Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15084; 17 Oct 93 2:09 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29512 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 16 Oct 1993 23:07:37 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27112 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 16 Oct 1993 23:07:06 -0500 Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 23:07:06 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170407.AA27112@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #701 TELECOM Digest Sat, 16 Oct 93 23:07:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 701 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Help - Level 5 Data and 1A2 Together (Mike Morris) Time Warner to Compete with Rochester Tel (Phillip Dampier) Book Review: "VAXcluster Principles" by Davis (Rob Slade) PAC*TEL Paging Going Private (action@indirect.com) Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents (John Sullivan) Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? (Don Alvarez) US Naval Observatory Questions (George Hannah) Long Range Phones (Jorge Olivos) T1 Through HDSL Boxes (David M. Sokolic) Haitian Phone System (Bill Dripps) Ten Base T (?) Lines (David Goodwin) Overseas Busy Hack (Paul Wallich) Cost of Modems (John Shaver) SLIP Setup For Server Machines (TELECOM Moderator) Fun With DS3's (Steven L. Spak) ---------------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not entirely -- to discussions on telecommunications in general, and voice telephony in particular. It is published daily, and is reader-written, meaning the people who read it are the people who submit articles to it. The Digest is a not-for-profit activity of Patrick Townson Associates, a telecommunications consulting firm in Chicago, Illinois. PTA markets a variety of telecom-related services including a no-surcharge telephone calling card known as the Orange Card. In addition, we are marketing representatives for AT&T, and US Fibercom, AT&T's largest aggregator/ reseller. Telepassport is our international discount calling plan. Write and ask for our products and services file. TELECOM Digest is distributed free of charge to qualified subscribers anywhere who are reachable by electronic mail via the Internet. In addition, the Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it is known as the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup, a moderated forum. To subscribe, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Back issues and many other files of interest are available free of charge in the Telecom Archives. Internet users with FTP permission may connect via anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then 'cd telecom-archives'. All others are invited to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service by sending email to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. Write and ask for our help guide to using the archives. Over twelve years of telecom news and discussions are stored there. TELECOM Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993 by Patrick Townson Associates. Please request permission before posting Digest articles elsewhere. Net addresses shown are for the sole purpose of facilitating communiciations between our correspondents; not for any sort of mass mailing. The Digest is made possible by the generous support of our friends. Your voluntary contributions in amounts you deem appropriate are greatly appreciated. Your help keeps our $300 per month phone bill paid most of the time. Send Tithes, Love Offerings and other Tokens of Sincerity for our inspection to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 USA. :) Article submissions come to: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu, and if you wish, you may reach us by phone: 312-465-2700 or fax: 312-743-0002. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) Subject: Help - Level 5 Data and 1A2 Together Organization: College Park Software, Altadena, CA Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 03:57:41 GMT I've been asked to do a phone system for a friend and I'd like to ask the net.phone.gurus for a few ideas on how they'd accomplish the following. I've presented my idea at the end as a starting point. Requirements: 1. Four trunks on the key system, the fax line also if possible to provide and additional outgoing line (fax line does not ring on common bell). There will be at least 7 stations on the system, expandable to 12. 2. A minor requirement is that the system be able to handle an autodial modem on any trunk, preferrably as a seperate station. 3. Two or three line positions for two-way radios (the owners are heavily involved with Red Cross and a volunteer disaster response amateur radio team.) Current implementation that they saw at a friends house is 1A2 based, with a custom modified line card. The phone itself is unmodified except for the handset, which has a normally closed Push-to-talk switch jumpering a resistor. When the user squeezes the transmit button, the line current is lowered enough to trigger a DC relay which keys the transmitter. On a phone line the transmit button does nothing. The custom line card is basically a 401 intercom card with a current-sensitive relay added to it. A later version added a timer chip to "flutter" the line lamp during transmit. The radio itself is unmodified except for a 8-ohm to 600-ohm speaker transformer, and a 600-ohm to microphone impedance transformer. So 2 wires for the audio path, and a transmit dry pair is the total connection to the modified line card. RF level is not a problem - we're talking maybe 10 watts into in-the-attic antennas. There will not be any RFI problems. HELP! Does anybody know of a EKS or mini-PBX that would be able to handle something like this? I was told that a Comdial ExecuTech KSU had some 1A2 ports on it, but would it be able to handle a push-to-talk hack? I was told that Plant Equipment had a radio interface line card years ago but it is 1A2 exclusively, and I'm goint to install 1A2 if I can't present anything better to my friend. I'm after the best implementation possible within a reasonable budget, consistent with delivering a reliable phone system suitable for a home business (he's a Mac guru), a growing family (wife plus 2 girls under 8), and a need for multiple lines and radio circuits (current plans are 9-line 2830-type phones in every room). I'm specifically thinking of a Panasonic, AT&T Spirit, Partner, etc. I don't know what's out there, and I doubt any sales-slime would care enought to work with me for a single sale. Nobody I've talked to does. Seperate from the phone system, but installed at teh same time will be a level 5 data cable to each room in the house. The hub will be mounted on the telephone backboard. The owners would like the RJ-45 data jack to be mounted in a in-wall junction box along with the amphenol connector. This has to be a clean wife-approvable job. The house will be painted soon after the phone / network will be installed, so a small amount of plaster damage is a non-issue. Lastly, the radio side of the system my friend saw suffers from poor transmit audio quality -- the WeCo microphone cartridge was designed for wireline, not radio needs. Years ago when accoustic modems were the state of the art, Novatel (I think) made a drop-in electret mic element for WeCo phones that sounded a helluva lot better than the carbons -- does anybody have any they'd like to see get a good home? I'd be happy to carry on an extended conversation via e-mail. A summary will be made available to the moderator should he be interested in including it. Mike Morris, WA6ILQ P.O. Box 1130 Arcadia, CA. 91077 818-447-7052 evenings ------------------------------ From: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org (Phillip Dampier) Reply-To: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 16:55:55 -0500 Subject: Time Warner to Compete with Rochester Tel TIME WARNER SEEKS TO COMPETE WITH ROCHESTER TELEPHONE A new Time-Warner subsidiary has announced its intentions to begin providing local telephone service to business and residential customers in Rochester and Albany. Time Warner AxS of Rochester is now waiting for approval from the NY State Public Service Commission to provide its services over the Rochester Time-Warner cable system, Greater Rochester Cablevision. Time Warner announced earlier this year that it had formed a broad partnership with US West, one of the "Baby Bell" telephone companies to research and implement telephony products over cable systems. A spokesman for Time-Warner told the {Rochester Democrat & Chronicle} that the company has not initiated a specific business plan in either Albany or Rochester, but the company already owns and operates alternative telephone companies in Indianapolis and Kansas City that serve commercial companies. In the case of Rochester, this would be Time-Warner's first major telephone operation that would directly serve both residential and business customers. An existing operation owned by Greater Rochester Cablevision, FiberNet, Inc., already serves the business community largely in the city with a fiber optic service. Time Warner considers the provision of telephony services to be paramount in their plan to provide "full service networks" in their territories. An experimental full service cable system is now under construction in Orlando, but component parts, such as telephone services, will be introduced in various parts of Time Warner-owned cable territories over the next year. Rochester Telephone responded to the application by Time Warner by stating it has no objections to Time Warner's service provided the NY State Public Service Commission is willing to treat the two companies equally in its regulatory policies. Rochester Telephone was the first telephone company in the nation to file an application earlier this year to open up its service area to competing local telephone companies. The NY State Public Service Commission is still studying that proposal. ------------------------------ Date: 16 Oct 93 13:21 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "VAXcluster Principles" by Davis BKVXCLST.RVW 930910 Digital Press PO Box 3027 One Burlington Woods Drive Burlington, MA 01803-9593 800-DIGITAL (800-344-4825) VAXcluster Principles, Davis, EY-M740E-DP-CRE, 1993 If "principles" were all this book dealt with, it would only be fifteen pages long. What we have here, rather, is a very detailed description of the component parts of a VAX cluster - other than the VAXen themselves. Communications channels and devices, storage hardware, and the various system files and utilities are examined. Included in this overview are some of the underlying principles of those components. Although it is somewhat unfair to ask a technical work to conform to the same literary standard as other works, the style here could definitely use improvement. We are given the same (word for word) definition of a VAX cluster twice in the first eight pages, and the same (Digital specific) definition of a network twice within twelve pages. I know we are talking about fault tolerance here, but some of the redundant material could easily be removed. At the same time, the formatting of the text and the use of bullets and indenting is often confusing, especially when multiple levels of bullets and indents get mixed on a single page. Since the VAX cluster is implemented only on proprietary machinery and a proprietary operating system, it is not surprising that much of the material is hardware and operating system specific. Scattered throughout the work, however, are gems of generic interest, such as the well-defined structure of an Ethernet packet, right down to the diagrammed description of Manchester phase encoding of data. Chapter one is an introduction to the topic. Unfortunately, it is possibly the most confusing part of the book. Chapter two, discussing the outline of Systems Communication Architecture (SCA) is somewhat better, but still a bit ragged. (For example, having almost completed the description of SCA, we are given a simplistic analogy of SCA likened to a telephone system. This might better have been an introduction.) Davis is obviously more at home with the guts of the system, and the book improves a great deal as chapters three through eight delve into interconnects, storage architecture and options, locking, the Connection Manager, and miscellaneous topics. The work is replete with specific examples and notes regarding particular devices. It is not simply a reproduction of the documentation and marketing notes, though. The material is well-organized, and gives details about the underlying structures before moving on to details of operation. This may be frustrating for some who merely want a "cookbook", but for the curious it can be an interesting and potentially valuable excursion. For those considering the installation or configuration of a cluster the book will give valuable background and guidance. Those already managing VAX clusters may not find an immediate need for it, but will probably deepen their understanding of the system. Those running MVS, of course, won't have the slightest idea what I'm talking about. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKVXCLST.RVW 930910 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the 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 ------------------------------ From: Action Subject: PAC*TEL Paging Going Private Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 12:30:39 MST PAC*TEL paging will be operating as a seperate non-regulated company starting in March 1994. Many new services will be offered. E-mail to pager, setup in the peak and off peak hours. Messages will contain as much as 5,000 characters with an expansion planned. E-mail to Laptop service using a reciever attached to the PC. Suggested/req- uested hardware price $200. Rates for peak and off peak services. U.S. West Paging sold to a former VP of paging. They could not run it when they were in charge of it, what do they plan to do now? Look for a new newsletter with online postings to start Nov 1, 1993. What's hot and what's not. MCI fiber cut? We will get the facts and post them online. Sprint modem ripoff, look to this group for the news. Direct mailed newsletters are going to be available as well. From the Internet to the Cell net. Correct and rapid information on cable, telco and associated fields. For sub via e-mail prices and info ... just drop us a line. action@indirect.com ------------------------------ From: sullivan@msri.org (John Sullivan) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 18:26:26 PDT Subject: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents I just got this e-mail from my mother. As you will see, someone is trying to get people to give out their calling card numbers by pretending to have collect calls from loved ones, and then saying there is a block. ------- begin message ------- Last night just as I was leaving the house, the phone rang. A male voice said said, "I have a collect call from John Sullivan. Will you accept the charges?" I was surprised, but of course said immediately, "Yes!" He started to put the call through but then said, "I can't put the call through because you have a block on your line." "What?" "You have a block on your line that collect calls can't be accepted." "Well then what can I do, that's my son and I have to hear what he wants!" "You can use some other form of payment." "Like what?" "A calling card or a credit card." "Well, I guess my calling card, but let me ask my husband." Dad and I agreed it sounded fishy but still what if it really were you trying to get us. So, I decided to try to find out some more to see if it could be legit. I asked, "Where is the call coming from?" "I don't have that information." "Can you give me your operator number?" (I forgot to say to you that he had identified hiumself as an AT&T operator.) "19076." I told Dad on the side that if you really weren't on the other end we could immediately call and cancel the calling card number. So I gave him an AT&T number and he said he'd put me through and then got back and said, "I'm sorry the party has hung up. Thank you for using AT&T." So, we then were pretty sure it was a scam. I immediately called AT&T to cancel the number. The AT&T woman took down the whole story (I guess so they can alert people) and said that the operator handling a collect call would definitely know what area code the call was coming from. She also said that, given that we would have been the ones to originate a block on collect calls that should have been a tip-off. I agreed but said when you hear that your child is calling collect reason gets overruled. The AT&T woman said their operators would _never_ ask you for your card number. So, I doubt he got in many calls to Borneo or wherever before the card was no good anymore. ------------------------------ From: dla@athena.princeton.edu (Don Alvarez) Subject: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? Organization: Princeton University Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 21:40:06 GMT Does anybody know who provides fax to email service? I'm looking for somebody who receives faxes and then emails a bitmap in exchange for money (or for warm fuzzy feelings if possible, but somehow I think that's unlikely :-) I'm also curious about going the other direction, but what I really need is to be able to receive the faxes. Thanks, Don Alvarez dla@athena.princeton.edu ------------------------------ Subject: US Naval Observatory Questions From: george.hannah@cld9.com (George Hannah) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 12:32:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications I recently found out about the US Naval observatory, which one can call and get the current date via modem. The format of the date, however eludes me. When I called on Oct. 13, I got the following: 49273 286 143645 UTC I understand the 286 is the day_of_year, and the 143645 is the hour, but the 49273 means nothing. Can anyone enlighten me on how to decode the date? And does anyone out there know what the UTC means? Origin: Prophecy BBS-Saint John, NB (506)652-7292 (11:190/100.0) [Moderator's Note: The '49273' is the number of days that have elapsed since some point in ancient history. 'UTC' refers to Universal Time, another name for 'Greenwich Mean Time' (GMT). PAT] ------------------------------ From: jolivos@ipxsun.dcc.uchile.cl (Jorge Olivos) Subject: Long Range Phones Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 01:34:31 GMT Organization: Universidad de Chile, Depto. de Ciencias de la Computacion Does anyone know anything about long range telephones? The information we have is the existance of a product with a range of 250Km which appears as an alternative to the cellular phone. This telephone would be an extension of your own telephone at home or at your office. Does anybody know its behavior with obstacles (buildings, houses, etc)? What's its behavior inside buildings? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:02:51 EDT From: David M Sokolic Subject: T1 Through HDSL Boxes Hello Telecommunicators: I was wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with using HDSL (High bit rate digital subscriber line) technology to provide repeaterless T-1. There are several manufacturers (Paairgain Technologies, Adtran, Alcatel, Tellabs) that make this kind of equipment. I was wondering if anyone out there has looked into the different equipment and has any comments about how the different offerings compare. Thanks for your help. David Sokolic dsokolic@world.std.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 14:14:07 -0400 From: astph!bill (Bill Dripps) Subject: Haitian Phone System Organization: Philadelphia Phillies A friend works with a feeding program for rural Haitian children. As you can imagine the needs he deals with are desperate. He is located where a radio phone is the only connection to the Haitian phone system. There are three legs to the connection: US to Haiti, Haitian landline and Haitian radio phone. Connections are not reliable and are especially difficult for data or fax transmissions. What options do I have to get him a cleaner and more reliable connection? He is well past the end of landlines. Would IMARSAT(sp?) be an option? Who should I contact. Cost is important. Choosing between a starving child and a phone call is real tough. Bill Dripps | attmail!astph!bill | astph!bill@attmail.com | 814-234-8592 ext.31 | psuvax1!astph!bill | astph!bill@cs.psu.edu | ------------------------------ From: goodwid@prism.cs.orst.edu (David Goodwin) Subject: Ten Base T (?) Lines Date: 16 Oct 1993 18:44:21 GMT Organization: CS Dept, Oregon State University Hello. Recently, the University I attend installed new wiring in the residence hall I live in. This new wiring consited of a standard phone line, a co-axial cable TV line, and something called a 'ten base t' line, which I know nothing about. Anyway, it would be most appreciated if some could relate to me just exactly what a ten base t line is and how I could take advantage of it with an IBM-PC. Thanks. David Goodwin goodwid@prism.cs.orst.edu ------------------------------ From: pw@panix.com (Paul Wallich) Subject: Overseas Busy Hack Date: 16 Oct 1993 11:28:07 -0400 Organization: Trivializers R Us Does anyone know how long TPC has had busy-signal detectors on overseas lines? I was making a bunch of calls to a busy number in Germany and found it interesting to hear a second or two of "real" busy signal followed by a digital click and then a new busy signal. I suppose this saves some fractional amount of trunk usage, but wouldn't ss7 make more sense? (I have no idea, by the way, precisely where this detection is being done.) paul ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 14:07:38 MST From: John Shaver Subject: Cost of Modems I recently bought a 2400 baud modem with a 9600 fax modem capability. It cost $40.00. [Moderator's Note: In the next couple years it will cost $25. I have a desk drawer full of 300/1200 baud modems here. I could maybe get $5-10 each for them if someone wanted them for backups, etc. That's life. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:52:29 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: SLIP Setup For Server Machines "SLIP Setup For Server Machines" is the title of a new special report in the Telecom Archives. Written by Thor Legvold at the University of Bergen in Norway, it was sent here for inclusion in our archives. I hope you will find it useful and of interest. The archives can be accessed using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. When logged in, then you would 'cd telecom-archives'. Another option is to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service, tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. Your request would read: REPLY yourname@site INFO SEND slip.setup.for.server.mach END Enjoy the archives! Pat ------------------------------ From: sspak@seas.gwu.edu (Steven L. Spak) Subject: Fun With DS3's Date: 16 Oct 1993 12:15:59 GMT Organization: George Washington University Any netters out there experiencing or hearing about problems transport- ing DS3's with these symptoms: 1) C-bit parity indicates a bad facility when you're certain every- thing's O.K.; 2) 2^23-1 Pseudorandom sequence freaks out your transmission or cross- connect machines; 3) Digital Link (tm) ATM CSU's may be involved; If any of this seems to ring a bell, please post or email me directly. We may be able to work through some of this together. Thanks, Steven Spak sspak@seas.gwu.edu Transmission Engineer Tel: (202) 392-1611 Fax: (202) 392-1261 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #701 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15446; 17 Oct 93 2:41 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30727 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 00:06:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30968 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 00:06:00 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 00:06:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170506.AA30968@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #702 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 00:06:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 702 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Quarterly V&H Report (David Esan) Information Wanted About MD31 (14.4 kb Module) (Humair Raza) Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs (David Leibold) How to Set up a BBS? (prastogi@netcom.com) Competitive Dial Tone (Dave Levenson) New Country Codes in Yugoslavia (gbecker@mtsol.att.com) Switch Information Needed (Neil Kruse) Al Gore's Reaction to Bell Atlantic-TCI Merger Announcement (Nigel Allen) Macintosh and 56K CSU/DSU (Peter Stone) Historical Telecom and Information Films Sought (Richard Prelinger) HDSL - Difference Between CAP and 2b1 Coding (David M. Sokolic) Recent AT&T Press Release Wanted on Internet Services (Rory J. Ardagh) Ive Got a Secret - the Panel (Tom Cikoski) Use of Punch-Down Tool (John Schwab) GTE Busy Number Redial vs 'Automatic' Busy Number Redial (Randall Gellens) Information Sources Needed (Kevin D. Cooke) Heh... (Aaron Woolfson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: Quarterly V&H Report Date: 16 Oct 93 14:45:39 GMT Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY Once a quarter I USED to receive the BellCore V&H tape. Using this information I could total the number of exchanges in each area code. The twenty most populous area codes are listed below. After the written text of this article I have included the count for each of the area codes. This is no longer our procedure. The information in FCC #10 is now detailed enough that we no longer need to order the tape from BellCore and are using FCC #10 for our V&H information. There will be some changes during the changeover, FCC #10 is more current, and some exchanges due for addition and included in the tape may not yet be in FCC #10. We have used pages issued prior to October 15, 1993. I am not responsible for the information supplied in FCC #10. I have not included the following in my counts of exchanges: - NXX's that are not dialable by a standard user (ie nxx's that begin with a 1 or 0). - Mexican exchanges in the 52? series of area codes. I've got them, you can dial them with 011, but they're not really NPAs. - Exchanges that are non-dialable in the 88? series of area codes. I've got those also, but you can't dial them, so I'm not including them. Numbers that begin with 88 are nondialable stations in the US, Canada and Mexico. They are ranches in the middle of the Nevada or Texas desert, or isolated outpost of civilization (always wanted to use that phrase) in the tundra of Canada. I find place names like the Bar J Ranch, Double B Ranch, and JD Dye, Texas, Amargosa, Corncreek and Reese Valley, NV, and Chick Lake, Redknife and Taglu, NT. I gather they are ringdown stations, or radio-telephone stations. [It has been noted in c.d.t. that at least two of these numbers are for a bordello on the NV-CA border.] - This list includes three new area codes: 905, 810, and 910. I have not yet received information on 610. The fields are: ------------ rank last in July, 1993 213: 736 (1, 7) area code --^^^ ^^^ ^------- number of new exchanges |-------------- total number of exchanges 919: 711 ( 4, 20) 215: 681 ( 8, 14) 703: 640(13, 19) 503: 594 (17, 9) 313: 706 ( 5, 17) 206: 670 (10, 17) 212: 637( 1,-68) 803: 592 (20,18) 205: 706 ( 3, 12) 708: 667 (11, 20) 403: 615(14, 4) 615: 592 (23,30) 416: 692 ( 6, 10) 602: 662 ( 9, 8) 604: 609(15, 17) 303: 588 (18,13) 714: 690 ( 7, 16) 713: 653 (12, 18) 216: 598(16, 13) 404: 583 (22,18) 1. 919 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 2. 313 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 3. 205 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 4. 416 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 5. 714 - split in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 6. 215 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. -> The NPA that is largest and is not splitting nor has plans, at this time, to split, is 206. -> The 3 smallest NPA's were 917, 906, 807. They are now: 302: 133 - Delaware (+4 exchanges) 906: 117 - Michigan's Upper Peninsula (no change) 807: 106 - Western Ontario (+1 exchange) -> The NPAs with the greatest growth rates are: NPA % growth 917 29.83 310 5.80 615 5.33 307 5.26 210 4.53 813 4.52 805 4.50 209 4.28 409 4.27 410 4.07 -> The 10 NPAs with the least growth rates are: NPA % growth 512 -46.08 * Due to the deletion of the NXXs now in NPA 210 212 -09.64 * Due to the movement of the Bronx to NPA 718 715 0.00 712 0.00 701 0.00 618 0.00 507 0.00 419 0.00 413 0.00 315 0.00 All the NPAs and the number of nxx's in each are listed below: 919: 711 612: 575 916: 467 316: 390 519: 357 609: 312 709: 264 313: 706 809: 574 201: 462 209: 389 204: 356 208: 310 806: 262 205: 706 214: 571 412: 455 219: 387 207: 354 613: 307 608: 257 416: 692 314: 564 913: 454 512: 379 318: 352 706: 306 509: 257 714: 690 305: 563 306: 454 213: 377 810: 350 918: 305 603: 249 215: 681 501: 561 614: 447 914: 376 408: 350 218: 302 901: 242 206: 670 203: 555 818: 439 704: 375 304: 348 202: 293 308: 214 708: 667 904: 551 515: 439 910: 373 419: 344 909: 291 417: 210 602: 662 619: 551 210: 438 217: 373 517: 343 903: 291 707: 201 713: 653 405: 542 407: 436 502: 372 319: 342 606: 288 506: 186 703: 640 817: 532 410: 434 418: 370 505: 339 812: 287 802: 183 212: 637 804: 527 601: 432 406: 370 618: 337 808: 286 719: 183 403: 615 717: 516 617: 430 801: 368 702: 331 712: 286 307: 180 604: 609 312: 513 415: 430 908: 366 805: 325 518: 277 607: 178 216: 598 310: 510 402: 425 504: 364 915: 323 902: 276 917: 161 503: 594 414: 509 516: 414 301: 364 715: 321 705: 275 401: 145 803: 592 718: 506 907: 411 701: 362 815: 319 507: 275 413: 135 615: 592 514: 505 716: 408 510: 360 409: 317 814: 271 302: 133 303: 588 816: 485 508: 408 912: 359 819: 316 315: 268 906: 117 404: 583 513: 481 616: 407 605: 357 905: 313 309: 266 807: 106 813: 577 317: 479 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ From: hraza@bode.usc.edu (Humair Raza) Subject: Information Wanted About MD31 (14.4 kb Module) Date: 16 Oct 1993 12:03:32 -0700 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA I am looking for some information about MD31, which is 14.4 KB module from Rockwell ( R1496 DP ). Please let me know through personal mail about the source from where I can get the application data for this module. Even a contact phone number of the company would do. Thanks, Humair Raza hraza@bode.usc.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 10:38:15 -0400 From: djcl@io.org Subject: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs CFRB radio had a news item last night about Bell Canada's plans to change long distance calling so that 1 + area code must be dialed for any long distance call, even within an area code. This will happen in Sept 1994. This is already the case in 416 and 905, thus no further changes are expected for those area codes. This will affect other Bell area codes: Ontario's 519, 613, 705 and 807, plus Quebec's 418, 514 and 819. While 416 set up this dialing method a few years ago to add exchange capacity within 416, none of Bell's other area codes have a capacity shortage. Rather, this change is for the North American wide "interchangeable" NPA codes (that is, most numbers from 200 to 999 could be used as area codes or exchanges). Area codes presently have a 0 or 1 in the middle digit, but this restriction will be removed as of January 1995, meaning that the distinction between area codes and exchanges will be lost throughout North America. 334 is the first "interchangeable" area code to be announced, to split Alabama's current 205 area code. This is scheduled to take effect 15 January 1995. I made an inquiry to Bellcore to find out if any other interchangeable codes have been assigned; no response from them at this time. David Leibold ------------------------------ From: prastogi@netcom.com (Sentient) Subject: How to Set Up a BBS? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 15:34:03 GMT Some of my friends are interested in setting up internet service so that people can dial in a particular number and get connected to the computer which is a node on internet. What are the various resources needed in setting up such a service. Also, what kind of hardware is available. Is there any book that explains this? This service is being planned for India. India's telecommunication service provides a leased line which is a direct connection to an international network. Approximately what kind of costs come into effect? Also, if we import the necessary hardware, we want to know which kind of hardware is suitable for this. Thanks, #include prastogi@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Competitive Dial Tone Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 22:51:09 GMT A public telephone at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City bears a sign: LONG DISTANCE calls from this telephone are carried by AT&T Communications by default. (You may dial 10xxx to select the carrier of your choice for card, collect, or third-party calls.) LOCAL CALLS from this telephone are carried by Teleport Communications of New York. The initial deposit is 25 cents, the same as that charged by the local RBOC. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 19:56:29 EDT From: gbecker@mtsol.att.com Subject: New Country Codes in Yugoslavia Organization: AT&T The following note appeared in a recent newsletter. --------forwarded excerpt follows------------------ ***FORMER REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA*** As of October 1, five republics of the former Yugoslavia have new country codes for direct dialed calls: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 381 Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina 387 Republic of Croatia 385 Republic of Slovenia 386 Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 389 ------------------------------ Date: 16 Oct 93 11:15:00 -0700 From: KRUSE_NEIL@tandem.com Subject: Switch Information Needed Hi, My brother is in a Telecommunications Management M.S. program at Golden Gate University. He is interested in learing about 5ESS and Nothern Telecom switches. Unfortunately, his school doesn't offer classes in that area. Can you recommend a book, or a class/seminar in the San Francisco Bay Area where he could learn more about switching systems? Thanks, Neil Kruse KRUSE_NEIL@TANDEM.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 00:06:16 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Al Gore's Reaction to Bell Atlantic-TCI Merger Announcement Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca Here is a press release from U.S. Vice-President Al Gore. I downloaded the press release from the PR On-Line BBS in Maryland at 410-363-0834. Statement by the Vice-President on the Bell Atlantic-TCI Merger Announcement Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100 WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 -- Following is the text of a statement by Vice President Gore on the Bell Atlantic-TCI Merger announcement: The Administration believes that rapid deployment of the information infrastructure will create jobs, increase our standard of living, and provide a wide range of services in areas such as education, health care, and entertainment. Today's announcement demonstrates the intense private-sector interest in the information infrastructure. The Administration supports any development in the communications marketplace that is pro-competitive and fosters the development of an open, interactive information infrastructure. Subsequent formal reviews will determine whether this proposal meets those goals. --------- Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: xorcist@crl.com (Peter Stone) Subject: Macintosh and 56K CSU/DSU Date: 16 Oct 1993 21:30:51 -0700 Organization: CRL Internet Dialup Access 415-705-6060 (guest) Thanks to all who wrote me regarding the 56K data line(s) structure. My next question is to those who may have already installed a 56K CSU/DSU to a Macintosh. I have heard that the serial port (RS-232) of some CSU/DSU's can not handle the async 56K/56K to a Mac port. The best speeds are around 19.2 or something around there ... Can someone perhaps recommend or clarify if: 1. The Mac serial port is fast enough to handle a 56K Async line? 2. Does one need to get (or do they even make) a V.35 interface card for the Macintosh so as to gain full 56K Async speeds? 3. What way IS there to gain 56K Async speeds on a Mac? SO in short, has anyone hooked up a 56K async line to a mac and has it working full speed? If so ... can you recommend modems? Interfaces? Thanks, Peter Stone ------------------------------ From: Richard Prelinger Subject: Historical Telecom and Information Films Sought Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 21:33:58 -0700 HISTORICAL FILMS ON TELECOM, INFORMATION AND COMPUTERS SOUGHT BY ARCHIVE Historical films or footage relating to telecommunications, data processing, and the computer and information industries are being sought by Prelinger Archives, a New York City-based archive of industrial, advertising, educational and documentary films. Of some 600,000 motion pictures produced since the 1920s to educate, sell or convince, probably fewer than 50% still survive. Changes in corporate affiliations (notably the AT&T breakup and consolidation in the computer industry) have rendered the situation particularly critical with regard to films made by technology companies. We feel that industrial and promotional films are historical resources of significant value, offering detailed and vivid documentation of research, invention, development and marketing activities that is unavailable from any other source. Furthermore, visual documentation of many important activities in the telecom and information areas is difficult or impossible to locate. Consequently, we would like to hear from anyone (individuals or corporations) who possesses films or footage relating to these (or other) industries and who might consider depositing them in our collection. In return we offer the guarantee of continued access to the materials, videotape copies of the materials and free access to other materials in our archives, if desired. Corporate sources are especially solicited, and we are prepared to exchange the right to reuse footage in our collection. Prelinger Archives holds over 25,000 films and makes its resources available to researchers, scholars and media producers upon request. Legitimate research and scholarly requests are fulfilled without charge; license fees are charged for commercial use of our materials, if copyright status permits. A lengthy catalog of our holdings (750K text file) is available without charge; please email one of the addresses below with a request. We are always pleased to hear from anyone with an interest in the history of industrial and non-theatrical film, or who has research needs in this area. Please feel free to repost as you wish. Rick Prelinger Prelinger Archives 430 West 14th St., Room 403, New York, NY 10014 USA (800) 243-2252 (212) 633-2020 Fax: (212) 255-5139 email: footage@well.sf.ca.us OR footage@applelink.apple.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 08:49:23 EDT From: David M Sokolic Subject: HDSL - Difference Between CAP and 2b1 Coding Hello: I am trying to understand some of the details of HDSL (high bit rate digital subscriber line). HDSL is a way to offer repeaterless T1 service over copper wire. There are two competing encoding schemes, 2b1Q and CAP. 2b1q has been adopted as a standard by ETSI and Bellcore, however AT&T Paradyne is pushing CAP. CAP supposedly has some different capabilities. Anyone know anymore on this subject? Thanks, David Sokolic dsokolic@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: Rory J. Ardagh Subject: Recent AT&T Press Release Wanted on Internet Services Organization: Trinity College, Dublin Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 12:11:18 GMT Hi, I wonder could anyone who has a copy of the recent AT&T press release on their extending of AT&T Internet services please send me a copy. I would appreciate any help on this matter. Regards, Rory Ardagh rardagh@unix1.tcd.ie ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 10:54:56 EDT From: splinter@allink.com (tom cikoski) Subject: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel TELECOM Moderator moderated: > [Moderator's Note: "I've Got a Secret" featured host Garry Moore and > was a great example of the early days of television. Does anyone remember > the names of the four panelists there on a regular basis? Dorothy Killgallen Arlene Francis Bennett Cerf Steve Allen - but often had a guest in this spot, such as Ernie Kovacs Arlene and Steve are still alive. Regards, Tom Cikoski [Moderator's Note: Oh, I am afraid not. You are thinking of the panel on another popular show of that era, "What's My Line?". The program was emceed by John Charles Daly, whose early days in broadcasting were spend in news. I've got on tape here the emergency news bulletin from the CBS Radio Network announcing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as delivered by John Daly when they interuppted the Sunday noon broad- cast of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He migrated to television news about 1948 or so and did that five evenings per week plus emceeing "What's My Line?" on Sunday night. The people you named were his panel- ists. WML had people show up whose occupations were unusual, to say the least. The panel had a couple minutes to guess what it was based on clues and a process of elimination. That brings us back to the original question: who were the panel members on "I've Got a Secret"? Something seems to stick in my mind that Audrey Meadows was one of them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: fsjrs@oz.lerc.nasa.gov (John Schwab) Subject: Use of Punch-Down Tool Date: 16 Oct 1993 01:33:19 GMT Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center I scrounged a couple of 66-type (?) punch-down blocks and the loan of a Dracon D714 impact tool for wiring my new house. I have only a theoretical knowlege of how to use this stuff, and the guy who had the impact tool just "found" it one day. Can anyone give me some practical pointers on properly using these to make a clean, professional-looking telecomm setup? I want to avoid the usual rat's nest resulting from a lot of end-run wiring for multiple phone lines, and I thought this might be a nice alternative to a bunch of barrier terminal strips. 1) It appears that I just place the wire over the terminal and then push down until the spring loads up and then releases to trim the wire off. I can see the cutting vs. non-cutting ends of the blade. Is the non-cutting end used for chaining adjacent terminals? 2) Exactly how does one remove the wire for changes? Just yank it up and out with needle-nose pliers? Any further information or hints would be greatly appreciated. John R. Schwab NASA Lewis Research Center Email: schwab@lerc.nasa.gov Phone: (216) 433-8446 FAX: (216) 433-3000 ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 16 OCT 93 18:04 Subject: GTE Busy Number Redial vs 'Automatic' Busy Number Redial In a recent GTE bill insert, I noticed that in addition to the Busy Number Redial they had been offering, they now have 'Automatic Busy Number Redial' for $1 more per month. I called and was told that BNR only worked for numbers within the switch, while ABNR worked for numbers in other switches (still only other GTE switches; the SS7 link between GTE and Pac Bell hasn't happened yet). By the way, the rep agreed with me that it was pretty stupid to call the new one 'Automatic' when it is really 'extended' or 'non-crippled.' She even suggested that no one would buy BNR, but get it as part of a package. Oh, the activation codes are 66# for BNR and *66 for ABNR. 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: Information Sources Needed Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 14:49:03 -0400 From: Kevin D. Cooke I am looking for basic information on a number of technologies. The information is intended for the non-technical reader and should answer the following questions: What is it? How is it implemented? What are the Pros/Cons? What does the future hold? The technologies are ISDN, Broadband ISDN, Cell Relay (ATM?) and SONET. If anyone could lend me a hand, or just suggest ftp sites I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance, Kevin D. Cooke kdcooke@mailbox.syr.edu ------------------------------ From: awoolfso@uop.edu (Aaron Woolfson) Subject: Heh ... Date: 16 Oct 1993 20:53:39 -0700 Organization: University of the Pacific I called for my free modem. I got transfered to some location with a "click click pop pop static connection" and the guy soounded really hurried and said "we had ... that just broke -- can we call you back in ten minutes?" ... interesting. I just thought this was humorous. [Moderator's Note: Did he call you back as promised? Did you make the switch? PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #702 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15921; 17 Oct 93 3:42 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29126 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 01:12:04 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27012 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 01:11:33 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 01:11:33 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170611.AA27012@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #703 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 01:11:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 703 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Capacity of Area Code (Steve Cogorno) Re: Capacity of Area Code (Lars J. Poulsen) Re: Confused: 56K Data Lines (Charlie Mingo) Re: Confused: 56K Data Lines (Andy Sherman) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (David Breneman) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (A.E. Mossberg) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (Lukas Zahas) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Original Touch Tone Phones (Macy Hallock) Re: Original Touch Tone Phones (Jim Rees) Re: Bell Atlantic and TCI Cable Merge (John R. Levine) Bell Atlantic / TCI Merge - Competition? (birchall@pilot.njin.net) Re: AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically (P Joslin) Re: AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically (A Sherman) Re: St. Peter Story is True; Not a Joke (Jorn Barger) Re: I've Got a Secret - The Panel (David A. Kaye) Re: Restoring an Old Phone (Bud Couch) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 23:56:10 PDT >>> unlikely: 200 211 300 311 400 500 511 600 700 711 811 >> Well, actually, the 700 exchange is already in use. It's a toll free >> exchange used for various services in the US. The one that comes to >> mind is the carrier subscriber info service. It's a 1-700 nubmer that >> will tell you who your LD provider is. These numbers are also in use: 200 Some BOCs use for testing 211 COCOT Customer Service 311 TDD services in some areas (I believe 911 for TDD) 700 Long-Distance Carrier specific (AT&T runs EasyReach this way) 811 BOC/LEC Customer Service Note that 700 is not necessarily toll-free; it depends on the carrier's use (although I believe that AT&T is the only one with a running service). Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: lars@login.dkuug.dk (Lars J Poulsen) Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code Organization: DKnet Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 08:52:12 GMT Quoting Dej@eecg.toronto.edu: >>> unlikely: 200 211 300 311 400 500 511 600 700 711 811 > witness@cld9.com (Witness) writes: >> ...the 700 exchange is already in use. It's a toll free >> exchange used for various services in the US. zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) writes: > It is also the exchange for AT&T's Easy*Reach numbers. I don't know > how many Easy Reach numbers have been assigned though. For the umpteenth time: 700 is NOT an exchange code. 700 is a service access code placed in the area code position, not unlike the 800 and 900 access code. The services reached by the 700 access code depend on which carrier is used to connect through. 10288-1-700-xxx-yyyy is not the same service code as 10222-1-700-xxx-yyyy. Several carriers use this to route intra- LATA calls to circumvent the LECs that "steal" these calls by not honoring the carrier selection code on intra-LATA toll calls. AT&T, as mentioned, use 700 for Easy-Reach. The Alliance conference system is also reached in this way. And as mentioned, 1-700-555-4141 reaches a recording to inform you of the carrier name. Which, if you did not dial a carrier selection code, will be your PIC (Preferred IXC or "your dial-1-carrier"). One consequence of this routing for the 700 access code, is that services in the 700 "area" are completely unreachable from Europe. +1-700- is trapped to the no-such-number tri-tone signal. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, Internets: designed and built ------------------------------ From: mingo@panix.com (Charlie Mingo) Subject: Re: Confused: 56K Data Lines Date: 16 Oct 1993 11:51:11 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC In article , Bruce Sullivan wrote: > Regarding using a Mac as the DTE: Keep in mind that the serial port is > asynchronous. The 56k line is usually set up to be synchronous. Some > DSUs will allow you to 'convert' async-sync, but you don't get the > full throughput. Are you sure about that? The reason the Mac doesn't use the standard RS232C-type port is that it needs to be able to run AppleTalk synchronously over the serial ports at 230 Kbps. Inside Mac (vol III, p 24) seems to indicate that you can run the SCC synchronously. Pin 7 will accept an external clock: "... so that an external device can perform high-speed synchronous data exchange." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 17:58:17 EDT Subject: Re: Confused: 56K Data Lines From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) On 13 Oct 93 12:07:28 GMT, xorcist@crl.com (Peter Stone) said: > Can someone please explain the difference between what is believed to > be a switched and unswitched 56K line? I want to run a link from my > Macintosh to a Unix box literally down the street 1/2 mile away and my > phone provider talks of two kinds of digital services; You cite them as expensive and cheap. They are dedicated and switched. Dedicated service has a high monthly charge, but you can use it all you want. Switched service has a low monthly charge (which largely pays for the dedicated local loop) and usage charge. If you use the line a lot to the same destination, switched service is not cheap. I don't know how may hours per month it takes to cross over. Switched and unswitched 56KB DSUs are different and the switched costs more because of the dialing logic. I don't know if you can plug either into your MAC. The last time I played around with this (and it was a while ago) you needed a V.35 or RS449 interface to connect to a 56KB DSU. But my knowledge could be outdated on that. Others can correct me. Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com The company and I made a deal: They don't speak for me and I don't speak for them. ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Date: 16 Oct 93 19:30:37 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA Paul Robinson (TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM) wrote: >> I'm looking for a device, preferably cheap/do-it-yourself for >> ringing a phone. The phone will be on a stage during a play, >> and the director wants it to be able to ring. Any help that >> you could give me would be greatly appreciated. > Two options. Get a tape recorder which has an extension cord on it. > Run the cord back stage, record a telephone ringing into it, and > rewind the tape to just before the ring. > Another way is, if you have two phone lines, borrow a two-line phone, put > it at the director's desk, run line two to any open line, and line one on > the same circuit as the phone sitting on stage. A third option - sweet-talk your local phone company into loaning you a phone test signal generator. Hook it up to the phone. Press the button -- it rings. Tell them you'll credit them in the program. How can they refuse? David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ From: aem@symbiosis.ahp.com (a.e.mossberg) Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Date: 16 Oct 1993 20:49:59 -0400 Organization: Symbiosis Corporation, Miami, Florida (305) 597-4000 Reply-To: aem@symbiosis.ahp.com What we did in the late 70s in high school was hook up a light switch and power cord going to the phone. The phone we had so the wires connected directly to the bell, and we used the light switch to turn on and off the 120VAC in the appropriate ringing pattern. Never any problem with this setup, though clearly it had the potential for a dangerous err ... dramatic situation on stage. aem, former actor, stage manager, and mostly theatrical gopher andrew mossberg * network manager * symbiosis corporation * miami florida usa (305) 597-4110 * fax: 597-4002 * editor, south florida environmental reader ------------------------------ From: lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Date: 16 Oct 1993 19:21:54 GMT Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA Reply-To: lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) I think the original poster was hoping for something a little simpler than the responses he got. There's a REALLY easy way to make a standard phone's bell ring. (By standard phone I mean anything like a traditional style Western Electric/AT&T, ITT, etc.) Just put the Black and Grey wires from the ringer inside across 120VAC, in series with a capacitor (the capacitor between the A and K terminals will work, but not as well as a 1mfd cap of your own). The ring will sound just like a standard ring. Just be careful you don't hook up the voltage to anything else in the phone other than the bell. It sounds frightening hooking up a household current into a telephone, but it's harmless -- they used this setup to make a phone ring at a theater I worked and never had a problem. Lukas Zahas lzahas@bu.edu ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:38:24 GMT In article bob1@cos.com writes: > {hi-tech phone ringing deleted} > My, my, weren't the 'old days' so simple. Back (in another > incarnation) when I was in charge of a small community dial office the > local agent (The lady who accepted payments) asked me if I could loan > a phone to the local convent for a play. I hooked up a 300 set (told > you it was another incarnation) with about 25 feet of JKT to a magneto > ringer. I don't know where you would find a magneto today. I think I > still have the charming 'thank you' note the Mother Superior sent me > about the house somewhere. Great idea! Doesn't Edmund Scientific and companies like that sell those old magnetos? Then you could also get an old surplus filed phone that also has a magneto. I wonder if anyone would notice how the ringer frequency ramps up and down as to operator starts and stops cranking. Maybe put a switch in series with it and get the magneto up to speed first? Harold ------------------------------ From: fmsystm!fmsys!macy@wariat.org Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 09:24 EDT Subject: Re: Original Touch Tone Phones Reply-To: macy@telemax.com Organization: F M Systems/Telemax Medina, Ohio USA In article Jeff Garber <0005075968@ mcimail.com> writes: > My roommate wants to have an early Touch Tone (tm) phone. They look > just like the standard 2500 desk set, but they only have ten buttons, > no "*" or "#". These were around from 1964 to the late 60's at least. These were known as 1500 sets. I've seen then from Western Electric and Stromberg Carlson. I don't know if ITT ever made them. Although I had one back in college in the late 60's, they were obsolete even then, the 2500 was standard and 1500's were in use as rebuilt sets used mostly in residential services. Wish I'd kept that set, but at the time I thought it to be ugly and useless. It's very unlikely you will find one of these from an industry broker or rebuilder. Your best bet is flea markets and garage sales. No doubt there are still a number of these sets in attics and garages out there. (This is how I found the one 1500 I have, I got it for $8.00 at a hamfest. A bit high, but the seller knew what he had. It was also in very good condition.) Regards, Macy Hallock N8OBG Voice:+1.216.723.3030 Fax:+1.216.723.3223 macy@telemax.com Telemax Inc. and F M Systems Inc. 152 Highland Drive Medina, Ohio 44256 USA ------------------------------ From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Subject: Re: Original Touch Tone Phones Date: 15 Oct 1993 20:28:14 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI In article , Jeff Garber <0005075968@ mcimail.com> writes: > My roommate wants to have an early Touch Tone (tm) phone. They look > just like the standard 2500 desk set, but they only have ten buttons, > no "*" or "#". We used to convert these to 12 button by drilling holes in the face and adding the plastic key caps. The 10 button dial had all the electronic and mechanical parts for 12 button use except the key caps. I haven't seen any in a long time. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 21:15 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic and TCI Cable Merge Organization: I.E.C.C. > Today's {Newsday, a Long Island daily} reported that Bell Atlantic, > one of the Regional Bell Operating Companies, has purchased cable > television giant TCI, Inc. for $31.4 billion. An added complication not mentioned in most news reports is that TCI is one of the backers supporting QVC's bid for Paramount Communi- cations. The other bid for Paramount is from Viacom, which is supported by NYNEX among others. Personally, I think that all of the arguments about synergy are nonsense, and the primary business reason for these combinations is that the Baby Bells want to have monopoly sources of cable programming to force feed to the monopoly cable businesses that they expect to have along side their monopoly telephone businesses. See, for example, New Jersey Bell, er, Bell Atlantic/New Jersey's, recent move into providing "video dial tone" in which they lease nearly all of the channels to the local monopoly cable companies, sort of complying with the letter of the state regulators' rules but completely defeating the intention. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 21:50:55 EDT From: birchall@pilot.njin.net (Shag) Subject: Bell Atlantic / TCI Merge - Competition? In comp.dcom.telecom dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) writes: > "Overnight, Bell Atlantic and TCI have created the possibility of a national > superhighway linking 22 million telephone and cable companies." > "Attorney General Janet Reno said the Justice Department would look into the > deal, and a powerful House telecommunications subcommittee said it would > schedule hearings on how it would affect competition and consumers." Though I support this merge (I'm a big fan of Bell Atlantic, particularly since they're feverishly working to put fiber-optics and ISDN all over the place here in New Jersey :) I'm a little worried about how this will relate to a traditional multi-level competition scheme, and how it will relate to the recent legal decision allowing RBOCs to _provide_ video. As I understood it (from reading about the French implementation of ISDN, and from reading about the legal decision and other ISDN-related things here in the US), the RBOCs themselves would continue to be regional carriers as they are now, but expand _what_ they carry to include video and such, thus enabling suppliers of video (ie, CATV companies) to offer their services across the RBOC's networks (or even across LD networks between RBOCs), reaching more consumers and sparking more competition. If Bell Atlantic and TCI merge, the line between the "carrier" and the "provider" gets blurred or erased. Will the resulting company allow the signals of other video providers to be made available over its network? (Or, looking at it from the other side -- is there any way they can prevent it?) I'm sure the merge will make it easier for them to undercut the prices of other video providers, since Bell Atlantic (as the carrier) will be getting a cut of the other guy's prices anyway. Any thoughts out there on this? I don't even _have_ cable, so it's not really affecting me ... but there are 90-some strands of Bell Atlantic fiber strung outside my house, and it's getting very tempting to hook up. Shag ------------------------------ From: pjoslin@mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil (Paul Joslin (Sverdrup)) Subject: Re: AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically Date: 16 Oct 1993 16:21:51 GMT Organization: Model Based Vision Lab, Wright Laboratory In article , Raymond Shwake (media!nearside! shwake@uunet.UU.NET) wrote: > Apropos, I have long wondered how -- at a time of labor *surplus*, > even of skilled workers -- AT&T could be devoting substantial > technical and capital resources to implement their electronic > operators scheme. You know, the one where voice recognition systems Even with the "suplus", the cost of labor isn't necessarily going down. For example, it is claimed that the largest single expense GM faces isn't steel, it's the cost of the health insurance it provides its workers. Paul R. Joslin +1 513 255 1115 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 17:52:18 EDT Subject: Re: AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) On 13 Oct 93 06:07:50 GMT, media!nearside!shwake@uunet.uu.net (Raymond Shwake) said: > Apropos, I have long wondered how -- at a time of labor *surplus*, > even of skilled workers -- AT&T could be devoting substantial > technical and capital resources to implement their electronic > operators scheme. You know, the one where voice recognition systems > listen for key words like "collect" and "person-to-person" and try to > act accordingly. Once in place, these silicon dummies will allow AT&T > to pink slip some 5,000 skilled operators. How far back do you want to carry this reasoning? We could have kept the phone network more labor intensive by not implementing DDD. Then we could employ lots more operators to complete all long distance calls. Or better still, maybe we should have banned the direct dialing altogther. Would anybody (other than the CWA) be happy with such a network? Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com The company and I made a deal: they don't speak for me and I don't speak for them. ------------------------------ From: jorn@Netwerk.mcs.com (Jorn Barger) Subject: Re: St. Peter Story is True; Not a Joke Date: 16 Oct 1993 13:22:34 -0500 Organization: MCSNet Subscriber, Chicago, IL [Pat asks the panelists' names on "I've Got a Secret"] Three of them would have been Bennett Cerf, head of Random House, Dorothy Kilgallen, remembered now as a JFK-conspiracy-mystery-death, and Arlene Francis... (or was that 'To Tell the Truth'? :^) [Moderator's Note: No!! You people keep thinking about "What's My Line?" with John Daly and panelists. As this issue is being prepared someone has responded with the answers. See the next message. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel Date: 16 Oct 1993 22:30:04 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access TELECOM Moderator moderated: > [Moderator's Note: "I've Got a Secret" featured host Garry Moore and > was a great example of the early days of television. Does anyone remember > the names of the four panelists there on a regular basis? Peggy Cass (stage and screen actress), Bill Cullen (host of Price is Right), the tall brunette woman -- uh -- she got into fashions or perfume or something. All I remember about her from the program was that she once resented being called a "thespian" on the air. Someone had pronounced it "thezzbian" and she said, "Absolutely not! I am a 'thessss-PEE-an'" At the time I've Got a Secret was done, Garry Moore also did that Garry Moore show later that night. Secret was live at 7:30 and Moore at 10:00pm. It is fascinating to look back on those days and realize that lots of those kinds of shows were done live -- even in the mid-60s. At the time of the Kennedy assassination, CBS was running a live soap opera over its entire network. The coaxial cable was still expensive, and used during prime time hours in New York; the Tonight Show had to be flown to the West Coast in order to show in color, so it was always a day late. Monday's shows was seen here on Tuesday, Friday's the following Monday. Which means that there was one Tonight Show which has never been shown on the West Coast! [Moderator's Note: I don't know about CBS, as I had NBC on at the time. They were having that game show where the contestants would spin a wheel which stopped on various prizes. The first bulletin on JFK was maybe 20 seconds long and they cut back in to the game with the wheel; less than a minute or two later they interuppted with a second bulletin a bit more detailed, then back to the game show a third time. Finally about five minutes after that they cut the game show off entirely and switched to their affiliate station in Dallas for the full report. By that time I was changing channels seeing what the others had to say; they were all in Dallas at that point. In about a month it will be thirty years since that event, yet it seems like yesterday to me. Thanks for supplying the trivia on the names of the panel members. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bud@kentrox.com (Bud Couch) Subject: Re: Restoring an Old Phone Organization: ADC Kentrox Industries, Inc. Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 22:00:47 GMT In article akcs.russ@genesis.MCS.COM (Russell J. Price) writes: > I just picked up an early Automatic Electric "Monophone" (date of > manufacture unknown, but it's old enough to have a Z on the dial). > While I was rooting around inside to set up a modular cord for it, I > discovered that it has a 50 Hz ringer (sigh). Sure enough, when I try > Would it be possible to substitute a larger capacitor to make it work > with 20 Hz ringing current, or would I be better off cannibalizing a > 20 Hz ringer/capacitor combo from another phone? Other than the > odd-frequency ringer (maybe this phone was on a party line?), the > phone seems to work fine. The frequency selective ringers from AE were "tuned" to the stated frequency both electrically AND mechanically. The weight and length of the "clapper" on the bell is such that it is mechanically resonant at 50 Hz. Simply replacing the capacitor may not do it. I've tried changing caps on ringers with sporatic success; A 66 synchromonic ringer worked well by paralleling a cap when driven at 60 Hz Decimonic, but a 42 Hz wouldn't retune with a cap well enough to work at 30 Hz. If you are truly interested is maintaining "collector" status, removing and saving the existing ringer, while subsituting a newer straight-line ringer seems to be the best choice. Bud Couch - ADC Kentrox bud@kentrox.com (192.228.59.2) insert legalistic bs disclaimer here ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #703 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16427; 17 Oct 93 4:53 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01038 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 02:19:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00742 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 02:19:00 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 02:19:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170719.AA00742@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #704 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 02:19:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 704 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Demon Dialers Information Wanted (Macy Hallock) Re: Demon Dialers Information Wanted (Jeffrey C. Honig) Re: Atomic Clocks (John R. Bruni) Re: Atomic Clocks (David Breneman) Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Nigel Allen) Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Jim Rees) Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery (Chris Ambler) Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery (Don Davis) Re: US Sprint Modem Mess - Read This ASAP (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Sprint's Modem Offer Revisited (Joshua E. Muskovitz) Sprint Modem Update 10-16-93 (action@indirect.com) Re: Prodigy Link (Eric N. Florack) Re: Phoiling a Phraud (H. Peter Anvin) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Tony Harminc) Book Reviews + (Lynne Gregg) Re: Another Last Laugh (Harold Hallikainen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: fmsystm!fmsys!macy@wariat.org Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 09:33 EDT Subject: Re: Demon Dialers Information Wanted Reply-To: macy@telemax.com Organization: F M Systems/Telemax Medina, Ohio USA In article morris@grian.cps.altadena. ca.us (Mike Morris) writes: > The real "Demon Dialer"tm was made by Zoom Telecommunications in > Boston for several years, and was in the Heathkit catalog for a while These were also made in a Radio Shack version, with a beige, rather that black case color. I found Demon's to be often damaged by lightning. We must have replaced a hundred of them, back when we would sell them behind the 1A2 systems we sold. We never found anyone who repaired them well. We just tossed the bad ones. I even lost both the units at my home to lightning. Demon's are advertised from time to time by telecom equipment brokers, especially in "Telecom Gear" magazine. Prices seem to run from $20 to $40 each used. This seems high, but not absurdly so. Although the Demon was based on early 80's technology, they worked OK. I did encounter the problems with them eating * and # digits, and I recall a workaround was available. They still were the best outright "power dialer" for contests and busy airline reservations numbers I've seen. I just got one for my associate for use in Florida for tee-off time calling. Regards, Macy Hallock N8OBG Voice:+1.216.723.3030 Fax:+1.216.723.3223 macy@telemax.com Telemax Inc. and F M Systems Inc. 152 Highland Drive Medina, Ohio 44256 USA ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Demon Dialers Information Wanted Organization: Information Technologies/Network Resources; Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 21:02:07 -0400 From: Jeffrey C Honig I have had a 76T that was sold by Radio Shack. I stopped in one day and saw it on clearance, I had not realized that RS was selling them. I'm real happy with it. Two improvements I'd like to see (in addition to Mike's) are: Pause, or pause for voice, so I could get it to log onto Audix for me. Unattended deamon-dial mode so I could hang up and it would ring my phone when the call went through. I hate that beep it emits when it is successful. Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 21:40:04 +0100 From: John R. Bruni Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks In article , daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) wrote: > (EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu) wrote: >> On a similar subject, how (and why) does the Mutual Radio Network >> (news, Larry King, etc.) generate the two note sequence when coming >> from breaks, etc. They've done this for over twenty years, at least. > This is a signal to the automation equipment in stations to start > playing commercials. As someone who has engineered DJ's for the late WNBC-AM in New York including Don Imus and Bruce Morrow, and as someone who was GM of a radio station, I personally must state that I *hate* hearing those tones. There are lots better ways of signalling automation these days. But I guess no one cares ... John R. Bruni, a.k.a. "Rocky" / "Cowboy Buddha" San Francisco Engineering, Inc. jbruni@sfe.com ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Date: 16 Oct 93 19:26:16 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA John R. Bruni (jbruni@sfe.com) wrote: > As someone who worked for NBC for 17 years, I can confirm that NBC had > their own "atomic" clock as of 1974-5. It ran the entire network, > including the clocks on the intercom boxes in local radio (WNBC-AM, > N.Y.) The reason I know this is that a fellow engineer, while doing > maintenance work on an intercom box, accidentally shorted the clock. > Amazingly, the master clock was not protected. It went down and it > took the television network with it. Many of the net's automated > functions had to be run manually until the clock was back on line. > Consternation reigned supreme that day. We never fessed up, so you > heard it here first! Hope this isn't too off-subject, but could you tell us what generated the NBC chimes? I'm sure that in later years it was just a cart, but it never sounded like "real" chimes (like the way orchestra bells or a xylophone or something would sound). I've heard that in the '20s there was actually a mechanical device which generated the tones -- sort of a cylinder which rotated with a microphone in the middle. Any clarifica- tion on this would be most appreciated! . __ |\ | | | \ |-- | \|__| <------ Cool ASCII graphic, huh? :-) / | \___ David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 00:49:52 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca At least two countries have national telecom-related newsgroups: aus.comms from Australia and uk.telecom from the United Kingdom. Both newsgroups are widely available in North America, and may be useful if you are specifically interested in the telecommunications systems in those countries. Canada does not have a national telecom newsgroup, but telecommunications- related messages often appear in can.general and in province or city news- groups. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? Date: 16 Oct 1993 18:55:50 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI In article , knut@tts.lth.se (Ake Knutsson) writes: > Are the archives accessible by Gopher? Asking because I would like to > add them to my bookmark file. > [Moderator's Note: Yes they are. You've got to use the feature which > allows you to connect with other gophers. It seems to work okay. PAT] The ftp machine, lcs.mit.edu, refuses connections on the standard gopher port (70). Do you have gopher server information for the Telecom Archives? [Moderator's Note: Hmmm ... yes it does, and no, I don't. After receiving your message, I went to check using the gopher here at eecs.nwu.edu to try and connect with lcs.mit.edu and I was unable to do it either. If you are interested in using gopher there, you might contact one of the admins there, chrisb@lcs.mit.edu and ask if it can be arranged. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler) Subject: Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery Organization: The Phishtank Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 08:05:17 GMT dougw@astro.as.arizona.edu (Doug Williams) says: > Mrs. Worthy clearly indicated that there was absolutely no possible > option to receive an external modem. > One quick note: when I called the Sprint number given out in > the Digest for this offer, I was told that the modem was 9600 fax > rec/4800 fax send/2400 data, and everyone I talked to at Sprint > referred to the modem as 96/24, so I think all hopes for a 9600 data > are gone. Well, the rep at Sprint told me MANY MANY times that it was a 9600 data/fax modem, external. I switched over EIGHT (count 'em EIGHT) lines with a promise of EIGHT modems of that variety. When they do come, if they are not exactly what he promised, Sprint WILL make his promise good, or I WILL take action. I got the rep's name, extension, and documented the entire conversation. I then called back two days later to confirm my order, talked with a totally different rep, and got the same information. I WILL get eight 9600 data/fax external modems before this is all said and done. I'm quite adamant to fight this to the end if that's what it calls for. We'll see ... cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.4 FSVMP Voice BBS Demo System - 805-544-3754 ------------------------------ From: ddavis@dgdhome.meaddata.com (Don Davis) Subject: Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 18:45:36 EDT Organization: The Dayton Home for the Chronically Strange The plot thickens ... I received a call today from Mrs. Worthy at Sprint, and she explained to me that which has already been explained here: there is no external modem, there is only the PC-compatible, internal, 2400bps data/9600bps sendfax/4800bps receivefax modem, Mac users are out of luck on the modem, but there's a selection of other offers including various software packages or a credit ($50) on my bill. One new piece of information: the FAX software that comes with the modem is QuickLink (II, I think), and it will supposedly send in the background without having any effect on the work you are doing. She indicated awareness of (and excitement about) the Internet, and said that the higher-than-anticipated response to Sprint's offer appeared to be a result of the net.discussions (this group?). She repeated to me that an explanatory article of hers had been posted to the net, but she indicated that it had been posted by someone else on her behalf. Perhaps that explains why we (or at least I) haven't seen it. I did not want to make a snap decision on this, and agreed to get back to her tomorrow (Sunday). Not sure how I'll proceed at this point. Suggestions? Don Davis | Internet: dgdhome!ddavis@meaddata.com | Tel: 513-235-0096 ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: US Sprint Modem Mess - Read This ASAP Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:31:33 GMT Action writes: > [Moderator's Note: Not to burst your bubble, but I imagine you will be > required to prove that such commitments were made (i.e. 9600/9600) > and that your impression was not the result of a misunderstanding > as to what the rep(s) actually said. PAT] Well, sure, if he wants to prevail in court, that's what he will have to do ... but if he wants to just keep harping on this thing, filing claims in various courts, and bashing Sprint about this on Usenet, Sprint may decide that it is easier and/or cheaper to just give in. It is not all that uncommon for a big company to just give in -- either because they don't want the bad publicity, or they don't want to waste time fighting it. But is it a big risk ... a judgment in small claims court is virtually worthless - the loser has the right to appeal to 'regular court' (in most if not all states) ... and Sprint certainly has more lawyers on staff than he does ... Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 13:41:12 EDT From: Joshua E. Muskovitz Subject: Re: Sprint's Modem Offer Revisited Ok folks, here's my take on the Sprint modem deal. First thing to note is that the offer officially ended October 1st, so only people who switched before then have anything to discuss anyway. Second thing is that I called Sprint customer service three separate times (within 20 minutes) and got three different answers, all wrong. Then I got a call back from one of the reps with the (confirmed) correct information. Then I got a call from a supervisor confirming the info. Then I called BEST Products and confirmed it yet again. The correct information as I have received it is ... There is one and only one modem available through the DVORAK offer. It is a PC ISA bus 1/2 slot card with 2400 baud modem, plus 9600 baud send and 4800 baud receive fax. Tom Westlake at BEST Products said that the only question is whether it is 4800 or 9600 baud receive on the fax side. This is not an option -- he just can't remember. So whatever you get, it is the only choice. For those people who don't want or can't use the PC modem, they can instead choose one of four available software packages: -- Quicken -- Star Trek -- After Dark -- First Act I have no details on version numbers or platforms supported by these packages. There are *NO* external modems available through this offer. Questions should get directed to Diane Worthy at Sprint Customer Service 800-877-4040. If you have technical questions about the modem, you can call Tom Westlake at BEST 800-632-2378. josh muskovitz ------------------------------ From: Action Subject: Sprint Modem Update 10-16-93 Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 10:06:35 MST A Sprint Modem Update ... this moment is being brought to you by the newsgroup in your area of the woods! I have had several conversations with U.S. Sprint. I am reporting to the net what has been said so thoses of you who keep writing me with comments about proof etc. READ ON. U.S. Sprint admits that they have a problem. The modem offer is over, done, finished. The offer ended on Oct 1, 1993. Sprint's legal department and management know about the problem and will address it this week. As soon as I have an answer I will post it. If you have been involved in this modem offer I would love to hear from you. I have passed on a few of the pieces of mail -- minus any names to Sprint. One of the managers was laughing so hard she almost hung up the phone. Your comments all seem to reflect on main theme. Many people called Sprint ... asked about the modem offer. They then asked for management to confirm the offer. Some people, like myself called several times before they changed. Alot of people noted the day, date and time of the call as well as the person's name they spoke with. Good for all of you! We have shown the people at Sprint that we are technical but, business-like in our approach. Sprint is not trying to fall back on the old saying "rep's are not techie's". They have said that there is a problem. For you Mac users ... Sprint now knows that there is no way to slot a modem inside your Mac. They promised me that this matter will be taken care of and we will all be treated fairly. Last Note: Several lawyers have written me as well as employees of AT&T, MCI, and U.S. Sprint. Please keep the mail coming! Lawyers I read and respond to all of this. More as things develop ... And Pat, you have to have a sense of humor. They really did screw up this offer. If you or I did this the public would want our heads. Sprint has been polite and so have the people who complained. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 04:03:42 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Prodigy Link Prodigy intones: > Incoming email messages should not exceed 60,000 bytes, or they will > be returned to the sender. Good lord! 60k+ Packs only account for around half the digests available in INTERNET, if you include the digests. Is that now the intent, that PRODIGY users won`t have access to the digests? Heck, some of the single messages are at least that in size, particularly the announcements of get-togethers and calls for papers and such. Hey, Pat; How many bounced >60K bags are you going to have on your hard drive from PRODIGY folks who request your DIGEST? In fairness, I must say that my first reaction was that they might lift the upper size limits somewhat when they make the thing official and take it out of beta. But on re-reading it, I find no indication of it ... Every time I see their service talked about here, I find myself glad as all hell that I dropped it some years ago, after only around two weeks online with it. /E [Moderator's Note: Actually, the TELECOM Digest averages 22-23 K per issue. I rarely send out files 60K in size. Many archives files are larger than that, but when they are sent out by the Email Information Service they are broken down into 60K or smaller chunks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hpa (H. Peter Anvin N9ITP) Subject: Re: Phoiling a Phraud Reply-To: hpa@nwu.edu (H. Peter Anvin) Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 08:45:47 GMT In article of comp.dcom.telecom, Brett K Elliott writes: > [...story about a $100,000-a-month phraud deleted...] >> I always enjoy reading stories about phreaks brought to justice. PAT] > And let's compare this to ... > [...story about PAT phreaking a payphone in Junior High deleted...] > I rest my case PAT. Many of the phreaks you blast out on are also kids. Maybe we should consider: does the punishment fit the crime? I really don't think that one should consider a million-dollar scam (that wasn't even technical) in the same class as some kids experimenting with a payphone (and getting caught after a day or so). Not that shoplifting is *right*, but you don't send a kid to jail for ten years for shoplifting a candy bar. hpa INTERNET: hpa@nwu.edu FINGER/TALK: hpa@ahab.eecs.nwu.edu IBM MAIL: I036073 at IBMMAIL NeXTMAIL: hpa@speedy.acns.nwu.edu [Moderator's Note: Actually, the whole system of justice here in the USA is badly screwed up, like so much of the US government and society in this country. Answers to these questions are way outside the scope of this digest/newsgroup and I have to refer them elsewhere as a rule, but suffice it to say that no, in most instances you would not send someone to prison for shoplifting nor for phreaking. Someone wrote me and said on the one hand I espoused justice (as in 'brought to ...') while on the other hand did not recommend *long* prison terms; he wanted to know what I thought 'justice' meant and I said justice is what the court says it is. Ah well, misc.legal and various.talk.misc.assorted.and sundry await your rebuttals. Not here, please. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 12:13:13 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes a very good article on travelling with telecom gear. But: > Many countries use a voltage about double that of the US but with the > same frequency, 60 Hz. Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where the normal domestic supply is 240/60. > If you are in a 50-Hz country (e.g. Japan) and have a device that says ... Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Book Reviews + Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 13:45:00 PDT Yes, Pat, I agree. I've been meaning to write and tell you how valuable I believe these book reviews are. Keep 'em coming. Regards, Lynne [Moderator's Note: Lynne's note was one of several I have received regards the book reviews by Rob Slade being published here. Quite a few readers say they enjoy having the book reviews as part of the Digest, and I find them rather interesting myself most of the time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Another Last Laugh Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 06:28:59 GMT > [Moderator's Note: I wonder whatever happened to that California > publication, the {Christian Yellow Pages} ... it was a yellow pages > style classified directory which would only accept advertising from > businesses owned by people it deemed to be properly sanctified. It > made no bones about its requirements for inclusion as an advertiser > in the directory: acceptance of Fundamentalist Christian theology > was a must. Some guy who is Jewish tried to buy advertising space > in the book; when he was turned down he sued them and won the case > based on violations of California law. It gets out of the range of > relevancy here to continue this thread very far, but I have not > heard about them in a couple years. I wonder if the Souderton telco > refuses to connect with 900 sex lines or Dial an Atheist? :) PAT] The law in question was probably the Unruh Civil Rights Act, the first sentence of which reads, "No business establishment of any kind whatsoever shall discriminate against, boycott or blacklist, refuse to buy from, sell to, or trade with any person in this state because of the race, creed, religion, color, national origin, sex, blindness or other physical disability of the person or of the person's partners, members, stockholders, directors, officers, managers, superintendents, agents, employees, business associates, suppliers, or customers." Harold [Moderator's Note: I had thought however that religious activities were specifically exempt with regards to their employment and other business practices. Perhaps not. Again, a good topic for a myriad of Usenet groups, but not here. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #704 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16960; 17 Oct 93 6:22 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01486 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:31:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00161 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:31:00 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:31:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170831.AA00161@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #705 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 03:31:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 705 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought (Chris Ambler) Re: 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought (Rob Boudrie) Re: Calling Card Scam (Frank E. Carey) Re: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents (Laurence Chiu) Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors (Gary Breuckman) Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Availability of Toll Records by Fax? (Andy Sherman) Re: Fax on-Demand/Fax Back Systems (James R. Saker Jr.) Re: Pig Calls 911 (Rob Boudrie) Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (David A. Kaye) Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (Michael Clays) Re: Help With Northern Telecom (George Hannah) Re: Cost of Modems (Laurence Chiu) Re: Bill Printed Part of my Calling Card Nnumber (Carl Moore) Re: Bill Printed Part of my Calling Card Nnumber (Steve Forrette) Re: Yet Another Sprint Modem Story (Christian Weisgerber) Re: Al Gore's Reaction to Bell Atlantic (Cliff Barney) Re: Macintosh and 56K CSU/DSU (Steve Cogorno) Re: Competitive Dial Tone (Danny Burstein) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler) Subject: Re: 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought Organization: The Phishtank Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 05:57:03 GMT gates@mca.info-gw.mese.com says: > So ... I'm contemplating starting a competetive service to this and am > curious as to who may sell this type of sophisticated voicemail > software and what kind of investment we are talking about to start up > something of this nature. I have designed such software. It runs on a 386 or 486, and uses one PowerLine II card per each two lines. The cards run in the $500 each range (less in quantity) and my software runs $549 for a two-line version, and $1349 for a 16-line version. It is available now. I could go on about the features and such, but I don't want to turn this into an ad. If you wish more information, email me your snail mail address, and I can send you information, or call me at (805) 782-8000 (Pacific Time). cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.4 FSVMP Voice BBS Demo System - 805-544-3754 ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought Organization: Center For High Perf. Computing of WPI; Marlboro Ma Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:01:18 GMT You also need a good attorney and business liability insurance. No matter what waivers the applicants sign, you may face the prospect of hiring a $attorney$ if someone is injured, stalked, catches aids/herpes/whatever, etc. from someone the meet through your service. If you take memberships over the phone, imagine the legal risks if someone under the legal age of consent subscribes to the service, and is later the so called "victim" of statuatory rape. >* Women call place ads and respond at no cost (free membership). Once again, you need the services of a good attorney here. Business risk: Imagine a court decision that the differential rates are unlawful "sex discrimination", accompanied by an order to refund the amount discriminately charged to males. Stranger things have happened ... ... congratulations on not going the 900/976 route though ... [Moderator's Note: A certain tavern here in Chicago was in the habit of having something they called 'Ladies Night' once a week with all drinks for females at half price. They got into a jam with the state commission which enforces discrimination laws and had to discontinue 'Ladies Night'. The way they got around it? Now they say that every Tuesday night, *anyone of either sex* who shows up wearing a dress, and/or other items of women's clothing apparel get half-price drinks. The state commission agrees that when phrased in this way, no laws are being broken. The games people play! :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 15:07:45 EDT From: fec@arch2.att.com Subject: Re: Calling Card Scam Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories >> He gave me a calling card number to verify; I said it wasn't mine. >> He said records showed two lines into the residence (I have four) and >> I had to authenticate the calling card I *did* have. I declined. He >> said he'd have to block the line until the matter could be >> investigated unless I could authenticate. > This is the oldest trick in the book. I don't doubt it's old but it's frequency is now reaching epidemic proportions and there are indications that it is big business -- not zillions of phreaks fooling around as you did. An alleged drug dealer in California reported to have organized crime connections was recently busted and found to have in his possession both drugs and a PC-based system for cloning cellular phones. This kind of news report helps us understand who we're up against. And I recently heard that the street price for a PBX DISA code is > $3000. Several IXCs have reported conducting controlled tests to measure how quickly a surfed card number propagates around the world. I don't recall the numbers but it shocked many. In one test the first fraudulent use of a surfed card was FROM Europe to the US. This is the big time, everybody. > I know AT&T started telling people *never* to give out their > card numbers over the phone. We do and so do the other carriers. And the TV news specials have reinforced consumer awareness of such scams. Frank Carey at Bell Labs f.e.carey@att.com ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents Date: 16 Oct 1993 22:53:56 -0700 Organization: /etc/organization In article , John Sullivan wrote: > I just got this e-mail from my mother. As you will see, someone is > trying to get people to give out their calling card numbers by > pretending to have collect calls from loved ones, and then saying > there is a block. [ .. long story about the actual scam deleted] I am wondering, if you suspected a scam why did you not give a bogus number because a real AT&T operator could easily validate the number while a false one would not be able to so easily? If it were a real operator then you could say you mis-remembered the number etc. Laurence Chiu lchiu@crl.com Walnut Creek, CA Tel (work) (510)215-3730 ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:35:46 GMT In article johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) writes: > In article , ken thompson donald.wichitaks.NCR.COM> wrote: >> |\ | >> <---------+-------| >|-----+-----'\/\/\/\/`-----+ >> | |/ | | 22k | >> | led | | >> to phone | | | >> line | | /| | | >> (green/red) +-------|< |-----+ | >> (L1/L2) | \| | >> led | >> | >> | >> <-----------------------------------------------+ > Am I missing something?? I don't see how this could possibly work. > This circuit looks to me like it will not draw enough current to take > the phone off hook, but also would never pass enough current to light > either of the LEDs (except maybe while ringing). If the phone is on > hook, I would expect to only see about 2 mA through forward biased LED > (the other LED would always be off, except during ringing). The > circuit would constantly draw this current from the line, and this may > be enough to be detected as a trouble by the switch. This circuit that you commented on is in fact not something to detect stutter dialtone but is intended to be used on a specific system that lights a message lamp (by putting a higher-than-normal off-hook voltage on the line when a message is waiting). Ken did mention, in the original posting with the diagram, the type of system it was intended for, but that was all so mixed in with the stutter dialtone discussion that it was confusing. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:46:36 GMT Am I missing something here? Why are stutter dial-tone detectors needed? I understand that a stutter dial-tone will be sent when a call has been forwarded to a voicemail system. Did the phone ring before the call was forwarded? If so, it seems a lot easier to have an indicator that the phone rang instead of trying to detect stutter dial-tone. Again, am I missing something here? Thanks! Harold [Moderator's Note: Except that if the line is busy, this will also send an incoming call to voicemail; then what do you detect later on? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 09:30:22 EDT Subject: Re: Availability of Toll Records by Fax? From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) On 14 Oct 93 00:19:34 GMT, fec@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (f.e.carey) said: > Prosecutors are examining whether any laws were violated. This > guy's lawyer said his client bought the toll records from one of many > companies that sell them and there was no reason to believe the > records were obtained illegally. > While telephone company officials insist it's against the law to > obtain such long-distance records without a court order, the > accused businessman and various lawyers say it is not. They point > to the thriving business in toll records. Frank, Since I am no longer an AT&T employee, I no longer have the AT&T Code of Conduct handy. But I'm pretty sure I recall from numerous Code of Conduct reviews the assertion that the privacy of Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) is specifically protected by either Federal law or FCC regulations, and that call detail is considered CPNI. Certainly the disclosure of CPNI is grounds for dismissal of an AT&T employee (as former Digest reader Randy Borow found out the hard way). *Somebody* had to either break the law or violate AT&T trade secrets, or both, for call detail records to move from AT&T to an outside party without specific authorization. Wouldn't AT&T have cause of action to find out who among its employees had been suborned by these creeps? Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com ------------------------------ From: jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu (James R. Saker Jr.) Subject: Re: Fax on-Demand/Fax Back Systems Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 19:37:11 GMT marcb@access.digex.net (Marc Blackwood) writes: > Who should I contact to purchase a good faxback/fax on-demand system > that will work well for a high volume technical support department. I > am interested in a system that can start off with four to eight lines > and be expanded to a 24-48 line system. All responses/referrals are > welcome. Please send replies via e-mail to:cjmail@aol.com. Thanks in > advance! Our company had been evaluating fax systems (fax broadcast, fax-on-demand, fax mailbox, etc.) to integrate into our enhanced services platform and had evaluated many on paper, two quite seriously. The two candidates which received the greatest attention were Copia's FaxFacts and Audiofax's fax platform. Copia's platform we evaluated was a DOS/Netware combination where we could operate on a single box (we were looking at the Brooktrout configuration, so we'd use Brooktrout boards for fax/voice) or use the Netware configuration if we needed multiple systems sharing fax-on-demand databases, etc. A prettier solution was Audiofax's platform, which runs under ESIX -- Intel-based SVR4 UNIX. They use their own boards (which are quite similar to Dialogic fax boards, from my understanding) instead of relying upon Dialogic, Brooktrout, or another manufacturer. The platform supports multiple fax functions -- fax-on-demand, fax-broadcast, fax mailbox, priority fax, and appears to be well designed and implemented. Users can dial into the platform with a PC, modem, and a copy of client software developed by Audiofax so that they can maintain a broadcast list, check their fax mailbox, send a fax, etc.. Overall, it's quite impressive architecture. When we were evaluating both products, we were looking for a multiple function system with support for 24 ports. At that level, the Audiofax product was only marginally more expensive than the Copia product, (accounting for the hardware we'd have to supply w/ the Copia product. Audiofax's product is turn-key). Contact information for Copia and Audiofax is as follows: Audiofax Suite 200 2000 Powers Ferry Road Marietta Georgia, 30067 v: (404) 933-7600 f: (404) 933-7606 (my contact was Bob Lasher, VP of Sales I believe) Copia v: (708) 682-8898 Jamie Saker jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu Systems Development Administrator Business/MIS Major Telenational Communications Univ. Nebraska at Omaha MyLine: (402) 255-1111 fax: (402) 391-7283 Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are mine and not my employers, nor the University of Nebraska at Omaha's. ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: Pig Calls 911 Organization: Center For High Perf. Computing of WPI; Marlboro Ma Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 20:09:41 GMT I just couldn't resist ... > "I really feel bad about putting the fire department through all > that," the woman, who asked not to be identified, said Friday. "I > really appreciate all the work they did." She could always appologize by delivering a bacon and eggs breakfast to the fire station. rob boudrie ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions Date: 16 Oct 1993 21:20:19 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access George Hannah (george.hannah@cld9.com) wrote: > 49273 286 143645 UTC > I understand the 286 is the day_of_year, and the 143645 is the hour, > but the 49273 means nothing. The first number is called the Julian Date, meaning the number of days which have passed since a time before recorded history when a whole bunch of astronomical things coincided, like a solstice, eclipse, and whatever. Actually, it's only the last part of the Julian date. I think there are about four or five digits missing (though nobody uses them). You may not be aware of it, but your computer ALSO may have its own Julian Date in it. On IBM-PC compatible computers a couple memory registers keep track of how many days have elapsed since 1/1/1980. A simple "MOD 7" command in BASIC with this number can indicate what day of the week any particular date falls on. How to convert 49273 to current date? Hmm. Well, if 49273 is today (in GMT, of course) then you know where to start! 49274 would be tommorow, etc. [Moderator's Note: And it is very likely that 49272 was yesterday. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions From: michael.clays@cld9.com (Michael Clays) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 23:01:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications George Hannah spake unto All on 10-13-93: > out there know what the UTC means? Universal Time Coordinated, or some such thing I think. Origin: Prophecy BBS-Saint John, NB (506)652-7292 (11:190/100.0) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Help With Northern Telecom From: george.hannah@cld9.com (George Hannah) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 21:16:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications Reply to msg originally in Telecommunications Discussions {UUCP} Quoting Bonomi to all: > Also, I'm looking for a few, i.e. one or two (maybe three, if a > 'really' good price), phones for this system. Anybody know where > these are available for a reasonable price? If you really want to, you could call Digital Products Limited at 1-506-635-1055. They have an 800 number, but I can't remember it offhand. These guys refurbish phones for NT, NBTel, Maritime Bell, Bell Canada, and Newfoundland Tel. Ask for Greg Gormley, when I left, he was the head of the refurbishing deptartment. He should be able to help you out, and maybe even sell you a few refurbished phones. Origin: Prophecy BBS-Saint John, NB (506)652-7292 (11:190/100.0) ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Cost of Modems Date: 16 Oct 1993 23:00:59 -0700 In article , John Shaver wrote: > I recently bought a 2400 baud modem with a 9600 fax modem capability. > It cost $40.00. > [Moderator's Note: In the next couple years it will cost $25. I have a > desk drawer full of 300/1200 baud modems here. I could maybe get $5-10 > each for them if someone wanted them for backups, etc. That's life. PAT] Well I bought an Intel 144/144E 14.4 external fax/modem for $139. I thought it was a good deal at $179 (after all it is a brand name) but when they store had a special for a weekend at that price, it was hard to resist. Locally at the computer swap meets, no-name 14.4 fax/modems internal are selling for $120-$130. Might be worth a shot but I am always fearful of connect or setup problems with these. Laurence Chiu lchiu@crl.com Walnut Creek, CA Tel (work) (510)215-3730 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 17:01:20 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Bill Printed Part of my Calling Card Nnumber I have received a direct reply about my original posting. To rehash, I set out the format "abc def ghij klmn". The AT&T Calling Card does NOT use my phone number; don't confuse it with the local calling card which uses one's 10 digit number (including the area code) plus that four-digit PIN. The "ghij" part which I cited above is NOT part of my phone number. ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Bill Printed Part of my Calling Card Nnumber Date: 17 Oct 1993 03:37:22 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In Carl Moore writes: > abc def ghij klmn ? > So what security/privacy issues are raised by the printing of the four > digits from that "ghij" slot [on the bill]? I would say none. AT&T considers the first ten digits to be the "card number" and the last four digits to be the PIN. When you call their customer service office, you need only read the first ten, and some reps even encourage you to not tell the last four digits to anyone except the operator. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 19:09:33 +0100 From: naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: Re: Yet Another Sprint Modem Story dhorvath@sas.upenn.edu (David Horvath) writes: > 9600 data/fax modem internal for PC's. > an earlier post), here's the facts: class I, 9600 send, 4800 receive > fax modem, and 2400 hayes compatible data modem. But "9600 data/fax modem" means 9600bps data + 9600bps S/R FAX, a completely different product class. Sprint obviously makes an incorrect advertisement. BTW, from the specs I'd guess that this Sprint modem is built around a Rockwell RC224ATF single chip modem. Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@ruessel.sub.org ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 23:41:04 PDT From: Cliff Barney Subject: Re: Al Gore's Reaction to Bell Atlantic Could there be any clearer indication than this press release that the administration lacks a clue as to what is going on in the telecommun- ications industry? ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Macintosh and 56K CSU/DSU Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 0:17:00 PDT Said by Peter Stone: > 3. What way IS there to gain 56K Async speeds on a Mac? This is the root of the problem. What kind of Mac is it? My Quadra has no trouble with 56K, but a little LC or SE30 would not be able to maintain speeds that fast. The best alternative would be to get an ethernet card and pipe that down the line (if you can). Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Re: Competitive Dial Tone Date: 17 Oct 1993 02:45:58 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > A public telephone at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City > bears a sign: LONG DISTANCE calls from this telephone are carried by > AT&T Communications by default. (You may dial 10xxx to select the > carrier of your choice for card, collect, or third-party calls.) > LOCAL CALLS from this telephone are carried by Teleport Communications > of New York. The initial deposit is 25 cents, the same as that > charged by the local RBOC. These are also in use in the World Trade Center concourse level. Basically Teleport Communications is based on Staten Island (one of the NYC borughs) and is a MAJOR satellite uplink/downlink player. They've run fiber and coax into many of the major NYC buildings (i.e. World Trade), and recently began providing dial tone service. Note that 99% of the time the call will be fed back into the regular NY Telephone system for completion. One curious side-problem: I tried calling a NYC only "800" number from the coin phone in World Trade (which, of course, is in lower Manhattan) and got a "cannot be dialed from your area" recording. So it's unclear where their input into the LD carriers is "located." BTW, somehow or other when I tried the 800 ANAC (from the "stopper" folk) it did, in fact, give me the number printed on the phone (212 area code). dannyb@panix.com adds: all the usual disclaimers regarding liability, intelligence, accuracy apply. spelling disclaimer is doubled. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #705 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17152; 17 Oct 93 6:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02155 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:57:01 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02098 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:56:30 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:56:30 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170856.AA02098@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #706 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 03:56:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 706 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Prodigy Internet E-Mail Beta Test (Steve Coletti) Correct Sprint Modem Offer Contact (Joshua Muskovitz) "Interesting" Long Distance Marketing (David L. Kindred) Voice Mail Suggestions Request (David R. Lee) Amusing Misdialed Call (Joe Bergstein) Re: Atomic Clocks (Harold Hallikainen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Prodigy Internet E-Mail Beta Test Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 12:10:02 EDT From: Steve Coletti A few days ago an inquiry was made by Dave Horvat at upenn about Prodigy's beta testing of their Internet E-Mail gateway. I'm one of those beta testers and I explained how it worked in an E-Mail response. I didn't save my message to him but was going to forward his reply to me which quoted it liberally. I've decide to do one better, I am forwarding the online agreement I had to make with Prodigy when I signed up for Internet access. This agreement explains the rules and the price schedule. I have deleted the page headers and the "more: NEXT" to make it more readable. First note: In order to gain Internet access, you must use their offline Mail Manager program. That program offers some features unique to Prodigy that shouldn't be confuse with Internet versions of similar services. For example, file transfers are internal to Prodigy users and not a mail FTP feature. The Mail Manager agreement is included first since without it, you don't have Internet access. Some other notes: The Mail Manager includes user defined and built in folders and allows up to the six household members permitted by Prodigy. It offers password protection and Prodigy signon without having to terminate the job. It uses an ANSI graphic menu screen that is point and click. There is talk of releasing Windows and Mac versions in the future. Also mentioned somewhere was that Prodigy does not yet have a domain address list set up. E-Mail passing into another network from the Internet should be addressed in the proper "path" format. Steve DISCLAIMER: As there is no confidentiality clause in this agreement, I am within my right as a "signer" to disclose the terms and conditions of the agreement for the purpose of obtaining advisement and commentary. The information below is presented as a reference to any and all interested parties for the purpose of evaluation and comentary only. All information in it is subject to change. It does not constitute an advertisment for the service, although part of it is written as such. I do not work for the Prodigy Services Company, it's parents or any subsidiary. - - - - - - - Tear here - - - - - - - Terms and Conditions for Mail Manager Mail Manager is an enhanced communications utility for the PRODIGY service. It allows you to write, read and organize your mail "offline," without connecting to PRODIGY. You connect only to deliver and receive E-mail. Mail Manager lets you use several new communications features: file transfers and longer E-mail messages (to other PRODIGY members), plus faxes, U.S. Postal Service letters, and E-mail to Internet addresses. (You must sign up separately to RECEIVE Internet messages.) Usage is subject to all terms of the PRODIGY Service Member Agreement (Jump: agreement). Mail Manager includes an offline software package and a corresponding online component. Once you have read and accepted these Terms and Conditions, you can download the Mail Manager software through PRODIGY and install it on your computer. Downloading takes about 25 minutes at 2400 bps; installation takes about 2 minutes. You must use the offline software for all Mail Manager features. System Requirements To use the Mail Manager software, you will need - an IBM PC or 100% compatible PC that can run PRODIGY - at least 640K of RAM - a hard disk with at least 1 megabyte of free space Fees during the Limited Release There is no fee for sign up and download of the Mail Manager software during the Limited Release. However, usage fees apply, based on the type and size of your Mail Manager communications and the number of people to whom they are sent. Most fees are based on a 3,000- character unit, which is roughly equal to 1 typed page. There is no monthly fee for use of the Mail Manager software offline. Fees are subject to change as provided in the PRODIGY Service Member Agreement (Jump: agreement to read it). Here are the current fees for Mail Manager communications. These fees apply PER RECIPIENT for anything you send: PRODIGY E-mail send* $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) Internet send $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) Internet receive** $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) File transfer send $0.15 per 3000 characters (500 Kb max) (no charge to receive file transfers) Fax $1.25 per 3000 characters (30,000 max) Postal letter $1.50 each (12,000 characters max) *Applies only if sent with Mail Manager **Separate sign-up required to receive Internet messages Messaging Allotments Certain PRODIGY membership plans include a number of E-mail messages. For these plans, each 3000 characters of a Mail Managermessage counts as 1 allotted message. For example: 1 - 3000 characters counts as 1 allotted message 3001 - 6000 characters counts as 2 allotted messages 6001 - 9000 characters counts as 3 allotted messages Each month, all online PRODIGY E-mail messages are counted against any messaging allotment BEFORE any Mail Manager E-mail messages are counted, no matter when they are sent during the month. Messaging allotments do NOT apply to Internet messages , file transfers, faxes, and USPS letters. Delivery of Communications Prodigy Services Company cannot be responsible for delivery of any Mail Manager communications that are not sent entirely through PRODIGY, i.e., any communications other than PRODIGY E-mail and file transfers. Since delivery of all other types of Mail Manager communications (including Internet messages addressed to a PRODIGY ID) is subject to circumstances beyond Prodigy's control, there will be no refunds or credits for such messages that fail to reach their intended recipients. Refunds and credits are also subject to all applicable terms in the PRODIGY Service Member Agreement (Jump: agreement). Sign-up The Membership Holder (the member whose ID ends in "A") can sign up for Mail Manager. The Membership Holder may then sign up any other members in the membership, and is responsible for all fees incurred by all IDs in the membership. Prodigy may require a credit card relationship if certain usage levels are exceeded. Privacy Mail Manager communications are private while traveling through PRODIGY, where they are subject to Prodigy's Policy on Protecting Member Privacy (Jump: privacy to read it). PRODIGY CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PRIVACY OF ANY COMMUNICATIONS WHEN THEY ARE OUTSIDE OF THE PRODIGY NETWORK. In particular, in circumstances of mechanical failure, it is possible that the contents of a U. S. Postal Service letter could accidentally be observed during processing. A Note on Children and the Internet Being able to use Internet communications lets you join electronic mail discussion groups covering a wide variety of topics. These include discussions of subject matter that is intended for "adult" audiences. Parents should consider whether to allow children to use Internet communications, and should be aware of whom they correspond with. For more information, please read "Note to Parents" in PRODIGY Central (Jump: prodigy central). Mail Manager is software that lets you read, write and organize your mail offline--without connecting to the PRODIGY service. With Mail Manager, you can *read and organize your mail whenever you want *control what you send and how it's sent: send files, faxes, postal letters, PRODIGY and Internet messages *free up your phone for those important calls *keep track of your contacts more efficiently with a larger address book and longer mailing lists *send longer messages than those you now send online *E-mail sent and received through Mail Manager can be up to 60,000 characters long (about 20 typed pages). That's 20 times longer than an online message! *Store PRODIGY IDs, Internet IDs, names, nicknames, fax and phone numbers and postal addresses in the offline Address Book. The number of entries is limited only by the disk space left on your computer. *Create as many mailing lists as you need (up to 100 entries per list). Use them for any kind of delivery: PRODIGY, Internet, fax, U.S. Postal Service letters. *Keep track of messages sent and received with the Mail Log, Incoming Mail and Outgoing Mail folders as well as personal folders that you can create and name. You can also use Mail Manager to compose and edit your messages. Mail Manager has a built-in spell-checker and features that allow you to import and revise text. If you prefer, you can use your own word processor to write a message. Then, import the text of your message into Mail Manager when you are ready to send it. Messages created offline with Mail Manager cost less than online messages. Compare fees for PRODIGY messages: PRODIGY Online* $0.25 per message(2880 characters max) PRODIGY Offline* $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) Prodigy counts E-mail (except letters) in "blocks" of 3,000 characters. All fees are per message per recipient. *Certain PRODIGY payment plans may include a monthly allowance of messages that be sent by a membership. For more details on membership pricing plans, Jump: prodigy central. Fees for other E-mail features during the Limited Release ALL FEES ARE PER RECIPIENT Message Type Cost Per Block Maximum Length --------------------------------------------------------- File Transfer $0.15/3000 characters 500 Kb --------------------------------------------------------- Fax $1.25/3000 characters 60,000 char. --------------------------------------------------------- USPS Letter $1.50/letter (4 pages) 12,000 char. --------------------------------------------------------- Internet Send $0.15/3000 characters 60,000 char. Internet COD $0.15/3000 characters 60,000 char. System Requirements Mail Manager software runs on any DOS machine that has the PRODIGY software and a hard drive (for storing messages received and items in the Address Book). You'll need: *at least 1 megabyte of free space on the hard drive *PRODIGY software installed on the hard drive *at least 640 Kb of RAM available There is no fee for the software during the Limited Release test period. How Mail Manager Works Before you write a message, Mail Manager asks you how you would like to send it. Choose an option(E-mail, fax) then select a name or list from your Address Book. Write your message and save it to the Outgoing Mail folder. Once you've finished writing, Mail Manager formats messages to the proper specifications for your selected mode of delivery. Select "Deliver Mail" and your messages and files are on their way! So open the door to a whole new world of communication possibilities. With Mail Manager, nobody's out of reach! Mail Manager Installation Instructions Follow these steps to install Mail Manager. If you have a printer, print these instructions for reference later. 1. Exit from the PRODIGY service 2. Change to the PRODIGY directory if you are not there already: Type cd\Prodigy and then press [ENTER]. 3. Type setup-mm and then press [ENTER]. You will see the software being installed on your computer. 4. Once installation is complete, type PMM and [ENTER]. You will see a welcome window which you can read or print to read later. Press [ESC] to close the window. 