Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15084; 17 Oct 93 2:09 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29512 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 16 Oct 1993 23:07:37 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27112 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 16 Oct 1993 23:07:06 -0500 Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 23:07:06 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170407.AA27112@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #701 TELECOM Digest Sat, 16 Oct 93 23:07:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 701 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Help - Level 5 Data and 1A2 Together (Mike Morris) Time Warner to Compete with Rochester Tel (Phillip Dampier) Book Review: "VAXcluster Principles" by Davis (Rob Slade) PAC*TEL Paging Going Private (action@indirect.com) Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents (John Sullivan) Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? (Don Alvarez) US Naval Observatory Questions (George Hannah) Long Range Phones (Jorge Olivos) T1 Through HDSL Boxes (David M. Sokolic) Haitian Phone System (Bill Dripps) Ten Base T (?) Lines (David Goodwin) Overseas Busy Hack (Paul Wallich) Cost of Modems (John Shaver) SLIP Setup For Server Machines (TELECOM Moderator) Fun With DS3's (Steven L. Spak) ---------------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not entirely -- to discussions on telecommunications in general, and voice telephony in particular. It is published daily, and is reader-written, meaning the people who read it are the people who submit articles to it. The Digest is a not-for-profit activity of Patrick Townson Associates, a telecommunications consulting firm in Chicago, Illinois. PTA markets a variety of telecom-related services including a no-surcharge telephone calling card known as the Orange Card. In addition, we are marketing representatives for AT&T, and US Fibercom, AT&T's largest aggregator/ reseller. Telepassport is our international discount calling plan. Write and ask for our products and services file. TELECOM Digest is distributed free of charge to qualified subscribers anywhere who are reachable by electronic mail via the Internet. In addition, the Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it is known as the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup, a moderated forum. To subscribe, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Back issues and many other files of interest are available free of charge in the Telecom Archives. Internet users with FTP permission may connect via anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then 'cd telecom-archives'. All others are invited to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service by sending email to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. Write and ask for our help guide to using the archives. Over twelve years of telecom news and discussions are stored there. TELECOM Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993 by Patrick Townson Associates. Please request permission before posting Digest articles elsewhere. Net addresses shown are for the sole purpose of facilitating communiciations between our correspondents; not for any sort of mass mailing. The Digest is made possible by the generous support of our friends. Your voluntary contributions in amounts you deem appropriate are greatly appreciated. Your help keeps our $300 per month phone bill paid most of the time. Send Tithes, Love Offerings and other Tokens of Sincerity for our inspection to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 USA. :) Article submissions come to: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu, and if you wish, you may reach us by phone: 312-465-2700 or fax: 312-743-0002. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) Subject: Help - Level 5 Data and 1A2 Together Organization: College Park Software, Altadena, CA Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 03:57:41 GMT I've been asked to do a phone system for a friend and I'd like to ask the net.phone.gurus for a few ideas on how they'd accomplish the following. I've presented my idea at the end as a starting point. Requirements: 1. Four trunks on the key system, the fax line also if possible to provide and additional outgoing line (fax line does not ring on common bell). There will be at least 7 stations on the system, expandable to 12. 2. A minor requirement is that the system be able to handle an autodial modem on any trunk, preferrably as a seperate station. 3. Two or three line positions for two-way radios (the owners are heavily involved with Red Cross and a volunteer disaster response amateur radio team.) Current implementation that they saw at a friends house is 1A2 based, with a custom modified line card. The phone itself is unmodified except for the handset, which has a normally closed Push-to-talk switch jumpering a resistor. When the user squeezes the transmit button, the line current is lowered enough to trigger a DC relay which keys the transmitter. On a phone line the transmit button does nothing. The custom line card is basically a 401 intercom card with a current-sensitive relay added to it. A later version added a timer chip to "flutter" the line lamp during transmit. The radio itself is unmodified except for a 8-ohm to 600-ohm speaker transformer, and a 600-ohm to microphone impedance transformer. So 2 wires for the audio path, and a transmit dry pair is the total connection to the modified line card. RF level is not a problem - we're talking maybe 10 watts into in-the-attic antennas. There will not be any RFI problems. HELP! Does anybody know of a EKS or mini-PBX that would be able to handle something like this? I was told that a Comdial ExecuTech KSU had some 1A2 ports on it, but would it be able to handle a push-to-talk hack? I was told that Plant Equipment had a radio interface line card years ago but it is 1A2 exclusively, and I'm goint to install 1A2 if I can't present anything better to my friend. I'm after the best implementation possible within a reasonable budget, consistent with delivering a reliable phone system suitable for a home business (he's a Mac guru), a growing family (wife plus 2 girls under 8), and a need for multiple lines and radio circuits (current plans are 9-line 2830-type phones in every room). I'm specifically thinking of a Panasonic, AT&T Spirit, Partner, etc. I don't know what's out there, and I doubt any sales-slime would care enought to work with me for a single sale. Nobody I've talked to does. Seperate from the phone system, but installed at teh same time will be a level 5 data cable to each room in the house. The hub will be mounted on the telephone backboard. The owners would like the RJ-45 data jack to be mounted in a in-wall junction box along with the amphenol connector. This has to be a clean wife-approvable job. The house will be painted soon after the phone / network will be installed, so a small amount of plaster damage is a non-issue. Lastly, the radio side of the system my friend saw suffers from poor transmit audio quality -- the WeCo microphone cartridge was designed for wireline, not radio needs. Years ago when accoustic modems were the state of the art, Novatel (I think) made a drop-in electret mic element for WeCo phones that sounded a helluva lot better than the carbons -- does anybody have any they'd like to see get a good home? I'd be happy to carry on an extended conversation via e-mail. A summary will be made available to the moderator should he be interested in including it. Mike Morris, WA6ILQ P.O. Box 1130 Arcadia, CA. 91077 818-447-7052 evenings ------------------------------ From: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org (Phillip Dampier) Reply-To: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 16:55:55 -0500 Subject: Time Warner to Compete with Rochester Tel TIME WARNER SEEKS TO COMPETE WITH ROCHESTER TELEPHONE A new Time-Warner subsidiary has announced its intentions to begin providing local telephone service to business and residential customers in Rochester and Albany. Time Warner AxS of Rochester is now waiting for approval from the NY State Public Service Commission to provide its services over the Rochester Time-Warner cable system, Greater Rochester Cablevision. Time Warner announced earlier this year that it had formed a broad partnership with US West, one of the "Baby Bell" telephone companies to research and implement telephony products over cable systems. A spokesman for Time-Warner told the {Rochester Democrat & Chronicle} that the company has not initiated a specific business plan in either Albany or Rochester, but the company already owns and operates alternative telephone companies in Indianapolis and Kansas City that serve commercial companies. In the case of Rochester, this would be Time-Warner's first major telephone operation that would directly serve both residential and business customers. An existing operation owned by Greater Rochester Cablevision, FiberNet, Inc., already serves the business community largely in the city with a fiber optic service. Time Warner considers the provision of telephony services to be paramount in their plan to provide "full service networks" in their territories. An experimental full service cable system is now under construction in Orlando, but component parts, such as telephone services, will be introduced in various parts of Time Warner-owned cable territories over the next year. Rochester Telephone responded to the application by Time Warner by stating it has no objections to Time Warner's service provided the NY State Public Service Commission is willing to treat the two companies equally in its regulatory policies. Rochester Telephone was the first telephone company in the nation to file an application earlier this year to open up its service area to competing local telephone companies. The NY State Public Service Commission is still studying that proposal. ------------------------------ Date: 16 Oct 93 13:21 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "VAXcluster Principles" by Davis BKVXCLST.RVW 930910 Digital Press PO Box 3027 One Burlington Woods Drive Burlington, MA 01803-9593 800-DIGITAL (800-344-4825) VAXcluster Principles, Davis, EY-M740E-DP-CRE, 1993 If "principles" were all this book dealt with, it would only be fifteen pages long. What we have here, rather, is a very detailed description of the component parts of a VAX cluster - other than the VAXen themselves. Communications channels and devices, storage hardware, and the various system files and utilities are examined. Included in this overview are some of the underlying principles of those components. Although it is somewhat unfair to ask a technical work to conform to the same literary standard as other works, the style here could definitely use improvement. We are given the same (word for word) definition of a VAX cluster twice in the first eight pages, and the same (Digital specific) definition of a network twice within twelve pages. I know we are talking about fault tolerance here, but some of the redundant material could easily be removed. At the same time, the formatting of the text and the use of bullets and indenting is often confusing, especially when multiple levels of bullets and indents get mixed on a single page. Since the VAX cluster is implemented only on proprietary machinery and a proprietary operating system, it is not surprising that much of the material is hardware and operating system specific. Scattered throughout the work, however, are gems of generic interest, such as the well-defined structure of an Ethernet packet, right down to the diagrammed description of Manchester phase encoding of data. Chapter one is an introduction to the topic. Unfortunately, it is possibly the most confusing part of the book. Chapter two, discussing the outline of Systems Communication Architecture (SCA) is somewhat better, but still a bit ragged. (For example, having almost completed the description of SCA, we are given a simplistic analogy of SCA likened to a telephone system. This might better have been an introduction.) Davis is obviously more at home with the guts of the system, and the book improves a great deal as chapters three through eight delve into interconnects, storage architecture and options, locking, the Connection Manager, and miscellaneous topics. The work is replete with specific examples and notes regarding particular devices. It is not simply a reproduction of the documentation and marketing notes, though. The material is well-organized, and gives details about the underlying structures before moving on to details of operation. This may be frustrating for some who merely want a "cookbook", but for the curious it can be an interesting and potentially valuable excursion. For those considering the installation or configuration of a cluster the book will give valuable background and guidance. Those already managing VAX clusters may not find an immediate need for it, but will probably deepen their understanding of the system. Those running MVS, of course, won't have the slightest idea what I'm talking about. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKVXCLST.RVW 930910 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. Vancouver Institute for Research into User Security, Canada V7K 2G6 Robert_Slade@sfu.ca ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cue.bc.ca Fidonet 1:153/733 p1@CyberStore.ca 604-526-3676 ------------------------------ From: Action Subject: PAC*TEL Paging Going Private Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 12:30:39 MST PAC*TEL paging will be operating as a seperate non-regulated company starting in March 1994. Many new services will be offered. E-mail to pager, setup in the peak and off peak hours. Messages will contain as much as 5,000 characters with an expansion planned. E-mail to Laptop service using a reciever attached to the PC. Suggested/req- uested hardware price $200. Rates for peak and off peak services. U.S. West Paging sold to a former VP of paging. They could not run it when they were in charge of it, what do they plan to do now? Look for a new newsletter with online postings to start Nov 1, 1993. What's hot and what's not. MCI fiber cut? We will get the facts and post them online. Sprint modem ripoff, look to this group for the news. Direct mailed newsletters are going to be available as well. From the Internet to the Cell net. Correct and rapid information on cable, telco and associated fields. For sub via e-mail prices and info ... just drop us a line. action@indirect.com ------------------------------ From: sullivan@msri.org (John Sullivan) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 18:26:26 PDT Subject: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents I just got this e-mail from my mother. As you will see, someone is trying to get people to give out their calling card numbers by pretending to have collect calls from loved ones, and then saying there is a block. ------- begin message ------- Last night just as I was leaving the house, the phone rang. A male voice said said, "I have a collect call from John Sullivan. Will you accept the charges?" I was surprised, but of course said immediately, "Yes!" He started to put the call through but then said, "I can't put the call through because you have a block on your line." "What?" "You have a block on your line that collect calls can't be accepted." "Well then what can I do, that's my son and I have to hear what he wants!" "You can use some other form of payment." "Like what?" "A calling card or a credit card." "Well, I guess my calling card, but let me ask my husband." Dad and I agreed it sounded fishy but still what if it really were you trying to get us. So, I decided to try to find out some more to see if it could be legit. I asked, "Where is the call coming from?" "I don't have that information." "Can you give me your operator number?" (I forgot to say to you that he had identified hiumself as an AT&T operator.) "19076." I told Dad on the side that if you really weren't on the other end we could immediately call and cancel the calling card number. So I gave him an AT&T number and he said he'd put me through and then got back and said, "I'm sorry the party has hung up. Thank you for using AT&T." So, we then were pretty sure it was a scam. I immediately called AT&T to cancel the number. The AT&T woman took down the whole story (I guess so they can alert people) and said that the operator handling a collect call would definitely know what area code the call was coming from. She also said that, given that we would have been the ones to originate a block on collect calls that should have been a tip-off. I agreed but said when you hear that your child is calling collect reason gets overruled. The AT&T woman said their operators would _never_ ask you for your card number. So, I doubt he got in many calls to Borneo or wherever before the card was no good anymore. ------------------------------ From: dla@athena.princeton.edu (Don Alvarez) Subject: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? Organization: Princeton University Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 21:40:06 GMT Does anybody know who provides fax to email service? I'm looking for somebody who receives faxes and then emails a bitmap in exchange for money (or for warm fuzzy feelings if possible, but somehow I think that's unlikely :-) I'm also curious about going the other direction, but what I really need is to be able to receive the faxes. Thanks, Don Alvarez dla@athena.princeton.edu ------------------------------ Subject: US Naval Observatory Questions From: george.hannah@cld9.com (George Hannah) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 12:32:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications I recently found out about the US Naval observatory, which one can call and get the current date via modem. The format of the date, however eludes me. When I called on Oct. 13, I got the following: 49273 286 143645 UTC I understand the 286 is the day_of_year, and the 143645 is the hour, but the 49273 means nothing. Can anyone enlighten me on how to decode the date? And does anyone out there know what the UTC means? Origin: Prophecy BBS-Saint John, NB (506)652-7292 (11:190/100.0) [Moderator's Note: The '49273' is the number of days that have elapsed since some point in ancient history. 