Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27794; 16 Sep 93 16:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12410 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 16 Sep 1993 12:15:11 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29077 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 16 Sep 1993 12:14:36 -0500 Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 12:14:36 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309161714.AA29077@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #651 TELECOM Digest Thu, 16 Sep 93 12:14:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 651 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Mongolia's Phone System (Dave Leibold) US West Gets Cable Waiver (Washington Post via Paul Robinson) Sprint and Harbinger*EDI (Sprint Govt. Division via John D. Gretzinger) Comparing LD Service Providers (Stephen Friedl) What is X.125? (David Muldowney) Justice to Choose Escrow Agents For Encryption Keys (Paul Robinson) Beam me up, Kinko! (Wall Street Journal via Les Reeves) ISDN and Echo Cancellation (Jim Rees) A Classification for All Kinds of Networks (Madeline Gonzalez) Seeking Technical Contact at Octel (Tim Chambers) Ancient Phone System in Spanish Hotel (Jonathan Haruni) Motorola Batteries Covered Under Warranty (Mark Earle) Key System For Business (Bonnie J. Johnson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 00:36:48 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Mongolia's Phone System I found some information on Mongolia's phone system, courtesy of a "Lonely Planet" travel guide describing that nation. With a May 1993 publication date, the following information should not be too obsolete. The phone system is described as "primitive", where crosstalk is plentiful, calls may take several tries to complete, and long distance of any kind on the domestic network requires operator bookings. The lack of phone installations among the general populace is not as much for financial reasons as it is plant and switching limitations. Costs of the phone service are actually quite low domestically. Foreigners tend to get hit for high prices on calls. To understand the financial picture better, the Mongolian currency is the togrog, with 100 mongos to the togros. For exchange, the official rate is USD$1.00 = T40. However, there is a "market rate" of USD$1 = T330 that is legal within Mongolia and is common in cash exchanges. There is also the "central" rate of USD$1 = T100 that's used on traveller's cheque exchanges (one loses plenty of cash on travellers cheques; actual U.S. dollars go far in Mongolia). On rare occasions, payphones can be found, and these cost 15 mongo for a local call. However, some hotel desks will allow local calls to be placed for free. Phone numbers in the capital Ulaan Bataar are 5 digits as well as those in Erdenet. Four digit numbers are used in the "aimag" capitals, and 3 digits in the countryside. There are plans to add the digit 3 before the Ulaan Bataar 5 digit numbers to make them 6 digits, and there's talk of equipment upgrading. Cable & Wireless runs a satellite link for international calls. Japan plans to donate an INTELSAT earth station. Meanwhile, some embassies and hotels have taken to installing INMARSAT facilities, for those USD$12/minute calls. Cost of calls from Mongolia are T280/min to Europe and T400/min to USA. Country code of Mongolia is 976, and the city code for Ulaan Bataar is 1, where direct dialing can be done. Faxing from Mongolia does not work half the time due to line conditions, and it costs USD$10/page. The central post office in Ulaan Bataar will handle fax services. Telex may be regarded as obsolete in North America, but it's more reliable and prevalent. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 09:33:24 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: US West Gets Cable Waiver From: Paul Robinson US West gets Cable waiver Digest, Business Section, {Washington Post}, September 15, Page D1 MCI Said Viacom Cable has joined the phone company's PCS consortium, which plans to provide mobile personal communications services. More than 30 companies have been added to MCI's national PCS Consortium since it was announced July 29, bringing the number of participating companies to more than 200, District based MCI said. --- US West Communications received a temporary FCC waiver from rules prohibiting it from operating cable television systems in its phone service area. US West, which serves 14 Western states, is buying 25.51 percent of Time Warner Entertainment, which owns eight cable systems in US West's phone service area. --- The European Commission said it had no antitrust problems with British Telecom's plan to take a stake in MCI. Under the proposed $4.3 Billion venture, BT and MCI would create a joint venture to provide global telecommunications services. BT would take a 20 percent stake in MCI and MCI would acquire BT North America. ------------------------------ From: john.d.gretzinger@sprint.sprint.com Date: 15 Sep 93 21:19:44 Subject: Sprint and Harbinger*EDI SPRINT, HARBINGER*EDI SERVICES BRING ELECTRONIC EFFICIENCIES TO GOVERNMENT WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 14, 1993 -- Sprint and Harbinger*EDI Services Inc. today announced a marketing agreement aimed at reducing costs and increasing operating efficiencies for the federal government. The companies expect that by marketing access to new electronic data interchange trading partners from the private sector, government demand for Sprint's electronic data interchange service will grow and generate significant savings to the federal government and its private-sector trading partners. Electronic data interchange, or EDI, is a messaging technology that allows the movement of documents directly from one organization's computer to another organization's computer. As a result, information is processed faster and at a lesser cost than by paper. Sprint won a Government Services Administration contract in December 1991 to supply federal government agencies with SprintEDI(sm) network service. It is the only supplier making EDI service available to the more than 100 federal agencies nationwide. "With the marketing agreement now in place, we can offer government customers a broader range of trading partners and therefore provide greater opportunities for cost reductions," said Don Teague, vice president/general manager of Sprint Government Systems Division. "We also expect intra-government growth in demand for EDI service as the Clinton administration's 'Reinventing Government' initiative focuses on streamlining to gain greater cost efficiencies," Teague said. SprintEDI service interconnects with a number of EDI value-added networks to offer government users broad connectivity, including access to commercial and international entities to exchange documents. Document delivery methods include facsimile, postal, and X.400 electronic messaging. Another service option is translation software which permits documents to be converted to X12 EDI standard formats to ensure a high level of transmission reliability. "Our companies offer complementary services. Sprint has a history of bringing cost-efficient telecommunications solutions to the government. Harbinger*EDI has a strong track record in implementing trading partner programs for large corporate organizations," said Ted Ciochon, vice president, Harbinger*EDI. "Together, we can help the government accelerate its EDI initiatives and make it more effective," Ciochon said. Harbinger*EDI Services is a privately held company headquartered in Atlanta, GA. In recent years, it has emerged as the leader in providing PC-based EDI software, EDI value-added network services, and trading partner implementation/consulting services. It has strengthened its PC software product and VAN services leadership position by developing Trading Partner Implementation Programs. These programs allow corporate organizations to implement EDI programs quickly for hundreds of trading partners. ------------------------------ From: friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen Friedl) Subject: Comparing LD Service Providers Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 8:20:39 PDT A customer has asked me to post this for him. He recently had an outside consultant in who reviews ways to save money on office expenses. His review included their long distance service, Sprint. The consultant recommended they look at other LD carriers (non-big 3) and concluded that they could save up to $2,000 per month by switching; a non-trivial sum. They spend about $10,000 per month now. He's been pitched by two the consultant recommended and, while he's able to compare the direct costs of each, he is unable to evaluate the quality of services. He would like to know if there is a significant difference in services (down time, delays when connecting, support, etc.) between the big 3 and everyone else. He would also like to know specifically about a LD carrier called WestCall, as well as the relative merits of shared service providers (he knows how they work, he'd just like a general opinion on whether they are worth it). It just occurred to me to ask my customer if the consultant actually has any financial interest in the carriers he recommended: hmmm ... Thanks much, Stephen J Friedl | Software Consultant | Tustin, CA | +1 714 544-6561 3B2-kind-of-guy | I speak for me ONLY | KA8CMY | uunet!mtndew!friedl ------------------------------ From: David Muldowney Subject: What is X.125? Date: 16 Sep 1993 16:23:41 -0000 Organization: Broadcom Eireann Research Ltd, Dublin, Ireland. Hi, I was just wondering if someone could tell me what X.125 is, as it does not appear to be in the CCITT Blue Book. Thanks in advance, David Muldowney Tel: +353-1-6761531 Broadcom Eireann Research Ltd. Fax: +353-1-6761532 Clanwilliam Place E-Mail: dm@broadcom.ie Dublin 2 Ireland ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 11:08:10 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Justice to Choose Escrow Agents For Encryption Keys From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Justice to choose escrow agents for encryption keys Summary from {Government Computer News}, September 13, 1993, Page 4. During this month the Justice Department plans to announce the two agencies that will manage the escrow key encryption chips. This will allow federal agencies to use the draft Escrowed Encryption Standard (EES). Attorney General Janet Reno will make the appointment of the two agents. The National Institute of Standards and Technology "will likely serve as one escrow agent." NIST is reported as one of the organizations that helped create it. The person who made the announcement to the National Computer Systems Security and Privacy Advisory Board was "Geoff Greiveldinger, special counsel for the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Section of Justice's Criminal Division." The article goes on to describe the background of the creation of the chip including its development by the National Security Agency; the article claims it will be used to replace older Data Encryption Standard (DES) products. It talks about the serial number, chip key and family key that "authorized agencies must have to decipher encrypted messages", and how it will use two key-escrow databases using "existing wiretap guidelines requiring officials to obtain court permission for electronic monitoring." A special decoder box -- which currently no suppliers have been selected to produce -- is being designed by the government to help police and FBI users identify the chip number and unscramble the encoded communications. The Board raised questions about the cost -- including whether this chip would make encryption more expensive and/or limit availability, as well as costs passed on to customers due to maintenance and chip replacement -- and export limitations, due to concerns whether this new EES product may not be as marketable around the world as DES is, due to the key release provisions. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 08:07:33 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Beam me up, Kinko! Kinko's Service Corp.'s copy centers will feature public videoconferencing facilities within two years, with Sprint providing the transmission service. Paul Orfalea, Kinko's founder, expects to have videoconferencing equipment installed in 100 stores by 1994. Callers will be able to access any site on Sprint's videoconferencing network. Kinko's selection of Sprint for its carrier was termed "something of a coup for the long-distance carrier ..." ({Wall Street Journal}, "Sprint, Kinko's to build network for video calls," 9/14/93, p. B10) ------------------------------ From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Subject: ISDN and Echo Cancellation Date: 15 Sep 1993 18:12:45 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI All this talk of TrueVoice being implemented in the echo cancellers got me to thinking (a dangerous thing, I know). If I have an ISDN voice set, and make a long distance call to another ISDN voice set, and the trunk is digital, then I've got a completely independent pair of voice channels, one in each direction. There isn't any place in the entire link where the two halves of the conversation are combined. No hybrids, no two-wire circuits. In this case, there shouldn't be any need for an echo canceller. So my question is, does the network provide any way to leave out the echo canceller for this type of call? I don't see offhand how it could know, but surely someone has thought about this. ------------------------------ From: madeline@well.sf.ca.us (Madeline Gonzalez) Subject: A Classification for All Kinds of Networks Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 17:54:38 GMT Fred Goldstein writes in response to my original posting: > I have created a taxonomy of "networks" that I find very useful. It > creates six categories of networks, as viewed by end users. Each has > its own vocabulary, terms of reference, and experts. And nobody > understands them all; their partisans tend not to even understand what > the others are about, let alone respect them. In historical order, > with names that are based on an example, not definition, they are: > I. Telephony. Circuit-switched narrowband. Includes ISDN up to PRI, > switched 56, etc. > II. Terminal-to-host. Includes X.25, SNA. Connection-oriented > packet, master-slave application semantics. > III. Message-switched. Includes BBSs ("kiddiecomms"), X.400, uucp. > The network is defined at the applications layer. Not real time. > IV. Internet. Peer-to-peer packet switching. Usually connectionless. > Network is based on routers which don't see applications. Includes > TCP/IP, DECnet, (some of) OSI. > V. PC/Server. So-called "PC LANs"; dumb client PCs with network > defined by smart server. Often runs over Internet protocols, but > network is defined at the applications layer. Includes Netware, etc. > VI. Switched-topology network (STN). High-speed low-layer switching. > No need for routers since switches do it. Newest family, and is > one (promising) way to use ATM, but is not limited to ATM per se > (you could do it with Ethernet switches, fast circuit, etc.). > For starters, the word "LAN" has different meanings depending on who > you ask! Thank you, Fred, for sharing your "taxonomy" (and a strange set of beasts indeed is telecom :-) ).. *particularly* important I think is that it is based on the persepective of *the user*, and not so much from the perspective of the ever-changing implementing *technology*.. A historical ordering is also very helpful, since some of the specifics of each only make sense if viewed in such an order! I'll go through it in more detail, these are just some immediate reactions. At *some* point, I believe, all of us in this telecom field should come to *some* sort of rudimentary understanding of what the Big Picture is ... how else can we *truly* each work on effectively designing and implementing our particular pixels! Based on the number of responses to my original posting, I gather there isn't alot of interest in this here. I'd very much appreciate hearing about any work being done by standards organzations or any other groups towards a common understanding of "telecom", primarily by those in the telecom field itself, but as Fred has suggested, using the perspective of the end users versus the technology (given that the technology changes so frequently). And if there are no *existing* efforts underway, can any one suggest some fertile grounds for this type of work to sprout? Any existing groups or mailing lists? Or would anyone out there be interested in *starting* one with me? My background is in software and systems engineering at Bell Labs (specifically user interface design and development for network management systems) so I'm not an expert in any one area of network technology per se, though can call myself "well-versed" in object- oriented design and development techniques, and enjoy the process of abstracting essentials and organizing info. For this type of effort, though, it'd be essential to gather a group of people who understand some of the specifics to eg., my original questions: > In article madeline@well.sf.ca.us > (Madeline Gonzalez) writes: > I'm trying to get a better understanding of what these emerging > telecom standards are *about*: which type of network they're aimed at, > which organization is sponsoring their definition/implementation, what > the perceived benefits are of each, ... and *how they all fit > together*! Can anyone help me with the ones I've listed below, or > point me towards the right person or organization??... > Perhaps a whole separate posting could deal with the topic of "type of > network"! It'd be nice to come up with a way to conceptually view > modern networks and how they fit together ... how to categorize them; > i.e., based on protocol? Type of switching (packet, circuit, ..)? > long-distance trunks vs local loop? public/private nature? based on > what's being carried (voice, data, etc.)? or the media used to carry > it (metallic wire, fiber, air..)? What would the "result" be of our efforts? I don't know ... a paper, maybe, a book, or just a new USENET group where this could be an *ongoing* dialog? Open to suggestions. Madeline madeline@well.sf.ca.us ------------------------------ From: tbc@col.hp.com (Tim Chambers) Subject: Seeking Technical Contact at Octel Date: 15 Sep 1993 19:39:16 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard (Tools for Embedded Systems) My company uses an Octel voicemail system. I am asking readers of this newsgroup for assistance in helping me to make contact (preferably via e-mail, but phone is ok) with someone at Octel who can help me work through problems my company is having with a particular feature of their system. Let me stress that this isn't a bug report; the issue is more sociological and I am seeking technical information from Octel that I hope will help me resolve it. Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer, Tim Chambers Software Design Engineer (Tools for Embedded Systems) tbc@col.hp.com Hewlett-Packard Company (719) 590-5570 (office) P.O. Box 2197 (800) 447-3282 (MDS hotline) Colorado Springs, CO 80901-2197 FAX: (719) 590-5701 ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Haruni Subject: Ancient Phone System in Spanish Hotel Reply-To: jharuni@micrognosis.co.uk Organization: Micrognosis International, London Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 14:14:14 GMT In article , PAT wrote: [of a hotel which charged for bogus phone calls in 1962] > Thirty-one years ago they would have been using the old-fashioned cord > boards with three or four operators on duty at one time. For those of you interested in this sort of thing, you don't have to go back 31 years to see it. You can go to the city of Deva in northern Spain, where I was last week and found an old black bake-o-lite phone in my hotel room with no dial at all. On further investigation I found a cord board behind the reception desk, operated by the receptionist herself. For billing, there were two (relatively modern) electromechanical pulse counters attached (very unproffesionally) to the switchboard, with "trip odometers" and reset buttons. The operator actually had to reset the counter of the outside line before plugging your room into it, and copy the unit tally into a book when you were done. I was amazed. I made one phone call, and they managed not to bill me for it. The phone system was a real sore thumb -- not at all indicative of the state of telephony in the vicinity. How widely are there ancient switchboards in active use? I mean, not by enthusiasts or museums, but simply because the owners haven't got around to installing new ones yet? Where else can they be found? Jonathan Haruni ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 18:21:54 CDT From: mearlev@cbi.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Motorola Batteries Covered Under Warranty My 8000H Cellular phone battery died recently. It was an "extended" life battery purchased from my local cellular service provider. Turns out Motorola batteries carry a one year warranty. Mine was on the 10th month. To claim your new battery, the place of sale simply requires proof of purchase. In my case, I'd put the purchase receipt with my cmt contract so it was easy to find. They gave me a new battery on the spot. However, I did have to show them the warranty -- they were unaware of it. Pays to keep receipts, sometimes! :-) mwe Do not 'reply'. Instead, send to mwearle@mcimail.com | ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 12:25:07 EDT From: Bonnie J Johnson Subject: Key System for Business Tony DeSimone wrote asking about a key system to recommend to a friend. Although we have a large CO here we began running out of lines. We went on the search (trying many) to find a key system that was compatible and one which offered the functionally of our present switch and auxillary services. We ended up with the Meridian Norstar Key System. Voicemail, extensions as well as lines, intercom, choice of different sets and other neat stuff on it. Just my opinion. Later, bj ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #651 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa29508; 16 Sep 93 17:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13793 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 16 Sep 1993 13:59:37 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16178 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 16 Sep 1993 13:59:04 -0500 Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 13:59:04 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309161859.AA16178@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #652 TELECOM Digest Thu, 16 Sep 93 13:59:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 652 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson LDDS-Metromedia Merger (Les Reeves) Wiring Code (Mike Brand) Ringmate Hardware Wanted (Boris Pevzner) CA Caller ID is Here? (Jeff Crilly) 800/900 Numbers Diverted to Italy (Alfredo Cotroneo) Waiting Lists Internationally? (Dave Leibold) AT&T Service Experience (Apurva Shrivastava) Fax Modem Offer From Sprint (Mark Earle) Need Telecom Data for The Commonwealth of Independent States (Jeff Johnson) Help Needed to Record Off Digital Phone System (Jeff Brown) Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports (Paul Robinson) Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports (Garrett Wollman) Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports (Barton Bruce) Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports (Lee Sweet) Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports (Carl Moore) Re: Calculators in Their Early Days (John Pettitt) Re: Calculators in Their Early Days (Mark Terribile) Re: Calculators in Their Early Days (Charles "Chip" Roberson) Re: Calculators in Their Early Days (Fred Schimmel) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 18:41:58 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: LDDS-Metromedia Merger Shareholders of Resurgens Communications and LDDS Communications approved a three-way, $2.2 billion merger with Metromedia Communications. The newly formed company, LDDS Communications, will have annual revenue of about $1.5 billion. It will do business as LDDS-Metromedia Communications. It will be the fourth largest long-distance company. LDDS-Metro will have a 2 percent share of the $65 billion dollar per year U.S. long-distance market. ------------------------------ Subject: Wiring Code From: mike@cronos.mcs.com (Mike Brand) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 09:49:57 CDT Organization: The Keeper of Time BBS +1 708 389 1369 Hello all, I will soon be wiring my house for telephone, using Home Run wiring and a 66 Block. I have run 4 pair to each outlet location, and 2-4 pair to some. What is the official Wiring Color Code, I want this to be a nice a possible. By wiring code I mean the following: My wire consists of 4 Pairs: -Blue/White, White/Blue (Tip/Ring) -Green/White, White/Green (Tip/Ring) -Brown/White, White/Brown (Tip/Ring) -Orange/White, White/Orange (Tip/Ring) Which pair would be considered Line1, Line2, etc? Would is be similar to the resistor color code where Brown would be Line1, Orange would be Line2, Green Line3, and Blue Line4? Am I correct with saying the color is TIP and white is RING? I think this information is available in the archives, but I have no way to access them, thus my post to the group! Thanks, Mike Brand - mike@cronos.mcs.com The Keeper of Time BBS N9TLV 1 708 389 1369 ------------------------------ From: pevzner@athena.mit.edu (Boris Pevzner) Subject: Ringmate Hardware Wanted Date: 15 Sep 1993 20:56:16 GMT Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology I would like to sign up for the New England Telephone's RINGMATE(sm) distinctive ringing service as a money-saving alternative to having to install a short-term low-volume separate phone line in addition to the one that already exists in the place where I live. I recall that some company markets a device that listens to the ring of an incoming call and routes the call to one of the two phone sets depending on RINGMATE(sm)'s ring pattern. Can anyone please point me to that company? I would also appreciate hearing from someone who had experience with NET's RINGMATE(sm). Thanks very much. Boris Pevzner pevzner@mgm.mit.edu (10ATT) 0-700-HI-BORIS P.S.: I will also be running BigmOuth on my PC on the same line. Perhaps, there is a way to use it to detect ring patterns? ------------------------------ From: jeffx@netcom.com (Jeff Crilly) Subject: CA Caller ID is Here?? Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 18:12:48 GMT We just installed a new phone system here. Norther Meridan based -- presumably a centrex/IS system, though I must admit I don't know much about the details of our system. However, it is a 'world-wide' phone system -- three number access to get to the Japan office or U.K. offices. I noticed that when my wife called my office phone from home, her number was displayed on the phone. (These are the Meridian M2616 w/ display phones.) We're definitely on a different exchange (I live about 20 miles south of here.) So what gives: is Caller-ID available in CA? Or did we have to sign some agreement saying we won't use the Caller-ID data? Or is there a feature in the switch that should have been turned off? Thanks, jeff (jeffx@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it (Alfredo Cotroneo) Subject: 800/900 Numbers Diverted to Italy Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 9:33:11 MET I am looking for information on the possibility of establishing an 800 or 900 number in the US which might be diverted to Italy. This would appear the best solution for a low number of call/month. MCI, Sprint and AT&T seem to require a business or home address in the USA where they could "physically" install a phone. They would not just install the line at their exchange and divert to Italy. Any info will be greatly appreciated. Pse respond to: 100020.1013@compuserve.com. Thank You. Alfredo E. Cotroneo, PO BOX 11028, I-20110 Milano, Italy work: A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it / personal: 100020.1013@compuserve.com fax: +39-2-706 38151 / ph: +39-2-266 6971 (2PM-5PM EST) [Moderator's Note: This is the sort of thing Telepassport and USFI can handle without any trouble. Your 800 number would terminate on their switch and get diverted to wherever. You'd pay the Telepassport rates from the USA to your country plus about ten cents a minute or so on the 800 part of the connection here. Contact my office. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 03:57:25 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Waiting Lists Internationally? Years ago, there were reports that France had waiting lists of one to two years to get phone service installed. Is that still the case today? What about waiting times in other nations? Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG [Moderator's Note: I thought you were going to say they have waiting lines of one or two years to reach Directory Assistance or the Inward Operator. It isn't quite that bad calling the operator there, but it seems like it on a bad day. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 09:19:17 EDT From: apurvas@vnet.IBM.COM Subject: AT&T Service Experience I don't know about your experiences with AT&T, but here is one of mine ... I moved from NY to Georgia in April 1993 and after asking AT&T to be my long distance carrier from my new address in Georgia, I asked for a calling card. In May, when I called up, they said it was on its way. Same reply in June and July. On August 12th they discovered that they had sent it to my address in NY even though their bills were coming in Georgia. Yeah, I know their bills come through the local company but they have my new billing address too. After cancelling that card, they mailed a new one and asked me to call back in six or seven days, if I did not receive it by then. SO I CALLED BACK on the 18th of August. Same old story. Thay had again sent it to my previous address. SO I CALLED BACK on the 25th of August. Same old story. SO I CALLED BACK on the 2nd of September. They had mailed it to my address in Georgia but I had not received it. SO I CALLED BACK on the 15th of September and they said it was mailed at 2620 ... address instead of 2602 ... Finally I caved in and gave in to AT&T's pressure to have me off their customer list and asked them to cancel that card and bid them farewell. I called up SPRINT and asked if their offer for a modem was still on. They said 'Yes' and I switched to them. The modem takes four to six weeks to arrive, from the date you make the first call via SPRINT and it takes about two weeks to switch one's LD carrier here. Hence I called up a friend using the SPRINT access code 10333-1-AreaCode-7D and was told that it should now take four to six weeks to arrive (instead of the six to eight weeks had I waited for the LD carrier switch). It is a 9600 bps FAX modem. About AT&T's service, I have had a good experience with them till this incident and hence decided to wait before I took a drastic step. For one thing, whenever I call AT&T customer service, I am connected to a service representative almost immediately. However, for MCI (I was an MCI customer for some time, about two years back) and SPRINT, I have to wait a long time, listening to the drone and then get someone on the line. Also my billing with MCI was a mess. They kept on promising free LD time but kept billing me for it. Apurva Shrivastava - apurvas@vnet.ibm.com [Moderator's Note: I decided to try it myself, and switched to Sprint on one of my lines. We'll see how it works out. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 15:51:25 CDT From: mearle@cbi.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Fax Modem / Sprint Pat et all, The fax/modem offer from Sprint (1-800-Pin-Drop) is if you switch home residential service to them. The modem is an intermal 1/2 card for PC's, by Best Data Products. 9600 Fax, 2400 Data rate. No mention if it's MNP/error correcting or not. Called the "smart-1". This offer is called the Dvorak Offer. Probably, the modem/software offered have a retail value of $75-125, depending on where you live and shop (I know, in San Fransisco it's probably $29.99 at the grocery checkout :-) Anyhow, I switched from LDS to Sprint. We'll see what I get and how well this modem card works in my old 286 PC. | Do not 'reply'. Instead, send to mwearle@mcimail.com | [Moderator's Note: I tried the number you gave 800-PIN-DROP and they knew nothing about 'any free modems' ... I was referred to something called the 'Partners' program 800-669-8585 and I suggest that is where people call to sign up for their free modem. They took my order, and said the line I gave them would be switched in two weeks more or less. Once I 'activate' the account with a call, the modem will be put on order to arrive a few weeks after that. I suppose it is worth being on Sprint for awhile to get the modem. Others of you might want one also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johnsonj@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (JOHNSON JEFFREY ALLEN) Subject: Need Telecom Data for The Commonwealth of Independent States Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 01:17:38 GMT I am conducting research on the following states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. Regular channels have produced very little. The information needed is fairly extensive and may not exist. Specifically, I am looking for telephony data covering: infrastructure (residential telephones, pay phones, PBX's, domestic lines, international lines...), traffic, prices, revenues, expenses/costs, investment, labor and any other info. available. The more specific and detailed the data is, the better. Would appreciate data and sources if they exist. ------------------------------ From: jbrown@speedway.net (Jeff Brown) Subject: Help Needed to Record Off Digital Phone System Date: 14 Sep 1993 17:40:06 -0700 Organization: Speedway Free Access -- Dial 10288-1-503-520-2222 Hello out there in netland. I am hoping that one of you telecom experts can help me out with a problem. I have a need to record selected phone conversations off of an office digital phone system (not analog). I can currently use an induction coil, but it is very cumbersome. I have a device for analog phones that takes the rj12 from the wall and provides a mic output and another rj12 output, but this doesn't work with a digital system. Any suggestions? Thanks for the help, please respond email or here. Jeff Brown on Speedway Free Access -- (10288)-1-503-520-2222 jbrown@speedway.net ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 10:24:36 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > Anything, for instance, near Dulles Airport in Fairfax (okay, > Loudon County!), Virginia) seems to have a six-letter ID that > starts with BCB.... > I thought it was only the overnighters until I saw it on a > magazine label that I receive at home (which happens to be > about 70 miles from IAD, as Dulles is known to the FAA and > Frequent Fliers! (In case you wonder why I think it's related > to the airport at all, packages that come through the FedEx > office in Chantilly, VA < 10 miles from IAD) also have a code > starting with BCB ...)) Could the first three digits of the Zipcode in that area by any chance be 232? That would be a good reason for using BCB, as A-J could be could be used for 1-9,0. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: wollman@trantor.emba.uvm.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports Organization: University of Vermont, EMBA Computer Facility Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 21:59:10 GMT In article , Lee Sweet wrote: > Are the abbreviations related to the FAA/Airline (who controls?) > three-letter IDs for airports? There was a fascinating article on this in last December's United In-Flight magazine. Here are the constraints they worked with in developing the airport code system: - Cannot overlap with international airports in other countries; - Cannot overlap with the radio call letter space; (so, no A[A-L]*, K*, N*, or W*) - Must leave space for Canada (so, no Y*); - Must be sufficiently different from other nearby airports. The original coding system was a two-letter system, from the name of the city; when this was extended to three letters, usually an `A' was appended; hence, Meigs Field in Chicago is `CGA', and Washington National is `DCA'. The fourth criterion is why Dulles is `IAD'; `DIA' and `DCA' were just too close to be easily recognizable in the face of distortion. The third criterion is why all Canadian airport codes begin with `Y', so Montreal/Dorval is `YUL', Montreal/Mirabel `YMX', and Toronto/Pearson is (I believe) `YYZ'. The second criterion is why the original airport in Kansas City, Mo., was named `MKC' rather than the obvious `KCM'. By parallel construction, the new Kansas City International airport has been designated `MCI'. (This is also where we get `EWR' for Newark, everybody's least favorite airport...) The FAA is extremely reticent to change airport codes, because of all the confusion this causes. This is why the code for O'Hare Airport is `ORD'; it inherited the code of the small military airfield that was located there before United came. This has caused some irritation to cities who want to get getter airport codes (cities in both Colorado and Utah have tried -- unsuccessfully -- to buy code `SKI' from its present home in I think Idaho), or to ones building new airports (the city of Denver is irritated that `DEN' will still refer to Stapleton airport even when the new one is completed). Now that is the situation as it stands for airports. The real confusion comes in when people try to make up codes for cities that don't have airports, or that have funny codes. Since the rise of affordable air travel after deregulation, people have suddenly decided that /every/ location had to have a three-letter code. This can cause confusion; for instance: Burlington International Airport (code BTV) is located in beautiful South Burlington, Vermont. (Well, it was beautiful when the airport was built.) The Burlington bus terminal (also coded BTV) is located on Main Street in downtown Burlington, about five miles from the airport. The Burlington train station (coded ESX by Amtrak) is located in Essex Junction, Vermont, also about five miles from the airport. This becomes more confusing when you have more than one possible location for a code to represent. For example, Amtrak's reservation system uses the code `MTR' to represent Montreal (which, as I noted above, is `YUL' and `YMX' to the airlines); this is easy enough until you realize that you somehow have to figure out which train station in Montreal you end up at, in order for this to be particularly useful. To find this out, you have to know that Amtrak trains operating in Canada are operated by CN, and so the station in question is CN's Central Station, in the heart of the Underground City. (Trivia: CN owns the tracks from Montreal all the way to White River Junction, Vermont [about 100 miles southeast of the border]. At that point, they interchange with tracks formerly owned by a Massachusetts railroad company, but taken about two years ago for the Montrealer because the original owners weren't performing proper maintenance.) Now you mix in a steady stream of second-rate TV sportscasters, and enjoy! Garrett A. Wollman wollman@emba.uvm.edu uvm-gen!wollman UVM disagrees. ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 15 Sep 93 23:37:40 -0400 In article , decrsc!leesweet@uunet.UU. NET (Lee Sweet) writes: > Are the abbreviations related to the FAA/Airline (who controls?) > three-letter IDs for airports? Or possibly whatever coding system the IATA City codes. Now the only trick is to remember what IATA stands for. The first two are probably International Association. Call ANY travel agent fresh out of agent school, or probably any Airline's 800 number and someone will surely know. ------------------------------ From: decrsc!leesweet@uunet.UU.NET (Lee Sweet) Subject: Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 21:10:54 EDT Yeah, I think it does, but the airport proper is mostly in Loudon. BTW, that post was *supposed* to refer to the Orange Card bill thread, and that may have been lost in the editing! Lee Sweet Internet *lists* - leesweet@datatel.com Chief Systems Consultant Internet *e-mail* - lee@datatel.com Datatel, Inc. Phone - 703-968-4661 4375 Fair Lakes Court FAX - 703-968-4625 Fairfax, VA 22033 (Opinions are my own, and only my own!) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 18:02:42 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Three Letter Abbreviations For Airports Doesn't Dulles straddle the Fairfax-Loudoun county border in Virginia? I think you'd still be in Fairfax county as you entered the airport on the access road (expressway) from the east. ------------------------------ From: jpp@netcom.com (John Pettitt) Subject: Re: Calculators in Their Early Days Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 18:58:32 GMT Back around 1979 I used to make a living repairing calculators. Mostly it was a matter of taking paper out of and retiming the print engines. However we had the contract to service the UK Atomic Energy Lab at Harwell. They had all sorts of fun machines. My favorite was the TI59 with a built in mag card reader. An amazing feat of engineering. About the tame time we started selling commodre PET 2001 'computers'. Ah 6502 assembler; those were the days ... ------------------------------ From: mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us Subject: Re: Calculators in Their Early Days Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 17:32:14 GMT In article , TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: ... to 16 digits. Wow! :) You know what the > final test was in those days for quality control purposes before the > machines left the factory? 12345678 times 9 = 11,111,111 and a second > test, 98765432 times 9 = 88,888,888. If it got those two correct (a > test carried over from the days of the mechanical units), it passed. PAT] I think you'll find that 12345678 * 9 == 11,111,102 . Perhaps you mean 12345679 * 9 ? 1/2 12 + 144 + 20 + 3 ( 4 ) 2 --------------------------- + 5( 11 ) == 9 + 0.0 7 (A dozen, a gross, and a score Plus three times the square root of four Divided by seven, Plus five times eleven, Yields nine squared--and not a bit more.) (This man's opinions are his own.) From mole-end Mark Terribile mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us, Somewhere in Matawan, NJ [Moderator's Note: Yes, 12345679 times 9 is what I meant. Sorry. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 09:23:10 -0400 From: roberson@aurxc7.aur.alcatel.com (Charles "Chip" Roberson) Subject: Re: Calculators in Their Early Days Organization: Alcatel Network Systems, Inc., Raleigh, NC How do you get a '1' in the least significant digit with 9*8? > 12345678 times 9 = 11,111,111 Chip Alcatel Network Systems * 2912 Wake Forest Road * Raleigh, NC 27609 Phone: +1 (919) 850-5011 FAX: +1 (919) 850-5588 Roberson@AUR.Alcatel.com ------------------------------ From: schimmel@gandalf.ca (Fred Schimmel) Subject: Re: Calculators in Their Early Days Organization: Gandalf Data Ltd. Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 22:01:08 GMT [calculator anecdotes deleted] > It could resolve sqrt(2) to 16 digits. Wow! :) You know what the > final test was in those days for quality control purposes before the > machines left the factory? 12345678 times 9 = 11,111,111 and a second ^ > test, 98765432 times 9 = 88,888,888. If it got those two correct (a > test carried over from the days of the mechanical units), it passed. PAT] Gee PAT, everyone knows it's 12345679 * 9 = 11,111,111 ;^). {I realize this isn't sci.math, but we gotta maintain that quest for accuracy} Speaking of early calculators, remember when featuremania was the craze and cheap (relatively) scientific calculators became available? A 40 function (wow) model based on a chipset by MOS Technology (later to ship the 6502 microprocessor which was the heart of Apple ]['s, Commodore 64's and Atari's) had a bug in the trig functions. It got ArcCos(0) as 0 instead of 90 degrees. Later, a liquidator tried to sell these formerly $129 models for about $39, as long as you remembered ArcCos(0)=90 degrees you were OK. Fred Schimmel (609)424-8700 x5890 | email: schimmel@gandalf.ca Gandalf Technologies Inc. | ^^ 9 N. Olney Ave. | My host is in Canada!! Cherry Hill NJ 08003 USA | <<--- My desk is in US ---++ [Moderator's Note: Now listen you two ... (or is that you also?). I don't care what anyone has to say about 12345679 or /8/ or whatever. In this scholarly journal, *I* am moderator and I will say what I want. Facts should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story! If I say you can multiply 8 times 9 and come up with a one on the end, I mean it! ... I wish I still had my old Burroughs 'punch the buttons in each column, yank the lever on the side back and forth' machine. It was a great tool in business offices, as witnessed by the thousands of places which had them. Later, dudez! :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #652 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa26732; 17 Sep 93 4:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24849 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 17 Sep 1993 01:10:40 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29225 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 17 Sep 1993 01:10:07 -0500 Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 01:10:07 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309170610.AA29225@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #653 TELECOM Digest Fri, 17 Sep 93 01:09:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 653 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Archives Email Service Now Operating (TELECOM Moderator) Need Help Gathering Long Distance and International Prefixes (Toby Nixon) AT&T EasyReach-Gannett Trial (Les Reeves) ATT&T PublicPhone 2K Back On? (Ken Jongsma) Case of the Worn-Out Intercept (Andrew C. Green) Frame Relay FAQ? (Dave Manning) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Telecom Archives Email Service Now Operating Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 23:07:42 EDT From: TELECOM Moderator Well, it has been awhile in coming, and for the past couple days I have been tearing my hair out trying to make the program work corectly, but now it appears things are okay. You can beta-test it, and report any problems which come to your attention. Announcing the 'official' Telecom Archives Email Service. This script has been installed right at the archives itself for the purpose of obtaining files from the archives by email. It is especially intended for users with UUCP/other access, but it works perfectly fine for Internet users as well. A simple set of commands is used, many of which have arguments following which would typically be file names. Here is how to use it: 1. Send email to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. 2. The subject does not matter. 3. In the text (for starters, there are other commands you can use) you *must* begin with your first command as: REPLY yourname@site It is essential this comes first. Then other suggested commands on your first use are: HELP INFO INFO (INFO takes an argument, give INFO again as argument). INDEX END 4. Mail it. You should get back at REPLY ADDRESS three separate mail items, one being a help file, one being detailed documentation on the INFO command (INFO has several arguments it can take), and the third being the most recent mirror of the Telecom Archives directory. The command END is required so that .signatures and other stuff don't get picked up and possibly mis-interpreted. Watch for mail from "Telecom Archives via Email" with your files. 5. Other commands you can use will be explained in detail in the help file including SEND . 6. Unfortunatly, the compressed files ending in .Z *cannot* be successfully transferred using this service. For those you still need to use FTP in binary mode, or a similar program. I hope this new service will be useful to you. I wish to give special thanks to Clive Feather for providing the scripts I am using to operate this service, and hope if you find it useful you will drop him a note of thanks. Thanks also go to chrisb@lcs.mit.edu for making the necessary tweaks to minktaka.lcs.mit.edu to accomdate this service, and as always to management at lcs.mit.edu and MIT itself for providing the storage space for the Telecom Archives for several years now. Try it, enjoy it, and let me know of any problems you encounter. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Moderator ------------------------------ From: tnixon@microsoft.com (Toby Nixon) Subject: Need Help Gathering Long Distance and International Prefixes Date: 17 Sep 93 01:22:08 GMT Organization: Microsoft Corporation, Redmond WA, USA I'm trying to collect the long distance direct dial and international direct dial prefixes for every country in the world. I've managed to extract quite a bit of information from the comp.dcom.telecom archives, and gained more directly from users in various countries, but there are still quite a few gaps in the list. If you have knowledge about the dialing procedures in ANY country, would you please check the list below and verify the information I have? If what I have is correct as far as you know, there's no need to reply. If the information for a country is entirely missing, and you can provide it to me, or if you see something that needs to be corrected, please reply at your earliest convenience. I'm also interested if you find any spelling errors, missing countries (it's amazing how many new ones there are!), or any other corrections that are necessary. By the way, the "W" characters you see in some of the prefixes signify that it is necessary to wait for a second dial tone at that point. Please mail replies directly to tnixon@microsoft.com. Thanks very much for your help! Toby Nixon Program Manager - Windows Telephony Digital Office Systems Group Microsoft Corporation Country Country Long International Name Code Distance Direct Dial Prefix Prefix ----------------- ------- -------- ------------- Afghanistan 93 Albania 355 Algeria 213 00 American Samoa 684 Andorra 33 16W 19W Angola 244 00 Anguilla 1 1 011 Antarctica 672 Antigua 1 1 011 Argentina 54 0 00 Armenia 7 Aruba 297 00 Ascension Island 247 00 Australia 61 0 0011 Austria 43 900 Azerbaijan 7 Bahamas 1 1 011 Bahrain 973 0 Bangladesh 880 Barbados 1 1 011 Belarus 7 Belgium 32 0 00 Belize 501 Benin 229 00 Bermuda 1 1 011 Bhutan 975 Bolivia 591 Bosnia-Herzegovina 38 0 99 Botswana 267 09 Brazil 55 0 00 British Virgin Islands 1 1 011 Brunei 673 Bulgaria 359 Burkina Faso 226 00 Burundi 257 00 Cameroon 237 00 Canada 1 1 011 Cape Verde Islands 238 00 Cayman Islands 1 1 011 Central African Republic 236 00 Chad 235 00 Chile 56 0 00 China 86 Christmas and Cocos Isand 672 Colombia 57 9 90 Comoros 269 Congo 242 00 Cook Islands 682 Costa Rica 506 00 Croatia 38 0 99 Cuba 53 Cyprus 357 00 Czech Republic 42 0 00 Denmark 45 009 Diego Garcia 246 00 Djibouti 253 00 Dominica 1 1 011 Dominican Republic 1 1 011 Ecuador 593 Egypt 20 00 El Salvador 503 0 Equatorial Guinea 240 00 Estonia 372 Ethiopia 251 00 Faeroe Island 298 00 Falkland Islands 500 Fiji Islands 679 Finland 358 990 France 33 16W 19W French Antilles 596 19 French Guiana 594 French Polynesia 689 Gabon 241 00 Gambia 220 00 Georgia 7 Germany 49 0 00 Ghana 233 00 Gibraltar 350 00 Greece 30 0 00 Greenland 299 00 Grenada 1 1 011 Guadeloupe 590 Guam 671 001 Guantanamo Bay 5399 Guatemala 502 00 Guinea 224 00 Guinea-Bissau 245 00 Guyana 592 Haiti 509 Honduras 504 00 Hong Kong 852 001 Hungary 36 00 INMARSAT (Atlantic) 871 INMARSAT (Indian) 873 INMARSAT (Pacific) 872 Iceland 354 India 91 00 Indonesia 62 Iran 98 00 Iraq 964 00 Ireland 353 0 00 Israel 972 0 00 Italy 39 0 00 Ivory Coast 225 00 Jamaica 1 1 011 Japan 81 001 Jordan 962 Kazakhstan 7 Kenya 254 01 Khmer Republic 855 Kiribati 686 Korea (North) 850 Korea (South) 82 001 Kuwait 965 00 Kyrgyzstan 7 Laos 856 Latvia 371 Lebanon 961 00 Lesotho 266 00 Liberia 231 00 Libya 218 00 Liechtenstein 41 0 00 Lithuania 370 Luxembourg 352 00 Macao 853 00 Macedonia 38 0 99 Madagascar 261 00 Malawi 265 01 Malaysia 60 0 007 Maldives 960 Mali 223 00 Malta 356 Marshall Islands 692 Mauritania 222 00 Mauritius 230 00 Mayotte Island 269 00 Mexico 52 91 98 Micronesia 691 Moldova 7 Monaco 33 16W 19W Mongolia 976 Montserrat 1 1 011 Morocco 212 0 00W Mozambique 258 00 Myanmar 95 Namibia 264 09 Nauru 674 Nepal 977 Netherlands 31 0 09W Netherlands Antilles 599 00 Nevis 1 1 011 New Caledonia 687 New Zealand 64 0 00 Nicaragua 505 00 Niger 227 00 Nigeria 234 01 Niue 683 Norfolk Island 672 North America and Caribbean 1 1 011 Norway 47 095 Oman 968 Pakistan 92 Palau 680 Panama 507 00 Papua New Guinea 675 Paraguay 595 Peru 51 Philippines 63 00 Poland 48 Portugal 351 097 Qatar 974 0 Republic of Yemen 967 Reunion Island 262 00 Romania 40 Russia 7 Rwanda 250 00 Saipan 670 San Marino 39 0 00 Sao Tome 239 00 Saudi Arabia 966 00 Senegal Republic 221 12 Seychelle Islands 248 00 Sierra Leone 232 00 Singapore 65 005 Slovak Republic 42 0 00 Slovenia 38 0 99 Solomon Islands 677 Somalia 252 00 South Africa 27 0 09 Spain 34 07W Sri Lanka 94 St. Helena 290 00 St. Kitts 1 1 011 St. Pierre and Miquelon 508 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 1 1 011 Sudan 249 00 Suriname 597 Swaziland 268 00 Sweden 46 0 009 Switzerland 41 0 00 Syria 963 Taiwan 886 002 Tajikistan 7 Tanzania 255 00 Thailand 66 001 Togo 228 00 Tonga 676 Trinidad and Tobago 1 1 011 Tunisia 216 00 Turkey 90 9W 9W9W Turkmenistan 7 Turks and Caicos Islands 1 1 011 Tuvalu 688 Uganda 256 00 Ukraine 7 United Arab Emirates 971 00 United Kingdom 44 0 010 United States of America 1 1 011 Uruguay 598 Uzbekistan 7 Vanuatu 678 Vatican City 39 0 00 Venezuela 58 0 00 Vietnam 84 Wallis and Futuna Islands 681 Western Samoa 685 Yemen (P.D.R.) 969 Yugoslavia 38 0 99 Zaire 243 00 Zambia 260 00 Zimbabwe 263 09 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 18:06:49 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: AT&T EasyReach-Gannett Trial Gannett Co. and AT&T announced they are testing a telephone news and information service available to AT&T's EasyReach Service subscribers. Gannett supplies news, sports scores, weather reports, stock prices and other information. AT&T EasyReach Service provides a permanent long-distance number to consumers. EasyReach numbers are dialed with 10288-0-700 + seven digits. Subscribers to AT&T's EasyReach service will be the test group for the AT&T/USA Today Personalized Information Service. A customer will select areas of interest from a listing of more than 10,000 categories, including news, sports and stock quotes. then call a number to get the information. Some customers will be charged 25 cents a minute; others will pay 49 cents a minute. The test will run for six months. ------------------------------ Date: 16 Sep 93 18:08:08 EDT From: Ken Jongsma <73115.1041@CompuServe.COM> Subject: ATT&T PublicPhone 2K Back On? Could this be the answer to the great AT&T PublicPhone 2000 question? Perhaps the keyboards will be turned back on in the near future. The following appeared in the current {Communications Week}: AT&T GETS FINE, THEN APPROVAL The FCC recently fined AT&T for offering services against regulations, but the commission then gave AT&T permission to offer the services. In an Aug 19 ruling, the FCC fined AT&T $464,000 for providing specialized information services through special public payphones. The commission said the fine was levied against AT&T for services offered between Oct 6 and Oct 30, 1992, when it conducted an investigation of the services. But on Aug 24, the FCC granted a waiver that allows AT&T to offer Standalone Public Enhanced Communications Systems, which let customers use special equipment to access weather services, stock quotes and electronic mail. The FCC said its approval of SPECS is in the public interest, but that it was compelled to fine AT&T for offering the services without prior approval. -------------------- Talk about the need to reinvent government. Ken ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 00:52:33 CDT From: Andrew C. Green Reply-To: acg@hermes.dlogics.com Subject: Case of the Worn-Out Intercept Despite living in this day and age, where everything is assumed to be crisp, clean, digitally-recorded and stuffed-on-a-chip, I just received what in my experience is the worst recording of an intercept message that I've ever heard. The occasion was my local call from the River North area of Chicago to my wife's office down in the Loop. The intercept occurred almost immediately upon the completion of my dialing, and, curiously, was not preceded by the usual tri-tone earsplitters. It sounded like an old wax cylinder recording, complete with a big thumbprint in the middle: (loud, through static, then fading) "WE'RE SORRY, YOUR CALL CANNOT BE COMPLeted as dialed. mmmmmphhh..." (...dead silence for a couple of seconds, then fade in...) "...try again or caLL YOUR OPERATOR FOR ASSISTANCE. THIS IS A RECORDING." (chorus, repeat) I listened for some time to be sure that it really was playing back that badly, and wasn't an intermittent bad connection. It contained no code number of any kind, by the way. It sounded like a mechanical playback device, but I find that a bit difficult to believe. My wife's office ((312) 269 exchange) has a nice modern phone system and it seems an unlikely source for it, plus I don't believe the call routing made it that far anyway. Our office system is similarly well-equipped and doesn't have voice intercepts anyway. Any guesses as to the source? Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@hermes.dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: dmanning@cwis.unomaha.edu (Dave Manning) Subject: Frame Relay FAQ? Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 01:10:56 GMT The title says it all. Where can one look to get a fairly good description of what frame is all about? Thanks, Dave dmanning@cwis.unomaha.edu::::dgmanning@aol.