Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04796; 11 Nov 93 5:45 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13973 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 10 Nov 1993 21:15:51 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28862 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 10 Nov 1993 21:15:17 -0600 Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 21:15:17 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311110315.AA28862@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #751 TELECOM Digest Wed, 10 Nov 93 21:15:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 751 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson URGENT: Article Correction Required (Andy Behrens) Billing Insert Regarding 900 Charges (Carl Moore) Feature Interaction (Tony Harminc) DCS6000 Dancall (Edzard Kolks) Macintosh Software for NIST (Eli S. Bingham) POTS -> Digital (PCM) Cards (Grant Brydon) TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger - International Ramifications? (William R. Hester) Minneapolis is no Picnic, Either (vs. Chicago) (Roy M. Silvernail) Problems With Michigan Bell (Steven M. Palm) Help: Need to Query V&H Database (Nathan Banks) Crummy Service in NY (Carl Oppedahl) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: andyb@janus.coat.com (Andy Behrens) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 19:29:35 -0500 Organization: Burlington Coat Factory Reply-To: Andy.Behrens@coat.com Subject: URGENT: Article Correction Required Pat, Can you publish the following correction AS SOON AS POSSIBLE... The phone number that I gave in the original article was wrong, and some poor woman is being flooded with calls from eager Telecom subscribers. I've cancelled the Usenet posting of the article also, but many people may have read it already. Thanks! Andy ========================= CORRECTED ARTICLE ========================= Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 18:13:03 GMT From: Andy.Behrens@coat.com Subject: Re: Analog Telephone Interfaces For Computers *** THE TELEPHONE NUMBER POSTED YESTERDAY FOR "COMPUTER TELEPHONY" *** *** MAGAZINE WAS INCORRECT -- THE AREA CODE WAS WRONG. THE NUMBER *** *** APPEARING BELOW IS THE RIGHT ONE. *** picone@copland.csc.ti.com (Joe Picone) writes: > Can somebody suggest a good state-of-the-art telephone interface that > can be computer controlled? Anyone who is interested in this sort of thing should read Computer Telephony ("The magazine for Computer and Telephone Integration"). Lots of useful ads too. It's free to qualified subscribers, $38/year for others. Ask them to send you a subscription card. You can reach them by: Mail: Computer Telephony, 12 West 21 St., New York, NY 10010 Phone: 215-355-2886 E-mail: <1015032@mcimail.com>, <70600.2451@compuserve.com> Andy Behrens Burlington Coat Factory, Schoolhouse Rd., Etna, N.H. 03750 (603) 643-2800 [Moderator's Note: Others also wrote to report the error in the phone number and I thank you for your correction. To the poor woman being flooded with calls, sorry lady. :( PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 16:23:09 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Billing Insert Regarding 900 Charges My newest bill from Diamond State Telephone arrived today. It includes the following (and I am not sure what "telephone billed purchases" would be): THE TELEPHONE DISCLOSURE AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION ACT This federal law gives you the following rights regarding 900 calls and telephone billed purchases: - You do no have to pay for 900 calls that do not follow federal rules and regulations. - Neither your local nor long distance service will be disconnected if you do not pay these charges; however, the 900 service company may attempt to collect these charges from you and you may be reported to a credit or collection agency. Also, if you do not pay legitimate charges, you ability to make 900 calls from your line may be blocked. - You can call your local telephone company to have 900 calls blocked from your line. - If you have a question about 900 calls or telephone billed purchases on your bill, call the number shown at the end of your 900 charges. Your call starts a review of these charges. During this review you do not have to pay for the charges in question, but you do have to pay the other charges on your bill. Upon completion of the review, your account will be credited for the amount of the charges in question or you will receive a letter explaining why no credit will be allowed and when the payment for the disputed charges is due. if you do not pay the amount for these charges by the due date, you may be reported to a credit or collection agency. [Moderator's Note: Ameritech (Illinois Bell) has the same notice almost word for word going out in November bills here. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 17:08:02 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Feature Interaction An unending topic, I know. There is even a feature interaction conference that's been mentioned here. Each time I think I've thought through all the possibilities I am surprised yet again. I have Call Return on my line. I called a friend, it was busy, so I keyed *66 and the friendly voice told me I would be called back when the line was free. I went and did other things, including one period of about five minutes when I made a fair amount of noise. After about an hour, I wondered at my friend's line still being busy (he has a modem line, so it wasn't that). I dialed *66 again, mainly out of curiosity to see if the system would give me the same friendly message, or would tell me that I had already made the same request. To my surprise, the line was not busy, and my friend answered on the second ring. He immediately asked me why I had called almost an hour ago and had hung up (he has Call Display). After a bit of discussion, we concluded that perhaps Call Return was misbehaving and had called me back, received no answer from me (because I had missed the ringback because of the noise I was making), yet had allowed his line to ring. To test this, we repeated the procedure, agreeing that I would not pick up on the special ringback (short-short-long). So I let it ring ... and on the fourth ring heard my answering machine pick up the call in the other room. So what had happened was that my machine had picked up on the ringback and started its outgoing message, the switch had rung my friend's line, his machine had picked up on the second ring just in time for my machine to have started recording the "incoming" call. Eventually both machines VOXs shut them off. So yet another explanation for strange "but I didn't call you!" messages captured on the machine. Presumably this wouldn't happen with a voicemail type service, i.e. the switch would be bright enough to distinguish the *66 ringback from a normal inbound call, and not forward it. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: rcbaek@tue.nl (Edzard Kolks) Subject: DCS6000 Dancall Date: 10 Nov 1993 22:49:37 GMT Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands Hello there, I would like to get some info about the wireless telephone DCS6000 from Dancall. It's a firm from Denmark, I think ... it could be that it's been taken over by Amstrad. If someone know's out there what's happend to the DCS5000 it would interest me too! Thanks in advance, With kind regards, Edzard Kolks ------------------------------ From: ebingha@eis.calstate.edu (Eli S Bingham) Subject: Macintosh Software for NIST Organization: Calif State Univ/Electronic Information Services Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 20:15:29 GMT The October 1993 issue of BYTE Magazine mentions that you can access the NIST atomic clock through the Internet at address 132.163.135.130 (time_a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov). However, our computer center is Macintosh oriented and I cannot find software to set the Mac's clock through this address (or, for that matter, through the more accurate telephone connection). Can someone suggest MacTCP compatible software for this? Or am I going to have to write it myself? Eli Bingham ebingha@ctp.org ebingham@nyx.cs.du.edu RIMENet Node #5272 Try Electric Magazine BBS at 707-961-0735 [Moderator's Note: Would someone like to summarize a bit more from the article and explain how the clock is accessed through that address? Is there a certain special login one would use, or would one telnet to a given socket on that machine, or? Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: brydon@mprgate.mpr.ca (Grant Brydon) Subject: POTS -> Digital (PCM) Cards Organization: MPR Teltech Ltd., Burnaby, B.C., Canada Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 17:24:41 GMT I'm looking for a pair of cards for conversion of the analog subscriber loop signals into a digital stream. I know of many cards, and simple ICs, to correctly sample and code (u-law/a-law) the voice channel but have not come across a set of cards which will include the signalling information (ring, off hook, etc.) in the PCM stream for use at the receive end. The battery, ring, and other power will be supplied (if necessary) for the card to feed into the analog subscriber loop. I am aware of the T1 cards and systems, but need only a single channel system with a lower bit rate than a T1. My goal is to keep the bit rate to less than 128 kbit/s. Diagram: Card A Card B |-----| |------| | | | | POTS<-->| |<-----Single PCM Stream--->| |<-->POTS | | <128kbit/s | | |-----| |------| ^ ^ | | Battery/Ring Battery/Ringi Thanks, GRANT BRYDON (brydon@mpr.ca) MPR TELTECH 8999 Nelson Way, Burnaby BC, Canada, V5A 4B5 Phone (604)294-1471 FAX (604)293-5787 ------------------------------ From: whester@nyx.cs.du.edu (William R. Hester) Subject: TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger - International Ramifications? Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept. Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 17:52:32 GMT Does anyone have any insights or ideas about the international ramifications of the TCI/Bell Atlantic merger? I have found out that TCI has some interests in a Mexican cable operation, and that Bell Atlantic has purchased interest in a cellular telephone system in Mexico. How can NAFTA affect the telecommunications and cable business in Mexico? Any other countries involved in this merger? Thanks, Bill Hester, Ham Radio N0LAJ, Denver CO., USA - N0LAJ@W0LJF.#NECO.CO.USA.NOAM Please route replies to: whester@nyx.cs.du.edu or uunet!nyx!whester Public Access Unix @ University of Denver, Denver Colorado USA (no official affiliation with the above university) ------------------------------ From: roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 22:37:48 CST Subject: Minneapolis is No Picnic, Either (vs. Chicago) My apartment was robbed last week. Gone are my stereo, all my CDs, a ring and ... my Sprint Foncard. You may recall that when I first received the Foncard, I called Sprint and specifically asked for a card with no PIN on it. The rep told me it wasn't possible, and recommended that I memorize my PIN and leave the card at home for security. I guess we can see how well THAT works. :-( On the bright side, my rep was very helpful in cancelling my card and told me I'd have a new one in seven to ten days. The card hadn't been used! (I guess I got some luck out of this encounter, after all.) Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org [Moderator's Note: I'm sorry to hear this grim news. I hope for your sake you did not violate any of the civil rights of the burglar; the court may come down pretty hard on you if you did. :( You understand of course that if the guy is caught, you still don't automatically get your stuff back. You have to prove you own it rather than the burglar. An interesting and increasingly common incident occurred here recently. A home invader had broken into a house about five years ago. He simply kicked the door in and entered. He went down into the base- ment area to prowl around, but unknown to him, the residents there were doing some remodeling in the basement and they had stacks of lumber and paneling laying around; some had nails in it or nasty slivers of wood and metal, etc. Without turning on the light switch, the home invader stepped on some plank down there and started a chain-reaction causing another piece of wood to flip up in the air. It had some nails in it which hit him in the face. He was caught, but he sued the people who lived there -- the people whose place he had violated -- and about three months ago was awarded two hundred thousand dollars in damages due to the scars he received on his face; his hospital bill, etc. The people filed bankruptcy at that point, but the court ruled the judgment could not be dismissed in bankruptcy, so I guess they will be working a long time to pay off this guy. Let that be a lesson to you. Keep your homes neat, clean and free of dangers. If someone breaks in while you are gone (or some have the nerve to do it while you are there!), you don't want them to injure themselves. PAT] ------------------------------ From: smp@agape.sol.net (Steven M. Palm) Subject: Problems With Michigan Bell Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 10:25:52 CST Greetings! I recived a letter a few months ago from a collection agency in Michigan. They explained that I had a past-due account with Michigan Bell/Ameritech. Since I reside in Wisconsin and have not had service with Michigan Bell, I asked them what the address for the account was. They stated that they did not have that information, so I explained that I would contact Michigan Bell. It is my understanding that even if I *did* owe money to MI Bell, I would only have to deal with MI Bell, not the collection agency. I may be wrong, but that is another issue. I contacted Michigan Bell, and the address the provided was in Grand Rapids. I explained that I lived in Wisconsin and could not have had service there. They asked that I send proof of residence for that period of time to them, which I did. Several weeks later, they contacted me and stated that they had traced the account to my brother. Since it was a family member, they stated that it was their policy to hold me liable for the charges. I fail to understand how I can be legally responsible for the debts of my brother. I do not know how he obtained my social security number to initiate the service, but I did not authorize it in any way shape or form. Michigan Bell refused to budge, so I contacted the consumer protection agency in Wisconsin. They referred me to the Wisconsin Banking commission. The gentleman I spoke with there asked me to detail all of this in a letter to him, which I did. He then proceeded to contact the collection agency and Michigan Bell with the details, and asked for an explanation of why they felt I was liable. He recieved only a terse note back stating that Michigan Bell's position has not changed. My brother has not contacted my family for quite some time, and my brother-in-law had co-signed a car loan for him that he has defaulted on. My brother-in-law has had to make the last five payments, and he doesn't even have the car. But he is legally bound to be responsible; I do not feel that I am. I feel that Michigan Bell should pursue my brother for the debt, and for charges of fraud for illegally using my Social Security number. But they said that they do not get involved with inner-family affairs. I fail to see where they come from. I don't think it's my responsiblity to pay the debt and to pursue my brother legally for the charges as Michigan Bell suggested. For that matter, it's somewhat dubious as to where my brother even IS. My question is, WHAT CAN I DO? I do not wish to have this left hanging out in space, perhaps damaging my credit record, but on the other hand I have absolutely no intention of paying Michigan Bell for a debt I did not incur. ANY suggestions would be MOST appreciated. Thank you for your consideration. FYI: The collection agency: Midwestern Audit Services P.O. Box 1707 Troy, MI 48099-1707 Michigan Bell FINAL ACCOUNTS MRS DAK 112 Grand River Room 100 Port Huron, MI 48060 Steven M. Palm smp@agape.sol.net Milwaukee, WI FidoNet: 1:154/600 Linux! :) smp@solaria.mil.wi.us [Moderator's Note: The first thing you do is send a letter to the agency with a copy to telco saying "You are requested to cease further contact with me in any form effective at this time. You are to make no further telephone calls or mail contact with me or members of my immediate family residing at
and telephone number ." Period. End of letter, but of course you include indentifying inform- ation regards your account, the collection agency file number, the Michigan Bell telephone number, etc. The agency is required by federal law (the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) to cease contact with you on receipt of this request. Upon receipt, the agency will cease making contact, but will at the same time mostly likely go back to their client and recommend suit. Please note the FDCPA only applies to coll- ection agencies, *not* to creditors and only partly to the creditor's attorney; MBTel can continue to make contact if they choose. They may or may not accept the advice of the collection agency and allow the agency to file suit. Then you send a letter to the corporate attorney for Michigan Bell (no copy to the agency is needed or desirable; the attorney's name will be easily located in various public records -- that's one of the services my 'Digital Detective' operation performs). In that letter, do *not* tell him your life story, and more important, do *not* practice law; do *not* attempt to quote the law. In that letter you state that his client MBT alleges that an adult member of your family who does not reside in your household and whose whereabouts are not known to you owes to them the sum of for services identified with . State further that in an attempt to collect the money alleged owing, his client has engaged in numerous tactics including placing the account with an agency; writing letters and making phone calls in which they claim a legal basis for collection of alleged indebtedness from yourself; and to the best of your knowledge, corresponding with credit bureaus regards the alleged indebtedness and yourself. Specifically state that you have no obligation for the debts of your brother. Ask the attorney if in his opinion he agrees with you that 'the actions of MBT in this matter are unlawful and constitute harassment and/or retaliation.' And if he does reach the same conclusion as yourself, you'd appreciate the kind intervention of his office in bringing the matter to a conclusion without the need for you to file suit; and of course in the event his client does choose to sue frivilously, your response will be a countersuit. Believe me, when his office gets your letter, someone will call MBT and ask what its about. The file will get pulled from Mrs. Dak. MBT's corporate attorney may contact you, or you may get a letter instead from the Chairman's Office at MBT from one of the highly placed flunkies authorized to respond in the Chairman's name. They *know* they cannot force you to pay; they're just trying to bluff. You call their bluff in return. PAT] ------------------------------ From: neptune!banks@iex.iex.com (Nathan Banks) Subject: Help: Need to Query V&H Database Organization: iex Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 19:40:51 GMT Howdy, Here in Texas, the state Senate recently passed legislation (SB 632) allowing rural communities to petition the PUC to extend their respective local calling scopes to "communities of interest" of up to 22 miles. I am currently researching my community's locality of interest by looking at county maps and interviewing members of the community to ascertain their civic and business needs outside of our current 2-3 mile local calling scope. I was wondering if someone could suggest how I might access a "V&H" coordinate database to query the following information. List the npa-nxx of all exchanges which are less than 23 miles from npa-nxx = "903 776". I would also like to do this at 25, 30 and 32 miles. Any suggestions are welcome. Nathan Banks IEX Corporation Voice: 214.301.1206 2425 North Central Expressway, Suite 350 Fax: 214.301.1200 Richardson, Texas 75080 Email: banks@iex.com ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Crummy Service in NY Date: 10 Nov 1993 17:22:51 -0500 Organization: Oppedahl & Larson Here I am in Manhattan, the telecommunications center of the world, where radio jingles say "We're All Connected, New York Telephone". Warm images of grandma talking to the beloved grandchildren ... high-powered financial traders moving millions of dollars while barking into speakerphones. The White Pages urge us to sign up for Pathways (r) and Digipath (r) and Superpath (r) and Flexpath (r) and Infopath (r) and Switchway (r) and Intellipath (r), all high-powered, modern, digital, cutting-edge wave-of-the-future kinds of things. You just pick up the phone and the breeze makes your hair flutter behind you ... Recently countless advertisements have told us of *69, which will call back the person who just called. "Available from most telephone numbers" the full-page {New York Times} advertisement says. Other ads, on television (I wonder what they cost?), urge us to sign up for Caller-ID. Still other ads tout a service that will try a busy number repeatedly until it goes through. This sounds great ... until you actually try to sign up for these things, or use them. I tried *69 to call someone back. It did not work. Instead, an unintelligible recording comes on, which I assume was meant to tell me I misdialed my call. I called the telephone company business office. There's a reason that I can't use *69, namely that my telephone exchange is too old. Likewise I cannot sign up for Caller ID. And I cannot use the automatic redial. Kind of suprising I have even been able to use touch-tone phones all these years. Oh, and I cannot get ISDN, either. My service comes from the "Second Avenue" central office in Manhattan. It contains twenty-five exchanges, or a theoretical quarter of a million telephone lines. Of those exchanges, my business office tells me, only fifteen can support *69 or caller ID or the automatic redial feature. So perhaps two-fifths of the customers in my part of Manhattan are in the same boat -- no modern telephone features available. And only two of the twenty-five support ISDN. That's actually better than many other central offices in Manhattan and elsewhere in the state where zero of the exchanges support ISDN. Just means that all but a handful of the quarter of a million customers would have to get a different telephone number to get ISDN. (Of course, if more than 20,000 of them asked at once, the ISDN lines would be exhausted.) Oh, and there is no scheduled date for upgrading my telephone exchange to more modern equipment, according to the business office. No wonder businesses move to New Jersey! Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #751 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04949; 11 Nov 93 5:49 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27128 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 11 Nov 1993 03:08:29 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31044 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 11 Nov 1993 03:07:55 -0600 Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 03:07:55 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311110907.AA31044@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #752 TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 Nov 93 03:06:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 752 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "A Manager's Guide to Multivendor Networks" (Rob Slade) _Naissance d'un virus_ Soon to be Published :-) (Jean-Bernard Condat) Re: Received My Free Sprint Modem Today (Gregory Youngblood) My Sprint Modem Arrived (Roy M. Silvernail) Wanted: AT&T Merlin Cordless (Mark Strow) Answering After Busy Signal (Clive Dawson) Seeking Net Connection in 417 Area (SW Missouri) (Bill Pfeiffer) Caller ID Between Area Codes 516 and 718 (Dave Niebuhr) Cellular FAQ Wanted (Chris Kalisiak) Re: ATM Newsgroup: is There Any? (Rudolf Meyer) Strange Ringback (Jeff Bamford) Re: Landline Telegraph Service (Gabe M. Wiener) Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems (Steven King) Re: Looking For Software Distribution and/or File Transfer Pgms (F da Cruz) Re: Brought to You by the Letter Q (Al Stangenberger) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Nov 93 11:47 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "A Manager's Guide to Multivendor Networks" by Enck BKAMGTMN.RVW 931011 CBM Books 101 Witmer Road PO Box 446 Horsham, PA 19044 215-957-4265 215-957-4287 Fax: 215-957-1050 76702.1565@compuserve.com books@propress.com "A manager's guide to multivendor networks", Enck, 1991, U$35.00 In this case, the title really does say it all. The author's description, in the preface, of the difficulties encountered in working with multi-vendor systems will strike a responsive chord with just about every network manager or administrator. Only the most fortunate of systems operators these days exist in an ivory tower with support from a single vendor. In the divided world of "beards" and "suits," the term "manager" tends to indicate a lack of technical background. That is basically the case here, although the material is technically sound. There are some interestingly detailed inclusions, going so far as a layout of the frame structure of an Internet Protocol packet, but these are well explained and should not present any trouble to the intelligent reader who is nonetheless a technical novice. On the contrary, this is an excellent introduction to the basics of data communications technology at certain points. The work is quite practical at the managerial level. Four major vendors; DEC, IBM, HP and Sun; are examined in depth and in parallel. Standards, LANs and WANs, services, TCP/IP and network management are discussed. This gives a good start to managers who have to be able to evaluate competing claims (particularly from competing vendors). The book is not without faults and even technical errors. Although the author is obviously thoroughly researched and comfortable with the background of the whole network situation, certain parts that were up to the minute in 1991 sound oddly archaic now. Nevertheless, this is an excellent background and starting point for anyone who either has, or will have, charge of a modern business network. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKAMGTMN.RVW 931011 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: cccf@altern.com (cccf) Subject: _Naissance d'un virus_ Soon to be Published Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 11:15:51 EST By the general secretary of the Chaos Computer Club France (CCCF), the French translation of "The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses" will soon be published by Addison-Wesley France (fax: +33 1 48 87 97 99). Naassance d'un Virus (dec 1993, 237 pages, circa 98 FF). Jean-Bernard Condat, PO Box 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Phone: +33 1 47874083, fax: +33 1 47874919, email: cccf@altern.com [Moderator's Note: How about a review of the book for us? Tell us more about it, and how it might be purchased here in the USA. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Received My Free Sprint Modem Today From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 00:22:09 PST Organization: TCS Computer Systems rosellab@hawaii.edu (Rosella Bartonico) writes: > It finally came today, after eight weeks (I switched to Sprint for the > free modem about September 10). > It is indeed an internal 1/4 card (half size, half heigth) PC modem. > Not an external. > The Smart One Fax Modem from Best Data Products, Inc. > 9600/4800 bps send/receive fax > 2400/1200/300 bps data modem > with V.42bis and MNP error correction and data compression Interesting: This modem could indeed be represented as a 9600 data/fax modem. 9600 bps send fax and 9600 throughput max with v.42bis. That is how these modems are represented by several modem manufacturers. That is indeed interesting. As to the external vs. internal promise I can't answer. I am not a person knowledgable in law, but it would seem that Sprint could use this in court to say they were delivering what they promised. After all, why should Sprint be penalized for what modem companies advertise their products as, and unfortunately, they advertise a 2400 modem with v.42bis as 9600 data. 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 Telephony Groups ------------------------------ From: roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 22:33:43 CST Subject: My Sprint Modem Arrived Strangely enough, although I was told I had a choice of DOS _or_ windows software, I received a disk with both. It does v.42bis and/or MNP5 with a software driver (that I haven't tested extensively). It gets a LAPM connect with my Connection 96+. I'll check out the v.42bis soon. It's CUTE! One chip, three glue logic chips and a couple of little amps, with a discrete hybrid. I just wish it did interrupts besides 3 & 4. (but what the heck, it's a freebie) Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org [Moderator's Note: I am very excited waiting for mine to arrive also. UPS left a note at my old address saying they tried to deliver it there and 'found no one home when they called'. I notified them of my new address and it is supposed to be delivered Thursday or Friday. PAT] ------------------------------ From: strow@world.std.com (Mark Strow) Subject: Wanted: AT&T Merlin Cordless Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 16:23:43 GMT Please reply to strow@world.std.com. Thanks, M. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 10:21:22 CST From: Clive Dawson Subject: Answering After Busy Signal I placed a long distance call to 415-965-xxxx the other day, and received a busy signal. I guess I hesitated a little longer than usual and listened to about four or five "tones" worth of busy signal. Then, just as I was about to hang up, the person I was calling answered! Has anybody else experienced this? Did I encounter some sort of race condition, or a bug in a certain type of switching equipment? Any explanations would be welcome. BTW, the number I called was a private home number (i.e. not a PBX, etc.) Thanks, Clive Dawson MCC Austin, Texas ------------------------------ From: rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Bill Pfeiffer) Subject: Seeking Net Connection in 417 Area (SW Missouri) Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 02:20:59 CST A friend of mine who lives between Springfield and Branson, Missouri seeks a net-connected BBS or Public-Access Unix host in that vicinity. He currently connects long distance to Chicago for news/mail. He needs a closer place, preferably in the 417 area. Email replies are apprecaited, to save Pat the hassle, I will summarize if I get anything useful. Or you can write to him direct at conn@gagme.chi.il.us (Paul D Williams). He will soon ba administering a mailing list and the toll charges will kill him. Thanks, William Pfeiffer - Moderator rec.radio.broadcasting - Airwaves Radio Journal For info on rrb and Airwaves, email rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu Subject: HELP ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 10:02:58 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Caller ID Between Area Codes 516 and 718 I received a telephone call from 718-XXX-YYYY (NYC minus Manhattan and I live in area code 516 (Long Island) which says to me that Caller ID is available between these two area codes so long as all of the intermediate COs and switches are capable of passing the information. What I suspect is that the caller made a mistake on my number since there two digits the same in the number and the wrong one was dialed twice by accident. This happened quite a few times when I first received the number. There are still some exchanges that don't pass the ID but they mostly serve big customers, but even those are slowly switching. One thing, though, is that my employer is on one exchange for normal telephone service in its offices and buildings (voice, data, fax, etc.) and another one for the on-site housing plus telephone callback. These numbers are listed as being on a third exchange which does pass CID with no trouble. The first two go in as 516-282-XXXX or 516-341-XXXX but come out as 516-924-9XXX and 516-924-8XXX. The rationalization is: I call home from my job and the number shows as 9XXX but if I dial in to work via a modem and go into 282-XXXX it is routed to 341-XXXX for call back and shows up as 8XXX. 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 [Moderator's Note: What happens if you dial the 924 version either from home or office or elsewhere? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 19:02:28 EST From: kalisiak@cs.Buffalo.EDU (Chris Kalisiak) Subject: Cellular FAQ Wanted I am a newbie to cellular phones, and am currently researching into the different brands of phones. I have determine that the three watt models hard-mounted in the car are probably what I am looking for. Possibly 'luggable', but definitely not the small hand-held models. Is there a FAQ of some sort which might include descriptions of pros and cons of different cellular phones currently on the market? Thanks a lot, Chris Kalisiak kalisiak@cs.buffalo.edu Tel/Fax:(716)692-5128/695-8481 I'm a student; I don't speak for UB. ------------------------------ From: nmeyer@hasler.ascom.ch (Rudolf Meyer) Subject: Re: ATM Newsgroup: is There Any? Organization: Ascom Business Systems Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 21:15:14 GMT In article kees@cv.ruu.nl (Kees de Graaf) writes: > I'm new to the comp.dcom.* newsgroups. I was wondering whether there > is a group dedicated to the ATM standard/protocol (?) and its > applications. Otherwise, what would be the group to read anything > about ATM? Hi Kees! Have a look on: comp.dcom.cell-relay Cheers, Rudolf Meyer Ascom Business Communications Switzerland [Moderator's Note: Thanks also to Ben Cox whose answer was identical. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jeffb@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Jeff Bamford) Subject: Strange Ringback Organization: Audio Research Group, University of Waterloo Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 14:35:27 GMT I had a rather bizarre experience with the phone last night and thought that someone here may be able to shed some light on the subject. For starters the phone line has four features on it : Call Display, Call Answer, Call Waiting and Three-Way Calling (Aside: Good ole Bell Canada they may charge $30 to move your phone line but they gave three features for free for eight weeks!). I dialed up someone and left a message via Call Answer to myself. That is I called my own number to leave a message. Since the calls forward to the Call Answer number when the line is busy I immediately got my message. I then left a message for someone else in the household and hung up the phone. The phone then rang back (which sometimes happens when you "hang up" on someone with Call Waiting). The display showed no number was calling, in fact the Call Display said nothing which I found curious. I picked up the phone but there was no one there so I hung up thinking that somehow the Call Waiting got confused because I called myself. I then tried the same thing again (i.e. leave myself a message by phoning my number). I left another message and then hung up. This time the phone also rang back with no display for the number. I let the phone ring more than four times which should forward it to the answering service but this did not work. It just kept ringing. I picked it up and was rather surprised to hear people talking on the other end. Not really knowing quite what to do I hung up. I tried to duplicate the experiment but I could not get the phone to ring back. Perhaps I'll try again today. Has this happened to anyone else? Jeff Bamford jeffb@audiolab.uwaterloo.ca -- NeXT Mail welcome jeffb@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca / jeffb@physics.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ From: gmw1@merhaba.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) Subject: Re: Landline Telegraph Service Date: 10 Nov 1993 14:12:54 GMT Organization: Columbia University In article , Gabe M Wiener wrote: > Over the years we have seen many articles and had many discussions on > the operation of cordboard service ... trunking, signalling, etc. But > I'm curious if anyone knows the specifics of how the landline > telegraph service operated. [my original query deleted] > [Moderator's Note: The first TWX machine I recall seeing sometime in > the 1950's was not a dial unit. [Pat's excellend description of TWX operation deleted] Pat, thanks for the info. I was referring more to the telegraph service of the 19th century ... keys and sounders ... more than to teletypewriter service however. Know anything about how switching was accomplished then? Gabe Wiener -- gmw1@columbia.edu -- N2GPZ -- PGP on request Sound engineering, recording, and digital mastering for classical music "I am terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music will be put on records forever." --Sir Arthur Sullivan [Moderator's Note: Well for a long time in the 19th century -- maybe all of it, I really don't know -- there were certain 'hub cities' where some rudimentary switching took place, with every telegraph agent served out of that hub on a single line in series with all the others. That is, Chicago was one such hub and St. Louis was another. Every agent between Chicago and St. Louis who started banging his key was heard by all the other agents in between and both ends of the circuit as well. There were no secrets transmitted. :) I think if Chicago wanted to send a message to Kansas City, it was passed to St. Louis and the agent there immediatly re-transmitted it to Kansas City. There were numerous telegraph companies between towns which were bought up by a consortium and merged into Western Union during that time period, just in the same way AT&T hustled and extorted many small independent telcos into selling out to 'The Bell' early in this century. In Chicago and other big cities in the 19th century, many business houses and prominent citizens had their own 'keys'. The Chicago Board of Trade had two, I believe, one for receiving and one for sending. These terminated at the wire room downtown and there were relays of some sort which would flip a little magnetized piece of metal down like a 'flag' over the key which was active at the moment. The agent could plug these into one another in such a way that the keys could send back and forth to each other. Obviously, we are not talking about heavy volumes of traffic. A message here, a message there, etc. Western Union owned the facilities in the larger cities, but smaller towns and rural areas were serviced by independent agents who worked on commission only based on what traffic they generated or received. No one could earn a living as a telegraph agent alone; if they could, Western Union would own the facility and make the money. So most of the small town agents were also agents for other services accomodating the public 24 hours per day. A long-deceased relative of mine who lived in Independence, Kansas about 1890 was the telegraph agent for the town; her 'key' was set up behind the counter of her other business: she also owned the local 'bus station' and was an independent commission agent for the stage-coach company which was the ancestor to what is known today as Greyhound Bus. Very experienced in the code, I am told she could be writing up a bus (stage-coach) ticket (they were all handwritten in those days) while telling the people around her what 'the key' was talking about -- even if it was a transmission between two other agents that did not concern her at all. If you wanted to tell your friends in Chicago you were on the way to visit, first you told her what to say and she would put it on the key to wherever she relayed or gatewayed through; after paying her for that, then she'd write up your stage-coach ticket to Chicago and get your money for that also. At night when she was asleep, someone else was there to sell tickets and send/receive telegraph messages. A story goes that one day two agents were involved in a transmission and going quite fast. They were each able to keep up with it, and normally she would have kept up with them at that speed, but she was trying to write up a ticket or something that took some of her attention and she lost track of what 'the key' was talking about. She actually put down her other work, went over and tapped out something to the effect, 'you guys slow down a little please.' The message tapped out to her in return: 'slow down? what for? so a snoopy old bit*h like you can stick her nose into it?' :). After that she never would admit that she listened to messages not intended for her site, but all the agents did the same thing and knew everyone else's business. There were no secrets. PAT] ------------------------------ From: king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King) Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems Date: 9 Nov 1993 15:22:30 GMT Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Reply-To: king@rtsg.mot.com U19250@uicvm.uic.edu publicly declared: > A friend of mine, without net access, has received some information on > a product called "Cellmate Model B" It supposedly allows you to dial > in a cellular phone number, and listen to both sides of the call. How > does this work? Is it reliable? Has anyone ever heard of any other > products like this that are cheaper (this is ~$6000)? I've never heard of this product, but it wouldn't be difficult to make one that functions as you describe. First, enter a mobile-ID. This is the phone number of the phone you're interested in monitoring. The monitor device listens to the signalling channel in the current cell waiting for the system to page that mobile, or for that mobile to originate a call. Since the mobile-ID is sent in the clear on the signalling channel it's quite simple for a monitor device to pick it off. Once the target mobile acknowledges the page, the system directs it to tune to a voice channel. Again, this information is sent in the clear and it would be easy for the monitor to tune to the same channel. The monitor can follow handoffs as well, as the commands to hand off are sent by muting audio and sending a burst of data on the voice channel. The target phone understands this to mean "switch to another channel". No reason why the monitor device can't do the same. Repeat until the target phone is too far away for its signal to be received. I came up with this scheme in two minutes, given your description of what was needed. Obviously refinements could be made, but this is a good basis for a cellular "wiretap" device. The main limitation is that the tapper can only lock onto the beginning of a conversation; he can't tap into a call-in-progress for a specific mobile-ID. There may be ways around this limitation. As I said, I've only given it two minutes worth of thought! The moral of the story? The airwaves ain't private, folks. And yes, I too would like to see the cellular industry adopt an encryption scheme. Unfortunately, that's not my end of the business. (I do switching software.) Steven King -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group ------------------------------ From: fdc@fdc.cc.columbia.edu (Frank da Cruz) Subject: Re: Looking For Software Distribution and/or File Transfer Programs Date: 10 Nov 1993 02:42:11 GMT Organization: Columbia University In article terryh@engin.umich.edu (Terry Hull) writes: > I am looking for some automatic unattended file transfer programs > running on Sun SparcStations. But first let me describe what my > company has right now. There are 40 branch offices across USA. > ... Now, we are seeking a similar > product, but it should run on SparcStations, and should support both > modem dial-up and also IP-based transport mechanisam. I was told that > a company call CMI has a similar product. CMI ... Could that be ColuMbia universIty? Kermit software should be just what you need -- it runs on both serial connections and TCP/IP connections, it transfers files, it has a script programming language to let you totally automate your nightly information transfers. It's available for UNIX (including SunOS), VMS, DOS, Windows, OS/2, and hundreds of other environments, too. Try it out. Anonymous ftp to kermit.columbia.edu, directory kermit. Follow the pointers. Frank ------------------------------ From: forags@smokey.berkeley.edu (Al Stangenberger) Subject: Re: Brought to You by the Letter Q Date: 10 Nov 1993 04:15:33 GMT Organization: U.C. Forestry & Resource Mgt. Reply-To: forags@smokey.Berkeley.EDU In article , Bill Leeke wrote: > Why is there no digital equivilent for the letter Q or Z on my phone? > [Moderator's Note: ... Some very old telephones do have the letter > Z where the Operator spot on the dial is located, but I can't think of > a single instance where it was ever used. I've always wondered whether the reason "ZEnith" was chosen for some toll-free numbers (before WATS service) was that if somebody tried to dial a ZE- number they would automatically dial the Operator. Before 911 became universal, the emergency number for the CA Highway Patrol was ZE-1-2000. It made a certain amount of sense to route such calls thru the operator, I guess. I think that was about the only ZEnith number in the SF Bay Area; all the other toll-free numbers I remember were ENterprise numbers. Al Stangenberger Dept. of Env. Sci., Policy, & Mgt. forags@nature.berkeley.edu 145 Mulford Hall - Univ. of Calif. uucp: ucbvax!ucbnature!forags Berkeley, CA 94720 BITNET: FORAGS AT UCBNATUR (510) 642-4424 FAX: (510) 643-5438 [Moderator's Note: I've never heard your theory before, nor can I recall ever seeing Zenith numbers in the form ZE-1-xxxx. If anything, it would be printed Zenith 12000. Very interesting. I think the only difference between Zenith and Enterprise was the sponsoring telco. Some used one name, the rest used the other. And I don't think a subscriber in a telco using Enterprise as their toll free keyword could call a Zenith number or vice versa. I think Zenith was largely the independent telcos where Enterprise was mostly for the Bell System companies. I remember reviewing phone books during the 1960's and the Zenith numbers (it seems to me) were mostly on the west coast. I saw several listed in the State of Washington and thought it peculiar at the time. All I ever recall seeing in this area was Enterprise, but a couple writers here have said just the opposite about their towns in those long ago times. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #752 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12651; 12 Nov 93 5:39 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16100 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 12 Nov 1993 02:18:37 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30855 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 12 Nov 1993 02:18:03 -0600 Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 02:18:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311120818.AA30855@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #753 TELECOM Digest Fri, 12 Nov 93 02:18:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 753 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Telcom Legislation (James Love) TAP Comments on PCS Auction (James Love) Microsoft Telephony API/SPI (Joe Armstrong) Accessing NIST via Macintosh (Bill Pfeiffer) Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? (Kevin Ian Cooke) Re: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN (Randal Hayes) Mixture of ATM and SONET/SDH (Jean Raymond) Need to Buy E1 to T1 Converter (Ken Adler) NPA 456 Assigned to "Inbound International" Services (David Leibold) Re: Repeat of the Vote Now Underway (Earle Robinson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 19:43:30 EST Reply-To: love@essential.org From: James Love Subject: Telcom Legislation from TAP-INFO Internet Distribution List Taxpayer Assets Project Information Policy Note November 10, 1993 Representative Markey is expected to soon introduce legislation dealing with telco entry into cable, and cable entry into telco markets. The attached letter expresses our interest in common carrier regulation to protect competition in "content" markets. jamie love -------------------------------------- Taxpayer Assets Project P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036 November 10, 1993 Representative Edward Markey Chair, House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance Committee on Energy and Commerce U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Re: Telecommunications legislation Dear Representative Markey: We are writing to urge you to use your influence as chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance to protect competition in markets for information content and value added information services. As you know, the Congressional debate over the new National Information Infrastructure (NII) has become largely a discussion over what type of competition will be allowed between telecommunications carriers. Thus, we hear plenty about whether or not telcos will be allowed to provide video programming to compete against cable franchises, if cable franchises will be allowed to provide switched voice and data services in competition with telcos, if RBOCs will be allowed to enter long lines markets, or who will be allowed to own PCS licenses. Much of this debate assumes a much greater role for vertically integrated services, with telephone, cable, and wireless carriers being allowed to own significant amounts of the programming content which travels over their facilities. We believe that such vertical integration raises grave problems, as firms will use their control over carrier markets to exercise monopoly power in content markets. The most relevant example of this is the long and well documented history of anticompetitive problems in cable television markets, where large cable franchise companies have used their control over carrier facilities to benefit programming services in which they are investors, at the expense of rival services. This has reduced competition in content markets, and raised important questions about who controls the availability of information services. It is simply outrageous, for example, that TCI and Time-Warner were able to prevent General Electric from offering CNBC as a news format channel, because they were investors in CNN, the dominate incumbent source of cable news. If carriers can push around a firm as large as GE, they can crush much smaller enterprises with ease. Vertical integration also raises profoundly difficult problems for the regulation of carrier rates. In cable, much of the revenues are derived from pay-for-view services or advertising. Because cable operators are allowed to own or control programming services and sell advertising, it has become extremely difficult for regulators to determine if consumers are paying excessive fees for the carrier services. Competition among carriers can be an important mechanisms to benefit consumers, but even more important are the goals of promoting competition in content markets, and providing a regulatory structure that makes it possible to protect consumers from excessive rates for carrier services. These goals can best be achieved by no-nonsense common carrier regulation in carrier markets, combined with rules that bar vertical integration into programming services. At a minimum, Congress must require that telephone, cable, and wireless telecommunications carriers act as common carriers, giving all content providers equal opportunities to compete against each other. However, it is important to note that in the absence of rules against vertical integration, regulators will be faced with the arduous task of reviewing tariff classes, encryption mechanisms, promotional efforts, and endless contractual terms to guard against anticompetitive behavior, and it will be extremely difficult to regulate carrier rates to consumers when much of the company's revenues are "off the books" for purposes of determining company revenue requirements. Any legislation that Congress considers this year should provide the strongest possible common carrier protections, and promote the most open systems of telecommunications. Companies should not have the incentives or power to extend their control over carrier markets to control over content markets. Access to information and the ability to provide information services over the telecommunications infrastructure are the key issues in the development of the new NII. Congress needs to shift its attention from competition among large carriers to the more important and critical problems of making the NII promote a new era of freedom in the exchange of information. Sincerely, James Love Director TAP-INFO is an Internet Distribution List provided by the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP). TAP was founded by Ralph Nader to monitor the management of government property, including information systems and data, government funded R&D, spectrum allocation and other government assets. TAP-INFO reports on TAP activities relating to federal information policy. tap-info is archived at ftp.cpsr.org; gopher.cpsr.org and wais.cpsr.org Subscription requests to tap-info to listserver@essential.org with the message: subscribe tap-info your name Taxpayer Assets Project; P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036 v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet: tap@essential.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 17:02:41 EST Reply-To: love@essential.org From: James Love Subject: TAP Comments on PCS Auction from TAP-INFO Internet Distribution List Taxpayer Assets Project Information Policy Note November 10, 1993 TAP Comments to FCC on PCS spectrum allocation - FCC asked to bar incumbent telephone, cable and cellular companies from obtaining wireless PCS licenses in their own service areas - FCC asked to withhold permission to aggregate licenses together until it determines that the benefits of aggregation (larger spectrum blocks) outweigh the disadvantages (fewer licenses) of less competition and diversity - FCC asked to award some licenses on the basis of royalty or profit sharing agreements, rather than upfront cash payments The attached letter is the Taxpayer Assets Project comments on the FCC's proposed rules for auction of spectrum for Personal Communications Services (PCS). ------------ James Love, Taxpayer Assets Project P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036 November 10, 1993 Mr. William Caton Acting Secretary Federal Communications Commission 1919 M Street, NW, 2nd Floor Washington, DC 20554 Re: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on spectrum auction, FCC 93-455. Dear Mr Caton: The Taxpayer Assets Project is pleased to offer comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on spectrum auctions, FCC 93-455. We will address three points. 1. Competition and diversity will be enhanced through restrictions on cross ownership. Telephone, cable and cellular companies should not be able to acquire PCS licenses in their own service areas. The FCC can best promote competition in telecommunications markets by adopting rules which prohibit incumbent telephone, cable and cellular companies from obtaining licenses to operate PCS services in their own service areas. The FCC's proposal to allow existing cellular license holders to acquire an additional 10 MHz of spectrum, and to allow telephone and cable companies to acquire up to 40 megahertz of spectrum, could result in cases where the four incumbent telecommunications carriers in a given market obtain 100 megahertz of the available 120 MHz of new PCS spectrum. Federal policy makers, including Congress and the Executive branch, claim that competition will protect consumers from excessive carrier rates. The new PCS wireless services are supposed to be an important element of a new competitive carrier market. Competition can hardly be enhanced if incumbent telephone, cable and cellular companies can "own" most of the new PCS spectrum. The recent decision by PACTEL to divest its cellular licenses in order to allow the company to acquire a full 40 MHz of PCS spectrum is a case in point. In markets served by PACTEL, incumbent telephone, cable and cellular companies will be allowed to acquire 100 MHz of the 120 MHz of PCS spectrum which is to be auctioned. Under what economic theory can this possibility promote "competition?" Clearly there would be more competition if all PCS license holders were new entrants in the service area. In our judgement, the issue of cross-ownership restrictions and competition is so obvious, the only mystery is why will the FCC allow cross ownership. What possible rationale can the FCC offer other than the fact that telecommunications carriers appear to wield more political influence than do consumers? 2. Aggregation of PCS licenses into larger blocks should only be allowed after a finding by the FCC that such aggregation is in the public interest. The FCC is proposing to issue seven PCS licenses per market, but also to allow bidders to aggregate licenses together into larger blocks. The only restrictions on the aggregation are the proposed limit of 40 MHz of licenses per firm. In our previous comments on this issue we urged the FCC to auction off PCS spectrum in the smallest possible blocks, and then allow aggregation, contingent upon an FCC finding that the aggregation was in the public interest. The potential benefits of aggregation, which may include the ability to provide some broadband services which cannot be offered via smaller blocks, must be weighted against the costs of aggregation, which will include less competition and less diversity. The FCC doesn't yet know if the smaller PCS blocks can adequately serve PCS users, and it would be wise to allow a certain amount of experimentation before it concludes that the smaller PCS blocks can be aggregated into larger, but fewer licenses. 3. The FCC should allow some bidders on PCS spectrum to offer royalties or profit shares as an alternative to upfront cash payments. Upfront cash payments for PCS spectrum offer a number of appealing advantages, including the simplicity of the auction mechanism, and the fact that the lump sum cost of the licenses will not involve marginal costs per unit of service offered, arguably leading to more efficient consumer prices. On the other hand, upfront cash payments crate entry barriers, and will lead to less competition in the auction, and we believe, a lower present value to the public for license fees, due to the differences between the bidders discount rates (the costs of obtaining capital) and the government's discount rate (the government's costs of obtaining revenue through the issuance of government bonds). At a minimum, the FCC should require that one Block C and one Block D license in each market be auctioned on the basis of the highest royalty or profit share. To accomplish this, we suggest that the FCC offer these blocks after the initial licenses are auctioned, and that the license holders be required to pay upfront fees which are equal to one third or one half the winning bids of the licenses sold for cash. That is, the second round of licenses should be awarded to the firms which agree to pay a fixed upfront fee, while "bidding" on the government's contingent share of the PCS revenues. Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on this issue. Sincerely, James Love TAP-INFO is an Internet Distribution List provided by the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP). TAP was founded by Ralph Nader to monitor the management of government property, including information systems and data, government funded R&D, spectrum allocation and other government assets. TAP-INFO reports on TAP activities relating to federal information policy. tap-info is archived at ftp.cpsr.org; gopher.cpsr.org and wais.cpsr.org Subscription requests to tap-info to listserver@essential.org with the message: subscribe tap-info your name Taxpayer Assets Project; P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036 v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet: tap@essential.org ------------------------------ From: joe@erix.ericsson.se (Joe Armstrong) Subject: Microsoft Telephony API/SPI Organization: Ellemtel Telecom Systems Labs, Stockholm, Sweden Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 16:11:39 GMT Does anybody have any information available about products which use the recently published Microsoft Telephony API/SPI? Do you think the Microsoft Telephony API will catch on? Up to now the CCITT has been the principle organisation responsible for telephony standards. The microsoft API seems to represent a radical departure from this. Is this the future? Joe ------------------------------ From: rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Bill Pfeiffer) Subject: Accessing NIST via Macintosh Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 13:42:08 CST > The October 1993 issue of BYTE Magazine mentions that you can access > the NIST atomic clock through the Internet at address 132.163.135.130 > (time_a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov). However, our computer center is > Macintosh oriented and I cannot find software to set the Mac's clock > through this address (or, for that matter, through the more accurate > telephone connection). Can someone suggest MacTCP compatible software > for this? Or am I going to have to write it myself? mac.archive.umich.edu has several programs for permitting your Mac to call in and get it's clock cleaned (grin) or at least set, via the NIST (and other) timeservers. Not having a Mac, I am not aware of exactly what it is called, but it does exist and several of my mac friends are using it quite successfully. Bill Pfeiffer Moderator rec.radio.broadcasting/AIRWAVES email digest. To Subscribe, send email to - subscribe@airwaves.chi.il.us - ------------------------------ From: kcooke@uclink.berkeley.edu (Kevin Ian Cooke) Subject: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? Date: 12 Nov 1993 03:01:50 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley In light of the recent discussions about scanning cellular frequencies, I would like your help with the following: I am interested in writing a story about people who, from time to time, like to listen to their nieghbors' cellular phone conversations. I know you're out there, especially folks in the *.dcom.telecom worlds, since (as I'm sure most of you know) it only takes slight alterations to cell phones and FM scanners to get them to hear the cellular frequencies. I know that the above is illegal, and I know that anyone engaged in such activity could be prosecuted. That is why I'm posting here. You may reply anonymously, if you must, but I would like some general information about you, as much as you're comfortable providing. Have you heard any good stories? Do you feel that what you're doing is wrong? Did you see _Sliver_? :) Flame if you must, but please realize that this medium is ideal for the kind of research that I would like to pursue. Thanks in advance. Kevin Cooke kcooke@ocf.berkeley.edu OR UCB Grad School of Journalism kcooke@uclink.