Subject: cheap modems From: markus%fluke.uucp@BRL.ARPA (Mark Hastings) Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!brl.arpa!markus%fluke.uucp Date: 15 Oct 85 17:59:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA >Does anyone have any information on the 'cheap' 1200 baud modems >advertised in BYTE or the company that sells them? The ad is on page >473 of the Sept. BYTE (and is also in the Oct. issue). It shows as a >103/212 modem and claims Hayes Compatability (the Sept issue says Hayes >Compatable and the Oct issue says 99% Hayes Compatable). The prices >they show are $179 assembled, $140 kit (assembled PC board - 5 minute >assembly time), and $120 kit (solder it yourself). The company is >Concord Technology out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. >It seems like a good deal, but my mother always had a saying about good >deals. THIS DEAL IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!!!! I have delt with the company directly. Over two months ago I was in Vancover BC and decided to check out the company. The manager (I think) said that if I paid now, I would have a modem sent to me within 10 to 14 days. I paid cash (I know what a sucker). Well, two weeks later, no modem. I called them up, and I was told they would be in by Friday and I would get it in one more week. A week and a half went by, I called them up again and got the same story. This went on for another three weeks. After five weeks waiting and calling, I called again. I told the manager (I think) that he should send out a notice after 30 days telling customers of the delay. I asked him if I would ever get my modem or if this would go on and on. He got very angry at this and said (and I quote) "WE DON'T NEED CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU". I'm not sure what he meant, but I think he meant, 'customers that expect satisfaction and product for the money they (we) have spent'. I have since called twice asking for my money back, all I can get from them is, and I quote "OH I THOUGHT SOMEONE SENT IT LAST WEEK. I WILL SEND IT TODAY". You know the old saying "THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL". In my opinion, this would be a very poor company --> CONCORD TECHNOLOGY LTD . in which to spend your hard earned money!!! 47 W. Broadway Vancover BC Canada By the way, they have been advertising that 300/1200 baud modem for 3 months in Byte, and as a week ago have not shipped modems. The comments that I have made are of my own and do not reflect that of my employer. ----------kgd Subject: Racal-Vadic VA4224 (2400 bps) modems (info wanted) From: malloy@ittral.UUCP Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!ucb-vax.arpa!decvax!ittatc!ittral!malloy Date: 15 Oct 85 20:20:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Does anyone out there have Racal Vadic VA 4224 modems installed and running? We currently have 3 3481's modems (actually 6, but only 3 phone lines). Our major USENET connection `ittatc' in CT has USR Robotics 2400's. However we'd like to stick to our rack mounts, thus the 4224's. Those of you with a bunch of normal modems stacked on top of each other, can probably appreciate why we wish to stick with our modem rack. (easier to use, especially for debugging) It turned out extremely useful while getting 4.2 to talk to our modems. The distributed Racal-Vadic code for 4.2 just plain doesn't work. The 4224's are rack-mounted fitting in the Racal-Vadic modem rack along with our VA3481 (triple VA 3400, 212, 103) modems and VA831 auto-dailer. I would particularly like to know if someone knows if the infamous "Rockwell chip set" problem has been fixed. I'd also like to know how easy they are to install if someone else has already done it. In particular the 4224 comes WITH an auto-dailer built-in. Can we just ignore it and use the VA831? If not, does anyone know how to auto-dial them? I.e. are they compatible with anything? I'll send a summary of replies (if any) to anyone who's interested. Also if we actually get to buy these modems, I'll let you know how the installation goes. =William P. Malloy p.s. Interesting point. These suckers talk (2400/1200/300) but the protocols supported are (V.22/212/103). Note: Vadic 3400 protocol is not supported! -- Address: William P. Malloy, ITT Telecom, B & CC Engineering Group, Raleigh NC {ihnp4!mcnc, burl, ncsu, decvax!ittvax}!ittral!malloy ----------kgd Subject: S.I.T.s (Special Information Tones) From: covert@CASTOR.DEC (John Covert) Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!castor.DEC!covert Date: 19 Oct 85 05:20:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA The first two tones can vary, but the last tone is always the same. This provides a binary encoding indicating four different meanings. Tone 1 Tone 2 Tone 3 Low: 913.8 Hz 1370.6 Hz High: 985.2 Hz 1428.5 Hz 1776.7 Hz Low tone is always 274 ms, High is 380 ms Category: Reorder Low High Vacant Code High Low No Circuits High High Intercept Low Low /john ----------kgd Subject: Active line indicator From: OLE@SRI-NIC.ARPA (Ole Jorgen Jacobsen) Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!sri-nic.arpa!OLE Date: 19 Oct 85 06:57:46 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA SRI International: (415) 859-4536 Home: (415) 325-9427 Message-ID: <12152285460.12.OLE@SRI-NIC.ARPA> ReSent-Date: Sun 20 Oct 85 23:33:42-EDT ReSent-From: The Moderator ReSent-Sender: JSOL@MIT-XX.ARPA ReSent-To: Telecom-Individual-Messages-List: ; ReSent-Message-ID: <12152772599.10.JSOL@MIT-XX.ARPA> I'd like to build a simple circuit that will turn on an LED when a phone line is active. The circuit should be powered by the telco line, withstand ringing voltage and preferably be small enough so as to be mounted behind the RJ11 modular faceplate. The idea is to be able to see that a phone line is in use without picking up another instrument to listen (and cause havoc to a modem/computer). Any smart hardware hackers out there? <370> ------- ----------kgd Subject: call hunting From: dms@MIT-HERMES.ARPA (David M. Siegel) Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!mit-hermes.arpa!dms Date: 19 Oct 85 15:47:04 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Funny that you had problems getting call hunting going... I just want through the same experience myself. I asked for another phone line to be installed, with hunting going from my original number to the new number. New England Telephone put in the new line fast enough, but no call hunting. They told me it would turn on by 6pm the next day. After a week of telephone calls to the business office, they finally figured out that I'm on a crossbar switch, not an ESS, and that the new number can only be 500 digits apart from the old number for hunting to work. I had told them from the start that I wanted hunting between the two lines, so I wonder why they didn't give me a number that would work? Anyway, they changed the new number to something closer to the original number, and told me hunting would be on by 6pm the next day. Still no luck. After that, the business office told me that it was no longer their problem, and I should call the repair center. Well, to make a long story short, I called the repair center twice a day for 2 weeks before they turned that damn hunting on. The repair center blamed the delays on: hurrican Gloria, the Bell system breakup, the business office, the Sept college telephone service request crunch... Oh well, at least I have hunting now. ----------kgd Subject: Daa daa daa - the number... From: jcp@BRL.ARPA (Joe Pistritto) Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!brl.arpa!jcp Date: 20 Oct 85 06:04:04 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA The three tone burst at the beginning of phone intercept announcements appears to be international, by the way. I recently dialed a wrong number in Basel Switzerland (from the US), and got the three tone burst associated with 'the number you have dialed is not in service, please check the number and dial again', except that the announcement was in German (!). I recognized the tones however, and realized what had happened. I have only heard one set of tones however, does anyone know what the different sequences mean? -JCP- ----------kgd Subject: Dear Mr. Phone company From: STEVEH@MIT-MC.ARPA ("Stephen C. Hill") Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!mit-mc.arpa!STEVEH Date: 20 Oct 85 11:30:45 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA It will be interesting to see if you get billed for this 'service'. ----------kgd Subject: Re: Dear Mr. Phone Company From: STEINBERG@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (Louis Steinberg) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!red.rutgers.edu!STEINBERG Date: 21 Oct 85 13:04:32 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Have you tried sending a letter to your state Public Utilities Commission (or whatever it is called in your state)? With a copy, of course to your phone company. I was getting a