5. Enter your PRODIGY service ID and autologon file name (if you have one). If you wish to protect your mailbox with a password, select set password and press [ENTER]. Type a password different from your PRODIGY password. Select OK and press [ENTER]. You are ready to use Mail Manager. Copyright 1993 Prodigy Services Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Conditions for Internet By signing up for Internet, you receive an Internet "address" on PRODIGY that allows you to RECEIVE messages from people who have Internet addresses, including members of most other online services. No additional software is required to RECEIVE Internet messages on PRODIGY. To SEND messages through the Internet (even to other PRODIGY members), as well as transfer files and send faxes and U.S. Postal Service letters, you must also sign up for Mail Manager, which is available separately on PRODIGY. Jump: mmanager to sign up. Fees There are no fees to sign up to receive Internet messages. Fees are based on the size of an Internet message and the number of people to whom each message is sent. Fees and usage are subject to all applicable terms of the PRODIGY Service Member Agreement (to read it, Jump: agreement). The messaging allotments included in certain PRODIGY membership plans do NOT apply to Internet messages. Here are the current fees for Internet messages: Internet COD* $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) Internet send $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) per recipient (requires Mail Manager) *All Internet receives are COD, meaning you have the option to review the ID and subject of each received Internet message in your mailbox at no extra charge before you decide whether to download the message. Internet messages cannot be read online. Note: 3000 characters equal about 1 typed page. Delivery of Messages Internet messages that are addressed to you on PRODIGY are beyond Prodigy's control while traveling through the Internet. Likewise, Internet messages you send (if you have signed up for Mail Manager) are beyond Prodigy's control once delivered into the Internet. Prodigy therefore cannot be responsible for delivery of any Internet messages, even if addressed to other PRODIGY members. There will be no refunds or credits for Internet messages that fail to reach their intended recipients. Sign-up The Membership Holder (the member whose ID ends in "A") can sign up for Internet communications. The Membership Holder may then add or change the ability for other members within a membership to use Internet communications (Mail Manager may be required, as described above). The Membership Holder is responsible for all fees incurred by all IDs in the membership. Prodigy may require a credit card relationship if certain usage levels are exceeded. Important Information The Internet is a large network of computer systems used by millions of people. PRODIGY HAS NO CONTROL OVER THE INTERNET, INCLUDING COMMUNICATIONS THAT TRAVEL THROUGH IT OR THE PEOPLE WHO USE IT. Internet communications are private while traveling through PRODIGY, where they are subject to Prodigy's Policy on Protecting Member Privacy (Jump: privacy to read it), but Prodigy cannot be responsible for the privacy of any communications while in the Internet. Copyright 1993 Prodigy Services Company. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 15:14:13 EDT From: Joshua E. Muskovitz Subject: Correct Sprint Modem Offer Contact I just got a call back from the guy who actually is IN CHARGE of the DVORAK modem offer (which expired October 1) and he told me that he is the person that you should call with questions, not Diane Worthy, whose name I had previously posted. The correct contact is: Shawn Larimer, Program Marketing Support and Implementation, Sprint 816-854-1187 Shawn apologizes in advance for not having an 800 number, and will be glad to call you right back after you call him. He does have voice mail set up on his line, so you can leave him a message if he's not there. Tell him I sent you. Shawn also confirmed the information I sent in my last message, as well as the fact that the modem only goes up to 4800 baud fax receive. Josh Muskovitz ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 17:47 EDT From: kindred@telesciences.com (David L Kindred) Subject: "Interesting" Long Distance Marketing While waiting for lunch today at a local Chinese Take-out place, I was drawn to a counter display (about 10 by 20 inches) offering a chance for a FREE Hawaiian Vacation. At first, I failed to notice the small logo reading "You save 20% on all future Long Distance Calls", and the fact that the contest was from Matrix Telecom. I tore off one of their entry coupons, and gave it a look to find out what I really had to do to earn a chance on the trip. The form wanted my name, address, phone number, and signature. Curiously, both the phone number and signature were specificly marked as required. Then I read the fine print (actually a reasonable size, to their credit, and prefaced by a little pointing hand "dingbat"). This fine print reads: "I understand that I am under no obligation to continue this agreement, and may cancel at any time. I hereby authorize Matrix to act as my agent for long distance conversion on my phone listed above. I may designate only one carrier at a time, and I designate Matrix as my primary Long Distance Provider. Should my local phone company assess a charge for my conversion, Matrix will pay me back if I send a copy to: 1314 S. King St. #605, Honolulu, HI 96814 . Void where prohibited . Odds: 1 in 50,000" What an interesting way to market your long distance service -- as a side line to giving away vacations! I wonder which carrier actually gets your calls after you select Matrix? And whose rates the 20% savings is based on? Dave EMail: kindred@telesciences.com CI$: 72456,3226 (72456.3226@compuserve.com) Phone: +1 609 866 1000 x222 Snail: TeleSciences C O Systems, 351 New Albany Rd, Moorestown, NJ 08057-1177 ------------------------------ From: davidlee@netcom.com (David R. Lee) Subject: Voice Mail Suggestions Request Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:32:34 GMT I am currently looking at purchasing a voice mail system for our company. We have AT&T G1 PBXs networked together with DCS. We'll probably be upgrading these switches to G3i v2 in the near future. We will have 800-1,000 mailboxes with light to medium usage. Do you have any suggestions on what kind of system I should buy? Is AT&Ts AUDIX a good product compared to the rest of the market? Are they pricier? Any input that you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Please reply to this thread or send mail directly to me at davidlee@ netcom.com. David R. Lee davidlee@netcom.com 70242.674@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: Joe.Bergstein@p501.f544.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Bergstein) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 23:45:37 -0500 Subject: Amusing Misdialed Call I thought TELECOM Digest might get a chuckle from incident which occurred to me last week. I was dialing from Maryland area 301 and was trying to reach someone at Microsoft in Redmond Washington. Well I dialed 206-635-xxxx, and the phone rang and was answered with "Citizens Bank, Customer Service". I asked "Is this 206-635-xxxx (the real number I was dialing), and without missing a beat, the bank rep said "Oh you're trying to reach Microsoft ... you forgot to dial the '1' first". I guess Citizens Bank of Maryland (301-206-6xxx numbers) must be getting an awful lot of calls for Microsoft from Washington D.C. area folks forgetting the dial 1 prefix! [Moderator's Note: Mike Royko, a columnist for the {Chicago Tribune} has written in the past about how his number at the newspaper office is the same as a popular number at AT&T but without the 1-800 on the front. His complaint is that he frequently gets calls intended for AT&T on his line instead. His solution? He expects AT&T to change *their* number since people cannot remember to 'dial one eight hundred first' as the instructions in the phone book say to do. Royko is such an idiot, and a crude one at that. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 07:57:51 GMT In article daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) writes: > (EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu) wrote: >> On a similar subject, how (and why) does the Mutual Radio Network >> (news, Larry King, etc.) generate the two note sequence when coming >> from breaks, etc. They've done this for over twenty years, at least. > This is a signal to the automation equipment in stations to start > playing commercials. Many stations use automated cart changers (an > NAB tape cartridge is sort of like an 8-track - endless loop, > self-cueing) to run their commercials and local content during network > feeds. The tone from the network starts the first cart. It has a These are now being replaced with much less expensive automation systems based on hard disk audio. 20 years ago I put in reel to reel and cartridge based radio automation systems. They'd go for close to $50K. Now you get a hard disk automatio system for $10K or so. The tone sequence over satellite networks is (of course) a form of in-band signalling. Some networks use DTMF and some seem to use two tone sequential. Others are using subaudible cues, various frequencies in the 20 to 30 Hz area on left channel, right channel, or both. Some networks (especially those running SCPC or Single Channel Per Carrier) run a data subcarrier above the program audio on one channel or the other. This carries cues for automation plus text for program updates, etc. Those networks running digitized audio can just allocate so many bits per frame to cues, text, or whatever. Harold ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #706 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19759; 17 Oct 93 15:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07396 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 12:35:44 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31544 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 12:35:13 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 12:35:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310171735.AA31544@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #707 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 12:35:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 707 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Long Distance Special Ring (Dave Leibold) Creative Phraud Phoiling? (Elana Beach) Special Accounts Group and& AT&T (Jeff Freeman) Julian Dates (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request (David A. Kaye) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Jeff Freeman) Re: Prodigy Link (Adam Lasnik) Re: Ten Base T (?) Lines (Gary Breuckman) Re: Bell Atlantic / TCI Merge - Competition? (Paul deArmond) Re: Atomic Clocks (Alan E. Frisbie) Correction to Archives File Name (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not entirely -- to discussions on telecommunications in general, and voice telephony in particular. It is published daily, and is reader-written, meaning the people who read it are the people who submit articles to it. The Digest is a not-for-profit activity of Patrick Townson Associates, a telecommunications consulting firm in Chicago, Illinois. PTA markets a variety of telecom-related services including a no-surcharge telephone calling card known as the Orange Card. In addition, we are marketing representatives for AT&T, and US Fibercom, AT&T's largest aggregator/ reseller. Telepassport is our international discount calling plan. Write and ask for our products and services file. TELECOM Digest is distributed free of charge to qualified subscribers anywhere who are reachable by electronic mail via the Internet. In addition, the Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it is known as the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup, a moderated forum. To subscribe, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Back issues and many other files of interest are available free of charge in the Telecom Archives. Internet users with FTP permission may connect via anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then 'cd telecom-archives'. All others are invited to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service by sending email to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. Write and ask for our help guide to using the archives. Over twelve years of telecom news and discussions are stored there. TELECOM Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993 by Patrick Townson Associates. Please request permission before posting Digest articles elsewhere. Net addresses shown are for the sole purpose of facilitating communiciations between our correspondents; not for any sort of mass mailing. The Digest is made possible by the generous support of our friends. Your voluntary contributions in amounts you deem appropriate are greatly appreciated. Your help keeps our $300 per month phone bill paid most of the time. Send Tithes, Love Offerings and other Tokens of Sincerity for our inspection to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 USA. :) Article submissions come to: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu, and if you wish, you may reach us by phone: 312-465-2700 or fax: 312-743-0002. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 04:09:20 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Long Distance Special Ring [From Bell News, Bell Ontario 11 Oct 1993. The following is Bell Canada publicity and does not necessarily mean a unique occurrence in the telecom world.] LD Signal service to be trialed in Lindsay. Bell has filed a letter with the CRTC announcing our intention to conduct a market trial for Long Distance Signal (LD Signal). LD Signal provides a distinctive "long-short-short" ring and call waiting tone to alert residential and single-line business customers of an incoming long distance call. The market trial will take place in Drummondville, Quebec and Lindsay, Ontario from October 16 to December 16, 1993, inclusive. Depending on trial results, LD Signal will be rolled out by Bell and other Stentor members over the next two years. More about LD Signal service: Q. What is Long Distance Signal? A. Long Distance Signal provides a distinctive "long-short-short" ring or call waiting tone through the telephone set to alert residential and single-line business customers of an incoming long distance call. Q. How does it work? A. If the customer's telephone is not engaged, a distinctive "long-short-short" ring announcing the incoming long distance call will be heard. If the customer's telephone is engaged, a similar, distinctive call waiting tone is heard (even if the customer does not subscribe to Call Waiting) twice -- ten seconds apart. If the call is not answered within a 25-second time period, the caller will receive a network announcement indicating the line is busy. The announcement will be followed by a standard busy tone. Q. What are the objectives of the market trial? A. The trial has two main objectives: ** to gather more information about the need for and acceptance of LD Signal. ** to gather long distance call termination information to determine the effect of LD Signal on long distance call completion. Q. What are the customer benefits of this feature? A. Convenience, choice, improved service and cost savings are the main benefits. Convenience because it gives the customer valuable information not otherwise received. Long distance calls tend to have higher perceived value over local calls. Choice because the activate or de-activate capability means the customer chooses whem and if the feature is to be used. Improved service because non-Call Waiting, single-line business customers are provided greater call completion opportunities and therefore, better customer service. And finally, cost savings, because fewer long distance calls will need to be returned. Q. Why were Drummondville, Quebec and Lindsay, Ontario chosen for the market trials? A. Drummondville and Lindsay both have a small population and are fairly removed from large, urban centres thus giving greater management and control capabilities to the communications function and activities that will take place throughout the trial. Both locations also have a good mixture of Calling Feature and non-Calling Feature subscribers, which helps Bell gather essential data. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ From: elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) Subject: Creative Phraud Phoiling? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 16:33:06 GMT Hmpf. How about a creative idea for phoiling phrauds? Provide customers with some kind of false card and PIN number. The false number is actually some sort of flag or booby trap. When a possible fraud calls for your card number, give him the false one. When the @$$%! uses the phalse number, the long-distance company's computer is instantly alerted to the originating phone number as a possible fraud in progress. What could the false number be? Heck if I know. Your PIN number spelled backwards?? Yup, I can see the commercials now ... "If someone call you on the phone and asks you for your phonecard number FOR ANY REASON, give your PIN number backwards. Then alert your long-distance company. If the call was legit, no problem. If the call was fraudulent, your long-distance company will appreciate you for possibly helping to catch a criminal." I am as non-tech as non-tech can get (while still loving computers and the net) so please don't ask me about the technical specifics of how this plan would work. If it's feasible, someone who speaks tech could make it work. HOWEVER ... if this is useful, it would be fun to give the criminals a bit of a pause ... is the number he just social-engineered out of someone a real one or a booby trap??? If the system uses a backwards PIN number as the flag, he would never know until it's too late. Hmmmm ... brainstorm continues ... allow a set limited number of calls on a flag phonecard number, and then ... I'll leave the rest of this brainstorm up to you guys. Regards, Elana ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 11:28:34 -0400 Subject: Special Accounts Group and AT&T From: jfreeman@porch.com (Jeff Freeman) Reply-To: jfreeman@porch.com I had an interesting call the other day from a woman (supervisor) who said AT&T had a special deal they were offering their customers. They would be lowering my LD rates by an average of 20%. Tough to disagree with that. She would be faxing me a sheet to fill out and fax back. The fax was four pages. Cover sheet, two AT&T SDN ads, and a sheet requesting info and agreement that the Special Accounts Group would be handling our LD. Whoa ... time to study this offer more carefully. No address to be found. Only two toll free numbers (voice and fax). While they attempt to come off as AT&T reps it's obvious they are resellers of AT&T service. I didn't fill out the form and figured on a call back. When the lady called the next day I told her I needed more information. She seemed a bit disgusted that 20% savings (20% of WHAT?) wasn't all I needed to sign the paper. I told her that we used more carriers than AT&T so I wanted to see comparisions of the rates with other LD carrier plans or a copy of their interstate rates based on time of day and mileage. She promised she'd get the information right to me ... haven't seen it yet. Doubt I will. They want easy customers. Jeff Freeman 1-800-GO-PORCH Toll-Free Front Porch Computers 1-706-695-1888 4742 Highway 52 Alt. 1-706-695-1990 Chatsworth, GA 30705 75260,21 Compuserve ID # ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 10:18:19 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Julian Dates I have a FORTRAN program that computes the Julian Date since January 1, 4713 B.C. which I think has some historical significance in either Chinese or Jewish cultures but I'm not sure. I'd be willing to share the program with anyone if they will send me email to any of the addresses below (they all end up at the same place). 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: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request Date: 17 Oct 1993 03:53:29 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access David R. Lee (davidlee@netcom.com) wrote: > I am currently looking at purchasing a voice mail system for our > company. I'm sure others will scream at me for this suggestion, but why not call Centigram in San Jose. I've installed and maintained some of their systems and have had good results with them and precious little downtime. Centigram makes the VoiceMemo brand, often used by public vendors like Amvox (!), American Voicemail, American Message Centers, etc. Also, they have the most incredibly EASY key layout: Press P to play the message, K to keep it, D to discard it, etc. And this same kind of keypadding works on all levels: message playback, outgoing greetings, distribution lists (for broadcasting messages to groups), etc. The VoiceMemo runs in its own little UNIX box and takes up no more room than a PC (not including an interface to your own phone system, of course.) After having worked with their system for a couple years and using voicemail acocunts on their boxes for about five years now, I don't see how anyone can go back to Audix or that horrendous Octel Aspen system. (I'm sorry, but 90% of the Aspen features are not used by people and they just make things more difficult to learn -- and they've never heard of mneumonics.) [Okay, now dump all over me!] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 11:28:26 -0400 Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? From: jfreeman@porch.com (Jeff Freeman) Reply-To: jfreeman@porch.com oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes a very good article on travelling with telecom gear. But: > Many countries use a voltage about double that of the US but with the > same frequency, 60 Hz. Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where the normal domestic supply is 240/60. Brazil has quite a few cities with 220v 60 Hz. The Leeward Islands has 230v 60 Hz power. Most of the cities in Peru are 220v and 60 Hz. > If you are in a 50-Hz country (e.g. Japan) and have a device that > says ... > Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 > Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have > worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. Maybe so but Japan has both 50Hz and 60Hz power <100/200v> depending on the city you are in. I knew I'd get some use from that "Electric Current Abroad" book I picked up a while back. Jeff Freeman 1-800-GO-PORCH Toll-Free Front Porch Computers 1-706-695-1888 4742 Highway 52 Alt. 1-706-695-1990 Chatsworth, GA 30705 75260,21 Compuserve ID # ------------------------------ From: alasnik@merle.acns.nwu.edu (Adam Lasnik) Subject: Re: Prodigy Link Date: 17 Oct 93 15:14:07 GMT Reply-To: keys@nwu.edu >> Incoming email messages should not exceed 60,000 bytes, or they will >> be returned to the sender. This is no longer the case. The limit has been expanded to one megabyte. Also, the main administrator in charge of the Mail Manager (offline mail system) has stated that he intends to make the pricing more competitive once the product comes out of beta. Adam "Keys" Lasnik ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Ten Base T (?) Lines Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 16:42:23 GMT In article goodwid@prism.cs.orst.edu (David Goodwin) writes: > Hello. Recently, the University I attend installed new wiring in the > residence hall I live in. This new wiring consited of a standard > phone line, a co-axial cable TV line, and something called a 'ten base > t' line, which I know nothing about. > Anyway, it would be most appreciated if some could relate to me just > exactly what a ten base t line is and how I could take advantage of it > with an IBM-PC. Thanks. 10Base-T is an ethernet standard. It amounts to 10Mb/sec on twisted pair. To use it with a pc, you need a "NIC" (network interface card) that installs in your pc expansion slot, and appropriate software. What software you need depends on what this network is connected to. It could be a Novell network, in which case you would need Novell client software (often comes with your network card, but in any case is free) and an account to log onto the server. If the connection is to Internet, you would need a packet driver (may come with your network card) and TCP/IP software (NCSA telnet is free). The network cards run from about $60 for a generic to $120 or so for a name brand card with multiple interfaces (so-called combo cards, with 10Base-T, thin net, and AUI). You need to talk with the person in charge of the Network. Many buildings are pre-wired for future expansion, there may be nothing on the other end of the wire! puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: paulf@henson.cc.wwu.edu (Paul deArmond) Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic / TCI Merge - Competition? Organization: Western Washington University Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 14:49:02 GMT birchall@pilot.njin.net (Shag) writes: > Though I support this merge (I'm a big fan of Bell Atlantic, > particularly since they're feverishly working to put fiber-optics and > ISDN all over the place here in New Jersey :) I'm a little worried > about how this will relate to a traditional multi-level competition > scheme, and how it will relate to the recent legal decision allowing > RBOCs to _provide_ video. > As I understood it (from reading about the French implementation of > ISDN, and from reading about the legal decision and other ISDN-related > things here in the US), the RBOCs themselves would continue to be > regional carriers as they are now, but expand _what_ they carry to > include video and such, thus enabling suppliers of video (ie, CATV > companies) to offer their services across the RBOC's networks (or even > across LD networks between RBOCs), reaching more consumers and > sparking more competition. > If Bell Atlantic and TCI merge, the line between the "carrier" and the > "provider" gets blurred or erased. Will the resulting company allow > the signals of other video providers to be made available over its > network? (Or, looking at it from the other side -- is there any way > they can prevent it?) I'm sure the merge will make it easier for them > to undercut the prices of other video providers, since Bell Atlantic > (as the carrier) will be getting a cut of the other guy's prices > anyway. > Any thoughts out there on this? I don't even _have_ cable, so it's > not really affecting me ... but there are 90-some strands of Bell > Atlantic fiber strung outside my house, and it's getting very tempting > to hook up. One very real concern in among multi-media developers is that the current direction of telecommunications policy will restrict rather than widen competition among content providers. With the recent advances in digital video processing and the incredible price drop in low end equipment, there is the possibility of explosive growth in low-end video production. This could very well be as widespread as the impact of desk-top publishing has been over the last ten years. The bottleneck for this new sector is the high cost and relative scarcity of distribution channels. Current Hi-8 and S-VHS technology is more than adequate for many purposes. The rapid drop in post-production equipment will open up a tremendous market for content that is directed at small markets. As an example of what is happening, look at the recent prices of low end video switchers (mixers) and effects generators. Four years ago, the very low-end equipment cost was around $10 - $12K, there are now units with equivalent capacity for under $2K, with further declines in prices expected to continue. The 3DO box (a home multi-media appliance) is able to do very sophisticated real-time video processing, (equivalent to a Video Toaster according to some sources). It is priced well under $1K. Similar things are happening with digital video editing, where the video signal is stored either in RAM, or on high-capacity disk drives. All of these changes are economic, not technical. the situation is very similar to the impact of laser-printers on photo-typesetting, or VCRs on reel to reel video recorders. The result is that video production is poised for a period of tremendous expansion if distribution costs don't form a barrier. If the telcom and cable mergers inhibit the growth of common-carrier video, or widely available upstream access, this could choke a whole new economic sector at birth. The cable companies have not been eager to provide two-way full bandwidth capacity to homes (possibly because of the added cost of switching equipment.) The RBOCs have been very hesitant in the area of two-way video dial-tone services. The mergers will divert large amounts of capital that could be used to expand infrastructure into debt-servicing and other financing costs. I fear that the net result of large mergers will be a slow-down in the development of public high-bandwidth service. The rationale behind most mergers is to limit competition and reduce the pressure for change. Before everybody starts to party in the streets, the implications of the mergers need to be fully thought out. I suspect that we will see an increase in inertia and foot-dragging as a result of the elimination of competitive pressures through consolidation. This would be a real pity, because we would be throwing away a tremendous opportunity, by avoiding some short term risk. Paul de Armond ------------------------------ From: Alan Frisbie Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Date: 17 Oct 93 09:35:05 PDT Organization: Flying Disk Systems, Inc. In article > Hope this isn't too off-subject, but could you tell us what generated > the NBC chimes? I'm sure that in later years it was just a cart, but > it never sounded like "real" chimes (like the way orchestra bells or a > xylophone or something would sound). I've heard that in the '20s there > was actually a mechanical device which generated the tones -- sort of a > cylinder which rotated with a microphone in the middle. Any clarifica- > tion on this would be most appreciated! I have another question about the NBC chimes. Many years ago, my father told me that there was an additional (fourth) tone that was seldom heard. If sounded, it was a signal to all NBC employees that, "Something important is happening. Get to your job ASAP". Does anyone know if this is just a wild story or did it really exist? Alan E. Frisbie Frisbie@Flying-Disk.Com Flying Disk Systems, Inc. 4759 Round Top Drive (213) 256-2575 (voice) Los Angeles, CA 90065 (213) 258-3585 (FAX) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 12:24:25 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Correction to Archives File Name I recently mentioned a new file in the Telecom Archives dealing with Slip setups ... unfortunatly it went in the Archives under one name and in the announcement here under another :( .... Try 'technical/slip.setup.server.machine' when requesting the file, or just the short form 'slip.setup.server.machine' should work also. Sorry if you tried to pull the file and got back a 'no such file name in the Archives' notice. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #707 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08114; 19 Oct 93 17:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28649 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 19 Oct 1993 12:39:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25251 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 19 Oct 1993 12:39:04 -0500 Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 12:39:04 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310191739.AA25251@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #708 TELECOM Digest Tue, 19 Oct 93 12:39:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 708 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson 1994 Int'l Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems (Mike Christel) IBT to Ameritech Transition (John J. Butz) CCS7 Statistics (Justin Strong) NTSC and 50Hz (Peter Leif Rasmussen) Colorado/Front Range VR (Rick Duffy) Call Waiting as New Service in France? (Christian Weisgerber) Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? (Nathan Lane) Telecommunications in Nepal (David Walker) UNISYS Wins $1.4M Network Application Platform Order (Randy Gellens) Notice, Advisory and Disclaimer on Lists and Groups (Paul Robinson) ---------------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not entirely -- to discussions on telecommunications in general, and voice telephony in particular. It is published daily, and is reader-written, meaning the people who read it are the people who submit articles to it. The Digest is a not-for-profit activity of Patrick Townson Associates, a telecommunications consulting firm in Chicago, Illinois. PTA markets a variety of telecom-related services including a no-surcharge telephone calling card known as the Orange Card. In addition, we are marketing representatives for AT&T, and US Fibercom, AT&T's largest aggregator/ reseller. Telepassport is our international discount calling plan. Write and ask for our products and services file. TELECOM Digest is distributed free of charge to qualified subscribers anywhere who are reachable by electronic mail via the Internet. In addition, the Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it is known as the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup, a moderated forum. To subscribe, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Back issues and many other files of interest are available free of charge in the Telecom Archives. Internet users with FTP permission may connect via anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then 'cd telecom-archives'. All others are invited to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service by sending email to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. Write and ask for our help guide to using the archives. Over twelve years of telecom news and discussions are stored there. TELECOM Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993 by Patrick Townson Associates. Please request permission before posting Digest articles elsewhere. Net addresses shown are for the sole purpose of facilitating communiciations between our correspondents; not for any sort of mass mailing. The Digest is made possible by the generous support of our friends. Your voluntary contributions in amounts you deem appropriate are greatly appreciated. Your help keeps our $300 per month phone bill paid most of the time. Send Tithes, Love Offerings and other Tokens of Sincerity for our inspection to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 USA. :) Article submissions come to: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu, and if you wish, you may reach us by phone: 312-465-2700 or fax: 312-743-0002. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mac@sei.cmu.edu (Michael Christel) Subject: 1994 Int'l Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems Organization: The Software Engineering Institute Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 10:15:07 EDT CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 1994 International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems Sponsored by The IEEE Computer Society's Task Force on Multimedia Computing May 14-19, 1994 Copley Plaza Hotel Boston, Massachusetts, USA Conference Chair: Laszlo A. Belady, Mitsubishi Electric Research, USA Program Co-Chairs: Scott M. Stevens, Carnegie Mellon University, USA and Ralf Steinmetz, IBM European Network Center, Germany Multimedia systems are expected to result in the convergence of consumer electronics, computers and communications. Their applications will transform how people work, learn and play. This conference, sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and its Task Force on Multimedia Computing, offers a world class forum for practicing engineers and researchers to report on and exchange the latest ideas in this exciting field. Immediately preceding the conference, tutorials will provide opportunities for interaction with experts in the related fields. Through this call for papers, the organizers seek contributions of high quality papers and proposals for panels or tutorials. The field of multimedia is still evolving, hence the scope of the conference is broad. We anticipate papers covering many aspects of the transmission, processing, and use of multimedia information. We encourage submissions which describe work -- finished or in progress, practical development or theory -- on the following or related subjects: Systems Network architecture Hardware architecture Operating systems Distributed systems Database and information systems Techniques Video compression and processing Real-time scheduling Human-computer interaction Programming paradigms Content-based retrieval Applications Capture and creation of content Synthetic information and video generation Modeling and simulation Human learning Mobile computing Group collaboration Video dialtone PAPERS AND PANEL PROPOSALS Authors are requested to submit six copies of the manuscript (maximum of 20 pages) including abstract and keywords by Nov. 15, 1993. Final papers are restricted to eight IEEE model pages. Each paper must be accompanied by a submission letter that indicates the most relevant one or two conference areas and primary author contact information including: postal address, email address, telephone and Fax numbers. Exceptional papers will be recommended for publication in the IEEE Multimedia Magazine. The use of prototypes and demonstration video for final presentations is encouraged. Important Dates: ---------------- Nov. 15, 1993: All submissions due Jan. 15, 1994: Notification of acceptance Feb. 15, 1994: Final manuscripts due Submit all papers and panel proposals to: Scott M. Stevens Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15313 USA email: sms@sei.cmu.edu Phone: 412 268-7796 Fax : 412 268-5758 TUTORIALS In addition to papers, proposals for one and two day tutorials are solicited in any of the conference areas. Proposals should include the conference area, a summary of the content, schedule, and a brief summary about the instructors' backgrounds. If more than one instructor, include the postal address, postal address, email address, telephone and fax numbers of the one who will handle conference correspondence. Proposals should be submitted by Nov. 15, 1993. Submit tutorial proposals to: Erich J. Neuhold GMD-IPSI / Technische Hochschule Darmstadt Dolivostr. 15 P.O. Box 10 43 26 6100 Darmstadt Germany email: neuhold@darmstadt.gmd.de Phone: +49 6151 869-802 Fax : +49 6151 869-818 ORGANIZING AND PROGRAM COMMITTEES Conference Chair: Laszlo A. Belady, Mitsubishi Electric Research, USA Program Co-Chairs: Scott M. Stevens, Carnegie Mellon University, USA and Ralf Steinmetz, IBM European Network Center, Germany Tutorial Chair: Erich Neuhold, T.H. Darmstadt, Germany Reg. & Finance Chair: Joseph Boykin, GTE Laboratories, USA Local Arr. Chair: Michael Bove, MIT Media Lab, USA Publicity Chair: John Buford, UMass Lowell, USA Exhibits Chair: William Lambert, Horizon Research, USA Publication Chair: Tibor Vais, Compuserve, USA Program Committee: Joseph Boykin, GTE Laboratories, USA John F. Buford, Univ. of Massachusetts Lowell, USA Michael Christel, Carnegie Mellon Univ., USA Roger Dannenberg, Carnegie Mellon Univ., USA Martin Fruehauf, ZGDV Darmstadt, Germany Nicolas Georganas, Univ. of Ottawa, Canada Bernd Girod, U. of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany Christoph Hornung, FHG Darmstadt, Germany Tadao Ichikawa, Hiroshima University, Japan Wolfgang Klas, GMD Darmstadt, Germany Andrew Lippman, MIT Media Lab, USA Thomas D.C. Little, Boston University,USA Peiya Liu, Siemens, USA Mark Miller, Apple, USA Darren New, Bellcore, USA Radu Popescu-Zeletin, GMD-Fokus, Germany Arturo Rodriguez, Kaleida, USA Masao Sakauchi, University of Tokyo, Japan Elliot Soloway, University of Michigan, USA Arun Sood, George Mason University, USA Otto Spaniol, RWTH Aachen, Germany ICMCS '94 1994 International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems SPONSORED BY THE IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY Task Force on Multimedia Computing ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 12:10:19 EDT From: jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John J Butz +1 908 949 5302) Subject: IBT to Ameritech Transition The "billboard painter" on the Ameritech/Illinois Bell Billboard which grace the shoulders of some of Chicagoland's *finest* tollways, is almost finished! The "painter," actually an overall clad, stuffed dummy on a ladder has been "painting over" the old Illinois Bell logo, with the new Ameritech logo. It has taken she/him/it several weeks to accomplish this feat and it was a fairly clever marketing gimick. Now is this rebranding really just a gimick or is it intendend bring about something beneficial? Could you imagine if Ameritech ran their business like the Illinois tollway system? You would find payphones to be like tollboths, each with a different price, some $0.15, some $0.25, others might be $0.40, $0.50, or even $0.90! Your home phone would be like some of the construction here, workers would show up everyday for several years and move the phone from one room to another and surround it with pylons. The exit signs would be as misleading as those mysterious line items on your bill. Sure it says right lane for 88 West, but the right lane is behind a temporary divider and there's just no way you could have made that call. You might be able to drive for a 1/2 mile or so on newly paved, "static free" surface only to be interrupted by 10 miles of noise spikes, pot-holes, cut-offs, groved pavement, and uneven surfaces, where the right side of the car is 6dB lower the left side. I'll be glad to return to my native New Jersey Bell, ooops, I mean Bell Atlantic-NJ (LD provided by AT&T of course), and the ever popular New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. J Butz jbutz@hogpa.att.com AT&T - CCS ------------------------------ From: strong@mprgate.mpr.ca (Justin Strong) Subject: CCS7 Statistics Organization: MPR Teltech Ltd., Burnaby, B.C., Canada Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 20:09:19 GMT I am trying to get information on what CCS7 performance statistics would be usef ul for real-time network management. I realize that this is a fairly broad area but I would be interested to hear about any experience with using CCS7 stats or what people's opinions are of what would be useful. I have read several papers on the subject, however, they were mostly written fro m the ivory tower point of view. I have found that the CCITT and Bellcore recomm endations include far too many statistics to be useful in a real-time environment (yes, I realize that not all stats are appropriate for real-time management). I will summarize to individuals that request it. Thanks in advance, Justin Strong ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 10:25:34 JST From: plr@ichigo.os.nasu.toshiba.co.jp (Peter Leif Rasmussen (SY-Gi)) Subject: NTSC and 50Hz As I live in Japan, I get curious when I read the following: Tony Harminc wrote: > Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz > countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where > the normal domestic supply is 240/60. >> If you are in a 50-Hz country (e.g. Japan) and have a device that says ... > Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 > Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have > worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. When Tony Harminc so surely writes that NTSC would never have worked in a 50Hz area, I would like to know why? Japan is a 50Hz _and_ a 60 Hz area. The east is 50Hz and the west is 60Hz (the parting line is about the city Nagoya I think). Surely the television system is NTSC and the voltage is 100V. Peter Leif Rasmussen ------------------------------ From: duffy@pogo.den.mmc.com (Rick Duffy) Subject: Colorado/Front Range VR Organization: DenVR Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 14:09:51 GMT A N N O U N C E M E N T T O D e n v e r F r o n t - R a n g e V i r t u a l R e a l i t y S t u d en t s a n d P r o f e s s i o n a l s October 19, 1993 There is currently an effort to form a virtual-reality special interest group for students and professionals in the Colorado front-range area. This is an independant effort, with no affiliation with any company or other organization. As this group is formed, it will be up to the members as to whether they want to become "attached" to some other entity (e.g., the IEEE, the VRASP group, etc.). The goals will be along the lines of information exchange, education, and exploration. There is currently no structure in place for this group (other than a handful of people who felt this might be a good thing to start) - this will also all be decided by the members. The purpose of this posting is to determine if there is interest along the front-range for such a group as this. If so, please send email to me (Rick Duffy) at duffy@pogo.den.mmc.com. Also, if you know of others who do not have email, but might be interested, please pass this post on to them, and respond via email in their stead. I will collect all responses, let all the respondees know the reults (in a couple weeks), and try to organize a meeting (if the response warrants it) to decide where we want to go from here. Sincerely, Rick Duffy Martin Marietta Astronautics duffy@pogo.den.mmc.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 21:58:08 +0100 From: naddy@ruessel.sub.org (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: Call Waiting as New Service in France? I've just seen a commercial on French TV (TF1) where a well-known French actor advertised Call Waiting for France Telecom. So, I wonder ... - Is this a new service in France? - Cost? - Availability? Would one of our French readers comment, please? Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@ruessel.sub.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 20:07:36 -0700 From: nathan@seldon.foundation.tricon.com Subject: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? I need to know if anyone has any sources for type 101 or type 66 punchdown blocks (along with the special tool for the type 66) and 25/50 pair solid core copper wire. The last time my phone guy was out here, I asked if I could have 50 ft. or so of 25 pair cable and he said "help yourself", which was great, but he wouldn't give me any punchdown blocks (understandable!) I've got 12 pair coming into my house right now and I'm getting tired of demarc box after demarc box after demarc box placed on the eaves of my roof! (I also want to wire RS/232 terminals and other such things to a central point). Sources for the 25/50 pair would also be helpful, as I have since run out. I've called a variety of electronics places around here and they say "a what?" and then tell me to call the phone company. I noticed one poster mentioned GTE's surplus place, but he gave no phone number. In desperation, I'll snag one of the abandoned in place ones from work, but I don't think the building owner would be happy if he needed it! (GTE just redid all of the demarcs in the county, and officially abandoned all inside wiring, except for residential customers in units <=2 (i.e., duplexes)). Thanks for any information on this topic! Nathan Lane Triicon Systems, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA ------------------------------ From: David Walker Subject: Telecommunications in Nepal Date: Mon, 18 Oct 93 19:43:18 PDT I am a grad student looking for info on telecommunications in the country of Nepal. Are there any reports that anyone could tell me about in the research I am undertaking? Is there a database that can be searched for info of this nature? Thanks, David Walker ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 18 OCT 93 17:44 Subject: UNISYS Wins $1.4M Network Application Platform Order I thought readers might be interested in the following announcement I saw recently: UNISYS WINS $1.4M NETWORK APPLICATION PLATFORM (NAP) ORDER IN ARGENTINA Unisys announced that Movistar, a private cellular phone provider in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has placed an order for the country's first Unisys Network Application Platform (NAP). The $1.4 million solution will provide Movistar with an integrated hardware and software environment specifically enhanced for telecommunications applications. According to Elias de la Cruz, President, Movistar, "The Unisys system was chosen for its inherent ability to support multiple applications, handle a large number of calls and deliver the high level of service Movistar customers expect." Initially, the new NAP system will provide 30,000 Movistar customers with call answer, voice mail and call notification. These services will be followed by a wide range of products and services such as fax messaging, automated attendant and interactive voice response. Movistar plans to serve up to 60,000 subscribers on the NAP system. Based on a Unisys A 11 enterprise server and utilizing specialized network and voice-interface modules, NAP provides Movistar an advanced development environment in Unisys LINC, fourth-generation language. This open-systems environment interfaces with databases from information suppliers providing a comprehensive range of audiotext and interactive voice-response systems. Movistar was established in March, 1993 as a subsidiary of Telecom and Telefonica, the two companies that control telecommunications in Argentina. Eight of America's 10 largest phone companies call on Unisys to execute millions of mission-critical transactions daily. Thirty-five of the world's largest telecommunications companies also rely on Unisys to deliver innovative new sources of revenue. NAP provides cost-effective solutions for the rapid introduction of voice messaging, fax mail, enhanced 911 capability, and other market- sensitive offerings. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 01:12:58 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Notice, Advisory and Disclaimer on Lists and Groups Notice, Advisory and Disclaimer: Be advised that when you subscribe to a Bitnet or in some cases, Internet mailing list, if the list is public, unless you say otherwise, anyone on Internet can find out who subscribes to that list. If the mailing software makes a mistake, it may hand someone the entire list of all subscribers even if your identity is not supposed to be disclosed. If you send ('post') a message (or a reply to an earlier message) to the mailing list's publication address (or post a message to a newsgroup), you are consenting to give your message (and with your Personal Name and E-Mail address) publicly to everyone who subscribes to it. This may include remailing services that "explode" a message, news group exchangers that post messages to or from Usenet News Groups to/from mailing lists, archivers that store messages, and even to processors that copy all public messages to CD-ROM. Rumor has it the U.S. National Security Agency has computers that monitor Internet mailing lists and news groups looking for "suspicious messages" as well. By posting a message to a list, the chances are good to excellent that your message will be stored permanently. Readers may copy your message to their own disk storage for reference or sites may archive messages posted to newsgroups and mailing lists, and some sites route Internet messages to printers or fax machines. Some people may repost your message to a different group even despite any request on your part or without your consent, if they think more (other) people should see it. While under most countries laws copyright exists from the moment of creation, assume anything you post on a news group or mailing list will be treated as if it is in the public domain. The managers and operators of a list or newsgroup have no capability to control this and by posting a message you are essentially consenting to having your message be around potentially forever. Be advised also that under both major international copyright treaties (Universal and Berne) someone may copy your message as part of theirs in order to quote it to respond to it; this is legal, is an integral part of the Internet culture, and there is no right under law you can have to prevent it even if you were to explicitly claim copyright on your message. Also, any claims or statements made in a message should be taken only as the personal opinion of the writer (without regard to the organization their messages come from) unless they explicitly declare this to be the position of a company or organization. If you have something personal to say in response to someone, be absolutely certain your message is sent only in private mail to them. You should assume that anything you write in a public message should be considered in the same light as if it was going to be printed on the front page of the {International Herald Tribune}, {New York Times} or {Jerusalem Post}. Please feel free to recirculate this notice. Paul Robinson, Tansin A. Darcos & Company October 18, 1993 [Moderator's Note: Thanks for sending along this rather chilling reminder. I've always *attempted* to keep the telecom mailing lists private out of courtesy to the people listed therein, but there have been occassions in the past when the list was ripped off. There are IMHO, poorly documented ways to trick the mailing software at a remote site into revealing the names on a mailing list unless the owner of the list (for example, this Digest) takes precautions against it. The lists here are now protected by not being kept where the mail software can find them except for the few seconds needed to copy them into the mailqueue. The script shoves the lists out one at a time where the mailer can see them, lets the mailer have each list as the queue empties of the one before it, then yanks it back and puts it away in a (relatively) protected area. I say 'relatively protected' since of course accounts can also be broken into. Any enterprising and crafty person can simply grep the contents of each issue of the Digest looking at the names of the article authors and obtain quite a list of names -- at least of the active writers in the Digest if not the large number who only read without writing. This is rather unethical, IMHO, and in response, the Digest is compilation copyrighted which means simply that you cannot compile your own lists based on my compilations and use them for your gain. The trouble with this is that reptiles have no sense of copyright law or interest in obeying it. An alternative would be to print the writer's *names only* and eliminate the net address part, forcing replies to writers to be sent through the Digest. I don't want to do that, and I don't want to do anything which hinders the flow of communication between writers who chose to respond direct to each other. The result then is that despite copyright law and despite general net prohibitions against compiling lists of names for junk mail, political, and flaming pur- poses, it will happen. As Paul points out, people *do* read what you write, and make their little lists accordingly. If you receive unwanted mail which you suspect was generated as a result of your name appear- ing in an article here, please let me know, and be assured that the mailing lists themselves are NEVER sold, rented, given away for free or otherwise put out for examination. Of course, that doesn't stop some people ... :( PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #708 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11918; 20 Oct 93 5:33 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15906 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:02:46 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29126 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:02:13 -0500 Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:02:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310200802.AA29126@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #709 TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Oct 93 03:02:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 709 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (Mark Chartrand) Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (David Breneman) Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (Andrew M. Dunn) Re: Atomic Clocks (John R. Bruni) Re: Atomic Clocks (Paul S. Sawyer) Re: Capacity of Area Code (Monty Solomon) Re: Capacity of Area Code (Rob Boudrie) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Martin McCormick) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request (Kath Mullholand) Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request (Jim Ferguson) Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? (Tony Harminc) Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? (technews@iitmax.iit.edu) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mrc@access.digex.net (mark chartrand) Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions Date: 20 Oct 1993 00:49:28 -0400 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA In article , David A. Kaye wrote: > George Hannah (george.hannah@cld9.com) wrote: >> 49273 286 143645 UTC >> I understand the 286 is the day_of_year, and the 143645 is the hour, >> but the 49273 means nothing. > The first number is called the Julian Date, meaning the number of days > which have passed since a time before recorded history when a whole > bunch of astronomical things coincided, like a solstice, eclipse, and > whatever. Actually, it's only the last part of the Julian date. I > think there are about four or five digits missing (though nobody uses > them). You may not be aware of it, but your computer ALSO may have > its own Julian Date in it. On IBM-PC compatible computers a couple > memory registers keep track of how many days have elapsed since > 1/1/1980. A simple "MOD 7" command in BASIC with this number can > indicate what day of the week any particular date falls on. > How to convert 49273 to current date? Hmm. Well, if 49273 is today > (in GMT, of course) then you know where to start! 49274 would be > tommorow, etc. Not quite. There is very frequent confusion with "Julian" terms. The number referred to here is the Modified Julian Day Number, which is a version of the Julian Day Number, which is the number of the day beginning at noon on January 1, 4713 BCE. It is NOT a Julian Date, which is a day (with month/day/year) in the Julian calendar. The latter was proposed by Sosigenes and proclaimed by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE. The Julian calendar (Julian dates) were in use until 1582 when Catholic countries adopted (per papal fiat) the Gregorian Calendar (other places adopted it later: the U.K and American Colonies in 1752; Russia in 1917). Julian DATES and Julian DAYS have nothing to do with one another. For more info on why 4713, check a good encyclopedia. Mark Chartrand mrc@digex.net ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions Date: 19 Oct 93 20:19:34 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA George Hannah (george.hannah@cld9.com) wrote: > I recently found out about the US Naval observatory, which one can > call and get the current date via modem. The format of the date, > however eludes me. When I called on Oct. 13, I got the following: > 49273 286 143645 UTC > I understand the 286 is the day_of_year, and the 143645 is the hour, > but the 49273 means nothing. For a more user-friendly readout, call 303 494-4774 (1200 baud). When the connection starts, enter "?" for the help file. Better have a printing terminal or screen grabber, though, since it's about 2-1/2 pages. Even at 1200 baud it's a little fast to read. It gives information about upcoming leap-seconds and stuff like that. One full 80-character line per second. David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ From: amdunn@mongrel.adscorp.on.ca (Andrew M. Dunn) Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions Organization: A. Dunn Systems Corporation, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 16:05:31 GMT In article michael.clays@cld9.com (Michael Clays) writes: > George Hannah spake unto All on 10-13-93: >> out there know what the UTC means? > Universal Time Coordinated, or some such thing I think. The UTC abbreviation is from the French, not the English, for the same reason that CCITT is. The standards body speaks French. It stands for Universelle Temps Coordinate. Which when transmogrified into English is Universal Coordinated Time. And writing it 'Z' (or 'Zulu' when spoken) is much faster. Thus 2345Z, instead of 11:45 p.m. GMT. Andy Dunn or ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 15:01:14 PDT From: John R. Bruni Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks In Article , Alan Frisbie wrote: > In article >> Hope this isn't too off-subject, but could you tell us what generated >> the NBC chimes? Sorry, can't answer that one, but I can fill in a surprising bit of trivia. The pitch sequence was G-E-C which stood for General Electric Corporation, an early owner of NBC. NBC Network TV is owned by GE today, and they're busily destroying the child they helped spawn. > I have another question about the NBC chimes. Many years ago, my > father told me that there was an additional (fourth) tone that was > seldom heard. If sounded, it was a signal to all NBC employees that, > "Something important is happening. Get to your job ASAP". Does > anyone know if this is just a wild story or did it really exist? I'd like to know the answer to this too. I *can* tell you that all radio studios had, as part of the aforementioned intercom box, a closed-circuit intercom system. On a news alert, tones would be fed down the line that activated a buzzer and light to let the staff know something was afoot. A "Code 2" advisory was a mandatory interrupt ... programming would cease ... the announcers would tell listeners to standby for a special bulletin. While there were a fair amount of these alerts, as well as code 3 and so forth, I never heard of a "Code 1." I used to joke that we never got Code 1 alerts because it meant the end of the world was coming and no alert would be needed -- everyone would know about it at the same time. This is fairly far off the topic of this conference, so please accept my apologies for that ... but of course, if one studies the history of radio, it soon becomes apparent that long-line telephone links were what made the radio networks feasible ... ------------------------------ From: paul@senex.