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ From: Date: 12 Nov 93 18:53 CST Subject: Re: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking through PSN > The FCC recently ruled that this kind of billing back to the ANI > from an 800 number is illegal *unless* the caller establishes a > customer relationship with the company ... Unfortunately, some of these businesses have found what they believe to be a loophole in this ruling. We dealt with a situation in which the caller dials an 800 number, and the company asks if this person wants the service. With an affirmative response, the company immediately sets-up a "calling card" for the caller with their company, using the ANI number (one of our trunk numbers) and a 4-digit PIN number. The caller can then call their other 800 number at any time, giving this "calling card" number for billing purposes. The company ignores the fact that the caller has no connection to the ANI number that, as a DID trunk, is being paid for by us. They believe this set-up constitutes establishment of a "customer relationship" with them, and their opinion is they can then charge-back to this number. We resolved this incident with the company by calling the service company number (who must get really tired of these sleazy schemes, except for the $$$ rolling in), who removed the charges from our bill, and placed the billing number they receive via ANI for our trunks in a restricted status with their company. Of course, who will reimburse us for the time required to clean up this mess and deal with this garbage? Unfortunately, we simply do not have the time or staff to pursue the matter and hopefully drive this service into the ground, so it keeps going, and going, and going ... Thoughts and opinions which are strictly my own from -- randal-hayes@uiowa.edu ------------------------------ From: rayj@ctss07.hydro.qc.ca (Jean Raymond) Subject: Mixture of ATM and SONET/SDH Reply-To: rayj@ctss07.hydro.qc.ca Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 13:19:32 GMT Hi, Does anybody have solutions on the possibility to mix ATM inside a SONET ADM rings? SONET rings can't support the add/drop of cells from an STS-1 because SONET can't provide traffic protection to the level of cells. And everybody knows cell is the key element of ATM. I read a very few lines on sheath ring and I'd appreciate if someone could suggest me any articles on that topic or any other solution. Thank you, Jean Raymond, eng., Ph.D. Hydro-Quebec Telecommunications Control Centre Complexe Desjardins, East Tower, Floor B1, C.P. 10000 Montreal, Canada, H5B 1H7 tel: 514-289-5305 fax: 514-289-3306 email: jraymond@cct.hydro.qc.ca ------------------------------ From: ken@pluto.dss.com (Ken Adler) Subject: Need to Buy E1 to T1 Converter Organization: Datability, Carlstadt, NJ Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 17:52:51 GMT Does anyone know of any companies that make a box that takes in one or more E1 trunks and convert it to multiple T1 trunks? I urgently need contact info for companies that have such a product. Please email to ken@dss.com. Thanks, Ken ------------------------------ From: djcl@grin.io.org Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 21:43 EST Subject: NPA 456 Assigned to "Inbound International" Services I recently had contact with Bellcore, and got word of an assignment of NPA 456 for "inbound international" services. This is not planned for use within World Zone 1 (North American Numbering Plan) but rather the intent is that 456 will be used from points in other nations to allow special numbers that are assigned to carriers within the NANP (such as AT&T, Teleglobe, MCI, Sprint, etc). Currently, calling from overseas will not allow a choice of destination U.S. or Canadian carrier, even though a few countries will allow a choice of which domestic carrier will initiate the call. I forgot to find out when 456 would take effect, though it seems likely to wait for the 1 January 1995 implementation of "interchangeable" area codes such as the 334 area already announced to split Alabama NPA 205. Bellcore did admit to two other new NPA assignments, but details on these will not be released until the phone companies involved make their announcement first. Candidates for new splits include 813 Florida, 206 Washington state and perhaps others. David Leibold ------------------------------ Date: 11 Nov 93 19:43:18 EST From: Earle Robinson <76004.1762@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Repeat of the Vote Now Underway This is becoming ridiculous. I refuse to participate in yet another vote. We've already voted. Why yet another time? er [Moderator's Note: We are voting again because the first vote did not turn out the way certain people wanted it to turn out. I assume if the vote fails again, they will hold it a third time. Either that, or just go ahead and install the group anyway, which was given a lot of con- sideration prior to the second vote. Coincidental to the first vote failing to pass, IMHO, I made some comments giving my own personal opinion in the matter here, and when the vote failed, my having talked about it here was just the hook or ammunition needed by the group's proponents to cry foul. Also, there were a small number of voters who don't otherwise have net access who participated, and this may or may not have affected the outcome in a statistically significant way. So, a handful of voters whose votes were of questionable validity depending on how you feel about list members participating in Usenet votes, and my comments caused some people to get one of their appendeges caught in the wringer as the saying goes. So amid the uproar -- and it appeared to me to be a terrible stink, although I don't follow Usenet enough to be a judge of how nasty a place it can be -- David Lawrence suggested to me perhaps an 'unmoderated' mailing by the proponents of the new group and a revote would end some of the flaming. I agreed -- in essence said be my guest, run a revote now, don't wait for the six month moratorium. So they did. Asbestos Dippold put out his summary and now the vote is underway again. Let's see how it turns out this time with no 'undue influence' (god, that one is a gas!) from me. If you have not voted this time around, please do so, and list readers should not vote unless they otherwise read Usenet News straight from a newsfeed somewhere. Most Compuserve/MCI Mail people would be ineligible to vote under the guidelines. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #753 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa21476; 13 Nov 93 15:12 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22776 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 13 Nov 1993 12:02:36 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24140 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 13 Nov 1993 12:02:01 -0600 Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 12:02:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311131802.AA24140@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #754 TELECOM Digest Sat, 13 Nov 93 12:02:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 754 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson The Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act (John R. Levine) Questionable Use of 900 Call Detail (Mike Bray) International Advanced Fax (Deborah LoPrinzi) NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Jamie Mason) Book Review: "Open Systems Networking" by Piscitello/Chapin (Rob Slade) What is ANI? (Christian Taube) Motorola Cellular Tech Manual Wanted (Bob Longo) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 09:38 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: The Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act Organization: I.E.C.C. This is PL 102-556, enacted October 28, 1992, sponsored by Rep. Markey. It was apparently quite uncontroversial, since it whizzed through the congress in two days. In the following summary, you'll note that it explicitly outlaws schemes where you call an 800 number and they charge you, either directly or via collect callback. Summary (from Library of Congress LOCIS): Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act - Title I: Carrier Obligations and Consumer Rights Concerning Pay-Per-Call Transactions - Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish a system for the oversight and regulation of pay-per-call services. Requires the FCC's final rules to: (1) include measures that provide a consumer of pay-per-call services with adequate and clear descriptions of the rights of the caller; (2) define the obligations of common carriers with respect to the provision of such services; (3) include requirements on such carriers to protect against abusive practices by service providers; (4) identify procedures by which common carriers and providers may take affirmative steps to protect against nonpayment of legitimate charges; and (5) include requirements that such services be offered only through the use of certain telephone number prefixes and area codes. Directs common carriers that contract with a provider of pay-per-call services to make available on request: (1) a list of telephone numbers, a description, and a statement of fees for each service it carries; and (2) other information the FCC considers necessary. Requires common carriers contracting with providers to terminate services if the service is not in compliance with this Act. Prohibits common carriers from disconnecting or interrupting a subscriber's local or long distance service because of nonpayment for any pay-per-call service. Authorizes common carriers that provide local exchange service to offer subscribers the option of blocking access to pay-per-call service. Permits the cost of blocking to be recovered by contract or tariff but bars recovery of costs from local or long distance ratepayers. Directs common carriers to prohibit by tariff or contract the use of any toll-free number in a manner that would result in the calling party being: (1) assessed a charge for the call; (2) connected to a pay-per-call service; (3) charged for information conveyed during the call unless the party has a preexisting agreement to be charged for the information; or (4) called back collect for the provision of audio information services or simultaneous voice conservation services. Requires common carriers that contract with, and offer billing and collection services to, providers of pay-per-call services to: (1) ensure that a subscriber is not billed for services that are provided in violation of regulations issued pursuant to title II of this Act or under circumstances necessary to protect subscribers from abusive practices; (2) provide information on subscribers' and carriers' rights regarding pay-per-call services; and (3) include certain information in billing for pay-per-call services. Exempts a common carrier from civil or criminal liability under this Act solely because it provided transmission or billing and collection services for a pay-per-call service unless the carrier knew that such services violated this Act or other Federal law. Bars causes of action in courts or administrative agencies against common carriers on account of acts to terminate pay-per-call services to comply with this Act or other Federal law. Requires regulations to ensure that carriers and other parties providing billing and collection services with respect to pay-per-call services provide refunds to subscribers who have been billed for services violating this Act or other Federal law. Permits recovery of costs from providers, but bars recovery from local or long distance ratepayers. Directs the FCC to submit recommendations to the Congress with respect to the extension of such regulations to persons that provide, for a per-call charge, data services that are not pay-per-call services. Specifies that nothing in this Act shall affect provisions of the Communications Act of 1934 concerning obscene or harassing phone calls. Title II: Regulations of Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices in Connection with Pay-Per-Call Services - Directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prescribe rules to prohibit unfair and deceptive acts and practices in any advertisement for pay-per-call services. Provides that such rules shall require persons offering such services to: (1) disclose in any advertising the cost of the use of the telephone number; (2) disclose the odds of receiving a prize in the case of an advertisement which offers a prize; (3) disclose that a service is unauthorized by a Federal agency in the case of an advertisement that promotes a service that is not operated by a Federal agency but provides information on a Federal program; (4) not direct an advertisement at children under the age of 12; (5) state that an individual must have the consent of a parent or legal guardian in the case of an advertisement directed primarily to individuals under 18; (6) not use advertisements that emit electronic tones which automatically dial a pay-per-call number; (7) ensure that whenever the number is shown in television and print media advertisements that the charges for the call are clearly displayed; (8) specify the total cost in delivering any telephone message soliciting calls to a pay-per-call service; and (9) not advertise any toll-free number from which callers are connected to an access number for a pay-per-call service. Directs the FTC to prescribe rules requiring each provider of pay-per-call services to: (1) include a specified introductory disclosure message in each pay-per-call message; (2) enable the caller to hang up at or before the end of the introductory message without incurring any charge; (3) not direct such services at children under 12 unless the service is an educational service; (4) stop the assessment of time-based charges immediately upon disconnection by the caller; (5) disable any bypass mechanism which allows frequent callers to avoid listening to the disclosure message after the institution of any price increase; (6) be prohibited from providing services through a toll-free number; (7) be prohibited from billing consumers in excess of the amounts described in the introductory message; (8) meet specified requirements for billing statements; (9) be liable for refunds to consumers for services provided in violation of Federal law; and (10) comply with additional standards to prevent abusive practices. Directs the FTC to require a common carrier that provides telephone service to a pay-per-call service provider to make available to the FTC any records and financial information relating to the arrangements (other than for the provision of local exchange service) between the carrier and the provider. Authorizes States to bring civil actions to enjoin practices violating FTC rules and obtain damages or other relief on behalf of their residents whenever there is reason to believe that State residents are adversely affected by such practices. Bars States from instituting such actions during the pendency of a civil action by the FTC. Provides for principal enforcement of this title by the FTC under the Federal Trade Commission Act. Title III: Billing and Collection - Directs the FTC to promulgate rules to establish procedures for the correction of billing errors with respect to telephone-billed purchases and that impose requirements similar to requirements imposed with respect to the resolution of credit disputes under the Truth in Lending and Fair Credit Billing Acts. Sets forth provisions with respect to: (1) resolving inconsistencies between State laws concerning telephone billing practices and this title; (2) regulatory exemptions from this title which may be granted by the FTC for transactions in a State offering substantially similar or greater protection to the consumer; and (3) enforcement of this title. Title IV: Miscellaneous Provisions - Directs the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Conservation and Renewable Energy to submit to the Congress a proposal for demonstrating the ability of innovative communications equipment and services to further the national goals of conserving energy and protecting health and safety. Requires the Secretary of Energy to consider requesting the authority to use radio frequencies from the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to carry out demonstration projects designed to demonstrate the energy conservation potential of communications technologies. Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to exempt from restrictions on the use of automated telephone equipment calls to a telephone number assigned to a cellular telephone service that are not charged to the called party subject to conditions in the interest of privacy rights. Directs the FCC to prescribe regulations denying equipment authorization under any part of the FCC's regulations for any scanning receiver that is capable of: (1) receiving transmissions in the frequencies allocated to the domestic cellular radio telecommunications service; (2) readily being altered by the user to receive transmissions in such frequencies; or (3) being equipped with decoders that convert digital cellular transmissions to analog voice audit. Bans the manufacture or importation of any scanning receiver having such capabilities. Directs the FCC to report to the Congress on available security features for analog and digital radio signals. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 04:33:47 EDT From: mike@camphq.fidonet.org (Mike Bray) Subject: Questionable Use of 900 Call Detail A while back, there were some notes posted here about how long distance companies can get your mailing address for billing purposes. It's reasonable for these folks to have a way to directly bill you for their services, and it's also reasonable for IPs to have access to the same information for their billing purposes. But this address information should be used only for billing purposes. With the potential of abuse of mailing address information in mind, I present a portion of a recent article from DM News ... >From the October 25th issue of Direct Marketing News, page 67: National Psychic Network Posts 900-Number Callers Hightstown, NJ - has been appointed to manage The National Psychic Network file. It is made up of 30,000-name last-three-month and 10,000- name monthly hotline callers selections. The National Psychic Network is a live call-in hotline for people wishing to speak to their own personal psychic advisor. They call for answers to questions about love, money, careers and other decisions they are currently facing. <3 additional paragraphs with contact information and non- relevant details deleted> What do you (all) think? Do you (also) suspect there might be some abuse of the mailing address information happening here? Mike Bray mike@camphq.fidonet.org (or) ...!apple!camphq!mike ------------------------------ From: dloprinzi@attmail.com (Deborah LoPrinzi) Date: 13 Nov 93 14:56:18 GMT Subject: International Advanced Fax Contact: Albert Chu (201) 644-1714 (Office) (201) 328-4112 (Home) David Bikle (201) 644-7052 (Office) (201) 871-0104 (Home) AT&T EXPANDS INTERNATIONAL ADVANCED FAX SERVICE TO HONG KONG, JAPAN Basking Ridge, N.J. -- AT&T today announced the expansion of its premier international fax service to Hong Kong and Japan. Effective immediately, businesses using the AT&T International Advanced FAX Service for faxing to Hong Kong and Japan can look forward to improvement in quality, reliability and speed of service. The service has been available between the U.S. and the Philippines since June. "One out of every three international business long distance calls is a fax call," said Richard Bush, a marketing director of AT&T's Business Communications Services unit, "and the fax traffic between the United States and such economic centers as Japan and Hong Kong has been heavy and growing fast." "Introduction of the AT&T International Advanced FAX Service has raised the bar for quality and reliability in international faxing, " said Bush. "Businesses lose time and opportunities when fax messages are cut off before completion, are illegible, or are not received for any reason. Our new offering represents a new class of service for international faxes." AT&T International Advanced FAX Service uses specially- designated digital international circuits for transmission, supported by a high-tech computerized tool called the FAXALYZER System. Designed by AT&T Bell Laboratories, this system monitors the quality of the fax network to detect any developing problems and locates the source of problems when they occur. AT&T also established a specialized Fax Service Center in June 1993 to help resolve customers' fax problems more quickly and accurately. Current U.S. customers of many of AT&T's business services, including CustomNet(sm) Service, PRO(R) WATS Service, MEGACOM Service, UniPlan and Global Software Defined Network Service, can use the new fax service by simply inserting a "0" (zero) after the country code when dialing the Philippines, Hong Kong or Japan from their fax machines. No special phone lines are required. Until January 1, 1994, charges for International Advanced FAX Service will be the same as the customer's existing service. New rates will apply beginning January 1. AT&T said demand for the premium fax service has been heavy, and that the service will be rolled out to additional countries as soon as service agreements can be negotiated with other carriers. AT&T was the first carrier to introduce a series of fax-specific pricing options which offer lower rates for short international fax calls. Named the AT&T FAX Family Options, the series includes CustomNet(sm) FAX Option, PRO(R) FAX Option, and FAXLine Service. The American Facsimile Association voted the AT&T FAX Family Options the "Best Affordable Fax Transmission Offering of the Year" (1992). For information on the AT&T International Advanced FAX Service or any other AT&T fax service, businesses can call toll-free 1-800-222-0900. For fax trouble reporting, businesses can call 1-800-FAX-INTL (1-800-329-4685). # # # ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE AT&T FAXALYZER(TM) SYSTEM The FAXALYZER System is a package of proprietary, software-controlled monitoring and diagnostic tools designed to work only in AT&T's Worldwide Intelligent Network. The system non-intrusively monitors the performance of the group of lines reserved for International Advanced FAX Service to ensure that they consistently function at a high-quality level. As a result, many network conditions that may affect fax quality can be dealt with before they can cause service problems. The system is also used to trouble-shoot. AT&T's Fax Service Center is equipped to take appropriate steps to help resolve most faxing problems in much less time than is required by today's process. Customers who use AT&T's international business services and experience any faxing problem can report the trouble to the Fax Service Center at any time. Specially-trained technicians there can use the FAXALYZER System to quickly identify the location and nature of the problem, whether it be in the network or at the customer's location. ------------------------------ From: Jamie Mason Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 11:58:06 -0500 Subject: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Organization: University of Toronto Computing Disciplines Facility Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 16:58:00 GMT Seen in _The Toronto Star_, November 12, 1993: --------- 905 area code isn't ringing bell in U.S. Bell Canada says its new 905 area code isn't getting enough respect south of the border. The United States has literally hundreds of phone companies that need to know about last month's change for parts of the 416 area code -- but some are still telling callers that the number doesn't exist. --------- Now, correct me if I am wrong here, but is it not the case that NPAs for North America are assigned by Bellcore? Presumably the split of the old 416 into 416 and 905 was authorized by Bellcore. I was under the impression that Bellcore publishes, on a regular basis, its list of NPA assignments ... and I would assume that any LEC or IXC with enough chutzpah to call themselves a "phone company" would go to the trouble of reading these lists, and programming their computers with them. This seems, then, like an odd situation. How is it possible that there exist "phone companies" that don't notice an area code split? I suppose the "new style" NPAs (with the middle digit other than 0 or 1) will confuse these carriers no end. Jamie ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 93 10:11 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Open Systems networking" by Piscitello/Chapin BKOPSYNT.RVW 931013 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 or Tiffany Moore, Publicity 72203.642@compuserve.com John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing johnw@aw.com 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-527-5210 617-944-3700 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 "Open Systems Networking", Piscitello/Chapin, 1993 lyman@bbn.com dave@mail.bellcore.com Open systems and networking are two of the current "big issues" in computing and information systems planning, even if few can tell you what they actually are. Every proprietary system is "open," and every company making even the most peripheral component is committed to "networking". OSI and TCP/IP are recognizably two of the major "players' in this game, although their positions may not be clear. This state of affairs is not made any better by the many rumours and myths: TCP/IP is an academic toy; TCP/IP is an *example* of OSI; buying OSI compliant products will guarantee inter-operability; TCP/IP now has the commercial "high ground" and it is now *OSI* that is the academic toy. This book is both a conceptual introduction to open systems networking, and a detailed comparison of the structures of TCP/IP and OSI. That said, it is still easier, as with Usenet, to define what it is not, than what it is. This is not a technical manual. Technical detail there is, and competent, too. This is not, however, a reprinting of the standards, although it is a good guide to and through them. While the work gives a good background for programming and implementation, one suspects it is more for the manager than the programmer. When one is examining technical books, the mere sight of a "series" cover sets off alarms. Series books tend to be textbooks, or boring, or both. This book is not boring. The writing style is lively, with the best (or most outrageous) parts set off by ".AHA." boxes and italic text. The anecdotes and background will be of interest to anyone in the communications or networking field. The preface is decidedly odd, and chapter one seems to be the preface. Chapter two is a quick overview of both the OSI and Internet structures. Part two, chapters three to five, is entitled, "Open Network Architecture": it covers the concepts and vocabulary of open systems, and compares the terms of the two structures. Part three deals with the way the "upper layers" and common applications are handled, while part four covers the lower layers. Finally, part five makes, in a number of different ways, the point that the choice does not have to be TCP/IP or OSI -- the two systems can be complementary. The references section contains many valuable listings. An annotated bibliography would have been helpful. In a sense there is one -- distributed throughout the book. It would have been handy to have collected some of this into a single section. This work provides a unique perspective, and some very important information. It belongs on every MIS shelf. It also belongs in every college and university library where any type of data communications and networking courses are taught. It should also come in very handy for every development project where there is a question as to why TCP is being used rather than OSI ... or vice versa ... copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKOPSYNT.RVW 931013 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: taube@xsoft.de (Christian Taube) Subject: What is ANI? Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 19:39:16 MET Hello Folks, This is a movie-related question -- yes, I know that this is quite late, but we don't get most american movies that fast over here, you know :-) Last week, I finally saw "In the Line of Fire" (with Clint Eastwood) and was fascinated (again) by the role that telecommunication (especially voice) can play in a good thriller. What would thrillers in the nineties be without ISDN, answering machines, and all of that? :-) Anyway, here's the technical question: What is ANI? As a telecom layman, I have a hard enough time understanding how tracing a phone call works at all, so I didn't really understand how the Malkovich character (Carney?) went about laying a track that would have the Secret Service people go off in the wrong direction. From what I remember, he manipulated a something called "ANI" to do that. Can somebody of you knowledgable poeple explain to me (in simple terms :-) what that is, and what Malkovich does? Christian taube@xsoft.de/postmaster@xsoft.de [Moderator's Note: ANI = Automatic Number Identification. It is similar to but not identical to Caller-ID. I did not see the movie in question, so can't comment on the specifics of how it was done there, but the use of ANI is a common method of tracing calls. It is sent automatically between telephone companies to identify the calling party to the called party in the case of 800 service among other things. PAT] ------------------------------ From: longo@sfpp.com (Bob Longo) Subject: Motorola Cellular Tech Manual Wanted Date: 13 Nov 93 11:55:07 PDT Organization: Santa Fe Pacific Pipelines I read something here a few months ago in which someone mentioned a "blue tech manual" on the Motorola flip-phones. Apparently this manual costs about $40. Can someone please tell me where and how to order this manual? Thanks, Bob Longo (longo@sfpp.com) Santa Fe Pacific Pipelines Los Angeles, CA ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #754 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa22309; 13 Nov 93 17:46 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15267 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 13 Nov 1993 14:09:25 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04488 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 13 Nov 1993 14:09:02 -0600 Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 14:09:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311132009.AA04488@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #755 TELECOM Digest Sat, 13 Nov 93 14:09:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 755 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson FBI Operation "Root Canal" (Dave Banisar) "Escort" Cordless Phone (Dick Rhoads) Replace KXT616 KSU With ??? (Robert Jesse) Check From MCI; What to Do? (Henry Mensch) Corning Fiber Optic Cable (James D. Gillmore) Need Statistics on Lost Crypto Sales (SPA via Mark Boolootian) Information Wanted on Lincompex (Andre van Heerden) Switch Comparison Information Requested (David Foster) Long Distance Company Offers 800 Internet Access (Klaus Dimmler) Information Wanted on Cell Phone ROMs (Nathaniel Polish) Need List of Country Codes (Malcolm Dunnett) Information About Iridium Wanted (Ravi Prakash) Display Phone With Swedish CID (Claes Gussing) Specialized Mobile Radio (Jon Anhold) Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? (William H. Sohl) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Organization: CPSR Washington Office From: Dave Banisar Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 9:17:03 EST Subject: FBI Operation "Root Canal" FBI Operation "Root Canal" Docs From the CPSR Alert 2.05 (Nov. 12, 1993) FBI's Operation "Root Canal" Documents Disclosed In response to a CPSR Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the FBI this week released 185 pages of documents concerning the Bureau's Digital Telephony Initiative, code-named Operation "Root Canal." The newly disclosed material raises serious doubts as to the accuracy of the FBI's claim that advances in telecommunications technology have hampered law enforcement efforts to execute court-authorized wiretaps. The FBI documents reveal that the Bureau initiated a well-orchestrated public relations campaign in support of "proposed legislation to compel telecommunications industry cooperation in assuring our digital telephony intercept requirements are met." A May 26, 1992, memorandum from the Director of the FBI to the Attorney General lays out a "strategy ... for gaining support for the bill once it reaches Congress," including the following: "Each FBI Special Agent in Charge's contacting key law enforcement and prosecutorial officials in his/her territory to stress the urgency of Congress's being sensitized to this critical issue; Field Office media representatives educating their contacts by explaining and documenting, in both local and national dimensions, the crisis facing law enforcement and the need for legislation; and Gaining the support of the professional associations representing law enforcement and prosecutors." However, despite efforts to obtain documentation from the field in support of Bureau claims of a "crisis facing law enforcement," the response from FBI Field Offices was that they experienced *no* difficulty in conducting electronic surveillance. For example, a December 3, 1992, memorandum from Newark reported the following: The Newark office of the Drug Enforcement Administration "advised that as of this date, the DEA has not had any technical problems with advanced telephone technology." The New Jersey Attorney General's Office "has not experienced any problems with the telephone company since the last contact." An agent from the Newark office of the Internal Revenue Service "advised that since the last time he was contacted, his unit has not had any problems with advanced telephony matters." An official of the New Jersey State Police "advised that as of this date he has had no problems with the present technology hindering his investigations." Likewise, a memorandum from the Philadelphia Field Office reported that the local offices of the IRS, Customs Service and the Secret Service were contacted and "experienced no difficulties with new technologies." Indeed, the newly-released documents contain no reports of *any* technical problems in the field. The documents also reveal the FBI's critical role in the development of the Digital Signature Standard (DSS), a cryptographic means of authenticating electronic communications that the National Institute of Standards and Technology was expected to develop. The DSS was proposed in August 1991 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST later acknowledged that the National Security Agency developed the standard. The newly disclosed documents appear to confirm speculation that the FBI and the NSA worked to undermine the legal authority of the NIST to develop standards for the nation's communications infrastructure. CPSR intends to pursue further FOIA litigation to establish the extent of the FBI involvement in the development of the DSS and also to obtain a "cost-benefit" study discussed in one of the FBI Director's memos and other documents the Bureau continues to withhold. ------------------ To subscribe to the Alert, send the message: "subscribe cpsr " (without quotes or brackets) to listserv@gwuvm.gwu.edu. Back issues of the Alert are available at the CPSR Internet Library FTP/WAIS/Gopher cpsr.org /cpsr/alert ------------------------------ From: dsr@atl.hp.com (Dick Rhoads) Subject: "Escort" Cordless Phone Information Wanted Date: 13 Nov 1993 14:33:59 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard NARC Atlanta I saw an ad in {USA Today} this week for an "Escort" 900 MHz cordless phone manufactured by Cincinnati Microwave (they make the Escort automotive radar detectors). Has anyone tried one of these yet? Do you have any comments on its' range, quality, etc ...? Dick Rhoads Hewlett-Packard Company Phone : 404-850-2310 Atlanta Technology Center FAX : 404-850-2598 2015 South Park Place HPDesk : Dick Rhoads/HPATC Atlanta, Georgia 30339 USA Internet: dick_rhoads@hpatc.hp.com X.400 : C=US; AD=ATTMAIL; PD=HP; ORG=HP; OU1=HPATC; SN=RHOADS; FN=DICK ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 11:16:54 -0800 From: Robert Jesse Subject: Replace KXT616 KSU With ??? Reply-To: rnj%lila@us.oracle.com I have a Panasonic KXT61610 KSU that I'd like to replace. Eight display telephones and eight POTS ports will be plenty of extension capacity. The main reason for upgrading is to get more CO lines (eight would be ok, ten or more plenty) and DISA, and for this the Panasonic KXT123211 would do nicely. However there are some features I'd like to have in a new system that Panasonic doesn't support (at least that I know of on the analog systems). Since I have a buyer for both the old KSU and the telephones, I have the option of starting from scratch with an entirely different system. Do you know of anything that supports the following? - pass CPC from CO lines to analog POTS extensions (so answering machines can detect hangup cleanly); - decode caller ID from CO lines and send to display telephones; - single button on-hook speed dialing (not having to push the speakerphone button to go off-hook before pressing the speed dial button). Particularly if you recommend a digital system, it would be helpful if you'd comment on the sound quality -- some that I've heard are pretty noisy. Thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 21:42:48 -0800 From: hcm@netcom.com (Henry Mensch) Subject: Check From MCI; What to Do? For my residential long distance I currently use AT&T ... I got a check in the mail from MCI last week (not a very big one, as they say; only $20) which I get to cash if I let them switch me to MCI (and friends and informants, or whatever it is this week). Now, I remember reading in this space that some folks were able to redeem these checks with their current LD carrier without having to switch carriers ... has anyone done this lately ... with AT&T? If so, how ...? # henry mensch / / pob 14592; sf, ca 94114-0592; usa ------------------------------ From: gillmore@acad.csv.kutztown.edu (James D. Gillmore) Subject: Corning Fiber Optic Cable Date: 13 Nov 1993 06:29:40 -0600 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway We are considering wiring to the desk top with fiber. On of the vendors suggested that we spec Corning fiber only. Is there a reason to do this other than giving some vendors a better chance at responding to our RFP? I would appreciate it if you would write back directly as we don't support UUCP news services at this time. We will in a few weeks though.. :) Jim Gillmore E-mail gillmore@acad.csv.kutztown.edu Manager Network Services VOICE 215.683.4199 Kutztown University of PA FAX 215.683.4634 LMS Annex Room 105 HOME 717.865.5820 Holidays & Weekends 717.567.3931 ------------------------------ From: booloo@framsparc.ocf.llnl.gov (Mark Boolootian) Subject: Need Statistics on Lost Crypto Sales Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 08:32:06 PST [Moderator's Note: Passed along FYI to us by Mark. PAT] NEED STATISTICS ON LOST CRYPTO SALES The Software Publishers Association (SPA) has been working to bring about the liberalization of export controls on mass market software with encryption capabilities. SPA's much-publicized study of the foreign availability of cryptographic products has clearly demonstrated the widespread and easy availability of encryption that is stronger than what U. S. firms have been able to export. However, NSA claims that software companies have not demonstrated sufficiently the economic harm they have suffered from export controls. Congress has told us that without better economic harm statistics, our chances of liberalizing the export laws are slim. Therefore, WE NEED YOUR HELP. If you or your firm has lost business because you have not been able to export your encryption product, please let us know. Be as specific as possible. It is the cumulative effect of this information that will be most compelling. Please pass this on to those in your firm who might know about these matters or might also be able to respond. Please send replies to i.rosenthal@applelink.apple.com or to Ilene Rosenthal, General Counsel Software Publishers Association 1730 M St. NW, Suite 700 Washington DC 20036 (202) 452-1600 ext. 318 or to Douglas Miller (same address) (202) 452-1600 ext. 342 ------------------------------ From: Andre van Heerden Organization: Rand Afrikaans University Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 12:23:05 GMT Subject: Information Wanted on Lincompex Reply-To: avh@ing1.rau.ac.za I would like information on Lincompex (Linked Compressor and Expansion). Especially the digital implementation of the lincomplex. E-mail me directly. Thank you, Andre van Heerden Tel: +27-11-489-2107 Cybernetics Laboratory Fax: +27-11-489-2357 Rand Afrikaans University Email: avh@ing1.rau.ac.za P O Box 524 Aucklandpark 2006 SOUTH AFRICA ------------------------------ From: dfoster@mdd.comm.mot.com (David Foster) Subject: Switch Comparison Information Requested Date: 12 Nov 1993 21:14:45 GMT Organization: Motorola - Wireless Data Group; Richmond, BC Has anyone information on, or can direct me to articles/sources on the following: 1. Telco, Celluar, Mobile data, Message or similar switches. 2. Basic functionality. 3. Basic list prices. 4. Price/performance aspects. 5. Technology/delpoyment platform/appliactions. 6. Comparative studies. This request for information is relatively urgent (as usual!!) Thanks, Dave Foster ------------------------------ From: klaus@cscns.com (Klaus Dimmler) Subject: Long Distance Company Offers 800 Internet Access Organization: Community_News_Service Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 15:20:35 GMT Telephone Express, a regional long distance carrier in the Western States, is offering national 800 Internet access for less than the cost of a long distance phone call! For only 13 cents per minute, access to a T1-Internet connected host is available from anywhere in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Alaka! The host is connected directly to the ANS backbone. For information on this, please call 800-748-1200 (voice), or write to service@cscns.com. Klaus Dimmler klaus@cscns.com CNS, Inc 1155 Kelly Johnson Blvd, Suite 400 Colorado Springs, CO 80920 719-592-1240 [Moderator's Note: Are you using it? How well does it work and what else can you tell us about it? How is billing done, etc? PAT] ------------------------------ From: polish@cs.columbia.edu (Nathaniel Polish) Subject: Information Wanted on Cell Phone ROMs Date: 13 Nov 1993 11:02:43 -0500 Organization: Columbia University Department of Computer Science A friend of mine posed an interesting problem to me the other day. He has several cell phones. He wants to be able to use one from his boat. He wants the phone on the boat to look like the one in his car. To this end he would like to be able to reprogram the ROM in the phone to match the one in his car. Is there a repository of ROM formats for various phones anywhere? Obviously an unscrupulus individual could use this information to steal phone service from others. I presume that this goes on all the time just like credit card fraud. Anyway, is this information available? Thanks, Nathaniel Polish polish@cs.columbia.edu [Moderator's Note: Interesting you mention it, as this discussion goes on here frequently and we just finished a thread on the topic. He is not supposed to do what he wants. His cellular carrier will probably tell him it is against their rules and in violation of his contract. But yes, there are books around which explain how to do it and companies which offer to clone one cellular phone so it looks like another, etc. I imagine one of the people reading this who is in the discussion here almost every time it comes up will send you email with sources. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Malcolm Dunnett Subject: Need List of Country Codes Organization: Malaspina College I'm looking for a list of all the "Country Codes"; either an FTP site or someone to post/mail me a copy. Any help? Thanks in advance. Malcolm Dunnett Malaspina University-College Email: dunnett@mala.bc.ca Computer Services Nanaimo, B.C. CANADA V9R 5S5 Tel: (604)755-8738 [Moderator's Note: We have a comprehensive list in the Telecom Archives. To use the archives with anonymous ftp, connect with lcs.mit.edu then 'cd telecom-archives' and check out the /country.codes sub-directory. While you are there, Carl Moore tells me the /areacodes sub-directory is being updated this weekend with some revisions. If you do not have ftp access at your site, then use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service. Send email to 'tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu' and in the text of your letter (the subject does not matter) issue these commands: REPLY yourname@site NOTE: This *must* be the first command. GET country.codes END NOTE: Please add this as the final command. If you are not familiar with the Email Information Service or need to get a complete index of topics and help in using it, then add these commands in your request: INFO HELP INDEX NOTE: This index is updated three times daily. Stay current with the Archives by fetching a copy often. ... and you will get a few more files to brouse through. You can also get single back issues of the Digest, or large files of fifty back issues at a time. To the several hundred people who use the service on a regular basis, thanks for making it a big success. PAT] ------------------------------ From: prakash@cis.ohio-state.edu (ravi prakash) Subject: Information About Iridium Wanted Date: 13 Nov 1993 08:01:04 -0500 Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science I would like to get information about the following: - Iridium : a low earth orbit mobile satellite system that Motorola Satellite Communications, Inc. is planning to implement. They had submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C., in 1990. Is there any way I can get a copy of that application? Besides, if anobody could provide me with an e-mail/snail-mail address of someone to contact at Motorola about this, it would be of great help. Thanks, Ravi Prakash Office : Bolz Hall, #319b prakash@cis.ohio-state.edu Phone : (614)292-5236 - Off. Department of Computer & Information Science, Fax : (614)292-2911 The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 [Moderator's Note: And you also might want to check out the Telecom Archives. You'll find some stuff in the special reports and technical sub-directories on Iridium. We had a special issue on it a while back. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se (Claes Gussing) Subject: Display Phone With Swedish CID Reply-To: ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se Organization: Ericsson Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 13:04:50 GMT Anybody out there know of a cheap Display phone that applies to the Swedish standard for Caller ID, Distinctive Ring, etc? The major Swedish telephony supplier, I hear, is planning to release these services next year, and I'm looking for a supplier to become Swedish agent for. Regards, Claes Gussing ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se The opinions are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. ------------------------------ From: jga+@osu.edu (Jon Anhold) Subject: Specialized Mobile Radio Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 06:50:21 Does anyone have any information on Specialized Mobile Radio? Specifically, types of radios, what bands they are on, and common uses for SMR? Thanks, Jon Anhold N8USK jga+@osu.edu 1008 Steeb Hall AX.25->n8usk@n8lwg.#neoh.oh.usa.noam 70 W.11th Ave Riker/Picard '96 Columbus, Ohio 43210 Dreamland Network Systems #include std/disclaimer.h ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 16:09:43 GMT In article kcooke@uclink.berkeley.edu (Kevin Ian Cooke) writes: > In light of the recent discussions about scanning cellular frequencies, I > would like your help with the following: > I am interested in writing a story about people who, from time to > time, like to listen to their nieghbors' cellular phone conversations. > I know you're out there, especially folks in the *.dcom.telecom > worlds, since (as I'm sure most of you know) it only takes slight > alterations to cell phones and FM scanners to get them to hear the > cellular frequencies. > I know that the above is illegal, and I know that anyone engaged in > such activity could be prosecuted. In the above, the ONLY illegal activity is actually listening to cellular calls (by virtue of the ECPA). Modifying scanners to be able to receive cellular calls is not now, nor will it be in the future illegal. Indeed, one can still manufacture and import scanners that receive cellular without needing an modification (e.g. the ICOM R100 receiver). Such importation and manufacture will not be illegal until after April 1994. Even after that date, the law prohibiting importation or manufacture of cellular capable scanners does NOT prohibit any of the following: (1) Modification of a scanner, (2) Continued sales of cellular capable scanners that were imported or manufactured before April 26, 1994. (i.e. stores can continue to sell existing stocks of those cellualr capable scanners), (3) Sales of used cellular capable scanners, and (4) ownership of any cellular capable scanner. As to anyone being prosecuted under the existing ECPA (the law that forbids listening to cellular), it is interesting to note that despite the occasional revelation in the press that "this or that was learned by listening to cellular calls." the level of any prosecution seems to be all but non-existent. Indeed, even folks in this newsgroup (some, not all) seem to be willing to allow the police to be above the law when listening to cellular calls results in the arrest of a criminal. That's a true double standard in my not so humble opinion. As to my personal opinion, the ECPA is a joke and only provides a false sense of security to cellular users who buy into sales statements that because it is illegal to listen to cellular, then the security of cellular converstations is assured. In fact, the ability to PROVE a violation of the ECPA occurred is all but impossible unless the violator publicly admits they have listened to cellular. Bottom line is that the ECPA is essentially an unenfoceable law that ranks in the same catagory as the old sodomy laws. Even the new law which will forbid manufacture and importation of cellular capable scanners does little to thwart anyone who really wants to eavesdrop from doing so. After April 1994, any potential eavesdropper can simply -- (1) buy a used cellular capable scanner; (2) buy a non-cellular capable scanner and build a frequency downverter (a trivially simple piece of electronics for which construction articles have already been published ... Feb/Mar 93 {Radio Electronics} Magazine) or (3) buy a double conversion non-cellular scanner and listen to the cellular frequencies by tunbing to the "image" (two times the IF or intermediate frequency). Do I own a cellular scanner ... nope and I have no interest in doing so, BUT I think laws that attempt to regulate what types of electronic equipment individuals may buy (or own) are just a step away from the totalitarian mindset that would regulate ownership of all types of reception equipment. Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!cc!whs70 201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@cc.bellcore.com [Moderator's Note: That's really something, to equate the laws pertaining to privacy in communications with the old (but still in force in about half the states in the USA) laws on sodomy. The latter are considered by many people to be an invasion of individual privacy, while the former are considered by many people to promote and protect individual privacy. In any event, they are all a bunch of worthless, unenforceable laws, eh? So what else is new in these United States? PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #755 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa22611; 13 Nov 93 18:15 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32224 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 13 Nov 1993 15:37:06 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20635 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 13 Nov 1993 15:36:31 -0600 Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 15:36:31 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311132136.AA20635@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #756 TELECOM Digest Sat, 13 Nov 93 15:36:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 756 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Macintosh Software for NIST (Linc Madison) Re: Macintosh Software for NIST (John Pescatore) Re: Macintosh Software for NIST (Charlie Mingo) Re: Macintosh Software for NIST (John R. Bruni) Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk (William Bauserman) Re: Crummy Service in NY (Timothy H. O'Hara) Re: Crummy Service in NY (Brendan M. O'connor) Re: Crummy Service in NY (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Crummy Service in NY (Nathaniel Polish) Re: What is Transpac? (Philippe Devaux) Re: What is Transpac? (Neil R. Henry) Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Nathan Lane) Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Andrew Klossner) Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Lukas Zahas) Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (David A. Kaye) Re: Earthquake Preparedness (Steve Forrette) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Macintosh Software for NIST Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 12:55:33 GMT Eli S Bingham (ebingha@eis.calstate.edu) wrote: > The October 1993 issue of BYTE Magazine mentions that you can access > the NIST atomic clock through the Internet at address 132.163.135.130 > (time_a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov). However, our computer center is > Macintosh oriented and I cannot find software to set the Mac's clock > through this address (or, for that matter, through the more accurate > telephone connection). Can someone suggest MacTCP compatible software > for this? Or am I going to have to write it myself? I have no information on doing this by MacTCP on an Internet connection, but there is a very good freeware application for setting the Macintosh clock over a dial-up connection to NIST or other time source. It's called "Set Clock" by Jim Leitch (Leitch Video Int'l), and it's available by anonymous FTP from sumex-aim.stanford.edu in the file info-mac/util/set-clock-33.hqx. The program makes a modem connection for about ten seconds (at 300 or 1200 bps) to your choice of atomic clocks in Toronto, Washington, or Boulder. It even has built-in support for modem strings to allow high-speed modems to connect at 300 bps. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@{Netcom | AOL}.com ------------------------------ From: pescatore_jt@ncsd.gte.com (John Pescatore) Subject: Re: Macintosh Software for NIST Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 07:58:24 -0500 Organization: Rockville, MD In article , ebingha@eis.calstate.edu (Eli S Bingham) wrote: > The October 1993 issue of BYTE Magazine mentions that you can access > the NIST atomic clock through the Internet at address 132.163.135.130 > (time_a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov). However, our computer center is > Macintosh oriented and I cannot find software to set the Mac's clock > through this address (or, for that matter, through the more accurate > telephone connection). Can someone suggest MacTCP compatible software > for this? Or am I going to have to write it myself? > [Moderator's Note: Would someone like to summarize a bit more from the > article and explain how the clock is accessed through that address? > Is there a certain special login one would use, or would one telnet > to a given socket on that machine, or? Thanks. PAT] I am using NetworkTime 2.0 by Pete Resnick. It works great on our network, where we have a Sun with one of those WWV time receivers attached. I tried it using the NIST address and it works even better! I have no idea how it works from a telnet point of view, NetworkTime is a control panel device for the Mac. I also have no more info on NetworkTime, it was installed on a Mac that I inherited at work. Doing a Get Info doesn't get me any more info. John Pescatore WB2EKK GTE Government Systems Rockville, MD pescatore_jt@ncsd.gte.com [Moderator's Note: I'd like to know if one can get the time signal sent over the telnet connection in the same way one gets the time signal when calling the phone number for the service. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mingo@panix.com (Charlie Mingo) Subject: Re: Macintosh Software for NIST Date: 13 Nov 1993 04:11:55 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC I haven't read the article, but I think I know what is being described. There is an Internet protocol known as NTP (for Network Time Protocol). An NTP client program (running on your Mac) telnets into a special port on an NTP time server to obtain an accurate fix. There are lots of NTP servers on the Internet other than this NIST one. For a complete listing, ftp to louie.udel.edu and look in the /pub/ntp/docs folder for clock.txt. You can probably find a site that is closer to you than time_a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov (the closer the site, the more quickly the NTP server responds, and the more accurate your time fix is). You will need an NTP client for your Macs as well. There are two clients freely-distributed: network-time-201.hqx and macntp-10.hqx, both of which can be found on sumex-aim.stanford.edu in info-mac/ comm/net (and on sumex mirror sites). If you have a modem on your Mac, and would prefer to use a telephone connection, then I strongly recommend AutoClock 1.4. It will not only call in to either the NIST or USNO machines in Boulder or Washington, DC, but will also calculate the rate of drift of your Mac clock, so that you are never more than about a second off. The most recent version also handles Daylight Savings Time for all countries in the world. AutoClock can be found on mac.archive.umich.edu:/mac/util/comm as autoclock1.4.cpt.hqx. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 09:34:40 PST From: John R. Bruni Subject: Re: Macintosh Software for NIST VersaTerm has a handy utility called "Time Client" that works great for Macs. It's a control panel that runs through MacTCP & can be run automatically (or manually if you so chose.) All you have to do is enter the address of the time server you want to use. No further action is necessary. The program does the rest. Incidentally, there is a new version of MacTCP...v. 2.0.4 from Apple ... it's supposedly still in test but I have had no problems with it. It can be FTP'd from sumex-aim.stanford.edu. jbruni@sfe.com a.k.a.: "Cowboy Buddha" "Rocky" San Francisco Engineering, Inc. Non-disclaimer: As a matter of fact I _do_ speak for the company! [Moderator's Note: Are you one of the California Cowboys? :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 93 13:01:06 -0800 From: Bauserman, William Subject: Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) wrote: > Apparently this is not only a problem in New York but elsewhere as > well. I guess the telephone companies are just sitting back waiting > for the cable companies to be the first ones to bring high speed > two-way digital communications technology into small businesses and > homes. > It's almost a 'catch-22' proposition. The phone companies are slow to > implement ISDN because there is little demand for it and the demand is > waiting for the service to become available. This is just another > example of the difficult time we will have installing a nationwide > 'information highway'. I guess the only way to move the telephone > companies is for tens of thousands of us little guys to keep asking > them for ISDN until they wake up and realize that they are losing big > bucks in not providing this vital service. Well, here is my two cents worth: Don't forget that telco's are still regulated. I know of one "Consumer Protection" group that claims the only reason a telco puts in fiber is to position itself for delivering video to the home. This group would actually complain to the PUC everytime it saw a fiber job going in. Granted, this is an idiotic extreme, but, the point is that as along as network equipment is placed in the rate base, the telco should not indiscriminately go out and spend loads of money on a service that won't sell. Notice I said "should not". If you want it -- ask for it, just remember that you can't always get what you want ... but, you just might find, you get what you need :^) Bill Bauserman william.d.bauserman@gte.sprint.com ------------------------------ From: v125pemm@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Timothy H O'Hara) Subject: Re: Crummy Service in NY Organization: University at Buffalo Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 03:03:00 GMT New York Tel. is always doing stupid stuff like this. For example, when they rolled out CallerID/Call return in my CO (rural community, Newfane NY (716) 778-####) they made a big deal about it. They never really mentioned that we were one of the first exchanges in the area to get the service -- and that both numbers needed to have the service available. Anybody I would want to use Repeat Dial (read girlfriend) to call wouldn't do me any good anyway! I'm glad my telephone dollars pay for all this slick Madison Avenue advertising. Tim O'Hara V125PEMM@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU SUNY Buffalo [Moderator's Note: Please note, both *central offices* have to be equipped for these services, but it is not necessary for both *subscribers* to be equipped. If any one subscriber in an upgraded CO is equipped to use the new features, s/he can use them in calls to others in an upgraded CO regardless of the other person's personal status. PAT] ------------------------------ From: boconnor@sales.stern.nyu.edu (Brendan M O'connor) Subject: Re: Crummy Service in NY Date: 12 Nov 93 22:30:40 GMT Organization: NYU Stern School of Business In article oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: > My service comes from the "Second Avenue" central office in Manhattan. Second Ave. has three switches: a small 5ESS (23,000+ lines), a large DMS-100 (62,000+ lines) and a large 1AESS (67,000+ lines). (Local rumor has it that this is the largest WIRED 1AESS in the U.S.) You are obviously supported by the 1AESS. > And only two of the twenty-five support ISDN. That's actually better > than many other central offices in Manhattan and elsewhere in the ISDN is available to you if you are willing to change your number. If not (and I can understand why you don't want to), you will have to wait until your 1AESS is retired. Sad, but true. > Oh, and there is no scheduled date for upgrading my telephone exchange > to more modern equipment, according to the business office. My Second Ave. engineer has just started work on the 1AESS retirement. I'm not at liberty to announce its retirement date, but I assure you, you will have access to all the services you are looking for. I apologize for the fact that the business rep you contacted was not aware of the upgrade plans. boc. These are my opinions. NYNEX and New York Telephone may have other opinions. [Moderator's Note: No doubt everyone noticed that Brendan O'Connor's initials also could be taken to mean 'Bell Operating Company'. Actually Brendan, how do *we* know you are a real person and not just a figment of the imagination of someone at NY Tel whose job it is to spread propoganda around Usenet? I'm a tool of AT&T you know; just yesterday in email I got a note from some crackpot outlining everything I had said in AT&T's favor over the last several years. His missive went on for over 100,000 K of text, all manually typed in I think. I ought to post the whole diatribe from him in news.groups with cross-postings to several dozen other Usenet groups. That's how they get off, and who am I to dictate if people should read or post to Usenet in the privacy of their own homes. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 07:05:45 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Crummy Service in NY In TELECOM Digest V13 #751 oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: > Here I am in Manhattan, the telecommunications center of the world, > where radio jingles say "We're All Connected, New York Telephone". > Warm images of grandma talking to the beloved grandchildren ... > high-powered financial traders moving millions of dollars while > barking into speakerphones. The White Pages urge us to sign up for > Pathways (r) and Digipath (r) and Superpath (r) and Flexpath (r) and > Infopath (r) and Switchway (r) and Intellipath (r), all high-powered, > modern, digital, cutting-edge wave-of-the-future kinds of things. You > just pick up the phone and the breeze makes your hair flutter behind > you ... We're still getting those ditties on Long Island also since we receive NY City radion and TV stations. > Likewise I cannot sign up for Caller ID. And I cannot use the automatic > redial. That happened on Long Island also (area code 516) last year. > Kind of suprising I have even been able to use touch-tone phones all > these years. Remember though, that the original tone dialing was converted in the CO to rotary/pulse via relays. However, true touch tone has been around for years and its capabilities should be exploited faster than it has been. > Oh, and I cannot get ISDN, either. Same for Long Island. > My service comes from the "Second Avenue" central office in Manhattan. > It contains twenty-five exchanges, or a theoretical quarter of a > million telephone lines. My feeling is that NYTel should upgrade all switches at the same time that are in the same CO unless there is a compelling need not to and I don't think that other than certain agencies (police, shelters, etc.) have a compelling need. Carl mentioned, and I unfortunately deleted, a statement about businesses moving to New Jersey. I apologize. Going further, it is not only the telcos, it is the electric/gas companies and the horrendous taxes in the NY City Metropolitan Area in those areas that are in NY State. 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: polish@cs.columbia.edu (Nathaniel Polish) Subject: Re: Crummy Service in NY Date: 13 Nov 1993 11:11:58 -0500 Organization: Columbia University Department of Computer Science Bitch, bitch, bitch. It took me years to get to the point where I could get a phone line from my apartment on 111th street to Columbia on 116th street that would support a modem connection for more than five minutes. For most of that time the phone company's position was that "voice grade" did not mean free from pops and clicks. I am now very very grateful that I can support a 14.4kbs channel for hours with no errors almost all of the time. It does, however, seem rather stupid for NYTel to spend a fortune advertising services that will not be available for years. I would just bet that it will be so disruptive when they update the switch that I will look back on the low-tech days as being days of simple reliablility. ------------------------------ From: phd@well.sf.ca.us (Philippe Devaux) Subject: Re: What is Transpac? Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 22:53:33 GMT Philip Green (phil@concave.cs.wits.ac.za) wrote: > Can anyone tell me what Transpac is? A public network in France > perhaps? Thanks. Transpac is a packet switching value added network (VAN) operated by France Telecom, the French PTT organization. ------------------------------ From: nhenry@netcom.com (Neil R. Henry) Subject: Re: What is Transpac? Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 07:40:29 GMT Tranpac operates a public X.25 network in France. In the last three years they have been very aggressive in the UK market as well. My recollection is that they are (partially?) owned by France Telecom. My UK contact is: Orion House, 5 Upper St. Martin's Lane London WC2H 9EA In town telephone numbers have changed but I list 44 71 379 4700 for the main number and 44 71 379 1404 for the FAX. Philip Green (MSc student) phil@concave.cs.wits.ac.za Department of Computer Science, University of the Witwatersrand 2050 Wits, South Africa ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 16:43:39 -0800 From: nathan@seldon.foundation.tricon.com Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications > After the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the phone system in the Bay Area > was approximately useless due to the extremely high load on the > system. It took minutes to get a dial tone, and so many calls came > from out of the area that the LD carriers had to shut off incoming > calls. This is definitely true. All of my relatives from all over the country tried to call in. Stupid, I would say, in a natural disaster. It took about 90 seconds to get a dial tone in Alameda, near Oakland, with gradually reduced time until about six hours after the earthquake when dialtones were normal again (at least in Alameda). In Daly City, just south of San Francisco, dialtones took about two minutes. In the City itself, where power was out in most areas for at least two days, it took several minutes. Local calls were also subject to "all circuits busy". What I decided to do was make ONE LD call to a single relative out of state. Give that relative all the phone numbers of other relatives (also out of state) and asked that that person relay the "we're all okay" information, rather than having them clog up the phone system. I will congratulate the phone company for keeping communications up. It was an odd site from a hill in Daly City to see the ENTIRE city of San Francisco dark, except for a very few lights on the tops of buildings. From a possibly unreliable source, I heard that in downtown San Francisco, the phone exchanges actually have JET engines running turbines to provide power during emergencies. (Locally, the phone company uses diesels, but I do not know the capacity). Nathan Lane Triicon Systems, Inc., Lompoc, CA ------------------------------ From: andrew@frip.wv.tek.com (Andrew Klossner) Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications Date: 12 Nov 1993 00:28:24 GMT Organization: Tektronix Color Printers, Wilsonville, Oregon Reply-To: andrew@frip.wv.tek.com > "In approximately 1969 there was a serious earthquake in Santa > Barbara, Calif., which damaged several telephone company central > offices." Do tell? I lived in Santa Barbara throughout 1969, and noticed no earthquake, serious or otherwise. The Sylmar quake of 1971 was the first significant quake to hit Santa Barbara in several years. Andrew Klossner (andrew@frip.wv.tek.com) ------------------------------ From: lzahas@acs3.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications Date: 13 Nov 1993 05:00:19 GMT Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA Reply-To: lzahas@acs3.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) In article elm@cs.berkeley.edu writes: > It may have been the only one to affect the phone system physically > (destruction of telecom facilities), but most earthquakes (and other > natural disasters) bring the system to its knees with the overload of > phone calls. After the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the phone system in > the Bay Area was approximately useless due to the extremely high load > on the system. It took minutes to get a dial tone, and so many calls > came from out of the area that the LD carriers had to shut off > incoming calls. I've been told that after an earthquake, if you can't get a call through, try using a payphone. Supposedly, the phone company will arbitrarily put some calls through and not others when the load is too high, but payphone calls will always go through. After the Loma Prieta quake, we tried calling a high school teacher while reporting for the school paper. No one previously had been able to reach her (calling SF from Oakland), but we did from a payphone, so it apparently works. Lukas Zahas lzahas@bu.edu [Moderator's Note: Or else that particular payphone at that particular time was one of the arbitrarily chosen phones to get a line out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications Date: 13 Nov 1993 11:50:34 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] ethan miller (elm@cs.berkeley.edu) wrote: > phone calls. After the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the phone system in > the Bay Area was approximately useless due to the extremely high load > on the system. It took minutes to get a dial tone, and so many calls > came from out of the area that the LD carriers had to shut off > incoming calls. However, the phone system STAYED UP! I was managing a voicemail company at the time and we did not lose anything. Our DID lines were remoted via another central office and thus they provided battery to our system. The battery didn't even go down. Sure, it took awhile to get a dialtone, but our pager dialout kept working and eventually got through. I understand, though that the power to some switching offices was so long in coming back that some of Pacific Bell's were actually draining battery from AT&T. ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Earthquake Preparedness Date: 13 Nov 1993 01:46:44 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (russell sharpe) writes: > In New Zealand, because of our geographical nature, on the border of > the Pacific, and Austrailasion Plates, we are pretty conscious of > earthquakes, and volcanoes. > Here are some of the precautions we take. > - All switches are strongly bonded to the building with steel seismic > braces, so no equipment will have the tendency to fall over. This reminds me of a story I heard a few years ago during a CO tour. My guide related an earthquake story that happened at Pacific Bell. They had installed some sort of adjunct processor to a DMS-100. It was a rackmounted unit, in a standalone cabinet about 8 feet high. It was placed in a temporary location, a few feet away from the older unit that it was replacing. This was a temporary location for it -- they needed to have the new unit in service before the old one could be removed, and they were planning to do a "hot slide": that is, slide the new one into position while it was running after the old one had been removed. As such, it was not bolted down to the ground, and there were a few feet of extra length coiled in the ceiling wiring tracks for all power and signalling cables. With the equipment in this state, and earthquake occurred, and the new unit fell over since it was not bolted down. The thing is, since all of the cables had enough extra slack that had uncoiled when it fell over, nothing broke, and it was indeed still functioning perfectly and in service. Pacific Bell placed a call to Northern Telecom to enquire as to what the recommended procedure was to upright the cabinet while it was in service. This reportedly took NT quite by surprise, as they had never encountered or even thought of such a situation. They finally got back to them with instructions to lift it back to the regular position by hand while leaving it in service, and to bolt it down this time. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #756 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa23030; 13 Nov 93 20:13 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31045 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 13 Nov 1993 17:30:15 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29976 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 13 Nov 1993 17:29:39 -0600 Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 17:29:39 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311132329.AA29976@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #757 TELECOM Digest Sat, 13 Nov 93 17:27:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 757 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Wanted: AT&T Merlin Cordless (Steve Cogorno) Re: Wanted: AT&T Merlin Cordless (Mark Strow) Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? (Tony Pelliccio) Re: Need to Buy E1 to T1 Converter (William T. Sykes) Re: Preparing My Case Against Sprint (Alan Frisbie) Re: Preparing My Case Against Sprint (Chris Ambler) Re: Novell Networking Question (D.R. Hilton) Re: Novell Networking Question (Gary Breuckman) Re: "Fake Switch" Box or Tester (Paul Cook) Re: "Fake Switch" Box or Tester (Alan Boritz) Re: Microsoft Telephony API/SPI (Dan J. Declerck) Re: Sat Pagers = Modems? (John Gilbert) Re: Remote Call Forwarding (Paul Barnett) Re: Telephone Query System Questions (Robert Virzi) Re: East-West or North-South? (R. Kevin Oberman) Re: East-West or North-South? (David A. Cantor) Re: PC Pursuit No Longer Accepting New Users (Bill Bradford) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Wanted: AT&T Merlin Cordless Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 12:17:17 PST Said by: Mark Strow > Please reply to strow@world.std.com. Well, we can't give you Merlin programming codes (or star codes for that matter) unless you tell us what kind of Merlin you have (also what release it is) and the features you are looking for. Steve cogorno@netcom.com #608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 10:36:49 -0500 From: strow@world.std.com (Mark Strow) Subject: Re: Wanted: AT&T Merlin Cordless Thanks for the reply to my post regarding the AT&T Merlin Cordless. I'm sorry if my post wasn't clear. I'm not looking for programming instructions, rather I am looking for an AT&T Merlin Cordless to *purchase*. I have a "Classic" Merlin 410 in my home, and have always wanted the Cordless to go along with it, but can't quite justify th $400+ AT&T wants for a new one. Do you happen to know anyone who might sell one second-hand? Thanks again, M. ------------------------------ From: Anthony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? Date: 13 Nov 1993 18:48:18 GMT Organization: Brown University Alumni & Development Office In article , kcooke@uclink.berkeley.edu (Kevin Ian Cooke) wrote: > In light of the recent discussions about scanning cellular frequencies, I > would like your help with the following: > I am interested in writing a story about people who, from time to > time, like to listen to their nieghbors' cellular phone conversations. > I know you're out there, especially folks in the *.dcom.telecom > worlds, since (as I'm sure most of you know) it only takes slight > alterations to cell phones and FM scanners to get them to hear the > cellular frequencies. This is true. Matter of fact a friend of mine is so close to a cell site that his scanner, when it's on the 70cm ham band, picks up cellular calls with ease. It's made for some rather amusing listening. > I know that the above is illegal, and I know that anyone engaged in > such activity could be prosecuted. That is why I'm posting here. You > may reply anonymously, if you must, but I would like some general > information about you, as much as you're comfortable providing. Have > you heard any good stories? Do you feel that what you're doing is > wrong? Did you see _Sliver_? :) From what I've been told, it's not so much illegal to listen to it, as it is to use the information you gather. I've listened to quite a few calls in the past and you'd be AMAZED by how stupid some people are. Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR Anthony_Pelliccio@Brown.edu Brown University Alumni & Development Computing Services Box 1908 Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-1880 [Moderator's Note: No, I am not amazed by how stupid some people are. Are you amazed by it? Many people are a lot stupider than you give them credit for being. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wts1@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (wts1) Subject: Re: Need to Buy E1 to T1 Converter Organization: AT&T Federal Systems Advanced Technologies - Greensboro, NC Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 15:07:55 GMT In article ken@pluto.dss.com (Ken Adler) writes: > Does anyone know of any companies that make a box that takes in one or > more E1 trunks and convert it to multiple T1 trunks? > I urgently need contact info for companies that have such a product. Tellabs makes a T1 to CEPT (E1) PCM standards converter. Tellabs International Inc. 4951 Indiana Avenue Lisle, IL 60532 PH: (708) 969-8800 FAX: (708) 969-2884 We have used this converter, along with AT&T Network Systems International. One caveat -- this device is not BABT approved for use on customer premise applications in the UK. I think this device used to be referred to as the Delta converter, so named for the Irish firm that Tellabs bought out that makes the converter. Also, methinks that Dowty also makes an E1/T1 converter. DSC may, but I think they require a multiplexer to do the conversion. A Newbridge Networks MainStreet 3600 Multiplexer can be configured to perform this conversion, and is BABT approved, but is quite pricey compared to the Tellabs converter. William T. Sykes AT&T FSAT-Engineering att!gcuxb!gcwts ------------------------------ From: Alan Frisbie Subject: Re: Preparing My Case Against Sprint Date: 13 Nov 93 10:04:55 PDT Organization: Flying Disk Systems, Inc. In article , pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > In most states, you can't take a corporation to small claims court. > Actually, I think that's a Federal statute. You have to hire a > professional lawyer (or an unprofessional lawyer -- it's up to you) to > follow standard legal procedures. > [Moderator's Note: You certainly can take a corporation into Small > Claims Court. I've done it with First National Bank of Chicago and > a few other times. That's the rule in Illinois at least. PAT] You can also sue a corporation in small claims court in California. I just checked the "Small Claims Manual of Procedures" published by the Association of Municipal Court Clerks of California, Inc. There are several references that describe the procedures used when either the plaintiff or the defendant is a corporation. For example, they reference California Commercial Code section 416.10 to determine who the "service" must be made to when the suit is against a corporation. 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) [Moderator's Note: When suing a corporation, service has to be made upon the registered agent for the corporation who will frequently also be the corporate attorney, but this is not required. Registered agents for corporations, along with the names, addresses and other details of the officers of corporations are public records. Often times officers of corportions try to hide and/or pretend they are not personally liable for corporate affairs. Maybe so, maybe not. In the years I worked with the attornies in Chicago, I don't know how many times I'd talk to the president of a defunct corporation only to have him tell me he wasn't liable for bills the company racked up. But I'd go find a copy of the personal guarantee he had given our client, or a copy of the NSF check the company had written which he had not explicitly signed in his corporate capacity and then of course, he'd start dodging my phone calls at his office. But that's okay. Usually the (former) corporate attorney would also be the (former) corporate officer's personal attorney. I'd just look up his name, call him and tell him I was fixing to sue his client, and why. The attorney would take care of explaining things to his client for me, and I'd get a call back the next day from the guy asking to make arrangments to get the bill paid. Usually I would then dodge *his* calls for a couple days just to let him sweat and show him others can play the game. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler - Fubar) Subject: Re: Preparing My Case Against Sprint Organization: The Phishtank Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 15:18:48 GMT > [Moderator's Note: You certainly can take a corporation into Small > Claims Court. I've done it with First National Bank of Chicago and > a few other times. That's the rule in Illinois at least. PAT] Indeed, I have been advised that I serve their California Agent. I'm not going to turn this into a legal discussion and take it off topic, but I've been advised by a lawyer that there was a valid contract, and that it's pretty much an open and shut case. We shall see, and I will keep you all up to date. Christopher(); // cambler@cymbal.calpoly.edu, home of the .plan of Doom! Christopher J. Ambler, Author, FSUUCP 1.41, FSVMP 1.0, chris@toys.fubarsys.com [Moderator's Note: There is nothing complicated or dramatic about serving an attorney with legal process. Usually it amounts to handing it to his secretary who timestamps it and tosses it in the 'in-box'. And remember at all times (unless you *are* an attorney) NEVER practice law. NEVER quote the law. Some of those birds are waiting for you to engage in the practice of law without a license so they can complain. Keep your correspondence short and sweet. Use phrases like 'attornies have said to me that, etc ....'. NEVER use phrases like 'the law in California says, etc ...'. Its okay if 'an attorney told me xyz', or 'attornies have reminded me that xyz' ... it is *not* okay for you claim what the law says based on your own understanding of it. That amounts to the illegal practice of law without a license (in other words, membership in the old-boy's club). One of the functions of my Digital Detective service is locating the names of agents and officers of corporations all over the USA, and explaining to people how to sue them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: drhilton@kaiwan.com (Doc) Subject: Re: Novell Networking Question Organization: KAIWAN Internet Access Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 05:05:32 GMT I'm doing this with a client right now. We have just one network with two file servers. Each day we copy the entire data base from one to the other. If one dies, the users just log into the other and go back to work. E-Mail me if you have specific questions or want more details. Best, drhilton@kaiwan.com - "Doc" ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Novell Networking Question Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 19:45:51 GMT In article simkus@cs.odu.edu (Tony Simkus) writes: > Does anyone know the anser to this question? If I have two NOVELL > networks, two separate file server serving each network, what should I > do if one network goes down? Can I use the other file server to > service the other network? If so, what addressing information and > software must I use to approach this problem. I am looking for a > networking scheme that will that will still be usable if one server > goes down. The workstations on the server that go down must know where > to access the new programs. The easiest way to do this, that I can think of, is to make this one network with all the users and both file servers. The NETX command can include a parameter to specify the default server, so you can still divide up the clients to their own server. You can also specify in the logon which server you want login: serv1/name and once logged in you can log into the other server with 'session' or be logged into both, or be logged into one and map a directory to someplace on the other server, or use printer services on the other server, the combinations are endless. If you don't want one network all the time, you could still make provisions to interconnect them when you have a problem. For 10Base-T that could be just a single cable between the two hubs, that is connected when needed. It's a bit harder with thinnet since you would need to connect one end of each network (where the terminators are) together. The only other problem is authorizing accounts on both servers, and keeping duplicate files where needed. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 14:05 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: "Fake Switch" Box or Tester karl@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch) writes: > I'm looking for a circuit or "magic box" that would allow me to > basicly plug to phones back-to-back. Given Phone A & B if phone A > were picked up Phone B would ring, and when phone B is picked up they > could converse as normal until one of them hangs-up. The same could > be true in the reverse (Phone B would ring A if it's on-hook etc.) > I want to hook up a phone to a voice-mail board and allow the board to > ring the phone or the phone to "call into" the board without using up > phone lines etc. Use a ringdown circuit. Proctor & Associates makes one that provides normal telephone loop current and ringing voltage. Go off hook on a phone or device connected to one jack, and it rings through to the other one. Contact Proctor via one of the phone, fax or email numbers below, and ask for info on the 46220 Ringdown Circuit. If you want line simulator that provides dialtone and won't just ring as soon as you go off hook, but requires a number to be dialed, check out one of the telephone demonstrators that Proctor makes. There is even one now that emulates CENTREX and Caller ID. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: "Fake Switch" Box or Tester From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 06:34:44 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 karl@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch) writes: > I'm looking for a circuit or "magic box" that would allow me to > basicly plug to phones back-to-back. Given Phone A & B if phone A > were picked up Phone B would ring, and when phone B is picked up they > could converse as normal until one of them hangs-up. The same could > be true in the reverse (Phone B would ring A if it's on-hook etc.) What you want is a simple ring-down-tie-line module. They've become somewhat rare since dc pairs upon which to operate them became very expensive. It's been a while since I've used them, but you should be able to find modules that will emulate the original tie line function, as well as one that emulates it over a dialup circuit. Alltel or Graybar might be one place to start. North Supply might be too, if they decide you buy enough from them in a year to be worth talking to. ;) aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com (Dan J. Declerck) Subject: Re: Microsoft Telephony API/SPI Date: 13 Nov 1993 15:08:15 GMT Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group In article , Joe Armstrong wrote: > Does anybody have any information available about products which use > the recently published Microsoft Telephony API/SPI? > Do you think the Microsoft Telephony API will catch on? Up to now the > CCITT has been the principle organisation responsible for telephony > standards. The microsoft API seems to represent a radical departure > from this. Is this the future? After reading it, it appears to be an X-lib like specification for telephony. It seems to have some of the "old" ways of thinking about telephones in it (like flashing lights, etc). Given, that this spec is supported, and written by a joint venture of two companies with little or no communications experience (Intel and Micro$oft), it seems to have little promise of being adopted as a standard. This may change, if a major PBX or switch vendor buys into it. Dan DeClerck EMAIL: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com Motorola Cellular APD Phone: (708) 632-4596 ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Sat Pagers = Modems? Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 12:11:39 GMT In article , aa377@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ken Kopin) wrote: > Ok, please correct my ignorance if I get any of my facts wrong. > 1. Are there such things as pagers that receive signals from Satellites? The current so called "satellite" pagers are not receiving their signals directly from a satellite. The signals are distributed to terrestrial transmitters via a satellite link from the paging terminal. There has been talk about doing paging directly from a satellite in the future. The problem is that reception of satellite signals is great outdoors, but doesn't work so well in buildings where most people use their pagers. Modems would also have this problem. You would pretty much need to be right in front of a window with a Southern exposure for it to work directly from the satellite. I believe many people think that the system works directly from the satellite. The advertising you often see in business and airline in-flight magazines is very misleading. John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ From: barnett@convex.com (Paul Barnett) Subject: Re: Remote Call Forwarding Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 19:21:49 GMT Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA In garym@alsys.com (Gary Morris @ignite) writes: > Yes, sort of, use a handheld cellular phone to set your forwarding. > At a recent PacTel sale I picked up a GE (CT-100) handheld cell phone > for $99. My total monthly cost is $20 for the cellular service. I > can forward the cellular number to another phone. There are no > airtime or per minute charges for the forwarded calls (unless the > number is a long distance call, of course) or to change the > forwarding. Forwarding changes take effect right away, I just dial > *72nnn-nnnn on the cell phone and it's set. Plus calls to the cell > number are toll free over a much wider area than regular landline > calls, callers don't pay toll charges and I don't pay airtime for > forwarded calls. [remainder deleted] This is the same solution that I use. However, I would like to point out that not ALL cellular providers will forward your calls free. According to my third-party compilation of roaming agreements and standard service policies, some charge air-time even when a call is simply routed through their switch and forwarded to another number. If my cellular provider were to change their policy and do this, I would switch to their competitor the next day. Paul Barnett MPP OS Development (214)-497-4846 Convex Computer Corp. Richardson, TX ------------------------------ From: rv01@harvey.gte.com (Robert Virzi) Subject: Re: Telephone Query System Questions Date: 13 Nov 93 15:20:45 GMT Organization: GTE Laboratories In article ktsuji@uhunix3.uhcc.Hawaii. Edu (Kevin Tsuji) writes: > I'm a Computer Specialist who primarily work with the Macintosh. I'm > in charge of setting up a telephone query system. Something very > similar to the systems set up by banks and other financial > institutions to handle balance and payment queries for credit cards. > Anyone here know a vendor(s) specializing in telephony products > for Macintosh? > I don't mind working with the IBM PC -- it's what I grew up with, so > if you have set up a system in this environment, please do send me > your vendor and your experiences. Kevin, I know of two Mac products for doing Interactive Voice Response (IVR). They are PhonePro (Cypress Research) and TFLX (Magnum Software). Both solutions are currently single line, so I doubt they will meet your needs. I think Magnum will be coming out with a multi-line solution soon, so check with them. (Basically, I think they may be using a Mac and there software to control a PC with dialogic boards, but could be mistaken.) Both of these systems use iconic programming languages to create the telephony applications. We use them extensively here for prototyping. Very easy to learn, but somewhat inflexible. If you go with a Dialogic board in a PC, you will have to do most of the programming in C. Very flexible but somewhat harder to get working. A word of caution. The user interface to your product can make or break it. Consider getting some human factors input regarding the design of the service so that it is usable. Audio interfaces are very different than screen based applications. If you don't get a HF consultant, make sure you do lots of user testing. You'll learn a lot about what works and what doesn't. Another suggestion is to listen to and play with lots of existing systems. Pay attention to how they work. In your case, I think you will find lots of universities already have IVR course registration. Find out about them. I'd be interested in hearing what other people are using to prototype or build IVR applications. Particualrly, which ones are flexible and easy to modify. Bob Virzi rvirzi@gte.com +1 (617) 466-2881 ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: East-West or North-South? Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 19:49:42 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory In article Carl Moore writes: > There are other cases where a compass direction associated with a > route number is quite different from the actual direction the road is > pointed in right there. In the San Francisco area you can be on I-80 East and I-580 West at the same time. For what little it's worth, you will be going north at the time. R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: koberman@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 [Moderator's Note: As you yourself have pointed out from time to time, it's not easy keeping up your reputation as a smart-aleck is it? :) Next time you come to Chicago, ask the cab driver to take you to the corner of Broadway and Sheridan and let him think about that for awhile. (Those two streets intersect at *four* geographically separate and distinct locations here.) Or tell him you want to go to the 1100 block on Sheridan and let him insist all he wants that Sheridan does not begin until 2800 North. Have him take you to the campus of Loyola University then point out to him the two block stretch of Sheridan which runs east and west at that point, and uses east/west street numbers just to kink things up a little. In other words, the building at 63xx Sheridan sits next to a building known as 11xx Sheridan because it is around the bend in the road. PAT] ------------------------------ From: David A. Cantor Subject: Re: East-West or North-South? Organization: MV Communications, Inc. Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 04:14:13 GMT In article , Carl Moore wrote: > Just a tiny spinoff from a comment about the Pacific Coast Highway at > Malibu: It was said in the Digest that it runs east-west. Things can get even more confusing. In Massachusetts, there is a section of road which runs west to east and is signed I-93 NORTH and (state) Rt. 128 SOUTH. The opposite side of the road (running east to west, of course) is signed I-93 SOUTH and Rt. 128 NORTH! In some parts of the country, the compass point designations indicate the actual direction of the road at that point (well, rounded to the nearest primary compass point, I assume), but in other parts of the country the words 'north', 'south', etc. really mean 'northbound', 'southbound', etc. David A. Cantor +1 203-444-7268 (203-444-RANT) 453 Bayonet St., #16 Foxwoods blackjack dealer New London, CT 06320 Relocated from Nashua, NH to New London, CT ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 14:01:49 CST From: Bill Bradford Subject: Re: PC Pursuit No Longer Accepting New Users Another thought about the PCP new-user-shutoff: It may be LACK of users that is causing the shutoff. The recent price wars on 9600 baud and higher modems (Best Buy in OKC has internal 14.4s for $129, externals for $159) may have effectively eliminated their user base. Instead of paying $30 a month for 30 hours of use, people may now be getting high-speed modems and getting cheaper service by dialing direct. PC Pursuit never had outdial nodes that ran faster than 2400. IMHO, it was a great service when 2400 was the fastest you could go. I met our esteemed Moderator on the PC Pursuit Net Exchange support BBS, back when I was a member. Through our online friendship, I was able to meet Pat in person a number of times, the most memorable being the "REAL Chicago tour" shortly after the downtown flood of '92. I was in the Windy City for a week, and those two or three hours are what I still remember most. Thanks, Pat, and keep up the good work! Bill Bradford * stubradfowc@mercur.usao.edu * U. of Science & Arts of OK My opinions and views do not reflect those of the University [Moderator's Note: So you remember our stop at the infamous, known around the world Dunkin Donuts on Clark and Belmont, eh? ... Or was it Belmont and Sheffield that got you all in a dither? I quite agree its not on any tourist maps; very little is other than right along the lakefront from McCormick Place to somewhere on the near north side. I had forgotten, but yes, you were here right after the 'flood' when everywhere you walked downtown had those noisy generators sitting at the curb with fire hoses snaking out of the basements of all the buildings pumping water out into the street sewers. I'm glad to be gone from Chicago, at least technically on paper. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #757 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa28302; 14 Nov 93 17:17 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16227 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 14 Nov 1993 14:43:51 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00396 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 14 Nov 1993 14:43:15 -0600 Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 14:43:15 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311142043.AA00396@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #758 TELECOM Digest Sun, 14 Nov 93 14:43:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 758 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson CA Tax Regulations for LD Providers (Pat Myrto) Strange T1 Behavior (Tom Lowe) Network Timing (Steven L. Spak) Call Waiting 14.4 Modems (Thomas Neudecker) Billing Insert: Regulation of 900 Charges (Susan J. Bahr) Radio Shack Video Home Security Thing (H. Shrikumar) Calling Card Question (Danny Burstein) Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? (William H. Sohl) Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? (Kevin Martinez) Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems (Gregg Siegfried) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (David Leibold) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Allen Mcintosh) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Danny Burstein) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (David A. Kaye) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ole!rwing!pat@nwnexus.wa.com (Pat Myrto) Subject: CA Tax Regulations for LD Providers Date: 14 Nov 93 03:15:39 GMT Perhaps someone in the group -- or the Moderator -- can help me get some information. Does anybody know the regulations and rates for determining if tax is applicable, and what taxes, a LD provider located OUTSIDE of California for long distance calls originating within (and if applicable) outside of California? Telccom outfits in CA are quite evasive on the subject (read: no useful information), and there has been not very much luck in getting meaningful information from authorities. This has been going on for awhile. Ideally the formula for computing applicable taxes, and when they apply, or a table of the rates if its derived from a table would be the ticket. A file containing this info available for ftp would be great. I did a search using archie looking for anything with 'tax' and all I got was a lot of 'syntax' matches. :-( Response by e-mail would be preferable, but I will be keeping an eye on the group to see what happens. This is for a friend who is the book keeper for a small LD provider who purchses wholesale time from the larger providers who have their own infrastructure. I can receive email at the uucp host this originated from, or from another account at pat@hebron.connected.com. Thank you, pat@rwing.uucp [Without prejudice UCC 1-207] (Pat Myrto) Seattle, WA If all else fails, try: ...!uunet!pilchuck!rwing!pat [Moderator's Note: No, no, you do not want to get involved in utility tax accounting and procedures. Repeat after me, "I do not want to know about utility tax accounting procedures ...". Say it a few more times. Rooms and rooms full of people at desk after desk sit all day long day after day with pens, calculators, computer printouts, giant books full of spiral-bound notebook-like pages of tiny print listing the proper percentages to the fifth decimal point of taxes to be paid, how they apply, when and where they apply, how each telephone company acting as collection agent for all other telephone companies is to go about paying the taxes due to the *thousands* of government entities for which they collect including every state in the union, the federal government, every town in the USA which has a tax on telephone service and whether or not the tax is only on interstate, intrastate or local calls or all three categories. When that 25 cent coin is put in the box on the payphone, how many ways do you suppose it gets divided? A penny for the local government; two pennies for the state; another penny or two for the federal government; a few cents to the telco whose equipment terminated the call; if the customer put the call on his calling card then a few pennies to the telephone company which issued the card in exchange for their collection and billing services in getting the customer to pay the 25 cents when his bill comes out, etc. Telco accounting back-offices in general are not nice places to work unless you have a very good mind for detail and enjoy very detailed work with numbers, percentages, forms to be filled out in quintuplicate and similar. The *tax accounting* people get all the above times three or four. I don't know of any single source where you could look at a 'table' and see how much tax is paid on a given piece of telco traffic. It all is relative to where the call originates and terminates, and the number of taxing agencies which sit on either end or in the middle. You could go to two different people in telco tax accounting and give them the same data and get two different answers, just like at the federal Internal Revenue Service; that's how complex and obscure the rules are. But you'd never get to those people anyway, since telco does not like customers speaking to anyone except the Business Office reps. And just about the time telco tax-accounting droids think they have it all figured out, the government says the rules are different and maybe even retroactive. Go to the state department of revenue or taxes; whatever they call it. Ask them for printed information on telephone taxes. They probably have some brochure with basic details. If you somehow find someone who is willing to add you to a 'mailing list' dealing with changes in tax rates, procedures and changes therein, you'd probably fill up a room with file cabinets very quickly. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tomlowe@netcom.com (Tom Lowe) Subject: Strange T1 Behavior Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 16:34:05 PST I have a client with several T1s from Sprint. A strange thing happens when I place a 14.4 modem call to one of the channels and a voice call to an ADJACENT channel (using 800 numbers). A static type of noise becomes present on the voice call when the far end is talking. It is especially noticable when listening to ringback or busy signal. If I disconnect the modem call, the static goes away. If there is one or more channels between the calls, there is no problem. The T1 is using D4 and AMI formats. I am not getting any timing slips. Has anyone experienced such behavior or have any ideas? Thanks! Tom Lowe tomlowe@netcom.com 609-698-7044 X201 ------------------------------ From: sspak@seas.gwu.edu (Steven L. Spak) Subject: Network Timing Date: 14 Nov 1993 00:44:24 GMT Organization: George Washington University I attended the Federal Radionavagation User's Conference last week at the FAA headquarters in DC to add a voice to those making policy for such systems as Loran-C, GPS, and other important references. A US Coast Guard commander indicated that those users depending upon these systems (I use Loran-C to time a vast communications network) need to respond in writing. There has been considerable pressure to minimize the number of radionav systems. People are exaggerating the usefulness of GPS, especially as a dependable and precise time reference. If you don't want Uncle Sam to shut down Loran, please respond to the following address: Navagation Working Group DOT/RSPA/DRT-20 Washington DC 20590 Deadline for comments for their plan is February 11, 1994. It seems that these feds go through this process every two years! Steven Spak sspak@seas.gwu.edu Transmission Engineer Tel: (202) 392-1611 Fax: (202) 392-1261 ------------------------------ From: Thomas Neudecker Subject: Call Waiting 14.4 Modems Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 23:04:22 -0500 Organization: Sponsored account, Drama, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA I recently upgraded my modem to LineLink 14.4 modem. I now use a SLIP connection to connect to the network. On the other modems I have had Call Waiting would break the connection. I know about the *70 tone signal to deactivate call waiting. My problem is that the error correction on the modem doesn't accept the call waiting tones until after eight to twelve rings and people I need to talk to can't get through. Bell of PA said they hadn't seen this use of call waiting before and that the 5ESS switch at my CO is has a very short off hook time for the tone to be sent. Does anyone know of a modem init string to let call waiting and the modem work as I wish? Tom Neudecker TN07+@Andrew.cmu.edu Voice: 412 828-7621 Local Data System: 412 828-8011 ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 93 22:10:23 EST From: Susan J. Bahr <72642.1263@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Billing Insert: Regulation of 900 Charges The FCC and FTC both are regulating the provision of 900-type services. The FCC generally refers to the services it is regulating as "pay-per-call" services, and the FTC refers to the ones that were to be discussed in notices sent to customers as "telephone-billed- purchases." Repeating their definitions of these services may not be much more illuminating. The one thing to keep in mind: if you ever get billed incorrectly for a service you received via a 900-number, there are now more rules that may apply to resolving your billing dispute for that specific service, and these are rules which you and the other parties involved should follow in resolving the billing dispute. ------------------------------ From: shri@cs.umass.edu (H. Shrikumar) Subject: Radio Shack Video Home Security Thing Date: 14 Nov 1993 17:34:43 GMT Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India Hi, I saw in a recent Radio Shack catalog a mention of a Home Security Video thingummy they have introduced. So I looked it over when I dropped by to pick up batteries for my smoke alarm (that time of the year :-) The door unit is maybe 5x3x1 inch, and has speakerphone and video camera functionality. It has two two-terminal tie posts ... one sends a twisted pair to the base unit, and the other a pair to your door opener relay. I presume that the twisted pair between the base unit and the door unit carries power as well as data which multiplexes the video, audio and control. I assume it is data ... just guessing. The base unit looks like a integrated phone + answering machine ... only there is a LCD display and a contrast control that you need to be a little clever to set right. You can have it all for $2XX ... where the XX I am sure is 99 :) Q: Does anyone have any technical info on this? What runs on that line between the units? What compression, etc? Any "alternate uses" ... or cute ideas for it? Q: Does not seem to integrate with the POTS, nor does it seem to have a one door unit + multiple base unit version for use with door buzzers in apartment blocks. Radio Shack oversight in product design and positioning? shrikumar (shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in) ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Calling Card Question Date: 14 Nov 1993 04:06:48 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In yet another display of my ignorance, I ask the following question: Can a calling card be acquired from either the LEC or an IXC with the following restriction: that it can -only- get billed by the Local Carrier (where appropriate) or by the disgnated IXC? This would do a good job of reducing the tele-zleaze surcharges. Thanks, dannyb@panix.com dannyb@panix.com adds: all the usual disclaimers regarding liability, intelligence, accuracy apply. spelling disclaimer is doubled. ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 04:45:32 GMT In article whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore. com (sohl,william h) writes: > As to my personal opinion, the ECPA is a joke and only provides a > false sense of security to cellular users who buy into sales > statements that because it is illegal to listen to cellular, then the > security of cellular converstations is assured. In fact, the ability > to PROVE a violation of the ECPA occurred is all but impossible unless > the violator publicly admits they have listened to cellular. Bottom > line is that the ECPA is essentially an unenfoceable law that ranks in > the same catagory as the old sodomy laws. > [Moderator's Note: That's really something, to equate the laws > pertaining to privacy in communications with the old (but still in > force in about half the states in the USA) laws on sodomy. The latter > are considered by many people to be an invasion of individual privacy, > while the former are considered by many people to promote and protect > individual privacy. In any event, they are all a bunch of worthless, > unenforceable laws, eh? So what else is new in these United States? PAT] Pat, when a law is unenforceable, it is both useless, and a waste of time to even enact. Can you truly say that the ECPA has improved the privacy of cellular? I doubt it. The ECPA is a "feel good" law with no true impact. The politicos who passed can say ... "boy we feel good about striking a blow for privacy" even though the blow has the impact of a feather against a brick wall. Since listening to cellular isn't something done in public (anymore than sodomy is) just how do you see the ECPA helping communications privacy? Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's. Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!cc!whs70 201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@cc.bellcore.com ------------------------------ From: lps@rahul.net (Kevin Martinez) Subject: Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? Organization: a2i network Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 03:46:48 GMT In Anthony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) writes: > In article , kcooke@uclink.berkeley.edu > (Kevin Ian Cooke) wrote: >> In light of the recent discussions about scanning cellular frequencies, I >> would like your help with the following: >> I am interested in writing a story about people who, from time to >> time, like to listen to their nieghbors' cellular phone conversations. >> I know you're out there, especially folks in the *.dcom.telecom >> worlds, since (as I'm sure most of you know) it only takes slight >> alterations to cell phones and FM scanners to get them to hear the >> cellular frequencies. > This is true. Matter of fact a friend of mine is so close to a cell > site that his scanner, when it's on the 70cm ham band, picks up > cellular calls with ease. It's made for some rather amusing listening. In regard to the above, I live right under a cell site antenna tower and *every* radio and TV I own picks up these annoying conversations on occasion. Even my telephone (noncordless) picks them up sometimes. I keep thinking of the Gilligan's Island episode where his filling becomes a rectifier and detects broadcast band radio. Does the ECPA make it illegal to live in my neighborhood or only to possess a receiving device (or a filling)? Would these cold evenings be even colder without the comforting rays of this antenna? Perhaps this is the cause for retries on zmodem transfers .... Kevin Martinez lps@rahul.net ------------------------------ From: mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems Date: 14 Nov 1993 03:02:59 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA The only thing I would add is that making a device like this and *using* it would violate the federal wiretapping laws, which is a felony. It may be true that cellular phone use isn't really private, because anyone could be listening, but it's no more legal for them to listen than it is for them to bug your bedroom or boardroom. Under federal law, any conversation going through a cellular switch is considered a telephone conversation subject to the wiretap laws (the technical term is "wire communication". A cellular phone is just as private as a landline phone, because people have the same legal right not to be "scanned" as they do not to have someone tapping in on a craft set. Michael D. Sullivan | mds@access.digex.net avogadro@well.sf.ca.us Washington, D.C. | 74160.1134@compuserve.com mikesullivan@bix.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 19:08 PST From: grs@claircom.com (Gregg Siegfried) Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems Organization: Claircom Communications, L.P. In article Steven King writes: > U19250@uicvm.uic.edu publicly declared: >> A friend of mine, without net access, has received some information on >> a product called "Cellmate Model B" It supposedly allows you to dial >> in a cellular phone number, and listen to both sides of the call. How >> does this work? Is it reliable? Has anyone ever heard of any other >> products like this that are cheaper (this is ~$6000)? > [ excellent back of the envelope cellular monitoring description deleted ] The Cellmate does indeed exist. It functions, actually, quite similarly to what Steven describes, although I'm not sure about its ability to deal with handoffs. It's certainly very plausible. I was recently being monitored by one of these things. They work. And neither your friendly cellular carrier nor the FBI really cares. Theoretically, the Cellmate is not available for sale in the United States, except in a situation similar to duty-free shopping. You must show a ticket out of the country. However, the electronic countermeasures specialist/vendor I discussed the device with said I could purchase one merely by showing a bus ticket to Vancouver BC, for example, on the order of a hundred bucks from here in Seattle. When you are purchasing a 6K device, another hundred bucks for a bus ticket you're not going to use isn't a big deal. So, they're around. The way I came in contact with the device was after I discovered I was being monitored, I essentially verbally drew the same picture that Steven did for the aforementioned countermeasures expert, and he came back right away with "Oh, you mean the Cellmate. Sure ... I have them for $6K". I have no idea whether a CDMA or TDMA digital version of the Cellmate exists. The experience did spark an interest in electronic countermeasures for me, although it seems quite like the arms race. I especially liked the scanner that covered everything from 0-1.2Ghz, although I didn't purchase it. Gregg Siegfried grs@claircom.com [Moderator's Note: You can always send the ticket back to Greyhound and get a refund you know, less a small handling charge. Tell 'em you decided not to make the trip after all. Or what the heck, go up and check out Vancouver or Victoria; they're both lovely places to visit. When purchasing verbotin radios and equipment around Chicago, one need not bother with bus tickets. One shop selling stuff like linear ampli- fiers for the eleven meter band and a variety of snooping equipment has you sign a 'certification' (yuk yuk!) saying the radio is only being purchased for the purpose of export outside the USA to your 'customer' in some other country where such things are legal. The proprietor said to me once that an odd thing about most of his cus- tomers is they are all named 'John Smith', or at least that is the way the certification form was signed. But if you do decide to make the bus trip north, stop off at Port Townsend, WA and visit the nice folks at Loopmanics; they have some neat books and other things for sale to people who value privacy or love violating it, either way. PAT] ------------------------------ From: djcl@grin.io.org Date: Sat, 13 Nov 93 22:50 EST Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Jamie Mason wrote: > 905 area code isn't ringing bell in U.S. > The United States has literally hundreds of phone companies that > need to know about last month's change for parts of the 416 area code > -- but some are still telling callers that the number doesn't exist. The Star specifically mentioned one person's experience in Frankenmuth, Michigan. I can't verify whether the company involved is Ameritech, GTE or whoever, though the Phonefiche says this is supposed to be under the Bay City/Saginaw directory area. Wonder how those folks will do when 810 gets started next month (splitting 313 Detroit region). Other cities reporting problems are Sebring, Florida (GTE or Centel?) and Palm Springs, California (GTE? PacBell?). Anyone confirm the telcos involved? Digest readers who are interested in testing 905 out could try to get Toronto weather information at +1 905 676.3066 to see if 905 will work (pre-recorded message). I work in (905) area as well, and could provide the work number(s) on request. David Leibold [Moderator's Note: Well, it works from 708-329 in Skokie. I know a couple years ago I had a battle with IBT over a new exchange which opened in the 414 area of Wisconsin. It took them two months to get around to putting it in the tables here. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mcintosh@larch.bellcore.com (Allen Mcintosh) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Organization: Bellcore, Morristown NJ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 04:13:50 GMT We have relatives in Canada, and our long distance carrier (one of the biggies) offers a plan that gives us a discount on certain numbers. Shortly after 905 became active, we called them up and asked to have the NPA changed. They were unable to do it -- whatever OSS they were using hadn't been updated. It was possible to place a call using 905, so they had at least done something. We're going to keep using 416 for a while ... ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Date: 14 Nov 1993 14:10:17 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC The most likely scenario is that these calls are coming from in-house PBXs or similar setups, and get blocked at that end. And, let's not forget the COCOTS. Then again, since we're dealing with '905', which is pretty close to '900' (which routinely gets blocked for the obvious reasons) could it be that some systems are set up to blcok '90X' area codes? Anyone out there try calling other 90X area codes and get blocked? dannyb@panix.com adds: all the usual disclaimers regarding liability, intelligence, accuracy apply. spelling disclaimer is doubled. ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Date: 14 Nov 1993 12:41:02 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Jamie Mason (g1jmason@cdf.toronto.edu) wrote: > "Bell Canada says its new 905 area code isn't getting enough > respect south of the border." > This seems, then, like an odd situation. How is it possible that > there exist "phone companies" that don't notice an area code split? The problem MAY stem from the fact that 905 was previously one of the area codes assigned to Mexico a few years ago, before it was decided that Mexico would be reached only via country code. Until about three years ago you could reach them both ways. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #758 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01031; 15 Nov 93 2:48 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26147 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 14 Nov 1993 23:53:50 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18572 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 14 Nov 1993 23:53:14 -0600 Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 23:53:14 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311150553.AA18572@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #759 TELECOM Digest Sun, 14 Nov 93 23:53:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 759 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? (Tony Pelliccio) Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? (Steve Forrette) Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (David Jones) Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? (John R. Levine) Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? (Bob Tykulsker) Re: Wiring a New Town (Tony Harminc) Re: Those Sprint FaxModems (Gary Breuckman) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (Raj Sanmugam) Re: Strange Ringback (Robert Clark) Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Russell Sharpe) Re: Earthquake Preparedness (Russell Sharpe) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Anthony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? Date: 14 Nov 1993 16:06:22 GMT Organization: Brown University Alumni & Development Office In article , uswnvg!jlbrand@uunet.UU.NET (Jack Brand) wrote: > In article OUELLETT@ucs.indiana.edu > (Denis) writes: >> 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 >> [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 > Are we sure about this one? Denis is referring to *local* calls. > Some switches don't even bother to keep records of local calls, since > there is no billing to be done on them, or at least they didn't used > to. You can bet that just about every switch made is built with the capability to record ALL the data involved with switching a call for "diagnostic" purposes of course. But subpoena records from a telephone company and I'd love to see the look of surprise on your face when they can produce records of EVERY call you've made. To that end, it's a common feature even on little KSU's called an SMDR port. This continually streams call data to a computer or printer. It captures time, date, start time, end time, number called, number of rings before pickup, which extension picked up, etc. So don't think a multimillion dollar ESS doesn't have it. Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR Anthony_Pelliccio@Brown.edu Brown University Alumni & Development Computing Services Box 1908 Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-1880 ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? Date: 14 Nov 1993 22:49:02 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , uswnvg!jlbrand@uunet.UU.NET (Jack Brand) writes: > In article OUELLETT@ucs.indiana.edu > (Denis) writes: >> 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. > [Moderator's Note: If the switch is ESS, then there are local call > records kept for some period of time. PAT] Not necessarily. It is true that just about any SPC switch is able to log all sorts of events to tape. Whether it is standard pratice for a particular telco to log unbilled local calls to tape at all is another question. The switch will log those calls that the telco has configured it to log. It may be that most telcos to enable this logging, but it is more of a prodecural and policy issue rather than a technical one. It is also quite possible that if there is no standard way for the customer service people to access the records, then as far as they are concerned they don't exist. Perhaps the telco keeps them only for traffic analysis and problem resolution purposes, and filters them out before they get into the billing database. But it is wrong to conclude that just because it is a SPC switch that it has the logging enabled. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: dej@eecg.toronto.edu (David Jones) Subject: Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 16:27:54 -0500 In article pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > I just tried the traceroute, and: traceroute to kremvax.demos.su > (192.91.186.200), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets > 1 vccfr2 (128.113.75.254) 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms > 2 psi1.rpi.edu (128.113.100.1) 27 ms 3 ms 3 ms > 3 rpi.albany.pop.psi.net (38.145.34.1) 53 ms 9 ms 13 ms > 4 core.net223.psi.net (38.1.2.6) 51 ms 66 ms 77 ms > 5 Washington.DC.ALTER.NET (192.41.177.248) 172 ms 48 ms 30 ms > 6 New-York.NY.ALTER.NET (137.39.128.2) 92 ms 420 ms 413 ms > 7 Demos-gw.ALTER.NET (137.39.96.2) 707 ms 656 ms 733 ms 679 ms > 8 kremvax.demos.su (192.91.186.200) 709 ms 733 ms 679 ms > Seems like it made it to me ... Interesting... /ecl/dej> traceroute kremvax.demos.su traceroute to kremvax.demos.su (192.91.186.200), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 cyclops.eecg.toronto.edu (128.100.10.185) 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms 2 medusa.eecg.toronto.edu (128.100.10.187) 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 3 sand.gw.toronto.edu (128.100.1.224) 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms 4 utorgw.gw.utoronto.ca (128.100.96.19) 4 ms 4 ms 4 ms 5 Epsp.ON.CAnet.CA (192.68.55.4) 71 ms 91 ms 82 ms 6 * Xpsp.ON.CAnet.CA (192.68.53.1) 131 ms 128 ms 7 ENSS133.CIT.CORNELL.EDU (192.35.82.101) 201 ms 184 ms 174 ms 8 t3-1.Hartford-cnss49.t3.ans.net (140.222.49.2) 147 ms 165 ms 134 ms 9 t3-3.Hartford-cnss48.t3.ans.net (140.222.48.4) 196 ms * 127 ms 10 t3-2.Cleveland-cnss40.t3.ans.net (140.222.40.3) 96 ms 136 ms 195 ms 11 t3-2.Chicago-cnss24.t3.ans.net (140.222.24.3) 165 ms 198 ms 185 ms 12 * t3-1.San-Francisco-cnss8.t3.ans.net (140.222.8.2) 330 ms * 13 t3-0.San-Francisco-cnss9.t3.ans.net (140.222.9.1) 183 ms 273 ms 319 ms 14 t3-0.San-Francisco-cnss11.t3.ans.net (140.222.11.1) 275 ms 292 ms * 15 * * * /ecl/dej> traceroute iguana.reptiles.org traceroute to iguana.reptiles.org (142.57.253.130), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 cyclops.eecg.toronto.edu (128.100.10.185) 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms 2 medusa.eecg.toronto.edu (128.100.10.187) 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 3 sand.gw.toronto.edu (128.100.1.224) 4 ms 17 ms 5 ms 4 utorgw.gw.utoronto.ca (128.100.96.19) 6 ms 7 ms 4 ms 5 Epsp.ON.CAnet.CA (192.68.55.4) 28 ms 32 ms 31 ms 6 Xpsp.ON.CAnet.CA (192.68.53.1) 140 ms 167 ms * 7 ENSS133.CIT.CORNELL.EDU (192.35.82.101) 183 ms 144 ms 87 ms 8 t3-1.Hartford-cnss49.t3.ans.net (140.222.49.2) 138 ms 136 ms 174 ms 9 * t3-3.Hartford-cnss48.t3.ans.net (140.222.48.4) 146 ms 107 ms 10 t3-2.New-York-cnss32.t3.ans.net (140.222.32.3) 150 ms 76 ms 66 ms 11 t3-1.Washington-DC-cnss56.t3.ans.net (140.222.56.2) 108 ms 115 ms 178 ms 12 t3-0.Washington-DC-cnss58.t3.ans.net (140.222.58.1) 137 ms 148 ms 127 ms 13 t3-0.enss136.t3.ans.net (140.222.136.1) 118 ms 222 ms 243 ms 14 Washington.DC.ALTER.NET (192.41.177.248) 290 ms 247 ms 277 ms 15 * Falls-Church1.VA.ALTER.NET (137.39.128.6) 265 ms 269 ms 16 * Falls-Church2.VA.ALTER.NET (137.39.1.2) 246 ms 369 ms 17 * alternet-gw.Toronto.UUNET.CA (137.39.7.2) 753 ms 295 ms I can't make it to demos.su (It starts off OK, but then turns west. Not good) But I can make it to the Alternet. Hmmm... David Jones, M.A.Sc student, Electronics Group (VLSI), University of Toronto email: dej@eecg.utoronto.ca, finger for more info ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 17:41 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? Organization: I.E.C.C. > I personally suspect this is a bit of a religious debate, exactly like > Betamax vs. VHS, and while technical arguments pro and con can be > made, whoever has the best marketing is going to win. (wink wink) It's certainly the case that the debate will be settled politically, but it turns out that CDMA has major technical advantages: all those claims about lots more stations, lower power, smoother handoffs, better reception in noisy and cluttered environments, shared bandwidth, more security, etc., are as far as I can tell entirely true. Spread spectrum is great stuff, it lets you substitute CPU power for broadcast power, a very good tradeoff these days. This message, for example, was sent in via a 900MHz spread spectrum wireless Ethernet which shares its band effortlessly with any other 900MHz equipment in the neighborhood. The hangup about CDMA is that it requires a lot more computation in the phone, so it's basically waiting for the required chips to be ready at a price and volume that makes the units practical, while TDMA is computationally much simpler so can be rolled out faster. Perhaps someone else can comment on what CDMA and TDMA chip sets are likely to be available when. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: bobt@zeus.net.com (Bob Tykulsker) Subject: Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? Date: 14 Nov 93 06:04:45 GMT Organization: NETWORK EQUIPMENT TECHNOLOGIES Hello, I am having a new home built and would like to install the wiring now that I might need for future technologies. What would you recommend? Cable, fiber, copper, etc. Any suggestions welcome. Regards, Bob Tykulsker, bobt@net.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 12:41:24 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Wiring a New Town From: walkerl@med.ge.com (Larry Walker) > This is a request for advice on how one should go about wiring a New > Town. I am working with a group that is designing and building a > "neo-traditional neighborhood" from scratch. Neo-traditional refers to > the concept of designing real neighborhoods with retail, commercial > and office space, a school, a neighborhood center, etc. all > integrated. It is the exact opposite of the current style of urban > growth, with isolated subdivisions here, office complexes there, and a > shopping mall somewhere else entirely. > The planner knows only that he's heard he needs 4" PVC conduit on the > streets and 2" PVC conduit to the house in order to accomodate fiber. > I am looking for suggestions as to what other technical issues he > should try to build into the plan. He has a much broader control over > requirements than is typical: If it makes sense and doesn't drive > costs up too much, he is anxious to design it in from the start, both > in the infrasructure design and in the building code. > 1) Require that all inside phone wiring be twisted pair. Q: How many > pair minimum? (Remember that this minimum would be be imposed on all > residents, not just the techno-freaks with multiple modems and fax). The incremental cost of a few more pairs is tiny in the scheme of things. I'd say four pairs minimum to each room, star topology -- not looped. > 2) On another project, he has gotten what he feels are very > competitive prices on pre-wiring all units with cable (like $150 per > house, before drywall goes on). Q: Does this make sense / is this > sufficient, with fiber-to-the-curb pending? Q: How many / which rooms > get cable? (Again, this would be a mandate for all units). Sounds like a good deal. But I think the lesson many of us have learned is that you aren't going to be able to anticipate all requirements. The only solution to this is liberal use of conduit. In may depend on local building/electrical/fire codes, but for telecom and similar low voltage wiring, it probably doesn't have to be traditional EMT or even PVC conduit -- polyethylene will do. It's not protecting the wiring as much as providing an easy alternative to fishing wires in the future. One run of 3/4" or 1" poly pipe from each room, homed on a common basement location should be ample. Often one run can serve two rooms sharing a wall. And the basement portion doesn't have to be installed until/unless the basement is finished. > What would you like to see the urban planner and the architects > provide in your neighborhood, if you planned to move into this "clean > slate" community? Expanding beyond the telecom question -- the first thing planners and architects should do is read some (preferably all) of the Jane Jacobs books, starting with "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" and "Cities and the Wealth of Nations". Then consider the relative priorities to be given to cars and pedestrians. If you choose cars, then there's not much more I can say. And one personal crusade: consider the nature of street lighting. If at all possible, use incandescant lights, preferably halogens. If energy efficiency concerns won't allow this, use metal halides. Avoid like the plague sodium and mercury lighting. Light the sidewalks first, and worry about the streets later, if at all. You want a community where people *want* to be out and about on the streets and public places at all hours - not locked behind bolted doors and alarm systems. Obviously street layout and lighting are not the only determinants of this, but they are a base. This sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime. Good luck! Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Those Sprint FaxModems Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 20:00:47 GMT In article mearle@cbi.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) writes: > The V.42 and MNP 2-4 are in _software_ when using the provided Quick > Link ][ fax/data software. > Using the modem with a "standard" program such as Procomm gets you a > plane jane 2400 modem. > Oh, speed of data: Despite having mnp and v42, you can't select higher > than 2400 as the modem to computer speed. If you select 9600, you can > talk to the modem, but it connects to the host at 300. This may be Talking to the modem at faster than 2400 would not be possible or any advantage. With a 'real' V.42/V.42bis modem, using a faster computer- to-modem speed is an advantage because the compression is being done in the modem. In this case, the compression is being done in the software, and the already compressed data being sent to the modem. It can't take it faster than 2400 anyway. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: lmcrajy@LMC.ericsson.se (Raj Sanmugam) Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Frau Reply-To: lmcrajy@LMC.ericsson.se Organization: Ericsson Communications Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 21:00:04 GMT Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com Writes: > One detail that is conspicuously absent from the description is how it > works with roamers. Since the PacTel Los Angeles system won't have a > fingerprint on file for every phone in North America, it has no way of > verifying the legitimacy of a roamer. And isn't this where all of the > phraud is? Will PacTel only accept roamers from systems that also > have this system? This doesn't seem practical, but any other option > would result in the bad guys using MINs/ESNs from systems that don't > have the new system in place. Personaly, the fingerprinting concept appears to be too good to be true. Let us assume it works, then one possible way roaming can be supported is as follows. The signal transmission characteristics or the fingerprint of each mobile could be recorded and made available in a national database such as the one called for in the IS-41, the EIR. Whenever a roamer requests a service, the fingerprint measured at the accessing site along with the mobile's identity could then be transferred to the EIR for validation. This is sort of like the early manual roamer clearing house solutions... > Another poster assumed that the fingerprint might only be specific > down to the model of phone. I think this is not true from the > description others have posted, but the question came up as to how the > thieves would find out the make and model for the MIN/ESN they want to > clone. Aren't the ESNs issued in blocks to manufacturers from some > central body, much like automobile VIN's? If so, then the > manufacturer would be a matter of public record based on the first few > digits of the ESN, and the breakdown amongst a single manufacturer's > models could be determined through general observations. You are right! According to EIA/TIA 553, the ESN is made up of an eight bit manufacturer code and a seventeen bit serial number and six bits of reserved bits. The FCC allocates a block of serial numbers to each manufacturer. In fact, a popular fraud technique known as "tumbling" uses these information to cycle through the serial numbers until a valid one is found. ------------------------------ From: aa439@Freenet.carleton.ca (Robert Clark) Subject: Re: Strange Ringback Reply-To: aa439@Freenet.carleton.ca (Robert Clark) Organization: The National Capital Freenet Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 19:53:15 GMT In a previous article, jeffb@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Jeff Bamford) says: > I had a rather bizarre experience with the phone last night > and thought that someone here may be able to shed some light on the > subject. For starters the phone line has four features on it : Call > Display, Call Answer, Call Waiting and Three-Way Calling (Aside: Good > ole Bell Canada they may charge $30 to move your phone line but they > gave three features for free for eight weeks!). > I dialed up someone and left a message via Call Answer to > myself. That is I called my own number to leave a message. Since the > calls forward to the Call Answer number when the line is busy I > immediately got my message. I then left a message for someone else in > the household and hung up the phone. The phone then rang back (which > sometimes happens when you "hang up" on someone with Call Waiting). > The display showed no number was calling, in fact the Call Display > said nothing which I found curious. I picked up the phone but there > was no one there so I hung up thinking that somehow the Call Waiting > got confused because I called myself. I then tried the same thing > again (i.e. leave myself a message by phoning my number). I left > another message and then hung up. > This time the phone also rang back with no display for the number. I > let the phone ring more than four times which should forward it to the > answering service but this did not work. It just kept ringing. I > picked it up and was rather surprised to hear people talking on the > other end. Not really knowing quite what to do I hung up. I tried to > duplicate the experiment but I could not get the phone to ring back. > Perhaps I'll try again today. Has this happened to anyone else? I've never experienced the "ring back" that you described. But I do fairly frequently find that my "Call Answer" (i.e. Bell Canada's voice mail service) message include _both_ sides of a conversation ... the most recent episode seemed to be between the wife of one of the recently fallen Progressive Conservative government's CABINET MINISTERS and one of his staff or friends discussing the "changes" to their lives about to occur. Don't know how this finds it's way into my voice mailbox though! Rob Clark Ottawa, Canada aa439@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: sharpe_r@ix.wcc.govt.nz (Russell Sharpe) Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications Date: 14 Nov 1993 10:01:50 GMT Organization: Wellington City Council, Public Access Reply-To: sharpe_r@ix.wcc.govt.nz > I've been told that after an earthquake, if you can't get a call > through, try using a payphone. Supposedly, the phone company will > arbitrarily put some calls through and not others when the load is too > high, but payphone calls will always go through. After the Loma > Prieta quake, we tried calling a high school teacher while reporting > for the school paper. No one previously had been able to reach her > (calling SF from Oakland), but we did from a payphone, so it > apparently works. > [Moderator's Note: Or else that particular payphone at that particular > time was one of the arbitrarily chosen phones to get a line out. PAT] In New Zealand we have facilities that can be added to lines: *LOAD SHEDDING PRIORITY* which will, in the event of a switch load shedding, These lines will be among the last to be cut off, and the first to be reinstated. *STD Priority* Allows the caller to make Toll calls though <100% restricted switches. The above facilities, can be applied to a line for a *small fee* *OPERATOR CATEGORY* Is applied only to Emergency Services, and Toll/Emergency Operator Lines. *MAINTENANCE CATEGORY* Is used by the Telco Technicians, for the *resurrection* of service. This is the last to be restricted in the I assume in the States there will be similar services available. Can anyone confirm this? Cheers, Russell Sharpe UseNet: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz FidoNet: 3:771/370 & 3:771/160 Voice: +64 4 5639099 snailmail: 171 Holborn Drive Stokes Valley 6008 New Zealand ------------------------------ From: sharpe_r@ix.wcc.govt.nz (Russell Sharpe) Subject: Re: Earthquake Preparedness Date: 14 Nov 1993 10:16:15 GMT Organization: Wellington City Council, Public Access Reply-To: sharpe_r@ix.wcc.govt.nz In article , stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In , sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz > (russell sharpe) writes: [BITS DELETED AD NAUSEUM] > With the equipment in this state, and earthquake occurred, and the new > unit fell over since it was not bolted down. The thing is, since all > of the cables had enough extra slack that had uncoiled when it fell > over, nothing broke, and it was indeed still functioning perfectly and > in service. Pacific Bell placed a call to Northern Telecom to enquire > as to what the recommended procedure was to upright the cabinet while > it was in service. This reportedly took NT quite by surprise, as they > had never encountered or even thought of such a situation. They > finally got back to them with instructions to lift it back to the > regular position by hand while leaving it in service, and to bolt it > down this time. This leads me to yet another story ... one of my colleagues, sadly long deceased, related a story of rotary switches in London during WWII. One switch, after the building being bombed, continued working, albiet badly, despite the fact that there was no longer a floor!!! The switch was hanging by its cables over an abyss. I find this most impressive, considering cables in those days were wax cotton coated and/or enammelled. The fault rate must have been incredible!!! Does anyone have any more exciting or unbelievable stories? Cheers, Russell Sharpe UseNet: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz FidoNet: 3:771/370 & 3:771/160 Voice: +64 4 5639099 snailmail: 171 Holborn Drive Stokes Valley 6008 New Zealand ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #759 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01647; 15 Nov 93 4:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22734 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4); Mon, 15 Nov 1993 01:33:10 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07946 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 15 Nov 1993 01:32:34 -0600 Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 01:32:34 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311150732.AA07946@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #760 TELECOM Digest Mon, 15 Nov 93 01:32:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 760 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Remote Call Forwarding (Peter Tindall) Re: Nationwide GTE 800 Outage? (Macy M. Hallock) Re: AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers (Ken Thompson) Re: Problems With CNID (Chris Farrar) Re: Nationwide Caller ID (Chris Farrar) Need Caller ID / Number Identification Help (Reinhard A. Hamid) Re: Motorola Cellular Tech Manual Wanted (Ed Greenberg) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Jack Decker) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (James Taranto) Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk (James R. Ebright) Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems (Brett Frankenberger) Cell Phone Suggestions Sought (John R. Levine) Re: Help: Need to Query V&H Database (Dave Niebuhr) Questions About New Numbering Plan (Jim Wohlford) Re: Microsoft Telephony API/SPI (Nigel Roles) "Q" Not Followed by "U"? In English? (Steve Atlas) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Remote Call Forwarding Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 00:29:00 EST From: Peter Tindall In article @eecs.nwu.edu barnett@convex.com (Paul Barnett) writes: > This is the same solution that I use. However, I would like to > point out that not ALL cellular providers will forward your calls free. > According to my third-party compilation of roaming agreements and > standard service policies, some charge air-time even when a call is > simply routed through their switch and forwarded to another number. Yes. Cantel (at least in Ontario and Quebec) has started charging for call forwarding minutes (only when the total call forwarding in a month exceeds 1000 minutes). Example: You use 999 minutes : No charge You use 1000 minutes : you pay $500.00 (+50c/minute for all minutes extra). I really believed this was a typo -- so I contacted the regulator here in Canada (the CRTC) and obtained a copy of the amended tariff page. Sure enough it is correct. I also understand that the no charge threshold was recently increased from 1000 to 2500 for corporate users, although I have no official confirmation -- just the mumblings of a Cantel customer service rep. I do believe that a token charge is in order since some resources are tied up, but charging the same (50c) per minute for both airtime and call forwarding time (which uses only a tiny part of the switch's resources) is unfair. Peter Tindall VE3TJP ptindall@accesspt.north.net (905) 820-7052 af288@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: fmsystm!fmsys!macy@wariat.org Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 08:09 EST Subject: Re: Nationwide GTE 800 Outage? Reply-To: macy@telemax.com Organization: F M Systems/Telemax Medina, Ohio USA In article bnunes@netcom.com (Brian Nunes) writes: > I work in West Los Angeles, also covered by GTE, and we too could not > dial out to any 800 numbers yesterday. GTE here in Ohio lost their link to the 800 database at least twice not too long after 800 portability went into effect. I've had clients give me trouble reports since then that sound like the link has been out of service for several short periods since then. Macy M. Hallock, Jr. N8OBG +1.216.723.3030 macy@telemax.com macy@fms.com Telemax, Inc. - F M Systems, Inc. 152 Highland Drive Medina, OH USA ------------------------------ From: ken thompson Subject: Re: AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers Date: 14 Nov 93 14:42:00 GMT Organization: NCR Corporation Wichita, KS dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > Don't forget ... this directory lists only those businesses who have > AT&T 800 service. A great many other businesses also have 800 numbers, > but won't be in the book. Actually only those who PAY to be in the book are listed. Ken Thompson N0ITL Disk Array Hardware Development Peripheral Products MPD-Wichita NCR Corp. an AT&T company 3718 N. Rock Road Wichita,Ks 67226 (316) 636-8783 Ken.Thompson@wichitaks.ncr.com [Moderator's Note: You are correct. The default on 800 numbers is exactly the opposite of regular (or 'POTS') service where the norm is be listed for free and pay for non-pub. With 800 service, non-pub is free and you pay to be listed, either in printed books or with the 800-555-1212 database. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: comp.dcom.telecom@cld9.com Subject: Re: Problems With CNID From: chris.farrar@cld9.com (Chris Farrar) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 11:16:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications Lunatix!chelf@ms.uky.edu said something along the lines of the following: > When the in-use light went on, some rather strange data noises could > be heard over the scanner, then nothing (like a dead line). I left it > there for a long while and never heard anyone talking or anything like > that. > Could it be possible that Caller ID is at fault? Or, more likely (in > my opinion), the phone needs to be junked. It seems as if the phone > *itself* is calling places at random. I'd say it was the phone myself. He should try a normal phone on his line, and see if the problem disappears. From the sounds of it, someone in the area may have a cordless that is triggering his base. Chris chris.farrar@f20.n246.z1.fidonet.org Origin: CSRNET Reply To: user@csrnet.cld9.com (11:100/160) ------------------------------ Reply-To: comp.dcom.telecom@cld9.com Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID From: chris.farrar@cld9.com (Chris Farrar) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 11:36:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications Emmanuel@well.sf.ca.us said something along the lines of the following: > but not from others where Caller ID definitely works. Dialing *67 has > no effect -- your number is always transmitted onto the Caller ID box > regardless of privacy setting. This may indicate that Caller ID data > is really sent on all calls, including the private ones, which means > the possibility exists of capturing it on non-800 calls. Strange. I have a caller id system on my computer, and it actually lets you see what was sent. Bell Canada uses the multi-message format, and when you dial *67 before making the call, the string in the computer definitely shows an absene of the incoming number. Caller ID signal with a phone number (multi-message format): ff80 13 1 8 31 31 30 36 30 39 31 34 3 7 39 37 39 34 32 30 38 4d Caller ID signal with call blocking received ff80 d 1 8 31 31 30 36 31 32 37 4 1 50 ff83 Field 1 has 8 digits, and contains date and time. Field 3 (in first example, contains 7 digits, and is the phone number, with 4d as the checksum. In the call with blocking, field 3 is missing, but there is a field 4, which contains 1 digit, namely 50 hex, which indicates the reason the message is missing is because the caller is using blocking (*67) Chris Origin: CSRNET Reply To: user@csrnet.cld9.com (11:100/160) ------------------------------ From: hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de (Reinhard Abdel Hamid) Subject: Need Caller ID / Number Identification Help Reply-To: hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de Organization: Universitaet Hannover, Theoretische Nachrichtentechnik Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 11:37:38 GMT Hello Americans ! I am able to use an international voicemail network that is able to send messages to every telephone in the United States. But for a test I would like to know the American number it is calling from, when it sends messages. So, who (with an caller-id display) could help and email me the telephone-number I can send my test voicemail to? Later I will call you and ask for the number, the display showed during my voicemail. Thanks in advance. Greetings from Germany. Reinhard hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de [Moderator's Note: The thing you'll need to take care on is to find a place where *inter-lata* caller-id is working; otherwise you'll want someone in the same community as the voicemail. Do you know *where* in the USA the voicemail system is located? What town or what state? You may otherwise waste your time putting through calls only to get a report from your American contact that the caller-id display said the calling number was 'out of area' or similar. Caller-id is not yet universal here you know, or even very common between different LATAs. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 11:27:57 -0800 From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Motorola Cellular Tech Manual Wanted Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) The manual is called the Technical Training Manual and costs $30 plus S&H from Motorola. The number is 1-800-331-6456 for USA transactions only. Overseas orders and inquiries may be sent by FAX ONLY to +1 708 523 8060. I will be receiving mine early next week. I will post a review to {Telecom-Tech} and TELECOM Digest. Note: Although I haven't received it, my credit card was charged about $38 already. The claimed next day shipment by UPS, and I didn't expect to have it yet (and don't :-) Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 18:07:02 -0500 From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Reply-To: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu In a previous article, djcl@grin.io.org (David Leibold) says: > The Star specifically mentioned one person's experience in Frankenmuth, > Michigan. I can't verify whether the company involved is Ameritech, GTE > or whoever, though the Phonefiche says this is supposed to be under the > Bay City/Saginaw directory area. Wonder how those folks will do when > 810 gets started next month (splitting 313 Detroit region). According to my Michigan LATA map, Frankenmuth is Michigan Bell (now Ameritech), as is all but one of the adjacent exchanges (the exception is Millington, served by the Wolverine Telephone Company). Frankenmuth is in the Saginaw LATA (northern half of the 517 area code). Jack ------------------------------ From: taranto@panix.com (James Taranto) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Date: 14 Nov 1993 21:07:44 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC djcl@grin.io.org wrote: > Digest readers who are interested in testing 905 out could try to get > Toronto weather information at +1 905 676.3066 to see if 905 will work > (pre-recorded message). I work in (905) area as well, and could > provide the work number(s) on request. It works from Brooklyn, N.Y., though the recording said it was nine degrees out. Can that be right? It was in the 70s today in NYC! Cheers, James Taranto taranto@panix.com ------------------------------ From: jebright@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James R Ebright) Subject: Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk Date: 15 Nov 1993 03:33:11 GMT Organization: The Ohio State University In article john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) writes: > oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: >> I should think that New York Telephone, which fills the front pages of >> every telephone directory with glowing talk of up-to-date digital >> technology, would be embarassed at its apparent failure to deploy ISDN >> beyond a handful of Manhattan exchanges. > It's almost a 'catch-22' proposition. The phone companies are slow to > implement ISDN because there is little demand for it and the demand is > waiting for the service to become available. Huh? ISDN was originally a way to get 56KB service ... but modems on regular analog lines can almost do this today. ISDN vs market forces. ISDN 0, Market 1. > This is just another example of the difficult time we will have > installing a nationwide 'information highway'. It will be if TPC (the phone company) is in charge of installation ;) > I guess the only way to move the telephone companies is for tens of > thousands of us little guys to keep asking them for ISDN until they > wake up and realize that they are losing big bucks in not providing > this vital service. Buy a V.fast modem for $499 and get most of the benefit without the aggrevation of Waiting For Godot ... Jim Ebright e-mail: jre+@osu.edu ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 03:34:19 GMT mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) writes: > The only thing I would add is that making a device like this and > *using* it would violate the federal wiretapping laws, which is a > felony. No. It is illegal, but it violates the ECPA, not wire tapping laws. > It may be true that cellular phone use isn't really private, because > anyone could be listening, but it's no more legal for them to listen > than it is for them to bug your bedroom or boardroom. As a practical matter, though, it might as well not be illegal, because it is virtually unenforcable. And I know of no instances of prosecution for violation of the ECPA. (Some people feel that it is unconstitutional, but that's a separate issue). > Under federal law, any conversation going through a cellular switch is > considered a telephone conversation subject to the wiretap laws (the > technical term is "wire communication". A cellular phone is just as > private as a landline phone, because people have the same legal right > not to be "scanned" as they do not to have someone tapping in on a > craft set. Nope. In fact, cordless telephones do not have a special act protecting them, and it is perfectly legal for you to listen to your neighbors (or anyone else's) cordless telephone conversations (providing that you do so by monitoring the air waves, not by tapping into their physical wires). The fact that the conversation eventually passes through a regular land-line switch (or even, a cellular switch, if they happen to be talking to a celluler phone on the other end), is not relevant. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Cell Phone Suggestions Sought Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 0:14:16 EST I'm looking for a cell phone for my car. I go back and forth between home, in Boston where cell service works fine, and my tiny timber barony, in northern Vermont, where cell service is marginal, though supposed to be better when they add towers in a few months. Desirable criteria: -- good performance in marginal conditions -- multiple NAMs -- hands free feature, if it works well enough that callers can hear you over the noise in the car Any suggestions? Also, experience with the local cell carriers here (NYNEX and Cell One/Boston) and Vermont (Contel and Cell One/Vermont-Western-New- Hampshire) would be appreciated. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 16:41:08 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Help: Need to Query V&H Database In TELECOM Digest V13 #751 neptune!banks@iex.iex.com (Nathan Banks) writes: > Here in Texas, the state Senate recently passed legislation (SB 632) > allowing rural communities to petition the PUC to extend their > respective local calling scopes to "communities of interest" of up to > 22 miles. > I am currently researching my community's locality of interest by > looking at county maps and interviewing members of the community to > ascertain their civic and business needs outside of our current 2-3 > mile local calling scope. > I was wondering if someone could suggest how I might access a "V&H" > coordinate database to query the following information. If a little work isn't minded, then the first thing to do would be to get a local map and using the mileage guide (how many miles to an inch) and take a compass, set it to as close to the mileage desired as possible and draw a circle around the desired community(ies) using your community as the center of the circle. Then using the telephone book, look up the community names within that circle and obtain the NXXs for them. Failing that, you could contact the telco for information. Another way is by driving to those communities and noting the mileage. Say you have to take care of some business in Community B and you live in Community A. Just note the mileage on your vehicle when you start and note it when you get to Community B. You probably come up with the figures that the telco has since I think that they are based on airline miles, not road; you'll be close though. I do this when I travel to compute driving costs per mile, time per trip, driving costs per mile including food stops/breaks, overall time, etc. Sounds nutty but its fun to me and helps me keep track of expenses. 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 ------------------------------ Subject: Questions About New Numbering Plan Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 00:38:08 EST From: Jim Wohlford I am researching for a paper on numbering plan changes, and would appreciate any late breaking news or information concerning the following: 1) Who will administer the plan after Bellcore retires? 2) How will the PBX world deal with maintenance and upgrade of their routing plans? 3) What, if any, involvement might the FCC have? 4) How will telecom ever be simple again? Any info will be graciously accepted at jwohlfor@gmu.edu. I have read all that I can find in the industry magazines, but I find more questions than answers. I will summarize my findings for a later posting. Thanks in advance! Jim Wohlford Compuserve 70214,636 jwohlfor@gmu.edu George Mason University Telecommunications Program ------------------------------ From: nigel@cotswold.demon.co.uk (Nigel Roles) Subject: Re: Microsoft Telephony API/SPI Reply-To: nigel@cotswold.demon.co.uk Organization: Interconnect Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 11:19:09 In article joe@erix.ericsson.se (Joe Armstrong) writes: > Does anybody have any information available about products which use > the recently published Microsoft Telephony API/SPI? > Do you think the Microsoft Telephony API will catch on? Up to now the > CCITT has been the principle organisation responsible for telephony > standards. The microsoft API seems to represent a radical departure > from this. Is this the future? [Select Switch Designers Hat] Good question. Anyone can invent a standard, but in telephony unless it follows existing standards you might have an acceptance problem. Conversely Miscrosft are inevitably a force to be reckoned with. Personally, the AT&T Novell Telephony API looks much better. It follows the CSTA call model, and as such looks much more professional in that it appears to have been written from the telecomms perspective, not the computer perspective. This strikes me as vital if you want switch manufacturers to support it. There are other issues as well; both specs. are pretty big, but Microsoft's looks quite unmanageably large, as opposed to just plain daunting. We intend going the AT&T Novell route. [Select PC Programmers Hat] There is not a lot to choose between the two specs. A non-telecomms programmer might not perceive the better pedigree of the AT&T Novell one because the nomenclature (calls, connections, devices, states) will be completely new stuff either way. ------------------------------ From: atlas@newshost.pictel.com (Steve Atlas) Subject: "Q" Not Followed by "U"? In English? Organization: PictureTel Corporation Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 04:27:04 GMT > [Moderator's Note: ... > The problem with Q is that it must be followed by U in 99 percent of all > words in common use ...] Pat, Your explanation of why Q and Z don't appear the telephone dial was interesting, but to be picky, what English words contain the letter "q" not followed by "u"? I know there are Arabic names such as Iraq and Qatar, as well as people whose Arabic names are transliterated. But English words? Steve Atlas atlas@pictel.com [Moderator's Note: Well, if you want to discriminate against the Arabs, you're going to make my job answering this one a lot harder. :) QADARITES were members of an early Muslin philisophical school assert- ing the doctrine of free will in opposition to the Jabarites. QINTARS are monetary units in Albania. Each QINTAR is equal to 1/100 lek. QOPH (sometimes spelled KOPH) is the 19th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. A few you can look up on your own: QARMATION QASHQAI QERE QERI QYRGHYZ A real motley collection, eh? In conclusion, please remember that TELECOM Digest is supported through the generous gifts of readers who benefit by the articles here and the material in the Telecom Archives. I pay the bills (mostly for the phone, generally about $200-300 per month for the connection, etc, and friends help me pay my phone bill and feed the cats. All gifts are acknowledged and appreciated. Checks payable to Ameritech are perfectly acceptable and will be used to retire my old phone bill in Chicago. (Skokie phone rates are much cheaper; I don't expect the bill to go over a hundred dollars per month here). If you prefer, checks can also be payable to TELECOM Digest earmarked for production and distribution of this journal. If you want a specific accounting of how your gift was used, just ask for it anytime. Our mailing address remains: 2241 W. Howard, Chicago, IL 60645. Thanks very much for all your help. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #760 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02091; 15 Nov 93 5:21 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04915 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 15 Nov 1993 02:24:29 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04169 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 15 Nov 1993 02:23:48 -0600 Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 02:23:48 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311150823.AA04169@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #760 TELECOM Digest Mon, 15 Nov 93 01:32:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 760 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Remote Call Forwarding (Peter Tindall) Re: Nationwide GTE 800 Outage? (Macy M. Hallock) Re: AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers (Ken Thompson) Re: Problems With CNID (Chris Farrar) Re: Nationwide Caller ID (Chris Farrar) Need Caller ID / Number Identification Help (Reinhard A. Hamid) Re: Motorola Cellular Tech Manual Wanted (Ed Greenberg) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Jack Decker) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (James Taranto) Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk (James R. Ebright) Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems (Brett Frankenberger) Cell Phone Suggestions Sought (John R. Levine) Re: Help: Need to Query V&H Database (Dave Niebuhr) Questions About New Numbering Plan (Jim Wohlford) Re: Microsoft Telephony API/SPI (Nigel Roles) "Q" Not Followed by "U"? In English? (Steve Atlas) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Remote Call Forwarding Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 00:29:00 EST From: Peter Tindall In article @eecs.nwu.edu barnett@convex.com (Paul Barnett) writes: > This is the same solution that I use. However, I would like to > point out that not ALL cellular providers will forward your calls free. > According to my third-party compilation of roaming agreements and > standard service policies, some charge air-time even when a call is > simply routed through their switch and forwarded to another number. Yes. Cantel (at least in Ontario and Quebec) has started charging for call forwarding minutes (only when the total call forwarding in a month exceeds 1000 minutes). Example: You use 999 minutes : No charge You use 1000 minutes : you pay $500.00 (+50c/minute for all minutes extra). I really believed this was a typo -- so I contacted the regulator here in Canada (the CRTC) and obtained a copy of the amended tariff page. Sure enough it is correct. I also understand that the no charge threshold was recently increased from 1000 to 2500 for corporate users, although I have no official confirmation -- just the mumblings of a Cantel customer service rep. I do believe that a token charge is in order since some resources are tied up, but charging the same (50c) per minute for both airtime and call forwarding time (which uses only a tiny part of the switch's resources) is unfair. Peter Tindall VE3TJP ptindall@accesspt.north.net (905) 820-7052 af288@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: fmsystm!fmsys!macy@wariat.org Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 08:09 EST Subject: Re: Nationwide GTE 800 Outage? Reply-To: macy@telemax.com Organization: F M Systems/Telemax Medina, Ohio USA In article bnunes@netcom.com (Brian Nunes) writes: > I work in West Los Angeles, also covered by GTE, and we too could not > dial out to any 800 numbers yesterday. GTE here in Ohio lost their link to the 800 database at least twice not too long after 800 portability went into effect. I've had clients give me trouble reports since then that sound like the link has been out of service for several short periods since then. Macy M. Hallock, Jr. N8OBG +1.216.723.3030 macy@telemax.com macy@fms.com Telemax, Inc. - F M Systems, Inc. 152 Highland Drive Medina, OH USA ------------------------------ From: ken thompson Subject: Re: AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers Date: 14 Nov 93 14:42:00 GMT Organization: NCR Corporation Wichita, KS dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > Don't forget ... this directory lists only those businesses who have > AT&T 800 service. A great many other businesses also have 800 numbers, > but won't be in the book. Actually only those who PAY to be in the book are listed. Ken Thompson N0ITL Disk Array Hardware Development Peripheral Products MPD-Wichita NCR Corp. an AT&T company 3718 N. Rock Road Wichita,Ks 67226 (316) 636-8783 Ken.Thompson@wichitaks.ncr.com [Moderator's Note: You are correct. The default on 800 numbers is exactly the opposite of regular (or 'POTS') service where the norm is be listed for free and pay for non-pub. With 800 service, non-pub is free and you pay to be listed, either in printed books or with the 800-555-1212 database. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: comp.dcom.telecom@cld9.com Subject: Re: Problems With CNID From: chris.farrar@cld9.com (Chris Farrar) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 11:16:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications Lunatix!chelf@ms.uky.edu said something along the lines of the following: > When the in-use light went on, some rather strange data noises could > be heard over the scanner, then nothing (like a dead line). I left it > there for a long while and never heard anyone talking or anything like > that. > Could it be possible that Caller ID is at fault? Or, more likely (in > my opinion), the phone needs to be junked. It seems as if the phone > *itself* is calling places at random. I'd say it was the phone myself. He should try a normal phone on his line, and see if the problem disappears. From the sounds of it, someone in the area may have a cordless that is triggering his base. Chris chris.farrar@f20.n246.z1.fidonet.org Origin: CSRNET Reply To: user@csrnet.cld9.com (11:100/160) ------------------------------ Reply-To: comp.dcom.telecom@cld9.com Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID From: chris.farrar@cld9.com (Chris Farrar) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 11:36:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications Emmanuel@well.sf.ca.us said something along the lines of the following: > but not from others where Caller ID definitely works. Dialing *67 has > no effect -- your number is always transmitted onto the Caller ID box > regardless of privacy setting. This may indicate that Caller ID data > is really sent on all calls, including the private ones, which means > the possibility exists of capturing it on non-800 calls. Strange. I have a caller id system on my computer, and it actually lets you see what was sent. Bell Canada uses the multi-message format, and when you dial *67 before making the call, the string in the computer definitely shows an absene of the incoming number. Caller ID signal with a phone number (multi-message format): ff80 13 1 8 31 31 30 36 30 39 31 34 3 7 39 37 39 34 32 30 38 4d Caller ID signal with call blocking received ff80 d 1 8 31 31 30 36 31 32 37 4 1 50 ff83 Field 1 has 8 digits, and contains date and time. Field 3 (in first example, contains 7 digits, and is the phone number, with 4d as the checksum. In the call with blocking, field 3 is missing, but there is a field 4, which contains 1 digit, namely 50 hex, which indicates the reason the message is missing is because the caller is using blocking (*67) Chris Origin: CSRNET Reply To: user@csrnet.cld9.com (11:100/160) ------------------------------ From: hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de (Reinhard Abdel Hamid) Subject: Need Caller ID / Number Identification Help Reply-To: hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de Organization: Universitaet Hannover, Theoretische Nachrichtentechnik Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 11:37:38 GMT Hello Americans ! I am able to use an international voicemail network that is able to send messages to every telephone in the United States. But for a test I would like to know the American number it is calling from, when it sends messages. So, who (with an caller-id display) could help and email me the telephone-number I can send my test voicemail to? Later I will call you and ask for the number, the display showed during my voicemail. Thanks in advance. Greetings from Germany. Reinhard hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de [Moderator's Note: The thing you'll need to take care on is to find a place where *inter-lata* caller-id is working; otherwise you'll want someone in the same community as the voicemail. Do you know *where* in the USA the voicemail system is located? What town or what state? You may otherwise waste your time putting through calls only to get a report from your American contact that the caller-id display said the calling number was 'out of area' or similar. Caller-id is not yet universal here you know, or even very common between different LATAs. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 11:27:57 -0800 From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Motorola Cellular Tech Manual Wanted Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) The manual is called the Technical Training Manual and costs $30 plus S&H from Motorola. The number is 1-800-331-6456 for USA transactions only. Overseas orders and inquiries may be sent by FAX ONLY to +1 708 523 8060. I will be receiving mine early next week. I will post a review to {Telecom-Tech} and TELECOM Digest. Note: Although I haven't received it, my credit card was charged about $38 already. The claimed next day shipment by UPS, and I didn't expect to have it yet (and don't :-) Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 18:07:02 -0500 From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Reply-To: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu In a previous article, djcl@grin.io.org (David Leibold) says: > The Star specifically mentioned one person's experience in Frankenmuth, > Michigan. I can't verify whether the company involved is Ameritech, GTE > or whoever, though the Phonefiche says this is supposed to be under the > Bay City/Saginaw directory area. Wonder how those folks will do when > 810 gets started next month (splitting 313 Detroit region). According to my Michigan LATA map, Frankenmuth is Michigan Bell (now Ameritech), as is all but one of the adjacent exchanges (the exception is Millington, served by the Wolverine Telephone Company). Frankenmuth is in the Saginaw LATA (northern half of the 517 area code). Jack ------------------------------ From: taranto@panix.com (James Taranto) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Date: 14 Nov 1993 21:07:44 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC djcl@grin.io.org wrote: > Digest readers who are interested in testing 905 out could try to get > Toronto weather information at +1 905 676.3066 to see if 905 will work > (pre-recorded message). I work in (905) area as well, and could > provide the work number(s) on request. It works from Brooklyn, N.Y., though the recording said it was nine degrees out. Can that be right? It was in the 70s today in NYC! Cheers, James Taranto taranto@panix.com ------------------------------ From: jebright@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James R Ebright) Subject: Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk Date: 15 Nov 1993 03:33:11 GMT Organization: The Ohio State University In article john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) writes: > oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: >> I should think that New York Telephone, which fills the front pages of >> every telephone directory with glowing talk of up-to-date digital >> technology, would be embarassed at its apparent failure to deploy ISDN >> beyond a handful of Manhattan exchanges. > It's almost a 'catch-22' proposition. The phone companies are slow to > implement ISDN because there is little demand for it and the demand is > waiting for the service to become available. Huh? ISDN was originally a way to get 56KB service ... but modems on regular analog lines can almost do this today. ISDN vs market forces. ISDN 0, Market 1. > This is just another example of the difficult time we will have > installing a nationwide 'information highway'. It will be if TPC (the phone company) is in charge of installation ;) > I guess the only way to move the telephone companies is for tens of > thousands of us little guys to keep asking them for ISDN until they > wake up and realize that they are losing big bucks in not providing > this vital service. Buy a V.fast modem for $499 and get most of the benefit without the aggrevation of Waiting For Godot ... Jim Ebright e-mail: jre+@osu.edu ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 03:34:19 GMT mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) writes: > The only thing I would add is that making a device like this and > *using* it would violate the federal wiretapping laws, which is a > felony. No. It is illegal, but it violates the ECPA, not wire tapping laws. > It may be true that cellular phone use isn't really private, because > anyone could be listening, but it's no more legal for them to listen > than it is for them to bug your bedroom or boardroom. As a practical matter, though, it might as well not be illegal, because it is virtually unenforcable. And I know of no instances of prosecution for violation of the ECPA. (Some people feel that it is unconstitutional, but that's a separate issue). > Under federal law, any conversation going through a cellular switch is > considered a telephone conversation subject to the wiretap laws (the > technical term is "wire communication". A cellular phone is just as > private as a landline phone, because people have the same legal right > not to be "scanned" as they do not to have someone tapping in on a > craft set. Nope. In fact, cordless telephones do not have a special act protecting them, and it is perfectly legal for you to listen to your neighbors (or anyone else's) cordless telephone conversations (providing that you do so by monitoring the air waves, not by tapping into their physical wires). The fact that the conversation eventually passes through a regular land-line switch (or even, a cellular switch, if they happen to be talking to a celluler phone on the other end), is not relevant. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Cell Phone Suggestions Sought Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 0:14:16 EST I'm looking for a cell phone for my car. I go back and forth between home, in Boston where cell service works fine, and my tiny timber barony, in northern Vermont, where cell service is marginal, though supposed to be better when they add towers in a few months. Desirable criteria: -- good performance in marginal conditions -- multiple NAMs -- hands free feature, if it works well enough that callers can hear you over the noise in the car Any suggestions? Also, experience with the local cell carriers here (NYNEX and Cell One/Boston) and Vermont (Contel and Cell One/Vermont-Western-New- Hampshire) would be appreciated. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 16:41:08 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Help: Need to Query V&H Database In TELECOM Digest V13 #751 neptune!banks@iex.iex.com (Nathan Banks) writes: > Here in Texas, the state Senate recently passed legislation (SB 632) > allowing rural communities to petition the PUC to extend their > respective local calling scopes to "communities of interest" of up to > 22 miles. > I am currently researching my community's locality of interest by > looking at county maps and interviewing members of the community to > ascertain their civic and business needs outside of our current 2-3 > mile local calling scope. > I was wondering if someone could suggest how I might access a "V&H" > coordinate database to query the following information. If a little work isn't minded, then the first thing to do would be to get a local map and using the mileage guide (how many miles to an inch) and take a compass, set it to as close to the mileage desired as possible and draw a circle around the desired community(ies) using your community as the center of the circle. Then using the telephone book, look up the community names within that circle and obtain the NXXs for them. Failing that, you could contact the telco for information. Another way is by driving to those communities and noting the mileage. Say you have to take care of some business in Community B and you live in Community A. Just note the mileage on your vehicle when you start and note it when you get to Community B. You probably come up with the figures that the telco has since I think that they are based on airline miles, not road; you'll be close though. I do this when I travel to compute driving costs per mile, time per trip, driving costs per mile including food stops/breaks, overall time, etc. Sounds nutty but its fun to me and helps me keep track of expenses. 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 ------------------------------ Subject: Questions About New Numbering Plan Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 00:38:08 EST From: Jim Wohlford I am researching for a paper on numbering plan changes, and would appreciate any late breaking news or information concerning the following: 1) Who will administer the plan after Bellcore retires? 2) How will the PBX world deal with maintenance and upgrade of their routing plans? 