'UTC' refers to Universal Time, another name for 'Greenwich Mean Time' (GMT). PAT] ------------------------------ From: jolivos@ipxsun.dcc.uchile.cl (Jorge Olivos) Subject: Long Range Phones Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 01:34:31 GMT Organization: Universidad de Chile, Depto. de Ciencias de la Computacion Does anyone know anything about long range telephones? The information we have is the existance of a product with a range of 250Km which appears as an alternative to the cellular phone. This telephone would be an extension of your own telephone at home or at your office. Does anybody know its behavior with obstacles (buildings, houses, etc)? What's its behavior inside buildings? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:02:51 EDT From: David M Sokolic Subject: T1 Through HDSL Boxes Hello Telecommunicators: I was wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with using HDSL (High bit rate digital subscriber line) technology to provide repeaterless T-1. There are several manufacturers (Paairgain Technologies, Adtran, Alcatel, Tellabs) that make this kind of equipment. I was wondering if anyone out there has looked into the different equipment and has any comments about how the different offerings compare. Thanks for your help. David Sokolic dsokolic@world.std.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 14:14:07 -0400 From: astph!bill (Bill Dripps) Subject: Haitian Phone System Organization: Philadelphia Phillies A friend works with a feeding program for rural Haitian children. As you can imagine the needs he deals with are desperate. He is located where a radio phone is the only connection to the Haitian phone system. There are three legs to the connection: US to Haiti, Haitian landline and Haitian radio phone. Connections are not reliable and are especially difficult for data or fax transmissions. What options do I have to get him a cleaner and more reliable connection? He is well past the end of landlines. Would IMARSAT(sp?) be an option? Who should I contact. Cost is important. Choosing between a starving child and a phone call is real tough. Bill Dripps | attmail!astph!bill | astph!bill@attmail.com | 814-234-8592 ext.31 | psuvax1!astph!bill | astph!bill@cs.psu.edu | ------------------------------ From: goodwid@prism.cs.orst.edu (David Goodwin) Subject: Ten Base T (?) Lines Date: 16 Oct 1993 18:44:21 GMT Organization: CS Dept, Oregon State University Hello. Recently, the University I attend installed new wiring in the residence hall I live in. This new wiring consited of a standard phone line, a co-axial cable TV line, and something called a 'ten base t' line, which I know nothing about. Anyway, it would be most appreciated if some could relate to me just exactly what a ten base t line is and how I could take advantage of it with an IBM-PC. Thanks. David Goodwin goodwid@prism.cs.orst.edu ------------------------------ From: pw@panix.com (Paul Wallich) Subject: Overseas Busy Hack Date: 16 Oct 1993 11:28:07 -0400 Organization: Trivializers R Us Does anyone know how long TPC has had busy-signal detectors on overseas lines? I was making a bunch of calls to a busy number in Germany and found it interesting to hear a second or two of "real" busy signal followed by a digital click and then a new busy signal. I suppose this saves some fractional amount of trunk usage, but wouldn't ss7 make more sense? (I have no idea, by the way, precisely where this detection is being done.) paul ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 14:07:38 MST From: John Shaver Subject: Cost of Modems I recently bought a 2400 baud modem with a 9600 fax modem capability. It cost $40.00. [Moderator's Note: In the next couple years it will cost $25. I have a desk drawer full of 300/1200 baud modems here. I could maybe get $5-10 each for them if someone wanted them for backups, etc. That's life. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:52:29 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: SLIP Setup For Server Machines "SLIP Setup For Server Machines" is the title of a new special report in the Telecom Archives. Written by Thor Legvold at the University of Bergen in Norway, it was sent here for inclusion in our archives. I hope you will find it useful and of interest. The archives can be accessed using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. When logged in, then you would 'cd telecom-archives'. Another option is to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service, tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. Your request would read: REPLY yourname@site INFO SEND slip.setup.for.server.mach END Enjoy the archives! Pat ------------------------------ From: sspak@seas.gwu.edu (Steven L. Spak) Subject: Fun With DS3's Date: 16 Oct 1993 12:15:59 GMT Organization: George Washington University Any netters out there experiencing or hearing about problems transport- ing DS3's with these symptoms: 1) C-bit parity indicates a bad facility when you're certain every- thing's O.K.; 2) 2^23-1 Pseudorandom sequence freaks out your transmission or cross- connect machines; 3) Digital Link (tm) ATM CSU's may be involved; If any of this seems to ring a bell, please post or email me directly. We may be able to work through some of this together. Thanks, Steven Spak sspak@seas.gwu.edu Transmission Engineer Tel: (202) 392-1611 Fax: (202) 392-1261 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #701 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15446; 17 Oct 93 2:41 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30727 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 00:06:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30968 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 00:06:00 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 00:06:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170506.AA30968@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #702 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 00:06:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 702 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Quarterly V&H Report (David Esan) Information Wanted About MD31 (14.4 kb Module) (Humair Raza) Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs (David Leibold) How to Set up a BBS? (prastogi@netcom.com) Competitive Dial Tone (Dave Levenson) New Country Codes in Yugoslavia (gbecker@mtsol.att.com) Switch Information Needed (Neil Kruse) Al Gore's Reaction to Bell Atlantic-TCI Merger Announcement (Nigel Allen) Macintosh and 56K CSU/DSU (Peter Stone) Historical Telecom and Information Films Sought (Richard Prelinger) HDSL - Difference Between CAP and 2b1 Coding (David M. Sokolic) Recent AT&T Press Release Wanted on Internet Services (Rory J. Ardagh) Ive Got a Secret - the Panel (Tom Cikoski) Use of Punch-Down Tool (John Schwab) GTE Busy Number Redial vs 'Automatic' Busy Number Redial (Randall Gellens) Information Sources Needed (Kevin D. Cooke) Heh... (Aaron Woolfson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: Quarterly V&H Report Date: 16 Oct 93 14:45:39 GMT Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY Once a quarter I USED to receive the BellCore V&H tape. Using this information I could total the number of exchanges in each area code. The twenty most populous area codes are listed below. After the written text of this article I have included the count for each of the area codes. This is no longer our procedure. The information in FCC #10 is now detailed enough that we no longer need to order the tape from BellCore and are using FCC #10 for our V&H information. There will be some changes during the changeover, FCC #10 is more current, and some exchanges due for addition and included in the tape may not yet be in FCC #10. We have used pages issued prior to October 15, 1993. I am not responsible for the information supplied in FCC #10. I have not included the following in my counts of exchanges: - NXX's that are not dialable by a standard user (ie nxx's that begin with a 1 or 0). - Mexican exchanges in the 52? series of area codes. I've got them, you can dial them with 011, but they're not really NPAs. - Exchanges that are non-dialable in the 88? series of area codes. I've got those also, but you can't dial them, so I'm not including them. Numbers that begin with 88 are nondialable stations in the US, Canada and Mexico. They are ranches in the middle of the Nevada or Texas desert, or isolated outpost of civilization (always wanted to use that phrase) in the tundra of Canada. I find place names like the Bar J Ranch, Double B Ranch, and JD Dye, Texas, Amargosa, Corncreek and Reese Valley, NV, and Chick Lake, Redknife and Taglu, NT. I gather they are ringdown stations, or radio-telephone stations. [It has been noted in c.d.t. that at least two of these numbers are for a bordello on the NV-CA border.] - This list includes three new area codes: 905, 810, and 910. I have not yet received information on 610. The fields are: ------------ rank last in July, 1993 213: 736 (1, 7) area code --^^^ ^^^ ^------- number of new exchanges |-------------- total number of exchanges 919: 711 ( 4, 20) 215: 681 ( 8, 14) 703: 640(13, 19) 503: 594 (17, 9) 313: 706 ( 5, 17) 206: 670 (10, 17) 212: 637( 1,-68) 803: 592 (20,18) 205: 706 ( 3, 12) 708: 667 (11, 20) 403: 615(14, 4) 615: 592 (23,30) 416: 692 ( 6, 10) 602: 662 ( 9, 8) 604: 609(15, 17) 303: 588 (18,13) 714: 690 ( 7, 16) 713: 653 (12, 18) 216: 598(16, 13) 404: 583 (22,18) 1. 919 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 2. 313 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 3. 205 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 4. 416 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 5. 714 - split in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 6. 215 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. -> The NPA that is largest and is not splitting nor has plans, at this time, to split, is 206. -> The 3 smallest NPA's were 917, 906, 807. They are now: 302: 133 - Delaware (+4 exchanges) 906: 117 - Michigan's Upper Peninsula (no change) 807: 106 - Western Ontario (+1 exchange) -> The NPAs with the greatest growth rates are: NPA % growth 917 29.83 310 5.80 615 5.33 307 5.26 210 4.53 813 4.52 805 4.50 209 4.28 409 4.27 410 4.07 -> The 10 NPAs with the least growth rates are: NPA % growth 512 -46.08 * Due to the deletion of the NXXs now in NPA 210 212 -09.64 * Due to the movement of the Bronx to NPA 718 715 0.00 712 0.00 701 0.00 618 0.00 507 0.00 419 0.00 413 0.00 315 0.00 All the NPAs and the number of nxx's in each are listed below: 919: 711 612: 575 916: 467 316: 390 519: 357 609: 312 709: 264 313: 706 809: 574 201: 462 209: 389 204: 356 208: 310 806: 262 205: 706 214: 571 412: 455 219: 387 207: 354 613: 307 608: 257 416: 692 314: 564 913: 454 512: 379 318: 352 706: 306 509: 257 714: 690 305: 563 306: 454 213: 377 810: 350 918: 305 603: 249 215: 681 501: 561 614: 447 914: 376 408: 350 218: 302 901: 242 206: 670 203: 555 818: 439 704: 375 304: 348 202: 293 308: 214 708: 667 904: 551 515: 439 910: 373 419: 344 909: 291 417: 210 602: 662 619: 551 210: 438 217: 373 517: 343 903: 291 707: 201 713: 653 405: 542 407: 436 502: 372 319: 342 606: 288 506: 186 703: 640 817: 532 410: 434 418: 370 505: 339 812: 287 802: 183 212: 637 804: 527 601: 432 406: 370 618: 337 808: 286 719: 183 403: 615 717: 516 617: 430 801: 368 702: 331 712: 286 307: 180 604: 609 312: 513 415: 430 908: 366 805: 325 518: 277 607: 178 216: 598 310: 510 402: 425 504: 364 915: 323 902: 276 917: 161 503: 594 414: 509 516: 414 301: 364 715: 321 705: 275 401: 145 803: 592 718: 506 907: 411 701: 362 815: 319 507: 275 413: 135 615: 592 514: 505 716: 408 510: 360 409: 317 814: 271 302: 133 303: 588 816: 485 508: 408 912: 359 819: 316 315: 268 906: 117 404: 583 513: 481 616: 407 605: 357 905: 313 309: 266 807: 106 813: 577 317: 479 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ From: hraza@bode.usc.edu (Humair Raza) Subject: Information Wanted About MD31 (14.4 kb Module) Date: 16 Oct 1993 12:03:32 -0700 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA I am looking for some information about MD31, which is 14.4 KB module from Rockwell ( R1496 DP ). Please let me know through personal mail about the source from where I can get the application data for this module. Even a contact phone number of the company would do. Thanks, Humair Raza hraza@bode.usc.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 10:38:15 -0400 From: djcl@io.org Subject: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs CFRB radio had a news item last night about Bell Canada's plans to change long distance calling so that 1 + area code must be dialed for any long distance call, even within an area code. This will happen in Sept 1994. This is already the case in 416 and 905, thus no further changes are expected for those area codes. This will affect other Bell area codes: Ontario's 519, 613, 705 and 807, plus Quebec's 418, 514 and 819. While 416 set up this dialing method a few years ago to add exchange capacity within 416, none of Bell's other area codes have a capacity shortage. Rather, this change is for the North American wide "interchangeable" NPA codes (that is, most numbers from 200 to 999 could be used as area codes or exchanges). Area codes presently have a 0 or 1 in the middle digit, but this restriction will be removed as of January 1995, meaning that the distinction between area codes and exchanges will be lost throughout North America. 334 is the first "interchangeable" area code to be announced, to split Alabama's current 205 area code. This is scheduled to take effect 15 January 1995. I made an inquiry to Bellcore to find out if any other interchangeable codes have been assigned; no response from them at this time. David Leibold ------------------------------ From: prastogi@netcom.com (Sentient) Subject: How to Set Up a BBS? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 15:34:03 GMT Some of my friends are interested in setting up internet service so that people can dial in a particular number and get connected to the computer which is a node on internet. What are the various resources needed in setting up such a service. Also, what kind of hardware is available. Is there any book that explains this? This service is being planned for India. India's telecommunication service provides a leased line which is a direct connection to an international network. Approximately what kind of costs come into effect? Also, if we import the necessary hardware, we want to know which kind of hardware is suitable for this. Thanks, #include prastogi@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Competitive Dial Tone Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 22:51:09 GMT A public telephone at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City bears a sign: LONG DISTANCE calls from this telephone are carried by AT&T Communications by default. (You may dial 10xxx to select the carrier of your choice for card, collect, or third-party calls.) LOCAL CALLS from this telephone are carried by Teleport Communications of New York. The initial deposit is 25 cents, the same as that charged by the local RBOC. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 19:56:29 EDT From: gbecker@mtsol.att.com Subject: New Country Codes in Yugoslavia Organization: AT&T The following note appeared in a recent newsletter. --------forwarded excerpt follows------------------ ***FORMER REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA*** As of October 1, five republics of the former Yugoslavia have new country codes for direct dialed calls: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 381 Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina 387 Republic of Croatia 385 Republic of Slovenia 386 Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 389 ------------------------------ Date: 16 Oct 93 11:15:00 -0700 From: KRUSE_NEIL@tandem.com Subject: Switch Information Needed Hi, My brother is in a Telecommunications Management M.S. program at Golden Gate University. He is interested in learing about 5ESS and Nothern Telecom switches. Unfortunately, his school doesn't offer classes in that area. Can you recommend a book, or a class/seminar in the San Francisco Bay Area where he could learn more about switching systems? Thanks, Neil Kruse KRUSE_NEIL@TANDEM.COM ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 00:06:16 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Al Gore's Reaction to Bell Atlantic-TCI Merger Announcement Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca Here is a press release from U.S. Vice-President Al Gore. I downloaded the press release from the PR On-Line BBS in Maryland at 410-363-0834. Statement by the Vice-President on the Bell Atlantic-TCI Merger Announcement Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100 WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 -- Following is the text of a statement by Vice President Gore on the Bell Atlantic-TCI Merger announcement: The Administration believes that rapid deployment of the information infrastructure will create jobs, increase our standard of living, and provide a wide range of services in areas such as education, health care, and entertainment. Today's announcement demonstrates the intense private-sector interest in the information infrastructure. The Administration supports any development in the communications marketplace that is pro-competitive and fosters the development of an open, interactive information infrastructure. Subsequent formal reviews will determine whether this proposal meets those goals. --------- Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: xorcist@crl.com (Peter Stone) Subject: Macintosh and 56K CSU/DSU Date: 16 Oct 1993 21:30:51 -0700 Organization: CRL Internet Dialup Access 415-705-6060 (guest) Thanks to all who wrote me regarding the 56K data line(s) structure. My next question is to those who may have already installed a 56K CSU/DSU to a Macintosh. I have heard that the serial port (RS-232) of some CSU/DSU's can not handle the async 56K/56K to a Mac port. The best speeds are around 19.2 or something around there ... Can someone perhaps recommend or clarify if: 1. The Mac serial port is fast enough to handle a 56K Async line? 2. Does one need to get (or do they even make) a V.35 interface card for the Macintosh so as to gain full 56K Async speeds? 3. What way IS there to gain 56K Async speeds on a Mac? SO in short, has anyone hooked up a 56K async line to a mac and has it working full speed? If so ... can you recommend modems? Interfaces? Thanks, Peter Stone ------------------------------ From: Richard Prelinger Subject: Historical Telecom and Information Films Sought Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 21:33:58 -0700 HISTORICAL FILMS ON TELECOM, INFORMATION AND COMPUTERS SOUGHT BY ARCHIVE Historical films or footage relating to telecommunications, data processing, and the computer and information industries are being sought by Prelinger Archives, a New York City-based archive of industrial, advertising, educational and documentary films. Of some 600,000 motion pictures produced since the 1920s to educate, sell or convince, probably fewer than 50% still survive. Changes in corporate affiliations (notably the AT&T breakup and consolidation in the computer industry) have rendered the situation particularly critical with regard to films made by technology companies. We feel that industrial and promotional films are historical resources of significant value, offering detailed and vivid documentation of research, invention, development and marketing activities that is unavailable from any other source. Furthermore, visual documentation of many important activities in the telecom and information areas is difficult or impossible to locate. Consequently, we would like to hear from anyone (individuals or corporations) who possesses films or footage relating to these (or other) industries and who might consider depositing them in our collection. In return we offer the guarantee of continued access to the materials, videotape copies of the materials and free access to other materials in our archives, if desired. Corporate sources are especially solicited, and we are prepared to exchange the right to reuse footage in our collection. Prelinger Archives holds over 25,000 films and makes its resources available to researchers, scholars and media producers upon request. Legitimate research and scholarly requests are fulfilled without charge; license fees are charged for commercial use of our materials, if copyright status permits. A lengthy catalog of our holdings (750K text file) is available without charge; please email one of the addresses below with a request. We are always pleased to hear from anyone with an interest in the history of industrial and non-theatrical film, or who has research needs in this area. Please feel free to repost as you wish. Rick Prelinger Prelinger Archives 430 West 14th St., Room 403, New York, NY 10014 USA (800) 243-2252 (212) 633-2020 Fax: (212) 255-5139 email: footage@well.sf.ca.us OR footage@applelink.apple.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 08:49:23 EDT From: David M Sokolic Subject: HDSL - Difference Between CAP and 2b1 Coding Hello: I am trying to understand some of the details of HDSL (high bit rate digital subscriber line). HDSL is a way to offer repeaterless T1 service over copper wire. There are two competing encoding schemes, 2b1Q and CAP. 2b1q has been adopted as a standard by ETSI and Bellcore, however AT&T Paradyne is pushing CAP. CAP supposedly has some different capabilities. Anyone know anymore on this subject? Thanks, David Sokolic dsokolic@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: Rory J. Ardagh Subject: Recent AT&T Press Release Wanted on Internet Services Organization: Trinity College, Dublin Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 12:11:18 GMT Hi, I wonder could anyone who has a copy of the recent AT&T press release on their extending of AT&T Internet services please send me a copy. I would appreciate any help on this matter. Regards, Rory Ardagh rardagh@unix1.tcd.ie ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 10:54:56 EDT From: splinter@allink.com (tom cikoski) Subject: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel TELECOM Moderator moderated: > [Moderator's Note: "I've Got a Secret" featured host Garry Moore and > was a great example of the early days of television. Does anyone remember > the names of the four panelists there on a regular basis? Dorothy Killgallen Arlene Francis Bennett Cerf Steve Allen - but often had a guest in this spot, such as Ernie Kovacs Arlene and Steve are still alive. Regards, Tom Cikoski [Moderator's Note: Oh, I am afraid not. You are thinking of the panel on another popular show of that era, "What's My Line?". The program was emceed by John Charles Daly, whose early days in broadcasting were spend in news. I've got on tape here the emergency news bulletin from the CBS Radio Network announcing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as delivered by John Daly when they interuppted the Sunday noon broad- cast of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He migrated to television news about 1948 or so and did that five evenings per week plus emceeing "What's My Line?" on Sunday night. The people you named were his panel- ists. WML had people show up whose occupations were unusual, to say the least. The panel had a couple minutes to guess what it was based on clues and a process of elimination. That brings us back to the original question: who were the panel members on "I've Got a Secret"? Something seems to stick in my mind that Audrey Meadows was one of them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: fsjrs@oz.lerc.nasa.gov (John Schwab) Subject: Use of Punch-Down Tool Date: 16 Oct 1993 01:33:19 GMT Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center I scrounged a couple of 66-type (?) punch-down blocks and the loan of a Dracon D714 impact tool for wiring my new house. I have only a theoretical knowlege of how to use this stuff, and the guy who had the impact tool just "found" it one day. Can anyone give me some practical pointers on properly using these to make a clean, professional-looking telecomm setup? I want to avoid the usual rat's nest resulting from a lot of end-run wiring for multiple phone lines, and I thought this might be a nice alternative to a bunch of barrier terminal strips. 1) It appears that I just place the wire over the terminal and then push down until the spring loads up and then releases to trim the wire off. I can see the cutting vs. non-cutting ends of the blade. Is the non-cutting end used for chaining adjacent terminals? 2) Exactly how does one remove the wire for changes? Just yank it up and out with needle-nose pliers? Any further information or hints would be greatly appreciated. John R. Schwab NASA Lewis Research Center Email: schwab@lerc.nasa.gov Phone: (216) 433-8446 FAX: (216) 433-3000 ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 16 OCT 93 18:04 Subject: GTE Busy Number Redial vs 'Automatic' Busy Number Redial In a recent GTE bill insert, I noticed that in addition to the Busy Number Redial they had been offering, they now have 'Automatic Busy Number Redial' for $1 more per month. I called and was told that BNR only worked for numbers within the switch, while ABNR worked for numbers in other switches (still only other GTE switches; the SS7 link between GTE and Pac Bell hasn't happened yet). By the way, the rep agreed with me that it was pretty stupid to call the new one 'Automatic' when it is really 'extended' or 'non-crippled.' She even suggested that no one would buy BNR, but get it as part of a package. Oh, the activation codes are 66# for BNR and *66 for ABNR. Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software Unisys Corporation [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself ------------------------------ Subject: Information Sources Needed Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 14:49:03 -0400 From: Kevin D. Cooke I am looking for basic information on a number of technologies. The information is intended for the non-technical reader and should answer the following questions: What is it? How is it implemented? What are the Pros/Cons? What does the future hold? The technologies are ISDN, Broadband ISDN, Cell Relay (ATM?) and SONET. If anyone could lend me a hand, or just suggest ftp sites I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance, Kevin D. Cooke kdcooke@mailbox.syr.edu ------------------------------ From: awoolfso@uop.edu (Aaron Woolfson) Subject: Heh ... Date: 16 Oct 1993 20:53:39 -0700 Organization: University of the Pacific I called for my free modem. I got transfered to some location with a "click click pop pop static connection" and the guy soounded really hurried and said "we had ... that just broke -- can we call you back in ten minutes?" ... interesting. I just thought this was humorous. [Moderator's Note: Did he call you back as promised? Did you make the switch? PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #702 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15921; 17 Oct 93 3:42 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29126 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 01:12:04 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27012 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 01:11:33 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 01:11:33 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170611.AA27012@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #703 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 01:11:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 703 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Capacity of Area Code (Steve Cogorno) Re: Capacity of Area Code (Lars J. Poulsen) Re: Confused: 56K Data Lines (Charlie Mingo) Re: Confused: 56K Data Lines (Andy Sherman) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (David Breneman) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (A.E. Mossberg) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (Lukas Zahas) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Original Touch Tone Phones (Macy Hallock) Re: Original Touch Tone Phones (Jim Rees) Re: Bell Atlantic and TCI Cable Merge (John R. Levine) Bell Atlantic / TCI Merge - Competition? (birchall@pilot.njin.net) Re: AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically (P Joslin) Re: AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically (A Sherman) Re: St. Peter Story is True; Not a Joke (Jorn Barger) Re: I've Got a Secret - The Panel (David A. Kaye) Re: Restoring an Old Phone (Bud Couch) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 23:56:10 PDT >>> unlikely: 200 211 300 311 400 500 511 600 700 711 811 >> Well, actually, the 700 exchange is already in use. It's a toll free >> exchange used for various services in the US. The one that comes to >> mind is the carrier subscriber info service. It's a 1-700 nubmer that >> will tell you who your LD provider is. These numbers are also in use: 200 Some BOCs use for testing 211 COCOT Customer Service 311 TDD services in some areas (I believe 911 for TDD) 700 Long-Distance Carrier specific (AT&T runs EasyReach this way) 811 BOC/LEC Customer Service Note that 700 is not necessarily toll-free; it depends on the carrier's use (although I believe that AT&T is the only one with a running service). Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: lars@login.dkuug.dk (Lars J Poulsen) Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code Organization: DKnet Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 08:52:12 GMT Quoting Dej@eecg.toronto.edu: >>> unlikely: 200 211 300 311 400 500 511 600 700 711 811 > witness@cld9.com (Witness) writes: >> ...the 700 exchange is already in use. It's a toll free >> exchange used for various services in the US. zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) writes: > It is also the exchange for AT&T's Easy*Reach numbers. I don't know > how many Easy Reach numbers have been assigned though. For the umpteenth time: 700 is NOT an exchange code. 700 is a service access code placed in the area code position, not unlike the 800 and 900 access code. The services reached by the 700 access code depend on which carrier is used to connect through. 10288-1-700-xxx-yyyy is not the same service code as 10222-1-700-xxx-yyyy. Several carriers use this to route intra- LATA calls to circumvent the LECs that "steal" these calls by not honoring the carrier selection code on intra-LATA toll calls. AT&T, as mentioned, use 700 for Easy-Reach. The Alliance conference system is also reached in this way. And as mentioned, 1-700-555-4141 reaches a recording to inform you of the carrier name. Which, if you did not dial a carrier selection code, will be your PIC (Preferred IXC or "your dial-1-carrier"). One consequence of this routing for the 700 access code, is that services in the 700 "area" are completely unreachable from Europe. +1-700- is trapped to the no-such-number tri-tone signal. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, Internets: designed and built ------------------------------ From: mingo@panix.com (Charlie Mingo) Subject: Re: Confused: 56K Data Lines Date: 16 Oct 1993 11:51:11 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC In article , Bruce Sullivan wrote: > Regarding using a Mac as the DTE: Keep in mind that the serial port is > asynchronous. The 56k line is usually set up to be synchronous. Some > DSUs will allow you to 'convert' async-sync, but you don't get the > full throughput. Are you sure about that? The reason the Mac doesn't use the standard RS232C-type port is that it needs to be able to run AppleTalk synchronously over the serial ports at 230 Kbps. Inside Mac (vol III, p 24) seems to indicate that you can run the SCC synchronously. Pin 7 will accept an external clock: "... so that an external device can perform high-speed synchronous data exchange." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 17:58:17 EDT Subject: Re: Confused: 56K Data Lines From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) On 13 Oct 93 12:07:28 GMT, xorcist@crl.com (Peter Stone) said: > Can someone please explain the difference between what is believed to > be a switched and unswitched 56K line? I want to run a link from my > Macintosh to a Unix box literally down the street 1/2 mile away and my > phone provider talks of two kinds of digital services; You cite them as expensive and cheap. They are dedicated and switched. Dedicated service has a high monthly charge, but you can use it all you want. Switched service has a low monthly charge (which largely pays for the dedicated local loop) and usage charge. If you use the line a lot to the same destination, switched service is not cheap. I don't know how may hours per month it takes to cross over. Switched and unswitched 56KB DSUs are different and the switched costs more because of the dialing logic. I don't know if you can plug either into your MAC. The last time I played around with this (and it was a while ago) you needed a V.35 or RS449 interface to connect to a 56KB DSU. But my knowledge could be outdated on that. Others can correct me. Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com The company and I made a deal: They don't speak for me and I don't speak for them. ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Date: 16 Oct 93 19:30:37 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA Paul Robinson (TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM) wrote: >> I'm looking for a device, preferably cheap/do-it-yourself for >> ringing a phone. The phone will be on a stage during a play, >> and the director wants it to be able to ring. Any help that >> you could give me would be greatly appreciated. > Two options. Get a tape recorder which has an extension cord on it. > Run the cord back stage, record a telephone ringing into it, and > rewind the tape to just before the ring. > Another way is, if you have two phone lines, borrow a two-line phone, put > it at the director's desk, run line two to any open line, and line one on > the same circuit as the phone sitting on stage. A third option - sweet-talk your local phone company into loaning you a phone test signal generator. Hook it up to the phone. Press the button -- it rings. Tell them you'll credit them in the program. How can they refuse? David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ From: aem@symbiosis.ahp.com (a.e.mossberg) Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Date: 16 Oct 1993 20:49:59 -0400 Organization: Symbiosis Corporation, Miami, Florida (305) 597-4000 Reply-To: aem@symbiosis.ahp.com What we did in the late 70s in high school was hook up a light switch and power cord going to the phone. The phone we had so the wires connected directly to the bell, and we used the light switch to turn on and off the 120VAC in the appropriate ringing pattern. Never any problem with this setup, though clearly it had the potential for a dangerous err ... dramatic situation on stage. aem, former actor, stage manager, and mostly theatrical gopher andrew mossberg * network manager * symbiosis corporation * miami florida usa (305) 597-4110 * fax: 597-4002 * editor, south florida environmental reader ------------------------------ From: lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Date: 16 Oct 1993 19:21:54 GMT Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA Reply-To: lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) I think the original poster was hoping for something a little simpler than the responses he got. There's a REALLY easy way to make a standard phone's bell ring. (By standard phone I mean anything like a traditional style Western Electric/AT&T, ITT, etc.) Just put the Black and Grey wires from the ringer inside across 120VAC, in series with a capacitor (the capacitor between the A and K terminals will work, but not as well as a 1mfd cap of your own). The ring will sound just like a standard ring. Just be careful you don't hook up the voltage to anything else in the phone other than the bell. It sounds frightening hooking up a household current into a telephone, but it's harmless -- they used this setup to make a phone ring at a theater I worked and never had a problem. Lukas Zahas lzahas@bu.edu ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:38:24 GMT In article bob1@cos.com writes: > {hi-tech phone ringing deleted} > My, my, weren't the 'old days' so simple. Back (in another > incarnation) when I was in charge of a small community dial office the > local agent (The lady who accepted payments) asked me if I could loan > a phone to the local convent for a play. I hooked up a 300 set (told > you it was another incarnation) with about 25 feet of JKT to a magneto > ringer. I don't know where you would find a magneto today. I think I > still have the charming 'thank you' note the Mother Superior sent me > about the house somewhere. Great idea! Doesn't Edmund Scientific and companies like that sell those old magnetos? Then you could also get an old surplus filed phone that also has a magneto. I wonder if anyone would notice how the ringer frequency ramps up and down as to operator starts and stops cranking. Maybe put a switch in series with it and get the magneto up to speed first? Harold ------------------------------ From: fmsystm!fmsys!macy@wariat.org Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 09:24 EDT Subject: Re: Original Touch Tone Phones Reply-To: macy@telemax.com Organization: F M Systems/Telemax Medina, Ohio USA In article Jeff Garber <0005075968@ mcimail.com> writes: > My roommate wants to have an early Touch Tone (tm) phone. They look > just like the standard 2500 desk set, but they only have ten buttons, > no "*" or "#". These were around from 1964 to the late 60's at least. These were known as 1500 sets. I've seen then from Western Electric and Stromberg Carlson. I don't know if ITT ever made them. Although I had one back in college in the late 60's, they were obsolete even then, the 2500 was standard and 1500's were in use as rebuilt sets used mostly in residential services. Wish I'd kept that set, but at the time I thought it to be ugly and useless. It's very unlikely you will find one of these from an industry broker or rebuilder. Your best bet is flea markets and garage sales. No doubt there are still a number of these sets in attics and garages out there. (This is how I found the one 1500 I have, I got it for $8.00 at a hamfest. A bit high, but the seller knew what he had. It was also in very good condition.) Regards, Macy Hallock N8OBG Voice:+1.216.723.3030 Fax:+1.216.723.3223 macy@telemax.com Telemax Inc. and F M Systems Inc. 152 Highland Drive Medina, Ohio 44256 USA ------------------------------ From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Subject: Re: Original Touch Tone Phones Date: 15 Oct 1993 20:28:14 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI In article , Jeff Garber <0005075968@ mcimail.com> writes: > My roommate wants to have an early Touch Tone (tm) phone. They look > just like the standard 2500 desk set, but they only have ten buttons, > no "*" or "#". We used to convert these to 12 button by drilling holes in the face and adding the plastic key caps. The 10 button dial had all the electronic and mechanical parts for 12 button use except the key caps. I haven't seen any in a long time. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 21:15 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic and TCI Cable Merge Organization: I.E.C.C. > Today's {Newsday, a Long Island daily} reported that Bell Atlantic, > one of the Regional Bell Operating Companies, has purchased cable > television giant TCI, Inc. for $31.4 billion. An added complication not mentioned in most news reports is that TCI is one of the backers supporting QVC's bid for Paramount Communi- cations. The other bid for Paramount is from Viacom, which is supported by NYNEX among others. Personally, I think that all of the arguments about synergy are nonsense, and the primary business reason for these combinations is that the Baby Bells want to have monopoly sources of cable programming to force feed to the monopoly cable businesses that they expect to have along side their monopoly telephone businesses. See, for example, New Jersey Bell, er, Bell Atlantic/New Jersey's, recent move into providing "video dial tone" in which they lease nearly all of the channels to the local monopoly cable companies, sort of complying with the letter of the state regulators' rules but completely defeating the intention. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 21:50:55 EDT From: birchall@pilot.njin.net (Shag) Subject: Bell Atlantic / TCI Merge - Competition? In comp.dcom.telecom dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) writes: > "Overnight, Bell Atlantic and TCI have created the possibility of a national > superhighway linking 22 million telephone and cable companies." > "Attorney General Janet Reno said the Justice Department would look into the > deal, and a powerful House telecommunications subcommittee said it would > schedule hearings on how it would affect competition and consumers." Though I support this merge (I'm a big fan of Bell Atlantic, particularly since they're feverishly working to put fiber-optics and ISDN all over the place here in New Jersey :) I'm a little worried about how this will relate to a traditional multi-level competition scheme, and how it will relate to the recent legal decision allowing RBOCs to _provide_ video. As I understood it (from reading about the French implementation of ISDN, and from reading about the legal decision and other ISDN-related things here in the US), the RBOCs themselves would continue to be regional carriers as they are now, but expand _what_ they carry to include video and such, thus enabling suppliers of video (ie, CATV companies) to offer their services across the RBOC's networks (or even across LD networks between RBOCs), reaching more consumers and sparking more competition. If Bell Atlantic and TCI merge, the line between the "carrier" and the "provider" gets blurred or erased. Will the resulting company allow the signals of other video providers to be made available over its network? (Or, looking at it from the other side -- is there any way they can prevent it?) I'm sure the merge will make it easier for them to undercut the prices of other video providers, since Bell Atlantic (as the carrier) will be getting a cut of the other guy's prices anyway. Any thoughts out there on this? I don't even _have_ cable, so it's not really affecting me ... but there are 90-some strands of Bell Atlantic fiber strung outside my house, and it's getting very tempting to hook up. Shag ------------------------------ From: pjoslin@mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil (Paul Joslin (Sverdrup)) Subject: Re: AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically Date: 16 Oct 1993 16:21:51 GMT Organization: Model Based Vision Lab, Wright Laboratory In article , Raymond Shwake (media!nearside! shwake@uunet.UU.NET) wrote: > Apropos, I have long wondered how -- at a time of labor *surplus*, > even of skilled workers -- AT&T could be devoting substantial > technical and capital resources to implement their electronic > operators scheme. You know, the one where voice recognition systems Even with the "suplus", the cost of labor isn't necessarily going down. For example, it is claimed that the largest single expense GM faces isn't steel, it's the cost of the health insurance it provides its workers. Paul R. Joslin +1 513 255 1115 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 17:52:18 EDT Subject: Re: AT&T's Allen Says Family Upheavals Impact U.S. Economically From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) On 13 Oct 93 06:07:50 GMT, media!nearside!shwake@uunet.uu.net (Raymond Shwake) said: > Apropos, I have long wondered how -- at a time of labor *surplus*, > even of skilled workers -- AT&T could be devoting substantial > technical and capital resources to implement their electronic > operators scheme. You know, the one where voice recognition systems > listen for key words like "collect" and "person-to-person" and try to > act accordingly. Once in place, these silicon dummies will allow AT&T > to pink slip some 5,000 skilled operators. How far back do you want to carry this reasoning? We could have kept the phone network more labor intensive by not implementing DDD. Then we could employ lots more operators to complete all long distance calls. Or better still, maybe we should have banned the direct dialing altogther. Would anybody (other than the CWA) be happy with such a network? Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com The company and I made a deal: they don't speak for me and I don't speak for them. ------------------------------ From: jorn@Netwerk.mcs.com (Jorn Barger) Subject: Re: St. Peter Story is True; Not a Joke Date: 16 Oct 1993 13:22:34 -0500 Organization: MCSNet Subscriber, Chicago, IL [Pat asks the panelists' names on "I've Got a Secret"] Three of them would have been Bennett Cerf, head of Random House, Dorothy Kilgallen, remembered now as a JFK-conspiracy-mystery-death, and Arlene Francis... (or was that 'To Tell the Truth'? :^) [Moderator's Note: No!! You people keep thinking about "What's My Line?" with John Daly and panelists. As this issue is being prepared someone has responded with the answers. See the next message. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel Date: 16 Oct 1993 22:30:04 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access TELECOM Moderator moderated: > [Moderator's Note: "I've Got a Secret" featured host Garry Moore and > was a great example of the early days of television. Does anyone remember > the names of the four panelists there on a regular basis? Peggy Cass (stage and screen actress), Bill Cullen (host of Price is Right), the tall brunette woman -- uh -- she got into fashions or perfume or something. All I remember about her from the program was that she once resented being called a "thespian" on the air. Someone had pronounced it "thezzbian" and she said, "Absolutely not! I am a 'thessss-PEE-an'" At the time I've Got a Secret was done, Garry Moore also did that Garry Moore show later that night. Secret was live at 7:30 and Moore at 10:00pm. It is fascinating to look back on those days and realize that lots of those kinds of shows were done live -- even in the mid-60s. At the time of the Kennedy assassination, CBS was running a live soap opera over its entire network. The coaxial cable was still expensive, and used during prime time hours in New York; the Tonight Show had to be flown to the West Coast in order to show in color, so it was always a day late. Monday's shows was seen here on Tuesday, Friday's the following Monday. Which means that there was one Tonight Show which has never been shown on the West Coast! [Moderator's Note: I don't know about CBS, as I had NBC on at the time. They were having that game show where the contestants would spin a wheel which stopped on various prizes. The first bulletin on JFK was maybe 20 seconds long and they cut back in to the game with the wheel; less than a minute or two later they interuppted with a second bulletin a bit more detailed, then back to the game show a third time. Finally about five minutes after that they cut the game show off entirely and switched to their affiliate station in Dallas for the full report. By that time I was changing channels seeing what the others had to say; they were all in Dallas at that point. In about a month it will be thirty years since that event, yet it seems like yesterday to me. Thanks for supplying the trivia on the names of the panel members. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bud@kentrox.com (Bud Couch) Subject: Re: Restoring an Old Phone Organization: ADC Kentrox Industries, Inc. Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 22:00:47 GMT In article akcs.russ@genesis.MCS.COM (Russell J. Price) writes: > I just picked up an early Automatic Electric "Monophone" (date of > manufacture unknown, but it's old enough to have a Z on the dial). > While I was rooting around inside to set up a modular cord for it, I > discovered that it has a 50 Hz ringer (sigh). Sure enough, when I try > Would it be possible to substitute a larger capacitor to make it work > with 20 Hz ringing current, or would I be better off cannibalizing a > 20 Hz ringer/capacitor combo from another phone? Other than the > odd-frequency ringer (maybe this phone was on a party line?), the > phone seems to work fine. The frequency selective ringers from AE were "tuned" to the stated frequency both electrically AND mechanically. The weight and length of the "clapper" on the bell is such that it is mechanically resonant at 50 Hz. Simply replacing the capacitor may not do it. I've tried changing caps on ringers with sporatic success; A 66 synchromonic ringer worked well by paralleling a cap when driven at 60 Hz Decimonic, but a 42 Hz wouldn't retune with a cap well enough to work at 30 Hz. If you are truly interested is maintaining "collector" status, removing and saving the existing ringer, while subsituting a newer straight-line ringer seems to be the best choice. Bud Couch - ADC Kentrox bud@kentrox.com (192.228.59.2) insert legalistic bs disclaimer here ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #703 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16427; 17 Oct 93 4:53 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01038 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 02:19:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00742 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 02:19:00 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 02:19:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170719.AA00742@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #704 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 02:19:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 704 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Demon Dialers Information Wanted (Macy Hallock) Re: Demon Dialers Information Wanted (Jeffrey C. Honig) Re: Atomic Clocks (John R. Bruni) Re: Atomic Clocks (David Breneman) Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Nigel Allen) Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Jim Rees) Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery (Chris Ambler) Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery (Don Davis) Re: US Sprint Modem Mess - Read This ASAP (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Sprint's Modem Offer Revisited (Joshua E. Muskovitz) Sprint Modem Update 10-16-93 (action@indirect.com) Re: Prodigy Link (Eric N. Florack) Re: Phoiling a Phraud (H. Peter Anvin) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Tony Harminc) Book Reviews + (Lynne Gregg) Re: Another Last Laugh (Harold Hallikainen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: fmsystm!fmsys!macy@wariat.org Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 09:33 EDT Subject: Re: Demon Dialers Information Wanted Reply-To: macy@telemax.com Organization: F M Systems/Telemax Medina, Ohio USA In article morris@grian.cps.altadena. ca.us (Mike Morris) writes: > The real "Demon Dialer"tm was made by Zoom Telecommunications in > Boston for several years, and was in the Heathkit catalog for a while These were also made in a Radio Shack version, with a beige, rather that black case color. I found Demon's to be often damaged by lightning. We must have replaced a hundred of them, back when we would sell them behind the 1A2 systems we sold. We never found anyone who repaired them well. We just tossed the bad ones. I even lost both the units at my home to lightning. Demon's are advertised from time to time by telecom equipment brokers, especially in "Telecom Gear" magazine. Prices seem to run from $20 to $40 each used. This seems high, but not absurdly so. Although the Demon was based on early 80's technology, they worked OK. I did encounter the problems with them eating * and # digits, and I recall a workaround was available. They still were the best outright "power dialer" for contests and busy airline reservations numbers I've seen. I just got one for my associate for use in Florida for tee-off time calling. Regards, Macy Hallock N8OBG Voice:+1.216.723.3030 Fax:+1.216.723.3223 macy@telemax.com Telemax Inc. and F M Systems Inc. 152 Highland Drive Medina, Ohio 44256 USA ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Demon Dialers Information Wanted Organization: Information Technologies/Network Resources; Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 21:02:07 -0400 From: Jeffrey C Honig I have had a 76T that was sold by Radio Shack. I stopped in one day and saw it on clearance, I had not realized that RS was selling them. I'm real happy with it. Two improvements I'd like to see (in addition to Mike's) are: Pause, or pause for voice, so I could get it to log onto Audix for me. Unattended deamon-dial mode so I could hang up and it would ring my phone when the call went through. I hate that beep it emits when it is successful. Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 21:40:04 +0100 From: John R. Bruni Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks In article , daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) wrote: > (EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu) wrote: >> On a similar subject, how (and why) does the Mutual Radio Network >> (news, Larry King, etc.) generate the two note sequence when coming >> from breaks, etc. They've done this for over twenty years, at least. > This is a signal to the automation equipment in stations to start > playing commercials. As someone who has engineered DJ's for the late WNBC-AM in New York including Don Imus and Bruce Morrow, and as someone who was GM of a radio station, I personally must state that I *hate* hearing those tones. There are lots better ways of signalling automation these days. But I guess no one cares ... John R. Bruni, a.k.a. "Rocky" / "Cowboy Buddha" San Francisco Engineering, Inc. jbruni@sfe.com ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Date: 16 Oct 93 19:26:16 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA John R. Bruni (jbruni@sfe.com) wrote: > As someone who worked for NBC for 17 years, I can confirm that NBC had > their own "atomic" clock as of 1974-5. It ran the entire network, > including the clocks on the intercom boxes in local radio (WNBC-AM, > N.Y.) The reason I know this is that a fellow engineer, while doing > maintenance work on an intercom box, accidentally shorted the clock. > Amazingly, the master clock was not protected. It went down and it > took the television network with it. Many of the net's automated > functions had to be run manually until the clock was back on line. > Consternation reigned supreme that day. We never fessed up, so you > heard it here first! Hope this isn't too off-subject, but could you tell us what generated the NBC chimes? I'm sure that in later years it was just a cart, but it never sounded like "real" chimes (like the way orchestra bells or a xylophone or something would sound). I've heard that in the '20s there was actually a mechanical device which generated the tones -- sort of a cylinder which rotated with a microphone in the middle. Any clarifica- tion on this would be most appreciated! . __ |\ | | | \ |-- | \|__| <------ Cool ASCII graphic, huh? :-) / | \___ David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 00:49:52 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca At least two countries have national telecom-related newsgroups: aus.comms from Australia and uk.telecom from the United Kingdom. Both newsgroups are widely available in North America, and may be useful if you are specifically interested in the telecommunications systems in those countries. Canada does not have a national telecom newsgroup, but telecommunications- related messages often appear in can.general and in province or city news- groups. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? Date: 16 Oct 1993 18:55:50 GMT Organization: University of Michigan CITI In article , knut@tts.lth.se (Ake Knutsson) writes: > Are the archives accessible by Gopher? Asking because I would like to > add them to my bookmark file. > [Moderator's Note: Yes they are. You've got to use the feature which > allows you to connect with other gophers. It seems to work okay. PAT] The ftp machine, lcs.mit.edu, refuses connections on the standard gopher port (70). Do you have gopher server information for the Telecom Archives? [Moderator's Note: Hmmm ... yes it does, and no, I don't. After receiving your message, I went to check using the gopher here at eecs.nwu.edu to try and connect with lcs.mit.edu and I was unable to do it either. If you are interested in using gopher there, you might contact one of the admins there, chrisb@lcs.mit.edu and ask if it can be arranged. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler) Subject: Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery Organization: The Phishtank Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 08:05:17 GMT dougw@astro.as.arizona.edu (Doug Williams) says: > Mrs. Worthy clearly indicated that there was absolutely no possible > option to receive an external modem. > One quick note: when I called the Sprint number given out in > the Digest for this offer, I was told that the modem was 9600 fax > rec/4800 fax send/2400 data, and everyone I talked to at Sprint > referred to the modem as 96/24, so I think all hopes for a 9600 data > are gone. Well, the rep at Sprint told me MANY MANY times that it was a 9600 data/fax modem, external. I switched over EIGHT (count 'em EIGHT) lines with a promise of EIGHT modems of that variety. When they do come, if they are not exactly what he promised, Sprint WILL make his promise good, or I WILL take action. I got the rep's name, extension, and documented the entire conversation. I then called back two days later to confirm my order, talked with a totally different rep, and got the same information. I WILL get eight 9600 data/fax external modems before this is all said and done. I'm quite adamant to fight this to the end if that's what it calls for. We'll see ... cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.4 FSVMP Voice BBS Demo System - 805-544-3754 ------------------------------ From: ddavis@dgdhome.meaddata.com (Don Davis) Subject: Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 18:45:36 EDT Organization: The Dayton Home for the Chronically Strange The plot thickens ... I received a call today from Mrs. Worthy at Sprint, and she explained to me that which has already been explained here: there is no external modem, there is only the PC-compatible, internal, 2400bps data/9600bps sendfax/4800bps receivefax modem, Mac users are out of luck on the modem, but there's a selection of other offers including various software packages or a credit ($50) on my bill. One new piece of information: the FAX software that comes with the modem is QuickLink (II, I think), and it will supposedly send in the background without having any effect on the work you are doing. She indicated awareness of (and excitement about) the Internet, and said that the higher-than-anticipated response to Sprint's offer appeared to be a result of the net.discussions (this group?). She repeated to me that an explanatory article of hers had been posted to the net, but she indicated that it had been posted by someone else on her behalf. Perhaps that explains why we (or at least I) haven't seen it. I did not want to make a snap decision on this, and agreed to get back to her tomorrow (Sunday). Not sure how I'll proceed at this point. Suggestions? Don Davis | Internet: dgdhome!ddavis@meaddata.com | Tel: 513-235-0096 ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: US Sprint Modem Mess - Read This ASAP Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:31:33 GMT Action writes: > [Moderator's Note: Not to burst your bubble, but I imagine you will be > required to prove that such commitments were made (i.e. 9600/9600) > and that your impression was not the result of a misunderstanding > as to what the rep(s) actually said. PAT] Well, sure, if he wants to prevail in court, that's what he will have to do ... but if he wants to just keep harping on this thing, filing claims in various courts, and bashing Sprint about this on Usenet, Sprint may decide that it is easier and/or cheaper to just give in. It is not all that uncommon for a big company to just give in -- either because they don't want the bad publicity, or they don't want to waste time fighting it. But is it a big risk ... a judgment in small claims court is virtually worthless - the loser has the right to appeal to 'regular court' (in most if not all states) ... and Sprint certainly has more lawyers on staff than he does ... Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 13:41:12 EDT From: Joshua E. Muskovitz Subject: Re: Sprint's Modem Offer Revisited Ok folks, here's my take on the Sprint modem deal. First thing to note is that the offer officially ended October 1st, so only people who switched before then have anything to discuss anyway. Second thing is that I called Sprint customer service three separate times (within 20 minutes) and got three different answers, all wrong. Then I got a call back from one of the reps with the (confirmed) correct information. Then I got a call from a supervisor confirming the info. Then I called BEST Products and confirmed it yet again. The correct information as I have received it is ... There is one and only one modem available through the DVORAK offer. It is a PC ISA bus 1/2 slot card with 2400 baud modem, plus 9600 baud send and 4800 baud receive fax. Tom Westlake at BEST Products said that the only question is whether it is 4800 or 9600 baud receive on the fax side. This is not an option -- he just can't remember. So whatever you get, it is the only choice. For those people who don't want or can't use the PC modem, they can instead choose one of four available software packages: -- Quicken -- Star Trek -- After Dark -- First Act I have no details on version numbers or platforms supported by these packages. There are *NO* external modems available through this offer. Questions should get directed to Diane Worthy at Sprint Customer Service 800-877-4040. If you have technical questions about the modem, you can call Tom Westlake at BEST 800-632-2378. josh muskovitz ------------------------------ From: Action Subject: Sprint Modem Update 10-16-93 Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 10:06:35 MST A Sprint Modem Update ... this moment is being brought to you by the newsgroup in your area of the woods! I have had several conversations with U.S. Sprint. I am reporting to the net what has been said so thoses of you who keep writing me with comments about proof etc. READ ON. U.S. Sprint admits that they have a problem. The modem offer is over, done, finished. The offer ended on Oct 1, 1993. Sprint's legal department and management know about the problem and will address it this week. As soon as I have an answer I will post it. If you have been involved in this modem offer I would love to hear from you. I have passed on a few of the pieces of mail -- minus any names to Sprint. One of the managers was laughing so hard she almost hung up the phone. Your comments all seem to reflect on main theme. Many people called Sprint ... asked about the modem offer. They then asked for management to confirm the offer. Some people, like myself called several times before they changed. Alot of people noted the day, date and time of the call as well as the person's name they spoke with. Good for all of you! We have shown the people at Sprint that we are technical but, business-like in our approach. Sprint is not trying to fall back on the old saying "rep's are not techie's". They have said that there is a problem. For you Mac users ... Sprint now knows that there is no way to slot a modem inside your Mac. They promised me that this matter will be taken care of and we will all be treated fairly. Last Note: Several lawyers have written me as well as employees of AT&T, MCI, and U.S. Sprint. Please keep the mail coming! Lawyers I read and respond to all of this. More as things develop ... And Pat, you have to have a sense of humor. They really did screw up this offer. If you or I did this the public would want our heads. Sprint has been polite and so have the people who complained. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 04:03:42 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Prodigy Link Prodigy intones: > Incoming email messages should not exceed 60,000 bytes, or they will > be returned to the sender. Good lord! 60k+ Packs only account for around half the digests available in INTERNET, if you include the digests. Is that now the intent, that PRODIGY users won`t have access to the digests? Heck, some of the single messages are at least that in size, particularly the announcements of get-togethers and calls for papers and such. Hey, Pat; How many bounced >60K bags are you going to have on your hard drive from PRODIGY folks who request your DIGEST? In fairness, I must say that my first reaction was that they might lift the upper size limits somewhat when they make the thing official and take it out of beta. But on re-reading it, I find no indication of it ... Every time I see their service talked about here, I find myself glad as all hell that I dropped it some years ago, after only around two weeks online with it. /E [Moderator's Note: Actually, the TELECOM Digest averages 22-23 K per issue. I rarely send out files 60K in size. Many archives files are larger than that, but when they are sent out by the Email Information Service they are broken down into 60K or smaller chunks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hpa (H. Peter Anvin N9ITP) Subject: Re: Phoiling a Phraud Reply-To: hpa@nwu.edu (H. Peter Anvin) Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 08:45:47 GMT In article of comp.dcom.telecom, Brett K Elliott writes: > [...story about a $100,000-a-month phraud deleted...] >> I always enjoy reading stories about phreaks brought to justice. PAT] > And let's compare this to ... > [...story about PAT phreaking a payphone in Junior High deleted...] > I rest my case PAT. Many of the phreaks you blast out on are also kids. Maybe we should consider: does the punishment fit the crime? I really don't think that one should consider a million-dollar scam (that wasn't even technical) in the same class as some kids experimenting with a payphone (and getting caught after a day or so). Not that shoplifting is *right*, but you don't send a kid to jail for ten years for shoplifting a candy bar. hpa INTERNET: hpa@nwu.edu FINGER/TALK: hpa@ahab.eecs.nwu.edu IBM MAIL: I036073 at IBMMAIL NeXTMAIL: hpa@speedy.acns.nwu.edu [Moderator's Note: Actually, the whole system of justice here in the USA is badly screwed up, like so much of the US government and society in this country. Answers to these questions are way outside the scope of this digest/newsgroup and I have to refer them elsewhere as a rule, but suffice it to say that no, in most instances you would not send someone to prison for shoplifting nor for phreaking. Someone wrote me and said on the one hand I espoused justice (as in 'brought to ...') while on the other hand did not recommend *long* prison terms; he wanted to know what I thought 'justice' meant and I said justice is what the court says it is. Ah well, misc.legal and various.talk.misc.assorted.and sundry await your rebuttals. Not here, please. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 12:13:13 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes a very good article on travelling with telecom gear. But: > Many countries use a voltage about double that of the US but with the > same frequency, 60 Hz. Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where the normal domestic supply is 240/60. > If you are in a 50-Hz country (e.g. Japan) and have a device that says ... Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Book Reviews + Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 13:45:00 PDT Yes, Pat, I agree. I've been meaning to write and tell you how valuable I believe these book reviews are. Keep 'em coming. Regards, Lynne [Moderator's Note: Lynne's note was one of several I have received regards the book reviews by Rob Slade being published here. Quite a few readers say they enjoy having the book reviews as part of the Digest, and I find them rather interesting myself most of the time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Another Last Laugh Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 06:28:59 GMT > [Moderator's Note: I wonder whatever happened to that California > publication, the {Christian Yellow Pages} ... it was a yellow pages > style classified directory which would only accept advertising from > businesses owned by people it deemed to be properly sanctified. It > made no bones about its requirements for inclusion as an advertiser > in the directory: acceptance of Fundamentalist Christian theology > was a must. Some guy who is Jewish tried to buy advertising space > in the book; when he was turned down he sued them and won the case > based on violations of California law. It gets out of the range of > relevancy here to continue this thread very far, but I have not > heard about them in a couple years. I wonder if the Souderton telco > refuses to connect with 900 sex lines or Dial an Atheist? :) PAT] The law in question was probably the Unruh Civil Rights Act, the first sentence of which reads, "No business establishment of any kind whatsoever shall discriminate against, boycott or blacklist, refuse to buy from, sell to, or trade with any person in this state because of the race, creed, religion, color, national origin, sex, blindness or other physical disability of the person or of the person's partners, members, stockholders, directors, officers, managers, superintendents, agents, employees, business associates, suppliers, or customers." Harold [Moderator's Note: I had thought however that religious activities were specifically exempt with regards to their employment and other business practices. Perhaps not. Again, a good topic for a myriad of Usenet groups, but not here. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #704 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16960; 17 Oct 93 6:22 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01486 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:31:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00161 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:31:00 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:31:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170831.AA00161@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #705 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 03:31:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 705 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought (Chris Ambler) Re: 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought (Rob Boudrie) Re: Calling Card Scam (Frank E. Carey) Re: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents (Laurence Chiu) Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors (Gary Breuckman) Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors (Harold Hallikainen) Re: Availability of Toll Records by Fax? (Andy Sherman) Re: Fax on-Demand/Fax Back Systems (James R. Saker Jr.) Re: Pig Calls 911 (Rob Boudrie) Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (David A. Kaye) Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (Michael Clays) Re: Help With Northern Telecom (George Hannah) Re: Cost of Modems (Laurence Chiu) Re: Bill Printed Part of my Calling Card Nnumber (Carl Moore) Re: Bill Printed Part of my Calling Card Nnumber (Steve Forrette) Re: Yet Another Sprint Modem Story (Christian Weisgerber) Re: Al Gore's Reaction to Bell Atlantic (Cliff Barney) Re: Macintosh and 56K CSU/DSU (Steve Cogorno) Re: Competitive Dial Tone (Danny Burstein) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler) Subject: Re: 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought Organization: The Phishtank Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 05:57:03 GMT gates@mca.info-gw.mese.com says: > So ... I'm contemplating starting a competetive service to this and am > curious as to who may sell this type of sophisticated voicemail > software and what kind of investment we are talking about to start up > something of this nature. I have designed such software. It runs on a 386 or 486, and uses one PowerLine II card per each two lines. The cards run in the $500 each range (less in quantity) and my software runs $549 for a two-line version, and $1349 for a 16-line version. It is available now. I could go on about the features and such, but I don't want to turn this into an ad. If you wish more information, email me your snail mail address, and I can send you information, or call me at (805) 782-8000 (Pacific Time). cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.4 FSVMP Voice BBS Demo System - 805-544-3754 ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought Organization: Center For High Perf. Computing of WPI; Marlboro Ma Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:01:18 GMT You also need a good attorney and business liability insurance. No matter what waivers the applicants sign, you may face the prospect of hiring a $attorney$ if someone is injured, stalked, catches aids/herpes/whatever, etc. from someone the meet through your service. If you take memberships over the phone, imagine the legal risks if someone under the legal age of consent subscribes to the service, and is later the so called "victim" of statuatory rape. >* Women call place ads and respond at no cost (free membership). Once again, you need the services of a good attorney here. Business risk: Imagine a court decision that the differential rates are unlawful "sex discrimination", accompanied by an order to refund the amount discriminately charged to males. Stranger things have happened ... ... congratulations on not going the 900/976 route though ... [Moderator's Note: A certain tavern here in Chicago was in the habit of having something they called 'Ladies Night' once a week with all drinks for females at half price. They got into a jam with the state commission which enforces discrimination laws and had to discontinue 'Ladies Night'. The way they got around it? Now they say that every Tuesday night, *anyone of either sex* who shows up wearing a dress, and/or other items of women's clothing apparel get half-price drinks. The state commission agrees that when phrased in this way, no laws are being broken. The games people play! :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 15:07:45 EDT From: fec@arch2.att.com Subject: Re: Calling Card Scam Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories >> He gave me a calling card number to verify; I said it wasn't mine. >> He said records showed two lines into the residence (I have four) and >> I had to authenticate the calling card I *did* have. I declined. He >> said he'd have to block the line until the matter could be >> investigated unless I could authenticate. > This is the oldest trick in the book. I don't doubt it's old but it's frequency is now reaching epidemic proportions and there are indications that it is big business -- not zillions of phreaks fooling around as you did. An alleged drug dealer in California reported to have organized crime connections was recently busted and found to have in his possession both drugs and a PC-based system for cloning cellular phones. This kind of news report helps us understand who we're up against. And I recently heard that the street price for a PBX DISA code is > $3000. Several IXCs have reported conducting controlled tests to measure how quickly a surfed card number propagates around the world. I don't recall the numbers but it shocked many. In one test the first fraudulent use of a surfed card was FROM Europe to the US. This is the big time, everybody. > I know AT&T started telling people *never* to give out their > card numbers over the phone. We do and so do the other carriers. And the TV news specials have reinforced consumer awareness of such scams. Frank Carey at Bell Labs f.e.carey@att.com ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents Date: 16 Oct 1993 22:53:56 -0700 Organization: /etc/organization In article , John Sullivan wrote: > I just got this e-mail from my mother. As you will see, someone is > trying to get people to give out their calling card numbers by > pretending to have collect calls from loved ones, and then saying > there is a block. [ .. long story about the actual scam deleted] I am wondering, if you suspected a scam why did you not give a bogus number because a real AT&T operator could easily validate the number while a false one would not be able to so easily? If it were a real operator then you could say you mis-remembered the number etc. Laurence Chiu lchiu@crl.com Walnut Creek, CA Tel (work) (510)215-3730 ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:35:46 GMT In article johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) writes: > In article , ken thompson donald.wichitaks.NCR.COM> wrote: >> |\ | >> <---------+-------| >|-----+-----'\/\/\/\/`-----+ >> | |/ | | 22k | >> | led | | >> to phone | | | >> line | | /| | | >> (green/red) +-------|< |-----+ | >> (L1/L2) | \| | >> led | >> | >> | >> <-----------------------------------------------+ > Am I missing something?? I don't see how this could possibly work. > This circuit looks to me like it will not draw enough current to take > the phone off hook, but also would never pass enough current to light > either of the LEDs (except maybe while ringing). If the phone is on > hook, I would expect to only see about 2 mA through forward biased LED > (the other LED would always be off, except during ringing). The > circuit would constantly draw this current from the line, and this may > be enough to be detected as a trouble by the switch. This circuit that you commented on is in fact not something to detect stutter dialtone but is intended to be used on a specific system that lights a message lamp (by putting a higher-than-normal off-hook voltage on the line when a message is waiting). Ken did mention, in the original posting with the diagram, the type of system it was intended for, but that was all so mixed in with the stutter dialtone discussion that it was confusing. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:46:36 GMT Am I missing something here? Why are stutter dial-tone detectors needed? I understand that a stutter dial-tone will be sent when a call has been forwarded to a voicemail system. Did the phone ring before the call was forwarded? If so, it seems a lot easier to have an indicator that the phone rang instead of trying to detect stutter dial-tone. Again, am I missing something here? Thanks! Harold [Moderator's Note: Except that if the line is busy, this will also send an incoming call to voicemail; then what do you detect later on? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 09:30:22 EDT Subject: Re: Availability of Toll Records by Fax? From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman) On 14 Oct 93 00:19:34 GMT, fec@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (f.e.carey) said: > Prosecutors are examining whether any laws were violated. This > guy's lawyer said his client bought the toll records from one of many > companies that sell them and there was no reason to believe the > records were obtained illegally. > While telephone company officials insist it's against the law to > obtain such long-distance records without a court order, the > accused businessman and various lawyers say it is not. They point > to the thriving business in toll records. Frank, Since I am no longer an AT&T employee, I no longer have the AT&T Code of Conduct handy. But I'm pretty sure I recall from numerous Code of Conduct reviews the assertion that the privacy of Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) is specifically protected by either Federal law or FCC regulations, and that call detail is considered CPNI. Certainly the disclosure of CPNI is grounds for dismissal of an AT&T employee (as former Digest reader Randy Borow found out the hard way). *Somebody* had to either break the law or violate AT&T trade secrets, or both, for call detail records to move from AT&T to an outside party without specific authorization. Wouldn't AT&T have cause of action to find out who among its employees had been suborned by these creeps? Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com ------------------------------ From: jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu (James R. Saker Jr.) Subject: Re: Fax on-Demand/Fax Back Systems Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 19:37:11 GMT marcb@access.digex.net (Marc Blackwood) writes: > Who should I contact to purchase a good faxback/fax on-demand system > that will work well for a high volume technical support department. I > am interested in a system that can start off with four to eight lines > and be expanded to a 24-48 line system. All responses/referrals are > welcome. Please send replies via e-mail to:cjmail@aol.com. Thanks in > advance! Our company had been evaluating fax systems (fax broadcast, fax-on-demand, fax mailbox, etc.) to integrate into our enhanced services platform and had evaluated many on paper, two quite seriously. The two candidates which received the greatest attention were Copia's FaxFacts and Audiofax's fax platform. Copia's platform we evaluated was a DOS/Netware combination where we could operate on a single box (we were looking at the Brooktrout configuration, so we'd use Brooktrout boards for fax/voice) or use the Netware configuration if we needed multiple systems sharing fax-on-demand databases, etc. A prettier solution was Audiofax's platform, which runs under ESIX -- Intel-based SVR4 UNIX. They use their own boards (which are quite similar to Dialogic fax boards, from my understanding) instead of relying upon Dialogic, Brooktrout, or another manufacturer. The platform supports multiple fax functions -- fax-on-demand, fax-broadcast, fax mailbox, priority fax, and appears to be well designed and implemented. Users can dial into the platform with a PC, modem, and a copy of client software developed by Audiofax so that they can maintain a broadcast list, check their fax mailbox, send a fax, etc.. Overall, it's quite impressive architecture. When we were evaluating both products, we were looking for a multiple function system with support for 24 ports. At that level, the Audiofax product was only marginally more expensive than the Copia product, (accounting for the hardware we'd have to supply w/ the Copia product. Audiofax's product is turn-key). Contact information for Copia and Audiofax is as follows: Audiofax Suite 200 2000 Powers Ferry Road Marietta Georgia, 30067 v: (404) 933-7600 f: (404) 933-7606 (my contact was Bob Lasher, VP of Sales I believe) Copia v: (708) 682-8898 Jamie Saker jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu Systems Development Administrator Business/MIS Major Telenational Communications Univ. Nebraska at Omaha MyLine: (402) 255-1111 fax: (402) 391-7283 Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are mine and not my employers, nor the University of Nebraska at Omaha's. ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: Pig Calls 911 Organization: Center For High Perf. Computing of WPI; Marlboro Ma Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 20:09:41 GMT I just couldn't resist ... > "I really feel bad about putting the fire department through all > that," the woman, who asked not to be identified, said Friday. "I > really appreciate all the work they did." She could always appologize by delivering a bacon and eggs breakfast to the fire station. rob boudrie ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions Date: 16 Oct 1993 21:20:19 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access George Hannah (george.hannah@cld9.com) wrote: > 49273 286 143645 UTC > I understand the 286 is the day_of_year, and the 143645 is the hour, > but the 49273 means nothing. The first number is called the Julian Date, meaning the number of days which have passed since a time before recorded history when a whole bunch of astronomical things coincided, like a solstice, eclipse, and whatever. Actually, it's only the last part of the Julian date. I think there are about four or five digits missing (though nobody uses them). You may not be aware of it, but your computer ALSO may have its own Julian Date in it. On IBM-PC compatible computers a couple memory registers keep track of how many days have elapsed since 1/1/1980. A simple "MOD 7" command in BASIC with this number can indicate what day of the week any particular date falls on. How to convert 49273 to current date? Hmm. Well, if 49273 is today (in GMT, of course) then you know where to start! 49274 would be tommorow, etc. [Moderator's Note: And it is very likely that 49272 was yesterday. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions From: michael.clays@cld9.com (Michael Clays) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 23:01:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications George Hannah spake unto All on 10-13-93: > out there know what the UTC means? Universal Time Coordinated, or some such thing I think. Origin: Prophecy BBS-Saint John, NB (506)652-7292 (11:190/100.0) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Help With Northern Telecom From: george.hannah@cld9.com (George Hannah) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 21:16:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications Reply to msg originally in Telecommunications Discussions {UUCP} Quoting Bonomi to all: > Also, I'm looking for a few, i.e. one or two (maybe three, if a > 'really' good price), phones for this system. Anybody know where > these are available for a reasonable price? If you really want to, you could call Digital Products Limited at 1-506-635-1055. They have an 800 number, but I can't remember it offhand. These guys refurbish phones for NT, NBTel, Maritime Bell, Bell Canada, and Newfoundland Tel. Ask for Greg Gormley, when I left, he was the head of the refurbishing deptartment. He should be able to help you out, and maybe even sell you a few refurbished phones. Origin: Prophecy BBS-Saint John, NB (506)652-7292 (11:190/100.0) ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Cost of Modems Date: 16 Oct 1993 23:00:59 -0700 In article , John Shaver wrote: > I recently bought a 2400 baud modem with a 9600 fax modem capability. > It cost $40.00. > [Moderator's Note: In the next couple years it will cost $25. I have a > desk drawer full of 300/1200 baud modems here. I could maybe get $5-10 > each for them if someone wanted them for backups, etc. That's life. PAT] Well I bought an Intel 144/144E 14.4 external fax/modem for $139. I thought it was a good deal at $179 (after all it is a brand name) but when they store had a special for a weekend at that price, it was hard to resist. Locally at the computer swap meets, no-name 14.4 fax/modems internal are selling for $120-$130. Might be worth a shot but I am always fearful of connect or setup problems with these. Laurence Chiu lchiu@crl.com Walnut Creek, CA Tel (work) (510)215-3730 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 17:01:20 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Bill Printed Part of my Calling Card Nnumber I have received a direct reply about my original posting. To rehash, I set out the format "abc def ghij klmn". The AT&T Calling Card does NOT use my phone number; don't confuse it with the local calling card which uses one's 10 digit number (including the area code) plus that four-digit PIN. The "ghij" part which I cited above is NOT part of my phone number. ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Bill Printed Part of my Calling Card Nnumber Date: 17 Oct 1993 03:37:22 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In Carl Moore writes: > abc def ghij klmn ? > So what security/privacy issues are raised by the printing of the four > digits from that "ghij" slot [on the bill]? I would say none. AT&T considers the first ten digits to be the "card number" and the last four digits to be the PIN. When you call their customer service office, you need only read the first ten, and some reps even encourage you to not tell the last four digits to anyone except the operator. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 19:09:33 +0100 From: naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: Re: Yet Another Sprint Modem Story dhorvath@sas.upenn.edu (David Horvath) writes: > 9600 data/fax modem internal for PC's. > an earlier post), here's the facts: class I, 9600 send, 4800 receive > fax modem, and 2400 hayes compatible data modem. But "9600 data/fax modem" means 9600bps data + 9600bps S/R FAX, a completely different product class. Sprint obviously makes an incorrect advertisement. BTW, from the specs I'd guess that this Sprint modem is built around a Rockwell RC224ATF single chip modem. Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@ruessel.sub.org ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 23:41:04 PDT From: Cliff Barney Subject: Re: Al Gore's Reaction to Bell Atlantic Could there be any clearer indication than this press release that the administration lacks a clue as to what is going on in the telecommun- ications industry? ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Macintosh and 56K CSU/DSU Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 0:17:00 PDT Said by Peter Stone: > 3. What way IS there to gain 56K Async speeds on a Mac? This is the root of the problem. What kind of Mac is it? My Quadra has no trouble with 56K, but a little LC or SE30 would not be able to maintain speeds that fast. The best alternative would be to get an ethernet card and pipe that down the line (if you can). Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Re: Competitive Dial Tone Date: 17 Oct 1993 02:45:58 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > A public telephone at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City > bears a sign: LONG DISTANCE calls from this telephone are carried by > AT&T Communications by default. (You may dial 10xxx to select the > carrier of your choice for card, collect, or third-party calls.) > LOCAL CALLS from this telephone are carried by Teleport Communications > of New York. The initial deposit is 25 cents, the same as that > charged by the local RBOC. These are also in use in the World Trade Center concourse level. Basically Teleport Communications is based on Staten Island (one of the NYC borughs) and is a MAJOR satellite uplink/downlink player. They've run fiber and coax into many of the major NYC buildings (i.e. World Trade), and recently began providing dial tone service. Note that 99% of the time the call will be fed back into the regular NY Telephone system for completion. One curious side-problem: I tried calling a NYC only "800" number from the coin phone in World Trade (which, of course, is in lower Manhattan) and got a "cannot be dialed from your area" recording. So it's unclear where their input into the LD carriers is "located." BTW, somehow or other when I tried the 800 ANAC (from the "stopper" folk) it did, in fact, give me the number printed on the phone (212 area code). dannyb@panix.com adds: all the usual disclaimers regarding liability, intelligence, accuracy apply. spelling disclaimer is doubled. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #705 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17152; 17 Oct 93 6:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02155 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:57:01 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02098 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:56:30 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:56:30 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310170856.AA02098@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #706 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 03:56:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 706 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Prodigy Internet E-Mail Beta Test (Steve Coletti) Correct Sprint Modem Offer Contact (Joshua Muskovitz) "Interesting" Long Distance Marketing (David L. Kindred) Voice Mail Suggestions Request (David R. Lee) Amusing Misdialed Call (Joe Bergstein) Re: Atomic Clocks (Harold Hallikainen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Prodigy Internet E-Mail Beta Test Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 12:10:02 EDT From: Steve Coletti A few days ago an inquiry was made by Dave Horvat at upenn about Prodigy's beta testing of their Internet E-Mail gateway. I'm one of those beta testers and I explained how it worked in an E-Mail response. I didn't save my message to him but was going to forward his reply to me which quoted it liberally. I've decide to do one better, I am forwarding the online agreement I had to make with Prodigy when I signed up for Internet access. This agreement explains the rules and the price schedule. I have deleted the page headers and the "more: NEXT" to make it more readable. First note: In order to gain Internet access, you must use their offline Mail Manager program. That program offers some features unique to Prodigy that shouldn't be confuse with Internet versions of similar services. For example, file transfers are internal to Prodigy users and not a mail FTP feature. The Mail Manager agreement is included first since without it, you don't have Internet access. Some other notes: The Mail Manager includes user defined and built in folders and allows up to the six household members permitted by Prodigy. It offers password protection and Prodigy signon without having to terminate the job. It uses an ANSI graphic menu screen that is point and click. There is talk of releasing Windows and Mac versions in the future. Also mentioned somewhere was that Prodigy does not yet have a domain address list set up. E-Mail passing into another network from the Internet should be addressed in the proper "path" format. Steve DISCLAIMER: As there is no confidentiality clause in this agreement, I am within my right as a "signer" to disclose the terms and conditions of the agreement for the purpose of obtaining advisement and commentary. The information below is presented as a reference to any and all interested parties for the purpose of evaluation and comentary only. All information in it is subject to change. It does not constitute an advertisment for the service, although part of it is written as such. I do not work for the Prodigy Services Company, it's parents or any subsidiary. - - - - - - - Tear here - - - - - - - Terms and Conditions for Mail Manager Mail Manager is an enhanced communications utility for the PRODIGY service. It allows you to write, read and organize your mail "offline," without connecting to PRODIGY. You connect only to deliver and receive E-mail. Mail Manager lets you use several new communications features: file transfers and longer E-mail messages (to other PRODIGY members), plus faxes, U.S. Postal Service letters, and E-mail to Internet addresses. (You must sign up separately to RECEIVE Internet messages.) Usage is subject to all terms of the PRODIGY Service Member Agreement (Jump: agreement). Mail Manager includes an offline software package and a corresponding online component. Once you have read and accepted these Terms and Conditions, you can download the Mail Manager software through PRODIGY and install it on your computer. Downloading takes about 25 minutes at 2400 bps; installation takes about 2 minutes. You must use the offline software for all Mail Manager features. System Requirements To use the Mail Manager software, you will need - an IBM PC or 100% compatible PC that can run PRODIGY - at least 640K of RAM - a hard disk with at least 1 megabyte of free space Fees during the Limited Release There is no fee for sign up and download of the Mail Manager software during the Limited Release. However, usage fees apply, based on the type and size of your Mail Manager communications and the number of people to whom they are sent. Most fees are based on a 3,000- character unit, which is roughly equal to 1 typed page. There is no monthly fee for use of the Mail Manager software offline. Fees are subject to change as provided in the PRODIGY Service Member Agreement (Jump: agreement to read it). Here are the current fees for Mail Manager communications. These fees apply PER RECIPIENT for anything you send: PRODIGY E-mail send* $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) Internet send $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) Internet receive** $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) File transfer send $0.15 per 3000 characters (500 Kb max) (no charge to receive file transfers) Fax $1.25 per 3000 characters (30,000 max) Postal letter $1.50 each (12,000 characters max) *Applies only if sent with Mail Manager **Separate sign-up required to receive Internet messages Messaging Allotments Certain PRODIGY membership plans include a number of E-mail messages. For these plans, each 3000 characters of a Mail Managermessage counts as 1 allotted message. For example: 1 - 3000 characters counts as 1 allotted message 3001 - 6000 characters counts as 2 allotted messages 6001 - 9000 characters counts as 3 allotted messages Each month, all online PRODIGY E-mail messages are counted against any messaging allotment BEFORE any Mail Manager E-mail messages are counted, no matter when they are sent during the month. Messaging allotments do NOT apply to Internet messages , file transfers, faxes, and USPS letters. Delivery of Communications Prodigy Services Company cannot be responsible for delivery of any Mail Manager communications that are not sent entirely through PRODIGY, i.e., any communications other than PRODIGY E-mail and file transfers. Since delivery of all other types of Mail Manager communications (including Internet messages addressed to a PRODIGY ID) is subject to circumstances beyond Prodigy's control, there will be no refunds or credits for such messages that fail to reach their intended recipients. Refunds and credits are also subject to all applicable terms in the PRODIGY Service Member Agreement (Jump: agreement). Sign-up The Membership Holder (the member whose ID ends in "A") can sign up for Mail Manager. The Membership Holder may then sign up any other members in the membership, and is responsible for all fees incurred by all IDs in the membership. Prodigy may