royal runaround from my power company for months, and finally sent a letter to the PUC with a copy to the utility. I got a letter from the utility almost by return mail, "thanking" me for my letter (!) and things got straightened out within days. [I threatened to do so because after they connected my hunting service finally, they forgot to connect the line to my pair so calls going to me were falling on the floor. They fixed that in 2 hours, but only because I had gotten the name of the supervisor I had spoken to and threatened to call the PUC and the phone companies Executive Complaint office (which I think is more effective in this case), if it wasn't fixed in reasonable time (i.e. not 4 days like they told me I would have to wait). --JSol] ----------kgd Subject: "You must have a long distance..." and others From: evan@SU-CSLI.ARPA (Evan Kirshenbaum) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!su-csli.arpa!evan Date: 21 Oct 85 18:53:04 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Out of curiousity, if you don't have a default long distance carrier (a story in itself), why does it take two rings to aprise you of this fact (i.e., before you get that obnoxious message)? This even happens if you dial a number which is busy (like the one you're calling from). Evan Kirshenbaum ARPA: evan@SU-CSLI UUCP: {ucbvax|decvax}!decwrl!glacier!evan ------- ----------kgd Subject: High-speed modem query From: pjatter@SANDIA-CAD.ARPA Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!sandia-cad.arpa!pjatter Date: 21 Oct 85 19:21:55 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU We are currently evaluating high-speed (i.e., > 1200 baud) modems to link our remote terminal users to our Vax. There seem to be plenty of options in the 2400 baud arena, but now we're getting greedy and are looking at some of the 9600 baud modems which are beginning to become available. Does anyone have any experience with 9600 baud modems (preferrably asynchronous)? The only companies I've seen advertise so far are: Electronic Vaults (Reston, VA): upta 96 (asynchronous) Universal Data Systems (Huntsville, AL): UDS 9600 A/B (synchronous) (We just obtained a UDS modem for evaluation (using their EC-100 synchronous -> asynchronous converter) and had no trouble getting it to work here in the office. We haven't tried it over long distance lines yet.) It appears that there are some proposed standards for these modems (CCITT V.29 & V.32). I've seen some proposed CCITT standards (V.29 & V.32) mentioned in the literature for these modems. Does anyone know just what these standards standardize? Paul Attermeier Sandia National Labs Div 5324 Albuquerque, NM UUCP: ...{ucbvax | ihnp4!lanl | gatech}!unmvax!sandia!pjatter ARPANET: rowe@sandia-cad ----------kgd Subject: Voicemail info follow-up From: minow@REX.DEC (Martin Minow, DECtalk Engineering ML3-1/U47 223-9922) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!rex.DEC!minow Date: 21 Oct 85 20:56:28 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU <> Notes on early voice processing systems. Disclaimer Patent 4,371,752, filed Nov. 26, 1979, issued Feb. 1, 1983, (the VMX patent) claims to cover voice-mail systems. The reader should not assume that information in this note disputes those claims. There are two main early research efforts in the voice-processing field: the Arpa real-time voice project and the IBM Voice Filing System. There are also a number of smaller efforts. 1 THE ARPA REAL-TIME VOICE PROJECT The ARPAnet is a digital packet-switched network that connects a number of computers doing government (Defense Department) sponsored work. In a report "Evolution of the ARPAnet", published in 1981 by E. J. Feinler of SRI, The network voice protocol is described as follows: "The Network Voice Protocol (NVP) was implemented in 1973 and has been in use since then for realtime voice communication over the ARPANET [Cohen, D. Specifications for the Network Voice Protocol (NVP), RFC 741, NIC 42444, Nov. 22, 1977, pp 43-88 IN: ARPANET Protocol Handbook, NIC 7104, Network Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park CA, rev. Jan 1978.]. The protocol was developed by a group headed by the University of Southern California, Informatin Sciences Institute (ISI), as part of ARPA's Network Secure Communications (NSC) project. The goal of this project was to demonstrate a digital, high-quality, low-bandwidth, secure voice handling capability across the ARPANET. The protocol has been used successfully for experiments between ISI, BBN, SRI, MIT'S Lincoln Laboratory (MIT-LL), Culler-Harrison, Incl, and the Speech Communications Research Lab, Inc." Packetized voice was first tranmitted in 1974 with point-to-point connections, and in 1975 with conference connections. A prototype voice message system was implemented at ISI in 1978. This was integrated into the user's work environment, rather than "just" a computer-based answering machine. I do not know whether the ISI voice message system was integrated into the public telephone network. The ARPA voice project is discussed in two papers: Cohen, D., "A voice message system," in R. P. Uhlig (ed.), Computer Message Systems, pp. 17-27, North-Holland, 1981. Gold, Bernard (invited paper), "Digital Speech Networks", Proc. IEEE Vol. 65, No. 12, Dec. 1977. 2 THE IBM VOICE FILING SYSTEM (These notes are from a collegue's trip-report, dated Sep. 12, 1978). At COMPCON 78 (September, 1978), Steve Boise, Manager of the Voice Filing System project at IBM, Yorktown Heights, gave a presentation. There are six people on the project. it was started five years ago (i.e. in 1973). Three of them are psychologists, three computer types. They considered this the first step toward an integrated office information system. The project is aimed toward providing direct support to office principals (i.e., not secretaries or other support people). (Note: the COMPCON proceedings do not appear to have an abstract or paper on the IBM system.) Boise's project is an audio correspondence system. "Correspondence" refers to non-interactive communications, those not requiring people to get together at the same time. IBM has had a system in use, at an experimental level, for 2 1/2 years (i.e., since 1976). it uses a System 7 for real-time control, and a 370/168 as a time-shared host. The main purpose of the 168 is for mass storage. They use 2 hours of CPU time per month. There is 1 Mbyte of "on line" storage, and 800 Mbytes in "MSS" (archival storage?). Users access the system by dialing in from any touch-tone phone. Boise gave a demo of the actual system. All control for the system is by touch-tone. Audio input is used only for message content. The user can originate messages, transmit them (using touch-tone keys to specify addresses), listen to his own mail, and several other functions. The system automatically eliminates any long pauses from messages. This has had the unanticipated benifit of practically eliminating "mike fright". Users don't have to worry about pausing when deciding what to say. The system also uses some other tricks to speed up playback without altering voice quality. Typically, 50 wpm recording becomes 150 wpm on playback. Another unintended result is that recordings sound much more as if the person knows what he is talking about. You can record a message, and specify it to be delivered at some future time. The computer will call up the addressee and tell him about the message. It can try several different numbers, and will call back later if no answer. If you go away, you can leave a forwarding number. Users can file mail if they desire. Retrieval can be by originator, dates, and classification -- all under touch-tone control. Messages are automatically erased from the mailbox after two weeks, if they have been read at least once. Users like this feature as it frees them from having to worry about disposing of old mail. File protection concepts are built in. Every message has an owner. Several levels of access are possible: read-only, read and forward, read, append, and forward. There are also several "classifications": unclassified, personal, and confidential. You can check if someone has read the mail you sent him. Other status information is also available, such as whether he has logged in today, etc. You can also record a message to be read to anyone who asks about you. So, for example, if you are out of town for a week, you can leave a message saying so. The system provides extensive editing facilities which are mostly unused as the users think they are too complex. The system is heavily instrumented. The implementors know which features are used, and how much. They know every command that has been given on the system (but not message content). The real issue is building a good "principal interface". You must make the entry cost to the principal very low. The system uses lots of (audio) prompting an dmultiple-choice responses. To start using the system, there are only seven touch-tone commands to learn. Commands use the touch-tone letters as mnemonics, e.g., *R means "record". There is a "help" facility. The " " key, followed by any other key tells what that key will do. References for the IBM system include the following: Gould, J. D., and Boies, S. J. "Speech filing -- an office system for Principals." IBM Systems Journal, Vol 23, No. 1, 1984. pp. 65-81. (Also IBM Res. REp. RC-9769, Dec. 1982). Gould, J. D., and Boies, S. J. "Human factors challenges in creating a principal support office system -- The Speech Filing System Approach." ACM Trans. on Office Info. Systems, Vol. 1, No. 4, October 1983, pp. 273-298. The following were referenced by the above papers. I haven't seen them at this time. Boies, S. J. "A computer based audio communication system," AIIIE Conference on Automating Business Communications, (January 23-25, 1978), pp. 369-372. (Paper can be obtained from Management Education Corporation (MEC), Box 3727, Santa Monica, CA 90403.) Zeheb, D. and Boies, S. J. "Speech filing migration system," in H. Inose (Editor), Proceedings of the International Conference of Computer Communication (September 1978), pp. 571-574. IBM Audio Distribution System Subscriber's Guide, SC34-0400-1, IBM Corporation, 4111 Northside Parkway N.W., Box 2150, Atlanta, GA 30056; also available from IBM branch offices. 