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #653 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02001; 17 Sep 93 8:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03207 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 17 Sep 1993 03:39:51 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23280 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 17 Sep 1993 03:39:19 -0500 Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 03:39:19 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309170839.AA23280@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #654 TELECOM Digest Fri, 17 Sep 93 03:39:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 654 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM (Pat Turner) Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM (Rob Knauerhase) Re: Another Outage for MCI (John Clarke) Re: Boy, is AT&T Gonna Love This! (Willie Smith) Re: Boy, is AT&T Gonna Love This! (Vance Shipley) Re: Modem as Digital Phone? (Steve Cogorno) Re: Spread Spectrum Background and History (Chris Beaumont) Re: PacBell and GTE (Randy Gellens) Re: ISDN in the USA (Ketil Albertsen) Re: Can You Dial Area Code 810 From Your Switch Yet? (Antigone Press) Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? (Ray Normandeau) Re: Point of Sale ATM Card Readers and Customer PIN Keypads (Ross Anderson) Re: DTMF Pocket Dialers (Gary Breuckman) Re: Touring a Working CO? (Pete Lancashire) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: turner@Dixie.Com Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 18:15 EDT Subject: Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM > What ever happened to network redundancy and/or rapid rerouting? They may have had the same luck we had down in Jacksonville center (ZJX). ZJX is on a fiber loop that covers the jacksonville area with a transfer switch between the A & B sides. I assume the resulting DS3 signal is fed in to a DDM1000, I've only been there once. Anyway, Tuesday before last an anomaly* on the A side caused the switch to transfer to B. Something caused it to transfer back to A. Somewhere in between the switch failed, isolating the mux from either fiber, even though the A fiber was OTS for <100ms. Since Bell and Alltel thought the switch was failproof, it to 5i%uok an hour to fix. In the mean time, ZJX was without any (PSTN) telephone service, having to make do with two microwave links, HF, cellular and VHF repeaters. *Telco speak for tech bumping fibers in a crossbox > By the way, is there any easy way to tell who uses what network plant? > All that's been said is that MCI was hit, but I use Cable & Wireless > for 90% of operations, and they had long distance problems Friday, > which they blamed on the MCI cut. So, who *does* have a proprietary > network of their own? Only AT&T? The big three [AT&T, MCI, Sprint]? > I was shocked [shocked!] to find C&W blaming their problems on MCI, > when I thought C&W had their own net (maybe not so redundant, but not > using other's fiber!). Lots of people have facilities besides the big three. Lots of carriers can't afford to maintain facilities to a POP in every LATA in the US, they then buy bandwidth from another carrier. Wiltel would the fourth largest carrier, and some of their links include a 1/4" steel backhoe fade margin :-). One small carrier in Alabama, Deltacom, was at one time a 100% facilities based carrier. They found a city, Arab, in the Birmingham LATA that was socially and politically linked to the Huntsville LATA. They set themselves up as a Dial 2 carrier with the independent telco. Now they have digital microwave and fiber throughout Alabama. My only complaint is that their sites do not have gensets, relying solely on battery backup. Not the opinions of the FAA. Patton Turner KB4GRZ FAA Telecommunications turner@dixie.com ------------------------------ From: knauer@ibeam.intel.com (Rob Knauerhase) Subject: Re: MCI Fiber Cut - 9/10/93 About 11:30 AM Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 00:39:09 PDT Organization: Intel Mobile Software Lab, Hillsboro, OR In article , macy@telemax.com writes: > 1. MCI no longer uses its old microwave routes for backup as they > used to. They were deemed to costly to maintain. So will they be changing their name to FCI, perhaps, then? Rob Knauerhase [knauer@ibeam.intel.com] Intel Mobile Software Lab ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 11:33:00 From: John Clarke Subject: Re: Another Outage for MCI LESREEVES@delphi.com writes: > MCI suffered a seven-hour outage Sept. 13 in Everett, Ohio affecting > "millions" of residential and business customers. The company said a > highway crew cut a major communications cable at about 8:45 a.m. and > [...] It has occured to me that we only see postings regarding MCI outages in comp.dcom.telecom. Why is this? Surely other carriers have outages. Is news of an outage really of any interest to comp.dcom. telecom readers? By the time the message gets sent to the Digest, and then gets sent by the Digest to readers, and then gets read by the readers, its probably old news anyways. So why report this? And why only MCI? Conspiracists want to know ... john jclarke@bnr.ca My opinions might be held by my company, or they might not, I don't know. [Moderator's Note: I would encourage you to read back issues of the Digest for the past two or three years. The AT&T outage a couple years ago was covered very extensively as have been other problems Mother has experienced. Regards the original message on the most recent MCI outage, it occurred mid-morning last Friday. It had been sent in to me by a reader as of mid-afternoon the same day, and was circulating both in the Digest and comp.dcom.telecom late Friday afternoon and early Friday evening. This would be a matter of several hours which is not, IMHO, a bad turn-around time. In fact when messages like that come along, they are automatically pushed to the head of the queue in front of other items to go out ASAP. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wpns@newshost.pictel.com (Willie Smith) Subject: Re: Boy, is AT&T Gonna Love This! Organization: PictureTel Corporation Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 17:16:44 GMT In article 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM writes: > When you want to call someone, you issue a voice-call-request. If you > people you want to talk to are on the Internet, you'll get connected > to them. If not, and a service provider exists, they make the local > call and patch you through. > All we need are full-duplex voice-digitizing modems. The technology > can't be all that difficult -- digital PBXes already do it. As.yd[cqh a matter of fact, Qualcomm makes a chip to code voice down to 4000, 4800, 8000, or 9600 (or auto-switch among them). Once we get a digital network, the sky's the limit! My favorite concept (course, now I can't use it, cuz everyone knows) is to pipe your favorite CD to your buddy and encode your voice in the low order bits. Or use a photo-CD that you each have the only two copies of as a one-time pad to generate 'unbreakable' encryption. Who needs Clipper/ Capstone/ Skipjack when bits are (nearly) free and voice is 9600 baud? Heck, make a bunch of calls and split your data stream. Willie Smith wpns@pictel.com N1JBJ@amsat.org ------------------------------ From: Vance Shipley Subject: Re: Boy, is AT&T Gonna Love This! Organization: XeniTec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 12:28:57 GMT In article , Paul Robinson <0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM> wrote: > When you want to call someone, you issue a voice-call-request. If you > people you want to talk to are on the Internet, you'll get connected > to them. If not, and a service provider exists, they make the local > call and patch you through. > All we need are full-duplex voice-digitizing modems. The technology > can't be all that difficult -- digital PBXes already do it. > One world, one people, one network. :) One word ... isochronous. Look it up. You need a damn site more than "an internet connection" to do full duplex voice. Vance Shipley, vances@xenitec.on.ca ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Modem as Digital Phone? Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 18:14:18 PDT Steve, I am fairly certain that what you propose is impossible. Modems by their very nature are analog not digital devices. Besides, a 9600 BPS modem wouldn't be able to handle data fast enough. What you would need is a Macintosh AV model -- they have an AT&T DSP (digital signal processing) chip on-board. You would need to purchase a phone pod (between $50 and $100) for the type of telephone line you have (POTS, PBX, Digital line, etc.) The pod plugs into the back of the Mac (in the GeoPort). The standard system software comes with a Voice Mail, FAX, and Speakerphone software. BTW, the AVs also do full-motion video, and out-of-the-box voice recognition with voice response (you can select male or female.) Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: ccat@netcom.com (Chris Beaumont) Subject: Re: Spread Spectrum Background and History Organization: Morningdew Associates Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 01:18:45 GMT I got a big kick out of reading Dan's post about the history of spread spectrum, because George Antheil was my father. Thanks for keeping an interesting story alive!! Chris Beaumont ccat@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 16 SEP 93 23:08 Subject: Re: PacBell and GTE gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) writes: > GTE will not allow a pseudonym to be used for a directory listing. (I > was really surprised, but the PUC directed me to GTE's executive > offices, and they read me the tariff.) PacBell has no problems with a > pseudonym. Pac Bell doesn't allow false names for directory listings, either. When I tried to have my second line listed in a pseudonym I've used many times in the past, the insisted on seeing some proof that someone existed with this name. They faxed me the tariffs. > PB bundles cancel call waiting with call waiting. GTE does not. But Pac Bell charges extra for every extra feature, and even with the small "quantity discount" they offer for having multiple features, it ads up qick. GTE bundles the features in packages, so for a reasonable set of features, GTE ends up cheaper, even though Pac Bell's basic rate is less. Having recent service from both GTE and Pac Bell, I can point to many items in each's services that the other does better. I still miss the way three-way calling worked on the GTD-5: if I was talking to someone, I could flash for a three-way dialtone, then hang up. The phone would ring, and when I answered, I'd be talking to the same person (this is the way call-waiting works when hanging up on one party). This is a great feature, because it lets me transfer the call to any phone in the house. The person on the line hears ringback until I answer. I wish I could get Pac Bell's three-way to act that way. Randall Gellens . . . . . .randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software . Unisys Corporation [Please forward bounce messages| Mission Viejo, CA to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself ------------------------------ From: ketil@edb.tih.no (Ketil Albertsen,TIH) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Organization: T I H / T I S I P Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 03:34:13 GMT In article , keyman@Eng.Sun.COM (Dave Evans) writes: >> It [ISDN] is not a world wide standard. USA has made their own standard, and >> the rest of the world is following another standard. (The right one.) > This is not accurate. (BTW: We in the US get just as upset about US > bashing as you do about someone bashing your country. Lets all try to > exchange information without getting tooooooo personal about it.) Disregarding the well known problems of 56 vs 64 kbps and mu-law vs A-law for a moment, in another area the US decided to divert from the original ISDN standards: In the rest of the world (well, I am not sure about Canada and Japan), the service provider delivers an internationally standardized T interface to an NT1 which serves to isolate the user from the network (subscriber line) both with respect to protocols and technology. Eg. the phone company may replace the copper cable with an optical fiber without affecting the user equipment. In the US, the phone companies are not allowed to sell the standard T interface to the customers; they are required to provide a "U" interface which can be considered to be the end of the cable running to the switch office, with no termination electronics. US customers have been fooled to believe that this will save them money, as they can (/must) buy their own terminator box at the department store (I get the impression that ISDN NT1 boxes are terribly expensive in the US -- I am happy that I don't have to buy one). (I assume that the telco is allowed to sell NT1 boxes, too -- but these become the property of the customer, not of the network provider.) Of course they have been fooled -- the telco must install some sort of terminator box as well, for providing the U interface, so you end up having two termiantor boxes -- hardly cheaper than having one! And while the ITU (CCITT) doesn't want to define physical/electrical standards for the U interface to keep things flexible with respect to future technology, the US market (? FCC?) has defined a standard U for the US - making things just as rigid as following the T standard would be. (If the telco would like to replace their old subscriber lines with some future technology that doesn't fit well into the U interface, they still are forced to convert the signals, in *their* (new, of course) terminator box, to the U standard, so that it can be converted by the user's terminator box to what the user really wants. Hardly cheaper than adapting directly to the T interface!) What does this mean for the customer? To save the expense of a separate user NT1, some companies make phones, modems/TAs etc. that directly connects to the U interface! Although they may be cheaper than an NT1 + a standard ISDN phone, there is no good reason why they would be cheaper than a standard ISDN phone alone. (Similar for modem/TA and other equipment). And you cannot use this equipment with any standardized ISDN T interface. Furthermore, you loose functionality that way: D channel arbitration is resolved by the NT1, so if you don't have an NT1, in general you cannot multiplex separate connections (two phones on separate B channels and various D channel connections). Also, a lot of network maintenance (outside the US) is based on the phone switch being able to interrogate the NT1. This cannot be done in the US system, where the NT1 may be absent. This may (although I cannot say "will") lead to poorer system maintenance, which may lead to poorer service. ------------------------------ From: mross@netcom.com (Antigone Press) Subject: Re: Can You Dial Area Code 810 From Your Switch Yet? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 03:15:59 GMT John Palmer (jp@Tygra.Michigan.COM) wrote: > Just out of curiosity, I tried dialing a phone number yesterday with > area code 810 instead of 313 and the call went through! > 810 isn't supposed to be active till 1 December. Has the telco > pre-programmed their switches??? Can anyone else use 810 instead of > 313 (anyone else outside of Michigan). Pacific Bell traps the call after 1-810- into a "We're sorry ... your call cannot be completed as dialed..." recording. (Same recording exactly for 10ATT-1-810-XXX-XXXX or 10222-1-810-XXX-XXXX....) Michael Ross mross@antigone.com (preferred) Antigone Press mross@netcom.com San Francisco CA FAX +1.415.431.3650 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Answering Machine That Calls Pager? From: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) Date: 17 Sep 93 02:43:00 GMT Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) >> Can anyone tell me makes or models of answering machines that will >> place a call to a pager to alert me that I have a message? > See the new Radio Shack catalog. The TRS catalog now sells for $2.95. I would rather buy 47 Street Photo's; at least they sell Panasonic answering machines that do the same thing. ------------------------------ From: rja14@cl.cam.ac.uk (Ross Anderson) Subject: Re: Point of Sale ATM Card Readers and Customer PIN Keypads Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 05:02:07 GMT [Moderator's Note: The original message in this thread appeared only in comp.dcom.telecom, not in the Digest. PAT] Sydney Biddle Barrows (barrows@neuro.usc.edu) wrote: > Here in California even small merchants have been authorized to use > a small ATM card reader with an attached keyboard for customer input > to facilitate purchases using ATM cards. It seems to me these boxes > are unlikely to use any sophisticated DES, dedicated line, or other > kind of security. Most likely they either transmit clear text or it > would be a simple matter to tap into the box and extract unencrypted > ATM card and customer entered PIN information. Most PIN pads do indeed have a microcontroller with embedded DES which encrypts the PIN en route to the bank. Some of them even encrypt it properly. But why waste time breaking in to the terminal? The two standard attacks are: - build a false terminal and harvest account numbers and PINs; - observe the customers' PINs as they are entered (many stores take video recordings of the checkout in order to deter cashier fraud). Then get the customer account number from the tally roll. Both of these tricks are in widespread use - see my article `Why Cryptosystems Fail' to appear in the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, Fairfax, VA, 3-5 November this year. The moral is that VISA's current plan to introduce PINs worldwide with mag stripe cards is a bad idea. But then, it's the banks and their customers who pay for fraud, not VISA. Ross ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 16:21:01 -0700 From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: DTMF Pocket Dialers In article is written: > Prior to this trip I purchase a Sony auto dialer hand held device > which emitted DTMF tones and loaded with my numbers. I found the > dialer to be operational at best in 50% of the areas I travelled to. > Generally speaking the more remote the location the less of a chance > the dialer would work. There was never any problems in any of the > major metropolitan areas. Mind you my ATM Star network card would also > not work in Star tellers in the panhandle of Florida, but worked fine > in Boston ... > Guess what I'm saying is dialers ARE highly dependent on the phone system. Of course, some older exchanges just didn't accept touchtone at all, I suppose most of those are gone now. Other places touchtone is an option that you have to pay for. The charge was eliminated in Wisconsin, and is now included 'at no additional cost' (meaning, they charge EVERYONE for it now...). Folks who are not paying for touchtone would often (depending on how smart the exchange was) have it disabled, so only pulse dialing would work. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: petel@sequent.com (Pete Lancashire) Subject: Re: Touring a Working CO? Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 15:26:02 GMT ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Eric Hinson) writes: > I've been following the discussion on the central office tours thread > on the Digest, and was wondering if someone could tell me how I could > go about getting a tour of a working central office that is practically > right around the corner from where I live. I was able to get a tour... Eric ... There are two ways of getting a tour. First the 'offical' way. Get the name of your local co's PR person(s). And then get an offical tour. Your ham license should help. Next is the way I do it. Just look for someone there. And then knock on the door. Especially on the weekends. AND THEN TAKE A CAMARA!!! There are very few good pics of SXS or 'Mail Boxes' around. Good luck ... Pete Lancashire petel@sequent.com Sr. Systems Engineer ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #654 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa18897; 19 Sep 93 23:48 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01910 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 19 Sep 1993 21:08:36 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24789 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 19 Sep 1993 21:08:19 -0500 Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1993 21:08:19 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309200208.AA24789@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Telecom Archives Email Service A new email service has been started to make access to the Telecom Archives available to users who do not have the more conventional access methods of FTP, Gopher or Web, to name three common connections. The Telecom Archives Email Service can be contacted at: tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu This is an automated address connected to a script which handles your inquiries. The 'help' and 'info' files available from the service are printed here for your reference. In summary, you can: SEND for files in the archives including back issues of TELECOM Digest; INFOrm yourself on changes and new files in the archives. SEARCH the indexes of authors and subjects in TELECOM Digest since 1989. This is useful when you recall a particular article but cannot remember which issue it was in. The years 1989 through 1992 are indexed, and 1993 will be included in the indexes soon. I use grep -i to search the back issues based on the strings you provide so you don't have to worry about the upper/lower case involved -- you get back a list of the issues you'll need to obtain for the desired articles. If you make an error in entering commands or request a non-existent file, the service will not just ignore you or throw your letter away. You will get back a very verbose report, showing how your commands were interpreted, and why your requests could not be met. You can also receive manual assistance as required. Much of this script (the backbone and principal parts of it in fact) were written by Clive Feather (clive@x.co.uk) and donated to the Archives as a public service. I also wrote a few of the features available and added some cosmetics. Here is the HELP file: The Telecom-Archives Email Service ================================== [Last modified September 19, 1993] The Telecom Archives Email Service is a simple package to allow files to be fetched by email. It understands a small set of commands, which basically cause files to be sent in mail messages to an email address specified in the message (this does not have to be the sender of the message). Messages are sent to the Telecom Archives Email Service by emailing them to: tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu The subject does not matter. The message sent to the server should consist of a set of commands, one per line. Each command begins with a keyword, which should be all in the same case, though this can be either upper or lower case. The first command must be a REPLY command: the server will use this to determine the end of any introductory material and the start of the actual commands. Commands ======== The commands understood by the server are listed below. Some commands take a single argument, which is separated from the command name by one or more spaces. All other text on the command line is ignored. An exception to this is when search mode is turned on; see notes below. END The remainder of the message will be ignored by the info-server. This should be used to prevent signatures from being interpreted. HELP Sends this file. This is equivalent to "INFO HELP". HUMAN This should be used to obtain help; processing of your message will stop and the entire message will be sent to a human being. It is actually forwarded to telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. INDEX Sends the list of all files in the Telecom Archives. This is equiv- alent to "INFO INDEX". INFO This command takes an argument and causes files to be sent in reply, like the SEND command, but these files are about TELECOM Digest and the Archives itself, such as a list of all files in the database, and a list of what has changed in the last week. Unlike the SEND command, the argument is lowercased before use. If you include a argument, you get that file. If you just say 'INFO' and do not include an argument, then you get an index of available info files about Telecom Digest and other things. PASSWORD This command takes an argument, consisting of the name of a "file group", a slash, and then a password; for example: "private/pswd". If the password is correct for that file group, then the files in the file group, and the index file for it, become available for request. Until the password is correctly specified, the file group is not available. Files for a file group all have names including the group name; for example, all files in the file group "private" have names beginning ".private/" (note the dot). The index for the group can be fetched with the command "info index.private" once the password requirement has been met. WARNING - accessing files with a password that has not been obtained in a legitimate manner may be an offense under the law. Access to restricted file sets other than via a legitimately obtained password is expressly forbidden. REPLY This takes an argument, which is the email address to which all replies should be sent. This *must* be the first command; the ser- ver uses it to determine the start of the commands to be executed. This may also occur elsewhere within the message; replies to subse- quent commands will be sent to the new address. SEND This takes an argument, which is the name of a file or set of files to be requested. All files in the Archives database whose name includes the argument will be sent in reply. Thus, if the database included a package consisting of five files: software.dndlib.01 software.dndlib.02 software.dndlib.03 software.dndlib.04 software.dndlib.README then the whole package can be retrieved with the command: SEND software.dndlib whilst just part 3 can be retrieved with the command: SEND software.dndlib.03 It is legal, though not necessarily useful, to use commands like: SEND ware. SEND dli both of which will send these five files (and probably others). SEARCH-OFF SEARCH-ON These two commands work together to allow searching the indexes of back issues of TELECOM Digest. Normally when using this email server, the first word on each line is taken as a command and the phrase following is taken as the argument, i.e. SEND filename. But when SEARCH-ON is given as the command (it has no arguments) then what you type on each line following is treated as the literal string to be grepped against possible entries in the index to subjects/authors files in the archives rather than as a command to the email server itself. Once the server encounters the phrase SEARCH-OFF, it resumes processing what follows as commands to the server rather than strings to be grepped from the indexes. As examples: REPLY yourname@site OHIO BELL END This will fail since the server has no such command as 'Ohio Bell'. REPLY yourname@site SEARCH-ON OHIO BELL (or for that matter, ohio bell will work just as well) SEARCH-OFF END This will produce return mail from the server listing every instance of 'Ohio Bell' (up/low case does not matter) appearing in the indexes of subjects and authors. Had you given an author's name, you'd get back a list of every time that name appeared in the index with the titles of articles submitted, etc. In general, avoid the use of a server command as the first word in a search string in search mode. For example, 'end' (as the first word in the search string) will -- for obvious reasons -- close the server regardless of the status of search mode; it won't produce thousands of lines of subjects/authors with /end/ as part of the string. All that really happens with SEARCH-ON is that the server is told to ignore 'typing errors' in 'commands' you enter and to instead treat it as something to search for in the indexes rather than a file to retrieve. Most server commands will continue to work regardless of SEARCH-ON (and likewise, most server commands cannot be the first word in a search string), but the results are mixed and unpredictable. When your email stream first flows into the script, the default is SEARCH-OFF (search=false). If you turn it on to search the indexes it is to your advantage to turn it off before entering other commands after it. If you get ten megs of email in your box listing all sorts of article titles from back issues of the Digest, don't say you were not warned! . VERBOSE A description of the effect of each command will be sent back to you. You'll get a letter back showing what I thought you were trying to say or asking for. Acknowlegements: This email server was constructed mostly by our friend Clive Feather , to whom my grateful thanks are extended! Some features and modifications were constructed by myself. Additional notes: To SUBMIT articles to TELECOM Digest, write to telecom@eecs.nwu.edu. To SUBSRIBE to TELECOM Digest, write to telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. To write to me personally, write to ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu. --------------------- Here is the INFO file: Telecom Archives Email Server Basic Information: ================================================ To use the INFO command with the email server you would type: INFO ... where can be one of these: back-issues How to interpret the data in the subject/author indexes and obtain old copies the Digest from the archives. faq The Frequently Asked Questions file for comp.dcom.telecom and the TELECOM Digest. help The help file, also fetched by the HELP command. index The index to data files, also fetched by the INDEX command. info This file. last-day A list of the data files that have changed in the last 24 hours. last-week A list of the data files that have changed in the last 7 days. last-month A list of the data files that have changed in the last 30 days. products For information about the telecom products/services we offer. orange-card For information about the Orange Calling Card, a no-surcharge, 25 cent per minute calling card. telepassport For information about the Telepassport International Calling Service; how to use it; how to sign up. telecom-digest For information about the TELECOM Digest, and how to receive it. For more detailed help using this service, send this message: REPLY yourname@site HELP INDEX END Or: REPLY yourname@site HUMAN END Then your additional text typed here free form if you cannot figure this out and want email from a human. Acknowledgement: Everyone please send a note of thanks to Clive Feather for making this program available to comp.dcom.telecom and the Digest. PAT ---------------------- That's the biz, sweethearts ... enjoy it! PAT   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16382; 20 Sep 93 18:53 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32368 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 20 Sep 1993 15:30:32 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11436 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 20 Sep 1993 15:30:03 -0500 Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 15:30:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309202030.AA11436@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #655 TELECOM Digest Mon, 20 Sep 93 15:29:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 655 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Economist Article: Imminent Death of Telephone Industry (Sean Burke) Day Long PacBell Outage (Urban Surfer) Tech Info Wanted on KX-T9000H Cordless (John Landwehr) GTE Beats Out Pacific Bell in ESS Feature (Lauren Weinstein) Good Hotel Upgrade or Teleslime? (Barton Bruce) CID Report From the 'Springs (Russell Kroll) Congressional Internet on Line (Michael G. Katzmann) Question on SDH VLSI Implementations (Pat Sullivan) From Internet to NIST? (Eric L. Hinson) Cellular Telephone Charging Methods (Richard Thomsen) Changed Country Codes (38 -> 38x) (Dalibor Cerar) AT&T Customer-Driven? (Jim Gottlieb) Milking a T1 - Equipment Pointers Desired (Jerry Glomph Black) Intelemate From DataLogic (Experiences?) (Bill Bailey) AT&T 1-800-OPERATOR (Christopher Zguris) Be sure and try the new Telecom Archives automated Email Information Service (tel-archvies@lcs.mit.edu). It is intended to help all our non-Internet participants made full use of the Archives. Ask me for a help file if you have not seen it. PAT] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sean@netcom.com (Sean Burke22) Subject: Economist Article: Imminent Death of Telephone Industry Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 05:37:18 GMT Readers of these newsgroups might be interested in an article by George Gilder published in {The Economist}, September 11-17. Mr Gilder is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute in Seattle, and has some interesting views on the major hardons which the telephone and TV networks are having over multimedia, broadband fiber optics, national information infrastructures, etc. If you enjoyed watching dinosaurs like AT&T or IBM get their just deserts, Gilder predicts that the big three TV networks and the Baby Bells will be next in line, and will never even see it coming. Here are some choice excerpts, intended to give you the flavor of the article without trampling wholesale on the rights of the copyright holder. In this case laziness abets virtue -- I wouldn't type the whole thing in even if I could. I've only quoted the provocative parts -- but the article has lots more facts, figures AND juicy invective. All mispellings and typos are mine. George Gilder writes in The Economist, September 11-17: Proclaiming "multimedia convergence", "interactivity", "intelligent networks", "500 channels of pay-per-view" and invoking vistas of "high-definition television", seers in telephone and television companies give stirring speeches about the future. Contemplating their revenues of tens of billions of dollars (see chart), their laboratories full of new technology, their millions of mostly satisfied shareholders and customers, their multiplying masses of trade publications and cover-stories in national magazines, telephone and television executives all too often seem unaware that their basic technologies are dead. ... telecoms executives want to believe that televisions and telephones can evolve bit by bit into the new digital world, with the same companies supplying essentially the same services and offering essentially the same jobs. This dream cannot come true. Even to talk of "telephones" and "televisions" reflects a lexicographic lag that prevents many business leaders from detecting the onset of rigor mortis in their still-profitable products. ...closer to the heart of the matter is the constant celebration of fibre optics by telephone executives in public forums, accompanied by the continued installation of millions of miles of the old twisted-pair copper wire every year. At the same time, the supposedly scarce realms of the radio-frequency spectrum will open up due to a series of innovations that make communications power (bandwidth) as cheap in the air as it is in wire today. Microcells using a protocol called Code Division Multiple Access can use the entire radio-frequency spectrum every few miles or even hundreds of yards. Billions of hertz of little-used spectrum are available in the microwave domain and can be used for television broadcasts or computer networks. All these developments converge on one key fact of life, and death, for telecommunications in the 1990s. Television and telephone systems -- designed for a world in which spectrum or bandwidth was scarce -- are utterly unsuited for a world in bandwidth is abundant. ------------ Sean Burke sean@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 11:53:14 PST From: Urban Surfer Subject: Day-Long PacBell Outage On Wednesday, Sept 15th, 1993, Pacific Bell had a major extended outage in Northwest Orange County, CA. My company lost dozens of T1's and 56K circuits and suffered through heavy choking by Pac Bell. Here is my account of the outage which is a mixture of on-the-scene reports, an article in the {Orange County Register}, and a preliminary post mortem by Pac Bell. PB's official report will be filed, by law, within 30 days of the incident. There may be factual errors in this report. At about 3am, PB tech's reported a problem with the DACS IV at the Anaheim 11 CO, in Cypress, CA. The DACS seemed to be responding slowly. Some reports say that the techs were performing an emergency upgrade of the DACS. According to the OCR, they left a voice mail for Fred Jacobs, a PB trouble specialist. When he arrived at the office at 7:30 and heard the message, he gave the order to reboot the DACS. It never came back up. We experienced full outage of our T1's at 7:58. All our digital links ride a fiber ring to the CO and connect to the DACS. There were a total of 15 T3's terminated at the DACS. When PB discovered that there were having serious problems, they began choking calls at the access tandem so the switch wouldn't overload on "all circuits busy" messages. This affected all POTS calls including 911 emergency service, and switched 56K. There is no ISDN here yet. The county went into emergency mode and notified CB and ham operators. Police and firemen patrolled the streets. PB replaced the hard drive on the DACS and loaded backup tapes in. They told us this would be completed by 11am. At 11am they told us that they would need more time for testing. By this time, we were receiving 15 minute status updates from our PB rep via cellular phone. Fortunately, we had the foresight to rig 48 cellular circuits to our PBX's. We also had plenty of mobile units. Around noon time, PB gave up and called in Bellcore. An engineer dialed in from Chicago to work the problem. According to OCR, the original DACS software designer, known only as Jerry, was the engineer. A standby DACS was brought in and Jerry supervised the loading of tapes to get things back up. At 4pm our T1's popped back up and we were back at 100%. PB said that they still don't know what the problem was. They think it was code or memory related. If anyone knows, I would appreciate an explanation. I need to plan for extra redundancy in routing our T1's. We will be taking a CO tour in a couple of weeks to plan this. Matt Holdrege holdrege@phs.com MH235 ------------------------------ From: John_Landwehr@NeXT.COM (John Landwehr) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 09:57:02 -0500 Subject: Tech Info Wanted on KX-T9000H Cordless I recently purchased a Panasonic KX-T9000H cordless 900MHz telephone. (For those interested, it works very well! But seems to favor channel 11 95% of the time, and occasionally goes to channel 17 ... doesn't seem to know or care about the other available 28 channels) Inside the base unit, there are two dip switches next to the tone/pulse switch. Although the t/p switch is accessable from the outside, the dip switches are not. (However, there is a cutout in the casing, but it is covered!) Does anyone know what these might be used for? I flipped them all, and didn't notice any changes (including frequency). Also, on the underside of the base is a soft panel. On the handset, there is another soft panel under the battery. Both of these have eight solder pads on the circuit boards which are accessable if the soft panel is removed or the units are completely disassembled. Possible programming panels? Any ideas on how to use? John Landwehr jland@next.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 12:15 PDT From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: GTE Beats Out Pacific Bell in ESS Feature Greetings. Here's something that the GTE bashers in the audience might find at least mildly interesting. It turns out that GTE, with their GTD5 switch, can offer their customers more control over their call forwarding costs than Pacific and their 5ESS. The issue revolves around standard "variable" call forwarding, the type where the customer can enable and disable call forwarding to whichever number they wish. The GTD5 (and GTE policy) allows the customer to request that fewer call "links" or "passes" be allowed for forwarding than the default. This can be critically important if a business is forwarding a line into a system with a large rotary, but needs to control the costs of those forwarded calls by limiting how many simultaneous calls will be forwarded--especially important for toll or long distance forwarding situations. It can also be crucial if a business if forwarding to a single line with call-waiting, where frequent multiple incoming calls would make use of three-way very difficult due to the fact that a call wait beep disables the ability to get a three-way dialtone. In theory, cancel call waiting could be used per call to try get around this, but in practice that turns into a substantial hassle, especially for non-telecom folks. There are situations where you just want ONE call at a time, and just want the other calls to go busy. As I mentioned, GTE will happily arrange for this, and limit the passes/links to one if you so request. Pacific says no way. They claim the 5ESS won't even allow it, except for remote call forwarding situations, where they charge extra for each pass/link. So in this case, at least, GTE gets the customer service prize, and Pacific Bell loses out. If someone at Pacific knows of a way to accomplish what I describe that isn't widely known, I'd sure like to hear about it. And similarly, if the 5ESS folks out at the Labs can clarify the capabilities of 5ESS in terms of such control, that would also be fascinating information. Thanks much, --Lauren-- ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Good Hotel Upgrade or Teleslime? Date: 20 Sep 93 12:43:24 -0400 Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. A hotel owner I know has been approached by someone selling a service that will put a FREE phone in each room. Each phone has MANY buttons on it to dial for area services and info that this service provider will go sell ads for. Additionally, the phone has a card-swipe reader to facilitate credit card purchases over the phone. All the hotel gets is 1) free phones that are supposed to plug and play on the current PBX, 2) enhanced service to guests, 3) revenue from increased local calls (presumably even the info calls are charged for). This service company may be selling travel and lodging services for the traveler's next destination that are paid for via a credit card read in the swipe reader. I believe the phone will NOT try to reroute LD calls via any other carrier so this won't impact this properties contract with AT&T that was negotiated by the chain they belong to. The customer probably can also use the swipe reader in placing CC calls to the carrier of his choice. Apparently at larger sites (this is a 75 room one), these phones can order pay-per-view TV service for the room, but this is not planned here. Is this really an innocent service that sells ads for area tourist attractions, or is there some clever trick lurking here? Should the hotel be holding out for some bigger cut of the action than just "FREE PHONES THAT WILL BOOST YOUR LOCAL CALL TRAFFIC"? ------------------------------ Subject: CID Report From the 'Springs From: cmptech!rkroll@csn.org (Russell Kroll) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 05:51:24 MDT Organization: Computech BBS at 719.260.6279 - Colorado Springs, CO Well, Caller-ID and the CLASS services are here in Colorado Springs as of September 14th. US West did a mailing about two weeks before the activation date letting people know about per-line blocking as well as other things. Here's how things work. Per line blocking is free for awhile. You *CAN'T* dial *67 to turn delivery back on. Attempting to do so results in reorder. I believe other readers of the Digest reported being able to Call Return (*69) blocked calls. Here, you simply get a message similar to: "The last call was blocked, and can't be called with your last call return service." Another interesting thing about *69 is that it reads off the number (719 260 6279 for example) then asks if you want to dial it by pressing 1. This is much better than that offered in Houston, where *69 would either put the call through, or give a message. The number was not given prior to dialing. It appears that they had their act together when they went to work on this. Oh yes, an update on that line that had the cable snaked across the vacant lot next door ... it was buried about two weeks ago. rkroll%cmptech.uucp@csn.org (Russell Kroll) - or - cmptech!rkroll@csn.org This came from Computech BBS .... +1 719.260.6279 in Colorado Springs, CO. ------------------------------ From: slc1!vk2bea!michael@uunet.UU.NET (Michael G. Katzmann) Subject: Congressional Internet on Line Date: 20 Sep 93 10:35:36 GMT Organization: Broadcast Sports Technology., Crofton, MD {Washington Technology} (September 9) reports that some members of the House of Representatives have been supplied with Internet addresses. Quote: Rep. Charlie Rose, D-NC., officially went public last month with the E-mail addresses belonging to seven Congressmen participating in an Internet access testbed under his supervision. Rose floated the names and addresses out over the internet. Rose included with the addresses a message pleading with Internet users that only constituents from the seven congressional districts use the addresses. Under instructions entitled: "For Constituents," Rose wrote: "the primary goal of this pilot program is to allow members to better serve their CONSTITUENTS." He added that Internet surfers should be patient as more congressional members will be joining in the near future. Since the program started three months ago, only a handful of E-mail letters have funnelled through the system to the seven congressional offices. The house members fear that if public interest should swell, an avalanche of E-mail could overwhelm the limited resources of the congressional offices. Here are the addresses: *Rep. Charlie Rose, D-N.C.: CROSE@HR.HOUSE.GOV *Rep. Perter Stark, D-Calif.: PETEMAIL@HR.HOUSE.GOV *Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C.: MELMAIL@HR.HOUSE.GOV *Rep. Jay Dickey, R-Ark.: JDICKEY@HR.HOUSE.GOV *Rep. Sam Gejdenson, D-Conn.: BOZRAH@@HR.HOUSE.GOV *Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.: GEORGIA6@HR.HOUSE.GOV *Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.: GEORGEM@HR.HOUSE.GOV And for comments: COMMENTS@HR.HOUSE.GOV Michael Katzmann Broadcast Sports Technology Inc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Crofton, Maryland. U.S.A NV3Z / VK2BEA / G4NYV opel!vk2bea!michael@uunet.UU.NET ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 06:38:41 EDT From: psullivn@dtsa.osd.mil (Pat Sullivan) Subject: Question on SDH VLSI Implementations I'm trying to find out where SONET/SDH realized in VLSI chipsets might be available; would appreciate any info I could get on that. Also trying to find out non-obvious companies who are making SONET/SDH muxes etc., possibly using such VLSI chipsets. Please reply direct. Thanks, Patrick Sullivan Office of the Secretary of Defense Arlington, VA. ------------------------------ From: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Eric L. Hinson) Subject: From Internet to NIST? Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 03:46:44 MDT Is there a way to connect to NIST's time sync system (303) 494-4774 via the Internet (telnet, rlogin, or other protocol)? Also, does anybody know what type of computer(s) this service runs on? I'm curious also as to how it determines what UTC really IS (what does it use as its time base)? Eric L. Hinson / Internet: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu / Ham Radio: kb4rzf ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 08:09:55 -0600 From: rgt@lanl.gov (Richard Thomsen) Subject: Cellular Telephone Charging Methods I just picked up some brochures for cellular telephone from US West here in New Mexico. They had one option which cost $2.00 per month, and caused incomming telephone calls to be charged to the caller, instead of the owner of the cellular account. I did not know this was available. I wonder if those calling know? Richard Thomsen Los Alamos National Laboratory Computer Networking Group (C-5) rgt@lanl.gov In case you did not realize, I speak only for myself. ------------------------------ From: Dalibor@garbo.uwasa.fi (Dalibor Cerar) Subject: Changed Country Codes (38 -> 38x) Organization: University of Vaasa, Finland Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 09:23:27 GMT From 1st of October, 1993, all exYugoslav countries will have new country codes. New country codes are: Bosnia ........ 387 Montenegro .... 381 Croatia ....... 385 Macedonia ..... 389 Slovenia ...... 386 Serbia ........ 381 Besides that, all phone numbers in Ljubljana, Slovenia, which start with 1***** will be changed to 1x***** ("x" differs and represents the part of the city). Dalibor ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 19:57 PDT From: jimmy@denwa.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) Organization: Info Connections, West Los Angeles Subject: AT&T Customer-Driven? AT&T has come far in the last few years. Slowly but surely the monopoly attitude has been wearing off. However, vestiges of its former life remain. This is illustrated by AT&T's continued refusal to provide caller ANI except on ISDN facilities. This topic comes up whenever telecom managers meet. The other carriers, hungry for business, will deliver ANI any way the customer wants. DTMF? Sure. MF? No problem. This willingness to be flexible has caused us to move most of our traffic off of AT&T and onto carriers that act as if they really want our business. AT&T needs to learn that in this day and age, they can not force technology down its customers' throats. We will go to the company willing to meet our needs. Jim Gottlieb E-Mail: jimmy@denwa.info.com In Japan: jimmy@info.juice.or.jp V-Mail: +1 310 551 7702 Fax: 478-3060 Voice: 824-5454 ------------------------------ From: Jerry Glomph Black Subject: Milking a T1 - Equipment Pointers Desired! Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 03:16:25 -0400 I'm looking to squeeze as much as I can into a T1: A synch line between two routers, plus a bunch of phone lines, some of which have to carry fax/modem, most of which are for voice-only, and probably can be low bit-rate. We do it now with a fixed allocation (channel bank + T1 Mux) which sucks because the digital stream (the synch line) can't use the bandwidth of all the idle phone channels. I know there's a box out there that can do this, do you have any scoops on this? Jerry Black, black@LL.MIT.EDU (the only internet administrator in the Marshall Islands!) ------------------------------ From: bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Subject: Intelemate From DataLogic (Experiences?) Date: 20 Sep 1993 12:26:56 GMT Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston IL USA I've been looking for solutions to getting fax and modem over my Norstar Key system and ran accross the Intelemate II. Has anyone used or heard about this? They claim it is a "portable telephone wall jack". It plugs between the phone and the earpiece and provides all the Bell Telephone signal standards to fax/modem. It is guaranteed to work on any phone and will run on 9 volt or standard AC. It is priced just a little more than the Northern Tel. ATA $295 Intelemate II. Are there any other products out there like the Intelemate from DataLogic? Their phone: 800 397 2200. Thanks, Bill bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 23:38 GMT From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: AT&T 1-800-OPERATOR I just saw AT&T's commercial for 800-OPERATOR. It must be their response to MCI's 800-COLLECT. The commercial says theyr'e the cheapest, why did AT&T set up an 800 number, why couldn't they just reduce their collect call rates -- or is it simply better marketing to have an 800 number? Maybe this is the reason 800-COLLECT advertising no longer claims to be the cheapest way to place a collect call? Christopher Zguris CZGURIS@MCIMAIL.COM [Moderator's Note: May I suggest 1-800-TALK-425? That's the number which Orange Communications has set up to do the same thing at 25 cents per minute and something like 70-80 cents surcharge. They are the people who put out the Orange Calling Card which as everyone here knows has made me a millionaire in just six months. :) Not quite, but now I get to sit in the front of the bus rather than on the back seat, that's how profit- able it has been! :) Anyway, try 1-800-TALK-425. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #655 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16976; 20 Sep 93 19:21 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04079 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 20 Sep 1993 16:00:55 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12647 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 20 Sep 1993 16:00:32 -0500 Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 16:00:32 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309202100.AA12647@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #656 TELECOM Digest Mon, 20 Sep 93 16:00:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 656 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: ISDN in the USA (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: ISDN in the USA (William Sohl) Re: ISDN in the USA (Paul Campbell) Re: Hotel Charges and Surcharges (Raymond Shwake) Re: Hotel Charges and Surcharges (Jack Winslade) Re: Newsfeed Wanted From Above (Dave Emery) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 12:36:22 GMT In article ketil@edb.tih.no (Ketil Albertsen,TIH) writes: > Disregarding the well known problems of 56 vs 64 kbps and mu-law vs > A-law for a moment, in another area the US decided to divert from the > original ISDN standards: > In the rest of the world (well, I am not sure about Canada and Japan), > the service provider delivers an internationally standardized T > interface to an NT1 which serves to isolate the user from the network > (subscriber line) both with respect to protocols and technology. Eg. > the phone company may replace the copper cable with an optical fiber > without affecting the user equipment. > In the US, the phone companies are not allowed to sell the standard T > interface to the customers; they are required to provide a "U" > interface which can be considered to be the end of the cable running > to the switch office, with no termination electronics. US customers > have been fooled to believe that this will save them money, as they > can (/must) buy their own terminator box at the department store (I > get the impression that ISDN NT1 boxes are terribly expensive in the > US -- I am happy that I don't have to buy one). > (I assume that the telco is allowed to sell NT1 boxes, too -- but > these become the property of the customer, not of the network provider.) Nothing like more USA-bashing! Just what we need here. Anyway, Ketil's description is a bit erroneous. The whole NT business is tied up in international monopoly politics. When ISDN began to be talked about in the late '70s, some people (including most Americans involved) viewed it as a way to rationally digitize the telephone network, which makes sense considering the economics. Some Europeans, though, viewed it as a way to extend their monopoly in telecommuncations into the area of data communications and teleprocessing. Yep, CompUServe wouldn't be allowed in that model, only the PTT's own service. Of course that monopolist's dream fell by the wayside as the PTTs were taught that their national economies were more important than themselves. The original PTT view had the S interface delivered to the customer, with the PBX part of the monopoly. Since the USA already had competitive offering of PBXs, NT was split into NT1 (line terminator) and NT2 (PBX). But the FCC decided that NT1 was customer-premise equipment and could be competitive TOO. Anyone who remembers the relative prices of telco and interconnect PBXs back before '83 (detariffing of PBXs, an act unrelated to "divestiture") will agree that competition lowers prices. NT1s ARE frightfully overpriced now, rumored because AT&T was forced (antitrust threat or something) by a low-volume competitor to privide them with a "price umbrella". I hope this breaks soon, but it's doubtful that a monopoly from the phone company would cost less. > Of course they have been fooled -- the telco must install some sort of > terminator box as well, for providing the U interface, so you end up > having two termiantor boxes -- hardly cheaper than having one! And > while the ITU (CCITT) doesn't want to define physical/electrical > standards for the U interface to keep things flexible with respect to > future technology, the US market (? FCC?) has defined a standard U for > the US - making things just as rigid as following the T standard would > be. (If the telco would like to replace their old subscriber lines > with some future technology that doesn't fit well into the U interface, > they still are forced to convert the signals, in *their* (new, of > course) terminator box, to the U standard, so that it can be converted > by the user's terminator box to what the user really wants. Hardly > cheaper than adapting directly to the T interface!) The ITU didn't define a single U interface in the I series, but there were six options described in the G series, including the US standard 2B1Q and the German 4B3T! ANSI T1 defined U in the US. It is of course possible for the phone company to provide non-standard service. We have lines with AT&T-defined AMI coding as well as 2B1Q. It's a free market here. The phone company can provide 4B3T, raw glass, ADSL, or ISDN-over-wet-string if they want, if they publish the spec (for equipment suppliers). The market wants 2B1Q. Some ISDN devices are including integral NT1. ISDN Systems Corp., for instance, plans to sell their (delayed) PC ISDN card for $495 without NT1 and $645 with integral NT1. AT&T makes a phone with a U interface. Xancomm sells a two-channel analog TA + NT1 + UPS + packet-D box for $650. None possible with telco-bundled NT1. Even some European PTTs and Former PTTs are moving toward optional user-provided NT1, with 2B1Q. Personally I don't like integral NT1 devices UNLESS they also provide access for other devices, but some do. > Also, a lot of network maintenance (outside the US) is based on the > phone switch being able to interrogate the NT1. This cannot be done in > the US system, where the NT1 may be absent. This may (although I > cannot say "will") lead to poorer system maintenance, which may lead > to poorer service. NT1 may not be a separate item, but its capabilities are generally provided by integral NT1 devices. Besides, if somebody wants to skimp on what NT1 they buy, they shouldn't expect the same service as one who buys a good NT1! Ah, choice. What a concept. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 17:32:31 GMT In article ketil@edb.tih.no (Ketil Albertsen,TIH) writes: > In article , keyman@Eng.Sun.COM (Dave > Evans) writes: >>> It [ISDN] is not a world wide standard. USA has made their own >>> standard, and the rest of the world is following another standard. >>> (The right one.) >> This is not accurate. (BTW: We in the US get just as upset about US >> bashing as you do about someone bashing your country. Lets all try to >> exchange information without getting tooooooo personal about it.) > Disregarding the well known problems of 56 vs 64 kbps and mu-law vs > A-law for a moment, in another area the US decided to divert from the > original ISDN standards: The 56 vs 64 is an evolutionary problem in the USA. Eventually, all will be 64Kb. The network takes time to be converted to 64Kb clear trunking. > In the rest of the world (well, I am not sure about Canada and Japan), > the service provider delivers an internationally standardized T > interface to an NT1 which serves to isolate the user from the network > (subscriber line) both with respect to protocols and technology. Eg. > the phone company may replace the copper cable with an optical fiber > without affecting the user equipment. Slight correction: The sevice provider outside the USA offers the T interface to the customer's NT-2 equipment. Outside the USA, the service provide (the telco) provides the NT-1 to convert the line signal (be it copper, fibre, or whatever) to the T-Interface. > In the US, the phone companies are not allowed to sell the standard T > interface to the customers; they are required to provide a "U" > interface which can be considered to be the end of the cable running > to the switch office, with no termination electronics. US customers > have been fooled to believe that this will save them money, as they > can (/must) buy their own terminator box at the department store (I > get the impression that ISDN NT1 boxes are terribly expensive in the > US -- I am happy that I don't have to buy one). The customer premises equipment/interface situation in the USA began long before ISDN. Through the various Computer Inquiries (1, 2 & 3) by the FCC the desicison was made by the FCC to mandate the USA interface for many services to be the copper pair itself. > (I assume that the telco is allowed to sell NT1 boxes, too -- but > these become the property of the customer, not of the network provider.) True. > Of course they have been fooled -- the telco must install some sort of > terminator box as well, for providing the U interface, so you end up > having two termiantor boxes -- hardly cheaper than having one! The terminator box for the U interface is nothing more than the same jack that is used for a typical telephone installation. There is absolutely no electrical/electronic componentry provided as the U termination on the customer premises by the telephone companies. In a residential environment, the jack is known as an RJ-11 jack. > And while the ITU (CCITT) doesn't want to define physical/electrical > standards for the U interface to keep things flexible with respect to > future technology, the US market (? FCC?) has defined a standard U for > the US - making things just as rigid as following the T standard would > be. (If the telco would like to replace their old subscriber lines > with some future technology that doesn't fit well into the U interface, > they still are forced to convert the signals, in *their* (new, of > course) terminator box, to the U standard, so that it can be converted > by the user's terminator box to what the user really wants. Hardly > cheaper than adapting directly to the T interface!) The decision mandating NT-1 being owned by the customer (end-user) was an FCC decision, as already noted above. In fact, the telephone companies fought that decision long and hard to no avail. > What does this mean for the customer? To save the expense of a > separate user NT1, some companies make phones, modems/TAs etc. that > directly connects to the U interface! Although they may be cheaper > than an NT1 + a standard ISDN phone, there is no good reason why they > would be cheaper than a standard ISDN phone alone. (Similar for > modem/TA and other equipment). And you cannot use this equipment with > any standardized ISDN T interface. Furthermore, you loose > functionality that way: D channel arbitration is resolved by the NT1, > so if you don't have an NT1, in general you cannot multiplex separate > connections (two phones on separate B channels and various D channel > connections). > Also, a lot of network maintenance (outside the US) is based on the > phone switch being able to interrogate the NT1. This cannot be done in > the US system, where the NT1 may be absent. There is always an NT-1, even if it is functionally incorporated into the design of the ISDN set itself. Also, the US U interface does include significant maintenace related messaging and interaction with the customer owned NT-1. > This may (although I cannot say "will") lead to poorer system > maintenance, which may lead to poorer service. That has vbeen argued previously to the FCC, but the situation so far (almost 20 years of customer owned terminating equipment for varios data services and now ISDN) has not resulted in any identifieable support of that argument. Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!cc!whs70 201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@cc.bellcore.com ------------------------------ From: Paul.Campbell@m.cc.utah.edu (Strider) Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Organization: University of Utah Computer Center Student Mail Machine Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 11:10:26 GMT In article ketil@edb.tih.no (Ketil Albertsen,TIH) writes: > In article , keyman@Eng.Sun.COM (Dave > Evans) writes: ( much deleted) > while the ITU (CCITT) doesn't want to define physical/electrical ^^^^^ What does ITU stand for? Thanks! Paul W. Campbell |MegaHertz Corporation pawcamp@u.cc.utah.edu | Salt Lake City, UT pwc@sunset.cse.nau.edu| (w) 801-320-7543 pwc@ghost.cse.nau.edu| (h) 801-261-9094 [Moderator's Note: I believe ITU might be the International Telecommuni- cations Union. PAT] ------------------------------ From: media!nearside!shwake@uunet.UU.NET (Raymond Shwake) Subject: Re: Hotel Charges and Surcharges Organization: IRS A/C (International) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 03:46:35 GMT dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) writes: > I was at a hotel in Omaha (the Blackstone) in 1962 when I was flying > from there to New York City, and when I went to check out the next > morning, they tried to stick me with a call from my room to Minneapolis. As I completed my stay in Vancouver, B.C. *I* was almost stuck with a similar call charge. However, as I'd come to inquiry upon check-in about calls for local calls I could justly insist that *I* had made no such call, that all my calls were made from public phones. They also dropped the charges. Why argue over C$.80? uunet!media!irscscm!nearside!shwake shwake@rsxtech ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 10:29:40 CST From: Jack.Winslade@axolotl.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Re: Hotel Charges and Surcharges Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@axolotl.omahug.org Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha In a message dated 12-SEP-93, Dave Niebuhr writes: >> [Moderator's Note: Do you think it was deliberate? Thirty-one years >> ago they would have been using the old-fashioned cord boards with >> three or four operators on duty at one time. Mistakes were common >> with poorly trained operators. PAT] > Yes, I did. The manager asked me to wait a few minutes and told me > that the charges were mistakenly put on my bill even though the call > originated from ANOTHER hotel that was in a totally different exchange > (I don't remember how Omaha was set up then, but it definitely > different according to the phone book). I'm curious to know what you mean by 'different'. Omaha has always been set up just like any mid-size city with Genuine Ma Bell switches sprinkled about the area, each serving one or more NNX's, in a pattern resembling the geographic divisions of the original phone service areas. I've worked at a few hotels in Omaha over the past 20 years. Never at the Blackstone, although I lived in the same apartment building with their (former) executive houskeeper. However, I'm familiar with the ways Omaha hotels handled LD in the mid 70's, which I'm sure is the same as it was in the late 60's. On a historical note, the Blackstone no longer exists as a hotel. It's now a marginally successful office building. In its time, the Blackstone was a fancy-schmancy midtown hotel. It went down the tubes fast when it was (opinion of former employees) taken over by the Radison group. It died a quiet death sometime in the past ten years or so. In the late 60's, the Blackstone was served out of the 402-348 office. Blackstone was one of the very first numbers on 348, which was created when part of the (world's first) original panel office was retired and replaced with a 5 xbar. (Trivia fans will note that this is the same CO that serves the {in}famous 712-347 in Carter Lake.) Blackstone used a cord board, with LD service provided by a dial 9-0 arrangement through a pre-TSPS cord board in the same building as the Xbar switch. (Those who know Jim Redelfs [jim@macnet.omahug.org] may know that he worked this board during the early 70's.) The lines from the hotel were identified to the 0 operator as the hotel, and the 0 operator really had no way of verifying the room number other than calling the hotel operator to verify that the extension was busy with the 'sleeve' test. This was seldom if ever done. When the ticket was closed, someone would dial a TTY at the hotel and key in the time, charges, and room number, which would be an inclusion of the guest folio. It was very possible for the 0 operator to mistakenly dial one hotel in place of another and the hotel operator could only assume that room xxx at the Blackstone had indeed made the call. However, if the original ticket was pulled, it would show the correct hotel and room. This was a very common method of billing hotel calls here and in other areas. Omaha did not get TSPS until 1975 or so. (I distinctly remember it in NYC in 1968, known to subscribers as Extended Direct Distance Dialing.) When it was installed here I remember one person thinking something was wrong because of the delay after dialing 0 for operator. Good day. JSW DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha (In remembrance of JGL) (1:285/666.0) [Moderator's Note: Jack, when I worked at the University of Chicago in the phone room, 1958-61 we got all our time and charges on long distance calls sent over the telex to us. IBT sometimes would not send the charges for a couple hours although they were supposed to send them in five minutes. I know the deal they had with hotels was if they failed to supply T&C before the guest checked out (which sometimes could happen if the guest made a call around 11 AM and checked out a few minutes later) that IBT would eat the charges. At UC we got a commission on student dormitory long distance calls, but not on long distance calls from administrative offices. On the telex messages which came in IBT was supposed to identify which extension or student dorm room made the call, but they frequently got it wrong and we could not bill the student room until after the phone bill arrived each month. Or we would have to credit one student and charge another. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jjmhome!pig!die@transfer.stratus.com (Dave Emery) Subject: Re: Newsfeed Wanted From Above Date: 20 Sep 93 03:50:20 GMT Reply-To: jjmhome!pig!die@transfer.stratus.com Organization: Opinion Mongers Incorperated... In article krobt@mom.nova.com (Robert Klotz) writes: > Could someone please guide me to a source for satellite downlink > news feeds in North America. The only commercially available satellite news feed for USENET is Pagesat (part of ISS Inc) (contact len@pagesat.com) which is what I use. They transmit over a Ku band VSAT setup with a 24 or 30 inch dish that can be mounted anywhere it can see the satellite (Satcom K2). The receiver is a modem sized box attached to a small fax modem -- output data is 9600 baud and they can supply various software packages to use it including entry into standard news packages for Unix (B and C news and INN). The system costs $1800 with two free years of service. The newsgroup biz.pagesat covers this service. If you are interested in wire service news via satellite rather than USENET feeds, there is a company called Digital Xpress which supplies a variety of world wire services (AP, UPI, Rueters, AFP etc) via C band TVRO. Required equipment is a C band TVRO dish and IRD capable of receiving and descrambling WGN (you do need a VCII+/RS) and an outboard box called an INFOcipher which connects to the VCII+ data output (an RCA jack on many IRDs). The feed is at 9600 baud in a packetized format, and software is available for filtering and displaying items on a variety of platforms. There is a copyright restriction against distributing or archiving the news stories which are intended for personal home use only. The INFOcipher is around $150 and the service costs about $30 a month. For some additional money you can also get real time financial data via the same link (stock ticker and commodity reports). Obviously the dish and IRD are the real cost item (figure >$1500 new). XPRESS service is also provided via a 72 mhz FSK carrier on many cable systems, one simply rents a box that connects to the cable and spits out the same 9600 baud feed. If your need is commercial (EG you are willing to pay $$$) there are also feeds available via Ku band VSAT of most domestic wire services (particularly financial and sports information and national news). Mainstream Inc. sells a package on K2 that includes most of the AP, UPI, Dow Jones and Rueters services for newspapers and financial use. This is receivable with similar hardware to the Pagesat USENET feed (not however exactly the same hardware). Depending on what you order for information streams this service can run between tens of dollars a months and thousands. This service is also available via SCA subcarrier (FM broadcast station) in many metro areas, so you don't need a dish if you live in the coverage of an FM station that carries it. There are other vendors that supply news streams via Ku band satellite as well, and UPI distributes its entire news feed that way on Satcom 4 using Equatorial Communications C-100 spread spectrum technology. Three foot or less dishes can be used for this, but the receivers and access authorization come from UPI. Data output is RS-232 at various speeds depending on what wires you are interested in. Data format of newspaper wires is defined by ANPA standards and incorperates a number of headers and embedded control charactors to facilitate automatic entry into newspaper database sytems. The AP also supplies all its news wires via satellite, on Satcom 3 C band. This requires a 5 foot dish and receiver/modem and time division multiplex demultiplexor. Output data format and speeds are similar to the UPI feeds. The signal is in a narrow band SCPC digital format at 112 kbs. Both of these wire service feeds are fairly expensive to very expensive and more directed at newspapers and media organizations than individuals. There are several other satellite data vendors as well, most on Ku band - the sky is alive with information streams. David I. Emery - N1PRE - Lexington Mass. Former senior technical consultant (and currently unemployed drunken bum) Internet: jjmhome!pig!die@transfer.stratus.com (preferred) or die@world.std.com UUCP: ...uunet!stratus.com!jjmhome!pig!die Phone + fax: 1+(617)-863-9986 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #656 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa28836; 21 Sep 93 4:59 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05471 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 21 Sep 1993 02:14:13 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25439 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 21 Sep 1993 02:13:56 -0500 Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 02:13:56 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309210713.AA25439@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: A Second Call For Votes Attached below is a notice received from the Usenet vote-taker regards the vote to establish or repudiate a proposed Usenet newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom.tech', which, while it would not *replace* our Usenet gateway for telecom messages would IMHO greatly degrade the quality of messages received for the mailing list of TELECOM Digest. I earlier recommended a vote of NO as my personal opnion but encouraged you in any event to cast your vote. Your vote *is* important regardless of whether you agree with me or not, as your vote will detirmine the way telecom messages are distributed on Usenet in the future and your vote will detirmine which messages you will and will not likely see. I again recommend a vote of NO. If you have not been a reader/participant in the Digest for at least 2-3 months, since prior to when the discussion on this topic began, I must in good conscience ask you to NOT vote, as we do not want to make it appear the vote was stacked or manipulated by persons voting with no real knowledge or concern in newsgroup operations. That is unfair to the thousands of newsgroup readers who *do* care and know about the history and relationship of Usenet and the mailing lists. If you -- on that basis -- believe you are qualified and entitled to vote, then you should cast your vote at this time. If you voted earlier but did not get an ACK *and* do not see your name on the list of bounced ACKS below, then consider your vote lost in the mail (or somewhere) and cast your vote again. You will vote YES if you believe an unmoderated telecom forum should be established on Usenet. If the group is established, there is no provision anticipated at this time to route the telecom messages from there to the TELECOM Digest readers. You will vote NO if you believe it best that telecom messages continue to routed from Usenet readers exclusively to comp.dcom.telecom and thus by extension, to the mailing list in which you are a participant. Email to votes@geoworks.com: I vote YES on the creation of comp.dcom.telecom.tech (or) I vote NO on the creation of comp.dcom.telecom.tech As before, although you are under no obligation to do so, if you wish to discuss your vote with me, a cc: ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu will be appreciated and held in confidence. ------------------- Now here follows the CFV I am required by Usenet netiquette to distribute to you. Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 12:02:06 -0400 Path: bounce-back From: asolovay@geoworks.com (Andrew Solovay) Subject: 2nd CFV: comp.dcom.telecom.tech Followup-To: poster Expires: 30 Sep 1993 00:00:00 GMT Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Reply-To: votes@geoworks.com Unmoderated group comp.dcom.telecom.tech Newsgroups line: comp.dcom.telecom.tech Technical matters relating to telecommunications. Votes must be recieved by 23:59:59 GMT, 29 Sep 1993. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. For voting questions only, contact . For questions about the proposed group, contact the group's proposer, . CHARTER This group would cover all general technology aspects of the telecommunications industry in an unmoderated format. This includes communications mediums (physical transport, wiring, antennas), control systems (switches, routing, ATM), wireless systems (AMPS, NAMPS, PCN, PCS, CDMA, TDMA, GSM), and more (such as the history and management of the above, and new advances). It is expected that discussions which focus on implementation aspects of subjects which are covered by existing groups would be discussed in those groups - for instance, discussion about Class 3 Fax design specifics would go to comp.dcom.modems. RATIONALE Currently, the Telecom Digest is gated to Usenet via comp.dcom.telecom. Readers of this group and alt.dcom.telecom have expressed a strong interest in a main hierarchy group for informal technical telecommunications discussion to supplement the existing groups. It is believed that the existence of such a group will encourage discussions on the subject that are usefully different from what is currently available, and that there are enough interested Usenet readers. STANDARD VOTING INFO You should send MAIL (posts to a group are invalid) to votes@geoworks.com (just replying by MAIL to this message should work, *if* your newsreader honors the "Reply-To" line in the article header). Votes sent to other addresses will be discarded. Your mail message should contain one and only one of the following statements: I vote YES on comp.dcom.telecom.tech I vote NO on comp.dcom.telecom.tech I vote ABSTAIN on comp.dcom.telecom.tech You may add a comment, but anything other than a definite statement involving the group name and "yes", "no", "for", or "against" on a single line may be rejected by the automatic vote counting program. If you later change your mind you may send in another vote, which will automatically supercede all previous votes. "ABSTAIN" votes serve to cancel previous votes. Standard Guidelines for voting apply - one vote per person (not per account). 100 more YES votes than NO votes and 2/3 of all votes being YES are the requirements for group creation. "ABSTAIN" votes are not counted in the above calculation; their only role is to cancel previous votes. Every vote will be acknowledged by EMail. The CFV will be repeated once; the 2d CFV will contain a "bounce-ack", i.e. a list of people whose ACK messages bounced when I sent them. Bounce-ACK (as of 9/17/93) ========== The following peoples vote-acknowledgements bounced when I sent them. You need not reply; your vote has been counted. (If you would like to confirm how your vote was counted, send EMail to asolovay@geoworks.com.) If you sent your vote on or before Sept. 17, you have not received an acknowledgement, and you are not listed below, your vote may have been lost; please resend your vote to . comp.dcom.telecom.tech group vote Bounce Ack List ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 192.92.69.12@gsisun.gsi.nic.ddn.mil caadams@upei.ca craig@toontown.columbiasc.ncr.com Herb.Stein.hs7170@zobnsh1.sbc.com howardm@mentorg.com kevinc@aspen.nrd.ups.com michael@vk2bea.UUCP Mike.Riddle@axolotl.omahug.org rkrithiv@gangothri.intel.com schow@sun1.interlan.com shri@freal.cs.umass.edu wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil xxg1744+@rchland.ibm.com The following people have sent invalid votes, and have not since superseded them with valid votes. comp.dcom.telecom.tech group vote Mass Ack Votes in error ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ cjm@world.std.com Craig J Mathias ! Conflicting votes GUERTLER@pentagon-hqdadss.army.mil Ken Guertler, AMS, (703)841-5805 ! No votes mlevin@nyx.cs.du.edu Marshall Levin ! Conflicting votes mmgall@cs1.presby.edu Morris Galloway Jr. ! No votes persoft@cs.wisc.edu Persoft ! No votes rdb1@homxb.att.com ! No votes   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25782; 22 Sep 93 7:54 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10409 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 22 Sep 1993 05:14:06 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21737 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 22 Sep 1993 05:13:43 -0500 Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 05:13:43 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309221013.AA21737@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #657 TELECOM Digest Wed, 22 Sep 93 05:13:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 657 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Administrivia: Archives Automation Progress Report (TELECOM Moderator) Book Review: "The Internet Companion" by LaQuey/Ryer (Rob Slade) New Canadian Telecoms Listserv (Tyson Macaulay) Electronic Access to Government Services, Ottawa Conf. (Garth Graham) Cellular Modems For the PC ISA bus (sameer@adcmail.atlas.com) Cellular Phone Options in NJ (Vipul Patel) Cellular Chargers, etc. (Frank Keeney) Alphapage in French Dictionary (Jean-Bernard Condat) 1-800-Collect and Canada (David Leibold) International Frame-Relay/X.25 Connectivity (Chandra Prathuri) Crossed Wires? (Roy Smith) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Archives Automation Progress Report Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 04:30:00 CDT For my birthday this year, I thought a nice gift for all of you would be a re-organized Telecom Archives, with as much automation as possible in its use. I receive so many requests for archives files, I had to do something, so beginning last week and continuing through today I have spent quite a bit of time installing some scripts and changing the layout of things a little. You may have noticed this past weekend there were no issues of the Digest at all ... I spent about 16 hours each day in the Archives instead. For one, the Archives Email Information Service is now fully operational for your use. I've already distributed help files. My apologies to those of you who tried to pull files and got erroneous results or no results at all on a few occassions. The script has a procedure to update the files using a cron job as needed, and whenever an update is is progress _or_ manual maintainence is going on, then there is a lock which holds the mail at bay until the update is finished, typically in 20-30 seconds. It was not working right at first, and the email stream would come flying through when the script was out for lunch so to speak. Now I think all is fine. If you have the original help file you do not know about the SEARCH command to locate author and subject titles from the archives over the past four years. Get a new copy. The indexes have been updated through issue 650 (of several days ago) and should now be quite searchable for stuff from throughout this year as well as earlier years. I'll try to be more prompt about updating the indexes in the future. Many of you have complained about the work involved in getting a single back issue from the 'telecom-recent' file in the archives. That file is zeroed out on the x00th and x50th issues. By the time forty or so issues have accumulated and you find out you need one from the middle somewhere, it is a pain in the neck to have to FTP that whole file and run it through an editor, etc. So surprise ... in addition to telecom-recent which will still be used for archival purposes, you can now get *single issues* automatically on request. Beginning with issue 651, they are filed as V13_651, V13_652 .... V13_657, etc in the sub-directory entitled 'Volume.13-recent.issues'. You can pull them automatically from tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. I will let those stack up several dozen issues at a time, and pitch the oldest ones, always leaving a few dozen there. You won't need to bother with telecom-recent unless you want the entire collection to-date. Anyway, if you are interested in having copies of those indexes to subjects and authors for yourself, they are 'index-vol.9-10-11.subj' and 'index-vol.12-13.subj', weighing in at 24,939 lines and 17,269 lines respectively, sorted in strict alpha order, so don't take them unless your disk is able to handle it, your printer can deal with it and your postmaster won't get itchy. Otherwise, just use SEARCH via the email server to review them. Help is on line for SEARCH. As you interact with the 'new archives' (!) let me know how it works for you. MIT put me on a machine (not a work station mind you) with the archives by my lonesome. Just me, the archives, and the mail hub for MIT. I had forgotten what uptime: 0.13 0.05 0.01 looked like until I went to sort -bfdt: +1 a 17,269 line file and the job was finished in ten seconds ... ... Friday afternoon will mark my fifty-first year in orbit. Thanks for your many kind notes. PAT ------------------------------ Date: 21 Sep 93 10:54 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Internet Companion" by LaQuey/Ryer BKINTCMP.RVW 930818 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-527-5210 617-944-3700 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 "The Internet Companion", LaQuey/Ryer, 1993, U$10.95/C$13.95 internet-companion@world.std.com tracy@cs.utexas.edu tracy@mojo.ots. utexas.edu tparker@cisco.com It is difficult to know what is supposed to be "companionable" about this volume. Physically, it would be easy to carry it along with you. You probably wouldn't want to, though. This is not a guide for explorations, either. It does give one some background on the Internet, but it is not in a step-by-step fashion. (How to access the Internet is the *last* topic to be covered.) The newcomer to the Internet will more likely want to read it all (possibly at one sitting; it's small enough) and look at the network gestalt. Chapter one, entitled "Why You Should Know About the Internet", would seem to have the idea of "selling" the Internet. The text is interesting -- but it is *what* you might want to know about the Internet. The "why" is mostly confined to sidebars scattered throughout the text. Unfortunately these, if believed, might cause some disappointment when newcomers actually confront the realities of the Internet. One example given is that of a medical researcher in Africa using satellite communications and the Internet to support his work. Most people in remote locations, however, are cut off from the Internet if they do not have dependable phone links: the Internet depends on the phone rather than replacing it. Another example used comes from education where students are supposed to become enthused by the information resources on the net. All too often, however, the enthusiasm is generated by commercial services which most educational budgets cannot support. Some fascinating data is out there but, as the preface states, learning the Internet requires some commitment. The second chapter purports to give you "the lowdown". Again, there is interesting background information, but most of it can be skipped by those who actually want to *use* the net. Even the section on "acceptable use" deals only with the "commercialism" policy; a policy which the authors admit is highly questionable in view of the actual traffic on the Internet. There is no attempt, at this point, to even raise the issues of ethics or etiquette. Chapter three brings up the various types of interpersonal communication, such as email, distribution lists, Usenet news and "talk". Again, there is a lot of detail here that isn't really needed, and some aspects that are left out. The organization of information follows no apparent logical progression. It would be difficult for a novice to discern between generic and system specific information: distribution lists are first discussed with "topic-request" Internet servers, and then all over again with BITNET LISTSERVs. Again, there may be some disappointments for some explorers, as when the authors state that Usenet keeps all messages, not mentioning that many sites now "expire" news after a week or less. The last part of the chapter, dealing with "Netiquette", is a great improvement. Not merely a list of rules, it tells the reader *why* a short reply might be offensive. Chapter four raises issues associated with finding information. Again, there is a lack of organization, and some confusion between generic functions, such as ftp and telnet; specific services, such as archive and WAIS; and sites such as a specific Freenet or a supercomputer centre. The listings are quite brief: most will only get you to a site. From there on, "HELP" help you. Chapter five is supposed to deal with advanced Internet topics. In fact, it is a loose amalgam of urban legends, security, Internet related organizations and other topics. The security isn't bad; even the few paragraphs on viral programs are realistic. There is a reprise on how to find someone's email address. This might have some advantages over the "Whole Internet" guide: the authors include some information not listed in Krol's work. Note, however, that they err in saying that partial names can be used with the usenet-addresses server at MIT. Whenever I give a "beginner's guide to the nets" seminar, the one invariable question is "how do I get access?" This is what chapter six tries to address, with limited success. It's a difficult question, certainly, but once again the lack of organization, and the additional trivia added in, don't make the answer any easier. It is actually answered far better in the appendix. The appendix is the one section that you might want to keep handy for reference. It's quite short, which is good, because -- you guessed it -- it could stand some logical order to it. Yes, there *are* topical divisions, but it is sometimes hard to figure out from their headings what you might need. This work is somewhat less technical than the UNIX biased "Whole Internet Guide". However, it goes too far in the opposite direction. The authors boast that it was finished in less than two months. It shows. Companies which are getting into the Internet in a big way might make this the introductory volume for new users: it is generally upbeat and non-threatening. However, help should be on hand when people actually start using the net. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKINTCMP.RVW 930818 Permission is granted for free distribution with the full TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676 Ceterum censeo Datapac delendam esse ------------------------------ From: tyson@debra.dgbt.doc.ca (Tyson Macaulay) Subject: New Canadian Telecoms Listserv Organization: Communications Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 19:25:26 GMT Announcing the CANADA GAZETTE NOTICE Listserv - The Canada Gazette Notices are extracts from the **Canada Gazette**, a publication of Supply and Services Canada. The Notices distributed through this mailing list relate to the Communications sector of the Department of Industry and Science Canada. The Notices contain information about changes in telecommunications regulations and legislation, as well as information regarding licensing applications across Canada. This publication is not the Canada Gazette in its entirety, but merely extracts relating to communications issues. Presentation des AVIS de GAZETTE du CANADA Les avis de Gazette du Canada sont des extraits de Gazette du Canada, publiee par Approvisionnements et Services. Les avis distribues grace a cette liste concernent le secteur des communications du ministere de l'Industrie et Sciences Canada. Ces avis contiennent de l'information sur les changements touchant la reglementation et la legislation dans le domaine des telecommunications, ainsi que de l'information portant sur l'application des autorisations sous licence a travers le Canada. Cette publication n'est pas la revue integrale de Gazette Canada mais simplement des extraits portant sur les questions de communications. To subscribe to the list, send email to / pour vous en registrer, envoyer par courir electronic au suivant: listserv@debra.dgbt.doc.ca and in the body of the message put the command / dans le message faites la command suivante: subscribe gazette-list Firstname Lastname (e.g., "subscribe gazette-list Clark Kent" Addresses / Adresses: Administration: listserv@debra.dgbt.doc.ca Problems: server@debra.dgbt.doc.ca Listserv Commands / Commandes Listserv: The basic commands you will want to know about are / les commandes principles seront donc: subscribe gazette-list Firstname Lastname (e.g., "subscribe gazette-list Clark Kent") unsubscribe gazette-list information gazette-list (information about the list -- the same as this message / information concernante la liste -- la meme que ce message) help (more information on listserv commands / amples information sur commandes Listserv) ARCHIVES: Archives of Gazette Notices are available via FTP and Listserver / Archives des Avis de Gazette du Canada sont disponible a travers FTP et Listserv: FTP hostname: debra.dgbt.doc.ca login: anonymous directory: /pub/isc/gazette Listserver address: listserv@debra.dgbt.doc.ca listserver commands / commandes listserv: index gazette get gazette (where is a name that appears in the index / ou est le nom qui apparait dans l'index) SVP envoyer vos questions et commentaires a / Please send your questions and comments to: tyson@debra.dgbt.doc.ca Tyson Macaulay DTP/DGCP/I&SC Industry and Science Canada 7th Floor, Journal Tower North 300 Slater Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C8 (613) 991 4903 e-mail: tyson@debra.dgbt.doc.ca tyson.macaulay@crc.doc.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 20:06:01 EDT From: aa127@freenet.carleton.ca (Garth Graham) Subject: Electronic Access to Government Services, Ottawa Conf. Reply to: 76470.336@CompuServe.com (Tom Riley) PATHWAYS FOR SERVICE IN THE ELECTRONIC VILLAGE GOVERNMENT INFORMATION DISSEMINATION IN THE 90'S December 6 and 7, 1993, Ottawa Congress Centre A two day training session and conference sponsored by; * TREASURY BOARD SECRETARIAT, GOVERNMENT OF CANADA * THE CANADIAN ACCESS AND PRIVACY ASSOCIATION (CAPA) * RILEY INFORMATION SERVICES INC. How can government best serve the public through electronic means? Be a part of two days of consultation, debate and dialogue on the changing nature of electronic information services and the policies needed to face these new challenges. Single window initiatives, one-stop shops, InfoCentres, business centres, kiosks, smart cards, interactive national information networks, all are part of the reinvention of government. How will this changing electronic infrastructure impact on you and all Canadians? Find out how emerging information practices reflect new values as public service meets the challenge of a changing technological environment. WHO SHOULD ATTEND? Public and private sector professionals, executives, managers, policy makers and advisors, information professionals, records managers, archivists, librarians, security managers, access and privacy coordinators, personnel managers, consultants ... All individuals involved with the development of access to government services on the new electronic highways. THE AGENDA: There will be simultaneous workshops running throughout the two days. The only plenary sessions will be the keynote speakers. DAY ONE: December 6, 1993 9 am - Keynote address: "Electronic information services in the 90's" Ian Clark, Secretary, Treasury Board Secretariat. 10:30 am - 12 noon Panel A - "Privacy on the electronic highway." Chair: Jacques Courteau, President, Canadian Access and Privacy Assoc. Panel B - "A new social charter for our changing information environment: a discussion." Chair: Thomas Riley, Riley Information Services, Toronto 1:45 pm - 3:15 pm Panel A - "Access and technology." Chair: Stephanie Perrin, Senior Policy Analyst, Government of Canada Panel B - "Government gateways and locator systems." Chair: Greg Evanik, Director, Government of Canada 3:30 pm - 4:45 pm Panel A - "Survival of libraries in the electronic age." Chair: Mark Hopkins, Metro Toronto Archivist Panel B - "Impact of privacy on electronic government: privacy vs. efficiency." Chair: Peter Gillis, Director, Treasury Board Secretariat DAY TWO: December 7, 1993 9 am - Keynote address: To be announced 10:30 am - 12 noon Panel A - "Equality of access and tolls on the information highways." Chair: Michael Nelson, Manager, Treasury Board of Canada Panel B - "Ethical issues of selling government databases." Chair: Mary Francis Laughton, Communications Research Centre, Ottawa 1 pm - Feature speaker "Accountability and openness: the basis of democracy." Peter Calami, Editor, Editorial Page, The Ottawa Citizen 2 pm - 3:15 pm Panel A - "Impacts of new technologies on existing legislation." Chair: Joanna Drewry, Treasury Board Secretariat Panel B - "Modes of delivery to: home, office, government offices, info centres and other means." Chair: Peter Brandon, President, Sysnovators Ltd. 3:15 pm - Closing Speaker "Restructuring government in America for the electronic village: what the White House and Congress are up to." Dr. Harold Relyea, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 3:45 pm - conference closes REGISTRATION PATHWAYS FOR SERVICE IN THE ELECTRONIC VILLAGE December 6 and 7, 1993, Ottawa Congress Centre Forum fee includes: Two full days of workshops, exhibits, speakers, and two lunches for $199.00 + GST = $212.93(CAD) (GST No. R117997965) Please make cheque payable to: Riley Information Services Inc. To register (or to obtain further information) please contact Tom Riley by email, fax or mail at: Riley Information Services 633 Bay Street, Suite 2207, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 2G4 email: 76470.336@CompuServe.com Fax: 416-593-0249 Voice: 416-593-7352 NAME (to be used on name tag): ORGANIZATION (to be used on name tag): ADDRESS: TELEPHONE: FAX: PURCHASE ORDER NUMBER: ------------------------------ From: sameer@adcmail.atlas.com Subject: Cellular Modems for the PC ISA Bus Organization: Atlas Telecom Inc. Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 16:02:23 GMT Hi, I want to get the names of manufacturers who make cellular modems on a PC ISA bus card. Thanks, Sameer ------------------------------ From: vsp@peewee.unx.dec.com (Vipul Patel) Subject: Cellular Phone Options in NJ Organization: Digital Equipment Corp. Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1993 18:31:12 GMT As a new comer to the world of cellular phone, I will appreciate your feedback on a couple of things: 1) The cellular phone box says that it has been already pre-programmed to go through "Cellular One" and they have assigned a phone number. It may get damaged if I try to reprogram. Am I stuck with "Cellular One?". 2) If not, how do I change my carrier? Who are the carriers in NJ? 3) I am planning to purchase a rapid charger from someone other than Sony as it is very expensive. What other options do I have? How is "Direct Powerplus"? 4) Is there any Usenet forum that talks about cellular phones and computers? Thanks, Vipul [Moderator's Note: No you are not stuck with any given carrier. You can take the phone to any carrier (or the carrier's agent) of your choice to obtain service. They may charge you to reprogram the phone. They don't want you to reprogram it because the agent won't make the money on it. You can purchase chargers from anywhere you please, bearing in mind that you are looking for a *clean* DC supply of about 12 volts. Car batteries work fine as do power supplies from old CB radios, intercoms, etc. Amperage is not too critical; but you want it to be an amp or two at least for best and quickest charging results. You can run the cellular phone or charge the battery using one of those 13.8 DC supplies called 'Micronta' from Radio Shack. Regards the forum where you should be, you are in the right place. PAT] ------------------------------ From: frank@calcom.socal.com (Frank Keeney) Reply-To: frank@calcom.socal.com Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 08:43:28 -0800 Subject: Cellular Chargers etc. Organization: Calcom Communications, +1 818-791-0578 x402 On Sep 07 16:09, Timothy L. Kay wrote: > Now that I have the phone, I need to get some accessories, such as > spare batteries and a rapid charger. Can anybody recommend a good > mail order shop? In a previous message I listed the incorrect phone number. The number below has been corrected: JT&T Manufacturing has a good selection of rapid chargers and other cellular phone accessories. I bought a unit that will first discharge the battery then recharge it. This takes care of the nicad "memory" problem. JT&T Manufacturing (818) 458-8700 Sorry, I could not find their 800 number. Origin: (1:102/645) Frank Keeney | E-mail frank@calcom.socal.com 115 W. California Blvd., #411 | Fidonet 1:102/645 Pasadena, CA 91105-1509 USA | UUCP hatch!calcom!frank | FAX +1 818 791-0578 | Voice Mail +1 818-791-0578 x402 ------------------------------ From: cccf@email.teaser.com (Jean-Bernard Condat) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 10:51:38 GMT Subject: Alphapage in French dictionary Alphapage, the French radiomessagery service from France Telecom Mobiles radiomessagerie will be add to the official edition 1994 of the "Le Petit Robert" dictionary: Alphapage-n.m-1987; nom depose, de alpha (numerique) et de l'anglo-americain to page-pager. Appareil de radiomessagerie qui affiche en toutes lettres des messages transmis par telephone ou par Minitel. Alphapage, with at this time more than 165,000 customers, will give his name to all French pagers. Don't hesitate to contact me via my private Alphapage: dial +33 36 43 09 09 with your Minitel or +33 36 60 60 60 and compose 0030006 for the code of my Alphapage. Good luck with this new French word :-) Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France, B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Private Address: P.O. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France Phone: +33 1 40101764, Fax: +33 1 47877070 InterNet: cccf@altern.com or cccf@email.teaser.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 17:38 EDT From: djcl@io.org (woody) Subject: 1-800-Collect and Canada MCI operates the 1-800-Collect service from U.S. points for the placing of collect calls. However, the number translates to 1 800 265 5328 and 265 is a current 800 prefix used within Canada. Canadian 800 number portability does not commence until January 1994, and there was some indication that 265 was not to be included in U.S. portability until that time. There apparently was a customer in Canada that had that number, and bore the brunt of Canadian callers attempting to dial 1 800 Collect. Now, there is a recording stating that the 1 800 Collect is not available in Canada yet, and that it would hopefully be in operation by the end of summer. One wonders how MCI pulled off a Canadian prefix assignment in advance of Canadian 800 portability, and what became of the deluged Canadian customer who probably had the number first. David Leibold ------------------------------ From: chandra@bpa1.sbi.com (Chandra Prathuri) Subject: International Frame-relay/X.25 Connectivity Date: 21 Sep 93 19:28:27 GMT Organization: Salomon Brothers We are looking for x.25 or frame-relay line to Israel at 9600 baud or more. 56kbs on Frame-relay is the ideal solution. We may not be able to work with dailup async lines, as we need to run TCP/IP protocols on top of the underlying protocols -- x.25 or frame-relay. Any informa- tion regarding this will be really helpful. Thank you, chandra ------------------------------ From: roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Subject: Crossed Wires? Date: 22 Sep 1993 00:54:00 GMT Organization: New York University, School of Medicine A very strange thing happened to me. I just got off the phone and maybe ten seconds after I hung up, the phone rang again. As I picked it up, I could hear dial pulses on the line. I said hello, and the person at the other end seemed surprised to hear me. To make a long story short, we ended up chatting (sort of an odd thing to do with an apparant wrong number, I know) and it turns out the person at the other end was in the middle of dialing a call when I came on the line. She lives just down the street from me (in an area where she has to be in the same exchange as me), and was placing a call to somebody not far away, in what is quite possibly the same CO. Wierd. Turns out her brother owns the house next door, too. Roy Smith Hippocrates Project, Department of Microbiology, Coles 202 NYU School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #657 ******************************   Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa26192; 22 Sep 93 8:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25278 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 22 Sep 1993 05:46:47 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02412 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 22 Sep 1993 05:46:26 -0500 Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 05:46:26 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309221046.AA02412@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #658 TELECOM Digest Wed, 22 Sep 93 05:46:26 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 658 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson NAFTA on Telecommunications (Mike Riddle) For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 (was From Internet to NIST? (Robinson) Where's Dialogic? (Mer Industries) Cellular/Mobile Telephones (Aditya Talwar) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 02:45:45 CST From: Mike.Riddle@axolotl.omahug.org (Mike Riddle) Subject: NAFTA on Telecommunications Patrick: Here is (supposedly) the chapter from the proposed NAFTA on Telecommunications. I thought it would make interesting reading for the Digest: Chapter Thirteen Telecommunications Article 1301: Scope and Coverage 1. This Chapter applies to: (a) measures adopted or maintained by a Party relating to access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks or services by persons of another Party, including access and use by such persons operating private networks; (b) measures adopted or maintained by a Party relating to the provision of enhanced or value-added services by persons of another Party in the territory, or across the borders, of a Party; and (c) standards-related measures relating to attachment of terminal or other equipment to public telecommunications transport networks. 2. Except to ensure that persons operating broadcast stations and cable systems have continued access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks and services, this Chapter does not apply to any measure adopted or maintained by a Party relating to cable or broadcast distribution of radio or television programming. 3. Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to: (a) require a Party to authorize a person of another Party to establish, construct, acquire, lease, operate or provide telecommunications transport networks or telecommunications transport services; (b) require a Party, or require a Party to compel any person, to establish, construct, acquire, lease, operate or provide telecommunications transport networks or telecommunications transport services not offered to the public generally; (c) prevent a Party from prohibiting persons operating private networks from using such networks to provide public telecommunications transport networks or services to third persons; or (d) require a Party to compel any person engaged in the cable or broadcast distribution of radio or television programming to make available its cable or broadcast facilities as a public telecommunications transport network. Article 1302: Access to and Use of Public Telecommunications Transport Networks and Services 1. Each Party shall ensure that persons of another Party have access to and use of any public telecommunications transport network or service, including private leased circuits, offered in its territory or across its borders for the conduct of their business, on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions, including as set out in paragraphs 2 through 8. 2. Subject to paragraphs 6 and 7, each Party shall ensure that such persons are permitted to: (a) purchase or lease, and attach terminal or other equipment that interfaces with the public telecommunications transport network; (b) interconnect private leased or owned circuits with public telecommunications transport networks in the territory, or across the borders, of that Party, including for use in providing dial-up access to and from their customers or users, or with circuits leased or owned by another person on terms and conditions mutually agreed by such persons; (c) perform switching, signalling and processing functions; and (d) use operating protocols of their choice. 3. Each Party shall ensure that: (a) the pricing of public telecommunications transport services reflects economic costs directly related to providing such services; and (b) private leased circuits are available on a flat-rate pricing basis. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prevent cross-subsidization between public telecommunications transport services. 4. Each Party shall ensure that persons of another Party may use public telecommunications transport networks or services for the movement of information in its territory or across its borders, including for intracorporate communications, and for access to information contained in data bases or otherwise stored in machine-readable form in the territory of any Party. 5. Further to Article 2101 (General Exceptions), nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to prevent a Party from adopting or enforcing any measure necessary to: (a) ensure the security and confidentiality of messages; or (b) protect the privacy of subscribers to public telecommunications transport networks or services. 6. Each Party shall ensure that no condition is imposed on access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks or services, other than that necessary to: (a) safeguard the public service responsibilities of providers of public telecommunications transport networks or services, in particular their ability to make their networks or services available to the public generally; or (b) protect the technical integrity of public telecommunications transport networks or services. 7. Provided that conditions for access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks or services satisfy the criteria set out in paragraph 6, such conditions may include: (a) a restriction on resale or shared use of such services; (b) a requirement to use specified technical interfaces, including interface protocols, for interconnection with such networks or services; (c) a restriction on interconnection of private leased or owned circuits with such networks or services or with circuits leased or owned by another person, where such circuits are used in the provision of public telecommunications transport networks or services; and (d) a licensing, permit, registration or notification procedure which, if adopted or maintained, is transparent and applications filed thereunder are processed expeditiously. 8. For purposes of this Article, "non-discriminatory" means on terms and conditions no less favorable than those accorded to any other customer or user of like public telecommunications transport networks or services in like circumstances. Article 1303: Conditions for the Provision of Enhanced or Value-Added Services 1. Each Party shall ensure that: (a) any licensing, permit, registration or notification procedure that it adopts or maintains relating to the provision of enhanced or value-added services is transparent and non-discriminatory, and that applications filed thereunder are processed expeditiously; and (b) information required under such procedures is limited to that necessary to demonstrate that the applicant has the financial solvency to begin providing services or to assess conformity of the applicant's terminal or other equipment with the Party's applicable standards or technical regulations. 2. A Party shall not require a person providing enhanced or value-added services to: (a) provide those services to the public generally; (b) cost-justify its rates; (c) file a tariff; (d) interconnect its networks with any particular customer or network; or (e) conform with any particular standard or technical regulation for interconnection other than for interconnection to a public telecommunications transport network. 3. Notwithstanding paragraph 2(c), a Party may require the filing of a tariff by: (a) such provider to remedy a practice of that provider that the Party has found in a particular case to be anticompetitive under its law; or (b) a monopoly to which Article 1305 applies. Article 1304: Standards-Related Measures 1. Further to Article 904(4) (Unnecessary Obstacles), each Party shall ensure that its standards-related measures relating to the attachment of terminal or other equipment to the public telecommunications transport networks, including such measures relating to the use of testing and measuring equipment for conformity assessment procedures, are adopted or maintained only to the extent necessary to: (a) prevent technical damage to public telecommunications transport networks; (b) prevent technical interference with, or degradation of, public telecommunications transport services; (c) prevent electromagnetic interference, and ensure compatibility, with other uses of the electromagnetic spectrum; (d) prevent billing equipment malfunction; or (e) ensure users' safety and access to public telecommunications transport networks or services. 2. A Party may require approval for the attachment to the public telecommunications transport network of terminal or other equipment that is not authorized, provided that the criteria for such approval are consistent with paragraph 1. 3. Each Party shall ensure that the network termination points for its public telecommunications transport networks are defined on a reasonable and transparent basis. 4. A Party shall not require separate authorization for equipment that is connected on the customer's side of authorized equipment that serves as a protective device fulfilling the criteria of paragraph 1. 5. Further to Article 904(3) (Non-Discriminatory Treatment), each Party shall: (a) ensure that its conformity assessment procedures are transparent and non-discriminatory and that applications filed thereunder are processed expeditiously; (b) permit any technically qualified entity to perform the testing required under the Party's conformity assessment procedures for terminal or other equipment to be attached to the public telecommunications transport network, subject to the Party's right to review the accuracy and completeness of the test results; and (c) ensure that any measure that it adopts or maintains requiring persons to be authorized to act as agents for suppliers of telecommunications equipment before the Party's relevant conformity assessment bodies is non- discriminatory. 6. No later than one year after the date of entry into force of this Agreement, each Party shall adopt, as part of its conformity assessment procedures, provisions necessary to accept the test results from laboratories or testing facilities in the territory of another Party for tests performed in accordance with the accepting Party's standards-related measures and procedures. 7. The Telecommunications Standards Subcommittee established under Article 913(5) (Committee on Standards-Related Measures) shall perform the functions set out in Annex 913-B. Article 1305: Monopolies 1. Where a Party maintains or designates a monopoly to provide public telecommunications transport networks or services, and the monopoly, directly or through an affiliate, competes in the provision of enhanced or value-added services or other telecommunications-related services or telecommunications-related goods, the Party shall ensure that the monopoly does not use its monopoly position to engage in anticompetitive conduct in those markets, either directly or through its dealings with its affiliates, in such a manner as to affect adversely a person of another Party. Such conduct may include cross-subsidization, predatory conduct and the discriminatory provision of access to public telecommunications transport networks or services. 2. To prevent such anticompetitive conduct, each Party shall adopt or maintain effective measures such as: (a) accounting requirements; (b) requirements for structural separation; (c) rules to ensure that the monopoly accords its competitors access to and use of its public telecommunications transport networks or services on terms and conditions no less favorable than those it accords to itself or its affiliates; or (d) rules to ensure the timely disclosure of technical changes to public telecommunications transport networks and their interfaces. Article 1306: Transparency Further to Article 1802, each Party shall make publicly available its measures relating to access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks or services, including measures relating to: (a) tariffs and other terms and conditions of service; (b) specifications of technical interfaces with such networks or services; (c) information on bodies responsible for the preparation and adoption of standards-related measures affecting such access and use; (d) conditions applying to attachment of terminal or other equipment to the public telecommunications transport network; and (e) notification, permit, registration or licensing requirements. Article 1307: Relationship to other Chapters In the event of any inconsistency between a provision of this Chapter and the provision of another Chapter, the provision of this Chapter shall prevail to the extent of such inconsistency. Article 1308: Relation to International Organizations and Agreements The Parties recognize the importance of international standards for global compatibility and interoperability of telecommunication networks or services and undertake to promote such standards through the work of relevant international bodies, including the International Telecommunications Union and the International Organization for Standardization. Article 1309: Technical Cooperation and Other Consultations 1. To encourage the development of interoperable telecommunications transport services infrastructure, the Parties shall cooperate in the exchange of technical information, the development of government-to-government training programs and other related activities. In implementing this obligation, the Parties shall give special emphasis to existing exchange programs. 