapest and CERN, Geneva (Switzerland) which is now running IP. (Note from RB, I believe the Internet connection out of Budapest has also been transferred from Linz to Vienna. Also many Internet addresses in Budapest originate within the domain.) Hungary has a good operational public X25 network which is the base of Wide Area Networking between small and medium sized sites. Currently there are about 250 X.25 access points in the country. A high speed national IP backbone (called HBONE) will come into production in 1993 to provide a country wide IP connectivity and access to EBONE services. In Hungary a national program under the title "R&D Information Infrastructure Program (IIF)" is responsible for the research net- working. The "HUNGARNET" co-ordinates the networking activities of different user groups, such as "HUNINET" (Universities and high schools), "AKANET" (academic research institutes), and the user group of public collections (libraries, museums), meanwhile part of the funding goes through IIF. Contact persons: Peter Bakonyi - President of IIF Exec Com. Laszlo Csaba - EARN director for Hungary Piroska Giese - HEPnet Nandor Horvath - EUnet backbone manager, domain contact for HU Balazs Martos - HBONE project manager Ferenc Telbisz - HEPnet Istvan Tetenyi - EARN deputy director Geza Turchanyi - HUNGARNET CRIP Laszlo Zombory - EARN president, chairman of HUNINET 2.8 Poland The main external connection consists of a 64 kbit/s satellite link between Warsaw and Stockholm, Sweden. The link is an IP one and carries all Internet, EARN and EUnet traffic. A new 64 kbit/s IP link is being set up between Warsaw and Vienna with the objective to establish an Ebone Bondary System in Warsaw. A 9.6 kbit/s IP connection is in place between Krakow and CERN in Geneva, Switzerland for HEPnet services. Public X.25 services have only started in 1992. Thus connections at national level can only be implemented on switched or leased lines. The country already has an infrastructure of leased lines, shared between EARN and IP traffic operting at speeds between 9.6-64 kbit/s. The Polish network is coordinated by an organization called NASK (National Academic and Research Network) which also includes the Polish part of EARN. Realistic plans exist to substantially extend IP connectivity over the territory in 1992 using 64 kbit/s lines on their national backbones wherever possible and economically viable. A National Network Operation and Monitoring Center has been set up in early 1992 which operates the whole national and international infrastructure. A system of network user training and support has also been put in place. Contact persons: Daniel J.Bem - Polish academic network(NASK) Jerzy Gorazinski - Polish State Committee for Scientific Research Krzystof Heller - contact for PL domain Tomasz Hofmokl - EARN director for Poland Rafal Pietrak - IP within NASK Jerzy Zenkiewicz - Polish academic network(NASK) Andrzej Zienkiewicz - Polish academic network(NASK) 2.9 Romania International connectivity is now provided by a switched X25 link to EARN in Austria. A 9.6 kbit/s leased line is planned before the end of 1992 between Bucharest and Linz, Austria. This line will be able to carry both IP and EARN/NJE/BSC traffic. Romania has poor internal networking infrastructure. A government project of building a public X25 network is under commercial negotiations and should start to offer some services in 1993. In Romania the emerging networking activities seem to be coordinated by the National Council for Informatics and the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest. Contact persons: Florin Paunescu - National Council for Informatics Paul Dan Cristea - Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest 2.10 Slovenia Slovenia is connected over a 64 kbit/s IXI access point in Ljubljana to the IXI backbone. Over this connection an IP link via NIKHEF, Amsterdam (Netherlands) provides Internet connectivity. A PSDN X25 connection connects the main EUnet node in Ljubljana to EUnet. Another IXI access point, also located in Ljubljana, connects Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina to IXI over the JUPAK PPSDN. Currently Slovenia have achieved a well spread-out branching of their national networks due to the existence of a wide spread public X.25 network. There exists as well a developed X.400 service. In Slovenia the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia (ARNES) is coordinating network activities. In Croatia the coordinating organization is CARNet and both organizations cooperate. Contact persons: Leon Mlakar - EUnet backbone manager YU Borka Jerman-Blazic Marko Bonac - ARNES Executive Director Denis Trcek - ARNES 2.11 Serbia and Montenegro Serbia has had a 9.6 kbit/s leased line between Beograd and Linz to carry EARN traffic. Currently this line is cut after a decision by the Austrian government to cooperate with the UN embargo on Yugoslavia. Contact persons: Jagos Puric - EARN director for YU (Note from RB: Because of those same UN sanctions and the US Government's support of those sanctions, it is illegal under federal law to have commercial contacts with Yugoslavia.) 2.12 Macedonia The University of Skopje, Macedonia recently was made the lead organization for the country by the Ministry for Science and Technology for inaugurating networking activities in the country. They joined CEED and are planning soon an IP connection. Currently Macedonia has achieved a good degree of capillarity of their national network (DECNET) due to the existence of the public X.25 network, which is a part of JUPAK PPSDN. Contact persons: Marjan Gusev or - Faculty for Natural Sciences, Gazibaba, Skopje Aspazija Hadzisce - Ministery for Science and Technology, Skopje 3. Evolution All the ECE countries are very interested in European as well as world wide IP connectivity. In Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland there has been rapid growth of connected IP networks and hosts in the academic community. Their existing international leased lines infrastructure is now shared by EARN, EUnet and raw IP services. Linz University and ACONET in Austria have become important concentrating points for networking in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary as well as Poland and Romania. The financial resources dedicated to networking in these countries are limited. The sharing of the existing national and international leased lines between EARN, EUnet and other IP traffic as well as between academic and starting commercial traffic is thus a very important issue. Lightweight but robust IP gateway solutions (over dial-up lines, leased serial lines or X25 networks) are of great concern in this respect and are continuously studied and further developed (e.g. COPERNICUS). By the end of this year the Budapest-ACONET link at least will be operating at 64 kbit/s. It is probable that new IP lines will be operational at this time (Bratislava-Vienna, Moscow-Amsterdam). At the same time the national infrastructure of the countries will continue to evolve. We can expect an increase in national coverage in countries with working public X25 networks and in Czechoslovakia and Poland as well as strong increase in IP connectivity within the CIS. 4. International Initiatives Several international support initiatives have been launched in the past by different bodies to improve international network connectivity of the Central and Eastern European countries. The following list presents some of them : The Ebone 92 consortium has shown itself very supportive during 1992 by allowing traffic of ECE countries to pass freely over the Ebone and letting so the ECE countries traffic cross Europe. This situation changes in 1993 when Ebone will adopt a more formal financial model. RIPE and the RIPE NCC have widely contributed to the rapid integration of new ECE networks into the global Internet. RIPE has acted to initiate a common coordination effort of academic networking organizations in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. The first meeting to coordinate its initiatives was held in February, 1992 in Prague with successful cooperation since then, continued at the 3rd Joint European Networking Conference in Innsbruck, where RARE has proposed to be the coordinator of ECE integration into European Academic networking, formalized in Prague in August, 1992. CEEC@RARE.NL is now the discussion group and has the mailing list on common ECE networking issues. Also both EARN and EUnet have widely contributed to the successful start of international networking in ECE countries, by placing the first network nodes in these countries, supporting the activity of these nodes both financially and through extensive know-how transfer. Despite this expressed willingness to cooperate (RARE, RIPE, EARN, EUnet etc.) some support efforts are still not coordinated, which sometimes leads to the waste of limited resources. An EC SHARE project dedicated to extend the former COSINE IXI project to Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania has started this year. Medium speed 64 kbit/s lines have been ordered between Amsterdam-Prague-Budapest-Bern and between Aarhus-Warsaw-Bern. These lines, initially financed by the EC, should provide connectivity from ECE countries to the planned European Multiprotocol Backbone (EMPB). It should also provide access points to X.25 as well as IP services. Unfortunately the coordination with RIPE and Ebone as well as with the academic networking organizations in the countries involved has to date experienced poor results in eliminating redundancy in the use of scarce infrastructural resources in ECE countries. Austria is the major relay point between ECE countries and Western Europe (and beyond). The Austrian government is very supportive and either covers fully or contributes in a significant manner to the costs of international connections to these countries. In February 1992 ACONET has made an even greater proposal, offering these countries (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland) double connectivity to both Vienna and Linz. Each of these countries should have one link to both places, thus permitting line backup. The Vienna-CERN line has been upgraded in October 1992 to 256 kbit/s and the Linz-CERN line (64 kbit/s) is being replaced by a Linz-Amsterdam line (128 kbit/s) in order to accomodate traffic increase from these countries and offer a real backed-up connectivity to Ebone. The ACONET proposal for Ebone 93 to place an EBS to Austria seems well justified from the point of view of the connectivity of ECE countries. CERN plays also an important role in the IP connectivity of the new countries. It houses actually a 9.6 kbit/s line from Krakow and another HEPnet 9.6 kbit/s line from Budapest. Due to lack of resources CERN prefers not to house a lot of low rate lines from every country but rather to house a higher rate line concentrating traffic from several countries. This is in fact in perfect conformance with the ACONET proposal. The German DFN network has launched several regional initiatives to connect sites in geographical proximity of Germany (e.g. Dreilaendereck project connecting Liberec in Czechoslovakia, Wroclaw in Poland and Zittau in Germany using leased links based on X25 with further connectivity to DFN). DFN also provides X400/SMTP gateway for Slovenia. The Italian government has financed in 1990 and 1992 successfull network workshops (NetSchool) to which about 50 network specialists from ECE countries have attended. A second extended edition of NetSchool has taken place in April 1992 with participation of network specialists from RIPE and attendees from ECE countries, some South American, Asian and African countries. A similar event has been organized by NORDUnet for network users and operators from the Baltic states. The French government has expressed its willingness to help the integration of new countries to the world of academic networking by launching in cooperation with INRIA a project called Copernicus, which aims to improve network connectivity of several Eastern European Countries. One of the first results of this project has been the cooperation on design and implementation of the academic IP backbone CESNET-SANET (Prague - Brno - Bratislava ... Banska Bystrica - Kosice) in Czechoslovakia. The project consists of transfer of network management and administration know-how, common development of tools and some software and hardware donations. Similar activity is starting now with Romania. IBM is also present in these countries with its academic initiative, in which IBM mainframes have been offered to Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. IBM and EASInet act also as sponsors for the T1 US link usage for academic networks in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. Strong support for the integration of ECE countires into the global network also comes from the United States. The National Science Foundation has always been very supportive to academic networks in ECE countries by promptly helping them to solve global connectivity problems. Many projects aiming at improving local, national, and international infrastructure, know-how transfer and mission-oriented network applications are now in progress. (Note from RB: Steven Goldstein Internet or BITNET, is the contact at NSF. He contributes to many of the East European discussion groups.) The assistance of countries with developed networking shouldn't be uniquely oriented to basic network connectivity. A lot of work needs to be done in the ECE countries to offer and improve higher level network services like e-mail, teleconferencing, archive services, online databases and library catalogues etc., as well as in basic network concepts, user information services and advanced networking know-how transfer. That's why new EC projects proposals are now oriented not only on infrastructure but also on higher level services (e-mail, electronic directory, user information and training.) The lack of funds puts ECE countries at a disadvantage and the exchange rates with the West still make it difficult for ECE network experts to attend international networking exhibitions. 5. Technical issues As already mentioned, distributing international network access over the local territory is a major problem for the countries considered. While it is relatively easy and cheap to set up a local TCP/IP network, it is more difficult to connect it to the national access point. Generic router solutions are rather expensive on one side and not completely free of administrative exportation problems for all countries involved. The solution to these problems are software routers based on PC's or workstations and public domain or easily available software. A low cost capillarity of networks being of great importance to ECE countries, good dial-up IP solutions of both industrial and public domains, which are under study and evaluation in EUnet, RIPE, Copernique, NetSchool and others, are of great interest as well as low cost IP solutions on synchronous lines (X25 or PPP) and low cost solutions for network monitoring and management. The technical speed limitations for international leased lines seem now to become less restrictive than in the past. For Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, international links of up to 2 MBits/s are now feasible. With basic connectivity problems for the most part overcome, network services are now becomming major issues in the most advanced ECE countries. PC's remain the most spread technical basis, thus network solutions based on platforms (routers, mail, news, archive and information servers and clients) based on either UNIX or MS DOS are of major concern today. 6. Organizational issues The starting period in international networking is often characterized by a fuzziness in the organizational structure together with a lack of information about the people actually responsible and working in the area. The situation is nearly stabilized in Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, where national academic networking groups have been founded and are coordinated with EARN/EUnet activities. This coordinated effort tends to build nation wide multiprotocol academic network infrastructures. A similar effort is underway in Bulgaria (UNIKOM, EARN and EUnet Bulgaria). These countries seem also to have found a stabilized position in international network organizations (EARN, EUnet, RARE, RIPE). The situation is more complicated in other countries where international contacts are for various reasons much more scarce. ====================================================================== Prague School of Economics e-mail : Milan.Sterba@vse.cs Computing Center tel : +42 2 21 25 704 nam. W. Churchilla 4 home: +42 2 823 78 59 130 67 Praha 3 fax : +42 2 235 85 09 Czechoslovakia ======================================================================   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa12611; 30 Nov 92 1:38 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06360 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 29 Nov 1992 23:29:43 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14729 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 29 Nov 1992 23:29:18 -0600 Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 23:29:18 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211300529.AA14729@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #877 TELECOM Digest Sun, 29 Nov 92 23:29:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 877 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Good News From the ITU (Carl Malamud via Roger Fajman) 911 and Cellular Phones (Karl Bunch) Ground Loops With Custom Ringing Switches (Bill Campbell) Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? (Nigel Allen) Shomer-Tec Phone Gadgets (Subversive!!) (Rob Boudrie) DigiBoard PC/8e Fails Under Xenix (Dick Flanagan) Re: CPC Signals (rfranken@cs.umr.edu) Re: Seven Digit Billing/Repair Service Numbers (Robert S. Helfman) Re: Seven Digit Billing/Repair Service Numbers (Joe Bergstein) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Roger Fajman Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 23:25:52 EST Subject: Good News From the ITU [Moderator's Note: This was forwarded to us by Roger. PAT] From: Carl Malamud To: ietf@isi.edu Subject: Good news from the ITU ITU PRESS RELEASE/92-23 6 November 1992 WIDE RANGE OF ITU* DOCUMENTS NOW AVAILABLE ON-LINE: ITU STANDARDS TO BECOME ELECTRONICALLY ACCESSIBLE IN EARLY 93 An electronic document distribution service providing remote access to ITU documents - TELEDOC - became operational last week. Aimed at providing fast and timely access to ITU information to the world telecommunication and networking community, TELEDOC is a database containing at present: * CCITT and CCIR administrative documents * lists of contributions (substantive input/proposals) to CCITT and CCIR study groups * lists of CCITT reports and Recommendations (i.e. standards) * summaries of CCITT new or revised Recommendations * CCITT and CCIR meeting schedules and other information concerning Study Groups structures and activities. As from early next year, the full texts of all new and revised CCITT Recommendations (i.e. all standards approved after the publication of the Blue Book in 1988) will also be available from TELEDOC. In line with ITU publications policies, it is envisaged to expand TELEDOC information base according to identified needs and available resources. On TELEDOC's first day of operation, ITU Secretary- General Pekka Tarjanne stated: "The impact of the changing telecommunications environment makes it imperative that the ITU develop new approaches to the standardization process and find new ways to improve the efficiency of our work, new ways to disseminate the output of our work throughout the world. The implementation of TELEDOC", he said, "is undoubtedly a right step in this direction. Our ultimate goal is to make available on-line an entire library of ITU documents for a broad and transparent information exchange with all categories of interested users". TELEDOC is based on a X.400 document server which processes requests sent in by electronic mail. The TELEDOC Auto-Answering Mailbox accepts messages from the two most widely used E-mail systems: X.400 and Internet. Users without direct access to X.400 or Internet mail can use gateway services provided by major service providers (e.g. MCI or Compuserve). The electronic mail address of TELEDOC Auto-Answering Mailbox (TAM) is: X. 400 S=teledoc P=itu A=arcom C=ch Internet teledoc@itu.arcom.ch Document formats which are planned to be made available include ASCII, Microsoft RTF, Word for Windows, Postcript and CCITT ODA/ODIF. TELEDOC will be available on request, on a trial period of one year, at no access cost. For more information or to obtain a copy of the user's guide, please contact: Mr. Robert Shaw Miss Antoinette Bautista TELEDOC Project Coordinator EDH - CCITT Information Services CCITT Secretariat Department International Telecommunication International Union Telecommunication Union Place des Nations Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland TEL: +41 22 730 5857 TEL: +41 22 730 5338/5554 FAX: +41 22 730 5853 FAX: +41 22 730 5337 X.400: G=antoinette; X.400: G=robert; S=shaw; S=bautista; A=arcom; P=itu; A=arcom; P=itu; C=ch C=ch Internet: shaw@itu.arcom.ch Internet: bautista@itu.arcom.ch * The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was founded in 1865 and as such is the oldest inter- governmental organization. In 1947, it became a specialized agency of the United Nations and has a membership of 174 countries (4 November 1992). It is the international organization responsible for the regulation and planning of telecommunications worldwide, for the establishment of equipment and systems operating standards, for the coordination and dissemination of information required for the planning and operation of telecommunications services and within the United Nations system for the promotion of and contribution to the development of telecommunications and the related infrastructures. ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 1992 16:12:46 +0000 (GMT) From: karl@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch) Subject: 911 and Cellular Phones Organization: Think Tank Software, Norwalk, CA Can anyone tell me why the 911 systems can not detect at least a approximate location of a cellular caller? My wife and I were involved in an incident were somebody threw "something" (not sure what but it really made a BANG when it hit) at our car. We called 911 and had to (of cource) explain our heading etc. etc. That might be a tad hard, but, what about the person on the side of the road that can just barley dial after being SHOT? Is guess they are out of luck? It seems at least the "servicing" cell site could be transmitted so the police could at guess. With a little help from a "neighboring" cell cite couldn't they calculate a postion? Also, has anyone thought about the "potential" for 911 abuse on a cell phone? With no accountability a person could make all sorts of false reports. Thanks, Karl Bunch UUCP: ..!uunet!cerritos.edu!ttank!karl Think Tank Software INTERNET: karl@ttank.com ------------------------------ From: bill@Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell) Subject: Ground Loops with Custom Ringing Switches Organization: Celestial Software, Mercer Island, WA Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 21:22:38 GMT The other day I used one of my computer lines for an outgoing voice call and noticed that the line was pretty noisy. This line has three custom ringing numbers with a Telebit WorldBlazer, Trailblazer+, and Everex 24/96D fax modem on the first three positions. The noise would go away if I unplugged the switch entirely from the line (Lynx RingDirector) or if I unplugged one of the devices, but not always the same one :-). I called Lynx for support and they said that this was caused by ground loops (I had forgotten about this since my early stereo days). He recommended several possiblities including repositioning the devices so they weren't piled on top of each other, but the one that worked was to only connect the center two wires on the modular connectors minimizing the possiblities for interference. I just pulled the outside two contacts out of RJ-11 connectors and crimped them on the three cables to the modems and the problem went away (not to see if my transfer rates get better). Bill INTERNET: bill@Celestial.COM Bill Campbell; Celestial Software UUCP: ...!thebes!camco!bill 6641 East Mercer Way uunet!camco!bill Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591 ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? Organization: Echo Beach Whatever happened to Britain's telegraph poles? In Canada, most railway lines have a line of telegraph poles paralleling the railway. You can tell that the poles were built to handle more lines than the few strands they now support. (Remember that a lot of business messages were once sent as telegrams, and both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific had significant telegraph departments, which later offered telex and other telecommunications services.) However, most railway and commercial telecommunications traffic was moved off the "open wire" plant a long time ago, first to microwave and now in some cases to fiber optics cables that parallel the railway lines. When I visited Britain several months ago, I travelled by train a lot, and realized that something was different: no telegraph poles, or at least none that I noticed. Presumably the cabling that British Railways uses for signalling and its internal telecommunications traffic is buried or lies at the side of the tracks, rather than being suspended from telegraph poles. (Of course, the telegraph system in Britain was run by the post office until it was privatized as British Telecom, and I think survives only as one telegraph office in Coventry that you can reach by dialling 190 from anywhere in the United Kingdom. I don't know whether the British post office ever ran its cables parallel to railway lines.) Canada Remote Systems Toronto, Ontario World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044 ------------------------------ From: Rob Boudrie Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 19:31:12 -0500 Subject: Shomer-Tec Phone Gadgets (Subversive!!) A catalog a local law enforcement officer loaned me includes several neat telecom toys, one of which is a "hold invader". This $99 gadget puts the other party on "phantom hold" where he thinks he's on hold (the sound going "hold dead" which I believe is different from what the other party would hear if the mouthpiece were merely disconnected). The idea is that the line remains open, so that the other party will (hopefully) "freely converse with his associate" during such things as price negotiations, thinking he is "on hold" and cannot be heard. My questions to the net: (a) Does anyone have schematics for such a gadget? (b) Any comments on legality or ethics also welcome [ comments on ethics of using this against salesmen should be difurcated into "car" and "other" ]. As a word of warning, this catalog also contains: "Answering machine intruder" - "This machine can access any answering machine which uses a 1, 2 or 3 digit security code" "Super Converter" - "The super converted gives you scanner access to the good stuff" inclusing cellular telephone calls" (it warns that eavesdropping on cellular calls iis generally illegal and recommends consulting an attorney first) "Cellular Telephone Modification Handbook" - $79 "Telemonitor 2000" - remote bugging via phone line "Telepmonitor 2001" - similar to above "The X phone" - doubles as phone and monitoring device. Will call you when it hears activity. Also - "Telephone Budgsmasher", "voice Safe Telephone SCrambler", "Audio Jammer", "Transmitter Detector". This company requires law enforcement credentials only for a few items (locksmithing supplies, tear gas grenades, etc.). All of the above is for sale to anyone with the $$. In case the Moderator will let such "dangerous, subservice" information on the net the company is Shomer-Tec at (206) 733-6214. rob b. ------------------------------ From: flanagan@niagara.Tymnet.COM (Dick Flanagan) Subject: DigiBoard PC/8e Fails Under Xenix Date: 29 Nov 92 20:56:01 GMT Reply-To: flanagan@niagara.Tymnet.COM (Dick Flanagan) I have a DigiBoard PC/8e serial card that is not recognized by DigiBoard's SCO/Xenix driver. To make the problem more confus- ing, if I boot the system from a DOS diskette, the board passes all of DigiBoard's own DOS-based diagnostics. When booting Xenix, however, I receive the following message: ***WARNING*** No memory at 00E00000 for PC/Xe at port 00000320, check switch settings. Needless to say, all switch settings have been checked as well as many alternate settings tried, all with the same results. A second identical board was installed, but, again, with the same results. I have contacted DigiBoard Customer Support ("Ron") and they have written it off as a "compatibility problem." 8-| The system is a 386/25 with OMTI chipset, AMI BIOS and 8-MB of memory. An ancient True Blue monochrome display controller (with built-in parallel port), two standard serial ports and ACB 2320 ESDI disk controller round out the system. I am using SCO Xenix/386 2.3.3 (with xnx296a/UFN update) and DigiBoard's V4.7.4 SCO driver. I am at a complete loss. The system runs DOS and Xenix without any problems. The board passes DOS diagnostics, but their own Xenix driver can't work with it. I've tried dual-ported memory addresses both above and below 1-MB and with any number of different I/O port addresses, all to no avail. I =really= need this board to work. DigiBoard can't help. Can someone?!? Dick Flanagan flanagan@niagara.tymnet.com Voice/FAX: 1 702 782 8644 ------------------------------ From: rfranken@cs.umr.edu Subject: Re: CPC Signals Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 16:28:14 CST > [Moderator's Note: CPC = Called Party Control. This means the called > party detirmines when the connection is broken by hanging up the > phone. In older systems the connection would stay up at least awhile > longer if the calling party did not disconnect. Your answering machine > can be set so it will disconnect immediatly when there is a loss of > the battery on the line (which is caused when calling party hangs up.) > The reason you might not want to use this feature is because call > waiting causes the same reaction from your answering machine which > will disconnect when it senses the battery is gone, which is what > happens for just a second when you get a call waiting tone. I don't think CWI (Call Waiting) generates a battery interruption on fully digital switches (#5ESS (tm) and the like) where the DC voltages and the analog audio stuff is totally separate. (At least it didn't trip up my answering machine when I was on a digital switch). Reference another post about how to use CPC -- The telco generates a CPC signal when the far end (i.e. who ever you are calling or whoever called you) hangs up so your equipment (answering machine, PBX, etc.) can detect this. Perhaps someone knows how long the spec says a CPC should be. Brett (rfranken@cs.umr.edu) ------------------------------ From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman) Subject: Re: Seven Digit Billing/Repair Service Numbers Date: 29 Nov 1992 22:51:39 GMT Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA In article Eli.Mantel@lambada.oit. unc.edu writes: > In article helfman@aero.org writes: >> I called AT&T LD information for L.A. and asked for a seven-digit >> number for repair service (giving them my home prefix). It turned out >> that the number they gave me is for a PacBell center in San Diego, ... >> this happens again. >> Moral: All you children should get your seven-digit repair service >> number from 611 NOW so that you can report your home phone when you're >> away. It would save a real hassle. > Getting a seven-digit phone number for repair service or for any local > phone company function (e.g. business office, customer complaint > bureau) is not necessarily going to enable you to reach them. > This is because at least some of the phone companies have designated > special prefixes, for exclusive use by the phone company, which > provide for toll-free access from within their service area. Outside > of their service areas, these special prefixes are absolutely, > positively, not dialable. That IS true for SPECIAL prefixes, but the number I have for my CO is in fact a 290- prefix and my home numbers are both 291-, served out of a switchgear building I can see about a mile away. And I know that number works outside my area, because I've called it from area code 310 (the new 'other'-side-of-LA area) where my office is located. Your comment concerning the business office numbers and such is correct, but my CO repair guys have even left their number on my answering machine. It's usable and they intend for customers to use it. It's actually a big plus to call them direct, because dialing 611 normally connects me with their center in San Diego - where, although they have the ability to test my line remotely, they don't know shit about the local cable layout. When I call the 290- number, I can leave messages for the individual repair guys. For example, when one of their good-old-boy techs found I had an inside-wiring short, I sent him on his way so I could isolate it myself. When it turned out to be TWO exterior phone jacks that had BOTH become a water-saturated mass of spider egg-sacks after a particularly heavy rain, it was so strange I just had to call him back to tell him about it. One of my lines regularly shorts out when the underground vault in the street floods. It had happened often enough that when I called the CO, I was SURE that was the problem. This ONE time it was an inside problem. ------------------------------ From: Joe.Bergstein@f544.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Bergstein) Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 00:08:16 -0500 Subject: Re: Seven Digit Billing/Repair Service Numbers In msg. on Wed. Nov. 25, Eli.Mantel writes: > Getting a seven-digit phone number for repair service or for any > local phone company function (e.g. business office, customer complaint > burea is not necessarily going to enable you to reach them. > This is because at least some of the phone companies have > designated special prefixes, for exclusive use by the phone company, which > provide for toll-free access from within their service area. > Outside of their service areas, these special prefixes are absolutely, > positively, not dialable. Worse (in my experience), when you > call long distance directory assistance, these numbers come up on the > operator's screen as if they were perfectly valid numbers, and > the operator may or may not be smart enough to advise you of this > fact. I often had this problem attempting to reach Pacific Bell Business offices from out of state. As Telecom. Mgr. for a nationwide company I had to contact Pac Bell business offices regarding billing errors and service orders etc. for firm's office in CA. Well the invoices from PacBell indicate to call the business office, one should dial 811-XXXX, which are dialable (as indicated in Eli.Mantel's) message only from the service area. When calling LD Directory Assistance, I was told one must ask for the "10 digit DDD cross reference" number for the 811-XXXX number to reach the business office from out of state. I noted that it wouldn't be very hard for PacBell's programmers to modify the billing programs so that on bills which had an out of state zipcode, that the "10 digit DDD" number be listed instead of the 811-xxxx number. On several occasions, I asked the CSR to submit a request to PacBell's MIS department, but of course nothing ever happened. BTW, the best billing and business office contact listings were, I believe, on US West invoices which provided an 800 number to contact business office from out of state. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #877 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa14683; 30 Nov 92 2:19 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29633 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Nov 1992 00:14:24 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12375 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Nov 1992 00:13:59 -0600 Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1992 00:13:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199211300613.AA12375@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #878 TELECOM Digest Mon, 30 Nov 92 00:14:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 878 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (Jack Winslade) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (Richard Nash) Re: Email to Prodigy (Steve Steinberg) Re: Distinctive Ringing Devices (John R. Levine) Re: AT&T Smart Phone 2100 (Macy Hallock) Re: Conference Calls (John R. Levine) Re: ATT Boing: What is it? (Barton F. Bruce) Re: Advice Needed on Telephone Security Systems (Mike Riddle) Re: Internet Connectivity in Eastern Europe (Nickolay Saukh) Re: Telemarketing Again (Richard Nash) Re: Phone Harrassment (Carl Moore) Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? (John R. Levine) Re: Cellular One TV Commercial (Hey, Mom, That's Me!) (Dave Levenson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 01:49:06 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha In a message dated 23-NOV-92, David.G.Lewis writes: > While trying to make a credit card call to a persistently busy number > recently, after typing in the card number for the n-teenth time, I > wondered if SS7 protocol would allow the calling exchange to "look > ahead" at the called number and inquire if it is (at that instant) > busy, before prompting me for the card number. This reminds me of a strange quirk I noticed years ago on 'dial tone first' coin phones connected to the early #1 ESS offices. Normally, when dialing a local number without depositing any coins, a recording 'The call you have made requires a 10 cent deposit ...' would be returned. (This also shows you how long ago this was.) However, when dialing a BUSY number within the same ESS switch as the coin phone, a busy signal would be returned immediately instead of the intercept recording. I remember using this a couple of times when trying to get through to a persistently busy number. When the busy condition cleared, the intercept was presented, and I would simply deposit the dime and redial. Good day. JSW Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.14 r.1 DRBBS (1:285/666.0) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 09:53:35 -0700 From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Laird P. Broadfield writes: > In deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g. > lewis) writes: >> Not exactly correct. SS7 TCAP supports a "query" message. No >> connection attempt is needed; one switch sends a TCAP query to the >> other switch asking for line status. This is how the (pick your >> favorite name) Auto Recall service works (call someone, get a busy >> signal, enter a *XX feature code, get a special ring when the far end >> goes idle, pick up the phone and automatically place the recall). > Will there be a way (legitimately) for an end user (perhaps an ISDN > user?) to issue SS7 messages? For example, could I take my ISDN card > and send these "query" messages and receive the responses? SS7 is used to operate the telephone network. Only through indirect user interaction with some service feature will you generate these messages. After all, one motivation for the conversion to SS7 was to remove the possiblity of blue-boxing prevalent in the MF days. ISDN protocols are network access protocols used to connect the user to the network. Quite possibly ISDN protocols contain a mechanisim to "pass" the far end line status back to the terminal equipment? Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie%trickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca Amatuer Radio Packet: ve6bon%ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca@gw-1.ampr.ab.ca VE6BON @ VE6MC.AB.CAN.NA ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca [192.75.200.15] ------------------------------ From: ss@panix.com (Steve Steinberg) Subject: Re: Email to Prodigy Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 16:49:55 GMT Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC In xdab@midway.uchicago.edu (David Baird) writes: > In article louis@aupair.cs. > athabascau.ca (Louis Schmittroth) writes: >> I want to find out if Prodigy offers service to Alberta, and if so is >> there a email address of an administrative unit of Prodigy where I can >> find out what the rates are? > The last I knew the people who ran Prodigy were not hooked into any > other network, nor were they going to be in the future. It seems that > either one was on Prodigy to communicate with a Prodigy user, or one > did not communicate with the Prodigy user using Prodigy's service. Or > to put it another way, there are no gateways between Prodigy and > Compu$erve or the InterNet. > Give Prodigy a call and complain about this situation. It is one of > two primary reasons why I never signed on to Prodigy. Prodigy _is_ planning an Internet gateway that should be available by the end of the year. Evidently they will demand $20/mo. for the priviledge of e-mail. I have no idea of what their Internet address is now. Did you try something@prodigy.com? Maybe info or admin or postmaster?? === Steve Steinberg == ss@panix.com == {cmcl2,apple}!panix!ss === ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Distinctive Ringing Devices Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 29 Nov 92 21:56:07 EST (Sun) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) > A while back someone graciously volunteered to collect data on the > various "distinctive ringing" or "Ident-a-ring" boxes. It was me. Unfortunately, nobody sent me any reports at all. I'd still be happy to collect a summary. So let me state clearly: if you have a "ring leader", a box that listens to a distinctive ring and connects one of several devices, please drop me a note and let me know what it's called, how much it cost, and what you think of it. I'm also trying to collect all the cockamamie names the telcos use for the service. NYNEX calls it RingMate, Bell Atlantic calls it IdentaRing, the others remain a mystery to me. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 11:08 EST From: fmsys!macy@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu (Macy Hallock) Subject: Re: AT&T Smart Phone 2100 Organization: F M Systems, Inc. Medina, Ohio USA In article Steve Diamond writes: > What's the status of the Smart Phone 2100? Is it available anywhere? > Have any of you used it? With special services or standalone? Huntington Bank in Columbus Ohio is using these in field trial of the technology at this time. Several public demonstrations have been held and I'm told that there are quite a few units being used in the field now. The administrator of the trial is net.connected (his name escapes me, its at the office). He presented the technology and program in a recent Ohio State Univerisity CAST roundtable (which I managed to miss). Macy Hallock +1.216.723.3000 Fax +1.216.723.3223 macy@fmsystm.ncoast.org F M Systems, Inc. 150 Highland Drive Medina, OH USA macy@fmsystm.uucp ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Conference Calls Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 29 Nov 92 22:23:49 EST (Sun) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) > [AT&T charges] $10.00/party plus $.49/minute/party for each call. That's pretty high. AT&T's Alliance system charges 25 cents/min/person plus toll charges from the conference center plus a small setup charge, a dollar or so. Call 0-700-456-1000 from a tone phone to use it, voice menus will prompt you for number of members and numbers to call. Assistance and info are at 800-544-6363 for questions or if you want their operator to set up the call. Their conference centers are in White Plains, Chicago, Dallas, and Reno. Voice quality is excellent; it's all digital. This service is different from regular conference operator, by the way. Sprint's conference service is 44 cents/min/person plus $3/person. Call 800-FON-CONF. Also excellent digital voice quality. MCI has a new conference service that I haven't tried. Setting up an Alliance call yourself doesn't necessarily save any money since with the operator setup calls, charging shouldn't start until everyone is on the phone. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: Barton F. Bruce Subject: Re: ATT Boing: What is it? Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. Date: 29 Nov 92 04:00:22 EDT In article , atekant@wimsey.bc.ca (Argun Tekant) writes: > This is probably a FAQ (Do we have a FAQ?), but can anyone tell me the > frequency or function or whatever for the AT&T Boing? It includes the number to knock off any tone to pulse converters that may be on the line. I think that other than that, it is just distinctive for humans to recognize. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 07:31:26 CST From: Mike.Riddle@ivgate.omahug.org (Mike Riddle) Subject: Re: Advice Needed on Telephone Security Systems Reply-To: mike.riddle%inns@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: Inns of Court, Papillion, NE > Several people have asked me about the telco feature that notifies > alarm monitoring compaines that your line has been cut, so I called US > West to get a few more details: JW> I wonder if I didn't stumble on this about a month ago without knowing JW> what it was. JW> [ describes very old, cotton-insulated demarc, with Merlins attached ] JW> After the event took place we pulled out all of our temporary wiring, JW> checked all of the local phones to make sure they worked, and split. JW> About 15 minutes later I got paged by the school custodian who got a JW> call from the alarm company saying that their fire alarm was showing JW> as being disconnected from the line. I went back, poked around a bit, JW> and paged my cohort who knew more about how those alarms are hooked JW> up. To make a long story short, it turned out that one of the old JW> conductors had broken and become intermittent. JW> I also remember the night before when we were setting up, hearing some JW> tones on one of the lines while checking them out with a butt set. JW> This was maybe a burst of 1.5-2 kHz tones. Happened to watch a rerun of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot last night, complete with references to the "telegraph company" monitoring the alarm panel. And from the age of the installation you mention, this could be it. Many older alarms use a full-period circuit and a DC loop. Part of the monitoring is watching the DC current. It goes way up when the alarm condition sounds, and disappears if the loop is broken. You can get a first approximation of trouble or alarm by looking at the loop current. Now in most cases, your response will be the same, paranoid that you are :-) and will institute a security or fire response, since fires can open lines and crooks can cut wires. Fifteen minutes sounds about like the time for the alarm monitor to see the open, call the custodian to verify, and have you paged. Another option is a full-period circuit with periodic "I'm okay" interrogation and response. This is probably what your tones were. I think others have beaten to death the stories about fallback cellular systems, et cetera. It usually comes down to economics: which is the most cost-effective solution to your requirement, based on your threat analysis: full-period circuits, dial-up with cellular fallback, or just plain dial-up. <<<< insert standard disclaimer here >>>> mike.riddle@rlaw.omahug.org | Nebraska Inns of Court bc335@cleveland.freenet.edu | +1 402 593 1192 (Data) Sysop of 1:285/28@Fidonet | 3/12/24/9600 V.32/V.42bis Maximus 2.00 Riddle Law Office (1:285/28) ------------------------------ From: Nickolay Saukh Subject: Re: Internet Connectivity in Eastern Europe Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 00:57:53 +0300 Some corrections for xSU: > The current situation has been badly affected by the split of > RELCOM into two independent entities (RELCOM RelTeam Ldt. and RELCOM > DEMOS). Each of them holds a part of CIS network users and part of > international connectivity. While RELCOM RelTeam Ldt. has inherited the > RELCOM's membership in EUnet, RELCOM DEMOS seems to position itself as a > partner of AlterNet in CIS. Negotiations are still underway to find a > cooperative approach to national and international connectivity. RELCOM in its former state (and EUnet/Relcom now) was present in whole USSR, including Baltics and other republics, which are not members of CIS. As for two new entities, they are: a) EUnet/Relcom, which officially exists since 1 October 1992, with more then 100 nodes over xSU. Each node is legally independent enterprise. Moscow node is operated by Relcom Corp. Internal structure and relations of EUnet/Relcom defined by bilateral agreements between each node and Relcom Corp. Under this agreements Relcom Corp. authorized to present interests for EUnet/Relcom in EUnet and other parties. We going to provide exact information about the network and subscribers as soon as possible. b) unnamed entity, operated by small enterprise Demos/+ (which is not cooperative Demos) with no public defined structure and relations. Since April, 1992 there is also exists an enterprise RelTeam Company Ltd, which independent of EUnet/Relcom and Demos (in any of it's forms). It is aimed at R&D in networks and system integration projects. It serves as SU domain coordination team and IP coordination unit under RIPE auspices. > Contact persons: > Misha Popov - EUnet - RELCOM Demos ^^^^^ As I know there are no relations between EUnet and Demos/+. > Dima Volodin - EUnet - RELCOM Demos ^^^^^ See comment for Misha Popov. Contact persons for RelTeam Company Ltd: Valery Bardin Nickolay Saukh Hopes this corrections make your report more accurate. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 09:31:50 -0700 From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) Subject: Re: Telemarketing Again > In article allegra!ssh@allegra.att.com > (syed s haider) writes: >> Last Sunday's {Parade} supplement carries an article on telemarketing. >> One item caught my eye. Basically, it stated that many come-ons give >> you an 800 number making you think that the call is toll-free. But >> after you call you're switched to a 900 number and get a hefty bill >> the following month. > How this was technically accomplished was never explained. Assuming > that the IXC, and not the information provider, is generating the > billing data for the 900 service, I don't think we ever figured out > how this was actually accomplished. Can someone elaborate? The technical issue of delivering the calling parties number from what was once a 800 dialed number to that of a 900 number has probably several possible explanations. A couple of simple possiblities are: o- remote call forwarding o- 800 SCP database returns a 900 number A very real problem for telcos, remote call forwarding presents all kinds of hassles. If you lived in Washington and dialed a long distance 800+ friend who had their Remote Call Forwarding (RCF) activated to another number, the actual number (CLID) delivered to the far end would be YOUR telephone number, not the friends. This is intentional. Therefore if your friend happened to RCF to a 900 number, guess what could be used for a billing number? TR-394 allows the delivery of this number to the IXC? One would hope that these possiblities have been regulated out of existance? Richard Nash Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8 UUCP: rickie%trickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca Amatuer Radio Packet: ve6bon%ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca@gw-1.ampr.ab.ca VE6BON @ VE6MC.AB.CAN.NA ve6bon.ampr.ab.ca [192.75.200.15] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 14:40:47 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Re: Phone Harrassment As for putting a call through when a name is known but not a room number: You can reach someone you know in a hotel that way, and I have occasionally gotten calls that way myself. A well-known person would have to check into a hospital, hotel, etc. under an assumed name to block calls like this. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 29 Nov 92 17:51:41 EST (Sun) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) >> Are there any calling cards left that don't charge an initial fee? > Aren't the calling cards issued by local phone companies usable for > this purpose? Right answer, wrong question. No calling card, at least none I've ever seen, has a fee when it's issued nor a yearly fee. (Well, there's the AT&T Universal Card but that's really a Master Card or Visa with a calling card conceptually stapled onto it.) The question is whether there is a card that doesn't charge an initial surcharge each time you use it. For most cards, when you use them you pay between 40 cents and $1.25 plus what the direct dial rate for the call would have been. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Cellular One TV Commercial (Hey, Mom, That's Me!) Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 22:31:18 GMT Our Moderator, in more than one recent posting, mentions ... > ... and the president of these United States is younger than > I am. :( :( I need a vacation. PAT] Pat, unless you are a lot older than I think you are, this statement is not true ... yet. Come January 20, well that's next year! For today, we have a President-Elect who is the same age as this writer ... and perhaps a few years behind our Moderator. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 [Moderator's Note: Well alright, make it the President-Elect then. And yes, he is a few years 'behind' me. My vacation ended too soon and was not nearly long enough. I need another one! We'll see if I can make it for a month without another three day weekend. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #878 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa07763; 1 Dec 92 0:09 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05011 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Nov 1992 21:48:52 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28541 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Nov 1992 21:48:29 -0600 Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1992 21:48:29 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212010348.AA28541@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #879 TELECOM Digest Mon, 30 Nov 92 21:48:30 CST Volume 12 : Issue 879 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Email to Prodigy (James S. Vera) Re: Email to Prodigy (Ed Ravin) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (John Adams) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (Maxime Taksar) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Bob Turner) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (James M. Rendt) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Bob Frankston) Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? (John Higdon) Re: Seven Digit Billing/Repair Service Numbers (John Higdon) Re: Ten Digit Dialing in Oregon (Randal L. Schwartz) Re: Use Coins For Your Next Call? (John R. Levine) International Premium Teleservices (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: vera@fanaraaken.Stanford.EDU (James S. Vera) Subject: Re: Email to Prodigy Organization: Program Analysis and Verification Group, Stanford University Date: 30 Nov 92 06:42:39 GMT ss@panix.com (Steve Steinberg) writes: > Prodigy _is_ planning an Internet gateway that should be available by > the end of the year. Evidently they will demand $20/mo. for the > priviledge of e-mail. I have no idea of what their Internet address > is now. Did you try something@prodigy.com? Maybe info or admin or > postmaster?? prodigy.com is a registered domain but it doesn't seem to have an address or mail handler. Info: (from whois) Prodigy Services Company (PRODIGY-DOM) 445 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 Domain Name: PRODIGY.COM Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Welch, Dave (DW215) [No mailbox] (914) 243-1150 James S. Vera | Internet | Voice: +1.415.723.1089 Stanford University | vera@anna.stanford.edu | FAX: +1.415.725.7398 ------------------------------ From: elr%trintex@uunet.UU.NET (Ed Ravin) Subject: Re: Email to Prodigy Organization: Prodigy Services Co. Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1992 17:53:02 GMT In article xdab@midway.uchicago.edu writes: > The last I knew the people who ran Prodigy were not hooked into any > other network, nor were they going to be in the future. No longer true -- Prodigy is setting up an Internet email gateway even as we speak, which will be online in the next few months. The gateway address will be @prodigy.com. Disclaimer: I work as a telecommunications programmer for Prodigy, not a spokesman. Ed Ravin- elr@trintex.uucp elr%trintex@uunet.uu.net +1-914-993-4737 my opinions, nobody else's ------------------------------ From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 17:06:06 GMT In article lairdb@crash.cts.com writes: > In deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g. > lewis) writes: >> Not exactly correct. SS7 TCAP supports a "query" message. > Will there be a way (legitimately) for an end user (perhaps an ISDN > user?) to issue SS7 messages? For example, could I take my ISDN card > and send these "query" messages and receive the responses? > (All this assumes I move out of PatheticBell territory, so I can get > ISDN at all ...) I am *definetely* not speaking for BELLCORE (Or any of the Regional Exchange Companies) when I say that I see no "OPEN ARCHITECTURE" access to SS7 messages in the near future. No one knows what such bodies as CONAP (Committee on Open Network Architecture Policy) might be able to achieve, but the prospect of customers being able to launch queries and receive responses appear rather bleak. For openers, the fundamental design of Common Channel Signaling (CCS) or Signalling System 7 (SS7) does not *CURRENTLY* support the concept of a subscriber's customer premises equipment (be it ISDN compliant or not) functioning as a Signalling End Point (SEP). SEPs are: Switches (Be they local, tandem, IXC, etc); Signalling Transfer Points (STPs which bear many similar characteristics to packet switches); and Service Control Points (SCPs can be viewed as sophisticated databases). Don't get me wrong, SS7 does "come close" to the ISO/OSI model (A few levels/functions combine at levels 4-7) and thus is extensible to that which you propose. As a matter of fact, the D channel signalling information is continued between ISDN switching offices at an application level known as ISDN User Part (ISUP for short), which sits on top of the bottom three layers (Message Transfer Part or MTP) of the SS7 protocol. Oh yes, lest I forget, Network Security and individual rights might also auger against the capabilities you suggest (I personally think it would be neat however ... but then again I voted for Perot!). Jack (John) Adams Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 16:37:39 -0800 From: mmt@RedBrick.COM (Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? In article , Jack.Winslade@ivgate. omahug.org (Jack Winslade) writes: > This reminds me of a strange quirk I noticed years ago on 'dial tone > first' coin phones connected to the early #1 ESS offices. > Normally, when dialing a local number without depositing any coins, a > recording 'The call you have made requires a 10 cent deposit ...' > would be returned. (This also shows you how long ago this was.) > However, when dialing a BUSY number within the same ESS switch as the > coin phone, a busy signal would be returned immediately instead of the > intercept recording. I remember using this a couple of times when > trying to get through to a persistently busy number. When the busy > condition cleared, the intercept was presented, and I would simply > deposit the dime and redial. Entertainingly enough, this trick still works on the 1AE that serves my parents' home. I'll therefore make the wild assumption that all Pac*Bell coin phones served off of 1AEs will behave the same way. I haven't had a chance to try this out on any of the local 5Es, but I will. I'll post my findings unless John beats me to it :-) Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS mmt@RedBrick.COM ------------------------------ From: turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu (Bob Turner) Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Organization: Univ. of Dayton, School of Engineering Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1992 17:19:51 GMT In article karl@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch) writes: > Can anyone tell me why the 911 systems can not detect at least a > approximate location of a cellular caller? Ugly question, ugly answer. Yes and no. Yes, especially newer switches can narrow it down (still not precise). However with most of the 911 equipment in PSAPs there is no way to get it there anyway. About all that can be determined is that it is a cellular call. > It seems at least the "servicing" cell site could be transmitted so > the police could at least guess. With a little help from a "neighboring" > cell cite couldn't they calculate a postion? Getting the information to the police: As far as determining location someone with more cellular background can answer that. > Also, has anyone thought about the "potential" for 911 abuse on a cell > phone? With no accountability a person could make all sorts of false > reports. It looks bad on the surface. However, at dispatch centers that have software to allow history look ups based on calling number, the dispatcher can get a handle on problem individuals. Bob Turner Senior System Engineer 513-434-2738 turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu CommSys, Inc. 77 West Elmwood Drive, Suite 101, Dayton, OH 45459 ------------------------------ From: rendt+@pitt.edu (James M Rendt) Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Date: 1 Dec 92 00:50:28 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh On the abuse note, I have a question. If your cellular phone is stolen, can the thief call 911 after it's reported? A cellphone without a owner and only free calls to 911 could pose a damage to the system. Or worse yet, if they arrest you for that persons abuse being that you "own" the phone or something ... you may laugh, but stranger things have happened even here in America ... James Rendt -- rendt@unix.cis.pitt.edu - Send Encrypted Mail: Finger for PGP. ------------------------------ From: Bob_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Date: Mon 30 Nov 1992 16:15 -0400 This past weekend I tried *SP which gets the State Police in Massachusetts while driving in the Bronx in NY. When that didn't work I tried 0 and they connected me to the appropriate people for reporting traffic problems. Alas, the person taking the call hadn't heard of I-95. I tried to explain to her where it was ... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 01:15 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) writes: > The question is whether there is a card that doesn't charge an initial > surcharge each time you use it. For most cards, when you use them you > pay between 40 cents and $1.25 plus what the direct dial rate for the > call would have been. Someday this scam may disappear. Since no operator is involved with most calling card calls, there is no extra cost to the carrier when one is placed. It is all handled automatically in the same billing system that prepares your monthly dialed-calls statement. The carriers charge this extortion because they can and so far the public lays down for it. Another carrier bamboozle is the concept of quantity discounts when applied to customers who have dedicated access. Normally a carrier is charged an "access fee" by the LEC when a call is made, regardless of whether the call is completed or not. This access charge is factored into the rates. In the case of dedicated access, the access charges are picked up 100% by the customer, so all of the call charge is kept by the carrier. In essence, every call charged for by a carrier from dedicated trunks is gravy; money the carrier did not have before. But these slimeballs still have all these complex quantity discount pricing structures, primarily to disguise what the bottom line rate really is. For the past several weeks, I have been actively shopping for bulk long distance. I feel as though I have been shopping for an automobile. The last thing a salesman wants to tell you is the bottom line per minute cost of his service. Instead, he asks, "What are you currently spending on long distance?", or "where do you call the most?", or "which plans are you currently using on ____?" If I could get in-band non-ISDN realtime ANI delivery from AT&T I would be done with all of this and just place the order with Mother herself. When all is said and done, it usually turns out that AT&T has the best rates anyway. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 [Moderator's Note: Mother always did have the best rates. MCI's early success was based in large part on their fraudulent misrepresentation of their rates as they applied to the 'bottom line' costs for telephone service. They sold their service in the early days (1974-77 period) by telling large companies their long distance bill would be X percent less. Of course they neglected to point out that (in those days) all calls had to go through their dialup gateways, and there would be a local message unit charge from telco for each and every LD call via MCI, whether or not the distant end answered! MCI really suckered a lot of corporate executives back in those days who should have known better. So LD costs went down X percent and local call charges went up at least as much, offsetting the so-called savings and as often as not making the 'bottom line' for a company's telecom costs higher than they had been. At least in the old days, AT&T and the local telco gave you a free ride to the nearest toll switch; yes, they factored all the costs into their rates, but it was transparent to the telephone user and no one made any false claims about 'cheaper LD rates'. So MCI still recruits used car dealers as sales representatives, eh John? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 00:05 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Seven Digit Billing/Repair Service Numbers Joe.Bergstein@f544.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Bergstein) writes: > I often had this problem attempting to reach Pacific Bell Business > offices from out of state. As Telecom. Mgr. for a nationwide company > I had to contact Pac Bell business offices regarding billing errors > and service orders etc. for firm's office in CA. Well the invoices > from PacBell indicate to call the business office, one should dial > 811-XXXX, which are dialable (as indicated in Eli.Mantel's) message > only from the service area. Not quite true. While what I am about to reveal does not help you from out of state, Pac*Bell's '811' numbers are reachable from virtually any telephone in the state of California, not just from the service area involved and not just from Pac*Bell phones. '811' numbers can be called from GTE and Contel areas without difficulty. > I noted that it wouldn't be very hard for PacBell's programmers to > modify the billing programs so that on bills which had an out of state > zipcode, that the "10 digit DDD" number be listed instead of the > 811-xxxx number. On several occasions, I asked the CSR to submit a > request to PacBell's MIS department, but of course nothing ever > happened. Oh, you are intimately familiar with Pac*Bell's billing programs? And you believe that asking a rep to have something as fundamental as company-wide billing software changed will result in some kind of action? Since you are so familiar with the billing software and its capabilities and limitations, why don't you just call one of your friends in MIS and get it done? :-) I would suggest that perhaps you might call DA, get the 800 number and then write it down. As an in-state Pac*Bell customer, I enjoy the 811 numbers. They are easy to remember, calls to them complete instantly, and for those few customers such as yourself out of state, the slight inconvenience of finding an alternate number is not of much concern. I had to go 'round Robin Hood's barn trying to get a number to reach a rep at Illinois Bell the first time I called. But I finally got an 800 number and wrote it down. No problem, and I did not ask the rep to have the billing software rewritten to accomodate my special needs. > BTW, the best billing and business office contact listings were, I > believe, on US West invoices which provided an 800 number to contact > business office from out of state. From what I hear about US West and some of its tariffs, that may be the only thing good about its bills. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: merlyn@ora.com (Randal L. Schwartz) Subject: Re: Ten Digit Dialing in Oregon Organization: Stonehenge Consulting Services; Portland, Oregon, USA Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1992 00:59:40 GMT In article cmoore@BRL.MIL (VLD/VMB) writes: > What does this mean? Local calls within own area code are seven > digits (no change in this method), and you have to inquire locally > about local calls to a different area code. Using 1 + NPA + 7D for > within-area long distance does have the advantage of retaining > "leading 1 = toll call", because the alternative would be to remove > the leading 1 from 1 + 7D, as happened in area 215 in Pennsylvania. We don't have "local calls to a different area code" anywhere around here. Thus, it was probably simpler to retrain people to "add 503 for in-state long distance" than it was to say "1 now mean area code follows". And in this forum, I argued a while back that "1" should continue to mean long distance so I don't inadvertently go blabbering when I call an in-area-code number that is toll. But now that my modem programs can't tell when to send "1" or not, I'm beginning to see why everywhere *but* the Pacific Northwest has probably done it right with "1 means area code follows". :-) Just another portable computer user (and native Oregonian for 31 years), Randal L. Schwartz / Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 merlyn@ora.com (semi-permanent) merlyn@reed.edu (for newsreading only) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Use Coins For Your Next Call? Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 30 Nov 92 22:37:26 EST (Mon) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) > Use COINS to place your next call and SAVE up to 50% over calling > cards. Call the 48 States; deposit $1 for 3 minutes for calls outside > this calling area. Hey, many of the COCOTs around here charge 25 cents/minute for interstate toll calls. That's quite competitive with AT&T's dial day rate for calls across the country. It eats a quarter a minute, you can put in up to four quarters ahead, and it says it'll give back the ones it hasn't eaten at the end. It charges 25 cents for five minutes or so for a local call, which is not great since real payphones only charge a dime. 0+ calls are supposed to be charged at AT&T rates, but the bong is from someone else so I haven't tried to find out what the real story is. But they without a doubt offer the the best deal I've ever seen from a COCOT. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 0:01:10 EST From: cmoore@BRL.MIL Subject: International Premium Teleservices It would be interesting to see what phone numbers in Australia are used. As I write this I recall there was some blurb in this Digest a while ago which included a phone number? Other cases appearing in the Digest were: 1. a gay party line in the Netherlands Antilles (the number was +599-6868). 2. some numbers on the 609-490 exchange (Hightstown, NJ) advertised overseas but reachable from within country code 1. 3. some numbers advertised on +1-610 (country code 1 has no area code 610). ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #879 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa09228; 1 Dec 92 0:46 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02795 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 30 Nov 1992 22:35:30 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18789 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Mon, 30 Nov 1992 22:35:01 -0600 Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1992 22:35:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212010435.AA18789@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #880 TELECOM Digest Mon, 30 Nov 92 22:35:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 880 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Two Cellular Phones on the Same Number (Larry P. Stoa) Re: CPC Detection and Purpose (Alan L. Varney) Re: *69 in NJ Bell Land (John Adams) Re: Intercepts and Verifications (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Searching For Simple Two-Line Patch (Paul Cook) Re: Telemarketing Again (Steve Forrette) Re: Ringing My Own Phone (William C. DenBesten) Re: ATT Boing: What is it? (Tim Russell) Re: Characters on International Phone Keypads (Jeffrey Jonas) Re: Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? (Tony Pelliccio) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 12:15:39 EST From: lps@ihlpf.att.com (Larry P Stoa) Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones on the Same Number Organization: AT&T In article ghg@ecn.purdue.edu (George Goble) writes: > I asked what happens when both phones are on and an inbound call comes > in, and "which one rings?". I was told the one which responded first > would "ring", and the other call [phone] would be dropped. This was > not stated, but this may mean they will BOTH RING, and the first one > to answer would get the call, and the other one would drop. [It would > obviously not be a "party line" with multiple portables answering]. Both phones are paged and the first phone to respond to the page will be served and only that phone will alert/ring. > Also [two phone case], I asked them if one tried to call the "other" > phone, and they thought it would work OK, since the switch would know > YOUR ESN was originating the call, and would ring the "other" ESN. No this won't work since the phone is marked busy waiting for answer based on the MIN. The ESN is used for fraud detection And not much else. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 11:26:33 CST From: varney@ihlpl.att.com (Alan L Varney) Subject: Re: CPC Detection and Purpose Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL In article Irving_Wolfe@happy-man.com writes: > Okay, since PAT stepped into this with more information, let me also > expand the question about CPC. > Aspect 1: What _exactly_ is going on, and how does this differ between > modern CO switches and the older ones some of us are forced to endure? > Does the service depend on the switch? Some switches, because of their design, provide varying intervals of open circuit (no current) on loop-start lines when a calling party disconnects (no current at called end) or when the called party disconnects beyond the "timed-disconnect" interval of 10-12 seconds (no current at calling end). This interval might vary with intra- vs. inter-switch calls and might (or might not) appear depending on other factors. For answering machines, the interruption in current after calling party disconnect is commonly called CPC. Note that CPC, if/when it exists, was a side-effect of design, and not a requirement on the CO switch. After all, CO switches were designed to work with "smart" people using tones for call progress information. The more recent use of "smart" CPE on loop-start lines and the use of DC signals by the CPE was not factored into the switch. Only the most recent versions of Bellcore's LSSGR have added a requirement to interrupt line current for about 800 msec. on most forms of far-end disconnect. This won't magically change the way most existing COs work. This is why, in Bellcore's SR-TSV-002275, "BOC Notes on the LEC Networks - 1990", the following paragraph appears: The network currently provides no system-standard release signals on loop-start lines. Even in switching systems that do provide loop current interruption as part of the permanent signal treatment, range-extension equipment will block this signal from reaching the terminal. Therefore, a terminal for loop-start service SHOULD NOT BE DESIGNED TO DEPEND ON LOOP CURRENT INTERRUPTS IN PERMANENT SIGNAL TREATMENT FOR USE AS PRIMARY DISCONNECT SIGNALS. (emphasis mine) Keep in mind that SR-2275 documents how the network works today -- you can't depend on CPC. The LSSGR documents how NEW CO equipment should work -- so that the 800 msec. interruption will become more common. > Aspect 2: More advanced phone systems allow one to set a time in > milliseconds for CPC reaction, without explaining anything about what > this means or how to decide. I guessed that this was a way of having > the phone system dump a dead call, since CPC wouldn't carry through to > an answering machine beneath the (Panasonic 1232) phone system; > failure to dump a dead call results in the CO line being held active > at our end and we eventually get either a nobody-there when someone > answers or else the answering machine gets a message from the local > "telco" saying "your call could not be completed as dialed". > What on earth is the time referring to, and can I set it, somehow, to > eliminate the dead calls from caller hangups that we aren't letting go > of fast enough? Or is my understanding all wrong? You might want to discuss this with your Phone Company; they might be able to arrange your lines for added disconnect processing (longer opens during some incoming or outgoing calls). This will depend on your switch and type of line. If you really want a better interface to a PBX-like switch, also look into the use of "ground-start" lines. These are designed to eliminate most of the problems with the CO-to-CPE interface, including provision for current removal when the CO disconnects from the far-end party. Loop-start lines are marginal at best for a "smart" CPE interface. Ground-start is better, and ISDN is better still. Al Varney - just MY opinion. ------------------------------ From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: Re: *69 in NJ Bell Land Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 18:41:56 GMT In article jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John J Butz +1 908 949 5302) writes: > Here's a puzzler: > The Return Call Class feature (*69) offered by NJ Bell will call back > the number of the last person to call your phone. (When used to > screen calls can be considered a poor man's Caller ID). > When my friend Ali calls me from his home across town (intra-lata), > *69 after his call will ring his phone, as expected with $.75 applied > to my bill. > When my parents call me from NY (inter-lata), *69 after their call > will play an announcement that says, "You cannot activate this > feature, since the number is outside the class calling area." No bill > is generated for this call. > When I place a call from an intra-lata payphone to reset the > "register," *69 from my home phone will ring the payphone. > However, when I place a call from an intra-lata payphone using a > calling card, *69 will give me the inter-lata "... cannot active this > feature ..." message? Go figure. > Return Call also does not work on my Centrex-ISDN phone in the office. > Does anyone (Bellcore folks perhaps) know the complete specs for the > operation of this feature? Having just spoken with John Butz (Whom I had confused with an old friend, Jim Butz), allow me to offer a plausible scenario: Automatic Recall (AR), as it officially designated in TR-TSY-000227 (Bellcore Requirements) for this CLASS (sm) feature, requires SS7 interoffice connectivity end-to-end in order to function on interoffice calls. In the first case (John's friend calling intra-lata to him), AR works: A) Because both John and his friend are served by the same office or B) Because of Bell Atlantic's high (>95%) deployment of SS7 interoffice trunking. In the second case, John's parents calling inter-lata to him, AR didn't work because SS7 interconnection does not currently exist between NJBell and AT&T. The third and fourth cases are examples of public telephone (Coin) call handling. When calling intra-lata, or inter-lata for that matter, using coins at a pay station, the local end office completes the intra-lata call using inter-office (most likely SS7) trunks. However, when attempting a call using a calling card (known as 0+ dialing), the call is routed to an office (usually a tandem) with Operator Services functionality (OSPS or TOPs or ...) to establish calling card validity and call routing (completion). Now for the hypothesis ... I suspect that not all of that particular TANDEM to end office trunks are SS7. Thus, the connection is completed via Multi Frequency trunks without the ANI being passed. The good news is that interconnection of LECs and IXCs is progressing nicely and that FCC Docket 86-10 will hasten the full deployment of SS7 within LECs. In the mean time, anomalies such as John observed will occur. I have to pass on why AR doesn't work with the Holmdel 5E ISDN/Centrex line. Could it be that Holmdel is among the <5% MF trunks in NJBell land? Any NJBell ESAC folks on the net want to comment here? Jack (John) Adams Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 08:29:49 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Intercepts and Verifications In TELECOM Digest Volume 12 : Issue 872 paul@migs.shecora.sai.com (Paul Migliorelli) writes: > I'm aware that for certain parts of New York Telephone, (areas 212 516 > 914 and 718), the 9901 suffix is used for digital switch verification > readouts. One thing that should be pointed out is that not all exchanges in the 516 Area Code respond to the 9901 number. Some of the responses I've received are: "We're sorry, the number you are trying to dial cannot be reached ..." "We're sorry, the number XXX-9901 is not in service at this time ..." "We're sorry, the number XXX-9901 has been disconnected ..." These responses were for valid exchanges when I attempted to obtain the appropriate CO. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 19:45 GMT From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Searching For Simple Two-Line Patch Jerry Glomph Black writes: > I'm facing a situation where I'll have two phone lines, one with > decent dial-out capabilities, another with none. I want to be able to > call in to the latter, be patched to the former, and be able to dial > out on the capable line using tones generated by my distant handset. > This patching is preferably triggered by keying some security code. > I vaguely remember seeing a fairly cheap box (Radio Shack? Hello > Direct?) which would do this task. This weekend I checked both > catalogs, and found nothing like this. Please post answer, and email > to black@LL.MIT.EDU I think the devices that Radio Shack and Hello Direct sold would answer a ringing line, and then autodial a pre-programmed number on the other line. This was a rudimentary form of call-forwarding, and could be remotely re-programmed. For what you are trying to do, Proctor has the 46300F3 version of the Secured System Access Line. Instead of requiring a security code before ringing forward into a modem (like the F2 version of this product for modem security, discussed in previous issues of TELECOM Digest), this one answers on the first line and requires a DTMF security code, then seizes an outgoing line, and also provides an internal voice-frequency repeater. When the outgoing line is seized, the caller can dial forward. It can also be set up with dialback security. Contact Proctor & Associates via any of the routes below for more info. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5317 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 14:49:33 -0800 From: Steve Forrette Subject: Re: Telemarketing Again Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) writes: > The technical issue of delivering the calling parties number from what > was once a 800 dialed number to that of a 900 number has probably > several possible explanations. A couple of simple possiblities are: > o- remote call forwarding > o- 800 SCP database returns a 900 number > A very real problem for telcos, remote call forwarding presents all > kinds of hassles. If you lived in Washington and dialed a long > distance 800+ friend who had their Remote Call Forwarding (RCF) > activated to another number, the actual number (CLID) delivered to the > far end would be YOUR telephone number, not the friends. This is > intentional. Therefore if your friend happened to RCF to a 900 > number, guess what could be used for a billing number? But 900 billing is not based on Caller ID; it's based on ANI. This is one of the big answers to the question "what's the difference between Caller ID and ANI?" For a forwarded call, Caller ID will show the number of the originating party, but ANI will show the number of the forwarding party. So, if someone forwards their number to a 900 number, either through regular or remote call forwarding (as offered by LECs), the forwarding party gets the bill for the 900 call. This rules out your first possibility above. From what John Higdon said in a previous response to my original message, it looks like the second possibility above is the answer, courtesy of our friends at AT&T. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: denbeste@enigma.bgsu.edu (William C DenBesten) Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone Reply-To: denbeste@enigma.bgsu.edu Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1992 23:46:02 GMT haydedr@wkuvx1.bitnet (Ross Hayden) writes: > My question is this: Is there a way to find out a number I can dial > that will make my phone ring? TELECOM Moderator noted: > [...There is no standard. Perhaps someone familiar with Bowling Green will > write you with details. PAT] I came in late, and the original article had expired ... In Bowling Green, Ohio -- (419)-352, (419)-353, (419)-354 -- you simply dial your number, listen to the "You have dialed a party on your own line ..." mesage and hang up. Your phone will ring back moments later. William C. DenBesten is denbeste@bgsu.edu or denbesten@bgsuopie.bitnet ------------------------------ From: trussell@cwis.unomaha.edu (Tim Russell) Subject: Re: ATT Boing: What is it? Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 00:02:55 GMT Barton F. Bruce writes: > It includes the number to knock off any tone to pulse converters that > may be on the line. I think that other than that, it is just distinctive > for humans to recognize. No, I don't know what the tones are, but while installing a friend's new Practical Peripherals 14.4k modem, I noticed that an "@" sign in the number to dial instructs the modem to wait for the credit card bong. I would say that it definitely has a set tone and duration. Tim Russell Omaha, NE trussell@unomaha.edu [Moderator's Note: I've got a Telebit T-1600 modem (9600 baud) and one of the response codes on it is 'NO BONGTONE' or something similar. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 20:07:20 EST From: jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (jeffj) Subject: Re: Characters on International Phone Keypads > I know to be on U.S. dials is "U.S. variant 1", which has no > representation for Q and Z (thus, when someone ran a telephone poll > regarding the major U.S. vice-presidential nominees in 1988 and told > callers to hit B for Bentsen or Q for Quayle, the poll failed for lack > of the letter Q). It took me a while to realize why all the chatter about where the letters are on a phone dial. a) There is a Meridian voice system that asks you to type in the letters of the person's name. Unless the system knows what country you're calling from, the mapping will go astray. This certainly shields Mr. Quayle from any calls! (The system collects only as many digits as necessary to distinguish the names). b) If my phone number is (212) JEFFREY, then it's possible that "E" maps to a different number is another country. Someone calling me from abroad may not know the correct all numeric phone number. Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com [Moderator's Note: Sorry if this causes Danforth to receive a few extra phone calls, but I thought most voicemail systems allowing alpha searching of names say to 'use the digit 1 for Q or Z ...' PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 13:42:00 EST From: Tony Pelliccio Subject: Re: Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? I believe the wires are still there, just ALL buried. I know here in Providence if you walk along the railroad tracks there are all these big orange no-dig markers with AT&T logos on them. :) Nothing like telling someone who wants to wreak havoc with the LD network where the cables to cut are! Tony Pelliccio pjj125 @ uriacc.uri.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #880 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa19761; 1 Dec 92 4:38 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24152 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 1 Dec 1992 02:37:28 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24613 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 1 Dec 1992 02:37:09 -0600 Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 02:37:09 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212010837.AA24613@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #881 TELECOM Digest Tue, 1 Dec 92 02:37:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 881 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson More Than You Wanted to Know About Distinctive Ringing (John R. Levine) Rights/Laws Regarding 900 Numbers (John Palmer) RCF + 800/900 Delivers What to Who? (Laird Broadfield) The "GTE" in "Mobilnet" (John Higdon) Cellular RJ-11 Jacks (James M. Rendt) 10-NJB (Jeffrey Jonas) OBT and an Interesting Sales Pitch (Rob Knauerhase) 701-582 Gone? (Carl Moore) Looking for Outdials (Andrew B. Haigh) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: More Than You Wanted to Know About Distinctive Ringing Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 19:12:15 EST From: John R. Levine Lots of responses this time, as well as finding some old messages I'd lost. There are a few ??? still to be filled in. -- What is Distinctive Ringing? It is a telephone service that assigns several different phone numbers to the same line. Its true name is "Multiple Directory Numbers Per Line With Distinctive Ringing". Each number rings in a different cadence (single, double, and triple ring) so you can tell which number the caller called. The maximum number of numbers per line varies by telco, but can be as high as four. You can think of it as a party line where all the parties are you. The price is usually quite low: around here it's $3/month for the second number and $2/month for the third. You generally have the option of listing the extra numbers or not. (Note to Massachusetts customers: NET orignally said I had to pay extra to have them unlisted, but the DPU persuaded them that they were mistaken.) -- What is it good for? All sorts of things. One use is for people with home businesses, so you can answer one ring "Hello" and the other "Thank you for calling Bagel-tronics." Another is to share a single line among several devices such as faxes and modems. For this use, you'll want a ring leader, below. It is also useful as a way to defeat Caller ID. The C-ID number sent on outgoing calls is always the first number so you could assign the first number to your modem, or let an answering machine pick up calls to the first number and tell your friends to call the second number. Some allege that it's useful to distinguish between calls to parents and calls to teenage children, but given the way teenagers use the phone (call every possible number where a friend might be and talk for hours) it's no substitute for a second line. -- Can I use it as a fax switch? That's what I use it for. I find it works better than the usual fax switches. It doesn't depend on answering the phone and listening for fax tones which not all faxes generate, so it never guesses wrong. Besides, you get a separate fax number which looks much more official. -- What happens if I also have call waiting? When a call comes in, the beep is in the same pattern as the ring, so you know which number it is. At least, that's what's supposed to happen. Apparently, they sometimes forget to set up the beeps right. -- How do I order it? You call up the business office, of course. For some reason, each telco gives it a different name. The ones I know are: NYNEX Ring Mate Bell Atlantic Identa Ring Southern Bell Ring Master Ameritech ??? SW Bell Personalized Ring US West Custom Ringing Pac Tel not available, see below GTE Smart Ring Technically, distinctive ringing can be installed on 1A and newer AT&T exchanges and other modern units. A software upgrade is required (it's almost but not quite the same as a party line) so there are many areas in which it's still not available even though the exchange would seem to support it. Note for Pac Bell customers: Pac Tel has a service which they call "distinctive ringing" which is completely different. Their service is a home centrex which rings differently for inside and outside calls. If you try to order distinctive ringing, be sure you know what you're getting. -- Can I automatically connect to different devices for different rings? Yes. That's what a "ring leader" does. It is a box that has a modular cord that plugs into the phone line and several modular jacks into which the devices plug. When the phone rings, it listens to the first ring cycle and then connects to one of the devices depending on which ring pattern it was. The ring leader itself never answers the phone -- it just connects to a phone, fax, modem, etc., which answers the call normally. For outgoing calls, ring leaders act as exclusion units and only let one of the devices connect to the line at a time. Excluded devices hear either a busy signal or a silence. Many vendors sell ring leaders. Here's a summary of the ones I know about, along with the names of the people providing reports. I have an Autoline Plus fro ITS in Endicott NY. +1 607 754 6310. It connects up to three devices. Mine has been entirely reliable. I paid about $80 but the price is more like $120 now. (John Levine ) Misco now has a unit that will do just that. It is called the Ring Decipher (misco part #fl-3622). The only other identification in the ad is "ASAP RD-4000". I'd like to know who makes it, and alternate sources. Supposedly, it will provide a standard ring signal on any one of the four outputs determined by the incoming ring pattern. Price $99. (Bill Petrisko ) My first Lynx Automation box didn't work but their beta replacement worked. Four pattern model. I bought another one that my brother had problems with but I haven't hooked it up here yet so I dunno. I notice that Lechmere [local discount department store] is selling the two line Lynx at a nonoutragous price ($69 or $79 which is about what Lynx charges direct. (Bob Frankston ) I use a ASAP RD4000 Ring Decipher made by Command Communications Inc of Aurora CO. It cost $100 at a trade show. It decodes four different patterns. When one of the devices has the line, the other devices get a busy signal if they try to access the box. It has worked flawlessly for the last nine months. I had a bad experience with a box called RingMaster made by Lucas Technologies of Beacon NY. It failed repeatedly and the maker wouldn't do anything about the problems until I cornered them at a trade show and made a large noise. They bought the box back for $100. I had only paid $80! That was the only good experience with Lucas' RingMaster. (John Adams ) The call route box (avail from Home Automation Lab at 1-800-HOMELAB) or the RD1000 from mailorder (this is the one I have) doesn't even pass ring voltage to the connected lines until after the end of the first ring and it has determined which number was called; therefore, you never even hear the phone ring unless they are calling the authorized number. (Carl Neihart ) Black Box's September 1992 catalog lists a product called DRD-4 that automatically routes distinctive ring services from one incoming phone line to up to four devices. $ 139. Phone 1-412-746-5500. (Marc Kozam ) -- Can I build my own ring leader? Probably. Several people expressed interest in coming up with a design, but nobody's told me about one yet. Thanks to: petrisko@evax2.engr.arizona.edu (William Petrisko) barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) lars@CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg) petrisko@evax2.engr.arizona.edu (William Petrisko) Bob_Frankston@frankston.com johna@a-k.boston.ma.us (John Adams) TERRY@spcvxa.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy) tmatimar@empress.com (Ted M A Timar) neihart@ga.com (Carl Neihart) mmaster@parnasus.dell.com (Michael Masterson) "Wm. Bryant Faust, IV" neihart@ga.com (Carl Neihart) mlksoft!kozam@rutgers.edu Steve Forrette [Moderator's Note: All those names can be confusing. Ameritech (Illinois Bell, at least) says 'distinctive ringing' is when your CO has been advised of up to ten telephone numbers which, when they call you are to be given the red carpet; ie, they, and they alone are to cause your phone to ring with a special cadence to let you know (for example) the boss is calling, or your parents, etc. On the other hand, 'Multi-line' is the service discussed in John's article where more than one number is assigned to a single line with different ringing cadences as appropriate. 'Starline' is IBT's 'home centrex' service which provides a different ring for calls from within and without your premises. I use my 'Multi-line' service as a way for my 800 numbers to ring in. The two short rings tell me it is my nickle paying for the call. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: tygra!jp@destroyer.rs.itd.umich.edu Date: Mon Nov 30 02:14:17 1992 From: jp@tygra.Michigan.COM (John Palmer) Subject: Rights/Laws Regarding 900 Numbers Organization: CAT-TALK Conferencing System Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1992 07:13:18 GMT My nephew, a four-year old, got hold of my brother's telephone and ran up $150 in 900 bills. Michigan Bell, upon hearing this, removed the charges. Now the sleazebag 900 company turned the matter over to a collection agency. Question: Can they legally collect this? Does my brother owe this money to them? What is the (federal/Michigan) law regarding 900 numbers? I'd appreciate pointers to laws which regulate this. They wrote the collection company telling them that no authorized person made the calls, but the collection agency is persisting and is threatening to report them to TRW, etc. This is no good as they will be applying for a mortgage soon. Thanks in advance. John Palmer jp@michigan.com E-MAIL: jp@michigan.com CAT-TALK IS BACK as a FREE SYSTEM!! 313-882-2209 300-14400 V.32/V.32BIS/TurboPEP Anon-UUCP: System: tygra, Login: nuucp, no pw [Moderator's Note: There is good news and bad news. The rule that 'a subscriber is responsible for the use of his instruments' only applies to the subscriber's relationship with telco ... not with third party vendors. So telco has no claim on your brother, nor does the third party vendor, in this case an information provider. The information provider's claim is against the person who availed himself of the 'information' provided, in this case, a minor. A contract does not have to be written on paper; a contract can exist only by a verbal exchange between parties. A contract can exist when a sign is hanging on a wall and someone sees the sign but continues the transaction. As the 'Private Citizen' man (Bulmash) points out, if I advertise that I intend to charge you for my time spent conversing on the telephone and you go ahead and call me, then I can charge you and force you to pay. Since the information provider provided his services, he is entitled to payment from the person who used his services. Since he is entitled to receive payment, he is entitled to use the services of a collection agency to effect payment if that is his choice. But his claim is against a four year old minor child. It is not impossible to bind the parents of a minor to obligations incurred by the minor, but it is quite difficult. Usually contracts entered into by minors are considered unenforceable. The exceptions are when the merchandise delivered or services rendered are necessary for the minor's well-being. If your child -- without your knowledge or permission -- eats in a restaurant or stays in a hotel (and cannot pay), then you are responsible for the bill, because food and shelter are necessary for your child's well-being. If your child -- without your knowledge or permission -- buys clothing then you are sometimes responsible since clothing is necessary in our lives. If your child purchases a 'luxury item' i.e. a television set or a computer, then on legal challenge, the merchant loses. You are obligated under the law to provide food, clothing and shelter for your child; you are not obligated to buy him a computer or television. Nor, I might add, are you obliged to provide your child with '900 type' phone services as part of your obligation regards his well-being. An expensive fur coat versus a cloth coat? ... school books versus comic books? A month in an elegant hotel versus an overnight stay in the YMCA? This is the stuff of which lawsuits are made; a judge will listen and decide the degree to which the contract is enforceable against the parents. I doubt your brother's case would even get that far. And as for TRW, tell him not to worry, it is quite unlikely this will be recorded, and even less likely that a mortgage lender would care. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lairdb@crash.cts.com Subject: RCF + 800/900 Delivers What to Who? Date: 30 Nov 92 14:45:12 GMT In rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash) writes: [...how did Mystic et al. bill a 900 from an 800...?] > A very real problem for telcos, remote call forwarding presents all > kinds of hassles. If you lived in Washington and dialed a long > distance 800+ friend who had their Remote Call Forwarding (RCF) > activated to another number, the actual number (CLID) delivered to the > far end would be YOUR telephone number, not the friends. This is > intentional. Therefore if your friend happened to RCF to a 900 > number, guess what could be used for a billing number? TR-394 allows > the delivery of this number to the IXC? One would hope that these > possiblities have been regulated out of existance? Wait, what? First off, isn't CLID *purely* a SS7 feature, and that should read "ANI"? Secondly, does the above say that if I RCF a POTS number to an 800, the ANI delivered will be the original originator, not the line that is RCF'ed? That's worth the 800 service right there, particularly for those of us whose PUC's aren't CLID-friendly. This goes against a lot of what I thought about how RCF works, can somebody verify? (My 800s don't have realtime delivery, so it would take me a while to check it myself.) (I really didn't mean this post to be acronym-soup (TLA-soup?) intentionally, I swear! Really, I didn't. TTFN!) Laird P. Broadfield lairdb@crash.cts.com ...{ucsd, nosc}!crash!lairdb ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 08:33 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: The "GTE" in "Mobilnet" I just had my first altercation with GTE Mobilnet, indicating that its GTE parentage is finally showing through. As you know, I have been most satisfied with my cellular service from the company and have been convinced that it must be a maverick GTE company since it provides good service and accurate billing. But GTE must be clamping down. I have two accounts (phone in truck; handheld in pack). Each month on the twenty-fifth I write a check for the sum of the two statements, write the amount paid for each number on each stub, then enclose and mail in one envelope. This past October, however, the minimum-wage help in the envelope opening department credited the entire check to one account. Then the GTE mean machine cranked up. Just after the twentieth of November, I got a computer-generated letter telling me that my "payment has not been received". A call to the business office reveals the problem and I am assured that it will be straightened out. Then day before yesterday I get a very sternly-worded letter telling me that unless I pay up immediately, my service will be disconnected. Another call to the business office assures me that everything is in order. But what about that threatening letter? "Oh, we have no control over that. It is generated by computer." I strongly suggested that they take back their business from The Computer. (I have computers; they are tools. They do not RUN my business.) I then suggested that it would be a shame to lose a customer of over five years because of a rogue computer and was supersilliously told that "it is handled by another department and we have no control". The company is run by aliens from Andromeda? Anyway, it turns out that GTE Mobilnet's "Thousand Oaks" is Dallas, TX. Apparently, as in its telco counterpart, only incompetent boobs are employed there guaranteeing constant screwups. Think I am kidding? Last week's rep suggested that in the future I should mail my payment to the nearby Pleansanton office rather than Dallas if I wanted proper credit. She suggested that the droids in Texas have a problem with anything out of the ordinary such as one check paying two accounts. Sounds like GTE to me. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: rendt+@pitt.edu (James M Rendt) Subject: Cellular RJ-11 Jacks Date: 1 Dec 92 00:57:58 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh I noticed in a laptop magazine that there is a new device to plug your pocket modem into one end, and the other into the 'expansion' jack on handheld phones (a picture of the Fujitsu Pocket Commander's adapter) was included in the photo. They claim they retail at about $300. Sounds pretty nice to have a jack for an RJ-11 there. Does anyone have more information about the adapter, or a pin-out for my Oki 900 so I could rig a warranty-destroying method of my own . James Rendt -- rendt@unix.cis.pitt.edu - Send Encrypted Mail: Finger for PGP. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 20:04:36 EST From: jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (jeffj) Subject: 10-NJB In Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 874, Message 4 of 16 bbracal@ gandalf.ca (Bob Bracalente) posted: > I tried to dial the call using New Jersey Bell's "Pensy-Link" service > (10652 - some kind of intra-LATA lines between NJ and PA 10-652 is 10-NJB (New Jersey Bell). As previously discussed in TELECOM, the RBOC (Regional Bell Co.) may cross state lines, even a river if there's some reason for that area to be considered local. In northern/central New Jersey, 10-NJB allows me to call parts of NY (212 and 718 area codes) via New Jersey Bell at about $0.09/min (as compared to AT&T's Reach Out America at $0.11/min at night rates). Apparently, 10-NJB allows calls from NJ to PA for particular areas too. It's hard enough to use least-cost routing at home, but what about a portable computer with an auto dialer for both voice and data lines. Is there any hope of creating and maintaining a table of least cost routes, or is that too customer and account specific (ex: what AT&T Reach Out Plan is in effect, time of day, anticipated duration of call, etc.)? Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com ------------------------------ From: Rob Knauerhase Subject: OBT and an Interesting Sales Pitch Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 11:15:02 CST While home for Thanksgiving, my mother asked me some questions about her phone bill. As we were going through it, I noticed a curious extra page of "Important Information" from Ohio Bell. For background, OBT's areas are still mainly (totally?) charged at a flat monthly rate for local calls. However, they are always pushing one or another metered plan, no doubt both because of revenue and hopes of eventually doing away with flat-rate since "there's so little demand." The chart they provided on this extra page (between local charges and LD charges, not a separate insert) was tailored for this phone number. There was a brief paragraph saying how many calls and minutes were spent locally, and the chart which I quote: MONTHLY LOCAL COMPARISON FOR 614-XXX-XXXX If you had: You would have been That is a difference of: billed: CALL PLAN 30 $19.94 $11.39 more (charges based on number of calls you make) FLEXIBLE CALL PLAN $20.03 $11.48 more (charges based on when and where you call, and how long you talk) MINUTE LINE CALL PLAN $15.26 $6.71 more (charges based on time of day and how long you talk) My mom's comment was something like "Well, even I can see that I shouldn't switch." I don't know whether to congratulate OBT on being honest in their dealings or whether to chastise them for not hiring a programmer smart enough to add an if-clause and not talk about all these other options if each would result in a dramatically higher bill for the customer. While my family's usage might be atypical, my intuition says that it probably isn't _that_ far away from the norm. [However, it occurs to me that when/if OBT files to get rid of flat-rate local service, pages and pages of bills bragging "$11.39/month more" might make a good argument to the PUCO ... :) ] Rob Knauerhase University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign knauer@cs.uiuc.edu Dept. of Computer Science, Gigabit Study Group ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Nov 92 0:01:05 EST From: cmoore@BRL.MIL Subject: 701-582 Gone? I thought there was a 701-582 prefix in Golva, North Dakota, but it didn't exist when I checked AT&T. I called directory assistance and found that the post office there is on 701-872 Beach. (Golva was called to my attention because of the presence of present or former prefix 406-589 "West Golva", Montana. ------------------------------ From: ahaigh@unixg.ubc.ca (Andrew B Haigh) Subject: Looking for Outdials Date: 30 Nov 92 06:13:17 GMT Organization: The University of British Columbia I am interested in compiling a list of available outdials. If you know of any please email me. Thank you. haigh@unixg.ubc.ca [Moderators' Note: Outdials for *what*? What sort of service? Do you mean for data networks, voice networks? Or did you mean 'dialups'? There are literally thousands of 'dialups', 'outdials' and 'indials', many of which are private and restricted. If you are just looking for numbers where you can call in then patch yourself out on someone else's nickle to circumvent toll charges, you asked in the wrong forum; you need to pose your question to more Socially Responsible congregations than mine; certain .talk newsgroups come to mind. But in the event I am misunderstanding your request, please tell us your application so we might respond. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #881 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa10112; 2 Dec 92 3:28 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26396 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 2 Dec 1992 00:58:18 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25257 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 2 Dec 1992 00:57:59 -0600 Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 00:57:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212020657.AA25257@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #882 TELECOM Digest Wed, 2 Dec 92 00:58:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 882 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (J. Robert Burgoyne) Re: CPC Detection and Purpose (Harminc Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? (Steve Forrette) Re: Ringing My Own Phone (Rob Knauerhase) Re: Ringing My Own Phone (in Area 716) (v120q4jf@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu) Re: ATT Boing: What is it? (Jim Rees) Re: ATT Boing: What is it? (Ed Greenberg) Re: Email to Prodigy (Rob Boudrie) Re: Cellular RJ-11 Jacks (Jim Rees) Re: CPC Signals (Jon Sreekanth) Re: *69 in NJ Bell Land (Steve Forrette) Re: Three-Slot Coin Station (Todd Lawrence) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: burgoyne@access.digex.com (J. Robert Burgoyne) Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 16:15:15 GMT karl@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch) writes: > Can anyone tell me why the 911 systems can not detect at least a > approximate location of a cellular caller? As I understand it there are two types of systems, landline and wireless. Your outgoing call does not necessarily get dialed out from the nearby cell site. That is how you get such a wide local calling area without tolls. For example, here in Baltimore/Washington, if you are in DC and you dial Baltimore it's a local call. I assume the call is transported to a site in Baltimore, then connected. > My wife and I were involved in an incident were somebody threw > "something" (not sure what but it really made a BANG when it hit) at > our car. We called 911 and had to (of cource) explain our heading > etc. etc. When I've called 911 from my home, they were able to address me by name. That's super-duper Caller-ID. But from my car phone they needed all the information, including the phone number of the car phone. > That might be a tad hard, but, what about the person on the side of > the road that can just barely dial after being SHOT? Is guess they > are out of luck? I guess so. > It seems at least the "servicing" cell site could be transmitted so > the police could at guess. With a little help from a "neighboring" > cell cite couldn't they calculate a postion? The servicing site may be a long way from where you are. Also, you may be very close to a site, but have your call routed through another site because site one is overloaded, out of commission, etc. I'm just glad 911 from the car works. I've stopped to help many people broken down on the side of the road and they are glad too. Robert Burgoyne ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 01 Dec 92 00:58:39 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: CPC Detection and Purpose varney@ihlpl.att.com (Alan L Varney) wrote: > Some switches, because of their design, provide varying intervals > of open circuit (no current) on loop-start lines when a calling party > disconnects (no current at called end) or when the called party > disconnects beyond the "timed-disconnect" interval of 10-12 seconds > (no current at calling end). This interval might vary with intra- vs. > inter-switch calls and might (or might not) appear depending on other > factors. For answering machines, the interruption in current after > calling party disconnect is commonly called CPC. > Note that CPC, if/when it exists, was a side-effect of design, and > not a requirement on the CO switch. After all, CO switches were > designed to work with "smart" people using tones for call progress > information. The more recent use of "smart" CPE on loop-start lines > and the use of DC signals by the CPE was not factored into the switch. Curious. Many many years ago, before answering machines were common, indeed before customer provided equipment was common, the 1Ax key systems knew enough to take a line off hold when that drop in loop current occured. So when you put someone on hold and forgot about them and they eventually hung up, the light would not just keep flashing forever. Now someone in Bell Labs or Western Electric or whoever designed the 1A1/1A2 must have known about this feature of CO lines, and it must have been common enough to be worth implementing support on key systems. I must confess that I am familiar only with the Northern Telecom (or more accurately Northern Electric) versions of these key systems. But I believe they were exact copies of the US systems, from those dim and distant days when NT licensed most of its stuff from the Bell System. Tony Harminc [Moderator's Note: You are correct, and furthermore, you could not just put dialtone on hold ... there had to be an actual connection established. And although the ringing signal on those old key units came from an independent source in the control unit (all it took was one spurt of ringing voltage sent from the CO; the key unit control box relay would take over and generate several more rings), after awhile it would time out and stop, but not necessarily when the calling party disconnected. Sometimes they'd have been gone for several seconds and the key unit would continue to buzz and wink at you only to greet you with dialtone when you went off hook to answer. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 1 Dec 92 00:23:19 -0800 From: Steve Forrette Subject: Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In article Matthew Holdrege writes: > The problem here is that California has no single line tariffs. You > have to order at least two-line Centrex service to get ISDN. That > unfortunate situation should change by next summer (I hope.) Ideally > Pac Bell and GTE will price BRI connections the same as Ameritech has. > About $35 per month and $6 per hour of connect time. Or they could go > really far and price it cheaper. 8-) Even though Pacific Bell requires a minimum of two BRIs, they cost only $29 per month, and data calls are the same as voice calls, which means that a local data call costs only $.60/hour or so. So, let's NOT encourage Pacific Bell to price their data calls like Ameritech! Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: Rob Knauerhase Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone Date: Tue, 01 Dec 92 23:50:56 CST William C. DenBesten writes: > TELECOM Moderator noted: >> [...There is no standard. Perhaps someone familiar with Bowling Green will >> write you with details. PAT] > In Bowling Green, Ohio -- (419)-352, (419)-353, (419)-354 -- you I don't know if PAT will want to start a thread to compile all these, or if someone (not me!) wants to volunteer to collect and submit something to the archives. However, in case anyone cares, here is a "pseudo-standard": For Columbus (Franklin County) OH, ringback numbers are 95x-yyyy where x is [0-9] and yyyy is the last four digits of the phone you are on. For Champaign/Urbana (Champaign County, IBT areas only) IL, ringback numbers are 57x-yyyy, same provisos as above. In both instances, calling the number will result in a new dialtone. Dialing numbers at this point will not break the dialtone. Flash the switchhook (briefly) and you'll get a constant tone. At that, hang up and your phone will ring back. The procedure empirically works for 1AESS and DMS-100 switches in the areas mentioned above. I suspect that it does NOT work for 5ESS as it quit working in (614) 876 when the local suburban paper reported a "switch upgrade" for the Hilliard area. If anyone knows precisely why this works, i.e. what purpose the telco has in implementing it, I'd be very interested in hearing. Also, if there is any rationale for the choice of exchange (I suppose "first three digits" is more accurate in this case) I'd like to know it. In the meanwhile, it serves nicely as an in-home intercom and as a parlor trick to impress people when you're standing near a pay phone. :-) Rob Knauerhase University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign knauer@cs.uiuc.edu Dept. of Computer Science, Gigabit Study Group [Moderator's Note: We had a thread on this, oh, maybe a couple years ago. If someone wants to compile a national list, go to it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: v120q4jf@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Rob B.) Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone (in Area 716) Organization: University at Buffalo Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 15:34:00 GMT Does anyone know how I can ring my own phone in area code (716)? Thanks for the help. Rob v120q4jf@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu ------------------------------ From: rees@pisa.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) Subject: Re: ATT Boing: What is it? Date: 1 Dec 1992 15:17:22 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI Reply-To: Jim.Rees@umich.edu In article , trussell@cwis.unomaha.edu (Tim Russell) writes: [ regarding the "bong tone" ] >> It includes the number to knock off any tone to pulse converters that >> may be on the line. I think that other than that, it is just distinctive >> for humans to recognize. > No, I don't know what the tones are, but while installing a > friend's new Practical Peripherals 14.4k modem, I noticed that an "@" > sign in the number to dial instructs the modem to wait for the credit > card bong. I would say that it definitely has a set tone and > duration. Someone else already posted the exact frequencies and duration, but neglected to explain them. The "bong" is a DTMF "#" followed by decaying dial tone. The "#" will indeed disable pulse converters that are equipped to recognize it. ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: ATT Boing: What is it? Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 00:04:15 GMT In article trussell@cwis.unomaha.edu (Tim Russell) writes: > No, I don't know what the tones are, but while installing a > friend's new Practical Peripherals 14.4k modem, I noticed that an "@" The tones are written up in the Telecom Archives, and I believe were posted here. Based on that post, I made up a .WAV file for windows that makes a good approximation of the bong. I made this digitally rather than recording it. It sounds spiffy. I'll send it to the archives if encouraged to do so. Edward W. Greenberg | Home: +1 408 283 0511 | edg@netcom.com 1600 Stokes St. #24 | Work: +1 408 764 5305 | DoD#: 0357 San Jose, CA 95126 | Fax: +1 408 764 5003 | KM6CG (ex WB2GOH) [Moderator's Note: Sure, send it along to me here for posting in the archives. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: Email to Prodigy Organization: Center For High Perf. Computing of WPI; Marlboro Ma Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 16:13:14 GMT > No longer true -- Prodigy is setting up an Internet email gateway even > as we speak, which will be online in the next few months. The gateway > address will be @prodigy.com. > Disclaimer: I work as a telecommunications programmer for Prodigy, not > a spokesman. A few questions : (a) Will all Prodigy subscribers be reachable, or only those who sign up and pay a surcharge? (b) What will send and recieve costs be for Prodigy users? (c) Will Prodigy censors check incoming/outgoing mail to make sure none of it is "not in the best interests of Prodigy"? rob boudrie rboudrie@chpc.org [Moderator's Note: So the Prodigy email ruckus awhile back is still leaving a bad taste in some people's mouths, I see. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rees@pisa.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) Subject: Re: Cellular RJ-11 Jacks Date: 1 Dec 1992 15:44:26 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI Reply-To: Jim.Rees@umich.edu In article , rendt+@pitt.edu (James M Rendt) writes: > I noticed in a laptop magazine that there is a new device to plug your > pocket modem into one end, and the other into the 'expansion' jack on > handheld phones... This nifty device is made by Spectrum Cellular and is called an Axcell. We got one of the early production models (the manual was photocopied and had big holes where the illustrations should be) and have been very happy with it, although it is a bit pricey. It comes in various models for different phones. I use mine with an OKI 900. The device generates its own dial tone and ring voltage and decodes DTMF. It's very small and light, and runs on a nine-volt battery. The combination of OKI 900, Axcell, and Microcom pocket modem is about 700 grams with batteries. The device is patented. I think the patent is actually held by Tellular, who makes a similar device for larger phones. I'm amazed that you can patent the idea of putting an RJ-11 jack on a telephone. Maybe I should patent the idea of putting a plug on an electric appliance? Actually, I think it is patented in England, where appliances come without the plug and you have to install it yourself. There is also something called an Axsys, which doesn't do DTMF or ring voltage (to get around the license fees?) and connects to a special modem rather than providing a plain RJ-11. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 11:08:12 -0500 From: jon_sree@world.std.com (Jon Sreekanth) Subject: Re: CPC Signals X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 877, Message 7 of 9 > Reference another post about how to use CPC -- The telco generates a > CPC signal when the far end (i.e. who ever you are calling or whoever > called you) hangs up so your equipment (answering machine, PBX, etc.) What about DC interruptions on an outgoing call? I put in loop current detect on a certain circuit, intending it to hang up on an incoming call CPC. It would trip every so often during an outgoing call instead. I found DC interruptions just after dialing the number (heard as a click in the handset), sometimes when the remote called party picked up, sometimes when calling a PBX number and the call got transferred to the person's voice mail. Also, of course, there is "real CPC", when the caller hangs up. Is there any logic to this, or are these just artifacts? (the non-CPC type of dc loss, I mean)? Jon Sreekanth Assabet Valley Microsystems, Inc. Fax and PC products 5 Walden St #3, Cambridge, MA 02140 (617) 876-8019 jon_sree@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: *69 in NJ Bell Land Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 21:27:05 GMT In article jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) writes: > The good news is that interconnection of LECs and IXCs is progressing > nicely and that FCC Docket 86-10 will hasten the full deployment of > SS7 within LECs. Within the past few weeks, I've noticed that call completion times from my home via AT&T are incredibly fast now, a result of what I can only assume is an SS7 interface with the LEC on both ends. I can call from my home phone in Seattle to my parents in northern California, and the call is set up in about 1.5 seconds. The first time I called after the improvement, I was sure that I had reached an intercept. I then compared the setup time for the same call on the other carriers. MCI took four seconds, and Sprint took eight. BTW, the end offices on both sides of the call are 1AESS. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com [Moderator's Note: One file on my desk at the present time involves a client of our firm in Australia. For the past month or so, I've noticed that my calls to 10288-011-613-xxx-xxxx# go through *super* fast. How fast? His phone is ringing about two seconds after my finger leaves the # key. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Three-Slot Coin Station From: todd@valinor.mythical.com (Todd Lawrence) Date: Tue, 01 Dec 92 00:02:07 CST A few weeks ago a gentleman on the Digest posted a message with a question on how to obtain one of the old "three slot" coin stations. After a bit of digging about, I have found a supplier. I believe (actually, I'm quite sure) that these are copies but they look fairly fancy. Also, another person was asking about a headset; these guys sell those also: USAir gift folio (800)424-6255 coin/payphone cat# 6810022 $79.95 headset cat# 6810019 $79.95 Give these folks a call, I'm sure they will send you some information. Todd Lawrence LOD! Communications internet : todd@valinor.mythical.com IMF Acquisition Group uucp : uunet!valinor!todd ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #882 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa13185; 2 Dec 92 5:13 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04313 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 2 Dec 1992 02:36:20 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12966 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 2 Dec 1992 02:36:00 -0600 Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 02:36:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212020836.AA12966@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #883 TELECOM Digest Wed, 2 Dec 92 02:36:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 883 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? (Joel B. Levin) Re: The "GTE" in "Mobilnet" (Steve Glaser) Re: 10-NJB (John R. Grout) Re: International Premium Teleservices (backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL) Re: DigiBoard PC/8e Fails Under Xenix (Dick Flanagan) Re: Headsets etc. (ridder@zowie.zso.dec.com) Re: Looking For Outdials (Andrew B. Haigh) Re: 10-NJB (Jeffrey Jonas) Re: Paging in 708/312 (Bob Frankston) Re: Help on Settling an Argument About Leased T1 Lines (Bruce Sullivan) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? Date: Tue, 01 Dec 92 11:23:10 -0500 From: Joel B Levin Our Moderator adds to Mr. Higdon's discussion: > [Moderator's Note: Mother always did have the best rates. MCI's early > success was based in large part on their fraudulent misrepresentation > of their rates as they applied to the 'bottom line' costs for telephone > service. ... ... and there would be a local message unit charge > from telco for each and every LD call via MCI, In many areas, including all of mine in this period, did not charge message units or had plans available with no message units. > but it was transparent to the telephone user and no one made any > false claims about 'cheaper LD rates'. So MCI MCI has been talking in its TV ads about cheaper LD rates for years. What I think is amusing in all this is that even in its own ads, AT&T admits MCI is cheaper. (It goes on to say of course that it's not cheaper by much and you get "dependable AT&T Service".) So not even AT&T can characterize MCI's claims as "false". JBL (who remains a Sprint customer for now) Internet: levin@bbn.com USPS: BBN Systems and Technologies Division UUCP: levin@bbn.com Mail Stop 6/5A Telco: (617)873-3463 10 Moulton Street N1MNF Cambridge, MA 02138 [Moderator's Note: Of course now that equal access makes it possible to have various carriers for one-plus dialing purposes, there is no longer the requirement for a local call to the carrier's switch, thus my complaint that MCI neglected to mention this extra charge to their early customers is no longer timely. But I do disagree with your claim that many/most places had unmeasured or 'free' local calls in those days. In the early/middle 1970's, MCI served business customers only; they had no residential service. Furthermore, they served only the very large, highly profitable routes such as along the east coast and between Chicago and points east. Their service was not universal. Chicago has always had measured 'unit charges' on local calls for business customers; likewise New York City, another MCI favorite for cream-skimming and big profits in the early days. And your claim that 'even AT&T does not characterize MCI's claims as false' is itself false. For several years during the 1980's they were suing each other; each claiming the other used false advertising tactics. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 1 Dec 92 11:46:17 -0500 From: glaser@dsmail.lkg.dec.com (Steve Glaser) Subject: Re: The "GTE" in "Mobilnet" My favorite similar story involved New England Telephone. I have multiple residence lines. New England Telephone insists on billing each one separately (with it's own envelope, stamp, bill inserts). I used to send back a single check for the total along with the return stub for each line. They would always get it wrong, crediting everything to one line, transposing some digits so I got dunning letters for $0.32, etc. The worst one was when they somehow cashed my check for exactly twice what I wrote the check for. The bank honored it at twice what was I wrote. The OCR stuff on the bottom of the check was doubled as well. Since NET credited me double and the next bill was already due, I didn't push it with the bank, but it might have been fun. Lately I send them three checks, each stapled to the corresponding bill. I've found that by making them do more work (undoing the staple), they seem to pay enough attention to the rest of the bill to get it right. Actually, now that the bank charges me per check, I think I'll try again to convince NET to give me one bill. That way I could spread my long distance calling plan across all lines (or at least that's what AT&T claims they can do). Other phone companies don't seem to have this problem. Steve Glaser Digital Equipment Corporation glaser@lkg.dec.com 550 King Street LKG1-2/A19 (508) 486-7212 Littleton, MA 01460-1289 [Moderator's Note: IBT bills my two lines together, and IBT customers are allowed to combine usage on all lines for whatever benefits may accrue from volume usage, etc. Likewise I only have to pay AT&T for one 'Reach Out' fee each month since IBT does their billing for them and there is only one bill sent out. Best of all though is IBT's 'Pay by Phone' option. They'll set it up so all you have to do is place a call to the IBT computer once a month and after entering your password, instruct the computer to send a debit to your bank. From the bank then each month, I get just a line item on my statement entitled IBT autopay and the amount. The debit does not take place unless you call each month and authorize it in the IBT billing computer. The credit on your phone bill and corresponding debit appear within 24 hours. PAT] ------------------------------ From: grout@sp90.csrd.uiuc.edu (John R. Grout) Subject: Re: 10-NJB Reply-To: j-grout@uiuc.edu Organization: UIUC Center for Supercomputing Research and Development Date: Tue, 1 Dec 92 17:31:54 GMT jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (jeffj) writes: > In Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 874, Message 4 of 16 bbracal@ > gandalf.ca (Bob Bracalente) posted: >> I tried to dial the call using New Jersey Bell's "Pensy-Link" service >> (10652 - some kind of intra-LATA lines between NJ and PA > 10-652 is 10-NJB (New Jersey Bell). > As previously discussed in TELECOM, the RBOC (Regional Bell Co.) may > cross state lines, even a river if there's some reason for that area > to be considered local. Yes... and No. There is _a_ reason for considering this to be "local" service... but it isn't the usual reason... New York City is in its own LATA (with Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties) and Philadelphia is in its own LATA also. > In northern/central New Jersey, 10-NJB allows me to call parts of NY > (212 and 718 area codes) via New Jersey Bell at about $0.09/min (as > compared to AT&T's Reach Out America at $0.11/min at night rates). > Apparently, 10-NJB allows calls from NJ to PA for particular areas > too. New Jersey Bell has a waiver to offer inter-LATA service between some North Jersey counties to NYC (_not_ the other parts of the NYC LATA) and some South Jersey counties to Philadelphia. I believe this service predated divestiture, so they were allowed to keep it. John R. Grout j-grout@uiuc.edu University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Center for Supercomputing Research and Development ------------------------------ From: backon@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Re: International Premium Teleservices Date: 1 Dec 92 15:44:09 GMT Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem In article , cmoore@BRL.MIL writes: > It would be interesting to see what phone numbers in Australia are > used. As I write this I recall there was some blurb in this Digest > a while ago which included a phone number? Other cases appearing in > the Digest were: > 1. a gay party line in the Netherlands Antilles (the number was > +599-6868). > 2. some numbers on the 609-490 exchange (Hightstown, NJ) advertised > overseas but reachable from within country code 1. > 3. some numbers advertised on +1-610 (country code 1 has no area code > 610). A colleague from Israel with an MCI phone card accidentally dialed the access number to the MCI operator in the States (177-150-2727) incorrectly and reached some company in the United States. He was intrigued and randomly picked four of the last digits and was flabbergasted to find that there were dozens of unlisted international toll-free numbers. Has anyone ever heard of this? Does MCI have a master list of these international toll-free numbers? Josh backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL [Moderator's Note: We touched on this a couple weeks ago. There are lots of '0800 style' numbers in other countries which ring into some number in the USA and vice-versa, with '800 numbers' here which wind up terminating in another country. Although traditionally, 800 service is a domestic offering, internal to the country where it is located, there is no reason it can't go anywhere. If the customer wants to receive international calls on his nickle, that's fine with telco. And no, there is no master list for public consumption. I guess they figure its none of your business; if a company wants your international reverse-charge phone call, they'll see to it you see their advertising or other notices, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: flanagan@niagara.Tymnet.COM (Dick Flanagan) Subject: Re: DigiBoard PC/8e Fails Under Xenix Date: 2 Dec 92 03:53:19 GMT Reply-To: flanagan@niagara.Tymnet.COM (Dick Flanagan) > I have a DigiBoard PC/8e serial card that is not recognized by > DigiBoard's SCO/Xenix driver. To make the problem more confus- > ing, if I boot the system from a DOS diskette, the board passes > all of DigiBoard's own DOS-based diagnostics. When booting > Xenix, however, I receive the following message: > ***WARNING*** No memory at 00E00000 for PC/Xe at port 00000320, > check switch settings Well, the board now works just fine, but I don't know exactly why. (Doncha just love it?!?) In response to suggestions I received from Chip Rosenthal, I endeavored to eliminate the ADB 2320 ESDI disk controller from the equation. I made a boot floppy, removed the ADB 2320 and installed a borrowed floppy-only controller. I booted from the floppy and LO! the DigiBoard initialized without error!! I then reinstalled the ADB 2320, removed the hard drives from the CMOS configuration and again booted a floppy-only system. Again, the DigiBoard initialized without error. "Ah HA!" sez I. I redefined the hard drives in the CMOS configuration and again booted just from the floppy. The DigiBoard initialized without error. Finally, I removed the boot floppy and attempted to boot from the hard drives. This, the original failing configuration, would confirm I was on the right track. The DigiBoard initialized just fine, thank you very much! 8-| Apparently, all of the disk controller moving and cable yanking fixed something that had caused grief only to the DigiBoard driver. I had moved and reseated and cleaned the DigiBoard several times, but this time I had concentrated on the disk controller. A dirty edge connector? Open INT line? Unseated chip? I doubt I'll ever know, but neither DOS, DigiBoard's DOS-based diagnostics nor the Xenix OS had taken any notice of it. In any case, =something= affecting the ESDI controller had caused the DigiBoard to fail. Needless to say, I am deeply grateful for the outpouring of help my query elicited from the net. I hope I can someday repay the help I received. Dick Flanagan libelle!dick@niagara.tymnet.com Voice/FAX: 1-702-782-8644 412-2140@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: ridder@zowie.zso.dec.com (Hans) Subject: Re: Headsets etc. Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - DECwest Engineering Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 19:33:53 GMT In article Cliff Sharp writes: > In article writes: >> I'm seeking recommendations on telephone headsets. I have in mind the >> kind that replaces the handset on a typical telephone. I'm also >> curious to know if anyone makes a cordless telephone headset. > .... After trying on several dozen types, from Radio Shack (like > having my head in a clothespin; hurt after just a few seconds) to > Plantronics (heavy, similar to large stereo headphones which cover the > entire ear and shut out all outside noise, sweaty and generally > uncomfortable ... at least the ones I could find up to $300) ... Plantronics makes *many* different types of headsets, most much lighter than what you describe. Anyone who's worked around PBX's knows Plantronics. They've been in the telephone headset business longer than just about anyone. I like the Startset II series myself. The quality (sound, comfort, service) of the Plantronics Starsets is unmatched by any headset I've ever tried. All the others I tried had poor sound quality, blow out your ear drum with dialtone, have problems with the other end hearing you, and break too easily. But you *pay* for a good Plantronics ($150-200 US.) When mine broke after six years of constant use, they repaired it (actually just sent me a new one) for $40. I should mention that until recently, their Startsets required sticking a plug in your ear, which some people find uncomfortable. In the last few years they came out with a version of the Startset which doesn't have the ear plug, but instead has a small speaker which rests comfortably against your ear. Also, I believe they have come out with some cheaper models to compete with the wannabe's, but I imagine you get what you pay for since they're still selling the good ones. I spent the last eight years on the telephone doing customer support. If I were going to spend any amount of time on the telephone I wouldn't use anything but a Startset. You couldn't pay me to use anything else. "They'll only get it if they pry it out of my cold dead hands." This is an unpaid endorsement, I'm just an overly satisfied customer. Hans-Gabriel Ridder DECwest Engineering, Bellevue, Washington, USA Any opinions expressed are not those of my employer, honest. [Moderator's Note: Is it a Startset or StarSet? PAT] ^ ------------------------------ From: ahaigh@unixg.ubc.ca (Andrew B Haigh) Subject: Re: Looking For Outdials Date: 1 Dec 92 19:41:20 GMT Organization: The University of British Columbia What I am looking for PAT, are freely accessible dialout ports that I can reach through telnet. I would like to use my internet access to do some long distance modemming without having to pay the long distance rates. If such things are not restricted and freely accessible then I would like to know about them. I have no wish to take advantage of a restricted service, just to make as much use of my network access as I can. So I ask again,I would like to compile a list of non-restricted, freely accessible dialout ports that can be reached through telnet. If anyone knows of such service please email me and I shall post the results. Thank you. ahaigh@unixg.ubc.ca [Moderator's Note: I don't think there are any which are open and useable by all comers via telnet. The Bad Guys have pretty much destroyed the trust which used to prevail between users at one site and administrators at another. I know that here at my site, eecs.nwu.edu keeps the gandalf servers locked up tight. With an account on this actual site, you can call in (to your account) and then telnet or rlogin wherever, or 'cu' for that matter. But you can't call in via the Evanston (708) or Chicago (312) dialups, then from the terminal servers scoot off to mit.edu or berkeley.edu or wherever and jump off that end into an outdial, at least not without passwords on both ends. Those days are long gone, at least where legit, god-fearing users are concerned. ('god' = root or admin at the site). I think the best deal for what you are seeking would be PC Pursuit, a service of Sprint/Telenet. With thousands of telephone exchanges throughout the USA available for local connections to PC Pursuit, and a few dozen cities you can connect to for outdial local service, it is really a good plan at $1 per hour, with a $30 (I think) minimum per month. Since you are in Canada, you'd have to use something like Canada DataPak to connect with a Telenet gateway; then your PC Pursuit account would take over. Telenet's number is 703-689-6000 for more information. There are places on the net which invite telnet connections on an anonymous basis, but these usually are for local programs on that site; outdials are not usually part of the deal. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (jeffj) Subject: Re: HELP Needed on JPEG Standard! Date: December 01, 1992 22:20 EST > JPEG has very little to do with telecom. It's a scheme for > compressing digitized photographs. Au contraire, it may have a lot to do with TELECOM. a) there are many non voice tranamissions, such as FAX. They use sophistocated methods of data compression and encoding that impact the demand on the telephone networks. There are dedicated discussion groups for FAX and modems where this is discussed in greater detail so those interested should move the discussion there. b) the picturephone, videophone and other video conferencing devices attempt to transmit full images in real time. Even if JPEG compression is not used, something similar is used. A product was just announced in TELECOM that's a combination phone (cellular or wire), pager, fax and graphics tablet. How long do you suppose before it becomes a remote PC I/O device capable of multimedia (stereo sound, high resolution color graphics, etc.). Shoving all that data over a transmission line in real time requires advanced compression. High resolution digital TV is depending on that. Here's another piece to the puzzle: General Instrument (GI) Corp. and Toshiba will cooperate in mass producing digital video cassette recorders for high definition television starting at the beginning of 1996. GI is currently working with MIT to develop standards for HDTV. GI's Jerrold division is most known for their cable tv converters. The telephone industry will obviously want a piece of the action particularly since they're interested in competing with the cable companies. Wanna guess how long until we have get pay per view sensurround stereo HDTV Cinemax/HBO via my cellular phone to my laptop/palmtop computer? If there's a buck to be made, it'll happen. AT&T "hobbit" microprocessor is rumored to be used in a pentop computer that'll handle FAX and stuff. I foresee a lot of interdisiplinary engineering in the future. TV transmissions via the the phone network is already happening as the RBOCs try to get into the cable TV business. I was just going through old newspapers and in the Thursday August 13, 1992 {New York Times}, section C there is a review of one person's experince with the AT&T videophone 2500. "A New Place to see and be seen: the phone" by N.R. Kleinfield. He humorously details his field trial at home with the corresponding unit at a friend's house and how they used the phone to its fullest. Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com ------------------------------ From: BobFrankston_home@frankston.com Subject: Re: Paging in 708/312 Date: Tue 01 Dec 1992 16:18 -0400 I don't know about paging companies in general, but Pagenet calls are free at least within an area code. i.e., my 617 pager is free from within 617. By free, I mean I can walk up to a payphone (at least an NET one) and place a call without a coin. There is no charge to receive the page either. This is also true in other area codes where I have pager numbers. I'm not surprised that there was a charge from 708, though one would like to think that the area code splits shouldn't affect billing. To be precise, the free 312 call was from the Museum of Science and Industry and the 708 call was from a hotel is Skokie. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 01 Nov 92 17:44 GMT From: Bruce Sullivan Subject: Re: Help on Settling an Argument About Leased T1 Lines > Let's say I lease a T1 link from the LEC. So I have 24 DS0 TDM slots > going to the the LEC's CO. My data has to go across two CO hops to our > downtown site where again we have 24 contiguous DS0 slots being > delivered from the terminating CO to our downtown building. Now, the > question is whether the contiguity of the original 24 DS0 TDM slots > will be maintained across the links between the originating and > terminating CO's. In other words, will a dedicated T1 link (or a > fixed T3 slot) be allocated to me and my individual DS0 slots never > demultiplexed at the originating CO? Or will my 24 slots be chopped up > and carried over separate portions of the inter-office T3 links, only > to be reassembled at the terminating CO and delivered as one chunk of > 24 DS0's again? I don't see where there'd be an advantage to the LEC to break it up. I think there'd be more overhead in managing it. I *have* had a similar experience however when leasing a *fractional* T1. The IXC sees it as a series of DS0s (where we, having a T1 CSU, treat it as a T1). Therefore, they have not engineered it as contiguous bandwidth. This is transparent to us until such time as they have a failure somewhere that affects a single DS0 which takes us out altogether. Bruce J. Sullivan (4544760@mcimail.com) (72747.2737@compuserve.com) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #883 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa27709; 3 Dec 92 3:52 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15094 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 3 Dec 1992 01:50:52 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19322 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 3 Dec 1992 01:50:32 -0600 Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1992 01:50:32 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212030750.AA19322@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #884 TELECOM Digest Thu, 3 Dec 92 01:50:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 884 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson AT&T 3430 NAM Programming (Robert Berger) Stolen Calling Card Number (Alan Malkiel) Touch Tone Menus (Steve Stacy) CT2 Public Services (Juha Veijalainen) One Solution to Answering Machine Problem (John W. Shaver) Dacon Tapes (John Holman) Rebilling Services Pros/Cons? (Jim Jacobson) CDS v.32 Trellis Useful? (Maxime Taksar) Other Bitnet Servers (Paul Robinson) Larry King Knows of Disconnect (Carl Moore) Lightning Protection of Telephone Lines (Richard Thomsen) Pac*Bell and Equipment Vending (John Higdon) Medic Alert Advise Needed (Anver Meghji) German FAX Machine "Category"? (Scott Roleson) Monitor Frequency Wanted For Baby Room Unit (Kevin Calmes) Historical Note on Telecom Privacy (Jim Haynes) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rwb@borg.VI.RI.CMU.EDU (Robert Berger) Subject: AT&T 3430 NAM Programming Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 16:06:28 GMT I just bought an AT&T 3430 transportable phone, bundled with a Bell Atlantic activation here in Pittsburgh. I would like to register the second NAM with a Cellular One company in another city I visit often. My friend's GTE phone lets the user program the phone # and system ID into a NAM, but my AT&T manual claims only an AT&T dealer can change mine. Is there an undocumented key sequence I can use to progam the NAM info, or will I have to get the phone number from Cellular One, and then go back to an AT&T dealer to have it entered? ------------------------------ From: exualan@exu.ericsson.se (Alan Malkiel) Subject: Stolen Calling Card Number Reply-To: exualan@exu.ericsson.se Organization: Ericsson Network Systems, Inc. Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 16:24:36 GMT Well, it had to happen. My wife and I were in the DC area over Thanksgiving, using our calling card number from public phones. I took the usual precautions, mostly due to reading this newsgroup, but my wife apparently was not so cautious. Last night, AT&T called us to inquire about the unusual calling activity to Far East being billed to our card. It took about a millisecond to figure out what the problem was. They took great pains to remove all the fradulent calls from our bill and assign a new PIN number. Good fast work on their part. And in the future, my wife will keep her hand over the keypad. So, be alert. Someone is trying to copy your calling card number while you dial! Alan Malkiel | e-mail exualan@exu.ericsson.se | Ericsson Network Systems alt. exu.exualan@memo.ericsson.se MS - C06 | memo - EXU.EXUALAN PO Box 833875 | phone - (214) 997-6672 Richardson, TX 75083-3875 ------------------------------ From: stacysm2@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Steve Stacy) Subject: Touch Tone Menus Organization: Purdue University Computing Center Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 05:52:40 GMT I would greatly appreciate any information concerning the following question. I would like to obtain a phone menu type system. Where callers can select an option on touch tone phones to receive different recorded messages etc. Can this be done by a personal PC ? Thanks. Steven M. Stacy Purdue University stacysm2@mentor.cc.purdue.edu stacysm@sage.cc.purdue.edu ------------------------------ From: FNAHA!JVE@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 02 Dec 92 09:11 Subject: CT2 Public Services Tele has launched a marketing campaign to promote their 'Pointer' service in Finland. They offer Motorola Silverlink 2000 CT2 phones, public service in major cities and an automatic answering service. Tele has also advertised that similar services are available in England, Germany, Holland, Singapore and Hongkong (if my memory serves me right). Now I wonder why USA (or any country in the Americas) is not mentioned? Are these CT2/CAI systems tested or used at all over there? Juha Veijalainen 4ge system analyst Unisys Finland phone +358 0 452 8426, fax +358 0 452 8400 Internet mail: JVE%FNAHA@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com ------------------------------ Date: 02 Nov 92 07:23:16 MST From: Mr John W Shaver Subject: One Solution to Answering Machine Problem Pat, One of the elderly ladies in our community was having a problem with their ATT answering machine similar to that discussed in V12 #873. Funny recordings were left which she did not understand. She was told by the person at the ATT 800 troubleshooting number that the tape mechanism in the answering machine needed to be cleaned. Use alcohol and q-tip (possibly copyrighted) swab. The lady claimed that it worked for her. I have not tried it out. The theory is that the tape mechanism ties up the telephone line and appreciably delays the machine hangup routine. John W. Shaver 602 538 7622 // DSN 879 7622 // FTS 658 7622 FAX 538 0656 // DSN 879 0656_// FTS 658 0656 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 302 Dec 1992 09:00:24 CST From: holmanj@uwwvax.uww.edu (John Holman) Subject: Dacon Tapes We are in the process of replacing a Dacon 46 automatic call sequencer and are limping along with one last functional casette tape. I have contacted the manufacture only to find out they no longer have tapes for the unit. If anyone knows of a source for the 8 track type tapes I would greatly appreciate a reply. ------------------------------ From: rj0p@northstar65.dartmouth.edu (Jim Jacobson) Subject: Rebilling Services Pros/Cons Reply-To: rj0p@northstar65.dartmouth.edu (Jim Jacobson) Organization: Project NORTHSTAR, Dartmouth College Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1992 16:54:05 GMT I'm asking this for a friend ... Does anyone have any experiences or opinions about carriers in the "switchless rebilling market". In particular, a friend is looking at becoming a representative for Phoenix Network which claims to be a leader in this market. They basically buy large volume long distance services from AT&T, MCI, and so on and bill these services to small customers at lower rates than the big guys. The end customer stays with the same wires and so on. AT&T (or whoever) sends computer tapes to Phoenix (or whoever) at the end of the month and then Phoenix generates the bills. Thanks in advance for anything you might have to say. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 02 Dec 92 12:27:11 -0800 From: mmt@RedBrick.COM (Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS) Subject: CDS v.32 Trellis Useful? My company recently cleaned out our offsite storage area, and it looks like there were a few potentially useful goodies ... two of which are these old modems. They're both labelled "Concord Data Systems V.32 Trellis". Does anyone know if these are proper v.32 modems? I played around with one, but couldn't get it to connect to a T1600. Any Digest readers recognise this beast and have any hints? (I'll happily describe it's ports, buttons, das-blinkenlights and features as best as I've been able to figure out without documentation, if anyone is interested.) Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS mmt@RedBrick.COM ------------------------------ Reply-To: tdarcos@mcimail.com From: Paul Robinson Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1992 19:03:40 EST Subject: Other Bitnet Servers I wrote: > In TELECOM Digest 12-869, Richard Budd (BUDD@CSPGAS11.BITNET) writes > that he has trouble getting through from Internet addresses. Some responses have informed me that there are several internet gateway servers for Bitnet. To reiterate, the access to bitnet from internet is to use the internet form: user%system.bitnet@gateway as the general method of routing. For example, richard budd's address could would be reached via: budd%cspgas11.bitnet@uga.cc.uga.edu I originally listed cunyvm and princeton as gateways, but for that particular system, i've heard that the preferred MX for that site is uga.cc.uga.edu. The following is a list of bitnet<->internet gateways: brownvm.brown.edu. cunyvm.cuny.edu. cornellc.cit.cornell.edu. mitvma.mit.edu. pucc.princeton.edu. ricevm1.rice.edu. uga.cc.uga.edu. uicvm.uic.edu. vtvm1.cc.vt.edu. Thanks to those who supplied the information. Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM -- These opinions are mine alone. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 10:52:17 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Larry King Knows of Disconnect Late last night or this morning, I heard someone ask Larry King, the radio talk-show host of note, if they would be charged if the phone rings and rings and then the operator comes on and disconnects the call due to its not being answered. Mr. King said no. [Moderator's Note: Readers may recall that Larry King's abusive use of the phone network was the main reason AT&T started doing auto-disconnect on unanswered connections still up and ringing after 3-4 minutes. He was telling callers to his radio show that they would avoid paying long distance tolls of 30 minutes or more (29 minutes on hold, one minute or so on the air) by 'just letting it ring' until the show was ready to take their call instead of being answered and waiting on hold as is the more normal way of producing talk shows. AT&T finally got tired of having large amounts of common equipment in the CO tied up on a non-revenue producing basis for the couple hours his show was on the air each night. Once the new policy was started, King blasted AT&T on the air and told people to start using Sprint when they called his show. AT&T's unofficial response (they made no official response) was they were glad to get rid of such a troublesome, expensive situation. Someone said, "He's telling people to put their non-revenue producing traffic on Sprint for a change instead of us? ... GREAT!" PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 10:55:50 -0700 From: rgt@beta.lanl.gov (Richard Thomsen) Subject: Lightning Protection of Telephone Lines Thanks to all who responded to my request for information on how to protect my telephone lines from lightning. I have been away for two weeks, and am beginning to digest all the answers. I really do not know if it is comming in on the telephone lines or the power lines, but there is definitely a difference in potential between the two. The ground line I put in should take care of some of that. Joel Upchurch pointed out that I might be liable for telco equipment if I connect their ground to the power ground. Does anyone know anything about this? Both have wires going into the ground: I just connected the two ground wires together using #10 guage wire. I cannot tell if it has done any good, as most of the storms are in spring/summer. Again, thanks to all. I think I will try to get some of the equipment mentioned, and perhaps put in a punchdown block into the basement. Then I can put in the special equipment there, wired directly to power co. ground and water pipes, on my side of the telco interface. This, however, is not simple (nothing is when trying to modify wiring inside walls). But maybe I can work out something. Guess I better talk to Contel/GTE also. For those who are interested, I live in the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico, in a small private association (about 110 lots) in the Santa Fe National Forest. There are no city services. The telco wiring is underground. The power is above until it gets to the pole at the base of the hill on which my house is built - then it goes to a transformer on the pole, and underground to the house. The water is from an association water system, using plastic pipes to the house, and copper inside. There are no CATV or other services. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 09:50 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Pac*Bell and Equipment Vending Today I received a call from someone at PacTel Meridian Systems, the equipment sales division of Pacific Telesis. He was pushing his phone systems and the hook was, "Is your current equipment 'Caller-ID'-ready?" I explained that Pac*Bell had not officially even declared that it would offer CNID. His response was, "Oh it will be offered sometime in the next year." One of two things is happening here. Either the salesman is pure slime and he is selling on false pretenses. Or, being associated with the company that is actually providing dial tone, he has inside informa- tion concerning the utility's plans. Either way it is less than ideal. But the latter case is particularly disturbing. It is just one step away from a situation where the telco's vending arm provides unique equipment and services that are only available if one buys from the "telco approved" vendor. Admittedly, CNID is not that service since it follows Bellcore standards. But at some point (and mark my words), Pac*Bell will quietly provide some sort unadvertised signaling or handshaking that will be utilized by systems offered by PacTel Meridian and the specs will not be made available to other vendors, nor will the signals be "orderable" by them. Anyone still think that telcos should be allowed in the equipment vending business? John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: anverm@hobbes.Tymnet.COM (Anver Meghji) Subject: Medic Alert Advice Needed Date: 2 Dec 92 18:26:31 GMT Organization: BT North America (Tymnet) My mother-in-law, recovering from a recent angioplasty, will be convalescing in our home for the next couple of months. We are concerned about her during weekdays when she will be alone, and are considering renting a Medic Alert device/system. Would appreciate the fruits of your collective wisdom both on the technical and logistical viability. You can email me at anverm@tymnet.com. Thanks in advance for your help. Anver ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 11:01:13 -0800 From: Scott Roleson Subject: German FAX Machine "Category"? Does anyone know the origins or rationale behind the German description of "Category A" and "Category B" FAX machines? These categories are described in the standard "FTZ 18 TR 53", a.k.a. "Conditions for the Approval of Gr. 3 Terminal Equipment for the Telefax Service." Reading this standard tells me what it is, but not why. In short, "Category A" machines have a long list of mandatory features, while for "Category B" these features are optional. But that's it. Nothing about why, or if there are any penalties for being A vs. B, etc. As near as I can determine, it doesn't matter if a FAX machine is "declared" as A or B. Does the German FAX consumer look for one or the other category, or just shop on price and listed features? Hope this question isn't too esoteric! Any takers? Scott Roleson | Internet: scott%hpsdde@SDD.HP.COM | UUCP: uunet!ucsd!hp-sdd!hpsdde!scott Mail Stop 60U2 | Telephone: (619) 592-4809 Hewlett-Packard Company | FAX: (619) 487-1236 16399 W. Bernardo Drive | Amateur Radio: KC7CJ San Diego, CA 92127-1899 U.S.A. | Any opinions are my own, not HP's. ------------------------------ From: Kevin Calmes Subject: Monitor Frequencies Wanted For Baby Room Unit Organization: Southeastern Louisiana University Date: 1 Dec 92 12:50:28 -0600 I have a Gerry monitor that I keep in next to our baby crib. I want to use my scanner as an extra receiver but I don't have search mode on it to find the frequency. If anyone know the frequency for this baby room monitor, please e-mail it to me. Thanks, Kevin Calmes - TMIS1692@selu.edu ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 02 Dec 92 21:31:47 -0800 Subject: Historical Note on Telecom Privacy Apropos of all the talk on FBI wiretapping, cellular eavesdropping, etc., I found this passage in "Old Wires and New Waves"; Alvin F. Harlow; 1936. He's writing about unscrupulous telegraph operators in the early days. They would use information in telegrams for personal gain, or delay messages or news for personal gain, or sell news reports to non-subscribers of the press association. "Pennsylvania passed a law in 1851, making telegrams secret, to prevent betrayal of private affairs by operators. When, therefore, an operator was called into court in Philadelphia a little later, and ordered to produce certain telegrams which would prove an act of fraud, he refused to do so, saying that the state law forbade it. The circuit court, shocked at this development, proceeded to override the law, saying: It must be apparent that, if we adopt this construction of the law, the telegraph may be used with the most absolute security for purposes destructive to the well-being of society - a state of things rendering its absolute usefulness at least questionable. The correspondence of the traitor, the murderer, the robber and the swindler, by means of which their crimes and frauds could be the more readily accomplished and their detection and punishment avoided, would become things so sacred that they never could be accessible to the public justice, however deep might be the public interest involved in their production. The judge therefore ordered the operator to produce the telegrams." ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #884 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29035; 3 Dec 92 4:38 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16003 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 3 Dec 1992 02:36:32 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20181 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 3 Dec 1992 02:36:09 -0600 Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1992 02:36:09 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212030836.AA20181@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #885 TELECOM Digest Thu, 3 Dec 92 02:36:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 885 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Ringing My Own Phone (Tom Kloos) Re: Ringing My Own Phone (in Area 716) (Rob Boudrie) Re: Ringing My Own Phone (Ken Stox) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Gregory Youngblood) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Dennis Mitchell) Re: Headsets etc. (Gary W. Sanders) Re: Headsets etc. (Dr. Math) Re: Headsets etc. (Alan L. Varney) Re: Email to Prodigy (Ed Ravin) Re: Email to Prodigy (Bill Rubin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tk@sequent.com (Tom Kloos) Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc. Date: Thu, 3 Dec 92 06:17:43 GMT In article (Rob Knauerhase) writes: [several ringback number examples deleted] > In both instances, calling the number will result in a new dialtone. > Dialing numbers at this point will not break the dialtone. Flash the > switchhook (briefly) and you'll get a constant tone. At that, hang up > and your phone will ring back. At the new dialtone push 1 2 3 ... 0. You should then receive two short tones. Dialtone is *not* broken. This is the DTMF test mode. Flash the line and you'll go into ringback mode as Rob describes. > The procedure empirically works for 1AESS and DMS-100 switches in the > areas mentioned above. I suspect that it does NOT work for 5ESS as it > quit working in (614) 876 when the local suburban paper reported a > "switch upgrade" for the Hilliard area. For US West in the Portland area it also works on 5ESS switches. I suspect that they may have changed the magic "prefix" in your case. When they converted an exchange from a 1 to a 5 that my folks are on, the ringback prefix stayed the same. (and yes John Higdon ... the 5ESS delivers a raspy sounding dial tone at a lower level than the 1ESS did!! :-( ) US West appears to pick semi-random prefixes that are not in the free calling area (but may be used elsewhere in the same area code) for the ringback number. The magic prefixes also appear to be different for each real prefix off the same switch. ie. 244, 246, 293, and 452 are all off the same 1A and each has it's own ringback prefix. Dialing the wrong one gives a busy signal even with the correct last four digits. Ringback on "GTE of the Northwest" switches in the area appears to be accomplished by dialing your own number then hanging up although I haven't personally confirmed this. Tom Kloos, WS7S, Sequent Computer Systems, Inc., Beaverton, OR tk@sequent.com ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone (in Area 716) Organization: Center For High Perf. Computing of WPI; Marlboro Ma Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 18:54:35 GMT In article v120q4jf@ubvmsb.cc. buffalo.edu (Rob B.) writes: > Does anyone know how I can ring my own phone in area code (716)? > Thanks for the help. Yes. Dial one of the following four numbers: 981-xxxx 982-xxxx 983-xxxx 984-xxxx One of these will get a dial tone (I think that you use 981 if the last digit of the exchange is a 2-3, 982 if 4-5, 983 if 6-7, or 984 if 8 or 9 but I'm not sure). One will give you a dial tone. Flash the switchhook and hangup. Wait for ring. Also : 511 := readback of own number: 223-9996 := Sweep tone; does not return supervision (may be obsolete) 711 := Don't know what it is but it rings. ------------------------------ From: kstox@admips2.Berkeley.EDU (Ken Stox) Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone Reply-To: kstox@admips2.Berkeley.EDU (Ken Stox) Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 15:46:54 GMT In article , knauer@cs.uiuc.edu (Rob Knauerhase) writes: > If anyone knows precisely why this works, i.e. what purpose the telco > has in implementing it, I'd be very interested in hearing. I was under the impression that this was a test line. It is used to check the installation of a new phone. If memory serves correct, at the point you would hang up, instead, depress all the keys on the touch tone pad in order. There will be a "bong" on the line which indicates that the DTMF tone produced are in spec. Then hang up, and you get a callback. One thing I have noticed, the exchange I see for this line always consists on numbers in different columns on the touch tone pad. Could it be that the selection of exchanges was made to insure that calling that test line would fully exercise the touch tone pad. Ken Stox Consultant to A.C. Nielsen kstox@naitc.com #include ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones From: tcscs!zeta@src.honeywell.com (Gregory Youngblood) Reply-To: zeta%tcscs@src.honeywell.com Date: Wed, 02 Dec 92 13:05:35 CST Organization: TCS Consulting Services karl@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch) writes: > Can anyone tell me why the 911 systems can not detect at least a > approximate location of a cellular caller? 911 systems usually get the address from the telco and that is based on the physical location the call originated from. From the telco's standpoint, all cellular calls are originated from the switch that connects the cellular to land line. If the cellular works with the 911 coordinator and the cellular system has the resources, then this can be narrowed down to even smaller areas. I have set up three different systems where I had to route 911 to special numbers depending on which cell site the cellular call was placed on. When cellular systems are set up this way, then the 911 center can determine approximate locations. The biggest problem comes from rural areas which use a single tower to cover large areas of territory (30 mile radius and more in some cases) and if the tower covers part of two 911 emergency center areas. the 911 coord. from the telco and the cellular company have to work together to determine which of 911 center should be called if 911 calls originate from that tower. I set up another system where the telco was able to 'flag' the circuits out of my switch as being cellular, which caused a message on the crt of the 911 operator. This was nice as the operator was then able to ask the right questions and be more effective. Either method requires more training for 911 operators. A lot of times the 911 operators (especially for the early days of when 911 and cellular were meeting each other) were not willing to listen to the people calling from cellular that much because they would give an address or lcation different than what was on their display. With cellular and new technology coming more popular, the 911 operators will have to be trained to handle it. I would think in your situation a little more training on how to deal with cellular would have helped your problem a bit, and if the cellular company worked with them as well, that would have sped up response. > Also, has anyone thought about the "potential" for 911 abuse on a cell > phone? With no accountability a person could make all sorts of false > reports. The police could subpeona the cellular phone company's records for all 911 calls and be able to track down the offending cellular phone. If the phone was a bandit or a fraud then that would make things difficult, but if the phone used was an active phone, then that person would have just got in some serious trouble. Almost every cellular company allows ANY cellular phone to dial 911, whether programmed, active, bandit, or anything else. This can increase the potential for abuse, but the cellular company can still track this information and use it to attempt to narrow down the offending party. With any system there will be a potential for abuse. Greg TCS Consulting Services P.O. Box 600008 St. Paul, MN 55106-0008 ..!srcsip!tcscs!zeta ..!src.honeywell.com!tcscs!zeta ------------------------------ From: mitchell@cwis.unomaha.edu (Dennis Mitchell) Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1992 02:24:39 GMT In Hawaii (where I lived till recently), Honolulu Cellular did have a contingency plan for just this sort of service. Many local boaters didn't bother with marine radios, they just took their cellular portables with them. That's fine if you want to call home, but if you want to call the Coast Guard for help, they can't use radio direction finding to locate you! Honolulu Cellular had a capability to report the servicing cell site to the Coast Guard if they requested assistance. They could also do a rough triangulation based on signal strength at adjacent sites. It was done at least once (they bragged about it in their monthly newsletter). The service did require human intervention at the cellular service, so it wasn't a candidate for easy automation and interconnect to enhanced 911 services. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 14:13:26 GMT From: news@cbnews.att.com Subject: Re: Headsets etc. Organization: AT&T In article ridder@zowie.zso.dec.com (Hans) writes: > In article Cliff Sharp chi.il.us> writes: >> In article > writes: > I should mention that until recently, their Startsets required > sticking a plug in your ear, which some people find uncomfortable. In > the last few years they came out with a version of the Startset which > doesn't have the ear plug, but instead has a small speaker which rests > comfortably against your ear. Also, I believe they have come out with > some cheaper models to compete with the wannabe's, but I imagine you > get what you pay for since they're still selling the good ones. I have used the Plantronics headset telephone at the office for about five years. The style I have has a 1 ear walkman type headband with mic. The problem I have had is the unit is showing its age and I would like to replace it. The current plantronics models I have seen show only two types of headsets now. The in the ear or the micro speaker you place across your ear. Neither are usable with an in ear hearing aid. Does anyone know if the old style walkman headset are still available? The only problem I have with the 1ear walkman headset is it cut out most outside noise in that ear, which for most is not an issue, but considering I am deaf in the other hear I have a choice of listening to nothing while waiting for calls or take off the headset and listen to the activity in the office. Does anyone know of a bone conductive headset? One that would rest behind the ear? Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614-860-5965 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 18:16:12 -0500 From: Doctor Math Subject: Re: Headsets etc. In article ridder@zowie.zso.dec.com (Hans) writes: > Plantronics makes *many* different types of headsets, most much > lighter than what you describe. Anyone who's worked around PBX's > knows Plantronics. They've been in the telephone headset business > longer than just about anyone. > I like the Startset II series myself. The quality (sound, comfort, > service) of the Plantronics Starsets is unmatched by any headset I've > ever tried. I have a couple of these which were OEM'd by Plantronics for Mother Herself. They were used in a 1A2 key system in pre-divestiture days at a place my mother used to work. The 1A2 went away, and the headsets languished in a dusty old drawer for several months; my mother found them and brought them home. I picked up another at a flea market which came complete with a set of different size earplugs and a blue vinyl bag with the old Bell System logo in white on the side. At one time I even had one wired up to a modified 2500 set, but this stopped working after I moved out of my parents' house and I'm not sure why; my guess is that the phone service there had loop current to spare. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 12:20:56 CST From: varney@ihlpl.att.com (Alan L Varney) Subject: Re: Headsets etc. Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL In article ridder@zowie.zso.dec.com (Hans) writes: > In article Cliff Sharp chi.il.us> writes: >> In article > writes: >>> I'm seeking recommendations on telephone headsets. I have in mind the >>> kind that replaces the handset on a typical telephone. I'm also >>> curious to know if anyone makes a cordless telephone headset. >> .... After trying on several dozen types, from Radio Shack (like >> having my head in a clothespin; hurt after just a few seconds) to >> Plantronics (heavy, similar to large stereo headphones which cover the >> entire ear and shut out all outside noise, sweaty and generally >> uncomfortable ... at least the ones I could find up to $300) ... > Plantronics makes *many* different types of headsets, most much > lighter than what you describe. > I spent the last eight years on the telephone doing customer support. > If I were going to spend any amount of time on the telephone I > wouldn't use anything but a Startset. You couldn't pay me to use > anything else. "They'll only get it if they pry it out of my cold > dead hands." I've been with AT&T for 22 years, and have done some form of customer support for most of that time. Note that AT&T uses a LOT of Plantronics gear. However, while I like some of the Plantronics, the "in-your-ear" versions are not good for me (ear problems). When we went to AT&T ISDN 7506 "telephones" about two years ago, we also bought several dozen headsets from UNEX, Inc. of Chelmsford, MA, in particular their Ventel V Operator amplifier, also called their ETH (Electronic Telephone Headset) amplifier with the VB-type headset. This will work with a wide variety of "electronic" handsets (with some DIP switch adjustment). They have headsets with traditional earplugs, foam "earbud"s, single and double earmuff (for noisy areas) and a version with ultra-light earmuffs (single/double) that look/feel just like the typical "phones" that come with a Sony Walkman(rg.tm, I'm sure). The microphones are noise-cancelling. THEIR customer support number is 508-256-8222. I've never needed to call, however. >This is an unpaid endorsement, I'm just an overly satisfied customer. Ditto for me. Al Varney ------------------------------ From: elr%trintex@uunet.UU.NET (Ed Ravin) Subject: Re: Email to Prodigy Organization: Prodigy Services Co. Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 15:50:34 GMT In article rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) writes: [regarding future email gateway to the Prodigy service]: > (a) Will all Prodigy subscribers be reachable, or only those who > sign up and pay a surcharge? I don't know. > (b) What will send and recieve costs be for Prodigy users? Again, I don't know the exact details. Prodigy charges 25 cents now for each email message over the monthly free quota of 30 messages per household- the charges for Internet mail will be on the same scale, except that there will be surcharges for longer messages. I think this is similiar to the way incoming/outgoing Internet mail is metered on CompuServe. > (c) Will Prodigy censors check incoming/outgoing mail to make > sure none of it is "not in the best interests of Prodigy"? Please bury this already -- it's illegal to interfere with electronic mail in this manner, and Prodigy does not (and never has) censored private mail between individual users. Their well-deserved bad publicity is because of the way they "moderate" the service's public bulletin board areas. But private mail on Prodigy has always been free from interference, and mail to and from the Internet will be no exception. Disclaimer: I ain't no Official Prodigy Spokescritter, so everything I say is my own imagination. For official Prodigy opinions, try calling the public relations staff at (914) 993-8789. Ed Ravin- elr@trintex.uucp elr%trintex@uunet.uu.net +1-914-993-4737 my opinions, nobody else's [Moderator's Note: If I am not mistaken, I believe Prodigy either cancelled the accounts of some users or otherwise disciplined those users for their use of email in writing large quantities of email on 'unwelcome topics' to other users. I believe this occurred when the users in question started using email to discuss what they were no longer being permitted to discuss in the public forums. Am I correct or do I stand corrected? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 12:29:31 EST From: Bill Rubin Subject: Re: Email to Prodigy Rob Boudrie writes: > A few questions : > (a) Will all Prodigy subscribers be reachable, or only those who > sign up and pay a surcharge? > (b) What will send and recieve costs be for Prodigy users? > (c) Will Prodigy censors check incoming/outgoing mail to make > sure none of it is "not in the best interests of Prodigy"? > [Moderator's Note: So the Prodigy email ruckus awhile back is still > leaving a bad taste in some people's mouths, I see. PAT] a) I would have to imagine only those who sign up and pay the surcharge since I have to assume that incoming mail will be charged for as well as outgoing. However, this is just speculation on my part. b) These have not been announced and I doubt that the Prodigy employee who posted here would either know or if he did be willing to say. I am very curious to know where an earlier poster got the $20/month fee from. I have not heard anything along those lines. c) Prodigy does not, has not and never will look at incoming private mail on their own. It WILL look at private mail when the subscriber complains that offensive material has been sent to them, but only then. It only screens (ok, censors) public postings to their bulletin boards and may reject them for a number of reasons including that they are considered offensive and they have even become much more lenient in that area of late. I don't understand what they did to piss so many people off at them who have never used the service. Certainly not to the extent that people like Rob continously bring up these ridiculous "urban legends" which have no basis. Rob, have you ever been on Prodigy or is this only what you have "heard"? Bill Rubin Disclaimer: not an employee of Prodigy, only a happy user. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #885 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa06243; 6 Dec 92 2:06 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04685 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 5 Dec 1992 23:59:34 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00231 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 5 Dec 1992 23:59:11 -0600 Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 23:59:11 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212060559.AA00231@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #886 TELECOM Digest Sat, 5 Dec 92 23:59:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 886 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet (Jeffrey Jonas) Using a US Modem in the Philippines (Mark Maimone) AT&T Public Phone 2000 and Billing (Ole J. Jacobsen) Local versus Long-Distance Line Quality (Jerry Glomph Black) Corrections (David G. Lewis via John Adams) Residential ISDN? (Dr. Math) Help: I Need Wall Brackets For MITEL Keysets (Robert Patrick MacKin) Transatlantic Meditation (Doug Hughes) KA9Q Packages Wanted (Mitsutaka Ito) Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? (David E. Martin) Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? (Matthew Holdrege) Re: Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? (Martin Harriss) Re: Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? (Andrew Emmerson) Re: Ringing My Own Phone (in Area 716) (Malcolm Slaney) Re: Ringing My Own Phone (in Area 716) (Andy Turnquist) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 05 Dec 92 20:02:12 EST From: jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (jeffj) Subject: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet I am looking through the Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue (est. 1848). (800) 543-3366 [they sold executive toys and top of the line appliances way before the Sharper Image was in business]. The "call screening identifier" not only displays the Caller-ID number but displays the matching name for 300 names, does call screening and stores 50 calls. $170. Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com ------------------------------ From: mwm+@cs.cmu.edu (Mark Maimone) Subject: Using a US Modem in the Philippines Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 06:48:11 GMT A friend is having difficulty connecting her US modem to her home phone in the Philippines. Her phone line has three wires rather than four (and it's a party line); is there anything she should worry about with that third wire? Finally, is there a good way to determine which line is which without a multimeter? The home phone has no adapter, she's going to have to jury-rig it. Mark Maimone phone: +1 (412) 268 - 7698 Carnegie Mellon Computer Science email: mwm@cmu.edu [Moderator's Note: If her service is on a party line, she should not have the modem on there *under any circumstances*. I can't think of anything less considerate of her party line neighbors than to have them need the phone for urgent business and be unable to get anyone's attention on her end because the modem is on there blasting some big download in one direction or the other. Plus which, if her party line neighbors *do* go off hook, it is almost certain her data will get corrupted in the process -- and the modem may well just drop the connection at that point as well. What does the Philippines telecom administration have to say about her modem? Or do they know it is there? Urge her to be cautious, one of the party line neighbors may turn her in. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 15:58:57 PST From: Ole J. Jacobsen Subject: AT&T Public Phone 2000 and Billing As has been pointed out before in this Digest, the new fancy AT&T 2000 public phones are nifty things, especially those with keyboards. On a recent trip to Dallas I used one several days in a row to read my e-mail back in California. I used my (new style) AT&T calling card. This week the bill arrived, a bill I have never seen the likes of before. It comes from "AT&T Services" and lists only calls made via the Public Phone 2000. (Other calls were billed through my Pac*Bell account as usual.) A call to AT&T Services reveals that "the LECs are unable to billing for our new Public Phone 2000, hence the separate bill". Is this really progress? Ole J Jacobsen, Editor & Publisher ConneXions--The Interoperability Report Interop Company, 480 San Antonio Road, Suite 100, Mountain View, CA 94040, Phone: (415) 962-2515 FAX: (415) 949-1779 Email: ole@csli.stanford.edu ------------------------------ From: Jerry Glomph Black Subject: Local versus Long-Distance Line Quality Organization: Durufle', Vierne, and Messiaen Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 09:56:35 -0500 When I call from the Concord, MA (508-369) exchange to my office in Lexington (617-981), my v.32bis modems will not work above 9600 baud, presumably because of line quality. What's interesting is that I can reliably make 14,400-baud connections to an identical modem in Oregon from both home and office. So this morning I did an experiment: I called from Concord to Lexington using my Sprint FONCard, using the 800-877-8000 access, just like a real long-distance call ... and it worked flawlessly at 14,400! The bottom line is (?) that long-distance inter-exchange connections are higher bandwidth than local ones ... (Concord and Lexington are adjacent exchanges, a local call, relic of the 617 split into 617 and 508.) My understanding is that the POTS only guarantees 4800-baud service, so can I expect NE Telephone to do anyting for me? [Moderator's Note: 90 percent of my modem calls these days are from home or office to the Northwestern dialups. I get excellent data connections at 9600 baud all the time. My occassional LD modem calls go through at 9600 okay also. I'm using a Telebit T-1600 in one place and a US Robotics Sportster 9600 in the other. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: Corrections Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 15:16:18 GMT Dear newsgroup (including Patrick), Dave Lewis (Bell Labs) took the time to contact me directly concerning a correct a couple of points in one of my recent postings which I think deserve wider dissemination. Thanks Dave, for helping my omissions, etc. From: deej@goofy.att.com (David G Lewis) Subject: Re: *69 in NJ Bell Land In-Reply-To: Organization: AT&T In article you (Jack Adams, that is) write: > In article jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John > J Butz +1 908 949 5302) writes: >> Here's a puzzler: >> The Return Call Class feature (*69) offered by NJ Bell will call back >> the number of the last person to call your phone. (When used to >> screen calls can be considered a poor man's Caller ID). >...lots of stuff deleted... > In the second case, John's parents calling inter-lata to him, AR > didn't work because SS7 interconnection does not currently exist > between NJBell and AT&T. Nor between NJBell and MCI, Sprint, Cable & Wireless, LDDI, or Joe's Long Distance, for that matter. You could probably count the number of SS7-NI interconnections in the US on the fingers of one hand - especially in BAtl land, where my 800 friends tell me the plan of record for 86-10 compliance is to ensure that EO-AT/SSP signaling is SS7, and AT/SSP-IXC signaling will remain EAMF. BAtl believes that this will keep their median setup times below the FCC-mandated amount (five seconds median, I believe). > The third and fourth cases are examples of public telephone (Coin) > call handling. When calling intra-lata, or inter-lata for that > matter, using coins at a pay station, the local end office completes > the intra-lata call using inter-office (most likely SS7) trunks. > However, when attempting a call using a calling card (known as 0+ > dialing), the call is routed to an office (usually a tandem) with > Operator Services functionality (OSPS or TOPs or ...) to establish > calling card validity and call routing (completion). Now for the > hypothesis ... I suspect that not all of that particular TANDEM to end > office trunks are SS7. Thus, the connection is completed via Multi > Frequency trunks without the ANI being passed. Correct, sort of. The EO may have SS7 connectivity with the tandem, but operator services signaling doesn't exist over SS7. Therefore, every EO has to have some number of CAMA/OSPS/whatever MF trunks to its subtended tandem which provides operator services to signal the OS calls. An additional terminology quibble - ANI is passed from the EO to the tandem; that's the whole point of CAMA trunks. CPN is not passed, however, and all the CLASS (SM) services use CPN. > The good news is that interconnection of LECs and IXCs is progressing > nicely and that FCC Docket 86-10 will hasten the full deployment of > SS7 within LECs. In the mean time, anomalies such as John observed > will occur. > I have to pass on why AR doesn't work with the Holmdel 5E ISDN/Centrex > line. Could it be that Holmdel is among the <5% MF trunks in NJBell > land? Any NJBell ESAC folks on the net want to comment here? I don't know for sure; I suspect it's more likely to be a Class of Service issue than a technical issue. The 5E is a genuine CO providing ISDN Centrex, and ISDN Calling Line ID works, so there's SS7 connectivity. I suspect it's just that the Centrex equivalent of Auto Callback isn't enabled for the HO centrex lines. David G Lewis AT&T Bell Laboratories david.g.lewis@att.com or !att!goofy!deej Switching & ISDN Implementation ------------ Jack (John) Adams Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 17:55:10 -0500 From: Doctor Math Subject: Residential ISDN? Of all the ISDN rates I've seen in this Digest and elsewhere, the telco charges some rate for connect time. How is this justifiable given the current situation of flat rate or "unmeasured" lines? An analog voice call made from a flat rate line to some location in my local calling area doesn't result in a per-minute charge, but the same call carried over ISDN facilities would cost some amount for each minut of connect time. Somehow this doesn't seem reasonable given that ISDN is supposed to be the POTS of the future. Why aren't the telcos offering flat-rate "residential" BRI which would be the equivalent of today's flat-rate residential POTS? I'm not saying that ISDN is a Bad Thing; I'm saying that the pricing should be in line with the current pricing structures wherein flat-rate service is available over a local calling area for residential customers. Of course, given the lack of consumer ISDN applications, it's not much of an issue (yet). ------------------------------ From: rpmackin@student.business.uwo.ca (Robert Patrick MacKin) Subject: Help: I Need Wall Brackets For MITEL Keysets Organization: University of Western Ontario Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 15:31:10 GMT I am looking for wall brackets for a Trilluim TalkTo 308. The same bracket is used for all Talk To sets, all Panther, and the Mitel Superset I,II or III (but not IV, they are very different.) If you know of a place where I may locate some, please EMAIL or call me 519 472 7194 (London, Ontario). Thanks, rpmackin@student.business.uwo.ca (Robert Patrick MacKin) Western Business School -- London, Ontario ------------------------------ From: doug@happy.vf.ge.com (Doug Hughes) Subject: Transatlantic Meditation Reply-To: doug@happy.vf.ge.com Organization: GE Aerospace - VF Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 17:03:19 GMT I've got some questions here that someone out there should be able to answer. I've been in a discussion recently with some people about transatlantic communication. We were wondering: 1) Is it cheaper to rent a Satellite channel? Copper trunk piece or fiber trunk piece assuming you are renting the same bandwidth (say 224Kb). 2) Would it be cheaper to BUY/INSTALL/LAUNCH a satellite with all the relevant ground station and comm stuff, an fddi cable across the Atlantic, or a copper cable across the Atlantic? 3) Do these things change much if we do this say, across a smaller body of water ... say, between two islands in Indonesia? 4) Over land, which would be cheaper (in the U.S.) fiber or microwave. I realize that these things could depend upon many variables, I'm just looking for some general horse-sense on the matter. Doug Hughes Software Developer - GE Aerospace (M&DSO), Valley Forge, PA doug@happy.vf.ge.com or hughes@sde.mdso.vf.ge.com ------------------------------ Subject: KA9Q Packages Date: Sat, 05 Dec 92 09:59:46 +0900 From: Mitsutaka Ito I would like to have KA9Q source and documents. Please inform me the IP address of ftp sites. If there is no ftp service of KA9Q, please inform me other method. Thank you in advance. ito ------------------------------ From: dem@nhmpw2.fnal.gov (David E. Martin) Subject: Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? Date: 5 Dec 1992 15:42:45 GMT Organization: Fermi National Acclerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, USA Reply-To: dem@nhmpw2.fnal.gov In article 3@eecs.nwu.edu, stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > Even though Pacific Bell requires a minimum of two BRIs, they cost > only $29 per month, and data calls are the same as voice calls, which > means that a local data call costs only $.60/hour or so. So, let's > NOT encourage Pacific Bell to price their data calls like Ameritech! Ameritech has finally seen the light. As of September 14, all B channel data calls in the Chicago LATA are charged at the same rate as business voice calls. This has decreased my monthly ISDN bill from about $150 to $50. David E. Martin National HEPnet Management Phone: +1 708 840-8275 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory FAX: +1 708 840-8463 P.O. Box 500, MS 368; Batavia, IL 60510 USA E-Mail: dem@hep.net ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 18:31 GMT From: Matthew Holdrege Subject: Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? Steve Forrette (steve@wrq.com) writes ... > Even though Pacific Bell requires a minimum of two BRIs, they cost > only $29 per month, and data calls are the same as voice calls, which > means that a local data call costs only $.60/hour or so. So, let's > NOT encourage Pacific Bell to price their data calls like Ameritech! Sorry. I should have said that Ameritech provides FREE local ISDN calls. Local meaning within the same CO. Inter-CO calls cost $6 per hour. This means that you can have free unmeasured 128kb WAN service for a small monthly charge (about $35.) This information is from 1991 and the prices may have changed. But I will also be happy if California's single line BRI tariff is set at 60 cents per hour. As long as the long-distance-intra-lata costs are not too high. Matt Holdrege 5156065@mcimail.com 714-229-2518 ------------------------------ From: martin@bdsgate.com (Martin Harriss) Subject: Re: Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? Reply-To: bdsgate!martin@uunet.UU.NET (Martin Harriss) Organization: Beechwood Data Systems Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 21:49:15 GMT In article nigel.allen@canrem.com (Nigel Allen) writes: > Whatever happened to Britain's telegraph poles? Most of the circuits were moved off open wires some time ago, maybe 20 or 30 years ago. The circuits were all moved to buried cables. For a long time it was common to see trackside poles with no wires, or with obviously unused wires. (Broken, hanging, etc.) I guess that some time in the recent past there was a project to remove the unused poles. Note that most of Mercury's (fiber) network is buried by the side of British Rail tracks. Maybe the poles were removed when the fiber was laid? Martin Harriss uunet!bdsgate!martin ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 18:18 GMT From: Andrew Emmerson Subject: Re: Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? Reply-To: aemmerson@cix.compulink.co.uk A few telegraph poles are left but yes, most have disappeared. Trunk phone lines belonging to BT (British Telecom, former Post Office) are mainly buried alongside roads (or on microwave!), whilst British Rail places its cables in concrete troughing at the side of the tracks. Quite a few preserved steam railways retain proper overhead pole routes, though. If you want to see old-style heavy British pole routes (both Post Office and railway), just go to the Republic of Ireland. They're all still in use there, following exactly the same design rules (well, they _were_ British until Ireland seceded!). ------------------------------ From: malcolm@Apple.COM (Malcolm Slaney) Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone (in Area 716) Date: 6 Dec 92 00:43:38 GMT Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA > In article v120q4jf@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu >> Does anyone know how I can ring my own phone in area code (716)? >> Thanks for the help. Pat, can't we declare a moratorium on these questions and answers? They are inherently local, often change, and operators are always glad to ring you back. Perhaps it is time to spin this discussion off into it's own mailing list :-). Thanks for a great job (but hold the ringbacks.) Malcolm [Moderator's Note: Even though I have pointed out several times that there is no universal standard and that each CO does its own thing, and often changes the number frequently, still the question keeps arriving: what number do I call, etc. Most of the time I toss it out, but every six months or so I run it for the benefit of new readers. Of course, I ask the new subscribers to read the FAQ also; I am not sure how many bother doing it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: agt7208@ultb.isc.rit.edu (Andy Turnquist) Subject: Re: Ringing My Own Phone (in Area 716) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 14:04:20 -0500 (EST) I would also be interested in ringbacks for 716, particularly in the Rochester area including 716-377 and 716-475. Andy Turnquist agt7208@ultb.isc.rit.edu agt7208@ritvax.isc.rit.edu [Moderator's Note: Anyone with the answer should write to Andy. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #886 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa11832; 6 Dec 92 4:25 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19941 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 02:29:24 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22256 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 02:29:00 -0600 Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 02:29:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212060829.AA22256@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #887 TELECOM Digest Sun, 6 Dec 92 02:29:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 887 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson NYTEL Service Sacrificing (Paul Migliorelli) Ethernetted Office Phone Systems? (Graham Toal) FMR (No) Airtime Charges (Douglas Scott Reuben) Help Wanted: Network Applications Engineer (Mitch Wyle) GTE Guarantees its Service: Chapter 11, Here They Come (Paul Robinson) Sprint Dis-Cards (Shrikumar) Organization Warns Lawyers Against Using Cellular Phones (Paul S. Sawyer) GTEMobile Net (Gloria C. Valle) Getting the Number I'm Calling From (ANAC?) (Morgan Schweers) How Can One Reduce Ring Current Crosstalk? (Dave Mausner) Attention Derek J. Neufeld (Michael Rosen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 00:59 est From: paul@migs.shecora.sai.com (Paul Migliorelli) Subject: NYTEL Service Sacrificing A few weeks ago, a friend of mine wanted to order NYNEX PhoneSmart services which had just arrived on the scene on November 1. It was necessary for him to discontinue his IntellaDial service. It seems that if you have normal Custom Calling features, PhoneSmart isn't a problem, but there was no way that it could be had in conjunction with the enhanced service. Earlier this week, I placed an order for Voice Messaging Service. A short time later, I got a call from the rep telling me that the VM service wouldn't work hand in hand with the two additional RingMate numbers I already have. I guess the various software is just not able to handle many strange curves we toss out at it when we want many combinations of things. And so it goes. I gave up the RingMate for the Voicemail. [Moderator's Note: Paul's message arrived truncated at this point, but that's okay, I will respond to what there is. Like the situation he notes, I had to give up my Starline (IBT's home centrex) service to install the additional custom calling features of Call Screening and Return Last Call. According to IBT, they would not work together. I do have voicemail working with (what he calls) Ringmate however, and this works fine. I think he should ask further about this. Calls to my main number go to voicemail (as appropriate; no answer after three rings or line is busy, etc), but calls to the Multiline Ringing (Ringmate) number just ring through, and keep on ringing, regardless of the setting of call forwarding or voicemail. I think telco sometimes says certain services are not compatible when what they mean is they might not in combination have the results the customer wants. But if the customer knows the results and can work with them, then that's fine ... the customer should be (and usually is) able to order them. In one case where I attend to the phones for someone else, there are two lines in a hunt group with the first hunting to the second. No one ever calls the second number direct, nor are they aware of the number. All they know is the first line. I had Call Screening put on the first of the two lines, mainly so that anonymous and abusive calls (of which there were many; this information service gets 500 calls per day of one or two minutes each in length, answered by a computer with a provision for making selections from a menu, etc) could be manually rejected from further calls by an operator entering *60 #01#, which in Call Screening means reject further calls from the last call received whether or not the number is known to the called party. IBT insisted this would not work if the incoming call rolled over to the second line; they insisted the Call Screening software came *after* the CO made a decision to 'hunt' or roll the call to the second line. They were wrong on this. It sits *before* the decision to hunt to another line. All calls to the main number first are 'call screened', then they move to the line in question and hunt the second line if the first one is busy. It would not work of course if the calling party knew the second number in the hunt group and called that line instead. So the operator who is monitoring hears an abusive party on the first line (which is where the majority of the calls come in) and responds by pressing a key to drop the caller. Then immediatly the operator goes off hook on the line and dials *60#01#. The acknowledgement tone advises it has been recorded. If the abuser is on the second line, the operator still drops the connection and waits; he'll be back on the system in a few seconds (they always call back to continue their har- assment) and sooner or later he'll be on the first line. Bingo, the operator dumps him and blocks him, all in five seconds. After that, the caller never even gets near the machine; his CO tells him 'the party you are calling does not wish to receive your calls right now.' It works like a charm, and has cut abuse to a minimum at that site. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1992 19:40:55 GMT From: Graham Toal Organization: Current Science Tel: +44 71 323 0323 Fax: +44 71 580 1938 Subject: Ethernetted Office Phone Systems? My workmate Andrew Witbrock and I were chatting today when I was telling him about the 'phone' program on Suns which lets you use voice over your Ethernet. (No new technology -- I remember a classmate implementing this when I was at Edinburgh University in 1980.) However, we were wondering ... has anyone ever built actual *telephones* for use in a building with local ethernet that used tcp/ip? If not, there's a tremendous market there: You can program your phone with your extension, and take it with you when you move office without reprogramming the exchange (a trivial point but one that would be useful in *our* office where we're always bloody moving :-( ) but more importantly you only need to run one ether trunk round the whole building to cover all possible present and future phone *and* network needs. There would be an exchange which gated the ether-phones to the real phone system outside. I don't know if anyone has done this, but if they haven't I'm publishing the idea here as public information so that if someone does come up with hardware to do this, we can claim prior art. (No, I don't want to patent it. I want to *stop* people patenting it :-)) I'm worried that someone might patent this idea with the effect that similar systems implemented in software (eg sun phone) would then be unusable. Please add some ideas about how a ordinary-looking phone with thin-ether tap on the back would be implemented; what features it could have over ordinary phones; and whether it would catch on commercially. Or indeed, does such a thing already exists? Graham ------------------------------ Date: 5-DEC-1992 17:55:09.93 From: Douglas Scott Reuben Subject: FMR (No) Airtime Charges Question about Follow Me Roaming and Nationlink: When FMR (or Nationlink, but I'll just say FMR) is activated, it sets up some form of forwarding in your home switch. FMR seems to set up "immediate call forwarding", while Nationlink/Roam America seems to do either immediate call forwarding (usually *72) or "No Answer Transfer" (usually *71). Thus, if I have a GTE Mobilnet account in San Francisco, and I activate FMR and then come back to SF, I can use Call Forwarding for the day even if I don't have that as part of my "feature package". The same holds true for Nationlink in your home system, at least until it deactivates automatically, after which you will no longer be able to use whatever form of forwarding. Most systems that I am familiar with charge airtime for call-forwarding, yet they seem able to distinguish between an FMR call and a regular call. That is, if I activate FMR is Dallas, the switch in SF basically does a *72 to the psuedo-number I am assigned to for that day in Dallas. Calls sent to Dallas do NOT accrue airtime charges, even though they are forwarded; only the tolls to Dallas are billed. Yet if I fly back to SF the same day, and punch some other *72 number into the system while in GTE/SF, I *will* be billed airtime, even though I don't normally have Call Forwarding as a feature. My question thus is: How does the switch "know" that *I* entered the new number and not the FMR system? Can it discern numbers entered manually by customers, or is some code sent along with the FMR forwarding request to tell the switch "Hey, no airtime on this forward...!". Or does the home switch know all the ranges for the psuedo numbers in other cities and thus knows not to bill airtime for calls to those numbers? (BTW, some systems DO bill home airtime for FMR/Nationlink, as well as tol charges and foriegn roamer charges, so be careful. Cell One/Boston supposedly does this; I've never tried it myself.) Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet ------------------------------ From: Mitch Wyle Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 15:09:58 -0800 Subject: Help Wanted: Network Applications Engineer I am desperately trying to hire someone for an exciting development position that involves full text retrieval and wide area networks. I would very much appreciate your sending the following position description to anyone you know who might be interested in the job. Thanks, Mitch --------------- Applications Engineer, Network and Computing Services 1. Role and Responsibility This position is chartered with: o Organizing, procuring, developing, and maintaining a suite of information retrieval application systems that provide world class electronic customer support and connectivity to Synopsys; o Systems administration tasks associated with the hardware and telecommunications infrastructure associated with the information retrieval project; o Developing and maintaining a data classification system for use in the project; o Identifying and articulating key customer issues for improving the systems. Success in the job during the first year will be measured in terms of: o Quality of work on the project; o Degree of dedication and energy invested in the project; o Dedication to the improvement of the system and to customer support; o A willingness to tackle tougher issues and broaden knowledge as the year progresses; o Acquiring analytical capabilities necessary to identify key customer issues. The Applications Engineer will report to the Manager of Network and Integration Services. 2. Professional Background and Experience: The most appropriate candidates will have: . Software development experience from previous work; . MSEE and one year of work experience or BSEE and two years of work experience; . Supported customers in some capacity or have teaching experience; . Some exposure to full text retrieval and distributed bulletin board systems (WAIS, c-news, electronic mail subscription services). Additional positive qualities for which we are searching include: + Outstanding written and verbal communications skills; + Very strong team player; + Strongly motivated to help people; + Motivated by quality and excellence in all work; + Strong interest in learning and growing; + Japanese language abilities. ------------------------------ Reply-To: tdarcos@mcimail.com From: Paul Robinson Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1992 18:49:16 EST Subject: GTE Guarantees its Service: Chapter 11, Here They Come I suspect either someone there is reading this newsgroup or they have a general idea about their service. Today I had to go through Washington DC's Union Station, and in front of the Amtrak gates was a notice about the phone service provided on the trains. It stated that the service, provided by GTE Mobilephone, is guaranteed or your money back. Apparently, if your call fails or is unsatisfac- tory, you dial a code to tell the operator, then dial a 1-800 number when you get to a land phone, and they will credit you for the bad call. So here's the opportunity to {legally} make free calls: Use the GTE phones provided on the train, then call up their office to tell them the honest truth about the connection! Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM These (uninformed) opinions are mine alone; no one else is (stupid enough to be) responsible for them. [Moderator's Note: Sorry Paul, where your fraud -- and that is what is really is -- fails is in your continued use of the 'unsatisfactory' service. If the service was so bad, why did you continue using it? And if you were able to receive or deliver your communication through the use of the service, then how unsatisfactory could it have been, given the obvious differences between landline and radio-telephony? I am sure there are limits on how much they will refund to a customer on any given call and how many calls they will consider refunds for. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 21:36:52 -0500 From: shri%unreal@cs.umass.edu Subject: Sprint Dis-Cards Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Sys & Computer Networks Bombay India These phone calling cards are practically next to useless! Well, I agree thats a very strong statement, but that sums up my emotions from my experience of the last few days. The Thanksgiving week had me logging some 22K miles, on a hectic trip to India (BTW on telecom related business), and touching NYC and DC on the way back. Soon on landing at JFK I used my Sprint cards to call up friends in Washington DC to arrange to meet me and pick me up etc. (I was very careful to cover my hands as I typed in the numbers, and once I refused to spell out the number verbally to a Sprint operator from a payphone etc. so I am pretty sure my number was not compromised). Within an hour of those three calls, a very ominously named "Sprint Investigation Deptartment" had put a hold on my FONCards, to protect me they claimed, as they noticed unusual activity on the cards. Calls to Sprint confirmed that the only thing unusual they'd noticed was those three calls I'd made. Well, true I don't "usually" call from JFK :-). When I call from home, I use my dial-1 line. Only when I travel do I use my card, and when I do travel I can't avoid JFK, and am even more likely to call from there, during the long waits for international flights. And soon as I do, Bammo ! ... the Sprint Algorithm for Customer Protection will term that "unusual" and will leave me high and stranded. Sprint was kind enough, and reactivated my other card. During the four hours that this took ... I took recourse to my ATT calling card, which I had also ordered quite whimsically. Moral: always carry cards from two different companies. I think I should order up some 200 FONcards, since the first time I use one, Sprint is going to cancel it for me. I'd rather call this the Sprint Dis-Card ! :-) ATT Calling cards are also not really better ... they seem quite convinced drug dealers make calls from the fax machine in the Computer Science Department in the nice small university town called Amherst, MA. :-). So they would not let me place calls to India from that number with my ATT calling card, unless I am literate enough in mysteries of ATTs operator procedures, and *I* ask for "The Card Protection Agency" to verify me. Half the ATT operators don't know this can be done!. I sincerely appreciate the concern of the phone companies in protecting me from fraud, but I think they'd find some better way to make the cards work! I am curious ... does someone know the actual magnitude of fraud that occurs with calling cards, that makes the phone companies so paranoid? shrikumar ( shri@legato.cs.umass.edu, shri@iucaa.ernet.in ) [Moderator's Note: Fraud with calling cards is very bad, believe me. It runs millions of dollars a year, but that is no excuse for AT&T to be as abusive as they are toward citizens of middle east countries (and/or citizens of the USA who come from those countries). AT&T just does bald-faced redlining of certain inner-city urban areas and refuses connections from payphones in those areas to middle east countries via their calling card. The practice is totally illegal and they've been reported time and again because of it. How do they placate the customers who make a royal stink? Why, they blame it on a 'new and inexperienced operator' of course ... 'who had not been properly trained ...' or sometimes they blame it on the Telecom Administration in the other country, saying 'Israel will not accept our calling cards', which of course is a crock. Then they give the complainer a few of their cheesy gift certificates to shut him up. Now some of the complainers are suing AT&T on false advertising charges; their printed literature plainly says to/from which countries the calling card can be used -- it says nothing about pay phones in the Chicago-Edgewater or Chicago-Rogers Park offices being an exception to the rule. But complain all you like: AT&T doesn't bat an eye. And as for Sprint, they were sued by the parents of a sixteen year old boy who had been assaulted and left stranded by some creep in the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal. All he had was a Sprint calling card his parents had given him for his first trip away from home on his own and Sprint would not honor it. 'Too much fraud from the bus station pay phones, you know ...'. Sprint settled out of court but they're still very arbitrary about where and when they will honor their own card. They should be sued repeatedly until they quit the abuse. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Organization Warns Lawyers Against Using Cellular Phones Date: 5 Dec 92 11:52:40 EST (Sat) From: paul@unhtel.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) The following is submitted without comment (very difficult on my part :-). {Foster's Daily Democrat}, Dover, N.H., December 5, 1992: Organization warns lawyers against using cellular phones -------------------------------------------------------- CONCORD (AP) - The New Hampshire Bar Association has a warning for lawyers who use cellular phones: someone may be listening. The association's Ethics Committee has said lawyers shouldn't use cellular phones, portable phones or other forms of mobile communications to talk with or about clients unless the clients approve. The committee said there is a chance the conversations could be intercepted either on purpose or accidentally. Lawyer Lee Nyquist, president of the Manchester Bar Association, said lawyers need cellular phones. "In our day and age, with the volume of work and the necessity of fast responses, the need to be in constant contact with clients and use cellular phones is significant," said Nyquist. "I'm not sure a lawyer can compete today and not be allowed to speak with clients (on cellular phones)." But lawyer Ovide Lamontagne said he thinks the bar association is simply telling lawyers to be careful to limit such calls to ordinary conversations. "The implication is that you can still use the car telephone, but anything that's said with a criminal client, for example, you have to be conscious that someone may be hearing it, and it could be introduced as evidence," he said. With that in mind, most lawyers limit their car phone use to ordinary calls, Lamontagne said. Eavesdropping on radio communications isn't easy to do, but it can happen. ------------- Paul S. Sawyer - University of New Hampshire CIS - paul@unhtel.unh.edu Telecommunications and Network Services - VOX: +1 603 862 3262 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 - FAX: +1 603 862 2030 [Moderator's Note: The only thing wrong with that story is the last paragraph: Cellular eavesdropping is quite easy to do and is does happen a lot. PAT] ------------------------------ From: GLORIA.C.VALLE@gte.sprint.com Date: 5 Dec 92 21:21:00 UT Subject: GTEMobile Net I hate to have to agree with John Higdon, but when I had the service the billing was a major problem. I would have to go steps up to as far as the President of MobileNet in one case. About a year ago they dropped out of the Southern California market and left us to PacTel. I could never complain about the service in either company. From my understanding they have moved most of the people (MobileCom) to Atlanta and Contel's former HQ. I don't know how the service is or will be, but if you do get the right person it will get fixed. Right after the 714/909 area code split no one could reach anyone with a new 909 only cellular number. It appears someone somewhere forgot to program it in and it was not just GTE as we could not reach it from PacBell areas either. [Moderator's Note: Once again, get.sprint.com people, please give me a name for your articles other than Gloria Valle. Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mrs@netcom.com (Morgan Schweers) Subject: Getting The Number I'm Calling From (ANAC?) Organization: McAfee Associates Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 21:05:06 GMT Greetings, Where I used to live (NY) if you picked up the phone and dialed 958, it would tell you the phone number you're calling from. Now I'm living in Sunnyvale, CA (408 Area code) and I've occasionally got to futz with the outside phone lines of my house, with twelve phone lines. Can ANYONE tell me what the equivelant number to the '958' service out here is? One person already suggested that it was '760', but 760-WHAT? 760 expects another four digits before it will answer. It DOES seem like a test exchange, but I can't figure out how to use it for what I need. (And the person who suggested 760 just shrugged and said that they had heard it somewhere ...) Any help will be much appreciated. Morgan mrs@netcom.com mrs@mcafee.com [Moderator's Note: Like the 'how do I ring my phone' question, the above is a frequent one in my mailbox. Readers should answer direct to Morgan. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1992 16:58:53 CST From: Dave Mausner Reply-To: dlm@hermes.dlogics.com Subject: How Can One Reduce Ring Current Crosstalk? My home is wired for two lines with standard indoor four-wire cable, NOT twisted-pair and NOT shielded. I am NOT able to replace it. Recently my modem on line two began disconnecting when an incoming call rang line one. I assume some characteristic of the ring signal has been changed at the exchange, so that it induces crosstalk which the modem regards as an interruption. Would netters please suggest electrical/electronic remedies? I am willing to fiddle with the quality of line one which is voice-only, if it will resolve the problem on line two. Thanks, d.l.mausner (dlm@dlogics.com) ------------------------------ From: Michael.Rosen@lambada.oit.unc.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Attention Derek J. Neufeld Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 09:50:41 GMT Sorry to waste bandwidth with this, but I lost Derek's address and this was the newsgroup where he responded to a post of mine. Derek, please reply. Thanks. Mike The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service. internet: laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #887 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa15190; 6 Dec 92 5:47 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28432 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 03:51:51 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12037 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 03:51:22 -0600 Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 03:51:22 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212060951.AA12037@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #888 TELECOM Digest Sun, 6 Dec 92 03:51:18 CST Volume 12 : Issue 888 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Proposed Australian Number Changes 1994-1998 (Christopher Vance) "If You Didn't Call Us, Please Press 1" (Andrew C. Green) Wanted: Help With Multi-Tech/Courier Modem Problem (William Petrisko) Add to History.of.area.splits (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Christopher.Vance@adfa.oz.au Subject: Proposed Australian Number Changes 1994-1998 Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 03:04:48 GMT These tables cover geographic services only and are excerpted without permission from the AUSTEL reports dated October 1992. Formatting and representation are my responsibility. SUMMARY The Australian regulatory organization in charge of the Australian telecommunications is intending that all phone numbers in Australia change over the next few years, ending up with only four area codes and uniform eight digit phone numbers within each area. ROUGH OUTLINE New area code: Supercedes old area codes: And local numbers become: 02 02 9XXX XXXX 04X 4XXX XXXX 06, 06X 6XXX XXXX 03 00X 6XXX XXXX 03 9XXX XXXX 05X 5XXX XXXX 07 07 3XXX XXXX 07X 7XXX XXXX 08 08, 08X 8XXX XXXX 09, 09X 9XXX XXXX In most areas, the old area code (without the leading zero) becomes the beginning of the new local number; in Sydney and Melbourne, the local number usually gains an initial 9; in Brisbane, an initial 3. Each change will take a period of nine months. During the first six months, either the new or old number will be usable (the new number within the new area code, the old number within the old area code); during the last three months, a message will appear on the old number referring the caller to the new number. The leftmost position of each number in the tables indicates the start of the change period. Some periods are quoted with explicit months, others with `early', `mid' or `late'. The marker used to indicate the period of change indicates which (<-----|--> or <<<--||>>>). For timescale representation, I have arbitrarily decided that: `early, mid, late' means Feb-Aug-Nov; `mid, late, early' means May-Nov-Feb; and `late, early, mid' means Aug-Feb-May. There is no sanction to any particular division of local numbers into groups of digits. I have chosen divisions solely for clarity. Ambiguous entries in the tables are resolved by applying the most specific rule present. Note for non-Australians: Australian area codes are always quoted with a leading zero. Dialing from overseas requires omitting the leading zero. Some confusions exists because in the existing scheme: city national number international dialling Sydney (02) XXX XXXX +61 2 XXX XXXX Sydney (02) XX XXXX +61 2 XX XXXX Hobart (002) XX XXXX +61 02 XX XXXX DOUBLY CHANGED NUMBERS A small subset of numbers (about 1% of the total) change twice. For these numbers, the first change is to prevent ambiguity during the second change. The first change affects only the local number; the area code does not change until the second change. This second change occurs concurrently with the change for all the other numbers in the area and follows the same rules (but applied to the intermediate number). TABLE 1: Change from current to intermediate number for numbers changing twice. This table lists only numbers which change twice. The timing of the second change is also marked. The specification of the change is in Table 2. |Jl Oc 95 Ap Jl Oc 96 Ap Jl Oc 97 Ap Jl Oc 98 Ap Jl Oc New 02 area | <<<--||>>> <<<--||>>> (043) 43 XXXX | 44 XXXX (046) 46 XXXX | 48 XXXX (048) 480 XXX | 440 XXX (048) 481 XXX | 441 XXX (048) 482 XXX | 432 XXX (048) 483 XXX | 443 XXX (048) 484 XXX | 444 XXX (048) 485 XXX | 445 XXX (048) 486 XXX | 446 XXX (048) 487 XXX | 447 XXX (049) 49 XXXX | 44 XXXX (063) 63 XXXX | 60 XXXX (065) 65 XXXX | 67 XXXX (066) 66 XXXX | 61 XXXX (067) 67 XXXX | 60 XXXX (068) 68 XXXX | 64 XXXX (069) 69 XXXX | 60 XXXX |Jl Oc 95 Ap Jl Oc 96 Ap Jl Oc 97 Ap Jl Oc 98 Ap Jl Oc New 03 aread | <<<--||>>> <<<--||>>> (002) 62 XXXX | 60 XXXX (003) 63 XXXX | 67 XXXX | <<<--||>>> <<<--||>>> (051) 51 XXXX | 54 XXXX (052) 52 XXXX | 58 XXXX (053) 531 XXX | 541 XXX (053) 535 XXX | 542 XXX (053) 536 XXX | 546 XXX (053) 537 XXX | 548 XXX (053) 539 XXX | 549 XXX (054) 541 XXX | 570 XXX (054) 542 XXX | 572 XXX (054) 543 XXX | 575 XXX (054) 545 XXX | 577 XXX (054) 546 XXX | 578 XXX (054) 547 XXX | 579 XXX (056) 56 XXXX | 58 XXXX (057) 570 XXX | 540 XXX (057) 571 XXX | 541 XXX (057) 572 XXX | 544 XXX (057) 573 XXX | 543 XXX (057) 575 XXX | 545 XXX (058) 580 XXX | 520 XXX (058) 581 XXX | 591 XXX (058) 582 XXX | 590 XXX |Jl Oc 95 Ap Jl Oc 96 Ap Jl Oc 97 Ap Jl Oc 98 Ap Jl Oc New 07 area | <<<--||>>> <<<--||>>> (077) 7X XXXX | 6X XXXX | <<<--||>>> <<<--||>>> (074) 74 XXXX | 40 XXXX (075) 75 XXXX | 85 XXXX (076) 76 XXXX | 79 XXXX (079) 79 XXXX | 71 XXXX |Jl Oc 95 Ap Jl Oc 96 Ap Jl Oc 97 Ap Jl Oc 98 Ap Jl Oc New 08 area | <<<--||>>> <<<--||>>> (085) 85 XXXX | 95 XXXX (086) 86 XXXX | 76 XXXX (089) 89 XXXX | 99 XXXX | <<<--||>>> <<<--||>>> (091) 914 XXX | 919 XXX (097) 972 XXX | 970 XXX TABLE 2: Change to final number, including change of area code. This second table lists all changes to a final number. The second change for numbers which change twice is listed here under the intermediate number. If some of the numbers in an (old) area have undergone a first change, the time of this is marked, and the transformation recorded in this table occurs to the intermediate number. |Jl Oc 95 Ap Jl Oc 96 Ap Jl Oc 97 Ap Jl Oc 98 Ap Jl Oc New 02 area | <-----|--> (02) 99X XXX | (02) 9999 XXXX (02) 99X XXXX | (02) 999X XXXX | <-----|--> (02) 9XX XXXX | (02) 99XX XXXX | <-----|--> (02) 2XX XXXX | (02) 92XX XXXX (02) 3XX XXXX | (02) 93XX XXXX (02) 3XX XXX | (02) 913X XXXX (02) 4XX XXXX | (02) 94XX XXXX (02) 4XX XXX | (02) 914X XXXX (02) 5XX XXXX | (02) 95XX XXXX (02) 5XX XXX | (02) 915X XXXX (02) 6XX XXXX | (02) 96XX XXXX (02) 7XX XXXX | (02) 97XX XXXX (02) 8XX XXXX | (02) 98XX XXXX (02) 8XX XXX | (02) 918X XXXX | <<<--||>>> (042) XX XXXX | (02) 42XX XXXX (043) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (02) 43XX XXXX (044) XX XXXX | (02) 44XX XXXX (045) XX XXXX | (02) 45XX XXXX (046) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (02) 46XX XXXX (047) XX XXXX | (02) 47XX XXXX (048) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (02) 48XX XXXX (049) XX XXXX | (02) 49XX XXXX (060) XX XXXX | (02) 60XX XXXX (06) 2XX XXXX | (02) 62XX XXXX (063) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (02) 63XX XXXX (064) XX XXXX | (02) 64XX XXXX (065) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (02) 65XX XXXX (066) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (02) 66XX XXXX (067) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (02) 67XX XXXX (068) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (02) 68XX XXXX (069) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (02) 69XX XXXX |Jl Oc 95 Ap Jl Oc 96 Ap Jl Oc 97 Ap Jl Oc 98 Ap Jl Oc New 03 area | <-----|--> (03) XXX XXXX | (03) 9XXX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (002) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (03) 62XX XXXX (003) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (03) 63XX XXXX (004) XX XXXX | (03) 64XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (050) XX XXXX | (03) 50XX XXXX (051) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (03) 51XX XXXX (052) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (03) 52XX XXXX (053) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (03) 53XX XXXX (054) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (03) 54XX XXXX (055) XX XXXX | (03) 55XX XXXX (056) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (03) 56XX XXXX (057) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (03) 57XX XXXX (058) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (03) 58XX XXXX (059) XX XXXX | (03) 59XX XXXX |Jl Oc 95 Ap Jl Oc 96 Ap Jl Oc 97 Ap Jl Oc 98 Ap Jl Oc New 07 area | <-----|--> (07) 2XX XXXX | (07) 32XX XXXX (07) 3XX XXXX | (07) 33XX XXXX (07) 4XX XXXX | (07) 34XX XXXX (07) 8XX XXXX | (07) 38XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (077) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (07) 77XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (070) XX XXXX | (07) 70XX XXXX (079) XX XXXX | (07) 79XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (071) XX XXXX | (07) 71XX XXXX (074) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (07) 74XX XXXX (075) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (07) 75XX XXXX (076) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (07) 76XX XXXX (079) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (07) 79XX XXXX |Jl Oc 95 Ap Jl Oc 96 Ap Jl Oc 97 Ap Jl Oc 98 Ap Jl Oc New 08 area | <-----|--> (088) XX XXXX | (08) 88XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (089) XX XXXX | (08) 89XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (080) XX XXXX | (08) 80XX XXXX (08) 2XX XXXX | (08) 82XX XXXX (08) 3XX XXXX | (08) 83XX XXXX (08) 4XX XXXX | (08) 84XX XXXX (0848) 31 XXX | (08) 8553 1XXX (0848) 22 XXX | (08) 8553 2XXX (0848) 23 XXX | (08) 8553 3XXX (0848) 35 XXX | (08) 8553 5XXX (0848) 33 XXX | (08) 8553 7XXX (0848) 28 XXX | (08) 8553 8XXX (0848) 29 XXX | (08) 8553 9XXX (0848) 36 XXX | (08) 8559 2XXX (0848) 93 XXX | (08) 8559 3XXX (0848) 94 XXX | (08) 8559 4XXX (0848) 96 XXX | (08) 8559 6XXX (0848) 37 XXX | (08) 8559 7XXX (085) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (08) 85XX XXXX (086) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (08) 86XX XXXX (087) XX XXXX | (08) 87XX XXXX (089) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (08) 89XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (090) XX XXXX | (08) 90XX XXXX (091) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (08) 91XX XXXX (096) XX XXXX | (08) 96XX XXXX (097) XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (08) 97XX XXXX (098) XX XXXX | (08) 98XX XXXX (099) XX XXXX | (08) 99XX XXXX | <<<--||>>> (09) 2XX XXXX | (08) 92XX XXXX (09) 3XX XXXX | (08) 93XX XXXX (09) 4XX XXXX | (08) 94XX XXXX (09) 5XX XXXX | (08) 95XX XXXX Christopher ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1992 17:06:01 CST From: Andrew C. Green Reply-To: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Subject: "If you didn't call us, please press 1" I have had the usual experiences with crossed-wire conversations over the years (where you can hear other conversations going on in the background of your own call), but this one I had just now takes the cake. The quotes below are from memory ... My wife called me from her downtown office (a (312) 269 exchange) to me at mine (at (312) 266). When I answered, my wife was already in giggles over a surprisingly loud background conversation in Spanish between two women. After a couple minutes of the (total of) four of us trying to speak in two languages to each other, the Spanish women realized the problem and hung up. My wife and I chatted a few more minutes, during which the line was quiet, until all of sudden, quite loudly -- "Thank you for calling Illinois Bell's Automated Customer Assistance Line. If you are calling from a TouchTone phone, please press 1 now!" Oh, boy, we thought (telepathically)! This oughta be interesting to eavesdrop on! Silence. O.K., I'll jump in. I pressed 1 on MY phone. "Please enter your 13-digit account number, which is found on the upper left corner of your bill." Hmmm. I punched in a random collection of digits. I could hear my wife giggling quietly in the background as the computer read back my digits. "We're sorry, we cannot process your account number. Please stay on the line and an Account Representative will be with you shortly." Heeheehee! Boy, will they be surprised! I had all kinds of grand plans in mind at that point -- maybe ordering eight-zillion line features for whoever our line got crossed with, or loudly insisting that I would not pay my bill and Illinois Bell can just get stuffed ... I was in full ten-year-old bozo mode by then, trying to think of what sort of mischief I could get into, when suddenly -- HMM-HMM-HMM-HMMMMMMMMMM ... Sound of a flashed switch-hook dialtone, and the fun was over. After about ten seconds of dialtone, it cut off and I was left with nothing but my wife's laughter in the background. Oh, well, it brightened the afternoon! Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 [Moderator's Note: 312-269 used to be the Chicago Public Library centrex until about a year ago when the new library opened and all the phones were moved to 312-747. Was your wife on it before this year? PAT] ------------------------------ From: petrisko@evax2.engr.arizona.edu (William Petrisko) Subject: Wanted: Help With Multi-Tech/Courier Modem Problem Date: 5 Dec 92 15:07:10 MST Reply-To: petrisko@evax2.engr.arizona.edu Organization: University of Arizona, College of Engineering and Mines, Tucson A few months ago, I was given the task of finding a decent 14.4 modem with callback security. After searching awhile, I came across the Multi-Tech MT1432BA. The problem I am having is when trying to connect with a Courier 2400e. Here is the normal procedure: (1) Call Multi-Tech modem, enter two passwords and hang up; (2) Set your modem to auto-answer; (3) Multi-Tech modem calls your modem back at the predetermined phone number. Here is the problem: Steps 1-2 work fine, but when the Multi-Tech calls back a USRobotics Courier 2400e, the 2400e answers the phone, give the answer tone, but the Multi-Tech DOES NOT RESPOND AND CONNECT! After three callback attempts, it gives up. Here is the baffling part: Either modem can call the other directly (ATDTxxx) with no problem. We have tried both on-premise extensions and outside lines. The Multi-Tech callback works with other modems (we tried five different brands/all different speeds.) We have tried TWO different Multi-Tech modems, and THREE different Courier 2400e's. This leads me to believe that it is not a hardware problem. When we use our Courier and call Multi-Tech's Tech-Support modem, it will call back and connect with no problem. This is a long-distance phone call. We have verified ALL settings on their end, but still cannot get it to work properly on ours. Is it possible that the local telephone lines are affecting the signal, whereas the long-distance has *some* difference that would account for the weird behavior? I apologize for posting this to the net, but we have been beating our heads against the wall for the past few weeks; and multi-tech's tech-support is only open so many hours a day ... I'm curious if anyone else has ever had a similar problem. FYI: Multi-Tech's ROM: MT1432BA/A; vs. 1.02A; Date: 08/14/92 Courier's ROM: 1988 1016013; SP256-B 40CB; 071488 27C256 Thank you. William Petrisko City of Phoenix Phoenix Public Libraries petrisko@evax2.engr.arizona.edu aka n7lwo ...!uunet!4gen!warlok!gargle!omnisec!thumper!bill [Moderator's Note: Is there an initialization string in the callback function? Try setting your Multi-Tech modem to do *no* error checking of any sort and *no* data compression when it calls back. I have a Telebit T-1600 modem which talks to everyone with no complaints except it would not talk to US Robotics, with the very same symptoms you described. The USR would answer, my modem would say it was connected and the speaker would turn off. No matter how much I pounded the return key they would never talk to each other, and I would just stare at a blank screen. Sometimes I would get gibberish on the screen like the stuff you get from mismatched baud rates: ~~~ and similar. Although your S-registers may have different numbers, I set S-180 (Error Control Request) = 0 to disable it and S-181 (Error Control Fallback) = 1 for 'if no error control, use buffered mode'. It might help to set S-190 (Data Compression Enable) = 0 to disable it also. USR seemed to do their own thing for many years. I assume they thought they could corner the market and make everyone buy their modem. The USR offices and Fido BBS are only down the street a few blocks from where I live (they are in Skokie). For the life of me, I could not connect with their BBS at 9600 baud with just the conditions you describe. Of course maybe you want error control for your other callers; I don't know what to tell you. Maybe a different initialization string for when you call the USR people? You might make sure in the callback function there is not a new initialization string being given which is messing around with Error Control that you don't know about. :( This is just a suggestion; it might not be the answer for you. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 17:35:29 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Add to History.of.area.splits I have added the following lines to the next version of history.of.area.splits to be submitted for the archives. Please send me feedback as to the date for 714 getting N0X/N1X, because the list sent to telecom for the new 909 area does have N0X/N1X, but 714 didn't have any at the time of the 714/619 split ten years ago: 714, California, 1992? (7D on all calls within it) (now 714/909) 503, Oregon, 10 July 1993 (1+NPA+7D on all toll calls) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #888 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa14408; 6 Dec 92 15:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18755 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 12:57:06 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04272 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 12:56:46 -0600 Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 12:56:46 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212061856.AA04272@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #889 TELECOM Digest Sun, 6 Dec 92 12:51:52 CST Volume 12 : Issue 889 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: German FAX Machine "Category"? (Mickey Ferguson) Re: German FAX Machine "Category"? (Christof A. Neumann) Re: German FAX Machine "Category"? (Lars Poulsen) Re: Lightning Protection of Telephone Lines (Dick Rawson) Re: Lightning Protection of Telephone Lines (Tom Kloos) Re: Email to Prodigy (Ed Ravin) Re: Email to Prodigy (Alan Boritz) Email to Genie (Gary W. Sanders) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Jeff Hibbard) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Tony Pelliccio) Legal Cites Needed Regards BBS Sysops (Michael Benjamin Chernoff) Re: Shomer-Tec Phone Gadgets (Subversive!!) (Randy Gellens) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 07:18:38 PST From: mickeyf%clipper@ztivax.zfe.siemens.de (Mickey Ferguson) Subject: Re: German FAX Machine "Category"? Reply-To: mickeyf%clipper@pnsts412-sun.zfe.siemens.de > Does anyone know the origins or rationale behind the German > description of "Category A" and "Category B" FAX machines? > As near as I can determine, it doesn't matter if a FAX machine is > "declared" as A or B. Does the German FAX consumer look for one or > the other category, or just shop on price and listed features? I spoke with some of my German friends at Siemens at Munich, and the major difference is that with Category A, the German Bundespost will guarantee, with a certificate, that the device can send and receive fax messages correctly. Category B does not come with such a guarantee. In terms of quality, I'm not sure there really is much difference. But here's a major distinction: Germany produces an official fax telephone book, and a user can be listed in this book only if the device is a category A device. To the home user, this is probably not a big deal, but to a business, it probably is. I would imagine this is sort of like being listed in a "fax yellow pages" or something like that. Mickey Ferguson -- Rolm, a Siemens Company ------------------------------ From: neumann@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Christof A. Neumann) Subject: Re: German FAX Machine "Category"? Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 10:12:33 +0100 In article Scott Roleson writes: > Does anyone know the origins or rationale behind the German > description of "Category A" and "Category B" FAX machines? > Does the German FAX consumer look for one or the other category, or > just shop on price and listed features? Well, I'm not too familiar with Fax techno stuff, but as a "German FAX consumer" I never heard of that kind of category. What I know about fax classes are the different groups (1 to 4), mainly characterized by transmission speed: Group 3 is the mostly used one now (9.600 bit/s), group 4 is standard for ISDN networks (64.000 bit/s). Even the product infos on fax machines sold by the German telco (DBP Telekom) don't mention any "Category A" or "Category B". Best regards, Christof A. Neumann Institut fuer Informatik der Technischen Universitaet Muenchen Postfach 20 24 20, 8000 Muenchen 2, Germany Tel +49 89 450552 33 Fax +49 89 450552 22 neumann@informatik.tu-muenchen.de ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: German FAX Machine "Category"? Organization: CMC Network Systems (Rockwell DCD), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 03:07:54 GMT In article Scott Roleson writes: > Does anyone know the origins or rationale behind the German > description of "Category A" and "Category B" FAX machines? I think that category A applies to equipment attached to the public, switched network for general use, while category B equipment may be attached behind PBXs. Only category A equipment may be offered for sale to the general public. If so, this would be similar to the US FCC clasification of computing equipment for electromagnetic interference. Class A equipment may only be used in a "professional" office environment, while equipment sold to the general public must comply with the much stricter class B requiements. Class A equipment may not be offered for sale to the general public, and may not be advertized in publications primarily read by the general public. In other words, if I build a cheap fileserver out of PC-clone parts, but don't get the resulting box FCC certified for class B compliance, I may not advertize it in {Byte}, but if it passes a class A evaluation, I may advertize it in {Datamation} or {Computer Technology Review}. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 10:27:20 PST From: drawson@Tymnet.COM (Dick Rawson) Subject: Re: Lightning Protection of Telephone Lines > Joel Upchurch pointed out that I might be liable for telco equipment > if I connect their ground to the power ground. Does anyone know > anything about this? Both have wires going into the ground: I just > connected the two ground wires together using #10 guage wire. I believe that the National Electric Code (NEC) recommends or requires that different grounding electrodes be bonded (standardese for connected) together. I would not expect a telco to object. Dick ------------------------------ From: tk@sequent.com (Tom Kloos) Subject: Re: Lightning Protection of Telephone Lines Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 03:57:31 GMT In article rgt@beta.lanl.gov (Richard Thomsen) writes: > Joel Upchurch pointed out that I might be liable for telco equipment > if I connect their ground to the power ground. Does anyone know > anything about this? Both have wires going into the ground: I just > connected the two ground wires together using #10 guage wire. I > cannot tell if it has done any good, as most of the storms are in > spring/summer. An additional piece of info here ... the NEC (National Electrical Code) specifies that ground for various things in a residence be common and that they tie to the power grounding electrode serving the structure. It's in section 810. The bonding jumper wire size is also specified if more than one grounding "electrode" is used. I seem to remember 6 AWG or larger. The importance (from a safety standpoint) of tying all the grounds together is something that most miss. The reasons are explained in the "Handbook" version of the NEC. It will be interesting to see if the '93 NEC expands on the requirements. The adoption of this in the '90 NEC caused our local cable company to redo many customer's drops. The only acceptable ground point is now considered to be the power company service entrance. When I added a phone line about a year ago, the installer redid the protector ground for the existing line and moved it to the *metal* conduit leading to the power company drop weatherhead. But -- in a slightly different twist -- a leaflet in a recent water bill was discussing lead and other heavy metals in drinking water. It suggested that water pipes should *not* be connected to the "electrical ground" to help prevent electrolysis which might put more metals into the water. Yet, the city electrical inspector I called said they still require metallic plumbing to be bonded to the power service entrance ground (acceptable power grounds are a rod or metal foundation reinforcements). Tom Kloos, WS7S, Sequent Computer Systems, Inc., Beaverton, OR tk@sequent.com [Moderator's Note: This poses an interesting conflict. Our water pipes in Chicago are very bad; full of all kinds of gunk. We have to let the water run a couple minutes before drinking it which certainly does not help the water bill any. PAT] ------------------------------ From: elr%trintex@uunet.UU.NET (Ed Ravin) Subject: Re: Email to Prodigy Organization: Prodigy Services Co. Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 17:38:18 GMT [ on the topic of Prodigy and email, PAT writes: ] > [Moderator's Note: If I am not mistaken, I believe Prodigy either > cancelled the accounts of some users or otherwise disciplined those > users for their use of email in writing large quantities of email on > 'unwelcome topics' to other users. I believe this occurred when the > users in question started using email to discuss what they were no > longer being permitted to discuss in the public forums. Am I correct > or do I stand corrected? PAT] You stand corrected, Pat -- it was not the content of their email that got those folks in trouble, but that they were mailing their letters unsolicited to nearly everyone on the service, and some people (especially commercial clients) complained about the harassment. I don't want to disparage the issue those folks were upset about -- of course there are numerous legitimate complaints about the way Prodigy runs the service, and I've seen signs that the company has learned much from their past errors. I just wanted to clarify that though Prodigy can be faulted for many other things, censoring email is most definitely not one of them. Ed Ravin- elr@trintex.uucp elr%trintex@uunet.uu.net +1-914-993-4737 my opinions, nobody else's ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Dec 92 02:18:22 EST From: alan@camphq.FIDONET.ORG (Alan Boritz) Subject: Re: Email to Prodigy elr%trintex@uunet.UU.NET (Ed Ravin) writes: > In article xdab@midway.uchicago.edu > writes: >> The last I knew the people who ran Prodigy were not hooked into any >> other network, nor were they going to be in the future. > No longer true -- Prodigy is setting up an Internet email gateway even > as we speak, which will be online in the next few months. The gateway > address will be @prodigy.com. It's fairly well-known that Prodigy actively censors conference and email between Prodigy users. Would you know if they intend to continue that practice with inbound and outbound Internet mail? Alan Boritz alan@camphq.FIDONET.ORG [Moderator's Note: As Ed points out in his reply to me earlier in this issue, the issue at hand was the users sending large quantities of *unsolicited* email to other users -- not the content of the letters -- although I imagine some of the complaints from the recipients of the letters were generated on their dislike of the email's content as well. So it is NOT 'fairly well-known that Prodigy censors email'. I do think a far better solution would be a utility in their email which allows users to screen out unwanted mail/subjects in the same way we Usenet readers can screen unwanted things out of arriving news. That would leave Prodigy in a neutral position. How they run their confer- ences is their own business of course. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 14:02:05 GMT From: news@cbnews.att.com Subject: Email to Genie Organization: AT&T In article rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) writes: >> No longer true -- Prodigy is setting up an Internet email gateway even I just saw a note that Genie is setting up internet trials. Big catch is it will cost to allow internet access then cost per 5k of outbound or INBOUND messages. I would bet that paying for inbound messages is going to be an interesting issue for many. I am forced to pay for mail I didn't request, hmm. Don't like some Genie user? How about FTP mailing them the X11 sources ... Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614-860-5965 [Moderator's Note: Compuserve also charges for mail on their network, but they do give an allotment for the month as part of the service fee. Since they have no way to collect mail charges from other networks, they bill their own users 'collect'. But each user has an option to accept or not accept collect mail from the internet. If the user does not wish to accept it collect, then it is returned to the sender. If the user does agree to accept collect charges on mail from the internet, then much of it is covered by the monthly allowance so they don't see any extra charges. I should imagine GEnie and Prodigy would work on the same basis. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jeff@bradley.bradley.edu (Jeff Hibbard) Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Organization: Bradley University Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 09:58:19 GMT burgoyne@access.digex.com (J. Robert Burgoyne) writes: > I'm just glad 911 from the car works. I've stopped to help many people > broken down on the side of the road and they are glad too. Reporting roadside emergencies would seem such an obvious use for cellular phones. As if to underscore this point, the second day I had a phone in my car, I watched somebody in front of me roll her car, and was able to notify the police almost before the car stopped moving. Fortunately, this happened in my home system (Peoria IL), where 911 on a cellular phone connects you to the state police. My second attempt at reporting an emergency was in a rural area within range of the Springfield IL system. Dialing 911 didn't connect me to anything, and I eventually sprung for roaming and long distance charges to call the state police back in Peoria, who said they could notify officers in the appropriate district. Just a few weeks ago in the city of (and cellular system of) Decatur IL I tried 911, and again got nothing. I tried 611 (which is answered by a human 24 hours per day back home in Peoria) to ask them what I should do, but I only got a recording telling me what time the business office would open the next morning. I just happened to have a Decatur phone book with me, so I looked in the front cover for a seven-digit number to call, but it just said "911" ... big help. Then I looked in the white pages under "Decatur, City of". The listing there also said "911". What am I supposed to do? How common is this, anyway? I've only tried 911 while roaming twice. Does it work most places, and I was just incredibly unlucky? Jeff Hibbard, Peoria IL [Moderator's Note: The law in the State of Illinois which established and mandated 911 service on all telephone exchanges as soon as it was technically possible states that all emergency agencies must also have and publish seven-digit administrative numbers. Sometimes locating these can be confusing, but they all seem to be there if you know under what listing in the phone book to look for them. Check simply the word 'Police' or 'Fire' as it would appear alphabetically in the white pages. In the regional directories for northern Illinois with hundreds of communities listed in them, the alphabetical listing of 'Police' is then followed by indented listings with dozens of town and village names. You can also check listings for "(town name), City of" in the alphabetical listings to find cross listings. Of course you have to know *what* town or village you are in; this is not always an easy task when driving down the interstate highway. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Dec 92 13:38:02 EST From: Tony Pelliccio Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones There was just an article in the {Providence Sunday Journal} about the states Enhanced 9-1-1 service and how it's become a model for other sites. They say that cellular callers are routed to the nearest state police barracks to be dispatched by simply dialing 9-1-1 from a cellular phone. I think that's actually a fairly good idea since you really can't get a precise location of a cellular phone without some very good radio direction finding equipment. Tony Pelliccio PJJ125 @ URIACC.URI.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 02:11:24 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Benjamin Chernoff Subject: Legal Cites Needed Regards BBS Sysops Question: I'm looking for recent articles or court cases dealing with the liability of BBS Sysops over the content posted on their boards. This includes both civil and criminal cases. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Michael fuzz@cmu.edu ------------------------------ From: MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 06 DEC 92 03:23 Subject: Re: Shomer-Tec Phone Gadgets (Subversive!!) In Telecom 12.877.5, Rob Boudrie writes: > A catalog a local law enforcement officer loaned me includes several > neat telecom toys, one of which is a "hold invader". This $99 gadget > puts the other party on "phantom hold" where he thinks he's on hold > (the sound going "hold dead" which I believe is different from what > the other party would hear if the mouthpiece were merely > disconnected). The idea is that the line remains open, so that the > other party will (hopefully) "freely converse with his associate" > during such things as price negotiations, thinking he is "on hold" and > cannot be heard. This sounds to me like a simple mute button, a feature common on many phones. A friend of mine who used to work in customer service for a large company told me that when he put a caller on hold (which worked like mute), he often heard them making comments to their associates, often containing quite rude remarks about him. Randy Gellens randy%mpa15ab@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com A Series System Software if mail bounces, forward to Unisys Mission Viejo, CA rgellens@mcimail.com Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #889 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa15374; 6 Dec 92 15:47 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28515 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 13:40:21 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26694 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 13:40:00 -0600 Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 13:40:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212061940.AA26694@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #890 TELECOM Digest Sun, 6 Dec 92 13:40:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 890 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Residential ISDN? (John R. Levine) Re: Residential ISDN? (Marc Unangst) Re: Residential ISDN? Really Flat Rate Calling Politics (David Lesher) Re: Looking For Outdials (Paul Houle) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (Tom Adams) Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? (John David Galt) Re: Cellular RJ-11 Jacks (Jerry Bass) Re: Microsoft/Intel Team up on Video (Andrew Emmerson) Re: Can I Use a US Modem in Switzerland? (Andrew Emmerson) Re: 10-NJB (John Adams) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Residential ISDN? Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 6 Dec 92 11:40:13 EST (Sun) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) > Of all the ISDN rates I've seen in this Digest and elsewhere, the > telco charges some rate for connect time. Here in Massachusetts, ISDN voice calls are charged the same as POTS voice calls, which can be free if you have the appropriate residential calling plan. Data calls are charged as business calls, which means a minimum of 1.6 cents/minute. Sensible people will make all their local data calls as "voice". They only guarantee 56Kb, but at the price, I wouldn't complain. Note that the free local calls will apply to nearby calls in other COs once they start to support inter-CO ISDN. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl [Moderator's Note: For so much of what needs to be done, I'd think 56 Kb was quite adequate. Paying for more would be an overkill. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) Subject: Re: Residential ISDN? Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 16:46:44 GMT Organization: The Programmer's Pit Stop, Ann Arbor MI In article root@sanger.chem.nd.edu (Doctor Math) writes: > Of all the ISDN rates I've seen in this Digest and elsewhere, the > telco charges some rate for connect time. How is this justifiable > given the current situation of flat rate or "unmeasured" lines? Unmeasured service is a mistake the telcos made years and years ago, when it was much more difficult to do usage accounting. Since residential customers didn't use the phone as much as businesses (this is, after all, the basis of residential vs. business rates), it was therefore cheaper to just charge residential customers a flat rate. With the advent of computerized switches, it's much easier to keep track of how much service each line is using. But the telcos can't get rid of unmeasured service because people are used to it (although some are trying; take a look at what Ameritech is doing in Illinois and Michigan). So their only real option is to leave unmeasured service in for existing services, but leave it out of the tariffs when they add new services (such as ISDN). And as much as I hate it for increasing my phone bill, usage-based billing is fairer to everyone. Any sort of flat rate means that the low-usage customers wind up subsidizing the high-usage customers. My only beef is that the charges have nothing to do with how prices are typically calculated in other lines of business -- take your cost for the product/service, add a markup to cover your overhead and profit, and charge that price. If the telco did this, non-peak use would be free and peak use would be expensive. All calls would be charged for based on distance between COs. Things are done this way in the LD world, but not in the local-calling world; why else does a call from Ann Arbor (SE Michigan) to Houghton (Upper Penninsula) cost more than a call of the same length, at the same time of day, from Ann Arbor to California? Of course, since the telcos are making ISDN service more expensive than an equivalent POTS line, they will have trouble switching people over to it who don't need ISDN for data-transfer reasons. Why pay $29/line plus usage charges when you can pay $15/line and get unlimited calls? Marc Unangst, N8VRH mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 10:41:22 -0500 From: David Lesher Subject: Residential ISDN? Really Flat Rate Calling Politics Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews Abusers - Beltway Annex Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu (David Lesher) Dr. Math asked a very valid question. Why do the LEC's in those {enlightened ;-} areas with flat rate voice calling, charge you by the [bit,second] for It Still Does Nothing? After all, each ISDN BRI call takes virtually the same size bit pipe as your digitized 56kb voice call. (Yes, you get two, but let's not digress...) In some ways, all they've done is gotten out of doing the A/D conversion, and left that up to you to do, if you want to:-} The reason is the same one as why you can't have two cellphones on one number assignment -- money and politics. The LECs have been trying for decades to dump any and all flat rate calling tariffs. In some places, such as the Left Coast and the Moderator's home of Daleyville, they have succeeded. But in others, such as Ohio, Florida, Minnesota, and other, they have not. In Washington DC metro, for example, there was such a general revolt at the suggestion, I'm told, that the topic is deeper buried than the truth about those space aliens in the deep freeze at the Hangar 18 ;-] So the LEC's, frustrated in the direct approach, have been using the old Statue of Liberty play. They offer few or no new services with flat rate. Instead they push (HARD) all new subs toward quote OPTIONAL endquote metered calling. Sometimes this includes a trapdoor -- if you bite and switch to a non-flat rate plan, you cannot switch back, period. If you're a new install, flat rate is not available, period. (I think this is the case in Michigan or was it Indiana, now. I invite correction on this point.) Often they throw the issue in when waters are already muddy with some other shark. I recall the Bell South droid at a Caller-ID hearing. He proposed that those M.D.'s and Public Defenders that wanted (but could not get) blocking might be able to get a second residential line WITH METERED CALLING that they could use for outgoing calls to the public. This struck me as interesting -- at that time Florida did not have any metered calling RS tariff. I also agree with Dr. Math regarding the success of ISDN. If it's going to fly, it needs to be cheaper than what it portends to replace. Right now, if I needed to move data from {oh say} Langley, VA to Laural, MD [who could possibly be in THOSE places, readers?-], places within the local calling area, I'd get a line at each end and a pair of modems. If I needed more bandwidth, I'd duplicate the above and get inverse muxes. If it took more, I'd see about getting DID service at the T1 level -- then I'd never have analog to deal with at all. In short, don't ever confuse technical viability with political reality. What really matters is if the vested power structure can make a bigger profit. wb8foz@scl.cwru.edu ------------------------------ From: houle@jupiter.nmt.edu (Paul Houle) Subject: Re: Looking For Outdials Organization: New Mexico Tech Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 18:01:05 GMT > What I am looking for PAT, are freely accessible dialout ports > that I can reach through telnet. I would like to use my internet > access to do some long distance modemming without having to pay the > long distance rates. I am aware of several such ports, but I don't know if the institutions that run them care if people from outside use them. Many of them are not passworded, but in the existing legal situation today, one can't use this as a defense if the people at the site decide that you are stealing service. Mind you, some of these sites either do allow long distance calls or (according to a "phriend") can be very easily fooled into allowing them. For instance, I am aware of a modem bank that was operating at one of the UC schools that was public access as of six months ago. Only local calls are allowed, but they probably get measured service, so you are costing them something (although not much) by using the line. If the place still is publicly accessable, and I posted the number here, there would be hundreds of people using the modem bank. I assume that most of them would be honest, and only want to download porno files from local BBSes and all that stuff, but I am sure that many of the denizens of the computer underground ranging from well-meaning to just plain mean would also use the lines for all sorts of things. The way these things work, even the large number of honest people who would call such a modem bank from all over the world could get it closed down due to congestion and local phone charges (These can add up; phone company security never bothered a phriend of mine who programmed his computer to call all the phone numbers in Manchester, NH on a line with measured service. His parents just got a bill for a few cents each for 60,000 calls. Sure, some school won't notice or care if one person from outside uses the modem bank, but anyone who posts this kind of information is only going to ruin it for himself and others. > best deal for what you are seeking would be PC Pursuit, a service of > Sprint/Telenet. BTW, I don't think that people save very much in the way of money and/or aggrevation with PC Pursuit. Not only does it often bill people for calls that never completed, but it is still hacker prone after all these years (and just like Telenet, the ratio of hackers to legitimate users is probably 3:1) -- Spoofing and other techniques can be used to tap connections, so that not only is your PC Pursuit password unsafe (no matter what it is), but so is the password to any service that you call with it). [Moderator's Note: I was unaware that PC Pursuit was all the problems you say it is. I used it for many years (actually, I started with it back in 1983 I think; I know it was the first month the service was in operation) and found it quite a bargain. The way they avoid charging for unanswered calls is by not starting the meter until the second full minute. That way, if you bail out after a minute of no response from the place you are calling, there is no charge for the connection via PC Pursuit. It is the gimmick all the OCCs used before they got equal access. And $1 per hour (plus local message units if any, but we have a *very* local Telenet dial up here by me) is less expensive than any other long distance service I've seen. I recommend PC Pursuit highly to long distance BBS users. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tadams@wedge.sbc.com (Tom. Adams 529-7860) Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Organization: Southwestern Bell Technology Resources, St.Louis, MO Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 23:23:48 GMT In article jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) writes: > In article lairdb@crash.cts.com > writes: >> In deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g. >> lewis) writes: >>> Not exactly correct. SS7 TCAP supports a "query" message. >> Will there be a way (legitimately) for an end user (perhaps an ISDN >> user?) to issue SS7 messages? For example, could I take my ISDN card >> and send these "query" messages and receive the responses? >> (All this assumes I move out of PatheticBell territory, so I can get >> ISDN at all ...) > I am *definetely* not speaking for BELLCORE (Or any of the Regional > Exchange Companies) when I say that I see no "OPEN ARCHITECTURE" > access to SS7 messages in the near future. No one knows what such > bodies as CONAP (Committee on Open Network Architecture Policy) might > be able to achieve, but the prospect of customers being able to launch > queries and receive responses appear rather bleak. Summa 4, a small "open" switch vendor, has a new product called Portico, which maps TCAP messages into TCP/IP (actually UDP) packets, using their (documented) format. I believe the product is intended as a firewall between corporate telecommunications users and IEC's. Summa is located in Manchester NH (603). Tom Adams tadams@sbctri.sbc.com adams@swbatl.sbc.com 314-529-7860 ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Does SS7 Support Early Busy Signal? Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 11:10:08 PST Peter Capek writes: > ... The advantage (to me) would be not having to repeatedly pound in the billing. I don't know what telco you're using, but out here in Pac Bell land, you can retry the number just by hitting "#" and dialing the ten digit number again. Of course, your tries may be several minutes apart (you didn't say); in that case, have your modem do the dialing! That's how I do it. John David Galt ------------------------------ From: gbass@mitre.org (Jerry Bass) Subject: Re: Cellular RJ-11 Jacks Organization: The MITRE Corporation Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 19:50:52 GMT In article rendt+@pitt.edu (James M Rendt) writes: > I noticed in a laptop magazine that there is a new device to plug your > pocket modem into one end, and the other into the 'expansion' jack on > handheld phones (a picture of the Fujitsu Pocket Commander's adapter) > was included in the photo. They claim they retail at about $300. > Sounds pretty nice to have a jack for an RJ-11 there. Does anyone have > more information about the adapter, or a pin-out for my Oki 900 so I > could rig a warranty-destroying method of my own . Motorola has what is probably a similar device called The Cellular Connection. It plugs in between the phone body and the handset, is powered by the phone, and provides an RJ-11. It basically emulates a wall jack and any device that you would normally plug into the wall will connect. We us it to connect our transporatables to our mobile PBX to provide cellular " trunks." I believe the price was about $250. Jerry Bass gbass@mitre.org The MITRE Corporation Bedford, MA ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 18:18 GMT From: Andrew Emmerson Subject: Re: Microsoft/Intel Team up on Video Reply-To: aemmerson@cix.compulink.co.uk Well, on a global basis, the original author probably is right! The Video Toaster is a nice gadget but little more. Its designers were too idle or incompetent to devise a version for the rest of the world that doesn't use NTSC, with the result that others have since designed comparable products that _do_ work in PAL and SECAM _and_ NTSC as well! Since The Video Machine, the most sophisticated of them, is based on a standard IBM-type PC, it can be expected to have a grand future. They say nobody ever got fired for buying IBM and anyone intending to design a computerised video accessory might as well recognise this. If it works with a PC it's future is assured. If it works with an Amiga or any other computer perceived (however ignorantly) as a "toy", it can never make it in the corporate market. That is why the Philips MSX2 never took off, even though it was fully genlocked and had impressive video digitising capabilities. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 18:18 GMT From: Andrew Emmerson Subject: Re: Can I Use a US Modem in Switzerland? Reply-To: aemmerson@cix.compulink.co.uk > The European dial tones do not correspond with the USA. Well, you could turn it around and say the USA does not correspond with Europe. But fortunately, this is not so. All western European countries are now installing exchanges which produce dial tone to the worldwide agreed CCITT specification, which is identical to the USA "precise" dial tone. Whilst you may encounter non-conformant tones on older exchanges, they will increasingly disappear as new equipment is installed. ------------------------------ From: jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore.com (adams,john) Subject: Re: 10-NJB Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 13:05:10 GMT In article j-grout@uiuc.edu writes: > jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (jeffj) writes: >> New Jersey Bell has a waiver to offer inter-LATA service between some >> North Jersey counties to NYC (_not_ the other parts of the NYC LATA) >> and some South Jersey counties to Philadelphia. I believe this >> service predated divestiture, so they were allowed to keep it. Technically, this pre-divestiture service was known as Estended-Area Service and recognized in the MFJ waiver process which set up what is now known as "corridor service". Jack (John) Adams Bellcore NVC 2Z-220 (908) 758-5372 {Voice} (908) 758-4389 {Facsimile} jadams@vixen.bellcore.com kahuna@attmail.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #890 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18314; 6 Dec 92 17:28 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16044 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 15:16:57 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05246 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 15:16:35 -0600 Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 15:16:35 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212062116.AA05246@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #891 TELECOM Digest Sun, 6 Dec 92 13:16:30 CST Volume 12 : Issue 891 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson T1-Speed Internet Backbone Passes Into History (Ellen Hoffman via T. Lapp) Anyone Have a Creative Way of Dealing With Crank Calls? (David R. Zinkin) 800 ANI Notice (Steve Forrette) Information Wanted on GSM Terminals (Lars Kalsen) Pay Phone Gives Away Free Calls (Tony Pelliccio) Possibly Off the Subject, But .. (Jack Winslade) Re: Larry King Knows of Disconnect (Will Martin) Re: Pac*Bell and Equipment Vending (Jeff Wasilko) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Bob Turner) Re: *69 in NJ Bell Land (Dave Levenson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 18:21:39 EST From: Thomas Lapp Subject: T1-Speed Internet Backbone Passes Into History (Note: This was received on the HSPNET-L BITNET mailing list with the note: Originally From: Ellen.Hoffman@um.cc.umich.edu. I do not know who the author of the press release is, but wouldn't be surprised if it didn't originate with someone at Merit, since they are in Michigan. Tom) ----------Original message---------- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, December 2, 1992 National Science Foundation Network achieves major milestone T-1 NSFNET now part of Internet history (Wednesday, Dec. 2) Like it's predecessors, the ARPANET and the 56 Kbps National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET), the T-1 NSFNET passed into history today when the last router was moved to connect to the T-3 backbone service. As of 12:01 a.m. EST on Wednesday, December 2, the T-1 NSFNET backbone is no more -- its circuits are turned off -- marking the beginning of a new networking era. When first implemented just over four years ago, the T-1 (1.5 Mbps) NSFNET backbone was state-of-the-art for the Internet, deploying new levels of speed and management. With improvements in routing technology, the Internet moved from an experimental service to a production commodity. Demands for higher speed services and increasing backbone traffic led to the T-3 (45 Mbps) backbone service implemented over the Advanced Network & Services, Inc. Network (ANSnet) that has replaced the older T-1 NSFNET technology. The growth of NSFNET promoted a global internetworking industry estimated as generating billions of dollars in annual revenues. In five years, the communications capacity of NSFNET has expanded almost 700 times through the implementation of leading-edge technologies, growing from 56 Kbps to T-3. Today the network's backbone service carries data at the equivalent of 1,400 pages of single-spaced, typed text per second. This means the information in a 20-volume encyclopedia can be sent across the network in under 23 seconds! Today every major research, graduate, and four-year university is tied together through NSFNET, along with private and federal research institutions and industries. Over 700 colleges and universities are connected representing 80 percent of the nation's student population and 90 percent of the nation's federally sponsored research. Further, NSFNET provides access to hundreds of high schools, libraries, community colleges, and smaller educational institutions. With over 1,000 public and private research and education institutions, NSFNET links an estimated 10 million users. As the commercial Internet has grown, links are expanding between education and business communities which are promoted through expanding connectivity. Access to the network over the past five years has surpassed the most optimistic visions projected for it. The National Science Foundation's 1987 solicitation for NSFNET said, "It is anticipated that over the next five years NSFNET will reach more than 10,000 mathematicians, scientists, and engineers at 200 or more campuses and other research centers." After five years, these numbers have been more than exceeded and network growth continues to be exponential. A reflection of that growth is network traffic. Total NSFNET traffic grew from 195 million packets in August 1988 to almost 24 billion in November 1992, a 100-fold increase in four years. During November, the network reached its first billion-packet-a-day mark. Network growth increases an averages of 11 percent per month. The total number of connected networks grew from fewer than 200 to over 7,500, of which one-third are outside the United States. Today NSFNET makes it possible to reach educators and researchers in over 75 countries around the world. Recent surveys show over a million host computers are connected to the Internet, with an even greater number of individual users accessing those computers. Meeting the challenges of building the central infrastructure for this high-speed data communications network has been the focus of a joint government, academic, and industrial partnership for the past five years. Merit Network, Inc., in association with Advanced Network & Services, Inc. (ANS), IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan, has led pioneering efforts to put in place a national network service through a 1987 cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The partnership deployed the T-1 network on schedule in July 1988, and began the T-3 network service implemented over ANSnet in late 1990. "The T-1 NSFNET project has been a remarkable adventure," said Stephen S. Wolff, director of the National Science Foundation's Division of Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure (DNCRI). "It's an experiment whose success goes far beyond even the highest hopes we had for it. Because of this program, it's now conceivable that the U. S. can implement a network connecting every student and teacher in the country -- from kindergarten to post-college -- before the end of the century, revolutionizing education and research. Five years ago, this seemed only a very distant dream." -------------- internet: thomas%mvac23@udel.edu (home) <> lapp@cdhub1.dnet.dupont.com (work) ------------------------------ From: zinkin@acsu.buffalo.edu (David R Zinkin) Subject: Anyone Have a Creative Way of Dealing With Crank Calls? Organization: UB Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 19:24:48 GMT I imagine that this subject has probably been discussed already, but I'd like to get readers' opinions on how to deal with crank callers. I've been getting calls -- usually around 3 or 4 am, but often at other times of the day as well -- from someone who claims to be looking for a certain person, presumably a friend of hers. The first couple of times, I assumed that it was merely a wrong number, and the next couple of times, I figured that maybe the caller had the number programmed into her auto-dialer and forgot to change it. Now the number of calls is in the high twenties. If I refuse to answer the call so that my answering machine can get it, the caller simply hangs up and calls back repeatedly until I answer. I checked with New York Telephone as to whether or not anyone else by the intended call recipient's name has ever had my number; it turns out that this is not the case. When I asked the New York Telephone representative if there was any recommended way of dealing with crank callers, her answer was that I should move to Manhattan so that I could get Call ID. (This, sadly, is the level of service I've come to expect from New York Telephone.) Taking the phone off the hook is feasible at night, but during the day I really do have to be able to get my calls, as I'm a medical student and one of my professors was rather upset the last time he tried to get me and couldn't. I'd agree to a call trace except that I haven't the time to deal with the paperwork and with the local police. So, I'm asking fellow TELECOM Digest readers: *please* tell me what suggestions you can offer! Anything involving the PHONESMART (sometimes called CLASS in other cities) services is out; Buffalo is the last city on New York Telephone's list for getting Call ID, Call Trace, and related services, with a projected date of "early 1994". Thank you! Dave [Moderator's Note: You should not have to move anywhere, nor should you have to leave your phone off the hook. Since the automated services are not yet available, and you say you do not have the time to bother with more traditional approaches to the problem, then I guess you are out of luck ... you'll just have to put up with it. You may find however the paperwork is minimal and well worth the few seconds at best required to sign your name a couple places on forms that telco will supply. You sign off agreeing that telco should supply the results of their trap to the local police; you sign a complaint form the police give you, then roll over and go back to sleep. Let the calls comes in; within a week or two, telco will advise you that they have completed their work and turned over the results to the police. The police will notify you that they are prepared to deal with the matter and once you sign their form a couple officers will go to the person's residence, read them their rights and lock them up. That simple. **Only after you have agreed to prosecute, and have signed off on the criminal complaint will you get the name/address of the person making the calls.** Neither telco nor the police will act as your personal investigative agency. You go to court on the day specified and stand up when called. The evidence will be presented to the judge (telco printouts); you'll be asked to confirm that you received the phone calls; if the offender is new in the system, the judge will admonish them to refrain from further contact of any sort with you or be held in contempt if the contact continues. If not a new offender in the system, they may get a fine or probation (with its own penalties for violation of terms, etc). When we had to take that approach three years ago with a Bad Lady (actually a very sick lady) who got attracted to our phone number, we filled out a form telco send through the mail, and signed a form a police detective brought to our door. We spent longer driving to the court (30 minutes) than we did in court (15 minutes) or in front of the judge (possibly three minutes). The judge's message was very blunt and to the point: "Lady, if you are brought back here again for bothering people on the phone, you're going to be locked up." The calls ended for us; they always do because people like that hate the exposure you gave them. If you are too busy to bother with the paperwork, then how do you find time to answer the phone everytime she calls? :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 01:22:31 -0800 From: Steve Forrette Subject: 800 ANI Notice Here's an item that was in my current Pacific Bell billing insert: CALLS TO 800 NUMBERS When you call an 800 number, your phone number may be disclosed to whomever pays for the 800 service. Many phone companies provide callers' phone numbers to 800 number subscribers to verify billing information, just like for collect calls. If you call one of them, your number many be listed on their bill. At this time, we're unable to block your number from being displayed to 800 number subscribers when you call their numbers. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: dalk@login.dkuug.dk (Lars Kalsen) Subject: Information Wanted on GSM Terminals Organization: DKnet Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 09:53:00 GMT Hi, GSM is the new european digital cellular telephone network and it offers according to the specifications data transmission. Does someone have information on terminals for this? Then please E-mail the information to me. Lars Kalsen, MIS-Manager SONOFON, Skelagervej 1, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark +45-99-367000 (tel), +45-99-367070 (fax), E-Mail : dalk@login.dkuug.dk ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Nov 92 13:26:14 EST From: Tony Pelliccio Subject: Pay Phone Gives Away Free Calls Talk about bizarre payphone behavior! Here in Rhode Island, some of the payphones in mostly the East Providence area (it's a newer NT switch) let you call for free! Uh huh ... I remember trying to punch a calling card call up and punching 0+ the seven digits. Instead of the boing I got ringing and the party answered. This has happened on several occasions and only in that area. Heh ... I wonder how much money New England Telephone is losing on these phones? Tony Pelliccio PJJ125 @ URIACC.URI.EDU [Moderator's Note: Several years ago, IBT opened a new exchange in the downtown area and put a lot of payphones on it. Due to a programming error those phones gave away free calls to the exchange my home phone is on. After about a month, it was corrected. IBT has an 'auditing unit' which literally matches every characteristic on every line with whatever the paperwork says should be (or not be) there. They seem to work their way through the entire system once every two or three years and then start over again. The idea is, catch as many mistakes as possible and start billing for previously undetected services. They never back-bill, but they insist on starting the billing when they find something wrong. Payphones are audited the same way since the 'subscriber' in those cases is IBT itself. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Dec 92 01:48:50 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Possibly Off the Subject, But .. Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha In a message dated 30-NOV-92, Ed Ravin writes: > Ed Ravin- elr@trintex.uucp elr%trintex@uunet.uu.net ^^^^^ I've just become aware that addresses in the form of ... whoever%somesite@uunet.uu.net will no longer work when the message is sent via SMTP to the site uunet.uu.net. Apparently the name uunet is still valid as a UUCP site, but the address relay1.uu.net should be substituted (whoever%somesite@relay1.uu.net) when using uu.net as the Internet domain address. I did not hear this officially, but I found it out when tracing a message to one of our sites that seemingly got routed to black-hole@bit.bucket. The relay1 variation DOES work. Good day. JSW (jsw@drbbs.omahug.org) Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.14 r.1 DRBBS (1:285/666.0) [Moderator's Note: Thanks for the hint. I've had to change some names in the Telecom mailing lit recently doing just what you suggested. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 9:02:45 CST From: Will Martin Subject: Re: Larry King Knows of Disconnect [Recap of longtime Telecom topic - Discussion of calling on AT&T and letting unanswered phone ring for many minutes when calling talk show. AT&T began cutting off such callers. King told listeners to use Sprint instead. AT&T was happy with that.] Back when the alternate carriers began to appear, one of the main differences between them and AT&T was that AT&T could provide "answer supervision" (if I am getting that term right), so that a call that was just ringing with no answer for some time would not be billed for; billing would only begin when the called party picked up. Sprint and MCI and the others did not have this, and basically determined whether a call was answered by a timing mechanism. After a period of time, say 45 seconds or so, calls would be billed, even though it might still be ringing, and if the caller hung up on an unanswered call, he would still get billed for a one or two minute call, however long he let it ring. [Long-term Telecom readers will recall we discussed this quite a lot.] So in this situation, King would be doing his listeners no favor by telling them to use Sprint -- they would have been switched over from a non-billed AT&T everlasting-ring call to a billed Sprint everlasting-ring call. :-) Those that eventually got through would be billed for the total time they were holding on the line, including the many minutes of ring. Others would be billed for the minutes of ring even if they never got through. So has this now definitely changed, and has this change been implemented nationwide? Do ALL alternative LD carriers now have "answer supervision"? Or are some of them, or in some areas, still billing based on call timing? And as a separate question: was AT&T monitoring the calls to Larry King numbers specifically, and cutting off the everlasting-ring calls ONLY to those numbers, or did they install software that detected everlasting-ring calls to any and all numbers, and cut off all such calls? What time limit did they pick to let the calls ring? Thanks for info! Regards, Will wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil [Moderator's Note: Don't Sprint and MCI both have call supervision now along with equal access? It was only a few years ago that King got whacked by AT&T. Equal access was already in place, and I assume, call supervision. I don't think they did it to single him out, but AT&T people do listen to (and participate in) radio talk shows; he made no effort to hide his 'toll-saver techniques'. I think calls are allowed to ring about three minutes or so. Previously on Larry King's show, the calls had been ringing 30-40 minutes on a busy night. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jeff@digtype.airage.com (Jeff Wasilko) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell and Equipment Vending Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 09:37:03 EST Organization: Univ of Fnord; Roslyn's Cafe Div. Reply-To: jeff@digtype.airage.com john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) wrote: > Today I received a call from someone at PacTel Meridian Systems, the > equipment sales division of Pacific Telesis. He was pushing his phone > systems and the hook was, "Is your current equipment 'Caller-ID'-ready?" Hmm, he was probably doing it because the next release of the NT Norstar Meridian (DR5) will support line cards with integral modems (to capture CNID). I also hear that they will also be supporting direct termination of a T1 (not bad for a key system!). The Norstar already suports a CNID-like protocol for internal calls. > standards. But at some point (and mark my words), Pac*Bell will > quietly provide some sort unadvertised signaling or handshaking that > will be utilized by systems offered by PacTel Meridian and the specs > will not be made available to other vendors, nor will the signals be > "orderable" by them. I doubt it. It's taken NT a while to get this far. Why would they custom design a new CNID spec just for one BOC? > Anyone still think that telcos should be allowed in the equipment > vending business? Nope. That's why we didn't buy from SNET. Actually, if PacTel Meridian Systems is like NYNEX Meridian Systems, then it's actually a partnership between the BOC and Northern Telecom. Jeff Jeff's Oasis at Home. Jeff can also be reached at work at: jwasilko@airage.com ------------------------------ From: turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu (Bob Turner) Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Organization: Univ. of Dayton, School of Engineering Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 19:36:43 GMT In article jeff@bradley.bradley.edu (Jeff Hibbard) writes: > burgoyne@access.digex.com (J. Robert Burgoyne) writes: >> I'm just glad 911 from the car works. I've stopped to help many people >> broken down on the side of the road and they are glad too. > Reporting roadside emergencies would seem such an obvious use for > cellular phones. As if to underscore this point, the second day I had > a phone in my car, I watched somebody in front of me roll her car, and > was able to notify the police almost before the car stopped moving. > Fortunately, this happened in my home system (Peoria IL), where 911 on > a cellular phone connects you to the state police. > My second attempt at reporting an emergency was in a rural area within > range of the Springfield IL system. Dialing 911 didn't connect me to > anything, and I eventually sprung for roaming and long distance > charges to call the state police back in Peoria, who said they could > notify officers in the appropriate district. I would be intrested to know who your home system is. In Ohio, (Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus) Ameritech has all 911 calls from cellular phones going to the nearest Ohio State Patrol Post. IMHO I think this is the best policy for handling 911 from cellulars based on my knowledge. (Which says the locator technology that people want isn't there, yet.) > What am I supposed to do? How common is this, anyway? I've only > tried 911 while roaming twice. Does it work most places, and I was > just incredibly unlucky? In my experience, its typical not the exception. I had a similar experience about six months ago driving through Covington, KY on I-75 South. A car had broken down in construction and was blocking a lane. So I call 911 expecting the KSP and I get the Ft. Thomas, KY Police Dispatcher. He was completely flabbergasted as to how I got Ft. Thomas, and gave me the 7-Digit number for Covington. I later talked to my 911 contacts in Cincinnati and we surmised that the Ameritech switch is located in Ft Thomas and they were dumping 911 calls to a local trunk, although this a guess. Like I said earlier, I think 911 calls from cellulars should go to the State Police. Why, because the location cannot be readily determined (therefore crossing jurisdictional boundries) the State police should be left to sort out the situtation. Bob Turner Senior System Engineer 513-434-2738 turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu CommSys, Inc. 77 West Elmwood Drive, Suite 101, Dayton, OH 45459 ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: *69 in NJ Bell Land Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 14:32:55 GMT In article , jadams@vixen.cc.bellcore. com (adams,john) writes: [after a very complete description of how *69 (Return*Call) works] > I have to pass on why AR doesn't work with the Holmdel 5E ISDN/Centrex > line. Could it be that Holmdel is among the <5% MF trunks in NJBell > land? Any NJBell ESAC folks on the net want to comment here? When I get intra-LATA calls from Holmdel, they deliver Caller*ID. When they originate from within the ISDN/Centrex group at the Bell Telephone Laboratores Holmdel Location, the Caller*ID information includes the centrex extension number (908-949-XXXX). I take this to mean that SS7 connectivity is available between Holmdel and Millington (and probably the rest of the 201-908 LATA). I haven't tried to use *69 after receiving a call from BTL. Could it be that the centrex group has a *69 restriction? Did the original poster refer to a different centrex group in Holmdel NJ? Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #891 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa19589; 6 Dec 92 18:08 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05699 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 16:02:25 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22152 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sun, 6 Dec 1992 16:02:05 -0600 Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 16:02:05 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212062202.AA22152@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #892 TELECOM Digest Sun, 6 Dec 92 16:02:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 892 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Email to Genie (Andy Finkenstadt) Re: Headsets etc. (M19249@mwvm.mitre.org) Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet (John Murray) Cellular Service Providers (D.C.): Which One Better? (Andrew R. D'Uva) Re: Touch Tone Menus (Jarrod Staffen) Re: Clean Room Phone Equipment Information Request (Howard Pierpont) Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? (Bob Stratton) Re: Characters on International Phone Ke Emmerson Re: Other Bitnet Servers (Jim Rees) Re: Legal Cites Needed Regards BBS Sysops (Andrew Blau) Re: ATT Boing: What is it? (Maxime Taksar) Re: Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? (Stephen Wood) Re: GTE Guarantees its Service: Chapter 11, Here They Come (Steven Lichter) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 15:28:55 -0500 From: andy@homebase.vistachrome.com (Andy Finkenstadt) Subject: Re: Email to Genie Reply-To: andy@homebase.vistachrome.com Gary Sanders at AT&T Bell Labs writes: > I just saw a note that Genie is setting up internet trials. Big catch > is it will cost to allow internet access then cost per 5k of outbound > or INBOUND messages. I would bet that paying for inbound messages is > going to be an interesting issue for many. I am forced to pay for mail > I didn't request, hmm. Don't like some Genie user? How about FTP mailing > them the X11 sources ... How responsible! Don't like someone, run up their bill and flood their mailbox, causing all sorts of heartache and extra work for people not even associated with your intended harrassee. Actually this exact subject has been discussed at length between GEnie users and the administration at GEnie and the summary of the sometimes heated (and worried) discussion was that GEnie would follow its standard billing policies, which INCLUDES investigation into any "billing complaint" and make the appropriate fair-for-all-parties adjustment as needed. While I don't and can't speak for GEnie in this regard, I've been involved in helping GEnie support their Internet product and have been impressed at the friendliness of GEnie and its members with regard to the Internet gateway and its pricing. In addition much of the mail that I answer in my duties on GEnie (see .signature) thanks us for making this low-cost service available for the one or two times they have to send mail per month. I dare say that the majority of comp.dcom.telecom (digest) readers have more internet experience than the average GEnie user; but GEnie's intended market is not the internet power user, in my opinion. > [Moderator's Note: Compuserve also charges for mail on their network, > but they do give an allotment for the month as part of the service > fee. Since they have no way to collect mail charges from other > networks, they bill their own users 'collect'. But each user has an > option to accept or not accept collect mail from the internet. If the > user does not wish to accept it collect, then it is returned to the > sender. If the user does agree to accept collect charges on mail from > the internet, then much of it is covered by the monthly allowance so > they don't see any extra charges. I should imagine GEnie and Prodigy > would work on the same basis. PAT] GEnie offers a much more liberal electronic mail policy than either of CompuServe or Prodigy: $4.95 per month covers ALL the GEnie Mail you can eat, plus access to 100 other of the Basic services. Internet mail, according to a recent Newsbytes article quoting Pam Angelis, a product manager for GEnie, was the MOST requested feature in a recent survey. As I said above, GEnie's billing department has always tried to do its best to treat its customer right. Disclaimer: I manage the Unix area on GEnie, which is one of the bastions of Internet information on GEnie. (Yes, Unix is not Internet, Internet is not Unix, but we're part of the best there is. In my humble option. :> ) I don't speak for GEnie, and they don't know what I'm typing today from home. Andrew Finkenstadt, Vista-Chrome, Inc., Homes & Land Publishing Corporation GEnie Unix RoundTable Manager, andy@vistachrome.com, andy@genie.geis.com. Join GEnie, call 800-638-9636/301-251-6415. Join Unix, CASE, and Desktop Oracle RDBMS Database discussions, send mail to ora-request@vistachrome.com ------------------------------ From: M19249@mwvm.mitre.org Subject: Re: Headsets etc. Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean VA 22102 Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 19:23:56 GMT In article ridder@zowie.zso.dec.com (Hans) writes: > In article Cliff Sharp chi.il.us> writes: >> In article > writes: >>> I'm seeking recommendations on telephone headsets. I have in mind the >>> kind that replaces the handset on a typical telephone. I'm also >>> curious to know if anyone makes a cordless telephone headset. (stuff deleted) > I like the Startset II series myself. The quality (sound, comfort, > service) of the Plantronics Starsets is unmatched by any headset I've > [Moderator's Note: Is it a Startset or StarSet? PAT] From {Call Center Magazine}, October 1992, P.O. Box 40706, Nashville TN, 37204 Reprints 1-800-999-0345 in an article titled "What's New?" by Madeline Bodin beginning on p. 49 she reviews: HEADSET MANUFACTURERS ACS: Contour LX, Orator, Elation; 800-995-5500 Allen Tel: Onyx; 714-546-3522 GN Netcom: MPA Carbon Amp; 800-826-4656 Nady Systems: TH-50; 510-652-2411 Plantronics: StarSet NC, Mirage NC; 800-544-4660 Starkey Labs: ;800-328-8605 Unex: Protocol, Proset; 508-256-8222 VXI: Gold Series, "Desk" Adaptor; 603-742-2888 Wicom/Weiser: Daystart 2RJ, Walk N' Talk; 800-942-6601 A list of 34 headset distributors is also in the article. I am not associated with the manufacturers or the magazine (except as a satisfied reader). -DW "standard disclaimer" ------------------------------ From: jxm@engin.umich.edu (John Murray) Subject: Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet Date: Sun, 06 Dec 92 11:43:04 EST Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor In article jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET (jeffj) writes: > I am looking through the Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue (est. 1848). > (800) 543-3366 [they sold executive toys and top of the line > appliances way before the Sharper Image was in business]. > The "call screening identifier" not only displays the Caller-ID number > but displays the matching name for 300 names, does call screening and > stores 50 calls. $170. I need a Caller-ID box that will not just display the incoming call identification, but will also differentiate between calls which have been purposely blocked and those from locations which do not have the facility available. Also, it should automatically dial the code for blocking my number on outgoing calls, everytime I unhook the phone. Any ideas?? John Murray Univ. of Michigan ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 15:26 EST From: Andrew R. D'Uva Subject: Cellular Service Providers (D.C.): Which One Better? Well, I've finally taken the cellular plunge and purchased a handheld cellular telephone for use in the Washington, D.C. area. (It's a "Technophone" and I paid about $490 for it: 2" x 6.4" x .62" - .6 watts, very nice!). Surprisingly, I did not need to commit to a given service provider to obtain the phone for this price. I am now trying to decide which provider would better serve my need. Here in Washington, D.C. we are served by two providers: Cellular One and Bell Atlantic. Bell is the "B" carrier. Their service rates are about the same, as far as I can tell. Friends tell me that although Cellular One has a larger service area, Bell has better connections and transmission quality (and numerous calls to *611 seem to bear this out!) around the area. All other things being equal, is one company preferred (for roaming, etc.) over the other? Oh, in case anyone is interested, these are the rates I have been quoted by the two companies (I am told that these are low, and probably due to my employer): Cell One Bell Atlantic Monthly Access $15.00 $12.95 Peak/Off Peak $ $0.37/$0.17 $0.39/$0.19 Activation Fee $25.00 $0 (waived) No Answer Transfer $1.50/mo $3.50/mo Non-cell calls additional $.10 per call $.10 per call It does seem that Cell One has a better roaming scheme in Chicago and Boston. True? Any and all help appreciated! Thanks! Andrew D'Uva Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. aduva@guvax.georgetown.edu ------------------------------ From: jstaffe@uswnvg.com (Jarrod Staffen) Subject: Re: Touch Tone Menus Date: 6 Dec 92 05:20:57 GMT Organization: U S WEST NewVector Group, Inc. Steve Stacy (stacysm2@mentor.cc.purdue.edu) wrote: > I would like to obtain a phone menu type system. Where callers > can select an option on touch tone phones to receive different > recorded messages etc. > Can this be done by a personal PC ? This may not be much help, but what the heck ... about a year ago, I saw such a feature for the PC in the DAK catalog. I believe it ran around $150 or so. I don't have their number, but you can call 818-555-1212 and ask for DAK in the San Fernando valley. Jarrod Staffen jstaffe@uswnvg.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 03:16:21 PST From: pierpont@snax.enet.dec.com Subject: Re: Clean Room Phone Equipment Information Request As part of a program to build a new semiconductor FAB facility, I have been asked to locate sources for telephones to be used in Class 100, Class 10 and Class 1 clean rooms. We are interested in handsfree and well a touch membrane keypads as well a "standard style POT" that fit the requirements. Howard Pierpont I seldom have opinions, I usually am looking Digital Equipment for advice. 77 Reed Road Hudson MA 01749 508.568.6165 ------------------------------ From: strat@intercon.com (Bob Stratton) Subject: Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? Date: 6 Dec 1992 05:35:10 -0500 Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation In article , johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) writes: > The question is whether there is a card that doesn't charge an > initial surcharge each time you use it. For most cards, when you use > them you pay between 40 cents and $1.25 plus what the direct dial rate > for the call would have been. My Cable and Wireless card is $.33/minute and no per-call charge. They've also phased out the feature group D access (950-1xxx) in favor of 800 numbers only. This is still one of the most winning travel cards out there, because you can get 20 number speed dialing with it. Strat ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 18:18 GMT From: Andrew Emmerson Subject: Re: Characters on International Phone Ke Reply-To: aemmerson@cix.compulink.co.uk > US dials have no representation for Q and Z. Perhaps not now but there are still plenty of American dials around with Z on the digit zero. It was used for trapping calls to "Zenith" numbers, e.g. in California. Q was provided on some Canadian dials, though nobody is quite sure if any numbers were implemented actually using this Q. In Europe, Q was implemented on the zero position in France and Britain and France also puts the Z here (we in Britain never had a Z on our dials.) Also in Europe letter O is on the zero, to prevent people confusing the zero and the letter O. ------------------------------ From: rees@pisa.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) Subject: Re: Other Bitnet Servers Date: 6 Dec 1992 14:53:59 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI Reply-To: Jim.Rees@umich.edu In article , Paul Robinson writes: > To reiterate, the access to bitnet from internet is to use the > internet form: > user%system.bitnet@gateway If the bitnet systems would bother to register a domain name with an MX record, then we wouldn't have to go through these contortions. If registering is too much trouble for them, the least they could do is put a valid return address on their outgoing mail (foo.bitnet is not a valid Internet address). If both these options are too much trouble, then I have to question whether they really want to communicate with us. [Moderator's Note: In the above example, 'user@system.bitnet' works just fine from here at Northwestern. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 16:28:23 -0500 From: Andrew Blau Subject: Re: Legal Cites Needed Regards BBS Sysops In TELECOM Digest V12 #889, Michael Chernoff asks: > I'm looking for recent articles or court cases dealing with the > liability of BBS Sysops over the content posted on their boards. This > includes both civil and criminal cases. I would suggest you contact Shari Steele, an attorney on the EFF staff who has been specializing in these issues for us here at EFF's Washington office. Shari can be reached at ssteele@eff.org. She also writes a legal column for BBS Caller's Digest, which may offer some guidance. Andrew Blau Electronic Frontier Foundation 202-544-9237(v) Associate for 666 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E. 202-547-5481(f) Telecommunications Policy Washington, DC 20003 blau@eff.org ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 11:33:25 -0800 From: mmt@RedBrick.COM (Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS) Subject: Re: ATT Boing: What is it? In article , trussell@cwis.unomaha.edu (Tim Russell) writes: > No, I don't know what the tones are, but while installing a > friend's new Practical Peripherals 14.4k modem, I noticed that an "@" > sign in the number to dial instructs the modem to wait for the credit > card bong. I would say that it definitely has a set tone and > duration. > [Moderator's Note: I've got a Telebit T-1600 modem (9600 baud) and one > of the response codes on it is 'NO BONGTONE' or something similar. PAT] Yes. The T1600 uses the "$" character in its dial string to indicate "Wait for billing prompt". The response code it can give is "NO PROMPTTONE". I assume that most modern v.32 modems have something similar. (The T2500, incidentally, does *not* have this feature) Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS mmt@RedBrick.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Dec 92 15:52:34 PST From: Stephen Wood Subject: Re: Whatever Happened to Britain's Telegraph Poles? Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada In article nigel.allen@canrem.com (Nigel Allen) writes: > Whatever happened to Britain's telegraph poles? I didn't know they had disappeared but then I haven't seen them for 30 years or so. Seems Sherlock Holmes could calculate the speed of his train by counting the seconds taken between adjacent poles so they obviusly existed from Victorian times. ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: GTE Guarantees its Service: Chapter 11, Here They Come Date: 6 Dec 1992 14:16:22 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) That is true, they do guarentee the service. All the telephone operations companies now do, but if a person continues to request a refund I'm sure it will get noticed after a bit. We have had it in GTE California for a while and I'm sure if anyone has tried it enough they got caught. Service has improved a lot dispite what others keep on spilling out. Mad Dog (Steven) -=- Sysop: Apple Elite II -- an Ogg-Net BBS UUCP: steven@alchemy.UUCP -=- (909) 359-5338 1200-2400 bps 8N1 Internet co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #892 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa29350; 8 Dec 92 22:49 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10772 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 8 Dec 1992 20:27:36 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12579 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 8 Dec 1992 20:27:14 -0600 Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 20:27:14 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212090227.AA12579@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #893 TELECOM Digest Tue, 8 Dec 92 20:27:20 CST Volume 12 : Issue 893 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Anyone Have a Creative Way of Dealing With Crank Calls? (Dwight Johns) Re: Anyone Have a Creative Way of Dealing With Crank Calls? (David Zinkin) Re: Anyone Have a Creative Way of Dealing With Crank Calls? (Eldon Barber) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Dwight Johns) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Mark V. Miller) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Craig S. Williamson) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Tony Pelliccio) Re: Organization Warns Lawyers Against Using Cellular Phones (J. Upchurch) Re: Organization Warns Lawyers Against Using Cellular Phones (Mike Rosen) Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet (Steve Forrette) Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet (Vance Shipley) Re: Proposed Australian Number Changes 1994-1998 (Bob Goudreau) Re: Cellular RJ-11 Jacks (Dwight Johns) Re: 800 ANI Notice (Steven H. Lichter) Re: Looking For Outdials (John Higdon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dsjohns@uswnvg.com (Dwight Johns) Subject: Re: Anyone Have a Creative Way of Dealing With Crank Calls? Date: 8 Dec 92 22:38:49 GMT Organization: U S WEST NewVector Group, Inc. If someone is calling your number and asking for someone that doesn't live there, well, this may sound a bit cruel, but you could always just tell them that the person that they were looking for has died. That should stop the calls anyway. If you only want to stop the calls for the day, I guess you could just tell them that their friend was too drunk to come to the phone. Dwight Snake Doward Johns dsjohns@uswnvg.uswnvg.com 71332.743@CompuServe.com ------------------------------ From: zinkin@acsu.buffalo.edu (David R Zinkin) Subject: Re: Anyone Have a Creative Way of Dealing With Crank Calls? Organization: UB Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 23:55:42 GMT In a previous message, our Esteemed Moderator notes: (comprehensive description of phone trace -- with some key differences from what NYTel told me -- deleted for brevity) > If you are too busy to bother with the paperwork, then how do you > find time to answer the phone everytime she calls? :) PAT] When I asked a New York Tel rep about tracing calls, I was given a description similar to yours, but with one extra bit of information (now MISinformation, I guess): New York Tel told me that I'd have to be in the house waiting for the person to call so that I could tell the police to trace it. And if the person didn't call within 24 hours (this doesn't *always* happen, even though it *usually* does), they would drop the matter and I'd have to pay a fee. Furthermore, I was told that the paperwork usually takes "several hours to complete and verify". So, Patrick, it appears that I've been misinformed; thank you for straightening the matter out. (At least I *think* you have; I seriously hope that the New York Tel rep was wrong!) I'm definitely going to reconsider the trace, but I'd love to know who it was who misinformed me. (I've never been able to get a name out of one of those reps ... :-) And I'd still appreciate any other tips from fellow readers. Thanks again, Dave [Moderator's Note: Well, IBT is not NYT. I called the Annoyance Call Bureau one day and the trap was in place later that evening. They did say a form was coming in the mail and if I did not sign it and return it with 'a few' days, the trap would be pulled off and subsequent requests for service from the Bureau would be 'subject to review before implementation' or similar words. IBT said an answering machine or voicemail could do as good a job of answering as a real human; they said 'things work better' if there is an actual connection made although the trap-daemon sets busily about its duties as soon as there is ringing voltage on the line. Apparently someone got off the hook legally once by saying since no one had answered the phone, therefore no obscene or annoyance call could have occurred ... it takes two to tango and all. Never let a telco service rep tell you to 'just change your number'. You don't have to do any such thing. My numbers have been assigned to me for a couple decades; I have no intention of inconveniencing myself or friends trying to find me. Finally, ** NEVER BUT NEVER TELL ANYONE ** there is a trap on the line; not even family members or 'close friends'. Sadly, a large number of these calls come from a family member, an in-law, former or current lover, next-door neighbor or co-worker. Only a small number come in a totally off-the-wall way from a stranger. In the case last year where the president of American University in Washington, DC was arrested for making harassing and obscene calls, the female victims were affiliated with the university as employees or students. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 18:42:59 -0800 (PST) From: Richard Eldon Barber Subject: Re: Anyone Have a Creative Way of Dealing With Crank Calls > I'd like to get readers' opinions on how to deal with crank callers. > I've been getting calls -- usually around 3 or 4 am, but often at > other times of the day as well -- from someone who claims to be > looking for a certain person, presumably a friend of hers. Six months ago {Popular Communications} had a helpful article on dealing with crank callers. The auther was actually able to get a conviction from his technique of fooling the callers. He would unwire the microphone disc from the handset of his phone. When the call would come in he would just pick up the phone and listen. On the caller end it sounds like the ringing stops, no click happens that sounds like your phone has been connected, the ringing just stops, no noise no nothing. The caller then becomes confused and starts talking with other people in the room. rick [Moderator's Note: I think most of these people are alone when they call. I can't imagine they'd act out their illness in front of other people; it is not an activity they share with other people. Generally they are ashamed of what they are doing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dsjohns@uswnvg.com (Dwight Johns) Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Date: 8 Dec 92 21:29:40 GMT Organization: U S WEST NewVector Group, Inc. On most cellular networks 911 will put you in touch with the state police, and if you do receive a roaming fee for calling 911, speak with your carrier, most will be more than happy to credit those fees away. The last thing we need to do is discourage anyone from reporting an emergency. Dwight Snake Doward Johns dsjohns@uswnvg.uswnvg.com 71332.743@CompuServe.com ------------------------------ From: MVM@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 15:25:48 PST jeff@bradley.bradley.edu (Jeff Hibbard) writes: > Reporting roadside emergencies would seem such an obvious use for > cellular phones. > My second attempt at reporting an emergency was in a rural area within > range of the Springfield IL system. Dialing 911 didn't connect me to > anything ... . > Just a few weeks ago in the city of (and cellular system of) Decatur > IL I tried 911, and again got nothing. > What am I supposed to do? I do (after having repeatedly been told to do so by my Ma (Bell) herself) what I was told when but a child of tender age in grade school and finding myself in need of a friendly police/firePERSON, i.e., dial 0 for perator. (Of course, times HAVE changed.) Explain the situation, allowing him/her to contact the appropriate authority, and possibly you will not get charged for airtime. Mark_V_Miller@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ From: Craig S. Williamson Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones Date: 8 Dec 92 18:46:52 GMT Reply-To: Craig S. Williamson Organization: NCR E&M Columbia, SC In article PJJ125@URIACC.URI.EDU (Tony Pelliccio) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 889, Message 10 of 12 > There was just an article in the {Providence Sunday Journal} about the > states Enhanced 9-1-1 service and how it's become a model for other > sites. They say that cellular callers are routed to the nearest state > police barracks to be dispatched by simply dialing 9-1-1 from a > cellular phone. I think that's actually a fairly good idea since you > really can't get a precise location of a cellular phone without some > very good radio direction finding equipment. I've noticed little signs on most major highways that you can call the Highway Patrol with *HP. I would think that that would be how to call 911 at least near major highways. Craig Williamson Craig.Williamson@ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM craig@toontown.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM (home) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 20:20:50 EST From: Tony Pelliccio Subject: Re: 911 from Cellular Phones ... Non-Functioning in Decatur I'm an amateur radio operator and always have a two meter radio in the car with me. I also have autopatch priveleges through a local repeater that I'm a paying member of. So if I see something happening I radio through to the state police direct through a seven digit number. For some reason, the people at New England Telephone are too stupid to put "PLEASE VERIFY LOCATION - MOBILE AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR" on the 911 information display like they do in other places so 911 is locked out. I can only guess how many times police and fire apparatus were sent to the site of the repeater. And here's the REALLY funny part: The repeater is on the same tower as the local police department's tower. :) I guess what I'm trying to say here is there should be some standardization for dialing emergency numbers but I also agree that they should also STILL publish the seven digit numbers for local emergency agencies instead of just 911. I know here in RI they do prefer you dial the direct number if you know it and only dial 911 if it's a dire emergency (ie, you're having a heart attack and don't have the time to dawdle) or you're not sure what your location is. Scary part is that they're saying our E911 system is a model for the rest of the country. Yeah ... right. Oh ... on another subject: Anyone out there know when New England Telephone is gonna get with it and offer Caller-ID to Rhode Island? I definitely could have used it last night ... and NET is next to useless when it comes to tracking obscene callers and such. The local PD's don't want to get involved soooo ... Tony Pelliccio N1MPQ @ ANOMALY.SBS.RISC.NET PJJ125 @ URIACC.URI.EDU ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Organization Warns Lawyers Against Using Cellular Phones From: upchrch!joel@peora.sdc.ccur.com (Joel Upchurch ) Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 17:27:42 EST Organization: Upchurch Computer Consulting, Orlando FL paul@unhtel.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) writes: > {Foster's Daily Democrat}, Dover, N.H., December 5, 1992: > "The implication is that you can still use the car telephone, but > anything that's said with a criminal client, for example, you have to > e conscious that someone may be hearing it, and it could be introduced > as evidence," he said. I'm a little unclear on this part. How could a cellular phone conversation be introduced in court unless it was part of a legal court ordered wiretap? If it is the product of an illegal wiretap, then I would think that they would be inadmissible and would get whoever did them a nice trip to a federal prison. Also are attorney client conversations admissible evidence even if obtained by legal means? I could see the possibility of a unscrupulous investigator using information gleaned from an illegal wiretap to develop other evidence while hiding the place he got the leads from. (If your mail bounces use the address below.) Joel Upchurch/Upchurch Computer Consulting/718 Galsworthy/Orlando, FL 32809 joel@peora.ccur.com {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd,ucf-cs}!peora!joel (407) 859-0982 [Moderator's Note: I don't think it is so much an issue of something heard being introduced in court as it is the planning of strategy in a criminal case by the lawyers involved if they are aware of the strategy planned by the other attorney. They need not (in court) say "defendant said such and such, I heard it on your cellular phone ...", they need only act on what they have secretly heard by 'just coincidentally' (prove otherwise!) getting their hands on the same evidence or witness, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Re: Organization Warns Lawyers Against Using Cellular Phones Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 05:55:52 GMT paul@unhtel.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) writes: > "The implication is that you can still use the car telephone, but > anything that's said with a criminal client, for example, you have to > be conscious that someone may be hearing it, and it could be introduced > as evidence," he said. Is this an accurate statement? Since it is illegal to eavesdrop on cellular calls how can they be introduced as evidence? Michael Rosen Tau Epsilon Phi - George Washington University mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu Michael.Rosen@bbs.oit.unc.edu or @lambada.oit.unc.edu [Moderator's Note: See above. They would not be introduced as evidence, they would simply be benefitted from. I hear you and your attorney say that Mrs. So and So was a witness to the crime; I rush to Mrs. So and So before you get to her. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 17:28:20 -0800 From: Steve Forrette Subject: Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc., Seattle, WA In an article, a TELECOM Digest participant writes: > I need a Caller-ID box that will not just display the incoming call > identification, but will also differentiate between calls which have > been purposely blocked and those from locations which do not have the > facility available. Also, it should automatically dial the code for > blocking my number on outgoing calls, everytime I unhook the phone. [Warning: flame follows] So, you want to be able to identify people that call you, and especially those who purposely block their numbers, but you want all of YOUR outgoing calls to be automatically blocked? [End of flame] I don't want to single out the person who asked the question, but it seems like they want to have their cake and eat it too. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com, "just my opinion" ------------------------------ From: Vance Shipley Subject: Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet Organization: SwitchView Inc., Waterloo, Ontario Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1992 05:00:44 GMT In article jxm@engin.umich.edu (John Murray) writes: > I need a Caller-ID box that will not just display the incoming call > identification, but will also differentiate between calls which have > been purposely blocked and those from locations which do not have the > facility available. Also, it should automatically dial the code for > blocking my number on outgoing calls, everytime I unhook the phone. I have a TAI model 450 CLID display. It is sold exclusively through the Canadian telcos. This unit purports to store up to 99 numbers or up to 50 numbers and names (when name service becomes available). I found that it tops out at 64 numbers (names come next spring). Calls from the SPS switch in town display OUT-OF-AREA. Calls from the US (and others) display L-OUT-OF-AREA (L for Long Distance). Local calls display NXX-XXXX and long distance calls from SS7 connected CO's (Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Kitchener, etc.) display L-1-NPA-NXX-XXXX. Local calls which blocked CLID with *67 display PRIVATE and long distance calls from SS7 connected COs display L-PRIVATE. TAI also have a telephone which incorporates the same display features. Vance Shipley vances@xenitec.on.ca vances@switchview.com vances@ltg.uucp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 15:44:26 -0500 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: Proposed Australian Number Changes 1994-1998 In article Christopher.Vance@adfa.oz.au writes: > New area code: Supercedes [sic] old area codes: And localnumbers become: > 03 00X 6XXX XXXX You mentioned that this conversion table covered "geographic services only," so am I correct in inferring that free-phone (008) numbers will not map into the new three zone? Presumably. some new 0X code will supersede 008; any idea what it will be? ------------------------------ From: dsjohns@uswnvg.com (Dwight Johns) Subject: Re: Cellular RJ-11 Jacks Date: 8 Dec 92 21:54:19 GMT Organization: U S WEST NewVector Group, Inc. Many of the newer cellular phones out there have (oh, what's a good politicaly correct term) less than fully functioning RJ-11 jack on them. Most of them will not produce a dial tone, and you can't dial through them with a modem, but if you're using a laptop in your car all you have to do is change the X register so that the modem doesn't detect a dial tone, and dial through the cellular phone, not the modem and it works fine. I have this setup in my car and I'm doing it all on an Audiovox Gold Series. Now my only complaint is that I can't go over 1200 baud on a cellular connection and that I drop carrier whenever I handoff. Dwight Snake Doward Johns dsjohns@uswnvg.uswnvg.com 71332.743@CompuServe.com ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: 800 ANI Notice Date: 8 Dec 1992 22:11:47 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) I have an 800 number from ATT for my BBS (my private use) and each month I get a complete listing of all incoming numbers. I get a lot of wrong numbers and I'm told by ATT they are hackers looking for an outdial. When I first got the service they did not offer ANI, but a few months ago started. It is very helpful. I have had them block a few areas since if the total use goes over a set time I will get charged. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 14:37 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Re: Looking For Outdials On Dec 6 at 13:40, TELECOM Moderator writes: > And $1 per hour (plus local message units if any, but we have a *very* local Telenet dial up here by me) is less expensive than any other long distance service I've seen. I recommend PC Pursuit highly to long distance BBS users. PAT] Ironically, if the tariff that Pac*Bell has before the CPUC is approved as constituted, the cost of the local call to PC Pursuit will end up being higher than the cost of the data transport over the greater distance. Currently, day local rates are $0.05 for the first minute and $0.01 each additional. The new tariff calls for the "additional minute" rate to double to $0.02 per minute, making the local call $1.20 per hour. To put this in perspective, I only pay four times that to call anywhere in the state of California with my particular WATS service! And that $1.20/minute rate applies to any local call; across the street or across town if it is still in Zone 1. This should start making things very attractive for competing dial tone providers! Pac*Bell's greed will eventually be its undoing. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #893 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa01585; 8 Dec 92 23:50 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28994 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 8 Dec 1992 21:57:27 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24833 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 8 Dec 1992 21:56:59 -0600 Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 21:56:59 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212090356.AA24833@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #894 TELECOM Digest Tue, 8 Dec 92 21:57:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 894 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Residential ISDN? (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Residential ISDN? (Shrikumar) Re: Residential ISDN? (Rob Boudrie) Re: Residential ISDN? Really Flat Rate Calling Politics (A. E. Mossberg) Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? (David E. Martin) Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? (Matthew Holdrege) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Joe George) Re: 911 and Cellular Phones (Mike Baptiste) Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? (Kirk Blackburn via tasman@cs.wisc.edu) Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? (John R. Levine) Re: KA9Q Packages (Fred R. Goldstein) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Residential ISDN? Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 23:02:00 GMT In article , mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) writes: > And as much as I hate it for increasing my phone bill, usage-based > billing is fairer to everyone. Any sort of flat rate means that the > low-usage customers wind up subsidizing the high-usage customers. My > only beef is that the charges have nothing to do with how prices are > typically calculated in other lines of business -- take your cost for > the product/service, add a markup to cover your overhead and profit, > and charge that price. If the telco did this, non-peak use would be > free and peak use would be expensive.> A common myth perpetrated by the phone companies, always looking for more monopoly revenue. But only a monopoly would even attempt to change its price structure to something customers don't want that is NOT cost-based! Cost-based pricing works for everyone. Monopoly fictions don't. And usage-based local rates are a FICTION! I've seen the studies. In most places, the PEAK cost to the telephone company is well under a penny a minute. Yet measured rates are almost always much higher. They're just a means to make money. Analogy: Would it be fairer if your landlord lowered your rent by half but charged you 1/30 the original rent every time you walked in the front door? Sure it's "fairer", as you're using up doorjamb oil! Or the grocer charging you more for food if you were a good cook. Most residential lines don't pay their own frieght because the monthly rate is below cost. Toll and measured-use charges make it up. It's a subsidy program. Let's admit it. Now WRT ISDN, data use IS free in some cases, in areas where the telephone company doesn't charge for business local calls. But those are relatively few. In the meantime, we have "data over speech" at 56 kbps. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 12:42:32 -0500 From: shri%unreal@cs.umass.edu Subject: Re: Residential ISDN? Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Sys & Computer Networks Bombay India In article mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us writes: > Unmeasured service is a mistake the telcos made years and years ago, > And as much as I hate it for increasing my phone bill, usage-based > billing is fairer to everyone. Any sort of flat rate means that the > low-usage customers wind up subsidizing the high-usage customers. My Well I don't know if thats entirely correct. My understanding is that business phones are forced to be under a "measured business rate" and this forms a cross subsidy to keep the flat residential monthly rates lower than actuals. Further the amount of this subsidy is higher for senior citizens etc. I hope this is in fact true, else my faith in fairness in the world is about to be shattered :-) It is assumed that businesses are so much more heavy users, and hence drawing distinctions between light home users and heavy home users is not very significant. I think thats the model on which current tarriffs are built. [ Would anyone here know approx the number of minutes per month a business phone is busy for voice, fax, data, and long-distance and corresponding numbers for light, heavy home users and BBSs ? ] BTW, while we are on the topic of cross subsidies, I have heard one rather interesting observation. In the west, the saturation of phones is close to one for every two people, and almost everyone has access to a phone. So any tarriff structure that charges businesses to subsidise residential service is fair. The business would recover the money eventually from sales revenue, and thus in a convoluted people with more spendable income are effectively subsiding those with less. Now in a country like India, where even after the currently projected major expansion plans, when there would be about 20 million phones (in 10 years), for a population of 850 million (this is now, dunno what it will be in a decade :-), things go upside-down. Only the richer have residential phones service, which is subsidised by business metered phone revenue. The business, say a soap manufacturer, builds this expense into the retail price of the soap ... and of course, everyone including those who dont have phones, buys soap.... in the process subsidising the residential phone of the soap company executives. :-) (I haven't looked at hard numbers yet to see if this in fact bears out, but its a interesting thought nevertheless, but it is a fact that nominal residential rates are a very small fraction of the telco per line expenditure.) Aside: There is a three year or longer waiting list for such a residential phone service. People who cant wait that long can get a phone connected in a few months if they coughed-up an interest free deposit which is of same order of magnitude as telco's per line investment, and a practically instant connection (read a few days to a week) for a deposit of about five times that amount. Some fairness here. shrikumar ( shri@legato.cs.umass.edu, shri@iucaa.ernet.in ) ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: Residential ISDN? Organization: Center For High Perf. Computing of WPI; Marlboro Ma Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 22:16:48 GMT > low-usage customers wind up subsidizing the high-usage customers. My > only beef is that the charges have nothing to do with how prices are > typically calculated in other lines of business -- take your cost for > the product/service, add a markup to cover your overhead and profit, > and charge that price. If the telco did this, non-peak use would be > free and peak use would be expensive. All calls would be charged for Other lines of business don`d do this. The procedure is more like: Find out profit maximizing price at which "units_sold*(price-cost)- fixed_costs" is highest, while paying attention to the dynamic interaction between price and units sold. Also, long term market development needs to be considered, as well as canibalization (taking away from existing business by offering a new product). There are only a few ways cost relates to price: - If customers won't buy at an acceptable profit, the firm leaves the business. - A competitor may be willing to sell at a lower price which effects your demand curve. - Government regulation may limit your profits, in which case the game is maximixe profits within current law, while not being so greedy as to "wake the sleeping dog of regulation" (which is exactly wha tthe cable industry did!). Example: When you have a house to sell, what you paid for it has NOTHING to do with the price you will ask -- you will try to get "full market", even if you bought at a fraction of that price. > based on distance between COs. Things are done this way in the LD > world, but not in the local-calling world; why else does a call from > Ann Arbor (SE Michigan) to Houghton (Upper Penninsula) cost more than > a call of the same length, at the same time of day, from Ann Arbor to > California? Regulations, tarriff, and inertia. Back in the really old days, similar pricing disparities existed with railroad shipping. > Of course, since the telcos are making ISDN service more expensive > than an equivalent POTS line, they will have trouble switching people > over to it who don't need ISDN for data-transfer reasons. Why pay > $29/line plus usage charges when you can pay $15/line and get > unlimited calls? It will be interesting to see if the price ISDN for short term profit maximization, or for market development where it would be nearly as ubiquitous as call waiting. Rob Boudrie rboudrie@chpc.org ------------------------------ From: symbi1!%miavax.ir.miami.edu.aem (a.e.mossberg) Subject: Re: Residential ISDN? Really Flat Rate Calling Politics Date: 8 Dec 1992 07:57:09 -0500 Organization: Symbiosis Corporation, Miami, Florida (305) 597-4000 Reply-To: symbi1!%miavax.ir.miami.edu.aem wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) writes: > So the LEC's, frustrated in the direct approach, have been using the > old Statue of Liberty play. They offer few or no new services with > flat rate. Instead they push (HARD) all new subs toward quote OPTIONAL > endquote metered calling. Sometimes this includes a trapdoor -- if you > bite and switch to a non-flat rate plan, you cannot switch back, Actually, around the beginning of the year I switched to metered calling, since my phone use made it possible to save an average of $5/month that way. After the hurricane, I ordered the CO answering machine service, and the *rep* recommended that I switch back to flat rate. andrew mossberg systems specialist symbiosis corporation (305) 597-4110 fax (305) 597-4002 miami, florida 33166-6202 aem@symbiosis.ahp.com uunet!symbi1!aem SPAN: UMIGW::AEM ------------------------------ From: dem@nhmpw2.fnal.gov (David E. Martin) Subject: Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? Date: 8 Dec 92 15:42:45 GMT Reply-To: dem@nhmpw2.fnal.gov Organization: Fermi National Acclerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, USA In article 3@eecs.nwu.edu, stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > Even though Pacific Bell requires a minimum of two BRIs, they cost > only $29 per month, and data calls are the same as voice calls, which > means that a local data call costs only $.60/hour or so. So, let's > NOT encourage Pacific Bell to price their data calls like Ameritech! Ameritech has finally seen the light. As of September 14, all B channel data calls in the Chicago LATA are charged at the same rate as business voice calls. This has decreased my monthly ISDN bill from about $150 to $50. David E. Martin National HEPnet Management Phone: +1 708 840-8275 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory FAX: +1 708 840-8463 P.O. Box 500, MS 368; Batavia, IL 60510 USA E-Mail: dem@hep.net ------------------------------ From: Matthew Holdrege Subject: Re: How Do *You* Use ISDN? Date: 8 Dec 92 18:31:00 GMT Steve Forrette (steve@wrq.com) writes ... > Even though Pacific Bell requires a minimum of two BRIs, they cost > only $29 per month, and data calls are the same as voice calls, which > means that a local data call costs only $.60/hour or so. So, let's > NOT encourage Pacific Bell to price their data calls like Ameritech! Sorry. I should have said that Ameritech provides FREE local ISDN calls. Local meaning within the same CO. Inter-CO calls cost $6 per hour. This means that you can have free unmeasured 128kb WAN service for a small monthly charge (about $35.) This information is from 1991 and the prices may have changed. But I will also be happy if California's single line BRI tariff is set at 60 cents per hour. As long as the long-distance-intra-lata costs are not too high. Matt Holdrege 5156065@mcimail.com 714-229-2518 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones From: willard!jgeorge@gatech.edu Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 07:03:49 EST Organization: Willard's House BBS, Atlanta, GA -- +1 (404) 664 8814 Tony Pelliccio writes: > sites. They say that cellular callers are routed to the nearest state > police barracks to be dispatched by simply dialing 9-1-1 from a > cellular phone. I think that's actually a fairly good idea since you > really can't get a precise location of a cellular phone without some > very good radio direction finding equipment. Atlanta's Cellular carriers have the same service, and I'd suppose that other cellular service companies do have/will have this service. Each cell site in the area will automatically forward '911' to the police dispatcher for the city (or county) where the cellular tower is located. I had the opportunity a few months ago to report a drunken driver doing close to 100 mph on a local expressway, and in three calls to 911 to report his location, I got three different city's 911. Very handy, I think. Also, if you call 911 from a cellular phone, it's good etiquette to give them your cellular number, the systems here do not provide ANI (Caller ID) to the 911 dispatcher, if you provide them with your number right off the bat they're less likely to think you're a crackpot (depending, of course, on the type of request you have) -- that tidbit of advice comes from a friend of mine married to a 911 dispatcher here intown. jgeorge@willard.UUCP (Joe George) gatech!vdbsan!willard!jgeorge emory!uumind!willard!jgeorge Willard's House BBS, Atlanta, GA -- +1 (404) 664 8814 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 13:20:00 +0000 From: Mike Baptiste Subject: Re: 911 and Cellular Phones With all of the talk about getting to the State Patrol when dialing 911, I've seen a number of signs along Interstates and on some smaller highways that tell people a specific *XX number to dial to get the highway patrol directly (It's usually *HP) I'm curious what would happen if you dialed 911 in one of those areas, were they smart enough to default that to the same place as *HP for people who didn't see the signs? And if so, is that the smart thing to do? Mike Baptiste Phone: (919) 991-4185 Bell-Northern Research Net: baptiste@bnr.ca Research Triangle Park NC Opinions expressed are my own, not necessarily those of BNR ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 20:42:49 CST From: tasman@cs.wisc.edu The following just came by on rec.travel.marketplace; it's short on detail, but sounds intriguing nonetheless: Newsgroups: rec.travel.marketplace From: kirk@tigercat.den.mmc.com (Kirk Blackburn) Subject: Save 50% on calling card costs Organization: World Telecom Group Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 00:13:50 GMT Hi, all: I have just become an account representative with World Telecom Group. As an independent rep, I can now sell one of the most exciting products I have ever been involved with: The AmeriVox calling card! Just in time for Christmas gift giving and travel. If you would like to save up to 50% or more on long distance phone calls while away from home, please read on. The $10.00 cards would make a meaningful Christmas present for very little money. AMERIVOX FACTS: Amerivox is one of the most exciting and innovative developments in the history of telecommunications. The AmeriVox card has been available for about seven months. The parent company, World Telecom Group, Inc. was founded in July of 1991. It is a fully integrated telephone company with its own digital central office switches, company employed operators and independent sales agents in all fifty states. World Telecom Group is associated with Phone Club USA, Inc. a California corporation whose carrier network system is the fourth largest in California and eighth largest in the US. There is not another product like the Amerivox card. It outdates and replaces all other calling cards. Use it immediately from any touch tone phone in the United States. * NO NEED TO CHANGE YOUR CURRENT CARRIER * NO SURCHARGE, EVER * NO WAIT TO USE. NO CREDIT CHECK * PREPAY TO SAVE UP TO 50% OR MORE OVER OTHER CALLING CARDS * COMPLETE SATISFACTION, MONEY BACK GUARANTEE CALLING CARD COMPARISON * AMERIVOX AT&T MCI SPRINT -------- ---- --- ------ SURCHARGE *NONE* $.80 $.75 $.75 *PER CALL* RATE/MINUTE $.249** $.25 $.239 $.249 3 MINUTE CALL $.75 $1.55 $1.47 $1.59 PERCENT SAVINGS -- 52% 49% 50% *Based on 1,000 mile call (8am to 5pm) Intrastate calls are even less. Good anywhere in the US Cards can be purchased in $10.00, $20.00, $50.00, $100.00 $250.00 or $500.00 amounts. You can renew time on a card in chunks of $20.00 or $50.00 at any time, or, you can have re-order done automatically, using a Visa/Mastercard. If not *absolutely* satisfied, refunds will be make on the balance of the card. If you would like to order one (or more), send a check (or money order) in my name, for the denomination(s) you want, plus $1.00 per card for postage to: Kirk Blackburn 9833 West Brandt Place Littleton, CO 80123 I will send out your card the same day. Sincerely, Kirk Blackburn kirk@tigercat.den.mmc.com [Moderator's Note: I wish Mr. Blackburn had told us *how* to use the cards for calling. Does one dial 10 (something) plus zero plus and send the call over World Telecom/Phone Club circuits? He says they have their own operator staff; are they leasing their circuits from one of the Big Three or do they actually have their own network? Do they issue a little plastic card like the other carriers with a number and a pin? Is the procedure that when you make a call on their network that your credit balance with the company is decremented by whatever the call cost? Perhaps Mr. Blackburn or some other representative of the company will address these questions in a reply to us. I am curious also why payments are made payable to Mr. Blackburn instead of the company. Let's use discretion and prudence, but if anyone decides to find out what all this is about, please share with the group. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Any Free Calling Cards Left? Organization: I.E.C.C. Date: 8 Dec 92 22:50:28 EST (Tue) From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) I wrote: > The question is whether there is a card that doesn't charge an > initial surcharge each time you use it. For most cards, when you use > them you pay between 40 cents and $1.25 plus what the direct dial rate > for the call would have been. strat@intercon.com responds: > My Cable and Wireless card is $.33/minute and no per-call charge. > They've also phased out the feature group D access (950-1xxx) in favor > of 800 numbers only. This is still one of the most winning travel cards > out there, because you can get 20 number speed dialing with it. Hmmn, 33 cents/minute. My Sprint FON card, which I can use either with 10333 or 800 number access, costs 75 cents plus the direct dial rate which is a maximum of 25 cents/minute day rate, 12.5 cents/minute night rate in the continental US. MCI is about the same, AT&T a little more, give or take the usual zillion special billing plans, e.g. Sprint Plus takes 10% off the rates above given my calling volume. So for really short calls, the C&W card wins. Sprint always wins for calls of more than seven minutes, for shorter distance or weekend calls Sprint wins after three minutes. Back when I was an SBS subscriber, they charged ten cents/minute for intra-state or adjacent state calls via 950-1088 regardless of whether you were calling from home or elsewhere. What a deal that was, cheaper than putting a quarter in a payphone. No wonder they lost their shirts and were eventually folded into MCI. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: KA9Q Packages Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 23:08:03 GMT In article , ito@nttslb.ntt.jp (Mitsutaka Ito) writes: > I would like to have KA9Q source and documents. Please inform me the > IP address of ftp sites. If there is no ftp service of KA9Q, please > inform me other method. Main distribution point: ucsd.edu. Look in the /pub area. Lots of variants, too, to keep you confused! Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #894 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa02353; 9 Dec 92 0:44 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04036 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 8 Dec 1992 22:42:00 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25925 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Tue, 8 Dec 1992 22:41:30 -0600 Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 22:41:30 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212090441.AA25925@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: HoHoCon '92 : Updated Announcement December 4, 1992 Passed along FYI. PAT From: dfx@nuchat.sccsi.com (dFx International Digest) Subject: HoHoCon '92 : Updated Announcement #2 : 12/4/92 Organization: South Coast Computing Services, Inc. Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 11:20:59 GMT [Updated Announcement #2 - December 4, 1992] dFx International Digest and cDc - Cult Of The Dead Cow proudly present : The Third Annual X M A S C O N AKA H 0 H 0 C O N "G0T ANY K0DEZ?!!" Who: All Hackers, Journalists, Security Personnel, Federal Agents, Lawyers, Authors and Other Interested Parties. Where: Allen Park Inn 2121 Allen Parkway Houston, Texas 77019 U.S.A. Tel: (800) 231-6310 Hou: (713) 521-9321 Fax: (713) 521-9321, Ext. 350 When: Friday December 18 through Sunday December 20, 1992 Fee: Five Dollars (Optional Donation) Two Weeks And Counting! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's starting to creep up on us... HoHoCon '92 is right around the corner and it looks like we're going to surpass our attendence expectations in a BIG way. We figured we were going to lose a lot of people when we had to change hotels, but such was not the case. All the designated HoHoCon rooms at the Allen Park Inn were called for by the third week of November. Luckily, the hotel opened up another wing for us. That means it's not too late to reserve a room and make plans to attend. Another big plus for everyone is that the airlines are engaging in a price war again which will hopefully help some people make it. This update contains some of the new conference revelations as well as general information from the last announcement. Believe it or not, we are still in the process of getting everything finalized so we're not able to give every exact detail of the conference as we don't know them all yet. If you need additional information or a question answered, just contact us and we'll try to help you out. Which brings me to something. Unfortunately, our voice mail system automatically deletes messages on a three day basis so we weren't able to get back to some people who wanted us to call them. Before anyone had a chance to write the phone numbers down, the messages were erased. If you left a message asking us to call you and you haven't heard from us yet, please call back again. On with the new info... Will HoHoCon Get Raided Like PumpCon & The 2600 Meeting? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've not only been asked this a million times, but I've recently seen messages across Usenet and smaller bbs nets from people stating they wouldn't be attending to HoHoCon because of the recent happenings on the east coast. Those who say they're not coming because they know the fEdZ, Secret Service, bUnk0 sKwaD, CIA, SPA, Twinkie Police, CERT and Sha Na Na are planning to arrest everyone in attendence, are not only stupid but also the ones who'll be missing out as the feds are not coming to take anyone away. You can believe what you wish but the following is taken from a conversation we had with a fairly high ranking federal computer crime investigator (a.k.a the FeDs themselves) - "There's a big difference between your conference and what was going on up North. First of all, the 2600 thing was handled by mall cops, not the government and the PumpCon people attracted attention to themselves by doing some really stupid stuff and not thinking. There was no pre thought in that anyhow.. nobody drew up a game plan beforehand to sweep the hotel. Plus, those were private little meetings where the people really didn't have the means of fighting back even if they thought the interruptions were unjust. Hopefully, nobody within this organization is going to be stupid enough to break in the doors of a very well known public meeting of 400 potential witnesses, a nice percentage of whom are the two people feds hate most -- Journalists and Lawyers. And we do know about the ones who are going to be there waiting for us to show up, guns in hand. They'll be waiting a while. You're talking about the weekend before Christmas, if I'm not at the mall, my wife's gonna kick my ass. You can tell your people to sleep easy, we're not coming." Direct from the source. Speakers ~~~~~~~~ The big question on people's minds seems to be "Who will be speaking at the conference?" There are currently twelve speakers slated for Saturday, and that number is undoubtedly sure to increase within the next two weeks. We have a number of proposed speakers who are still in the "trying to make it" stages. Definite speakers at this time include Scott Chasin (Doc Holiday) and Chris Goggans (Erik Bloodaxe) of LoD/Comsec, John Draper (Cap'n Crunch), Ray Kaplan, Byron (Louis Cypher), Mike (Bootleg), Steve Ryan (Brian O'Blivion), and a host of others including representatives from a fair share of today's computer underground related publications. Hardly anything is etched in stone, and some of the speakers are still deciding exactly what they're going to talk about. Proposed topics at this time include "The Federal Government Taught Me How to Counterfeit", "The Computer Underground of the Former Soviet Union", "The Implementation of a System and Network Security-Related Incident Tracking and Vulnerability Reporting Database", and, of course, "bLiNKeEZ!" We are still entertaining offers from anyone who would like to speak. Please contact us if you wish to do so. Will Bruce Sterling Be There? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We've received a few dozen letters from people asking if Bruce would be attending and speaking (and if he'd also sign their books). The honest answer is nobody knows. I haven't heard a definite answer yet. Bruce did speak last year and he does live in Austin, so there is a decent chance he may attend. Although.. a few people think he may be wary of coming due to the fact that he was hit in the head with a flying 'partyball (tm)' last year. Karl says "Sorry about that Bruce." Who Was That Guy On Dateline? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Don't ask me why, but we've also received a large number of letters from people asking this particular question. The social engineering extrordinare was Scott Chasin and, yes, he will be attending and speaking. A few of you asked us some other questions about Scott that were very odd. As far as we know, he is from Earth and has never been abducted by aliens. You may want to ask him yourself though. A Conference Fee? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yes, but not exactly. There is no designated cost to attend, but we are gladly accepting donations. We talked to a number of the people coming and everyone seemed to agree that five dollars ($5) was a reasonable figure to ask for. Of course, this is completely optional, but there will be definite benefits to those who donate such as better seats, better service, cheaper shirt prices, and... prepare yourself... raffle tickets. That's right, a raffle! It'll be more fun than bingo with Granny! Everyone who donates five dollars gets a raffle ticket, and anyone who donates over that will get more. We'll hold the raffle during the last part of Saturday's conference. Anyone wishing to donate prizes (or really stupid items) for the raffle should just let us know or bring it with you. Prizes at this time include shirts, an autographed copy of Bruce Sterling's 'The Hacker Crackdown', autographed copies of Steve Jackson's 'Hacker' and 'Gurp Cyberpunk' games, an autographed Comsec brochure (woo!), Chris Goggans' UofH parking sticker, SunOs 4.1.3 on CD, a year's subscription to Mondo 2000, some screwdrivers, a photocopy of Omar and E.T., and other assorted gOOdeez. Anyone planning on selling shirts, buttons or other items should also plan on giving up two of each item. One to myself and one to the raffle. Where Does The Money Go? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A reasonable and expected question. Some people don't realize how much time, effort and $money$ it takes to put on a conference of this size. It's no secret that hotels will sometimes increase conference room costs in December because so many businesses hold their Christmas parties in them. Given that, and the fact that we had to practically call every hotel in town and haggle like hell to house the con after HoJo's backed out, you can rest assured knowing we're dropping a nice amount on the conference room. Anyone doubting this should feel free to call some hotels in their area and inquire as to what their room rental is for the same weekend. The going rate in town is about $300. We've also spent a bit of money on calling not only the media and speakers, but everyone else who requested we call to answer questions or fax information to them. Other people wanted us to mail the information to them. Mail needs stamps. Stamps cost money. Then there is the fact that immediately after we released the first announcement, our local Unix site (the only local free site) changed over to a pay-per-minute scale. We're still receiving and sending endless letters regarding the conference. We were finally able to set up our own site last week, but the previous charges still remain. The only possible way for all of us to be compensated for what we spent in time organizing this whole thing would be to charge what some other security conferences do... about fifty times what we're suggesting. Transcripts ~~~~~~~~~~~ Those not able to attend have inquired about obtaining transcripts of the conference. Written transcripts would not only be huge, but next to impossible to produce and audio transcripts would take up too many tapes. So, we will be offering "HoHoCon '92 : The Movie" starting the first week of January. The conference footage will be shot and edited with professional equipment and will include not only what happened on Saturday, but Friday and Sunday as well. You can also get the official HoHoCon '92 T-shirt even if you can't make it. The shirts are black and have the following on the back: dFx & cDc Present: HOHOCON '92 December 18-20 Allen Park Inn Houston, Texas There is a keen, elite message on the front that we're waiting to unveil at the conference. The shirts will be available at the same time the video is. Anyone needing additional information or wishing to purchase either item should contact us (e-mail is best). How You Can Help? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some folks, most from the Houston and Austin area have offered their services and we've had a hard time thinking of exactly what we needed. The following is a list of items we are currently in need of : A *large* TV for use in the conference room, a tripod, blank Hi-8 and VHS tapes, volunteers to help work the door on Saturday morning, interesting items for the raffle, and countless other things I can't recall. We're also looking for someone in Houston who may wish to spend a day with the infamous Cap'n Crunch (John Draper). John is arriving a day early and needs a place to stay on Thursday night. I can guarantee you'll hear many interesting stories about the very early days and telecom and phreaking. You'll probably pick up a few swell exercising tips too! Starting Time ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Saturday's conference will not start like last year where we opened the doors and everyone sort of piled in. The door will be open at approximately 10 a.m. at which point you can sign the conference registrar, make a donation if you wish and enter the conference room. The conference starts promptly at 11 a.m. (no renditions of SummerCon please). Plan for this in advance as we won't be moving the starting time like last year. Ending Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Everything after this paragraph is taken from the last announcement. If anyone wants it in full just mail us and we'll send it to you. The "Howard Johnson's Story" is attached with it in CuD 4.45. If, for some reason, you can't get CuD and want to read about, we can send that to you too. That should just about wrap everything up. You know what to do if you need anything else. Hopefully, we'll see you at the con! dFx of cDc ---------- What Exactly Is HoHoCon? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HoHoCon is something you have to experience to truly understand. It is the largest annual gathering of those in, related to, or wishing to know more about the computer underground (or those just looking for another excuse to party). Attendees generally include some of the most notable members of the "hacking/telecom" community, journalists, authors, security professionals, lawyers, and a host of others. Last year's speakers ranged from Bruce Sterling to Chris Goggans and Scot Chasin of Comsec/LoD. The conference is also one of the very few that is completely open to the public and we encourage anyone who is interested to attend. Hotel Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Allen Park Inn is located along Buffalo Bayou and is approximately three minutes away from Downtown Houston. The HoHoCon group room rates are $49.00 plus tax (15%) per night, your choice of either single or double. As usual, when making reservations you will need to tell the hotel you are with the HoHoCon Conference to receive the group rate. Unlike our previously chosen joke of a hotel, the Allen Park Inn is not situated next to an airport and this may cause a small inconvenience for those of you who will be flying to the conference. The hotel is centrally located so you can fly in to either Intercontinental or Hobby airport but we are recommending Hobby as it is 15 miles closer and much easier to get to from the hotel. Here's where it may get a little confusing - If you arrive at Hobby, you will need to take the Downtown Hyatt Airport Shuttle to the Hyatt, which departs every 30 minutes and will cost you $6.00. When you get to the Hyatt, get out of the shuttle with your luggage (for those who may not of figured that out yet) and use any of the nearby pay phones to call the Allen Park Inn (521-9321) and tell them you need a ride. It's just like calling Mom when you need a ride home from glee club! The hotel shuttle will be around shortly to pick you up and take you to the aforementioned elite meeting place, and that ride is free. If all this is too much for you, you can always take a cab directly to the hotel which will run you about $20. If you arrive at Intercontinental, you will need to board the Airport Express bus and take it to the Downtown Hyatt ($9). Once there, just follow the same instructions listed above. Check-in is 3:00 p.m. and check-out is 12:00 noon. Earlier check-in is available if there are unoccupied rooms ready. Free local calls are provided, so bring dem 'puterz. I don't know if cable is free also, so those who wish to rekindle the memories of yesteryear may want to bring their screwdrivers. The hotel has both 24 hour room service, and a 24 hour restaurant, The Nashville Room. Call it a wacky coincidence, but the hotel bar is called the ATI room and like most of Houston's similar establishments, closes at 2 a.m. Good thing Tony still works at Spec's... Directions ~~~~~~~~~~ For those of you who will be driving to the conference, the following is a list of directions on how to get to the hotel from most of Houston's major freeways that bring traffic in from out of town: I-45 North or South: Exit Allen Parkway on the inside (left side) of the freeway. Take the Studemont/Montrose exit off Allen Parkway, then make a U-turn at the bridge and head back towards downtown. The hotel will be on the right hand side. 290: Take 290 to 610 South, then take I-10 East towards downtown. Exit Studemont. Right on Studemont, left on Allen Parkway. The hotel will be on the right hand side. I-10 West: Exit Studemont. Right on Studemont, left on Allen Parkway. The hotel will be on the right hand side. I-10 East: Take I-10 East to I-45 South and follow the same directions from I-45 listed above. US-59 North or South: Take US-59 to I-45 North and follow the same directions from I-45 listed above. Call the hotel if these aren't complete enough or if you need additional information. Conference Details ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HoHoCon will last 3 days, with the actual conference being held on Saturday, December 19 in the Hermitage Room, starting at 11:00 a.m. and continuing until 5 p.m. or earlier depending on the number of speakers. We are still in the planning stages at the moment, primarily due to time lost in finding a new hotel and getting contracts signed. We have a number of speakers confirmed (yes, Goggans will be speaking again) and will try to finalize the list and include it in the next update. We are definitely still looking for people to speak and welcome diverse topics (except for "The wonders and joys of ANSI, and how it changed my life"). If you're interested in rattling away, please contact us as soon as possible and let us know who you are, who you represent (if anyone), the topic you wish to speak on, a rough estimate of how long you will need, and whether or not you will be needing any audio-visual aids. We would like to have people bring interesting items and videos again this year. If you have anything you think people would enjoy having the chance to see, please let us know ahead of time, and tell us if you will need any help getting it to the conference. If all else fails, just bring it to the con and give it to us when you arrive. We will also include a list of items and videos that will be present in a future update. If anyone requires any additional information, needs to ask any questions, wants to RSVP, or would like to be added to the mailing list to receive the HoHoCon updates, you may mail us at: dfx@nuchat.sccsi.com drunkfux@kidporn.freeside.com drunkfux@freeside.com 359@7354 (WWIV Net) or via sluggo mail at: Freeside Data Network Attn: HoHoCon/dFx 11504 Hughes Road Suite 124 Houston, Texas 77089 We also have a VMB which includes all the conference information and is probably the fastest way to get updated reports. The number is: 713-866-4884 You may also download any of the conference announcements and related materials by calling 713-492-2783 and using the user name "unix", which is unpassworded. The files will be in the "/pub/h0h0" directory. Type "biscuit" if you wish to gain an account on the system. You can find us there too. Conference information and updates will most likely also be found in most computer underground related publications, including CuD, Informatik, NIA, Mondo 2000, 2600, Phrack, World View, etc. We completely encourage people to use, reprint, and distribute any information in this file. Stupid Ending Statement To Make Us Look Good ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HoHoCon '92 will be a priceless learning experience for professionals and gives journalists a chance to gather information and ideas direct from the source. It is also one of the very few times when all the members of the computer underground can come together for a realistic purpose. We urge people not to miss out on an event of this caliber, which doesn't happen very often. If you've ever wanted to meet some of the most famous people from the hacking community, this may be your one and only chance. Don't wait to read about it in all the magazines and then wish you had been there, make your plans to attend now! Be a part of what we hope to be our largest and greatest conference ever. Remember, to make your reservations, call (800) 231-6310 and tell them you're with HoHoCon.   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa06531; 9 Dec 92 3:21 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21758 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 9 Dec 1992 01:01:33 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18617 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 9 Dec 1992 01:01:06 -0600 Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1992 01:01:06 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212090701.AA18617@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #895 TELECOM Digest Wed, 9 Dec 92 01:01:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 895 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Omaha May Get Second Dial-Tone Provider (Omaha World-Herald via J Winslade) Clinton Appoints Transition Official For Telecom Policy (Nigel Allen) Com Daily Article on FCC Transition (Mark Boolootian) Ameritech PCS Digital Phone Update (Andrew C. Green) Stolen Telephone Cable in San Antonio, Texas (Star-Telegram via Len Elam) Need Help For MNP Protocols (Levent Turkmen) Cellular Tinkering? (Craig Evans) Taco Bell is Not the Mexican Phone Company (Wash Post via P. Robinson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 09:06:21 CST From: Jack.Winslade@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Omaha May Get Second Dial-Tone Provider Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha Some material taken from {Omaha World-Herald}, Sunday, Dec. 6, 1992. According to the {Omaha World-Herald}, some telephone customers in the Omaha area may be able to choose their dial tone provider in the near future. 'In recent weeks, Teleport Communications Group of New York has been setting up operations in Omaha. It is building a fiber-optic network and plans to compete with US West, Nebraska's regional telephone company, for some local business phone services.' The article reports that the parent company of Cox Cable, Omaha's cable television franchise, is the majority shareholder of Teleport. 'Cox has wires going into 60 percent of the homes in Omaha. The relationship between Cox and Teleport, therefore, opens up the possibility of competition. Those wires are capable of carrying two- way voice transmissions and information as well as television programming.' Dwight Wininger, executive secretary for the Nebraska PSC was quoted as saying '.. it's the future, and it's apparently much closer.' Wininger also stated that if Teleport competes for dial tone customers with US West, it likely would mean lower prices for consumers in Omaha. 'In areas outside Omaha, however, it may have the opposite effect. US West might increase prices in rural areas to help pay for competition in Omaha.' Teleport stated that it currently plans only to compete for business customers, but they 'do not rule out competing for other local phone services.' ... 'Teleport initially will attempt to pick off some of US West's high-volume business customers -- telemarketers and businesses that transmit data -- by offering to connect them to long distance companies for less than US West's local access charges.' The article stated that US West has indicated that this may raise prices for residential customers. A sidebar stated that Teleport is currently constructing a fiber- optic 'ring' around the area. Businesses could use this either to communicate directly or to access LD providers. Service will begin in January to some customers. JSW's notes ({WH} would never say this stuff): Among the cable subscribers I know (we do not subscribe to cable -- not enough time to watch free TV very much), the opinion of Cox Cable ranges from reasonable satisfaction on the high end to unprintable on the low end. I've heard frequent complaints of slow service, interminable times on hold, long lines at their offices, service disruptions, and arrogance befitting someone who holds a monopoly and knows it. The tone of their ads (since the cable re-regulation -- some coincidence) has changed to indicate that they are working on their consumer relations problems. I must admit that telephone service in Omaha is the best I have ever been aware of, although a bit pricey when compared to other markets. Although 15 years ago I thought otherwise, in the past 10 years their customer service has been good as well. The few technical problems I've had have been resolved quickly and conveniently. Should dial tone competition come to Omaha residents, I would probably not consider switching unless the other company(ies) offered a significant savings over Ma Bell. I just hope this does not lead to another 'duopoly' with the hype and creative pricing that runs rampant in the cellular industry. I can hear the commercials now. 'Sign up today for telephone service from us and get a FREE cheapie-chirper phone and FREE call waiting. Activationrequiresacommitmenttofiveyearsserviceatfiftydollarsaweekwith aminimumoftwohourslocalservicetimeperdayat75centsperminutewith40per- centsurchargeduringpeakhoursnootherdiscountsmayapply.' Good day. JSW ------------------------------ From: Nigel Allen Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 19:00:00 -0500 Subject: Clinton Appoints Transition Official For Telecom Policy Organization: NDA There has been some criticism of Ronald Plesser, the Washington lawyer appointed by U.S. President-elect Bill Clinton as the transition official in charge of telecommunications and broadcasting policy issues. {Communications Daily} (December 7) reports that some public interest groups, such as Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and the Taxpayer Assets Project, are uncomfortable that a lawyer who represented the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and the Information Industry Association (IIA) was named to the policy position. Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044 [Moderator's Note: This story is reported in more detail in the next article in this issue, submitted by Mark Boolootian. The apparent position of the CPSR, that a lawyer who at one time or another represented one interest in the industry cannot possibly do a professional job of representing another theoretically opposing interest now is ludicrous. First, I don't know that DMA/IIA are necessarily bad guys (thereby ethically requiring Plesser to recuse himself from the transition effort if he is unable to separate his responsibility to old clients from that of his new employer); and second, my personal impression of Plesser, while limited to reading some of his remarks and hearing him speak on one occassion, is that he is a competent professional, unlikely to confuse the old and new. No doubt the CPSR's dislike of some positions he will espouse will be attributed by the Socially Responsible Ones to 'bias' by Plesser. But lest you, dear readers, labor under the impression I am pleased with the direction the wind is blowing in Our Nation's Capitol -- sometimes known as the istrict of rime -- these days, be assured I am watching with baited breath as all the Clintonistas begin to assume their duties. Mr. Clinton's campaign played on the hopes and aspirations of many forgotten and/or ignored Americans. Does anyone *really* believe he will keep even a third of the promises he made? In a few months, when all the Clinton-daemons have been installed will we find we have simply swapped one bunch of cronies for another? PAT] ------------------------------ From: booloo@framsparc.ocf.llnl.gov (Mark Boolootian) Subject: Com Daily Article on FCC Transition Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 08:25:19 -0800 (PST) The following was posted to the comp-priv mailing list and I thought it might be of interest to the readers here: * Communications Daily article on Clinton transition appointment for Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.) The following article, written by Art Brodsky (202/872-9202, x252), is reprinted from the December 7, 1992 issue of Communications Daily, with permission. Communications Daily is published by Warren Publishing, Inc., 2115 Ward Court, N.W. Washington, DC 20037. `Far End of Spectrum' PLESSER TRANSITION APPOINTMENT DRAWS FIRE Public interest groups Friday criticized naming of Washington attorney Ronald Plesser to head up communications issues for Clinton transition effort (CD Dec4, p1). Groups said Plesser, partner in Washington office of Baltimore law firm Piper & Marbury, represents clients that characterize Washington special interests. As might be expected, Plesser's appointment was defended by Clinton confidants. Plesser will head one of two groups in science and technology transition section led by ex-astronaut Sally Ride. Other group in Ride's section will evaluate hard science agencies such as NASA and National Science Foundation. Those transition groups were established to assess policies and agencies, not to make appointment recommendations. Personnel matters for permanent jobs are to be handled by ex-S.C. Gov. Richard Riley (CD Nov 20 p1). Clinton confidants praised Plesser's designation. "He's the right guy," we were told. "He'll take a snapshot of the agency," covering budget needs, personnel and similar matters. Transition team "will look to Ron for insights. He's the guy." Referring to much speculation in press about what Clinton has in mind and who his appointments might be, source said: "I wonder what on earth motivates some of this stuff ... most of which is wildly inaccurate." Most criticism of Plesser centers on his advocacy on behalf of Direct Marketing Assn. (DMA) and Information Industry Assn. (IIA), particularly for advocating private sector control of databases constructed by public agencies. Taxpayer Assets Project Dir. James Love said Plesser "himself is the architect of the basic privatization policies that came about in the Reagan Administration." Plesser, he said, is "most ferocious opponent of librarians, citizen groups and the research community, who want to broaden public access to government, taxpayer-supported information systems. He's the devil himself when it comes to government information policy." Similarly, Marc Rotenberg, Director of the Washington office of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), said that "while there is personal regard for Ron Plesser, there is not happiness about this decision." Rotenberg said that Plesser's clients have great deal at stake at FCC, including decisions on 800 number portability and automatic number identification (ANI) that affect direct marketers, as well as on video dial tone and access to networks. Plesser represents "a far end of the spectrum in the policy debates," Rotenberg said. He said CPSR's main concerns are in areas of privacy protection, public access to government information, communications infrastructure. In each of those areas, "Ron has been from our viewpoint on the opposite side of the issue." Rotenberg said that if transition effort is merely to be brief fact-finding exercise, Clinton team could have sought out "someone with less bias," perhaps in academic community. Jeff Chester, co-dir. of Center for Media Education, said his group is "very concerned" about Plesser because "of the special interest lobbying baggage he carries with him." Chester said his group believes that Plesser's appointment "places an extra burden, a double duty on the Clinton Administration, to find people for the FCC and other telecommunications policy positions who don't come with any kind of lobbying baggage and reflect the kind of public interest concerns the Commission definitely needs." Transition team still having difficulty deciding how to apply its proposed tough ethics requirements for Presidential appointees (CD Nov 5 p1). There's still been no decision as "to how deep the five-year restriction will be applied," we're told. That means, according to sources, restrictions -- when they finally come out -- may not go below Cabinet level. As for FCC appointees and top staffers (such as bureau chiefs) brought in, it hasn't been decided whether attempt will be made to extend period they couldn't practice or lobby agency to five years from one year. Proposal has been roundly criticized by Democrats who are know to be, or expect to be, in line for top jobs in Clinton Administration. Mark Boolootian booloo@llnl.gov +1 510 423 1948 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1992 11:21:31 CST From: Andrew C. Green Reply-To: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Subject: Ameritech PCS Digital Phone Update Here's an update on our long-term test of Ameritech's Personal Communication Service (PCS) telephone. Regular readers will recall that my wife and I were approached at the local train station by an Ameritech representative to participate, along with several hundred other users, in an 18-month test of their new digital portable telephones. Several unrelated items today: 1) I noted in the past that Ameritech has studiously avoided calling this a "cellular" phone, although the network resembles a cellular system. The term of choice, to judge from their literature, appears to be that it's a "wireless" telephone system. 2) The little phone has developed a few minor bugs, though none interfere with its operation to any noticeable degree. On about rfour occasions when I had the Pager mode switched on (required to field incoming calls via an existing pager network), I heard a little warble come from the phone. A quick inspection showed it had abruptly switched its Pager mode off for no apparent reason. On a couple of other occasions, switching the phone off (you must leave it on when in Private mode in order for the base unit to ring it as an extension) would also switch off the pager, which is not supposed to happen. Finally, on a few occasions, a quick glance at its display when the phone was not in use showed the "Phon" indicator blinking merrily away as if it was seeking a transceiver for a phone line. This is normally supposed to happen only when you punch the green button to start a call. Punching the green button and closing the phone (to cycle it on and off) reset the indicator without problems. 3) The test program is apparently swimming in money for incentive payments. The phone arrived with an initial offer of $10 cash for making 10 calls in the first 10 days. This was followed by a $25 incentive to get four different people to page you 10 times in 10 days, and a trip to Hawaii to be awarded in a drawing from a list of everyone who sent their monthly surveys in on time. The latest offer came last week: in exchange for carrying the phone everywhere I go for two weeks, something I do anyway, they'll send me a check for $75. I am not complaining. ;-) 4) Billing is another test area of the program. We were informed that our particular bill would be calculated on the basis of three cents/minute of air time. Again, I am not complaining. 5) We are kept very well informed about the program; it seems like hardly a day goes by without some piece of mail from them. Someone at their office has apparently got hold of some screaming-flourescent stationery and a PostScript printer, and used it to mail out all sorts of bulletins. Our favorite was an urgent missive, with a full 29 cents of first-class postage on it, containing nothing but a single flourescent-blue page announcing that some people were putting the batteries in backwards in their base units. 6) The phone has proved to be a great conversation piece. It's universally described as "cute" by everyone who sees it. A couple of cellular phone salesmen we ran into all but drooled on it, with great excitement over the fact that they had heard so much about the PCS and finally got to see one. I personally have yet to bump into ANYONE else who has one. 7) They called me yesterday to ask if I'd like to speak to a reporter this week from the {Detroit Free Press} who's doing a story on the PCS system. I must say, this is getting to be rather fun! Disclaimer: No connection to Ameritech other than as a satisfied PCS trial participant. Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 13:11:30 CST From: lelam%kuwait@Sun.COM (Len E. Elam) Subject: Stolen Telephone Cable in San Antonio, Texas I saw this in the morning edition of the Friday, December 4, 1992 {Fort Worth Star-Telegram} on Section A, Page 27: --------News-article-follows-------- SAN ANTONIO: Phones were working again yesterday after Southwestern Bell repaired lines damaged when thieves took 500 feet of cable from Lady Bird Johnson Park. Service was disrupted early Wednesday for about 1,000 customers, including several schools and a fire station. The copper in the cable was hardly worth the thieves' effort bacause of the cable's makeup, San Antonio scrap dealers said. "There's no real practical way to sepatate it," one dealer said. "It's probably worth at most four to five cents a pound." The paper-wrapped cable is composed of 1,000 copper wires smaller in diameter than a pencil's lead. Workers repairing the damage had to splice together each of the 1,000 individual wires. Because copper theft is common, state law requires salvage companies to get the signature, driver's license, vehicle license number and address of anyone selling more than 50 pounds of copper. --------News-article-end------------ Who Am I?: Len E. Elam | Disclamer: Email: gdfwc3!lelam@central.sun.com | I speak only or lelam@gdwest.gd.com | for myself. ------------------------------ From: turkmen@csvaxe.csuohio.edu Subject: Need Help For MNP Protocols Organization: Cleveland State University Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 20:52:54 GMT Is there anybody who knows where I can get the algorithms of MNP 4 and 5 protocols? Is there a book concerning those? Thanks in advance for your replies. Levent TURKMEN ------------------------------ From: CRAIG@harvarda.harvard.edu (Craig Evans) Subject: Cellular Tinkering? Date: 9 Dec 92 01:04:38 GMT Organization: Harvard University, Office for Information Technology I own a Nokia 101 cellular hand-held phone. As of now their is no car adapter for this model (that I know of). I want to muck about with it a bit. There are six gold-colored contacts on the bottom. I believe that two of them are for charging. That leaves four for ... say ... external mike, speaker, antenna, etc. Q: Can anyone tell me what these contacts do? Q: Is this a standard config of some kind? Q: Are there third party devices for this config? Q: Can anyone recommend magazines, books, FTP articles on this subject? I am interested in a headset for the phone especially for long trips (I would get a kick out of making my own -- but would purchase if I had to). I prefer the idea of headset over speakerphone and visor mike because I assume the sound would be better. (Can anyone comment on this?). Thanks for your help. Craig ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1992 20:09:27 EST Subject: Taco Bell is Not the Mexican Phone Company One of the more humorous tag lines used on some messages is the phrase "Taco Bell is not the Mexican Phone Company." True. Telmex ("Telefonos de Mexico") is. They just ran an ad on page A34 of the {Washington Post} of 12/8. Here are the highlights of the advertisement (1/2 page vertical along with a full page on other aspects of Mexico.) Claims made by Telmex's advertisement: - In 1990 Telmex had labor problems and old equipment. The Mexican Government sold 20% of the company to Grupo Cargo (a mexican manufacturer), Southwestern Bell, and France Telecom's Cable & Radio, for $1.76 Billion; 4.4% was sold to the telephone workers' uinion and and most of the remainder was placed on the Mexican and international stock markets. The government now owns "less than 10%" of Telmex. - Telmex has a six year monopoly on the providing of telephone service provided it upgrades its equipment. - They installed 826,857 new lines (14% increase); total capacity is almost seven million lines; a new $260 million fiber optic cable is being installed by AT&T, Indetel-Alcatel & Ericcson of Sweden, along the railroad rights of way. They expect 65 digital by end of 1994. Northern Telecom of Canada is installing 38 operator centers and a new system which will "nearly double an operator's efficiency from 22 to 40 long distance calls an hour." - They are also putiting in a $400 million transatlantic cable to connect 7500+ miles from Cancun, West Palm Beach, St. Thomas US VI, Canary Is., Spain, Madeira, Portugal and Palermo Italy, with 58 companies in 41 countries. This system, called "Columbus II" begins construction in August. It will have 232,000 channels and be able to handle 90,000 calls at high speeds. - Mexico has 20 VSAT (Very Small Aperature Terminal) networks at 86 sites, including the government oil monopoly PEMEX and the two Mexican Stock exchanges. - Mexico has two satellites, "Morelos I and II," with 12 international earth stations and 239 local ones. They run 573 telephone, 525 telex and 5 television channels from Mexico to 27 countries. Hughes Aircraft will launch "Solidaridad I and II" which will provide four times the capacity. The two new earth satellites will cost $182 million. - American Mobile Satellite Corporation will be able to then provide mobile users with phone service, including the ability for a Mexican mobile phone user to continue their conversation even when they cross into the U.S., and vice versa. (Implies international Roaming on Cellular, but the word "cellular" isn't used.) - They are going to implement paging in 18 cities via Mtel Internation- al of the U.S. - Since January, they will have installed 1.5 million lines and "replaced 281 million 500,000 analogue lines that had been in use for 60 years to digital ones." (Gee I wonder what the charges are for a phone line in use for 60 years is!) 4,000 rural communities have been added. - 100,000 cellular users in 25 cities. - "Integrated Digital Network" has 541 national and international companies as subscribers, with 36,254 lines. It also gives them videoconference capability to "1,000 meeting rooms in 32 different countries." Conflicting Claims: - A lower ad states they will put 1420 digital operator positions at 39 traffic centers; above it says they are installing 38 operator centers. - The lower ad claims the Columbus II underwater fiber optic cable will have "a capacity of 32,000 telephone channels and 1000 telephone circuits" while the upper ad says "fully operational by December 1994, the 232,000-channel system will simultaneously transmit up to 90,000 calls at high speeds" (the ad says 500 megabits per second.) Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM These comments are summary of the opinion of "Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex)" about itself and do not represent the opinion of this account's owner, and may not represent mine. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #895 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08190; 9 Dec 92 3:54 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21507 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 9 Dec 1992 01:53:19 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11207 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 9 Dec 1992 01:52:56 -0600 Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1992 01:52:56 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212090752.AA11207@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #896 TELECOM Digest Wed, 9 Dec 92 01:53:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 896 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Replacing Motorola (John Higdon) Block Block Blocking? (John R. Levine) Go Anywhere Roaming Grid (Radio Communications Report via Leroy Donnelly) IEEE Communications Special PCS Issue (Monty Solomon) Eveready Batteries / Madame Olga (mmm@cup.portal.com) MAGNAPhone Suppliers? (Thomas Richers) BT Meter Pulsing (50Hz Longitudinal) (Bashar Nuseibeh) Wanted: Information on CCIR Reports (Vitenberg Eugene) Cellular Packet Data Networks (smr108@psuvm.psu.edu) Giant Voice Bridge Needed (David E. Martin) "Obscene Profits of Utility Companies?" NOT! (Paul Robinson) Help! I'm Making My First Phonecall! (Tom Streeter) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 18:53 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: AT&T Replacing Motorola As I am sure someone has mentioned, GTE Mobilnet is replacing all of its Motorola switches with AT&T. Some time ago, GTE gave Motorola the word: get your act together or we will go elsewhere. AT&T is the "elsewhere". This is a perfect example of the difference between the GTE operating companies and GTE Mobile Services (of which GTE Mobilnet is a part). Since Mobilnet is not a regulated monopoly with a guaranteed rate of return, it cannot have the attitude, "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company", as, for example, GTE of California certainly does. If GTE of California had to compete in the real world, those rotton GTD-5 excuse-for-a-switch abominations would be so much scrap. But since it can literally extort whatever it needs to make its guaranteed rate of return from ratepayers, those featureless, clunking, cheap monstrosities will probably be disserving unlucky customers for years to come. At least until "dial tone competition". I cannot wait to hear GTE squeal. Oh, and by the way, Gloria, this is not a personal attack upon the fine men and women who make a living cranking out GTD-5s. Everyone has to do something. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Subject: Block Block Blocking? Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 23:35:07 EST From: John R. Levine I notice that when you block delivery of Caller-ID, the sending switch still sends the calling phone number but sets a "no display" bit. The number can't be displayed with Caller-ID, but is still useful for Call Trace and Call Block, CLASS services useful for identifying and stopping annoying or harrassing callers. But in some states the state regulators have told the telcos not to provide blocking. I'd think that it'd be technically straightforward to reprogram an exchange to disregard the blocking bit to carry out the regulatory mandate to provide the caller's phone number on every call whether the caller likes it or not. Since the FCC hasn't, to my knowledge, said anything one way or the other about Caller-ID, this would probably even be legal. Has this possibility ever been broached in a Caller-ID regulatory argument? Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 17:39:16 CST From: Leroy.Donnelly@ivgate.omahug.org (Leroy Donnelly) Subject: Go Anywhere Roaming Grid Reply-To: leroy.donnelly%drbbs@ivgate.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha From the December 7th issue of {Radio Communications Report}: CTIA CALLS FOR 'GO ANYWHERE' ROAMING GRID by Jeffrey Silva Need to reach a cellular-toting jetsetter pronto on the Los Angeles freeway when you are in Manhattan, or say Little Rock, Ark.? No problem: By next summer a national cellular roaming network should make those calls reality. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, buoyed by a key Justice Department finding, is looking for the company that can build a backbone signaling network to enable mobile telephone subscribers to be called automatically anywhere in the country. "With this seamless roaming network, we're not talking about programming telephones for call forwarding or anything like that," said CTIA President Thomas Wheeler in a press statement Nov. 18. "Were talking about true, automatic, call delivery," explained Wheeler. "Your phone calls will reach you no matter where you happen to be. The customer won't need any new equipment and won't face any new charges." CTIA last month begin soliciting bids from companies to develop a Signaling System No. 7, or SS7, national network that would link switches -- computers that serve as the central nerve center of cellular systems -- based on a uniform industry technical standard. The standard, IS-41, allows switches made by different manufactures to talk with each other. Today, local and long-distance telephone companies already use or moving toward implementation of SS7, said CTIA spokesman Norman Black. The result will be a seamless national cellular network and the fulfillment of one of industry's biggest goals since its inception in 1983. The high-speed data transmission network used to set up cellular calls also will help curb fraud -- a major industry problem -- and provide other functions. The cellular switch in the territory where a subscriber has roamed will instantaneously verify his or her identity with the home switch as well as find out the customer's preferred long-distance company and pre-subscribed options like voice mail and call waiting. The Justice Department in October gave its blessing to the use of the IS-41 standard by cellular operators affiliated with the seven regional Bell telephone companies. IT concluded the automatic call delivery function does not constitute inter-exchange, or long- distance, service the Bells are prohibited from offering. That ban came under the 1982 AT&T consent decree that prefaced the 1984 court- ordered breakup of the corporate behemoth. Currently, there is no smooth mechanism in place to route calls automatically to roamers -- cellular customers who travel outside their home market into another carrier's territory -- even though cellular subscribers have no trouble reaching anybody in the world from there own phones. "Our industry is ready to have a national network," said CTIA's Black. Black said bids are due Dec. 23. The winning contractor selected in February will have 180 days to activate the nationwide cellular SS7 network. That puts the turn-on date sometime next August. CTIA's board deferred until later a resolution of questions regarding project cost, who will pay for it and who will oversee the national cellular roaming network until after proposals are submitted and a contract is awarded, he said. The association, noted Black, expects to receive bids from a host of firms. They range from the big three long-distance telephone companies -- American Telephone & Telegraph Co., MCI Communications Corp. and Sprint Corp. -- and large manufacturers such as International Business Machines Corp., Northern Telecom Ltd. and Digital Equipment Corp. to medium and small companies with, for example, software and systems applications expertise. The later will be considered despite their lack of network facilities since they still could lease network capacity. Solicitations of bids initially went out Nov. 13 to 42 companies identified as having interest in setting up a national cellular roaming network. The association expects to receive even more interest in the project now that it has been publicized, Black said. Ybbat (DRBBS) 8.9 v. 3.14 r.1 DRBBS (1:285/666.0) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 00:53:45 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: IEEE Communications Special PCS Issue The December 1992 issue of {IEEE Communications Magazine} is a special issue on the second generation of personal communications. "This issue presents an update on personal communications. The articles summarize the current status of research and development in this fast-growing field and offer a look into the future at potential technologies and applications." Here is the table of contents: Implementation of PCNs Using DCS1800 Implications of Mobile Cellular CDMA Cordless Personal Communications The Universal Mobile Telecommunication System A Portable Multimedia Terminal Microcells in Personal Communications Systems Modulation Methods for PCNs Wireless Network Access for Personal Communications Network Control for Wireless Communications And the Walls Come Tumblin' Down 1992 Index of Articles Coming in the January 1993 issue: Optimizing Communications Solutions The Evolving Role of Telecommunications Switching Document Image Processing Using the Telephone Company Network Future Switching System Requirements from a Network Perspective Single copies of "IEEE Communications Magazine" are available for $10.00 for IEEE members and $20.00 for nonmembers from: IEEE Service Center 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway NJ 08854-4150 +1 908 981 0060 800 678 IEEE Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ From: mmm@cup.portal.com Subject: Eveready Batteries / Madame Olga Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 16:59:45 PST In case you've seen the recent "Madame Olga" commercials featuring the Eveready (nee Duracell) bunny, and noticed the 800 number given for a fraction of a second at the end, it may satisfy your curiousity to know the number just gives a short message then hangs up. The number is 800 729 0730. I didn't try throwing all three-character combinations of TT digits at it, because I figured that would be a waste of time :-) Did you catch the recent "Digital Voice Changer" article in {Radio-Electronics}? I've got big plans for that little device :-) ------------------------------ Subject: MAGNAPhone Suppliers? Date: 8 Dec 92 09:28:44 GMT (Tue) From: trrichers@gn.apc.org I remember reading about satellite telephones, but I don't know where. They communicate with INMARSAT satellites and are very expensive. Friends in Italy would like to know which U.S. company produces a type of satellite telephone called MAGNAPhone MX 2020. Does anyone know their name and address? Thanks in advance. Thomas Richers ------------------------------ From: ban@doc.ic.ac.uk (Bashar Nuseibeh) Subject: BT Meter Pulsing (50Hz Longitudinal) Date: 8 Dec 1992 11:52:46 GMT Organization: Imperial College, Dept. of Computing BT Meter Pulsing (50 Hz Longitudinal) - What is the duration of pulses? - How many pulses make up one chargeable unit (4.2p)? - How can we detect the pulse? - What is the frequency of pulses in relation to call charges? - Any other info? Thanks in advance, Bashar Nuseibeh Dept. of Computing Imperial College ------------------------------ From: berg@tsm.nsk.su (Vitenberg Eugene) Subject: Wanted: Info on CCIR Reports Date: Tue, 08 Dec 92 00:30:00 +0700 Organization: TV MIR Reply-To: berg@tsm.nsk.su Please, can anybody tell me where can I find these documents: " CCIR XVI (sixteen, not xvi :-) ) Plenary Assembly. Report 951-1. Data casting systems: signal and sernce quality, field ... theoretical studies, 1986, XI.1, p.93-136 " and " CCIR XVI Plenary Assembly. Recommendation Teletext systems, 1986, XI.1, p.59-83 " Is there any ftp or organization which can post it to me by mail or E-mail ? Please, reply by E-mail to: berg@tsm.nsk.su Thanks a lot. Gennady F. Afanasyev ------------------------------ Organization: Penn State University Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 16:44:54 EST From: SMR108@PSUVM.PSU.EDU Subject: Cellular Packet Data Networks Help! I'm doing a paper on cellular packet data networks. I would appreciate any information on: cellular transmission, celluplan II, or any other related information. Please respond ASAP. Thank you, so much! Sheila ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 17:39:15 -0600 From: David E. Martin Subject: Giant Voice Bridge Needed Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, USA I am working on an application where I need to have about 500 people call in to listen to a presentation. The talk path only needs to be uni-directional, from the speaker to the dial-up listeners. Can anyone point me to a commercial service that can do this? Each participant would pay the long-distance charges to call the bridge, but I want to keep the cost for renting the bridge down to a minimum. David E. Martin National HEPnet Management Phone: +1 708 840-8275 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory FAX: +1 708 840-8463 P.O. Box 500, MS 368; Batavia, IL 60510 USA E-Mail: dem@hep.net [Moderator's Note: You might want to consider a one time use of a 900 number out of a service bureau set up to handle a huge number of calls at one time into their voicemail unit, etc. 900 calls can be set up for billing so the cost to the caller is zero; you'd arrange with the service bureau to issue one billing for the entire process. All your people would dial into the 900 number at the appointed time(s). Depending on the length of time needed for the connection, and the fact that (I presume) you'd be paying with a government purchase order, it might be quite easy to negotiate with the service bureau for a very inexpensive single rate covering the whole thing. Even if the cost were a bit more than you wanted, bear in mind you'd have no worry with installation of the bridge, the assorted phone lines, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1992 18:52:11 EST Subject: "Obscene Profits of Utility Companies?" NOT! Before anyone talks about "obscene profits" of utility companies, listen to this story: I live in the Washington, DC area. My sister complained about the excessively high phone rates at her apartment building in Alexandria, Virginia. Based on questioning some of the other people in the office, seeing phone bills and asking the phone company, I discovered the following: In Montgomery County, Maryland, the tax on phone bills is about 2%. Same for the District of Columbia. In Arlington County, Virginia, there is no "tax" on phone bills but there is a "surcharge" of 1.3%. (Yeah, right and 'revenue enhancement' wasn't a way of making people pay more to the Federal Government.) Notice I haven't mentioned Alexandria yet. I want to mention something about the rules imposed on C&P Telephone with regard to the amount it's allowed to make. By the current rules of the areas, C&P Telephone is allowed to have a rate of return of from 18-21.5% (depending on the jurisdiction.) I explained to my sister that the limit on how much the phone company is allowed to make is based on the idea that since the phone company is given a monopoly (the exclusive right to offer phone service) it is given a maximum amount that it is allowed to make. Oh yes, about Alexandria, VA: Remember DC and Montgomery are 2%, Arlington is 1.3%. What is Alexandria? ------ 25% ------ I kid you not! My sister had a phone bill in which the base bill was $40 and the {taxes} were another $10! The clerk at the phone company told me the taxes are the highest in the area. So realize that the City of Alexandria, VA gets to take a higher profit off phone service than the phone company does. Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM These opinions are mine alone. ------------------------------ From: streeter@cs.unca.edu (Tom Streeter) Subject: Help! I'm Making My First Phonecall! Organization: University of North Carolina at Asheville Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 20:02:35 GMT I was at a dinner party last night when the host couple's young son -- who had not previously shown much interest in telephones -- came out and announced he'd made his first phone call: "We called 9-1-1 and somebody answered!" Apparently young Ben was showing off for a couple of the younger kids who were there. Ben's mother went white as a sheet and his father went to the phone he knew would be ringing in just a moment. Sure enough, the dispatcher called back to see if everything was OK and to give the "please teach your child 911 isn't a toy" lecture. David, Ben's father, promised he would do just that, but I think he was really considering using the swing set we'd spent the day erecting (in 30 degree weather without the wind chill) as a gallows. It was Ben's sixth birthday and the liklihood of seeing his seventh wasn't looking good. Of course what actually happened is that they took Ben back to his bedroom and gave him a long talk about how serious a thing he had done (as did the parents of the other children who were involved). Those of us who don't have kids sat around and took the opportunity to (a) be thankful *we* didn't have to deal with this one, (b) speculate if we would have done such a thing if 911 had existed when we were his age and (c) wonder how Ben was going to handle his first urge to take a drive. We concluded that leaving him alone around idling police cars was probably a bad idea. This topic has been touched on in this forum before, but this little incident really illustrated for me the dilemma parents face when socializing their kids to technology. As I said before, Ben had shown little interest in telephones before -- his usual practice is to get real shy and not say anything -- so it never occurred to anyone to warn him about 911 (and with him, telling him not to do something is a pretty good way to make sure he'll do it). Now that the incident has happened, his parents have to walk the line between impressing on him that 911 should never be called and making sure he knows he can call if there's an emergency. I have suggested to his parents, btw, that they get 900 blocking before Ben makes his next telecommunciations discovery. Tom Streeter streeter@cs.unca.edu Dept. of Mass Communication 704-251-6227 University of North Carolina at Asheville Opinions expressed here are Asheville, NC 28804 mine alone. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #896 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa10036; 9 Dec 92 5:06 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01105 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 9 Dec 1992 03:01:31 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00860 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Wed, 9 Dec 1992 03:01:01 -0600 Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1992 03:01:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212090901.AA00860@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #897 TELECOM Digest Wed, 9 Dec 92 03:01:00 CST Volume 12 : Issue 897 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson DECnews/Digital Announces TeMIP Software For Telecom Industry (M. Solomon) First Phone Factory Demolished (Brantford Expositor via Dave Leibold) Crippled Phones Defeat Tone Generator (Steve Kass) HDLC Simulator (Riendeau Jean-Francois) Request For Voice Mail Information For E-Key (Syd Weinstein) CSU/DSU That Will Accept V.25bis Dialing Commands? (Jesse W. Asher) Offhook Chirp (Lance Neustaeter) Looking For DSU Vendors (Todd Nussbacher) US Sprint's PC Pursuit (Marc Kozam) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Monty Solomon Subject: DECnews/Digital Announces TeMIP Software For Telecom Industry Date: 8 Dec 92 16:42:47 GMT |||||| DECnews for Press and Analysts ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Digital Equipment Corporation Maynard, Massachusetts 01754-2571 Editorial contact: Jayne Chace (508) 486-5579 DIGITAL ANNOUNCES TeMIP SOFTWARE INTEGRATED NETWORK MANAGEMENT FOR THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY MAYNARD, Mass. -- December 8, 1992 -- Digital Equipment Corporation today announced TeMIP, a software product that enables telephone companies to manage their multivendor networks more efficiently. Developed by Digital, TeMIP provides unique integrated fault manage- ment capabilities and a framework for adding new applications to extend its functionality. TeMIP collects and processes event and alarm information from multiple devices, enabling operations personnel to monitor and control all network elements with a single system. TeMIP represents the first commercially available implementation of ISO Fault Management standards 10164-x, 10165-x and associated CCITT X.73x recommendations. TeMIP also supports OSI/Network Management Forum and ANSI T1M1 trouble ticket formats. TeMIP constitutes a milestone for the industry with its leading-edge object oriented architecture and its unique compliance with the latest network management standards. Through TeMIP, Digital demonstrates its strong and unmatched focus towards the telecommunications industry. The standards-compliant TeMIP works with virtually any vendor's telecommunications equipment through custom-developed interfaces. "TeMIP answers fixed wire and mobile/cellular network service providers' needs for improved control over their increasingly complex networks," said Ernst E. Wellhvner, Vice President of Digital's Telecommunications Business Group. "By integrating data from diverse network devices, TeMIP lets operations staff more readily identify and correct transmission and switching problems within their network." "TeMIP demonstrates Digital's commitment to delivering strategic solutions that will serve the telecommunications industry today and in the future," continues Wellhvner. "Our support for international standards ensures that Digital solutions can be used by any service provider or equipment manufacturer anywhere in the world." A FLEXIBLE FRAMEWORK FOR CUSTOM SOLUTIONS Six key vendors across the globe have adopted TeMIP as the basis for custom network management solutions they sell to Telecom service providers. These initial companies include SEMA Group, a software house based in the UK and France; Netman, a joint venture between Digital and NKT of Copenhagen, Denmark; MPR Teltech of Vancouver Canada; BBN Communications of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sandwell Inc. of Calgary Canada and Steria, a software house in Velizy-Villacoublay, France. "Steria is supplying a TeMIP-based network supervision and maintenance system for Sociiti Frangaise de Radio Tiliphone (SFR), the private nationwide mobile radio telephone operator in France." reports Pierre Desprez, Telecom Division Manager, Steria. "Basing SFR's network management system on Digital's TeMIP gives us a head start in providing a fully integrated solution that meets our customer's needs," said Desprez. "TeMIP simplifies the process of creating a network management system that 'talks' to different elements in the network, which is fast becoming a requirement in today's telecommunications environment." STANDARDS-COMPLIANT, ARCHITECTED APPROACH The key to TeMIP's flexibility lies in its adherence to Digital's standards-compliant Enterprise Management Architecture (EMA). "TeMIP is extremely well suited for the supervision of telecommunications networks, thanks to its architecture, its interfaces and its functionalities," states Genevieve Charpin, Marketing and Technology Consultant from SEMA Group. "We consider TeMIP's adherence with CCITT's TMN recommendations as very important. A product such as TeMIP allows us to better control development costs and delays, while guaranteeing an excellent level of overall quality. In effect, TeMIP enables us to dedicate most of our time and efforts to satisfying our customers' specific requirements." Vince Holloway, Director Software Systems Division of MPR Teltech Ltd. adds, "With the combination of DECmcc and TeMIP, and Digital's commitment to support the TMN standards, MPR Teltech is committed to working with Digital to develop applications for the telecommunications environment." COMPREHENSIVE FAULT MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS TeMIP's initial functionality addresses telecommunications fault management functions, including event logging, alarm handling, and trouble ticketing. TeMIP's OSF/Motif-based graphical user interface provides an iconic map of alarm conditions, simple "point-and-click" functionality, windowing capabilities, and a consistent "look and feel" across all management functions. Flemming Buchholt, General Manager of NetMan reports, "NetMan has selected TeMIP as the platform of choice for the management of SDH networks. We believe that TeMIP is unique in today's market in terms of functionalities and potential for rapid delivery of SDH network management solutions. TeMIP's most important feature resides in its ability to adapt to and integrate any type of network element," states Buchholt, "an especially critical capability in today's ever changing world of communication networks." Open Development Environment TeMIP includes a published application programming interface that facilitates the creation of new applications and interfaces to TeMIP-based management systems. New modules can be "plugged in" to TeMIP without disrupting operations. "TeMIP protects customers' equipment investment because it works with the network elements and management systems they currently have in place. It also lets them keep their options open for adding new technologies in the future, so they will be able to deploy new services more rapidly and efficiently," Wellhvner said. "Digital and Sandwell have combined their strengths to provide network management solutions which meet customers' immediate needs and can evolve to meet a customer's expanding future requirements." states Rick Schmaltz, Director, Sales and Marketing Sandwell. "By interfacing Sandwell's existing network management products to TeMIP, Digital and Sandwell are able to provide proven performance today and a migration path to a complete open solution for the future." Digital Equipment Corporation, headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts, is the leading worldwide supplier of networked computer systems, software and services. Digital pioneered and leads the industry in interactive, distributed and mutlivendor computing. Digital and its business partners deliver the power to use the best integrated solutions -- from desktop to data center -- in open information environments. #### Note to Editors: DECmcc, DECstation, DECsystem, TeMIP, ULTRIX, and the Digital logo are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. OSF and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Software Foundation. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 00:45:22 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: First Phone Factory Demolished {The Toronto Star} recently had an obituary on the building in Brantford, Ontario, Canada where the first telephone was made. Thanks to some intellectual super-heroism on the part of the city of Brantford bureaucracy, a demolition permit was issued to area businessman Ton Payne, who wanted to replace the Wharfe Street building with a loading dock and parking lot. Despite a picture and description of the historic site in a city brochure, it seems Brantford's heritage committee didn't notice that the old factory site was in danger and didn't object to the demolition. A 1960s plaque indicating the historical significance of the site was removedapproximately six years ago and went to the Brant County Museum. ref: "Heritage committee dials B for blunder", by Jim Beatty, originally printed in the {Brantford Expositor}, reprinted in {The Toronto Star} Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 11:56 EST From: SKASS@drew.drew.edu Subject: Crippled Phones Defeat Tone Generator NYTel tells me the payphones I try to use in Manhattan aren't crippled any more, but they are, and worse that I thought. I hoped my buying a Radio Shack programmable tone generator would solve my problems, both with Calling Card number theft and with crippled phones. No such luck. Somehow, NYTel cuts me off after about 20 tones, whether they are generated via the keypad or by my tone generator. Phone crippling has been ridiculed here in the past by those suggesting that tone generators would get around it. They don't. So this afternoon, I'll make a few more calls to NYTel and the NY PUC. What's unfortunate is that none of this crippling is illegal, but perhaps the PUC needs to consider regulating that sounds of whatever nature must be allowed over the phone lines unimpeded. If none of that works, I may start using COCOTs. If they'll let me dial 1-800-CALL-ATT and then use my tone generator, I'll be happy. Steve Kass/ Department of Mathematics and Computer Science/ Drew University/ Madison NJ 07940/ 201-514-1187/ skass@drew.drew.edu ------------------------------ From: riendeaj@jsp.umontreal.ca (Riendeau Jean-Francois) Subject: HDLC Simulator Organization: Universite de Montreal Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 18:16:34 GMT I'm writing a HDLC protocol simulator between two UN*X processes. Things are going fine, but I'm stuck somewhere, and I'm sure somebody could tell me just a hint about how I can resolve this. Suppose your window size is N, and that you have sent N-1 frames without having any of them acknowledged. Before sending another frame, you've got to have at least one of them acknowledged, yeah? Is there a simple way to solve this? I've tried many approaches but they all seem so complicated to program ... by the way, it's written in C, and the mode is ARM. Thank you! Jean-Francois Riendeau AKA: Gemillon the Jolly Bard E-MAIL: riendeaj@JSP.UMontreal.CA UUCP: wolfpak.cam.org!ambre!gemillon ------------------------------ From: syd@dsinc.dsi.com (Syd Weinstein) Subject: Request For Voice Mail Information For E-Key Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 23:16:52 -0500 (EST) Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM We run several voice lines here at Datacomp, and I am tired of dealing with multiple answering machines, and their limited life. I don't like the phone companies voice mail option, so I am wondering, anyone know of a relatively low cost voice mail option, perhaps one that can run on a pc (we could easily dedicate one to the task, after all leftover pc's from projects are cheap :-) ) that can work behind an e-key system? Requirements: handle four phone lines; answer on n'th ring (after all, its an e-key system); programable outgoing messages a plus; remote access (hopefully well protected). Please e-mail me, I will summarize if there is interest. Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator - Current 2.4PL13 Datacomp Systems, Inc. Projected 3.0 Release: ??? ?,1994 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd Voice: (215) 947-9900, FAX: (215) 938-0235 ------------------------------ From: jessea@u013.me.vp.com (Jesse W. Asher) Subject: CSU/DSU That Will Accept V.25bis Dialing Commands? Organization: Varco-Pruden Buildings Date: Tue 08 Dec 1992 20:23:23 GMT Anyone know of any CSU/DSUs that will accept V.25bis dialing commands? We'd like to use switched digital lines between our locations, but our routers (Telebit Netblazers) will only use V.25bis for dialing. Anyone know of such an animal? Jesse W. Asher (901)762-6000 Varco-Pruden Buildings 6000 Poplar Ave., Suite 400, Memphis, TN 38119 Internet: jessea@vpbuild.vp.com UUCP: vpbuild!jessea ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 17:34:39 PST From: Lance_Neustaeter@tvbbs.wimsey.bc.ca (Lance Neustaeter) Subject: Offhook Chirp I've recently purchased a very cheap phone (the kind that sound like a cricket when they ring). There's only one thing which annoys me about it: Whenever an extension goes off hook, this phone gives off a little chirp. There are no switches or controls on the phone and there are three wires connected to the piezo (?) speaker. How can I stop the annoying off hook chirp? Via DLG Pro v0.995 ------------------------------ Organization: Bar-Ilan University Computing Center, Israel Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 08:55:08 IST From: Hank Nussbacher Subject: Looking For DSU Vendors I am looking for names (addresses, phone numbers, product names) of various CO DSU vendors. Among the products I am looking for: - D4 channel bank cards and equipment - ISDN local loop test equipment Thanks, Hank Nussbacher hank@vm.biu.ac.il ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 01:33:56 EST From: mlksoft!kozam@rutgers.edu Subject: US Sprint's PC Pursuit Having used PC Pursuit since 1986, I second PAT's comments. If you understand the limitations of packet networks, it works admirably for applications as diverse as interactive dialup, asynchronous DECnet, and UUCP. At $30 for 30 hours of non-prime time, it is a good deal, especially if your usage isn't exclusively file transfers. I am not aware of any password problems that are specifically related to PC Pursuit. Marc Kozam UUCP: {media,mimsy}!mlksoft!kozam Internet: mlksoft!kozam@cs.umd.edu [Moderator's Note: Some people may be expecting a lot more of PC Pursuit than it is intended to be. It probably is not a good deal for someone doing massive amounts of file transfers. It is good for someone who likes to call BBS lines all over the USA and/or services such as Portal Communications. Even for file transfers, assuming the rate is slower than desired, the least expensive long distance service will cost about $6-7 per hour. PC Pursuit may be slow *sometimes -- depending on network traffic and other considerations*, but it is not that much slower. In a worst-case scenario, if throughput was only a third of the anticipated speed, that would still be half or less of what a call on the voice network would cost. They only start running the clock when you connect to a specified point, and then there is a one-minute grace period to allow for a distant modem being out of order or the distant system you are calling not answering or having all lines busy, etc. During that minute you can break out back to the Telenet prompt '@' at no charge. And there never is a charge while sitting at the network prompt '@' typing in your commands. The '@' should be considered like a 'dialtone'; the network is waiting for your next instruction. $1 per hour is a very inexpensive long distance rate, regardless of other shortcomings. Their password security problems a few years ago stemmed from the ability to connect with network addresses which were indials, then sit on one side of the indial watching people login on the other and spoofing them into thinking they were entering their password when in fact they were printing it out for the hackerphreaks to read. When that got resolved, many problems went away. I strongly recommend PCP for the casual modem user who desires long distance modeming at a very low cost, particularly if the user has a nearby local dialup as is the case in thousands of phone exchanges around the USA. They operate a BBS of their own (Net Exchange BBS) for questions and answers about their service. ( @C PURSUIT ). Besides, they've distributed TELECOM Digest as a regular feature to PCP customers for several years now, and for that I am grateful. For information, 703-689-6000. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #897 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa18070; 10 Dec 92 4:28 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30773 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 10 Dec 1992 02:36:03 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23105 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Thu, 10 Dec 1992 02:35:36 -0600 Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 02:35:36 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212100835.AA23105@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #898 TELECOM Digest Thu, 10 Dec 92 02:35:30 CST Volume 12 : Issue 898 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson CCITT Docs Available via Email (Tom Coradeschi) Call For Papers: Hot Interconnect Symposium (Kathleen Nichols) Privacy of Unpublished Numbers (jwc@netex.netex.com) Iridium Global Satelite Mobile Communications Network (Matt McConnell) Restricting 900- on PBX (Paul S. Sawyer) What is a 1A ESS Master Scanner? (John Boteler) Wholesale/Tariff Loophole Lines (dquist@ben3b01.attmail.com) Alleged Prodigy Email Censorship (Arthur L. Shapiro) Re: Clinton Appoints Transition Official For Telecom Policy (G. Mitchell) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Dec 92 17:00:39 EST From: Tom Coradeschi Subject: CCITT Docs Available via Email Organization: Electric Armts Div, US Army ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ Forwarded from Info-Nets. tom coradeschi <+> tcora@pica.army.mil -----------Original message--------- ITU PRESS RELEASE/92-23 6 November 1992 WIDE RANGE OF ITU* DOCUMENTS NOW AVAILABLE ON-LINE: ITU STANDARDS TO BECOME ELECTRONICALLY ACCESSIBLE IN EARLY 93 An electronic document distribution service providing remote access to ITU documents - TELEDOC - became operational last week. Aimed at providing fast and timely access to ITU information to the world telecommunication and networking community, TELEDOC is a database containing at present: * CCITT and CCIR administrative documents * lists of contributions (substantive input/proposals) to CCITT and CCIR study groups * lists of CCITT reports and Recommendations (i.e. standards) * summaries of CCITT new or revised Recommendations * CCITT and CCIR meeting schedules and other information concerning Study Groups structures and activities. As from early next year, the full texts of all new and revised CCITT Recommendations (i.e. all standards approved after the publication of the Blue Book in 1988) will also be available from TELEDOC. In line with ITU publications policies, it is envisaged to expand TELEDOC information base according to identified needs and available resources. On TELEDOC's first day of operation, ITU Secretary-General Pekka Tarjanne stated: "The impact of the changing telecommunications environment makes it imperative that the ITU develop new approaches to the standardization process and find new ways to improve the efficiency of our work, new ways to disseminate the output of our work throughout the world. The implementation of TELEDOC", he said, "is undoubtedly a right step in this direction. Our ultimate goal is to make available on-line an entire library of ITU documents for a broad and transparent information exchange with all categories of interested users". TELEDOC is based on a X.400 document server which processes requests sent in by electronic mail. The TELEDOC Auto-Answering Mailbox accepts messages from the two most widely used E-mail systems: X.400 and Internet. Users without direct access to X.400 or Internet mail can use gateway services provided by major service providers (e.g. MCI or Compuserve). The electronic mail address of TELEDOC Auto-Answering Mailbox (TAM) is: X. 400 S=teledoc P=itu A=arcom C=ch Internet teledoc@itu.arcom.ch Document formats which are planned to be made available include ASCII, Microsoft RTF, Word for Windows, Postcript and CCITT ODA/ODIF. TELEDOC will be available on request, on a trial period of one year, at no access cost. For more information or to obtain a copy of the user's guide, please contact: Mr. Robert Shaw Miss Antoinette Bautista TELEDOC Project Coordinator EDH - CCITT Information Services Department CCITT Secretariat International Telecommunication Union International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland TEL: +41 22 730 5338/5554 TEL: +41 22 730 5857 FAX: +41 22 730 5337 FAX: +41 22 730 5853 X.400: G=robert; S=shaw; X.400: G=antoinette; S=bautista; A=arcom; P=itu; C=ch A=arcom; P=itu; C=ch Internet: shaw@itu.arcom.ch Internet: bautista@itu.arcom.ch _______________________________ * The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was founded in 1865 and as such is the oldest inter-governmental organization. In 1947, it became a specialized agency of the United Nations and has a membership of 174 countries (4 November 1992). It is the international organization responsible for the regulation and planning of telecommunications worldwide, for the establishment of equipment and systems operating standards, for the coordination and dissemination of information required for the planning and operation of telecommunications services and within the United Nations system for the promotion of and contribution to the development of telecommunications and the related infrastructures. ----- End Included Message ----- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Dec 92 16:26:13 PST From: Kathleen Nichols Subject: Call For Papers: Hot Interconnect Symposium Call For Papers Hot Interconnects Symposium Sponsored by the Technical Committee on Microprocessors and Microcomputers of the Computer Society of the IEEE Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA August 5 - 6, 1993 ================================================================ Program Co-Chairs: ------------------ Dr. Paul Borrill Prof. Anoop Gupta (415) 336-9187 (415) 725-3716 borrill@eng.sun.com gupta@cs.stanford.edu General Chair: -------------- Professor Hasan AlKhatib, Santa Clara University ================================================================ This symposium will focus on the architecture and implementation of high-performance interconnects. It will include a broad technical program focusing on basic technologies, hardware, and software for interconnects of all different scales, including processor-memory buses, multiprocessor networks, local- and wide- area networks. Like the Hot Chips Symposium, this symposium will focus on real solutions, either products or research prototypes and their performance. We expect the benefits to attendees to include an increased awareness of solutions to problems requiring high-performance interconnects and in allowing professionals from the above somewhat disparate communities (e.g. the multiprocessor interconnect and the local-area network communities) to share experiences and solution methodologies. The symposium is expected to attract both software and hardware engineers who are either designing or requiring use of high-performance interconnects. Hot Interconnects is conveniently scheduled just prior to the Hot Chips Symposium, which will be held August 9 and 10, allowing out of town participants to attend both symposia and enjoy a weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area or attend tutorial sessions. The technical program will consist of both contributed and invited papers. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: - Processor-memory interconnects - Multiprocessor interconnects - Local Area Networks - Wide Area Networks - Implementation technologies - Chip sets and building blocks - Processor-network interface issues - Flow control and routing algorithms - Workload characterization - Benchmarking/Performance evaluation - Operating systems issues - Scalability issues We expect the symposium program to include both exciting product descriptions and more traditional technical papers, thus have two formats for submission. For product/prototype descriptions: 1) Submissions should consist of an abstract of 3-5 pages describing the product and why it is interesting. 2) The symposium proceedings will include a copy of the overheads from the presentation. For regular technical papers: 1) Submissions should consist of an extended abstract of about 5000 words. 2) Full length papers will be limited to 8000 words. 3) The symposium proceedings will include a copy of the final submitted paper. All submissions will be reviewed by a combination of the program committee and external reviewers. All submissions should include the name, title, address, phone number, fax number, and electronic mail address of the presenter. In the case of unannounced products, if the information is to be kept confidential, please indicate. Every effort will be made to maintain confidentiality. Important Dates --------------- Deadline for Submissions: March 15, 1993 Notification of Acceptance: May 1, 1993 Final Copy Due: June 30, 1993 Submissions may be made via electronic mail or in hard copy mailed to: Linda Bohn Program Committee Administrator SUN Microsystems 2550 Garcia Avenue, MS 23-206 Mountain View, CA 94043-1100 Tel: (415) 336-5934 FAX: (415) 336-1816 e-mail: linda.bohn@eng.sun.com ------------------------------ From: jwc@netex.netx.com Subject: Privacy of Unpublished Numbers Date: Wed, 9 Dec 92 16:12:55 EST Organization: NetExpress / The Chaos Bobs Hello everyone ... I am considering switching my home service from a published number to an unpublished. The Telco wants $2.35 a month for this "service". I am trying to avoid some harrassing calls that have been coming into my phone for awhile. It's the same story: the Telco won't do anything until the caller actually threatens something, which has not happened so far. *69 and CID have so far been unsuccessful, so I'm thinking I just want an unpublished number. If I do this, how secure is the new number? Will this other party have any way to get this information through outside sources? If so, is there a way to protect the new number from getting into those sources? It seems silly to change the number and tell only the people I want to know about it, only to have this Bozo get the new number. Please e-mail me and I will be glad to summarise if there is interest. JC [Moderator's Note: You can have the old number set to intercept with a message that it has been disconnected ... period. Or you can have it set to say the number has been changed to a non-published number. Or you can have the new number non-pub but still have the intercept on the old number make reference to the new one. If you choose the first or second option, then that is the end of telco's participation. They will give nothing further, and calls to directory assistance will be told your number is non-pub. But bear in mind that Bozo may quite possibly be someone you know and someone you will unwittingly give the new number to. :( Most times, Bozo is not a total stranger to the people he harasses on the phone. :( Unless you feel Bozo knows your name (and thus would get the new number from directory assistance), you might want to just disconnect the old number and have a new published number so your friends can still find you, but Bozo will get sidetracked when he finds the old number disconnected and has no idea what your name really is. You'll have to decide the circumstances. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Matt McConnell Organization: Idaho State University Date: 9 Dec 92 23:18:44 MDT Subject: Iridium Global Satelite Mobile Communications Network Reply-To: mccomatt@ba.isu.edu Whatever happened to the Iridium satelite network? I seem to recall a proposed operating date sometime in '93. Is Motorola still working on this? What is the progress, if any? Anyone else doing this kind of thing? Was it configured to operate over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Antartica, the North Pole? If I remember they decided to reduce the number of birds but, still keep coverage in the same way that a cellular network operates. Thank you, Matt McConnell ------------------------------ Subject: Restricting 900- on PBX Date: 9 Dec 92 13:18:34 EST (Wed) From: paul@unhtel.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) Many of us have some form of restriction on 900- numbers in our PBX's. Some PBX's treat 900-555-xxxx differently, i.e., using the rules for NPA-555-xxxx (generally "directory assistance" type calls) so that calls to, for example, Borland, and the ever popular USA Today, may succeed when you do not expect them to. Paul S. Sawyer University of New Hampshire CIS - paul@unhtel.unh.edu Telecommunications and Network Services - VOX: +1 603 862 3262 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 - FAX: +1 603 862 2030 [Moderator's Note: But even 'regular' 555 is not free any longer. You are getting billed 50-65 cents for each of those also. Why not screen those calls out as well? PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Boteler Subject: What is a 1A ESS Master Scanner? Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1992 13:11:54 -0500 (EST) When our ring plant decided not to ring the phones every so often, the switch guru for our ESS#1A said "We rebuilt the master scanner and we haven't found a lick of trouble since." Would someone who actually has working knowledge please describe a master scanner? Is it software or hardware? If it's hardware, how do you effectively "rebuild" it without disrupting service? I am most curious. bote@access.digex.com (John Boteler) ------------------------------ From: dquist@ben3b01.attmail.com Date: 9 Dec 92 12:20:25 GMT Subject: Wholesale/Tariff Loophole Lines I thought sending this directly to John Higdon since he loves GTE ... anyway ... The lines mentioned below, I believe have something to do with GTE. John??? Has anyone ever heard of "Wholesale Lines" or lines that are refered to as "Loophole Lines" These intrastate/intralata lines carry no monthly charge. Install charges range from $200 to $500 for the first line and $40-$80 for additional lines. Again, no monthly charge, and .03 to .04 per minute accumulated in 1/10 of a second increments with no MATR. These lines are not available in all areas (New England Tel Area Not Avail) but I know for a fact that they are in parts of Bell of PA and some parts of OH. The information I have is limited, and the LEC's that I have spoken to deny all knowledge of any such monkey. Thanks! Dave attmail!dquist Opinions/comments/suggestions/ideas are all my own, not my employer's. [Moderator's Note: This sounds to me like another name for WATS (Wide Area Telephone Service) lines. Go back and ask telco about the cost of WATS lines; see if that is not what you are seeking. PAT] ------------------------------ From: MPA15C!ARTHUR@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 09 DEC 92 12:42 Subject: Alleged Prodigy Email Censorship It has been pointed out that Prodigy does not censor private Email. Permit me to suggest that an even stronger statement is merited. Some time back, I was the apparently-random recipient of quite a few pieces of private Email which, as they say, were "uttlerly without redeeming social importance". Obviously some birth-control failure was acting his age. I notified Prodigy (and the sender's "A" usercode, which I assumed would be his father), and gave Prodigy explicit permission to look in my private mailbox and examine the messages in question. Back came the response that it was IMPOSSIBLE for Prodigy to read someone's Email; the capacity simply was not built into the software. Given my password, obviously those folks could have logged on, but they strongly resisted receiving it. I ended up sending the messages hardcopy (hmmm ... interstate transportation of obscene materials -- could I have been arrested?) and Prodigy rapidly remedied the situation. The father, too, responded very apologetically, so the issue never continued. So while it's easy to fault Prodigy on various issues, security and integrity of private mail isn't one of 'em. Arthur L. Shapiro ARTHUR%MPA15C@TRENGA.TREDYDEV.UNISYS.COM Software Engineering (Prodigy GKJK26A) Unisys Corporation Speaking as a civilian, rather than for Mission Viejo, CA Unisys, unless this box is checked: [ ] [Moderator's Note: And hopefully, this final message in the thread will put to rest the topic of Prodigy and censorship .. not really what this forum is intended for anyway. Thanks for writing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: george@tessi.com (George Mitchell) Subject: Re: Clinton Appoints Transition Official For Telecom Policy Organization: Test Systems Strategies, Inc., Beaverton, Oregon Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1992 16:56:30 GMT Our Esteemed Moderator tells us: > I am watching with baited breath as all the Clintonistas begin to > assume their duties. Please give us all the details of this new fishing technique! We're all waiting ... with bated breath ... George Mitchell (george@tessi.com) [bated = archaic form of abated; i.e. we're holding our breath] [Moderator's Blush: Would you believe me if I told you I spelled it that way on purpose in order to see who all would catch it? No, I didn't think you would. :) Keep on abating your breath until I come back this way tomorrow, okay? :) Good day, all. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #898 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa05311; 12 Dec 92 13:13 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11760 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 12 Dec 1992 11:22:55 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01381 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 12 Dec 1992 11:22:31 -0600 Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 11:22:31 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212121722.AA01381@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #899 TELECOM Digest Sat, 12 Dec 92 11:22:30 CST Volume 12 : Issue 899 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Other Perspectives on Clinton FCC Transition Pick (CommDaily via A. Blau) International Internet Access (Fred Zimmerman) Nintendo Gameboy Link Protocol (Richard Lamb) Wanted: List of Active and Proposed Undersea Cables Worldwide (F. Vance) Canadian Cellular Privacy Crackdown (Dave Leibold) TCP/IP and Airphones (Peter Honeyman via malcolm@apple.com) PCN Equipment Used by Ameritech in Chicago PCN Trial (David Lemson) Optical Line? What?? (boottrax@csd4.csd.uwm.edu) Pocket Auto-Dialer? (Andreas Meyer) 914-243-9901 (Carl Moore) Users and SS7 (Randy Gellens) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 13:46:00 -0500 From: Andrew Blau Subject: Other Perspectives on Clinton FCC Transition Pick TELECOM Digest V12, #895 reprinted an article from {Communications Daily} by Art Brodsky on the FCC transition. Here's a follow-up article that fills out the picture a bit, by the same writer. It appeared in the December 9, 1992 issue of {Communications Daily}. I am posting it here with permission. Communications Daily is published by Warren Publishing, Inc., 2115 Ward Court, N.W. Washington, DC 20037. Copyright 1992 Warren Publishing, Inc. Communications Daily December 9, 1992, Wednesday SECTION: Vol. 12, No. 237; Pg. 2 HEADLINE: Plesser Praised; CLINTON TRANSITION TEAM STARTS REVIEW AT FCC BODY: Transition team for Clinton Administration paid first visit to FCC Tuesday, meeting with Chief of Staff Terry Haines. FCC transition team currently is composed of eight persons and its charge has been described as effort to take "snapshot" of operations at agency, rather than go into great policy detail or make personnel recommendations. "Their mission is to come up to speed with what's going on at the Commission and report back to superiors," we were told. Team has been assigned office space on 5th floor of FCC hq. Composition of team makes clear that effort is being made to work closely with Congress, even before Clinton takes office. About half of team members are congressional staffers. Senate Commerce Committee is represented by Antoinette (Toni) Cook (who has been mentioned often as possible FCC chmn.) and John Windhausen, while House side is represented by David Leach from Commerce Committee and Gerald Waldron from Telecom Subcommittee. (Telecom Subcommittee staffer Larry Irving also will be working on telecommunications infrastructure issues for another part of transition). Transition team at FCC also includes Howard U. Prof. Clay Smith, ex-chmn. of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (husband of Patti Smith, who is deputy dir. of policy and planning for FCC associate managing dir.) and Prof. Henry Parrett of Villanova U. Others will be named later. Transition team leader is attorney Ronald Plesser of Washington office of Baltimore law firm Piper & Marbury. His appointment was strongly criticized by public interest groups (CD Dec 7 p1), who cited his positions on policy issues and suggested conflicts of interest in his representation of clients Information Industry Assn. (IIA) and Direct Marketing Assn. (DMA). Plesser met Tues. at FCC with Haines. Later, Haines met with bureau and office chiefs and commissioner aides to inform them what is going on, and asked them to give full cooperation. However, others in public policy sector praised Plesser, who was strong supporter of ACLU's Information Technology Project and who once worked for consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Cathy Russell, counsel for Senate Technology Subcommittee, said Plesser was "sensitive to privacy considerations." While acknowledging he's "strong advocate for his clients," she said Plesser understands privacy concerns and works to "bring clients to the table with the ACLU to hash things out." Plesser, she said, has been "very reasonable with us" and she was surprised that public interest groups "would attack him on that." Similarly, Jerry Berman, head of Washington office of Electronic Frontier Foundation, called Plesser "one of the leading advocates of the Freedom of Information Act, and a supporter of making an electronic Freedom of Information Act." Plesser has brought IIA "much further toward recognizing public access to information than they [IIA] originally were doing, and brought DMA to the table in signing off on some privacy rights," Berman said. "I don't think that's an accurate description [to say he is out of mainstream]. [ Plesser] makes a great effort to balance interests." Sheryl Walter, gen. counsel of National Security Archive, said Plesser did significant pro bono work on case for her group on Freedom of Information Act on behalf of reporter Raymond Bonner, who was working on book about Philippines Pres. Marcos. In terms of experience with Archives, "we've found him to be very supportive of government disclosure." OMB Watch Exec. Dir. Gary Bass said it "makes good sense" to have Plesser and others familiar with issues involved. Bass said he would like to see more public interest sector representation in transition, but said critics of Plesser are "reacting because of his institutional role." If Plesser were "the sole person deciding policy, I would have a real problem with that," Bass said, but transition team focus is narrower. James Davidson, former staff dir. for House Judiciary Committee and ex-Senate staffer who wrote much of Privacy Act in 1974, said of Plesser: Ron Plesser has won more cases upholding freedom of information than any litigator in the country. Davidson added: "There is no more good advocate for good information policy" than Plesser. ------------------------------ From: fzimmerm@csd630a.erim.org (Fred Zimmerman) Subject: International Internet Access Organization: Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan Date: 12 Dec 92 14:04:25 I am interested in learning more about the problems involved in establishing Internet access in developing nations throughout the world. I am hoping that individuals from various nations will volunteer to help me answer some of these questions. If you are knowledgeable about the situation in your country, please post or send me e-mail. I am looking for two basic kinds of information. 1. Names of organizations and individuals who are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about providing Internet access for users in the developing world. a) Is there an organization that has taken the lead in this role in your nation? b) What is the current status of Internet access? c) What are the activities in development? d) What are the roadblocks? 2. Information about the typical computing environment in your nation. For example: a) People to computer ratio b) ratio of machines 286, 386, 486.. other c) pc vendor of choice d) software Dos? which version? e) modems? f) file server? g) Where do you get machines from h) how much do you pay? i) How long does it take to get an order? j) If the ratio of people to computers is low.. who gets to use them? k) do you have a fax machine? l) who supports your machine when it breaks? Fred Zimmerman Fred.Zimmerman@um.cc.umich.edu ------------------------------ From: lamb@xtcn.com (Richard Lamb) Subject: Nintendo Gameboy Link Protocol Organization: XtcN Ltd Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 20:19:27 GMT Anyone know what it is or how I could find out? I'd like to connect two gameboy's remotely over some kindaof modem bridge thingie. Thanks, XtcN Ltd, lamb@xtcn.com, Tel:508-655-2960, FAX:508-655-4559, Telex:6504829720 11 Roxbury Ave.,Natick MA 01760,4425 Butterworth Pl.N.W.,Washington D.C. 20016 ------------------------------ From: Frank Vance Subject: Wanted: List of Active and Proposed Undersea Cables Worldwide Date: 12 Dec 92 17:12:36 GMT Organization: Western Geophysical, Div. of Western Atlas Int'l, Houston, TX I am looking for a list of all the intercontenental undersea cables, both active and proposed. I would like to know such things as capacity, ownership, and where the cable terminates. If no one has such a list, I will try to put one together. I have been looking through the telecom archives already, and have access to a few data-comm trade journals, but would appreciate any further hints for places to look. Thanks, Frank Vance +1.713.963.2426 Western Geophysical fvance@airgun.wg.waii.com 10001 Richmond Avenue Fax: +1.713.963.2758 Houston, TX 77042 USA ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 02:02:54 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Canadian Cellular Privacy Crackdown There will be stricter regulations regarding radio scanners and cellular phone calls in Canada. According to reports such as a brief story tonight on CBC Prime Time News, there will not be a ban on listening in on cellular calls as is the case with the U.S. ECPA legislation. However, there are reported to be penalties in the works for divulging or otherwise making use of intercepted cellular calls. Cellular phone companies will also be required to provide audio scrambling equipment to customers who request such facilities. One forgotten aspect of all the cellular monitoring controversy is that a "secrecy of communications" clause has been in the Canadian Communications Act for years. This clause prohibits the acting on or the divulging of any intercepted communications. Such things as broadcast or amateur radio transmissions are exempt from the secrecy of communications provisions, though. What would seem to be in the works, though, is stricter enforcement of this; a news media outlet, for instance, may not be able to report on intercepted cellular calls (and in fact this may be technically illegal in any event, owing to the aforementioned "secrecy of communications"). Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Subject: TCP/IP and Airphones Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 08:57:09 -0800 From: malcolm@apple.com I received this article by a pretty obscure path and thought the Telecom readers might be amused. I asked Peter Honeyman for permission to send this to the TELECOM Digest and he approved. Enjoy. Malcolm From: peter honeyman Subject: Airfone Slip Experiences This message is being composed with mh/comp running in an x11r5/xterm on an IBM PS-2 model l40-sx running mach 2.6, on Northwest flight 181, which departed Detroit at 9:30 and is due in San Jose at 14:45. It will be delivered with smtp as soon as I get a chance, probably when I reach Tahoe City. [I was able to send it from the San Jose airport.] I brought up slip over GTE Airfone with a Konex Koupler model 203 acoustic coupler and a Telebit Qblazer running at 300 baud. The acoustic coupler is a good match for the airfone -- I was able to make a very snug coupling. I buried the mated pair under pillows. The Microport 4232 modem was uncooperative, and started complaining about a low battery before I was able to establish a connection. With the Qblazer, I was unable to connect to the remote Worldblazer at high baud rates, but I did get a 300 baud connection going, whereupon I brought up slip. Here are some representative ping times: hone:; ping doom PING doom.citi.umich.edu (141.211.128.207): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 141.211.128.207: icmp_seq=0. time=46139. ms 64 bytes from 141.211.128.207: icmp_seq=1. time=50240. ms 64 bytes from 141.211.128.207: icmp_seq=2. time=52320. ms 64 bytes from 141.211.128.207: icmp_seq=3. time=55670. ms 64 bytes from 141.211.128.207: icmp_seq=4. time=57120. ms 64 bytes from 141.211.128.207: icmp_seq=5. time=59330. ms 64 bytes from 141.211.128.207: icmp_seq=6. time=63930. ms 64 bytes from 141.211.128.207: icmp_seq=8. time=63820. ms ^C ----doom.citi.umich.edu PING Statistics---- 75 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 89% packet loss round-trip (ms) min/avg/max = 46139/56071/63930 You get the picture -- 90% packet loss and 60 second round trip times. I'm guessing that the packets spent all that time in the v.42 layer, although I did not see the error correction light flashing. I tried to get smtp and telnet sessions going, but they timed out. In summary, it was something of an accomplishment to get slip running and packets bouncing from 30,000 feet, but a limited success at best. I found 117v (the flight exhausted my batteries) and an RJ-11 jack in the San Jose airport, where I have a lengthy layover. Peter ------------------------------ From: David Lemson Subject: PCN Equipment Used by Ameritech in Chicago PCN Trial Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 22:34:18 GMT I know that Ameritech is using the Motorola flip-style phone/pager units for their Chicago-area trial, but does anyone know what equipment they are using for the base stations, including who manufactures their transmitters/radios? David Lemson (217) 244-1205 University of Illinois NeXT Campus Consultant / CCSO NeXT Lab System Admin Internet : lemson@uiuc.edu UUCP :...!uiucuxc!uiucux1!lemson NeXTMail accepted BITNET : LEMSON@UIUCVMD [Moderator's Note: Perhaps Andrew Greene will respond, since he is using the system now as a beta tester. PAT] ------------------------------ From: boottrax@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Boot Trax) Subject: Optical Line? What?? Date: 12 Dec 1992 05:59:05 GMT Organization: Basement Software Products I am in need of a 14.4 modem and recently saw the ATT - Paradyne 14.4 modem. One of the selling points for this device was the OLI (Optical Line Interface). There was no pictorial or any definition of this OLI. I don't have time to play phone tag at ATT and have to get a modem quickly. Does anyone know what this OLI is, if it's useful, and if it works. To my best guess it's just a fiber line interface for interoffice traffic. Please mail me a response, since I don't frequent usenet news that often. Thanks in advance. boottrax@csd4.csd.uwm.edu Basement Software Products 'Keeping my opinions to myself' ------------------------------ From: spatula!ahm@s4mjs.att.com Subject: Pocket Auto-Dialer? Organization: Meyer residence, Dunellen NJ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 07:05:43 GMT Does anyone know where I can get a small memory dialer? Something about the size of Radio Shack's mini tonepad would be good, and I only need a maximum of a dozen memories. Reply by e-mail, and I'll summarize. Thanks, Andreas Meyer, N2FYE ahm@spatula.rent.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 11:10:52 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: 914-243-9901 914-243-9901 is one of those "readout" numbers where you get a list of prefixes (via recorded message, so you don't bother a person when you call it). But here, I got a list of prefixes covering more than one exchange area: 243,245,248,424,878,962. 243 is a relatively-new prefix; the other prefixes are: 245, 962 Yorktown Heights 248 Lincolndale 424 Garrison 878 Patterson (in other words, an area straddling the Westchester-Putnam county line in New York state.) ------------------------------ From: MPA15AB!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com Date: 12 DEC 92 01:40 Subject: Users and SS7 The December 7 issue of {Network World} reports that AT&T plans on offering a service ("Intelligent Call Processing") that lets users link their computers to AT&T's SS7 network. The article was short on technical details, but it seemed to me to be saying that when someone picks up their phone and dials an (800) number carried by AT&T and owned by a customer using ICP, the first AT&T switch to get the call would hold it while sending an SS7 query to the customer's computer, which would tell AT&T where to deliver the call. This would be useful to distribute calls to different agents at different centers. Randy Gellens randy%mpa15ab@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com A Series System Software if mail bounces, forward to: Unisys Mission Viejo, CA rgellens@mcimail.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #899 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by mintaka.lcs.mit.edu id aa08800; 12 Dec 92 15:09 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31609 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 12 Dec 1992 12:42:35 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11355 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecomlist); Sat, 12 Dec 1992 12:42:10 -0600 Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 12:42:10 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199212121842.AA11355@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V12 #900 TELECOM Digest Sat, 12 Dec 92 12:42:10 CST Volume 12 : Issue 900 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson New VideoPhone (Half Price) (Ang Peng Hwa) Call Detail Records (Bonnie J. Johnson) NTT Science (or Science Fiction?) Venture (Dave Leibold) GTE or Cellular One? (Rudolf Usselmann) X.400 Name Parsing (Brad S. Hicks) Compressed Videocon Switched 56 (David Walker) Pacific Telesis Breaks UP (John Higdon) Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet (Jeffrey Jonas) Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet (Dave Niebuhr) Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet (John Murray) Re: Email to Genie (David Tamkin) Re: Email to Genie (Michael Nolan) Re: Email to Genie (Henry Mensch) Re: Email to Genie (Andy Finkenstadt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 18:31:07 SST From: Ang Peng Hwa Subject: New VideoPhone (Half Price) I just returned from an exhibition of telecom equipment for the end-users here in Singapore. And the equipment arm of Singapore Telecom is marketing a videophone that they say will be marketed in the USA for US$750, half the price of the current AT&T videophone. It is produced by GEC-Marconi, of English origin. The salesdroid in clipped English said it had full-motion video-defined at ten frames per second. The LCD screen is small; all you see can fit within your name card. But it is better than AT&T's in that it has a picture-within-a-picture so you can see how you would appear and position yourself. Image quality, I feel, was worse than AT&T's but I couldn't do a side-by-side comparison. They said the videophone, called Visual 2000, is universally compatible, meaning that it can hook up to any normal phone jack. But you have to get one at the other end. There are the ususal features expected of such a phone: secrecy (where you can stop the other party hearing or seeing you temporarily) and privacy (where you stop the other party seeing you). Other features: contrast control, gain control, white balance -- all for the video. The retailers have a special offer: the first 100 buyers who buy a pair will get a special price and they will ship one of the units free by courier anywhere in the world. I wonder if they will do that when they market in the USA. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 08:59:45 EST From: Bonnie J. Johnson Subject: Call Detail Records I have yet to see this subject on the Digest but admit I have only been a reader for a year. How long do your schools keep CDR tapes? Does anyone know what the law is and whether the law varies from state to state? Does it vary depending on whether or not the schools own their own switch or whether the switch is owned by the local operating company? Any thoughts you can send my way will be compiled and I'll post the findings to the group. ty, bj ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 02:10:38 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: NTT Science (or Science Fiction?) Venture The Dow Jones news service (by way of {The Globe and Mail}) reported that a Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) subsidiary, Advanced Film Technology, will offer a $725 000 (USD) science kit that purports to be an apparatus for "cold fusion" experiments. The kit comes complete with vacuum chamber, sensing equipment, and a how-to guide on making your very own cold fusion experiments. NTT researcher Eiichi Yamaguchi claims to have successfully set up a "cold fusion" reaction last month. Theoretically, a workable cold fusion process will generate vast amounts of energy using cheap raw materials. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ From: rudi@netcom.com (Rudolf Usselmann) Subject: GTE or Cellular One? Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 11:33:49 GMT Which one to choose? I got my phone two months ago and got it activated with Cellular One. However I keep on seeing the promos from GTE: - $ 100.- off ($20.- in April, $30.- Aug. $50.- Oct. ) - $ 39.95 / month + free detailed billing (1y contract) So the pricing of GTE is 15% lower than Cellular One, how about the quality of service? Any comments? I'm located in the SF bay area. Thanks in advance! And Merry Christmas! rudi ------------------------------ From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=0205925@mhs.attmail.com Date: 12 Dec 92 00:55:09 GMT Subject: X.400 Name Parsing The X.400 specification has several name fields, including surname" and given name. Note that this is =not= last and first name, as anybody who's been following the latest dust-up in RISKS can explain. The idea is supposed to be that (for small organizations) surname is sufficient qualifier to find one person, which is why surname is on the mandatory fields list. In some Latin American countries, the order of the names is usually written , so if the name is Juan Rodriguez Pastor, then Rodrigues is definitely what goes in the surname field. So what goes in the given name field? And if you have to reconstruct full name from surname and given name, how do you do it? (There is an initials field, but it is optional and may be insufficient, anyway.) J. Brad Hicks Internet: mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs.attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMAIL prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad I am not an official MasterCard spokesperson, and the message above does not contain official MasterCard statements or policies. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 05:11:25 PST From: David Walker Subject: Compressed Videocon Switched 56 Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada I have just installed a Mitsubishi 8100 CODEC in the videoconference room. I am also looking for educators who are actively using compressed video for training or other purposes, to link up visually. Here in Canada I have been having a problem going overseas to Australia and Great Britain compressed due to the telcos who are not processing switched 56 outside of North America. I have yet to get Australia on the screen. The USA there does not seem to be a problem overseas but here in the north it is another matter. David The Commonwealth of Learning #1700-777 Dunsmuir Street, Box #10428, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V7Y 1K4 Tele: (604 ) 660-4675 Telex: 04507508 COMLEARN Fax: (604) 660-7472 Videoconference Room (H.261 Compatible) (604) 666 9567/9569 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 03:11 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Subject: Pacific Telesis Breaks UP Moments ago, the board of directors voted to split the regulated Pac*Bell from the other divisions of Pacific Telesis, in effect making two separate companies. Reason: to relieve the unregulated side of the restriction that apply to the utility. My question: What will they do without all of that "free" ratepayer-base money? The split is subject to regulatory approval. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: jeffj (jeffj) Subject: Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet Date: 12 Dec 92 01:02:12 GMT Organization: TELECOM Digest I am looking through the Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue (est. 1848). (800) 543-3366 [they sold executive toys and top of the line appliances way before the Sharper Image was in business]. The "call screening identifier" not only displays the Caller-ID number but displays the matching name for 300 names, does call screening and stores 50 calls. $170. Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 08:46:55 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet In TELECOM Digest V12 #892 jxm@engin.umich.edu (John Murray) writes: > In article jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET > (jeffj) writes: >> I need a Caller-ID box that will not just display the incoming call >> identification, but will also differentiate between calls which have >> been purposely blocked and those from locations which do not have the >> facility available. Also, it should automatically dial the code for >> blocking my number on outgoing calls, everytime I unhook the phone. Actually, this can be a two-pronged attack. My AT&T 85 CallerID box displays the status of each call: Display the number, show out-of-area for those exchanges that don't have CallerID, Private for blocked calls. I bought this from AT&T for about $80 US. As for per line blocking, call the telco and have them set that up for you. Both versions (per line and per call) are free in NYTel land. It also has a provision built in that will display who the number is assigned to; I don't have any idea how this feature would work if the calling number is unlisted. Dave Niebuhr Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: jxm@engin.umich.edu (John Murray) Subject: Re: The Most Advanced Caller-ID Box I've Seen Yet Date: Sar, 12 Dec 92 17:09:58 EST Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In an article, a TELECOM Digest participant writes: >> I need a Caller-ID box that will not just display the incoming call >> identification, but will also differentiate between calls which have >> been purposely blocked and those from locations which do not have the >> facility available. Also, it should automatically dial the code for >> blocking my number on outgoing calls, everytime I unhook the phone. > So, you want to be able to identify people that call you, and > especially those who purposely block their numbers, but you want all > of YOUR outgoing calls to be automatically blocked? > I don't want to single out the person who asked the question, but it > seems like they want to have their cake and eat it too. I was the poster of the request for an automatic blocking device. Several people mailed me with similar comments to Steve's one above. At the risk of sounding like a flamer, here are several thoughts on the issue. (They SEEM somewhat well reasoned to me, so apologies in advance if they come across as unmitigated flames:-)) * Unlike some locations, my local telco does not offer me the option of per-line blocking. A unit which automatically issues the block code would provide me with that function. Just like someone who has per-line blocking, I could disable the unit if I found that Great-Aunt Mildred preferred to see my number before answering. * If we take Steve's analogy to cake, then yes, I'm prepared to pay the monthly charge (plus equipment cost) for whatever incoming Caller-ID data my local telco can offer. And yes, I'm also prepared to pay additionally for the equivalent of per-line blocking. One is not predicated upon the other however. Indeed, the only reason the telco has to offer per-call blocking for free is because they'd otherwise be withdrawing a service (privacy of my residence phone) and then selling it back to me. * The Caller-ID vested interests (telcos, businesses, etc.) have very successfully confused the issue of residence vs. business access to the information. Residence lines can be treated differently, given different defaults, etc. As I pointed out in my deposition with the Calif. Public Utilities Commission some years ago, the assertion that the same class of facilities has to be offered to ALL customers on technical grounds is nonsense. If that were the case, then the phone companies would not be able to charge different rates for different lines. (Unfortunately, many other opponents of per-call blocking there did not understand the technology very well, and consequently made rather poor presentations.) * Even my having the cake won't benefit me all that much. The source number presented by large corporations can be that of the main switch rather than the actual internal extension. Telemarketing companies can locate in areas where the service is (perhaps purposely) not available, so I'll still not know if it's an incoming foreign call or not. Most of my calls are to local businesses and dealerships of one kind or another. Why should I have to put up with them calling me back every few weeks to tell me of yet another closing-out sale? In summary, it seems to me that the technology is flexible enough to provide everyone with their individual needs, and the one-size-fits-all solution shouldn't really be necessary. That way, we all can have our cake and eat it too! John Murray Univ. of Michigan ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 11:10 CST From: dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) Subject: Re: Email to Genie Organization: Contributor Account at ddsw1, Chicago, Illinois 60657 PAT replied to Gary Sanders's : > [Moderator's Note: Compuserve also charges for mail on their network, > but they do give an allotment for the month as part of the service > fee. Since they have no way to collect mail charges from other > networks, they bill their own users 'collect'. But each user has an > option to accept or not accept collect mail from the internet. If the > user does not wish to accept it collect, then it is returned to the > sender. If the user does agree to accept collect charges on mail from > the internet, then much of it is covered by the monthly allowance so > they don't see any extra charges. I should imagine GEnie and Prodigy > would work on the same basis. PAT] It's not exactly that way on CompuServe either. To the best of my knowledge, a CompuServe customer does not have the option of rejecting all Internet mail. However, CompuServe charges only for reading (displaying, capturing) Internet mail, not for receiving it. If a customer deletes mail that came across the Internet without reading it or lets it expire unread, there is no charge against (nor beyond) his or her email allowance for that month. Thus a customer can look at the senders, sizes, and subjects of wait- ing mail and decide whether to read it (and pay for it if it came through the Internet gateway) or not. Contrarily, I believe that GEnie does charge for all inbound Internet mail delivered, whether it is listed (their word for "read") or not. For the record, the GEnie address that used to be in my .signature has been invalid for nearly two years. A GEnie customer does have the option of dropping gateway service. David W. Tamkin Box 59297 Northtown Station, Illinois 60659-0297 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com CompuServe: 73720,1570 MCI Mail: 426-1818 ------------------------------ From: nolan@tssi.com (Michael Nolan) Subject: Re: Email to Genie Reply-To: nolan@tssi.com Organization: Tailored Software Services, Inc. Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 15:09:48 GMT news@cbnews.att.com writes: > Don't like some Genie user? How about FTP mailing them the X11 > sources ... > Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com > AT&T Bell Labs 614-860-5965 I'm not an attorney, nor do I play one on the net, but since letter bombing someone like this would likely require either forging the ftp request or deliberately inserting a Reply-To: header, it would seem that it might leave a 'smoking gun' which could be used in a CRIMINAL prosecution. One possible criminal charges would be 'Theft of Service' (from GEnie), and I think this would fall under the Nebraska 'computer crime' statutes. I don't know if the Nebraska laws would have jurisdiction, but other states have similar laws these days. Since interstate telephone lines would be involved, it could also get the FBI into the case. Wire fraud, perhaps? Cliff Stoll may have had a lot of problems getting people interested in his 75 cent theft; I don't know if someone ftpmailing the X11 sources would be so 'lucky'. Further, if the actual sender could be verified, actions against that person's site could be taken by the Backbone Cabal. Mike Nolan nolan@tssi.com, dbms@genie.geis.com (Disclaimer -- I am the Database RoundTable SysOp on GEnie, and an assistant on the Unix RT, which provides a lot of support to GEnie's Internet users.) [Moderator's Note: But what about a situation where there is no forgery and is no attempt to hide the originator of the mail? In other words, suppose I go to the ftp site, pull all those files, bring them back to my site and prepare them as email to you. I then mail one or more items of mail (as the size limitations of the network permit) to you -- on GEnie, or CIS or wherever you get mail and have to pay for it -- with a cover note saying, "Mike, I thought this was some very interesting stuff and hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did ..." There has been no theft of service -- anyone can use an anonymous ftp site and pull to their heart's content. There has further been no theft of service since GEnie/CIS/whoever and the Internet have an agreement for the exchange of email. As an Internet user, I get it free without any requirement that I ask permission before availing myself of the service; therefore by definition I can't 'steal' it. There has been no false representation as to the sender since I signed my name correctly and let the email software correctly identify me as it passed my 'correspondence' to you through the networks involved. How would this be stopped without banning all 'unsolicited' email, which would be a catch-22 since then no one could write anyone without that person writing them first, an 'illegal' activity? :) Or would there be some standard of value against which the email was measured? PAT] ------------------------------ From: henry@ads.com (Henry Mensch) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 10:15:37 -0800 Subject: Re: Email to Genie Reply-To: henry@ads.com andy@homebase.vistachrome.com (Andy Finkenstadt) wrote: > .... In addition much of the mail that I answer in my duties on > GEnie (see .signature) thanks us for making this low-cost service > available for the one or two times they have to send mail per month. You've not been paying attention to the others who point out that the pricing is *way* out of proportion with other similar internet-based services. > GEnie offers a much more liberal electronic mail policy than either of > CompuServe or Prodigy: $4.95 per month covers ALL the GEnie Mail you > can eat, plus access to 100 other of the Basic services. Compuserve has a similar monthly-fee-for-many-services-and-email scheme. # henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc. / ------------------------------ From: andy@homebase.vistachrome.com (Andy Finkenstadt) Subject: Re: Email to Genie Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 14:04:36 -0500 (EST) Henry Mensch said in a letter: [Moderator's Note: Excerpts above. PAT] >> .... In addition much of the mail that I answer in my duties on >> GEnie (see .signature) thanks us for making this low-cost service >> available for the one or two times they have to send mail per month. > you've not been paying attention to the others who point out that the > pricing is *way* out of proportion with other similar internet-based > services. No sir, I know GEnie has been paying attention and I have been paying attention. I know that such considerations are being evaluated. GEnie stated such the Monday before Thanksgiving in the usual place. >> GEnie offers a much more liberal electronic mail policy than either of >> CompuServe or Prodigy: $4.95 per month covers ALL the GEnie Mail you >> can eat, plus access to 100 other of the Basic services. > compuserve has a similar monthly-fee-for-many-services-and-email > scheme. Not to sound like a walking (typing) GEnie ad ... but ... GEnie offers access to about 100 other basic services including unlimited GEnie mail. CompuServe offers access to around 30 services including previously-free services like the Practice forum, and the electronic mail is limited to a budget of about $9/month. Access beyond the basic services (into what GEnie calls Value Services) is also below the cost for CompuServe access around the clock at all connect rates. Andrew Finkenstadt, Vista-Chrome, Inc., Homes & Land Publishing Corporation GEnie Unix RoundTable Manager, andy@vistachrome.com, andy@genie.geis.com. [Moderator's Note: This exchange of correspondence closes the thread on GEnie, Prodigy and Compuserve email, none of which is more than barely within the charter of this group anyway. Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V12 #900 ******************************