3 OTHER WORK (NOT NECESSARILY VOICE-MAIL) A number of companies produced systems for audio-response applications where a customer could retreive information stored on a computer by using a Touch-tone (tm) telephone. Survey articles were published in Datamation (1969) and by Datapro (September 1976). These systems used prerecorded human speech to produce messages with limited content. The misdial message "the number you have dialed, 555-1212, is not in service..." is produced by a similar system. Delphi Communications (part of Exxon information systems) was founded to do voice messaging. Computalker Consultants (Santa Monica, CA) developed hardware for speech synthesis (connected to microcomputers using the S100 bus architecture). The Computalker CT1) could not be directly connected to the public telephone network. Rice, D. L. "Friends, humans, and countryrobots: lend me your ears", Byte, Number 12, August 1976. Rice, D. L. "Speech Synthesis by a set of rules (or can a set of rules speak English?)", Proceedings of the First West Coast Computer Faire, San Francisco, 1977. Rice, D. L. "Hardware and software for speech synthesis", Dr. Dobbs Journal, April 1976. Votrax (Troy Michigan) developed hardware for phonemic synthesis that could be connected to any computer that supported Ascii text (RS232 asychronous port) and could connect to a Bell 407 -- and hence to the public telephone system. Systems using the Votrax and Bell 407 were developed at Bell Labs by M. D. McIlroy to do unrestricted text-to-speech conversion. This allowed directory-assistance applicications to be implemented on a Unix (version 6) system. The software was available under license from Bell Laboratories in 1978 (or earlier). By connecting the text-to-speech software to to standard Unix utilities using the "pipe" mechanism, voice mail and computer-generated broadcast messages ("Time for lunch!") could be easily implemented. Using the same hardware, Lauren Weinstein implemented a "Touch-tone Unix" interface at UCLA. Using this hardware, and suggestions from Lauren Weinstein, I implemented a Touch-tone RSTS/E system at the Dec Research and Development group. It was shown publicly at Canada Decus, February 26-29, 1980. Posted: Mon 21-Oct-1985 16:53 Maynard Time. Martin Minow MLO3-3/U8, DTN 223- 9922 To: RHEA::DECWRL::"human-nets@rutgers.arpa",RHEA::DECWRL::"telecom@mit-xx .arpa" ----------kgd Subject: Vadic 3400 protocol From: KFL@MIT-MC.ARPA ("Keith F. Lynch") Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!mit-mc.arpa!KFL Date: 22 Oct 85 01:19:21 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Date: Tuesday, 15 October 1985 14:20-MDT From: "William P. Malloy" Does anyone out there have Racal Vadic VA 4224 modems installed ... p.s. Interesting point. These suckers talk (2400/1200/300) but the protocols supported are (V.22/212/103). Note: Vadic 3400 protocol is not supported! A few years ago, Vadic 3400 and Bell 212 were equally popular. For a while it looked like Vadic 3400 was pulling ahead. But now, it seems to be one with the dinosaurs. This is unfortunate, since Vadic 3400 was a better protocol. Does anyone know why Bell 212 came out ahead? Restrictive licensing by Vadic, perhaps? ...Keith ----------kgd Subject: May 1985 DC call-guide From: cmoore@BRL.ARPA (Carl Moore, VLD/VMB) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!brl.arpa!cmoore Date: 22 Oct 85 13:46:24 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU List in May 1985 DC call-guide of Washington DC & suburban exchanges has some noise: 950, 954 Alexandria/Arlington, Va.--but 954 is also listed in DC (and is in DC on my 1982 tape), and wasn't 950 reserved for this "equal- access" thing? 693--Dept. of Defense, Va.--but I checked with the operator (and my 1982 tape) and it's Washington. It's one of those exchanges in the Pentagon, which IS physically in Va., but must use areacode 202. ----------kgd Subject: active-line indicator From: AWalker@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (*Hobbit*) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!red.rutgers.edu!AWalker Date: 22 Oct 85 17:52:07 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Line ------------------------------------------------> to devices 100 ohms +--/\/\/\/\/\/--+ | | Line ------+------|<|------+-------------------------> to devices | | +------|>|------+ LED The thing in the middle is a regular diode pointing the other way. If you want to get fancy, you can use a green LED pointing one way and a red one pointing the other [in place of the regular one], which will indicate line polarity. The 100 ohm resistor passes some of the line current and protects the LEDs. This will give you an almost indiscernible current drop at the phone end... _H* ------- ----------kgd Subject: Racal-Vadic 4224 info From: scotto@crash.UUCP Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!sdcsvax.arpa!crash!scotto Date: 22 Oct 85 18:44:24 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Date: Tue, 22 Oct 85 09:01:56 PDT To: ihnp4!mcnc!ittral!malloy Subject: Racal-Vadic 4224 info Cc: sdcsvax!telecom@mit-xx I have 5 of the Racal-Vadic 4224 modems in my office. I did unfortunately get some of the first so there was the normal new product troubleshooting. I am basically only using one of them for dial-out right now. I have used them for auto-answer and put them through a pretty lengthy test. They do speed search, and seem very clean at 1200. 2400 has more line hits, but I heard through my vendor that they will be using the MNP protocal in the later versions. I only problem that I was aware of with the "Rockwell chip set" was the power consumption and availability. Racal includes in the documentation that if you don't have the 1681 chassis (the one with the huge power supply) that you can only have 8 4224's per rack, even though it is a 16 slot rack. I have a 1680 chassis with redundant power supplys, three 2440 (201C) two 1244 (202) and 5 4224's. I have not had any problems due to power yet. (knock on wood) Another thing I should mention is that Racal's has a regional service center. The people there are *very* helpfull and if you have any questions they are more than willing to help. They will also help you if you are trying to install your modem in a strange application. I have talked with, and can recommend Richard Perez for 4224 support and questions. The number is 800/22V-ADIC or 800/228-2342. If you need a manual I have a couple extras. Lemme know. ---Scott O'Connell crash!scotto@ucsd - or - crash!scotto@nosc {ihnp4, cbosgd, sdcsvax, noscvax}!crash!scott o Data Systems of San Diego ----------kgd Subject: DATA ACCESS LINE From: scotto@crash.UUCP Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!sdcsvax.arpa!crash!scotto Date: 22 Oct 85 18:47:53 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Pacific Bell has a new service, thought I would relay it to Telecom. DATA ACCESS LINE DATA ACCESS LINE: Provides a needed customer service, a "cleaner line", for faster, more reliable communication over the switched network. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION/TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION Data Access Line is an analog local loop which is provisioned and maintained to higher quality standards appropriate for data. If necessary, electronic circuitry is added to the line which improves frequency response and compensates for delay and loss. Tests are performed to insure the assigned cable pair meets tight limits for impulse and background noise. If available, an ESS number will be assigned, to help prevent noise caused by electomechanical switches. With an appropriate modem, a customer could reasonably expect to attain 4800bps on most calls within the Service Area. PRICE: The rates for establishing Data Access Line are - MONTHLY RATE SERVICE CHARGE $22.25 per line $175.00 per line The FCC End User Common Line charges apply as well. PRODUCT CONSIDERATIONS: Customers may continue to transmit data over standard access lines. However, we will no longer upgrade these lines when customers experience data problems. A customer's modem will determine what type of jack is required (rj45s, rj11 etc.). A data jack does not improve line quality. Data Access Line is available on a measured basis only, where measuring capability exists. ----------kgd Subject: (none) From: WGREGGS@CLEMSON.BITNET Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!CLEMSON.BITNET!WGREGGS Date: 22 Oct 85 21:44:48 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Active Line Detector Analysis An active line dectector should not be to hard for someone to design. The phone line has a potential of about 5 volts when off the hook. Its on hook voltage is considerably higher. All that need be designed is a simple circut that detects the low voltage. When the device sees this lower voltage is draws a very small amount of current for the LED. I am unfortunatly unable to take it beyond this stage. I would however be interested in the plans if someone can handle the next step. W. Gregg Stefancik Clemson University BITNET: wgreggs@clemson.BITNET ARPA : wgreggs%clemson.BITNET@wiscvm.ARPA ----------kgd Subject: Rochester telephone service From: TJMartin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (Tom Martin) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!mit-multics.arpa!TJMartin Date: 23 Oct 85 00:07:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU I have been traveling a lot to Rochester, NY lately, and the most aggravating part of it (or even, the only aggravating part) is the terrible service provided by Rochester Telephone. They have yet to automate credit card service; it takes 5-6-7 attempts to get a long-distance line; random information tones (sort of like busy signals) are the result of a call in over half the attempts for a local (intra-city) call. How can the folks in Rochester take it? Whenever I complain about the service, people will counter with the ONE time they got a circuit busy message in Boston. Is the New York State PUC powerless? ----------kgd Subject: More 1+ From: capek.yktvmv@IBM-SJ.CSNET ("Peter G. Capek") Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!ibm-sj.CSNET!capek.yktvmv Date: 23 Oct 85 00:24:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU What with all this discussion about 1+, I couldn't resist telling about this: I work in the 914 (Westchester, New York) area. Our PBX has automatic route selection, and one of its possibilities is an FX line to 617. One of my colleagues tried to call 617-460-xxxx and was told that he had to dial a 1 when calling "beyond the local area". I assume he was supposed to dial 9-617-1-460-xxxx. We were able to make the call by asking the operator for assistance. I was later able also make the call by busying out the (single) FX line from another phone, and thereby forcing a long distance call. Whose fault is this? Is our PBX expected to know when to insert a "1" (and when not to, since the message clearly says I must include it when it is required, and omit it when it is forbidden) at the beginning of the number it dials? It seems to be smart enough to know not to dial the 617 when it has chosen that FX line. Peter Capek IBM Research -- Yorktown Heights, NY ----------kgd Subject: (none) From: johnl@ima.UUCP Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!bbncca.arpa!ima!johnl Date: 23 Oct 85 05:26:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU From "John R. Levine, P.O.Box 349, Cambridge MA 02238-0349 (617-494-1400)" < johnl@ima.UUCP> Subject: Why the Vadic 3400 protocol died To: bbncca!telecom ReSent-Date: Thu 24 Oct 85 16:25:48-EDT ReSent-From: The Moderator ReSent-Sender: JSOL@MIT-XX.ARPA.#Internet ReSent-To: Telecom-Individual-Messages-List: ; ReSent-Message-ID: <12153743277.72.JSOL@MIT-XX.ARPA> There were several reasons. The most important is that Bell cheaply licensed their protocol to everybody in sight, while Vadic had only one licensee, Anderson-Jacobson (as far as I could ever tell.) There are also technical reasons. It used to be important that you could accoustically couple 3400 protocol and you can't couple 212 protocol. Since the advent of modular phone plugs, buy your own phone, and inexpensive modems that can pick up the phone and place calls by themselves, it's practically not an issue any more except for people who call in from their hotel rooms. Also, the 212 protocol was designed for easier LSI implementation, which is why the frequencies are an octave apart. Evidently, a 212 implementation, even before the Rockwell chip set, was simpler and cheaper than a 3400. Finally, I also gather that the 3400 protocol is not as much better than the 212 protocol as people used to think. That impression was gained from triple modems which had lousy 212 performance. Good 212 modems are about as good as 3400 ones. John Levine, ima!johnl, Levine@YALE ----------kgd Subject: Re: High-speed modem query From: bobh@pedsgd.UUCP Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax.berkeley.edu!vax135!petsd!pedsgd!bobh Date: 24 Oct 85 12:16:30 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU In article <120@sandia.UUCP> pjatter@sandia.UUCP writes: >We are currently evaluating high-speed (i.e., > 1200 baud) modems >to link our remote terminal users to our Vax. > >There seem to be plenty of options in the 2400 baud arena, but now >we're getting greedy and are looking at some of the 9600 baud >modems which are beginning to become available. Does anyone have >any experience with 9600 baud modems (preferrably asynchronous)? >The only companies I've seen advertise so far are: > > Electronic Vaults (Reston, VA): upta 96 (asynchronous) > Universal Data Systems (Huntsville, AL): UDS 9600 A/B (synchronous) Another option which just arrived is the Telebit modem, being marketed by Digital Communications Associates (PC Irma coax interface board et al). This is a proprietary asynch scheme for 9600 b/s which purportedly can adapt to changing line conditions on the fly in increments of <100 b/s. They do this by subdividing the bandwidth into numerous subchannels to spread out the information. I seem to recall price for the stand-alone unit to be about $2400. I mention this since, as they are currently selling for the volume PC marketplace, they are likely to become a de facto standard. I believe the information number is 1(800) TELEBIT. Bob Halloran Sr MTS, Perkin-Elmer DSG ============================================================================= UUCP: {decvax, ucbvax, most Action Central}!vax135\ {topaz, pesnta, princeton}!petsd!pedsgd!bobh USPS: 106 Apple St M/S 305, Tinton Falls NJ 07724 DDD: (201) 758-7000 ----------kgd Subject: Electronic Surveillance. From: Geoff@SRI-CSL.ARPA (the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!sri-csl.arpa!Geoff Date: 24 Oct 85 18:17:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Americans' Privacy Exposed by New Technology, Congress Told By LEE BYRD - Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The explosion in communications technology has so outpaced privacy laws that Americans have little or no protection against a plethora of new ways for government or private adversaries to pry into their lives, a congressional agency reported today. The non-partisan Office of Technology Assessment found that 35 out of 142 domestic federal agencies use or plan to use various electronic surveillance methods, including modern devices not governed by a landmark 1968 law that circumscribed the use of wiretaps and bugs - concealed microphones. The agency said 36 agencies, not counting those in foreign intelligence, already use a total of 85 computerized record systems for investigative or intelligence purposes, and maintain 288 million files on 114 million people. The report raised the ''technically feasible'' specter of these being linked into a single data base network that could track untold numbers of citizens without due cause. The report, requested by House and Senate committees, noted that many new and uncontrolled methods of surveillance are made possible by the very technologies of which more and more Americans are availing themselves - electronic mail, computer conferencing, cellular and cordless telephones, beepers and electronic pagers. Intercepting such devices is easy, and ''the law has not kept pace,'' the agency said. But other devices, such as miniature television cameras and pen registers - which monitor the numbers called on a given telephone line - have enabled new ways to spy on people even if their own communications habits are more old-fashioned, the agency noted. Rep. Robert W. Kastenmeier, D-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on courts and