2. The Parties shall consult with a view to determining the feasibility of further liberalizing trade in all telecommunications services, including public telecommunications transport networks and services. Article 1310: Definitions For purposes of this Chapter: authorized equipment means terminal or other equipment that has been approved for attachment to the public telecommunications transport network in accordance with a Party's conformity assessment procedures; conformity assessment procedure means any procedure used, directly or indirectly, to determine that a relevant technical regulation or standard is fulfilled, including sampling, testing, inspection, evaluation, verification, monitoring, auditing, assurance of conformity, accreditation, registration or approval used for such a purpose; enhanced or value-added services means those telecommunications services employing computer processing applications that: (a) act on the format, content, code, protocol or similar aspects of a customer's transmitted information; (b) provide a customer with additional, different or restructured information; or (c) involve customer interaction with stored information; flat-rate pricing basis means pricing on the basis of a fixed charge per period of time regardless of the amount of usage; intracorporate communications means telecommunications through which an enterprise communicates: (a) internally or with or among its subsidiaries, branches or affiliates, as defined by each Party; or (b) on a non-commercial basis with other persons that are fundamental to the economic activity of the enterprise and that have a continuing contractual relationship with it, but does not include telecommunications services provided to persons other than those described herein; network termination point means the final demarcation of the public telecommunications transport network at the customer's premises; private network means a telecommunications transport network that is used exclusively for intracorporate communications; protocol means a set of rules and formats that govern the exchange of information between two peer entities for purposes of transferring signaling or data in. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 13:05:16 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 (was From Internet to NIST? From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA "Eric L. Hinson" , writes in Telecom Digest: > Is there a way to connect to NIST's time sync system (303) 494-4774 > via the Internet (telnet, rlogin, or other protocol)? Not that I know of, but you may not need it. Also, NIST does not provide time service; the Naval Observatory is the organization that does that. Note also that there is also a Washington, DC number that the Naval Observatory uses to provide modem callers over the telephone with the correct time as well: +1 (202) 653-0351. There is, however, an equivalent service on Internet, called NTP, for Network Time Protocol (don't confuse this with NNTP, which is used to propagate newsgroups.) It is documented as Internet RFCs: rfc1361.txt 10pg D. Mills, "Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP)", 8/92 rfc1305.txt rfc1305.ps 120pg D. Mills, "Network Time Protocol (v3)", 04/92 These may be obtained via FTP from ds.internic.net or rs.internic.net, in directory rfc, or by E-Mail to mailserv@ds.internic.net, with the message document-by-name rfc1361.txt in the message text. There is at least one site that provides NTP; if you have newsgroup access, try looking for groups to ask for the site(s) that provide Network Time Service. One of them, I think, *does* get some kind of feed from the Naval Observatory. The other alternative - If you cannot get an NTP feed - would be to purchase a $200 clock kit that reads the time signal sent over the air, and generates an RS-232 data stream that could be read into one of the terminal ports, if you must have constant updating of the exact time. Otherwise, having your system spend 10c to call the Naval Observatory at 1 Am each night might (or as often as is needed if you think your clock drifts.) I checked the clock on the AT compatible I typed this message with, and it was exactly ONE SECOND FAST of the time from the Naval Observatory; I haven't had to set the time on my computer in months. > Also, does anybody know what type of computer(s) this > service runs on? I'm curious also as to how it determines > what UTC really IS (what does it use as its time base)? The means to calculate time is done on the basis of a certain number of decays of radioactive cecium. A certain exact number of decays will occur in a certain period of time, this exact number is used to define the time period referred to as a "second". From that, all other measurements are made. The device that does this measurement is a (at one time) 1/2 million dollar device called an "atomic clock." A voice demonstration of this is available. If you either call the +1 (202) 653-1800 number or the identical (and more expensive) service on +1 (900) 410-TIME (8463), a male recording says "U.S. Naval Observatory *MASTER CLOCK*. At the tone, Eastern Standard Time, 12 Hours, 25 Minutes, 40 Seconds." Fweep! "Universal Time, 16 Hours, 25 Minutes, 45 Seconds" Fweep! "U.S. Naval Observatory *MASTER CLOCK* ..." and ticking occurs in the background. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: cmer@zeus.datasrv.co.il (Mer Industries) Subject: Where's Dialogic? Organization: DataServe LTD. (An Internet Access Provider), Israel. Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 12:26:38 GMT Dialogic is quite a large company in the PC telecommunication hardware business. I tried to locate them in the net, but couldn't. I need to ask them some questions. Anybody know how I can get in touch with these fellows? News, lists, e-mail, FTP, anything? Thanks, Avi Nahir C. Mer Industries Ltd. [Moderator's Note: Surely ... Dialogic Corporation is located at 300 Littleton Road, Parsippany, NJ 07054. Phone: 201-334-8450, FAX: 334-1257. My contact there is sales engineer Bob Kelly. He very graciously sent me an extensive amount of documentation, 'c' routines and the like for a D/4 type voice card I have here. They don't give their stuff away free usually, but then you did not ask for it for free, just how to reach them. Good luck. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 15:30:20 CDT From: ast@houston.geoquest.slb.com (Aditya Talwar) Subject: Cellular/Mobile Telephones Here is a crazy question. I am writing a report on the Cellular Telephone Industry in the ASEAN countries (Malaysia) and I am looking for information sources on the Internet or Journals to update my obsolete knowledge! I would sincerely appreciate any pointers. Thanks for your time. Aditya Talwar|atalwar@houston.geoquest.slb.com|buzz:713.952.2100 x405 [Moderator's Note: You might try sticking around here and reading our various discussions on cellular phones. For message threads on this topic here in the past, you might try the SEARCH routine in the email service now available at tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu or via FTP to lcs.mit.edu. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #658 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13753; 23 Sep 93 13:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05069 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 23 Sep 1993 10:34:58 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02105 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 23 Sep 1993 10:34:36 -0500 Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 10:34:36 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309231534.AA02105@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #659 TELECOM Digest Thu, 23 Sep 93 10:34:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 659 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson ATM/Frame Relay Conference (Pacific Rim) (Tsz-Mei Ko) Call Back Services in Trinidad (John Schmidt) Sprint's Dvorak (Free Modem) Offer (Roy M. Silvernail) Telephone Museum in Michigan (Jack Decker) What's With Pac Bell Airport Terminals? (David Kiviat) AT&T Call Manager Disappeared Again? (Alan Boritz) Thieves Like GSM Phones (Juha Veijalainen) US West Files For Big OPX Price Increase in Washington (Dave Ptasnik) Export of Encryption Software National Security Risk? (MVM@cup.portal.com) New Area Code 905 Now Works From 519 NPA (Nigel Allen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: eetszmei@uxmail.ust.hk (Tsz-Mei Ko) Subject: ATM/Frame Relay Conference (Pacific Rim) Organization: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 22:13:11 +0800 I'm posting the following for a friend. Please don't reply to this email. Sep. 2,1993 Dear Telecom Professional : You are cordially invited to attend the 1993 Broadband Workshop (Frame Relay/SMDS/ATM) and the first Pacific Rim Frame Relay/SMDS/ATM Interest Group (PRFASIG) meeting to be held in Taipei from November 22 to 24. You are also welcome to participate as a speaker at the workshop. PRFASIG was formerly the Pacific Rim SMDS Interest Group (PRSIG) which held successful workshops and meetings in Taipei and Singapore during the past year. At the Singapore meeting in May, the charter and scope of PRSIG were broadened to include Frame Relay and ATM, consequently the new name PRFASIG was conceived. The purpose of the 1993 Broadband Workshop and the first PRFASIG meeting is to provide a common forum for all interested parties of the telecommunications industry in the Pacific Rim to share experiences and insight on emerging broadband technologies and services, and to explore opportunities for cooperation. Your expertise and contribution to this workshop will be greatly appreciated. We are looking forward to your acceptance of this invitation and thank you in advance. A tentative agenda as well as a copy of the Singapore meeting minutes are enclosed for your information. Details on the exact location of this workshop will follow shortly. Please send your reply and all correspondences to: Cheng-Sheng Lin 1993 Broadband Workshop Telecommunication Laboratories (TL) 12, Lane 551, Min-Tsu Road, Sec. 3 Yang-Mei, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 326 R.O.C. Tel: 886-3-4244605 Fax: 886-3-4244888 Sincerely yours, Maria Chou Chair PRFASIG ****Please respond by October 8, 1993 **** = AGENDA ======================================================== 1993 Broadband Workshop Tentative Agenda : Time : November 22-24,1993 Place: Taipei, Taiwan Number of Sessions : 8 1. Introduction and Goals of the Workshop 2. Session I : Overview : Standards, Technology and Services. . Broadband Applications and Market Drive - Video - Multimedia - Highspeed Data - LAN interconnection... . Broadband Technology Overview - Architecture/Model/Functions - SONET, ATM, AAL, OAM, Signaling . Broandband Standards Development and Status - ATM Forum - TSS . Broadband Services - Frame Relay - Cell Relay - SMDS 3. Session II : System, Product, Network and Service Trial . Broadband Systems & Network Architecture - Switching functions and architecture - Interworking unit - Evolution . Broadband Components and Products - Chips - Subsystems - HUB... . ATM VP SW design & Application . Broadband Service Trials (or experimental test bed) 4. Session III : Broadband User Needs . Hospital Users . Science and Technology Organization Users . Industry Users (Financial, Insurance, Medical) 5. Session IV : Broadband Services from Telecommunications Service Providers . Planning & Deployment Plans . Trial Plans . Market Needs . Services . DGT role 6. Session V : Broadband Equipment Suppliers . Switch (includes Cross Connect) . CPE 7. Session VI : Interest Groups - PRFASIG, U.S.SIG, European SIG, ATM Forum, FR forum, Monte Jade science and technology association (Yu-Sen Association) . Role . Activities 8. Session VII : Open Issues for Discussion . Broadband Traffic Management . Broadband Signaling Architecture and Protocols . Broadband Network Operations 9. Session VIII : PRFASIG meetings === MEETING MINUTES ===================================== PRSIG MEETING (5/15/93) MINUTES . Maria Chou (Chair) called the meeting to order at 8:30 am. Since there were significantly more countries (Taiwan, R.O.C., Singapore, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Australia, U.S., Indonesia, Thailand) represented than at last year's Taipei meeting, Maria again went through the approved PRSIG bylaws. Cheng-sheng Lin (Treasurer) and Wayne Tsou (Secretary) gave financial and secretarial reports which are attached. . New businesses: there was a proposal from the floor for a joint meeting withNorth American SMDS Interest Group (NASIG) and the European SMDS Interest Group (ESIG), or to invite NASIG and ESIG members to the next PRSIG meeting. Steve Cortez (DSC) suggested our officers meet with NASIG and ESIG counterparts at the INTEROP FALL '93 conference (August). Steve agreed to set up the meeting. . It was agreed that there should have more user involvement at this forum to stimulate discussions of service applications. Maria asked attendees to provide contact information for potential SMDS users so they can be invited to the next workshop and/or PRSIG meeting. . The following parties agreed to provide appropriate contacts: - Local carriers (e.g., Singapore Telecom, Malaysia, Japan's IDC, DGT Taiwan, R.O.C, Telecom) will provide contacts of their prospective customers. - David Brown (QPSX), in Australia. - Friedrich Knopf (Siemens), users of British Telecom's SuperJanet service and at the University of Stuttgart. - Gene Choy (Cisco) and Dan Murray (ADC/Kentrox), will provide their customer contacts. . The Group discussed the possibility of broadening the charter to include other broadband technologies and services. Each country in the region has different strategies: - Taiwan, R.O.C. is deploying Frame Relay this year and is planning SMDS trials for the future - Singapore is trialing a MAN service and looking at Frame Relay and SMDS. - Japan plans to deploy Frame Relay next year - Malaysia has Frame Relay trials planned for next year. The common denominators to all of these strategies: they want to eventually evolve to a multi-services ATM platform and are currently considering Frame Relay and SMDS (or SMDS-like service). So it would be beneficial to have one forum in the Pacific Rim region for discussing all Frame Relay, SMDS, and ATM issues. . It was therefore decided to broaden the Group's charter to include Frame Relay and ATM. A new name for the Group was then solicited. Among the suggestions were: Emerging Broadband Services Interest Group, Emerging Broadband Data Services Interest Group, Frame Relay/ATM/SMDS Interest Group, Broadband Services Interest Group, and Broadband Data Services Interest Group. After some debate, "Pacific Rim Frame Relay/ATM/SMDS Interest Group (PRFASIG)" was voted the new name. . Dr. Liang (TL of Taiwan, R.O.C.) noted there may be a ATM Conference in late October or November of this year in Taipei initiated by Monte Jade Science and Technology Association and he suggested the next/first PRFASIG meeting to be held in conjunction with this ATM conference. David Brown (QPSX) will ask Telecom Australia if they would be interested in hosting the next meeting in Australia. . Meeting was adjourned at noon. Respectfully submitted, Wayne Tsou Secretary of PRFASIG ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 23:49:45 EDT From: JOHN SCHMIDT Subject: Call Back Services in Trinidad The following article appears on page 2 of the _Sunday Express_ for September 19th, published in Port Of Spain, Trinidad: TSTT VOWS HARD LINE ON CUT RATE OVERSEAS CALLS TSTT has warned that it will take a hard line against subscribers to the call-back services being offered by local agents in conjunction with foreign telephone companies. The local telecommunications service strongly advises its customers not to subscribe to what it describes as illegal call-back services or else their lines will be disconnected. "TSTT will be actively monitoring the misuse of its network for call-back services and will take immediate action to disconnect any lines, to terminate any service, and to otherwise remove network access to any TSTT telecommunications facilities which are used for such services" said the company's public relations officer, Patt Christopher. The condemnation of the proposed overseas calling service came in response to an advertisement in which a San Fernando {Trinidad} based security company offered a system designed to slash international telephone bills by up to half. Industrial Security Consultants (ISC) and its American partner Interworld Communications Corporation (ICC) invited prospective subscribers to pay a nominal fee which would entitle them to a personal identification number which would guarantee savings on overseas calls and faxes. The subscriber, they said, has only to dial a toll free number and ICC will return the call and put it through, saving the subscriber between 35 and 50 percent on normal foreign calls. Director of Telecommunications Winston Ragbir said on Friday that although similar telecommunications systems are operating in other Caribbean islands, they are illegal in Trinidad and Tobago. "TSTT is the sole provider for that service. We can't give permission for those companies to operate here. Government has an agreement with TSTT and Cable and Wireless for telecommunications services. It is a Government policy", he said. As to claims the call-back service does substantially reduce overseas billing Ragbir said "It is economically true but illegal". He explained how it works: "Rates vary from country to country. Companies in the USA charge less. Overseas calls are therefore directed to the USA to make it appear as if it is coming from the cheaper end." Stressing that this type of service is "unlawful", Christopher explained that it involved the unauthorised use of telecommunications networks in both Trinidad and Tobago and abroad in order to circumvent the established international procedures for processing calls. In so doing, she added, call-back services misuse TSTT's local and international services. "In their unlawful and unauthorised use of TSTT's service, system, equipment and facilities, call-back operators exploit the significant capital investment made by TSTT for its customers. Their actions are parasitic and are therefore detrimental to the long-term growth and development of telecommunications facilities and services in Trinidad and Tobago," Christopher said. Contacted on the situation, managing director of ISC, Ambrose Carrington said that the project was still in its early stage, and that his company will be holding discussions next week with representatives of ICC on the "legal" avenues. __END OF STORY__ Kind of sounds like "Ma Bell" in the old days ... (and my father worked for Western Electric for over 30 years.) I guess TSTT makes a bundle on international calls, and doesn't like the idea of competition at all :-( John H. Schmidt, P.E. |Internet: schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu Technical Director, WBAU |Phone--Days (212)456-4218 Adelphi University | Evenings (516)877-6400 Garden City, New York 11530 |Fax-------------(212)456-2424 ------------------------------ Subject: Sprint's Dvorak (Free Modem) Offer From: roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 17:53:37 CST Organization: The Villa CyberSpace, executive headquarters I decided it was worthwhile to switch my modem line to Sprint and get that free modem. It was actually a pleasant experience ... When I called 800-669-8585, I got an "all representatives are busy" message, but it was from a live human being! He took my name and number, and promised that a representative would return the call within 45 minutes. It took only 20 minutes. The rep knew of the offer, and filled me in on the details. After asking my monthly volume, he offered the Most plan, which gives me a 20% discount on whatever number I call the most (no minimum, no monthly charge). He also offered a Sprint Calling Card, which is free. I accepted both. Sprint will also refund my $5 changeover fee with a gift certificate. He then asked a few questions for their records, like address, how long I'd been at my present job (but didn't ask anything further about the job), whether I had a checking account or credit card (and again, with no further prying for details), and whether I owned or rented. He asked for my SSN, but was very understanding when I told him I preferred not to disclose it. There was no problem leaving that space blank. The rep closed by giving me a toll-free customer service number, and asking that I suggest Sprint to my friends. (I told him that I had already passed the offer along to a couple of people) The Most plan should come in handy, since most of my traffic lately has been to a California support BBS (keeping up on modem software updates for my Connection 96+ SoftModem). Thanks, Mark Earle and PAT, for passing this offer along! Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 00:24:00 -0400 From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Telephone Museum in Michigan Reply-To: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu A telephone nuseum worth a visit when you are in the area: Montrose Historical & Telephone Pioneer Museum 144 E. Hickory Street P.O. Box 577 Montrose, Michigan 48457 Hours: 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays ONLY (other times by appointment/special arrangement). Call (313 639-6644 for more information. Jack ------------------------------ From: davidk@netcom.com (David Kiviat) Subject: What's With Pac Bell Airport Terminals? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 07:54:11 GMT Pac Bell has had terminal telephones in airports for years now but when you try to use them as a terminal (they have a full keyboard) instead of as a TTY or an overly complex telephone they just reply "This option has not been implemented yet". It would be very usefull to have these terminals working so people could check their E-mail between flights. My question to Pac Bell people who may be reading this is 'How many more years is it going to take to get these phones fully implemented?" ------------------------------ Subject: AT&T Call Manager Disappeared Again? From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 22:07:33 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 Is AT&T silently dropping this service (again)? I just found it disabled on one of my lines at home and called AT&T. The billing rep said that they were advised to tell customers that Call Manager is not working in the New York City area, and that they have no estimate for repair. The billing rep also gave a phone number to call for more information (1-908-204-4182). This seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, without trying to fix the problem. Is AT&T trying to discourage Call Manager users from using the product, and eventually eliminate it? aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: JVE%FNAHA@eccsa.Tredydev.Unisys.com Date: 22 SEP 93 10:48 Subject: Thieves Like GSM Phones Following information is based on an article in 'Tietoviikko', a Finnish data processing weekly, on 23.09.1993. New type of crime has hit GSM phone owners. With analog mobile phones, especially with older NMT450, phone fraud was the problem. Not with GSM. Intelligent SIM card prevents fraud, but now criminals are stealing phones and resell them or use their own quite legal SIM cards. According to the article GSM phones do not identify themselves to the network, so there is no way to know whether the actual phone is stolen or not. SIM card in the phone has to be valid, though. Operators are creating a new system, where phones would send their ID which then would be compared against database of stolen phones. Calls from stolen units would be blocked even when the SIM card is valid. All GSM phones have this equipment ID feature, but it is not currently used. It would need to be 'activated', whatever that means. SIM -cards have a four to eight number PIN associated with them. Currently some phones, like mine, have also a 'phone lock' PIN. When you turn on the phone, you'll have to type in the phone lock code (0 to eight digits) and then the SIM PIN (four to eight digits). I suspect, though, that most users don't bother with extra security. Juha Veijalainen 4ge system analyst, tel. +358 40 5004402 Unisys Finland Internet: JVE%FNAHA@eccsa.tredydev.unisys.com >> Mielipiteet omiani ** Opinions are PERSONAL, facts are suspect << ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 08:35:18 PDT From: Dave Ptasnik Subject: US West Files For Big OPX Price Increase in Washington (at Least) Excerpts from a Tele-Communications Association letter - On August 31, 1993 US West (re)filed a terminal loop rate increase tariff. The intent of this tariff filing is to withdraw all termial loop service (ie OPX's, tie lines, and centron/centraflex mileage charges, etc.) from the exchange service transport tariff, redesignate them as private lines, and bring them under the private line transport tariff. Since the pricing rules uncer the private line transport tariff require the addition of subsidies to support other telecommunications rate payers, this tariff filing, if approved, will result ina substantial increase in the cost of terminal loops. Using US West's figures, OPX's in the same central office will increase 220 percent on recurring charges and 385 percent on installation charges ... ________________ Other rates equally horrible were gone into. In one of my applications, installation of a Centron OPX to a different CO would go from about $60 to over $250, monthlies would go from about $25 to about $50. Kinda ugly. While this letter did not specifically mention it, I think this proposal would slightly raise basic line rates for businesses with four lines or less, and lower basic rates for businesses with over four lines, so that both would be the same price. I don't know the intended overall revenue effect, but it sure seems like US West is encouraging businesses with multiple locations in the same town to not have a networked voice system. Customers ought to look at this one very carefully, and hold on to their wallets tightly. All of the above is nothing more than the personal opinion of - Dave Ptasnik davep@u.washington.edu ------------------------------ From: MVM@cup.portal.com Subject: Export of Encryption Software National Security Risk? Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 20:47:05 PDT (From {The Wall Street Journal}, 22 Sept 93, pg. B6.) Copyright (C) 1993 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. U.S. Grand Jury Probing Encryption Software Sales SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A federal grand jury is probing sales of encryption software, programs used to protect data from eavesdroppers by putting it into code. The U.S. District Court here has subpoenaed two small companies that sell programs based on a software code called PGP, for Pretty Good Privacy. Developed by Boulder, Colo., computer consultant Philip Zimmermann, the software has been widely copied internationally since Mr. Zimmermann made it available for free in the U.S. ViaCrypt, a division of Phoenix-based Lemcom Systems Inc., and Austin Code Works, Austin, Texas, have been asked to supply documents about their software that incorporates the coding program. The government has been trying to limit proliferation of encryption programs, and regards their export as a violation of laws restricting technology transfers that could threaten national security. But computer users contend that software publishers are entitled to the same free-speech protections as any other publisher, and say it is too late to stop the spread of coding programs. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 01:50:51 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: New area code 905 now works from 519 NPA Organization: National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca Chris Farrar, sysop of the Professional Thinkers Guild BBS in Windsor, Ontario (FidoNet 1:246/20, modem (519) 256-8717) posted the following message in the C-TELECOM echo on Fidonet. 21 Sep 1993 (1650 EDT) Phone numbers that will be in area code 905 after the upcoming split are now dialable as 1-905-NXX-XXXX from the 519 (Windsor) area. Previous to this, Bell would intercept the call after eight digits were dialed, even though 905 was active. A test with AT&T from Jackson MI on Saturday Sept 18, would not connect with NPA 905 numbers. Chris [Note from NDA: The official date for the introduction of 905 is October 4, 1993. I suspect some COCOTs and PBXs will still block 905 after that date because their administrators didn't bother to reprogram them for the new area code.] Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #659 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14233; 23 Sep 93 14:05 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05905 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 23 Sep 1993 11:04:14 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08910 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 23 Sep 1993 11:03:51 -0500 Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 11:03:51 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309231603.AA08910@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #660 TELECOM Digest Thu, 23 Sep 93 11:03:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 660 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson FAQ on the Internet Multicasting Service (Mark Boolootian) Close-out Consumer Telephone Equipment From Heartland America (Nigel Allen) H & V Distance Computing Algorithm Wanted (Jimmy Gauvin) Information Wanted on Six-bit Code (Johan M. Karlsson) Old Phone Located; Good Home Wanted (Rich Greenberg) Tariff Rates for ISDN, T1, SMDS (John L. MacFarlane) Snail-Mail Revenge (Les Reeves) All Shook Up (Randy Gellens) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: booloo@framsparc.ocf.llnl.gov (Mark Boolootian) Subject: FAQ on the Internet Multicasting Service Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 12:07:29 PDT In October and November, the Internet Multicasting Service will be releasing a series of eight half-hour programs entitled "Hell's Bells: A Radio History of the Telephone." In the below FAQ, they claim the series "is one of the best radio programs we've ever heard." Everything you need to know about the IMS can be found below. FAQ for the Internet Multicasting Service ========================================= Tired of that last subtle twist in "alt.ascii.the-letter-a"? Do you find that com-priv has the information content of a free real estate seminar at your local Holiday Inn? Looking for an alternative? You've found it in this FAQ about the Internet Multicasting Service! What's an FAQ? An exchange of information cleverly patterned as a Socratic dialogue. Huh? What's a Socratic dialogue? A set of Frequently Asked Questions and their answers. Socrates was a famous philosopher in ancient Greece. So what's with the dead Greek and what does that have to do with cyberspace? Just in case you are intimidated by modern computer technology, we want to put you at ease. Compared to a dead Greek, we're *all* Unix experts. Enough! What *is* the Internet Multicasting Service? We're the first station in cyberspace, a source of news and information for the Internet community. We run two channels: Internet Talk Radio is a science and technology channel and the Internet Town Hall is devoted to public affairs. The Internet Multicasting Service is a non-profit corporation located in the National Press Building. We're right next to all the other members of the press, like the Kansas City Star and the Arkansas Gazette. They're not too sure exactly what we do, but as long as the rent gets paid they leave us alone. "Station in cyberspace"? Get real! No, really. We run a "radio" station, publishing sound files which you listen to on your personal computer. You know that funny sound your Mac makes when you start it up, quacking like a duck or talking like Bart Simpson? Think of our programs as a very long version of that duck. Gee, aren't the files big? Well, our programming is published in a sound format called Pulse Code Modulation, which is 8000 samples per second with each sample being 8 bits. Those 8 bits are encoded with mu- law encoding (which is a logarithmic encoding that fits 14 bits of information into 8 bits but you didn't want to know that). What this all means is that an hour of programming is 30 Megabytes. We'll typically publish anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes of programming per day. Oh my! Do you mean to tell me that you expect me to download 45 megabytes of data? Are you nuts? Yes. Seriously, how do I get the files to my computer? The easiest way is to use your computer on the Internet. We put the files onto UUNET which acts as a main distribution point for large regional networks around the world, such as IIJ in Japan, NASA, EUnet in Europe, and many others. If you are a UUNET customer, you simply use anonymous ftp to ftp.uu.net. If you belong to some other network, you'll look for the files on your local file server. My regional server doesn't have the files. Is there some other way to find them? We maintain a list of known anonymous FTP sites around the world. There may be many others (do an Archie search on one of our file names and see if you recognize any of the servers). To get the known anonymous FTP sites list, send mail to: sites@radio.com What if I just found a new site which isn't on the list? Tell us about it! Send us mail at: sites-request@radio.com What if I'm not on the Internet. Can I get the files from CompuServe? Whew. That would be a bit tough! You're welcome to try and use an FTP to mail gateway, but this isn't something we'd want to do on our weekend. I'm on the Internet, but I dial into my interactive account on a 300 baud modem. Can I get the files? Sure. Just use Kermit, Xmodem, or something else. Of course, it will take approximately 222 hours to download a 1-hour program. What are you, a wise guy? I've got one of those whizbang fancy modems with 32bis and lots of features. How about that? That makes more sense. Is there a better way? Well, in the ideal world, your network manager on your neighborhood or corporate LAN sucks the files in every night and puts them on a file server on your local Ethernet. If you're connected at 10 million bits per second, a 30 megabyte file doesn't seem quite as bad. We realize this makes it tough on the home user, but eventually we'll all have ISDN, cable TV, or some other miracle giving us decent bandwidth into the home. Until then, the Internet Multicasting Service is trying to figure out what it means to be a cyberstation. You can't please all the people all of the time, but we hope to address the information needs of at least part of the Internet. OK, we've got the files. Now, how do I display them on my screen? This is radio. You don't. No, I mean how do you see them? Ah, you mean "do you publish transcripts?" The answer is no and the reason is that would increase our production costs dramatically. However, that doesn't mean that we think that ASCII is unimportant. A real cyberstation needs to employ all data types and multiple distribution techniques. For our "radio" metaphor, however, we just do audio files. How do I play the files on my Sun? If you are running SunOS 4.1.3 or later, simply pick the AudioTool from your OpenWindows menu. Or, use the "play" command. You can usually find that in /usr/demo/SOUND (or any other place your demo directory has been placed). You can play the files directly, or use a tool like Xmosaic or Gopher. How do I play the files on my NeXT? The Sun .au format is almost identical to the NeXT .snd format. Use your standard sound playing utilities. Can I convert the files to other formats? Sure. Use the famous SoX program, available for Unix and DOS platforms from ftp.cwi.nl. How do I play the files on Ultrix? AudioFile was developed by DEC's Cambridge Research Laboratory. Supports a variety of audio devices, a programming API and library, and some core and contributed applications. AudioFile is available for anonymous FTP from: crl.dec.com:/pub/DEC/AF/AF2R@.tar.Z How do I play the files on my PC? The source files are in the Sun .au format, which is almost identical to the PC .wav format. If you use SOX, you can easily convert the files to a .wav file and play them using any of your standard sound utilities. Another approach is to bring the native files straight down (no conversion) and use PLANY. This clever little program will handle pretty much any sound format on a Soundblaster card. The software is widely mirrored, but one source is: ftp.uga.edu:/msdos/mirror/sound/plany12.zip How do I play your files on the Macintosh? The native sound format for the Mac is the .aiff format. You can convert the files to .aiff format using a variety of tools. You can convert the file on a Unix machine using the SoX program. Or, you can do the same thing on your Mac using UUTool. UUTool is available in the /util/compression directory on the host mac.archive.umich.edu. The files are also mirrored in the following places: wuarchive.wustl.edu:mirrors/archive.umich.edu/mac, src.doc.ic.ac.uk:packages/mac/umich, archie.au:micros/mac/umich. To play the files, you can use AudioShop. AudioShop distributes a demo version of their program that can play .aiff files. Simply load the file and play it. AudioShop does not require System 7 so should work on most Macintosh systems. (Provided that you have enough disk space. ;-) The AudioShop Demo is available in the mac/sound/soundutil directory on mac.archive.umich.edu and is also mirrored. But I wanna play the file on my Mac in the native format with my existing Internet tools. How do I do that? You really want lots of things! OK ... you want a u-law playing program. Mac Mosaic and the latest Turbogopher all have the ability to call the u-law playing program. You can find the package in the usual places, such as: mac.archive.umich.edu: /mac/sound/soundutil/ulaw1.4.cpt.hqx Are there other ways to play the files? Sure! Do whatever you want! Lots of neat things you can do. For example, its simple to download the program to your MAC Powerbook or Sparcbook and put the computer on the seat next to you on the ride home. Expensive radio, but where else would you hear such great programming? Lots of other things have been done. One guy spools the data into the company voicemail system. Several corporations run little automatic radio stations, either using IP multicasting (check out isi.edu:/mbone/faq.txt) or at the Ethernet level (look for the radio and tuner programs on ftp.cwi.nl). I want to be a scholar. How do I learn more about sound? The ultimate source for Sound is the AudioFormats FAQ maintained by the good people at CWI in the Netherlands. You can find lots of good stuff in: ftp.cwi.nl:/pub/audio/ Why don't you publish the files in MAC format? How come you don't compress the files? Well, we could. But, think about this. In our first season, we published about 1.5 Gigabytes of files in four months. We think our steady-state rate is going to be about 300 Mbytes per week. If we publish in both the PCM and MAC formats, we would double (at least) the amount of data on the network. There is an old rule in networks which basically says that if you have to play with your data (e.g., fragment it), you should do so at the last possible hop. We want network managers to bring the files in and *then* do the conversions locally, publishing in whatever formats are appropriate for the next hop. If you have lots of MAC users, maybe you produce .aiff files. If you have lots of users using UUCP with 9600 bps modems, maybe you convert to GSM or some other low-volume format. Enough of this technical mumbo-jumbo. What can I hear? Our flagship show on Internet Talk Radio is "Geek of the Week" featuring in-depth interviews with members of the technical community. We've talked to all sorts of famous engineers about topics such as the next generation of TCP/IP, resource discovery protocols, network security, and how to put toasters on the Internet. Can I order audiocassettes of "Geek of the Week"? Of course. O'Reilly & Associates has issued their new ORAudio line of audiocassettes. Send mail to audio@ora.com and they'll tell you all about it. You can also get information from them through gopher space or through their whiz-bang, hypertext, multimedia magazine, the Global Network Navigator (info@gnn.com). Is "Geek of the Week" your only show? Au contraire. We also syndicate two radio shows from the public radio world. TechNation: Americans and Technology features great interviews by Dr. Moira Gunn, a former rocket scientist at NASA. SOUNDPRINT is an NPR show that features thoughtful looks at important topics. We also carry occasional specials. In October and November of 1993, for example, we're really pleased to carry "Hell's Bells: A Radio History of the Telephone." This series consists of 8 half-hour programs and is one of the best radio programs we've ever heard. What about the Internet Town Hall channel? We have our own broadcast booth in the National Press Club, joining C-SPAN and National Public Radio as the official licensees for the National Press Club Luncheon series. Speakers ranging from Miss Manners to Yassar Arafat to the Dalai Lama appear on this series. How do you pay for all this? We use a public radio-like model of short, tasteful acknowledgements for our underwriters. Underwriters? Don't you mean ads? Call them what you will. Are ads legal? You must be referring to the Appropriate Use Policy (AUP) on NSFNET or other networks. No problem! Turns out that the AUP is a rational thing and, since our radio shows feature informative, educational material, we fit right into the policies of government and research networks. Of course, Bart Simpson might not, but we're not a Fox affiliate. Yet. People actually pay to advertise on this? Don't be snide. We reach 100,000 people in 30 countries. If you're looking for a tasteful alternative to FooWorld, we actually have better demographics than most of the trade press! We've had quite good support so far. Sun Microsystems and O'Reilly & Associates started it off. (Thanks, guys!) UUNET Technologies and MFS Datanet are providing us with a 10 Mbps Internet feed. Beame & Whiteside provides us with TCP/IP software for our PC systems. Lots of other organizations are eager to support the first station in cyberspace. If you have excess money you want to dispose of, send mail to carl@radio.com. Are there any restrictions on what I can do with the files? Well, you can't take our ads out and put your own in and resell the files. We would not be pleased. Basically, we'll allow you to copy the files as many times as you want to as many people so long as: 1) money doesn't change hands; and 2) you don't alter the data. How do I get more information? To get this faq, send mail to: info@radio.com To subscribe to the announcements list, send mail to: announce-request@radio.com For a list of known FTP sites, send mail to: sites@radio.com To talk to a human, send mail to: questions@radio.com What else does the Internet Multicasting Service do? The radio station seems to be working out well, so we decided to work with Dr. Marshall T. Rose of Dover Beach Consulting to help start a new kind of telephone company. For more information, send mail to: tpc-faq@town.hall.org We also occasionally pull cheap stunts, like the time we linked up National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation: Science Friday to the Internet for an hour of live national radio. If you're on the announcements list, you'll hear about these special events as they occur. Can I start my own radio station? You bet! Next time you're in the National Press Building stop by for a tour. We'd be happy to show you our digital production facilities and studio and how we set up our 10 Mbps link into the Internet. Since we're a non-profit, we're encouraging anybody else to get into the brand new field of desktop broadcasting. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 22:13:07 -0400 From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Close-Out Consumer Telephone Equipment From Heartland America Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa Readers in the U.S. may be interested in the cheap (and presumably discontinued) consumer telephones offered by Heartland America. A recent ad offers a 10-channel cordless phone for US $69, for example. To request a catalog, call 1-800-486-1549; to order, call 1-800-229-2901. The company will not ship to addresses outside the U.S., and I have had no dealings with it myself. The company sells a lot of non-telecom merchandise as well. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: jimmy@cerberus.ulaval.ca (Jimmy Gauvin) Subject: H & V Distance Computing Algorithm Wanted Organization: Universite Laval Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 18:19:28 GMT Hi, Can somebody please tell me how to calculate the distance between two NPA-NXXs given their H & V coordinates? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: johan@tts.lth.se (Johan M Karlsson) Subject: Information Wanted on Six-bit Code Date: 23 Sep 1993 11:06:18 GMT Organization: Communication Systems, Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden I just wonder if anybody know anything about the Six-bit code called TTS, that was used by many newspapers in the 70's to receive stories from the wire services. Like what does the letters TTS stand for? Would be very happy for an answer! Johan ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 13:23:15 PDT Reply-To: richgr@netcom.com Subject: Old Phone Located; Good Home Wanted One of my hobbies is to cruise garage sales looking for telephones, recondition (usually just clean up) them, and resell them. One that I came across may be of interest to the readers of The Telcom Digest and c.d.t. Its a 500 phone, dated 1971, rotary dial, in PINK. Its working, and in good shape except for two minor cracks in the case that I will epoxy. Came with an extra long pink cord (with the plug cut off) which you may have with it, or I will put on a modular cord. Email if interested. I am in Los Angeles near LAX, and would prefer not to ship it. Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 I speak for myself only. Canines: Chinook & Husky ------------------------------ From: John.MacFarlane@software.com (John L. MacFarlane) Subject: Tariff Rates For ISDN, T1, SMDS Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 11:06:46 GMT Organization: Software.Com Hello all, Can anyone give me advise on where to find the tariff rates for local T1, ISDN and SMDS services? I realize these rates vary with location and I am also interested in this variance. My appreciation in advance, John MacFarlane John.MacFarlane@Software.Com [Moderator's Note: Have you asked your own telco what they charge for the services mentioned? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 17:14:35 -0400 (EDT) From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Snail-Mail Revenge The U.S. Postal Service is trying to coerce businesses into using its Express Mail instead of private couriers, according to rivals in the parcel industry. During the past three years, the USPS has audited dozens of companies and fined them more than $500,000 in "back postage" fees for shipping "non-urgent" mail through services such as UPS and Federal Express. Under federal law, couriers can only be used to ship "urgent" mail, which the government defines as correspondence requiring an immediate response. So companies shipping out invoices or letters by private carrier for overnight or two-day delivery could be opening themselves up to an audit. "Postal inspectors are being used as marketing tools to lure businesses away from couriers," said Peter Farkas, counsel for the Air Courier Conference of America. The companies audited so far -- including: Equifax of Atlanta GA, and GTE Corp. of Stamford, Conn., are being charged fees for the amount that the postal service would have collected if the business materials had been sent by first-class mail. "What we are doing is totally covered by federal statute", says Paul Griffo, a spokesman for the US Postal Inspection Service. In 1974, Congress amended the 1872 law that gave the government a total monopoly on first-class mail by allowing private companies to transport urgent next-day packages, but it required the shippers to pay at least twice the Postal Service's first-class mail rate. Since then, the private courier business has become a grown into a $20 billion-a-year market. ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 23 SEP 93 10:08 Subject: All Shook Up The Monday (9/20) edition of {The Los Angeles Times} notes that Andrew Cuomo, an assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Develipment, complained to aids that his desk occasionally trembled. A baffled building crew couldn't find a thing until superintendent Elaine Robinson opened a drawer and discovered Cuomo's pager, which vibrates when activiated, displaying a dozen unanswered calls. Randall Gellens . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . .randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unisys Corporation. . . . . . . .|. . [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA. . . . . . . . | . . . . .to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal;. .facts are suspect; . I speak only for myself ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #660 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17088; 23 Sep 93 16:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00251 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 23 Sep 1993 12:55:45 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08044 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 23 Sep 1993 12:55:15 -0500 Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 12:55:15 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309231755.AA08044@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #661 TELECOM Digest Thu, 23 Sep 93 12:55:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 661 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Questions About Kentucky (Johan Hammarstr|m) I Authorized WHAT? (Les Reeves) Pager Number Being Forwarded to a Voice Number? (Dean Sokoya) 'People Damage' During Electrical Storm (Bert Roseberry) Skypage by Modem (Steve Hutzley) Pointer Please: Heard of "Genius"; Phone Product From Canada? (H.Shrikumar) Message From Moscow (TELECOM Moderator via Sergey V. Sidorenko) Trivia: Kiribati is North East South and West at Same Time (H.Shrikumar) How Much Power Will Telco Allow From Phone Line? (Neil Hamilton) Telix File Transfer Upload Question (Gregory Veal) Need Information on Teleprotector (Christopher Vaz) Request For Information on R2 Line Signalling on T1 (Anant Ghotkar) Information Wanted on E-mail/V-mail Integration (Heli Leinonen) Update on 410-287 (Carl Moore) Caller ID Display Boxes - Best Models/Mfgrs? (Steve Bookman) Using Rechargable Alkaline Batteries for Cellular Phone (Yilmaz Cengeloglu) Ohio Scientific C1P Nostalgia (Karim Alim) Which Operating System for a Dialogics/T1 VRU, Solaris, SCO, NT? (Burgoyne) Ordering Distinctive Ring (Ken Levitt) How to Unlock a Diamond Tel 90X Cellular Phone? (Peter J. Scott) What Sort of Stability Required For a Country Code? (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Johan Hammarstr|m Subject: Telecom Questions About Kentucky Organization: Telia Research Sundsvall AB Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 16:03:48 GMT Hi! I am a system engineer from Sundsvall, Sweden. I want to get some names of companies which should be placed in Kentucky, USA (I would prefer around Louisville but it isn't necesary). The companies should be either: - Operator which handles wireless access to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephony Network). - Developer of wireless- or PSTN- exchange nodes. Thanks in advance. Johan Hammarstr|m E-mail: Johan.Hammarstrom@sundsvall.trab.se Telia Research AB Box 883 Tel: +46 60 144629 S-851 24 Sundsvall, Sweden Telefax:+46 60 144700 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 18:28:48 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: I Authorized WHAT? The following *NEW* text appears on a single page separating the local service portion of my telephone bill from the toll section of this month's bill: When using a Long Distance Carrier other than your preferred Long Distance Carrier to make long distance calls (including calling card, collect or third number calls) or when using certain other Providers of telecommunications services, you are authorizing that Carrier or Provider to bill and collect for the calls that you placed over its Network. Upon request, Southern Bell provides your billing name and address to those Long Distance Carriers or other Providers of telecommunications services for use in billing your calls. [Moderator's Note: That is correct. When you dial a telephone number that is legally taken to be a request to the telco for service. When you request the service, i.e. make the necessary motions with your fingers to establish the connection, it follows that you are author- izing them to bill you for the service. In that same vein, the FCC requires telcos to share billing information with each other which would include the name and address of the person who used the service. Non-pub numbers are not exempt from the requirement that the name and address of the subscriber be given to other carriers. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 16:24:55 CDT From: U49137@uicvm.uic.edu Subject: Pager Number Being Forwarded to a Voice Number Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago, ADN Computer Center I'm just wondering if its possible for a pager number to be forwared to a voice mail. I place a call thru to AmeriTech pager to enquire about this but they inform me that this is not possible. But since all phone lines have to go thru the local Central Office, is it possible for the pager number to be forwared at the switch station to another number? I'll appreciate if I get an answer (hopefully, get posted) on this one. Deen Sokoya, u49137@uicvm.uic.edu [Moderator's Note: You called me on the telephone about this yesterday and as I explained to you, certainly all phones (for the purposes of this discussion) go through central office switches, and certainly all can have various features such as call forwarding. But in the case of pagers, the paging company (in this case Ameritech) is supplying you with a phone line for your ease in using *their* service. They are not supplying you that phone line for your use in calling wherever you want to call. They make their money from your use of their airtime, not from your use of the phone they gave you to connect with them. If you want call forwarding on a phone line, *you* have to be the owner of the phone. In the case at hand, Ameritech is the 'customer' of Illinois Bell, not yourself. Ameritech -- or for that matter, any paging company -- does not wish to supply you with a phone dedicated to your use of their system and allow you to use the phone for other purposes while they are paying the bill. In the meantime, I seem to have misplaced the address you gave me for the information you wanted me to mail. Please write or call me again. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bert Roseberry Subject: 'People Damage' During Electrical Storm Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 22 Sep 93 19:47:44 -0400 Organization: DECUServe What's the general feeling, not about equipment damage, but about people damage while on a phone during an electrical storm? I've had phones destroyed and I've heard stories about people getting hurt but I wonder what the real story is. Bert Roseberry roseberry@eisner.decus.org -or- bert@mailstorm.dot.gov [Moderator's Note: It is wise to not use your phone, modem, computer, etc during an electrical storm. For all we have learned over the centuries, we have yet to learn ways to conquer Mother Nature and her friends fire and electricity when they visit us randomly. Lightning does strike telco facilities and can travel easily down the wire to your phone. There are protections in place, but no protection works when a million volts looks at you and decides you are next. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hutzley@ranger.dec.com (Steve Hutzley) Subject: Skypage by Modem Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 16:54:05 GMT Any information on this would be greatly appreciated, espically for a DOS based machine. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 12:17:43 -0400 From: shri@unreal.cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar) Subject: Pointer Please: Heard of "Genius"; Phone Product From Canada Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India Hi, I recently heard a mention from a friend of mine about a product called "GENIUS" out of Canada. This is supposed to help "exisitng {<(rotary?) phones exploit new services" ... or some such. Has someone heard about this? Could you mail me any pointers please? Thanks. And BTW, anyone used it? ... Comments on how it works and good/bad ? shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in, (413)549-8484 ) ------------------------------ Organization: "Demos Plus" Company, Moscow, Russia From: Sergey V. Sidorenko Subject: kUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM (095) 212-3937 Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 09:36:30 GMT Reply-To: dsoft@unibest.msk.su Organization: ACB UNIBEST [Moderator's Note: This message came to me from Russia. I have no idea at all what he is saying, except I think it has to do with a BBS or public access site in Moscow. This was the entire text. Can someone read it to me? PAT] sRO^NO KUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM tEL: (095) 212-39-37 sIDORENKO sERGEJ. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 01:22:04 -0400 From: shri%legato@cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar) Subject: Trivia: Kiribati is North East South and West at Same Time In article ublack@ll.mit.edu wrote: > use the bandwidth of all the idle phone channels. I know there's a > box out there that can do this, do you have any scoops on this? Never used them, but the Black Box and RAD catalogs have information of several muxes. I have them at home, and can mail you addresses, etc. if you need. > Jerry Black, black@LL.MIT.EDU > (the only internet administrator in the Marshall Islands!) Ah ... Marshall Islands ... reminds me of something I wanted to share with the net. When the mention of Marshall Islands came up a while ago (re shift of the International Date Line) I was looking it up in the map (a {National Geographic} wall map) and noticed that KIRIBATI is the only country in the world to have contiguous territory all of North and South and East and West. The archipelago straddles both the equator and the date line. So in Kiribati, if you forgot to do something yesterday, guess one could take a boat to the other island and have it done there. :-) And I thought telecommuting 10:30 hours east each day, which I do regularly, was confusing ! :-) Wonder if they have North-South and East-West Summits locally ? :-) shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in ) PS: Yes sir, Kiribati *is* a country, and not a possesion like its neighbours. The Country code in X.400 series is C = KI. And further ... Geographical Names: Ki-ri-bati \'kir-e-,bas--sic\ or formerly Gil-bert \'gil-bert\ islands W Pacific SSE of the Marshalls; a Brit. territory 1976-79; became an independent member of the Commonwealth 1979 capital Tarawa area 102 sq mi (265 sq km), pop 63,848 [Moderator's Note: While you are correct about their geographical positioning, I think they operate entirely within one time zone and one day for local convenience. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nhamilto@fox.nstn.ns.ca (Neil Hamilton) Subject: How Much Power Will Telco Allow From Phone Line? Organization: NSTN Network Operations Centre, Nova Scotia, Canada Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 17:01:34 GMT If one wanted to power a certain low power device from a standard phone line, how much power would the telco allow to be drawn? Neil Hamilton, PEng (EE) phone (902)421-1250 fax (902)429-9983 Applied Microelectronics, Halifax, NS hamilton@appliedmicro.ns.ca Industrial Technology Advisor (NRC/IRAP) hamilton@a1.atdart.nrc.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 0:00:01 PDT From: Gregory Veal Subject: Telix File Transfer Upload I need help, Im trying to UPLOAD a file to my UNIX account from my PC at home. In the past I have download files to my a:\ and every thing work using the commands: sz filename But, my question is how do I upload. My Path or A:/ for upload and download, modem 9600 , 386pc , ect. Thanks for your timely response. Greg Veal ------------------------------ Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 23:08:48 EDT From: Christopher Vaz Subject: Need Information on Teleprotector I have bought a teleprotector(henceforth T-P) (from Radio Shack) which is a device that helps an answering machine disconnect when a phone is picked up. It is indeed auto-disconnecting my machine -- however, there seems to be one problem. When I pick up the phone, it disconnects the machine but only after a couple of seconds, and in fact, the machine saves, as a message, that part of the conversation that the caller has left until the time the phone is picked up, and even a little part of my conversation with the caller -- i.e. my "Hello" and a few sentences of mine thereafter. Is this common with a T-P or does this seem strange to any of you folks out there who do or do not use a T-P? Christopher Vaz cvzqc@cunyvm.cuny.edu [Moderator's Note: Doesn't the documentation say something about a trim pot in there you can adjust a little if this happens? It is hearing you, but not soon enough. If you adjust it too far the other way then the answering machine won't pick up the line at all. There should be a middle point where it works just fine. Anyone else care to comment? PAT] ------------------------------ From: ghotkara@abraxas.com (Anant Ghotkar) Subject: Request For Information on R2 Line Signalling on T1. Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 9:09:51 EDT Can anybody over there throw some light on details of R2 line signalling on T1? I only know that the line signalling information is sent in LSB of all the 24 timeslots of a T1 in 6th and 12th frame of a multiframe. Thanks in advance. Anant ------------------------------ From: heli.leinonen@qm.ajk.tele.fi (Heli Leinonen) Subject: Information Wanted on E-mail/V-mail Integration Date: 23 Sep 1993 14:40:08 GMT Organization: Telecom Finland Hello! Please, could you do me a favour, and help me get a certain Bellcore document. It would require you just a phone call to (800) 521-CORE in USA. Bellcore announced in Integrated Messaging News, June 1993 issue a new service called Message Transport and Routing Service, which should enable a customer to use one telephone number to transmit an electronic message in any medium (voice, e-mail or fax) from one mail system to another. A copy of a Bellcore document MTRS SR-INS-002662 describing the service, the article says, could be obtained by calling (800) 521-CORE. I would be most interested in this service, but I am not able to call from abroad to 800-numbers. Please, could you help me obtain this article by ordering it for me? I would appreciate it very much. In addition, I would be most interested to hear about other development projects (or products or services) dealing with the integration of different messaging media - voice mail, electronic mail and fax. My name and address is: Heli Leinonen Telecom Finland Business Systems R&D P.O. Box 140 SF-00511 HELSINKI FINLAND Thank you very much in advance. Best Regards, Heli Leinonen. [Moderator's Note: Perhaps readers will be kind enough to supply you with Bellcore's regular POTS number so you can call them direct and get what you are seeking. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 11:17:14 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Update on 410-287 In North East, MD, the local exchange is 410-287. This morning, I plugged the AT&T touchtone phone into the jack and did hear a faint hum, which was interrupted when I pushed any button on the phone; however, pushing the buttons did not emit the touch-tone sounds (contrasts with my hearing such after my Newark phone number had been removed from my apartment there). And, darn, I don't have the call forward-if-busy or forward-if-no-answer at North East unless I go into the "Answercall" feature (my Newark number is forwarding to the switchboard it was forwarding to earlier). ------------------------------ From: steveny@panix.com (Steve Bookman) Subject: Caller ID Display Boxes - Best Models/Mfgrs? Date: 23 Sep 1993 09:46:34 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Caller ID is being introduced to large new areas of NYC and other places this fall. It would be helpful to know other readers' experiences with the Caller ID LCD screen display boxes which are installed between the telco's line and the user's telephone extension. Which are most reasonable in price/reliable in operation? ------------------------------ From: cengelog@cambridge.dab.ge.com (Yilmaz Cengeloglu) Subject: Using Rechargable Alkaline Batteries For Cellular Phone Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 08:22:51 GMT Organization: Martin Marietta, Daytona Beach, Florida I have a Novatel PTR 825 cellular phone. I am using alkaline batteries. It uses five AA size alkaline batteries. It cost $34 and I have found it very useful when I am traveling. I do not have to carry charger and wait for charging. I just replace the alkaline batteries. My question is that can I use rechargable alkaline batteries instead of regular alkaline batteries? Would they do any damage to the phone or would they last shorter than regular batteries? Yilmaz cengelog@cambridge.dab.ge.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 18:15 GMT From: Karim Alim <0006143365@mcimail.com> Subject: Ohio Scientific C1P Nostalgia I normally try not to get carried away with those in-the-good-old-days discussions, but you really struck a nerve in the Digest (Vol. 13 #639). I thought I was the ONLY person in the world to actually purchase a C1P. (grin) No one even BELIEVES me when I tell them it had only 4K RAM. (The Microsoft 8K BASIC-IN-ROM was twice the size of the RAM.) I think that's when my interest in telephones started, too. For $20 (I kid you not!) I bought the guts of a Vadic modem. With about half a dozen Rat Shack alligator clip-wires and two 6-volt lantern batteries (connected to provide +12 and -12 volts) you could have a working modem! You needed to make some mods to the C1P motherboard (about $0.50 in diodes and transistors) in order to be able to use the RS-232 stuff already on the C1P (for some reason OSI just never bothered to put on a DB connector.) And this guy at U. Maryland had written a terminal emulation program for the C1P called "CHAT" (CHAllenger Terminal, half in assembly and half in BASIC) ... my B&W television would only support about 22 chars x 20 lines when using the homebuilt RF modulator. And unscrewing the microphone on the telephone receiver (you can do that? It comes off?) revealed the two magical connections to which the final alligator clips were attached ... (transformer? Who needs a transformer?) Of course, back then the Arpanet was free for the hacking, and the nice people at MIT would let you play with their expensive toys for no charge or even no good reason ... ahhhh ... Thanks for the memories. Plus now I can always say that at least ONE other person bought a C1P. (grin) I lusted after your TI calculator too -- I guess it's just as well I could never afford it ... [Moderator's Note: Like President Carter, I freely admitted to having lust in my heart, but mine was for an Apple ][+. I finally yielded to my desires and yielded a couple paychecks over to the local dealer. Once I did that, the C-1-P never came out of the closet again. I finally wound up giving it to a little fellow about ten years ago who used it to learn BASIC programming. Yes, 4K of RAM! Expandable to 8K if you were not afraid of soldering and installing chips. The Apple ][+ had 48 K expandable to 64K by using a 'Language Card' in a slot. PAT] ------------------------------ From: burgoyne@access.digex.net (J. Robert Burgoyne) Subject: Which Operating System for a Dialogics/T1 VRU, Solaris, SCO, NT? Date: 23 Sep 1993 15:31:32 GMT Organization: Maryland FYI Publishing, Laurel, MD USA (301)-317-0726 I'd like to get some feedback from people who are actually developing similar applications. Our client has developed a system already using SCO, but they're somewhat disappointed with SCO; it seems to crash with regularity. Anyone? J. Robert Burgoyne Maryland FYI Laurel, Maryland 301-317-0726 24 Hours burgoyne@access.digex.net 301-317-0587 FAX ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 10:00:43 EDT From: levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org (Ken Levitt) Subject: Ordering Distinctive Ring I currently have a business number which is permanently forwarded to my residential number at the central office. New England Telephone calls this service "Remote Call Forwarding". Distinctive ring service just became available in my exchange (called Ring-Mate) and I wanted to get rid of my remote forwarding service and make that existing number a Ring-Mate number attached to my home phone. NET tells me that is OK to conduct business on a Ring-Mate residential number, but I would lose my business listing in the White Pages, which I can't do. One solution seems to be getting a new Ring-Mate number at home and having the business line forward to the new number. This is my fall-back solution, but it seems wasteful and unnecessarily expensive. Doing away with my residential line and making both lines business class with Ring-Mate seemed like an option, but this would cost more than the option listed above. Does anyone have any creative solutions to this problem? Ken Levitt - On FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390 UUCP: zorro9!levitt INTERNET: levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org or levitt%zorro9.uucp@talcott.harvard.edu ------------------------------ From: pjs@euclid.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Peter J. Scott) Subject: How to Unlock a Diamond Tel 90X Cellular Phone? Date: 23 Sep 1993 22:31:13 GMT Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA/Caltech Reply-To: pjs@euclid.Jpl.Nasa.Gov A friend of mine who owns a Diamond Tel 90X phone recently had an irritating experience when it locked up on him and he couldn't get it unlocked. He said he wound up going to some place that looked like an opium den to pay an outrageous sum to have it unlocked. I don't know anything about cellular phones and he doesn't have net access, so I said I'd ask around to see if anyone knew how to unlock that kind of phone so I could tell him in case it happens again. Thanks in advance. Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech (pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 18:13:48 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: What Sort of Stability Required For a Country Code? Given the publicity over the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia, I was somewhat surprised to see that it is indeed getting country codes to account for the breakup. Wasn't some sort of stability (in terms of boundaries etc.) required before country codes could be handed out? There was some note of that when some of the 37x codes were handed out to the three Baltic republics and Moldova. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #661 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05925; 26 Sep 93 16:13 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27755 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 26 Sep 1993 13:12:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19140 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 26 Sep 1993 13:12:00 -0500 Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 13:12:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309261812.AA19140@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #662 TELECOM Digest Sun, 26 Sep 93 13:12:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 662 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically (Nigel Allen) Dangerous Information on AT&T Cards (Barton Bruce) Telecomics Jamboree (Dave Leibold) Bell Canada 905 Testing (Dave Leibold) Hotel Call Accounting Systems (Dave Leibold) HELL'S BELLS: A Radio History of the Telephone (Mark Boolootian) "Internetworking with TCP/IP" by Comer/Stevens (Rob Slade) God Gets a Second Line (Don Kimberlin) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 05:00:25 -0400 From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa Here is a press release from AT&T. I don't work for AT&T, and I'm not related to AT&T chairman Robert E. Allen, but I thought this might be of interest to some readers of this newsgroup. Allen says family upheavals impact nation economically. AT&T Media Contacts: Herb Linnen 202-457-3933 (office) 202-333-9162 (home) Jim McGann 202-457-3942 (office) 301-585-5519 (home) ALLEN SAYS FAMILY UPHEAVALS IMPACT NATION ECONOMICALLY WASHINGTON -- AT&T Board Chairman Robert E. Allen said today there is a slow but growing recognition that the problems of families and children impact the nation's economic well-being. "As a nation we are coming late to the aid of children and their families and our slow response only adds to the debt owed," Allen told some 300 government, education and health care leaders attending a national forum on early education and care. "We have NOT traditionally linked the well-being of children to the success of business or the governance of nations," Allen said. "Yet increasingly we seem to be acknowledging that upheavals in the American family aren't self-contained -- they intersect with business and economic circles and loop into the social fabric of this nation." Allen said poverty "tyrannizes one out of five school children and one in four preschoolers. Too many of our children endure a barrage of violence that many adults cannot even envision. And too many schools and school children are denied the strong and stable hand of family and community." Allen said he was "heartened by the Clinton Administration's advocacy of children's rights." He added: "With its backing, we may truly start to solve our child care problems. We may inally, for example, take advantage of early childhood programs that have already proven their effectiveness." Among the positive prospects, Allen said, were full funding for the Women, Infants and Children's program by 1996, more funding for Head Start programs and immunizations for all children to prevent the remergence of diseases already eradicated. Part of the problem, he said, "is the mistaken notion that a preschooler, like the family itself, is somehow off-limits, sealed away in sanctity from the rest of the world. But there's no protection in that notion. Only the sure, sad realization that many needs of our youngest children are today going unmet." Allen said, however, attitudes are changing because "we are coming to see that our kids need a conspiracy of adults plotting to arm them with the skills and strength to find their way." AT&T is contributing to the well-being of children through philanthropic programs and work-family benefits for its employees. The AT&T Foundation, which gave more than $33 million in cash grants in 1992, supports a range of innovative health, social-services and education initiatives for young children and their families. The AT&T Foundation also is working with the Families and Work Institute and local agencies in the state of West Virginia, Boston and Kansas City, Mo., to develop a pilot program to enhance the quality of child-care services. In addition, AT&T offers employee benefits such as resource and referral and consultation on child care. The Family Care Development Fund -- administered by AT&T, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers -- has committed $25 million over six years to increasing the quality and supply of child and elder care through grants to organizations in communities where AT&T employees live and work. --------------------- [Moderator's Note: AT&T has always been socially involved in the communities where they are located. I've kept many of my accounts with them over the years simply because they are willing to return money to the community in forms like that described above. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Dangerous Information on AT&T Cards Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 25 Sep 93 20:06:13 -0400 Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. AT&T will cheerfully omit the last four digit PIN fron the credit card they send you and then mail it to you seperately. That makes sense. Anyone ripping off you mail feeling the credit card inside gets useless plastic. If you lose it, no one can use it. But right there on the bottom of the card is the FULL number and apparently ALL you need to make calls from some international site! Is there simply NO fraud being done from international sites, or why is AT&T being foolish? FWIW, it seems you CAN get the card with out that printed on the bottom! Simply have the card set to be a restricted one (e.g. 'call home only') and have them reissue it. Then get the card restored to full functionality. The card number and pin won't change. There may be an easier way, but that is what seems to WORK. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 02:56:37 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Telecomics Jamboree Plenty of phone references in the comics: Hi and Lois 25 May 93: A depiction of an interactive voice response system is given; for the punch line, the system then tells the caller "if you're fed up with these systems and want to talk to a real *person*, mash all the buttons at once ... *HARD*!" Charlie 9 Sept 93: "... what our tribe is demanding in the lawsuit is all land in area code 307 and zip code 57520 and 57709..." Shoe 10 Sept 93: "Organic call waiting" is described as "if you call me and I'm on another call... you get a busy signal." Adam 9 Sept 93: We learn in a graphic way that "infant nursery monitors are five times more likely to pick up steamy cellular phone conversations while you're asleep than when you're awake" Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 03:19:37 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Bell Canada 905 Testing As of 1st September, Bell Canada formally activated the 905 area code (surrounding Toronto) to allow for debugging of the 905 dialing before the global, public start-up date of 4th October 1993. The Bell News recommends that Bell Ontario employees try out 905 and report any bugs to a fault report centre. Bell Canada's 416/905 faults command post is 1 800 CODE 905 for those within the province of Ontario. Outside Ontario, Digest readers should not call Bell Canada for problems that are the responsibility of their local telephone companies (and especially before the 4th October official start date). Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 01:37:36 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Hotel Call Accounting Systems Part of my work in the past the linking of a hotel PBX billing systems to another system that bills the hotel guests. A hotel PBX can send extension and called number data to a "call accounting system" which determines costs of calls and which extensions get billed for these calls. These costs can be billed to the guest manually, or automatically to a "property management system" that maintains guest billings and reservations. In diagram form, a call accounting setup might look like this: HOBIC data from carrier | | v +-----------+ SMDR +-----------------+ i/f +---------------+ | Hotel PBX | ------> | Call Accounting | <-----> | Hotel Billing | +-----------+ +-----------------+ +---------------+ SMDR (Station Message Detail Recording?) data is sent from the PBX. This is usually a typical RS-232 data line that sends extension and calling data from the PBX (but usually doesn't receive data back). HOBIC is a special hotel billing feature offered by the telephone carrier to send data on calls placed from the hotel through the carrier's long distance service. This data is normally sent regarding operator-assisted calls, such as person-to-person, card, collect or other special cases. This allows the hotel to bill for calls placed through the operator where the charge is not apparent from the dialing sequence (the operator call could be no charge to the hotel, as in the case of a card or collect call, or it could be extremely expensive in the case of a person-to-person call). Some call accounting systems have a "HOBIC Merge" which combines both the HOBIC data and the SMDR data so that all types of calls may be billed. The call accounting unit will handle the rating of calls using data supplied by rate diskettes or cartridges. If the hotel has a computer system that bills guests, an optional interface (i/f) link will send the data necessary to bill the extension, and thus the room and guest. Such data is sent through a typical serial RS-232 connection. SMDR data formats change from one type of PBX to another. The i/f format can also vary, but one format common to most systems sends the following from the call accounting unit: 001A XYZ 09/21 2345 13:45 0008 $002.45 905-034-2657 L The 001A is a sequence number than increments with each new call report. The XYZ is a site identifier that is common to the type of call accounting system used, or set up according to the hotel name. It remains constant within a hotel site. 09/21 is the date (21st September) 2345 represents the extension number that was dialed (not necessarily the room number, as some hotels set up extensions so that rooms below the 10th floor require a 7 plus the room number). 13:45 is the time of the call 0008 is the duration of the call (8 minutes in this case) $002.45 is the cost of the call as calculated by the call accounting system 905-034-2657 is the dialed number, and the L following that is a flag to indicate a local call (long distance usually doesn't have a flag, except F to indicate an international call, perhaps). The record is often sent down with a carriage return and/or line feed ending the record, then the hotel system receiving a call record will send an acknowledgement such as a control-F to indicate that the call billing data was received at the other end; if there were errors in the record data, a "negative acknowledgement" or "nak" is sent (usually control-U) to order the call accounting system to send the billing data again. A few systems will even add a checksum character to improve data integrity. Some systems don't have the ack/nak at all, meaning billing records could be lost if there are severe transmission errors or if the property management system side is shut down. Systems that rate the calls at the hotel normally lack "answer supervision" which indicates when the call is answered and billable under regular long distance conditions. Thus, a hotel call accounting system will usually take a "guess" as to when the call starts and bill according to the guessed time on line. If the hook is off for a few minutes, it's usually a good indication that a call is in progress. Of course, if one rings a number and waits for 20 rings without answering, there is a risk of a charge for getting no answer. On the other hand, charges are missed if the system waits too long before starting to charge. Offering hotels direct access to answer supervision would eliminate such inaccuracies. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ From: booloo@framsparc.ocf.llnl.gov (Mark Boolootian) Subject: HELL'S BELLS: A Radio History of the Telephone Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 01:28:41 PDT Forwarded to the group FYI: From: carl@radio.com Subject: HELL'S BELLS: A Radio History of the Telephone Org: Internet Multicasting Service Channel: Internet Talk Radio Date: Wed, 23 Sep 93 04:00:00 -0400 "HELL'S BELLS: A Radio History of the Telephone" shows what happens when good government meets great production. This 8-part series was sponsored by the Telecommunications Education Trust established by the California Public Utilities Commission and was produced by Greg McVicar and Pacific Multimedia for Western Public Radio. One of *the* most exciting series that we've seen, HELL'S BELLS is a fascinating glimpse into the history of telecommunications and has great relevance for those interested in the future of the Internet. "HELL'S BELLS: A Radio History of the Telephone" is "c" and "p" 1993, Pacific Multimedia, All Rights Reserved. Funds for the development of this series were provided by the Telecommunications Education Trust, established by the California Public Utilities Commission. California non-profits seeking tapes or transcripts should contact the TET Repository, Consumer Action, 116 New Montgomery Street, # 233, San Francisco, California, 94105. Attn: Tony Pettinato. Fax: +1-415-777-5267. All others seeking tapes or transcripts may purchase them through the producers at Pacific Multimedia, P.O. Box 2282, Walnut Creek, Calif., 94595, USA. Fax: +1-510=938-2850. Send your comments about HELL's BELLS to mcvicar@well.sf.ca.us. Rebroadcast of HELL'S BELLS on Internet Talk Radio is made possible by support from Sun Microsystems and O'Reilly & Associates. Network connectivity for the Internet Multicasting Service is provided by UUNET Technologies and MFS Datanet. ITR Program Files: Size Name Description ========== ====================== =========================== 14,179,808 092393_hell_01_ITR.au HELL'S BELLS: Episode 1 092393_hell_ITR.readme (This File) For our new FAQ on Internet Talk Radio, send mail to info@radio.com. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Sep 93 12:09 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: "Internetworking with TCP/IP" by Comer/Stevens BKINTTCP.RVW 930812 Prentice Hall, Inc. 113 Sylvan Avenue Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 (515) 284-6751 FAX (515) 284-2607 11711 N. College Ave. Carmel, IN 46032-9903 15 Columbus Circle New York, NY 10023 800-428-5331 "Internetworking with TCP/IP", Comer/Stevens, vol 1, 2 If only my calculus text had been this good. "Internetworking with TCP/IP" is intended as a text for a course in the problem of communication between networks with dissimilar protocols, with reference to the use of the TCP/IP protocol suite as a means to overcome the problem. This should not prevent those interested in using TCP/IP from looking at it: the material is quite complete and detailed. As both text and reference, it succeeds admirably. After the first two chapters introduce general "inter"networking concepts and communications technology, three sections of chapters deal successively with basic connection services, routing and gateways, and then move into applications issues. The chapters are many (twenty-seven) and usually short. The same structure is followed for most: the presentation of a particular problem of interconnection, the presentation of the "internet" answer, a detailed look at this answer, and an examination of its strengths and weaknesses. The author states that the reader should have a familiarity with programming and basic data structures. This is quite reasonable, given the topic. For much of the book, however, the descriptions are clear enough that the intelligent novice should be able to make sense of it. It is also suggested that this work could be used as a text for a more general communications course and, again, I agree wholeheartedly. While TCP/IP, and the related suite of protocols (generally one per chapter) are used as the specific examples, it is the concepts that are stressed. The book is refreshingly free of bias or "side", and when a particular aspect of TCP/IP is weak, it definitely says so. Comer is an excellent writer. The book's layout and structure is well organized and logical. In addition, the writing itself is not only clear, but an "easy read" for so technical a subject. The text is broken by boldfaced topical section headings, and supported by one sentence conceptual summations. By the end of the first three chapters you are well aware that when italics show up, you'd better read carefully. Volume II of the set is not so much a "follow on" as supporting material for Volume I. Much of the same material is covered, but in terms of the programming and implementation of various TCP/IP related protocols. While Volume I could be used with a fairly naive audience, Volume II definitely requires a programming background, preferably in C. The second volume does not cover all of the protocols dealt with in the first. Discussion of implementation requires considerably more detail: six chapters are devoted to aspects of TCP alone. Nevertheless, the examples given should address most of the concepts needed to implement other protocols in the suite. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKINTTCP.RVW 930812 Permission granted to distribute with the full TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. Postscriptum - There *is* a volume III. PH just never got around to sending it. Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 02:14:18 -0400 From: Don.Kimberlin@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Don Kimberlin) Subject: God Gets a Second Line [Originally posted on the Fidonet FCC conference] * Original Area: FCC * Original From: Don Kimberlin (1:250/701) * Original To : All (1:250/730) Recent news contains yet another way telephone companies have found to make money: HEAVENLY HOT LINE GETTING SECOND NUMBER. "BEST-OF-BOOK" By: Arieh O'Sullivan, Associated Press JERUSALEM - Faxing notes to God has been such a hit that the Israeli phone company has opened another line to the divine and plans to publish a book of the best prayers and messages. In January, the national phone company, Bezek, decided to make a business of the hundreds of notes stuffed each day into the crannies of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall. It opened a fax line to receive the messages, which are copied and sent by messenger to the wall, Jerusalem's holiest shrine of Judaism. On Tuesday, Bezek set up another line for those seeking divine intervention but unable to get to the wall personally to plant a note. Author Joyce Shira Starr will use the best of the messages from the new second line in a book she'll start writing next spring. But for those who want their innermost desires to remain between them and God, the first line set up in January will continue to be confidential. About 70 faxes are sent daily from around the world, mainly originating in the United States and Europe. While God presumably understands any language, only faxes sent in English will be considered for publication in Starr's forthcoming book. Starr and Bezek will share jointly in the profits from book sales. The number of the original (and still confidential) fax line in Isreal is +972 2 612222, while the new line for publishable faxes to the Wailing Wall is +972 2 235555. Calls to both numbers are chargeable to the orginating party at international telephone rates as applicable to a call to Israel. * Origin: Borderline! BBS Kannapolis,N.C. (704) 938-6207 (1:379/37.0) Don Kimberlin - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Don.Kimberlin@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #662 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10766; 26 Sep 93 22:57 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03954 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 26 Sep 1993 19:34:33 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12705 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 26 Sep 1993 19:34:10 -0500 Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 19:34:10 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309270034.AA12705@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #663 TELECOM Digest Sun, 26 Sep 93 19:34:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 663 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson FTP Sites as International Arms Traffickers (Monty Solomon) European Modem Standards (Jonathan White) Areacode Split and Lookup Script? (Tim Nelson) MCI Outage Again? (Fred E.J. Linton ) 700-555-4141 From a Payphone (David A. Cantor) Access to Sprint VPN from Mexico (Ing. Hugo E. Garcia Torres) Need Info on Southern Calif. Rates and FCC Rate Setting Rules (A. Friedman) 800 ==> POTS (Christopher Zguris) Ethics of Rebates and Bribes to Customers (Paul Robinson) Re: Ethics of Rebates and Bribes to Customers (Joe Bergstein) Sprint's Modem Offer Revisited (Chris Ambler) Re: Sprint's Free Modem Offer (Eric L. Hinson) Re: Alphapage in French Dictionary (Christopher Zguris) Re: Changed Country Codes (38 -> 38x) (Carl Moore) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 05:51:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FTP Sites as International Arms Traffickers Passed along FYI from comp.archives.admin: From: emv@venuti.aa.msen.com (Edward Vielmetti) Newsgroups: comp.archives.admin Subject: FTP sites as international arms traffickers Date: 23 Sep 1993 23:06:30 -0400 Organization: Msen, Inc. -- Ann Arbor, MI (account info: +1 313 998-4562) Message-ID: <27to7m$s11@venuti.aa.msen.com> Curiouser and curiouser.... --Ed Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 21:13:17 GMT From: Grady Ward Subject: File 2--NEW State Dept FLASH on Moby Clipper (Grady Ward) In a fresh (to me, stunning) development, the Austin Code Works received a letter today (Tuesday 9/21/93) from the State Department, Bureau of Politico Military Affairs, Office of Defense Trade Controls advising them, in part, of their need to register as an International Arms Trafficker *even if* their crypto material is intended solely for *domestic* publication, regardless of whether they are selling executables, source, descriptions, algorithms of any crypto (and presumably viral detection) software or documentation, as defined by ITAR. This requirement literally implies that a Cereal manufacturer is required to register as an arms trafficker if it wants to include a secret de/coder ring in the box, has a cardboard outline of a de/coder printed on the box, or even a description how to construct or use a de/coder ring. Complete text of the letter follows: (State Department Seal) United States Department of State Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs Office of Defense Trade Controls Washington, D.C. 20522-0602 AUG 31 1993 Austin Code Works 11100 Leafwood Lane Austin, TX 78750-3587 Dear Sir: It has come to the attention of this office that your company is making cryptographic source code and technical data available for commercial export claiming a technical data exemption from the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Cryptographic software, including source code, is a munitions article as defined in 22 CFR # 120.1, category XIII(b). Further, the exemptions listed in 22 CFR # 125.4 for technical data do not apply to cryptographic software and source code. A valid Department of State license is required to export cryptographic source code. As such, it would be a violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to export cryptographic source code without a valid Department of State export license. We take this opportunity of advise you that any company or individual who engages in the United State in the business of either manufacturing or exporting defense articles or furnishing defense services is required to register for a fee with the Office of Defense Trade Controls (DTC) pursuant to 22 U.S.C. # 2778(b)(1)(A) and 22 C.F.R. Part 122. Furthermore, the export of such defense articles and related technical data must be licensed by the Department of State in accordance with 22 U.S.C # 2778(b)(1)(B)(2) and 22 D.F.R. Parts 120-130 (International Traffic in Arms Regulations). A booklet entitled "REGISTRATION: The First Step in Defense Trade" is enclosed. If you are unsure whether an article is on the U.S. Munitions List, you may send five (5) copies of descriptive literature about the product and request a commodity jurisdiction determination from this office according to 22 C.F.R # 120.5 of the ITAR. If you have any questions regarding the matters discussed in this letter, please do not hesitate to contact this office at (703) 875-6650. Sincerely, (signed) Clyde G. Bryant, Jr., Chief Compliance and Enforcement Branch ++++++++++++++++ I guess this means that all FTP sites who implement the GET command and have anything to do with crypto or viral detection, including RFCs, overviews or discussions of specific techniques or algorithms, etc. must be registered as International Arms Traffickers *even if* they disallow all but domestic FTP connections. What to do now. My advice to this new twist of the NSA and State Department regulating activities *within* the United States is twofold: (1) GET and FAMILIARIZE yourself with PGP sources or other crypto options NOW and upload it to your local BBS (if you deem it still legal for you to do these things) and (2) Consider supporting the Electronic Freedom Foundation. PGP sites: black.ox.ac.uk (129.67.1.165) src.doc.ic.ac.uk (146.169.2.1) ftp.demon.co.uk (158.152.1.65) ghost.dsi.unimi.it (149.132.2.1) nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) soda.berkeley.edu (128.32.149.19) Electronic Freedom Foundation 1001 G Street, NW Suite 950 East Washington, D.C. 20001 202/347-5400 voice 202/393-5509 FAX FTP ftp.eff.org ------------------------------ From: jwhite@panix.com (Jonathan White) Subject: European Modem Standards Date: 26 Sep 1993 18:28:29 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Please excuse me if this is talked over a lot, I don't get a chance to read this group much anymore. A friend has asked me to send her a modem to Rome but I'm not sure what standards are neccessary and what they are and what manufactuers support them. Is v.22 1200 baud and v.22bis 1200 baud 2400bps etc.? I'd appreciate replies by e-mail. If there is interest I can sumerize and post. Thanks in advance, jonathan ------------------------------ Subject: Areacode Split and Lookup Script Wanted Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 11:37:21 -0400 From: Tim Nelson Reply-To: Tim.Nelson@Canada.NCR.COM Now that areacodes seem to be generated quite quickly, and more are coming all the time, I was wondering whether anyone has updated the UNIX shell script which was originally distributed a while ago, for doing areacode lookups. If so, where would it be located? Tim.Nelson@Canada.NCR.COM NCR Canada +1 416 819 4112 ------------------------------ From: fejlinton@attmail.com (Fred E.J. Linton ) Date: 26 Sep 93 20:39:46 GMT Subject: MCI Outage Again? The day before yesterday, while logged in to MCI Mail, I found myself being disconnected (politely, with a "sorry 'bout this" apology screen) each time I sought to read messages in my IN box. Today, I get an "all circuits busy" voice interrupt each time I dial 1 800 967 9600, or 1 800 456 6245, or 1 800 234 6245, or even 1 800 444 3333 (for MCI Mail, or for MCI Customer Service). What's going on? AT&T (as also AT&T Mail) seems unaffected :-). Fred E.J. Linton = ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 13:45:03 EDT From: David A. Cantor Subject: 700-555-4141 From a Payphone I found a SNET payphone in Ledyard, CT which indicated that AT&T handled operator-assisted long-distance calls and that Sprint handled non-operator-assisted long-distance calls. I got curious, so I dialed 1-700-555-4141. I got a few ring back signals, then a recorded "AT&T Operator" and a live operator who said, "You can't dial 700 calls from a payphone." I said, "sorry," and I hung up. Hmm. Seems you should be able to dial that particular 700 number from a payphone. Even neglecting that one number, you should certainly be able to dial 10288-0-700-xxx-xxxx. I'm sorry now that I didn't press the AT&T operator for more information. David A. Cantor +1 603-888-8133 131 D.W. Highway, #505 Nashua, NH 03060 [Moderator's Note: Of course you can dial 700 numbers from payphones. What do you suppose happens to AT&T Easy Reach calls put through that way? She probably meant no one-plus 700 calls could be dialed, but in that event you might have tried zero-plus 700-555-4141 to see what would happen. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hgarcia@mexnet.mty.itesm.mx (Ing. Hugo E. Garcia Torres) Subject: Access to Sprint VPN From Mexico Date: 26 Sep 1993 02:14:34 GMT Organization: ITESM, Campus Monterrey Colleagues, At the ITESM in Monterrey Mexico is a project related with videoconference using SW56 networks from the US. We are installing an E1 to be able to use the Sprint Meeting Channel (SMC) and to access the SW56 network from this company. We have already bought a PictureTel equipment. We receive the E1 from TELMEX using a Newbridge 3600 Mainstreet. This E1 will be delivered in the border to Sprint which is going to take it all the way up to Dallas where the SMC facilities are located. In Dallas we will dedicate two 56 k channels to access the SW 56 VPN network. What I would like to know is what piece of equipment do I need either at the Newbridge or between the Newbridge and the PictureTel equipment to be able to dial directly from our facilities to the VPN? The Newbridge has v.35 interface and the PictureTel has a V.35. The people from PictureTel recommend to using Dowty equipment named TUI for this purpose; do any of you have a different idea? Some contact with Dowty? Phone or fax? Email would be great! All help will be appreciated. Many thanks, Hugo Garcia ------------------------------ From: aryeh@cash.ucsc.edu (Aryeh Friedman) Subject: Need Info on Southern Calif Rates and FCC Rate Setting Rules Date: 26 Sep 1993 04:53:53 GMT Organization: UC Santa Cruz Dept. of Econ. I need to know where I can find the following either on-line or off-line for little or no cost: 1) An regualations the FCC has on how carriers may set rates for local and intreLATA service; 2) A "rate map" for Southern California (SLO and Bakersfield south) the map must show in a pictural form what numbers are local to each CO; 3) T-1 rates for all carriers in Southern California ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 16:45 GMT From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: 800 ==> POTS If someone were to call an 800 number that terminates on a POTS line equipped with caller ID, what would the caller ID box display? Christopher Zguris CZGURIS@MCIMAIL.COM [Moderator's Note: Generally it says 'outside'. On the other hand, if you dial an 800 number from a cellular phone, the number delivered to the called party (the ANI) will be something oddball. Here in Chicago my ANI on the 800 number shows a *312* number in Hickory Hills, IL as the number calling me. Tracing back that number through the name and address service gets me the response that yes, it is in a suburb of Chicago, and yes, it is still a 312 number, the subscriber being given as "IBT Co, address not listed in records at customer's request." Trying to dial the number gets an intercept saying it is in service for outgoing calls only. A few minutes ago I got a call from a guy in Miami with a strange caller-ID message: The display gave a local number here in Chicago. Cross-checking it produced the answer that 'the number is not listed in our records', which is not to be confused with non-pub numbers. The above means it just isn't in the database at all. The guy in Miami said to me his caller-ID includes the name of the caller, and on long distance calls the 'caller name' is sometimes given as 'Bell Atlantic' or 'Southwestern Bell'. Weirdness. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 13:34:59 EDT Reply-To: Tansin A. Darcos & Company <0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM> Subject: Ethics of Rebates and Bribes to Customers From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA I got into a discussion with the sysop of a local BBS about the use of special offers by long distance telephone companies to encourage people to set their phone to have that company as the "default" carrier for a particular line. Please note that in the U.S., a person can always use any major carrier by dialing the number "10", the three-digit code of the carrier, then 1 and the 10 digit number; the "default" only comes in if someone dials "1" without the "10" code first. For example, currently I have three telephone lines at home (I used to have four; I dropped one I no longer needed). Two of them are set up for AT&T, and one of them is set up for MCI, because I saw an ad on TV where they offered a premium (a canvas bag that is strapped over the shoulders) to switch the default carrier to their service. They also sent me a coupon to cover the cost of switching the account. Note that my total long-distance usage in one year is probably less than $30; yet the company did not ask me to estimate how much usage I would give them in order to get the premium they sent me. (And it is a really nice bag.) AT&T is sometimes offering cash rebates amounting to $75. And now Sprint has an offer of a 9600 baud modem for switching to them. But the sysop of that BBS brought up an interesting point about people who go with one Long Distance Company for a premium, then turn around and one month later, switch to another long distance company for another premium. The term he used to described this was "unethical". I'd like to ask other people what their opinion is. I stated that since the only requirement on these offers is that the customer keep the service as default carrier for one month, switching a line after the one month period is complying with the terms under which the premium was offered. I thought that the term "unethical" does not seem to fit here: the carrier makes the terms of the premium; they can decide to require the customer to make a certain level of usage, or wait 60 days, or any number of things. That they have the opportunity to do this and do not, indicates that if the customer complies with the precise terms agreed upon, that if they switch after the minimum period, there is no unethical conduct on their part. This is my analysis of the situation. I see no conflict nor do I necessarily see it as unethical. The customer and long distance company meet as equals: the long distance company is free to set the terms under which it will offer a premium (gift or rebate) to the customer. Also, I note that in the cases where they offer free long distance, they *do* offer it based on the amount of usage in the fourth month of connection. Also, in many areas one can obtain a reduced price cellular phone by taking a minimum one year contract with a cellular company; it is perfectly legitimate to switch cellular carriers to get a better rate after the minimum contract period ends. Then again, you are still paying for monthly service to the cellular company that paid a discount on your phone. I have not participated in such activities as seeing who gives the best "bribe of the month" in long distance service, but I do not see where complying with the exact terms of the offer constitutes unethical conduct. But I could be rationalizing this, and I'd like to hear some answers from people. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: Joe.Bergstein@p501.f544.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Bergstein) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 02:28:35 -0500 Subject: Re: Ethics of Rebates and Bribes to Customers Paul Robinson wrote: > AT&T is sometimes offering cash rebates amounting to $75. And > now Sprint has an offer of a 9600 baud modem for switching to them. > But the sysop of that BBS brought up an interesting point about > people who go with one Long Distance Company for a premium, then turn > around and one month later, switch to another long distance company for > another premium. The term he used to described this was "unethical". > I'd like to ask other people what their opinion is. 1. As long as you adhere to the terms of the carrier's offer (e.g. remain a customer for one month), switching back could not be deemed unethical: the carrier made an offer which you accepted, after which you made a decision to switch. 2. More importantly, it may not be necessary to go through all the hassle. I have used Sprint since 1979, and I received one of those $75 "checks" from AT&T, which, if cashed, allow AT&T to issue orders to your LEC to switch you to AT&T. Well, rather than go throught the trouble of swithing for one month just to get the $75, I called Sprint and asked them if they would accept the check. "Gladly" was the reply. Just mail it to a certain address, and we'll credit your account for $75. If AT&T will buy you as a customer for $75, then Sprint thinks it's worth $75 to keep you as a customer. Just call Sprint Customer Service! ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler) Subject: Sprint's Modem Offer Revisited Organization: The Phishtank Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 21:48:05 GMT Now, this is interesting. I called to find out more about their Dvorak offer, having read the followup but not the original post. Knowing nothing about the type of modem, the spring rep told me it was a 9600 baud modem, external. I asked what the make and model number was, and he was unable to tell me. At about this time, my search of previous articles showed the original article, which said it was a 2400 baud, 9600 fax modem. I asked the rep, and he assured me it was a 9600 baud data modem, external. He still could not find the make and model number, though. So I signed up for two lines (two modems, he assured me as well), got the reps full name and extension, and will wait and see what happens. A few years back, USRobotics had a promotion which incorrectly stated the product they were giving away (or for cheap) and were forced to produce the advertised model, not the intended one. We shall see if Sprint feels so inclined should the intended model be different from the one that the rep promised. Ironically, I was planning on switching one line over to their 'the most' promotion, as I'm working with a firm in Florida (I'm in California) and call their data line many times weekly. Today was a bonus day :-) cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.4 FSVMP Voice BBS Demo System - 805-544-3754 ------------------------------ From: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu (Eric L. Hinson) Subject: Sprint's Free Modem Offer Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 17:26:18 MDT Hello everyone, First off, I would like to publicly thank everyone who has responded to my questions about various telecommunications topics on comp.dcom.telecom. All of you have been most helpful and informative. I really appreciate your efforts in answering my questions. Well, I also decided to give this Sprint free modem deal a try, and was also pleasantly surprised by the results. There appears to be no catches that I could detect, and the people at Sprint were quite helpful and didn't probe too much into my business. :) I am very interested in hearing from (via e-mail) those of you who read comp.dcom.telecom who have taken advantage of this amazing offer. I missed the initial post, so I'm not very clear as to what kind of modem this is that they are giving away, other than it is a 9600 external modem. Could someone please let me know where to look (the file I need from the archives) that contains this initial article? Thanks very much for your help with this matter. Eric L. Hinson / Internet: ehinson@nyx.cs.du.edu / Ham Radio Call: kb4rzf USPS: 69 Sanford St. St. Augustine, FL 32084 USA / Phone#: (904) 823-8668 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 15:41 GMT From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Alphapage in French dictionary In TELECOM Digest V13 #657 Alphapage was written about, what is Alphapage and what was that message about? It went right over my head. Could someone explain what Alphapage is? Christopher Zguris CZGURIS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 14:01:04 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Changed Country Codes (38 -> 38x) Ljubljana has been listed as country/city code +38 61 in Yugoslavia, and it's in Slovenia (which will be +386). I counted 5 asterisks in the message you sent. Are you saying that in Yugoslavia, Ljubljana phone numbers were of the form +38 61 abcde? (And this would be changing to +386 1xabcde, with x varying as to part of the city, right?) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #663 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11039; 26 Sep 93 23:47 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30431 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 26 Sep 1993 20:47:21 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24426 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 26 Sep 1993 20:47:12 -0500 Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 20:47:12 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309270147.AA24426@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #664 TELECOM Digest Sun, 26 Sep 93 20:47:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 664 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Review: "Data Communications and Networking Dictionary" (Rob Slade) Re: Getting Rate Distance From V&H Co-ordinate (David Leibold) Analogy With Baseball Scorer (Carl Moore) List Companies That Sell Directory Listing Information? (Sean Goggin) Premier ESP(tm) Clicks and Pops? (Dan Wilder) Recent AT&T Racist Screw-Up (Mark Thorson) Re: Atomic Clocks (was: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800) (Lou Fernandez) Re: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 (Steven M. Bass) Re: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 (David E. Bernholdt) Re: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 (Tom Ace) Re: For a Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 (Randal Hayes) Re: kUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM (095) 212-3937 (Vlad Gershkovich) Re: kUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM (095) 212-3937 (Jim Rees) Re: kUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM (095) 212-3937 (Steve Gaarder) Re: kUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM (095) 212-3937 (Brian D. McMahon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 26 Sep 93 14:47 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: "Data Communications and Networking Dictionary", Pardoe/Wenig BKDTCMDC.RVW 930825 CBM Books 101 Witmer Road PO Box 446 Horsham, PA 19044 215-957-4265 215-957-4287 Fax: 215-957-1050 76702.1565@compuserve.com books@propress.com "Data Communications & Networking Dictionary", Pardoe/Wenig, 1992, U$24.00 You can get data communications glossaries just about anywhere. Most makers of telecommunications equipment will give them out free. Quite a few communications related books will have a section of terminology in the appendices. These sources tend to reflect the emphasis of the book or company, and to be incomplete in other areas. Also, as the authors state in the preface, communications and networking is a rapidly expanding field, and terminology is growing apace. This book is quite recent and up to date (1992). It is also more complete than the freebies you will get from router manufacturers. Make no mistake, however: this *is* a glossary, *not* a dictionary. The entries, while many, are quite terse, and no attempt is made to look for origins, derivations or references. Sometimes the entries are simplified to the point of error. "Hamming code" is identified as error detection by redundant information: no mention is made of the fact that "redundant" bits must be deliberately encoded, and that the major purpose of Hamming code is error correction. To be fair, they are likely using redundant in the technical sense (which is included in the work). There are some definite gaps. The "Bell" modem standards are easy to find but the "V." standards are a bit more elusive. There is an entry under "V series recommendations", out of order in the "V" section, but no pointer to the actual listings. *They* are found in the "C" section -- under CCITT. (So are the X series.) BITNET is listed but not Internet (although the IAB, ICMP and IP are there). This is not due to the normal "big blue" bias: DECnet is included as well. (So is Pathworks.) However, PROFS is included without any mention of, say, All-in-1. There is no entry under "notes". (There is no entry for "groupware".) There is also no entry under BBS, bulletin board or electronic bulletin board, and likewise no mention of Fidonet. By the same token there *is* an entry for CompuServe, but none for Prodigy, GEnie or others of that ilk. "Electronic mail" is listed, but not "email" (or "e-mail"). (After a while, this "spot the bias" game gets to be quite interesting. I haven't come to any final conclusion.) (Novell isn't there -- but "NetWare" is.) If you don't have a data communications glossary, and need one, here's one. However, the price is a bit steep in relation to what you might get elsewhere. If you call up your friendly neighbourhood communi- cations supplier and hint hard enough, they might give you one. On the other hand, if you *are* a communications supplier, and need promos. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKDTCMDC.RVW 930825 Permission granted to distribute with the full Telecom Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 22:25 EDT From: djcl@io.org (woody) Subject: Re: Getting Rate Distance From V&H Co-ordinate From: jimmy@cerberus.ulaval.ca (Jimmy Gauvin): > Can somebody please tell me how to calculate the distance between two > NPA-NXXs given their H & V coordinates? I wrote something that should explain how to turn a pair of V&H co-ordinates into a rate distance, at least the way Bell Canada does it (which is normally the same way as most places in North America.) As for the relationship between V&H and the familiar longitude/latitude, I compared some V&Hes with a topographic map, only to find that there isn't a simple relationship between the two co-ordinate systems. The examples I have will need to be worked on to see what kind of formula might be in effect. Perhaps a copy of the following doc should be dropped into the Archives: David Leibold . . . . How long distance charges are calculated (updated 23 September 1993) The following information deals specifically with calling from Ontario and Quebec (Bell Canada). However, it may be possible to obtain similar information from the tariffs of other companies. The Bell tariffs specify how much a long distance call costs. First, all calls from a given exchange will have the same set of rates. That is, calls to Hamilton will cost the same from Etobicoke as they do from Scarborough since both Etobicoke and Scarborough are considered to be part of the Toronto (Canada) exchange. The "rate distance" is used to determine the distance from one general exchange to another, and the rate billed will be according to the rate distance. To calculate a rate distance, you need to find out what the "V-H" co-ordinates are for the place you call from and the place you call to. Toronto has a V of 4981 and an H of 2488. Hamilton has a V of 5097 and an H of 2504. The differences between V and H are taken. In the Toronto-Hamilton case, the difference of V is 4981 - 5097 = -116 and H is 2488 - 2504 = -16. Ignore minus signs to get the differences: DV = 116 and DH = 16. Divide DV and DH by 3, rounded to nearest integer. Thus, DV becomes 116/3 = 38 2/3, round to 39. DH becomes 16/3 = 5 1/3 round to 5. Square the new DV and DH to get 39*39=1521 and 5*5=25. Add the squares to get 1521+25=1546. If this result is less than 1778 (and it is), multiply by a special multiplying factor (which is 0.9 here) to get 1546*0.9=1391.4, then take square root: sqr(1391.4) = 37 + fraction. Round *up* to 38 (don't round if the square root comes out exactly) and that's the rate distance. Now you can have the situation if that sum of squares above goes to 1778 or higher. What happens is that you divide DV and DH by three again before doing the calculations, repeating as many times as necessary. Keep a count of how many times 3 is divided into DV and DH. Once the count is below 1778, the multiplying factor will be 0.1 * (9**N) where N is the number of times 3 is divided (always have N at least 1, for the first division). A minimum rate distance is assigned according to "N" (the number of divisions of 3). For N=1, there is no minimum (no problem with our Hamilton calculation, as N=1 there). For N=2, though, the rate distance must be at least 41 (use 41 if the calculated rate distance doesn't get that high). For N=3, the minimum is 121. In fact, when N goes above 1, the minimum rate distance is 40 * (3 ** (N-2)) + 1. And that's the way it's done ... in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, the full details are in CRTC tariff 6716, that is, the main Bell tariff which should be available through Bell's Business Office or the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. To get the V and H co-ordinates for whatever centres are involved, you need to dig up CRTC tariff 7063 (Ontario, Quebec, eastern NWT, St Pierre & Miquelon), or AT&T Communication Tariff FCC #10 (for everywhere else). FCC #10 is presumably available through the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, or through AT&T. In the Toronto-Hamilton example, the 38 rate miles (assuming no calculation errors) represents a base rate of 31 cents/minute (as of September 1989) The discount for the given time is then applied, but all long distance calls have a minimum charge of 37 cents each. These rates and rate calculations are subject to change, however. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 18:46:03 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Analogy With Baseball Scorer I may probe quite a bit with zipcodes, phone prefixes, etc., but I do not seek to change things. I have heard the following, which I will use as an analogy: The person who scores a baseball game does have to interpret the things which happen on the playing field, but does not change the calls made by the umpire. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 19:57:53 EDT From: sean@mks.com (Sean Goggin) Reply-To: sean@mks.com Subject: List Companies That Sell Directory Listing Information? I have 57358 unique local street addresses with full names on a local voters list. I would like to add their phone numbers to the list. I am in Waterloo, Ontario Canada and my area code 519. Could people please email me any companies that sell directory listing information? The only one I know of is: Infodirect +1 416 412 5100 Thank you very much and I'll send a summary to comp.dcom.telecom if, I get any. Sean.Goggin..sean@mks.com ... Mortice.Kern.Systems.Waterloo.Ontario.Can. ------------------------------ From: danw@hebron.connected.com (Dan Wilder) Subject: Premier ESP(tm) Clicks and Pops? Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 12:16:05 -0700 Organization: Connected INC -- Internet Services We have a Premier ESP 1224 system installed in 1991 which has exhibited consistent clicks and pops coincident with incoming calls. The installer technician would not say anything about this except to note that the "behaviour was normal." Unfortunately we did not press the issue while the system was under warranty. Now we are trying to add modems, and have observed that these clicks and pops severely disturb data communications. Anybody else with similar observations? Dan Wilder ------------------------------ From: mmm@cup.portal.com Subject: Recent AT&T Racist Screw-Up Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 08:01:06 PDT Over in soc.culture.african.american there's been a furor over the recent in-house AT&T employee magazine {Focus}, which had an illustration depicting callers in several continents. The caller on the phone in Africa is a monkey! This illustration has been published in several places, including the current issue of {Time Magazine}. Blacks have been rightly outraged by this incident, which is all the more shocking coming from AT&T, one of the most progressive companies in America on the issue of race relations. AT&T has an excellent record of recruiting minority employees and charitable donations. If you received one of these magazines, I suggest you save it. It may become valuable. There are a number of collectors of racist memorab- ilia (BTW, most of them are black) who would like to get one of these things. Mark Thorson ------------------------------ From: lff@sequent.com (Lou Fernandez) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks (was: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800) Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc. Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 17:13:11 GMT In article 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM writes: > The means to calculate time is done on the basis of a certain number > of decays of radioactive cecium. A certain exact number of decays > will occur in a certain period of time, this exact number is used to > define the time period referred to as a "second". From that, all > other measurements are made. The device that does this measurement is > a (at one time) 1/2 million dollar device called an "atomic clock." Hmmm. Who makes the atomic clock you describe and what's the model number? The atomic clocks I've read about use a different mechanism. The ones which use cesium atoms depend on exciting an oscillation between two quantum-mechanical energy states (hyperfine levels F3 and F4). The frequency of this oscillation is 9.192 631 77 GHz. This is an exact frequency because the second is defined as 9,192,631,770 cycles of this resonant frequency. Cesium clocks are available for $25k. For more than you ever wanted to know about time, frequency and clocks, I recommend you consult the July 1991 issue of the Proceeding of the IEEE, Special Issue on Time and Frequency. Louis F. Fernandez Sequent Computer Systems lfernandez@sequent.com Beaverton, OR 97006-6063 ------------------------------ From: sbass@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com (Steven M. Bass) Subject: Re: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 Organization: Motorola Codex, Canton, Massachusetts Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 17:42:30 GMT Paul Robinson writes: >> Also, does anybody know what type of computer(s) this >> service runs on? I'm curious also as to how it determines >> what UTC really IS (what does it use as its time base)? > The means to calculate time is done on the basis of a certain number > of decays of radioactive cecium. A certain exact number of decays > will occur in a certain period of time, this exact number is used to > define the time period referred to as a "second". From that, all > other measurements are made. The device that does this measurement is > a (at one time) 1/2 million dollar device called an "atomic clock." This is not quite right. Cesium based atomic frequency standards are based on transitions between two states of atomic cesium, not due to deacy of radioactive cesium. The frequency of this transition is extremely stable if you keep the cesium atoms in a vacuum system and away from external perturbations (magnetic fields primarily). The second is defined by this frequency. As far as cost goes, commercial cesium standards cost on the order of $30,000 and up these days. Of course the cesium standards that NIST and the Naval Observatory use to provide the US standard reference cost a great deal more. (This information gathered in a previous job for a manufacturer of cesium beam atomic clocks.) Steven Bass sbass@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com Motorola Codex ------------------------------ Date: 26 Sep 1993 19:26:37 GMT From: gg502@fermi.pnl.gov Subject: Re: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 Organization: Battelle - Pacific Northwest Laboratories Radioactive decay is a statistical process, so you will never see an _exact_ number of decays in any time period. The definition of a second (adopted 13 October 1967) is: The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the atom of cesium 133. And that, I believe, is pretty much how the atomic clocks determine it -- produce a cesium maser using that transition and count the peaks in the light it emits. Accuracy of 1 part in 100 billion is reported to be possible. More detailed descriptions can be found in "Atomic Frequency Standards" NBS Tech. News Bull. 45, 8--11 (Jan 1961) and R.E. Beechler, R.C. Mockler, and J.M. Richardson, "Cesium Beam Atomic Time and Frequency Standards," Metrologia, 1, 114--131 (July 1965). I believe, the NIST (formerly NBS) switched in the last few years to a newer atomic clock, using more recent technological advances and perhaps no longer using cesium but another atom, but I that's just from memory. Incidentally, the Nobel Prize in physics was recently awarded for the development of the techniques used in atomic clocks and related devices. David E. Bernholdt, MSIN K1-90 | Email: de_bernholdt@fermi.pnl.gov Molecular Science Research Center | Phone: 509 375 4387 Pacific Northwest Laboratory, P.O.B. 999 | Fax: 509 375 6631 Richland, WA 99352 | I speak only for myself! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 15:19:51 PDT From: awry!tom@hercules.aptix.com (Tom Ace) Subject: Re: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 Paul Robinson (TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM) wrote, in Telecom Digest vol. 13 issue 658: > The means to calculate time is done on the basis of a certain number > of decays of radioactive cecium. A certain exact number of decays > will occur in a certain period of time, this exact number is used to > define the time period referred to as a "second". No. The transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of a Cesium-133 atom is associated with radiation of a precise frequency, and that (NOT radioactive decay) serves as the time base used in cesium clocks. (The two slightly different energy states in this case are associated with the relative alignment of the magnetic moments of an atom's nucleus and electrons.) Because of its random nature, radioactive decay would make a poor time standard. Tom Ace tom@aptix.com ------------------------------ From: HayesR@uihc-telecomm-po.htc.uiowa.edu Date: 26 Sep 93 10:55 CST Subject: For a Good Time, Call 202-653-1800 > Also, NIST does not provide time service...... The National Institute of Standards (NIST) does indeed offer a time service, available by dialing 303/499-7111. > Also, does anybody know what kind of computer this runs on? > From a USA Today article dated 4/23/93: "The National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., cherishes seconds so highly it unveiled an atomic clock Thursday that won't lose or gain a second in the next million years. Which makes the clock, NIST-7, considerably more accurate than its predecessors, such as the NSB-6 model -- which might have lost a second every 300,000 years if it hadn't been dismantled with the arrival of the $3 million NIST-7.The 9-foot-long, 18 inch round tube keeps time by counting vibrations of atoms." Unfortunately, this article didn't say what type of computer is used in the NIST-7. Of course, someone could simply call NIST and ask, right? Just dusting off my files to provide some trivial input ... randal-hayes@uiowa.edu [Moderator's Note: Not too many people are left but us old folks who remember when Western Union operated their Time Service (it was dis- continued in the late 1960's) with their grand-master clock getting its synch from the US Naval Observatory clock and the grand-master clock in turn synching master clocks in cities all over the USA, who in turn synched all the sub-masters who in turn synched all the local clocks everywhere via pulses sent on the telegraph wires. And those clocks were *everywhere*. In addition to the telegraph offices of course, 'Western Union clocks' were found in all radio stations, schools, offices, public auditoriums and wherever knowledge of the correct time was very essential. A subscription to Time Service cost but a few dollars per year and many merchants and public institutions installed a WU clock in their window as a courtesy to passers-by. If anyone is interested, I will hunt down the large article which appeared some time ago in the Digest and reprint it for new readers. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 11:29:24 -0400 From: Vlad Gershkovich Subject: kUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM (095) 212-3937 Organization: Motorola Codex, Canton Mass. > [Moderator's Note: This message came to me from Russia. I have no idea > at all what he is saying, except I think it has to do with a BBS or > public access site in Moscow. This was the entire text. Can someone > read it to me? PAT] > sRO^NO KUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM > tEL: (095) 212-39-37 sIDORENKO sERGEJ. "Will urgently buy telegraph modem" telephone in Moscow (095) and the name (Sidorenko Sergej) If you want to complain, write to "postmaster@kiae.su" or "eugene@kiae.su" (Eugene Peskin - RELCOM's moderator of USENET) Cyrillic alphabet is 8bit - the 8th bit got cut a mail server somewhere on the way! But, anyhow, they should NOT be posting in Russian on GLOBAL USENET anyhow! Vlad ------------------------------ From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Subject: Re: kUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM (095) 212-3937 Date: 26 Sep 1993 19:22:03 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI In article , Sergey V. Sidorenko writes: sRO^NO KUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM tEL: (095) 212-39-37 sIDORENKO sERGEJ. The '95' part would be a city code. The country code for most of the FSU is 7, so the full phone number would be +7 95 212 39 37. I don't know what city that would be. I read Russian but I'm not familiar with that particular transliteration scheme. I asked my friend who is a librarian and works with various Russian transliteration schemes, and she says, "it is not the standard transliteration scheme, but a transliteration scheme for computers. what it seems to say: (this person wants to) urgently buy a telegraphic (?) modem" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 02:14:29 -0400 From: anarres!gaarder@TC.Cornell.EDU Subject: kUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM (095) 212-3937 Passing that through a little transliteration program I wrote back during the coup in the Soviet Union (remember then? I was glued to my Usenet feed!) produces: Srochno kuplyu telegrafnyy modem Tel: (095) 212-39-37 Sidorenko Sergey. Which I read as offering to buy a modem. I'm not sure just what "srochno" means in this context; my dictionary defines it as "of term; to be paid at a fixed date; due; payable". "Kuplyu" means "I buy"; I don't know whether a "telegrafnyy modem" is a special kind of modem or just a modem in general. Why this is here is a puzzle; probably it was sent to the wrong address. Steve Gaarder gaarder@anarres.ithaca.ny.us [Moderator's Note: Well no, it was not sent to the wrong address. He wrote 'telecom-request@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu' which is just an alias that points at me. That is, he did not post to a newsgroup where it found its way to comp.dcom.telecom; some news program found it lacking authorization and shoved it to me. He mailed it direct, albiet to an alias I had forgotten existed, going back to the days of jsol. So he must think we can do something for him. Fancy that; he wants to buy a modem, and here I thought he was looking for publicity for his BBS or similar and decided to give it to him. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 14:10:51 -0500 (cdt) From: Brian D McMahon Subject: Re: kUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM (095) 212-3937 > [Moderator's Note: This message came to me from Russia. I have no idea > at all what he is saying, except I think it has to do with a BBS or > public access site in Moscow. This was the entire text. Can someone > read it to me? PAT] > sRO^NO KUPL@ TELEGRAFNYJ MODEM > tEL: (095) 212-39-37 sIDORENKO sERGEJ. Hi, Pat. That would be "srochno kuplyu telegrafnyj modem," or "urgently (want to) buy a telegraphic modem." Signed by Sergej Sidorenko. I have no idea what a "telegraphic" modem is; I'm not up on the technical terminology. At a guess, the gentleman wants to buy a FAX modem. The message text, BTW, is in a format known as KOI-7, one of several mutually incompatible (sigh) methods of transmitting Russian Cyrillic text over the net. Upper and lower case are reversed, as you probably guessed. Brian McMahon Postmaster / Acad. Software Support Grinnell College Computer Services Grinnell, Iowa 50112 USA Voice: +1 515 269 4901 Fax: +1 515 269 4936 [Moderator's Note: You think then a 'telegraphic modem' would be a fax modem? My thanks to the 27 other responses I received to this query. I selected a few to use here which make a good representative sample of the lot. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #664 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12000; 27 Sep 93 0:42 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08445 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 26 Sep 1993 21:45:59 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19312 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 26 Sep 1993 21:45:37 -0500 Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 21:45:37 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309270245.AA19312@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #665 TELECOM Digest Sun, 26 Sep 93 21:45:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 665 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Information Wanted on Six-bit Code (Dik T. Winter) Re: Information Wanted on Six-bit Code (Dave Emery) Re: Information Wanted on E-mail/V-mail Integration (Al Varney) Re: Pager Number Being Forwarded to a Voice Number (Steve Forrette) Re: Pager Number Being Forwarded to a Voice Number (Scott Dorsey) Re: Pager Number Being Forwarded to a Voice Number (John R. Levine) Re: How Much Power Will Telco Allow From Phone Line? (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Need Information on Teleprotector (Gary Breuckman) Re: Cellular Phone Options in NJ (Fritz Whittington) Re: Cellular Phone Options in NJ (Marc Unangst) Re: Book Review: "The Internet Companion" (Michael L. Barrow) Re: AT&T Call Manager Disappeared Again? (Paul Hess) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dik.Winter@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on Six-bit Code Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 19:36:43 GMT In article johan@tts.lth.se (Johan M Karlsson) writes: > I just wonder if anybody know anything about the Six-bit code called > TTS, that was used by many newspapers in the 70's to receive stories > from the wire services. Like what does the letters TTS stand for? I presume TTS means Tele Type Setting. And I know the codes. There are two variants, English and US (and probably more). The codes have shifting codes to go from lower to upper case vv., but also from lower to upper rail (a typesetting term). So there are in fact four cases. The codes include normal letters, digits and symbols; italics and small caps. I must have the code tables somewhere in machine readable form. dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; e-mail: dik@cwi.nl ------------------------------ From: jjmhome!pig!die@transfer.stratus.com (Dave Emery) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on Six-bit Code Date: 26 Sep 93 16:03:52 GMT Reply-To: jjmhome!pig!die@transfer.stratus.com Organization: Opinion Mongers Incorperated... In article johan@tts.lth.se (Johan M Karlsson) writes: > I just wonder if anybody know anything about the Six-bit code called > TTS, that was used by many newspapers in the 70's to receive stories > from the wire services. Like what does the letters TTS stand for? TTS standards for TeleTypeSetter. Indeed it is a 6 bit code which was developed by AT&T's now defunct Teletype subsidiary in the early 50s as a means of inputing news stories direct to Linotype machines. As such it incorporates the special control characters that operate Linotype machines such as upper rail and lower rail shifts and em space and en space. Originally in the days long before computers in the pockets of every reporter, the wire services had computerized systems that ran on mainframes for creating formated stock tables, sports box scores, racing information and other highly structured text. Sending this material in TTS code ready for direct input into a type casting machine saved local newspapers the services of several compositors and made it possible for them to publish reams of this sort of material at low cost. Later, in the 60's and early 70s the wire services developed computer programs to format (perform hyphenation and justification) their regular news feed into standard newspaper columns using Linotype control characters. Many of the newspaper oriented wire service wires (particularly the AP A wire) were transmitted in TTS code in this era and could be directly input to a linotype machine. TTS code was popular for wire service distribution for another reason, it supported upper and lower case. The earlier Baudot alphabet only supported upper case which meant that a human being had to worry about getting the case correct in transcribing stories into type -- but TTS had the correct case already. TTS format paper tape in fact became a standard in the printing industry for input to composition equipment of later generations than Linotype machines. TTS represented an alphabet for encoding text formated for printing, and may still see some use for this purpose today. Teletype developed a modification of their model 15 workhorse wire service teleprinter to print TTS in upper and lower case on rolls of Teletype paper; this machine was called the model 20 monitor printer. Many newspapers which did not actually use TTS input to their typesetting machines for news stories used these machines to print out stories in upper and lower case for later entry by human compositors. Newspapers which used TTS input directly usually punched the TTS into 6 level paper tape for off line entry into Linotype machines. So a typical newspaper would have a monitor printer and a tape punch on each of their tts wires. TTS wire transmissions were usually low speed (66 or 75 wpm) at baud rates adjusted for the 8.42 element code. This resulted in some strange low baud rates that gave the designers of serial port boards for early minicomputers fits. TTS was largely replaced in the mid 70s by the high speed ASCII wire transmissions and by newspaper computerized composition systems which could do hyphenation and justification automatically and output text direct to optical typesetters. Remnents of it survive, however, in the standard ASCII format for transmitting wire service news stories which incorperates ASCII versions of some of the special typesetter control characters. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 14:04:35 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: Information Wanted on E-mail/V-mail Integration Organization: AT&T In article heli.leinonen@qm.ajk.tele. fi (Heli Leinonen) writes: > .... A copy of a Bellcore document MTRS SR-INS-002662 > describing the service, the article says, could be obtained by calling > (800) 521-CORE. I would be most interested in this service, but I am > not able to call from abroad to 800-numbers. Bellcore Customer Service is on +1 908 699-5800. FAX is on +1 908 336-2559. Most SR-nnnn documents cost from US$50 to $200. Al Varney ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Pager Number Being Forwarded to a Voice Number Date: 24 Sep 1993 22:34:16 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In U49137@uicvm.uic.edu writes: > I'm just wondering if its possible for a pager number to be forwared > to a voice mail. > [Moderator's Note: certainly all phones (for the purposes of > this discussion) go through central office switches, and certainly all > can have various features such as call forwarding. Well, this is not strictly true. While it is obviously true that the pager numbers go through the CO, they are most certainly provided to the paging company on DID trunks, where the paging company can pay the telco around $.50/month/number instead of the regular local line rate. DID trunks, as their name implies, are trunk side connections to the CO, as opposed to the line side connections that POTS uses. No custom calling features are available on any trunk side connection. Also, even if the paging company wanted to allow you to, the telco is not likely to allow them to swich one number in a block of DID numbers over to a different class of service. So there is no way that the telco could do this. Of course, the paging company could do something like this by forwarding the call through their equipment and back out into the network on a different line, but then their equipment would have to be set up to do this, and it is likely not. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Pager Number Being Forwarded to a Voice Number Date: 26 Sep 1993 18:03:05 GMT Organization: NASA Langley Research Center and Reptile Farm In article U49137@uicvm.uic.edu writes: > I'm just wondering if its possible for a pager number to be forwared > to a voice mail. I place a call thru to AmeriTech pager to enquire > about this but they inform me that this is not possible. But since all > phone lines have to go thru the local Central Office, is it possible > for the pager number to be forwared at the switch station to another > number? While our Esteemed Moderator has pointed out that the pager provider is probably unwilling to forward his number to yours, let me point out that you can do it yourself. Instead of forwarding your pager number to your voicemail, just forward your voicemail number to your pager, and give that number out instead. This assumes that you control your voicemail. Otherwise you may need to get yourself a phone line that you can forward either to your voicemail or your pager, depending on your preference at the moment. scott ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 12:51 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Pager Number Being Forwarded to a Voice Number Organization: I.E.C.C. In article was written: > I'm just wondering if its possible for a pager number to be forwared > to a voice mail. I place a call thru to AmeriTech pager to enquire > about this but they inform me that this is not possible. ... It's quite likely that the pager company has a block of several thousand phone numbers assigned but only a dozen or so trunks, using the same DID service that is commonly used to attach PBXes. Considering that a typical pager number is in use for only a few minutes per day, this makes a lot more sense than having an actual line per number. Since DID numbers don't correspond to actual lines, there are a lot of things that are technically not possible. (PBX users often get call forwarding, but it's implemented in the PBX, not in the central office.) Also, as Pat noted, the paging company is in the paging business and doesn't have to offer any services it doesn't want to, regardless of whether it's technically easy or hard. If you want a single number for your pager and your voice mail, get a normal home line with remotely reprogrammable call forwarding and point it at either your pager or your voice mail, as needed. (Or bag the voice mail and get an answering machine.) Many voice mail systems can arrange to page you whenever there's a message waiting, giving you the best features of both. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: How Much Power Will Telco Allow From Phone Line? Date: 26 Sep 1993 10:27:00 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In nhamilto@fox.nstn.ns.ca (Neil Hamilton) writes: > If one wanted to power a certain low power device from a standard phone > line, how much power would the telco allow to be drawn? Don't do it. You would be breaking the law and misusing the system. Here's why: First of all, it is illegal to use other than Part 68 type-accepted equipment on the line. Your "certain low power device" is probably not. The requirement of Part 68 acceptance is for a good reason -- the telco wants some level of scrutiny to reduce the odds that something would go wrong in your premises that would electrocute a worker or ruin central office gear or interfere with service of other customers. Your clpd -- are you absolutely sure it would never do any of these things? Even after a drop test and all the other tests required for Part 68 acceptance? A phone off the hook typically draws 20 mA at about 10-14 volts, or about a quarter of a watt. (This is from The Phone Book, published by Consumer Reports.) You will never get more power than that in any consistent way. But if you draw that much power for a day, the telco will probably flag your line as a "trouble" line, and will turn off your dial tone or do other testing activities. For all they know there is a short on the line somewhere causing this. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Need Information on Teleprotector Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 00:43:19 GMT In article Christopher Vaz writes: > I have bought a teleprotector(henceforth T-P) (from Radio Shack) which > is a device that helps an answering machine disconnect when a phone is > picked up. It is indeed auto-disconnecting my machine -- however, > there seems to be one problem. When I pick up the phone, it > disconnects the machine but only after a couple of seconds, and in > fact, the machine saves, as a message, that part of the conversation > that the caller has left until the time the phone is picked up, and > even a little part of my conversation with the caller -- i.e. my > "Hello" and a few sentences of mine thereafter. Is this common with a > T-P or does this seem strange to any of you folks out there who do or > do not use a T-P? > [Moderator's Note: Doesn't the documentation say something about a > trim pot in there you can adjust a little if this happens? It is > hearing you, but not soon enough. If you adjust it too far the other > way then the answering machine won't pick up the line at all. There > should be a middle point where it works just fine. Anyone else care > to comment? PAT] I've used one of these devices for some time, and have the same observations about the cutoff. While I *thought* I knew what was in there, I never noticed it was easy to pop the cover off, which I did. Inside are four diodes (bridge to handle reversed polarity), two zener diodes, a resistor, and one active device (transistor, scr, whatever...). These things work on line voltage. You can do the same thing in many cases with just a zener diode in series -- when that's the only device off-hook, there's a voltage drop across the zener but the answering machine still works ok. If another device (without the protector) goes off-hook, the voltage on the line drops to a point below the zener's voltage, and the answering machine is effectively disconnected. The problem is, the disconnection is DC voltage disconnection, some of the audio still leaks through. If the answering machine does not have the feature that detects voltage drop (if it did, you wouldn't purchase the protector!), it continues to record at the reduced level until the circuit that detects audio decides no one is there anymore (five to ten seconds) and stops recording. Mine does this, and the level recorded is VERY low, but you can still make it out sometimes, at least the local half of the call. You can also use these to stop an extension phone from disconnecting your modem call (the device connects to the PHONE!). I've seen units enclosed in what looks like a standard modular T connector that do the same thing. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 15:48:19 CDT From: fritz@mirage.hc.ti.com (Fritz Whittington) Subject: Cellular Phone Options in NJ > As a new comer to the world of cellular phone, I will appreciate your > feedback on a couple of things: (some deleted) > 3) I am planning to purchase a rapid charger from someone other > than Sony as it is very expensive. What other options do I have? > How is "Direct Powerplus"? > [Moderator's Note: No you are not stuck with any given carrier. You > can take the phone to any carrier (or the carrier's agent) of your > choice to obtain service. They may charge you to reprogram the phone. > They don't want you to reprogram it because the agent won't make the > money on it. You can purchase chargers from anywhere you please, > bearing in mind that you are looking for a *clean* DC supply of about > 12 volts. Car batteries work fine as do power supplies from old CB > radios, intercoms, etc. Amperage is not too critical; but you want > it to be an amp or two at least for best and quickest charging > results. You can run the cellular phone or charge the battery using > one of those 13.8 DC supplies called 'Micronta' from Radio Shack. > Regards the forum where you should be, you are in the right place. PAT] I note he did use the word 'Sony' which may have clued you. But your answer might mislead some people who don't read very carefully. My Novatel batteries, for instance, are 6.2 volts; connecting to a car battery would probably be a 'warming' experience. Fritz Whittington Texas Instruments, P.O. Box 655474, MS 446 Dallas, TX 75265 Shipping address: 13510 North Central Expressway, MS 446 Dallas, TX 75243 fritz@ti.com Office: +1 214 995 0397 FAX: +1 214 995 6194 Since I am not an official TI spokesperson, these opinions contain no spokes. [Moderator's Note: Yeah, someone else yesterday mentioned to me they bought a cell phone using 6.2 volt batteries. The ones I've had all were twelve volt things: plug 'em in the cigarette lighter; use a spare power supply from an old CB; whatever you wanted. Make sure you put a fuse in the line, ha ha -- nothing like getting the polarity reversed if you want to blow a diode in the phone. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mju@mudos.pc.cc.cmu.edu (Marc Unangst) Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Options in NJ Date: 26 Sep 1993 10:52:49 -0400 Organization: The Programmers' Pit Stop, Pittsburgh, PA Pat writes: > You can purchase chargers from anywhere you please, bearing in mind > that you are looking for a *clean* DC supply of about 12 volts. Car > batteries work fine as do power supplies from old CB radios, > intercoms, etc. Amperage is not too critical; but you want it to be an > amp or two at least for best and quickest charging results. Ack! Sorry, Pat, but this is *wrong*. What you say is correct for a standard trickle-charger, but this guy wants a rapid-charger. Rapid-chargers work at higher voltages and currents than regular trickle-chargers, and it's very important to get one that monitors the state of the battery and shuts off when it becomes fully charged. Otherwise, you will damage your batteries by overcharging them if you leave them in the charger too long. How much does Sony want for the rapid-charger? $50 or $75 isn't unreasonable for a good rapid-charger; you may be better off spending a bit more and buying their charger, rather than spending $40 or $50 each year to replace your battery pack. Properly cared for, most nicad packs will take in excess of 1000 charges; if you abuse them, they can conk out after less than 100. Marc Unangst, N8VRH mju@mudos.pc.cc.cmu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 11:13:01 -0500 From: mlbarrow@MIT.EDU Subject: Re: Book Review: "The Internet Companion" In TELECOM Digest Volume 13, Issue 657, Rob Slade writes: > This work is somewhat less technical than the UNIX biased "Whole > Internet Guide". However, it goes too far in the opposite direction. > The authors boast that it was finished in less than two months. It > shows. Companies which are getting into the Internet in a big way > might make this the introductory volume for new users: it is generally > upbeat and non-threatening. However, help should be on hand when > people actually start using the net. I think that you bashed this book a little too much. I also hold introductory Internet seminars in my capacity as Director of the Boston Computer Society Internet SIG and I recommend this book for very new users. Even though people ask about getting Internet access, most people don't really know what this really means. I find that "The Internet Companion" does an excellent job at explaining the culture and resources of the Internet in a non-threatening manner. Of course, I suggest that they move on to one of the other books that cover more detail on getting access and taking advantage of it. Also, help is not always on hand when people start using the net. That's why we started the BCS Internet SIG. That's my $0.02! Michael L. Barrow Network Analyst/Resnet Support Coordinator Distributed Computing and Network Services MIT Information Systems Director, BCS Internet SIG ------------------------------ From: hess@access.digex.net (Paul Hess) Subject: Re: AT&T Call Manager Disappeared Again? Date: 26 Sep 1993 12:09:09 -0400 Organization: Hess Consulting (AI) - 800-323-8790 In article , Alan Boritz wrote: > Is AT&T silently dropping this service (again)? I just found it > disabled on one of my lines at home and called AT&T. The billing rep > said that they were advised to tell customers that Call Manager is not > working in the New York City area, and that they have no estimate for > repair. The billing rep also gave a phone number to call for more > information (1-908-204-4182). > This seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, without trying to > fix the problem. Is AT&T trying to discourage Call Manager users from > using the product, and eventually eliminate it? I recently switched to AT&T and had a horrible time trying to get Call Manager implemented. I spent about two to four hours worth of my time on the phone with AT&T reps over the course of two months. At any given time during the two month period, whomever I was speaking to was always positive that (a) they understand now why it still isn't working and (b) it will be activated fairly soon. Needless to say, I'm on the verge of switching away after wasting all that time with them (similar problems on other features also), despite the fact that they were always very pleasant and courteous. The MCI service people seem much more empowered to fix problems on the spot rather than referring it to others or leaving messages to solve my problems. Paul Hess | Analysis, Planning and Development Hess Consulting | AI, Neural Nets, and Optimization Algorithms P.O. Box 2905 | Phone: 800-323-8790, In Va.: 703-803-6808 Manassas, VA 22110 | E-Mail: hess@digex.net, Fax: 703-754-2630 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #665 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12791; 27 Sep 93 2:56 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31258 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 27 Sep 1993 00:14:35 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11133 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 27 Sep 1993 00:14:11 -0500 Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 00:14:11 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309270514.AA11133@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #666 TELECOM Digest Mon, 27 Sep 93 00:14:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 666 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: What's With Pac Bell Airport Terminals? (Marty Lyons) Re: What's With Pac Bell Airport Terminals? (Jack Powers) Re: What's With Pac Bell Airport Terminals? (Steven King) Re: GTE Beats Out Pacific Bell in ESS Feature (Randy Gellens) Re: GTE Beats Out Pacific Bell in ESS Feature (Billy Youdelman) Re: How Much Power Will Telco Allow From Phone Line? (Keith G. McRae) Re: How Much Power Will Telco Allow From Phone Line? (Gary Tennyson) Re: H & V Distance Computing Algorithm Wanted (Thomas B. Libert) Re: H & V Distance Computing Algorithm Wanted (Stu Jeffery) Re: AT&T Customer-Driven? (Bob Yazz) Re: Tariff Rates For ISDN, T1, SMDS (William H. Sohl) Re: Operating System for Dialogic (Bob Natale) Re: Caller ID Display Boxes - Best Models/Mfgrs? (Dave Niebuhr) Re: New Area Code 905 Now Works From 519 NPA (Mark Brader) Re: ISDN in the USA (Al Varney) Re: Crossed Wires (Dave Carpentier) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: marty@nic.cerf.net (Marty Lyons) Subject: Re: What's With Pac Bell Airport Terminals? Date: 27 Sep 1993 00:41:13 GMT Organization: CERFnet davidk@netcom.com (David Kiviat) writes: > Pac Bell has had terminal telephones in airports for years now but > when you try to use them as a terminal (they have a full keyboard) > instead of as a TTY or an overly complex telephone they just reply > "This option has not been implemented yet". It would be very usefull > to have these terminals working so people could check their E-mail > between flights. I just tried to use one last week, and called AT&T (These were AT&T phones, which is probably what you saw, not Pac Bell). In any event, AT&T said they are awaiting FCC approval to allow use of the built in keyboard. They are only approved currently to allow you to plug your laptop/powerbook into the data jack they have just above the built in keyboard. Marty Lyons * Sprocket Labs, Inc. * marty@sprocket.com 1030 East El Camino Real, Suite 450, Sunnyvale, CA 94087, USA +1 408 245 9600 ------------------------------ From: jackp@NETSYS.COM (Jack Powers) Subject: Re: What's With Pac Bell Airport Terminals? Organization: Netsys Inc. Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 02:52:30 GMT davidk@netcom.com (David Kiviat) writes: > My question to Pac Bell people who may be reading this is 'How many > more years is it going to take to get these phones fully implemented?" You might have more luck asking AT&T this question, since the phones belong to them. The worked initially, and later were "negatively augmented" when some lawyer figured out that the new features weren't permitted by current tariffs. Jack Powers ------------------------------ From: king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist) Subject: Re: What's With Pac Bell Airport Terminals? Date: 26 Sep 1993 15:34:25 GMT Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Reply-To: king@rtsg.mot.com davidk@netcom.com (David Kiviat) publicly declared: > Pac Bell has had terminal telephones in airports for years now but > when you try to use them as a terminal (they have a full keyboard) > instead of as a TTY or an overly complex telephone they just reply > "This option has not been implemented yet". It would be very usefull > to have these terminals working so people could check their E-mail > between flights. I had the misfortune of waiting for a late plane at Chicago's Midway airport last night. I tried to while away the hours (well, only half an hour really, but half an hour at Midway feels like hours) by playing with the AT&T Public Phone 2000. I meant to call my BBS and check my mail, that sort of thing. No dice. The computer-oriented selections give "This option has not been implemented yet". Bummer. I checked the TDD function and that seemed to be working. At least it didn't give me an error message. I didn't actually try to make a call with it. Looks like the phones are limited to TDD and don't support regular modem traffic. Too bad. The software's obviously there, and a cheap 2400 bps modem wouldn't add anything to the cost of an individual unit. I seem to remember that AT&T had some sort of tariff problem with these phones. Something about being both a service and information provider. I thought that might be the reason the modem was disabled. On the other hand, about two weeks ago I was in a hotel with a fully functional Public Phone 2000, modem and all. Anyone know the full story? My beef with these phones is that though they have a 2400 bps modem they default to 1200 bps. Can't these things autobaud? I'd set it for 2400 and let it hunt downward if a slower modem answered. I don't imagine many services having modems slower than 2400 these days. The standard data format is 7E1, too. Not 8N1 as I would expect. At least 7E1 and 8N1 will play nicely together if they have to. Nice idea, AT&T, but someone on your development staff needs to move out of the 80s! Steven King -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 26 SEP 93 15:21 Subject: Re: GTE Beats Out Pacific Bell in ESS Feature lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) writes: > The issue revolves around standard "variable" call forwarding, the > type where the customer can enable and disable call forwarding to > whichever number they wish. The GTD5 (and GTE policy) allows the > customer to request that fewer call "links" or "passes" be allowed for > forwarding than the default. This is interesting, because earlier this year I recounted in this forum my experiences getting GTE to permit *more* than the default of one call at a time through an ordinary residential CFV. To summarize, I kept getting responses such as "it isn't possible to have more than one call at a time" and "it is possible, but not tariffed -- try remote call forwarding." Finally, in response to a very badly worded description of the problem, an actual tech at the GTD5 called me, and typed in the magic incantations to set my CCF queue to two. Ever since, it has worked fine. I'm pleased to hear that the default is now two, and that GTE will change this value on request. Randall Gellens . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . .randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unisys Corporation. . . . . . . .|. . [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA. . . . . . . . | . . . . .to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal;. .facts are suspect; . I speak only for myself ------------------------------ From: billy@mix.com (Billy Youdelman) Subject: Re: PacBell and GTE Date: 26 Sep 93 20:12:29 -0400 Organization: DECUServe David Gast writes: > GTE will not allow a pseudonym to be used for a directory listing. (I > was really surprised, but the PUC directed me to GTE's executive > offices, and they read me the tariff.) PacBell has no problems with a > pseudonym. Randall Gellens writes: > Pac Bell doesn't allow false names for directory listings, either. > When I tried to have my second line listed in a pseudonym I've used > many times in the past, the insisted on seeing some proof that someone > existed with this name. They faxed me the tariffs. I'm in the Culver City phone book as both Billy Youdelman (my real name) and Billy Yodelman (a common mis-spelling of it). I'm in the Pac Bell part of CC. Billy Y. [Moderator's Note: Yes, but the difference is both names relate back to a person who is commonly known by both. Try asking for a totally false name of a person who does not exist in this context and see what they have to say. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mcraek@@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Keith G. McRae) Subject: Re: How Much Power Will Telco Allow From Phone Line? Organization: The New Brunswick Telephone Company Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 21:39:15 GMT In article nhamilto@fox.nstn.ns.ca (Neil Hamilton) writes: > If one wanted to power a certain low power device from a standard phone > line, how much power would the telco allow to be drawn? In Canada at least, absolutely none. To quote Paul Soles (archane Canadiana, eh?) "This is the Law". This has to do with the potential interference that could be induced on adjacent cable pairs, affecting other subscribers and all that. We used to power stuff from the line ouselves for a while there, but CSA (I think) made us stop. Sorry! :-) Keith G. McRae, NBTel CSE Internet: mcraek@mailserv.nbnet.nb.ca Moncton, N.B., Canada Envoy100(tm): KEITH.MCRAE My opinions are my own, everything else is mortgaged ------------------------------ Subject: How Much Power Will Telco Allow From Phone Line? From: gary@vulcan.com (gary) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 19:06:39 CDT nhamilto@fox.nstn.ns.ca (Neil Hamilton) writes: > If one wanted to power a certain low power device from a standard phone > line, how much power would the telco allow to be drawn? Do you mean in the on-hook mode, or the off-hook mode? This question is usually asked in the context of 'how much current can be drawn in the on-hook state?. In the US, FCC Part 68 assigns Ringer Equivalence Numbers using a formula that is partly based on on-hook dc resistance. The short story is that you must have at least five megohms between tip and ring to look like a REN of 5.0, which is a reasonable upper limit on REN's. In Canada, I believe that CS-03 uses load numbers rather than REN's, but the concept is the same. Under CS-03, I think you can go as low as 2.0 megohms and still meet the upper load number. Good luck. Gary Tennyson BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. Internet: gary@vulcan.com ------------------------------ From: Thomas B. Libert Reply-To: tom@comsol.com Organization: Computing Solutions Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Subject: Re: H & V Distance Computing Algorithm Wanted Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 14:43:23 EDT The H & V numbers are computed from the Donald Elliptical projection, a two-point equidistant projection designed by Jay K. Donald of AT&T around 1956. The projection allows you to use the simple cartesian distance formula to compute a reasonably good approximation for the true distance. Just compute sqrt((h2 - h1)^2 + (v2 - v1)^2), and multiply by a scale factor (ten miles? something like that.) ------------------------------ From: StuJeffery@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: H & V Distance Computing Algorithm Wanted Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 22:33:32 PDT Jimmy Gauvin (jimmy@cerberus.ulaval.ca) writes: > Can somebody please tell me how to calculate the distance between two > NPA-NXXs given their H & V coordinates? The following is the answer in two forms: 1. as a text statement: D = Square Root of (((V1 - V2)squared + (H1 - H2)squared)/10) where D is in miles and V and H are values in the V and H Coordinate System. For example the distance from San Diego ( 9462 7632) to San Franciso (8493 8717) is: 460.02, to Sacramento (8303 8581) is: 473.70, to Los Angles (9213 7878) is: 110.69. 2. as a C program: /* * This program computes distance in miles between * two points given their V and H coordinates. * */ #include #include main() { float D; int V1, V2, H1, H2; while ( 1 == 1) { printf( "enter V and H for first point:\n" ); scanf( "%i%i", &V1, &H1 ); printf( "enter V and H for second point:\n" ); scanf( "%i%i", &V2, &H2 ); D = sqrt((pow ((V1-V2), 2) + pow ((H1-H2), 2) ) / 10 ); printf( "Distance in miles = %7.2f \n", D); printf (" \n"); } } ------------- tear here ---------------- Good luck, Stuart Jeffery 415-966-8199 ------------------------------ From: Bob Yazz From: yazz@locus.com (Bob Yazz) Subject: Re: AT&T Customer-Driven? Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 23:10:51 GMT jimmy@denwa.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) writes: > The other carriers, hungry for business, will deliver ANI any way the > customer wants. DTMF? Sure. MF? No problem. Could you say who delivers ANI via DTMF (touchtone tones)? I presently have a personal and programmable 800 number from Cable & Wireless, but I would like also to get ANI and they don't offer it. (The caller's numbers do appear on the bill at the end of the month but I'm interested in immediacy of that info.) Best wishes, == Bob Yazz == ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Re: Tariff Rates For ISDN, T1, SMDS Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 16:35:19 GMT In article John.MacFarlane@software.com (John L. MacFarlane) writes: > Can anyone give me advise on where to find the tariff rates for local > T1, ISDN and SMDS services? I realize these rates vary with location > and I am also interested in this variance. > [Moderator's Note: Have you asked your own telco what they charge for > the services mentioned? PAT] We have an ISDN summary document available which provides an overview of the ISDN tariffs for the regional Bell Operating Companies. It is available by contacting us at our ISDN Information Hotline 1-800-992-ISDN. The document is available at no charge. Sorry, but as to the other rates/tariffs for T1 and SMDS, you'll have to check with the individual service provider in the different areas you might want service. Bill Sohl & Barbara Shaw of Bellcore's ISDN Hotline Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!cc!whs70 201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@cc.bellcore.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 15:03:40 -0400 From: natale@acec.com (Bob Natale) Subject: Re: Operating System for Dialogic burgoyne@access.digex.net (J. Robert Burgoyne) wrote: > I'd like to get some feedback from people who are actually developing > similar applications. > Our client has developed a system already using SCO, but they're somewhat > disappointed with SCO; it seems to crash with regularity. We have used Dialogic h/w and s/w with Interactive UNIX (now owned by Sun) with excellent results. Bob Natale American Computer 301-258-9850 [tel] Director 209 Perry Pkwy 301-921-0434 [fax] Network Mgmt Products Gaithersburg MD 20877 natale@acec.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 16:01:35 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Caller ID Display Boxes - Best Models/Mfgrs? In TELECOM Digest V13 #661 steveny@panix.com (Steve Bookman) said: > Caller ID is being introduced to large new areas of NYC and other > places this fall. It would be helpful to know other readers' > experiences with the Caller ID LCD screen display boxes which are > installed between the telco's line and the user's telephone extension. > Which are most reasonable in price/reliable in operation? I've had an AT&T Model 85 for about a year (I live on Long Island, Area Code 516) and the cost was about $1 US per number capability (85 numbers). The LCD is useless in bright light (it's in the kitchen) and I would prefer a colored display of either red, green, blue or yellow that stands out in those conditions. There is a provision for having the owner of the phone displayed but that isn't available yet. On the same or at least a similar vein, people in AC 516 are going to be given the Automatic Call Rejection (block-blocking) option soon. The tariffs has been filed and according to NYTel, it will be available on Oct. 22. Those who have CallID (NYTel's term) will get it automatically while those who don't can subscribe to it. I think that is kind of dumb since if one doesn't have Caller ID, then the called party doesn't have a clue as to who is on the other end to begin with. The monthly cost for ACR will be about $3 US for those who don't have CID and the blurb in the newspaper didn't have anything about the charge for CID and ACR even though other options were given. I haven't decided whether or not to take ACR since I receive so few "blocked" calls to begin with and I know who has line blocking, that I don't feel that its worth it to begin with. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: New Area Code 905 Now Works From 519 NPA Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 22:51:24 GMT > Phone numbers that will be in area code 905 after the upcoming split > are now dialable as 1-905-NXX-XXXX from the 519 (Windsor) area. Note that Bell Canada uses "1 means toll" dialing. I assume that the above refers to long-distance calls from 519 to the future 905. Area code 416 now borders on area codes 519, 613, and 705 in Ontario, and 716 in New York state. After the split, 416 will border only on 905, while 905 will border on each of the above codes and 416. Calls between 416 and 905 will be dialed as 10 digits if local, 11 digits if long distance. (e.g. 416-239-4801 or 1-416-239-4801, depending on where in 905 you're calling from. As has, I think, already been noted, at least some of this dialing already works too.) Is there local calling between 416 and any of 519, 613, 705, or 716 now? If so, how are these calls dialed (my guess: 7 digits), and will this be changing? The 416/716 border is particularly interesting if there is local calling there, since it is not within Bell Canada. Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 13:32:41 CDT From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: ISDN in the USA Organization: AT&T In article goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec. com (Fred R. Goldstein) writes: > In article ketil@edb.tih.no (Ketil > Albertsen,TIH) writes: >> Disregarding the well known problems of 56 vs 64 kbps and mu-law vs >> A-law for a moment, in another area the US decided to divert from the >> original ISDN standards: >> In the rest of the world ... >> the service provider delivers an internationally standardized T >> interface to an NT1 which serves to isolate the user from the network >> (subscriber line) both with respect to protocols and technology. Eg. >> the phone company may replace the copper cable with an optical fiber >> without affecting the user equipment. >> In the US, the phone companies are not allowed to sell the standard T >> interface to the customers; they are required to provide a "U" >> interface which can be considered to be the end of the cable running >> to the switch office, with no termination electronics. As I understand it, they are not required to provide a "U" interface; they ARE prohibited from owning the NT1. I don't believe there is anything stopping the "T" interface from being offered by the USA TELCOs. For high-density business service, costs could drive the TELCO to put a CO or DLC or other "T" interface close enough to the customer to avoid the "U" interface. > Nothing like more USA-bashing! Just what we need here. Anyway, > Ketil's description is a bit erroneous. The whole NT business is tied > up in international monopoly politics. When ISDN began to be talked > about in the late '70s, some people (including most Americans > involved) viewed it as a way to rationally digitize the telephone > network, which makes sense considering the economics. Some Europeans, > though, viewed it as a way to extend their monopoly in > telecommuncations into the area of data communications and > teleprocessing. As I've mentioned before, the switch vendors in many countries also benefit from a non-standard NT1 interface. If/when true competition for the CO switch market reaches a country, the costs of building/ testing/certifying a non-standard ISDN interface would artificially price foreign vendors out of the market. Thus the "in-country" vendor and PTT can continue to claim the market is open when it has been locked up by "standards". And of course, with sufficient numbers of these non-standard NT1 deployed, one could never win a bid that had to include the cost of NT1 replacement. Al Varney - just my opinion, of course ------------------------------ From: dave.carpentier@oln.com Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 06:14:21 -0400 Subject: Re: Crossed Wires roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) wrote: > maybe ten seconds after I hung up, the phone rang again. As I picked > it up, I could hear dial pulses on the line. I said hello, and the > person at the other end seemed surprised to hear me. To make a long Assuming you're on a simple POTS line, the phone wasn't actually "ringing", it was "tinkling" - reacting to the dial pulses of another phone by gently ringing the bells. When dialing via my butt-set on a POTS line, a sub- scriber _may_ answer the phone - thinking it was ringing. The usual fix to this is to reverse the tip-ring connection. But this is moot in your case. The problem you seem to be having is probably a line fault, like a wet cable/ broken insulation etc. It would be a good idea to report this to the local teleco, if you haven't already, as you could end up with misdirected long distance charges. Dave Carpentier Murillo (Thunder Bay), ON ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #666 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13988; 27 Sep 93 5:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02397 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 27 Sep 1993 01:57:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06547 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 27 Sep 1993 01:57:00 -0500 Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 01:57:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309270657.AA06547@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #667 TELECOM Digest Mon, 27 Sep 93 01:57:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 667 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Homeless Fire Kills Fiber in CT (Barton Bruce) Modem Traveling FAQ (was Re: European Modem Standards) (Carl Oppedahl) Attempt to Make Call When Line is Disconnected (Carl Moore) No Answer Transfer Availability - Why Not and When? (John Landwehr) British Magazine During Survey of Cellphone Users (Darren Ingram) Help Needed With da Vinci Email (Jake Sherosky) Protecting Privacy or Surveillance? (Julia Lommatzsch) Strange Billing Practices (AT&T) (Steve Cogorno) Is Digest Traffic Slowing Down? (ddavis@dgdhome.meaddata.com) Information Wanted on Optic Fiber Installation (Kazutaka Murakami) In Search of Memorex / United Telecom Phones (Help!) (Rob Hansen) Telecom Help Needed - Chicago Kildare (Jim Puls) [USA] FCC Part 68 REN Type A and B (H. Peter Anvin) Pseudo-Foreign Prefixes: Any Near Detroit? (Carl Moore) Deltacom (Jack Dominey) Re: Deltacom (Patton Turner) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Homeless Fire Kills Fiber in CT Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 27 Sep 93 00:36:08 -0400 Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. We lost a data line between our Camb MA office and our NY one early in the day on Sunday. This circuit was carried by Southern Pacific. The local carriers at the ends could loop the CSUs and so the tail ckts were both ok. Word had it that there were 'some DS3s out somewhere in CT' so no one was going to look at anything else until they were fixed. Later I got someone that was more helpful. SP only was down six or seven DS3s, but there were something like 271 DS3s affected, and whatever alternate routes might have been available from different carriers were already consumed or otherwise unavailable. The fibers may have actually belonged to Southern NE Bell, but carry traffic for many of the major carriers. Getting a candid/honest/clear answer seemed MOST difficult. Whenever they don't want to say something, the pull the magic 'proprietary' incantation. That is utter hogwash, and it is totally reasonable to be told how one's circuits are routed, and to be able to request totally diverse routing for different circuits. Everyone KNOWS they all use each other's circuits -- so what! Just NO BULLSHIT please. Apparently some homeless folks lit a fire in a barrel under a bridge and the cable was burned right to the fibers. ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Modem Traveling FAQ (was Re: European Modem Standards) Date: 26 Sep 1993 23:39:35 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In jwhite@panix.com (Jonathan White) writes: > Please excuse me if this is talked over a lot, I don't get a chance to > read this group much anymore. A friend has asked me to send her a > modem to Rome but I'm not sure what standards are neccessary and what > they are and what manufactuers support them. Is v.22 1200 baud and > v.22bis 1200 baud 2400bps etc.? I'd appreciate replies by e-mail. If > there is interest I can sumerize and post. Here is an FAQ on the subject. I request that readers send me proposed additions and changes to this FAQ. Dialing - If you use rotary dial, be aware that many countries use make/break ratios differing from those used in the US. If you have trouble reliably rotary-dialing, study your modem manaul and try setting the make/break ratio to the other ratio. Some countries do rotary dialing differently than in the US. Sweden, for example, relates one click with "0", two clicks with "1", and so on up to ten clicks meaning "9" on the dial. This differs from most countries where one click means "1" and so on. New Zealand, I have been told, uses a reversed correspondence, so that ten clicks means "1", nine clicks means "2", and so on up to one click meaning "0". In such countries you would need to translate the phone number to be dialed, before giving the dialing string to the modem. US: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 NZ: 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Sweden: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 If you use tone dialing you should have no trouble dialing. The dual-tone-multifrequency (DTMF) tones used are standard worldwide. Dial tone detection - Some modems (most of them, nowadays) actively listen for dial tone, and will not commence dialing until they hear a dial tone. If they are picky and listen only for a precision US dial tone (a mix of two defined sine waves) they might not work well in some other country where the dial tone is different. So you might have to program the modem to "blind dial", namely, to dial without having actually recognized a dial tone. My Practical Peripherals 14400FX PKT (which is a good choice for traveling) can be programmed to blind dial by putting X0 in the dialing string. You would have to study your manual to see how your modem can be told to do this. Call progress detection - Some modems will attempt to detect and report such things as busy signals and ringing sounds. They may not be able to recognize the sounds emitted by non-US exchanges. You may have to disable these features in the modem, or in your communications software. Distinctive ringing - Some equipment (e.g. fax switcher boxes) will watch for patterns of sound and silence in an incoming ring. The patterns are different from country to country and the equipment could get confused. You might have to turn off this feature if you are receiving calls. The plugs and jacks - To complete your hookup you will typically need an adaptor. One way to do this is to find an adaptor that will receive the US-style modular plug and that will in turn plug into the wall. Another way is to buy a replacement cord that has the domestic plug at one end (to plug into the wall) and a modular plug on the other end (to plug into your CPE (customer provided equipment). Sometimes I will get luck when traveling and the place I am visiting will already have US-style modular plugs in place. Some hotels do this, for example, outside of the US. Ground start - Some exchanges use "ground start", in which CPE requests a dial tone by grounding one of the wires of the telephone line. US CPE is loop start, which requests a dial tone by connecting the two wires of the line to each other (through a 600 ohm impedence). To use US-style equipment you need to order a loop start line from your telco. The data signaling protocols - Most modems nowadays are 2400 bps or faster, following the V.22bis, V.32 and V.32bis protocol standards. If the number you are calling is also V.22bis, V.32 or V.32bis, you should have no trouble. But if the modem you are calling is slower than 2400 bps, you need to check further. The standards for 300 and 1200 bps data communications are different in the US and elsewhere. Study the documentation for your modem to be sure it can be programmed to follow the protocol for the modem you are calling, if it is slower than 2400 bps. Modems in Germany - I have been told that to be PTT-approved in Germany, a modem must be programmed so that it will never retry a busy number more than a preset number of times. Fax sending - If you have a Group III fax machine and are sending to Group III fax machines, then you will have no fax compatibility problems anywhere in the world. The law - Finally, you must keep in mind that some countries are rather strict about what you can and cannot plug into their telephone jacks. It is possible to imagine any of several motives for this, from the concern that defective CPE might electrocute a telephone worker to the concern that CPE obtained from a source other than the PTT would reduce the PTT's revenues on overpriced CPE. If the CPE you propose to use has a US FCC Part 68 registration number, it is unlikely it would pose any safety risk anywhere in the world. Most PTT's, in certifying equipment for use in their systems, use the same standards the FCC does under Part 68. Nonetheless, you would be wise to find out what is legal and what is not in your country before connecting CPE to your lines. However, even though it may not pose a safety risk, the equipment may not *work* if it expects U.S. signalling levels. However, modem manufacturers don't like to change their product for export, and most modems are designed to work even at the lower signalling levels present in some other countries. Thanks to: H. Peter Anvin N9ITP (hpa@nwu.ed) Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Sep 93 14:33:11 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Attempt to Make Call When Line is Disconnected I have just moved from Delaware to Maryland. I have switched my Delaware telephone number to remote call forwarding (to the same answering service number that it was forwarding to earlier). Because of this switch, that number no longer connects to the place I was living at in Delaware. I plugged my phones (an AT&T touchtone desk model and a dial-pulse model in the shape of a Corvette automobile) in, and although there was no dial tone (just a soft but audible background hum), pushing the buttons did get a response (touchtone or dial pulse as the case may be). But when I plugged the dial-pulse phone into a jack in the new place (Maryland), I heard nothing at all; is this common for a disconnected line? ------------------------------ From: John_Landwehr@NeXT.COM (John Landwehr) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 13:23:20 -0500 Subject: No Answer Transfer Availability: Why Not and When? On many cellular phones, you can order no answer/busy -transfer service. Then, I remember seeing a posting for some regional bell's voicemail system that required you to purchase it for voicemail to work on your home line. Ameritech in Chicago doesn't seem to have this service. Anyone know why, or when it might happen? John Landwehr [Moderator's Note: Ameritech *does* have it unless they discontinued it just recently. I had it for quite awhile on my cell phone. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 06:00 GMT From: Darren Ingram Subject: British Magazine Doing Survey of Cellphone Users Reply-To: satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk URGENT APPEAL! What Mobile & Cellphone, the monthly guide to personal mobile communications (available from all good newsagents in the UK), is planning a feature on typical usage patterns of cellular communications. We are looking for users to kindly send us details of their cellphone/One2One/Rabbit bills to compare different scenarios of what tariff may suit other people. A lot of the data will be averaged out, but we would like to feature specific people. Permission would be sought to use *any* personal information, and we would *not* be printing details of phone calls you made! The personal details we would propose to extract/use would be forwarded to you for clearance beforehand. As a matter of urgency we require a copy of a recent typical bill, details of your airtime provider/tariff and perhaps some details of call usage. If you have itemised billing and do not mind us looking at your bill that is even better. If you are concerned about 'numbers' getting out, perhaps copy the bill and erase (with tippex/felt pen) the numbers AFTER the area code. Your thoughts on the service you receive from the cellular company and air time provider may also be useful.. if not for this article but for something in the future. For example, if you called 0101 212 215 8030 block out the bill so that we could see 0101 212 --- ---- followed by the duration/cost. A brief note about your usage/self would also be appreciated. Material can be sent by post to me, by fax, or by e-mail if you can OCR it or fancy typing it all in! Please remember that unless you are contacted, *no* personal details (even your name) will be printed or passed on. What Mobile & Cellphone is published by Blah Publishing in London. Address all correspondence to: Darren Ingram, News Editor - What Mobile & Cellphone, c/o M2 Communications Limited, Reptile House, 2nd Floor, 20 Heathfield Road, Coventry CV5 8BT. Fax 0203 717418 E-mail: satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk Also, any interesting gossip you hear on the mobile scene is always listened to ... we have very discreet ears! Your co-operation in this matter is appreciated. Darren Ingram * M2 Communications publishes Satnews and Data Broadcasting News (two fortnightly subscription satellite communications and broadcasting titles) as well as providing editorial services to a number of publications including Cabling World, Mobile & Cellular, Personal Computer World. Personal Computer Magazine, Mobile Europe, Mobile Asia Pacific, TELE-satellit and Kable Public Service Infomatics. ------------------------------ From: JJS126@psuvm.psu.edu Subject: Help Needed With Da Vinci Email Organization: Penn State University Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 16:15:45 EDT I would appreciate any information on Da Vinci Email. I am working on a project for a data communications class and need any and all info. I can get ... thanks for your help. Help on any of the following would be great: What I am doing is a project using netnews, to find out about a topics significance to data communications. Basically, we have three general areas: 1) A clear and pricise overview of Da Vinci Email-what it is; the history of it so the literature you mentioned would help in this area; 2) A statement of the importance of Da Vinci with respect to data communications-the litature may help, or any insights you may have for example id Da Vinci was the first Email in the country, that would be very significant; 3) Advantages and Disadvantages of Da Vinci Email-ie.how it is better than other Email packages(??). Thanks for any help anyone can give; I appreciate it. Jake Sherosky ------------------------------ From: jlommat@andy.bgsu.edu (Julia Lommatzsch) Subject: Surveillance or Protection of Privacy? Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 16:44:10 GMT Caller ID certainly has heightened awareness of privacy issues. I've been reading THE ONE TO ONE FUTURE, and the authors have some really eye-opening points: "Make Money Protecting Privacy, Not Threatening It". The book describes an example of this concept. Harry H. Hart III runs a company, FreeFone. An extensive questionnaire is completed by participants, and then the information is SOLD to companies who want to advertise. These companies receive all kinds of demographic and psychographic profiles, but no NAMES! Here's how it all comes together. When participants make PHONE calls, they can opt to hear a :05 message; if they listen, FreeFone CREDITS their phone bills by a nickel for each message. Now, if I listen to Hallmark's ad, and I CHOOSE to respond, ONLY then does the company learn my identity. Protecting privacy or surveillance? You tell me. ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Strange Billing Practices (AT&T) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 21:30:26 PDT I recently disconnected my phone line (because I am moving out of the area), and yesterday I received a strange bill from AT&T. Apparently, there were about 12 calling card calls that did not make it onto my local phone company bills, and when the number was disconnected, they audited their tapes and found un-billed calls. I don't mind them sending me a bill for calling card calls (that I probably made), but these calls were made in October of LAST YEAR! I can't belive that AT&T waited almost 12 FULL BILLING CYCLES before they caught this. The agent said that it can take UP TO 18 MONTHS for calling card calls to process. Has anyone else had this kind of experience? Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: ddavis@dgdhome.meaddata.com Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 13:05:25 EDT Subject: Is Digest Traffic Slowing Down? Greetings, Pat! I've noticed a distinct drop-off in activity in the newsgroup into which the Digest is gatewayed. Has something happened? There are many of us out here who depend upon c.d.t. -- not getting it each and every day is like not having breakfast. We miss you ... [Moderator's Note: Well gosh, thanks! If anything, the inbound mail has increased, but with more and more of it being from people asking for individual files from the archives. That was becoming a drain on time, answering those questions and pulling missing copies of the Digest for people. I spent much time over the past two weeks putting together the email server which is now operating there: tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu and getting it nearly bug free. In addition, the Archives main directory had become very unweildy with 200+ entries to scan looking for single files. I kept putting off the work 'until there was time', and that never happened. So two weekends ago I bit the bullet and said I will stick with archives stuff until it is totally operating and the files reorganized. The end result is going to be a new help file and index which I send out soon -- maybe tomorrow. My sincere thanks go to all the people who helped test it by pulling files. I am indeed sorry for some of the bizarre results you got at times when pulling files (the server would reply 'sending file' then cat: would claim there was no such file, etc. What you are going to find when visiting the Archives now is that all files have been sorted into appropriate sub-directories based on their content. The main directory now just references the various divisions or sub-directories, some of which include 'back.issues', 'carriers', 'history', 'glossaries', 'technical', 'reports' 'areacodes' 'miscellaneous' and 'country.codes'. You can now search the back issues for author names and subject titles using email, and you can pull individual issues missing from your collection instead of having to take forty or fifty unwanted copies as well. It took a lot of time away from editorial work on the Digest but it is almost finished; now the Digest can get back up to speed. If you have FTP permission, check it out now. The new and final version of the email server documentation will be out ASAP in a day or so and available here. Archives space and network mail resources are donated by MIT who get my sincere thanks for their efforts. Clive Feather (clive@x.co.uk) wrote most of the script and is already busy working on a revision. Thanks for your patience. PAT] ------------------------------ From: murakami@ece.cmu.edu (Kazutaka Murakami) Subject: Information Wanted on Optic Fiber Installation Reply-To: murakami@ece.cmu.edu (Kazutaka Murakami) Organization: Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 15:59:43 GMT Does anyone have the information on the current installation of optic fiber system in the US? Or anyone know any article on this? Also I'd like to have information on the future deployment plan. Thanks in advance, Kazu ------------------------------ From: hansen@inference.com (Rob Hansen) Subject: In Search of Memorex / United Telecom Phones (help!) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 12:37:12 PDT We are a software company that has a need to replace some of our broken phones and upgrade some users. We're trying to locate 10 to 15 "Memorex/Telex" or "United Telecom" phones, model numbers 2037L or 3037L, for use on our Lexar switch. These are the 37-key display phones. The phones should use pulse coded modulation (PCM), not adapted delta modulation (ADM). Any pointers would be very much appreciated! Rob hansen@inference.com Support Hotline: Rob Hansen Support Faxline: 800/322-5590 310/322-3431 Inference Corporation hansen@inference.com ------------------------------ From: jimpuls@genesis.mcs.com (Jim Puls) Subject: Telecom Help Needed - Chicago Kildare Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1993 16:40:14 CDT A client of mine is looking for some telecom expertise, possibly for hire. The client is located in the Chicago-Kildare CO area, and has a problem with unreliable lines, both leased and dial up. While I'm not a telecom expert, I'd guess it would involve localization of the problem, on or off premesis, and possible interaction with IBT, the local carrier to get things resolved. Please note that this is a relatively small job. If you are interested, please reply by email or voice to (708) 863-4020. By the way, I'm not affiliated with MCS.COM, except as a customer of theirs. Thanks, Jim email to jimpuls@genesis.mcs.com ------------------------------ From: hpa (H. Peter Anvin N9ITP) Subject: [USA] FCC part 68 REN type A and B Reply-To: hpa@nwu.edu (H. Peter Anvin) Organization: Hierarchial directory structure Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 04:17:08 GMT It has been published that the sum of the Ringer Equivalence Numbers (REN) of telephone equipment on a line should not exceed a fixed number, usually 5.0. However, what about the letters A and B that occur appended? My understanding is that they signify different current-consumption characteristics of the device, and since they are always set out, they must have some meaning. Hence: how does the A's and B's come in when you are checking for ringer overload on your line? INTERNET: hpa@nwu.edu FINGER/TALK: hpa@ahab.eecs.nwu.edu IBM MAIL: I036073 at IBMMAIL NeXTMAIL: hpa@speedy.acns.nwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 16:57:51 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Pseudo-Foreign Prefixes: Any Near Detroit? Are there any pseudo-foreign exchanges in the Detroit (Michigan) area? I am asking this because of the upcoming 313/810 split there. In the case of an area code split, such prefixes could be affected differently from other prefixes serving the same geographic area. For example, in Maryland, Annapolis went into 410 EXCEPT that 261 and 858, since they are there for Washington metro service, stayed in 301. Another example: Laurel (Md.) stayed in 301 EXCEPT that 792 and 880, since they are there for Baltimore metro service, went into 410. ------------------------------ From: jdominey@nesca.attmail.com (jdominey) Date: 26 Sep 93 19:47:11 GMT Subject: Deltacom A few issues back, Patton Turner (Turner@Dixie.com) wrote: > One small carrier in Alabama, Deltacom, was at one time a 100% > facilities based carrier. They found a city, Arab, in the Birmingham > LATA that was socially and politically linked to the Huntsville LATA. > They set themselves up as a Dial 2 carrier with the independent telco. My understanding, based on my days as a hapless sales droid covering large portions of Alabama, was that Deltacom was basically started by the local telco (Brindlee Mountain Telephone Company?). I heard that at one point they were reselling AT&T service -- at least we had a POP there tariffed for T45 -- but I'm sure things have changed since then. While their biggest sales leverage came from being the hometown company, they did offer features customers liked at a very low price. I hope for the sake of my successors that the price differential has narrowed, and for the sake of AT&T and the customers that my successors are better sales people! (No official AT&T statements above.) Jack Dominey AT&T Network Planning dominey@attmail.com ------------------------------ From: turner@Dixie.Com Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 22:52 EDT Subject: Re: Deltacom Jack Dominey writes: > My understanding, based on my days as a hapless sales droid covering > large portions of Alabama, was that Deltacom was basically started by > the local telco (Brindlee Mountain Telephone Company?). Yes. > I heard that at one point they were reselling AT&T service -- at > least we had a POP there tariffed for T45 -- but I'm sure things have > changed since then. I wasn't sure how they were started. The initial company was called Southern Interexchange. I'm not sure when the Delta Communuications name started. They grew a lot around 1988/89 when they installed fiber from Birmingham to Huntsville through Arab. They crossed the river on the US231 bridge, this may have been a first for the Alabama Highway Department. Deltacom is still in the long distance and interconnect bussiness. I think {Telephony} did a story on them in 1992. Patton Turner KB4GRZ FAA Telecommunications turner@dixie.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #667 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17006; 29 Sep 93 22:00 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29973 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 29 Sep 1993 19:13:25 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03250 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 29 Sep 1993 19:13:00 -0500 Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 19:13:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199309300013.AA03250@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #668 TELECOM Digest Wed, 29 Sep 93 19:13:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 668 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Seeking Cellular Phone Programming Information (Allan Bond) Pactel-BellSouth Combined Offering (Les Reeves) Shared Tenant Services (John Hammond) International Telex Directory (Van Schallenberg) AT&T Presents Office Cellular System (hbeast@mindvox.phantom.com) What Would You Ask the FCC? (Charlie Hofacker) Managing Remote Telecom Projects? (Laird P. Broadfield) Did PUC Change Machine-Call Rules in California? (Chris Ambler) CAM-NET -- Who Are They? (Steve Pozgaj) Telemanagement Software (Larry Herman) Introduction to Informatics Magazine (Tom Worthington) The Well-Rested Repairman (was Re: Telecom Help Needed) (Andrew C. Green) ISDN Approved in Tennessee (Les Reeves) The Perfect Phone (Reid Goldsborough) How Does One Contact Ameritech Email (John Eichler) Newsgroup Wanted on Health Level 7 (Seth B. Rothenberg) Multi-line Telephony Devices (Bob Rankin) Changes in Cellular Billing From PacTel in San Diego (Laird P. Broadfield) Working Mother Mag Drops Sprint (Phillip Dampier) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bond@ssd.comm.mot.com (Allan Bond) Subject: Seeking Ce;lular Phone Programming Information Reply-To: bond@comm.mot.com Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 19:06:15 GMT I heard a rumor that cellular phone programming information is available from an FTP site or other such resource around the internet. Can anyone tell me where I might find this valuable data? I'd like to change some default settings (e.g. password, etc.) on my cellular phone. Many thanks, Allan Bond 708-538-4884 bond@comm.mot.com Senior Software Engineer Internet: bond@comm.mot.com LMPS, Schaumburg MotoMail: Q10643 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 18:16:30 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Pactel-BellSouth Combined Offering BellSouth and PacTel Cellular have planned a trial of personal number calling. The technology employs a data base that allows the phone system to locate a user via their personal number and forward calls to their current location. The system includes a screening option that allows only callers with a special numeric code to get through. Trials will begin with PacTel Cellular customers in the Atlanta area in December. ------------------------------ From: john.hammond@chrysalis.org Organization: Chrysalis / 52 Lines / Dallas, Texas / (214) 690-9295 Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 18:25:06 Subject: Shared Tenant Services I am working on a project using PBX's in a Shared Tenant Service mode. Can anyone help me figure out how to allow a hold line for each tenant on a large PBX such as the AT&T 85 or would someone like to work directly on the problem? My land line is (214) 522-8731. My address is 3116 Mahanna ST. #3 Dallas TX 75235-8775 Thanks, John Hammond ------------------------------ From: u951007@unx.ucc.okstate.edu (u951007) Subject: International Telex Directory Organization: Oklahoma State University Computer Center, Stillwater OK Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 23:48:38 GMT Does anyone know of an international telex directory data base, such as Jaeger and Waldmann, that can be accessed via Internet? Thanks, Van Schallenberg schallenberg@attmail.com u951007@unx.ucc.okstate.edu ------------------------------ Subject: AT&T Presents Office Cellular System From: hbeast@mindvox.phantom.com (Herd Beast) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 93 07:54:45 EDT Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800-MindVox) A new cable-free phone switchboard was intoduced in San Diego, CA, by AT&T. The system is called Trans-Talk 9000 and is the first in a line of systems to bering to vision of what AT&T calls the "cellular office". Six cellular phones connect to this system. The users of these phones can stay connected from as far away as 150 meters, without need wires. AT&T claims that many workers spend more than half their time at work away from their desk, especially at hospitals, stores, factories, etc. In the future, AT&T says, the systems will allow monitored "skipping" of one switchboard to another, creating an internal cellular service for the employees, who will be able to stay connected even while moving from one department to another. The system uses a mechanism for choosing a different frequency out of 150 and changing that frequency often for protection from call monitoring. The Trans-Talk 9000, which should be available early in '94 will be about $795, and will fit into AT&Ts cellular activity, as expressed by the 12.6 billion dollar merger with McCaw Communications. ------------------------------ From: Charlie Hofacker Subject: What Would You Ask the FCC? Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 12:00:17 EDT Several weeks from now I am going to have lunch with Andrew C. Barret who is an FCC commissioner. I will certainly not be able to monopolize the conversation but I anticipate being able to ask him a few questions. What would *you* ask? I know there are thoughtful and knowledgeable readers out there who are concerned with US telecom policy - please email or post your suggestions. I would also post or email a note on how lunch went if anybody was interested. Charlie Hofacker chofack@cob.fsu.edu ------------------------------ From: lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) Subject: Managing Remote Telecom Projects? Date: 29 Sep 93 10:07:16 GMT I'm prompted by the recent spate of "need a few hours of time from someone telecom-literate in Xyyyzzzzz, QQ" messages to ask: how may of you find yourselves managing occasional projects in distant states, and how do you manage things like finding out what service is available, getting rate info, ordering service, and so forth? Friday I had to spend more than an hour struggling my way through umpty-ump different people at GTE Tampa (three thousand miles away; I'm glad they had a toll free number) just to find out whether they *offered* unmeasured business service (the answer _appears_ to be yes, information confirming or denying would be appreciated.) (I never did find out whether the lines our client had ordered were measured or unmeasured, because the rep finally figured out that despite my having the order numbers, I wasn't actually the customer.) (The customer is in Baton Rouge, even if they *did* know what dialtone was, they wouldn't be much help.) This is likely to become more of an issue for us as our business expands from installing our equipment in large healthcare facilities (where a few additional lines is an internal no-big-deal) to small, remote facilities (where four more lines is twice what they've ever had.) Anybody out there in a similar situation have any suggestions or war stories, or should we just article the Digest once a week, saying "need somebody in Timbuktu, MD this week..."? :-) Laird P. Broadfield lairdb@crash.cts.com ...{ucsd, nosc}!crash!lairdb ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler -- Fubar) Subject: Did PUC Change Machine-Call Rules in California? Organization: The Phishtank Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 06:39:44 GMT I got a call this evening on my residential line from a machine doing the typical pitch and record. When it started recording, I said (paraphrased): Wonderful, the old illegal machine making cold calls. Thanks so much for stating your company name in the pitch; I will be sending in a complaint first thing tomorrow morning. Have a nice evening. The owner actually CALLED BACK 2 HOURS LATER in person! He claimed that on 19 April 1993 the PUC (California) removed this law, making machine cold calls legal. Is this the case? Does anyone know if this is true, and if so, WHY it was done? If it's not true, any rule number I can quote back in his face would be lovely ... cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.4 FSVMP Voice BBS Demo System - 805-544-3754 ------------------------------ From: steve@dmntor.uucp (Steve Pozgaj) Subject: CAM-NET - Who Are They? Organization: Digital Media Networks, Toronto, Canada Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 03:58:27 -0400 A guy came to the house the other night with a "Home Phone Club" offer. The claim is 10-35% savings on long distance via a seven-digit access code to their network. Seems the only catch is a signed appli- cation and a $2/month minimum fee. They also give 30 minutes free in the sign-up month. Sounds too good to be true ... which prompts me to ask: Anybody ever heard of these guys? Anybody use the service? Is it really what it claims to be? I hate to be so skeptical, but, these days, it pays to "ask the net". Steve Pozgaj ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Sep 93 10:11:09 EDT From: Larry Herman Subject: Telemanagement Software Organization: Georgetown University Telecommunications I am interested in what Telemanagement software packages different colleges and universities might be using and how those who use them feel about their system. I am interested in systems that support Cable and Wire Records, Trouble Reporting/Help Desk, Service Order, Billing, Call Accounting, and Inventory. ------------------------------ From: tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Tom Worthington) Subject: Introduction to Informatics Magazine Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 01:46:36 GMT Keith Power, Editor of {Informatics Magazine}, has asked me for leads about teleworking. He is interested in preparing an article about how using computers and communications has changed work habits, particularly for those working from home. Informatics is a magazine for IT professionals, so Keith is particularly interested to hear from professionals on how they use teleworking in their own work. Contact: Keith Power, Editor, Informatics, ph: +61 2 2672084 fax: +61 2 2672094 Tom Worthington, Director of the Community Affairs Board Australian Computer Society Inc., Fax: +61 6 2496419 Internet: tomw@adfa.oz.au 28 September 1993 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 17:53:18 CDT From: Andrew C. Green Subject: The Well-Rested Repairman (was Re: Telecom Help Needed) jimpuls@genesis.mcs.com (Jim Puls) writes: > While I'm not a telecom expert, I'd guess it would involve > localization of the problem, on or off premesis, and possible > interaction with IBT, the local carrier to get things resolved. Heh, heh. Just last week my parents in Wilmette, north of Chicago, discovered that incoming calls to their house generated a single "ding" on the phone, followed by a dropped call. It seemed that the ring voltage was enough to short a wet pair somewhere, since they could actually answer the phone if they were _real_ quick, otherwise the system would break the connection and return a rapid busy to the caller. Purely my amateur diagnosis, you understand. Anyway, they called IBT for repairs, and the next morning at the crack of dawn a repairman came roaring up the alley in his big truck. The gentleman rang the doorbell, told them he'd have to temporarily disconnect the phone, then spent the morning driving up and down the alley, climbing various poles, frowning at the wires, etc. At about noon, Mom noticed that things seemed awfully quiet down there. The phone was still dead, so Dad went down to the alley to see how repairs were proceeding. He came back almost immediately. MOM: How's it going down there? DAD: He's asleep in the truck. Yup. It was lunchtime, after all, so I guess if he wants to have a snooze instead of a sandwich, he's entitled. At least he wasn't blocking anyone's garage. I understand that he awoke within the hour and, properly refreshed, had the job done shortly thereafter. I will banish any thoughts about someone trying to reach 911 while he was snoring away out back. ;-) (I believe he'd only disconnected one house.) The moral, I suppose, is that there are still jobs out there where you can be your own boss. Or maybe it's that Rome wasn't built in a day. Or you can't hurry perfection. Or...? Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@hermes.dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 [Well Rested Moderator's Note: Interesting you mention it. As a matter of fact. I've fallen asleep working on this Digest a couple times and woke up a few hours later to find myself still logged in, still in my editor right where I left off. As absent-minded as I can be sometimes, I decided to set myself up with an idle timer; now if I don't send or receive any data for several minutes it idles out and disconnects. I am glad the guy fell asleep in his truck rather than at the top of a pole somewhere though. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 18:12:46 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: ISDN Approved in Tennessee A BellSouth tariff offering digital service to to residential customers using ISDN standards was approved in Tennessee. According to the tariff, which becomes effective October 21, Tennesseeans will be able to get two digital lines at 64,000 bits/second and a 16,000 bit/second signaling line, in place of a single analog line, for $13.85 per month on top of their regular residential rates, which average about $8-12 in different parts of the state. For another $3, they can add Caller ID features. For small business customers, the per-line rate is $99.50, which includes Caller ID and a technology called "hunting," previously offered mainly to big customers with calling centers. Business line rates in the state average $27-$39. As with the residential rates, the rates are exclusive of long distance charges. BellSouth's South Central Bell operating unit conducted a trial of the technology starting last January with over 125 customers, who installed the service without charge. During that trial the company defined procedures, worked with equipment and software vendors to develop applications, and established a system integration program. BellSouth expects small businesses to use ISDN for image processing, videoconferencing, connecting LANs and for accessing databases. It expects residences to use the service for working from home, for security, for accessing information services and for energy management. The company has been offering ISDN services through its switches, an offering called ESSX, since 1991. Last February it became the first regional Bell to offer what's called primary rate ISDN, offering 23 64,000 bit/second digital lines and a 64,000 bit/second signaling line, under the name MegaLink. BellSouth said tariffs for individual ISDN service in the other eight states where it does business should be filed by the end of this year. ------------------------------ From: reidg@pacs.pha.pa.us ( Reid Goldsborough) Subject: The Perfect Phone Date: 29 Sep 93 14:37:41 GMT Organization: Philadelphia Area Computer Society I'm in search of the perfect two-line speakerphone. I've tested out a Panasonic (serious crosstalk problem), AT&T (didn't have autoredial and other features), GE (uses unconventional handset wiring and can't be used with Plantronics headset), and BellSouth (chintsy). I'd like to get my hands on a Northwestern Bell or Southwestern Bell two-line speakerphone. Northwestern Bell says try places like Hechenger's and Circuit City, but they don't carry it. I've also tried Best, Staples, Office Max, 47th Street Photo, and Quill. Anybody know where I might find a Northwestern Bell or Southwestern Bell two-line speakerphone? Mail-order would be best. Thanks. Please send email if you would. Thanks again! Reid Goldsborough reidg@pacs.pha.pa.us ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 09:38:00 -0500 From: john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) Subject: How Does One Contact Ameritech Email? Reply-To: john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) Organization: The GrapeVine BBS *** N. Little Rock, AR *** (501) 753-8121 I have an inlaw in Saginaw Michigan who works for Ameritech. She has access to Ameritech email throughout Michigan which she uses on a day-to-day basis. I asked her for her email address so I could send her messages and she could only give me her WAN ID. My question is twofold: First, does Ameritech in Michigan have a gateway to the Internet (I assume they do but don't know for sure). And second, what would the address of this gateway be so I could address her as ID@gateway? I would appreciate this information from anyone who knows the answers. Also if anyone knows how she should enter my email address so she can send me mail I would also appreciate knowing how. Thanks in advance, Email: john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us The GrapeVine / Ferret Face BBS (501) 753-8121 PGP Distribution Site, UseNet, RIME, ThrobNet, MediaNet, U'niNet, ForthNet RecoveryNet, MetroLink. Putting Communications back in Telecommunication ------------------------------ From: rothen+@pitt.edu (Seth B Rothenberg) Subject: Newsgroup Wanted on Health Level 7 Date: 28 Sep 93 15:50:17 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh Can someone point me to a newsgroup on EDI - or specifically on Health Level 7? Thanks. Seth ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Sep 93 10:03:28 EDT From: Bob Rankin Subject: Multi-Line Telephony Devices Can anyone recommend a multi-line system for IBM-compatible (ISA-bus) PCs that has the ability to shell out to a user written program? Or a hardware platform with a toolkit that will allow me to develop a multi-line interactive application? (Two to eight lines will suffice.) I have used the BigMouth card and the menu-based software that comes with it to answer a call with a greeting, then shell out to my program that requests touchtone inputs. This is a single-line card, and I would like to expand my system so multiple users can call in and use the application at the same time. Any suggestions? Regards, Bob Rankin [Moderator's Note: BigMouth does have a multi-line card. Have you considered using it? PAT] ------------------------------ From: lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird P. Broadfield) Subject: Changes in Cellular Billing From PacTel in San Diego Date: 28 Sep 93 10:22:25 GMT PacTel Cellular San Diego has (just recently) added several new billing plans, all tied in to a one year service committment. Since in the past the San Diego market has been fairly low-competition (no rate-fights, no mad slasher advertisements) I'm wondering if there's some drastic change coming in the next few months that's motivating them to try to lock people in now. (Ron, is there something we ought to know? :-) Anybody know anything interesting on this? FYI, old rates: "Normal" plan: $35/mo, .20/min offpeak, .40/min peak Low-use plan: $19/mo (?), .19/min offpeak, .79/min peak Both old plans are month-to-month, and include small discounts for heavy users (for example, 3% off over 150 minutes, etc.) New rates, requiring a one year committment: (plan name, monthly charge, peak rate, offpeak rate, included minutes) Security: 25.95, 0.74, 0.19, 10 Convenience: 44.95, 0.38, 0.18, 40 Advantage120: 69.95, 0.38, 0.18, 120 Advantage220: 98.95, 0.36, 0.16, 220 Advantage420: 148.95, 0.35, 0.15, 420 Included minutes are applied chronologically, *not* most-expensive first. Also, long-time readers will recall that the CA PUC has ruled out bundling, so term contracts are extremely unusual and we pay through the nose for equipment. Laird P. Broadfield lairdb@crash.cts.com ...{ucsd, nosc}!crash!lairdb ------------------------------ From: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org (Phillip Dampier) Reply-To: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 13:37:06 -0500 Subject: Working Mother Mag Drops Sprint WORKING MOTHER MAGAZINE DROPS SPRINT FROM '100 BEST' LIST AFTER WORKER COMPLAINTS EXPOSE ABUSES (Sprint Employee Network) September 27, 1993 Sprint Long Distance is no longer one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" and it never really was, according to Sprint employees who urged {Working Mother} magazine to drop the company from its annual listing for 1993. Sprint's previous recognition by the magazine for the past two years had been "completely undeserved," said Dallas service representative Audrey Hall, a spokesperson for the Sprint Employee Network, representing telephone operators, service reps, and telemarketers at Sprint locations around the country. "I along with all my friends wondered exactly what Sprint company they were talking about" when last year's {Working Mother} list came out, said Gloria Melton, a Jacksonville, Fla. operator. "The only thing we could figure out was that those (pro-working-mother) policies were for management," she said. The operators and service reps point to inflexible hours and frequent shift changes at Sprint that make it difficult for the mainly female workforce to juggle family and work responsibilities. The Sprint workers were also subjected to severe electronic monitoring, and operators and service reps complain of policies that prevent them from hanging up on obscene and threatening phone callers, according to the Sprint Employee Network. "We wish that Sprint truly were deserving of recognition as a good company for working women, and we're trying to make that a reality," said Laura Cordingly, a network activist also from Jacksonville. {Working Mother} has found that a number of companies didn't actually merit its highly sought-after "100 Best" ranking, according to the {Wall Street Journal}. Corporate claims have "been heavily inflated by hype," and "At many companies, only headquarters workers are eligible" for generous family policies, according to Journal writer Sue Schellenbarger. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #668 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12623; 1 Oct 93 4:47 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27842 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 1 Oct 1993 02:02:15 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27260 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 1 Oct 1993 02:01:49 -0500 Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 02:01:49 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310010701.AA27260@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #669 TELECOM Digest Fri, 1 Oct 93 02:01:45 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 669 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Caller ID From BT (Clive Feather) Octocom Expresso 8386 RackMount (John Gloria) Book Review: "Internet System Handbook" by Lynch/Rose (Rob Slade) NY Tel LATA Calls (was Re: Public Access internet sites) (Danny O'Bedlam) Service Outage in DC (Paul Robinson) Pager Software For UNIX (David J. Broderick) Looking for a E1 Bit Error Rate Tester (Ed Sinamark) European Alphanumeric Paging Providers (Allan D. Griefer) Description of ROLMlink Protocol (Pat Barron) Siemens Purchases Polish Telecom Companies (Randall Gellens) China Tightening Telecom Control (Randall Gellens) Merlin Pulls Disappearing Act? (Alan Boritz) DPC-550 Testmode (Ben Black) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: clive@x.co.uk (Clive Feather) Subject: Caller ID From BT Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 15:16:36 BST BT sent me SIN227 (BT Analogue Caller Display Service) the day after I requested it. It's 25 or so pages long, so I thought readers of the TELECOM Digest might appreciate a summary. Notes for non-UK readers: * The protocol is *not* the same as the Bellcore one; I don't know why. * You can block your outgoing number by dialling 141 in front of any call. This prefixes any other code (like 131 or 132 for Mercury). * Where a line has blocking on all calls, a different code (not yet decided) is used to unblock. * Blocking does not affect operator services or the malicious call bureau. The basic protocol is intended for sending data from the exchange to customer's equipment, either before ringing starts, or without ringing the phone at all. The physical protocol is: - Polarity reversal occurs on the (idle) line. - The exchange is silent for >= 100ms. - The exchange puts an alert tone on the line for between 88ms and 110ms; this tone consists of 2130Hz and 2750Hz (both +/- 1.1%); the receiver should look for at least 20ms of both tones or 30ms of the lower tone. - The exchange goes silent. - Between 15ms and 25ms after the end of the alert tone, the receiver should put a DC load and an AC load on the line. The AC load is described as 827 ohms in series with {1386 ohms and 139nF in parallel}. The DC load should be no more than 0.5mA (and should be well over the 0.12 limit for an idle line). However, to clear the line of noise, the load should a plain resistance of between 240 to 350 ohms for the first 14ms to 16ms of the DC load. - At least 45ms after the end of the guard tone, between 96 and 315 bits of alternating 0s and 1s will be sent (see below for encoding). This will be followed by between 55 and 90 1s, and then the data. - At least 50ms, and no more than 150ms, after the end of the data, the receiver should remove the DC and AC loads from the line. - At least 200ms after the end of the data, the exchange will either cancel the polarity reversal, or will start to send the ringing tone. Data is transmitted using FSK at 1200 baud +/- 1%. A 0 is 2100Hz and a 1 is 1300Hz, both +/- 1.5%. The data is sent one octet at a time, in the standard serial format: start bit (0) least significant bit next 6 bits in order most significant bit 1 to 10 stop bits (all 1s) The message consists of between 3 and 258 octets. The message format is: Message type byte Length byte - gives number of parameter bytes 0 to 255 parameter bytes Checksum; the checksum has at least two stop bits The (normal addition) sum of all the bytes, including the checksum byte, is 0 mod 256. There is an implication that several messages may be sent, so long as the total is less than 2500ms (about 300 octets). The parameter bytes transmit zero or more parameter blocks. Each parameter block has the format: Parameter type byte Data length byte - gives number of data bytes 0 to 253 data bytes Type and length bytes are true binary numbers. Data bytes may be binary or ASCII characters (codes 32 to 127, except that dollar sign is replaced by pound sterling sign); I show the latter in double quotes. The only message type described is type 128. This has the following parameter types. - Call type (17); the data is 1 byte: * 1 = voice call (default if call type not sent) * 2 = ring-back-when-free call (this is a voice-like call) * 129 = message waiting call * future types with the top bit clear will be voice-like calls, such as fax; rules applying to voice calls will apply to them * future types with the top bit set will be other types of call - Time and date (1); the data is 8 characters, giving MMDDHHMM; for example, "09291452" means 14:52 on September 29th. For voice-like calls, or if no call type is sent, the time is correct to within 1 minute. For other types, the time is defined by the call type. - Calling line number (2); the data is a string (up to 18 bytes) giving the number of the caller, or an alternative presentation number (e.g. main number when calling from a PBX, or an associated 0800 number). Spaces and dashes may occur in the number; a trailing dash means that the number is incomplete. Examples given in the document are: "071 250 7587" "0171-250-" "00 33-" "0351-3210" - Called line number (3); same format. - Reason calling line number omitted (4), does not occur if parameter type 2 is provided; the data is a single byte: * "P" = number withheld (using 141) * "O" = number not available No explanation is given if parameter type 3 is omitted. - Name or text (7); the data is a string of up to 20 bytes. Examples given in the document are: "Simon Jones" "BT Payphone" "International call" "Ring-back call" This information might be related to the calling line number, or it might be related to the call type. It is not possible to tell, except for as below. - Reason for no name (8); an explanation of why there is no name provided. If parameter types 7 and 8 are both sent, then the former is text other than the caller's name. Data is 1 byte: * "P" = name withheld * "O" = name not available - Message system status (19); the data is 1 byte, giving the number of messages waiting in the message system (1 means either 1 or number not known). This is expected to be sent as a no-ring call. All types are optional. Type 17 will always be sent first, and the other seven types listed here will be sent before any types introduced in the future. Clive D.W. Feather | Santa Cruz Operation clive@sco.com | Croxley Centre Phone: +44 923 816 344 | Hatters Lane, Watford Fax: +44 923 817 688 | WD1 8YN, United Kingdom | <== * NOTE NEW INFORMATION * ------------------------------ From: jpglori@srv.pacbell.com (John Gloria) Subject: Octocom Expresso 8386 RackMount Date: 30 Sep 93 16:31:53 GMT Organization: Pacific * Bell I have been given the *opportunity* to gather some information in modem technology. Basically, my responsibility is find out what our modem technology has to offer in a 16 rack mounted modem configuration to allow dial-in access for telecommuting purposes. Since long term planning and use is our goal, the need for V.42BIS and all the various MNPs/CLASSes, etc., are desired. Since V.FAST is the next step (future?), we want to invest in a product that will allow a migration path to V.FAST. We are thinking in terms of the established vendors (reliability/ warrtany/service), e.g., TeleBit, MultiTech, Hayes, etc. Any assistance and or direction would be appreciated. I received a quote today regarding the Octocom Expresso 8396 Rackmount modem; Octocom 1816 Chassis; Octocom PS 1802 Power Supply. Since I have little experience in modem technology I would like responses on this particular unit and or recommendations on other units. Thanks, John PACIFIC BELL - Product & Technology - Systems Engineering John P. Gloria - Workstation Support Engineer 2600 Camino Ramon - Mail Stop: 2S151 - San Ramon, CA 94583 Voice:510-823-2933 - FAX:510-867-3817 - Email:jpglori@PacBell.COM John Gloria - jpglori@sysengr.pacbell.com ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 93 14:29 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Internet System Handbook" by Lynch/Rose BKINTSYS.RVW 930824 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-527-5210 617-944-3700 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 "Internet System Handbook", Lynch/Rose, 1993, 0-201-56741-5 I'm beginning to wonder about "handbook" in all these titles of telephone book sized tomes. On the other hand, you have to love an author/editor who opines that the reason the Internet succeeded was because the researchers' hearts were pure. In the preface, the editors suggest that this book is for the competent engineer, manager and administrator. Unfortunately, they are less clear on *what* the work is for. The book is divided into four parts. The first section deals with an historical and organizational background to the Internet. The three articles have very similar contents but slightly differing perspectives. From a "Readers' Digest" anecdotal overview we move to an international examination, and thence, to a discussion of the evolving standard. The second section deals with technical aspects of the major protocols and applications of the Internet. As promised, the chapters are written by the people who built the Internet. The author of the chapter on "Core Protocols", for example, is Vinton Cerf. As well as the core protocols, routing protocols, the main applications (mail, FTP and remote access), practical routing, host networking, security and applications development are covered. Part three, titled "Infrastructure," covers issues not centrally relevant to the operation of the Internet, but supporting its use. Network performance and management, backbone and node tools, directory services and operational security are dealt with here. Details are, perhaps, necessarily restricted in this section. The chapter on directory services, for example, gives sample finger and WHOIS sessions but does not offer any contacts for NETFIND, Knowbot or X.500 servers. The title of the final section can be interpreted different ways. There is a very specific article on the impending node number exhaustion on the Internet, a generic change and evolution of internetworking (which turns out to be more nearly a treatise on the evolution of computing itself) and an excellent annotated bibliography by John Quarterman (cf. BKMATRIX.RVW). The bibliographic information contained in the book overall might be worth the price alone. Quarterman's contribution is carefully and fully researched and well organized. It includes not only texts, but periodicals and online sources as well. The editors see this work as a reference. It certainly is that, and, as well, it is a pointer to further information in the bibliographies. Although the style is very different, the contents are remarkably similar to Douglas Comer's "Internetworking with TCP/IP" (cf BKINTTCP.RVW). This work tends to add some material from the "higher" (application level) layers of the communications model. Comer's work tends to be more directly connected with technical detail; this work, while definitely technical, introduces the reader to the people of the Internet. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKINTSYS.RVW 930824 Permission granted to distribute with full copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca User p1@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ From: dfl@panix.com (Danny O'Bedlam) Subject: NY Tel LATA Calls (was Re: Public Access internet sites) Date: 30 Sep 1993 16:58:53 -0400 Organization: Whatever Four Much has been said in the previous thread about whether or not 212 <--> 718 calls are local, toll or what. I should emphasize I do not have the tariff handy for reference, but in a nutshell: All calls within 212, 718, and 917, are the same local area from non-pay phones. If you use a COCOT you are calling at your own risk, you can be charged for more than a regular local call than a NYTel pay phone may charge you. What makes it confusing is that calling from Brooklyn to Bronx (both 718) will be .40 instead of .25. Some pay phones in Manhattan will also charge more to the outlying areas of 718. Also keep in mind that area code 917 is co-extant with both 212 and 718. Danny Lieberman PO Box 3131 Church St Sta New York NY 10008-3131 [USA] dfl@panix.com, danny@echonyc.com, lieberd@cbc.com NYC & Environs Bicycle mailing list: ebikes-request@mailhost.panix.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 23:29:32 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Service Outage in DC From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Since early Thursday, Lottery Agents in the District of Columbia were reporting that they were unable to sell tickets via their computer terminals. These terminals are connected by telephone line to the contractor that runs the lottery operation for the DC Charitable Games Control Board. The outage was critical as DC is one of the states involved in the multistate "Powerball" lottery, which recently had a $78 million winner in Wisconsin. As a result of the outage, lottery agents were unable to sell tickets. Later it was determined that a large portion of southeast Washington was without phone service -- including 911 -- due to a break in the phone system. Persons with emergencies in that area were being referred by television stations to use the seven-digit police emergency number if they could find a phone that works. A spokesperson for C&P Telephone of Washington, DC stated that a backhoe at a construction site on 1st Street, SE, cut through one of its fiber optic cables. Some 15,000 customers were reported to be without service. A large part of southeast Washington is known as the Anacostia section because it is on the east shore of the Anacostia River, a branch of the Potomac River that splits Maryland and the District from Virginia. This section's residents are almost all black and it is the poorest part of town. Because of the intent to assist that part of the city, southeast is also the part of town where the operating facilities for the lottery contractor are located. Note: All mail is read/responded every day. If a message is sent to this account, and you expect a reply, if one is not received within 24 hours, resend your message; some systems do not send mail to MCI Mail correctly. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: dbrodrck@dsg.cs.tcd.ie (David J. Broderick) Subject: Pager Software for UNIX Organization: DSG, Dept. of Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 18:54:16 GMT Does anybody know of any code, that is available for connecting up to a central pager exchange, by modem, and calling a pager, all from the UNIX command line. Thanks, David ------------------------------ From: efs@summa4.MV.COM (Ed Sinamark) Subject: Looking for a E1 Bit Error Rate Tester? Organization: Summa Four Inc. Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 20:14:56 GMT In order to properly perform a required test I am looking for a cheap E1 test box that will provide a PRBS Bit Error Rate Test on an E1 trunk (2.048 Mb/s). Does anyone know companies that make such a device? We currently use a Tau-Tron 5120 to perform our standard E1 test but need an additional PRBS stream to perform a required receiver sensitivity test. Thanks for any info, Ed Sinamark | The opinions expressed 25 Sundial Ave | above are my own and Manchester, NH 03103| not those of my employer efs@summa4.mv.com | ------------------------------ From: adg@netcom.com (Allan D. Griefer) Subject: European Alphanumeric Paging Providers Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 20:02:11 GMT I'm in desperate need of one or more alphanumeric pagers that can be used in Zurich, Switzerland, Rome, Italy, and Winchester, UK. I'd prefer that they were Motorola Advisor pagers and were supported from a paging system that can be accessed by IXO automatic paging protocols. Can anyone point me to a service provider for these? Al adg@netcom.com or griefer@almaden.ibm.com Al Griefer, KC6ZTW adg@netcom.com EMT-1A, AHA CPR Instructor San Jose, CA ------------------------------ From: Pat_Barron@transarc.com Subject: Description of ROLMlink protocol Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 15:00:54 -0400 Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Does anyone have a description of the ROLMlink used by ROLM phone switches (like the Redwood and the 9751) to communicate with ROLM digital phones? I am looking for both the electrical and functional specifications; in the end, I'd like to be able to build devices that I could attach to ROLMlink channels. All I know about it right now is that it is a synchronous protocol that runs at 256Kbps. Thanks, Pat ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 30 SEP 93 19:37 Subject: Siemens Purchases Polish Telecom Companies An internal news round-up had the following item: Siemens has purchased two Polish telecommunications companies, Zwut S.A. of Warsaw and Elwro S.A. of Wroclaw (AP, 9/23/93). The two companies were formerly state owned. Siemens has operated a joint venture company with Zwut to make digital telephone equipment since 1990. As a result of the purchase, Poland's telephone authority Telekomunkacja Polska will approve Siemens' digital phone system as one of the nation's official telecommunications systems. As part of its modernization plan, Telekomunkacja Polska plans to expand the telephone network from 11 telephone lines per 100 persons to 25 lines per 100 persons by the year 2000. Randall Gellens . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . .randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unisys Corporation. . . . . . . .|. . [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA. . . . . . . . | . . . . .to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal;. .facts are suspect; . I speak only for myself ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 30 SEP 93 19:28 Subject: China Tightening Telecom Control An internal news roundup carried the following item: The Peoples Republic of China reportedly is tightening control over computer messaging and other forms of communications, such as mobile telephones and electronic pagers, according to the China Daily (AP, 9/15/93). Starting in November businesses must have government licenses to rent or sell pagers, mobile telephones or other communications systems using wires or satellites. The Ministry of Telecommunications also will require companies offering such communications services to report their existence to local authorities. No reason has been given forr the new controls on these previously unrestricted services. Randall Gellens . . . . . . . . .|. . . . . . .randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unisys Corporation. . . . . . . .|. . [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA. . . . . . . . | . . . . .to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal;. .facts are suspect; . I speak only for myself ------------------------------ Subject: Merlin Pulls Disappearing Act? From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 20:38:42 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 Where have all the Merlin resellers and reconditioners gone? A friend was recently looking to purchase a few voice terminals with built-in speakerphones and found that AT&T must have published their price lists with the decimal points in the wrong place. ;) Equipment to expand basic Merlin key systems cost almost as much a hefty chunk of a new key system (with all of the features that AT&T left out on purpose, like usable outbound restriction, last number redial, etc.). Ignoring for the moment that AT&T must have hired for their small business key systems all of the marketing people IBM let go ;), is anyone other than AT&T marketing Merlin-compatible KSU's and terminal equipment? aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 93 16:44:46 EDT From: Ben Black <76672.2564@CompuServe.COM> Subject: DPC-550 Testmode I have a Motorola DPC-550 flipfone and need info on the manual test mode. I know how to put it in test mode, but I don't know any of the functions other than entering negative SID's for the C Scan mode. Specifically, how can i get the phone to tell me what SID it's locked onto? I'll be glad to summarize any email responses for the list -- or if you'd rather I didn't ... that's ok too. Ben ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #669 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12861; 1 Oct 93 5:26 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08363 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 1 Oct 1993 02:40:54 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17163 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 1 Oct 1993 02:40:29 -0500 Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 02:40:29 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310010740.AA17163@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #670 TELECOM Digest Fri, 1 Oct 93 02:40:20 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 670 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Dedicated High Speed Serial Comms (Peter C. Bosch) Annoucing rec.radio.broadcasting (William Pfeiffer) Dell France Gives Strange Night Phone Message (Jean-Bernard Condat) Network Autonomous Agents (Jason Rosenberg) BONDING Specification Available On Line (David E. Martin) Skypage by Modem (Stephen Fleming) Information on AT&T Spirit (CS308E1 and CS616E1) (Rich Williams) Looking For PCMICA Radio (Lok Liu) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pbosch@motown.ge.com (Peter C. Bosch) Subject: Dedicated High Speed Serial Comms Date: 30 Sep 1993 22:44:04 GMT Organization: Martin Marietta Corp, Moorestown NJ Reply-To: pbosch@motown.ge.com === What: === (Abbreviated version. Details follow under "Details:") Request for knowledge on the subject of bidirectional application-specific communications. If you know anything that you are willing to share about data encoding protocols, data transmission media, current or soon-to-be available hardware, data distribution architectures, etc., I would appreciate it if you would read on, and share. Otherwise, thanks for reading this far ... === Who: === My name is Pete Bosch. I work for Martin Marietta, and I am involved in an R&D effort to propose a new architecture for a class of device that we build. My portion, currently, of the project is to perform a tradeoff study of various communications architectures. ======== P L E A S E N O T E ========= I am pursuing this avenue as one of many researching directions. I am not asking for a complete "solution" to my problem, but rather for pieces of the puzzle. (Indeed, I would be flabbergasted if I did receive a complete solution, except if it came from in-house! :-) I've found the internet to be a valuable source of information in the past, and am simply trying to do a thorough job, and "Leave no stone unturned..." ======================================== === Details: === Requirements: o One central device (CPU) will conduct two-way communications with between 4,000 and 40,000 devices (Modules) located coplanarly, within 100 meters of the CPU, and within 10 meters of each other. o Each module will contain an ASIC, a DSP, or a uController, depending on processing needs, etc. o These devices will receive messages addressed to one, several, or all. o The modules will be required to perform some basic processing and initiate actions based upon the content of the messages and a trigger. On any given message, one specific module may also be solicited for a response. o Some scheme must exist for a module to reply to a specific message, if requested by the CPU. o Data rates will need to be around 10 MBit/s, with a low bit error rate. o Cost of transcievers is very important, as is that of cabling/ physical medium. (Mainly because of the sheer number of such devices.) o Message sizes vary, from a few bytes, "Everybody, Go!" to a very large number of bytes, ("Module number 144232, here's a new copy of your dataspace... 03FE5D00B1421 ... etc. (Tens of KBytes, w/ checksums.)" Current Approach: Currently, twisted pair is used, with simple Manchester encoding, approx. 2MBit/s. Messages are sent via a fanout network, to all modules, in parallel. Replies are returned to the main CPU via two serially daisy-chained opposing loop twisted pair i/f's. As only one module is solicited for reply, there are (theoretically) no reply packet collisions. Drawbacks: Too much copper. Speed limited. Reply mechanism is not robust. Concerns: +/- of optical (IR or otherwise) messaging from hub? (Line of sight is not a problem.) +/- of NRZI vs OOK vs Manchester? +/- of RF messaging from hub? ( I acknowledge this is unlikely.) How to construct more robust reply mechanism without needing miles of wire? === Request: === If you know of work that has been done that is similar, if you know of a device, architecture, encoding scheme, etc, that may be suitable for use here, if your doctoral thesis was applicable to this, or if you just want to say, "Remember to account for interferometry of multiple synchronized infrared transmitters...", or whatever, please reply to: pbosch@motown.ge.com * * New Issue * * * Several days have elapsed since I wrote the above. I have learned, and my concerns have grown. I add the following: A while ago some information was posted on Mil-Std-1553, parts, suppliers, and boards ... I printed this out and added it to my archives, but something bothers me, namely the 750kBits/s data rate. I need something that will deliver 10 MBits/s. I know that RS-422 will do this over very short distances, although that's not taking protocol and ED/C into acount, which brings me to my first question: Are there devices and techniques currently on the market that will enable me to *inexpensively* achieve ~10 MBit/s transfer rates? (By inexpensively, I mean _on_the_order_of_ $10 per Xmt/Rcv device. (say, $0 to $25)) Ideally, this would include reception and endec. Second question: I've read numerous papers that claim 100 MBit/s over twisted pair is reality, using FDDI 5B/6B, or some such. This means (I believe) that someone's pushing bits at or near 120 MBits/s over TP copper. Now I realize that this technique is likely to be much more expensive, but I'd like to combine both techniques in a system, using the 100MBit scheme to push long distance (100 m) over a trunk connection, and then, once the messages are in the vicinity of the controlled device(s), demux the 100 MBit/s message stream into 8 separate 10 MBit/s streams, each to a controlled element of the system. Who is doing this? What hardware are they using? What protocol and medium are they using? Please tell me this is not academic pie-in-the-sky. (Imagine my consternation as I tell my boss, who has just pushed through a budget for an Engineering Prototype, "But, Susan/Bill, Mondo Schmuckatelli at Transylvania U. wrote a paper, _proving_ that it can be done! Wanna read it? " (Hello, unemployment!)) Please reply via e-mail to the address below. I will post a summary of answers to this portion of my request (if I get any) late next week. Thank you, pbosch@motown.ge.com Pete Bosch Martin Marietta 199 Borton Landing Rd. Moorestown, New Jersey 08057 (609) 722-6040 ------------------------------ From: rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (RRB) Subject: Annoucing rec.radio.broadcasting Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 19:43:05 CDT Greetings: In many ways, the subjects of telecommunication and radio broadcasting intermingle. There have been articles pertaining to radio broadcasting, in this forum, in the past, so I thought I would take the time to introduce you to the Usenet newsgroup rec.radio.broadcasting and its email digest, Airwaves (formerly the Internet Radio Journal). Rec.radio.broadcasting (r.r.b) was founded in April of 1992, in order to provide a forum for discussion of topics pertaining to 'domestic broadcast radio'. Already in existence was rec.radio.shortwave, which centers around the International radio scene, and rec.radio.noncomm who's focus is, obviously, non-commercial radio. Rec.radio.broadcasting was intended to 'fill the gap' between these groups. Airwaves Radio Journal is a periodic email digest consisting, mainly, of articles found in the newsgroup. It is intended for people who either cannot access the newsgroup from their system or for some reason prefer a digestified format for reading. Subscriptions to Airwaves are free, and available to anyone who has an email account on the Internet, or on a system gatewayed to and from the Internet (such as CompuServe, GEnie, AOL, MCImail, AT&Tmail, Bitnet, and FidoNet to name a few). -=*=- DOMESTIC BROADCAST RADIO -=*=- By domestic, we mean broadcasts which are intended, primarily,for reception in the same country/nation in which they originate. R.R.B is an international newsgroup, though, and the term 'domestic' should not be taken to imply 'USA' or even North American. Readers in other nations are encouraged to participate. -=*=- SUBJECTS -=*=- If it has to do with broadcast radio, and not _specifically_ international shortwave, it is welcome here. Occasionally an article which IS primarily about shortwave will be posted if the subject seems broad enough that our readership might be interested, or be able to assist the poster in some way. Generally, if a subject 'seems' like it would be of interest to the radio broadcasting community (which includes those involved in creating, transmitting or listening to broadcast radio) will be published. These subjects include (but are not limited to). 1) Formats and programming. 2) Engineering and technical matters and interests. 3) Technologies affecting the industry, and its 'offspring' industries. 4) Legislation affecting the industry, and its 'offspring' industries. 5) Pirate broadcasting (especially non-shortwave, domestic pirates). 6) Community broadcasting (including non-commercial and clandestine stations). 7) DXing (long distance reception) on the standard broadcast bands 8) General station information. Who is going on and off the air, and why. 9) Radio's historical and cultural significance. 10) Radio's current and future trends. 11) Political and news coverage and its impact. 12) Job openings and help to those seeking work in the industry. 13) Information on equipment and techniques involved in transmission and reception of broadcast radio signals. 14) The International Scene and how broadcast radio is shaping up in the various nations of the world. 15) Gabfesting and all matters of general interest to those involved in, or interested in, the general subject of domestic radio broadcasting. -=*=- POSTING -=*=- 1) If you are in Usenet, post to rrb/Airwaves as you would any other Usenet group. The software does the rest. - OR - 2) Email your article directly to articles@airwaves.chi.il.us. Using other addresses to post will needlessly delay your article. You might consider installing an alias in your mailer for emailed articles, especially if you post a lot of stuff. See the end of this file for all applicable addresses. Rec.radio.broadcasting IS a loosely moderated group, however in practice there is usually little interference from the moderator provided that articles stay within (or reasonably close) to the charter of the group, posters edit as much quoted text as possible, avoid flames and personal attack, and most importantly ... :-) use your brains more than your brawn (-: -=*=- ARCHIVES -=*=- Archives of past Airwaves (and its previous incarnation as the Internet Radio Journal) are kept for anonymous FTP at Internet site deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu <128.174.53.10>. They can be found in the directory /misc/rec.radio.b-cast. In that directory you will find a file called INDEX, which contains the issue numbers of all Journals, and the title of each article contained within. The archives are updated every week or so. To determine when the last update was, look at the date on the file called "<-Archive Last Updated At". If you need help with FTP, write me. The Journals are arranged in sub-directories of about 100 issues each, and are in compressed (.Z) format. Remember that compressed files should always be sent using the "binary" mode. If you have trouble accessing anything, or if you have any questions about the archives, send email to rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu. If you appreciate the archives, send your notes of appreciation to the site admin, C. Lance Moxley . He has been very gracious in his willingness to store our archives on his machine. * Please do not bother the system admin with problems, direct those to me. * -=*=- ENJOY THE GROUP! -=*=- I hope you enjoy the group. Remember, it is only as good as it's contributors. So don't be shy :-). If you have a question, or answer, even if you are not sure, post - post - post. I am open to suggestions on how to improve this group. Send them via e-mail to wdp@airwaves.chi.il.us -or- rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu. Thanks to all who have, and continue to, participate. We now return you to your regularly scheduled newsgroup :-). William Pfeiffer Moderator of rec.radio.broadcasting - Editor of Airwaves Radio Journal -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- Addresses: -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- Article submissions ----- ----- ----- ----- articles@airwaves.chi.il.us Airwaves subscriptions ----- ----- ----- ----- subscribe@airwaves.chi.il.us Archive site ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu Other communications ----- ----- ----- ----- wdp@airwaves.chi.il.us -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- [TELECOM Moderator's Note: Bill has been a personal friend for many years (off-hand, I'd say fifteen years) and I can personally vouch for his efforts at making AIRWAVES one of the finest e-journals available on the Internet. If you are not already familiar with it, may I suggest you subscribe -- at least temporarily -- and see what you think. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cccf@email.teaser.com (Jean-Bernard Condat) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 09:06:26 GMT Subject: Dell France give strange night phone message On all Dell ads in France, you can read uncredible PCs with so uncredible prices. To contact Dell France based in Montpellier, you can easily dial a free number: 05 444 999. Yesterday, I receive a new ad in my PO Box and try to ask for more information. I phone the toll free number at 6:35 pm and have the following message (in French language!): "For a technical reason, your call cannot be forward to the right person or service at this time. Please hold the line, we will be automatically transfer to an operator... [A wonderful girl voice present me in French and bad English language... the Dell company... stop ten seconds after... for the beginning message "For a technical reason..."] I listen for some minutes, re-dial the same number and press for leaving a voice message. The PBX ask me for an another phone number "out of the company"... and give me the local radio... the bad "France Info". I found that the leader Dell company have, at this time some important phone problems. All my colleagues are listening to the same message :-) Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France, B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Private Address: P.O. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France Phone: +33 1 40101764, Fax: +33 1 47877070 InterNet: cccf@altern.com or cccf@email.teaser.com ***For a free subscription to _Chaos Digest_, send a message to: linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi with a mail header or first line containing the following information: X-Mn-Admin: join CHAOS_DIGEST and you will put freely on the ChaosD mailing list. Don't hesitate! ** [Moderator's Note: Another good e-journal. Try it out! PAT] ------------------------------ From: jason@CS.UCLA.EDU (Jason Rosenberg) Subject: Network Autonomous Agents Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 21:13:59 GMT Hello, I am in the process of formulating possible research projects, and I am looking for some background information in a few areas. I have been interested in artificial intelligence/neural networks for some time, but I have also spent the last few years working in the information retrieval field. Additionally, I am becoming increasingly interested in networking and multi-media technology, as these fields seem to be important for the future. I have been throwing around the idea of autonomous information agents, which are capable of exploring a network in search of information requested by a user. I would like to have such an agent have at least pseudo-ai capabilities. In addition, it should attempt to handle multi-media forms of information. I know vaguely about a few things like gopher, etc. What are the shortcomings of existing systems, and what are possible areas for improvement? Also of interest might be network agents which are capable of arranging teleconferences and scheduling meetings, travel plans, etc. What other kinds of network agents might be of interest? I know that the idea of agents is not completely new, and as a starting point I am looking for any and or all references to work done in the area to date. Also, any spirited discussion on the subject would be interesting. I realize my ideas here are quite vague, but I would like very much to see what the net has to say. I apologize of crossposting this as widely as I have, as I am trying to find the best places to discuss this sort of thing. Please respond either to the net or by e-mail. If you do send me e-mail, please tell me where you read this posting, so I have an idea where the audience is ... Thanks, Jason Rosenberg Computer Science Department jason@cs.ucla.edu University of California {uunet,rutgers,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!jason Los Angeles, CA 90024 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 16:20:53 -0500 From: David E. Martin Subject: BONDING Specification Available On Line Chip Sharp at Teleos has made available electronic copies of the BONDING (Bandwidth on Demand Interoperability Group) 1.0 and 1.1 specifications. I have archived them on our information server. The specs are available via WWW, gopher, anonymous FTP, DECnet COPY, and AFS (see instructions below). The following files are available: - aaareadme-networks help file (in ascii text) - bdmain.doc main body of BONDING 1.0 specification (Word for Windows 2.0 format) - bdmain.ps main body of BONDING 1.0 specification (Postscript) - bdannex.doc annex of BONDING 1.0 specification (Word for Windows 2.0 format) - bdannex.ps annex of BONDING 1.0 specification (Postscript) - bd_v1_1.doc changes for BONDING 1.1 specification (Word for Windows 2.0 format) - bd_v1_1.ps changes for BONDING 1.1 specification (Postscript) Instructions: WWW server: www.hep.net URL: gopher://www.hep.net:70/11/info_center/networks/bonding Gopher server: gopher.hep.net Bookmark: Name=Bandwidth on Demand Interoperability Group (BONDING) Documents Type=1 Port=70 Path=1/info_center/networks/bonding Host=gopher.hep.net Anonymous FTP server: ftp.hep.net directory: networks/bonding DECnet COPY (only for those on HEP-NSI DECnet) HEPNET::[ANON_FTP.NETWORKS.BONDING] AFS /afs/hepafs1.hep.net/public/anon_ftp/networks/bonding 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: fleming@cup.portal.com Subject: Skypage by Modem Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 14:54:24 PDT Piece of cake. Set your comm program to 2400 bps, 8/N/1, and dial (800)SKY-WORD with it. Enter the PIN number, and you can type in alpha messages up to 80 characters. SkyTel will send you a brochure describing this in more detail if you want it. Stephen Fleming fleming@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 09:45:51 EST From: Rich Williams Subject: Information Wanted on AT&T Spirit (CS308E1 and CS616E1). Organization: Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana My mother has just become the owner of a AT&T Spirit Phone system. She is a landlord and a recent tenant left in a hurry leaving his office behind. The local service provider said the equipment is not theirs the tenant paid for it mom's lawyer said it's hers now. She asked me what it was and what she should do with it, not knowing I decided to ask here before buying the books from our local service provider. Here is what she has. 1 AT&T CS308E1 Controller 1 AT&T CS616E1 Expantion Of course all the 66 block to rj junk too, but no terminals. Thanks for any information and guidance. Best regards, Rich Williams | Systems Administrator rvw@math.purdue.edu | Purdue University | Math Department #include | West Lafayette, IN 47907 ------------------------------ From: Lok Liu Subject: Looking For PCMICA Radio Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 11:08:23 -0400 Organization: Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pitts, PA Right now I am working on a research project. I have run into trouble in finding the components that I need. Does anyone know where I can find a PCMICA two ways radio or fax/data modem that consumes very little power? If you do, can you tell me where I can find the speci- fication on those parts. Thank you, Lok ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #670 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13900; 1 Oct 93 11:06 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28393 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 1 Oct 1993 07:46:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23215 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 1 Oct 1993 07:46:14 -0500 Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 07:46:14 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310011246.AA23215@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #671 TELECOM Digest Fri, 1 Oct 93 07:46:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 671 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Universal Service Symposium Announcement (Andrew Blau) Book Review: "Exploring the World of Online Systems" - Resnick (Rob Slade) Radio Spectrum Auctions (John Gilbert) DES Key Search Paper (Monty Solomon) Ad on French Electronic Phone Book [11] (Jean-Bernard Condat) ATM and IP (John L. MacFarlane) More 416/905 Split Information (David Leibold) Information Wanted on GDM (Andre van Heerdon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 10:58:04 -0400 From: Andrew Blau Subject: Universal Service Symposium Announcement The Administration's NII "Agenda for Action" calls "a broad, modern concept of Universal Service" a top priority in its infrastructure development plans; the document also announced a series of public hearings, beginning by the end of this year, to explore the issue of defining and sustaining universal service in the future. In light of the renewed interest in defining and supporting universal service, the Benton Foundation and the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information announce the following one-day symposium: Universal Service: New Challenges and New Options in Tomorrow's Network of Networks A seminar for policymakers, public interest advocates and nonprofit leaders Jointly sponsored by The Benton Foundation & The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information Columbia University Friday, October 15, 1993 8:30 - 5:00 at 1333 H St., N.W. (The AAAS Building) Main Conference Room Washington, DC Universal service -- ensuring that basic communications services are available to all -- is fast moving to the forefront of communication policy issues. Competition threatens to erode the traditional means by which universal telephone service has been supported. At the same time, the popular definition of what services should be universal may expand as health, education, and other civic sector functions are delivered through communications networks that will integrate voice, video and data. On September 15, the White House released "The National Information Infrastructure: Agenda for Action," which announced that the effort to develop "a broad, modern concept of Universal Service" will be a leading goal of this Administration. In order to bring public interest advocates, nonprofit leaders and policymaking staff the latest analyses of these issues, the Benton Foundation and the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at Columbia University invite you to join leading academic experts and policy makers to: o explore what universal service has meant and why current programs to achieve it may unravel; o consider recent findings on who remains without basic service today; o hear new proposals to define and support universal service in the future; and o address the special challenge of extending service affordably to rural areas. We are proud to have a distinguished panel of experts addressing these issues, including: Nolan Bowie Associate Professor of Communications, Temple University Bruce Egan Research Fellow, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information Michael Einhorn Economist, US Department of Justice Susan Hadden Professor of Public Affairs, LBJ School, University of Texas, Austin Koichiro Hayashi President & CEO, NTT America Heather Hudson Director, Telecommunications Management & Policy Program, University of San Francisco Milton Mueller Assistant Professor of Communications, Rutgers University Eli Noam Director, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information Professor of Economics & Finance, Columbia University Jorge Schement Associate Professor of Communications, Rutgers University Steven Wildman Director, Program In Telecommunications Science, Management & Policy Associate Professor of Communications Studies, Northwestern University We hope you can join these and other experts to explore fresh analyses and new proposals for addressing what policymakers, industry leaders and public interest advocates all agree will be a top issue in communications policy as the information superhighway is built. Please RSVP by October 7, either by faxing back the attached reply form to the Benton Foundation (202-638-5771) or by email to ablau@cap.gwu.edu, so that we may plan accordingly. Attendance is limited. [ ] Yes, I will be able to attend the symposium on Universal Service on Friday, October 15, at 1333 H St., N.W., Washington, D.C. [ ] No, I can't make it, but please keep me informed about Benton Foundation and Columbia Institute for Tele-Information events. Name: _________________________________________________________ Organization: ___________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________ Telephone number: _____________________ Fax: __________________ email: _____________________________ <><><><><><><><><><><><> About the Benton Foundation's Communications Policy Project Founded in 1980, the Benton Foundation is dedicated to "media in the public interest." For the last 13 years, the foundation has initiated a number of communications policy projects designed to make media access and diversity subjects of widespread discussion and public decision making. In early 1993, Benton launched an initiative in collaboration with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to strengthen public interest advocacy in communications policy and recruit nonprofit involvement to these issues. The Communications Policy Project has several interrelated goals: o to build a new constituency among nonprofit groups to participate in policy advocacy initiatives; o to advance analysis of selected policy issues to help nonprofits see their stake in the policy debate and to equip them with leading edge research and policy options in support of public interest values; o to provide concrete illustrations of the social benefits these new technologies can deliver; and o to encourage demonstrations of nonprofit uses of new technologies that will help create an expanded vision of the new electronic environment. Questions about the program may be directed to Andrew Blau, Program Coordinator (202-638-5770, x31; ablau@cap.gwu.edu), or Larry Kirkman, Executive Director (202-638-5770, x22). About the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. The Institute's precursor, The Center for Telecommunications and Information Studies, was the first research center for communications established at a business school in the United States. CITI supports the independent study of economic, policy and management issues involving the telecommunication, computer, and electronic mass media industries. It provides a research environment and national meeting ground in New York City for academic researchers, government policymakers, and private and non-profit sector experts. Economics and allied disciplines are the analytical methodologies central to CITI research. The Institute has published over 650 working papers and 18 books. For more information, contact CITI, c/o Columbia University, Graduate School of Business, 802 Uris Hall, New York, NY 10027, tel: 212-854-4222. Andrew Blau Communications Policy Project The Benton Foundation One Farragut Sq. South, N.W., 12th Fl. Washington, DC 20006 v: 202.638.5770, x31 f: 202.638.5771 ablau@cap.gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 93 12:55 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Exploring the World of Online Systems" by Resnick BKETWOOS.RVW 930823 Sybex Computer Books 2021 Challenger Drive Alameda, CA 94501 USA 510-523-8233 800-227-2346 Fax: 510-523-2373 or Firefly Books 250 Sparks Avenue Willowdale, Ontario M2H 2S4 416-499-8412 Fax: 416-499-8313 "Exploring the World of Online Services", Resnick, 1993, U$17.95/C$25.95 The "world" part of the title is a bit grandiose. One has come to expect, unfortunately, that a particular work will cover either commercial services or "the nets," but not both. However, even dealing strictly with commercial information services, there is still a lot of room in the cover statement that the book "compares and contrasts the most popular online services, including CompuServe and Prodigy". The *only* services included are CompuServe and Prodigy. The book certainly promises "the world". Chapter one gives the usual "all the business information in the known universe at the click of a mouse" pitch. To be fair, Resnick does suggest a number of rules to try to keep the costs down. For example, she talks about "narrowing" a search with added terms, but doesn't go into the complexity of setting up an appropriate data base search. Part one of the book (chapters two to ten) is the "how to" section with part two being the "what's there". Chapter two, for example, is supposed to tell you about modems and communication software. Except for a brief discussion of the pros and cons of generic terminal software versus service specific "front ends", one wonders why the chapter was included. A section dealing with communications parameters finally comes down to, "Oh, it's all too technical, just use 2400,8,N,1 and it'll probably work." Chapter three talks about logging in: Prodigy users get pretty short shrift here. (In a section titled "Protecting Your Password" the fifth sentence is enough to make any security types shudder: it advises, nay, commands! that you write down your password.) Chapter four purports to help you navigate the services: it reminds you of the chapters in software manuals that give the basics of menu usage. Chapter five talks about the various possible charging and surcharge options but lacks specifics. Chapter six discusses email. This chapter could be used as an example of most of what the book is -- and isn't. The contents are mostly a sequence of commands for WinCIM, the Windows version of CompuServe's own "front end" communication program. Seven pages are devoted to sending and receiving mail on CompuServe, less than a page on Prodigy. Nowhere does it tell you how to send a message if you don't have the CIM. One page discusses the difference between public and private messages. Two pages purport to cover online etiquette: this seems to reduce to "don't advertise unless you pay" and "aren't smileys cute!" You are told that CompuServe can send email to the Internet: you are *not* told, as in most other places in the book, that it is a surcharge, nor are you told how to do it. Chapter seven says that you can upload and download. (It also recommends that you use PKZIP version 2.04C. I guess that, in the rush to get the book out, the disasters of that particular version went unnoticed.) Chapter eight briefly looks at topical "bulletin boards" (static conferencing), "real time" conferencing and chat functions. Chapter nine discusses data base searching. Again, Resnick promises more than CompuServe can supply. Many of the examples of valuable information are taken from sources other than CompuServe, *all* of the instructions are for CompuServe. This topic, more than any other, promises big dividends for business. While there are some tentative observations about having to learn where the information is and how to use it, the reality is that data base access is an art in itself, and a lot of time, and money, have to be invested to start getting returns. Chapter ten lists some of the problems you may encounter trying to telecommute while travelling. Unfortunately, the list of horrors mentioned is not exhaustive, as many travelling members of the online community can attest. Part two concentrates more on the services and information that can be found in various places. It starts off, however, with chapter eleven purporting to compare online services. Given the complexity of the offerings, a "spec sheet" type approach seems called for. Instead, we again get an anecdotal listing of various features. Chapter twelve talks first about financial information services, then various online services other than CompuServe and Prodigy, and, finally, online brokerages. Thirteen discusses making business contacts online; fourteen, electronic malls; fifteen, travel services. Sixteen starts out with technical support, then briefly lists some other online services, then gives us some "pie-in-the-sky" speculation about future directions. A final appendix gives a few pages each to GEnie, American Online and Delphi as "The Rest of the Pack". This book would have made a good magazine article. With many repetitions of the same text, a lot of WinCIM screen shots and large print, it has been expanded to a book. Considering the material that could have been included, one can certainly see gaping holes. On the other hand, given the price of the book, it is certainly cheaper to get an idea of what is available "out there" in here, first. For business people who are interested in getting into online systems in a big way, this might be a start. It is by no means the final word. Communication is still a difficult process, likely because of the necessary number of entities (communications software, communications port, cabling, modem, phone line, phone service, etc.) involved. Resnick's brief overview simply does not provide enough information, and this extends to other areas of the book as well. Note also that many of the services, outside of purely commercial data bases, that are listed in the book can also be obtained through local bulletin board systems, Fidonet, Freenet or the Internet, at greatly reduced cost, sometimes even free. If this book contained more about systems other than CompuServe and Prodigy, it might have served as a vehicle for choosing among the various competing online services. As it is, it might almost be worth buying the user guides for the different systems: they contain more information. And they can't be much more biased. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKETWOOS.RVW 930823 Permission granted to distribute with full copies of the Telecom Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676 ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Radio Spectrum Auctions Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 15:53:38 GMT Radio spectrum auctions were approved in August by Congress. These Auctions are expected to raise $10 billion for the government. Licenses to be awarded include, PCS, advanced messsaging, cellular video, interactive television, satellite services and others. My question: Once you win an auction for spectrum have you "bought" rights to this spectrum in perpetuity? Or is the auction in fact some sort of high tech rental agreement? If you actually "buy" lifetime rights, what happens when the current technology is obsolete and the FCC wants to re-allocate the spectrum to some other use? (If television broadcasters ever "owned" the spectrum for TV channels 70-83, we might not have cellular telephones today). John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Sep 93 00:44:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DES Key Search Paper FYI. From rec.video.satellite Newsgroups: rec.video.satellite Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 08:14:52 CDT Sender: HOMESAT - Home Satellite Technology From: "Dr. Robert R. Wier" Subject: DES encryption Here's a thing which recently came in which I thought might be of interest to you VCII(+) fans out there ... Bob Wier ========== insert usual discalimers here ================= internet: wier@merlin.etsu.edu (watch for address change) Subject: Re: DES Key Search Paper (fwd) Michael Weiner presented a paper at Crypto93 that describes a fast DES key search engine that uses a special inside-out DES chip that he designed. This chip takes a single plaintext/ciphertext pair and quickly tries DES keys until it finds one that produces the given ciphertext from the given plaintext. Weiner can get these chips made for $10.50 each in quantity, and can build a special machine with 57000 of these chips for $1 million. This machine can exhaust the DES key space in seven hours, finding a key in 3.5 hours on the average. He works for Bell Northern Research in Ottawa, and says they have not actually built this machine, but he has the chip fully designed and ready for fabrication. This is a stunning breakthrough in the realization of practical DES cracking. BTW -- note that PEM uses straight 56-bit DES. ------------------------------ From: cccf@email.teaser.com (Jean-Bernard Condat) Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1993 07:53:50 GMT Subject: Ad on French Electronic Phone Book [11] The French electronic phone book ("l'annuaire electronique") is very efficient and easily available from any Minitel. You dial 11 and you have it. Free the three first minutes, "he is an uncredible example for all other countries" said Mr. Jean-Francois Berry, President of the AFUTT (Association Francaise des Utilisateurs du Telephone). But if you need the address of "La Boutique du Dos" in Paris, the system refuse to answer to your question "Boutique du Dos". Why? The AFUTT ask to have the possibility to identify the name and address of a person with the only phone number. This fact is possible, at this time, under a lot of restrictions and for a 18.00 FF fees. But some strange thing are possible: * If you ask Felicitas, institut psycho-matrimonial in Paris 14th, you have some screens explaining you all the activities of this love agency. The text describing monthly three boys and three girls are available, too :-) * Some international datas are no up-to-date: the area code of Wiesbaden in Germany is 6121 in the French electronic phone book and not the 611 like some months. Do you have similar mistakes in your national electronic phone books? Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France, B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Private Address: P.O. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France Phone: +33 1 40101764, Fax: +33 1 47877070 InterNet: cccf@altern.com or cccf@email.teaser.com ------------------------------ From: John.MacFarlane@software.com (John L. MacFarlane) Subject: ATM and IP Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 21:14:41 GMT Organization: Software.Com Hello all, It seems to me that the movement to ATM telco networks is going to have rather negative implications for the Internet Protocol. It is generally believed that the most efficient transfers over IP occurs when the IP packets are not fragmented (i.e. PMTU discovery). ATM proposes a 48 byte data payload for each cell, thus the MTU of the ATM network will be 48 bytes (avoiding any fragmentation at the ATM Adoption Layer). This does not leave much room for data after the necessary headers which accompany UDP (or worse TCP) packets are included. I guess the ATM folks have discovered more efficient algorithms for fragmentation than the Internet folks have been able to field. What's up with that? John.MacFarlane@Software.Com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 00:41 EDT From: djcl@io.org (woody) Subject: More 416/905 Split Information Thanks to Rod Potter and York University, there is information on the 416/905 split available for those with gopher access. The gopher should be pointable to gopher.yorku.ca. From there, proceed to the "Other" information services menu, then the "Interesting Places" sub-menu, then the 416/905 info should be found. That menu also contains a document called "Toronto Calling". Versions of this have been circulating for years in the Toronto area. Due to its local nature, I have not sent this to the Digest Archives, but it could be an inspiration to those who want to make similar telephone guides in other cities. Some stray notes on the 416/905 split: there are a few places in 905 that have local calling to adjacent area codes such as 519, 613 and 705. Only a seven digit local number is required to call across the 905 border for these points, whereas local calls between 905 and 416 require ten digits (416 or 905 + number depending on destination). On a slightly related note: the 313/810 split in the Detroit area was mentioned in some of the recent Michigan books, at least those found on the Phonefiche. Alas, the phone books state that more details would follow in the next editions, some of which will not be printed until 1994 is well underway. David Leibold ------------------------------ From: Andre van Heerden Organization: Rand Afrikaans University Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 08:28:34 GMT+2 Subject: Information Wanted on GSM Reply-To: avh@ing1.rau.ac.za Hello Digest readers, I would like the following information on GSM: - People's general impression with the GSM service; - Which countries use GSM; - Tariffs/ Charging methods in the different countries that use GSM (UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Hong Kong ....); - The cost of a GSM handset in the different countries; - How effective (implementation and cost) is GSM in a rural area;l Please e-mail me directly. I will summarize for the Digest. Thanks in advance. Andre van Heerden Tel: +27-11-489-2107 Cybernetics Laboratory Fax: +27-11-489-2357 Rand Afrikaans University Email: avh@ing1.rau.ac.za P O Box 524 Aucklandpark 2006 SOUTH AFRICA ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #671 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07768; 3 Oct 93 21:52 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25053 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 3 Oct 1993 19:17:27 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15678 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 3 Oct 1993 19:17:00 -0500 Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1993 19:17:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310040017.AA15678@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #672 TELECOM Digest Sun, 3 Oct 93 19:17:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 672 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson U.C. Berkeley Short Courses on Broadband Communications (Harvey Stern) AT&T Long Distance, Wholesale (Monty Solomon) Sprint Announces Service For Georgia Inmates (Les Reeves) Dandelot Report on Telecommunications in France (Nigel Allen) Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Dinesh Rehani) AT&T G3 Switch vs ISDN (Sydney Biddle Barrows) Pager Service and SSNs? (Scott McClure) SSAN Now Required by SNET (David A. Cantor) Looking For SoftSwitch and Retix (Ed Greenberg) Where is Latest Areacodes Program? (Ian Service) Re: Looking for a E1 Bit Error Rate Tester (Steven L. Spak) OpenView Forum - Conference BOF (Openview_forum@dmewrk1.orl.mmc.com) Pac Bell Commercials Use Duritti Column (Randall Gellens) ---------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not exclusively -- to discussions on voice telephony. The Digest is a not-for-profit public service published frequently by Patrick Townson Associates. PTA markets a no-surcharge telephone calling card and a no monthly fee 800 service. In addition, we are resellers of AT&T's Software Defined Network. For a detailed discussion of our services, write and ask for the file 'products'. The Digest is delivered at no charge by email to qualified subscribers on any electronic mail service connected to the Internet. To join the mail- ing list, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. All article submissions MUST be sent to our email address: telecom@eecs. nwu.edu -- NOT as replies to comp.dcom.telecom. Back issues and numerous other telephone-related files of interest are available from the Telecom Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, then 'cd telecom-archives'. At the present time, the Digest is also ported to Usenet at the request of many readers there, where it is known as 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Use of the Digest does not require the use of our products and services. The two are separate. All articles are the responsibility of the individual authors. Organi- zations listed, if any, are for identification purposes only. The Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993. **DO NOT** cross-post articles between the Digest and other Usenet or alt newsgroups. Do not compile mailing lists from the net-addresses appearing herein. Send tithes and love offerings to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690. :) Phone: 312-465-2700. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: U.C. Berkeley Short Courses on Broadband Communications Date: 3 Oct 1993 22:25:07 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces 5 Short Courses on Communications Technology SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (October 21-22, 1993) It is widely accepted that future broadband networks will be based on the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards and the ATM (Asynchronous transfer Mode) technique. This course is an in-depth examination of the fundamental concepts and the implementation issues for development of future high-speed networks. Topics include: Broadband ISDN Transfer Protocol, high speed computer/network interface (HiPPI), ATM switch architectures, ATM network congestion/flow control, VLSI designs in SONET/ATM networks. Lecturer: H. Jonathan Chao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brooklyn Polytechnic University. PERSONAL (WIRELESS) COMMUNICATION NETWORKS: Cellular Systems, Wireless Data Networks, and Broadband Wireless Access (November 3-5, 1993) This comprehensive course focuses on principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, equipment, implementation, public policy, and evolving trends in wireless networks. Topics include: modulation, coding, and signal processing; first generation systems; second generation systems; broadband networks; third generation systems; and applications and technology trends. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. MULTIRESOLUTION SIGNAL DECOMPOSITION: Transforms, Subbands, and Wavelets (October 6-8, 1993) This course provides in-depth, integrated, and updated coverage of signal decomposition techniques. These signal processing tools will be crucial for next generation broadband wireless communications applications. For example, subbands are potential vehicles for the next generation of video encoding and compression for HDTV, while wavelets have emerged as candidates for feature and signal extraction for ultra-wide bank short-pulse radar signals. The common paths and linkages of transforms, subbands, and wavelets are described and their performance is compared. Lecturers: Richard A. Haddad, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Brooklyn Polytechnic University; and Ali Akansu, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology. They co-authored Multiresoulution Signal Decomposition: Transforms, Subbands, and Wavelets. Academic Press, 1992. HIGH SPEED COMMUNICATION OVER WIRE-PAIR CHANNELS October 26-29, 1993 Much work is underway throughout the world on extremely high bit-rate transmission over short lengths of normal building wiring. This four-day short course is an intensive examination of hi-speed data communication over wire-pair channels. Topics include: Transmission properties of uniform lines, impedance, composite lines, interferences, theoretical capacity of wire-pair channels, baseband PAM fundamentals, equalization, timing recovery techniques, modulation, coding, cyclostationary interference, full duplex transmission on single pair, and system design: ATM at 155Mb/s over 100m inside wiring. Lecturers: Burton R. Saltzberg, Ph.D., supervisor Data Theory group, AT&T Bell Laboratories. He has been issued 22 patents, is an IEEE Fellow, and received the IEEE Communications Society's Armstrong Achievement Award in 1991. Jean-Jacques Werner, Ph.D., Communications Research Department, AT&T Bell Labs. He is the IEEE Transactions on Communications editor for data communications and a Fellow of IEEE. NEW HIGH SPEED COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (October 18-20, 1993) This course provides a comprehensive survey of the new high-speed communication networks covering: FDDI, 100Mbps Ethernet, SMDS, Frame Relay, Broadband ISDN (public-ATM and Local-ATM), bridging and routing, and network interface. My T. Le joined the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department of The University of Californi