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Date: 19 Oct 1993 17:32:21 GMT Organization: UNH Telecommunications and Network Services I can remember touring the NBC studios in NYC in the mid-50's, when I was about 10-12, and we were shown a 3-bar xylophone and told ~"... here is how we make our famous chime ..." and then the guide played the tones, just like on TV! For a while after that, I thought that was how they did it, though I suppose in the earlier days of NBC Radio, that would have been exactly how they did it. I don't know exactly when this was, but we could watch J. Fred Muggs from the sidewalk window on the Today Show. Paul S. Sawyer - University of New Hampshire CIS - Paul.Sawyer@UNH.Edu Telecommunications and Network Services VOX: +1 603 862 3262 50 College Road FAX: +1 603 862 2030 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 22:53:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code In comp.dcom.telecom article Lars Poulsen wrote: > AT&T, as mentioned, use 700 for Easy-Reach. The Alliance conference > system is also reached in this way. And as mentioned, 1-700-555-4141 > reaches a recording to inform you of the carrier name. Which, if you > did not dial a carrier selection code, will be your PIC (Preferred IXC > or "your dial-1-carrier"). Many times I reach the AT&T operator instead of a recording when I dial 1-700-555-4141 from a payphone. I have observed that many New England Telephone payphones incorrectly state the long distance carrier. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code Organization: Center For High Perf. Computing of WPI; Marlboro Ma Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 15:14:42 GMT > 200 Some BOCs use for testing > 211 COCOT Customer Service > 311 TDD services in some areas (I believe 911 for TDD) > 700 Long-Distance Carrier specific (AT&T runs EasyReach this way) > 811 BOC/LEC Customer Service Let's not forget: 411 Some areas use for local directory assistance 611 Some areas use for repair service 710 Pseudo "Area code" usable only by people the government considers special and important (phones must be enabled). Detailed info on 710 appears to be largely unavailable. ------------------------------ From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? Organization: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 18:45:15 GMT In article Tony Harminc writes: > Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz > countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where > the normal domestic supply is 240/60. > NTSC television would never have worked in a 50 Hz area ... I have good information that Saudi Arabia uses 60HZ and provides a mixture of 110 and 220-volt primary services to its citizens. An instructor who once taught at Oklahoma State and who had traveled extensively in South Korea told me that they also use 60HZ AC and provide a mix of 110 and 220-volt service. He said that the larger towns could supply you with a 110-volt line, but the rural areas were almost totally 220-volts at the wall outlet. Another instructor, here, who had lived in Jamaka told me that the standard AC power was 50HZ at 110 volts to add a further twist to the "standard." From having listened to shortwave broadcasts originating in South America, I know that the Southern part of South America appears to use some sort of 50HZ service. The video standard for television in South America also seems to reflect the same mixture of influences that one finds in the electrical power systems. There are some PAL color T.V. systems which use a 60HZ field rate and even a 3.58MHZ color carrier frequency, but which encode the color signal just as it is done in Europe so it won't work on an NTSC set. One day, in the mid 80's I was listening to Chile's national radio network on shortwave when a speech by Augusto Pinochet was droaning on. There was something funny about the sound and I couldn't quite figure out what it was until it dawned on me that there was a 60HZ buzz intermittently mixed in with the 50HZ purr of the normal audio. I realized that they must use a 60HZ field rate for television and that the speech was being simulcast over Chile's television system. The radio was probably getting its feed from the television network and there was a problem with sync buzz which happened each time a certain view was broadcast. If you ever get to look at an international model of a phonograph or tape recorder which derives its speed control via synchronous motor, look at the jungle of taps on the power transformer or motor and think about all the possibilities for smoking things which exist, there. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? Date: 19 Oct 1993 15:57:28 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In Tony Harminc writes: > oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes a very good article on > travelling with telecom gear. But: >> Many countries use a voltage about double that of the US but with the >> same frequency, 60 Hz. > Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz > countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where > the normal domestic supply is 240/60. Thanks for the correction, and thanks to many others who had suggestions also. A revised FAQ in in the works. >> If you are in a 50-Hz country (e.g. Japan) and have a device that says ... > Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 > Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have > worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. Again, thanks. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: k_mullholand@unhh.unh.edu (Kath Mullholand, UNH Telecom, 862-1031) Subject: Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request Date: 19 Oct 1993 13:05 EST Organization: University of New Hampshire In article , davidlee@netcom.com (David R. Lee) writes: > I am currently looking at purchasing a voice mail system for our > company. We have AT&T G1 PBXs networked together with DCS. We'll > probably be upgrading these switches to G3i v2 in the near future. We > will have 800-1,000 mailboxes with light to medium usage. > Do you have any suggestions on what kind of system I should buy? Is > AT&Ts AUDIX a good product compared to the rest of the market? Are > they pricier? Any input that you might have would be greatly > appreciated. Thanks in advance. At the University of New Hampshire, we have AUDIX. It is a very good system, and we really have no regrets, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind: 1. If you ever expand and need more than the 2,000 capacity box, you need a second AUDIX. While these network together fairly well, you cannot log into a mail box on system B from system A, which is more of a drawback than it seems on paper. Ask lots of questions and verify the answers on this one, as AT&T is convinced that more than one AUDIX machine will be "fully networked", but when I talk to owners of other systems, I hear that "fully" is in the eye of the beholder. 2. AUDIX only upgrades using AT&T pieces, such as disks for storage, and you will pay a premium price for anything that you purchase after the initial purchase. There are *lots* of pluses; we really like our AUDIX and use its features to the maximum. It is a great machine with great support. I expect you'll get your fill of hearing about the things AUDIX does well from your AT&T rep ;-) . Kath Mullholand ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 12:05:01 CDT From: Jim Ferguson Subject: Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request In regards to the comments from David A. Kaye: > ..., I don't see how anyone can go back to Audix or that horrendous Octel > Aspen system. (I'm sorry, but 90% of the Aspen features are not used by > people and they just make things more difficult to learn -- and they've > never heard of mnuemonics.) Well this is not to dump on you, everyone has a right to an opinion, and here is mine ... I am a certified OCtel installer and have worked with their Aspen system for approximatly five years; As an onsite tech for a university, and with an interconnect company in Dallas. In working with other accounts and universities, some who bought OCtel and some who didn't (low bid stuff), most of them wanted the OCtel equipment specifically. The problem with OCtel that most people will agree on is the price of the systems, it's expensive as the devil...now as far as features and the PBX integrations I think it is one of the best (emphasis on one of...). Companies like U.S. West, Wiltel, GTE, and others are using OCtel for resale of voice mail to the public through LEC offices, so it can't be to horrendous. The reason why 90% of the people never use anything is because, they are not properly trained to do so. The lack of training is the fault of the system administrator, not the equipment. > Press P to play the message What about P to pause? What about R to rewind or replay? What about S to send or save? All of these are located on the number "7" and are valid responses to a voice mail application. Mnuemonics, Why does this system make anymore sense than another? OCtel has easy to follow flow charts and online help, what more can a user need? With regards to the mnuemonics, since when did telephone people do things that computer people thought made sense, but that's another discussion. Many new advances are being addressed in this market, faxes, IVR, to name some. I saw Applied Voice Technology at Networld in Dallas, week before last, and they now have a integrated package that works with the PC to let you see your voice mail, who sent it, how long it is, and if there are any fax attachments, and these can be routed to a fax or telephone for playback. This equipment will also work behind a PBX, and is quite affordable and in differernt configurations. So to say one is superior over another, you must really be willing to go out on a limb ... I prefer OCtel from my own experiences, but I will not say they are the best or worst, just my preference. But, if you would like to compare product to product and end user satifaction and references, I would be glad to support my position. To the original author David R. Lee who is looking for a voice mail system, I give this advice, ask for references ... then hunt for a user group of the product you want to evaluate, and ask people there on the product. Disclaimer: All of the above, is my own opinion, and not necesarily the opinion of my current employer, who doesn't have voice mail yet... Jim Ferguson Telecommunications Analyst Southern Arkansas University jcferguson@saumag.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 12:23:31 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) wrote: > Hmpf. How about a creative idea for phoiling phrauds? > Provide customers with some kind of false card and PIN number. > The false number is actually some sort of flag or booby trap. When a > possible fraud calls for your card number, give him the false one. > When the @$$%! uses the phalse number, the long-distance company's > computer is instantly alerted to the originating phone number as a > possible fraud in progress. Some burglar alarm companies use something much like this. If you set off your own alarm, you can call the alarm company and give them your security code to cancel the response. But they also give you a handy pocket-sized card with a false security code on it. If you are surprised by an intruder who has set off the alarm, and forced to make the call, you read the fake number off the card and the alarm company immediately knows that there is a much more serious situation than a simple alarm trip. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: technews@iitmax.iit.edu (Tech=) Subject: Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? Organization: Technology News, IIT, Chicago, IL Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 21:13:37 GMT In article elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) writes: > Hmpf. How about a creative idea for phoiling phrauds? > Provide customers with some kind of false card and PIN number. > The false number is actually some sort of flag or booby trap. When a ) possible fraud calls for your card number, give him the false one. ) When the @$$%! uses the phalse number, the long-distance company's ) computer is instantly alerted to the originating phone number as a ) possible fraud in progress. ) What could the false number be? Heck if I know. Your PIN number ) spelled backwards?? ) Yup, I can see the commercials now ... "If someone call you on the ) phone and asks you for your phonecard number FOR ANY REASON, give your ) PIN number backwards. Then alert your long-distance company. If ) the call was legit, no problem. If the call was fraudulent, your ) long-distance company will appreciate you for possibly helping to ) catch a criminal." Of course the phreaks will know about this first, and will reverse the digits of the PIN number so as to get the real PIN -- but if they reach an idiot who gives them the real PIN, reversing it will give them the "trap" number ... even more fun. technews@iitmax.iit.edu kadokev@harpo.iit.edu My Employer Disagrees. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #709 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12179; 20 Oct 93 6:04 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08758 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:23:35 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14917 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:23:00 -0500 Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:23:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310200823.AA14917@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #710 TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Oct 93 03:23:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 710 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? (Monty Solomon) Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? (Josh Backon) Re: Prodigy Internet E-Mail Beta Test (Ed Ravin) Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel (Art Kamlet) Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel (David Breneman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 23:48:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? In comp.dcom.telecom article Don Alvarez wrote: > Does anybody know who provides fax to email service? I'm looking for > somebody who receives faxes and then emails a bitmap in exchange for > money (or for warm fuzzy feelings if possible, but somehow I think > that's unlikely :-) I'm also curious about going the other direction, > but what I really need is to be able to receive the faxes. From: TPC Information Subject: FAQ for "An Experiment in Remote Printing" Table of Contents part type/subtype size description multipart/mixed 14K An Experiment in Remote Printing 1 multipart/mixed 2134 General Information 1.1 text/plain 448 What is this experiment, anyway? 1.2 text/plain 848 Outreach? What are you really doing? 1.3 text/plain 74 How can I keep informed? 1.4 text/plain 36 By the way, how can I get another copy ... 2 multipart/mixed 8408 How can I send something? 2.1 text/plain 286 What's the simplest way? 2.2 text/plain 711 Fine. What does this mean? 2.3 text/plain 1104 What about the rest of it? 2.4 text/plain 818 Gee, is there global coverage already? 2.5 text/plain 1770 "Cells"? 2.6 text/plain 557 How can I find out if there is access ... 2.7 text/plain 477 Suppose I want to send images instead ... 2.8 text/plain 990 Suppose I want a lot of information on ... 2.9 text/plain 63 Is there software to help me compose ... 3 multipart/mixed 6924 What does it take to run a cell? 3.1 text/plain 262 Suppose I want to operate a remote ... 3.2 text/plain 186 Is there a document describing the ... 3.3 multipart/mixed 3147 Tell me about the policy 3.3.1 text/plain 675 Who sets policy? 3.3.2 text/plain 172 What is this policy? 3.3.3 text/plain 468 What do Malamud and Rose get out of this? 3.3.4 text/plain 493 Is there any guarantee that my fax ... 3.3.5 text/plain 460 What about privacy? 3.4 text/plain 260 Who can I contact for administrative ... 3.5 multipart/mixed 2078 What about the connectivity and ... 3.5.1 text/plain 507 Do I really need an IP-connected machine? 3.5.2 text/plain 401 Is there software available? 3.5.3 text/plain 614 What's in the openly available software? 4 multipart/mixed 528 Just who is this Arlington Hewes anyway? 4.1 text/plain 70 And what does TPC stand for? 4.2 text/plain 83 And what's with the post horn for a logo? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa1" Content-Description: General Information ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What is this experiment, anyway? The experiment is a project in outreach: to integrate the e-mail and facsimile communities. Working together, many sites cooperatively provide "remote printing" access to the international telephone network. This allows people to send faxes via e-mail. The general-purpose Internet e-mail infrastructure takes care of all the routing, delivering the message to the appropriate remote printer gateway in a manner totally transparent to the user. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Outreach? What are you really doing? We believe that by providing easy access to remote printing recipients, enterprise-wide access is enhanced, regardless of kind of institution (e.g., commercial, educational, or government), or the size of institution (e.g., global, regional, or local). This approach to outreach allows an organization to make it easier for the "outside world" to communicate with personnel in the organization who are users of facsimile but not e-mail, such as the sales person, the university registrar, or the (elected) official. The ease in which the Internet mail infrastructure can be used to provide this facility is (yet) another example of the power of a general-purpose infrastructure. Of course, as the experiment progresses, some of the things we'll be studying are economic and policy models that deal with issues such as accounting and settlement. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: How can I keep informed? There's a mailing list. Send a note to tpc-rp-request@aarnet.edu.au ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: By the way, how can I get another copy of this FAQ? Send mail to tpc-faq@town.hall.org. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa2" Content-Description: How can I send something? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What's the simplest way? Is this simple enough? To: remote-printer.Arlington_Hewes/Room_403@0.1.5.2.8.6.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int This will get automatically routed to a remote printer server, which will transmit a facsimile to the recipient. When the transmission completes, a message will be sent back to you. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Fine. What does this mean? Let's look at the strings on either side of the '@'-sign. The left-hand part identifies the kind of access (remote-printer) along with the identity of the recipient (Arlington_Hewes/Room_403). Because some mailers have difficulty dealing with addresses that contain spaces, etc., you should be very careful as to what characters you use to identify the recipient. It safest to use upper and lower case letters, digits, and two special characters ('_' and '/'). When a cover sheet is generated, the '_' will turn into a space and the '/' will turn into an end-of-line sequence. So, given the address above, the cover sheet might start with Please deliver this facsimile to: Arlington Hewes Room 403 ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What about the rest of it? The right-hand part identifies the telephone number of the remote-printer. It must be an international telephone number. Telephone numbers are usually written like this: +code-number where "code" identifies the country and "number" is the telephone number within the country, e.g., +1-415 968 2510 For those interested in telephonic trivia, the maximum number of digits is 15. In order to get the Internet e-mail infrastructure to automatically route messages, the punctuation characters are stripped out, e.g., 14159682510 and then the string is inverted and turned into an Internet domain name, e.g., 0.1.5.2.8.6.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int (Note that the telephone number should not include any international access codes.) This approach allows us to map from the Internet naming scheme onto the entire international telephone network. And, as you might expect, you can mix remote-printing and e-mail recipients in the same message, e.g., To: remote-printer.Arlington_Hewes/Room_403@0.1.5.2.8.6.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int cc: Marshall Rose In fact, the replies generated by the e-mail recipients can even go to the remote-printing recipients. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Gee, is there global coverage already? Get real. The official kick-off of the experiment was 16 July 1993. At that time, service was operational for: - all of Australia (+61) - Washington, DC (+1-202) - most of Silicon Valley (+1-408, +1-415, +1-510) - parts of Riverside, California (+1-818, +1-909) - the University of Michigan (+1-313) In addition, we expect the following countries to come on-line soon: - Denmark - Finland - Ireland - Japan - Sweden Many enterprises, such as companies, universities, and government R&D centers, are also coming on-line. The basic idea is that each participating site registers a "cell" indicating the portion of the international telephone number space that they are willing to provide access to. A cell can be a continent, a campus, abuilding, or a single phone number. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: "Cells"? Well, we call them cells. The idea is that there are really four kinds of participating sites: - neighborhood sites - regional sites - enterprise sites - personal sites A neighborhood site is run by someone who provides access to any facsimile machine in its "local calling area". The idea being that metered access to this area is fairly inexpensive, and the site is willing to provide access as a part of their community spirit. Access to Silicon Valley is provided by several neighborhood sites. The interesting thing to note is that neighborhood sites may choose to shrink or expand their cell, depending on factors such as demand and cost. A regional site is basically just a large neighborhood site, usually providing access to an entire country or a large part of a country, such as an area code. The continent of Australia is an example of a regional site. An enterprise site is run by a company that provides access solely to its own facsimile machines. They register exactly those telephone prefixes which apply to their enterprise. The University of Michigan is an example of this. Of course, a geographically-disperse enterprise such as a multi-national company could also do this. A personal site is run by someone who provides access to exactly one facsimile machine, usually one that resides on their desktop. In this case, when the remote printer server gets the message, it will just deliver it to the owner of the desktop -- via e-mail. Note that there can be overlapping remote printer servers for a given area. A personal site, for example, might be in the area served by a neighborhood site. Since the Internet domain name system always favors the longest match, the smaller site gets precedence for its own traffic ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: How can I find out if there is access to a particular number? If you're a guru, you just use your standard DNS lookup tools. If you don't know what the DNS is, there's a command-line tool available: % rpvalidate +1-415-968-2510 accessible The section below on "Is there software available?" will tell you where to find the rpvalidate command. Of course, you can always just send the message and see if it bounces, which is a pretty good indication that there is no service for that number yet. You can also send mail to tpc-coverage@town.hall.org, and you'll get back a list of the current coverage areas. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Suppose I want to send images instead of text? Use MIME. MIME is the Internet-standards track technology for multi-media messaging. Remote printer servers support, at a minimum, the following MIME content types: - text/plain - message/rfc822 - application/postscript - image/tiff - multipart So, you might send something like the following: To: remote-printer.Arlington_Hewes/Room_403@0.1.5.2.8.6.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: application/postscript %! ... ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Suppose I want a lot of information on the cover sheet? You want a lot of things don't you? A MIME content-type has been defined for this. It's called application/remote-printing. Here's an example: Content-Type: application/remote-printing Recipient: Marshall Rose Title: Principal Organization: Dover Beach Consulting, Inc. Address: 420 Whisman Court Mountain View, CA 94043-2186 US Telephone: +1 415 968 1052 Facsimile: +1 415 968 2510 Originator: John Q. Public Organization: The Public Domain Telephone: +1 801 555 1234 Facsimile: +1 801 555 6789 EMail: "John Q. Public" Any text appearing here would go on the cover-sheet. To use this mechanism, the top-level content in your message must be multipart/mixed, and the very first content in that must be application/remote-printing. Also, if you use this, then the left-hand part of the recipient's address should just be "remote-printer". ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Is there software to help me compose messages like this? Yes. See the section below on "Is there software available?". ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa3" Content-Description: What does it take to run a cell? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Suppose I want to operate a remote printer server? You need four things: - a computer on the Internet - a fax modem and phone line - fax spooling software - glue software You also need to agree to operate the cell in a fashion consistent with the policies associated with the tpc.int subdomain. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Is there a document describing the technical details? Yes. See RFC 1486, "An Experiment in Remote Printing". It's available at the usual RFC repositories. In the future, there will probably be several documents, including one on policy. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa4" Content-Description: Tell me about the policy ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Who sets policy? The tpc.int subdomain is structured as a cooperative of the remote printer servers around the world. Policy for the subdomain is made in the time-honored tradition of hoping that things will run well enough on their own. In cases where additional guidance is necessary, a Board of Arbitration and Conciliation considers situations brought to it by the members and issues written opinions. Initially policy was set by the two people who started the experiment, Carl Malamud of the Internet Multicasting Service, a non-profit organization, and Marshall Rose of Dover Beach Consulting, Inc. (Rose spends half of his time on openly available projects, of which this is one.) ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What is this policy? Ultimately, it's all about maintaining basic principles for the subdomain such as: functionality, fairness, cost recovery, performance, efficiency, security, and legality. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What do Malamud and Rose get out of this? An indictment by a federal grand jury. Just kidding. Ha, ha. They're doing research on how to integrate special-purpose devices like G3 facsimile printers into the fabric of a general-purpose infrastructure like the global Internet compute rnetwork. Neither Malamud nor Rose will profit from the project, though they sincerely hope that operators in the tpc.int subdomain are able to recoup their costs, save consumers money, and maybe even make a healthy profit. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Is there any guarantee that my fax will get delivered? No. For now, there's one simple rule: It is perfectly acceptable to deny access on the basis of originator identity, but it is not acceptable to deny access on the basis of recipient identity The reason for this is simple: if a site finds that some originator is acting in an abusive manner, then the site can deny access. But, when a site registers a cell, it agrees to provide access to every telephone number in that cell. Of course, it can always register a smaller cell. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What about privacy? There are strict rules as to the kind of auditing information which a remote printer server may keep. Basically, this information is necessary for debugging purposes, e.g., if you send a message and don't get a completion or failure acknowledgement later on, the site providing access may need to check into it. Also, there are strict rules guaranteeing that the contents of a fax are secure and will not be monitored by the remote printer server operators. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Who can I contact for administrative questions? That would be Mr. Arlington Hewes (tpc-admin@town.hall.org). Mr. Hewes is a busy man, so before sending a note to this mailbox, please consider whether the general discussion list (tpc-rp@aarnet.edu.au) mentioned earlier might not be a more appropriate forum. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa5" Content-Description: What about the connectivity and software requirements? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Do I really need an IP-connected machine? Not really. Technically, just about any computer on the Internet could run a remote printer server. However, we recommend that the computer have IP-connectivity, since this tends to make the service faster than with systems connected with polling mechanisms like UUCP. Still, the tpc.int subdomain is not picky and if you can provide service for an area that would otherwise not have it, welcome aboard! The more important requirement is that you have fax spooling software available for your computer. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Is there software available? Yes. An openly available implementation can be found on site: ftp.ics.uci.edu area: mrose/tpc file: rp.tar.Z Be sure to retrieve it in BINARY mode, eh? In addition, if you're running Innosoft's PMDF software for OpenVMS, then you can contact them at service@innosoft.com for the details. Also, if you're a vendor who adds support for remote-printing to your software, we want to hear from you. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What's in the openly available software? It contains pointers to existing openly available software along with some "glue" software for BSD-derived UNIX systems. For sites that want to run remote printer servers, there is support for both the openly available FlexFAX package and the Bristol Group's IsoFax product. For sites that want to use remote printing, there are some scripts, primarily for MH users. If you are willing to contribute to the openly available software package, we'd love to hear from you. For example, we'd love to see Mac clients, a Z-mail macro, or a new LISP interpreter/mail agent written entirely in sendmail rewrite rules. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa5-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa6" Content-Description: Just who is this Arlington Hewes anyway? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: And what does TPC stand for? Go rent the film "The President's Analyst", Paramount Pictures, 1967. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: And what's with the post horn for a logo? Go read Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49", Harpers and Row (New York, 1986). ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa6-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0-- ------------------------------ From: backon@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? Date: 19 Oct 93 22:48:04 GMT Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem In article , dla@athena.princeton.edu (Don Alvarez) writes: > Does anybody know who provides fax to email service? I'm looking for > somebody who receives faxes and then emails a bitmap in exchange for > money (or for warm fuzzy feelings if possible, but somehow I think > that's unlikely :-) I'm also curious about going the other direction, > but what I really need is to be able to receive the faxes. Yes, there is an inbound fax to email service (as well as email to fax gateway). Send an email message to: info@awa.com Josh backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL ------------------------------ From: elr@elephant.dev.prodigy.com (Ed Ravin) Subject: Re: Prodigy Internet E-Mail Beta Test Date: 19 Oct 1993 21:12:10 GMT Organization: Prodigy Services Company In article Steve Coletti writes: > Also mentioned somewhere was that Prodigy does not yet have a domain > address list set up. E-Mail passing into another network from the > Internet should be addressed in the proper "path" format. Huh? Prodigy's domain is "prodigy.com" -- anyone on the Internet can send mail to "user@prodigy.com" just like with any other Internet email address. Ed Ravin elr@wp.prodigy.com Prodigy Services Company eravin@panix.com 445 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 +1 914 993 4737 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 22:10:12 EDT From: ask@cblph.att.com Subject: Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio In article dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) writes: > TELECOM Moderator moderated: >> [Moderator's Note: "I've Got a Secret" featured host Garry Moore and >> was a great example of the early days of television. Does anyone remember >> the names of the four panelists there on a regular basis? > Peggy Cass (stage and screen actress), Bill Cullen (host of Price is > Right), the tall brunette woman -- uh -- she got into fashions or > perfume or something. All I remember about her from the program was > that she once resented being called a "thespian" on the air. Someone > had pronounced it "thezzbian" and she said, "Absolutely not! I am a > 'thessss-PEE-an'" From "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows" ISBN 0-345-35610-1 I've Got A Secret First Telecast: June 19,1952 Last Telecast July 5, 1976 (note: the day after the first 5ESS cut over :^) Jun 1952-Jun 1953 CBS Thu 10:30-11:00 Jul 1953-Sep 1961 CBS Wed 9:30-10:00 Sep 1961-Sep 1962 CBS Mon 10:30-11:00 Sep 1962-Sep 1966 CBS Mon 8:00- 8:30 Sep 1966-Apr 1967 CBS Mon 10:30-11:00 Jun 1976-Jul 1976 CBS Tue 8:00- 8:30 Moderator Garry Moore (1952-1964) Steve Allen (1964-1967) Bill Cullen (1976) Panelists Louise Allbritton (1952) Laura Hobson 1952 Walter Kiernan 1952 Orson Bean 1952 Melville Cooper 1952 Bill Cullen 1952-1967 Kitty Carlisle 1952-1953 Henry Morgan 1952-1976 Laraine Day 1952 Eddie Bracken 1952 Faye Emerson 1952-1958 Jayne Meadows 1952-1959 Betsy Palmer 1957-1967 Bess Myerson 1958-1967 Pat Collins 1976 Richard Dawson 1976 Elaine Joyce 1976 Theme "Plink, Plank, Plunk" by Leroy Anderson Producers: Mark Goodson and Bill Todman Assoc. Producer: Allan Sherman (1952-1958) (a note: It was seen in syndicated version during the 1972-73 season, hosted by Steve Allen.) " ... on the occasion when Monty Woolley appeared as guest celebrity. His secret was that he slept with his beard inside the covers. When asked why, he replied, 'As a matter of fact I don't. That's merely the secret they decided upon for me.' Garry Moore, for once, was speechless." Art Kamlet a_s_kamlet@att.com AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel Date: 19 Oct 93 20:15:04 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA David A. Kaye (dk@crl.com) wrote: > TELECOM Moderator moderated: >> [Moderator's Note: "I've Got a Secret" featured host Garry Moore and >> was a great example of the early days of television. Does anyone remember >> the names of the four panelists there on a regular basis? > Peggy Cass (stage and screen actress), Bill Cullen (host of Price is > Right), the tall brunette woman -- uh -- she got into fashions or ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > perfume or something. All I remember about her from the program was > that she once resented being called a "thespian" on the air. Someone > had pronounced it "thezzbian" and she said, "Absolutely not! I am a > 'thessss-PEE-an'" Are you thinking of Kitty Carlisle? If so, you may be thinking of the panel of To Tell the Truth, also hosted by Gary Moore: Bill Cullen Kitty Carlisle Orson Bean Rotating Panelist (usually Nipsie Russell in later years). David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #710 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12472; 20 Oct 93 6:51 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19330 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:18:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17577 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:17:43 -0500 Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:17:43 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310200917.AA17577@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #711 TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Oct 93 04:17:40 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 711 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Information Sources Needed (Phil Price) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (Dave Lapin) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (Jonathan Haruni) Re: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs (Bill Hofmann) Re: V.P. Gore's Comments on TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger (Lauren Weinstein) Re: Cost of Modems (Ken Weaverling) Re: Carrier or Provider? (Eric N. Florack) Re: T1 Through HDSL Boxes (Syd Weinstein) Re: Amusing Misdialed Call (Eric Kiser) Re: Amusing Misdialed Call (John R. Levine) Re: Bell Atlantic and TCI Cable Merge (Carl Moore) Re: Need Help; Cellular Modem (Ronbert Kadis) Re: DTMF Decoders (Mike Lyon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pprice@qualcomm.com (Phil Price) Subject: Re: Information Sources Needed Date: 19 Oct 1993 16:14:50 GMT Organization: Qualcomm Inc. In article , Kevin D. Cooke wrote: > I am looking for basic information on a number of technologies. The > information is intended for the non-technical reader and should answer > the following questions: > What is it? > How is it implemented? > What are the Pros/Cons? > What does the future hold? > The technologies are ISDN, Broadband ISDN, Cell Relay (ATM?) and > SONET. If anyone could lend me a hand, or just suggest ftp sites I > would greatly appreciate it. The following mail was sent out to NEW-LIST subscribers, and contains a list of addresses where you should be able to get info on broadband ISDN ... Phil Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 09:47:34 CDT Reply-To: ldr@VeriTech.com Sender: NEW-LIST - New List Announcements From: "Lee D. Rothstein" Subject: SEARCH,ADMIN: Broadband Networks & Interfaces, and Related Lists To: Multiple recipients of list NEW-LIST Editor's Note: This is not really a search but a compilation of lists. I thought it might be useful to share it. It is from Lee D. Rothstein, ldr@VeriTech.com . mgh Network, Broadband, ATM, Cell Relay Address: cell-relay@mythos.ucs.indiana.edu Subscribe To: cell-relay-request@mythos.ucs.indiana.edu Topics: Cell relay/ATM, general Network, Broadband, ATM, Cell Relay Discussion Address: cell-relay-newsgroup@netnews.nwnet.net Subscribe To: cell-relay-newsgroup-request@netnews.nwnet.net Usenet Gateway: comp.protocols.cell-relay Network, Broadband, ATM Contributions Address: atm_contrib-request-request@sun.com Topics: Subscribe To: atm_contrib@sun.com Topics: ATM contributions Network, Broadband, ATM, ATM Forum Address: atm_forum@atm.eng.sun.com Subscribe To: atm_forum-request@atm.eng.sun.com Topics: ATM Forum Background: The ATM Forum is a not-for-profit organization that primarily represents vendors, but also represents users. All, however, are primarily focused on CPE use of ATM (as opposed to telecomm services based on ATM.) Contact: The ATM Forum c/o Interop Company 480 San Antonio Rd, Suite 100 Mountain View, CA 94040-1219 415-962-2585 415-941-0849 (fax) Anne Ferris, aferris@interop.com Network, Broadband, ATM, IP Over ATM Address: atm@hpl.hp.com Subscribe To: atm-request@hpl.hp.com Topics: IP over ATM Access: Reflector. Open. Network, Broadband, Cell-Relay See: Network, Broadband, ATM, ... Network, Broadband, FDDI See: Network, Management, SNMP, MIB, FDDI See: Network, Broadband, FDDI, Repeater WG Network, Broadband, FDDI, Repeater WG Address: repeater%sunoco@relay.nswc.navy.mil Subscribe To: repeater%sunoco-request@relay.nswc.navy.mil Topics: FDDI Repeater WG Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Interface, Fiber Channel, Extensions Address: fiber-channel-ext@think.com fibre-channel-ext.think.com Subscribe To: fiber-channel-ext-request@think.com fibre-channel-ext-request@think.com Maintainer: Topics: Fibre Channel Extensions Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Interface, Fiber Channel, Fibre Channel Association (FCA) Address: fca@amcc.com Subscribe To: fca-request@amcc.com Maintainer: Don Deel, dond, amcc.com Topics: Fibre Channel Association Access: Reflector. Archive: ftp.amcc.com Network, Broadband, Frame Relay, Frame Relay Forum Technical Committee (FRFTC) Address: frftc@nsco.network.com Subscribe To: frftc-request@nsco.network.com Topics: Frame Relay Forum (RF) Technical Committee (TC) (FRFTC) Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Interface See: Network, Management, SNMP, MIB, Interface Network, Broadband, Interface, Scaleable Coherent Interface (SCI) Address: sci@hplsci.hpl.hp.com Subscribe To: sci-request@hplsci.hpl.hp.com Topics: Scaleable Coherent Interface (SCI) technical discussion. Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Interface, Scaleable Coherent Interface (SCI), Announcements Address: sci_announce@hplsci.hpl.hp.com Subscribe To: sci_announce-request@hplsci.hpl.hp.com Topics: SCI: general interest Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, ISDN Address: isdn@list.prime.com Subscribe To: isdn-request@list.prime.com Topics: ISDN Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, SMDS, SMDS SIG, Technical Commttee Address: smdstc@nsco.network.com Subscribe To: smdstc-request@nsco.network.com Topics: SMDS Interest Group Tech. Comm. Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Wireless Address: wireless@tandem.com Subscribe To: wireless-request@tandem.com Topics: Wireless communication Access: Reflector. Network, Brouter, Benchmarking WG Address: bmwg@harvard.edu Subscribe To: bmwg-request@harvard.edu Topics: Bridge/router Benchmarking Methodolgy WG Network, Brouter, cisco Address: cisco@spot.colorado.edu Subscribe To: cisco-request@spot.colorado.edu Maintainer: David C. M. Wood Topics: Network products from Cisco Systems, Inc; primarily the AGS gateway, but also the ASM. Configuration, protocols, routing, loading, serving. Access: Open. Reflector of subscribees, only. Even though this is a cisco sponsored newsgroup, there is an extraordinary degree of valuable information about complex generic routing and networking topics. Usenet Gateway: Email list articles are posted to comp.dcom.sys.cisco. Newsgroup articles are not posted back to the email list, however. Background: If you are a Cisco Maintenance customer, you are encouraged to send technical problems and questions directly to the Cisco TAC (Technical Assistance Center) via e-mail at: tac@cisco.com; by telephone at (800) 553-2447 or (415) 903-7209, or by FAX at (415) 903-8787, for any technical problems or questions. If you wish to contact Cisco customer service for non-technical issues, you may call them at (800) 553-6387 or send mail to: customer-service@cisco.com, or cs@cisco.com. Lee D. Rothstein LDR@VeriTech.com VeriTech 7 Merrymeeting Drive Merrimack, NH 03054-2934 603-424-2900 Fax: 603-424-8549 ------------------------------ From: DLAPIN@eccsa.Tredydev.Unisys.com Date: 19 OCT 93 17:02 Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play I sent the following to gregm@WPI.EDU directly, partly because I saw no reason to clutter the Digest with such stuff and partly because my internet connection tends to be flaky. However, since there seem to be several other, much less realistic and much less reliable suggestions, I'll submit this to the Digest, as well. ------- Forwarded message ------- > I'm looking for a device, preferably cheap/do-it-yourself for ringing > a phone. The phone will be on a stage during a play, and the director > wants it to be able to ring. Any help that you could give me would be > greatly appreciated. I do a lot of theater technical stuff for a hobby (community theater) and have a couple of techniques you can use. By far the simplest is to use standard wall current (120 volts, 60 Hz) into the normal bell circuit. You can control it by any normal means of controlling wall current: plug the thing in, pull it out; wire up a switched extension cord; rig a push button on an extension cord; set up some exotic timer circuit that switch the extension cord (I'm sure you get the idea). Inside the phone: If it is a normal phone with a mechanical bell, take the two leads from the cord (usually red & green) and run them across one of the possibly two bell coils. If you want to be extra sophisticated (I usually am :-)), run one or both of the leads through the switch-hook so the circuit is closed when the phone is on-hook and opens when the phone goes off-hook. This makes it impossible for the actor to screw up the phone-ringing-person by picking up the phone in mid-ring (i.e., the phone stops ringing!) (this often impresses the h*ll out of the audience and non-technical directors/actors/producers/ etc). Make your own adaptor from modular phone cord or four-prong phone cord or whatever you have to standard wall plug (male). If I've lost you in technical details or you need more details, feel free to contact me. Dave Lapin UNISYS/ASN/ECDC (215)648-3508 (net**2 385-3508) internet: dlapin @ eccsa.tredydev.unisys.com ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Haruni Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Reply-To: jharuni@micrognosis.co.uk Organization: Micrognosis International, London Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 14:47:26 GMT lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) wrote: >> ... There's a REALLY easy way to make a standard phone's bell ring. ... >> Just put the ... wires from the ringer inside across 120VAC, in series >> with a capacitor ... Pardon the gratuitous editing. I think it would be worth mentioning, when giving advice like this to a wide audience, that it would be very easy to electrocute an actor if you do not take appropriate safety measures. There is a big difference between doing this sort of thing in your own home, and in a very public place like a theatre. Disconnect the wires connecting the base of the phone to the receiver, and either remove these wires or cut them so they are too short to reach any of your 120V wiring. Better yet, remove ALL electrical components and wiring from the phone except the bell. Connect the metal chasis of the base (probably the underside only) to ground. Make sure the ground is wired correctly and is actually plugged in to a grounded outlet, which it is apt not to be if it gets wired all through the theatre and back to the control room. Make sure it is difficult to disconnect the ground without disconnecting the power as well, and difficult to apply power whithout the ground connected. Make sure the 120V cable coming in to the back of the phone is strapped firmly to the chassis, so there will be no strain on your connections if the phone is dragged by this wire. The little crimps used for this purpose with normal phone wiring are not good enough. Make sure that your theatre's insurance policies (industrial accident, and fire) do not require a qualified electrician to do these tasks, or that they are carried out by someone with the appropriate qualifications. Place stickers on the phone, warning others that it is connected to high voltage and not to open it. Make sure the stickers are not easily removable. So it's not REALLY that easy; I think some of the other suggestions are preferable for use on a stage, which is a dangerous place to begin with, even if they are a bigger engineering challenge. IMHO, the best suggestion was to replace the guts of the phone with a 12V doorbell. Plug a 12V transformer into one of your lighting circuits and operate it from your lighting board. Jonathan Haruni ------------------------------ From: wdh@netcom.com (Bill Hofmann) Subject: Re: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 01:03:56 GMT djcl@io.org writes: > This is already the case in 416 and 905, thus no further changes are > expected for those area codes. This will affect other Bell area codes: > Ontario's 519, 613, 705 and 807, plus Quebec's 418, 514 and 819. Are these and other Canadian codes currently 1 + seven for toll in area code and 1 + ten for toll outside area code? Bill Hofmann ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 20:37 PDT From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Re: V.P. Gore's Comments on TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger Cliff Barney wrote: > Could there be any clearer indication than this press release that the > administration lacks a clue as to what is going on in the telecommun- > ications industry? I disagree. I thought the wording of the statement, which essentially just said that formal investigations would have to reveal whether the proposed merger was pro- or anti-competitive, was precisely the right thing for him to have said. They know very well what's going on and how controversial this issue is. To say anything else at this point could easily be construed as "tainting" the later investigative process. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ From: weave@hopi.dtcc.edu (Ken Weaverling) Subject: Re: Cost of Modems Date: 20 Oct 1993 06:03:42 GMT Organization: Delaware Technical & Community College In article , TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: In the next couple years it will cost $25. I have a > desk drawer full of 300/1200 baud modems here. I could maybe get $5-10 > each for them if someone wanted them for backups, etc. That's life. PAT] A local pawn shop has a genuine Hayes 1200 Smartmodem in the window for only $79.95! I went in for fun and tried to talk the guy down on it. He said that he couldn't go any lower, since this thing costs $600 brand new! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:44:40 GMT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Carrier or Provider? birchall@pilot.njin.net (Shag) Writes in #703: > Though I support this merge (I'm a big fan of Bell Atlantic, > particularly since they're feverishly working to put fiber-optics and > ISDN all over the place here in New Jersey :) I'm a little worried > about how this will relate to a traditional multi-level competition > scheme, and how it will relate to the recent legal decision allowing > RBOCs to _provide_ video. The situation is fairly analogus to Cable TV systems, such as GRC here in Rochester, providing their own programming, when they started as a carrier. Apparently, the commission is thinking that since the cable companies can do it, so will the telephone folks. If competition is your concern, then perhaps you ought to re-consider your support of the proposal. E/ ------------------------------ From: syd@dsi.com (Syd Weinstein) Subject: Re: T1 Through HDSL Boxes Date: 19 Oct 1993 10:42:21 -0400 Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc., Huntingdon Valley, PA Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM David M Sokolic writes: > I was wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with using > HDSL (High bit rate digital subscriber line) technology to provide > repeaterless T-1. There are several manufacturers (Paairgain > Technologies, Adtran, Alcatel, Tellabs) that make this kind of > equipment. I was wondering if anyone out there has looked into the > different equipment and has any comments about how the different > offerings compare. Don't get me started :-) Bell of PA didn't want to condition a new set of trunks for one of our T-1's, so they ran HDSL's from Pairgain Technologies. Well, let me tell you, what a nightmare it was. It took them close to 30 days to solve the problems. (and they worked on it for 30 days, I had no problems keeping them focused on the problem) ... first: There is no way to check out the circut except at the end points. (Your BERT is useless inbetween.) Second: out of the box reliability is suspect. Actual problem: four brand new units out of the box each had different defects, most of which were very subtle and occurred only intermittently (like every 15 minutes). However, once in, let me tell you that they work well. Just don't assume any trouble you see is in the wiring or other sections. These units, at least the pairgain ones, need better factory QA. Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator - Current 2.4PL23 Datacomp Systems, Inc. Projected 3.0 Release: ??? ?,1994 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd Voice: (215) 947-9900, FAX: (215) 938-0235 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 12:04:03 EDT From: kiser@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil Subject: Re: Amusing Misdialed Call I have had a couple of similar experiences with this, although mine were not as amusing, and I was on the receiving end. I have been on the road alot lately on business, and have seen more than my share of motels. One night at a motel in Cleveland, I was plagued with a series of one-ring phone calls. These rings started one evening, and would continue into late night/early morning. The symptoms were always the same; the phone would ring once, I would pick up, and get PBX dial tone. The first few times this occurred, I called the front desk thinking I might have a message. Nothing. Then I thought it might be my wife trying to get me to call back home. Nope. What was it?!? As I stared at my stupid phone, I thought of what had to be the answer. I was staying in room #180. What must have been happening was that another room would start to dial a 1-800 number. They would key in 1-8-0, then my phone would ring once, then 0-xxx-xxxx. As soon as the second 0 was pressed, the PBX would error out, and my phone would not ring again. Needless to say, I have blacklisted any room that is numbered 180. Well, I thought what a fluke! I'm sure glad this is behind me! Oh well, not so fast, the next week I was in Dallas. Guess which room they gave me? Room #214. OH NO, IT'S THE AREA CODE FOR DALLAS! AHhhhhhhhh Sure enough, I had several instances of the 1-ring phone problem, although it was not a frequent as the 180 instance. The moral? Never stay in rooms 180, 911, 411, etc. Eric ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 93 02:14 GMT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Amusing Misdialed Call Organization: I.E.C.C. > His solution? He expects AT&T to change *their* number since > people cannot remember to 'dial one eight hundred first' The argument might be made that Royko had his number first. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl [Moderator's Note: If you want to make that kind of an argument, which I think is sort of dumb, then carry it to its logical extension: There is only one absolute set of numbers available, 2xx-xxxx through 9xx-xxxx and that is all we have because 'someone got them first'. We cannot have two numbers the same in any two areacodes because someone might forget to dial 1 plus the areacode and reach the other person by error. AT&T does not need to change anything, but Royko needs to be put out to pasture. He is just a crude, rude idiot anyway. I've followed his writing since he was a reporter on the crime beat for the Chicago News Bureau (a service owned jointly by all the newspapers here for local stuff) thirty years ago, including his first big-time assignment of writing a daily column for the long gone {Chicago Daily News}. He does not impress me as anything but a boor. In response to his demands that AT&T change their number so that their non-800 dialing customers can annoy someone else for a change, AT&T basically told him to take a jump off a bridge somewhere. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 11:35:21 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic and TCI Cable Merge I have heard somewhere that, in those areas which have both phone service from a Bell Atlantic company and cable service through TCI, the cable company would have to be sold. I moved recently, and this would affect both the old and new residences. Newark (Delaware) has Diamond State telephone and TCI of New Castle County. In Cecil County, I got C&P telephone, and cable service is from TCI in Elkton. ------------------------------ From: drwho@mindvox.phantom.com (Robert Keyes) Subject: Need Help: Cellular Modem Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800-MindVox) Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 18:50:47 GMT I picked up a Morrison & Dempsey Cellular Modem the other day. Modem AB2X. 1200 bps. Anyhow, The cable that cam with it is for the Panasonic EB-310, 311, and 362 phones. I don't have a panasonic phone, I have a novatel and a motorola. The modem manual says there are two types of handset configurations (oh, the modem goes between the handset and the transceiver) - AMPS and serial. Novatel says they use a serial interface. Can't get any info from motorola yet, and panasonic is impossible to get ahold of. I have several questions for the Net: 1) Anyone have info on the proper cables for the motorola or novatel for use with this modem, or cables to sell? 2) What is the Amps specification? what pins do what? what is the spec on the handset for the novatel, and for the panasonic? 3) How can I get a hold of tech support for either panasonic or Morrison and dempsey (the latter seems to have dissappeared)? Any help would be appreciated drwho@mindvox.phantom.com ------------------------------ From: mlyon@eis.calstate.edu (Mike Lyon;Pac Bell) Subject: DTMF Decoders Message-Id: Organization: Calif State Univ/Electronic Information Services Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 22:26:27 GMT To: comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.uu.net Status: RO Does any one know where i could get a schematic for a dtmf decoder? Thanks, mlyon@eis.calstate.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #711 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16635; 20 Oct 93 15:55 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23338 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 12:35:57 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18445 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 12:35:17 -0500 Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 12:35:17 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310201735.AA18445@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #712 TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Oct 93 12:35:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 712 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Video Phones - ATT vs MCI (Neil Berger) PC Based SS7 Products (Richard Nash) Lightwave Switching (Rick Carlton) Wireless PBX (Hanwook Jung) Delay Simulator (Takao Hotta) Service Interruption Statistics (Greg Donaldson) What's Going on Here? (Could'a Used Caller-ID) (Theodore M.P. Lee) What's the Pocket Phone Dialer of Choice? (Carlos McEvilly) Comdial PBX For Sale (Charles Frankston) Voice Processing Revenge (John Pescatore) Information Wanted on Line Concentrators and Flexible Muxes (David Sokolic) Redundant Line Options (T1) (Joel Sather) Magnalink Series 5000 (Joel Sather) Deregulation - Why is Cost Still High? (Nathan Lane) Need a Cellular Repair Manual (Eric D. Davis) Cellular Pay Phone on Intercity Bus (Josh Backon) Dialback Modem that Provides Dialtone Instead of Carrier? (Lee Chen) NEC, NEAX User Groups Information (Randal Hayes) Automatic Busy Number Redial (Randall Gellens) ANI in HI? (Eric N. Florack) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 10:33:04 CDT From: U34625@uicvm.uic.edu Subject: Video Phones - ATT vs MCI Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago, ADN Computer Center Some time ago I asked if anyone had information on these phones, and I am now an "expert" having used both of them. I will summarize: MCI $750 for first, $712.50 for any additional + local tax and $15 shipping per phone. Two week delivery date. Thirty day money-back guarantee. It is light gray, and has a pleasing shape -- sort of English industrial design. Modern, but not imposing. Warrantee for 1 year, not extendable. Operates at two modem speeds, fast and slow. Fast is 14.4 and slow is 9.6 kb. Uses some sort of video compression. Made in UK. Uses the M(arconi)VTS standard. It will not work with ATT's video phones. If there is noise on the line the speed goes down. (It has never actually happened to me.) Buttons on the phone include: Privacy, Pause, Memory store, Memory recall, Flash, Redial, Speaker. In addition, video functions include: contrast, color, freeze frame, video refresh, self view, timer on/off. Screen size 3x3", with a fixed focus lens, 10 number memory, excellent VOX speakerphone. This phone always attempts to send and receive pictures at 10 frames/second. If the subject is moving, or the light is less than optimal, the picture becomes degraded. Loss of detail is seen by a blocking of large portions of the picture. It is not pleasant. If this happens, you must ask the party to stop moving around so much, or you can press freeze frame. This will cause an excellent picture to be transmitted. You can update that picture by pressing video refresh. This is tedious, but the quality of the picture is impressive. Pressing freeze frame again will return you to 10 frames/sec. A self view picture within a picture is included in the upper left hand corner of the screen. It can be turned off. The phone provides the times of the length of the call, number of calls made, and has self diagnostics. The video buttons are hard to use, and harder to read the labels on. People over 70 will have trouble seeing them. MCI has a particular "feature?" that the sound is slightly delayed so that the movement of the persons lips in the picture appears to coincide with the voice coming over the phone. This can be confusing, and leads to substantial pauses when used with the speaker phone feature. The memory is backed up for five years with the power off. The screen and camera are movable in one plane, the phone must be moved to get movement in the other plane. Dislikes include: if you answer first on a non-video extension, you may have to fiddle with the "call" and "answer" mode settings on one or the other of the video phones to get it to work. ATT 2500 Videophone: $999 list. Available through Sears, ATT stores. It has been discounted for as low as $955 INCLUDING tax, shipping with a two week delivery date from CitiShopper with a two year guarantee. (reason enough for joining if you don't already belong.) The normal one year warrantee can be extended for an additional year at $125, available from ATT. It operates at 19.2 Kb. It uses video compression. It has many on-screen menus to set color, brightness and number of frames/sec transmission rates. Screen is 3.5x3.5" with a fixed focus lens. The screen is 128 pixel by 112 lines. If you set the "focus" to fast it will send 10 frames/sec -- down to slow (in five steps) at 2 frames/sec. The quality of the picture is the inverse of the speed of transmission. At its worst, it is slightly better than the worst of the MCI pictures. At its best it seems to be about equal to the MCI phone in freeze frame mode, but then the picture is updated at 2 frames per second. This gives NO feeling of any motion, and in a sense is very disconcerting. At 10 frames/sec the movement of the speaker's lips and the sound are not synchronized. The buttons and controls seem to be much easier to use. There is no selfview picture within a picture available. You can check your picture if you want but you loose sight of the party you are calling for that moment. It seems to work better than the MCI phone in low light situations. The power supply is far more robust, and a battery backup is provided. The phone itself is heavier and takes up more space. It is black and looks like other ATT offerings. It will not work with the MCI phone. It does not seem to suffer from the call-answer problems that the MCI phone has (see above) when the first answer is by a non-video phone. 