civil liberties, said the study ''shows how the law in this area has broken down; it is up to Congress to fix it. If we fail to act, the personal and business communications of Americans will not have the privacy protection they deserve.'' Sen. Charles McC. Mathias, R-Md., said the report ''documents how new and more intrusive forms of snooping have followed in the wake of the exciting advances in communications technology,'' and agreed Congress must ''bring federal privacy laws up to date.' Rep. Don Edwards, D-Calif., chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights, said, ''While the attorney general of the United States is claiming that the civil liberties granted by the Constitution should be limited to the 'original intentions' of the framers, the technological possibilities for government surveillance have exploded. The framers knew nothing of closed-circuit television, wiretapping and computer data banks.'' The report noted that the Fourth Amendment, which protects ''the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,'' was written ''at a time when people conducted their affairs in a simple direct, and personalized fashion.'' Neither, said the report, has Title III of the Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, which was designed to protect the privacy of wire and oral communications, kept pace. ''At the time Congress passed this act,'' the report said, ''electronic surveillance was limited primarily to simple telephone taps and concealed microphones. Since then, the basic communications infrastructure in the United States has been in rapid technological change.'' The congressional agency said it could not estimate the extent of electronic surveillance in the private sector, saying only ''it is probable that many forms ... go undetected, and if detected, go unreported.'' But in its survey of the federal bureaucracy, OTA found 35 agencies, mostly in the Justice, Treasury and Defense departments, used or planned to use: -Closed circuit television, 29 agencies. -Night vision systems, 22. -Miniature transmitters, 21. -Electronic beepers and sensors, 15. -Telephone taps, recorders, and pen registers, 14. -Computer usage monitoring, 6. -Electronic mail monitoring, 6. -Cellular radio interception, 5. -Satellite interception, 4. As for the 85 computerized record systems that could be used for surveillance purposes, none of the operators provided statistics requested by the OTA on record completeness and accuracy. Under the 1968 law, wiretaps and bugs are prohibited without a court order based on the affirmation of a high-ranking prosecutor that a crime has occurred, that the target of the surveillance is involved, and that other means of investigation would be ineffective. According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, federal and state judges approved 801 out of 802 requests last year for electronic surveillance, primarily wiretaps and hidden microphones, at an average cost of $45,000. The agency said that while there is some promise in emerging techniques for low-cost data encryption or other means to protect communication systems from eavesdropping, ''there is no immediate technological answer ... against electronic surveillance.'' Foreign intelligence cases are governed by a separate law, so the CIA, National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency were not included in the survey. ----------kgd Subject: what is an AML and how does it work? From: rkane@BBNCC5.ARPA (Richard Kane) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!bbncc5.arpa!rkane Date: 24 Oct 85 19:25:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU I moved into a new apartment last month and had quite a bad experience getting phone service. Several weeks before I actually moved, I ordered my new phone service with New England Telephone and was told that there would be no problem in setting up my new service on time. Since I was only moving across the street from where I had been living, I wanted to keep my existing phone number, but I also wanted to have a second line installed with a new number for my home terminal (I didn't tell NET that that was what it was for). To make a very long story a bit shorter, when the installer came down on the day that I moved, he discovered that they couldn't give me any phone service at all since there were no more "facilities" (spare trunks) available in my neighborhood. (My apartment was wired up, but there were no spare lines in the basement coming in from the street). After 2 weeks of calling (from work) and badgering them almost every day, NET decided to provide service to me by way of an AML. An AML is apparently some sort of multiplexor which is able to provide service for 2 (or more) phone numbers over a single pair of wires. The AML takes one number as input and gives another number as output. (There is apparently another AML or similar device at the central office end of the circuit). The configuration is depicted below. line in (main number) |---| __________________________________|AML|______________ second | |---| phone | number |------| |filter| |------| | | | main phone number Since I wanted two lines (numbers) coming into my apartment, and since it was not convenient to run another set of wires up to my apartment from the basement, the phone company came down and installed two AMLs in the building. One AML was installed in the basement. This AML was used to provide service to two residents of my building who had previously had dedicated lines of their own. These residents were not informed of this change, but it all should have been transparent to them anyway. This thus freed up a dedicated pair of wires to connect to the wire going up to my apartment. The second AML was installed in my apartment. This AML now provides me with the two lines which I had originally requested and everything works fine. One more interesting thing to report about this whole affair is its effect on my telephone answering machine. For some reason unknown to both me and the phone company, my answering machine will not answer calls when it is hooked up to the line which is output from the AML, but works fine on the primary incoming line. Anyone have any ideas? ----------kgd Subject: RE: ACTIVE-LINE INDICATOR From: WGREGGS@CLEMSON.BITNET Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!CLEMSON.BITNET!WGREGGS Date: 24 Oct 85 20:45:19 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU The device described by the Hobbit will work fine but it will only display the status of the instruments connected after the device. Therefore, if one wanted to show the staus of all the instruments connected to a particular line it would have to be wired in before the distribution box. Unfortunately it can not be wired in at any point and provide the status for all branches of the phone line. W. Gregg Stefancik Clemson University (803)-656-7896 BITNET: wgreggs@clemson.BITNET ARPA : wgreggs%clemson.BITNET@wiscvm.ARPA ----------kgd Subject: mobile phones From: scotto@crash.UUCP Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!sdcsvax.arpa!crash!scotto Date: 24 Oct 85 22:57:55 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU I had my first chance to use a mobile phone today and I must say I was impressed. I had never been close to one, but they seem so easy to use and the reception was great. I did notice one thing that I didn't understand that seems annoying if nothing else. While we were listening, (on a speakerphone) it seemed that the persons voice would always be clear, but would vary in volume. I am sure we never left the "cell" we started the call with because we were never more than 4 miles from the only transmitter in the area. Any ideas? Also, I understand each area has it's own database. The person I was with is based out of Los Angeles, and had to "log on" in San Diego. He was greeted with "Welcome to the San Diego cellular network". I tried to call the Los Angeles number and was greeted with "I'm sorry, the mobile number you have dialed is unavailable or in another area". It all seemed to work without a flaw. Does anyone know if the prices for air time will ever come down? ---Scott O'Connell crash!scotto@ucsd - or - crash!scotto@nosc {ihnp4, cbosgd, sdcsvax, noscvax}!crash!scott o ----------kgd Subject: Rochester telephone service From: Carter@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (_Bob) Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!red.rutgers.edu!Carter Date: 24 Oct 85 23:01:00 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU From: Tom Martin I have been traveling a lot to Rochester, NY lately, and the most aggravating part of it (or even, the only aggravating part) is the terrible service provided by Rochester Telephone. I make fairly frequent calls from northern N.J. (201) to Hamilton, N.Y. (315)824-XXXX, and vice versa. I very often get the tones and the "All lines are busy, try again" msg. Is Hamilton in the Rochester LATA? One thing *I think* I've noticed. It seems