3) What, if any, involvement might the FCC have? 4) How will telecom ever be simple again? Any info will be graciously accepted at jwohlfor@gmu.edu. I have read all that I can find in the industry magazines, but I find more questions than answers. I will summarize my findings for a later posting. Thanks in advance! Jim Wohlford Compuserve 70214,636 jwohlfor@gmu.edu George Mason University Telecommunications Program ------------------------------ From: nigel@cotswold.demon.co.uk (Nigel Roles) Subject: Re: Microsoft Telephony API/SPI Reply-To: nigel@cotswold.demon.co.uk Organization: Interconnect Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 11:19:09 In article joe@erix.ericsson.se (Joe Armstrong) writes: > Does anybody have any information available about products which use > the recently published Microsoft Telephony API/SPI? > Do you think the Microsoft Telephony API will catch on? Up to now the > CCITT has been the principle organisation responsible for telephony > standards. The microsoft API seems to represent a radical departure > from this. Is this the future? [Select Switch Designers Hat] Good question. Anyone can invent a standard, but in telephony unless it follows existing standards you might have an acceptance problem. Conversely Miscrosft are inevitably a force to be reckoned with. Personally, the AT&T Novell Telephony API looks much better. It follows the CSTA call model, and as such looks much more professional in that it appears to have been written from the telecomms perspective, not the computer perspective. This strikes me as vital if you want switch manufacturers to support it. There are other issues as well; both specs. are pretty big, but Microsoft's looks quite unmanageably large, as opposed to just plain daunting. We intend going the AT&T Novell route. [Select PC Programmers Hat] There is not a lot to choose between the two specs. A non-telecomms programmer might not perceive the better pedigree of the AT&T Novell one because the nomenclature (calls, connections, devices, states) will be completely new stuff either way. ------------------------------ From: atlas@newshost.pictel.com (Steve Atlas) Subject: "Q" Not Followed by "U"? In English? Organization: PictureTel Corporation Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 04:27:04 GMT > [Moderator's Note: ... > The problem with Q is that it must be followed by U in 99 percent of all > words in common use ...] Pat, Your explanation of why Q and Z don't appear the telephone dial was interesting, but to be picky, what English words contain the letter "q" not followed by "u"? I know there are Arabic names such as Iraq and Qatar, as well as people whose Arabic names are transliterated. But English words? Steve Atlas atlas@pictel.com [Moderator's Note: Well, if you want to discriminate against the Arabs, you're going to make my job answering this one a lot harder. :) QADARITES were members of an early Muslin philisophical school assert- ing the doctrine of free will in opposition to the Jabarites. QINTARS are monetary units in Albania. Each QINTAR is equal to 1/100 lek. QOPH (sometimes spelled KOPH) is the 19th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. A few you can look up on your own: QARMATION QASHQAI QERE QERI QYRGHYZ A real motley collection, eh? In conclusion, please remember that TELECOM Digest is supported through the generous gifts of readers who benefit by the articles here and the material in the Telecom Archives. I pay the bills (mostly for the phone, generally about $200-300 per month for the connection, etc, and friends help me pay my phone bill and feed the cats. All gifts are acknowledged and appreciated. Checks payable to Ameritech are perfectly acceptable and will be used to retire my old phone bill in Chicago. (Skokie phone rates are much cheaper; I don't expect the bill to go over a hundred dollars per month here). If you prefer, checks can also be payable to TELECOM Digest earmarked for production and distribution of this journal. If you want a specific accounting of how your gift was used, just ask for it anytime. Our mailing address remains: 2241 W. Howard, Chicago, IL 60645. Thanks very much for all your help. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #760 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02803; 15 Nov 93 6:57 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32416 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4); Mon, 15 Nov 1993 02:21:07 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31835 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 15 Nov 1993 02:20:32 -0600 Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 02:20:32 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311150820.AA31835@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #761 TELECOM Digest Mon, 15 Nov 93 02:20:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 761 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems (Bill Fischer) Re: ADSI (Al Varney) Re: Cordless Phone Systems (Gordon Hlavenka) Re: Problems With Michigan Bell (John Perkins) Re: Information About Iridium Wanted (Jeffrey Oliver Breen) Re: Calling Card Question (Carl Oppedahl) Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? (Ed Casas) Re: Need List of Country Codes (Gordon Torrie) Re: Feature Interaction (Ed Leslie) Strange Telephone Behavior (Jason Hunsaker) Re: What is Transpac? (John R. Levine) Re: What is Transpac? (bob1@cos.com) Re: What is Transpac? (Fazal Majid) Re: Skokie, IL, and Telephone History (Paul J. Bell) Re: Skokie, IL, and Telephone History (David A. Kaye) Re: Minneapolis is no Picnic Either (vs Chicago) (Bill Pfeiffer) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bill.fischer@t8000.cuc.ab.ca Organization: T-8000 Information System Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 21:08:00 Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems Robin Singla (u19250@uicvm.uic.edu) had a few questions about cellular phone monitoring systems. For the benefit of all readers, the basics of such monitoring follows: Calls to and from all phones in a particular cell can be monitored, or specific numbers can be entered into a log, and all other calls ignored. The equipment monitors the data on the cell's control channel and switches a radio scanner to the specified voice frequency when the phone makes or receives a call in that cell. The equipment will change to a new voice frequency each time the phone switches, ensuring that the complete call is monitored from start to finish. We have a Cellular Surveillance Interface that performs this function. It doesn't cost $6000, and it will work on both the AMPS (USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia) and TACS/ETACS (Europe, Middle East, Southeast Asia) cellular systems. I've sent Robin a copy of our brochure by private e-mail to maintain the non-commercial nature of this forum ;-) Regards, Bill Fischer Internet: bill.fischer@t8000.cuc.ab.ca Electronic Countermeasures Inc. Voice: +1-403-233-0644 65 - 31 Avenue South West Calgary, AB, Canada T2S 2Y7 [Moderator's Note: No doubt you will send your brochure to anyone who requests it after seeing your message here also. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 00:41:17 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: ADSI Organization: AT&T In article bobh@cc.bellcore.com (Robert Hettmansperger) writes: > In article , varney@ihlpe.att.com wrote: >> TR-1273 says feature-specific TRs will determine if Call Waiting >> can interrupt a given ADSI "session" (SPCS or "server"). I haven't >> seen such requirements. Also, the recovery from an interrupted >> session is up to the "server". Just to check the latest, >> TA-NWT-001436, Visual Screen List Editing, August 1993 (issued 8 >> months after TR-1273) says not one word, zip, about session >> interruptions of any kind. > This is not quite true. [And Robert explains why Call Waiting won't bother VSLE users, assuming the switch programmers follow the reference threads ...] Thanks, Robert, for pointing out my error. I still claim there is no requirement dealing with interrupted sessions in general, but that's just being picky. And also thanks for giving me a chance to correct a mis-conception spread by my original article. Even co-workers felt I was a little "hard" on ADSI -- that was NOT my intent. ADSI is a reasonable extension of the Caller-ID interface and provides an improved "feature control" capability for complex features such as CLASS, as well as to Call Waiting. It opens the door to other service providers who don't need user terminals with full screens and a keyboard. (See, I'm not against it!) Nor am I concerned with the way Bellcore and/or NTI have pushed the ADSI interface. Every new protocol/interface has to have a sponsor, and prototyping and demonstrating interfaces almost always results in better standards and requirements, and an overall shorter idea-to-product window. I think this has been a good example of vendor/industry cooperation. My only concern was/is related to the issue of "spoofing" such terminals in the same way TR-30 caller ID boxes can be "spoofed" with off-hook signaling. While Bellcore and other close to the original TA reviews may have been aware of this issue, it did not appear in any CPE vendor documents. Awareness could prevent some problems and make ADSI less "hacker-friendly". Nothing in the current requirements says something as simple as a "off-hook message" indicator couldn't be used to let the user know what's happening. But if the CPE vendors aren't reminded to think about it, we can hardly fault them for not doing so on their own. > Applications which use a non switch-based server (such as banking, > etc.) can not rely on the switch to prevent such interruptions. > Therefore, they will have to depend on the customer (or the customer's > CPE) utilizing the Cancel Call Waiting feature. Cancel Call Waiting was also mentioned to me by a co-worker as a specific way around the Call-Waiting-interruption problem with servers. Some providers do not bundle Call Waiting and CCW, so that might have to be required for ADSI "server-based" users who also have Call Waiting. Al Varney - just my opinion ------------------------------ From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka) Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Systems Organization: Vpnet - Public Access Unix and Usenet Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 22:02:56 GMT Delavar K. Khomarlou wrote: > Our company is investigating the use of cordless phones (with mobile > base stations) in our stations (harsh environment). > We are looking at an 800 Mhz and a 1.2 Ghz > (European) system. Can someone tell me which system would have better > propagation characteristics in this environment? We've had a SpectraLink system in my office here for about two weeks. This is an 800MHz system in a normal office environment. Perhaps our installation is flawed (it was done in one evening by a non-telco type) but it has not performed well here. The PTs cut out a lot, and there is a strong "digital" character to the audio. Plus an echo problem. Cutting out could be explained by poor cell siting, but the distortion is apparent even when the signal is strong and echo has nothing to do with (RF) signal strength. I'd stay away from this one ... Gordon S. Hlavenka cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us Proud father of Daniel Scott born August 9, 1993 ------------------------------ From: johnper@bunsen.rosemount.com (John Perkins) Subject: Re: Problems With Michigan Bell Organization: Rosemount, Inc. Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 23:00:11 GMT In article smp@agape.sol.net (Steven M. Palm) writes: > [Deleted: long account of incorrect billing by Michigan Bell and writer's valiant attempt to straighten it out.] > [Deleted: long list of recommendations by the Moderator on how the > original writer should proceed] Here's another approach (that has worked very well for me in the past): Ignore the whole thing and save yourself a lot of trouble. There's really nothing they can do and eventually they'll get tired and give up. John Perkins [Moderator's Note: The only reason I did not suggest that as an alternative to the original writer was because MBT's collection agency *might* let something go to a credit bureau on it and then he would be stuck with removing that. While getting credit bureau repairs is not impossible, or all that difficult, it still might leave his credit messed up for awhile in the interim. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jeffrey Oliver Breen Subject: Re: Information About Iridium Wanted Organization: Dept. of Astronomy, University of Virginia Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 22:00:32 GMT In article prakash@cis.ohio-state.edu (ravi prakash) writes: > I would like to get information about the following: > - Iridium : a low earth orbit mobile satellite system The latest issue of _Wired_ magazine (1.5 - November 1993) has a feature article on Iridium and other competing systems (Globalstar, Ellipso, Aires, and Odyssey). It's a pretty good review article with some interesting tidbits. For example, Iridium is so named (at least partly) because its original spec called for 77 satellites in orbit: Iridium is element number 77 (==> 77 electrons in orbit). Besides, as the author correctly points out, "Iridium" sounds better than "Dysprosium", element number 66, which matches the current spec. :) _Wired_ lists the following contact information for Iridium: Iridium, Inc. 13501 Street, NW Washington, D 20005 (202) 371-6889 Best Regards, Jeffrey Oliver Breen Internet: job5g@Virginia.edu Department of Astronomy University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22903 (804) 924-7494 ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Calling Card Question Date: 14 Nov 1993 18:48:12 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) writes: > In yet another display of my ignorance, I ask the following question: > Can a calling card be acquired from either the LEC or an IXC with > the following restriction: that it can -only- get billed by the Local > Carrier (where appropriate) or by the disgnated IXC? > This would do a good job of reducing the tele-zleaze surcharges. The answer is, "sort of". All you have to do is to get a calling card issued by someone *other* than AT&T or a local operating company. For example, you could get a card issued by MCI or Sprint. All calls are placed via an 800 number or a 950 number or 10XXX, and there are never any surprises about what the call will cost. It will always be billed by MCI or Sprint, at their rates. You might wonder how local calls are handled in that case. Don't ask; it would get MCI or Sprint in trouble if the local operating companies were to learn that MCI or Sprint sometimes connects local calls in competition with the local operating company. Now, it is also the case that *some* of AT&T's cards are also safe against sleaze. But why choose a company that costs *more* and only protects some of its cards? Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 [Moderator's Note: He can also get a totally 'independent' calling card like the Orange Card (25 cents per minute of use, billed in 30 second increments with no surcharge) or use one of his VISA/MC cards through the hookup they have with MCI. PAT] ------------------------------ From: edc@ee.ubc.ca (Ed Casas) Subject: Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? Date: Sun, 14 Nov 93 23:21:19 PST In article , wrote: >> I personally suspect this is a bit of a religious debate, >> exactly like Betamax vs. VHS, and while technical arguments >> pro and con can be made, whoever has the best marketing is >> going to win. (wink wink) > It's certainly the case that the debate will be settled > politically, but it turns out that CDMA has major technical > advantages: ... I think these "technical advantages" are mostly a result of Qualcomm marketing. For example, I looked at Qualcomm's claims for capacity improvement and found that their claims were made on the basis of grossly unfair comparisons. For example, the Qualcomm system assumed: more-directional base station antennas, turning off the transmitter during silent periods to reduce interference, the use of low-rate high-gain codes, the use of low-rate speech coding, etc. A fair comparison would have been between a second-generation TDMA system (which could make use of many of the above techniques) and a CDMA system. I think you would then see the capacity advantage for CDMA eliminated. You should understand that a CDMA receiver starts off with a major handicap -- its correlator cannot separate signals anywhere near as well as a TDMA receiver's IF filter. You have to use a lot of tricks to overcome that initial disadvantage. To me (at least) the technical superiority of CDMA is far from proven. Ed Casas (edc@ee.ubc.ca) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Need List of Country Codes From: gordon@torrie.org (Gordon Torrie) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 10:18:22 -0500 Organization: Torrie Communications Services Malcolm Dunnett writes: > I'm looking for a list of all the "Country Codes"; either an FTP > site or someone to post/mail me a copy. While one might suppose that because Malcom posted his message to this group he meant the numeric codes one dials to route a call to a particular country, this was not explicitly stated. In the event that what he meant was a list of the country codes assigned by the ISO I will point out that a summary of them is available by anonymous FTP from ftp.uni-erlangen.de in directory pub/doc/ISO/english. Gord Torrie ------------------------------ From: edleslie@elearn.edu.yorku.ca (Ed Leslie) Subject: Re: Feature Interaction Organization: York University Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 11:45:42 -0500 Tony Harminc (EL406045@BROWNVM.brown.edu) wrote: > After about an hour, I wondered at my friend's line still being busy > (he has a modem line, so it wasn't that). I dialed *66 again, mainly > out of curiosity to see if the system would give me the same friendly > message, or would tell me that I had already made the same request. Does call return not limit its trials to a 30 minute period (assuming that after that length of time, you have moved on to other things)? Ed Leslie ------------------------------ From: Jason Hunsaker Subject: Strange Telephone Behavior Date: 14 Nov 93 13:43:19 MDT Organization: Utah State University I had an experience last night that I find difficult to understand. My telephone rang. I answered. There was no response. I was about to hang up when I heard a click followed by a busy-signal. This continued for a few seconds, and then I heard another click. Then, with the receiver still in my hand and the phone still off hook, my telephone rang. I had to hangup to answer the incoming call. How is it possible for my phone to be off hook and still activate the ringer? Internet: slhw4@cc.usu.edu (Jason Hunsaker), Logan, Utah ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 00:35 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: What is Transpac? Organization: I.E.C.C. > Can anyone tell me what Transpac is? A public network in France > perhaps? Thanks. It's the French X.25 network. Dialup access is available nationally via special phone numbers. Here is some somewhat obsolete information courtesy of MCI Mail: Contact: Mr. J.M. Chevalier - Tel: (33-1) 47 62 79 61 Direction des Telecomications des Reseaux Exterieurs INTELCOMFRANCE Tour Franklin 92081 Paris La Defense Cedex 11, France Telex: (842) 610586 A/B: CPTI 610586F or 610329 A/B: CPTI 610329F Prices: All charges in French Francs (FFr) Initial Fee: 160 FFr/NUI Monthly Fee: 80 FFr/month Connect Time Charge: 0.70 FFr/minute at 300 bps 0.90 FFr/minute at 1200 bps 1.00 FFr/minute at 2400 bps Volume Charge: 38 FFr/kilosegment A 18.6% VAT should be added to the above charges. Dialup (once you have an account): All cities in France may access TRANSPAC with the national numbers given below. 300 bps access: 36 01 1200 bps access: 36 00 1200/75 bps access (incl. Minitel): 36 13 36 21 (ASCII mode) 300/1200/2400 bps MNP error-corr.: 36 06 24 24 DOMPAC and TOMPAC provide similar service at slightly higher prices in the overseas parts of France. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: bob1@cos.com Subject: Re: What is Transpac? Reply-To: bob1@cos.com Organization: Corporation for Open Systems Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 14:26:06 GMT In phil@concave.cs.wits.ac.za (Philip Green) writes: > Can anyone tell me what Transpac is? A public network in France > perhaps? Thanks. You win the teddy bear! Transpac is the French Public Packet-switched Data Network operating according to Recommendation X.25. Transpac, DATApac (Canada), Telenet (USA), and the U.K. network (forgotten the name) were the first national packet-switched networks. Main reason that I remember is because I was on the team that did DATApac. Bob Blackshaw ------------------------------ From: majid@enst.enst.fr (Fazal Majid) Subject: Re: What is Transpac? Date: 14 Nov 1993 00:06:33 GMT Organization: Telecom Paris - France Philip Green (phil@concave.cs.wits.ac.za) wrote: > Can anyone tell me what Transpac is? A public network in France > perhaps? Thanks. Transpac (now officially called France Telecom Transpac) is a French public X.25 network operated by France Telecom, the national carrier, recently spun off from the PTT administration. Among other things, "Minitel" videotext services are carried by Transpac. Disclaimer: I work for France Telecom, but not in the Transpac division ------------------------------ From: pjb@23kgroup.com (Paul J. Bell) Subject: Re: Skokie, IL, and Telephone History Reply-To: pjb@23kgroup.com Organization: The 23K Group, Inc. Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 02:09:06 GMT In article , TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: Actually, I have but three lines: one for voice, > one for data and one for fax. I'll make do somehow. The fax is now > on a full time dedicated line and available to anyone who wants to > use it: 708-329-0572. The Skokie area was also the home of Teletype > Corporation as some old-timers may recall. I am just just hoping > very desparately that things will work out financially for me and > the family. :( PAT] When Western Electric's Teletype Corp. was located in Skokie, the plant (on Touhy Ave.) was the largest open area manufacturing facility in the world. At it's peak, well into the '70, they received more orders for Teletype machines in a month than they could build in a year. It was a very interesting place to visit. I left Chicago in the early sixties and have no idea what happened to the area. Does anyone know the fate of the Teletype complex ? Cheers, Paul ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Skokie, IL, and Telephone History Date: 14 Nov 1993 21:58:28 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Dave Levenson (dave@westmark.com) wrote: > It was reported in that year that the largest number of telephones per > capita (86 per 100 population) anywhere in the world was in the > District of Columbia, USA. The second largest value of this number (I > think the number was around 70 or so) was in Skokie, Illinois. I don't know if it's still true or not, but the city of San Ramon (25 miles east of SF) had 102 phones per 100 population. This fact used to be in the back of the Pacific Bell yellow pages for that area, which I think is the Central Contra Costa book. I would think there might be an explanation here, but I don't know what it is. This was before cellular, and the community doesn't seem to have that much more business than any other community. ------------------------------ From: rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Bill Pfeiffer) Subject: Re: Minneapolis is no Picnic Either (vs Chicago) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 03:54:09 CST > [Moderator's Note: I'm sorry to hear this grim news. I hope for your > sake you did not violate any of the civil rights of the burglar; the [...] > The people filed bankruptcy at that point, but the court ruled > the judgment could not be dismissed in bankruptcy, so I guess they > will be working a long time to pay off this guy. Let that be a lesson > to you. Keep your homes neat, clean and free of dangers. If someone > breaks in while you are gone (or some have the nerve to do it while > you are there!), you don't want them to injure themselves. PAT] Nice piece of urban folklore, Pat. But we all know that it is hogwash. You can shoot a burglar in your home (like the 90 year old woman just did on the south side when a 15 year-old broke in and wheeled her around in her wheelchair demanding that she point out valuables). She shot him after asking him to leave several times. She has not been, and will not be, charged. If someone invades your home (unlike your business) all bets are off. Although I have heard these tales too, they are not true. You CAN be sued, or even arrested, if you set up a booby-trap to either fire a weapon or do other bodily harm, via an automatic system (like pointing a shotgun at a doorway, triggered by a solinoid, connected to a door switch). But rest-assured, you may blow someone away without an eyeblink if they are inside your home uninvited. William Pfeiffer - Moderator/Editor rec.radio.broadcasting - Airwaves Radio Journal - Internet email - Article Submission: articles@airwaves.chi.il.us Subscription Desk: subscribe@airwaves.chi.il.us [Moderator's Note: I think you are in error. It is not quite that cut and dry. Yes, you have some rights inside your home you do not have outside your home, but I'm afraid shooting someone in your home would at least cause a few eyes to blink. I suspect you would get a lot of hassles from the police over it, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #761 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08677; 15 Nov 93 18:18 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01442 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for james@g6fpc.demon.co.uk); Mon, 15 Nov 1993 12:55:39 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13215 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 15 Nov 1993 12:55:00 -0600 Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 12:55:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311151855.AA13215@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #762 TELECOM Digest Mon, 15 Nov 93 12:55:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 762 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Supreme Court Decision on Baby Bells Info Services (AP via William Sohl) AT&T at COMDEX (Andrew B. Myers) 65 per Line or 65*per Line? (Paul Robinson) In the Matter of: Connecting to Kremvax.demos.su (Paul Robinson) Reverse Phone Directory News (Compuserve via Ray Normandeau) Videoconference System Questions (Hyeong-Kyo Kim) Minitel Questions (Michael Jansson) Synoptics 5000 Intelligent Hub (Alex Cena) Info on Old Key System Wanted (Caleb Hess) Re: Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? (Paul Robinson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Supreme Court Decision on Baby Bells Info Services Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 16:22:53 GMT Electronic Yellow Pages and Other Phone Information Services OK By LAURIE ASSEO Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Supreme Court today let the nation's regional telephone companies continue offering information services such as home education and electronic yellow pages. The court, without comment, rejected arguments by consumer groups and information competitors that a lower court wrongly let the seven "Baby Bell" companies enter the highly competitive market. Those groups say the regional Bells could gain a monopolistic advantage through their ownership of the phone lines. The case stems from the 1982 court-supervised breakup of American Telephone & Telegraph as the result of the federal government's antitrust lawsuit. The breakup agreement approved by U.S. District Judge Harold Greene stripped AT&T of its local phone companies and set up the regional Bells. The agreement barred the seven companies from providing information services by telephone. But in 1987, the Justice Department reversed its position and backed their request to start offering services such as home shopping, stock quotes and transmission of medical records. Greene ruled against the regional companies. But the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered him to reconsider and base his ruling on whether he could be certain that letting the regional Bells offer such services would harm competition. After the Supreme Court let the appeals court ruling stand, Greene reluctantly lifted the ban in July 1991. He said the appeals court ruling left him with no choice. The appeals court later ruled that Greene only had the authority to decide whether the Justice Department's recommendation was reasonable _ a standard under attack in the appeal acted on today. The growing information market and regulatory safeguards are enough to keep the Bells from taking over, the appeals court said. Their competitors _ including General Electric, AT&T, IBM and Sears _ are not pushovers, it added. In the appeal acted on today, the consumer and information groups' lawyers said the ruling gives the Justice Department "effective control over judicial decisions" on whether to approve any settlement involving the government. "Courts do not lose their competence to determine competitive impact when the government settles a case," the appeal said. Justice Department lawyers said the ruling does not require automatic approval of antitrust agreements. But they said the federal government, not a judge, should have the authority to decide whether an agreement will promote competition "as long as it has a reasonable basis for its prediction." The regional Bells' lawyers said the ban that kept them from providing information services was obsolete, and that there has been no evidence of harm to competition since they entered the market. "Investments have been made and fundamental changes in the industry have occurred," they said. "There is no reason for reversing course at this late date." The seven regional bells are Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth Corp., NYNEX Corp., Pacific Telesis Group, Southwestern Bell and U S West Inc. The case is Consumer Federation of America vs. U.S., 93-318. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 10:41:53 EST From: myers@hogpa.ho.att.com (Andrew B Myers +1 908 221 2737) Subject: AT&T at COMDEX AT&T SHOWS ITS WARES AT COMDEX FALL '93 COMPUTER TRADE SHOW BASKING RIDGE, N.J. -- Eight AT&T business units plan to showcase more than 25 products and services this week at the nation's largest computer trade show. The COMDEX Fall '93 show begins today, Nov. 15, and continues through Friday, Nov. 19 For copies of AT&T news releases, dial via modem to AT&T News Online, a database containing more than 5,000 AT&T news releases, the two most recent AT&T Annual Reports and the most up-to-date AT&T Fact Book. Set your software for 7 data bits, 1 stop bit, even parity, and dial 908-221-8088. The system autobauds up to 9600 bits per second. Following is a list of key AT&T exhibits and announcements scheduled at COMDEX. AT&T EASYLINK SERVICES Located at Booth No. L930, media contact Kevin Compton. Key displays from AT&T EasyLink include: o AT&T Mail. o Mobile messaging, LAN connectivity, fax solutions, forms solutions, information services. AT&T EasyLink plans to announce: o How road warriors on Harleys or foot soldiers at the office use messaging to do business around town and around the world. AT&T EO Located at Booth No. L2848, media contact Kevin Compton. Key displays from AT&T EO include: o EO 440 and EO 880 Personal Communicators. The major announcement from AT&T EO will be: o New applications and customer solutions for AT&T EO Personal Communiators. AT&T GLOBAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS Located in Booths No. L2348 and No. 1130, media contact Jo Johnston. AT&T GBCS displays will include: o Desktop and networked videoconferencing. o Passage Way(TM) Solution computer-telephone integration. o PhoneWriter(TM) desktop pen-based communicator. AT&T GBCS stories expected to be announced include: o AT&T TeleMedia Personal Video System being shipped to customers. o AT&T PassageWay Solution provides computer-telephone integration. AT&T MICROELECTRONICS Located in Booth No. L2348, media contacts Sam Gronner, Pat Mallon, Terri Hodges. Displays will include: o AVP(TM) Video Codec Chip Set. o DSP 3210/VCOS(R) Multimedia System. o Outrigger(TM) LAN/Fax/Modem PCMCIA chips. o 100 Mbps LANs. o New Hobbit(TM) chipsets. o DA400 Clock Distribution Chip. AT&T Microelectronics plans to announce these stories: o Desktop visual communication arrives. o Multimedia DSPs and LANs. o V32.terbo modems shipping to end users. o PCMCIA modem/fax/LAN cards coming. o Clock chip for high performance CPUs. AT&T NCR Located in Booth No. 1130, media contact Christine Imwale. NCR displays will include: o Mobile computing. o Servers. o AT Bus products. o Telemedia Connection. o MicroChannel products. AT&T NCR will announce these stories: o Telemedia customer announcements. o AT&T branded PC distrbution expands. o NCR and IBM provide LAN Manager for AIX. o New fax and data security software. o Price reductions on NCR 3360 series computers. AT&T PARADYNE Located in Room No. LN102, media contact Garrick Case. AT&T Paradyne will display: o VoiceSpan(TM) multimedia modem. AT&T Paradyne will announce: o Integration of data, fax and voice sets stage for new consumer multimedia products. AT&T SECURE COMMUNICATIONS Located in Booth No. 1130, media contact David Arneke. AT&T Secure Communications will display the following: o PC security software. o Security for mobile computing. AT&T Secure Communications will have two announcements: o New software for data and fax security. o Broad range of data security solutions. AT&T MULTIMEDIA SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS This unit, formerly known as AT&T Graphics Software Solutions, will be represented by media relations representatives Christine Colborne and Cherie Carter. AT&T MSS will display the following: o A variety of multimedia software applications for drawing, animation and presentation packages. o Multimedia packages for Windows and Windows-NT environments. o Illustration, animation and interactive multimedia authoring software including RIO, RIO Animator and Panorama for the high-end DOS market. # # # CONTACT: Andrew Myers - AT&T Media Relations 908-221-2737 (office), 908-522-9485 (home) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 10:11:38 EST Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: 65 per Line or 65*per Line? From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Well, a misunderstanding is back again. I originally had four telephone lines. The application I was using the fourth line for ended, so I had that line disconnected. I now have three phone lines. They were all set up for unlimited service, which is required under the current tariff schedules. So I decided to change them. Being told that if I want to take a 65-call-per-month allocation, then each line is metered for 65 calls and if I have two lines, and use 66 on one line and 5 on the other, it will cause me to be charged for one meter unit. So I broke up my account and had someone else who lives here listed as the "owner" of the primary phone line, set that to no call allocation (meaning charge 9c per call) because that line is used almost exclusively for incoming calls and set my computer and spare line to 65 calls per month each. I didn't like being "split in half" but it's the way the system is set up. A couple of weeks ago I decided to order Caller-ID on my computer line so that I can test the Caller-ID capability of my modem. (A report on how the data stream looks and some things I discovered, will be made later.) So then the clerk at the phone company told me that the number of phone calls that can be made on an account without being charged is 65 times the number of lines assigned to that account, e.g. for an account with three lines, there would be no message unit charge until the account used more than 190 calls. Finding out that this seemingly sane policy is what is supposed to be in effect, I have my service set to put all of my lines back together. I have finished the testing I wanted to do and have one more thing to try so I called today to take Caller-ID off one line and put it on a different one. Now I am told the original story -- that each line has a limit of 65 calls whether or not the lines are billed to one party or separately billed -- e.g. if I use 66 on one line and 5 on the other, I will be charged for one message unit. The phone company clerk tells me that each line is individually metered and it doesn't matter whether the three lines are attached to one account or billed to three different accounts. I have gotten totally disgusted at this whipsaw effect. I explained to the clerk that I want her to get ahold of her supervisor and find the tariff schedule and mail me a copy of the tariff. I explained to her that if what she is telling me is correct, then I need to reset my phone service back the way I had it before. She said she would call me back before mailing me a copy of the tariff, so I will have a written exact statement. If there is a question of ambiguity about it, I'm going to push for a PUC analysis as I'd prefer to be blended than separately charged. I am going to get to the bottom of this once and for all. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 08:37:44 EST Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: In the Matter of: Connecting to Kremvax.demos.su From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA In TELECOM Digest recently there was mention that sites in the U.S. cannot connect (due to U.S. Government pressures) with some sites behind the former Iron Curtain. One example of which is the site kremvax.demos.su. Evidence from this message implies it is not the government doing this, it is someone else. A writer pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) indicated that he got through from his site (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12181, according to the WHOIS database): > 1 vccfr2 (128.113.75.254) 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms > 2 psi1.rpi.edu (128.113.100.1) 27 ms 3 ms 3 ms > 3 rpi.albany.pop.psi.net (38.145.34.1) 53 ms 9 ms 13 ms > 4 core.net223.psi.net (38.1.2.6) 51 ms 66 ms 77 ms > 5 Washington.DC.ALTER.NET (192.41.177.248) 172 ms 48 ms 30 ms > 6 New-York.NY.ALTER.NET (137.39.128.2) 92 ms 420 ms 413 ms > 7 Demos-gw.ALTER.NET (137.39.96.2) 707 ms 656 ms 733 ms 679 ms > 8 kremvax.demos.su (192.91.186.200) 709 ms 733 ms 679 ms Writer dej@eecg.toronto.edu (David Jones) tried: > 1 cyclops.eecg.toronto.edu (128.100.10.185) 2 1 ms 1 ms > 2 medusa.eecg.toronto.edu (128.100.10.187) 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms > 3 sand.gw.toronto.edu (128.100.1.224) 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms > 4 utorgw.gw.utoronto.ca (128.100.96.19) 4 ms 4 ms 4 ms > 5 Epsp.ON.CAnet.CA (192.68.55.4) 71 ms 91 ms 82 ms > 6 * Xpsp.ON.CAnet.CA (192.68.53.1) 131 ms 128 ms > 7 ENSS133.CIT.CORNELL.EDU (192.35.82.101) 201 ms 184 ms 174 ms > 8 t3-1.Hartford-cnss49.t3.ans.net (140.222.49.2) 147 ms 165 ms > 9 t3-3.Hartford-cnss48.t3.ans.net (140.222.48.4) 196 ms * 127 > 10 t3-2.Cleveland-cnss40.t3.ans.net (140.222.40.3) 96 ms 136 > 11 t3-2.Chicago-cnss24.t3.ans.net (140.222.24.3) 165 > 12 * t3-1.San-Francisco-cnss8.t3.ans.net (140.222.8.2) 330 ms * > 13 t3-0.San-Francisco-cnss9.t3.ans.net (140.222.9.1) 183 ms 2s > 14 t3-0.San-Francisco-cnss11.t3.ans.net (140.222.11.1) > 15 * * * I tried it from my full internet provider, Digital Express from site access.digex.net (164.109.10.3): 1 enss230.digex.net (164.109.1.1) 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms 2 t1-3.Washington-DC-cnss59.t3.ans.net (140.222.59.3) 4 ms 4 ms 5 ms 3 t3-3.Washington-DC-cnss58.t3.ans.net (140.222.58.4) 4 ms 6 ms 4 ms 4 t3-3.Washington-DC-cnss56.t3.ans.net (140.222.56.4) 5 ms 4 ms 4 ms 5 t3-0.New-York-cnss32.t3.ans.net (140.222.32.1) 10 ms 12 ms 10 ms 6 t3-1.Cleveland-cnss40.t3.ans.net (140.222.40.2) 22 ms 21 ms 21 ms 7 t3-2.Chicago-cnss24.t3.ans.net (140.222.24.3) 28 ms 29 ms 28 ms 8 t3-1.San-Francisco-cnss8.t3.ans.net (140.222.8.2) 70 ms 70 ms 70 ms 9 mf-0.San-Francisco-cnss11.t3.ans.net (140.222.8.195) 165 ms 71 ms 10 * * * 11 * * * This confirms what has been inferred on the com-priv list : Digital Express (and U of Toronto) connect to the U.S. Internet via ANS CO+RE. Rensaeler connects to the U.S. Internet via the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) member ALTERNET, as apparently does Kremvax. This appears to confirm what was implied before: that CIX members are not connecting non-CIX member Internet sites to the CIX member portion of the Internet. Since they are a commercial installation, this is their privelege to do; they are paying for the backbone, they can decide to refuse connections from sites that aren't paying them for access. Sounds like the days when cities had two telephone companies and larger sites had to have phones on both systems. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Subject: Reverse Phone Directory News From: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) Date: 15 Nov 93 11:21:00 GMT Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) From CompuServe: TRY PHONE*FILE WITHOUT SURCHARGES Search Phone*File, CompuServe's online people directory, through 17-Nov and the $15 per hour connect-time surcharge is waived. Phone*File allows you to access name and address information on more than 75 million U.S. households. Use Phone*File to locate old friends and update your mailing list before sending your holiday greetings. To access Phone*File, a part of CompuServe's extended services, GO PHONEFILE. Phone*File is only available during certain hours: Monday through Saturday 6:00 am to 2:30 am EST Sunday 10 am to 8 pm EST ----------------- It has been operating VEEEERY SLOWLY due to large amount of people now accessing it. ------------------------------ From: kim@sabsal.etri.re.kr (Hyeong-Kyo Kim) Subject: Videoconference System Questions Organization: ETRI Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 09:05:21 GMT Hi, Where can I find material (books or papers) on video conference systems? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Hyeong-Kyo Kim Senior Member of Research Staff Media Application Section, Human Interface Dept. ------------------------------ From: Michael Jansson Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 13:48:33 +0100 Subject: Minitel Questions Hello, I saw in a message that you know things about Minitel. Perhaps you could help me to find out if there is any termcap for the MiniTel terminals that could be used on a Unix system? I must admit that I have not much knowledge about MiniTel, but the way it's been explained to me it is basically a terminal with a built in modem and rather specialized graphics. It seems possible to use it as a (rudimentary) terminal for a Unix system. Am I wrong? Thanks for your help / Jonas PS. Please reply to me as jonas@indic.se - this is just were I look for newsgroups that our system does not receive. [Moderator's Note: Everything I know about Minitel is in the Telecom Archives, accessible using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. You would log in, then 'cd telecom-archives' and 'cd minitel'. To pull those files be sure and set type 'I' since they are compressed. Email service users would get them with the SENDPACK command. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 08:58:46 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: Synoptics 5000 Intelligent Hub I am looking for organizations that have had a chance to evaluate Synoptics' new 5000 intelligent hub. The 5000 proposes a new wiring scheme for networks. That is, a migration from router-centric networks to structured wiring networks based on MDF hubs. Specifically, my questions are: The composition of your networks in terms of hubs and routers. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of this strategy? How long will it take to make this migration? Impact on router ports required within this new paradigm? Have you had an opportunity to evaluate other vendors MDF-based hubs? Thank you very much in advance. Alex M. Cena Lehman Brothers acena@lehman.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 12:55:10 -0500 From: Caleb Hess Subject: Info on Old Key System Wanted I recently moved into a house that included a TIE EK-516B phone system. Can anyone provide technical details on this system, such as how to upgrade it with features like autoredial? Or is it a hopeless relic, useful only as a room-to-room intercom? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 08:46:43 EST Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Bob Tykulsker , writes: > I am having a new home built and would like to install the wiring > now that I might need for future technologies. What would you > recommend? Cable, fiber, copper, etc. Any suggestions welcome. Unless fiber is available in your area now, go with a large amount of copper wire. Put your demarc in the basement, and run at least twisted six-pair to each room, in star format, e.g. each room's wiring is separate. This allows you to have two phone lines and still have room for two four-line circuits. The difference in price between four pair and six pair is probably negligible (less than 5c per foot, maybe even the same price); I know the last time I checked the price of 25 pair was about 10c a foot more than four pair. Count on the fact that the amount of information being sent will require more wiring and more circuits, not less. Having too much wiring simply means a slight extra expense since more than 5/8 of the cost of wiring is the wages for the installer. Let's say you end up using 200 feet of six-pair twisted at 40c a foot, versus buying 200 feet of four-pair at 35c. The cost for the extra two pairs will have added an extra $10 to the cost. If you ever need another line, it's going to cost a lot more than $10. And don't forget that the time taken for the install is going to be the same in either case. One possibility is to have "wire trap" capability; it's done in buildings because people have to reinstall new equipment; almost never have I seen it done in homes. Here's what you do. Run wiring through specific holes in the walls or airspaces specifically set aside for wiring. At the base of the point where the wiring runs up and down the wall from floor to floor, at floor level you put in a wall-jack or a blank face plate. Behind that face plate is the hole that leads down to the area where the wire comes from. Someone can drop a weighted string down the hole, and reach the demarc, then pull new wire up through the hole. Then run it from there to wherever it has to go. In short, leaving a straight-line accessible empty space sufficient to reach to the wire. Another thing to do is to run the wire in a "trap box" behind the baseboard; have each jack open into the trap box which means a stiff line with a loop on it can be used to pull new wire through later on. Note that this is used only for communications. You can run a second trap box, separated from it, to house the BX cable for the electric sockets, so as to reduce RFI. Also, in each room with a south-facing window, put a 220 plug for air conditioning even if you have central air. At some point someone may want to use a single air conditioner without enabling the entire system. Also, put each room's wall sockets on separate breakers from the lights, and if there is a room that a computer is going to go in, pick a spot and put that wall socket on its own 10- or 15- amp socket, or set up a group of sockets that will be used only for a computer and put all of them on their own 30 amp socket, and make sure the sockets for that purpose are marked as "for computer use" because the computer may be drawing a lot more power. Make sure those circuits have good grounding, perhaps even put in grounded outlets specifically for the computer outlets. Oh yes; for the benefit of the future occupants, find the gas line and permanently attach laminated red tags that say "GAS LINE - DO NOT USE FOR GROUND." Make sure the breaker box in the basement has an indicator as to what each switch turns on and off. There's nothing more frustrating than a house with 30 breakers and a blank indicator that doesn't tell you anything about what each switch turns on and off. Also, put in cable-tv wire to each room in the house at the same time and also run the wire to the roof with an outdoor weather insulated terminator there and include a weatherized outdoor electrical socket in case the dish or your antenna has an electric motor; this will allow you to hook up your house to the TV antenna or satelite dish much easier. As a PS to this, if you will be putting a satellite dish on your house, try to see if you can't get the house eaves created in such a way that there is a flat place on the roof not visible from the street; this will allow the dish to be more stable and prevent complaints about your satellite dish (since the city doesn't get cable license fees from private satellite dishes, they sometimes make trouble even thought this is permitted under federal law.) Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #762 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12667; 16 Nov 93 6:43 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA04601 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 16 Nov 1993 03:11:32 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14733 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 16 Nov 1993 03:10:55 -0600 Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 03:10:55 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311160910.AA14733@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #763 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 Nov 93 03:10:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 763 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Communications for Cooperating Systems" (Rob Slade) Community Plan vs Circle Plan (was 65 per Line or 65*per Line) (R Topolski) More Contact From Sprint (Chris Ambler) Re: Received My Free Sprint Modem Today (Roy M. Silvernail) DMS 100 CID vs. SMDI Revisited (Michael D. Corbett) GTE Responds! (Was: Nationwide GTE 800 Outage November 5th) (R. McMillin) Comdex Information Wanted (Mike Boeur) Along the Delaware River (Carl Moore) USA Providers of X.25 (J. R. Pendleton) MCI Internet Service (David J. Cazier) Common Carrier - Information Please (Thomas Freeman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 15 Nov 93 15:06 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Communications for Cooperating Systems" by Cypser BKCMCOOP.RVW 931014 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Kelly Ford, Promotion/Publicity Coordinator P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 or Tiffany Moore, Publicity 72203.642@compuserve.com 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-527-5210 617-944-3700 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 "Communications for Cooperating Systems", Cypser, 1991 The subtitle of this book is "OSI, SNA and TCP/IP," thus giving a nice, neutral alphabetic ordering to the systems. In reality this is "SNA with OSI and TCP/IP." The organization, examples and slant to the material is all unmistakably IBM: not altogether surprising, given that they sponsored the Systems Programming Series from which it comes. Regardless of the generalities given in the preface, the intent seems to be to prove that SNA can "fit in" with OSI and TCP/IP. That it does need not be surprising: both systems are quite flexible. However, please do note the emphasis here. You *can* learn about OSI and TCP/IP from this book, but it will be, as it were, through IBM-coloured glasses. The structure of the book itself follows the SNA/SAA (systems network/application architecture) model, with a four-layer model which only fits the OSI (open systems interconnection) seven-layer or TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol) five-layer model after some degree of work. Part one comprises an overview and introduction, with three chapters listing the usual platitudes regarding the needs and desires for open systems. Part two describes "Application - Services," which is "above the top" of both the OSI and TCP/IP models, and has no parallel structures other than application programs. Part three discusses the "End-to-End Data-Exchange Facilities" which relates to the applications layer on both OSI and TCP/IP diagrams. Part four talks of "Transport Inter-Subnetwork Facilities" relevant to the presentation and session layers of OSI (and subsumed within the application layer in TCP/IP). Part five deals with "Link/Subnetwork-Access Facilities" which comprise the bottom four layers of both models. (Notable here is chapter seventeen which, somewhat surprisingly, gives an excellent overview of local area networks and all component parts.) While the book is fair and accurate as far as it goes, the IBM bias is deeply entrenched, mostly in terms of what is *not* covered. It is instructive to note that neither OSI nor TCP/IP are defined in the glossary (or anywhere else). As only one example, in discussions of presentation, ASCII and EBCDIC are listed but not Unicode, and there is no mention of MIME at all. An attempt has been made to present the book as a possible course text. "Exercises" are found at the end of each chapter. They are simple queries taken from the bottom of the questioning taxonomy. To answer all correctly you need only read the chapter and recognize a few key words. The "technical references" are of use only if you work within an SNA/SAA environment. The two bibliographies could have been compiled by collating "Books in Print" with a periodical index. There is a very definite need for this book. SNA/SAA, although by no means an "open" system, has a large installed base, and one that is still expanding. Those both inside the IBM camp and without have requirements to "cooperate" with each other. This work serves as a valuable guide not to the implementation of gateways, but to the IBM mindset and jargon. Those on both sides will find it a helpful introduction to "how the other half lives." copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKCMCOOP.RVW 931014 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: topolski@kaiwan.com (Robb Topolski) Subject: Community Plan vs. Circle Plan (was 65 per Line or 65*per Line?) Organization: KJ6YT Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 22:32:14 GMT Paul Robinson (TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM) wrote: > [...] So then the clerk at the phone company told me that the number > of phone calls that can be made on an account without being charged is > 65 times the number of lines assigned to that account, e.g. for an > account with three lines, there would be no message unit charge until > the account used more than 190 calls. > I have finished the testing I wanted to do and have one more thing to > try so I called today to take Caller-ID off one line and put it on a > different one. Now I am told the original story -- that each line has > a limit of 65 calls whether or not the lines are billed to one party > or separately billed -- e.g. if I use 66 on one line and 5 on the > other, I will be charged for one message unit. The phone company clerk > tells me that each line is individually metered and it doesn't matter > whether the three lines are attached to one account or billed to three > different accounts. > I have gotten totally disgusted at this whipsaw effect. I explained > to the clerk that I want her to get ahold of her supervisor and find > the tariff schedule and mail me a copy of the tariff. I explained to > her that if what she is telling me is correct, then I need to reset my > phone service back the way I had it before. > [...] I am going to get to the bottom of this once and for all. I had a similar thing happen earlier this year. I called Pacific Bell and asked them to sign me up for CALL BONUS COMMUNITY PLAN. For 16.50 + $5 "installation", I got a discount of 30% to calls to a particular CO and an ititial allowance of $33.00 against those calls. I remember when I signed up, I explained that I was going to be making a lot of calls and wanted the maximum discount I could get. I even investigated getting a foreign exchange or doing some remote call-fowararding hopping. I was assured this would be the cheapest. My first telephone bill, with the discount, was 336.00. This prompted Pac Bell to call me and offer to add CALL BONUS CIRCLE CALLING. $4.75 plus $5 "installation" bought me an additional 30% discount on these calls and others made within a wide circle around my home. My second telephone bill, with the double discount, was 507.24. Looking over the bill, it seemed to me that the CALL BONUS CIRCLE PLAN 30% discount was applied only to calls made to CO's OTHER than the one I had signed up for under the CALL BONUS COMMUNITY PLAN. I called PacBell and spoke to a billing clerk who explained that the two plans exclude each other, and that the tariff doesn't allow them to combine the two. I finally did get to speak with a supervisor who issued a one-time $210 credit for the errantly promised additional discount, fees, and installation charges. This was satisfactory, especially since I've learned that they are protected from their own bad information. In California, if the telephone company gives you information that contradicts the tariff, the tariff (since it is a readily available public document) prevails. And this is the way it has always been with Pacific Bell and me. I've heard horror stories about GTE and the way they treat their customers. Other than the occasional error (like this one), I am treated well. And, in case you're wondering, my big telephone bill days are over. I'm back to paying about $70 a month. Robert M. Topolski ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler - Fubar) Subject: More Contact From Sprint Organization: The Phishtank Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 23:50:00 GMT Another in the never ending saga of the Sprint Modem Offer gone Bad. If you'll recall, in our last episode, I recalled how it was going, and that I was waiting for word from the California Secretary of State on Sprint's registered agent in this state. The following is a recap of the events of today, as I did promise to keep you all up to date. This is all to the best of my memory and my notes, but I will state (and you will see why) that it is all my opinions here. I received a call this afternoon from a David Matson at Sprint. He asked that I not post his phone number, so I am complying with that request. He identified himself as a CSG with Sprint. It appears, and this is my opinion, that Sprint has copies of all my posts here to comp.dcom.telecom. Mr. Matson seemed to quote directly from them, though he denied that he had them in front of him when I asked. He was very concerned with the 'truth,' as he said, and continually queried me on whether or not all items I have posted to the net were absolutely true. (Hence, the "opinion" at the beginning on this paragraph). He advised me that my previous posts did not appear to be in opinion, but a statement of fact, to which he questioned some of the facts. During the initial call he was very vague, and seemed to be feeling me out for information. When I told him what my grievance with Sprint was, he asked me where I'd heard the information on the offer, and made analogies to situations in an attempt to see if I agreed that they were similar. When I mentioned that I had heard of the offer from a friend, and called a Sprint customer service rep to get details, he attempted to draw the conclusion that I had not heard the original radio advertisement, and that that was a problem. I advised him of what I had been counseled regarding public offers, advertisements, and contracts. He made a bad joke about people who think they are lawyers. He asserted that he believed that I was recording the conversation. He brought up the question as to whether or not I had been completely truthful when I had said that I had sent off to the Secretary of State for their registered agent, and sent mail to Sprint outlining my problem with them. When I told him that I was under the impression that I could not send that to anyone other than their registered agent, and as such, I was waiting for a reply from the SOS office, he implied that I had posted an untruth, and had better take pains not to do that in the future. When I queried him, at the end of our first call (there were two) as to his name, the line went silent, and disconnected about two minutes later. He called back shortly thereafter and asked if I had hung up. I said no, and asked again for his name and phone number which he gave, the phone number on the condition that I not post it to the net. All in all, and again, in my opinion, I found the phone call in bad taste, productiveless, and bordering on harassing. It did, however, give me quite a bit to talk with counsel about. I seriously question some of the things that he told me. I'm being somewhat vague here, since it is apparent to me now that Sprint is reading all posts on here. Greetings. It is apparent to me, in my opinion, that Sprint is preparing to fight this. I am prepared as well, and no amount of phone calls from Sprint is going to convince me that they should be released from being accountable for what they seem to think is an honest error, or an error on my part. And once again, lest they try to hang it over my head, this entire post has come live and direct from the opinion of none other than myself. Any facts contained herein are still a product of my opinion. Is it obvious that I am bitter? Again, anyone with anything to add, pointers to legal issues, a letter stating that Sprint made you the same offer, or anything, please drop me email! ++Christopher(); // cambler@cymbal.calpoly.edu, home of the .plan of Doom! Christopher J. Ambler, Author, FSUUCP 1.41, FSVMP 1.0, chris@toys.fubarsys.com [Moderator's Note: There have been many Sprint employees on the Digest mailing list for years, and from time to time they send in articles as well. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Received My Free Sprint Modem Today From: roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org (Roy M. Silvernail) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1993 22:20:57 CST Organization: The Villa CyberSpace, executive headquarters In comp.dcom.telecom, zeta@tcscs.com writes: > rosellab@hawaii.edu (Rosella Bartonico) writes: >> The Smart One Fax Modem from Best Data Products, Inc. >> 9600/4800 bps send/receive fax >> 2400/1200/300 bps data modem >> with V.42bis and MNP error correction and data compression > Interesting: > This modem could indeed be represented as a 9600 data/fax modem. > 9600 bps send fax and 9600 throughput max with v.42bis. Yes, but the v.42/v.42bis/MNP is handled by a software driver, so it's not actually _in_ the modem. Roy M. Silvernail |+| roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org [Moderator's Note: My modem showed up via UPS on Monday, with the letter enclosed about the disruptions in California. I spent a couple hours Monday evening installing it and getting aquainted with it, and I really like it. I tried both the fax and data aspects of it and although it is 2400 on data, it seems to do a lot better at that speed than the other external units I have which are much older. In fact, I am now going to be making the Digest available by fax to any- one who wants to receive it that way for the cost of the phone calls. I think this was a great offer from Sprint, even if there has been various misunderstandings about exactly what was offered. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 17:30:02 -0800 From: Michael D. Corbett Subject: DMS 100 CID vs. SMDI Revisited Hello again, About two months ago, I posted a note to this Digest asking about Caller ID, and how that would affect an SMDI data link. Briefly, when CID is activated, it appears that the information is reformatted into a valid SMDI data link packet, and sent in _addition_ to the SMDI packets. A few kind souls responded to me and indicated it was a software switch, and the CO could disable the CID packets being sent to the SMDI link. Initially this seemed to work, but as more CO's enable this feature, certain CO's claim "It CAN'T be done!", while others seem to have no problem. The particular switch in question is a DMS 100. Is there anyone that can point me in a particular direction to find documentation explaining just how a CO tech would go about disabling this feature? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Mike Corbett Internet: mcorbett@halcyon.com Applied Voice Technology Voice: +1 206 820 6000 P.O. Box 97025 Fax: +1 206 820 4040 Kirkland WA 98083 I speak only for myself, not AVT! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 20:51 PST From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: GTE Responds! (was Nationwide GTE 800 Outage November 5th) I had received only one reply to my earlier query about trouble accessing 800 numbers out of the Redondo Beach, CA exchange, an area serviced by GTE. That reply said that GTE had experienced no outage, at least, not a nationwide one. That would have ended the story there, except for a tidbit that arrived in today's e-mail. Gery Sommer, a GTE employee, responded to my query on the Digest, saying that during the process of "upgrading switch software ... [a] glitch prevented customers in the Los Angeles basin from reaching 800 numbers. The glitch occurred at approximately 11 a.m. Thursday ... [and was fixed by] 1:15 p.m. Thursday." While this doesn't excuse problematic software swaps (why weren't they doing this in the middle of the night?), I have to say that after many years of decidedly inferior service from GTE (as opposed to Pac*Bell), this is a refreshing change. What impressed me further were his comments that GTE is experimenting with various computer networks -- including the Internet -- as a tool for resolving problems with the GTE network. Hopefully, this is a sign that the days of bad service are over, or at least, are starting to end. Robert L. McMillin | Surf City Software | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Dude! ------------------------------ From: Mike_Boeur@mindlink.bc.ca (Mike Boeur) Subject: Comdex Information Wanted Date: 16 Nov 93 03:52:43 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada Hi there. Can anyone please tell me how long Comdex goes on for this week? Also, does anyone know: 1. Is Spectrum Information Technologies exhibiting at Comdex? 2. Is John Sculley (New president) speaking at any events associated with Comdex in Las Vegas this week? Please e-mail your responses to mike_boeur@mindlink.bc.ca. If you have any faxable information, please fax to Michael Boeur at the Science Council of BC, FAX (604) 438-6564. Thanks a million. Much appreciated. [Moderator's Note: In an issue of the Digest on Monday, I printed a very detailed article outlining AT&T's participation in the show. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 16:31:12 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Along the Delaware River I recall 215-297 Carversville along the Delaware River and including Point Pleasant, where I went on a tubing outing in July. Apparently the next exchange north along Pennsylvania route 32 (which parallels the Delaware River) is 215-294 (Uhlerstown), which is on a list I have received for the 610 area (297 is not). Exchanges across the river are 609-397 Lambertville and 908-996 Frenchtown. So 215, 610, 609, and 908 will meet or almost meet at a corner. (Next exchange SOUTH along the river from Carversville is 215-862 New Hope, the town which is across from the town of Lambertville.) ------------------------------ From: jrpend@netcom.com (J. R. Pendleton) Subject: USA Providers of X.25 Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 22:48:17 GMT I have been working on a project that uses dedicated phone lines to have data communications between small (PC) computers and big (Sierra) computers. The data thruput requirements are not high and tends to occur in bursts. A 2400 baud modem handles the traffic just fine. (We are running Burroughs Poll-select and SNA via SDLC) The cost of dedicating a string of copper between two geographically distant computers is prohibitive. Our group has been discussing the possibilities of reducing line costs by using X.25 networks. We suspect that if the billing is done by volume, we can get a big win by converting to packet. I understand there are X.25 providers in europe. But what about the United States? If anyone has any insight on existing USA based X.25 public networks I would be grateful. Information on costs and any experience with the above protocols on packet (yes, I know, synchronous methods on packet ...) would really be appreciated. I will be happy to summarize for the group if requested. Many thanks in advance from a bunch of X.25 idiots. Jerry Pendleton jrpend@netcom.com Voice: (510)889-8158 Jerald R. Pendleton Amateur: KC6RTO Castro Valley, Ca. Party: Republican ------------------------------ From: cazier@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (David J. Cazier) Subject: MCI Internet Service Date: 15 Nov 1993 23:16:54 GMT Organization: Software Technology Branch, Johnson Space Center, NASA Reply-To: cazier@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov While I don't want to focus on MCI, I reference MCI as an example to pose my question. I have a friend living in Grants Pass, Oregon, who wishes to connect to Internet but currently has to call long distance to gain access to a univeristy account for e-mail access. MCI offers something similar via an 800 number but you have to pay $0.50 for the first K of data and then $0.29 for each K thereafter ... this may be about the best deal one can get from a site like Grants Pass ... but it would seem that the Northwest Bell system would offer some type of inexpensive Eugene, OR, line so he could access Internet via the University there. Is anyone aware of inexpensive services like this that interface with Internet? Or other means to legally access Internet e-mail? [Moderator's Note: If all he wants to do is get email, there are lots of ways to get that. If he wants real-time live interconnection to use things like IRC, Telnet, FTP and etc then that is a different matter. If all he wants is email access, then MCI Mail offers that, as does Sprint Mail and ATT Mail. Is that all he wants? PAT] ------------------------------ From: tfreeman@netcom.com (Thomas Freeman) Subject: Common Carrier - Information Please Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 23:25:11 GMT I have had e-mail with a couple of people since I originally posted this message. At the end of this message is a section of a message that I sent to Mike Godwin of EFF, and his reply. I found the files: computer.bbs.and.the.law and sysops.legal.liability in the telecom-archives directory at lcs.mit.edu to be relevant to what I was really interest in. My expanded query: >> What I'm actually interested in is knowing more about the liability >> involved in running a BBS system. Since posting that query I have >> read two summaries about such liability in the telecom archives on >> the machine lcs.mit.edu. If you do know of a good source of information >> on any of these issues I would certainly appreciate a pointer. >> One person as asked me to share whatever I find out, and I may post >> a follow-up to the newsgroup if there seems to be more interest. The reply: > The short answer is, you can't become a common carrier, and you don't want > to be one. A common carrier gets exempt from liability, but only as a > trade for regulation, and for a commitment to carry all traffic from all > people. No BBS I've ever heard of wants to run that way -- they at least > want to be able to prune off-topic postings, sanction disruptive users, > and preserve the character of the system. [Moderator's Note: I would disagree with Mike Godwin on the 'commitment to carry all traffic from all people'. Common carriers can have qualifications required to use the system, along with regulations and rules pertaining to its use. The bus company is a common carrier, but if the bus goes to Detroit and you want to go to Chicago, you have to find another bus; you can't force them to take you. Neither is a common carrier obliged to serve customers who are disruptive to the other customers or who pose a security risk. How this relates to a BBS is simply that a BBS can define its purpose and intentions; then it must accept all users equally without favor or discrimination who desire to also share the same purpose and intentions. If my BBS is clearly devoted to discussions about classical music and social issues, I need not take users who want to discuss acid rock and the Chicago White Sox. I can be a common carrier and still regulate my user's behavior in a reasonable, non-discriminatory way to all *qualified* users. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #763 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16023; 16 Nov 93 15:26 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14016 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 16 Nov 1993 11:45:46 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02621 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 16 Nov 1993 11:45:00 -0600 Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 11:45:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311161745.AA02621@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #764 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 Nov 93 11:45:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 764 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk (Carl Oppedahl) Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk (Marco S. Hyman) Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk (R. Kevin Oberman) Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk (Dick Rawson) Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? (Samir Soliman) Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? (David Boettger) Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? (James R. Ebright) Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? (Tom Crawford, Qualcomm via Alex Cena) Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? (David Hough) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: goldstein@carafe.dnet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk Date: 15 NOV 93 17:48:14 Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA In article , jebright@magnus.acs.ohio- state.edu (James R Ebright) writes: > Huh? ISDN was originally a way to get 56KB service ... but modems on > regular analog lines can almost do this today. ISDN vs market forces. > ISDN 0, Market 1. > Buy a V.fast modem for $499 and get most of the benefit without > the aggrevation of Waiting For Godot ... At the risk of seeming boring, let me restate the laws of physics. Modems are designed for analog lines, which in turn are implemented in most cases using digital techniques. So you take a 62ish (64 kbps minus signaling) kbps channel, convert it to analog for the modem, and convert data to analog in the modem. With these two conversions on a GOOD line, you can get 28.8 kbps with a V.fast modem. That's the bleeding edge, and approaches the "Shannon limit" for typical lines (though some phone lines are better). ISDN just takes the 64 kbps channel, which _might_ lose 8 kbps for signaling, and passes it right to the end user without the D:A:D conversion. So it's roughly twice as fast as any modem can ever be. IF you can get ISDN, then it'll blow the doors off of any modem. And yes, you can compress data over ISDN. Take a BRI with two B channels, run serious compression over low-entropy data, and get a megabit/sec over a local phone line! Of course, that's only if you believe in 8:1 compressibility, which applies to very little data in any case. Fred R. Goldstein goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com k1io or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com voice:+1 508 952 3274 Standard Disclaimer: Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk Date: 15 Nov 1993 19:36:06 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In jebright@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James R Ebright) writes: > In article john.eichler@grapevine. > lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) writes: >> oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: >>> I should think that New York Telephone, which fills the front pages of >>> every telephone directory with glowing talk of up-to-date digital >>> technology, would be embarassed at its apparent failure to deploy ISDN >>> beyond a handful of Manhattan exchanges. >> It's almost a 'catch-22' proposition. The phone companies are slow to >> implement ISDN because there is little demand for it and the demand is >> waiting for the service to become available. > Huh? ISDN was originally a way to get 56KB service ... but modems on > regular analog lines can almost do this today. ISDN vs market forces. > ISDN 0, Market 1. No, that's not right. even a V.fast modem only reaches what, 28 kbps. Some people say "oh, but with data compression the rate can be much higher". But that same data compression can be employed on a 56KBPS line (or, if the carriers get it worked out, 64KBPS) to maintain a two-to-one advantage. Besides which, the fundamentally asynchronous nature of V.32++ modems is ever-so-slightly less efficient in the time domain than a synchronous link. Finally, let's not forget that for some applications the call setup time really matters. ISDN call setups can be less than a second, I'm told, while a local V.32bis/V.42bis setup can take 22 seconds or more, and a long-distance one can be 50 seconds or more. If you want to have a real-time pseudo-continuous link between, say, two LANs, where the link is setup when needed and then turned off, the call setup time of a modem might be prohibitive. And for some people, the D channel of ISDN is likely to be handy. Burglar alarm monitoring, credit card validations ... lots of other things too. For still others, the B channel data delivery on voice calls would be handy. (ANI, CNID, etc.) >> This is just another example of the difficult time we will have >> installing a nationwide 'information highway'. > It will be if TPC (the phone company) is in charge of installation ;) >> I guess the only way to move the telephone companies is for tens of >> thousands of us little guys to keep asking them for ISDN until they >> wake up and realize that they are losing big bucks in not providing >> this vital service. > Buy a V.fast modem for $499 and get most of the benefit without > the aggrevation of Waiting For Godot ... Of course for many applications you are right. But for some applications, ISDN would offer advantages. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us (Marco S Hyman) Subject: Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk Organization: Codewrights/Ascend Communications Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 18:31:10 GMT In article jebright@magnus.acs.ohio- state.edu (James R Ebright) writes: > Huh? ISDN was originally a way to get 56KB service ... but modems on > regular analog lines can almost do this today. Arrgggghhh! How come this apples to oranges comparison comes up again and again? Your analog modem today does 14.4 kbit/s and uses compression to get to 57.6. This is fine IFF YOUR DATA CAN BE COMRESSED 4:1. If you're sending pre-compressed data you get 14.4. If your 14.4 kbit/s phone line does 57.6 then my 56 kbit/s digital service can do 224 kbit/s and isdn lines can do 256 kbit/s. Of course this leaves out the other difference -- your modem probably has an async serial interface and the digital service probably has a sync serial interface. marc marc@dumbcat.sf.ca.us or marc@ascend.com ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 18:41:06 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory In article jebright@magnus.acs.ohio- state.edu (James R Ebright) writes: > Buy a V.fast modem for $499 and get most of the benefit without > the aggrevation of Waiting For Godot ... V.Fast modems are pretty impressive, but ISDN they ain't! I don't understand how people can keep saying that V.fast is "just about as fast as ISDN". I belive that V.fast is 28 Kbps. That's a LOT less than a single 64 Kbps ISDN B channel and not even in the ballpark of the 128 Kbps available on the two B channels in a BRI. While some modem purveyors are claiming much faster speeds, these are the result of data compression which works just as well over ISDN as over a modem. If you stick to apple-apples comparisons it's still 128 Kbps vs. 28 Kbps and that's a big difference by any measure. R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: koberman@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 ------------------------------ From: drawson@Tymnet.COM (Dick Rawson) Subject: Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk Date: 15 Nov 1993 17:19:50 GMT Organization: BT North America, San Jose CA. > Buy a V.fast modem for $499 and get most of the benefit without > the aggrevation of Waiting For Godot ... "Most of the benefit"? Well, half the speed! On a clear day, you can see, say, 24 to 28 k bits/sec from a "V.fast" modem. That's at most half the 56 to 64 k bits/sec of a single ISDN B-channel, and the ISDN Basic Rate Interface has two B-channels. (And your LEC would like to charge you for both of them.) You can run a compression algorithm over either bit stream, so it is not appropriate to compare a "compressed V.fast" with "uncompressed B-channel" connection. Dick Rawson drawson@tymnet.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 13:49:53 -0800 From: Samir Soliman Subject: Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? In article , Ed Casas wrote: > I think these "technical advantages" are mostly a result of Qualcomm > marketing. For example, I looked at Qualcomm's claims for capacity > improvement and found that their claims were made on the basis of > grossly unfair comparisons. For example, the Qualcomm system assumed: > more-directional base station antennas, turning off the transmitter > during silent periods to reduce interference, the use of low-rate > high-gain codes, the use of low-rate speech coding, etc. > A fair comparison would have been between a second-generation TDMA > system (which could make use of many of the above techniques) and a > CDMA system. I think you would then see the capacity advantage for > CDMA eliminated. You should understand that a CDMA receiver starts > off with a major handicap -- its correlator cannot separate signals > anywhere near as well as a TDMA receiver's IF filter. You have to use > a lot of tricks to overcome that initial disadvantage. > To me (at least) the technical superiority of CDMA is far from proven. All the features you have mentioned (except for the more-directional base station antennas) are true features of the existing CDMA system. A system that has been extensively tested by Qualcomm and other interested customers. Some customers did the testing on their own and others in cooperation with Qualcomm. I don't know what did you mean by "more-directional base station antennas". If you mean more sectorized sites, let me tell you that although sectorization improves the trunking efficiency in CDMA, nevertheless we don't count its effect in calculating the relative capacity of CDMA (we usually compare the CDMA capacity to AMPS capacity, therefore if the AMPS uses sectorized cells we calculate capacity based on sectorized sites too). The parameters that really gets factored into the capacity equations are the voice activity factor, processing gain and the frequency reuse efficiency. Talking about fairness, you need to compare what TDMA can offer now vs. what CDMA can offer now. Otherwise you are giving fairness a bad name. Samir S. Soliman Staff Engineer/Manager Qualcomm Incorporated email: ssoliman@qualcomm.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 14:18:00 +0000 From: David Boettger Subject: Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? In article was written: > In article , wrote: >> I personally suspect this is a bit of a religious debate, > I think these "technical advantages" are mostly a result of Qualcomm > marketing. For example, I looked at Qualcomm's claims for capacity > improvement and found that their claims were made on the basis of > grossly unfair comparisons. For example, the Qualcomm system assumed: > more-directional base station antennas, turning off the transmitter > during silent periods to reduce interference, the use of low-rate > high-gain codes, the use of low-rate speech coding, etc. Have you read IS-95 (CDMA spec) or IS-54B (TDMA) spec? You cite discontinuous transmission, high-gain channel coding, and low-rate source coding as reasons why the comparison is "grossly unfair". First, they are not assumptions; they are part of the CDMA spec. Second, IS-54B _also_ specifies high-gain channel coding and low-rate source coding. I don't see the gross unfairness. As far as "more directional base station antennas" goes, I've not heard anything of that. > CDMA eliminated. You should understand that a CDMA receiver starts > off with a major handicap -- its correlator cannot separate signals > anywhere near as well as a TDMA receiver's IF filter. You have to use > a lot of tricks to overcome that initial disadvantage. What do you mean "separating signals"? If your're talking about multipath, IS-95 specifies a five-fingered RAKE receiver, designed for just that. If you're talking about co-channel interference, the reason CDMA works is that, if one chooses codes properly, many users can share one frequency resource. CDMA's correlators, by definition, MUST do a superlative job of signal separation. > To me (at least) the technical superiority of CDMA is far from proven. I certainly won't take issue with that. David Boettger boettger@bnr.ca I don't speak for my employer. ------------------------------ From: jebright@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James R Ebright) Subject: Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? Date: 16 Nov 1993 03:43:27 GMT Organization: The Ohio State University In article edc@ee.ubc.ca (Ed Casas) writes: > A fair comparison would have been between a second-generation TDMA > system (which could make use of many of the above techniques) and a > CDMA system. I think you would then see the capacity advantage for > CDMA eliminated. You should understand that a CDMA receiver starts > off with a major handicap -- its correlator cannot separate signals > anywhere near as well as a TDMA receiver's IF filter. You have to use > a lot of tricks to overcome that initial disadvantage. > To me (at least) the technical superiority of CDMA is far from proven. TDMA is certainly in wider use than CDMA ... but that's not saying much :) The phone folks I spoke to were experimenting with CDMA but if they had to put something on the air today, most used TDMA and hoped for the abovementioned improvements. BTW, did the Qualcomm suit against the other CDMA vendor ever get settled? Single vendor technologies are not usually welcomed in the telcom industry ;) Jim Ebright e-mail: jre+@osu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Nov 93 10:55:49 EST From: Alex Cena Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? Attached are comments from Tom Crawford at Qualcomm after I forwarded him a copy of the TDMA vs CDMA debate on the Digest. ----------------- Alex, I am sure you knew the TDMA vs. CDMA comments would get under my skin and I would have to respond. How do I send this response to Ed Casas, or to the network? My comments are in caps: In article , wrote: >> I personally suspect this is a bit of a religious debate, >> exactly like Betamax vs. VHS, and while technical arguments >> pro and con can be made, whoever has the best marketing is >> going to win. (wink wink) CARRIERS ARE GOING TO INVEST HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, IF NOT MORE, IN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY. I SUSPECT THEY WILL LOOK BEYOND THE "BEST MARKETING" PITCH TO THE UNDERLYING CAPABILITIES OF THE TECHNOLOGIES. > It's certainly the case that the debate will be settled > politically, but it turns out that CDMA has major technical > advantages: ... I think these "technical advantages" are mostly a result of Qualcomm marketing. For example, I looked at Qualcomm's claims for capacity improvement and found that their claims were made on the basis of grossly unfair comparisons. For example, the Qualcomm system assumed: more-directional base station antennas, turning off the transmitter during silent periods to reduce interference, the use of low-rate high-gain codes, the use of low-rate speech coding, etc. "GROSSLY UNFAIR COMPARISONS" ARE HARDLY AN ACCURATE WAY TO DESCRIBE CLEAR ADVANTAGES. QUALCOMM'S CAPACITY IS 10X TO 20X AMPS CAPACITY USING A 3 SECTOR CELL, HARDLY "MORE-DIRECTIONAL BASE STATION ANTENNAS". CDMA CAN READILY UTILIZE HIGHER DEGREES OF SECTORIZATION TO ATTAIN EVEN HIGHER CAPACITY SHOULD THAT BE NEEDED. UTLIIZATION OF HIGHER DEGREES OF SECTORIZATION IS ACHIEVED MUCH MUCH MORE EASILY WITH CDMA THAN IN A TDMA SYSTEM WHERE FREQUENCY PLANNING ISSUES BECOME INCREASINGLY COMPLEX AS SECTORIZATION INCREASES. WITH RESPECT TO "TURNING OFF THE TRANSMITTER DURING SILENT PERIODS TO REDUCE INTERFERENCE", WHAT DO YOU THINK TDMA DOES? IT ONLY TRANSMITS 1/3 OF THE TIME. WHY? INTERFERENCE. THIS DOES NOT SOUND LIKE AN "UNFAIR COMPARISON" TO ME. "the use of low-rate speech coding" IS AN OFTEN MISUNDERSTOOD ADVANTAGE OF CDMA. IS-95 USES A VARIABLE RATE VOCODER. WHEN THE CALLER IS SPEAKING, THE CONVERSATION IS ENCODED AT 8 KBPS. DURING A PAUSE THE RATE GOES DOWN TO 4, OR 2, OR 1 KBPS. THIS VOCODER AVERAGES ABOUT 4 KBPS. JUST BECAUSE TDMA USES AN 8 KBPS VOCODER ALL THE TIME IS THIS AN UNFAIR COMPARISON? NOT AT ALL. BY USING A VARIABLE RATE VOCODER, AND THROUGH THE COMMON USE OF THE CDMA CHANNEL BY ALL CALLERS SIMULTANEOUSLY, CDMA IS ABLE TO USE THE VOICE ACTIVITY FACTOR AND ESSENTIALLY IMPLEMENT DIGITAL SPEECH INTERPOLATION. THIS IS SOMETHING TDMA IS EVOLVING TO WITH ETDMA. HOWEVER, NOTE A VERY BIG DIFFERENCE: ETDMA WILL HAVE TO UTILIZE A HALF RATE VOCODER (4 KBPS) TO OBTAIN THE ADDITIONAL CAPACITY. THIS MEANS HALF RATE ALL THE TIME, NOT JUST ON AVERAGE. WE DO NOT FEEL THAT VOCODER TECHNOLOGY CAN CURRENTLY PROVIDE QUALITY COMMUNICATIONS LINK USING A HALF RATE VOCODER. IF WE ARE WRONG AND A GOOD HALF RATE VOCODER IS AVAILABLE, QUALCOMM CAN ALSO USE IT IN A VARIABLE RATE IMPLEMENTATION (AGAIN THROTTLING DOWN DURING PAUSES) TO ACHIEVE AN ADDITIONAL FACTOR OF 2 IN CAPACITY GAIN, IE NOW 20X TO 40X AMPS. ALSO, ETDMA'S USE OF DIGITAL SPEECH INTERPOLATION WILL REQUIRE RAPID CHANNEL ALLOCATION, ESSENTIALLY MINI-HANDOFFS DURING EACH PAUSE. THIS IS DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE WITHOUT SOME CLIPPING OF SPEECH. QUALCOMM'S COMMUNICATION CHANNEL IS ALWAYS UP, HENCE NO DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF CHANNELS IS NECESSARY. THESE BENEFITS ARE INHERENT TO CDMA. A fair comparison would have been between a second-generation TDMA system (which could make use of many of the above techniques) and a CDMA system. I think you would then see the capacity advantage for CDMA eliminated. FROM MY DISCUSSION ABOVE YOU SHOULD NOW REALIZE THIS STATEMENT IS FALSE. ETDMA WILL UTILIZE A HALF RATE VOCODER (INCREASING TDMA CAPACITY FROM 3X TO 6X, AND DIGITAL SPEECH INTERPOLATION, INCREASING THE CAPACITY FROM 6X TO ABOUT 12X OR 15X, ASSUMING EVERYTHING WORKS WELL). CDMA, WITH A HALF RATE VOCODER WILL THEN BE AT 20X TO 40X (EVEN WITHOUT BETTER USE OF SECTORIZATION). You should understand that a CDMA receiver starts off with a major handicap -- its correlator cannot separate signals anywhere near as well as a TDMA receiver's IF filter. THE CDMA SIGNAL IS ACTUALLY BELOW THERMAL NOISE LEVEL, AND IS "SEPARATED" FROM THE OTHER SIGNALS THROUGH THE PROCESSING GAIN, A FEAT ANY TDMA RECEIVER IF FILTER WOULD BE UNABLE TO DO. THE WHOLE POINT OF CDMA IS THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEPARATE THE SIGNALS OVER THE CHANNEL BY FREQUENCY OR TIME. DIFFERENT CODES PERMIT YOU TO PICK OUT YOUR CONVERSATION. You have to use a lot of tricks to overcome that initial disadvantage. To me (at least) the technical superiority of CDMA is far from proven. "TRICKS" IMPLY DECEPTION. CDMA'S TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE AND BENEFITS HAVE BEEN WELL TESTED AND PROVEN AGAIN AND AGAIN IN NUMEROUS TRIALS. THESE TRIALS HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK; CHICAGO,ILLINOIS; TAMPA, FLORIDA; WASHINGTON, D.C.; DALLAS, TEXAS; SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA; SEOUL, KOREA; MUNSTER, GERMANY; GENEVA, SWITZERLAND; AND SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. CARRIERS HAVE PUBLISHED REPORTS ON TRIALS IN SEVERAL OF THESE CITIES. IN ADDITION, CDMA HAS BEEN THROUGHALLY EXAMINED AND PROBED BY THE TIA IN PREPARATION FOR IS-95 STANDARDIZATION. THE RESULTS OF CDMA TESTING, CLEARLY DEMONSTRATING THE BENEFITS, ADVANTAGES AND PERFORMANCE CAPABILITIES ARE READILY AVAILABLE TO PARTIES WHO ARE TRUELY INTERESTED IN EXAMINING THEM. THOMAS R. CRAWFORD DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, DIGITAL CELLULAR AND WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY QUALCOMM tcrawford@qualcomm.com Tom Crawford (X 4820) ------------------------------ From: dave@llondel.demon.co.uk (David Hough) Subject: Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? Reply-To: dave@llondel.demon.co.uk Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 07:16:22 GMT TDMA has one big disadvangate in the modern world ... it can cause all sorts of interference to nearby electronics. In the UK, the first GSM phones have arrived, and one of their characteristics is to cause a buzz at a few hundred hertz in sensitive electronics nearby. Most susceptible appears to be hearing aids, especially if the phone user also wears one! As any radio amateur worth his salt will know, 100% amplitude modulation of a signal with what amounts to a square wave is bound to cause problems. Still, look at it the other way: now we have something else to blame when the TV picture breaks up into a mass of interference :-) Dave G4WRW @ GB7WRW.#41.GBR.EU AX25 dave@llondel.demon.co.uk Internet g4wrw@g4wrw.ampr.org Amprnet ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #764 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16751; 16 Nov 93 16:56 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14419 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 16 Nov 1993 12:25:41 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31176 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 16 Nov 1993 12:25:01 -0600 Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 12:25:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311161825.AA31176@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #765 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 Nov 93 12:25:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 765 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Mark Brader) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Paul Robinson) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Rick Blaiklock) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (James Renals) Re: TDMA vs CDMA = Betamax vs VHS? (Alex Cena) Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? (Jack Decker) Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? (Alex Cena) Re: In the Matter of: Connecting to Kremvax.demos.su (Petri Helenius) Re: Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? (Rich Greenberg) Re: Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? (John Powell) Re: Wiring a New Town (David G. Cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada References: Date: Tue, 16 Nov 93 10:36:36 GMT >> Digest readers who are interested in testing 905 out could try to get >> Toronto weather information at +1 905 676.3066 to see if 905 will work >> (pre-recorded message). For greater clarity: Toronto is in 416. 676, however, is a Mississauga (or as Bell says, Malton) prefix; presumably it's the meteorological office at the Toronto international airport, which is in Mississauga. So it's in 905. Digression: the following dialogue was reported by a returning traveler at Canadian customs/immigration *at the airport* some years back. "Where do you live?" "Mississauga." "I asked you where you live, not what your name is." > It works from Brooklyn, N.Y., though the recording said it was nine > degrees out. Can that be right? It was in the 70s today in NYC! SEVENTIES?!! The all-time world record is only 58 degrees! Oh, right. Fahrenheit. Chuckle. Mark Brader SoftQuad Inc., Toronto utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 09:32:09 EST Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA From a 301-585 number, 10288 1 905 676 3066 (ATT) and 10222 1 905 676 3066 (MCI) go through without any trouble. I suspect Sprint doesn't have enough trunks; the first three times I dialed 10333 1 905 676 3066 I got a busy signal. All three of them went to the recording for Toronto Weather. ------------------------------ From: ag258@Freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Blaiklock) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Reply-To: ag258@Freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Blaiklock) Organization: The National Capital Freenet Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 22:00:17 GMT In a previous article, taranto@panix.com (James Taranto) says: > djcl@grin.io.org wrote: >> Digest readers who are interested in testing 905 out could try to get >> Toronto weather information at +1 905 676.3066 to see if 905 will work >> (pre-recorded message). I work in (905) area as well, and could >> provide the work number(s) on request. > It works from Brooklyn, N.Y., though the recording said it was nine > degrees out. Can that be right? It was in the 70s today in NYC! 9 degrees C(elcius) is approx 50 degrees F. PS: Did you know that only two countries in the world don't use the metric system? I'm told the other one is Liberia. Just a comment, no flames please. Rick Blaiklock ag258@freenet.carleton.ca Ottawa, Ontario, Canada [Moderator's Note: Actually we use some metric notation. We have 9 mm bullets for our weapons. :) My thanks to Mark Brader for passing along that chuckle, which he got from Dave Berry. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jrenals@balham.demon.co.uk (James Renals) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Reply-To: jrenals@balham.demon.co.uk Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 19:54:40 GMT In article djcl@grin.io.org writes: > Digest readers who are interested in testing 905 out could try to get > Toronto weather information at +1 905 676.3066 to see if 905 will work > (pre-recorded message). I work in (905) area as well, and could > provide the work number(s) on request. Tried to dial the above number from the U.K., using BT and Mercury, and success fully got through on both occaisons. Interesting to think that foreign telecos are more up-to date than local ones :) James Renals jrenals@balham.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 08:28:47 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: Re: TDMA vs CDMA = Betamax vs VHS? In Telecom Digest #761 Ed Casas (edc@ee.ubc.ca) wrote: > A fair comparison would have been between a second-generation TDMA > system (which could make use of many of the above techniques) and a > CDMA system. I think you would then see the capacity advantage for > CDMA eliminated. You should understand that a CDMA receiver starts > off with a major handicap -- its correlator cannot separate signals > anywhere near as well as a TDMA receiver's IF filter. You have to use > a lot of tricks to overcome that initial disadvantage. I believe Ameritech, which has tried the most recent generation of TDMA systems available, publicly stated the results of its TDMA trials in Chicago. Ameritech held three trials: TDMA vs CDMA Fall of 1992; TDMA only Jan/Feb 1993; and TDMA only in May/June. The final May/June test was held in order to allow vendors a chance to show off their latest generation of equipment. In fact, Ameritech issued a press release indicating TDMA was not ready for commercial deployment since its customers did not perceive any incremental value in the service over current analog. In a blind survey of 15 high-usage customers eight said TDMA was better than analog and six said it was worse. This compares to CDMA where most rated it as excellent or very good relative to analog. > To me (at least) the technical superiority of CDMA is far from proven. In my opinion, we still are in the second inning of this ball game. The score is 3 to 2 with US West New Vector, Pactel Cellular and Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems purchasing CDMA-based equipment, while Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems and McCaw opting for TDMA. It gets somewhat confusing in areas like Bay Area Cellular in San Francisco, which is equally owned by McCaw and Pactel. Since Bay Area Cellular is composed of Ericsson switches and radios, I'm counting it as a part of the McCaw vote. The ball game internationally is quite different since GSM seems to have quite a bit of momentum. Alex M. Cena acena@lehman.com ------------------------------ From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? Date: 15 Nov 1993 18:37:20 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net On Sat Nov 13 23:45:32 1993, whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) wrote: >> [Moderator's Note: That's really something, to equate the laws >> pertaining to privacy in communications with the old (but still in >> force in about half the states in the USA) laws on sodomy. The latter >> are considered by many people to be an invasion of individual privacy, >> while the former are considered by many people to promote and protect >> individual privacy. In any event, they are all a bunch of worthless, >> unenforceable laws, eh? So what else is new in these United States? PAT] > Pat, when a law is unenforceable, it is both useless, and a waste of > time to even enact. Can you truly say that the ECPA has improved the > privacy of cellular? I doubt it. The ECPA is a "feel good" law with > no true impact. The politicos who passed can say ... "boy we feel good > about striking a blow for privacy" even though the blow has the impact > of a feather against a brick wall. Since listening to cellular isn't > something done in public (anymore than sodomy is) just how do you see > the ECPA helping communications privacy? Well, I have a fervent belief that unenforceable law is bad law, and that it causes people to lose respect for the law in general. The ECPA is particularly bad law precisely because it makes listening to cellular phone calls a felony, but it is virtually impossible to detect someone listening to a cellular phone call, so the law is generally unenforceable. However, think like a lawmaker for a moment. Assume that there are several undesirable outcomes that may occur when someone listens in on a cellular call. People's privacy may be violated. People may gain access to information they would otherwise not have had, that they can use to their financial (or other) advantage (for example, you might hear something about a famous person that could be sold to the press, or used to blackmail them, or to ruin a political career). The cellular telephone industry may lose money because potential users perceive that their calls are not private (which of course they aren't, but apparently many cellular users don't know that). If one considers these outcomes so undesirable that legislation is required, then it should legislate against these outcomes. In some cases, the necessary laws existed prior to the enactment of the ECPA (for example, laws making it illegal to reveal what you heard to a third party, or to use information you heard to your advantage). I think everything else that the ECPA might accomplish could have been achieved by banning the sale or importation of any receiver capable of receiving cellular frequencies, and making it illegal to advertise any device as having the capability to receive cellular calls. Those are things you can regulate, at least to a much greater extent than what a person does in the privacy of their home. You could make a similar argument about the sodomy laws ... they may not stop what goes on in the privacy of someone's home, but they do stop (at least to some extent) folks from openly soliciting for it (depending to some extent on whether local authorities are willing to actually prosecute offenders). But more to the point, they do give folks a bit of a handle on the situation when such practices are openly advocated. For example, if a public school teacher wishes to teach students that homosexuality is just another acceptable lifestyle choice, parents who disagree can point out that the teacher is really advocating commission of an illegal act (if sodomy is still a crime in that state). It might be better if the laws actually addressed the undesired behavior (making it illegal simply to solicit, and to teach about sexual preferences in the classroom) but when you get that specific you draw fire from groups like the ACLU, who claim that you are somehow restricting free speech or something. In some cases it is easier to just keep the existing laws on the books -- they may be overly broad but because of that, they're less likely to attact a constitutional challenge. I think the ECPA may be like that, too ... there may be a fear that if you try to convict someone based on a law that says they can't reveal what they heard on the airwaves, they could plausibly claim that their constitutional right of free speech is bening violated. Since there is no constitutional right to listen to certain frequencies, you are on less shaky legal grounds to attack that. Thus we play legal games, where the law as it is written is known to be virtually unenforceable, but it allows the government to place sanctions against other types of behavior that it is difficult to legislate against directly. In my opinion, we need to first get rid of the liberal judges that don't seem to have a lick of common sense, but kowtow to the every whim of the ACLU, and then pass laws that actually sanction the behavior we really want to limit (that is, get rid of the "back door" approach to lawmaking). At present, it's just too easy for lawmakers to pass the overly-broad laws ... much less friction that way. Having said all of that, I still consider the ECPA a fine example of "special interest" legislation, passed at the behest of political lobbyists. The cellular companies should have been told to go develop an effective scrambling system, if they truly wanted privacy of communications. It is really sad that special interests with enough money and/or political clout can buy legislation favorable to themselves, no matter how nonsensical that legislation is. But of course, this is nothing new ... the telephone companies of America have honed this practice (of buying favorable legislation) to a fine art over the years! :-( Jack ------------------------------ From: mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? Date: 15 Nov 1993 04:07:13 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA lps@rahul.net (Kevin Martinez) writes: > In regard to the above, I live right under a cell site antenna tower > and *every* radio and TV I own picks up these annoying conversations > on occasion. Even my telephone (noncordless) picks them up sometimes. > I keep thinking of the Gilligan's Island episode where his filling > becomes a rectifier and detects broadcast band radio. > Does the ECPA make it illegal to live in my neighborhood or only to > possess a receiving device (or a filling)? Would these cold evenings > be even colder without the comforting rays of this antenna? Perhaps > this is the cause for retries on zmodem transfers .... Of course it's illegal for you to live there, or to have fillings, you wiretapper, you! (Dano, book him for criminal possession of a filling with intent to eavesdrop!) Michael D. Sullivan mds@access.digex.net avogadro@well.sf.ca.us Washington, D.C. 74160.1134@compuserve.com mikesullivan@bix.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Nov 93 08:43:09 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: Re: Do You Monitor Cellular Channels? In Telecom Digest #761 Bill Fischer bill.fischer@t8000.cuc.ab.ca wrote: > Calls to and from all phones in a particular cell can be monitored, or > specific numbers can be entered into a log, and all other calls > ignored. The equipment monitors the data on the cell's control > channel and switches a radio scanner to the specified voice frequency > when the phone makes or receives a call in that cell. The equipment > will change to a new voice frequency each time the phone switches, > ensuring that the complete call is monitored from start to finish. > We have a Cellular Surveillance Interface that performs this function. > It doesn't cost $6000, and it will work on both the AMPS (USA, Canada, > Mexico, Australia) and TACS/ETACS (Europe, Middle East, Southeast > Asia) cellular systems. Can this equipment be used to monitor digital cellular networks? How do you know where your target may pop up since there may be hundreds of cell sites in a large city? Do you essentially have to set up monitoring stations in every cell site? Moreover, are you familiar with the equipment vendors used by many intelligence agencies besides E-Systems Melpar division? I am asking because of research I am conducting on a companwy called Comverse Technology that specializes in monitoring systems called AudioDisk. For obvious reasons, the company cannot reveal the name of its customers for me to survey so I am concentrating on identifying its competitors. If possible, could you send me a copy of your brochure by private e-mail. Alex M. Cena Lehman Brothers 200 Vesey Street, 14th Floor New York, NY 10285 Internet: acena@lehman.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 21:39:23 +0200 From: Petri Helenius Subject: Re: In the Matter of: Connecting to Kremvax.demos.su Paul Robinson wrote: > On the list Telecom Digest there is mention > that sites in the U.S. cannot connect (due to U.S. Government pressures) > with some sites behind the former Iron Curtain. One example of which is the > site kremvax.demos.su. Evidence from this message implies it is not the > government doing this, it is someone else. NSFNET/ ANS CORE. Name it anything you want. Our Russian friends have been connected to NSFNET occasionally, but every time this has been noticed, MERIT or ANS has cut them off, because they are not allowed to connect to NSFNET. They can connect to all non-ANS sites in the US, so this is not a government regulation. Pete ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 18:48:31 GMT Pat, isn't this in the FAQ yet? If not ... In article bobt@zeus.net.com (Bob Tykulsker) writes: > I am having a new home built and would like to install the wiring now > that I might need for future technologies. What would you recommend? > Cable, fiber, copper, etc. Any suggestions welcome. Nobody knows what YOU will need or want in the future. Not even yourself. Anybody else will be just guessing, and who knows what new technology is just around the corner? Anyway, since you are not certain now, possibly the best approach is to lay conduit. Run plastic conduit as large as practical (at least an inch ID, bigger==better, from a central point (basement, closet, ???) to EVERYWHERE that you MIGHT possibly need access in the future. Keep in mind cable TV, and "smart" appliances as well as any home computer(s) and related equipment. At each location, terminate in at least a 4x4 deep box which can be papered over or just put on a blank plate. Inside each pipe run a strand of heavy cord, preferably a synthetic that won't rot or be eaten by bugs/rodents that can later be used to pull wires (and another length of cord!) as needed. Leave several feet of slack at each end. Make sure each conduit is marked. Make sure you have a map that says where each conduit comes out. Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 I speak for myself only. Canines: Chinook & Husky ------------------------------ From: John Powell Subject: Re: Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? Date: Tue, 16 Nov 93 01:30:15 -0600 Organization: Valcom/PCC > Unless fiber is available in your area now, go with a large amount of > copper wire. Put your demarc in the basement, and run at least twisted > six-pair to each room, in star format, e.g. each room's wiring is > separate. This allows you to have two phone lines and still have room > for two four-line circuits. The difference in price between four pair > and six pair is probably negligible (less than 5c per foot, maybe even > the same price); I know the last time I checked the price of 25 pair I agree, but I personally like to run two (or more) four-pairs to each location. This will allow for more isolation and multiple signal types/services to be sent to each room. It is standard practice to separate such things as voice lines, digital data, etc. as they can interfere with each other (ie. ringing voltage can affect LAN data). You will also be able to connect each cable to an RJ45 (ie. two RJ45's in each location) and maintain a standard that can accomodate many things from standard analog (one or two line) phone lines, ISDN, 10bT, Token Ring, etc. without any modification to the connectors, just change the connections in the basement. The REAL cost of wiring is pulling the cable, not the wire itself, and pulling two cables shouldn't cost much more than one. Also, there is no universal standard for six pair that everyone can follow; four pair is as universal as they get and any decent electrician or phone tech can manipulate it as needed without the designer being there to explain the kluge that would result from using six pair. John ------------------------------ Reply-To: dgc@math.ucla.edu Subject: Re: Wiring a New Town Date: Tue, 16 Nov 93 12:01:45 -0800 From: David G. Cantor In Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 759, Tony Harminc states: > And one personal crusade: consider the nature of street lighting. If > at all possible, use incandescant lights, preferably halogens. If > energy efficiency concerns won't allow this, use metal halides. Avoid > like the plague sodium and mercury lighting. Light the sidewalks > first, and worry about the streets later, if at all. You want a > community where people *want* to be out and about on the streets and > public places at all hours - not locked behind bolted doors and alarm > systems. Obviously street layout and lighting are not the only > determinants of this, but they are a base. This is a major political issue in the City of San Diego. Mt. Palomar Observatory is nearby. Low-pressure sodium lighting only minimally interferes with the observatory because it's mono-frequency and can be easily filtered out. All of the other lights mentioned fog the astronmer's films. There is strong evidence that the kind of lighting is not the important factor. It's the brilliance. Low-pressure sodium is MUCH MORE efficient than the other choices and so the "green" position is to use low-pressure sodium. After prohibiting them for many years, the City of San Diego, over the strong opposition of the Palomar astronomers, has just allowed white-lights in certain high-crime areas. We shall see if this deters crime and we shall also see how much longer Mt. Palomar remains a useful observatory. David G. Cantor Center for Communications Research 4320 Westerra Court San Diego, CA 92121 dgc@ccrwest.org ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #765 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa28015; 18 Nov 93 7:03 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06434 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 18 Nov 1993 04:03:05 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15934 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 18 Nov 1993 04:02:17 -0600 Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 04:02:17 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311181002.AA15934@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #766 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 Nov 93 04:02:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 766 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Toll Fraud on French PBXs -Phreaking :-) (Jean-Bernard Condat) Sprint Upgrading Internet Backbone (John D. Gretzinger) Finally Got REAL Phone Service (Jack Decker) Research Assistant - High Speed Wireless Networking Research (Joseph Evans) Announcement of New Moderator (Dennis G. Rears) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cccf@altern.com (cccf) Subject: Toll Fraud on French PBXs - Phreaking :-) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 93 14:48:59 EST In France it is estimated that PBX trunk fraud (toll fraud) costs companies over $220 million a year. Criminal phreakers figure out how to access PBXs owned by businesses and then sell long-distance calling capacities provided by these systems to the public. In European markets where PSTN to PSTN connections are illegal it has not to date been such an issue. However, for a number of reasons this is likely to change. Trunk to trunk connection barring through PBXs is expected to be deregulated throughout Europe. The telecom industry has done more this year to prevent toll fraud than 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. Increasing numbers of international companies have private networks and provide DISA (Direct Inward System Access) access to employees. Such companies are prime victims for phreaking. For example, a phone hacker can access the network in the UK, France, or Germany and break out in another country where it is legal to make trunk to trunk calls, and from that point they can call anywhere in the world. Voice mail is taking off across Europe. This, together with DISA, is one of the most common ways phreakers enter a company's PBX. Raising these issues now and detailing precautionary measures will enable companies to take steps to reduce such frauds. The following looks at the current situation in France. In France a whole subculture, like a real phone underground culture, of these technology terrorists is springing up on city streets. Stolen access codes are used to run call-sell operations from phone booths or private phones. The perpetrators offer international calls for circa FF 20, which is considerably less than it could cost to dial direct. When calls are placed through corporate PBXs rather than carrier switches, the companies that own the PBXs end up footing the bill. What are the warning signs that your own communication systems are being victimized by toll fraud? In inbound call detail records, look for long holding times, an unexplained increased in use, frequent use of the system after normal working hours, or a system that is always busy. In records of outbound calls, look for calls made to unusual locations or international numbers, high call volumes, long duration of calls, frequent calls to premium rate numbers and frequently recurring All Trunks Busy (ATB) conditions. Toll fraud is similar to unauthorized access to mainframe computers or hacking. Manufacturers such as Northern Telecom have developed security features that minimize the risk of such theft. Telecommunication managers, however, are the only ones who are ensure that these features are being used to protect their systems from fraud. Areas of Intrusion Into Corporate Systems: PBX features that are vulnerable to unauthorized access include call forwarding, call prompting and call processing features. But the most common ways phreakers enter a company's PBX is through DISA and voice mail systems. They often search a company's rubbish for directories or call detail reports that contain a companies own '05' numbers and codes. They have also posed as system administrators or France Telecom technicians and conned employees into telling them PBX authorization codes. More sophisticated hackers use personal computers and modems to break into data bases containing customer records showing phone numbers and voice mail access codes, or simply dial '05' numbers with the help of sequential number generators and computers until they find one that gives access to a phone system. Once these thieves have the numbers and codes, they can call into the PBX and place calls out to other locations. In many cases, the PBX is only the first point of entry for such criminals. They can also use the PBX to access company's data system. Call-sell operators can even hide their activities from law enforcement officials by using PBX-looping-using one PBX to place calls out through another PBX in another state. Holding the Line-Steps That Reduce Toll Fraud: Northern Telecom's Meridian 1 systems provide a number of safety features to guard against unauthorized access. It is the most popular PBX phreaked in France. The following information highlights Meridian 1 features that can minimise such abuse. DISA Security: The DISA feature allows users to access a company's PBX system from the public network by dialing a telephone number assigned to the feature. Once the system answers the DISA call, the caller may be required to enter a security code and authorisation code. After any required codes are entered, the caller, using push button tone dialling, is provided with the calling privileges, such as Class of Service (COS), Network Class of Service (NCOS) and Trunk Group Access Restrictions (TGAR), that are associated with the DISA DN or the authorisation code entered. To minimize the vulnerability of the Meridian 1 system to unauthorized access through DISA, the following safeguards are suggested: 1) Assign restricted Class of Service, TGAR and NCOS to the DISA DN; 2) Require users to enter a security code upon reaching the DISA DN; 3) In addition to a security code, require users to enter an authorization code. The calling privileges provided will be those associated with the specific authorization code; 4) Use Call Detail Recording (CDR) to identify calling activity associated with individual authorization codes. As a further precaution, you may choose to limit printed copies of these records; 5) Change security codes frequently; 6) Limit access to administration of authorization codes to a few, carefully selected employees. Meridian Mail Security: Northern Telecom's Meridian Mail voice messaging system is also equipped with a number of safeguarding features. The features that allow system users to dial out; Through Dial, Operator Revert and Remote Notification (Outcalling) should be controlled to reduce the likelihood of unauthorised access. The following protective measures can be used to minimise tool fraud: Voice Security Codes - Set security parameters for ThroughDial using the Voice Security Options prompt from the Voice Systems Administration menu. This prompt will list restricted access codes to control calls placed using the Through-Dial function of Meridian Mail. An access code is a prefix for a telephone number or a number that must be dialled to access outside lines or long-distance calling. If access codes are listed as restricted on the Meridian Mail system, calls cannot be placed through Meridian Mail to numbers beginning with the restricted codes. Up to ten access codes can be defined. Voice Menus - With the Through-Dial function of Voice Menus, the system administrator can limit dialling patterns using restricted dialling prefixes. These access codes, which are defined as illegal, apply only to the Through-Dial function of each voice menu. Each Through-Dial menu can have its own restricted access codes. Up to ten access codes can be programmed. Meridian Mail also allows system administrators to require that users enter an Access Password for each menu. In this way, the Through-Dial menu can deny unauthorized callers access to Through-Dial functions, while allowing authorised callers access. Additional Security Features - The Secured Messaging feature can be activated system-wide and essentially blocks external callers from logging to Meridian Mail. In addition, the system administrator can establish a system-wide parameter that forces user to change their Meridian Mail passwords within a defined time period. Users can also change their passwords at any time when logged in to Meridian Mail. System administrator can define a minimum acceptable password length for Meridian Mail users. The administrators can also determine the maximum number of times an invalid password can be entered before a log-on attempt is dropped and the mailbox log-on is disabled. Some of the features that provide convenience and flexibility are also vulnerable to unauthorized access. However, Meridian 1 products provide a wide array of features that can protect your system from unauthorised access. In general, you can select and implement the combination of features that best meets your company's needs. General Security Measures: Phone numbers and passwords used to access DISA and Meridian Mail should only be provided to authorized personnel. In addition, call detail records and other reports that contain such numbers should be shredded or disposed of in an appropriate manner for confidential material. To detect instances of trunk fraud and to minimize the opportunities for such activity, the system administrator should take the following steps frequently (the frequency is determined on a per site basis according to need): 1) Monitor Meridian 1 CDR output to identify sudden unexplained increases in trunk calls. Trunk to trunk/Tie connections should be included in CDR output; 2) Review the system data base for unauthorised changes; 3) Regularly change system passwords, and DISA authorisation and security codes; 4) Investigate recurring All Trunks Busy (ATB) conditions to determine the cause; 5) If modems are used, change access numbers frequently, and consider using dial-back modems; 6) Require the PBX room to be locked at all times. Require a sign-in log and verification of all personnel entering the PBX room. Two Practical Cases: Bud Collar, electronic systems manager with Plexus in Neenah, Wis., transferred from its payphone operations branch. As the PBX manager, he's blocked all outside access to his Northern Telecom Meridian 1 and meridian Mail. Just in case a phreaker does gain access, Collar bought a $600, PC-based software package from Tribase Systems in Springfield, NJ, called Tapit. With Tapit, Collar runs daily reports on all overseas call attempts and completions. But the drawback to Tapit is that by itself it has no alarm features, so if a phreaker 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. Erica Ocker, telecom supervisor at Phico Insurance in Mechaniscsburg, PA, also wanted to block all of her outside ports. But she has maintenance technicians 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 is to buy LeeMah DataCom Security Corps'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 identifies the user by their PIN and asks them to punch in a randomly selected access code that they can only get from a credit card-sized random number generator, called an InfoCard. That access code matches the codes that are generated each time the TraqNet is accessed. The TraqNet 2001 is a single-line model that supports up to 2,304 users for $950. More upscale can support up to 32 lines and run call detail reports, but they cost as much as $15,000. InfoCards each cost an additional $50. Conclusions: The ultimate solution will be, as I read in a French consultancy review, The more pleasant story directly linked with French phreaking was the night that I saw on my TV screen in Paris a luxurous computer ad for the Dell micro-computers. At the end of the ad, a toll-free number was presented in green: 05-444-999. I immediately phoned this number ... and found the well-known voice of all French Northern Telecom's Meridian Mail saying in English: "For technical reasons, your call cannot be transferred to the appropriate person. Call later or leave a message after the tune." The dial of 0* gave the open door to more than Dell information. My letter to this company already is without (free voice-) answer! Jean-Bernard Condat, General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France [cccf] First European Hacking, Phreaking & Swapping Club Address: B.P. 8005, 69351 Lyon cedex 08, France. Phone: +33 1 47874083; Fax: +33 1 47874919; E-mail: cccf@altern.com ------------------------------ From: JOHN.D.GRETZINGER@sprint.sprint.com Date: 17 Nov 93 16:53:35-0500 Subject: Sprint Upgrading Internet Backbone Pat - This just came across our internal network and looks to be of interest. On another note, dial access to SprintLink is currently being tested and should be available the first quarter of next year. More on that as it becomes available. John D. Gretzinger +1.310.797.1187 +1.310.4430.1761 (FAX) I don't speak for Sprint, and they don't speak for me. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> SPRINT UPGRADES SPEED, CAPACITY OF INTERNET BACKBONE SERVICE WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 1993 -- Sprint today became the first carrier-based Internet service provider to announce plans to upgrade its transmission network -- SprintLink(SM) -- to accommodate transit speeds of 45 megabits per second by the first quarter of next year. The upgrade includes cutting-edge routing and network management technologies that significantly improve the network's performance. The SprintLink network upgrade anticipates the transition of Internet traffic from the National Science Foundation network, NSFNet, to commercial service providers, which is expected to begin in spring of 1994. The NSFNet is the U.S. backbone for the Internet, the global "network of networks" that interconnects more than 18,000 networks and over 2,000,000 host computers worldwide. One of the first phases in the network upgrade is a cooperative test with the NSF to transfer some of its global transit services across the new Sprint backbone. The test builds on Sprint's existing role as the international connections manager for the NSFNet, through which it already carries most of NSFNet's international traffic. As the international connections manager for the NSFNet, Sprint has the most comprehensive global routing tables of any service provider -- the "road maps" of the information highway. To further enhance the network's ability to route information, Sprint will replace existing routers with Cisco 7000 routers, one of the industry's highest performing models. Sprint also is embedding Silicon Graphics' Indigo(R) workstations within its network hubs to manage "domain name" service. These powerful systems maintain the extensive and ever-changing list of "domains" -- user groups or networks -- on the Internet and their corresponding addresses, from regional research networks to public electronic messaging service providers. Sprint has developed a "flat" network architecture -- a streamlined design that sends information through fewer levels of equipment, permitting higher speeds, less chance of failure and the smooth transition to future services, including Asynchronous Transfer Mode. In 1994, high-bandwidth customers will be able to connect to SprintLink using Sprint's ATM service through any of Sprint's more than 300 network points of presence in the United States. ATM currently allows data transmission at 45 megabits per second -- fast enough to send a 400-page book across the country in one second. "The tremendous growth of users on the Internet is fueling the demand for higher-speed, easily upgradable commercial services," said Don Teague, general manager for Sprint's Government Systems Division, which manages the company's business with the federal government. "This upgrade takes our network service to the next technological plane -- those high-bandwidth services required to support the research and scientific community, as well as a growing number of commercial users engaged in electronic commerce and other leading-edge information technologies." Sprint is a diversified international telecommunications company with more than $10 billion in annual revenues and the United States' only nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network. Its divisions provide global long distance voice, data and video products and services, local telephone services to more than six million subscriber lines in 19 states, and cellular operations that serve 42 metropolitan markets and more than 50 rural service areas. Silicon Graphics and Indigo are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics Inc. ------------------------------ From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Finally Got REAL Phone Service Date: 18 Nov 1993 06:31:36 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net Reply-To: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) It has been almost a year since I moved into GTE land, and some of you may recall that when I got my phone service, it was provided via some obsolete (no longer manufactured) subscriber carrier equipment that has given me all sorts of problems over the past year (on no less than five occasions, it has gone out completely). At one point (after I complained to the Michigan Public Service Commission) GTE even gave me a credit ($25 plus the equivalent of three days' service) on my phone bill in compensation for the problems I had experienced. Well, today they cut me onto the new system. It's a remote unit located probably a mile and a half away from me. The cable between there and the downtown central office is fiber, and between the new unit and my home is all new underground cable, replacing aerial cable that is being taken out of service. After the cutover I noticed several things immediately: 1) My on-hook line voltage increased from ~15 volts to ~44 volts DC. Also, the tip/ring polarity reversed from what it had been when I was on the carrier. 2) So far I am getting considerably less noise and garbage on my modem calls. 3) On voice calls, the difference is amazing! I was actually starting to think that I was getting hard of hearing because I had trouble hearing people on the phone. Suddenly, voices on the other end seem MUCH louder and clearer. This is also appparent with the volume of dial tone. My modem is set to let me hear it dial and connect, and now when it first seizes the line the dial tone will about knock you out of your chair compared to what it used to be. And my mother used to complain about not being able to hear me on the phone; I called her tonight and she says I am much louder on her end, too. 4) I think the phone ring cadence is SLIGHTLY different ... maybe it's my imagination, but to me it sounds like the rings are slightly shorter (like maybe a quarter of a second or half a second shorter). I will add that I'm probably really pushing the limit on Ringer Equivalence Numbers on my line, but both the old and new systems seem to be able to handle that equally well. 5) CPC now works ... before, if the CO dropped current for a moment, I would hear a couple of faint clicks, but the voltage on my line would remain constant. Now, when the CO drops current, my line goes stone cold dead for that fraction of a second. 6) And finally, the new unit still will not accept dial pulses at 20 pps. When I mentioned this originally, I was told that this was a design limitation of the GTD-5 switch in my central office ... that 20 pps was NOT considered a standard dialing speed, and even though some AT&T and other switches may support it, the designers of the GTE switches didn't feel they should. Now, what I do not know is whether the new remote unit (the crew out here keeps referring to it as a MUX) actually provides dial tone itself, or simply relays dial tone from the CO downtown. I had sort of hoped that it would provide its own dial tone, and would therefore support 20 pulses per second, but no such luck. I'd still like to know where the dial tone is really coming from. I did retain my same phone number, if that's any clue. All in all I'm quite pleased so far, especially with the far better voice quality and volume. I think it will also make my service FAR more reliable than it has been, assuming of course that some idiot doesn't dig up the new fiber cable and cut it. As for the carrier box that was hanging on the utility pole out front, it's still there. I think they intend to collect them all at once. I suggested to the guys that they could take it down and back their truck over it a few times, but the said it would probably be reused elsewhere. I definitely pity whoever gets stuck with that thing next! :-) Jack ------------------------------ Subject: Research Assistant - High Speed Wireless Networking Research From: evans@hamming.uucp (Joseph B. Evans) Date: 17 Nov 93 17:14:16 CDT Organization: Elec. Eng. & Comp. Sci., Univ. of Kansas Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) for High Speed Wireless Networking Research University of Kansas Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Telecommunications and Information Sciences Laboratory (TISL) Lawrence, Kansas TISL is looking for qualified, creative individuals with a desire to pursue graduate research and education in high speed wireless link and networking technologies. The position requires an undergraduate or MS degree in EE, ECE, or CS with credentials for admission to the University of Kansas Graduate School. Good communication skills, strong self-motivation, and the ability to work as part of a team are required. A background in communications systems and/or networking is desired. The individual will join a team of faculty and students pursuing sponsored research in high speed wireless communications networks and in the hardware and software development of a prototype high speed wireless Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) system. This position is an opportunity to develop the telecommunications technology of the future. TISL has state-of-the-art communications and computing facilities. We are a founding member of the MAGIC gigabit testbed and have experiential ATM and long distance SONET facilities. Within TISL, faculty and students address challenging research issues in various aspects of telecommunications, ranging from high speed networks to wireless communications systems and advanced spread spectrum techniques. The interaction between the laboratory and the other EECS faculty contribute to the stimulating intellectual environment. The University of Kansas is located in Lawrence, a city of about 75,000 people, which is situated in the rolling hills of eastern Kansas, about an hour's drive from Kansas City. The city of Lawrence has a long history and retains may interesting reminders of its colorful past. The community has 1,257 acres of public parks, indoor and outdoor community swimming pools, an arts center, an historical museum, and an active community education and recreation program. Interested applicants should submit two copies of both a resume and cover letter requesting application forms to: Dr. Victor S. Frost Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Director, Telecommunications and Information Sciences Laboratory University of Kansas 2291 Irving Hill Road Lawrence, KS 66045-6929 Phone: (913) 864-4833 FAX: (913) 864-7789 e-mail: frost@eecs.ukans.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Nov 93 15:11:17 EST From: Dennis G. Rears Subject: Announcement of New Moderator I will relinquish Moderator duties of the Computer Privacy Digest in a couple of weeks. Prof. L. P. Levine will take over as the new Moderator of the Computer Privacy Digest (comp.society.privacy) sometime in the next few weeks. Currently we are working on the transition. A message will go out shortly on the new addresses. The primary reason I am leaving the group is time. In the last few months I have not had the time to adequately perform the duties of being a Moderator. I would like to thank all the people who have contributed to the Digest and those people who have provided me with pointers on making the Digest better. I have for the most part enjoyed moderating the group. I will miss the off-line discussions I have had with many of you. The CPD had it origins in the telecom-privacy mail list which I set up in August of 1990. Telecom-priv started out to address concerns of Caller Id. It was an outgrowth of a discussion that was started on the TELECOM Digest. The telecom privacy mail list was merged into the Computer Privacy Digest on 27 April 1992. According to the October USENET readership report comp.society.privacy is read by about 44,000 people, 73% of USENET sites receive this and is ranked at 683. I have about 500 subscribers/exploder lists. I think we have come a long way since the first issue was published in April 1992. I wish Professor Levine good luck in his new role. I plan to assume a role as Official Lurker. Dennis G. Rears MILNET: drears@pica.army.mil UUCP: ...!uunet!cor5.pica.army.mil!drears INTERNET: drears@pilot.njin.net USPS: Box 210, Wharton, NJ 07885 Phone(home): 201.927.8757 Phone(work): 201.724.2683/(DSN) 880.2683 USPS: SMCAR-FSS-E, Bldg 94, Picatinny Ars, NJ 07806 [Moderator's Note: I'm sure all telecom readers join me in thanking you for your splendid service over the past three years. Best wishes to you in your future endeavors and to your successor as Moderator. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #766 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02389; 18 Nov 93 18:09 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29422 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 18 Nov 1993 14:18:48 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29923 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 18 Nov 1993 14:18:08 -0600 Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 14:18:08 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311182018.AA29923@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #767 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 Nov 93 14:18:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 767 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: MCI Internet Service (Jim Graham) Re: MCI Internet Service (Steven King) Re: 65 Per Line or 65*per Line? (Paul Robinson) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (David Esan) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Andrew M. Dunn) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Scott D. Fybush) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Tony Harminc) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (John Little) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (Carl Moore) NPA 905, NAFTA and Mexico Area Codes (Robert Casey) Re: Check From MCI; What to Do? (Steve Lamont) Re: Check From MCI; What to Do? (Mark W. Schumann) Re: Strange T1 Behavior (David Devereaux-Weber) Re: Strange T1 Behavior (Dave Levenson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jim@n5ial.mythical.com (Jim Graham) Subject: Re: MCI Internet Service Organization: Future site of Vaporware Corporation (maybe). --Teletoons (NW) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 02:39:49 GMT Well, I do believe we have a record here! This makes three posts from me to comp.dcom.telecom in less than one week (I normally expect my posts here to go the same route as the first two of the three this week ... into the Moderator's bit bucket, regardless of the content, so I usually just don't bother). In article cazier@gothamcity.jsc.nasa. gov writes: > I have a friend living in Grants Pass, Oregon, who wishes to connect > to Internet but currently has to call long distance to gain access to > a univeristy account for e-mail access. MCI offers something similar > via an 800 number but you have to pay $0.50 for the first K of data > and then $0.29 for each K thereafter ... Ugggghhhh .... what a horrible price! Your friend needs to setup some type of batched process for getting mail and downloading it (UUCP would be an ideal solution). With a V.32bis modem and V.42 error control, you're looking at around 1724 cps (see the first of my three posts to comp.dcom.telecom in this past week for details on how to get at that number). At 1724 cps, that amounts to about 800k per minute, and with the AT&T calling plan I'm on, that's 10 cents for around 800k, vs around $230 for that same amount of data, assuming batched mail handling (such as UUCP). Ok, your friend doesn't want to setup UUCP? No problem. Just get on something like the program I'm on (I think it's called Evening Plus, or something like that), and from 1900 to 0800 S-F, and 1900 Fri to 1700 Sunday, it's ten cents/minute flat rate within the US (intra-state calls are more, obviously, and your mileage may vary). And then don't spend time reading mail online -- save it to a file, download it (if you can, use Zmodem), read it, type up any response(s), upload the response(s), and then mail them. > Or other means to legally access Internet e-mail? The easiest, and usually by far the cheapest, is to get a local UUCP feed. If you run dog on a PC, you'll need something like UUPC, which is UUCP for the PC. :-) That's how I'm setup here. I have a UUCP feed (actually, I have two feeds), and all of my Internet e-mail is via those feeds. Setup is a bit tricky if you're not a computer whiz (I personally found setting up UUCP to be rather trivial, for the most part), but once it's setup, you just let it run on its own. Another thing you can always do is find a local public access UNIX site. Refer to the nixpub listing (which, I believe, is still posted regularly in comp.misc) for sites near you. Feel free to e-mail me for info on how to find a local feed, etc., as well as more details on setting things up, good reference material, and so on. > [Moderator's Note: If all he wants to do is get email, there are lots > of ways to get that. [ .... -jdg ] > If all he wants is email access, then MCI Mail offers that, as does > Sprint Mail and ATT Mail. Is that all he wants? PAT] Those are rather expensive options, compared to something as cheap as a simple UUCP feed or using a public access UNIX site ... I personally would *NOT* recommend those choices, unless you just have money to burn, and don't care about some of the problems you might encounter (e.g., my previous employer uses one of the above, and incoming mail has this nasty habit of not being delivered, and not having any error messages sent to the originator of the e-mail ... in other words, it isn't worth a d*mn). Well, considering the fact that it's highly doubtful that this will even get posted, I think I'll stop here ... jim #include 73 DE N5IAL (/4) INTERNET: jim@n5ial.mythical.com | j.graham@ieee.org ICBM: 30.23N 86.32W AMATEUR RADIO: (packet station temporarily offline) AMTOR SELCAL: NIAL [Moderator's Note: Why do you feel it is 'highly doubtful it will get posted'? I can't remember any messages from you which specifically were not posted recently, although at 100-125 messages per day, the majority being replies to something previously posted/replied to, there has to be a cut off somewhere. PAT] ------------------------------ From: king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King) Subject: Re: MCI Internet Service Date: 18 Nov 1993 15:01:50 GMT Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Reply-To: king@rtsg.mot.com In comp.dcom.telecom cazier@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov writes: > While I don't want to focus on MCI, I reference MCI as an example to > pose my question. I have a friend living in Grants Pass, Oregon, who > wishes to connect to Internet but currently has to call long distance > to gain access to a univeristy account for e-mail access. MCI offers > something similar via an 800 number but you have to pay $0.50 for the > first K of data and then $0.29 for each K thereafter ... this may be > about the best deal one can get from a site like Grants Pass ... but > it would seem that the Northwest Bell system would offer some type of > inexpensive Eugene, OR, line so he could access Internet via the > University there. > Is anyone aware of inexpensive services like this that interface with > Internet? Or other means to legally access Internet e-mail? Gahh!!! Are you sure you're not quoting prices per MEGAbyte of data, instead of per KILObyte of data? Remember that a kilobyte, 1024 bytes, is less than a full screenful of text. $.29/K would be the most exhobitant rate I've ever heard of. There's a company called Speedway you might be interested in. I don't work for them and I'm not even a customer, but they might fit your needs nicely. They give free dial-up access to the net. The catch? You must call them via AT&T. They're directly connected to AT&T, not the local telco, and they make their money off of kickbacks. Since you can use any AT&T calling plan you normally would, this can be a pretty good deal. For example, AT&T's Reach Out America plan puts long distance at $.12/minute or thereabouts. Using a 14.4 kbps modem and a batch transmission like UUCP, PPP, or SLIP this works out to around 100K/minute. This is quite reasonable for a news and mail feed. Also, look for the Public Dialup Internet Access List (PDIAL). This lists a lot of public access Internet providers. Most if not all of these are for-pay commercial services. The newsgroup alt.internet.access. wanted may also be of service to you. If you're primarily interested in Usenet news and email and not so much in ftp, telnet, and other Internet goodies check out the Nixpub list. This is a listing of public access Unix systems. These systems may or may not have what you're looking for and they may or may not charge, but it's certainly a place to begin your investigations. Another source is looking for BBS lists local to your area. You can look on the net in alt.bbs.lists and maybe comp.bbs.misc. Also, call around to local computer stores and user's groups and ask if they know of any BBSs in the area. Most BBSs carry lists of other local BBSs so you get kind of a snowball effect very quickly. Hopefully you can find one that carries what you need. Public Dialup Internet Access List (PDIAL) kaminski@netcom.com (Peter Kaminski) alt.internet.access.wanted, alt.bbs.lists, ba.internet, news.answers Nixpub List phil@bts.com (Phil Eschallier) all.bbs, comp.bbs.misc, comp.misc The above lists can be found in the listed groups and are available for ftp at rtfm.mit.edu. Steven King -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 13:18:59 EST Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: 65 Per Line or 65*per Line? From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Someone asked me about the charge for message units on phone service: >> different one. Now I am told the original story -- that each >> line has a limit of 65 calls whether or not the lines are >> billed to one party or separately billed -- e.g. if I use 66 >> on one line and 5 on the other, I will be charged for one >> message unit. The phone company clerk tells me that each line >> is individually metered and it doesn't matter whether the >> three lines are attached to one account or billed to three >> different accounts. > This implies that there's a per call charge after your 65th > call. Can you offer a few details on the billing and let me > know who your telco is? There are three 'flavors' of phone service which is provided by C&P Telephone of Maryland. Rates are per month and do not include long distance usage but DO include the $3.50 per line carrier access charge: 1. Unlimited local calls in the service area, which is all of the Washington Metro area which extends from Dulles Airport, VA to Rockville, MD to Prince Georges County, MD to Columbia, MD, encompasing four area codes from Silver Spring. Note that this option is only available to residential customers. This costs about $22 a month with taxes. 2. Metered by time. All calls costs 3.1c for the first minute and 1.3c for each additional minute. Residential customerts have an option of obtaining $5.85 worth of metering for $3. This costs about $11 if you take it with no meter allocation, or $14.50 with the extra $5.85, including taxes, plus any usage if no meter allocation or more than $5.85 is used, respectively. 3. Metered by count. All calls cost 9c regardless of how long you are on the line. Residential customers have an option of obtaining 65 calls for $3. This costs about $11 with no meter allocation, or $14.50 with 65-call count, including taxes, plus any usage if no meter allocation or more than 65 calls are made, respectively. A commercial telephone will pay about $15 a month over these rates, and all calls are billed either at 3.1c a call/1.3c a minute or 9c a call. Except for touch tone, all other services (call forwarding, three-way, call waiting, caller id, etc.) are at an additional charge. I switched my service from 1 to 3 with 65 metered calls. > I'm guessing that you pay a monthly service charge for Caller > ID. But this "per message" charge over the 65th call is news > to me. You only pay for message charges if you choose to take metered service. Caller ID costs $6.50 a month. I'm only keeping it for the duration of the test I'm doing, which means in a month I'll drop it since I will know everything I wanted to know about it. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Date: 18 Nov 93 14:44:46 GMT Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY In article g1jmason@cdf.toronto.edu (Jamie Mason) writes: > Now, correct me if I am wrong here, but is it not the case that > NPAs for North America are assigned by Bellcore? Presumably the split > of the old 416 into 416 and 905 was authorized by Bellcore. > I was under the impression that Bellcore publishes, on a regular > basis, its list of NPA assignments ... and I would assume that any LEC > or IXC with enough chutzpah to call themselves a "phone company" would > go to the trouble of reading these lists, and programming their > computers with them. Since I don't get tapes from BellCore any longer I can't speak directly about them, but I can add some experiences. The tapes from BellCore generally parallel the additions to the document FCC #10, in terms of time of addition. Now, the information for NPA 905 just arrived (11/15/93), even though 905 has been implemented for more than a month. Why? I don't know. We got the information for 810 and 910 in October, and the informtion about 610 in November. Both were some time before these codes were implemented. I don't think this is strictly a problem because it is a Canadian area code. We have gotten in information on some splits a years in advance, most about three months in advance, and a few after the fact. David Esan de@moscom.com [Moderator's Note: Obviously instead of relying on Bellcore to get you the information in a timely way, you need to read this Digest for the latest news on area code splits, etc. :) We were talking about 905 long before it occurred. We were even talking about 905 back in the days when it used to be an 'area code' for Mexico. PAT] ------------------------------ From: amdunn@mongrel.uucp (Andrew M. Dunn) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Organization: A. Dunn Systems Corporation, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 15:08:52 GMT In article taranto@panix.com (James Taranto) writes about calling the Toronto Ontario Canada weather info number: > djcl@grin.io.org wrote: > It works from Brooklyn, N.Y., though the recording said it was nine > degrees out. Can that be right? It was in the 70s today in NYC! Yikes! 70 degrees! That's close to the boiling point of water. I'd hate to be outdoors in that kind of heat ... you could fry an egg on your forehead. :-) (Hint ... in Canada we use the metric Celsius system of temperature measurement, not Fahreinheit. 100 degrees C = 212 degrees F, 20 degrees C is a pleasant 68 degrees F, 0 degrees C is 32 F, and 9 degrees C is around 48 degrees F, quite normal for this time of year in southern Ontario). Cheers, Andy Dunn or [Moderator's Note: In the USA, we use the metric system to measure the size of the ammunition for our weapons. :) 9mm bullets are common. Ooops, I said that one yesterday, but it bears repeating I guess. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 04:04:00 GMT Could someone with knowledge of the 416/905 split enlighten me about 416-551? The Niagara Falls Bridge Commission hotline was at 416-551-3409, and I had thought that area was going to 905. Yet from 617-254 Brighton, here's what I get when trying to call 905-551-3409: Via AT&T: Loud rushing noise with occasional clicks and pops. Via MCI and Sprint: "Your call cannot be completed as dialed". Via Westinghouse internal network: Ditto 416-551-3409 connects just fine. It's not that 905 isn't working, I can call Mississauga numbers in 905-820-XXXX just fine via all four carriers. Is there something weird about 416/905-551? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 13:18:36 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized taranto@panix.com (James Taranto) wrote: >> Digest readers who are interested in testing 905 out could try to get >> Toronto weather information at +1 905 676.3066 to see if 905 will work >> (pre-recorded message). I work in (905) area as well, and could >> provide the work number(s) on request. > It works from Brooklyn, N.Y., though the recording said it was nine > degrees out. Can that be right? It was in the 70s today in NYC! Well it has been a bit chilly here lately -- nine degrees sounds about right. But 70s in NYC !? Let's see -- a hot day in Death Valley would be around 55 degrees. My water heater thermostat is set to 65 degrees. Water boils at 100 -- freezes at 0. Could it be that NYC uses some funky temperature scale not used anywhere else in the civilized world ... ? Tony Harminc (in the heart of 905 country) ------------------------------ From: jlittle@AccessPoint.North.Net (John Little) Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized Organization: UUNorth's AccessPoint Service Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 19:26:43 GMT When my parents try to call me (905 area code) from Central Florida, using AT&T, they get an error, and have to use 416 to reach me. They live in the 407 area code, and the LEC is Southern Bell, with AT&T as the LD carrier, you would assume that they would get the most recent information. [Moderator's Note: AT&T has nothing to do with the error message your parents are reaching. Southern Bell is picking it off before it even leaves the local phone exchange. All the telcos examine the digits which are given to them for validity and to see if it is a call they should handle (or hand off to a long distance carrier). Southern Bell can't find it in their table, and claim it is an error. To prove this for yourself, have your parents *bypass the local central office* by going direct to AT&T on 800-CALL-ATT or similar, then dialing the 905 number. It'll go through okay. Another proof will come when you have your parents dial through the central office as before, but using a carrier access code such as 10333 for Sprint or 10222 for MCI (or 10288 for AT&T). The same thing will occur: the call will be rejected, and one would think Sprint or MCI did not know about 905 either, but in truth, they are never even seeing the request because Southern Bell is not handing it to them. And when you call the local telephone company and politely suggest they get their act together, the clerk first tries to pass you off to the long distance carrier ('you will have to complain to them') or maybe they ask if you have tried from all the phones in your house and get the same problem from each phone, and that they can have someone come out a week from next Thursday but if the problem is discovered to be on your end, boy are you gonna pay for it. Illinois Bell had a prefix missing from their table for area 414 for the longest time. No amount of talking to them did any good. Finally I reached a reasonably intelligent supervisor at AT&T who passed the message to her co-worker in charge of those things, and he called someone at IBT who corrected it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 11:32:05 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized I take it that traveler living in Mississauga was a woman? On rare occasions, I do hear the play on words where "Mrs." is heard in the first part of "Mississippi". So whoever said "I asked for residence not name" should have recognized that he/she was right at Mississauga, right? [Moderator's Note: No, what directory should have said next was 'What town does Mrs. Ogga live in?' :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: NPA 905, NAFTA and Mexico Area Codes Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 04:32:22 GMT In article dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) writes: > The problem MAY stem from the fact that 905 was previously one of the > area codes assigned to Mexico a few years ago, before it was decided > that Mexico would be reached only via country code. Until about three > years ago you could reach them both ways. Would NAFTA have any impact on area code assignment? If USA, Canada, and Mexico are gonna be an economic unit, would there be motivation to make phone calling to Mexico similar to the style used to call Canada and USA (outside your local area code)? Well, they probably couldn't give back 905 to Mexico, but make up a new sort of area code for them? [Moderator's Note: I don't think NAFTA will matter. Besides, TelMex has never had the same historic relationship with telcos in the USA and Canada that the telcos in this country have had with each other. I rather suspect Mexico will remain an 'international' point. PAT] ------------------------------ From: smlamont@hebron.connected.com (Steve Lamont) Subject: Re: Check From MCI; What to Do? Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 15:17:04 -0800 Organization: Connected INC -- Internet Services Henry Mensch (hcm@netcom.com) wrote: > For my residential long distance I currently use AT&T ... I got a > check in the mail from MCI last week (not a very big one, as they say; > only $20) which I get to cash if I let them switch me to MCI (and > friends and informants, or whatever it is this week). > Now, I remember reading in this space that some folks were able to > redeem these checks with their current LD carrier without having to > switch carriers ... has anyone done this lately ... with AT&T? If so, > how ...? I heard someone say that if you (1) call your local telephone company (i.e., your LEC) and tell them you don't want your phone slammed (which means you want to freeze any changes to your long distance carrier) and (2) cash the check at the bank, the carrier pays you the money but their change order for their long distance service does not get processed. You could say you get to take the money to the bank! I have never tried this, which is unfortunate because some of my "checks" have been for $75. Steven Lamont smlamont@hebron.connected.com [Moderator's Note: I would suggest that to deliberatly connive and structure things in that way amounts to fraud even though all you are doing is taking advantage of flaws in the system. Anyway, to be 'slammed' means to process the change without your signature. The carrier has your signature on the back of the check you signed, and if your signature is not sufficient to dictate your choice of carrier then I don't know what would be. Actually, if the local telco froze changes on your account on the basis of your phone call alone, in effect you 'slammed' yourself. Slamming by definition means the undocumented change or confirmation of carriers. Your signature is adequate documentation. PAT] ------------------------------ From: catfood@wariat.org (Mark W. Schumann) Subject: Re: Check From MCI; What to Do? Date: 17 Nov 1993 23:27:26 -0500 Organization: Akademia Pana Kleksa, Public Access Uni* Site In article , Henry Mensch wrote: > Now, I remember reading in this space that some folks were able to > redeem these checks with their current LD carrier without having to > switch carriers ... has anyone done this lately ... with AT&T? If so, > how ...? Yes, you have to switch carriers. But read the fine print. You can switch to the new carrier and change right back again the next day if you like; just wait for the check to clear and the paperwork to go through. What's neat about this is if you have AT&T, then cash an MCI check, you will likely get a check from AT&T to come back. If you play your cards right it can be a lot of free money. :-) In answer to the obvious question, yes, I am really a pain in the neck to play Monopoly with also. Mark W. Schumann/3111 Mapledale Avenue/Cleveland, Ohio 44109-2447 USA Preferred: mark@whizbang.wariat.org | Alternative: catfood@wariat.org "Aren't you glad you didn't marry someone dumber than you?" --my wife [Moderator's Note: Regards your signature, it was W.C. Fields who once commented on his choice of girlfriends, 'The dumber they are, the better I like 'em ... :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 12:19:41 CDT From: weberdd@clover.macc.wisc.edu Reply-To: weberdd@macc.wisc.edu Subject: Re: Strange T1 Behavior In a previous message, Tom Lowe writes: > I have a client with several T1s from Sprint. A strange thing happens > when I place a 14.4 modem call to one of the channels and a voice call > to an ADJACENT channel (using 800 numbers). A static type of noise > becomes present on the voice call when the far end is talking. It is > especially noticable when listening to ringback or busy signal. If I > disconnect the modem call, the static goes away. > If there is one or more channels between the calls, there is no problem. > The T1 is using D4 and AMI formats. I am not getting any timing slips. > Has anyone experienced such behavior or have any ideas? This could be crosstalk. The data on a 14.4 modem sounds like noise to our human ears. In addition to happening within the T span, the cross-talk can occur at your end (before the calls get in to the span), or at the far end (after the calls get off the span). I assume you have two analog lines at your work location; one for the voice call and one for the modem line. The crosstalk can occur in the cable from your office to the distribution frame, or at the far end from their distribution frame to their work location. The fact that the problem does not occur when there is one or more channels between the calls does not necessarily implicate the T1. It could be that the crosstalk occurs within the last three feet of the cable (in the distribution frame, where the cables are "punched" down on the terminal block). David Devereaux-Weber (608) 262-3584 (voice) MACC Communications; B263 (608) 262-4679 (FAX) 1210 W Dayton St. weberdd@macc.wisc.edu (Internet) Madison, WI 53706 ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Strange T1 Behavior Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 02:43:04 GMT In article , tomlowe@netcom.com (Tom Lowe) writes: > I have a client with several T1s from Sprint. A strange thing happens > when I place a 14.4 modem call to one of the channels and a voice call > to an ADJACENT channel (using 800 numbers). A static type of noise > The T1 is using D4 and AMI formats. I am not able to help with a solution to this one, but I am very interested in it, as I have a customer who is about to install a substantial amount of Sprint T-1 service. You don't say how the T-1 line from Sprint is terminated at your client's site. Is there a channel bank? If so, which one? What's on the analog side of it? My instinctive answer would be to look there for the crosstalk. How about your end? Are your analog voice and data circuits leaking? 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 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #767 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05599; 19 Nov 93 3:35 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27875 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 19 Nov 1993 00:32:40 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07585 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 19 Nov 1993 00:32:00 -0600 Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 00:32:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311190632.AA07585@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #768 TELECOM Digest Fri, 19 Nov 93 00:32:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 768 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Canadian Govt Database Updates (Tyson Macaulay) Query For Network Designers on a LAN/WAN Problem (Dean Pentcheff) Serial Protocol For NT TCM/MPDA (Bill Riess) GSM Interference (was Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS?) (Erik Ramberg) Custom Cable Makers? (David Morgenstern) Mobilnet Pushing Credit Card Verification Over Cellular (Barry Lustig) Fiber Amplifiers and Solitons (Fred Bertsch) Terse 800 Failure ... Oh My! (Scott M. Pfeffer) Compression With ISDN (Roger Fajman) Watch Those Memos: TCI Memo Text (Reed Vance) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 15:54:13 EST From: Tyson=Macaulay%DTP%DGCP=HQ=ADMSR@dgbt.banyan.doc.ca Subject: Canadian Govt Database Updates ***** ATTACHMENT: G:\DATABASE\00ANNOU.N18 ***** Latest additions to Industry and Science Canada's Internet database ******************* Dernieres additions a la base de donnees Internet Industrie et Sciences Canada All files are available via anonymous ftp gopher and listserv unless otherwise stated. Tous les fichiers sont accessibles par le truchement de la commande GOPHER ou LISTSERV du protocole de transfert de fichier (ftp) anonyme, sauf indications contraires. Anonymous ftp to debra.dgbt.doc.ca /pub/isc Gopher to debra.dgbt.doc.ca port 70 If you Gopher into the database a WAIS search-engine is available to scan the entire database for keywords. Do to the large number of files this is the recommended approach -- if available. Si vous entrez dans la base de donnees a l'aide de la commande Gopher, une ressource de recherche WAIS permet de rechercher des mots cles dans toute la base de donnees. En raison du grand nombre de fichiers, voici l'approche recommandee, s'il y a lieu. Send Listserv commands to Listserv@debra.dgbt.doc.ca with the command / Lancez les commandes Listserv a Listservdebra.dgbt.doc.ca a l'aide de la commande get isc 00readme in the body of the message/ a l'interieur du message. This file will give more details about listserv access. / Ce fichier vous permet d'obtenir plus de details sur l'acces a listserv. New files in /pub/isc: *** Insight.zip Information Technology Statistical Review 1993 / Revue statistique de 1993 sur la technologie de l'information This is a software package contaning IT information for the Canadian and US IT industries in hypertext format. This program is to run on PC and requires about 9 megs of free disk space. Instructions for installation and running are included in the zip file: Il s'agit d'un progiciel qui contient des renseignements sur la technologie de l'information (TI) pour les industries de la TI au Canada et aux Etats-Unis, en format hypertexte. Ce programme tourne sur les PC et necessite quelque 9 Mo d'espace disque. Les instructions d'installation et d'execution sont incluses dans le fichier comprime (zip); Be sure to decompress this file using the command / Prenez soin de decomprimer ce fichier a l'aide de la commande: pkunzip -d insight.zip *** privacy.protection.in.telecommunications.english This file is concerned with the privacy implications of telecommunications services made possible by new technology and market changes. Its particular focus is that privacy issues should be dealt with as a telecommunications-specific matter, taking into account the need to balance the cost against the benefits of telecommunications service innovations. The paper proposes that privacy principles be developed through a public consultation process, and implementedon by the telecommunications carriers and service providers. *** protection.privee.telecommunications.francais Ce fichier a trait aux repercussions de la Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels en matiere de services de telecommunication, protection maintenant possible grace a la nouvelle technologie et aux changements qui caracterisent les marches. Il permet, notamment, d'assurer que les questions relatives a la protection des renseignements personnels soient traitees strictement dans le contexte des telecommunications, et de tenir compte de la necessite de trouver le juste equilibre entre les couts et les avantages des innovations dans le domaine des services de telecommunications. Dans cette communication, nous proposons que les principes regissant la protection des renseignements personnels soient elabores dans le cadre d'un processus de consultation, puis mis en oeuvre par les entreprises de telecommunications et les fournisseurs de services. *** isc.programs.english This file contains information about the various government programs available from ISC to aid in technology development by the private sector in Canada. All documents are available in English and French. *** programmes.isc.francais Ce fichier contient des renseignements sur les divers programmes gouvernementaux offerts par ISC, destines au developpement technologique par le secteur prive au Canada. Tous les documents sont disponibles en anglais et en francais. *** videotheque.library.english This is a catalogue of the video library that ISC makes available to the private sector in Canada for free. All files are in both English and French. An order-form file is included individually. *** videotheque.bibliotheque.francais Il s'agit d'un catalogue de la videotheque qu'ISC met gratuitement a la disposition du secteur prive au Canada. Tous les fichiers sont disponibles en anglais et en francais. Un fichier de formules de commande y est inclus. In addition to these new files in /pub/isc there are three new subdirectories with several hundred files, these directories are only available via anonymous ftp and gopher. Outre ces nouveaux fichiers dans /pub/isc, trois nouveaux sous-repertoires sont associes a plusieurs centaines de fichiers; ces repertoires ne sont accessibles que par le truchement des commandes ftp et gopher anonymes. /pub/isc/technology.networking.guide The **Technology Networking Guide -- Canada** documents Canadian private and public sector technology information sources, services, programs and contacts. These files are intended to aid Canadian business in the location of technology expertise, assistance and opportunities which will create new business and help the expansion of existing industries. Le **Guide de la gestion de la technologie en reseau - Canada** documente les sources d'informations technologiques des secteurs public et prive au Canada, les services, les programmes et les ressources qui s'y rattachent. Le but de ces fichiers est d'aider les entreprises canadiennes a recenser l'expertise technologique, a obtenir l'assistance necessaire et a repertorier les possibilites de creation de nouvelles affaires, tout en contribuant a l'expansion des industries existantes. /pub/isc/isc.publications.english This directory contains a list of publications sponsored by the department of Industry and Science Canada. The publications are arranged chronologically according to sector area. Information for obtaining each publication is made available along with the abstract. /pub/isc/publications.isc.francais Ce repertoire contient une liste de publications parrainees par Industries et Sciences Canada. Les publications sont classees dans un ordre chronologique, par sujet. Le resume fourni contient les renseignements de commande de chaque publication. Questions or comments should be addressed to: Veuillez faire parvenir tous commentaires ou questions a l'attention de: Tyson Macaulay Internet Applications Consultant Industry and Science Canada 7th Floor, Journal Tower North 300 Slater Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C8 (613) 993 7882 e-mail / courrier electronique: tyson@debra.dgbt.doc.ca tyson.macaulay@crc.doc.ca File updated / Mise a jour de fichier: Nov 18, 1993 ------------------------------ From: dean2@tbone.biol.scarolina.edu (Dean Pentcheff) Subject: Query For Network Designers on a LAN/WAN Problem Date: 18 Nov 1993 14:01:49 -0500 Organization: Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia I'm working at the University of South Carolina in the Biological Sciences Department. We've begun to explore the possibilities of setting up a network to provide scientific information and images to secondary schools in the state. The idea is to provide a network for teachers and students to correspond, and also to provide some Internet access (via such tools as Mosaic for Windows and Usenet News). The original plan was very simple: one computer per school with a high-speed modem. There are about eight schools involved, so we figured on a modem bank on this end with eight modems. They'd dial in and get connected to our host machine and use SLIP for TCP/IP connectivity. Fine. Then, in talking with the teachers, it became evident that we had to set up multiple machines per school (essentially one per science/math classroom) or the whole thing would be sort of useless. Now we're in over our heads and need some help to think about this. I'm assuming that the basic way to go about this would be to set up a LAN at each school (perhaps 10Base2 Ethernet cards in each computer since that's what I'm familiar with). I assume there's a way to link that network with our host at USC. What do we need? We're pretty clueless. I'm assuming that we need something like the following: School _Some flavor of phone line PC--| / PC--| / PC--|--Magic Box 1--Modem?--*--Modem?--|-Magic Box 2--Campus net PC--| | or our host PC--| | | School | PC--| | PC--|--Magic Box 1--Modem?--*--Modem?--| | School | PC--| | PC--|--Magic Box 1--Modem?--*--Modem?--| I don't know what "Magic Box 1" is. Are there devices that can can be directly hooked up to an Ethernet and relay packets to a remote site (bridge?). What type of phone line is appropriate? Is it possible to do this on a dialup line or is that a stupid idea? If so, what sort of leased line would be appropriate (keeping in mind that the cost of this _must_ be low). What's needed on our end? A modem for each incoming line? There must be another "Magic Box" on the other end - do we need just one (as diagrammed), or do we need one for each incoming phone line? How are those connected to the campus network? Or would we connect directly to our host? You see how lost we are? What are good sources of information on this sort of thing? Alternately, if there's someone out there who does this sort of thing professionally, I'd be extremely appreciative if you'd let me give you a call and pick your brain for 15 minutes. I suspect that to people in the networking biz, this is a pretty trivial thing to set up. Our problem is that we don't have the background to even begin to assess the multitude of possibilities. Thanks for any info or leads you can send me! N. Dean Pentcheff Biological Sciences, Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia SC 29208 (803-777-8998) Internet addresses: pentcheff@pascal.acm.org or dean2@tbone.biol.scarolina.edu ------------------------------ From: bill_riess@il.us.swissbank.com Subject: Serial Protocol For NT TCM/MPDA Organization: Swiss Bank Corporation CM&T Division Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 23:10:08 GMT We are trying to interface a Northern Telecom phone to some of our computer applications in a Non-PC/MAC environment (ie: does NOT compete with NT's VISIT products). We may implement some VISIT-like features, but Northern Telecom says they have "no plans" to do anything in our envivonment. I have talked (at length) to Northern Telecom about the serial protocol used between their Meridian Programmable Data Adapter (MPDA) and the attached device (PC, Workstation, whatever.) This apparently is the same as used by their Meridian TelAdaptor TCM. This is the protocol a PC running VISIT Voice or VISIT Video uses to "talk" to the phone, controlling the various features and functions. The manual that comes with the TCM or MPDA does have some simple "AT" commands for control, but there is a "transparent" mode (activaed with "ATTSP!") that allows for access to the RAW SIGNALLING between the PBX and phone and "is used by some special software applications". This mode is used by the VISIT products. It seems Northen Telecom is rather secretive about how this stuff works, even though AT&T and Rolm publish and distribute equivalent information for their respective equipment. NT actually has the documentation, it is called "The TCM Loop Series (2616) Aeries Subset of x.11 Commands", Northern Document F2K90AC, but they are unwilling and/or unable to release it. My frustration makes me want to just reverse-engineer the protocol, which appears straight-forward, as I have done a similar thing previously. However, I'd rather spend my time more productively. Which leads me to my questions: Does anyone out there have documentation on this Protocol? OR Can you tell me how to obtain it? OR Can you suggest someone who does/can? OR Do you have an other approaches/ideas? Thanks! Bill Riess Swiss Bank Corp. 141 W. Jackson Blvd. Chicago Illinois Phone: +1 312 554 5150 FAX: +1 312 554 5030 E-Mail: bill_riess@swissbank.com The opinions expressed above are NOT those of Swiss Bank Corp., and I will likely disavow they are mine if confronted. ------------------------------ From: erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) Subject: GSM Interference (was Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS?) Date: 18 Nov 1993 21:39:46 GMT Organization: ESL Inc. In article , dave@llondel.demon.co.uk (David Hough) wrote: > As any radio amateur worth his salt will know, 100% amplitude > modulation of a signal with what amounts to a square wave is bound to > cause problems. Still, look at it the other way: now we have something > else to blame when the TV picture breaks up into a mass of > interference :-) Huh?!? GSM uses GMSK, i.e. MSK with a Gaussian window. TDMA uses DQPSK, or a quaternary form of phase shift keying. Both of these formats are designed to fit within the channel bandwidth and are very different from the AM that you discribe. Though I'm sure nobody really knows what's to blame for the interference, if anything it's some strange intermod problem rather than directly attributal to the move to a TDMA type system. Erik Nothing that I say can be construed as the opinion of my employer. ------------------------------ From: davidm@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (David Morgenstern) Subject: Custom Cable Makers? Organization: California State University, Sacramento Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 17:00:51 GMT I've used one of these Radio Shack devices to tape record phone calls in the past (nothing nefarious). I would split the line and one side would go to the phone and the other to the tape recorder with the help of a little switch box with cables. But here's the problem. I'm working now in a place with a Meridian system, which won't let me do this. I would guess that if I could split the handle then I could do this. What I need is a special cable (with a bunch of capacitors and whatever) to divide the handle cable, with one side going to the handle, and the other to a regular tape recorder line in plug. Or second best, an adaptor for the device I already own ...? Does anyone know of some places that could do this kind of work? And how much? Or if you've seen it already done in a catalog? Please reply to davidm@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu. Thanks, David Morgenstern, davidm@sfsu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 18:57:08 -0500 From: Barry Lustig Subject: Mobilnet Pushing Credit Card Verification Over Cellular Organization: ICTV Systems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (408) 562-9200 In the "Quality Talk" newsletter issued with my latest bill from GTE Mobilnet bill was an article titled "New Mobile Merchant Captures More Sales". The article goes on to describe a product from Verifone that allows merchants to do credit card capture and authorization in the "field". Unfortunately, they don't mention anything about whether or not card numbers go out over the air in the clear. When will these folks start dealing with the reality of cellular snooping. barry [Moderator's Note: The 'reality of cellular snooping' is that there really isn't much of it and what there is is considerably overrated. Relatively few people bother doing it, although lots of people are excited at first knowing they can do it with their modified scanner, etc. Then after a week or less of listening to others, when they realize that unlike a soap opera they listen to on television, the calls they pick up on the scanner will be there a few seconds or a minute and drop off as soon as the tower they are monitoring passes the call, they get bored. Their scanner flips endlessly through 832 channels, hitting the same conversations over and over that they do not want to hear, so they have to reach over and step it up a channel to start the scan process again; then when one that does sound interesting comes along, its there a few seconds and the tower passes it off; finding where (what channel) it moved to is anyone's guess, and the folks sit there scanning and trying to follow it, but give up. As noted, after a week or so they get tired of the game and go back to listening to their local police frequencies, or other stable conversations where the radio either talks or remains silent but they don't have to keep stepping past stuff they don't want and chasing after what they find mildly interesting. The nature of how cellular phones work does not make them all that easy a target for repeated and constant listening to any one phone by any one snoop, etc where scanners are concerned. But what about the professional con-artist you say? The one who uses special equipment to capture ESN data (as one example) and install it in other phones? What real use do you think he has of your credit card number, particularly when he does not have your name and address to go along with it? Is he going to do a phone order for merchandise and have it come to *his* address to be signed for? People who wish to fraudulently use the credit of others want the *plastic* to present to merchants in a situation where the merchandise can be carried away on the spot. They don't like leaving audit trails; messy things like ANI records of their 800 call; a UPS delivery record of a package signed for by 'someone' in their residence, etc. The fleeting second or two that a credit card number is recited over a cellular phone poses no greater risk than the fleeting second or two you are punching digits at a cash station machine (for example) which has a hardwired landline phone to the bank's computer. Do you have equal concerns about the possibility -- quite remote -- that someone is tapping a multiple on the pair between the cash station and the bank to pick up tidbits of information regards card numbers and PINS? The chance of your credit card number getting abused by someone plucking it off the airwaves without your name, address and PIN to go along with it is equally remote. At least at the cash station, your account number and PIN are put in the machine and transmitted; is that a better deal to you? Phreaks being phreaks, they will always manage to rip some people off. But to *not* use cellular phones for card verification in remote settings (like an outside flea market for example) would drive the cost of credit higher than it already is, forcing everyone to pay more. The credit granters would rather take a risk on an occassional -- very occassional, very rare, INHO -- fraud by an opportunistic person who just happened to be tuned in scanning, just happened to land on the channel handling your call; just happened to have a pen and paper handy and just happened to have a criminal mindset all at the same time that your credit card number was passed. I agree. PAT] ------------------------------ From: fbertsch@msc.cornell.edu (Fred Bertsch) Subject: Fiber Amplifiers and Solitons Organization: Cornell-Materials-Science-Center Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 00:07:54 GMT I've heard that AT&T already has some Er doped fiber amplifiers in some terrestrial lines, and next year they plan two submarine cabels using them. Are other telecom carriers far behind? It seems as though the technology should be significantly cheaper than recons- tructing the signal electronically. How about solitons? I seem to remember that NTT managed to generate them. Is that true? Anyone else? Fred ------------------------------ From: sp9183@swuts.sbc.com (Scott M. Pfeffer) Subject: Terse 800 Failure ... Oh My! Date: 19 Nov 93 02:25:28 GMT Organization: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company After reading an article about Ascend Corp. in this newsgroup I called the number listed in the article after hours. To make a long story short, the recording at Ascend gave an 800 number to call for customer service ... I called the number, but accidently misdialed: 1 800 272-3631 as opposed to the number I should have ... In any event, I got the following: One ring. "Click" High-paid male announcer's voice saying "A system error has occurred. Goodbye." "Click" Delay Dialtone. Time: 8:10 pm From: St. Louis Date: 11/16/93 Weird. I wonder who the carrier was ...? I wonder where the problem was ...? I wonder what this world has come to ...? Reminds me of the old days when terse young men used to serve as operators (way before any of us were cognitive human beings ...) Scott Pfeffer Information Services, Southwestern Bell Telephone [Moderator's Note: I just got the same message by trying the number now from Chicago. It is not a carrier recording, it is a customer's recording, probably from a voicemail system misprogrammed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Roger Fajman Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 21:09:02 EST Subject: Compression With ISDN > While some modem purveyors are claiming much faster speeds, these are > the result of data compression which works just as well over ISDN as > over a modem. If you stick to apple-apples comparisons it's still 128 > Kbps vs. 28 Kbps and that's a big difference by any measure. Yes, of course it's true that it's possible to do compression over ISDN. But is it practical today? As far as I know, there is no standard way of doing compression over ISDN and that ISDN terminal adapters sold today generally do not have compression. True or not true? If not, please mention some manufacturers and model numbers. Roger Fajman Telephone: +1 301 402 4265 National Institutes of Health BITNET: RAF@NIHCU Bethesda, Maryland, USA Internet: RAF@CU.NIH.GOV ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 13:43:52 CST From: Reed Vance Subject: Watch Those Memos: TCI Memo Text This is supposedly the text of the infamous TCI Memo. This was passed to me from someone on the telecomreg Listserv:Telecomreq LISTSERV. To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: TCI MEMO TEXT Here's the full text of the memo from TCI Cable COO Barry Marshall to the troops: As we move into the regulatory environment, it's important to remember something vital ... under regulation, we can't simply adjust our economics anymore. We have to take the revenue from the sources that we can, when we can. To that end I want to remind each of you that the transaction charges for upgrades, downgrades, customer-caused service calls, VCR hookups, etc. are vital new revenue sources to us. We estimate that by charging for these functions we can recover almost half of what we're losing from rate adjustments. We have to have discipline. Much like the install fee problem, we cannot be dissuaded from the charges simply because customers object. It will take a while but they'll get used to it ... they pay it to other service providers all the time ... and it isn't free with the phone company! Please hang in on this and installs, and we can still have a great fourth quarter when we have our heaviest volume. The best news of all is, we can blame it on reregulation and the government now. Let's take advantage of it! Reed Vance Irving, TX USA rvance@metronet.