12 number memory, flash button, redial, etc. most if not all of the same features as the MCI phone.The screen and the camera are movable in two planes. Both phones will only work in video mode when they are the only phones off the hook. Voice mode must be established first. Then both parties must press the video button. After a short pause, during which no voice communication can be made, you will be in video mode. No additional phone rates are associated with their use. This is a budding technology which will get better and cheaper if you can afford to wait. I can't, and they are a dream come true for my family. As my 85 year old parents said "We feel like we've already made it into the 21 century." I presently own the MCI phone, but I may switch to the ATT model since it seems easier for my older parents to use -- although the pictures seem quite comparable. Neil Berger Department of Mathematics UIC 851 S. Morgan Chicago IL 60607 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 22:53:54 -0600 Reply-To: rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca From: rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca Subject: PC Based SS7 Products Is anyone aware of a PC based system that could be used as an SSP which could launch Calling Card Queries to the various SCP's, and receive a validation reply? No doubt someone has made, or is building such a machine. Please reply directly, although I am sure other folks on the net would also be interested. Richard Nash rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca ------------------------------ From: CARLTOJR@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu Subject: Lightwave Switching Organization: Vanderbilt University Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 14:09:04 GMT I am looking for information concerning lightwave switching products, pilots, or research updates. The last information I had seen on this topic was a brief discussion of Bell Labs research into the switching of photons. This was several years ago and I have not seen a recent update on this topic. Any information would be appreciated; post or email. Rick Carlton Vanderbilt University Telecommunications Phone: (615) 322-0000 Fax: (615) 343-5555 Internet: carltojr@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu Compuserve: 71534,1746 ------------------------------ From: hjung@acsu.buffalo.edu (Hanwook Jung) Subject: Wireless PBX Organization: UB Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 15:59:13 GMT Hello guys! I want to know the address of companies who makes wireless PBX to get some related informations. And I want to implement a test-bed wireless PBX with PC. Would you give me some good advices on this? I'll greatly appreciate for it. Thanks. H Jung hjung@eng.buffalo.edu ------------------------------ From: hotta@besot.kddlabs.co.jp (Takao Hotta) Subject: Delay Simulator Organization: KDD R&D Labs., Network Engineering Support Group Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 10:45:51 GMT Dear Networkers, I have found the equipment to generate a delay for simulating long distance circuit or satellite circuit. Please let me know what information you might have on it. _______ _______ / \ / \ | network |--- delay ----| network | \_______/ \_______/ Thanks in advance, Takao Hotta hotta@kddlabs.co.jp ------------------------------ From: itsmgjd@nebula.syscon.hii.com Subject: Service Interruption Statistics Date: 19 Oct 93 22:02:46 -0700 Organization: SYSCON Corporation Folks, I am looking for an unbiased source where I can get long distance carrier interruption statistics. Any ideas? Thanks! Greg Donaldson, Senior Systems Analyst GDONALDSON@SYSCON.HII.COM SYSCON Corporation 1000 Thomas Jefferson St. NW Washington, DC 20007 202-342-4123 ------------------------------ From: tmplee@tis.com (Theodore M.P. Lee) Subject: What's Going on Here? (Could'a Used Caller-ID) Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 21:42:32 -0600 Organization: Trusted Information Systems, Inc. I had a strange phone call earlier this evening. I answer, voice one says "someone will be with you in a minute." Voice two then comes on and asks for someone in the Lee residence. Voice two says, "We're trying to reach one of your neighbors, [gives name]" and then I think asked "do you know where we can reach him." The person in question is the oldest son of our next door neighbor. I said "they live next door". Answer: "good. Do you know if he lives there or not?" Actually I didn't, since he's been intermittently moving in and out and I said so. "OK, we have other numbers we can try." I immediately called next door -- several people were home and had obviously been for some time; I reported the strange call, which was news to them -- no attempt had been made to call them. I was quite busy at the time or I would have had the presence of mind to both shut up earlier than I did and to ask a question or two. Does anyone have any guesses as to what was going on? If the call had been long distance, is there any way one could talk the telco into tracking down where it came from, knowing about when it was made? Ted Lee tmplee@TIS.COM [Moderator's Note: You were most likely contacted by a bill collection agency in an effort to see if you knew the whereabouts or telephone number of the person they were trying to reach. 'Criss-cross' or cross- reference phone directories placed you as one of the neighbors. I find those automated 'dial-ahead' systems they use for placing calls to be very obnoxious; the fact that they call me then expect me to wait until they have time to come to the phone to speak about information they want is an example of how arrogant some of those people can be. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mcevilly@netcom.com (Carlos McEvilly) Subject: What's the Pocket Phone Dialer of Choice? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:55:07 GMT Which pocket phone dialer is best? Is there a consensus on this? I have heard about the Radio Shack models, and seem to dimly recall having read that they recently discontinued a model that had some desirable feature. Of course even discontinued models are sometimes available in certain stores long after discontinuation. Any suggestions? Carlos McEvilly finger for info about Bamboo Helper Chinese mcevilly@netcom.com Text Tools, or ftp netcom.com:/pub/mcevilly ------------------------------ From: Charles_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Comdial PBX For Sale Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 01:03 -0400 We have a ComDial Digitech PBX, configued to the max: 24 CO lines, 48 extensions, with five ATI devices (analog to digital converters, this is a digital PBX and requires convertors to get analog phone lines for modems and faxes) that support a total of ten analog lines. This is a fairly state-of-the-art small business PBX. We're pretty happy with the system, but we're out of capicity and will probably upgrade to the larger Digitech DXP. Only problem is we don't like the trade-in allowance that the PBX vendors are offering (many won't even make an offer!). So, if there's anyone out there who's interested in this, we might be willing to go as low as 50% of original purchase price. ------------------------------ From: pescatore_jt@ncsd.gte.com (John Pescatore) Subject: Voice Processing Revenge Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 07:47:24 -0400 Organization: Rockville, MD "Automated Revenge" Associated Press (10/19/93) Roanoke, Va. -- A Virginia man disturbed by a local bank's automated telephone system that did not offer access to a human being recently used his computer to file a protest. Brian McConnell developed a computer program that automatically dialed eight First Union Bank employees and treated them to a recorded message. "This is an automated customer complaint," the message said. "To hear a live complaint, press ..." Individuals who dialed the specified number were informed that "The customer is unable to come to the phone right now, but your call is very important. Thank you for being patient." A First Union Bank representative later contacted McConnell -- who heads a firm that writes automatic phone system software -- and apologized. [I would buy that piece of software in a heartbeat -- or at least lease it every time I refinanced my mortgage. JP] John Pescatore WB2EKK GTE Government Systems Rockville, MD pescatore_jt@ncsd.gte.com [Moderator's Note: I know someone who's only published phone number goes to an answering machine with a recorded message which says, "for your convenience, this line is answered 24 hours per day by this message taking system; you will NEVER reach anyone live at this number and you MUST leave your name and number if you expect a callback ..." Still, he gets quite a few hangup calls from people who refuse to leave a message thinking sometime -- maybe at 3 AM on Sunday morning -- someone will actually answer the line. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 10:12:07 EDT From: David M Sokolic Subject: Information Wanted on Line Concentrators and Flexible Muxes Hello all - I am looking for information on line concentrators -- i.e. boxes that squeeze more traffic onto 2Mb lines then 30 channels. Who makes them? What do they cost? Does anyone have an info/experience using them? Also, how about flexible multiplexers, Who is using them? For what purposes? Thanks for your help. I will post a summary for those that are interested. Thanks, David Sokolic dsokolic@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: satherj@ac.com (Joel Sather) Subject: Redundant Line Options (T1) Date: 20 Oct 1993 15:27:00 GMT Organization: Andersen Consulting - Minneapolis Reply-To: satherj@ac.com Hi- I am in the process of trying to make a number of our T1 lines redundant. AT&T has been very helpful, and they will guarantee redundancy down to the POP. I am not sure that this is the most cost effective option avaliable, and was wondering if anyone has any advice. I looked into VSAT, but that is too expensive for only five sites. Oh, these lines go into Canada and Mexico. Thanks, Joel Sather Work: 612-372-2601 Snail-Mail: Andersen Consulting Andersen Consulting Fax: 612-372-2525 333 South 7th St. TIS-North Central E-Mail: Joel.Sather@ac.com Minneapolis, MN 55402 ------------------------------ From: satherj@ac.com (Joel Sather) Subject: Magnalink Series 5000 Date: 20 Oct 1993 15:30:13 GMT Organization: Andersen Consulting - Minneapolis Reply-To: satherj@ac.com We just got in two Magnalink Series 5000 LAN/WAN Optimizers for evaluation. Has anyone used this product? What do you think? What kind of performance increase did you see? Joel Sather Work: 612-372-2601 Snail-Mail: Andersen Consulting Andersen Consulting Fax: 612-372-2525 333 South 7th St. TIS-North Central E-Mail: Joel.Sather@ac.com Minneapolis, MN 55402 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 20:14:14 -0700 From: nathan@seldon.foundation.tricon.com Subject: Deregulation - Why is Cost Still High? I've been meaning to ask this for sometime -- recently in California, all inside wire was completely deregulated, except for residential units of less than two or four units (forget which). GTE, PacBell and others have abandoned all inside wiring in place (AIP, as they say). Since they have done so, why didn't they reduce the cost of the installation of 56K ADN and DDS circuits? It is still $620.00 per end and they WILL NOT wire it up all the way to the destined location. (I finally convinced them to because I was so angry and we had an analog leased line already to the lines location, so all they had to do was hook up the four pair at the GTE demarc). I talked with our lineman and he said "well, we'll do it if it takes less than 15 minutes, but we're not supposed to". Then I mentioned "do you think any company around here would even KNOW what a 56K ADN or DDS was?" ... he said "no". (We did have to have a third party come in for one of our offices and he, of course, rolled the TX/RX pairs). Less service, same money? Can it be true? Nathan Lane Triicon Systems, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA [Moderator's Note: Of course it can be true and it is true. Far less technically complex situations than yours have demonstrated this over and over since divestiture and degregulatio Phone bills everywhere are higher than ever, and customers are expected to know more and more about making do for themselves. Don't you love it? :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: ericd@cats.ucsc.edu (Eric D Davis) Subject: Need a Cellular Repair Manual Date: 20 Oct 1993 00:08:40 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz I have a dead phone ... I have an Motorola Ultra Classic and I am in need of the service manual. If you have one, or one for ANY OF THE CLASSIC MODELS, please let me know. If you know where one can be found, plese also let me know. I will be glad to pay for shipping, copying, and your time. Thanks, Eric Davis ericd@synoptics.com On the air: KD6HTO ( 440.85, +, 100Hz PL, North-Central CA ) On packet radio: KD6HTO @ N6IYA.#NOCAL.CA.US.NA Home: LAT:37 03 04 N LON: 122 00 49 W ALT: 570 finger ericd@am.ucsc.edu or mail ericd@synoptics.com for PGP key ------------------------------ From: BACKON@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Cellular Pay Phone on Intercity Bus Date: 19 Oct 93 18:22:36 GMT Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem The local PTT in Israel has just installed an experimental cellular pay phone in an intercity bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The phone is next to the driver and calls are made with regular phone cards. It was quite interesting to see someone walk up and call home from the pay phone in the bus. Josh backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL ------------------------------ From: lee@phantom.com (Lee Chen) Subject: Dialback Modem that Provides Dialtone Instead of Carrier? Organization: Mindvox Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 23:19:36 GMT I am looking for a device similar to a dial-back modem but instead of a data carrier, it provides a dial tone (voice line) instead. Specifically, I need to hook up a telephone line to this device and when an incoming call reaches the device, the device will prompt for a security code (or perhaps just listen for a ring) and call back the caller on that same line and provide a dial tone from another telephone line connected to the device. Does such a thing exist? Of course, I'd be willing to commission the construction of such a device if it does not currently exist ... Regards all, Lee [Moderator's Note: There are lots of these devices around, but they are known as 'call extenders' or 'WATS extenders' rather than dial-back modems. They work a lot the same, but the latter are for data and the former for voice. There are 'call-extenders' which ask for a security code then extend dialtone once security has been satisfied. I think there are some which will even call you back if desired. I know this is the method Telepassport uses for our inter- national callback service. You call it; it calls you back and asks for your password. PAT] ------------------------------ From: HayesR@uihc-telecomm-po.htc.uiowa.edu Date: 20 Oct 93 10:41 CST Subject: NEC, NEAX User Groups Information > Does anyone know of any user groups or lists for users of NEC or NEAX > Switches? The NEAX 2400 is a fine user group. Contact Mr.Carlisle Reams at 803/798-4800 for more information. Just one more opinion from ... randal-hayes@uiowa.edu ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 20 OCT 93 02:03 Subject: Automatic Busy Number Redial I got the GTE call features booklet in the mail today, and there is another difference between Busy Number Redial and Automatic Busy Number Redial. As I mentioned before, BNR only works for numbers in your switch, while BNR works for any SS7-connected switch (currently only other GTE offices). The other difference is that BNR only works for one number at a time, while ABNR works for many numbers at once (no mention of a limit). I wonder if this is a influenced by the terminating switch queueing method used by the GTD-5 as opposed to the originating switch queueing method used by the 5ESS and DMS100? I still say that "Automatic" is a stupid modifier, since it is no more automatic than BNR. "Extended" or "Enhanced" would be better, IMO. 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 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:27:03 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: ANI in HI? Can anyone give me a list of what exchanges in Hawaii have ANI available as a feature, and who those features are available to? I mean, is it just a 911-only thing, or is it available as an added-cost feature to joe and Jane Six-pack? /E ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #712 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04298; 22 Oct 93 14:19 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19728 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:55:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15667 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:54:46 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:54:46 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310221554.AA15667@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #713 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:54:45 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 713 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Legal Action Against Sprint re Modem Offer (Chris Ambler) Re: US Sprint Modem Mess - Read This ASAP (Brett Person) Sprint Fax/Modem Offer (Jack Mcgee) Sprint Modem Offer Revisited Yet Again (Joshua E. Muskovitz) Sprint Modem Ripoff - Sprint's Response (k1klb@hamgate.merit.ampr.org) Sprint Modem Ripoff (action@indirect.com) Re: Sprint Modem Update (Don Davis) Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery (Clay Jackson) Re: Cost of Modems (dai@mprgate.mpr.ca) Re: Cost of Modems (Glenn R. Stone) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Dinesh Rehani) Re: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? (David Josephson) Re: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? (Gary Breuckman) Re: Calling Card Scam (H. Shrikumar) Re: Ten Base T (?) Lines (Lars Poulsen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler - Fubar) Subject: Legal Action Against Sprint re Modem Offer Organization: The Phishtank Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 00:57:12 GMT I am expecting a callback from Sprint on Monday, so it is urgent that readers of the Digest respond to me before then if they are involved in the modem offer. I spoke with Mr. Shawn Larimer just now, and he informed me that, indeed, the modem is a 2400Data 9600/4800Fax internal PC half-card. I told him that I was promised, on all seven of my lines, a 9600Data/Fax external modem. He explained that he was aware of the problem, but that I should understand that he is not in a position of being a hardware supplier. He did not mention a compromise or settlement until I did. At that time, he offered me $50 of credit as compensation. I countered that the difference in cost between what was promised and what is actually shipping was more like $140. He assured me that they would never agree to such an amount. I then suggested that he contact the department dealing with the hardware supplier to inquire about the availability of the promised item (9600 external). He agreed, and will be calling back on Monday. Bottom line: I get either a 9600Data/Fax external modem, the difference in credit (I would accept $100 per line), or I am going to take legal action. I have done some research, and the activation of my service with Sprint is grounds for value received on contract, and they are obligated to send me what I was promised in return for switching long distance carriers. If anyone else has signed up for this, and has not accepted his offered $50 (which he said many people have), I would like to hear from you. A cooperative effort should carry more weight. In addition, their offering and previous success at a $50 settlement is, I have discovered, sufficient acceptance of responsibility on their part. Sprint made an offer, I accepted. I am not about to let them out of it. If you feel as I do, please get in touch with me. cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.41 FSVMP Voice BBS Demo System - 805-544-3754 ------------------------------ From: person@plains.NoDak.edu (Brett Person) Subject: Re: US Sprint Modem Mess - Read This ASAP Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 19:35:32 GMT Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network > [Moderator's Note: Not to burst your bubble, but I imagine you will be > required to prove that such commitments were made (i.e. 9600/9600) > and that your impression was not the result of a misunderstanding > as to what the rep(s) actually said. PAT] What do Sprint's PUBLISHED ads say? Often, companies will mis-represent things like this IN PRINT. Then, I suspect, you would have something to go to court over. Brett Person North Dakota State University person@plains.nodak.edu || person@plains.bitnet [Moderator's Note: I do not believe there are any *published* ads regards the modem offer. Has anyone seen anything? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Sprint Fax/Modem Offer From: jack.mcgee@ehbbs.com (Jack Mcgee) Date: 22 Oct 93 02:40:00 GMT Organization: Ed Hopper's BBS - Berkeley Lake (Atlanta), GA - 404-446-9462 Reply-To: jack.mcgee@ehbbs.com (Jack Mcgee) The Sprint fax/modem offer has been rescinded as of Friday, 10/15. I just tried to sign up on that deal today (Mon, 10/18) and the Sprint lady said that the offer was pulled back Friday. Apparently it was supposed to have expired some time ago, but it wasn't pulled from the computer or some such, anyway she said the deal was no longer available, but ... I will be sent a plain vanilla 2400 baud modem with 30 hours on the Sierra Network. Whoopee. Ed Hopper's BBS - Home of uuPCB - Usenet for PC Board Node 1 - USR HST - 404-446-9462 Node 2 - V.32bis - 404-446-9465 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 08:48:05 EDT From: Joshua E. Muskovitz Subject: Sprint Modem Offer Revisited Yet Again Gee, the folks at Sprint are really quite friendly -- I seem to get more calls from them than I actually place using their service :-) I got a phone call from Diane Worthy the other night, after reporting her name as the correct contact, and after retracting that statement. Now I must retract my retraction. Confused? So am I. At last count, the correct story is: Diane Worthy *IS* in fact the correct contact for the DVORAK program, and she also claims to be the manager of the program, despite the fact that another Sprint employee (named in a previous post) claimed the exact same thing. Both deny that the other is in charge. Diane confirmend yet again that the DVORAK offer ended October 1 and that the details of the offer are correct as I have reported them. What she also told me is that the offer was killed on Oct 1 because of the tremendous (and unexpected) response. They have been overrun with orders. She also hinted to me that come the first of the year they may be making a similar (but much better) offer. Something about an internal 14.4... :-) (But you didn't hear it from me ...) Those of you interested in clarifying any issues of the DVORAK program with Diane can reach her directly at 913-624-4475. Be sure to tell her that I gave you her number. Maybe I'll get a commission. Josh PS: Hopefully this will be my last correction ... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 02:27:27 EST From: k1klb@hamgate.merit.ampr.org Subject: Sprint Modem Ripoff - Sprint's Response Sprint's response was basically: No way are we going to make good on the modem offer. They are trying to contact everyone who signed up for the offer and get them to accept some free long distance and a modem. The modem is an internal 2400 baud fax/modem. Its a $20 piece of junk. As far as those of you who have the names of your representative and their manager's names, get this! Sprint Legal is going to take the position that everything that was said is hearsay and just not true. See, this is just the reason why telephone companies love to do verbal business. Sprint says that the offer on the radio program was specific, that their reps are not technical, and that they cancelled the "trial offer" on Oct 1, 1993. Sprint claims that the rep's are NOT technical and that people on BBS systems as well as the Internet are to blame for this entire mess. We the Internet community have distorted the facts of the offer! Sprint also promises to send you a modem after approximatly four to six weeks from the time you place your first call on their network. This is also NOT TRUE. Sprint is just now trying to get people to agree to the cheap modem and place an order for the product. My opinion is that Sprint management does not care about the general user/ phone customer. Thats all TV talk. The company made a dumb mistake and they want us to pay our LD bills and take less than what they offered. I do not intend to do that. I will be filing a lawsuit against U.S. Sprint next week in small claims court. I urge all of you that have been ripped off to do the same. It will cost Sprint far more to go to small claims court all over the country than it will to honor the deal. Sprint is a company without honor. I have heard all the claims about un-trained rep's before. People, it is an excuse they drag out of the back room when something goes wrong. Hundreds of you wrote to me and all of you tell the same story. This company is going to try and get out of this anyway they can. If you are still connected to Sprint I urge you to call AT&T, explain that they ripped you off on this modem deal and you want to switch back. Tell AT&T that you will return if they will give you a check (real money) for $75.00 that they have been offering. Call 900-222-0300 also ask about the i plan and see if they can get you a discount deal. One important thing to remember is that accounts from $1.00 to $80,000.00 pay the money that runs these telephone companies. Firms like United Airlines, TWA, IBM, and others get service at near cost just because companies like Sprint want to "BUY" their business. Why should the rest of us pay the frieght ? The new E-MAIL address for the SPRINT MODEM RIPOFF is nettech@crl.com. Please send me your comments! ------------------------------ From: Action Subject: Sprint Modem Ripoff Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 06:44:49 MST The great Sprint modem rip-off. I got a call from two people at Sprint today and they were both lacking on information as to what Sprint will do about this. I figure that the people in Sprint legal are trying to decide what to do. The problem is wide spread. Their own people admit it. One Sprint employee asked me if I was trying to get something for nothing and was this all true! These people are really interesting. The information I publish here is obtained from Sprint employees as well as other sources. I stand by what I report to you on the net. At this point I have asked to have the VP of Sprint Operations call me. The program manager is just too far down the food chain to deal with this problem. I will report my findings back on the net. NOTICE: For all those that have mailed me!!! Hundreds... I have a new e-mail address - please send mail there at once . This system just can't hold all the mail and the up-time is poor. My new mail address is nettech@crl.com CRL has a fantastic Sun system setup and I would highly recommend them to anyone. ------------------------------ From: ddavis@dgdhome.meaddata.com (Don Davis) Subject: Re: Sprint Modem Update 10-16-93 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 09:30:45 EDT Organization: The Dayton Home for the Chronically Strange At 12:20 today (Sunday) Diane Worthy called again to ask me for my decision on alternatives to Sprint's modem offer. It was an interesting discussion. I told her that I would not change my position, and that I wanted the modem that was offered to me: a 9600 baud modem with FAX. I also said that I intended to wait and see what resulted from the various discussions between Sprint and the people who are talking about the offer on Usenet. She did not press hard, but it was clear that she would have liked me to accept the internal 24/96/48 modem or one of the alternative software or credit offerings. Significant aspects of the call: 1. Mrs. Worthy insisted that there was no problem at Sprint. The problem, according to her, was that people were reading about the offer on the Internet, and calling Sprint with incomplete information. 2. She asserted that, because the offer had expired before I called on October 11, Sprint had no legal obligation whatsoever to me. 3. She stated several times that there was no offer for a 9600 baud modem with FAX. The material which was broadcast was very specific as to the model and capabilities of the modem, and that "... we have the tapes ..." of what was broadcast. 4. Mrs. Worthy suggested that, since the available offers were not what I was looking for, I should call back to customer service and cancel my order. My response to all of this was to insist that on October 11, a Sprint representative told me that if I would convert my line to Sprint's LD service, Sprint would send me "a 9600 baud modem with FAX." That's what the rep told me on October 11, and that's what I expect. I guess we'll see what happens. Don Davis Internet: dgdhome!ddavis@meaddata.com | Tel: 513-235-0096 [Moderator's Note: I got a call from Ms. Worthy last Sunday also, with more or less the same conversation. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cjackso@uswnvg.com (Clay Jackson) Subject: Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery Date: 22 Oct 93 08:58:53 GMT The saga continues - I just tried a couple of the numbers previously posted here and got told "The offer expired October 1st". Oh well, I'm actually not that unhappy with AT&T. Clay Jackson - N7QNM uunet!uswnvg!cjackso ------------------------------ From: dai@mprgate.mpr.ca Subject: Re: Cost of Modems Reply-To: dai@mprgate.mpr.ca Organization: MPR Teltech Ltd. Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:40:46 GMT > A local pawn shop has a genuine Hayes 1200 Smartmodem in the window > for only $79.95! I went in for fun and tried to talk the guy down on > it. He said that he couldn't go any lower, since this thing costs > $600 brand new! Close ... Seven years ago I paid $499.95 for mine. It was well worth it then considering the 300 baud alternative. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 93 20:44:53 GMT From: taliesin@netcom.com (Glenn R. Stone) Subject: Re: Cost of Modems In Telecom 13.711.6, weave@hopi.dtcc.edu (Ken Weaverling) writes: > A local pawn shop has a genuine Hayes 1200 Smartmodem in the window > for only $79.95! I went in for fun and tried to talk the guy down on > it. He said that he couldn't go any lower, since this thing costs > $600 brand new! Yeah, the Smartmodem 1200 is an industrial product now. My father uses them to remote-control the Instrument Landing System (ILS) transmitters he's responsible for maintaining ... just a plain-Jane SM1200, set (for some screwy reason) to answer in originate mode, and some firmware in the monitor section ... he can do everything he can from the front panel, including power cycle the transmitter proper. Since they aren't in demand by the general public, but they are by industry (gee, mister VP, it's a Real Hayes!), Hayes jacks the prices out of proportion. Meanwhile, I just bought an Optima 2400 with V.42bis for $80 in the Georgia Tech bookstore ... granted that carries an educational discount, but it's not that much more in the "real world" ... Glenn R. Stone (taliesin@netcom.com) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 14:45:24 GMT From: rehani@utcdsv.SINet.SLB.COM (DINESH REHANI +44 400 81999) Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? Yes, it does ... Thanks to all who responded, both to the list, and directly to me. It was a tremendous learning experience, being that I am practically a novice in the field. The trick is, as I found out, to identify the 'speech pair' in the respective telephone systems you are trying to interface. The US style RJ11 has the speech pair on pins 2 and 3. The BT style plug has them on pins 2 and 5 (that is, the last-but-one on each end). Trivial info for the initiated, sure, but took me 3 days to find out! Anybody has any suggestions on good books to read up on for such stuff? Dinesh Rehani rehani@utcdsv.sinet.slb.com ph : (44-400) 81999 fx : (44-400) 82073 ------------------------------ From: davidj@rahul.net (David Josephson) Subject: Re: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? Organization: a2i network Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 18:41:17 GMT Graybar Electric, a nationwide electrical contractor's supply house, also stocks telecom supplies like 66 blocks, Dracon 714 tools, butt sets etc. Their store in San Jose has all of the above in stock, I'm sure there are many others. David Josephson ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 01:56:25 GMT In article nathan@seldon.foundation.tricon. com writes: > I need to know if anyone has any sources for type 101 or type 66 > punchdown blocks (along with the special tool for the type 66) and > 25/50 pair solid core copper wire. The last time my phone guy was out > here, I asked if I could have 50 ft. or so of 25 pair cable and he > said "help yourself", which was great, but he wouldn't give me any > punchdown blocks (understandable!) I've got 12 pair coming into my The places that sell computer networking parts and components sell terminal blocks, wire, and tools. Inmac, Global, etc. It's a bit cheaper from someplaces that sells telephone equipment and communications supplies, but for small quantities the Inmac and such are better set up for consumer orders and aren't priced that much more. Inmac has 66 and 110 blocks, patch panels, connectorized blocks, adapters, pre-made and raw cable, etc. If you can't find an Inmac catalog, call them 800-547-5444. Black box carries pretty much the same stuff as Inmac, call Black Box at 412-746-5530 (Black Box is interesting -- they want you to FAX orders, so they have a toll free fax line and voice line that's on your dime -- most places if you want to send a fax it's at your cost ...) For more equipment, Jensen Tools at 800-426-1194 or Specialized Products 800-866-5353. Jensen and Specialized have lots of tools, tool kits, and test equipment (telco test (butt) sets, tone generators, etc) but not much in supplies. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:11:57 -0400 From: shri@sureal.cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar) Subject: Re: Calling Card Scam Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India In article fec@arch2.att.com ... >> I know AT&T started telling people *never* to give out their >> card numbers over the phone. > We do and so do the other carriers. And the TV news specials have > reinforced consumer awareness of such scams. I dont know if what I relate below is related to frauds or not ... but whenever Sprint does something funny with my calling card (and they do it often enough ... so that's one reason to carry cards of more than one IXC), the first explanation I try has to do with Card Fraud. I can usually figure the thing out after a couple of calls to Custumer Service, sometimes getting bounced to supervisor level before I can get an answer. But my recent experience is really really inexplicable ... Sprint says I can use my Sprint card to Direct dial calls to India ... but not with operator help. The exact words they read off their screen is something like "Operator placed calls to this country not allowed. You can please direct dial this call and bill it your card." ... and it does go thru if I DTMF the number. So what happens if I get stuck at a rotary phone or a COCOT that eats DTMFs? I cannot place a call to India thru Sprint at all then? And since I can presumably place calls within the US on my card with an operator entering my card number ... whats the deal? I intend to try out actually placing a call within the US with timeout to operator on the Sprint FonCard 800 number ... and then after confirming that to call again and just sit on the line and not let go unless someone tells me why they cannot help complete my call to India, one of these days. Unless of course, the Sprint has bought a DTMF dialer manufacturer in the recent past and wants to encourage sales ! :-) shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in ) [Moderator's Note: The main thing to remember is that Sprint is not a full-service phone company. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Ten Base T (?) Lines Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:34:24 GMT In article goodwid@prism.cs.orst.edu (David Goodwin) writes: > Hello. Recently, the University I attend installed new wiring in the > residence hall I live in. This new wiring consited of a standard > phone line, a co-axial cable TV line, and something called a 'ten base > t' line, which I know nothing about. 10baseT is one of the wiring options for Ethernet: 10base5 - "yellow" thick ethernet coax 10base2 - RG58U "thin" ethernet coax 10baseT - unshielded twisted pair With 10baseT, two twisted pairs are terminated on an RJ-45 type connector, and on the other end is a multiport repeater, or "hub" which ties into the campus Ethernet backbone. To use this, plug an ethernet card into your PC, and you too can be an internet node. Congratulations. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK Internets: designed and built while you wait ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #713 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04881; 22 Oct 93 15:00 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07138 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:29:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08575 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:28:47 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:28:47 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310221628.AA08575@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #714 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Oct 93 11:28:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 714 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Mitch Kapor's Keynote at The Networked Economy USA Conference (R. Keller) NPA Readiness for 1995 (Gregory P. Monti) Motorola Files Infringement Lawsuit (John Gilbert) Variation on "Prize" Phone Call (Thomas Lapp) Dealing With "Bad" COCOTs (Eddy J. Gurney) Remote Call Forwarding - Alternatives?? (Dannie Gregoire) AirPhones on Air Canada Flights (Dave O'Heare) What Exactly is ATM? (John Biederstedt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: rjk@telcomlaw.win.net (Robert J. Keller) Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 09:35:21 Subject: Mitch Kapor's Keynote at The Networked Economy USA Conference From: rjk@telcomlaw.win.net (Robert J. Keller) Yesterday I was fortunate to be at the morning session of The Networked Economy USA conference here in Washington, DC, at least long enough to hear Mitch Kapor's keynote address. The theme of the day was some version of "The Information Highay" buzzword that is currently in vogue here inside the Beltway. Here is a brief summory of Kapor's remarks: DISCLAIMER 1: The following is my interpretation of what I think I heard Mitch Kapor say, based on my notes and my own imperfect memory. DISCLAIMER 2: I am a fairly good typist, but I am a lousy speller and I have fat fingers. If the particular mailer I am using now has a spell-checker, I have not yet discovered how to access it. Enjoy! 1. We do face a significant policy issue of who will provide the investment to build the so-called Information Highway: the government or the private sector. Kapor favors the private sector, but realizes that it raises many issues and concerns. 2. Policy makers concerned with the public interest ramifications of the IH have historic reason to be skeptical and even cynical. Each major telcommunications technological advancement (telephone, radio, TV, cable television) has emerged amid great promise of social benefits that have often never materialized. (E.g., cable's promise of wide-spread public access, local programming, more varied fare, etc.). The IH may end up being the same ... great promise now, but eventually just giga-version of the current CATV system. 3. Policy makers must understand that many of the public interest concnerns are significantly affected by technological factors. For example, if the IH is to acheive its current promise, it must be a truly two-way system (as opposed to the current CATV system which is essentially one-way.) For effective business applications as well as consumre-level interactivity, there has to be subtantial capacity and capability in _both_ directions. While this is an important policy objective, it depends on technology. The policy can not be implemented later if now we simply build a system that consists of eight lane highways going out, with only foot-paths coming back. That will allow little more than enhanced CATV and home-shopping. We have to engineer the system now to aovid this pitfall. (He talked in terms of as much as a half to a full gigabyte of two-way bandwidth per end user.) 4. There are cetain groups that are understandably excited and enthusiastic about the promise of the IH, but at the same time seriously concerned about what the ultimate policy regarding it will be. Two examples: - Publishers, producesrs, etc.: the IH promises a less restrictive ability to reach broad public audiences without the need for substantial investment or ceding an interest to a TV network or a publisher. But will this promise be realized if the investor/builder/owner of the IH is the private sector? - Internet Pioneers: they are used to a very decentralized, unregulated or self-regulated, open access system. Will this environment survive in a business-oriented, private sector IH? 5. In addressing these various issues, we must move away from a "channel" of communications concept (which grew out of the world of spectrum scarcity) and move instead to a "capacity" or "switched digital system" (which is possible because of things like fiber optics and digital communications). Spectrum scarcity need no longer drive the policy and regulatory issues. Thus, the IH is less analogous to the current CATV system (in which large amounts of centrally controlled information is distributed to users) and much more analogous to the current PSTN (in which any user can directly connect to any other user). It is also less analogous to broadcasting (in which programming is geared to the common denominator and broadly disseminated) and more analogous to print media (in which I can go into a bookstore or library and choose a narrowly focused book). 6. Universal Service! How do we achieve the old concept of univarsal service in the IH without re-creating or perpetuating outdated and counter-productive regulatory beaurocracies? In the truly open access system (universally available) the IH capacity provider acts as a common carrier. It makes the access available to whomever wants it, without regard to the content of the information. But if the private sector is putting up the investment to build and operate the IH, can we tell them they can not control content? Is that fair? 7, This is NOT a Solomon's Choice! According to Kapor, we are no longer in a world of spectrum scarcity, so we don't have to decide between the public benefits of open accsess and the fundamental fairness of private sector control. We can build the IH with enough capacity to satisfy two different regulatory approaches: private and common carrier. The IH would be divided between the two, not on a "channelization" basis, but on a "capacity" basis. Part of the capacity would be used by the IH provider on a private basis, and the IH provider would have control over content. But part of the capacity would also have to made available on a common carrier, full open access basis, in which the IH provider would have absolutely no control over content. Bob Keller (KY3R) Tel +1 202.939.7918 rjk@telcomlaw.win.net Fax +1 202.745.0916 rjk@access.digex.net CIS 76100,3333 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 19:28:53 EDT From: Gregory P. Monti Subject: NPA Readiness for 1995 This list attempts to document those area codes that are ready for "interchangeability day", January 1, 1995, and those that are not. The key item of readiness is whether subscribers are required to dial 1 + seven digits for toll calls within their own NPA or not. 1 + seven digits will be discontinued throughout North America and replaced with either plain seven digits or 1 + ten digits. I've based the list on postings here in TELECOM Digest, on published stories in other media and on first-hand information, bill stuffers people have handed me, etc. Your corrections are welcomed. If Patrick doesn't mind the space it uses, I'll post an update every one or two months. Thanks for your help. The column headings didn't translate well from Microsoft Excel, so: The first two columns are the NPA and state or province it serves. Next is the current (or ANNOUNCED) dialing pattern for intra-NPA toll calls, whichever is more recent. The "yes/no" column indicates whether this NPA's telcos have prepared themselves for 1995 yet or not. Notes are on the right. 201 NJ 7 yes 202 DC n/a yes there are no toll calls within 202 203 CT 1+7 no 204 MB 1+7 no 205 AL 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1990 206 WA 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 1992 207 ME 7 yes 7 digits announced 1992 208 ID 1+7 no 209 CA 7 yes 210 TX 1+10 yes 212 NY n/a yes there are no toll calls within 212 213 CA n/a yes there are no toll calls within 213, I think 214 TX 1+10 yes 215 PA 7 yes 216 OH 1+7 no 217 IL 1+7 no 218 MN 1+7 no 219 IN 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 8/93 301 MD 1+10 yes 302 DE 1+7 no 303 CO 1+7 no 304 WV 1+7 no 305 FL 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 93 306 SK 1+7 no 307 WY 1+7 no 308 NE 1+7 no 309 IL 1+7 no 310 CA 7 yes 312 IL n/a yes there are no toll calls within 312 313 MI 7 yes 314 MO 1+7 no 315 NY 1+7 no 316 KS 1+7 no 317 IN 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 8/93 318 LA 1+7 no 319 IA 1+7 no 334 AL 1+10 yes New code; Starts January 15, 1995 401 RI 7 yes 7 digits announced 1992 402 NE 1+7 no 403 AB,NT,YT 1+7 no 404 GA 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1989 405 OK 1+7 no 406 MT 1+7 no 407 FL 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 93 408 CA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 409 TX 1+7 no 410 MD 1+10 yes 412 PA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 413 MA 1+10 yes Mass DPU ordered 1+10 in 10/93 414 WI 1+7 no 415 CA 7 yes has always been 7 digits for toll 416 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1991 417 MO 1+7 no 418 QU 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 419 OH 1+7 no 501 AR 1+7 no 502 KY 1+7 no 503 OR 1+10 yes 1+10 announced mid 1992 504 LA 1+7 no 505 NM 1+7 no 506 NB 1+7 no 507 MN 1+7 no 508 MA 1+10 yes Mass DPU ordered 1+10 in 10/93 509 WA 1+7 no 510 CA 7 yes has always been 7 digits for toll 512 TX 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 1991 513 OH 1+7 no 514 QU 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 515 IA 1+7 no 516 NY 7 no inter-NPA calls are 10, must change to 1+10 517 MI 1+7 no 518 NY 1+7 no 519 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 601 MS 1+7 no other BellSouth states now 1+10, is MS? 602 AZ 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1990 603 NH 7 yes 7 digits announced 1992 604 BC,AK 1+7 no 605 SD 1+7 no 606 KY 1+7 no 607 NY 1+7 no 608 WI 1+7 no 609 NJ 7 yes 1+7 disallowed beginning 9/93 610 PA 7 yes New code; Starts January 4, 1994 612 MN 1+7 no 613 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 614 OH 1+7 no 615 TN 1+10 yes 1+10 posted on pay phones 9/93 616 MI 1+7 no 617 MA 1+10 yes Mass DPU ordered 1+10 in 10/93 618 IL 1+7 no 619 CA 7 yes 7 digits toll announced 9/93 701 ND 1+7 no 702 NV 1+7 no 703 VA 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1987 704 NC 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1990 705 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 706 GA 1+10 yes 1+10 announced mid 1992 707 CA 7 yes 7 digits announced 10/93 708 IL 7 yes has always been 7 digits toll 709 NF 1+7 no 712 IA 1+7 no 713 TX 1+10 yes 1+10 digits announced early 1993 714 CA 7 yes has always been 7 digits toll, I think 715 WI 1+7 no 716 NY 1+7 no 717 PA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 718 NY n/a yes there are no toll calls within 718 719 CO 1+7 no 801 UT 1+7 no 802 VT 7 yes 7 digits announced 1992 803 SC 1+10 yes 1+10 posted on pay phones 9/93 804 VA 1+7 no 805 CA 7 yes 806 TX 1+7 no 807 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 808 HI 1+7 no 809 Caribb 1+7 no 810 MI 7 yes New code, starts December 1993 812 IN 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 8/93 813 FL 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 93 814 PA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 815 IL 1+7 no 816 MO 1+7 no 817 TX 1+7 no 818 CA 7 yes has always been 7 digits toll 819 QU 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 901 TN 1+10 yes 1+10 posted on pay phones 9/93 902 NS,PE 1+7 no 903 TX 1+10 yes has always been 1+10 toll 904 FL 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 93 905 ON 1+10 yes has always been 1+10 for toll 906 MI 1+7 no 907 AK 1+7 no 908 NJ 7 yes has always been 7 digits toll 909 CA 7 yes 910 NC 1+10 yes New code; starts November 14, 1993 912 GA 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 8/92 913 KS 1+7 no 914 NY 7 no inter-NPA calls are 10, must change to 1+10 915 TX 1+7 no 916 CA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 917 NY n/a yes there are no toll calls within 917 918 OK 1+7 no 919 NC 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1990 74 NPAs ready for 1995 70 NPAs not ready for 1995 144 Total NANP NPAs 29 NPAs using 7 digit solution so far 40 NPAs using 1+10 digit solution so far *YOUR* *CORRECTIONS* *ARE* *WELCOMED* Post a brief message here or send me a brief E-mail. Remember, this list shows the dialing patterns that have been ANNOUNCED as well as IMPLEMENTED. Once an announcement appears in TELECOM Digest, {Teleconnect}, {Communications Daily}, or any other source I happen to see, the new plan is added to this list. Greg Monti, Technical Project Manager, Future Interconnection System Project Office, National Public Radio, 2025 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 Voice: 202 822-2633 Fax: 202 822-2699 Internet: gmonti@cap.gwu.edu ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Motorola Files Infringement Lawsuit Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 21:48:09 GMT The following is an official press release from the public relations office of Motorola's Land Mobile Products Sector. Any questions relating to this press release should be addressed to Pat Schod of Motorola Public relations at (708) 576-6612. Reference: ADM9371 Pat Schod Date: October 14, 1993 (708) 576-6612 MOTOROLA FILES INFRINGEMENT LAWSUIT SCHAUMBURG, IL -- Motorola, Inc. said that it filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against two firms and three individuals for infringement of various Motorola copyrights and trademarks and misappropriation of Motorola secrets. The complaint alleges that Communications Consultants Systems, a company called "CCW", Harold Pick, Gerard Pick and Milton Bell, copied copyrighted software to modify identification codes in Motorola two-way radios that the defendants sold to others. This enabled them to illegally use the radio communications systems operated by either Motorola or its legitimate customers without paying Motorola for that use. The modified radios were sold or rented as genuine Motorola products. The case centers principally on the unauthorized copying of proprietary Motorola software designed to program individual customer two-way radios and communications systems, related trade secrets and the trademarks used by Motorola to identify the source of the products it markets and sells. "This action is part of a program to enforce Motorola's intellectual property rights against their unauthorized, illegal and misapplied use. We continue to strive to protect the rights of our customers -- from public safety agencies to small businesses -- who rely on the integrity of their radio communications systems," says Anthony J. Biell, manager of software protection for Motorola's Land Mobile Products Sector. "The unauthorized use of Motorola's proprietary software could compromise the performance of our customer's systems. In the case of public safety, that could result in serious consequences." # # # Motorola is one of the world's leading providers of electronic equipment, systems and components for worldwide markets. Products include two-way radios, pagers, cellular telephones and systems, semiconductors, defense and aerospace electronics, automotive and industrial electronics, computers, data communications and information processing and handling equipment. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 19:23:22 EDT From: Thomas Lapp Subject: Variation on "Prize" Phone Call I got an interesting variation of the you've-won-at-least-one-prize scams tonight. Rather than just the first cold call which starts out, "Hello Mr. Lapp, how are you this evening?*", the first call was a sneaky method of making sure that I would hang around the phone for a while while building my interest in the call which was to follow. The first call was a female voice saying that "she had a pre-paid person-to-person call for Thomas Lapp" but that "she was having trouble putting the call through" and that would I stay near the phone, as she would have them call me direct. No operator or RBOC or IEX identification. (Now I wish I had worked that first call over and asked questions like "why can't you put it through?" or "what carrier is having problems tonight?" :-) Of course, the call that came a few minutes later was the scam call telling me I had won a prize. I thought from the sound of it (private group, person-to-person call, not everyone is winner) that it might be ligit, so I cut to the chase and said that if it was a prize and involved money to obtain it, we could stop right now. Too bad. She begged me a good evening and rang off. (*See last week's newspaper comic strip Blondie for some humor related to that line. Dagwood, when he receives that line, responds something to the effect of "you have reached a number which has been changed. The new number is 555-8787. Please make a note of it." Turns out that 555-8787 was "his boss, Mr. Dither's home number.." :-) tom internet : mvac23!thomas@udel.edu or thomas%mvac23@udel.edu (home) Location : Newark, DE, USA ------------------------------ From: egurney@hpvclq.vcd.hp.com (Eddy J. Gurney) Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 11:09:00 -0700 Subject: Dealing With "Bad" COCOTs Greetings everyone. I'm curious what everyone else does when they run into a COCOT that isn't properly configured. I remember the "sticker" thing from a few years ago ... maybe I should print some out. :-) But I don't want to get in any trouble, either ... My latest experience went like this. I look at the phone and see that it's handled by Outrageously Overpriced Backroom Communications Ltd. So I dial 10288+0+number to use AT&T. I wait a couple of seconds, and I actually get the "Bonngg... AT&T". I go to key in my calling card number and the TONES THE PHONE IS NOW SENDING ARE NOT REAL TOUCH-TONES(tm)! They were shifted somehow, and it was totally obvious (to me, anyway.) I tried AT LEAST five times to use a calling card from this phone, and somehow it "knew" when to start messing up the tones. I got an AT&T operator (with 10288+0) and she suggested I try their 800 number (1-800-321-0288). This worked; I was able to enter my calling card with the keypad via this method. It still ticked me off that I couldn't select an alternate LDC though. The phone next to it acted the same way. Another time at a different phone, the label said calls were handled by AT&T when they weren't! This phone didn't even allow you to dial 10xxx at all; you immediately got an intercept. Even a local call from the phone seemed to be "buffered" internally and then dialed (you could hear the dialing after it "approved" the number). That also ticked me off. It's amazing how much COCOT garbage there is. But what can you do? Eddy J. Gurney N8FPW Hewlett-Packard Company, Vancouver (USA!) Division egurney@vcd.hp.com #include ------------------------------ From: dannie@coplex.coplex.com (Dannie Gregoire) Subject: Remote Call Forwarding - Alternatives? Organization: The Internet Gateway of Louisville, KY Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 12:31:02 GMT I am looking for some methods of providing local dial-in access in surrounding cities to our BBS. I have heard that remote call forwarding would provide this functionality. o Does anyone have any experience with a similar setup? o Which long distance carrier provides cheapest service for remote call forwarding? o Are there any suggested alternatives that would provide the same service at cheaper-than-long-distance rates? Thanks greatly for any suggestions. Dannie J. Gregoire dannie@coplex.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:01:23 -0400 From: doheare@jetform.com (Dave O'Heare) Subject: AirPhones on Air Canada Flights Pat: I don't know if these have been mentioned before, but they were new to me. On recent flights on Air Canada, I noticed that the seat in front of me held a device called an AirPhone. There was a slot for a credit card to release it from its cradle, and a squarish handset. Removing it from its cradle shows a handset with a conventional-looking tone pad, and a slot along one side; you are to slide the magnetic stripe of your credit card through this slot to activate the phone. The in-flight magazine gives quite clear instructions on use, including a caution to be patient because it might take 15 to 30 seconds to get a dialtone. They say that the cost is $3 per minute for calls within Canada, and $6/min for calls outside Canada (dunno what they'd charge for a call to an Inmarsat site -- tarriffed at $12/min in Canada). I can't comment on the sound quality -- I couldn't think of anybody I was willing to spend $3 a minute to talk to. As well, the safety instructions (on videotape) at the beginning of each flight say that "Cellular phones cannot be used in flight because of a risk of interference with aircraft electronic equipment". I suspect that what they really meant was "Do not use" -- why can't people say what they mean (off-topic I know, but Geez). Dave O'Heare doheare@jetform.com +1 613 594 3026 ------------------------------ Subject: What exactly is ATM? From: John Biederstedt Date: 21 Oct 93 21:24:11 -0600 Organization: Mankato State University Somebody told me that ATM is a service like Frame Reley. From what I've read, ATM is a service more akin to T1 or T3 (but somewhere in between is terms of bandwidth). Are there any gurus who can clarify? Email: John@MSUS1.MSUS.EDU John Biederstedt Computer Services Mankato State University Mankato, MN 56002 [Moderator's Note: What is ATM? Well, it depends on who you ask, the butcher, the banker, the candlestick maker. 