that if I punch in the numbers slowly and very evenly (about 2 or 3/sec.) the success ratio tends to be much higher. Would that be a crossbar trying to deal with the output from a DTMF decoder or something of the like? _B Subject: What does "metallic" mean? From: vail@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU ("Theodore N. Vail") Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!cbosgd!ucbvax!locus.ucla.edu!vail Date: 16 Sep 85 19:08:12 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa Section 68.302 (d), of the FCC rules and regulations concerning connection of terminal equipment to the telephone network an,d entitled "Metallic voltage surge" requires that the equipment be subject to "Two 800-volt peak surges of a metallic voltage (one of each polarity) having a 10 microsecond rise time to crest and a 560-microsecond minimum decay time to half crest applied between (1) tip and ring of a two wire connection ..." Other sections of these FCC rules refer to "voice band metallic signal power" and "metallic surges". Does anyone know what "metallic" means in this context? ted ----------kgd Subject: 700 numbers and charging From: wmartin@ALMSA-1.ARPA (Will Martin -- AMXAL-RI) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!almsa-1.arpa!wmartin Date: 17 Sep 85 14:33:10 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa Re the 700 numbers: are all calls to these numbers free to the caller? That is, are they more like "800"s than "900"s? On a more general charging topic: when you have message-unit service, are there any costs charged back to the caller when you call 800 or other toll-free numbers? (Like maybe the basic costs of making the call, but no time charges?) Will ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin ----------kgd Subject: Further 700 numbers From: flory@GVAX.CS.CORNELL.EDU (David Flory) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!gvax.cs.cornell.edu!flory Date: 18 Sep 85 19:12:59 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa In the last Telecom Digest the number for Alliance Teleconferencing was mentioned. Dialing 0-700-456-1000 will get you the closest Alliance site available from where called from, but if the majority of your conferees are from a distant city you may instead want to use the Alliance conference bridge closer to them (to save on long distance charges. I forget offhand (I have it around here somewhere) but calling Alliance at their 800 number will find out what these dialups are. They range from 0-700-456-1001 to -1004 at locations Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and White Plains NY (but not neccessarily in that order) There are also these same conference facilites (actually a different bridging machine but same site) reachable at 0-700-456-200X, with the same location selection for the last digit. Audio/graphic capability exists at 0-700-456-3001 and -3002 (both in Chicago) although Alliance claims that the -200X series does audio/graphics. Another interesting number to check out is 0-700-456-150X and -250X. This is extremely interesting as the recording answers as the service belonging to "Bell" which if I recall correctly isnt allowed to offer conferencing facilites (as per the breakup) This only seems to work in Northern NJ (201) though. Does any one at any of the Bell Labs sites in Northern NJ know what these numbers are for? Also, does any one know of any other audio bridging or conferencing facilites out there? Whatever became of Quorum? David Flory flory@GVAX.ARPA ----------kgd Subject: 8-pages of features; ROLM pbx poop From: gnu@l5.UUCP Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!lll-crg.arpa!l5!gnu Date: 19 Sep 85 09:03:14 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa At Sun I worked with a brand new fancy ROLM phone system. It had a whole 60-page manual of features as well as a card that sits under the plastic in the phone, next to the buttons. I was the only person I knew there who knew how to do a conference call. Most people had serious trouble transferring a call to someone else. This was after 9 months of use! I haven't yet seen a phone system "full of features" that wasn't harder to use than a simple old fashioned phone system. It reminds me of a strange talk at Portland Usenix; an AT&T phone wizard (Brian Redman?) got up and talked about how neat his home phone system was and how many things you could do with it. It didn't come with online help either, and by the end of the talk I'd had far too many ##7*, #*65*#2, and 7*#88s to remember what good they were. If any. PS: There's a serious bug in this ROLM pbx, which was their latest and greatest as of about 9 months ago (3000?). When you dial a busy extension, it gives you a busy signal AND gives the extension a beep-tone superimposed on the call in progress. The usual effect is that the caller hangs up, hearing busy, while the person on the line flashes, trying to accept an incoming call. The result is usually confusion if not killing the conversation in progress. I reported this to our trouble desk, which reported it to ROLM, but it never got fixed. PPS: Sun has a 3-pbx system that covers 5 buildings, interconnected via fiber optic and microwave links. It was the most complex installation of this pbx at the time, and may still be. We were led to believe that it would all act like one big system. They lied. For example, you can't forward your phone to a phone connected to another physical PBX. PPPS: Their forwarding also leaves something to be desired. You can forward all-the-time or forward on busy-or-no-answer but you can't forward "busy" separately from "no answer". This means if you have an office and spend a lot of time in a lab, you can't leave your phone forwarded. If you're in the lab, it's fine, but if you're in your office making a call, it dumps incoming calls on the lab. The ROLM people I talked to didn't seem to see how this was a problem or why other phone systems would do it differently. I think IBM got a bum deal... ----------kgd Subject: Equipment for sale From: networks%dartmouth.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA (Special Projects Group) Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!bellcore!petrus!sabre!zeta!epsilon!gamma!ulysses!cbo sgd!ucbvax!csnet-relay.arpa!networks%dartmouth.csnet Date: 19 Sep 85 18:49:55 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa The following equipment was salvaged (?) from an office renovation. Legally. If anyone has any interest in the equipment, make an offer and it's probably yours. 2 Micom concentrator modems 2 Micom data concentrators 2 line terminators There are no documents with the equipment and everything is 'as is'. It was working perfectly before it was removed and was removed with care, so things should still tick along. David C. Kovar -- Special Projects Group USNET: {linus|decvax|cornell|astrovax}!dartvax!networks ARPA: networks%dartmouth@csnet-relay CSNET: networks@dartmouth US Mail: Kiewit Computation Center Dartmouth College Hanover NH 03755 Phone: (603) 646-3144 ----------kgd Subject: Individual messages vs. digests - administrivia From: JSOL@MIT-XX.ARPA (Jon Solomon) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!mit-xx.arpa!JSOL Date: 20 Sep 85 00:11:44 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa The mechanism for allowing users to receive individual messages for TELECOM is now in place. If you are receiving this message separately, then you are subscribing to the individual service. If you receive this in the Digest, you are receiving Digest service. Currently only the digests will be archived. I may at some later time come up with a method of retrieving individual messages from the archives (about the same time as we have automated -REQUEST service for additions, deletions, and name changes -- Someone should submit an RFC on this). If you have any ideas about this, send them to TELECOM-REQUEST@MIT-XX.ARPA. We anticipate no problems in getting TELECOM out to you folks, and have taken steps to improve error recovery (I now save the input for about a month in case something happens and I need to regenerate a digest), so if you do notice sporadic service, please send mail to TELECOM-REQUEST explaining the difficulty. Enjoy, --JSol ------- ----------kgd Subject: administrivia From: JSOL@MIT-XX.ARPA (Jon Solomon) Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!bellcore!petrus!sabre!zeta!epsilon!gamma!ulysses!cbo sgd!ucbvax!mit-xx.arpa!JSOL Date: 20 Sep 85 22:46:21 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa In the process of getting the new processing to work, I skipped issue 37. Sorry, guys. -JSol ------- ----------kgd Subject: equal access bugs From: AWalker@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (*Hobbit*) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!red.rutgers.edu!AWalker Date: 24 Sep 85 05:17:40 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa By now many of us have experienced how a newly cut over equal access area tends