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #768 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa06670; 19 Nov 93 4:56 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01611 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 19 Nov 1993 01:58:43 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18318 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 19 Nov 1993 01:58:03 -0600 Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 01:58:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311190758.AA18318@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #769 TELECOM Digest Fri, 19 Nov 93 01:58:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 769 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Microsoft Telephony API/SPI (Toby Nixon) Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." (Mike King) Re: Crummy Service in NY (Gordon Jacobson) Re: Atomic Clocks (was: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800) (Alex Ranous) Re: Nationwide Caller ID (Patrick Chung-Pui Ko) Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (Lars Poulsen) Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems (Michael P. Deignan) Re: Need to Buy E1 to T1 Converter (Ken A. Becker) Re: CA Tax Regulations for LD Providers (Paul Robinson) Re: CA Tax Regulations for LD Providers (Bob Schwartz) Re: Calling Card Question (Kevin A. Mitchell) Re: Calling Card Question (Paul Robinson) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (David Leibold) Re: NPA 905, NAFTA and Mexico Area Codes (John R. Levine) Re: NPA 905, NAFTA and Mexico Area Codes (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tnixon@microsoft.com (Toby Nixon) Subject: Re: Microsoft Telephony API/SPI Organization: Microsoft Corporation, Redmond WA, USA Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 00:47:47 GMT In article declrckd@rtsg.mot.com wrote: > In article , Joe Armstrong > wrote: >> Does anybody have any information available about products which use >> the recently published Microsoft Telephony API/SPI? > Given, that this spec is supported, and written by a joint venture of > two companies with little or no communications experience (Intel and > Micro$oft), it seems to have little promise of being adopted as a > standard. > This may change, if a major PBX or switch vendor buys into it. When Windows Telephony was announced back in May, over 40 companies participated. In addition to Microsoft and Intel, companies which have announced support include: Acer America Acotec GmbH Active Voice Corporation Alcatel Business Systems Group Ameritech Analog Devices Articulate Systems Aspect Communications AT&T Global Business Communications Systems Bell Atlantic Centigram Communications Corporation Compaq Computer Corporation Contact Software International Cypress Research Corporation DEES Communication Engineering Ltd. Delrina Dialogic Digital Equipment Corporation DSP Group, Inc. Ericsson Business Communications Executone Information Systems Floreat, Inc. Fujitsu Business Communications Systems GPT Harris Digital Telephone Systems Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. InteCom, Inc. ISOCOR Jensen-Jones, Inc. Lotus Mitel Momentum Data Systems Motorola Digital Signal Processor Operation Motorola/Universal Data Systems National Semiconductor, Inc. Natural MicroSystems NEC Corporation Northern Telecom Octel Communications Corporation OCTuS, Inc. PictureTel Polaris Software Rhetorex Rockwell International Corporation Siemens Private Communication Systems Group (ROLM) Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. Smart Technologies Spectron TeleInt GmbH Toshiba America Information Systems Unifi Communications Corporation US West Communications, Inc. VMX, Inc. Voice Technologies Group, Inc. I think you'll agree that this includes most of the major players in the industry, including the "major PBX or switch vendors" you say are necessary for success (AT&T, Northern Telecom, Seimens/Rolm, Ericsson, Alcatel, Fujitsu, NEC, Harris, Intecom, Mitel, etc.), plus all of the major PC-based voice processing companies, most of the makers of telephony hardware chips, many major data, fax, and voice software developers, major telephone network operators, etc. Over 10,000 copies of the preliminary specification have been downloaded from various FTP sites and CompuServe, in addition to the thousands mailed out on paper and diskette from Microsoft. The official release of the SDK is imminent. As for "little or no communications experience", I was Principal Engineer at Hayes for nine years, and their representative in US and international standards committees (including TIA and CCITT). Similar experience exists of the Intel side. You can't assume that companies at Microsoft will stand still and not hire the best talent in pursuit of major corporate initiatives. The spec wasn't developed in a vacuum, either; most of the companies mentioned above (including your own) have made extensive contributions as it was developed. I'm happy to say that the vast majority of industry analysts have heartily disagreed with your assessment that Windows Telephony has "little promise of being adopted as a standard." On the contrary, it will be the core of switched communications support in the next major version of Windows, and a major part of continuing to make personal computing easier to use. Toby Nixon Program Manager -- Windows Telephony Digital Office Systems Group Microsoft Corporation ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 08:10:07 EST From: mking@fsd.com (Mike King) Subject: Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." In TELECOM Digest, V13 #742, elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) wrote: > I want to somehow have the simple option of an answering machine that > will allow me to say something like: "Press 1 for the latest news on > Chris Franke's limited CD release". That way, anyone who wants to > hear that stuff would have the option, and others can just ignore it > and leave a message like usual. Would you consider the inverse? Most GE, Panasonic, and AT&T answering machines have a feature where the caller can press '*' to avoid the rest of the outgoing message and get the beep immediately. Perhaps you could set your OGM to, "If you'd like to leave a message, press star; otherwise stay on hte line for the latest news on Chris Franke's limited CD release." I've used my machine in that manner when I've needed to leave the house but I wanted to get a message to the caller. "Hello, if this is ...., please stay on the line; otherwise, press star to leave a message." Of course, I never left confidential messages in that manner. Mike mking@fsd.com * Usual disclaimers * ------------------------------ Reply-To: gaj@pcs.win.net (Gordon Jacobson) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 00:02:08 Subject: Re: Crummy Service in NY From: gaj@pcs.win.net (Gordon Jacobson) > Oh, and I cannot get ISDN, either. All Business Service NYTel COs south of 57th Street provide ISDN PRI/BRI. Call Bob Block at (212) 395 5272. > My service comes from the "Second Avenue" central office in Manhattan. So does mine -- 2nd Avenue and 56th Street in fact. And I can get ISDN whenever I want it. Regards, GAJ ------------------------------ From: ranous@news.nsa.hp.com (Alex Ranous) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks (was: For A Good Time, Call 202-653-1800) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 22:14:09 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Networked Systems Architecture Lou Fernandez (lff@sequent.com) wrote: > For more than you ever wanted to know about time, frequency and > clocks, I recommend you consult the July 1991 issue of the Proceeding > of the IEEE, Special Issue on Time and Frequency. Another place to find about this subject which is a bit more approchable is the July 93 issue of {Scientific American} in an artical titled "Accurate Measurement of Time" Alex ------------------------------ From: patko@uclink.berkeley.edu (Patrick Chung-Pui Ko) Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID Date: 19 Nov 1993 02:09:07 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Is there any way I could get a phone service from Northwest Bell in California? Since PacBell plays games can we just use a different telco? [Moderator's Note: Sure you can, subject to a few requirements and a big budget for phone service. You can call 'Northwest Bell' or any telco you like; tell them you want Foreign Exchange (FX) service at your address in California. In other words, you want local Minneapolis dialtone or whatever. They'll be glad to arrange it for you, and of course, they'll coordinate it through PacBell since that's the telco which will supply the wire pair. You'll pay many, many hundreds of dollars per month for the FX circuit; but when you pick up the phone you'll get dialtone from the city of your choice and when someone dials that local number wherever, it will in fact ring on your phone in California. Two caveats, or maybe three: you won't be able to make *local* calls on that phone, since *local* will be defined as the service area of 'Northwest Bell'. I hope you know a lot of people living in Minneapolis, because you will be able to call them like a local call. Another caveat: it is questionable if custom calling features will be available to you. Not all telcos offer custom calling with FX service; I think it is the exception if they do. A third caveat: plan to pay PacBell for two things: the minimum monthly amount for one of their lines you never use since you have to have some form of local service as part of the deal, and also plan to pay PacBell for the wiring you are leasing from them to bring your 'Northwest Bell' service in to you -- unless the remote telco is paying it direct to PacBell and charging it back to you. In summary, each local telco has a protected area which is theirs alone to serve. At the present time, and in the immediate future, it is unlikely the Bell Companies -- or for that matter, any of the inde- pent telcos who have historically worked together -- will invade each other's territories to provide local dialtone. On the other hand, had you asked if you could ditch PacBell and go with a *non-traditional* carrier -- say, your local cable company, or one of the upstarts in recent years like Metropolitan Fiber, my answer would be maybe you can before long. But in real practice, no you can't right now unless you are a big business and can justify the cost of FX. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 17:49:27 GMT I have received large amounts of email with proof that the Federal Networking Council's ban on routing Internet packets to Russia has been lifted, and RELCOM has installed a line to ALTER.NET. I am pleased to see this concession to reality. 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 ------------------------------ From: md@maxcy2.maxcy.brown.edu (Michael P. Deignan) Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems Reply-To: mpd@anomaly.sbs.com Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 23:59:27 GMT In article , mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) writes: > Under federal law, any conversation going through a cellular switch is > considered a telephone conversation subject to the wiretap laws (the > technical term is "wire communication". A cellular phone is just as > private as a landline phone, because people have the same legal right > not to be "scanned" as they do not to have someone tapping in on a > craft set. Why is it not illegal to listen to cordless phone conversation then? Cordless phones work on the same principle as cellular, except you only have a single "cell" (your base station) to communicate with. Michael P. Deignan Population Studies & Training Center Brown University, Box 1916, Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-7284 [Moderator's Note: Why? Because the industry association which represents cordless phone manufacturers does not have the same political pull with Congress that the cellular phone companies have. If they would offer cash bribes -- only they call them gifts to the congress person's campaign fund -- the same as the cellular carriers did, then they could have a stupid law passed on their behalf also. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 09:31:26 EST From: kab@hotsc.att.com Subject: Re: Need to Buy E1 to T1 Converter Organization: AT&T In article , wts1@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (wts1) writes: > In article ken@pluto.dss.com (Ken > Adler) writes: >> Does anyone know of any companies that make a box that takes in one or >> more E1 trunks and convert it to multiple T1 trunks? >> I urgently need contact info for companies that have such a product. > Tellabs makes a T1 to CEPT (E1) PCM standards converter. > Tellabs International Inc. > 4951 Indiana Avenue > Lisle, IL 60532 > > PH: (708) 969-8800 > FAX: (708) 969-2884 > William T. Sykes AT&T FSAT-Engineering att!gcuxb!gcwts Well, I hope this doesn't turn into an advertising campaign. AT&T happens to make a system called DACS II (Digital Accress and Cross-connect Switch) that does this stuff to a fair-thee-well. In fact, we sell these things in E1 land, T1 land, and in all those places in between that need to convert. The small, cheap version (ISX) handles between 1 and 64 T1's or E1's; the biggie (CEF) can get up to 2,560 T1's or 2048 E1's, or any combination in between. Why do I know? Look at the sig. Ken Becker kab@hotsc.att.com DACS II circuit design [Moderator's Note: Ah, don't worry about 'commercializing the net'. I'm alleged to do it all the time. What a joke! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 20:46:03 EST Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: CA Tax Regulations for LD Providers From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > Perhaps someone in the group -- or the Moderator -- can help me get > some information. Does anybody know the regulations and rates for > determining if tax is applicable, and what taxes, a LD provider > located OUTSIDE of California for long distance calls originating > within (and if applicable) outside of California? [Text Deleted] > [Moderator's Note: No, no, you do not want to get involved in utility > tax accounting and procedures. Repeat after me, "I do not want to know > about utility tax accounting procedures ...". Say it a few more times. I absolutely agree that you _do not_ want to have to do utility tax accounting. Especially not in California, since you would probably have to get California Public Utilities Commission Certification as a Common Carrier. (See my article in the Digest on the status of the CAL PUC within about a year ago, "... Is the Highest Law of the Land ...") As a former resident and California Sales Tax Permit holder, the paperwork isn't too bad for sales tax, but PUC rules are a mess. What you really want to do is figure out if you can operate the organization entirely from a state that either has no sales tax or has almost no chance of having any customers from within that state. I ran a mail-order software sales business out of a Post Office Box in the District of Columbia for just that reason. Since I never sold anything to a District address and had no warehouse or facilities outside the District, I did not have to collect sales tax. (I did have a District Sales tax permit and sent the forms in with zero sales on them). Based on newspaper reports (see, I get around being accused of practicing law) There are two Supreme Court Cases on this subject. One is a 1966 Connecticut Department of Revenue case: if you have no presence in a state you cannot be required to collect sales tax by it. The second is the recent (1992) Quill decision. Quill Corporation, an Illiniois office supply company, sells all over the country. The North Dakota Department of Revenue decided that since Quill is running ads that show up in North Dakota, it has a presence in the state and must collect tax. The State Supreme Court agreed. The U.S. Supreme Court continued the holding in the 1966 case, saying that only the U.S. Congress has the power to authorize such a collection. Since Congress has not done so, Quill is under no obligation to pay sales tax to a state it has no presence (warehouse, office space or agent) within. So, if you are going to run a common carrier, pick a state either with not enough people to matter not taking (like Wyoming, which has less people in it than the District), and only do interstate calls, or pick a state without sales tax (Like Nevada or New Hampshire) and operate from there. Or just operate from your own state but don't do any intrastate business and don't have any facilities, warehouses or agents in any state you do carry calls from. Mailing bills does not constitute having a presence there; buy the trunks from AT&T or MCI or someone and let them pay the sales taxes on their transactions. You could also consider DC as a place to operate. :) I would also note that the District of Columbia has a special exemption on certain sales taxes paid by "long distance telephone companies." There are only two long distance companies operating in the District: Mid Atlantic Telecom and MCI. Which of these do you think was big enough to get an exemption passed? :) Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Subject: Re: CA Tax Regulations for LD Providers From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 21:30:01 PST Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California ole!rwing!pat@nwnexus.wa.com (Pat Myrto) writes: > Perhaps someone in the group -- or the Moderator -- can help me get > some information. Does anybody know the regulations and rates for > determining if tax is applicable, and what taxes, a LD provider > located OUTSIDE of California for long distance calls originating > within (and if applicable) outside of California? > Telccom outfits in CA are quite evasive on the subject (read: no > useful information), and there has been not very much luck in getting > meaningful information from authorities. This has been going on for It's not quite as tough as our Moderator describes. There are a limited number of taxes and applications. Yes, there are legions of bureaucrats that do this for telcos but remember that some bureaucrats work so hard and fererishly that we have forgotten that the work they do is not at all necessary. In the past we have used information from Veretex, 1041 Old Cassatt Rd, Berwyn PA, 19312 (215-640-4200) speak with John Riewe and tell him hi from me please. They have a database on the ten thousand or so taxing jurisdictions. In short, it doesn't matter where the provider is located what does matter is the origonating location and or the terminating location. Other than veretex you might call the business office and ask for a breakdown/explanation of thge taxes on your bills. Information on exemptions can be found in thr IRS codes section 4251 I believe. Bob Schwartz bob@bci.nbn.com Bill Correctors, Inc. +1 415 488 9000 Marin County, California ------------------------------ From: kam@dlogics.com (Kevin A. Mitchell) Subject: Re: Calling Card Question Organization: Datalogics, Incorporated, Chicago, IL Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 15:24:34 GMT In article dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) writes: > Can a calling card be acquired from either the LEC or an IXC with > the following restriction: that it can -only- get billed by the Local > Carrier (where appropriate) or by the disgnated IXC? I'm pretty sure the AT&T calling card offers this feature, and that was one of the reasons I chose it. I've paid $6.95 for a one-minute call from Pontiac, IL to Elmwood Park, IL made by my wife, and a local COCOT says that credit card rates for the two blocks to home are $2.95 for the first minute. AT&T Customer Service is 1-800-CALL-ATT. They can give you the definitive answer. Also, make sure the OLD card is really cut off. I got some AOS calling card charges on my bill earlier this year, and found that my wife had used the old number. I had to make a call to Illinois B ... oops ... "Ameritech" and tell them that when I said I wanted the card turned off, I meant it. I think they dropped the charges. Kevin A. Mitchell (312) 266-3257 Datalogics, Inc Internet: kam@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!kam ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 19:38:17 EST Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Calling Card Question From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA danny burstein , writes: > Can a calling card be acquired from either the LEC or an IXC with > the following restriction: that it can -only- get billed by the > Local Carrier (where appropriate) or by the disgnated IXC? Yes. The "85" AT&T Cards (as well as the new custom number cards) are only accepted by AT&T and by local telephone companies.* MCI and Sprint's plastic will only be accepted by them when using their 950 or 1-800 numbers. This is because when one dials 10xxx + 0 + npa + number, AT&T checks its own database as well as the database of local line company numbers. The others only check the local line company database, which is why you can't use MCI or Sprint cards even when dialing 10222 + 0 or 10333 + 0 respectively. * There is one known problem. In certain cases using a restricted calling card will allow the user to make any calls. The systems which are incorrectly implemented check the first call (which is to a valid number the restricted card is assigned to) then accept further calls from that card to any number. This appears to be common on airplane phones. My personal opinion is that if the minimum monthly charge for 800 numbers gets any lower, anyone taking *any* collect calls will find it easier to get an 800 number than to worry about collect call charges. The current rates now indicate that if you accept more than six collect calls a month, it is cheaper to get an 800 number unless they are very long duration where you need the lower per-minute rates after the first minute and you can't do a callback in such a case. > This would do a good job of reducing the tele-zleaze surcharges. The AOS systems on COCOTS cannot accept AT&T "85" cards. This is how I get around the problem of being charged $6.00 for a local call placed by AOS on a calling card, that C&P Telephone would charge 65c and AT&T would charge $1.00. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM [Moderator's Note: 800 numbers are really the way to go now-a-days. The 800 numbers I now broker are 18.4 cents per minute of use with a $5 monthly service fee. These are your own personal 800 numbers, set up to terminate on whatever line you request, not one of the bogus deals like MCI has where you have to append some extra digits at the end. I also represent the AT&T Software Defined Network, and those 800 numbers are time of day and distance sensitive, meaning you can get an 800 number with rates of 9-10 cents per minute if the calls are at night from nearby places, etc. You have to spend at least $200-250 per month on 800 service to get one of those however since the discounts at the end of the month are factored into the final cost per minute of use. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 23:53:41 EST From: David Leibold Subject: Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized To clarify a thing or two, the (905) number given for weather is indeed using metric readings, not only in degrees Celsius, but km/h wind speeds and kilopascal barometer values (can't believe it's been that many years since I last heard of pressure readings in "inches"). The weather office serving Toronto is at the Pearson International Airport which is actually in Mississauga, Malton exchange (Bell still refers to the Mississauga area in terms of separate exchanges such as Malton, Port Credit, Streetsville, etc). It's good to hear that calls from many parts of the world are completing to 905, but there are still a few telcos who need to know about 905 (or might that be a good number of COCOTs and PBXes?). Now ... fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) wrote: > Could someone with knowledge of the 416/905 split enlighten me about > 416-551? The Niagara Falls Bridge Commission hotline was at > 416-551-3409, and I had thought that area was going to 905. Yet from 551 has been a pager exchange; this appears to have been in effect throughout the old 416 territory. What happens to such numbers is unclear since they're not part of the ordinary phone service. These numbers might still be served out of Toronto for both 416 and 905, thus the 416-551. Certainly this is not a regular exchange in the Niagara Falls/St. Catharines' region, at least last I heard. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 18:13 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: NPA 905, NAFTA and Mexico Area Codes Organization: I.E.C.C. > Would NAFTA have any impact on area code assignment? If USA, Canada, > and Mexico are gonna be an economic unit, would there be motivation to > make phone calling to Mexico similar to the style used to call Canada > and USA (outside your local area code)? I doubt that dialing to Mexico will change any time soon. For one thing, it's incredibly expensive. It costs more to call Mexico City than it does to call Tokyo. Also, Mexico has a mixture of six and seven digit numbers, so they'd have to renumber to match NANP numbers. On the other hand, after 1995 there will be plenty of area codes, so if NAFTA really works, it might end up being worth doing. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 16:46:25 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: NPA 905, NAFTA and Mexico Area Codes This is the first time I have heard someone wondering about NAFTA's effect on the phone system. When was NAFTA proposed originally? It's unrelated (right?) to the change in usage for 905, formerly used for some calls to Mexico and now in use for a part of Canada. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #769 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07308; 19 Nov 93 6:17 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26366 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 19 Nov 1993 02:53:41 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29395 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 19 Nov 1993 02:53:02 -0600 Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 02:53:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311190853.AA29395@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #770 TELECOM Digest Fri, 19 Nov 93 02:53:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 770 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? (David Boettger) Re: Crummy Service in NY (Bob Schwartz) Re: Finally Got REAL Phone Service (Tony Pelliccio) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (David Woolley) Re: Long Distance Company Offers 800 Internet Access (james@kaiwan.com) Re: Call Waiting 14.4 Modems (David Devereaux-Weber) Re: Canada Goes 1 + 10D For All Long Distance, Sept '94 (John Little) Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Dick Rawson) Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Ron DeBlock) Instant Modem Banks (Martin McCormick) TAPS Software (John Little) Sprint Modem Offer/Impressions (Sean Slattery) Sprint Modem Offer :-( (Stan Hall) Automated FAX Delivery (Luis Delgado) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 12:18:00 +0000 From: David Boettger Subject: Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? In article , Alex Cena writes: > Attached are comments from Tom Crawford at Qualcomm after I forwarded > him a copy of the TDMA vs CDMA debate on the Digest. > Alex, > I am sure you knew the TDMA vs. CDMA comments would get under my skin > and I would have to respond. How do I send this response to Ed Casas, > or to the network? My comments are in caps: > CARRIERS ARE GOING TO INVEST HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, IF NOT > MORE, IN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY. I SUSPECT THEY WILL LOOK BEYOND THE > "BEST MARKETING" PITCH TO THE UNDERLYING CAPABILITIES OF THE > TECHNOLOGIES. You would hope so, but that isn't always the case, as Mr. Crawford (a marketing exec) knows. > "GROSSLY UNFAIR COMPARISONS" ARE HARDLY AN ACCURATE WAY TO DESCRIBE > CLEAR ADVANTAGES. QUALCOMM'S CAPACITY IS 10X TO 20X AMPS CAPACITY Get real! 20X has only been demonstrated on paper (e.g., W. C. Y. Lee) or, perhaps (now I am guessing), in a Qualcomm laboratory. > QUALITY COMMUNICATIONS LINK USING A HALF RATE VOCODER. IF WE ARE > WRONG AND A GOOD HALF RATE VOCODER IS AVAILABLE, QUALCOMM CAN ALSO USE > IT IN A VARIABLE RATE IMPLEMENTATION (AGAIN THROTTLING DOWN DURING > PAUSES) TO ACHIEVE AN ADDITIONAL FACTOR OF 2 IN CAPACITY GAIN, IE NOW > 20X TO 40X AMPS. ALSO, ETDMA'S USE OF DIGITAL SPEECH INTERPOLATION > ABOUT 12X OR 15X, ASSUMING EVERYTHING WORKS WELL). CDMA, WITH A HALF RATE > VOCODER WILL THEN BE AT 20X TO 40X (EVEN WITHOUT BETTER USE OF > SECTORIZATION). Wrong again. The relationship between source coder rate and absolute channel capacity (I am using "capacity" not in an information theory sense, but in a "number of telephone conversations" sense) is not linear. Using a half-rate coder in CDMA does not automatically double the number of conversations that can occur, even under ideal conditions. > RECEIVER IF FILTER WOULD BE UNABLE TO DO. THE WHOLE POINT OF CDMA IS THAT > YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEPARATE THE SIGNALS OVER THE CHANNEL BY FREQUENCY OR > TIME. DIFFERENT CODES PERMIT YOU TO PICK OUT YOUR CONVERSATION. True enough. > "TRICKS" IMPLY DECEPTION. CDMA'S TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE AND BENEFITS HAVE > BEEN WELL TESTED AND PROVEN AGAIN AND AGAIN IN NUMEROUS TRIALS. THESE How many commercial cellular CDMA systems are deployed and stable? Approximately zero. "Well tested and proven" is a bit of a stretch, but then again, Mr. Crawford is in marketing. David Boettger boettger@bnr.ca I don't speak for my employer. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Crummy Service in NY From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 16:51:35 PST Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: > I called the telephone company business office. There's a reason that > I can't use *69, namely that my telephone exchange is too old. > Oh, and there is no scheduled date for upgrading my telephone exchange > to more modern equipment, according to the business office. Hearing about crummy lines and transmission in beautiful Manhatten makes me wonder jusy why/how the Local Loop, and End User Common Line charges are so darned high. Could it be that they have incentive for patchwork and repair which is lacking for replacements and upgrades? Bob Schwartz bob@bci.nbn.com Bill Correctors, Inc. +1 415 488 9000 Marin County, California ------------------------------ From: Anthony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: Finally Got REAL Phone Service Date: 18 Nov 1993 20:51:28 GMT Organization: Brown University Alumni & Development Office In article , ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) wrote: > 1) My on-hook line voltage increased from ~15 volts to ~44 volts DC. > Also, the tip/ring polarity reversed from what it had been when I was > on the carrier. {stuff deleted to save space} Sounds to me like they've upgraded you to something equivalent to a SLIC-96. They tend to work very well and keep the line quality up. Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR Anthony_Pelliccio@Brown.edu Brown University Alumni & Development Computing Services Box 1908 Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-1880 ------------------------------ From: david@djwhome.demon.co.uk (David Woolley) Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Reply-To: david@djwhome.demon.co.uk Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 15:36:41 GMT In article is written: > Why not public key? There are several companies with commercial > applications using public key ... the government only gets antsy when > it's used for general purpose encryption of data/messages and the > register bits are long enough to eliminate any realistic crunch by a > supercomputer (i.e. a day or two). Use as an authentication device > (i.e. digital signitures) is not a big deal. In fact my Mac at home > implements this capability in the operating system! Why specifically public key? Why not allow encryption of the message as well, as done by GSM? The government can still get the keys from the network operator, or tap the signal in the fixed network. (The network operator needs to know both the session keys used for communication and the subscriber master key used to encrypt the session key when sending it to the subscriber.) The only problem I can see is if the subscriber's home network is outside the jurisdiction. In this case there is no access to the master key and there is no one place where the session keys can always be found, although the number of Visitor Location Registers which would have to be covered ought to be small. (Visitor Location Registers are the entities in GSM which store details about subcribers who are currently in the area that they cover. Amongst other things, they maintain a small cache of session keys for that subscriber.) David Woolley, London, England david@djwhome.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ From: james@kaiwan.com Subject: Re: Long Distance Company Offers 800 Internet Access Organization: KAIWAN Internet Access Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 08:20:48 GMT In article , Klaus Dimmler wrote: > Telephone Express, a regional long distance carrier in the Western > States, is offering national 800 Internet access for less than the > cost of a long distance phone call! For only 13 cents per minute, > access to a T1-Internet connected host is available from anywhere in > the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Alaka! > The host is connected directly to the ANS backbone. > For information on this, please call 800-748-1200 (voice), or write to > service@cscns.com. Just called AT&T and they quoted me no installation fee, monthly fee $10.00 ... $0.25/minute daytime $0.17/minute evening $0.14/minute night Volume calls with discount. info@kaiwan.com,Anonymous FTP,Telnet kaiwan.com(192.215.30.2)FAX#714-638-0455 DATA# 714-539-0829,830-6061,310-527-4279 818-579-6701 16.8k/14.4k 8-N-1 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 12:56:26 CDT From: weberdd@clover.macc.wisc.edu Reply-To: weberdd@macc.wisc.edu Subject: Re: Call Waiting 14.4 Modems In a previous message, Thomas Neudeker writes: > I recently upgraded my modem to LineLink 14.4 modem. I now use a SLIP > connection to connect to the network. On the other modems I have had > Call Waiting would break the connection. I know about the *70 tone > signal to deactivate call waiting. My problem is that the error > correction on the modem doesn't accept the call waiting tones until > after eight to twelve rings and people I need to talk to can't get > through. Bell of PA said they hadn't seen this use of call waiting > before and that the 5ESS switch at my CO is has a very short off hook > time for the tone to be sent. Does anyone know of a modem init string > to let call waiting and the modem work as I wish? The meaning of your message isn't clear. You said that on your other modems, call waiting would break the connection. You don't say whether call waiting breaks the connection on the 14.4 modem. The message seems to imply that you are in fact hoping to be notified of a call waiting while a modem call is in progress. If this is what you want, you would have to find a way to put your data connection "on hold" (or simply abandon the data call in progress), switch your modem into voice mode, and pick up your telephone handset. Usually call waiting is not considered when data calls are in progress. There is no easy way to support call waiting while a data call is in progress (another way of saying this is that there is no easy way of keeping a data call going when call waiting occurs). If it is important to be able to reach you when data calls are in progress, I recommend a second telephone line. David Devereaux-Weber (608) 262-3584 (voice) MACC Communications; B263 (608) 262-4679 (FAX) 1210 W Dayton St. weberdd@macc.wisc.edu (Internet) Madison, WI 53706 ------------------------------ From: jlittle@AccessPoint.North.Net (John Little) Subject: Re: Canada Goes 1 + 10D For All Long Distance, Sept '94 Organization: UUNorth's AccessPoint Service Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 18:26:18 GMT Alabama (area code 205) has been doing 1 + 10D LD calling within your area code for over two years now. Area code 407 (Central FL) has also moved to 1 + 10D calling. These are just to that I have had personal experiences with, I'm sure there are many others. John ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 12:55:35 PST From: drawson@Tymnet.COM (Dick Rawson) Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications > I've been told that after an earthquake, if you can't get a call > through, try using a payphone. Supposedly, the phone company will > arbitrarily put some calls through and not others when the load is too > high, but payphone calls will always go through. Correct (except for two quibbles), according to Pacific Bell. Here is (my memory of) what they tell public emergency service agencies. Lines can be categorized as "essential service lines". These are not deliberately denied service or delayed access while the switch is configured to shed some of its load. Also, the repair service gives priority to restoring outages of essential service lines. Emergency services like fire and police, and quite a few others, are supposed to have (at least some of) their lines categorized this way. Public telephones always have essential service lines. Note that not all pay telephones are public telephones. (That's quibble 1.) We've discussed that here before. A pay phone in a bar probably isn't a public telephone; one in a public area available 24 hours a day, particularly at road-side, generally is a public telephone. The other quibble is with "will always go through"; that would be hard to guarantee. But the call would not be blocked to shed load. Dick Rawson drawson@tymnet.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 11:13:50 EST From: rdb1@homxb.att.com Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications Organization: AT&T In article nathan@seldon.foundation. tricon.com writes: > From a possibly unreliable source, I heard that in > downtown San Francisco, the phone exchanges actually have JET engines > running turbines to provide power during emergencies. (Locally, the > phone company uses diesels, but I do not know the capacity). I've heard from techs who work/worked in CO's that some do indeed have "jet" engines for backup power. I suspect that they are generators powered by turbine engines of some sort. I was in AT&T's Saint Louis 4ESS(tm) office when it was running on backup power one day. The equipment sure sounded like a jet engine, but I did not actually see it. The generators were running because one of the power transformers had blown up. The techs said that molten copper flew all over the room -- YIKES! I would expect the transformer to be in a cabinet of some kind, but what do I know -- that's a hardware problem. At the time, I wondered why the power equpment was on the top floor, rather than in the basement. After this year's floods, I can under- stand why. Back to earthquakes ... I was in San Franscisco about two months after the 1989 quake. I was surprised at the LACK of destruction. TV reports on the East Coast made things sound worse than they really were. The AT&T office was unscathed. The equipment I was interested in (a bunch of Conversants (tm) ) and the 4ESS in the next room continued to operate on backup power following the quake. One Conversant that was used for administrivia and testing was just sitting on a table and had crashed to the floor, it was the only casualty. The other Conversants were mounted in racks that were bolted down. I don't know if a jet engine provides backup power in the SF office. The only power equipment I saw was a very impressive array of batteries. Ron DeBlock rdb1@homxb.att.com (that's a number 1 in rdb1, not letter l) AT&T Bell Labs Somerset, NJ USA ------------------------------ Subject: Instant Modem Banks Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 06:53:47 -0600 From: Martin McCormick In recent postings, several people told of modem banks which can be attached directly to a T1 and use DSP to simulate 24 dial-up modems. Do any of these systems connect to an Ethernet and act as a terminal server such that one would have the V.35 cable to the T1 as one port and an Ethernet connector as the other port? Three or four such systems would free an amazing amount of rack realestate and would most likely prove to be more reliable in the long run. If anybody knows of such a system and whether or not it has a good track record, please let me know. Thank you. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: jlittle@AccessPoint.North.Net (John Little) Subject: TAPS Software Organization: UUNorth's AccessPoint Service Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 13:29:42 GMT I am looking for a program to send alpha numeric data to my pager using the TAPS protocol. I use Bell Canada's pager (standard Bell Mobility). Looking for something that runs under Windows 3.1 (Microsoft). Free would be great, but I may consider buying a package. I have one for UNIX (commercial), but that doesn't do me any good from home. John ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 08:50 EST From: Sean Slattery Subject: Sprint Modem Offer/Impressions I switched to Sprint a month ago on the promise of a modem. Posts in the Digest lead me to believe that it was a 9600 baud modem but the Sprint rep set me straight when I called. I did not hear the original offer on the radio. Sprint made some mistakes; this is easy to do when you have marketing people targeting a technically savvy population that is intolerant of lack of knowledge on the part of the general population (you know it's true !). It is my belief that Sprint acted in good faith and did not intentionally misrepresent this offer. In the case of Mr. Ambler's conflict with Sprint I was originally on Sprint's side. That is until I read Mr. Ambler's last post. If it is at all representative of what actually occurred the I feel that I must warn Sprint that they are spending good will here. I, like many Digest readers, specify long distance carriers for my organization as well as myself. I want Sprint to maintain a high level of professionalism here. The account of the phone call received by Mr. Ambler did not make me fell good about Sprint, it left me cold. I will continue to follow this dispute. While I think Mr. Ambler should find better things to do with his time, I believe that the resolution of this dispute will tell us a lot about the corporate character of Sprint. Sean Slattery Network Administrator Airflow Research This post does not necessarily represent the opinions of my employer. PS: I switched from the modem to the Star Trek Screen saver, which I have not yet received. ------------------------------ Subject: Sprint Modem Offer :-( From: kilgore@wuntvor.pillar.com (Stan Hall) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 10:56:09 CST Organization: The Eternal Apprentice BBS, Oklahoma City, Ok Well it seems that every step of the way Sprint has screwing everything up. I switched two of my personal phone line to Sprint for this modem offer. When the word came down that the modem was only to be a 2400bps with 9600/4800 FAX internal I resigned myself to accept the offer despite what the sales droids had said. They sent me two Foncards for one line instead of one for each line. They billed seperately instead of on my regular phone bill. They attempted to call my Data line by voice to contact me about the Windows/DOS software and disk size. So what is the latest bit of stupidity on Sprint's part you ask? It seems that since they couldn't reach me on my Data line that they sent me a letter about two weeks ago asking me to please tell them via mail or phone which software that I would like for my modem. So last night I finally found some time to sit down and call the number that Ms. Worthy had given me and left a message telling her what software I wanted for each of my two modems. I get a call this morning from Ms. Worthy telling me that I am only to receive one modem and asking what software I would like for that modem. When I argued with her that I wanted both of the modems I had been promised she told me that the offer was limited one per household. Everytime I tried to discuss this with her she asked me what software I would like for my *modem*. I gave in and told her, hoping that I will receive somthing from Sprint (besides a bill). Has anyone else actually received more than one modem at one residence? Needless to say as soon as I get my modem (or confirmation that I am not to get a thing) I am running from Sprint as far and as fast as possible. Not that they are concerned with my low long distance usage. Though I *will* cost them as much as possible via word of mouth. Is anyone interested in getting together to visit the Sprint office in Kansas City, MO and Ms. Worthy? Stan Hall [Unhappy (soon to be former) Sprint Customer] kilgore@wuntvor.pillar.com (Stan Hall) The Eternal Apprentice BBS, Oklahoma City, OK -- +1 405 942 8794 [Moderator's Note: *Who* told you that you would get two modems? Really, I can't see what your beef is about. 'One per household' is one of the most common phrases in business promotional offers I have ever heard. Time and again you hear it, 'one per household, not good when combined with other offers or special promotions, etc ...' I got my modem several days ago. It installed easily and is working fine for sending faxes from my 386. If you honestly think you are going to get two modems, you are quite mistaken. Diane Worthy has done a great job of getting this mess straightened out; I'm sure she is sorry Sprint even decided to have such a generous promotion. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lmd@cayman.inesc.pt (Luis Delgado) Subject: Automated FAX Delivery Organization: INESC - Inst. Eng. Sistemas e Computadores, LISBOA. PORTUGAL. Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 14:48:17 GMT I was wondering how implement an automatic system for fax delivery. What I wanted is the following: - to have in my personal business card a unique personal fax number, like any other person in the same company. Everyone could have a unique fax number. For example: FAX # 3100234 - to me Fax # 3100235 - to you FAX # 3100236 - to him, etc. - All fax calls would be received by the local company PABX, that would redirect all calls to the same FAX card installed in a PC, for example. Then the FAX Software on the PC would decide based on the last three digits of the # specified by the sender, to which person to send the fax in an electronic mail message format. I'm not saying this should be the best way to implement, and I even don't know if there are automated systems like this. I know however that it its possible (correct me if I'm wrong) to specify, something like a destination in the fax message it self, but I don't what this solution, because it is'nt completely transparent to the sender. Does anybody know any way to do this? Is there any hard/soft solution to implement this? While waiting for your sugestions, my best regards, Luis Delgado INESC-CCAE Lisbon, Portugal. lmd@inesc.pt cis: 100024,3520 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #770 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16141; 20 Nov 93 6:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22491 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 20 Nov 1993 02:35:41 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02621 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 20 Nov 1993 02:35:01 -0600 Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1993 02:35:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311200835.AA02621@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #771 TELECOM Digest Sat, 20 Nov 93 02:35:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 771 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? (Bob Schwartz) Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? (Gordon Hlavenka) Re: Compression With ISDN (Kevin Richard O'Toole) Re: Compression With ISDN (Bob Larribeau) Re: Compression With ISDN (David E. Martin) Re: Compression With ISDN (R. Kevin Oberman) Re: Query For Network Designers on a LAN/WAN Problem (David E. Martin) Re: Query For Network Designers on a LAN/WAN Problem (Lars Poulsen) Re: AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers (C. Dold) Re: AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers (S. Lichter) Re: GSM Interference (was Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS?) (Declerck) Re: Finally Got REAL Phone Service (Jack Decker) Re: NPA 905, NAFTA and Mexico Area Codes (John Nagle) Re: NPA 905 Not Universally Recognized (John Rice) Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk (Gary W. Sanders) Re: "Q" Not Followed by "U"? In English? (Fred Linton) Re: "Q" Not Followed by "U"? In English? (Matt Ackeret) Re: Brought to You by the Letter Q (David Cornutt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz Date: Fri, 19 Nov 93 16:36:37 PST Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California There is, according to FCC regulations, stiff jail time available for the failure to retain call detail records for less than five years, as I recall from research for a client several years ago. Call them directly for verse and chapter if you need to. The local CO even records the several digits you may have dialed before realizing that you mis-dialed, hung-up and dialed the whole right number. Bob Schwartz bob@bci.nbn.com Bill Correctors, Inc. +1 415 488 9000 Marin County, California ------------------------------ From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka) Subject: Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? Organization: Vpnet - Public Access Unix and Usenet Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 20:29:10 GMT uswnvg!jlbrand@uunet.UU.NET (Jack Brand) wrote: > Some switches don't even bother to keep records of local calls, since > there is no billing to be done on them, or at least they didn't used > to. Tony Pelliccio wrote: > You can bet that just about every switch made is built with the > capability to record ALL the data involved with switching a call for > "diagnostic" purposes of course. Indeed. When I first started playing with modems (The TRS-80 Model 100 was state-of-the-art at the time) I contested one of my phone bills. ("I couldn't have made _that many_ calls!" ... But I had :-) Illinois Bell provided what looked like a cash-register tape containing the phone numbers dialed and length of each call. I have no idea how long they keep these tapes, or whether the same information is also stored electronically somewhere. Gordon S. Hlavenka cgordon{qn(Ao4pA Q0CnlG;)P%OPCL]O:=jZ Yvg@vpnet.chi.il.us [Moderator's Note: Local call detail provided the proof that Illinois Bell employees had stolen phone service from me in 1974-75. It was at that time that the Chicago-Wabash CO was cut over to ESS. For three or four months in a row I had an obscene number of local calls on my bill that I could not account for. I called the business office and spoke with a rep -- let's call her Ms. Prissy -- who said she'd prove to me I made all those calls. She promptly mailed me a printout of the whole mess. I went over the printout line by line. My guidelines were if I recognized the number, I assumed I made the call regardless of the time or day of week. If I did not recognize the number, but the time of the call was a time I was normally at the number in question, I assumed I made the call. If I did not recognize the number, and the time was such that it was quite unlikely I was at the number (for example, 7:30 - 8:00 AM) then I made a circle around that entry. I then used 'two-oh-eight-oh' (the predecessor to 796-9600; you called the exchange in question plus 2080 -- i.e. xxx-2080) and asked the clerk who answered for the name and address of the number. Time after time after time the answer came back with the numbers listed to: IBT Company, no address given IBT Company, Parts and Supply Depot, Chicago. IBT Company, Vehicle Repairs and Assignments, **Aurora, IL** IBT Company, 65 E. Congress Street (the address of the Wabash CO itself) That one to Aurora cost me ten message units every five minutes, and the guy called it for a half hour one day and twenty minutes the next day. I called back Ms. Prissy who opened the conversation by telling me she was glad I figured out why my bill was so high. I told her I had figured it out alright, and ask her if she knew what the phrases 'toll fraud' and 'theft of service' meant. I asked her what earthly reason *I* would have for calling an internal number at the Wabash CO at 8:00 AM. I told her my pairs also showed up multipled in a big terminal box in the third sub-basement of the Pittsfield Building two blocks away where there 'just happens to be' a locker room/supply depot/room to eat lunch and hide from the foreman used by installers and other outside plant guys who sit around drinking coffee and shooting the bull in the morning until the foreman shows up. And maybe since my number ended in two zeros (as in xx-hundred) they assumed I had so much phone equipment I would not miss five or six hundred extra 'units' of local calling every month. Ms. Prissy decided I should be speaking to her superior Ms. Huffy. When Ms. Huffy came on the line, I told her we would read together in unison beginning on page X of the printout, line Y. She called me back later that day to say she was going to write off all the extra unit charges on my bill for the past three months and that the fore- man had been instructed to tell his people they are to use their own phone 'down there in their locker room' and not just any subscriber lines they happened to grab with their alligator clips, etc. When my bill came the next month, she did another write off for me but that was the end of it. Moral of the story: from time to time, do ask for your local calling detail. Spot check it for abuses. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Kevin Richard O'Toole Subject: Re: Compression With ISDN Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 09:12:43 -0500 Organization: Information Networking Institute, Carnegie Mellon, Pitts, PA Excerpts from netnews.comp.dcom.telecom: 18-Nov-93 Compression With ISDN Roger Fajman@CU.NIH.GOV wrote: > Yes, of course it's true that it's possible to do compression over > ISDN. But is it practical today? As far as I know, there is no > standard way of doing compression over ISDN and that ISDN terminal > adapters sold today generally do not have compression. True or not > true? If not, please mention some manufacturers and model numbers. I know of one product that plans on doing compression. The ISDN to Ethernet bridge from Combinet will do 2:1 compression to get you 256 Kbps effective rate. If you want the contact information, let me know. Kevin R. O'Toole Information Networking Institute Carnegie Mellon University ------------------------------ From: Bob Larribeau Subject: Re: Compression With ISDN Date: Fri, 19 Nov 93 06:54:48 -0700 Organization: Combinet-) Combinet's ISDN Ethernet LAN bridges support compression using the Stacker algorithm. They get two or more times compression giving effective throughput of 250 kb/s or more. The IETF is working on compression. My understanding is that they will support multiple algorithms with a standard method of negotiating which one is to be used. Bob Larribeau San Francisco ------------------------------ From: dem@hep.net (David E. Martin) Subject: Re: Compression With ISDN Date: 19 Nov 1993 18:19:49 GMT Organization: National HEPnet Management, Fermilab, Batavia, IL, USA Reply-To: dem@hep.net > In article 9@eecs.nwu.edu, Roger Fajman writes: > Yes, of course it's true that it's possible to do compression over > ISDN. But is it practical today? As far as I know, there is no > standard way of doing compression over ISDN and that ISDN terminal > adapters sold today generally do not have compression. True or not > true? If not, please mention some manufacturers and model numbers. I don't know of any stand-alone ISDN terminal adapters that do compression, but most of the makers of ISDN bridges have compression built-in. Gandalf (708-517-3672), Digiboard (612-943-9020) and Combinet (408-522-9020) all have compression in their products. Unfortunately, they all use different compression methods. Combinet, for example, uses the Stacker algorithm. 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: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: Compression With ISDN Date: Fri, 19 Nov 93 15:55:29 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory In article Roger Fajman writes: >> While some modem purveyors are claimi