'ATM' is used in various applications, 'automatic teller machine' being one that comes to mind when you ask most people about it. But we here know it associates with various things. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #714 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05316; 22 Oct 93 15:41 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10677 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 12:17:16 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28446 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 12:16:26 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 12:16:26 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310221716.AA28446@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #715 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Oct 93 12:16:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 715 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Robert Shaw) Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Christian Taube) Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Carl Moore) Re: Mailing List for uk.telecom, aus.comms (Keith Mitchell) Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? (Archie Cobbs) Re: NTSC and 50Hz (Lukas Zahas) Re: NTSC and 50Hz (H.Shrikumar) Re: Atomic Clocks (David Breneman) Re: Atomic Clocks (Sam Pemberton) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 19:44:25 +0100 From: SHAW Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net dsokolic@world.std.com (David M Sokolic) wrote: > I was wondering if anyone out there can give me a concise guide to Telecom > resources that are out there on the net. > I have heard of the TELECOM Digest. What else is there? > Can you get stuff from BELLCORE and ETSI through the net? Are there > any other mailing lists that are good. I am particularly interested in > Fiber-In_The _Loop, HDSL , ADSL, and ISDN. You can access a lot of telecom-related electronic information resources from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITUDOC electronic document database. For a full ITUDOC user's guide (~40K) , send a message with the line HELP in it to: itudoc@itu.ch Here's a short summary. INTERACTIVE ACCESS Interactive access to ITUDOC is available as one of ITU's 'Open Services' available in TIES (Telecom Information Exchange Services). There are other services available (e.g., X.400 databases, access to United Nations databases, UN email profiles, etc.) The interface is Gopher. Connectivity to TIES is possible via: 1. GOPHER CLIENT Pointer to the ITU Gopher Server is: Name=International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Host=info.itu.ch Port=70 2. TELNET Telnet: ties.itu.ch or info.itu.ch (login name 'gopher') 3. X.25 Call the X.25 DTE address, on TELEPAC, the Swiss PSPDN #228468111112 where # is local prefix for international routing, login name 'gopher' 4. DIAL-UP +41 22 733 7575 (Swiss telephone number, login name 'gopher') Supported modem protocols include ITU-T (CCITT) V.21, V.22, V.22bis, V.32, V.42, V.42bis Recommendations, Bell212A and MNP 2, 3, 4, 5. Basic settings should be no parity, 8 data bits (necessary for on-line reading of multilingual material), speed 300 to 9,600 bps. For downloading documents/files, several file transfer methods are supported (e.g., Kermit, XModem, Text, email). EMAIL ACCESS For complete details, send a message with the line HELP in it to: itudoc@itu.ch For example, to retrieve any ITUDOC document, you send the command: GET where is the UPI (Unique Permanent Identifier) for the document. For example, to retrieve the index of the ITU-T (ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector) Group, send the command: GET ITU-1100 See below for the UPIs of other index files. You can place multiple commands in a single message (maximum 50). ITUDOC ROAD MAP AND INDEX FILES Here are UPIs for key ITUDOC road map and index files. Road map and index files describe the structure of groups and list UPIs for all documents available in the group. They are updated every two weeks. Title: Road Map and Index for ITUDOC (About ITUDOC) Group UPI: ITU-1800 Title: Road Map and Index for GS (ITU General Secretariat) Group UPI: ITU-1700 Title: Road Map and Index for ITU-D (ITU Development Sector) Group UPI: ITU-1300 Title: Road Map and Index for ITU-R (ITU Radiocommunication Sector) Group UPI: ITU-1200 Title: Road Map and Index for ITU-T (ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector) Group UPI: ITU-1100 NB: the group above is former-CCITT and contains telecom standardization-related documents (e.g., List of Recommendations, CCITT/ITU-T Recommendations) Title: Road Map and Index for SIGS (Special Interest Groups) Group UPI: ITU-1500 Title: Road Map and Index for TIES (Telecom Information Exchange Services) Group UPI: ITU-1400 Title: Road Map and Index for the complete ITU Document Store UPI: ITU-1600 Title: Road Map and Index for UN/EDICORE (United Nations UN/EDIFACT Standards Database (EDICORE)) Group UPI: ITU-1900 Robert Shaw Information Services Department International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland TEL: +41 22 730 5338/5554 FAX: +41 22 730 5337 X.400:G=robert;S=shaw;A=arcom;P=itu;C=ch Internet: shaw@itu.ch [Moderator's Note: I am wondering how difficult/feasable/useful it would be to place many of the ITU documents in our own archives for use by Internet people. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:51:35 +0100 From: taube@isa.de (Christian Taube) Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) writes: > At least two countries have national telecom-related newsgroups: > aus.comms from Australia and uk.telecom from the United Kingdom. Both > newsgroups are widely available in North America, and may be useful if > you are specifically interested in the telecommunications systems in > those countries. At least three. Germany has a hierarchy called de.comm.*, of which de.comm.misc would hold anything that's telecom-related (the others being are de.comm.gateways, de.comm.internet, de.comm.ham, de.comm.uucp, and de.comm.gatebau). All of these should be carried by the major national backbones. Christian Taube (taube@isa.de), ISA GmbH, 70174 Stuttgart, Germany Any opinions expressed are mine, and mine only! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 07:14:32 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? Well, don't forget to forward to telecom items which are of interest to people beyond, say, United Kingdom or Australia. [Moderator's Note: I've been thinking about that for awhile now. PAT] ------------------------------ From: keith@unipalm.co.uk (Keith Mitchell) Subject: Re: Mailing List for uk.telecom, aus.comms Organization: Unipalm Ltd., 216 Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge CB4 4WA, UK Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:39:25 GMT ae446@Freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) writes: > I posted a message to comp.dcom.telecom about national telecom > newsgroups such as uk.telecom and aus.comms, and received a reply > from someone who didn't have access to uk.* or aus.* newsgroups, > but wondered if they were available as a mailing list. PIPEX feed all the uk.* groups one-hop on to UUNET, so I am a little surprised to hear there are people who can't get at uk.telecom -- they should maybe try and see if they can get a feed, because it does leave the country. It has struck me before that a News->Mail gateway for uk.telecom would be a good idea as well, though. One possible use of it might be for moderated cross-posting of uk.telecom articles of more general interest on to comp.dcom.telecom. Keith Mitchell Network Manager Public IP Exchange keith@pipex.net 216 The Science Park keith@unipalm.co.uk Cambridge, UK keith@uk.co.pipex (non-IP JANET sites) Phone: +44 223-250120 Fax: +44 223-250121 PIPEX is part of the Unipalm Group [Moderator's Note: Well, if the people in charge of those lists would send them here, I would see that they got housed in the Telecom Archives so that others could refer to them. It is possible also there could be an 'international' edition of the Digest specifically devoted to excerpts of things from those lists. Even though this Digest is certainly interna- tional in readership, it has a United States slant to it which could be cured with the inclusion of excerpts from the uk and aus mailings. PAT] ------------------------------ From: archie@cory.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Archie Cobbs) Subject: Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? Date: 22 Oct 93 13:09:30 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley In article , dla@athena.princeton.edu (Don Alvarez) writes: > Does anybody know who provides fax to email service? I'm looking for > somebody who receives faxes and then emails a bitmap in exchange for > money (or for warm fuzzy feelings if possible, but somehow I think > that's unlikely :-) I'm also curious about going the other direction, > but what I really need is to be able to receive the faxes. Forwarded message: FaxLinq FAQ FaxLinq is a service of Antigone Press. What is FaxLinq? FaxLinq provides an electronic "gateway" from FAX to electronic mail (e-mail). With FaxLinq, e-mail users worldwide will now be able to receive facsimile messages, without having to acquire fax equipment. FaxLinq subscribers receive faxes at Antigone's central dispatch office via e-mail. Faxes are then attached to an e-mail message and forwarded to the subscriber. What e-mail accounts can be accessed by FaxLinq? Any e-mail address that can be reached via the Internet. This includes: BITNET, ArpaNet, Compuserve, Fidonet, Sprintmail. MCImail, UUCP, Applelink, GEnie, America Online and many others. How do I subscribe to FaxLinq? There is a yearly subscription fee of $39. For this fee, you are entitled to receive ten pages of facsimile transmission. Additional pages received and transmitted to your e-mail account are billed at the rate of $1 per page. FaxLinq accounts are "deposit" accounts. Your subscription fee will put a credit of ten pages in your account. You may also purchase additional page credits at the time of your subscription. Monthly statements of your account will be rendered by e-mail. If you intend to receive more than ten pages, you must keep your account balance replenished. Should a fax be received for you and your account balance is not sufficient to cover the number of pages received, you will be notified by e-mail. Please allow ample time for your remittance to reach us if you are expecting a fax that will exceed your account balance. How does someone send me a fax? Faxes must be sent to Antigone's fax number. The e-mail address (preferably) or name of the final recipient must be clearly marked on the FIRST page of the transmission. Is this any different for the sender than sending a "normal" fax? No. The sender doesn't even have to know that they are sending to Antigone. You can even put our fax number on your letterhead and business cards. What do I receive? We take the fax transmission, convert it to a TIFF file, and send you a MIME-compliant mail message, using the image/TIFF Content-Type to enclose the fax. You may read the message using any one of many MIME-compliant mail readers in existence for different computer platforms. If you can read NeXTmail, the fax will be delivered to you in NeXTmail format. What is MIME and where do I get more information on MIME? You may obtain a FAQ (list of Frequently Asked Questions and their answers) by sending e-mail to . This includes a list of known MIME-compliant mailers. Do you offer Optical Character Recognition? At this time we do not have the facilities to offer OCR processing for incoming faxes. What if the fax is unreadable? The fax sender is responsible to ensure the quality of their transmission. We will forward anything we receive for you. We do not inspect the contents or quality of the transmission, for reasons of privacy. If the fax is unreadable, you must contact the original sender and request that they resend the fax. How long does it take to turn around a fax? As soon as we receive a fax we start processing it immediately. Many possible delays are built-in to the chain of events, most of which are beyond Antigone's control (network failure, failed mail delivery). We cannot be responsible for delays in receipt of a fax or in the transmittal of the TIFF fax file via electronic mail. Liability will be limited to refunding the transmittal fee if our negligence is determined. What about the other direction? (E-mail to FAX) Send e-mail to for more information on sending a fax from an e-mail message. Text, TIFF and PostScript are supported by the Experiment in Remote Printing, which already serves many areas in the world. This is great! How do I open a FaxLinq account? Fill out the form below and return it to us, with your check, via postal mail. FaxLinq facsimile transmission account application Please fill out, sign, date and return with your payment to: Antigone Press 1310 Clayton Street Suite 15 San Francisco CA 94114 USA Name: Title: Company: Street Address: City: State or Province: ZIP Code: Telephone: E-Mail address: I can accept NeXTmail: YES NO Please accept my subscription for FaxLinq ______ Yearly subscription fee .......................... $39.00 (Includes 10 pages of fax transmission) ______ Additional pages of fax transmission @ $1.00...... _______ TOTAL enclosed .................................. _______ ======= Payment must be made to Antigone Press, in US Dollars, in the form of: - a check drawn on a US bank account - an international Money Order in US Dollars I hereby contract with Antigone Press (Antigone) for the service of receiving facsimile transmissions destined to me. At their discretion, Antigone will forward these transmissions to the electronic mail account I have provided above. I agree to pay Antigone in advance, as per the schedule above, for each and every fax received by them which bears the electronic mail address I have given above or which bears my name. I understand that Antigone's liability will be limited to refunding the transmittal fee if any error or negligence on their part is determined. Name: Signature: Date: ------------------------------ From: lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) Subject: Re: NTSC and 50Hz Date: 21 Oct 1993 18:14:35 GMT Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA Reply-To: lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) In article plr@ichigo.os.nasu.toshiba. co.jp (Peter Leif Rasmussen (SY-Gi)) writes: >> Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 >> Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have >> worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. > When Tony Harminc so surely writes that NTSC would never have worked > in a 50Hz area, I would like to know why? Japan is a 50Hz _and_ a 60 > Hz area. The east is 50Hz and the west is 60Hz (the parting line is > about the city Nagoya I think). Surely the television system is NTSC > and the voltage is 100V. The author is correct that NTSC can work with power supplies other than 60Hz. The original poster is under the incorrect assumption that the 60Hz frequency is used in timing the fields and, subsequently, the frames. In the early days of television, the 60Hz AC line was used as a convenient reference, but when color TV was introduced, the speed was changed from 30 frames per second to 29.97 frames per second, making the frame rate completely independent of the power supply frequency. Lukas Zahas lzahas@bu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 02:23:43 -0400 From: shri@sureal.cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar) Subject: Re: NTSC and 50Hz Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India In article plr@ichigo.os.nasu.toshiba.co. jp wrote: > When Tony Harminc so surely writes that NTSC would never have worked > in a 50Hz area, I would like to know why? Japan is a 50Hz _and_ a 60 > Hz area. The east is 50Hz and the west is 60Hz (the parting line is > about the city Nagoya I think). Surely the television system is NTSC > and the voltage is 100V. Well, back in the early days of television (no! I am not that old !!) the power supplies in the TV sets were not too good and would have a fair amount of ripple. So if the field rate is the power cycle rate and is in sync, the dark band on screen would stay at the same place and hence at least will not be very noticable. But before long, TV stations networked far beyond the service areas of the local utility company, and luckily the consumer grade power supplies also became much better. So NCST "would never have worked" ... back then. Today power line sync has all but been given up. BTW I believe Bahrain has a 50Hz 220v power due to British connect- ions in history, but a lot of 110V 60Hz as well due to large ARAMCO installations. Perhaps someone from that area could confirm that. shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in ) ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Date: 21 Oct 93 20:31:50 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA Paul S. Sawyer (paul@senex.unh.edu) wrote: > I can remember touring the NBC studios in NYC in the mid-50's, when I > was about 10-12, and we were shown a 3-bar xylophone and told ~"... > here is how we make our famous chime ..." and then the guide played the > tones, just like on TV! For a while after that, I thought that was > how they did it, though I suppose in the earlier days of NBC Radio, > that would have been exactly how they did it. This sounds like a tour gimmick to me. Even in the early days a mechanical device generated the tones, as I mentioned in an earlier post. The film of it I saw (and this was about 15 years ago, that's why I'm a little fuzzy) showed a rack-mounted device that would probably be in an equipment room. On the front of it was a horizontal cylinder about 8" in diameter (big enough to get one of those Western Electric carbon button mics inside) and maybe 18" long. When a button was pushed, the microphone was cut into the audio circuit, and the cylinder rotated one revolution, generating the tones. Apparently on it's interior wall were three xylohpone-like bars, tuned to G-below- middle-C, E-above-middle-C and middle-C, along with their accompanying resonators. A fixed articulated clapper struck the bars in succession as the cylinder rotated, producing the three notes. However, in later years (like when I was growing up, in the 60's) the NBC "chimes" I heard on the radio and TV (such as those that accompanied the animated "Snake" at the end of programs -- see my earlier ASCII artwork) sounded more like plucked strings than struck chimes. Maybe they were chimes, but they just didn't sound "chimey". As an aside, on the occasion of NBC's 60th anniversary, all their affiliated radio and TV stations recieved a little oak plaque with a set of doorbell-sized "NBC Chimes" mounted on it. The chimes were painted red blue and green and arranged to look like NBC's logo from the late 40s / early 50s: ___ ___ ___ | || || | | || || | | N || B || C | | || ||___| | ||___| |___|--------O with the mallet in a bracket forming the "microphone" across the bottom. Unfortunately, the chimes are about the quality you'd find in a doorbell, and are optomized for appearance not resonance, so it sounds pretty cheap. Still it's a nice souvenir. On the back of the resonator box is an inscription by some-company-or-other "Official Manufacturer of NBC Chimes." John R. Bruni (jbruni@sfe.com) wrote: > In Article , Alan Frisbie disk.com> wrote: >> I have another question about the NBC chimes. Many years ago, my >> father told me that there was an additional (fourth) tone that was >> seldom heard. If sounded, it was a signal to all NBC employees that, >> "Something important is happening. Get to your job ASAP". Does >> anyone know if this is just a wild story or did it really exist? > I'd like to know the answer to this too. OK, maybe we should start a comp.dcom.telecom.nbc newsgroup... :-) Yes, the tone pattern G-E-C-G signified an upcoming news bulletin. This is documented in Reuven (sp?) Frank's book about the history of network news, I believe. David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ From: samp@pro-gallup.cts.com (Sam Pemberton) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Organization: ProLine [pro-gallup] BBS +1 505 722 9513 24hrs Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 06:56:02 MDT In paul@senex.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) writes: > I can remember touring the NBC studios in NYC in the mid-50's, when I > was about 10-12, and we were shown a 3-bar xylophone and told ~"... > here is how we make our famous chime ..." and then the guide played the > tones, just like on TV! For a while after that, I thought that was > how they did it, though I suppose in the earlier days of NBC Radio, > that would have been exactly how they did it. Was NBC ever owned by a General Electric Corporation or Company? The reason I ask is that I've heard on occasion that the three tones represent the company initials, G-E-C. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #715 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07655; 22 Oct 93 19:18 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18580 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for johngee@etrib.com); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:50:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18324 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:50:02 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:50:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310221850.AA18324@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #716 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Oct 93 13:50:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 716 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Help Request with Northern Telecom Phone Frauds (Jean-Bernard Condat) BellSouth Yellow Pages Raises Hackles of Planned Parenthood (Bill Seward) Net-Connect & GEIS (catcim@eig.unige.ch) Caller ID Information (Randall H. Smith) Seeking Centrex Voice Mail Hardware Pen-Pals (Mark Johnson) 954 Prefix in C&P-Land (Carl Moore) Power Questions (was Does a US Modem Work in the UK?) (Bill Riess) Calling Card Woes (Javier Henderson) Visual Basic IVR System (John W. Barrus) Alcatel Voice Guide Help Needed (Isak Jonsson) Sprint Personal 800, Using SSN (Ray Normandeau) V.35-->RS-232 (was Confused: 56K Data Lines (Paul Joslin) EMI Information for UTP? (Donald D. Rice) UTC (was US Naval Observatory Questions) (Mark Brader) WATS or Call Extenders (John Perkins) 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought (gates@mca.info-gw.mese.com) My Kind of Town, Chicago is ... (Steve Hutzley) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cccf@altern.com (cccf) Subject: Help Request with Northern Telecom Phone Frauds Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 7:22:08 EDT Bonjour, What do you know of Northern Telecom phone frauds on some PBX (via Meridian Mail, e.g.)? Thank you very much for your kind collaboration to my article on phone frauds. Battling Toll *Fraud* Doesn't Have to be Costly 411 Newsletter September 20, 1993 V. 14 NO. 18 WORD COUNT: 475 PUBLISHER: United Communications Group The telecom industry has done more this year to prevent toll *fraud* than at any other time. Yet, toll *fraud* losses will top more than $2 billion again this year. If you aren't doing anything to prevent being hit, it's not a matter of if you'll be hit, it's when you'll be hit and for how much. So, here are some low-cost ways to stop toll *fraud* - or at least lessen the blow if you do get hit. Bud Collar, electronic systems manager with Plexus in Neenah, Wis., transferred from its payphone operations branch, so he's been thoroughly exposed to toll *fraud*. So, as the PBX manager, he's blocked all outside access to his Northern Telecom Meridian 1 and *Meridian* *Mail*. Just in case a *hacker* does gain access, Collar bought a $600, PC-based software package from Tribase Systems in Springfield, N.J., called Tapit. With Tapit, Collar runs daily reports on all overseas call attempts and completions. He doesn't have many international calls, so going over the daily reports only takes a few seconds. The drawback to Tapit is that by itself it has no alarm features, so if a *hacker* does get in, Collar won't know about it until he runs the next report. Tribase does offer *Fraud* Alert with alarms for $950, but Collar chose not to use it. If you make a lot of international calls, going through daily reports may take too much time. In that case, a software package that can run more individualized reports would be better. But with all Collar's outside access points blocked, his chances of getting *hacked* are slim. For someone that does need outside access, they have to be set up beforehand, and it's a one-time shot. Erica Ocker, telecom supervisor at Phico Insurance in Mechanicsburg, Pa., also wanted to block all of her outside ports. But she has maintenance techs who need routine access, so she needed a way to keep her remote access ports open, without opening up her Rolm 9751 to toll *fraud*. The solution: She bought LeeMah DataCom Security Corp.'s TraqNet 2001. For $2,000, Ocker got two secured modems that connect to her maintenance port on her PBX and to her Rolm Phone Mail port. When someone wants to use these features, they dial into the TraqNet and punch in their PIN number. TraqNet idech cost an additional $50, whichever model you get. COPYRIGHT 1993 by United Communications Group Subscription: $279 per year as of 1/92. Published biweekly. Contact United Communications Group, 11300 Rockville Pike, Suite 1100, Rockville, MD 20852-3030. Phone (301) 816-8950. FAX (301) 816-8945. INDUSTRY: Telecommunications (TL) Dr. Jean-Bernard Condat, General Secretary, Chaos Computer Club France [CCCF] B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France. Phone: +33 1 47874083, Fax: 47874919. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 11:04:53 -0400 From: seward@35.20.ncsu.edu (Bill Seward) Subject: BellSouth Yellow Pages Changes Raises Hackles of Planned Parenthood The following was found in the Greensboro, NC {News and Record}. It is from the Associated Press, and datelined West Palm Beach, Florida. "BellSouth has eliminated birth control and pregnancy headings from the Yellow Pages in nine states, including North Carolina, leaving Planned Parenthood stuck under an abortion label and the organization officials unhappy. The only categories that BellSouth Advertising and Publishing Co. offered were 'Abortion Services' or 'Abortion Alternatives'." The article goes on to state that Planned Parenthood officials are concerned that this placement will limit access to health care, since a man looking for a vasectomy or a woman wanting a pregnancy test would be unlikely to look under this heading. BellSouth apparently refused comment at the time the article was being written, saying that company attorney Hubert Owens would be available Monday for comment. (Personal comment: Their attorney? Are they expecting legal trouble from this decision?) A letter from Owens to Planned Parenthood written in May stated that BellSouth was deleting certain headings "that were previously used by abortion services and abortion alternative providers was to give my client better control over the administration of the sensitive headings of 'Abortion Services' and 'Abortion Alternatives'." I won't comment too much except to say that it makes precious little sense to me to try to sell an advertisement to a group that places them under a label that is traditionally not widely associated with them -- unless you don't want to sell them the ad at all, and are too scared to say so. Bill Seward SEWARD@CCVS4.CC.NCSU.EDU Hey, I'm a guest here--they don't speak for me, and I don't speak for them! ------------------------------ From: catcim@eig.unige.ch Subject: Net-Connect & GEIS Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 15:00:45 GMT Hello networkers, Do you know of a company named Net-Connect? They are selling a product called Net-Connect that's a 3270 emulation program. That product is used by GEIS. Any information on how to contact that company would be appreciated. Thanks, Centre d'Appui en Telecommunication Christian ALT ------------------------------ From: smithrh@rtsg.mot.com (Randall H. Smith) Subject: Caller ID information Date: 22 Oct 1993 15:13:49 GMT Organization: Motorola Cellular Reply-To: smithrh@rtsg.mot.com (Randall H. Smith) Hello! There's a small debate at work here about Caller-ID, specifically in Illinois (Ameritech/Illinois Bell). The question is whether or not the new Caller-ID boxes recieve the caller name from the switch, or if they have to be programmed to associate a name with a number. For example, would my number here be displayed just as shown below, or would a generic "Motorola" be displayed along with the number? I would be tempted, of possible, to block calls by that type of criteria - e.g., blocking calls from telemarketing organizations. Of course, this would depend on the name of the caller (not just the number) being transmitted. Thanks for the net.wisdom! Randall H. Smith Motorola, Inc. smithrh@marlin.rtsg.mot.com Cellular Infrastructure (708) 632-7707 Arlington Heights, IL USA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:50:02 -0700 From: mjohnson@netcom.com (Mark Johnson) Subject: Seeking Centrex Voice Mail Hardware Pen-Pals I've built a gadget for use with Centrex phones which gives a visual indication that You Have Voice Mail ... a feature sadly lacking from Centrex (because the equipment including the voice mail is at the telco central office, not in your firm's building). I would like to correspond with others who have also built and installed similar doo-dads, to compare notes on what worked and what worked really well and what didn't work and what helped non-technical users the most. If you've built one of these, please send me email. Let's swap stories. Thanks! If you haven't built one, please don't send mail. Thanks! Mark Johnson, mjohnson@netcom.com unwilling user of Pacific*Bell Centrex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 11:58:24 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: 954 Prefix in C&P-Land I just got my first C&P phone bill, and on the back of each page is some stuff printed in light blue ink. (I am omitting discussion of "PAYING YOUR C&P BILL", but I will here note Federal Tax Identifi- cation Number 52-0270070.) But here is some interesting note on the 954 prefix: C&P REPAIR SERVICE NUMBERS You can report trouble with C&P service from anywhere in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C. or West Virginia, 24 hours a day, by dialing one of the following, toll-free, seven-digit numbers: For home service call....... 954-6611* For business service call... 954-2222* * Customers calling from outside of Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia must dial 1 + 410 + the seven-digit number, and will be billed for the call by the long distance company. (End of phone bill remarks.) In the footnote, doesn't it seem that 954 is pointing to Baltimore even in 301 area or in DC or Va. or W.Va.? (at least in the C&P portions -- does 954 mean anything in Md./Va./W.Va. portions not under C&P? DC and 301 area have C&P only, as does 410 except for Rising Sun.) ------------------------------ From: bill_riess@il.us.swissbank.com Subject: Power Questions (was Does a US Modem Work in the UK?) Organization: Swiss Bank Corporation CM&T Division Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 23:18:46 GMT Just to throw in a few cents worth (sorry I could not resist -- I once worked at a power company): In most of the US of A residential the power is (nominal) 110/220 at 60 Hz. (Commercial comes in many flavors, for differing situations.) The line from the pole to the house has two "phases" and a neutral. This is *usually* NOT really two phases, but a feed from a center tapped transformer. THUS: --------- ---------- "phase A" Dist. )( )( 110 Nominal Voltage )( )(---------- Neutral (ties to ground at the house) (6-12 KV )( )( 110 Nominal in many areas) )( --------- ----------- "phase B" Neutral to phase is the nominal voltage, phase to phase yields twice that. Breaker boxes are generally set so every other breaker is on the "other phase" -- so a 220 circuit has two adjacent breakers tied together. NOTE that the actual nominal voltage can very from 110 to about 120 and the "phase to phase" can thus be 220 to 240. Switzerland (and a some other contries) deliver real 208 phase to neutral and 240 phase to phase (let's see, that's cosine theta times ... well I forget). Anyway, some appliances from over seas will work on US power, wired as 220 -- some won't. (Tools and coffee makers seem to work and much of the electronics has "universal" power supplies, due to all the different standards. In fact most appliances come WITHOUT A PLUG, you must put (the correct) one on your self.) DID THE ORIGINAL QUESTION GET ANSWERED? I lost track, what WAS the original question? I truely hope it was posted to "comp.dcom.modems" as well ... And what did all this have to due with telecom? SO ... --------> BACK TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING? <------------ Bill Riess - Swiss Bank Corp. - Chicago Illinois The opinions expressed above are NOT those of Swiss Bank Corp., and I will likely disavow they are mine if confronted. ------------------------------ Subject: Calling card woes From: henderson@cam1.mln.com Date: 21 Oct 93 15:33:38 PDT Organization: Mayo Laboratory; Ventura, CA I had the following problem the other day, and I'm wondering if there's a workaround ... I tried to place a call with my Orange Calling Card from a privately owned payphone. I dial the toll free number to get the dial tone, it goes through, then as I dial the sequence of numbers to reach the person I needed to talk to I get interrupted by a fast busy. Two more tries give the same result. An attempt to use my MCI calling card also fails. I called the operator, and she said that 'to curtail the use of their phones in drug deals they limit the number of digits one can punch per call'. Do you think that is the real reason? Or are they just making it impossible to use calling cards other than 0+number? I assume they can collect their fee$ only on 0+number calls? (and coin paid calls, of course). Javier Henderson henderson@cam1.mln.com [Moderator's Note: There are regulations attached to COCOTS and their operation, accessibility to the network, etc. The War on Drugs has been blamed (or credited!) for all sorts of slimey, sleazy tactics. I have often wondered myself how I could use illegal drug abuse to my advantage in my various projects. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: John W. Barrus Subject: Visual Basic IVR System Organization: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:39:05 GMT I am familiar with a new Interactive Voice Response development system that is an add on to Visual Basic. It allows windows programmers to create voice mail, fax on demand, etc. programs. I would like to post an informational note (press release) about it, but I don't know if that is allowed on this newsgroup. Can someone send me e-mail (I don't read this group regularly) about whether or not that is allowed? Thanks in advance, John Barrus barrus@merl.com ------------------------------ From: dpijn@cs.umu.se (Isak Jonsson) Subject: Alcatel Voice Guide Help Needed Organization: Dep. of Info.Proc, Umea Univ., Sweden Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 08:51:57 GMT Hi! Does anyone know how to program the Voice Guide in the Alcatel 4300? Thanks beforehand. Isak Jonsson Intenet: dpijn@cs.umu.se ------------------------------ Subject: Sprint Personal 800, Using SSN From: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) Date: 22 Oct 93 10:39:00 GMT Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) > Interestingly, on the pictured sample card, the number is nine-digit > social security number. This purports to make it easier to remember. > But, if it recognizes one's voice, why does the number on the card Well, maybe you want the numbers input by a modem and your modem doesn't speak English well ... ------------------------------ From: pjoslin@mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil (Paul Joslin) Subject: V.35-->RS-232 (was Confused: 56K Data Lines) Date: 22 Oct 1993 13:32:22 GMT Organization: Model Based Vision Lab, Wright Laboratory On 13 Oct 93 12:07:28 GMT, xorcist@crl.com (Peter Stone) said: > Switched and unswitched 56KB DSUs are different and the switched costs > more because of the dialing logic. I don't know if you can plug > either into your MAC. The last time I played around with this (and it > was a while ago) you needed a V.35 or RS449 interface to connect to a > 56KB DSU. But my knowledge could be outdated on that. Others can > correct me. Telebyte Technology makes a V.35 --> RS-232 convertor that claims "up to 72K bps". Unfortunately, at $195, they're not cheap. The Telebyte catalog has a technical reference section that lists the pinout and usage of various standards. For V.35, they say, "V.35 (CCITT Std) for data transmission at 48Kbps using 60-108KHz group band circuits." Telebyte is at +1 800 TELEBYTE (+1 800 835 3298); you can also use +1 516 385 3232 or 8080. Similar products are available from Black Box, MISCO and others. I used Telebyte as an example because their catalog was on my desk. Paul R. Joslin +1 513 255 1115 ------------------------------ From: ddr@flux.isr.alaska.edu (Donald D Rice) Subject: EMI Information for UTP? Organization: Geophysical Institute, Fairbanks, AK Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 19:13:52 GMT I've been casting about for information on EMI generation and susceptibility for unshielded twisted pair (UTP) ethernets without much luck. The vendors generally deny all knowledge. I know that the power spectrum associated with a chunk of UTP will depend on length, physical layout, and the traffic across it at the moment, but any sort of information, whether worst-case or typical, would be useful. Some folks here are worried about UTP radiation interfering with certain delicate measuring devices. They operate these devices in the presence of standard store-bought PCs, and some of _my_ measurements show contamination from PCs 50 feet away in metal enclosures, so I suspect that if their stuff works next to a PC, the presence of a UTP network won't matter. But I would be happier if I could find a spec for 10BaseT radiation, or measurements for a typical network. A comparison of 10BaseT EMI on Category 3 vs. Category 5 wire would also be of interest ... how much practical difference does the additional twisting make? Any pointers to studies, specs, publications, or just experienced commentary would be appreciated. Don Rice E-mail: ddr@flux.isr.alaska.edu (Internet) Geophysical Institute fnddr@alaska (BITNET) University of Alaska flux::ddr (SPAN) Fairbanks, AK 99775 Phone: (907) 474-7569 GPS: 64.86N 147.85W ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: UTC (was: US Naval Observatory Questions) Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:22:28 GMT >>> ... know what the UTC means? >> Universal Time Coordinated, or some such thing I think. > The UTC abbreviation is from the French, not the English, for the same > reason that CCITT is. The standards body speaks French. > It stands for Universelle Temps Coordinate. Wrong. The French abbreviation is TUC. UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time, in English. The letter C is last because it's really a *subscript*; there are other varieties of UT with other subscripts. (The French given above is misspelled, too.) Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ From: johnper@bunsen.rosemount.com (John Perkins) Subject: WATS or Call Extenders Organization: Rosemount, Inc. Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 21:23:45 GMT > [Moderator's Note: There are lots of these devices around, but they > are known as 'call extenders' or 'WATS extenders' rather than > dial-back modems. They work a lot the same, but the latter are for > data and the former for voice. There are 'call-extenders' which ask > for a security code then extend dialtone once security has been > satisfied. I think there are some which will even call you back if > desired. I know this is the method Telepassport uses for our inter- > national callback service. You call it; it calls you back and asks > for your password. PAT] Pat, could you be more specific? Where exactly can one get hold of these devices? Who manufactures them? Any idea on cost? I could really use something like this to access my home calling plans (I have two lines at home) and thereby avoid the high price of making certain calls from a phone outside the house. For example I made a call to England recently and left a message on an answering machine. The duration of the call was < 1 minute and the bill was $3.07 -- this included $1.75 for credit card surcharge (!) and then a ridiculous first minute charge for the call. From home, using MCI F&F, it would have cost me $0.48 (quite a difference). John [Moderator's Note: I'm not certain if by 'I could really use something like this' you are referring to call extenders or the Telepassport Service. The latter is an international discounted calling plan which I offer; calls to/from the UK as one example are fifty cents per minute regardless of where you call from. If you use a payphone to reach our 800 number for the purpose of making your international call, add 9 cents per minute to the total. I'll send Telepassport information and a sign up application to anyone who requests it. Proceeds benefit the Digest. Call extenders, a/k/a WATS extenders have been around for many, many years. I'm not certain, but I think you can get them from Hello Direct (the official vendor for Ameritech's work at home program, BTW) as well as various other telephone supply houses. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gates@mca.info-gw.mese.com Subject: 900/976-Type of Voicemail Software Sought Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 05:30:24 EDT Organization: Medical Center Associates Inc. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM writes: > This kind of ticks me off. You are planning to start a competitive > service and are unwilling to spend perhaps $10-$20 to find out how it > works? This would be like someone who had never even dialed a phone > to decide to start their own telephone company. You must be having a bad day Paul. Where did you conclude from my message that I was unwilling to spend any money to check out the competition. How do you think that I was able to determine the weakness (in my opinion) of the existing service. If it is any of your business, I have spent well over $200 just studying the strengths and weakness of this service. All I asked was a pointer to a company that provides this type of system. So before you have another self-contained fit, try read the original posting and have a margarita while you are at it ;-). Regards, Phil Medical Center Associates Inc. gates@mca.info-gw.mese.com ------------------------------ From: hutzley@ranger.enet.dec.com (Steve Hutzley) Subject: My Kind of Town, Chicago is ... Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:55:56 GMT PAT, I was in Chicago several days ago for a trade show, and I would just like to comment on the city. I was suprised at how clean this city is -- I'm impressed. Chicagoans must really take pride in this, because I have seen the trash receptaclas on the streets full!. And no trash or papers blowing around on the streets. I see IBT (or Ameritech) has its collective heads, along with the government(s), placed where they belong by nature (unlike NET/NYNEX and the New Hampshire government(s)! The services are incredible, from busy number retry, to Caller ID and last caller redial. And the fees aren't that bad either. The quality must be fantastic, I have yet to see any data garbage on the line from my motel room (dialing to a local Tymnet number) at 2400 baud. Unfortunately, I wasn't be able to do much sight-seeing (work prevailed) ... Nice City! Steve [Moderator's Note: As Frank Sinatra once crooned, you probably even saw a man dancing with his own wife. Tell me this, how many blocks west of the lakefront did you travel? They do try hard to keep the area around McCormick Place very clean as well as North Michigan Avenue and the Near North/Streeterville area, since they like to impress the tourists who bring money with them. I venture to say you did not go south and east of McCormick Place, nor west of downtown (what little still remains of it). I venture to say you went nowhere on the west side and to very little of the south side. Overall, Chicago is a rotten place; very dirty, full of cheating politicians, and lots of ramshackle, falling down, burned out buildings. The crime rate is very high, and the public schools are virtually non-existent. In many parts of our city, children are not permitted to play outside alone or walk to school alone because there is too great a risk they will be killed in a gun battle between two other people. Last year there were 97 children killed (total 900+ people) in crimes of violence involving handguns. This year to date there have been 67 kiiled. In my immediate neighborhood, the building across the street is a drug-house. When one bunch of dealers had a fight with another bunch of dealers over whose territory it was, the solution was to burn the place down. After that event a year ago, many of us in the neighborhood assumed the dealers would go elsewhere ... but no, they continue to hang out in the burned out building across the street which has never been torn down or fixed up. We are getting out ASAP. There are no longer other options, but since you like it so much here, *you* move in. The mayor is desparate to find taxpayers these days. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #716 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16526; 24 Oct 93 14:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13128 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 24 Oct 1993 12:18:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06840 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 24 Oct 1993 12:18:03 -0500 Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 12:18:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310241718.AA06840@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #717 TELECOM Digest Sun, 24 Oct 93 12:18:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 717 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (Chris Labatt-Simon) Multi-carrier Service From Cincinnati Bell (Douglas Luce) Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services (Mathew Englander) 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN (Steve Chafe) Mead Service via AT&T Mail (Les Reeves) Nationwide Caller ID is Here! (Emmanuel Goldstein) Re: Four-wire Pay Phones? (Scott McClure) Alarms on NT SL1-XT (Ken Stone) Re: 56k Confusion (Gordon Jacobson) Help Needed Paging via Unix Script (Steve Hills) Re: Remote Call Forwarding - Alternatives? (Paul Robinson) 9600 =baud= Doesn't Exist (Brad Hicks) Re: Western Union Building in St. Louis Being Razed (Scott M. Pfeffer) Re: Capacity of Area Code (David A. Cantor) Where is CallerID Implemented? (Charles Hemstreet) 708-796-9600 Charges You Extra! (John Landwehr) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) Subject: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Date: 24 Oct 1993 07:39:53 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY I have a client who I am doing some work for right now involving the connection of an IBM RS/6000 in Virginia to a Novell network in NY. I will be using Retix bridges/routers between the two locations. In the past, the telecom vendor has provided me a RS-449 connection to a DSU/CSU, but in this case, I have yet to contact the vendor. The client has a T1 line (fractional) of which two channels are currently being utilized. Let me start by saying that I know nothing of telecommunications, but this is more for my personal knowledge. The way I think they have it connected right now is as follows. The T1 terminates at a CSU, which is then hooked into a Micom Marathon box. The box then sends the signals to a terminal server, where 32 9600 baud connectionsbranch out to vt220 compatible terminals. What I would like to do is take about 15 of the remaining channels and "merge" them to provide 960k of bandwidth between the two Retix routers. The routers can handle speeds of up to 2.048Mbps and can be configured with either RS-449, RS-232 or V.35 connections. First of all, is it possible to merge the channels and get a single connection to the router? Or would I have to purchase fifteen routers for each side (theoretically)? What would be required? 15 CSUs connected to a "reverse" multiplexer with a single DSU? If I'm getting my terminology wrong here, please correct me. In addition, if somebody could point me in the direction of a hardware manufacturer (preferably with a name and telephone number, plus product name), it would be greatly appreciated. Mail or telephone -- either would be great. Chris Labatt-Simon Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting pribik@rpi.edu (518) 495-5474 Tel (518) 786-6539 Fax ------------------------------ From: doug@lm.net Subject: Multi-carrier Service From Cincinnati Bell Date: 23 Oct 1993 22:33:54 -0400 Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA Yesterday I got a call from someone at Cincinnati Bell. This person was plugging their innovative new long-distance service. Apparantly, they havqe a special switch which selects the cheapest long distance carrier (based on time of day and destination of call) at the time the call is made. They broker time from the five major long-distance carriers (MCI, Sprint, etc) and some regional carriers. They wholesale this time through their special switching equipment, somehow making sure that their customers get the best deal. They also offer calling cards and other normal carrier incentives. This person went on to say that Cincinnati Bell is one of the few (perhaps the only) Bell Operating Companies that was allowed to do long distance businesss after the Bell breakup. Does anyone know about this product? Is this sort of deal particularly remarkable? Is he hiding something about Cincinnati Bell being a BOC and allowed to do long distance? Thanks, Douglas Luce Telerama [Moderator's Note: Cincinnati Bell is not and never was a 'Bell System' or Bell Operating Company. True, they have 'Bell' in their name, but AT&T was (maybe still is) only a minority stockholder. Thus, they were not/are not subject to the rules the BOC's have to follow. There are various services around which sell bulk rate long distance from various carriers and claim to choose the best (cheapest) for the occassion. It comes down to a question of their math and calculations versus your math and caclulation. It is not a bad deal for inexperienced users who want someone else to price out their long distance service for them. You can generally do as well by reviewing it yourself. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 03:52:39 PDT From: Mathew Englander Reply-To: Mathew Englander Subject: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services The Canada Direct service is set up so that in many countries around the world you can dial a local (or toll-free) number and be connected directly to a Canadian operator in Montreal or Vancouver, who will put through your call to any Canadian number and charge it either to your calling card (as a station-to-station call) or to the number being called (as person-to-person). It's the Canadian rates that are charged. My question is, why do the operators always ask what country you're calling from? Don't they know? And what happens if you tell them a different country from the one you're actually in? Seems like you could dramatically reduce the price of your calls that way. Perhaps this aspect of the service has changed since I last used it (in January 1992). Do American call-home services also ask what country the caller is in? Mathew Englander [Moderator's Note: This reminds me of many years ago when the long- distance operator would ask what number you were calling from for the purpose of writing up the charge ticket. (They honestly did not know, other than the prefix you were on.) Do you suppose the 'Direct' operators don't know either? I would urge against fraud however. PAT] ------------------------------ From: itstevec@hamlet.ucdavis.edu (Steve Chafe) Subject: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN Organization: University of California, Davis Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 18:12:27 GMT Hello, I have a question about ANI-related signalling as it goes through the public switched network. I just found two 800 numbers that cause charges to be billed back to the originator of the call. I understand that this is possible due to the fact that people who buy 800 numbers can get ANI with their calls if they want. But -- I called this number from our two different switches, and one call did not go through while the other (from the other switch and a different trunk group) did go through. Is it possible that there is some additional information, besides ANI, that went through the network and caused the 800 service to not accept the call from the first switch? Does anyone have any technical details if this is actually what is happening? I have a call into our Pac Bell account rep to see what they can tell me, but I thought I would pose the question to this group since there is so much expertise here. Is this legal now (to charge toll on an 800 call)? I thought it wasn't after the $120 per call 800-psychic-hotline thing had been taken out of service. All comments would be appreciated! Thanks, Steve Chafe UC Davis Communications Resources steve@telcom.ucdavis.edu/itstevec@hamlet.ucdavis.edu [Moderator's Note: AT&T says it is not legal to bill back a charge on an 800 number to the caller. Frank Carey, are you reading this? It is likely that if for some reason the receiver of the call was unable to capture the calling number from the one switch, they chose to ignore the call and let it go unanswered rather than accept it and not get paid for it (via their method of 'getting paid'). The whole concept of 800 service is TOLL FREE TO THE CALLER. I hope Frank or an associate will discuss this with you. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 21:56:57 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Mead Service via AT&T Mail AT&T Mail users will have access to a especially developed off-line electronic news services from Mead Data Central. The service, Pubcite, allows AT&T Mail users to subscribe to electronic tables of contents for 15 business and industry magazines, delivered to subscribers' e-mailboxes. Users may then order the full text of an article which is delivered by e-mail or fax. Pubcite costs $29 per month per title, plus $4.75 for each article ordered. ------------------------------ From: Emmanuel Goldstein Subject: Nationwide Caller ID is Here! Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 16:53:53 -0700 Apparently, nationwide Caller ID is beginning. The phone companies are denying this but we here at {2600 Magazine} have received several calls on our special Caller ID line that identify themselves as being from outside the state. So far, we've received calls into area code 516 from area codes 703, 314, 203, and 909. The latter code is California, which raises interesting questions since Caller ID has not yet been approved there. On at least one occasion, the call was placed using MCI as the long distance carrier. We are conducting an experiment over the next week or so. People calling our main office line (516-751-2600) will be forwarded to a line that has Caller ID and we will see what comes through and what doesn't. If you wish to participate, call this number and let it ring twice. This will be enough time to transmit the Caller ID data and you won't be charged since our machine doesn't pick up until after the third ring. (Don't worry, it's perfectly legal.) You might want to experiment with different long distance carrier access codes (10222, 10333, 10288, etc.). We will submit the results of this experiment to this conference. In the meantime, doesn anyone know the legal implications of Caller ID data being transmitted from California? ------------------------------ From: scott@ryptyde.nix.com (Scott McClure) Subject: Re: Four-wire Pay Phones? Organization: NIX - The Network Information eXchange Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 13:27:34 GMT Paul Robinson writes: > Scott McClure , writes: >> I was tracing a line in our building the other day >> (ahh, the joys of can-diving!) and came across what appeared >> to be a four-wire line for a pay phone. Is this normal? What >> would each of the four conductors be used for, compared with a >> normal two-wire line? > Anti-Theft alarm. That's actually pretty funny, in this case. The phone in question is inside a bunker-like building for training nuclear weapons technicians for the DON, and has a high fence with barbed wire, guards, CCTV cameras everywhere, and located on a major military installation. You have to have a SECRET clearance just to get in the building. I guess PacBell doesn't trust anyone these days ... 8-) Scott INTERNET: scott@nix.com Non-MX: ryptyde!scott@nosc.mil ICBMnet: 32-54N/117-15W [Moderator's Note: Actually, 'trusted employees' of companies and organizations sometimes turn out to be bigger thieves than the general public they serve. It is not unlikely that an employee of the facility might try to rip it off, knowing it likely he could walk in or out of the facility without the usual questions asked of outsiders. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Alarms on NT SL1-XT Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 15:41:51 -0700 From: Ken Stone I need to hook up an NT SL1-XT to our external alarm monitoring system. Trouble is, I can't figure out where things like power alarms, cabinet alarms, etc are available ... I found them on our newer column style RPE cabinets but I can't find hide nor hair on the switch itself. Any help appreciated. Ken Stone ------------------------------ Reply-To: gaj@pcs.win.net (Gordon Jacobson) Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 17:03:39 Subject: Re: 56k Confusion From: gaj@pcs.win.net (Gordon Jacobson) > I make hundreds of short calls from A to B each month. I can't > dial direct without doing business with AT&T, which I want to > avoid. So I set up a 800 number with some other company that > terminates at B and can only be called from A. The best rates > I've seen for my purposes are 0.165 per minute measured in 1/10 > minute increments with no monthly or per call fees for calls from > 617-352 to 603-598. By the way, what do you gurus think about > these rates? Can I get better in this market? I have looked > around a little and seen much worse. Joe - For Boston to Nashua (etc) there are better rates available. And remember 800 service is almost always more expensive then regular outbound service so you are paying some kind of premium under the setup described above. In order to make suggestions concerning viable alternatives, I have two questions that need to be answered: 1. Is this a business line or residential we are discussing? 2. What do you think your monthly LD bill comes to? As an afterthought -- why do you want to avoid doing business with any specific vendor? Regards, GAJ ------------------------------ From: Steve Hills Subject: Help Needed Paging via Unix Script Date: 23 Oct 93 21:26:09 GMT Organization: NCR Engineering & Manufacturing-San Diego Hi, A project I am working on has the ability to run UNIX shell scripts or executables when certain events occur on the system. We have been requested to provide a paging capability via a shell script or executable. Does anyone have any information (or perhaps a shell script) that could be of help to me? Steve Hills steve.hills@sandiegoca.ncr.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 23:05:40 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Remote Call Forwarding - Alternatives? From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > I am looking for some methods of providing local dial-in access in > surrounding cities to our BBS. I have heard that remote call > forwarding would provide this functionality. And there will certainly be charges to you, depending on where the called number is at and where the terminating number is. There will be call transfer charges of possibly 2-15c per call, and possibly time and mileage charges of anything from 2-15c per minute. Try E-Mail to info@holonet.net. Holonet is offering dialup services for BBSs at lower rates around $3 an hour and Holonet has dialups in 850 cities. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU1=0205925@mhs.attmail.com Date: 23 Oct 93 19:47:33 GMT Subject: 9600 =baud= Doesn't Exist Just to add a little fuel to the fire: I hope y'all who're irritated at Sprint realize that if Sprint promised you a "9600 baud" modem, y'all are going to have to wait a =long= time before you get it -- because nobody has invented a 9600 baud modem. In fact, the fastest approved modem standards are for 2400 baud modems using 6 bit frequency shift keying (FSK) to produce throughput of 14400 bits per second. But they're still 2400 =baud=, because baud is a measurement of the carrier frequency, not the bit rate. (I leave it as an exercise for the student -- or the courts -- to decide if this gets Sprint off the hook.) See Harry Newton, _Newton's Telecom Dictionary_ (6th ed), "Baud Rate," on pages 120 to 121, for the truly definitive definition. If you're the kind of person who reads this mailing list/group/whatever, you simply =need= this book. J. Brad Hicks Internet: mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs.attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad ------------------------------ From: sp9183@swuts.sbc.com (Scott M. Pfeffer) Subject: Re: Western Union Building in St. Louis Being Razed Date: 23 Oct 93 19:44:30 GMT Organization: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company In article wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL Will Martin) writes: > The Western Union building in downtown St. Louis is now being razed. > This sits on a piece of downtown real estate that has long been slated > to become part of a grassy mall, but the plans for and construction of > this mall had been changed and delayed for many years. One issue I > recall reading about when it was initially proposed was that there was > a major confluence of telecommunications cabling under the WU > building, and there was a great expense involved in moving and > rerouting all this infrastructure. > I saw the wrecking ball working on the back side the other day -- the > building is VERY solidly constructed, and it looks like it will take a > while to reduce it... I have been unable to find out what communications facilities in and around the building have been affected. However, upon survey of the exterior of the structure as well as the street block, I noted several painted street markings delineating the location and direction of fibre and other cabling presumably beneath the surrounding roadways. One manhole cover is clearly marked with the letters MCI. Several two-way arrows have also been drawn, in bright florescent orange, showing SWBT line locations, direction, etc. The best estimate I have been able to obtain was that the building will take three to four weeks to demolish. It is indeed very sturdy. The wrecking ball operator needed over 30 minutes to bash a hole through four floors this afternoon ... When I queried a fellow employee at One Bell Center about the building being destroyed across the street, he simply replied: "I guess telegraph service isn't going to boom afterall." Any one want to buy a brick from an old Western Union Building??? &-). These are not the opinions of my employer, or any other entity. Scott Pfeffer Information Services, Southwestern Bell Telephone ------------------------------ From: cantor@mv.mv.com (David A. Cantor) Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code Organization: MV Communications, Inc. Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 14:32:15 GMT In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > Many times I reach the AT&T operator instead of a recording when I > dial 1-700-555-4141 from a payphone. I have observed that many New > England Telephone payphones incorrectly state the long distance > carrier. On a payphone, you need to dial 0-700-555-4141 to find the long distance carrier. David A. Cantor +1 603-888-8133 131 D.W. Highway, #505 Nashua, NH 03060 ------------------------------ From: hemstree@lamar.acns.colostate.edu (Charles Hemstreet) Subject: Where is CallerID Implemented? Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 14:59:56 GMT Organization: Colorado State University I have CallerID at my home and really like having it. I am a bit frustrated that it seems that Denver on up the Front Range is the only one that has CallerID (area code 303). Even here in Ft. Collins I call my wife from across the street and "Out of Area" shows up on my box occassionally. Can someone fill me in with some more details? Thanks, Charles H. Hemstreet IV internet: hemstree@cs.Colostate.Edu Colorado State University or hemstree@lamar.Colostate.Edu [Moderator's Note: Another correspondent in this issue says the Caller-ID has become almost universal and that he is seeing numbers show up from all over the USA. I can confirm that since I get those same results on my Caller-ID display here. But there seem to still be offices even here in Chicago not yet equipped to sent it out. The message 'out of area' is given if the sending CO did not provide the caller's number -- even on a private 'do not pass this along to the end user' basis -- to the CO serving you. There still seems to be a hodge-podge of which offices are equipped and which are not, but check in again here next year this time; I'll bet the conversion will be nearly complete. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Oct 93 17:47:52 CDT From: John_Landwehr@NeXT.COM Subject: 708-796-9600 Charges You Extra! Warning: I received a note on my Ameritech bill with the following line: 4 Call/s to Name and Address Service $1.40 So all I can figure is that if you call 708-796-9600, they charge ya extra! (This number was listed in an earlier Digest as a number to name lookup.) jland [Moderator's Note: Uh, yeah, they charge for it, contrary to Usenet customs and all where everything is supposed to be free and handed out on silver platters. Talk about commercializing the net, eh! Calls to (312/708) 796-9600 are billed at 35 cents for each two lookups when calling from a (312/708) number. I think outside the area, just normal toll charges apply. You can use either area code to reach it; we just dial the seven digits. You will get an auto- mated service which tells you to punch in the (312/708) areacode and desired seven digit number. The voice will read back the name and address of the subscriber, or will tell you it is non-pub or that there is no record of the number. You can have two lookups per call then must dial back. A charge is made whether or not the lookup is successful (produces the desired results). An online menu is available to help you use the system. Watch for a message tomorrow in news.groups talking about this latest 'sleazy commercial use of the net' (by this message appearing here). By the way, the phone book here *does* say telco charges for the ser- vice; it is not secret charge stuck on your bill. No mention is made however of whether or not they cleared with the net.police the require- ment that Usenet readers would have to pay to use the database, con- trary to common wisdom around here. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #717 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16776; 24 Oct 93 15:24 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21664 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 24 Oct 1993 13:05:50 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11754 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 24 Oct 1993 13:05:15 -0500 Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 13:05:15 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310241805.AA11754@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #718 TELECOM Digest Sun, 24 Oct 93 13:05:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 718 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Calling Card Woes (Steve Kass) Re: Calling card Woes (Gary Morris) Re: Calling Card Scam (Chaim Frenkel) Re: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents (Bill Nott) Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? (Mike Morris) Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? (Gregory Youngblood) Re: Screwed Up 900 Service (Steve Brack) Re: Amusing Misdialed Call (David Appell) Re: Amusing Misdialed Call (Gordon Croft) Re: Alarms on NT SL1-XT (John K. Scoggin, Jr) Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (John K. Scoggin, Jr) Wanted: Best Price on Low-Usage 800 and Calling Card Service (Thom Byxbe) Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors (Tom Scheer) Re: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs (Jeff Bamford) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 19:09:04 EDT From: SKASS@DREW.DREW.EDU Subject: Re: Calling Card Woes In TELECOM Digest Issue 716, Javier Henderson writes: > I tried to place a call with my Orange Calling Card from a privately > owned payphone. I dial the toll free number to get the dial tone, it > goes through, then as I dial the sequence of numbers to reach the > person I needed to talk to I get interrupted by a fast busy. Two more > tries give the same result. An attempt to use my MCI calling card also > fails. I called the operator, and she said that 'to curtail the use of > their phones in drug deals they limit the number of digits one can > punch per call'. It's not only from COCOTs that this will happen, and even a pocket tone generator doesn't get around it. I spent some time trying to figure this one out, and as best I can tell, local law enforcement officials think they can make it harder for drug dealers to access voice mail by implementing this "feature." The cops then convince the various phone owners (BOCs included) to "help in the war against drugs." At least I surmised this much from various conversations with phone companies and regulatory officials, none of whom would say exactly this outright. They're also trying to limit theft of phone service from businesses with outgoing lines that can be called up and accessed with the right button punching, I think. The big customers have more pull than most of us. Steve Kass/ Math & CS/ Drew U/ Madison NJ 07940/ skass@drew.drew.edu [Moderator's Note: Yeah, but they cannot lawfully prohibit the use of telephone calling cards under the new rules. I do not care whose calling card it is, Orange or otherwise. Report it to the FCC. PAT] ------------------------------ From: garym@alsys.com (Gary Morris @ignite) Subject: Re: Calling Card Woes Organization: Alsys Group, San Diego, CA, USA Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 21:24:54 GMT In henderson@cam1.mln.com writes: > I tried to place a call with my Orange Calling Card from a privately > owned payphone. I dial the toll free number to get the dial tone, it > goes through, then as I dial the sequence of numbers to reach the > person I needed to talk to I get interrupted by a fast busy. I run into this problem a lot on pay phones, either trying to use my calling card or trying to access my voice mail (via an 800 number). The pay phones around here either cut off the keypad after they connect the call or after you punch a few numbers. The response I get from the operator is that the phone is probably not working and they will tell repair, but I don't believe it. My workaround is to avoid all independent pay phones and only use Pacific Bell, where I have never had wthis kind of problem. GaryM [Moderator's Note: Private (COCOT) payphones which do this are not working correctly in accordance with law. You need to mark them out of order in such a way that unsuspecting users cannot deposit coins in them accidentally until they have been repaired/reprogrammed. We have printed labels available in the Telecom Archives for this pur- pose. And keep after the owner of the instrument until it is fixed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: chaim@thor.fsrg.bear.com (Chaim Frenkel) Subject: Re: Calling Card Scam Date: 24 Oct 93 03:43:50 GMT Organization: Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. Is it possible that they wish to avoid the old trick of passing messages in the name? Most operators would not recognize a legitimate Hindu name, let alone a fake one. Customer: Operator I would like to place a person-to-person call to Operator: Just one moment ... ... Meanwhile ... I am sorry but is not available but would you speak to Customer: No, Thank you operator. Chaim Frenkel On contract at: chaim@nlk.com chaim@fsrg.bear.com Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. [Moderator's Note: There is no convenient work-around by telco. That is why person-to-person calls carry such a high surcharge; so that the customers who do not use this method of petty theft get to pay the bills for the ones who do. And the automated collect calling service (where you record your name when requested for playback to the called party) does not help any. It actually is aggrevating this petty fraud. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bill=Nott%Graphics=Dev%PCPD=Hou@bangate.compaq.com Subject: Re: Re: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents Organization: Compaq Computer Corporation Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 21:33:52 GMT In article , John Sullivan wrote: >> I just got this e-mail from my mother. As you will see, someone is >> trying to get people to give out their calling card numbers by >> pretending to have collect calls from loved ones, and then saying >> there is a block. > [ .. long story about the actual scam deleted] > I am wondering, if you suspected a scam why did you not give a bogus > number because a real AT&T operator could easily validate the number > while a false one would not be able to so easily? If it were a real > operator then you could say you mis-remembered the number etc. This is a good thought, but an associated question is: How long would it take for someone to think of this and use it when they are being "held emotional hostage" by the scammer? I believe many scams succeed because of the emotional angle being played, rather than depending on a victim's inability to think quickly or thoroughly. Maybe this can be a key to help us all be more scam resistant; remind ourselves to beware whenever we get a questionable phone call with emotional content. Bill ------------------------------ From: morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) Subject: Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? Organization: College Park Software, Altadena, CA Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 06:33:01 GMT Tony Harminc writes: > elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) wrote: >> Hmpf. How about a creative idea for phoiling phrauds? >> Provide customers with some kind of false card and PIN number. >> The false number is actually some sort of flag or booby trap. When a >> possible fraud calls for your card number, give him the false one. >> When the @$$%! uses the phalse number, the long-distance company's >> computer is instantly alerted to the originating phone number as a >> possible fraud in progress. > Some burglar alarm companies use something much like this. If you set > off your own alarm, you can call the alarm company and give them your > security code to cancel the response. But they also give you a handy > pocket-sized card with a false security code on it. If you are > surprised by an intruder who has set off the alarm, and forced to make > the call, you read the fake number off the card and the alarm company > immediately knows that there is a much more serious situation than a > simple alarm trip. Many alarms also have a "I've got a gun pointed at my head" feature. Let's say that you have a storefront business, and you are opening up one morning, and some thug with an IQ of egg white sticks a gun in your ribs, and tells you to disarm the alarm system, and open the safe. Let's say that your disarm code is 1234. You dial 1235 and that causes the alarm company to see a "duress disarm" code, and they scramble the cops to your address expecting a hostage situation. Generally the last digit of your disarm code is even, and the odd digit above it is the duress code. Mike Morris WA6ILQ PO Box 1130 Arcadia, CA. 91077 818-447-7052 evenings ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Sat, 23 Oct 93 19:38:36 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems > Some burglar alarm companies use something much like this. If you set > off your own alarm, you can call the alarm company and give them your > security code to cancel the response. But they also give you a handy > pocket-sized card with a false security code on it. If you are > surprised by an intruder who has set off the alarm, and forced to make > the call, you read the fake number off the card and the alarm company > immediately knows that there is a much more serious situation than a > simple alarm trip. In addition, or in lieu of this method there is also the method where all people with access have a security code to punch in when they enter the building. If they are forced to enter the code then they are to enter one number higher (i.e. 1213 would be 1214) and this would trigger an immeidate response (supposedly -- I've fortunately never been in the position to test this one). Greg The Complete Solution BBS | Allfiles List: | Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-9058 (24hrs, v.32) | ~/tcsbbs.lst | Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site | zeta@tcscs.com | Cellular Telephoney Groups ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 93 02:53:41 -0400 From: Steve Brack Subject: Re: Screwed Up 900 Service johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) writes, on Sat, 9 Oct 93 00:35 EDT: > When the pile of bogus calls started, nofriends' group noticed it > immediately, since the calls were all on a new 900 line that they'd > just installed but hadn't started to advertise yet, so they weren't > expecting any calls at all there. They brought it to the attention of > their AT&T salesman who denied that anything odd was going on. > The calls went on for several months in strange bursts of dozens of > calls at intervals of under a minute, clearly not at all a normal > calling pattern. It sounds as though that 900 number may have been used by some other organization. A scenario I could imagine is that an owner-operator (privately owned semi truck) scheduling service uses a 900 number to give drivers their instructions, thereby ensuring collection of service fees. Through some sequence of events, whether it be telco misrouting, or the company ceasing to use that 900 number, calls intended for it go to "nofriends's" company, on a brand new line that hasn't even been advertised. Driver calls in, gets the business information announcement, hangs up, and tries again, maybe a few times. By the same token, this new number could have been misprinted on some sort of advertising posted near the phones. It reminds me of a problem we had here a few months ago. One of the larger Girl Scout councils in this area contracted for an 800 number on which to take credit card orders. Unbeknownst to them, the number had previously been used by a phone sex line. Ironically, the number the Girl Scouts were using was 1 - 800 - BAD - GIRL. > A more relevant question is why AT&T is claiming fraud, rather than > admitting that they made an error and relying on provisions in the 900 > service contract to get back overpayments. Presumably if they > admitted that it was their mistake, a court would be much less > sympathetic to their attempts to recover the money at this late date. > The principle of mitigation of damages suggests that AT&T's failure to > do anything about the strange calls in a timely way after it was > brought to their attention greatly weakens their claim to have been > defrauded. As far as I know, the owner of a phone line is responsible for all charges incurred by its use, other than costs beyond his or her control. If AT&T owned a line, and allowed 1-900 calls to be made over it, then no one, other than AT&T is liable, IMO especially since the owner of the line informed AT&T of the problem. If some intermediary, like the local telco, failed to carry out AT&T's blocking orders, then that intermediary assumes liability. At least, that's the way things stood as of my last business law class. 8) Steven S. Brack sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu Toledo, OH 43613-1605 STU0061@UOFT01.BITNET MY OWN OPINIONS sbrack@nyx.cs.du.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 93 15:36 GMT From: David Appell <0005946880@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Amusing Misdialed Call PAT wrote: > AT&T does not need to change anything, but Royko needs to be put out > to pasture. He is just a crude, rude idiot anyway. I've followed his > writing since he was a reporter on the crime beat for the Chicago News > Bureau (a service owned jointly by all the newspapers here for local > stuff) thirty years ago, including his first big-time assignment of > writing a daily column for the long gone {Chicago Daily News}. He does > not impress me as anything but a boor. He may be a crude, rude idiot ... but he has succeeded in getting you to read his (and his paper's) column for 30 years, no? David [Moderator's Note: Well, you have a very valid point there. If being a crude, rude and lewd idiot is what it takes, then maybe I should practice up on my boorishness. Some would probably say I don't need to practice up; this mailing list is larger than it has ever been before. Consider all the people who write me to tell me how much they hate this Digest; they still seem to read it all the time also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gordon_Croft@mindlink.bc.ca (Gordon Croft) Subject: Re: Amusing Misdialed Call Date: 23 Oct 93 22:59:41 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada > Joe Bergstein writes: > I thought TELECOM Digest might get a chuckle from incident which > occurred to me last week. I was dialing from Maryland area 301 and > was trying to reach someone at Microsoft in Redmond Washington. Well I > dialed 206-635-xxxx, and the phone rang and was answered with > "Citizens Bank, Customer Service". I asked "Is this 206-635-xxxx (the > real number I was dialing), and without missing a beat, the bank rep > said "Oh you're trying to reach Microsoft ... you forgot to dial the > '1' first". I guess Citizens Bank of Maryland (301-206-6xxx numbers) > must be getting an awful lot of calls for Microsoft from Washington > D.C. area folks forgetting the dial 1 prefix! Pardon my ignorance but do you mean that you DON'T have to dial the "1" when you call long distance? Up here in the "Great white north" we dial "1" all the time for long distance!!! :) Gord [Moderator's Note: Yeah, precisely Gord. You are supposed to dial '1' and the caller forgot to dial '1' so they wound up with a wrong (local) number. Understand now? PAT] ------------------------------ From: John K Scoggin Jr Subject: Re: Alarms on NT SL1-XT Date: 24 Oct 1993 17:16:20 GMT Organization: Delmarva Power & Light Reply-To: scoggin@delmarva.COM In article 8@eecs.nwu.edu, Ken Stone writes: > I need to hook up an NT SL1-XT to our external alarm monitoring system. > Trouble is, I can't figure out where things like power alarms, cabinet > alarms, etc are available ... I found them on our newer column style > RPE cabinets but I can't find hide nor hair on the switch itself. Well, on an SL-1NT, there is a cable called an "Alarm and Transfer (P10) Cable" which is attached to connector J10 on the top panel of the Common Equipment cabinet. Look at Installation Practice DP1008. If you need the pin-out, holler ... John K. Scoggin, Jr. Email: scoggin@delmarva.com Supervisor, Network Operations Phone: (302) 451-5200 Delmarva Power & Light Company Fax: (302) 451-5321 500 N. Wakefield Drive NOC: (800) 388-7076 Newark, DE 19714-6066 The opinions expressed are not those of Delmarva Power, simply the product of an over-active imagination... ------------------------------ From: John K Scoggin Jr Subject: Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Date: 24 Oct 1993 17:21:18 GMT Organization: Delmarva Power & Light Reply-To: scoggin@delmarva.COM In article 1@eecs.nwu.edu, pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > What I would like to do is take about 15 of the remaining channels > and "merge" them to provide 960k of bandwidth between the two > Retix routers. The routers can handle speeds of up to 2.048Mbps > and can be configured with either RS-449, RS-232 or V.35 connections. > First of all, is it possible to merge the channels and get a single > connection to the router? Or would I have to purchase fifteen routers > for each side (theoretically)? What would be required? 15 CSUs > connected to a "reverse" multiplexer with a single DSU? If I'm > getting my terminology wrong here, please correct me. In addition, if > somebody could point me in the direction of a hardware manufacturer > (preferably with a name and telephone number, plus product name), it > would be greatly appreciated. Mail or telephone -- either would be > great. One way is to install a mini-DACS between the CSU and the router and Micom boxes. There are also some CSUs that will create 2 V.35 data connections from a T-1 - the Digital Link DL551VX will do this at a reasonable price (approx $3100-3200 at each end). Digital Link sells through distributors like Glasgal (201-768-8082) or direct. John K. Scoggin, Jr. Email: scoggin@delmarva.com Supervisor, Network Operations Phone: (302) 451-5200 Delmarva Power & Light Company Fax: (302) 451-5321 500 N. Wakefield Drive NOC: (800) 388-7076 Newark, DE 19714-6066 The opinions expressed are not those of Delmarva Power, simply the product of an over-active imagination... ------------------------------ From: ao943@yfn.ysu.edu (Thom Byxbe) Subject: Wanted: Best Price on Low-Usage 800 and Calling Card Service Date: 23 Oct 1993 02:06:35 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net I'd like to know what the best available rate is for low usage 800 service (preferably with no or low monthly fee) and also which travel card has the lowest per-call surcharge and best per-minute rates. I am aware that the moderator offers services of this type and have sent him an email message requesting information, but would also be interested in any competitive offerings that readers may feel are exceptional deals. Please send any replies via e-mail. [Moderator's Note: I have told him about Orange Card and my new 800 numbers which charge 18.4 cents per minute flat rate at all times, but perhaps others will contribute to his efforts to find a good deal. PAT] ------------------------------ From: scheert@nic.cerf.net (Tom Scheer) Subject: Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors Date: 24 Oct 1993 07:53:17 GMT Organization: CERFnet Dial n' CERF Customer In article hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly. edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > Am I missing something here? Why are stutter dial-tone > detectors needed? I understand that a stutter dial-tone will be sent Yes, you are missing something. You don't get a voice-mail message every time your phone rings. Some people hang up and don't leave a message. What the original poster wants is something to alert him that he has a message waiting, not that his phone rang in his absence. There is no way to detect the stutter dial tone without taking the line off-hook. Tom Scheer scheert@cerf.net ------------------------------ From: jeffb@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Jeff Bamford) Subject: Re: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs Organization: Audio Research Group, University of Waterloo Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 13:45:51 GMT In article , Bill Hofmann wrote: > djcl@io.org writes: >> This is already the case in 416 and 905, thus no further changes are >> expected for those area codes. This will affect other Bell area codes: >> Ontario's 519, 613, 705 and 807, plus Quebec's 418, 514 and 819. > Are these and other Canadian codes currently 1 + seven for toll in > area code and 1 + ten for toll outside area code? Essentially yes, in area code 519 (where I attend school) you only need to dial 1 + number for calls inside 519, however 1 + 519 + number also works. In fact it is possible to phone locally with 519+number. However, in area code 506 (where I am from) it is not possible (the last time I tried) to phone locally within 506 and specify the areacode. I have not tried long distance. To my knowledge it was only 416 that required 1 + 416 for long distance within the areacode, when 905 started it also need this requirement. Jeff Bamford jeffb@audiolab.uwaterloo.ca -- NeXT Mail welcome jeffb@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca / jeffb@physics.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #718 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25900; 26 Oct 93 2:51 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25907 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 25 Oct 1993 23:56:56 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26090 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 25 Oct 1993 23:56:20 -0500 Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 23:56:20 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310260456.AA26090@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #719 TELECOM Digest Mon, 25 Oct 93 23:56:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 719 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson CPSR NII Paper (Dave Banisar) Combinet Remote Control Program (David E. Martin) A Comparison of Services (Dave Levenson) FCC #10 (Leonard Erickson) Fiber Optic System Testing (Leonard Smart) Chinese-Text Pager? (Lee Chen) Summary: Octel Forwarded to Pager (Steve Gibbons) We're Sorry the Monster is Busy (Jeff Jonas) Info on New Emergency Locator Transmitters (Delavar K. Khomarlou) Replacement Handset Needed For Replica Western Electric Phone (D. Veeneman) AT&T System 75 Switch to NT Meridium 1 (Tim Kramer) Latin America Telecom T (Hector Myerston) Our Moderator and Death (Tim Schmitt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Organization: CPSR Washington Office From: Dave Banisar Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 21:14:55 EST Subject: CPSR NII Paper CPSR NII Paper Contact: Todd Newman (CA) 415-390-1614 Eric Roberts (CA) 415-723-3642 Coralee Whitcomb (MA) 617-356-4309 Marc Rotenberg (D.C.) 202-544-9240 COMPUTER SCIENTISTS RAISE SOCIAL AND DESIGN CONCERNS ABOUT THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY Palo Alto, Calif., October 25, 1993 -- In the wake of sudden corporate mergers and rapid technological developments, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) today voiced concern that the planned information superhighway will not realize its full potential. The public interest organization put forward specific guidelines for the National Information Infrastructure (NII) in a paper titled, "Serving the Community: A Public-Interest Vision of the National Information Infrastructure." Urging the Clinton Administration to move quickly to adopt these principles, CPSR President Eric Roberts said, "Although there is widespread agreement on general goals, there is no specific plan to ensure that these goals are met." "It is much easier to state a vision than to achieve it, " said Dr. Roberts, who is also Associate Chair of the Computer Science department at Stanford University. "And there are many dangers on the horizon that threaten to compromise the value of the NII as a resource for the public. "For example, if a small number of companies dominate the market, we're in danger of stifling competition and innovation on the network. If those same companies control the programming, then open and diverse speech is limited. If pricing structures do not cover universal service, the average person and the poor will be struggling to use the backroads of the information highway. If privacy isn't protected, your TV could keep more detailed records of your finances than the IRS. And, if the NII is not designed to allow everyone to communicate freely and to publish their own contributions, it could become nothing more than a medium for delivering 500-channel television, with interactivity limited to home-shopping and trying to guess the next play during sporting events." CPSR's paper expands on these dangers and makes specific policy and technical recommendations for the newly formed Information Infrastructure Task Force. The Task Force is expected to coordinate network policy for the Clinton Administration. "In its 'Agenda for Action' document, the Administration has set forth a positive vision of what the NII can be," said Dr. Roberts. "To achieve that vision, however, the government must play a major role in the design, development, and regulation of the network." CPSR recommends that the Administration adopt the following policies: o Promote widespread economic benefits by evaluating the NII's economic success using measures that reflect its impact on the society as a whole, not merely the profits of NII investors and service providers. o Evaluate the social impact of the NII by conducting periodic reviews as the NII is implemented and used to guarantee that it continues to serve the public interest. o Guarantee equitable and universal access through an appropriate mix of legislation, regulation, taxation, and direct subsidies. o Promote the development of a vital civic sector by ensuring resources, training, and support for public spaces within the NII where citizens can pursue noncommercial activities. o Promote a diverse and competitive marketplace in terms of the content carried over the NII. o Provide access to government services and information over the NII. o Encourage democratic participation by ensuring full public disclosure, and actively promoting democratic decision-making and public participation in all stages of the development process. o Actively facilitate the seamless connection of America's NII with the information infrastructures of other nations by working to resolve such issues as security, censorship, tariffs, and privacy. o Guarantee the functional integrity of the NII by establishing critical technical requirements including ease of use, widespread availability, full functionality, high reliability, adequate privacy protection, and evolutionary expansion. The recommendations follow from a yearlong review of the NII conducted by CPSR. The process included collecting more than 1,200 suggestions for NII policy from network users across the country, drafting a report, holding special chapter meetings on the NII in Berkeley, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and having a multiple-draft review process by the membership. Final changes to the report were made at the annual meeting of CPSR, where the report was adopted unanimously by the CPSR Board of Directors. Dr. Roberts noted that he was very pleased by the level of participation in the NII report. "The computer community knows that the NII is the critical technological issue facing the United States today. Our members were extremely responsive when we asked them to participate in this project, because they understand from their own experience how much the NII has to offer." CPSR also worked closely with the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable (TPR), a coalition of more than sixty nonprofit, consumer, labor and civil rights organizations based in Washington, DC. CPSR's paper endorses the principles set forth by TPR. TPR will unveil its founding principles in a press conference, Tuesday, October 26th at 10:00 a.m. at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. CPSR is planning a conference next April in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the future of the NII, The Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing. The conference will investigate at a more specific level how to achieve the principles in the CPSR report. Founded in 1981, CPSR is a national, nonprofit, public interest organization of computer professionals and others concerned with the impact of computer technology on society. With offices in Palo Alto, California, and Washington D.C., and 22 chapters across the country, CPSR works to encourage public discussion of decisions involving the use of computers in systems critical to society and to challenge the assumption that technology alone can solve political and social problems. CPSR's NII paper is available electronically by sending email to listserv@cpsr.org. In the message write the command "GET CPSR NII_POLICY" The paper will automatically be mailed to you. You can also FTP/WAIS/Gopher cpsr.org/nii/cpsr_nii_policy.txt. For a hard copy of the paper or for more information about CPSR, call 415-322-3778 or write to cpsr@cpsr.org. For information about the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable, contact Jeff Chester at 202-628-2620 or cme@access.digex.net. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 18:27:35 CDT From: David E. Martin Reply-To: David E. Martin Subject: Combinet Remote Control Program Announcing Version 1.1 of the Combinet Remote Control Program (CBRC). CBRC implements the Combinet remote control protocol over IP. It runs on Sun SparcStation's running SunOS 4.1.x. After typing cbrc , you can control a Combinet bridge exactly as if you were connected via the serial port. I appreciate all bug reports and ports. The software is made available in a UNIX tar file, and is retrievable via: WWW URL: gopher://www.hep.net:70/99/info_center/utilities/unix/cbrc11.tar Gopher Bookmark: Name=Combinet Bridge Remote Control Program via IP for Sun (tar) Type=9 Port=70 Path=9/.anon_ftp/utilities/unix/cbrc11.tar Host=gopher.hep.net Anonymous FTP: server: ftp.hep.net file: utilities/unix/cbrc11.tar DECnet COPY (only for those connected to HEP-NSI DECnet) HEPNET::[ANON_FTP.UTILITIES.UNIX]CBRC11.TAR 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: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: A Comparison of Services Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 23:18:40 GMT Last week at a customer site, I had an opportunity to compare customer service response by two carriers -- a truly apples-to-apples comparison. The customer is a voice service bureau with a bunch of 900 numbers. Some of these are intra-LATA, provided by New York Telephone (a Nynex company) under the service offering called Circuit-9. Others are inter-LATA, and provided by MCI Communications. Both services are delivered via T-1 facilities; both terminate at the same address, and both are connected to a Westmark-supplied interactive voice system implemented with Dialogic hardware and our application software. On that day, both T-1 lines showed normal synchronization (the circuits themselves were connected) and calls to 900 numbers in both groups resulted in telco-supplied recordings indicating that the call did not go through. Our equipment showed that all channels on both T-1 spans were idle. I called MCI first. A technician called me back within ten minutes. He listened to my description of the symptoms, took a look at his translations database, and had the lines working five minutes later. Then I called New York Telephone. A technician called me back in about an hour. He listened to my description of the symptoms and then said he'd call me back. About 30 minutes later, he called again with another technician conferenced in. The other technician was a T-1 transmission specialist. I told him that we had synchronization, but that we were getting no calls. The T-1 specialist told me that if we had synch, it wasn't _his_ trouble. The original technician then told me that if we had a good T-1 link and no calls, it must be the long distance carrier. I told him that NY Tel _is_ the carrier, and that the service was intra-LATA. He told me that NY Tel did not provide local service over T-1 facilities. (That was becoming obvious!) I told him that they did offer it, under the service mark Circuit-9, and provided one of the directory numbers associated with the service. He told me it was news to him and that he'd have to call Brooklyn. (Brooklyn is only a local call from Manhattan, just across the East River, but he said it as if here were contemplating a call to a different hemisphere.) Someone from Brooklyn (they apparently do central office translations work in Brooklyn!) called later on and said that there is, indeed, something called Circuit-9, but that the guy who knows how it works was off that day. Perhaps some competition in the local loop would be helpful here. I ought to ask Teleport about their equivalent service! Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 19:20:16 PDT From: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Erickson) Subject: FCC #10 I keep hearing about "FCC #10" and it sounded like it'd be just what I needed to get a *good* list of exchanges for the local area codes. So I dropped by the local US Goverment Printing Office bookstore. They said they'd never heard of it. "Do you know the SUDOCs number?" (or was it "SUCCODE"?) So I went to the local depository library. With much the same results. I'd greatly appreciate it if someone would tell me the magic number ... uucp: uunet!m2xenix!puddle!51!Leonard.Erickson Internet: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ From: smart@mindlink.bc.ca (Leonard Smart) Subject: Fiber Optic System Testing Date: 26 Oct 93 03:10:43 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada I have a client who has an in-place fiber-optic trunk system (actually several segments, each several hundred miles long) built over several years by several different contractors using different technology vintages. He is anxious to test the systems to determine performance limitations with respect to supporting current high speed (SONET-class) services -- and identify bottlenecks. Can any one suggest how he should approach this problem, know who might know how, or where we might turn to have this kind of work done? Thanks, Len Smart Leonard Smart Telephone: (604) 420-5114 President Fax: (604) 420-1795 L.W. Smart & Associates Ltd. Internet: smart@mindlink.bc.ca 8182 Woodlake Court Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 3P4 ------------------------------ From: lee@phantom.com (Lee Chen) Subject: Chinese-Text Pager? Organization: Mindvox Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1993 19:00:21 GMT I have an immediate need for a large quantity of pagers capable of displaying simplified Chinese text. Does such a thing exist? Regards all, \\Lee ------------------------------ From: sunquest!nereid!steve@uunet.UU.NET (Steve Gibbons) Subject: Summary: Octel Forwarded to Pager Date: 25 Oct 93 05:57:00 GMT Organization: Sunquest Information Systems, Instrument Interfacing Almost a month ago, I posted an article to this group/list asking for help WRT forwarding my Octel Aspen system's voice mail (notification therof, rather) to my digital pager. I admit now that I committed the "great Usenet sin of not Reading TFM." I still haven't RTFMed because TFM is locked up in a closet in the basement, and it's a pain to get to. But I did find a solution to my problem. Aparently, the user must enable the pager-forwarding feature themselves by accessing their Octel account and choosing option 4, sub-option 4; in addition to any changes made from the console. This did not seem to be necessary, while attempting to configure the forwarding from the Aspen's console. Let this be a lesson, kids. (I'm so ashamed...) My thanks to the one person on this forum that did respond, and to the Octel personell that responded. Steve@sunquest.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 23:55:21 -0400 From: Jeff Jonas Subject: We're Sorry the Monster is Busy There's a promotion on Coca-cola products with SPRINT where you call an 800 number and enter the number under the cap to see if you own anything. I just dialed it and got the intercept "all lines are busy, please try again later". I'd say Sprint got a black eye -- a telecom company running out of lines? Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com [Moderator's Note: How do you know the recording came from Sprint and not from your local telco which may have been experiencing some con- gestion in getting through to that carrier or in their own central office? How do you know it was Sprint and not some service bureau hired to talk to people in their behalf? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Delavar.K.Khomarlou@hydro.on.ca (Delavar K. Khomarlou) Subject: Info on New Emergency Locator Transmitters Reply-To: Delavar.K.Khomarlou@hydro.on.ca Organization: Ontario Hydro Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 10:25:39 -0400 I am looking for information on the new emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) operating at 405 Mhz (?) I understand the frequency stability requirement is high on these units. I need to know how tight the ocillator sepc is and h w the messaging link on these operate. An email to Delavar.k.Khomarlou@ Hydro.ont.ca would be best. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Subject: Replacement Handset Needed for Replica Western Electric Phone From: Dan Veeneman Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 16:33:42 EDT Organization: Fountainhead Title Group Hello, My grandmother, being the nostalgic person that she is, wants to press into service an old hand cranked telephone she's had since the 1930's (she's served by a community telephone service, which is another story). Rather than gut the old telephone, I picked up a secondhand Western Electric replica. It has a rotary dial on the front, and a hookswitch on the side on which a handset hangs. It has a normal RJ-11 connector out the back, and appears to have been put into service in Illinois around 1984, so it's not *that* old. The problem is that the handset is missing the mouthpiece. The handset is connected to the telephone by a standard handset jack, so I could always pick up a brown handset, but that would break the replica feel of the phone. The original handset had a wood handle and a wood earpiece cover, which I would like to duplicate as closely as possible. Does anyone know of a place where I could find replacement parts (specifically, a handset for this particular telephone? If it helps, the back of the telephone has a couple stickers on the back; one with a serial number (168054) and the other with the numbers 951A1-3 and 80154. Thanks for any information, Dan uunet!anagld!ftgcorp!dan dan@ftgcorp.UUCP (Dan Veeneman) The Fountainhead Title Group Corporation Real Estate Title Services [Moderator's Note: You might tell grandma also that as nostalgic as the old phone might be, in service it is going to sound awful. The technology has changed so much over the years, and so gradually, we have become accustomed to better transmission without realizing it. I think she will be a lot happier with the 'antique phone' you purchased for her even it it isn't entirely historically accurate. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tim Kramer Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 07:23:21 -0500 Subject: AT&T System 75 Switch to NT Meridium 1 I'm currently using vectoring on an AT&T System 75 which I know NT has used for years. I just don't see any major advantage of getting rid of everything including the phones for a change. I know NT is great stuff so I know that I'm missing some specs somewhere. What are the biggest reasons for switching over from an AT&T System 75 to a Northern Telecom Meridium 1? Any small switch gurus out there that can help? Thanks! Tim Kramer tkramer@phc.com ------------------------------ Date: 25 Oct 1993 09:49:09 -0800 From: Hector Myerston Subject: Latin America Telecom Trade Shows I am looking for information on Latin America telecom trade shows. If you have any information on this (companies in US or in Latin America) who sponsor, show dates etc) please reply address below. Thanks in advance. myerston@sri.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 15:51:48 PDT From: tims@ocsg.com (Tim Schmitt) Subject: Our Moderator and Death Patrick, When you move onto that great telephony in the sky, what will happen to this Digest? By the way, have you considered being cremated and having your ashes put in a phone? It sure beats a vase :) The possi- bilities go on and on (a twenty-one ring salute, the first teleconfer- ence services, or having your coffin lowered into the ground with telephone wire.) Tim tims@ocsg.com (A concerned reader) [Moderator's Note: Dear Concerned Reader: Thank you very much for your letter. It sure was good to hear from you. Let me pause and smoke a cigarette while I think of an appropriate response to yours. I like your idea involving telephone wire, but instead of using it to lower my coffin (I am not finished building it yet; I add a few nails each day :] ) in the ground I shall have a live wire pair buried with me attached to a modem and terminal so I can continue propogandizing, commercially abusing and unduly influencing the net in the afterlife. I'm hoping the landlord gets air conditioning installed before I get there. I wouldn't be the first person to take a live phone circuit with me: there have been stories for many years about Mary Baker Eddy doing the same thing in the early 1900's. When the directors of her organization finally decided she was going to be 'resting' longer than they expected and put her in the ground, they put a phone in with her so that when she 'woke up from her nap' she could call and let them know to come and get her. No mention has ever been made of the type of calling plan she was given or the default long distance carrier. Death does not concern me. You cannot be in a violence-riddled area like Chicago in a neighborhood full of drug dealers and be scared all your life. But I don't *live in Chicago any longer*. More about that in the next issue. As of this week, I live in Skokie, IL. The welfare of the Digest *does* concern me however, and to that extent I hope someone else would take it over and continue it. Maybe I will leave it in my will to John Higdon or a committee of the college freshmen who read news.groups since they are so adept at knowing how these things ought to work. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #719 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27318; 26 Oct 93 5:03 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00352 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 26 Oct 1993 02:26:45 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15155 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 26 Oct 1993 02:26:09 -0500 Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 02:26:09 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310260726.AA15155@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #720 TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Oct 93 02:26:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 720 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Fiber Optics (Craig Neeld) 1-800 Nasties (Tim Schmitt) PBX vs. Key System (Colleen Clancy) Re: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services (Laurence Chiu) Re: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services (Chaim Frenkel) Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (John P. Dearing) Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (Barton F. Bruce) Have You Used Excel "Dumb Switches"? (wright@LAA.COM) Re: Nationwide Caller ID is Here! (Arnette Schultz) Re: Nationwide Caller ID is Here! (Lynne Gregg) Re: My Kind of Town, Chicago is ... (Doug Rorem) Administrivia: Special Mailing Coming Next (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cneeld@garnet.acns.fsu.edu (Craig Neeld) Subject: Fiber Optics Organization: Florida State University Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 20:56:33 GMT I am looking for some information on fiber optics. Nothing too technical. Please email the info, whether it be internet sources or old fashioned books. Thanks, Craig Neeld ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 15:41:28 PDT From: tims@ocsg.com (Tim Schmitt) Subject: 1-800 Nasties I watched a news segment the other day describing my state's (Washington) screening process for personalized plates. Of course, all offensive words on plates are not allowed. In addition, candidates' plates are also crossed checked in the Dictionary of Slang, foreign dictionaries, and backwards spelling (when plates are observed in rear view mirrors). This made me wonder what the screening process for numbers is, if at all. How would you like to be the poor sap who ends up with 1-800-F***-YOU? I called the number to see if the number was active, and I don't think the owners mind too much -- it's a sex line. Another candidate, 1-800-EAT-S**T, was constantly busy. Maybe the phone company is one for two? I remember crank calling these numbers when I was a teenager, right after calling the bowling alley to ask them if they had 16 pound balls. tims@ocsg.com ------------------------------ From: cclancy@mac.avid.com (Colleen Clancy) Organization: avid Technology, Inc. Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 16:58:28 EDT Subject: PBX vs. Key System I am researching telephone systems for a field office of approximately 30 people that could possibly grow to 60 people. This office is primarily a sales office, but we intend on having some Customer Support Reps there to take calls. We have a Definity G3i PBX in our headquarters and are considering an aT&T G3s for the field location. The cost of the G3s would be approximatly $70k and I can not justify spending that amount of money for a relatively small field office. Not to mention that we would also require voice mail on top of that! Does anyone have any suggestions? Below are some additional questions. 1. What are the benefits of a PBX as compared to a smaller phone system (key system?)? 2. What is a good system that can handle T1's and DID connections in addition to voice mail for up to 60 people? Cost? 3. Has anyone heard of the atlas IIID digital phone system? 4. Where does the aT&T Merlin system fall in the hiearchy of telephone systems? ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services Date: 25 Oct 1993 21:25:33 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] In article , Mathew Englander wrote: > My question is, why do the operators always ask what country you're > calling from? Don't they know? And what happens if you tell them a > different country from the one you're actually in? Seems like you > could dramatically reduce the price of your calls that way. Perhaps > this aspect of the service has changed since I last used it (in > January 1992). > Do American call-home services also ask what country the caller is in? In my experiences of call home services (I used them from New Zealand using both MCI and AT&T) I was never asked what country I was calling from. In AT&T's case since their USA DIrect is completely automated, there is rarely a chance to even speak to an operator. I would suspect they would know what country you are calling from since the local Telco or PT&T would have to setup special lines or at least routings for a toll-free number to be able to reach the US. Laurence Chiu lchiu@crl.com Walnut Creek, CA Tel (work) (510)215-3730 ------------------------------ From: chaim@riddler.fsrg.bear.com (Chaim Frenkel) Subject: Re: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services Date: 25 Oct 93 20:22:59 GMT Organization: Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. In article mathew@unixg.ubc.ca (Mathew Englander) writes: > The Canada Direct service is set up so that in many countries around > the world you can dial a local (or toll-free) number and be connected > directly to a Canadian operator in Montreal or Vancouver, who will put > through your call to any Canadian number and charge it either to your > calling card (as a station-to-station call) or to the number being > called (as person-to-person). It's the Canadian rates that are > charged. When I was calling home from Israel and asked AT&T's USA Direct for the charges, I found that the charges were much higher than my the calling plan's in effect for my home number. They were even higher than the local PTT's (Bezek's) rates! The operator quoted (approximatly) US$5 for the first minute. My calling plan was US$0.41 in the reverse direction. Any ideas? Chaim Frenkel On contract at: chaim@nlk.com chaim@fsrg.bear.com Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. ------------------------------ From: jdearin@pacs.pha.pa.us ( John P. Dearing) Subject: Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Date: 26 Oct 93 01:00:53 GMT Organization: Philadelphia Area Computer Society In article , pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: -=[stuff about RS/600 and Novell deleted]=- > What I would like to do is take about 15 of the remaining channels > and "merge" them to provide 960k of bandwidth between the two > Retix routers. The routers can handle speeds of up to 2.048Mbps > and can be configured with either RS-449, RS-232 or V.35 connections. > First of all, is it possible to merge the channels and get a single > connection to the router? Or would I have to purchase fifteen routers > for each side (theoretically)? What would be required? 15 CSUs > connected to a "reverse" multiplexer with a single DSU? If I'm > getting my terminology wrong here, please correct me. In addition, if > somebody could point me in the direction of a hardware manufacturer > (preferably with a name and telephone number, plus product name), it > would be greatly appreciated. Mail or telephone -- either would be > great. You definitely won't need 15 routers. Does the current T1 CSU/DSU have more than one "output" port? If it has a port that is available, you can plug the router into that port and once you get the configuration right, things will just hum right along. At work, we use a bunch of Larse Split-T units. These units take a fractional T-1 circuit and allow you to split the individual DS0's between the two output ports. You can split them up just about any way you choose and can even have different configurations based on the time of day. For example, during the day you split it 50-50 between the two ports, but at night you give port "a" 80% of the DS0's and the rest to port "b". Don't know what they cost, but they sure work nicely and are pretty straightforward to set up and configure. Sorry, I don't have an address or phone number handy. All that info is at work. 8-( Bottom line is, with the right hardware you *can* do exactly what you propose to do. The only downside is that you may need different hardware from what you have right now. John Dearing @ PACS Multi-SIG BBS (Philadelphia Area Computer Society) Email: jdearin@pacs.pha.pa.us U.S.Snail: 725 Ripley Place, Phila. PA, 19111-2524 (USA) Voice Phone: +1.215.725.0103 (after 5pm Eastern) ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 25 Oct 93 02:45:34 -0400 In article , pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > I have a client who I am doing some work for right now involving the > connection of an IBM RS/6000 in Virginia to a Novell network in NY. > I will be using Retix bridges/routers between the two locations. In > the past, the telecom vendor has provided me a RS-449 connection > to a DSU/CSU, but in this case, I have yet to contact the vendor. > The client has a T1 line (fractional) of which two channels are > currently being utilized. Let me start by saying that I know > nothing of telecommunications, but this is more for my personal > knowledge. The way I think they have it connected right now > is as follows. The T1 terminates at a CSU, which is then hooked > into a Micom Marathon box. The box then sends the signals to It is a FT1 type CSU/DSU that is either giving you 112kb (2x56 if someone didn't know how to order properly) or 128kb (2x64kb). You can order more DS0s. The existing CSU/DSU may have only that one port, or may have two, four or more that you can get Nx56/63 out. It may also be a DI (Drop & Insert) unit that lets the rest of the T1 pass through to either a PBX or yet another similar box. > a terminal server, where 32 9600 baud connectionsbranch out to > vt220 compatible terminals. The Marathon itself can play terminal server, statmux, and ethernet bridge. If they are using it for compressed voice channels and are peeling bridged ethernet out to some EXTERNAL terminal server, be careful with your Retix -- maybe best to DUMP any Micom bridging and let the Retix feed the terminal server. If you have two bridges in parallel, you get loops unless spanning tree shuts down one path. Then, other than as a spare, it is WASTED as is its bandwidth. If you do offload the Marathon, maybe you can cut it back to 1 DS0. 449 isn't all that common here in the states. V.35 (love it or hate it) is very common. 