to "forget" to make special allowances for public phones. While this is fun in itself, my question is: By what mechanism does the long distance carrier determine that the calling number is a public phone, so it can arrange for different billing? Does the LOC pass a special packet to it saying "this is a pay phone, do whatever you have to do"? Does the carrier keep its own table of public phones for each area? How is it that the bug is present with some carriers and not others? Why does it exist at all? It seems to me that the sensible way to do things would be for the local company to tell the carrier that simply billing the call to the originating number will lose. A related question: Why is it that some areas insist that you dial 10nnn 1+?? Here in Jersey, if you dial 10nnn and the number you want, you get a recording that you must "first dial a 1". I thought that 1+ was implicit in 10nnn+. Down in DC, where I was last weekend, 10nnn+number works just fine in some areas, but others want the redundant 1. And a comment: For some carriers, 10nnn# will simply connect you to the carrier switch, as if you dialed the 950 number. Sprint does this, some of the others might. It's not universal, though, and the *LOC* handles such a call, giving you a local recording if you can't do it. Weird!! Now, if only they gave you better *audio*. _H* ------- ----------kgd Subject: Social Impacts of Computing: Graduate Study at UC-Irvine From: Kling%UCI-20B@UCI-ICSA.ARPA (Rob-Kling) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!uci-icsa.arpa!Kling%UCI-20B Date: 26 Sep 85 16:11:00 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa CORPS ------- Graduate Education in Computing, Organizations, Policy, and Society at the University of California, Irvine This graduate concentration at the University of California, Irvine provides an opportunity for scholars and students to investigate the social dimensions of computerization in a setting which supports reflective and sustained inquiry. The primary educational opportunities are PhD concentrations in the Department of Information and Computer Science (ICS) and MS and PhD concentrations in the Graduate School of Management (GSM). Students in each concentration can specialize in studying the social dimensions of computing. The faculty at Irvine have been active in this area, with many interdisciplinary projects, since the early 1970's. The faculty and students in the CORPS have approached them with methods drawn from the social sciences. The CORPS concentration focuses upon four related areas of inquiry: 1. Examining the social consequences of different kinds of computerization on social life in organizations and in the larger society. 2. Examining the social dimensions of the work and organizational worlds in which computer technologies are developed, marketed, disseminated, deployed, and sustained. 3. Evaluating the effectiveness of strategies for managing the deployment and use of computer-based technologies. 4. Evaluating and proposing public policies which facilitate the development and use of computing in pro-social ways. Studies of these questions have focussed on complex information systems, computer-based modelling, decision-support systems, the myriad forms of office automation, electronic funds transfer systems, expert systems, instructional computing, personal computers, automated command and control systems, and computing at home. The questions vary from study to study. They have included questions about the effectiveness of these technologies, effective ways to manage them, the social choices that they open or close off, the kind of social and cultural life that develops around them, their political consequences, and their social carrying costs. CORPS studies at Irvine have a distinctive orientation - (i) in focussing on both public and private sectors, (ii) in examining computerization in public life as well as within organizations, (iii) by examining advanced and common computer-based technologies "in vivo" in ordinary settings, and (iv) by employing analytical methods drawn from the social sciences. Organizational Arrangements and Admissions for CORPS The CORPS concentration is a special track within the normal graduate degree programs of ICS and GSM. Admission requirements for this concentration are the same as for students who apply for a PhD in ICS or an MS or PhD in GSM. Students with varying backgrounds are encouraged to apply for the PhD programs if they show strong research promise. The seven primary faculty in the CORPS concentration hold appointments in the Department of Information and Computer Science and the Graduate School of Management. Additional faculty in the School of Social Sciences, and the program on Social Ecology, have collaborated in research or have taught key courses for CORPS students. Our research is administered through an interdisciplinary research institute at UCI which is part of the Graduate Division, the Public Policy Research Organization. Students who wish additional information about the CORPS concentration should write to: Professor Rob Kling (Kling@uci-icsa) Department of Information and Computer Science University of California, Irvine Irvine, Ca. 92717 714-856-5955 or 856-7548 or to: Professor Kenneth Kraemer (Kraemer@uci-icsa) Graduate School of Management University of California, Irvine Irvine, Ca. 92717 714-856-5246 ----------kgd Subject: Okay, buckaroos, here it is From: AWalker@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (*Hobbit*) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!red.rutgers.edu!AWalker Date: 27 Sep 85 23:18:56 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa Here, taken from a flyer sent out by the Teleconsumer Hotline people, is an expanded carrier list. They are pretty good people; it's a splinter group of something called the Telecommunications Research and Action center, locate d in Washington DC. Call them at 800 332 1124 to get a similar list for your own local area. There will be a lot of overlap, so you may find this helpful. [Equal access codes are prefixed with 10, of course..] EA Company Cust. svc [serving area, code name number defaults to "most"] --------------------------------------------------------------- tba Garden State Telemktg. 201 539 6900 [Northern Jersey] 007 Telemarketing 202 783 7213 [DC, Philly, parts of VA] 054 Eastern Telephone 215 628 4111 [Philly] 066 Lexitel 800 631 4835 211 RCI 800 458 7000 [phy pbg +] 220 WU ??? [to be announced] 221 Telesaver 201 488 4417, 202 982 1169 [eastern cities] 222 MCI 800 624 6240 235 Inteleplex 609 348 0050 [Southern NJ] 288 AT&T 800 222 0300 333 US Telecom 800 531 1985 444 Allnet 800 982 8888 488 ITT 800 526 3000 777 GTE Sprint 800 521 4949 850 Tollkall 800 646 1676 [Northern NJ] 855 Network plus 703 352 1171 [DC metro area] 888 SBS Skyline 800 368 6900,235 2001 [no auto EA, need acct] Many of these allow what's called "casual callers", which is simply a person who picks a given carrier for a given call, without actually having an account with them. The carrier codes may vary, but the larger ones seem to have the same number everywhere [how did they arrange this, I wonder??]. _H* ------- ----------kgd Subject: Using Sprint within a LATA From: stv@qantel.UUCP Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!UCB-VAX.BERKELEY!dual!qantel!stv Date: 28 Sep 85 03:52:27 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa Okay, I got my Sprint bill, so I can report on the difference between using Pacific Bell and an Alternate Long Distance Service to call from one point in my Pacific Bell Service Area to another. It says in many places (like the front pages of my phone book and on the back of my Pacific Bell phone bill) that calls within the boundaries of these Service Areas can only be placed thru Pacific Bell. This is part of the divestiture agreement that broke up AT&T. However, I have never had any trouble using Sprint or SBS to make such calls--they aren't blocked or anything. Nobody answered my previous posting asking why this is so. I hypothesized that Sprint might route such calls thru some Location X--outside my service area--to get around the regulation, but I really have no idea. My reason for wanting to use Sprint is that I sometimes want to make personal toll calls from where I work, and don't want them charged to my company. I could use my Pacific Bell Calling Card, or Sprint. Here is how these compare for the 5 Sprint calls I made last month: call PacBell PacBell with type mins Sprint direct dial 40c CC fee DE 26 4.98 5.51 5.91 DN 1 .21 .15 .55 DD 2 .68 .65 1.05 DD 1 .43 .36 .76 DD 8 2.17 2.39 2.79 This is not a systematic study. These were calls I just happened to be making. I called the Operator to get the comperable Pacific Bell rates. When using my Calling Card, there would be a 40-cent service charge. Conclusion: I will continue to use Sprint under these circumstances. I continue to think that 40c per call is a bit steep for using my Calling Card on those calls where I enter it myself, with no operator involved. ----------kgd Subject: Voice Mail info request From: minow@REX.DEC (Martin Minow, DECtalk Engineering ML3-1/U47 223-9922) Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!rex.DEC!minow Date: 29 Sep 85 23:32:57 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa I'm trying to write a paper tracing the history of "voice mail" systems and vaguely recall some work done in the '70's on ARPAnet (ARPA Speech Project?) but can't seem to track down any references (except for a few semi-annual reports from Lincoln Labs complaining about memory errors on the TX-2.) Any pointers to the literature would be appreciated. Please mail to me and I'll summarize for TELECOM if there's any interest. Thanks. Martin Minow ARPA: minow%rex.dec@decwrl.arpa UUCP: decvax!minow ----------kgd Subject: phone-from-car; 215-453 From: cmoore@BRL.ARPA (Carl Moore, VLD/VMB) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!brl.arpa!cmoore Date: 30 Sep 85 15:54:25 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa Along U.S. 22 in northeastern New Jersey (between I-287 and Newark Int'l Airport) are several outdoor public phones where the overhead sign says "Phone from car" instead of just plain "Phone". I have learned of 215-453 prefix at Perkasie, Pa. (north of Phila. and beyond "suburban Phila."). This is significant because it duplicates a prefix at Newark, Del. (302 area); the only previous such duplication involved the oldest Newark, Del. prefix duplicated at Lansdale (also north of Phila. beyond "Phila. suburbs"): 368, which had been ENdicott 8 at Newark, Del. ----------kgd Subject: Rolm, Sprint, etc. From: goldstein@DONJON.DEC (Fred R. Goldstein) Path: clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!donjon.DEC!goldstein Date: 30 Sep 85 17:25:04 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa A few replies to subject in recent issues: PC Pursuit does not "save" GTE money vs. people who run data on Sprint. If you run a 300 bps modem on Sprint, you pay the full "voice" rate, even though you're using up a 64 kbps channel on digitized sections of the backbone (which is probably analog anyway, in most areas). It's more "efficient" of bits to use Telenet, but GTE charges you for the voice call on Sprint and they don't care if YOU are being wasteful, since they're going to make their money anyway. PC Pursuit is more efficient of the transmission, but it requires more switching hardware (packet switches). Telenet is not very efficient for "host echo" applications, though many or most people use it that way. It eats a full packet for every echo, so if the timer is set below 200 ms., then every character typed will create a full packet header. The charges are computed in packets, so you're usage rate will skyrocket, versus using a slower response time. Tymnet charges by the character, since it uses "shared" packets (their internal protocol is less like ARPA's). That's probably why your Telenet PADs won't go below a setting of 200 ms. -- it flunks the manufacturer's "sanity test", and probably overloads its processing capacity. Re: Rolm; It's amazing how many people complain about the Rolm to this day. Rolm's response is to have fancy featurephones with extra buttons for features, and guess what -- they cost you! Rolm's features are designed to give the station user the maximum in flexibility, which they trade off for a minimum of friendliness. Sorta like comparing Un*x to a Macintosh -- a Un*x guru can do more with it, but "the rest of us" do more with the Mac. Rolm's call forwarding consists of two features. Call Forward All Calls ("Station forwarding") is set from the phone; Call Forward Busy/Don't Answer ("System forwarding") is set from the system administrator's terminal and has one destination extension. The destination must be internal. (This restriction does not apply on the high-end 9000/VLCBX.) It does, however, have four "flags": Busy Internal, Busy External, No Answer Internal, No Answer External. You pick a combination. Re: Mexico; What I've heard is that the building housing the international gateway switch for Mexico City collapsed. It took out the switches, frames, etc. Restoration of service will presumably be done by splicing in mobile switching units. It'll take years to rebuild the building; this makes the 1972 New York fire look trivial. ----------kgd Subject: 1+ usage From: dhirsch@BBNCC2.ARPA (Doug Hirsch) Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!bbncc2.arpa!dhirsch Date: 2 Oct 85 04:07:45 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa > From: ima!johnl@bbncca > Date: Thu Sep 26 22:32:00 1985 > Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V5 #40 (why you have to dial 10xxx + 1 + ) > > You might ask "why not assume a 1+ after the 10xxx if the > next digit is not a 1 or 0?" It appears that's because > they're planning ahead for once. I gather that the plan is > that eventually you'll dial 1 first iff you are dialing > outside your area code, as is currently the case in New York > and Los Angeles. Since there are some area codes that span > more than one LATA, such as 609 in southern New Jersey, you > will eventually need the 1+ after the 10xxx to make it clear > whether you're dialing an inter-LATA call in your own area > code or outside it. John, Along the lines of New York and Los Angeles usage, the use of 1 as a switch flagging the following three digits as area code provides a couple of handy by-products, which I think you imply in your next paragraph: area codes can then be almost any three digits, since they would always be flagged with the 1. Exchanges can include numbers now reserved for use as area codes. For example, in dialing from 212, one would use 1+ to differentiate between 617/617-nnnn and 212/617-617n. I'm afraid I don't understand your comment on inter-LATA calls within an area code. Within 609, what's the difference between 1+nnn-nnnn and nnn-nnnn? Why should I ever have to dial 1+ within my own area code? Aren't LATAs just an artifact of tariff and jurisdiction? If the number I'm trying to reach is unambiguous, then why should I worry whether I am crossing a LATA boundary or not? Is there some technical need for me to point out to a machine (that knows LATA boundaries better than I do) when I think I'm crossing a LATA boundary? Similarly, why is it that New England Telephone can now parse my dialing sufficiently to play me a tape when I need to dial a 1, but not infer into my dialing the 1 they insist I need? Doug Hirsch or , 1617/497-2608 or 617/497-2608 or 1497-2608 or 497-2608, asking the question, "Who's in charge, man or machine?" ----------kgd Subject: When the area codes run out.... From: lauren@vortex.UUCP Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!rand-unix.arpa!vortex!lauren Date: 2 Oct 85 04:36:43 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa When the N0/1X area codes run out, we will indeed see NNX (prefix) codes assigned as area codes. In fact, the ordering list for picking NNX codes for such use has been around for MANY years, just waiting for the day it might have to be used.... --Lauren-- ----------kgd Subject: 10XXX + 1 + From: mcb@ihnp4.UUCP Path: clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!UCB-VAX.BERKELEY!ihnp4!mcb Date: 2 Oct 85 12:34:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: telecom@ucb-vax.arpa > A related question: Why is it that some areas insist that you dial > 10nnn 1+?? Here in Jersey, if you dial 10nnn and the number you want, you > get a recording that you must "first dial a 1". I thought that 1+ was > implicit in 10nnn+. Down in DC, where I was last weekend, 10nnn+number > works just fine in some areas, but others want the redundant 1. In some areas (areas referring to area codes) all calls outside the area code require 1+ 10 digits. All calls within the area code require 7 digits only. In other areas, all local calls are 7 digits, all TOLL calls (inter- or intra-lata) are 1+ 7 or 10 digits. In the latter case the central office knows if you are going to dial 7 or 10 digits based on the second digit. Area codes have a 0 or 1 as their second digit. Office codes have 2-9 as their second digit. So much for the past... In the last two years areas have run out of office codes, e.g. 312, Chicago. In these areas, 3 digit numbers formerly reserved as area codes are being used as office codes. The central office still needs to know whether or not you are going to dial 7 or 10 digits. The alternative is that the CO has to wait 4-5 seconds after you dial the 7th digits just in case you were going to dial 10 digits. This would upset many people. The way the CO predetermines if you are going to dial 7 or 10 digits is by the existance of the 1+ prefix. This has to apply to 10XXX calls also, since they can be 7 or 10 digits. And that is why some areas require 10XXX + 1+ and some do not. -- Mark P.S. MY work phone number is 312-510-xxxx. 510 used to be reserved for future a area code. ----------kgd