530 is goodness, but too new to be readily available. You need to really understand WHAT is happening NOW. If there is NO voice I would assume the marathon is at least then doing some statmuxed terminal traffic (that is its heritage, anyway). If it isn't even doing that (what is it doing??), and you really can handle everything on a bigger Bridge/Router, consider the various Frame Relay offerings from ALL the IXCs. You may get much better performance for LESS $s. You can still keep the one or two DS0s the whole way for the Marathon if needed for voice, but the big router/bridge CAN use the same T1 local loops to access that carrier's F/R. With the current two plus the 15 you propose, you probably DON'T want to be buying FT1 by the DS0 ala-carte, but buying the WHOLE T1 and saving money if you MUST use a leased line the whole way. But F/R is a whole other game you HAVE to look at. You may want to change carriers to get the F/R service/price packaging you like. Whoever you get can do FT1 DS0s for the marathon or whatever voice applications. It is the F/R that varies so much between carriers. SHOP. If the data goes F/R, and assuming the marathons are now ONLY voice, their use MUST be reevaluated. With NO data, 2xDS0 may NOT be justified by voice alone. Use the T1s local loops to get past the LEC and get GOOD IXC switch voice prices. If the customer is BIG (>10K / mo IXC bills, or is using MCI that offers V-NET to smaller accounts!!) using a SDN/VPN/V-NET like service lets you do BOTH ends of switched calls between sites on the T1s bypassing the LEC and this saves $s. It also gives you DID like dialing to THE desktop even without LEC DID tks. If you are selling them some bigger consulting package and don't need to claim Telecom/Datacom expertise, get someone who KNOWS what is going on for that area. It is better than having the customer discover later you really missed the boat on something obvious. ------------------------------ From: wright@LAA.COM Subject: Have You Used Excel "Dumb Switches"? Date: 25 Oct 1993 18:19:59 GMT Organization: Lynn-Arthur Associates, Ann Arbor, MI Reply-To: wright@LAA.COM I'm looking for others who have experience with Excel PCX-512 and LNX-2000 switches. Please contact me. I'm also interested in hearing about other manufacturer's switches. ------------------------------ From: kityss@ihlpe.att.com Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 17:50 CDT Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID is Here! In article , Emmanuel Goldstein writes: > Apparently, nationwide Caller ID is beginning. The phone companies > are denying this but we here at {2600 Magazine} have received > several calls on our special Caller ID line that identify themselves > as being from outside the state. On at least one occasion, the > call was placed using MCI as the long distance carrier. Curious. Just a reminder to one and all -- this is only really noteworthy if {2600} subscribes to true Caller-ID (e.g. CLASS or LASS based) and not ANI delivery. Yes -- choice of carrier (IXC) is very important in this, as is LATA of origin. There are (at least) two places that Calling Party information could be "dropped" -- between the originating local telco and the IXC and likewise between the IXC and the terminating telco. Either entity may exclude Calling Party ID. from the SS7 information passed to the "connected" network. As far as I know there is an approximately two year old FCC proposed Rule making on inter-state Caller ID, but a final rule was never issued. So what happens will be very "Carrier dependent" at this point. > We are conducting an experiment over the next week or so. People > calling our main office line (516-751-2600) will be forwarded to a > line that has Caller ID and we will see what comes through and what > doesn't. If you wish to participate, call this number and let it ring > twice. This will be enough time to transmit the Caller ID data and you I called twice (MCI and AT&T) from work, but I just realized I "0+'d" the call (via 10xxx - 0 - number). Going via operator assistance (even robotic credit card validation) may invalidate the test. I'll try again from home (same CO) via 1+ later. Caller-ID is defeated via the operator, I just don't remember if that applies to only "0" (or "00") or also to "0 + NPA-NXX-XXXX". > In the meantime, doesn anyone know the legal implications of Caller > ID data being transmitted from California? Fun, fun, fun. Looks like some IXC(s) got tired of waiting for the FCC to say "yes" or "no" and started doing inter-LATA Caller-ID. Under the current Federal (e.g. inter-state) regulations -- the fact that the California PUC has barred CID should have no jurisdiction on inter-state calls. (Note, I'm not a lawyer, I don't even play one on TV.) Coming soon to a Supreme Court near you ... State of non-CID PUC vs IXC/Some Telco offering CID. Bets anyone??? Arnette Schultz kityss@ihlpe.att.com (Standard Disclaimer applies - I do not speak for AT&T only myself.) ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 09:47:00 PDT Caller ID, true, is widely deployed among Bell Cos. However, the INTERCONNECTION is another matter. I'm very interested in your results Emmanuel and even contributed my call from W. Washington's GTE-land to your test. Please post results. I'm eager to see what you find. Interconnection has been the real issue in making caller ID workable between carriers. Emmanuel, you also pose a very interesting question about legality of shipping Caller's number out of California. In view of the stance PacBell and GTE have taken in not deploying Caller ID in the State, my assumption would be that CLID doesn't get passed. Lynne [Moderator's Note: I'd like you to know that at our new home in Skokie the exchange I am on does NOT have any SS-7/CLASS stuff at all. Not a bit. No Caller-ID, no Call Screening, Last Number Redial -- none of those features. We don't even get *67, presumably because there is nothing to be blocked. I did not know such central offices were still around this area. Now I know they are! PAT] ------------------------------ From: rorem@eecs.uic.edu (Doug Rorem) Subject: Re: My Kind of Town, Chicago is ... Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 02:15:34 GMT TELECOM Moderator noted in response to Steve Hutzley: >> I was in Chicago several days ago for a trade show, and I would just >> like to comment on the city. I was suprised at how clean this city is >> -- I'm impressed. Chicagoans must really take pride in this, because I >> have seen the trash receptaclas on the streets full!. And no trash or >> papers blowing around on the streets. >> Nice City! |> [Moderator's Note: As Frank Sinatra once crooned, you probably even |> saw a man dancing with his own wife. Tell me this, how many blocks |> west of the lakefront did you travel? They do try hard to keep the |> area around McCormick Place very clean as well as North Michigan |> Avenue and the Near North/Streeterville area, since they like to impress |> the tourists who bring money with them. I venture to say you did not |> go south and east of McCormick Place, nor west of downtown ... **** West ... unless you meant Lake Michigan :) As far as Chicago goes ... (I know this is getting out of the telecom realm) I think there are plenty of other cities in the US with crime and school problems too. There are good and bad people everywhere, Chicago just has more of both. Doug Rorem UIC [Moderator's Note: Yes you are correct, I meant 'south and west of McCormick Place' ... and Chicago has a lot more of both. I finally got my wish of many years though: we are moving to Skokie, IL. We started moving over the past weekend and will be taking the computer stuff on Tuesday, so it might be a day or so before I get another issue out to you. This will be combination office and home. The nice thing is we will be able to walk outside at night and the four-year old will be able to play outside as well as have a decent school to go to next year when he starts kindergarten. I'll give out the new office fax and phone numbers in a couple days when it all gets organized. God knows where the money will come from to pay for it; the rent is $300 more than we are paying now; more than my old place and the Howard Street office put together, but we had to do something. The building we have lived in for about ten years has become a drug house for the neighborhood. We are really fleeing for our lives. :( Seriously. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 01:41:46 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Special Mailing Coming Next With all the commotions in recent weeks about the proposed new Usenet group comp.dcom.telecom.tech and my 'undue influence' upon the readers of the Digest (I had the temerity to say I thought the new group a bad idea and recommended a vote of NO), I've had numerous discussions with folks in email about whether or not life is fair and I am paranoid or not. In email correspondence with David Lawrence (aka 'tale') I suggested that we might end the nonsense about 'one sided presentations' here if a special edition of the Digest was devoted exclusively to the topic of the merits or lack thereof of an unmoderated Usenet telecom newsgroup. I suggested it should be done *without my participation* other than doing the mailing. That way, no one will see anything that others don't see. They'll select the remarks for inclusion, they'll edit it, they'll distribute it as they see fit, and they will hand it to me for mailing to the TELECOM Digest mailings lists and comp.dcom. telecom. I even suggested to David Lawrence that I thought former Digest participant John Higdon would make an excellent guest moderator for the occassion; but apparently they have decided Ron Dippold should handle it instead, even though JH made the original proposal. Have you ever hypnotized a chicken? It is really quite easy. First you pick the bird up gently so it is not frightened, and you hold it in your arms quietly, allowing it to rest. Hold in your fingers a small shiny object; a piece of mirror perhaps, or polished metal. Slowly move the shiny object with your fingers in front of the chicken so it catches the bird's attention. Notice the chicken's eyes following the shiny object as it moves back and forth. In thirty seconds or so, the bird will go into a hypnotic trance, its one-volt brain overloaded. Once trance has been induced, you speak quietly to the chicken and tell it, "Chicken, I want you to go get an email account somewhere and send a NO vote on comp.dcom.telecom.tech. I want you to go back to the henhouse and teach the other chickens how to get email accounts and send in NO votes also. If you get three or four email accounts, send in three or four NO votes ... make sure you get your whole family to vote NO also, and anybody you work with is to vote NO as well." I also suggested to David Lawrence and others (and will repeat myself here) that they don't need to wait six months before having another election. I'll waive any such guidelines so folks can vote again next week if they like. Frankly, I'm curious to see if they lose again what their complaint will be next time if they don't have the Moderator to kick around any longer. 'Undue influence', my a--! Do they presume I hypnotized telecom readers and sent secret messages out? Anyway, in your next mail from me, Ron Dippold will call for your participation in an open discussion about comp.dcom.telecom.tech and over the next weekend, he will publish the comments of his choice. I urge everyone to read and participate. (Watch them squall and scream at me now for even telling you to listen up and participate ....). Send your responses ONLY as directed by Mr. Dippold, NOT to me. If you have not been a reader of telecom since at least sometime prior to when this long, protracted stink began and/or if you do not have access to Usenet News on a regular basis, then please do NOT partici- pate in any ensuing vote which may take place unless/until Mr. Dippold or other net.gods direct otherwise. (There! Are you happy now? ...). Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #720 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03514; 26 Oct 93 18:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31060 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 26 Oct 1993 14:36:44 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06101 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 26 Oct 1993 14:36:01 -0500 Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 14:36:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310261936.AA06101@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #721 TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Oct 93 14:36:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 721 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (Erik Ramberg) Cellular Security (Richard W. Brezina) VSI94 Announcement (A. Padgett Peterson) USTA Favors InterLATA Relief (Richard Trevor Bassett) Text to Speech Vendors? (Troy Howard Fore) Internet Access from a Rural Exchange (Tom Olin) T1 Signal Decoding Algorythm/Information (Wilfred Gomes) MCI Wants a Piece of the Action (Sean Slattery) Administrivia: Special Mailing Coming Next (Karim Alim) Re: Our Moderator and Death (B. Z. Lederman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) Subject: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Date: 25 Oct 1993 23:38:12 GMT Organization: ESL Inc. Being passed along FYI: TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD TRW teams with PacTel Cellular to attack cellular fraud SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, Oct. 19, 1993 - ESL incorporated, a subsidiary of Cleveland-based TRW Inc., is testing an electronic system with PacTel Cellular that tracks, identifies and blocks illegally made cellular telephone calls. Called TRW PhonePrintTM, the system is designed to prevent fraudulent access to cellular networks across the United States by persons using stolen telephone access numbers. Increasingly under siege from illegal access into cellular telephone networks, cellular operators have been seeking more advanced electronic systems that can not only identify but block illegal network access. By intercepting the caller's telephone frequency and then reading the access code and telephone number, cellular "counterfeiters" can illegally install duplicate numbers in tampered phones (a process known as "cloning") and steal cellular services. Jeff Phillips, TRW program director, says that TRW PhonePrintTM will increase the level of security for both cellular carriers and their customers. The TRW system determines the legitimacy of a call by comparing the unique signal frequency patterns, or 'fingerprint' of the phone making the call with the pattern on record for that telephone number, Phillips said. When the signal frequency pattern does not match the one on file for a telephone number, TRW PhonePrintTM will terminate the call before the system is accessed. The system works by making an electronic "print" based on the unique signal transmission characteristics for each cellular phone. Because each phone has a unique print - an electronic version of a human fingerprint - it cannot be duplicated. Once the real print is recorded, detection of a counterfeit print can be made. TRW PhonePrintTM is able to provide real-time analysis of each print every time a call is made and can block access within seconds of a counterfeit call be placed. "This real-time technology is the most effective tool so far in our batter to keep people from fraudulently accessing our network. When fully implemented, our customers will be protected from fraud through the unique characteristics of their own phones," said Dave Daniels, manager of fraud control for PacTel Cellular in Los Angeles. "This innovative technique is a major breakthrough in wireless access control. Clearly the big winners will be our customers." Daniels said that PacTel Cellular has been working for a number of years to develop more advanced systems that significantly reduce fraudulent access to the cellular network. He said the company determined that it needed a more sophisticated method to catch counterfeiters in the act and actually prevent them from getting on the network. "TRW PhonePrintTM enhances existing PacTel fraud detection systems with its own 'fingerprint' technology to provide the most sophisticated solution to an industry-wide problem," Daniels said. TRW's Phillips estimates that the TRW PhonePrintTM network access controller system will conclude its test with PacTel Cellular in Los Angeles early in 1994. It will then be made available to cellular carriers nationwide. TRW provides high technology services to the automotive, space and defense, and information markets. The company's 1992 sales totaled $8.3 billion. PacTel Cellular, PacTel Corporation's largest wireless subsidiary, has control or shared control over cellular systems in ten of the top 30 U.S. cellular markets: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento, Atlanta, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Detroit. The company also has interests in 34 additional markets. PacTel Corporation, based in Walnut Creek, California, is a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis Group, a worldwide diversified telecommunications corporation based in San Francisco. FACT SHEET What is TRW PhonePrintTM ? TRW PhonePrintTM is a system designed to block illegal access to cellular networks by cellular "counterfeiters" who use stolen telephone identification numbers. How Does It Work? Each cellular telephone emits unique signal transmission characteristics - an electronic version of a human fingerprint - which cannot be duplicated. These characteristics are matched with the mobile identification number (MIN) and the electronic serial number (ENS) of the phone to develop a unique pattern for each legitimate customer, TRW PhonePrintTM uses sophisticated signal analysis hardware and software to analyze and file the patterns belonging to legitimate customers. When a caller attempts to access the network, the system compares incoming patterns to those on file. If the patterns do not match the call is immediately terminated. Who Benefits? Cellular telephone fraud costs the industry up to $300 million annually. TRW PhonePrintTM benefits cellular operators and customers by: % Terminating fraudulent calls before they can access the system % Eliminating the need for legitimate users to change phone numbers or codes. % Increasing the capacity of the network by eliminating the flow of illegal traffic. % Building customer confidence in the security of the cellular network. When Will It Be Available? TRW PhonePrintTM is currently being tested by PacTel Cellular, Los Angeles. Testing is expected to be completed in early 1994, and the system will be made available to cellular carriers nationwide. The Company TRW, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is strategically focused on providing products and services with a high technology or engineering content. -------------------------------------- hmmmmm.... Nothing that I say can be construed as the opinion of my employer. ------------------------------ From: Richard W. Brezina Subject: Cellular Security Date: 26 Oct 93 10:36:33 EST Organization: HRB Systems, Inc. Request for technical support: I am developing a database of telecommunications applications and related security issues involving the use of encrypting techniques. I am currently looking for information pertaining to the use of algorithms such as RSA and DES in digital cellular phone systems. Interest extends to their use within the SIM in GSM. Comments related to user security feature acceptance, network needs and system flexibility will be catalogued. Potential database users post a message. Disclaimer! =========== Any ideas or opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the ideas or opinions of HRB. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 09:00:36 -0400 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: VSI94 Announcement "On the Whole, I'd Rather Be In Philadelphia" - Mahatma K. Jeeves CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT VSI '94 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - USA March 29-30, 1994 Presented by the Virus Security Institute "A Different Kind of Information Security Conference" ________________________________________________________ VSI '94 -- two intense days of interactive collaboration focused on the development of a working information security model appropriate to both the management and technical challenges of the mid-90s. Security is not a book of rules; it is an organic and dynamic process. This principle will be expanded through an agressive combination of speakers, scenarios and solutions. VSI '94 is not a hit-or-miss conference. The program is carefully structured to provide not only state-of-the-art information but practical techniques that "push the envelope". DAY ONE: In the morning, industry experts will present a limited number of papers dealing with state-of-the-art considerations divided into three areas: scientific, technical, and managerial. This will provide a primer for what is to follow. In the afternoon, articipants will restructure a traditional organization to reflect the information security needs of the mid- 90s. The Management Track will address requirements for executives, financial and legal considerations, operating parameters, policies and procedures, re-engineering, communications requirements and a five-year plan. The Technical Track will explore tools and techniques currently available, define requirements and techniques to preserve vital information that may come under attack from any quarter, automation of support functions, necessary networking and risk assessment. Industry experts in each field will be present to make suggestions and offer examples. The afternoon will be divided into segments for each of the tracks with a focus provided for each. If the participants fail to reach a concensus withing the segment's alotted time, the legacy baseline will be used on the next day. Further planning is encouraged in the bar and at the reception. DAY TWO: Each of the elements of the restructured model will be examined and challenged, both by speakers and participants. Management will be given legal, financial, and stockholder concerns to address. Technical will defend against attack scenarious ranging from viruses to terrorists to incendiary cows & leaking tunnels. PLENARY: A recap of the proceedings analyzing strengths and weaknesses of the model as developed, challenged, and improved. PAPERS: We solicit papers/speakers focusing on the subjects of fiendish attacks, brilliant solutions, organizational indifference, and prognostication. The focus will be on salvation from the Networks (both interpretations apply). SITE: The entire conference floor of the Philadelphia Airport Hilton has been reserved for VSI '94. Rooms for Birds-of-a-Feather meetings may be reserved in advance, subject to availability. Facilities will be available for larger, lengthy formal meetings on Monday, March 28. The hotel is designed to facilitate "H" (hall) track sessions. Room Rates: $72/night, single or double. Contact the Hilton (302)792-2700 The Hilton provides a complimentary continental breakfast to all hotel guests. TRAVEL: Philadelphia International Airport (transportation from airport provided by the Hilton) is served by most major airlines. Drive time from either Washington, DC or New York is approximately 2 hours. AMTRAK serves Philadelphia's 30th Street Station (local train available every half hour to airport for Hilton pickup). Discounted airfares are available from Sand Lake Travel (800)535-1116 / (407)352-2808 / FAX (407)352-2908 AMENITIES & AMUSEMENTS: Philadelphia is rich in attractions, from the Liberty Bell to the Franklin Institute to the Art Museum to the bustling 9th Street Market. Excellent shopping in both Philadelphia and tax-free Delaware. Nearby is the famous Brandywine Valley, home of Winterthur, Longwood Gardens and Andrew Wyeth. A full activities packet will be available to all registrants. INFORMATION: For more information, E-Mail or Fax: EMAIL: VSI94_info@dockmaster.ncsc.mil (case sensitive) FAX: (302)764-6186 (include E-Mail address, please) ____________________________________________________________ Honorary/Convening Chairman - Dr. Harold Joseph Highland, FICS Conference Chair: Pamela Kane Program Chair: Padgett Peterson PSKane@dockmaster.ncsc.mil Padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com _________________________________________________________ Founding Members and Directors of the Virus Security Insitute Vesselin Bontchev Dr. Klaus Brunnstein Dr. William Caelli Jon David Christoph Fischer Ross Greenberg Dr. Harold Joseph Highland, FICS Pamela Kane A. Padgett Peterson, P.E. Yisrael Radai Fridrik Skulason Dr. Alan Solomon ------------------------------ From: rtbassett@attmail.com (Richard Trevor Bassett) Date: 26 Oct 93 14:09:42 GMT Subject: USTA Favors InterLATA Relief Patrick, I saw an article in a recent issue of {Telephony} which states "The U.S. Telephone Association is ready to endorse the lifting of the interexchange carrier ban on the Bell regional holding companies, ending the long contentious issue that has divided small telcos from giants within the trade group ..." Does this mean that we will soon see ANI (Caller ID) info being exchanged across LATA's? If so, how soon? Richard T. Bassett rtbassett@attmail.com Bermuda [Moderator's Note: I bet in the next year we see a huge increase in the exchange of Caller-ID data, which by the way should *not* be confused with ANI, although the end results are about the same. We already have full exchange of ANI all over the nation. PAT] ------------------------------ From: thfore@crl.com (Troy Howard Fore) Subject: Text to Speech Vendors? Date: 26 Oct 1993 11:15:45 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access Can anyone direct me to a list of text-to-speech vendors? It needs to be a pc based system and it would be nice if they had some way to hook up to a telecom (Dialogic) interface. I know about both the Berkeley Speech Technology and the Digital Equipment DECVoice systems. Can anyone direct me to a system that they know runs either of these or a third system? I prefer some type of true speech synthesis rather than word or phoneme concatenation method but the bottom line is that it be fairly intelligible. Thanks, Howard Fore Macintosh/LAN Administrator Eason Publications thfore@crl.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 16:53:19 EDT From: adiron!tro@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Olin) Subject: Internet Access from a Rural Exchange I want to obtain some type of Internet access from my home, which is located in a small exchange (315-861) that is long distance to just about every place that's anyplace. I would prefer to use any halfway decent Internet-capable system that is a local call from home, but there appears to be no such beast. None of the commercial dialup services that I've contacted - CompuServe, America Online, Delphi, GEnie, and Prodigy - have an access number local to me. If I have to pay long distance, I would prefer not to have to pay for a host account on top of that. And if I'm going to pay for long distance, I might as well consider sites outside of New York State, since interstate rates will likely be lower than intrastate rates. It seems, then, that I need a good discount long-distance plan and a free, public-access system. The former is pretty much limited to AT&T, since my local exchange does not yet have equal access dialing. The latter is open for suggestions. Other solutions are welcome, as well. Please respond via e-mail. I'll summarize if there is sufficient interest. Tom Olin PAR Technology Corporation Tel:(315)738-0600 Ext 638 tro@partech.com New Hartford, NY Fax:(315)738-8304 ------------------------------ From: gomes@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu (Wilfred Gomes) Subject: T1 Signal Decoding Algorythm Information Organization: University of Hawaii, Dept. of Electrical Engineering Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 08:57:48 GMT Hi, I was working on a data acquisition project. The data is in the T1 extended superframe format i.e 24 channels of PCM using the ccitt-g733 format. I need to acquire this data using a signal processing chip (Motorola 56001). Just now I am interested in finding out some literature which talks about the T1 signal decoding algorithms any pointers to such implementations, (i.e in any form ) would be very useful I would appreciate it very much if you could post replies to: gomes@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu Thanks very much, Wilfred ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 11:51 GMT From: Sean Slattery Subject: MCI Wants a Piece of the Action Pat, Look what I just got. Looks like it was sent to the TELECOM Digest readers who get their issues via MCIMail. My question is: I just switched to Sprint for a Star Trek screen saver, what is MCI offering, and do they really want me as a customer, seeing as how I dropped AT&T for such a paltry enticement. (8-)> Sean Slattery(vonslatt@mcimail.com) Network Administrator Airflow Research =================================================== From: Susan Sirmai (3188677) Date: Monday, October 25, 1993 10:26 pm Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V13 #713 ENV Date: Mon Oct 25, 1993 2:28 pm EST From: Susan Sirmai EMS: MCI Mail MBX: 0003188677 [Moderator's Note: A *long* cc: list (of which my name was included) has been deleted here. Ms. Sirmai cc'd quite a few subscribers to the Digest. PAT] /END ENV* IN RESPONSE TO THE MEMOS ABOUT SWITCHING CARRIERS, IF YOU ARE CHOOSING A LONG DISTANCE CARRIER, MCI SHOULD ALSO BE CONSIDERED. MCI CAN BE REACHED BY CALLING YOUR ACCOUNT TEAM, IF YOU HAVE ONE ASSIGNED, OR, 1-800-444-4444 FOR RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS AND 1-800-444-2222 FOR BUSINESS CUSTOMERS. REGARDS, SUSAN [Moderator's Note: What I want to know is are you giving away modems like Sprint, or $75 checks like Mother? If not, don't bother me. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 13:38 GMT From: Karim Alim <0006143365@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Administrivia: Special Mailing Coming Next > Have you ever hypnotized a chicken? This isn't one of those MIT purity tests, is it? > Notice the chicken's eyes following the shiny object as it moves back and > forth. Just don't notice TOO much or you may be hypnotized yourself. > its one-volt brain overloaded (author clucks) BTW, it's 1.25. Chicken brains can be substituted for NiCad batteries in many applications. > "Chicken, I want you to go get an email account somewhere...." So the message would be composed by (giggle) "hunt-and-PECKERS?" (author rolls on floor, laughing) > Do they presume I hypnotized TELECOM readers and sent secret messages out? It's really not the hypnotism I mind so much as the subliminal messages. If you examine the line breaks on some recent issues of the Digest, and turn the screen sideways, you find that it spells out "ORANGECARD MEANS SEX," "TELEPASSPORT TO LOVE" and other messages of ... questionable objectivity. (big grin) k. This disclaimer Copyright (c) 1993 Karim R. Alim. [Moderator's Note: And did you know that if you read each issue backward that the tenth letter on every line which begins with a /q/ and ends with a /z/ spells out the address 'PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690' and and urges readers to send tithes and love offerings, along with other Tokens to Prove their Sincerity for my examination? I use my Undue Influence to promote all kinds of things. PAT] ------------------------------ From: B. Z. Lederman Subject: Re: Our Moderator and Death Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 26 Oct 93 08:57:06 -0400 > [Moderator's Note: Dear Concerned Reader: Thank you very much for your > I wouldn't be the first person to take a live phone circuit with me: > there have been stories for many years about Mary Baker Eddy doing the > same thing in the early 1900's. When the directors of her organization Close, but not quite. The book "Rumor" (it's at home so I don't have the authors handy) chased this one down. A telephone line was installed at the site where the grave / memorial was being built so the contractor could communicate with Mrs. Eddy during construction. It was removed when the work was done. But there have been stories like this ever since. False burials were apparently fairly common in the last century (medical science wasn't as advanced then, nor was medical training, so someone with a weak pulse could be buried. No EEG or EKGs then), and the Patent office recieved a lot of applications for devices to allow buried people to indicate that they weren't dead yet, including electric bells. It wouldn't surprise me if some people were buried with telephones in their coffins, but I can't find any specific references, or any factual record of one actually being used. [Moderator's Note: Thanks for setting the record straight where Mrs. Eddy was concerned. One reader this morning wrote me a not-for-pub note saying he knew of a specific instance of a phone phreak who was buried with a 2500 set in the coffin with him, although it was not hooked up to anything. We are still busy moving to the new place and the computers are going off line after this issue, but I will be back in a day or so. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #721 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10248; 27 Oct 93 16:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26054 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:31:56 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00074 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:31:18 -0500 Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:31:18 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310271731.AA00074@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #722 TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Oct 93 12:31:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 722 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Presto Chango! (A New Box) (David Kovanen) Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking (David Kovanen) Caller ID Question (Mike Godwin) CPSR Crypto Resolution (Dave Banisar) Canada's New Government and Telecommunications (Nigel Allen) Modems for Kenya (Jason M. Githeko) Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Gary Breuckman) First N1X Exchange in 813 (Paul Knupke) Looking For NirvanaNET (Robert Koscki) Answering Device With Forward Options (Gary Breuckman) US Modem Host Wanted (Marcus Fest) Are Local Calls Kept on Record? (Denis Ouellette) Top 10 Reasons for TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger (Paul Robinson) Two Cellular Phones - One Number (Tom Mackay) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (Willie Smith) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (John R. Covert) Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (Lars Poulsen) Administrivia: The Moving Continues (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 13:50:07 PDT From: Kovanen@First.Com (David Kovanen) Subject: Presto Chango! (A New Box) I recently had the opportunity to witness an interesting object in operation. The individual demonstrating it called the device a "Presto Chango" box. It resembled one of those infamous Blue or Black Boxes of years gone by ... The Presto Chango box would blank out the Caller-ID information sent by the telephone company and would substitute *ANY* desired information on the caller's display. It seemed to do the job nicely -- and it worked for the time, date, telephone number, and name display elements. As I understand it, the capability to do this is published in Bellcore Specifications under the indescript title of "Analog Services Display Interface (ASDI)". I did call Bellcore and they confirmed the existence of such documents. :-) Continuing on my understanding, the Presto Chango Box works by transmitting Caller ID information to the distant end using the same data format as the central office does. Apparently, this is an asynchronous message using Bell 202T modulation, and can be done using off-the shelf parts and components. Accordingly, the device can only "change" the display information once the caller has answered, as it used the voiceband path. Also, it doesn't actually eliminate the real information from memory, although many would not realize this. It works by sending the new display information as soon as the caller answers. Most units will gladly receive new display information at any time -- not just between ring one and ring two. Because the information is "In Band" it carries through the voiceband just fine and this is what allows end-to-end updating. The slight problem is that the caller hears the modem tones while this is being done. But, it was explained, this audible noise can be blanked from the answering party by sending a momentary "dual-tone" blanking tone (part of the ASDI specification) first to the display, followed by the update data. This dual-tone masks the following transmission for those display units that can do this. I was so ammused by this that I did can Bellcore and verify the existence of these documents. I also talked to an "expert" at Bellcore and (obtusely) asked if this end-to-end update was possible. She confirmed that it was. (!) All that I can say is that security people shouldbe alert for "false" Caller-ID information being sent -- and they should know that it is possible to send this data in-band and that Caller-ID does not necessarially provide an adequate level of access security (contrary to the common erroneous belief.) Just when we thought phreaking by using "boxes" was over, we seem to have a new one on our hands. BTW: I write this message with the assumption that use of "Presto Chango" boxes are technically legal, given the Bellcore publications. I also write to help those who must manage system security and need to understand significant security threats. David J. Kovanen EMail: Kovanen@First.Com Kovanen@Innovator.Com Kovanen@Foundation.Com Kovanen@Caledonia.Com 70353.2063@CompuServe.Com Voice: (206) 925-1000 Facsimile: (206) 925-2000 Address: 10 Caledonia Summit NE Browns Point, Washington U.S.A. 98422-1620 [Moderator's Note: Who do you think would be fooled by this? If you observe the display between the first and second ring, act on the information given as you see fit *then* answer, how could anything someone did after that point matter? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 13:29:31 PDT From: Kovanen@First.Com (David Kovanen) Subject: Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking There is a service available called "Call Blocking Unblocking" that is quietly available from a number of IXCs. I subscribe to this service from "Cable & Wireless". "Call Blocking Unblocking" works as follows: You give people a 800 number that is assigned to you. Callers dial this 800 number instead of your local number. When they do, their telephone number shows up on your Caller-ID display unit. I have it and it is 100% reliable. Of particular note is that it works on both an intrastate and interstate basis and every telephone number is displayed -- even numbers that are blocked and are intrastate. This service has been proven to be quite a surprise for many people who thought that they were calling me anonymously. :-) I have seen interstate Caller-ID function, although it has been sporadic and unreliable. However, the 800 number Call Blocking Unblocking service that I have is 100% effective from everywhere. Just to clarify, this is not ANI number delivery. When people dial my 800 number the information displays on my Caller-ID display through the local telco delivery of Caller-ID. David J. Kovanen EMail: Kovanen@First.Com Kovanen@Innovator.Com Kovanen@Foundation.Com Kovanen@Caledonia.Com 70353.2063@CompuServe.Com Voice: (206) 925-1000 Facsimile: (206) 925-2000 Address: 10 Caledonia Summit NE Browns Point, Washington U.S.A. 98422-1620 ------------------------------ From: mgodwin@bdmserver.mcl.bdm.com (Mike Godwin) Subject: Caller ID Question Date: 27 Oct 1993 11:02:00 -0400 Organization: BDM International, Inc. I've seen ads out there for Caller-ID boxes which not only display the number of the calling party, but the name the phone number is registered to. Is this service available from the phone company yet and if so, in what areas? I'm particularly interested in Northern VA, since that's where I live (duh!). Thanks in advance, Mike [Moderator's Note: It is available in quite a few areas although I do not have the specifics about Virginia, and it is telco offering the service. PAT] ------------------------------ Organization: CPSR Washington Office From: Dave Banisar Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 21:40:51 EST Subject: CPSR Crypto Resolution CPSR Crypto Resolution CPSR Cryptography Resolution Adopted by the CPSR Board of Directors, San Francisco, CA October 18, 1993 WHEREAS, Digital communications technology is becoming an increasingly significant component of our lives, affecting our educational, financial, political and social interaction; and The National Information Infrastructure requires high assurances of privacy to be useful; and Encryption technology provides the most effective technical means of ensuring the privacy and security of digital communications; and Restrictions on cryptography are likely to impose significant costs on scientific freedom, government accountability, and economic development; and The right of individuals to freely use encryption technology is consistent with the principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States; and The privacy and security of digital communications is essential to the preservation of a democratic society in our information age; and CPSR has played a leading role in many efforts to promote privacy protection for new communications technologies: BE IT RESOLVED THAT Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility supports the right of all individuals to design, distribute, obtain and use encryption technology and opposes any government attempt to interfere with the exercise of that right; and CPSR opposes the development of classified technical standards for the National Information Infrastructure. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 93 07:56:19 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Canada's New Government and Telecommunications Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca Monday's general election in Canada brought a new party to power, but it isn't yet clear what this means for telecommunications policy. Earlier this year, the Progressive Conservative government of Kim Campbell split up the old Department of Communications, with culture going to a new National Heritage department, the government's internal telecommunications services going to Government Services, and telecommunications policy and research and spectrum management going to the department of Industry and Science. We don't know yet what further changes soon-to-be Prime Minister Jean Chretien will make to the government structure, but if the current structure is retained, it looks likely that Montreal-area member of parliament Paul Martin wil become industry minister and hence minister responsible for telecommunications. I suspect that the new government will be happy, at least at first, to leave telecom-related decisions to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. There is considerable pressure from the business community to reduce long distance rates, but the Liberals are less close to the business community than the Conservatives. We may not see an increase in funding for telecommunications research, but we probably won't see any further decreases in funding either. The Conservatives talked a lot about reducing the federal government's deficit, and some observers feel that their obsession with the deficit at the expense of other issues was a significant factor in their electoral loss. The other parties represented in the new House of Commons have not talked much about telecommunications policy. I expect that the Reform party, which is fairly right-wing by Canadian standards, will favour further deregulation of telecommunications, and the Bloc Quebecois will want to make sure that Quebec gets its "fair share" of federal government telecommunications-related spending. The New Democratic Party, a social-democratic group, will probably oppose further telecommunications deregulation on the groups that it would adversely affect consumers and unionized telecommunications company employees. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: j-githeko@uiuc.edu (Jason M. Githeko) Subject: Modems for Kenya Date: 27 Oct 1993 05:36:08 GMT Organization: University of Illinois I have made this request before but here goes again. I am looking for low cost (or donations) Hayes compartible data modems for a self-help project to connect Kenyan Universities to the Internet. Anything at leat 2400 baud would do. Preferably can operate on DC voltages or 240 V AC. Thanks. Jason M. Githeko University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1310 S. 6th, #345, Champaign IL 61820 e-mail: j-githeko@uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3573 Fax: 217-244-5632 [Moderator's Note: There are many worthwhile charitable endeavors on the net which deserve the support of reader/participants, but as always I stress that one should investigate these things to the best of one's ability before sending money, merchandise or computer equip- ment to a stranger. Make sure these things are on the up and up. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 19:10:25 -0700 From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones >From the {Providence (RI) Journal}, quoted in the {Milwaukee Journal}: Cellular Phone call tips police to car burglaries Famous last words: 'That cop doesn't even know I'm on the phone.' East Providence, R.I. - Police said that a man, talking to his girlfriend on a cellular telephone while driving around early Monday, bragged that he had looted several parked cars. What Robert Pimental, 22, didn't know, police said, is that an officer patrolling nearby happened to be listening in on the call on his cruiser's scanner. The monitoring that lead to Pimental's being charged with possessing stolen goods was just "one of those coincidences," said Lt. Daniel Evans. Patrollman Bruce Atwell was cruising the area, according to Evans, and was monitoring a scanner frequency that picks up cellular phone calls. Atwell's ears perked up when he head a man tell a woman that he had stolen items from several parked cars in Bristol, Evans said. The man also told her he was driving along Crescent View Ave. Atwell drove onto the avenue and pulled behind a small car whose male driver was talking on a car phone, Evans said. And on his scanner, Evans said, Atwell heard the man say there was a police cruiser behind him. The article goes on to say how he bragged about the cop not knowing he was on the phone, was then pulled over, and the loot recovered. Someone should tell the officer that it's illegal to monitor those frequences. puma@netcom.com [Moderator's Note: Someone should tell Robert Pimental that it is illegal to strip autos. My sympathies are entirely with the police officer on this one. PAT] ------------------------------ From: knupke@cfrrisc1.cfr.usf.edu (Paul Knupke) Subject: First N1X Exchange in 813 Date: 26 Oct 1993 21:46:36 GMT Organization: Univ. of Soth Florida, Central Florida Regional Data Center I just received that 1993-1994 Tampa telephone book. I was looking through the exchange list and noticed the first N1X exchange I have ever seen in any phone book in the 813 NPA. The exchange is 219. It was last year, at this time when GTE and United Telecom both began requiring 1-813- for all calls within the 813 NPA. Paul Knupke, Jr. - University of South Florida * Tampa, FL knupke@cfrrisc1.cfr.usf.edu 1:377/61@fidonet KD4VMD ------------------------------ From: robert_koscki@optilink.dsccc.com Subject: Looking For NirvanaNET Date: 26 Oct 93 19:41:00 GMT Organization: MIB "Men In Black" Hi, I recently read about a network called NirvanaNET that is supposedly in Berkeley or somewhere in the bay area. Does anyone out there know about this? If so, can someone please e-mail me some info about it and how to access it? Thanks! Robert ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 14:34:51 -0700 From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Answering Device With Forward Options There have been some questions recently about answering machines that could call pagers, etc., when messages were received, possibly based on the urgency of the message. The following advertisement appeared today in the {Milwaukee Journal}, from Office Depot ... WARNING - the price is $349.99 Bogen Communications - Bogen "Friday" 2000 all digital answering system. A two-line digital (no cassette tapes) message center with 18-minute capacity expandable to 36 minutes. Digital message center with 4 voice mail boxes / call forward to any remote phone number, cellular phone, pager, etc. 3 announce - notification mail boxes serving as an audio bulletin or private messages. Remote notification notifies any mailbox owner instantly of urgent messages by calling their pager, cellular, or any other location. Message stamp for day/date/time/new/old message, timed memo record, auto fax detection to fax or PC. Visual prompting for easy step by step instructions. No. 569-673, list $499.00, sale $349.99 puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: marcfest@fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de (Marcus Fest) Subject: US Modem Host Wanted Date: Wed, 27 Oct 93 7:03:04 MST Hello, folks. Maybe some Internet-whizkid could help me with this: There is a US bulletin board that I dial up very frequently. From within the US I have toll free access but from here (which is Berlin, Germany) I have to pay the international phone call rate each time I call. Could I possibly by-pass the costly part of the call by using the internet and telneting to an American host that lets me use its terminal program and modem facility? Does anyone know a host like this? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Marc P.S.: No all Germans hate foreigners. Actually its only a minority who does. I just returned from Atlanta and was devastated when I realized how much the American view of Germans is dominated by the recent anti-foreigner violence news from here. [Moderator's Note: Another option you can use to reduce your inter- national call costs -- but not eliminate them entirely -- is by using a service which lets you connect to 800 numbers in the USA with very discounted rates on the international part, such as Telepassport. Rates for international calls via Telepassport are typically half of what the PTT charges. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 93 07:50:36 CDT From: Denis Subject: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? I was always under the impression that records of local telephone calls were kept on magnetic tape for a certain period of time by the local telco. But when I asked Michigan Bell for their records to a certain number (an attorney was all set to send in a subpoena) they said they didn't keep such records. Was I infomed correctly? Does this vary from place to place or was I under the wrong impression to start with? (BTW without these records a criminal defense ended up being much weaker -- somehow I suspect that if the police/prosecution wanted such records they might have miraculously appeared.) Denis Ouellette ouellett@ucs,indiana.edu [Moderator's Note: Whoever you spoke with misinformed you. The best approach is to simply have issued the subpoena from the beginning. Call records are available for some period of time, and telco will produce the records when they are served requesting same. It does not matter if it is the defense or prosecution making the service, since it is no skin of telco's nose either way, but legal service is absol- utely required. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 10:50:43 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Top 10 Reasons for TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA 10. Nice Logo. 9. Needed "3-Letter" name to compete with MCI and ATT. 8. Opportunity to create a merger/buyout even bigger than RJR/NABISCO (See the movie "Barbarians at the Gate") 7. With such lousy service is the usual from cable companies, nobody will care about the tests of phone over Cable TV . 6. Wanted deeper discounts from QVC. 5. TCI was misunderstood when it said it wanted money from the phone company, e.g. a refund on its deposit. 4. Make a mess and use that to argue that the "New Information Infrastructure" can only be done if the government pays for it. 3. Quick way to piss off Judge Greene. 2. When video dial tone is found to be a loss, dump it into TCI the way AT&T dumped its computer business into NCR. 1. Chairman of Bell Atlantic got mad at cable company's service and pulled a Victor Kiam. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: mackay@speedway.net (Tom Mackay) Subject: Two Cellular Phones - One Number Date: 27 Oct 1993 10:14:42 -0500 Organization: Speedway Free Access, dial 10288-1-503-520-2222 I recently received some information from a company in Dallas called Cellular Options that for $199.50, will alter a cellular phone to allow more than one phone per cellular telephone number. In their literature they discuss the procedure of cloning or ESN emulation and even mention the fraudulent use of this method. They state that now several legitimate companies are offering legal cloning or emulation. Has anyone dealt with this or a similar company? Is is completely legal, or is it in a grey area? What do the cell companies think of this? Does it work? Looking forward to hearing from this techno-literate group. Tom Mackay on Speedway Free Access -- Dial 10288-1-503-520-2222 for info mackay@speedway.net [Moderator's Note: This is a grey area at best -- very grey. Most contracts from cell carriers prohibit the practice. It certainly does not aid in fraud prevention, and could actually contribute to more fraud, as the company's own literature states. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wpns@newshost.pictel.com (Willie Smith) Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Organization: PictureTel Corporation Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:36:01 GMT erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) writes: > Being passed along FYI: > TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD > Jeff Phillips, TRW program director, says that TRW > PhonePrintTM will increase the level of security for both cellular > carriers and their customers. The TRW system determines the > legitimacy of a call by comparing the unique signal frequency > patterns, or 'fingerprint' of the phone making the call with the > pattern on record for that telephone number, Phillips said. When the > signal frequency pattern does not match the one on file for a > telephone number, TRW PhonePrintTM will terminate the call before the > system is accessed. Ha! All this probably means is you have to clone the same manufacturer and model of phone. Especially with the big push to Six Sigma (every product is identical to one part in a million), it's going to be really difficult to tell phones of the same model apart without denying service to folks at slightly different temperatures, battery charge levels, and altitudes. How long do you think it'll take the cloners to crack this one? [FWIW, I have no cellphone, and not much interest in one ...] Willie Smith wpns@pictel.com N1JBJ@amsat.org ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 16:27:47 EDT From: John R. Covert 26-Oct-1993 1629 Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Interesting. But, of course, there's a problem. I can legitimately use my cellular phone's telephone number and ESN on three different transmitters: 1. The Micro-TAC itself. 2. The 3W VA in my own car 3. The Extended System in my wife's car. Actually, I can legitimately use it in _any_ compatible transmitter that provides the plug to go into the bottom of the phone. /john ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Date: 27 Oct 1993 06:30:45 -0700 Organization: Rockwell International - CMC Network Products In article pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > The client has a T1 line (fractional) of which two channels are > currently being utilized. ... The T1 terminates at a CSU, which is > then hooked into a Micom Marathon box. > What I would like to do is take about 15 of the remaining channels > and "merge" them to provide 960k of bandwidth between the two > Retix routers. The routers can handle speeds of up to 2.048Mbps > and can be configured with either RS-449, RS-232 or V.35 connections. Many vendors of T1 channel banks have DSU's that can pull multiple channels off a single T-span and deliver the merged bandwidth on a single DCE connector. If your current CSU does not have this option, you need a new CSU rack, and then two DSU's to plug in: One for the MICOM, one for the new router. Each one gets configured with the channel numbers that it pulls off the T1 frame. Look for a drop/insert multiplexer in the catalog. In addition to the single- and multi-channel data cards there are analog voice cards available in such systems. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: The Moving Continues Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:10:00 CDT We've spent quite a bit of time since Sunday moving to our new location in Skokie, and I now have temporary connections set up with a terminal and modem so that at least a Digest per day can be sent out. What's more important to us though is that our little one had to be admitted to the hospital on an emergency basis yesterday due to an infection which had started a day or two earlier. He had not responded to his medication; yesterday the doctor said get him in the hospital immediatly. While in the hospital, his temperature went up to 103.5 and they are having a hard time getting it down to normal. He is now getting his medication via IV. :( Please have some patience with me for a couple days. :( For your records, the new fax number for all correspondence is 708-329-0752. Please change your records where it appears otherwise. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #722 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14038; 28 Oct 93 0:11 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07593 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 27 Oct 1993 21:11:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15483 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 27 Oct 1993 21:10:54 -0500 Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 21:10:54 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310280210.AA15483@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #723 TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Oct 93 21:10:50 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 723 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Ameritech PCS Trial Update #7 (Andrew C. Green) Sprint Cellular/Motorola Release (Roger Theriault) Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! (Jack Decker) Need Numeric Pager Recommendation (Kinson Ho) Car Phones and Accidents? (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Administrivia: The Moving Continues (Bill Walker) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 14:33:24 CDT From: Andrew C. Green Subject: Ameritech PCS Trial Update #7 Here's another Ameritech PCS Update, a series of reports on the progress of a trial of digital spread-spectrum portable phones being conducted by Ameritech in the Chicago area. Yours truly was enlisted for day-to-day telephone testing as a member of the general public. Since the middle of 1992 the PCS network has been tested, with a variety of phones and varying capabilities, in downtown Chicago, the Lincoln Park residential area to the north, and the northwest suburbs in the vicinity of Arlington Heights. The test is scheduled to end in December 1993. Two-Way PCS Phone Arrives The long-promised Two-way PCS phone was finally delivered recently. Previously, I was issued a phone with only outbound dialing ability, with a Pager/Voice Mail setup to field incoming calls. Since the phone remained off (except for a minor power drain to the pager) when not in use, the network had no idea where it was (i.e. it didn't know which transceiver to route incoming calls to) until the user switched it on in search of a dial tone. This proved an acceptable compromise, since the PCS transceiver signal is comparatively weak, requiring transceivers every half mile or so depending on the terrain, whereas the pager network can blast a signal pretty much anywhere it wants, and almost never failed to hit my PCS with an incoming page. (It's my understanding that the pager network is Ameritech's standard product, however; only the PCS system is under test.) Comparing the pager-equipped PCS handset with its non-pager, Two-way-calling partner is instructive. The pager-equipped model weighs in (with battery) at 7.3 ounces, meaning that if you plaster a return address label on the little phone so that someone can mail it back to you if you lose it, you must also paste $1.90 in stamps on its back. However, the non-pager unit weighs in at a tidy 7.0 ounces in a distinctly thinner case, so two-way calling saves you 23 cents in postage. This marketing breakthrough has gone unnoticed by Ameritech, though whether the little PCS would make it through the Post Office cancelling machines in one piece is unclear. Two-Way Operation The missing link with the Pager PCS is, as I mentioned, the fact that the system doesn't know where it is. The two-way PCS is configured to "register" with the nearest transceiver every few minutes so that an incoming call can be routed to the phone and ring it. In some limited testing this worked fine, with the phone properly ringing when within the test area, but some current limitations became apparent after a while: 1) I don't spend enough time in the service area, or at least within electronic earshot (i.e. outside, not within a steel-framed