require a credit card relationship if certain usage levels are exceeded. Privacy Mail Manager communications are private while traveling through PRODIGY, where they are subject to Prodigy's Policy on Protecting Member Privacy (Jump: privacy to read it). PRODIGY CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PRIVACY OF ANY COMMUNICATIONS WHEN THEY ARE OUTSIDE OF THE PRODIGY NETWORK. In particular, in circumstances of mechanical failure, it is possible that the contents of a U. S. Postal Service letter could accidentally be observed during processing. A Note on Children and the Internet Being able to use Internet communications lets you join electronic mail discussion groups covering a wide variety of topics. These include discussions of subject matter that is intended for "adult" audiences. Parents should consider whether to allow children to use Internet communications, and should be aware of whom they correspond with. For more information, please read "Note to Parents" in PRODIGY Central (Jump: prodigy central). Mail Manager is software that lets you read, write and organize your mail offline--without connecting to the PRODIGY service. With Mail Manager, you can *read and organize your mail whenever you want *control what you send and how it's sent: send files, faxes, postal letters, PRODIGY and Internet messages *free up your phone for those important calls *keep track of your contacts more efficiently with a larger address book and longer mailing lists *send longer messages than those you now send online *E-mail sent and received through Mail Manager can be up to 60,000 characters long (about 20 typed pages). That's 20 times longer than an online message! *Store PRODIGY IDs, Internet IDs, names, nicknames, fax and phone numbers and postal addresses in the offline Address Book. The number of entries is limited only by the disk space left on your computer. *Create as many mailing lists as you need (up to 100 entries per list). Use them for any kind of delivery: PRODIGY, Internet, fax, U.S. Postal Service letters. *Keep track of messages sent and received with the Mail Log, Incoming Mail and Outgoing Mail folders as well as personal folders that you can create and name. You can also use Mail Manager to compose and edit your messages. Mail Manager has a built-in spell-checker and features that allow you to import and revise text. If you prefer, you can use your own word processor to write a message. Then, import the text of your message into Mail Manager when you are ready to send it. Messages created offline with Mail Manager cost less than online messages. Compare fees for PRODIGY messages: PRODIGY Online* $0.25 per message(2880 characters max) PRODIGY Offline* $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) Prodigy counts E-mail (except letters) in "blocks" of 3,000 characters. All fees are per message per recipient. *Certain PRODIGY payment plans may include a monthly allowance of messages that be sent by a membership. For more details on membership pricing plans, Jump: prodigy central. Fees for other E-mail features during the Limited Release ALL FEES ARE PER RECIPIENT Message Type Cost Per Block Maximum Length --------------------------------------------------------- File Transfer $0.15/3000 characters 500 Kb --------------------------------------------------------- Fax $1.25/3000 characters 60,000 char. --------------------------------------------------------- USPS Letter $1.50/letter (4 pages) 12,000 char. --------------------------------------------------------- Internet Send $0.15/3000 characters 60,000 char. Internet COD $0.15/3000 characters 60,000 char. System Requirements Mail Manager software runs on any DOS machine that has the PRODIGY software and a hard drive (for storing messages received and items in the Address Book). You'll need: *at least 1 megabyte of free space on the hard drive *PRODIGY software installed on the hard drive *at least 640 Kb of RAM available There is no fee for the software during the Limited Release test period. How Mail Manager Works Before you write a message, Mail Manager asks you how you would like to send it. Choose an option(E-mail, fax) then select a name or list from your Address Book. Write your message and save it to the Outgoing Mail folder. Once you've finished writing, Mail Manager formats messages to the proper specifications for your selected mode of delivery. Select "Deliver Mail" and your messages and files are on their way! So open the door to a whole new world of communication possibilities. With Mail Manager, nobody's out of reach! Mail Manager Installation Instructions Follow these steps to install Mail Manager. If you have a printer, print these instructions for reference later. 1. Exit from the PRODIGY service 2. Change to the PRODIGY directory if you are not there already: Type cd\Prodigy and then press [ENTER]. 3. Type setup-mm and then press [ENTER]. You will see the software being installed on your computer. 4. Once installation is complete, type PMM and [ENTER]. You will see a welcome window which you can read or print to read later. Press [ESC] to close the window. 5. Enter your PRODIGY service ID and autologon file name (if you have one). If you wish to protect your mailbox with a password, select set password and press [ENTER]. Type a password different from your PRODIGY password. Select OK and press [ENTER]. You are ready to use Mail Manager. Copyright 1993 Prodigy Services Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Conditions for Internet By signing up for Internet, you receive an Internet "address" on PRODIGY that allows you to RECEIVE messages from people who have Internet addresses, including members of most other online services. No additional software is required to RECEIVE Internet messages on PRODIGY. To SEND messages through the Internet (even to other PRODIGY members), as well as transfer files and send faxes and U.S. Postal Service letters, you must also sign up for Mail Manager, which is available separately on PRODIGY. Jump: mmanager to sign up. Fees There are no fees to sign up to receive Internet messages. Fees are based on the size of an Internet message and the number of people to whom each message is sent. Fees and usage are subject to all applicable terms of the PRODIGY Service Member Agreement (to read it, Jump: agreement). The messaging allotments included in certain PRODIGY membership plans do NOT apply to Internet messages. Here are the current fees for Internet messages: Internet COD* $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) Internet send $0.15 per 3000 characters (60,000 max) per recipient (requires Mail Manager) *All Internet receives are COD, meaning you have the option to review the ID and subject of each received Internet message in your mailbox at no extra charge before you decide whether to download the message. Internet messages cannot be read online. Note: 3000 characters equal about 1 typed page. Delivery of Messages Internet messages that are addressed to you on PRODIGY are beyond Prodigy's control while traveling through the Internet. Likewise, Internet messages you send (if you have signed up for Mail Manager) are beyond Prodigy's control once delivered into the Internet. Prodigy therefore cannot be responsible for delivery of any Internet messages, even if addressed to other PRODIGY members. There will be no refunds or credits for Internet messages that fail to reach their intended recipients. Sign-up The Membership Holder (the member whose ID ends in "A") can sign up for Internet communications. The Membership Holder may then add or change the ability for other members within a membership to use Internet communications (Mail Manager may be required, as described above). The Membership Holder is responsible for all fees incurred by all IDs in the membership. Prodigy may require a credit card relationship if certain usage levels are exceeded. Important Information The Internet is a large network of computer systems used by millions of people. PRODIGY HAS NO CONTROL OVER THE INTERNET, INCLUDING COMMUNICATIONS THAT TRAVEL THROUGH IT OR THE PEOPLE WHO USE IT. Internet communications are private while traveling through PRODIGY, where they are subject to Prodigy's Policy on Protecting Member Privacy (Jump: privacy to read it), but Prodigy cannot be responsible for the privacy of any communications while in the Internet. Copyright 1993 Prodigy Services Company. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 15:14:13 EDT From: Joshua E. Muskovitz Subject: Correct Sprint Modem Offer Contact I just got a call back from the guy who actually is IN CHARGE of the DVORAK modem offer (which expired October 1) and he told me that he is the person that you should call with questions, not Diane Worthy, whose name I had previously posted. The correct contact is: Shawn Larimer, Program Marketing Support and Implementation, Sprint 816-854-1187 Shawn apologizes in advance for not having an 800 number, and will be glad to call you right back after you call him. He does have voice mail set up on his line, so you can leave him a message if he's not there. Tell him I sent you. Shawn also confirmed the information I sent in my last message, as well as the fact that the modem only goes up to 4800 baud fax receive. Josh Muskovitz ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Oct 93 17:47 EDT From: kindred@telesciences.com (David L Kindred) Subject: "Interesting" Long Distance Marketing While waiting for lunch today at a local Chinese Take-out place, I was drawn to a counter display (about 10 by 20 inches) offering a chance for a FREE Hawaiian Vacation. At first, I failed to notice the small logo reading "You save 20% on all future Long Distance Calls", and the fact that the contest was from Matrix Telecom. I tore off one of their entry coupons, and gave it a look to find out what I really had to do to earn a chance on the trip. The form wanted my name, address, phone number, and signature. Curiously, both the phone number and signature were specificly marked as required. Then I read the fine print (actually a reasonable size, to their credit, and prefaced by a little pointing hand "dingbat"). This fine print reads: "I understand that I am under no obligation to continue this agreement, and may cancel at any time. I hereby authorize Matrix to act as my agent for long distance conversion on my phone listed above. I may designate only one carrier at a time, and I designate Matrix as my primary Long Distance Provider. Should my local phone company assess a charge for my conversion, Matrix will pay me back if I send a copy to: 1314 S. King St. #605, Honolulu, HI 96814 . Void where prohibited . Odds: 1 in 50,000" What an interesting way to market your long distance service -- as a side line to giving away vacations! I wonder which carrier actually gets your calls after you select Matrix? And whose rates the 20% savings is based on? Dave EMail: kindred@telesciences.com CI$: 72456,3226 (72456.3226@compuserve.com) Phone: +1 609 866 1000 x222 Snail: TeleSciences C O Systems, 351 New Albany Rd, Moorestown, NJ 08057-1177 ------------------------------ From: davidlee@netcom.com (David R. Lee) Subject: Voice Mail Suggestions Request Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 13:32:34 GMT I am currently looking at purchasing a voice mail system for our company. We have AT&T G1 PBXs networked together with DCS. We'll probably be upgrading these switches to G3i v2 in the near future. We will have 800-1,000 mailboxes with light to medium usage. Do you have any suggestions on what kind of system I should buy? Is AT&Ts AUDIX a good product compared to the rest of the market? Are they pricier? Any input that you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Please reply to this thread or send mail directly to me at davidlee@ netcom.com. David R. Lee davidlee@netcom.com 70242.674@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: Joe.Bergstein@p501.f544.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Bergstein) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 23:45:37 -0500 Subject: Amusing Misdialed Call I thought TELECOM Digest might get a chuckle from incident which occurred to me last week. I was dialing from Maryland area 301 and was trying to reach someone at Microsoft in Redmond Washington. Well I dialed 206-635-xxxx, and the phone rang and was answered with "Citizens Bank, Customer Service". I asked "Is this 206-635-xxxx (the real number I was dialing), and without missing a beat, the bank rep said "Oh you're trying to reach Microsoft ... you forgot to dial the '1' first". I guess Citizens Bank of Maryland (301-206-6xxx numbers) must be getting an awful lot of calls for Microsoft from Washington D.C. area folks forgetting the dial 1 prefix! [Moderator's Note: Mike Royko, a columnist for the {Chicago Tribune} has written in the past about how his number at the newspaper office is the same as a popular number at AT&T but without the 1-800 on the front. His complaint is that he frequently gets calls intended for AT&T on his line instead. His solution? He expects AT&T to change *their* number since people cannot remember to 'dial one eight hundred first' as the instructions in the phone book say to do. Royko is such an idiot, and a crude one at that. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 07:57:51 GMT In article daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) writes: > (EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu) wrote: >> On a similar subject, how (and why) does the Mutual Radio Network >> (news, Larry King, etc.) generate the two note sequence when coming >> from breaks, etc. They've done this for over twenty years, at least. > This is a signal to the automation equipment in stations to start > playing commercials. Many stations use automated cart changers (an > NAB tape cartridge is sort of like an 8-track - endless loop, > self-cueing) to run their commercials and local content during network > feeds. The tone from the network starts the first cart. It has a These are now being replaced with much less expensive automation systems based on hard disk audio. 20 years ago I put in reel to reel and cartridge based radio automation systems. They'd go for close to $50K. Now you get a hard disk automatio system for $10K or so. The tone sequence over satellite networks is (of course) a form of in-band signalling. Some networks use DTMF and some seem to use two tone sequential. Others are using subaudible cues, various frequencies in the 20 to 30 Hz area on left channel, right channel, or both. Some networks (especially those running SCPC or Single Channel Per Carrier) run a data subcarrier above the program audio on one channel or the other. This carries cues for automation plus text for program updates, etc. Those networks running digitized audio can just allocate so many bits per frame to cues, text, or whatever. Harold ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #706 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19759; 17 Oct 93 15:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07396 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 12:35:44 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31544 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 17 Oct 1993 12:35:13 -0500 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 12:35:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310171735.AA31544@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #707 TELECOM Digest Sun, 17 Oct 93 12:35:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 707 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Long Distance Special Ring (Dave Leibold) Creative Phraud Phoiling? (Elana Beach) Special Accounts Group and& AT&T (Jeff Freeman) Julian Dates (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request (David A. Kaye) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Jeff Freeman) Re: Prodigy Link (Adam Lasnik) Re: Ten Base T (?) Lines (Gary Breuckman) Re: Bell Atlantic / TCI Merge - Competition? (Paul deArmond) Re: Atomic Clocks (Alan E. Frisbie) Correction to Archives File Name (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not entirely -- to discussions on telecommunications in general, and voice telephony in particular. It is published daily, and is reader-written, meaning the people who read it are the people who submit articles to it. The Digest is a not-for-profit activity of Patrick Townson Associates, a telecommunications consulting firm in Chicago, Illinois. PTA markets a variety of telecom-related services including a no-surcharge telephone calling card known as the Orange Card. In addition, we are marketing representatives for AT&T, and US Fibercom, AT&T's largest aggregator/ reseller. Telepassport is our international discount calling plan. Write and ask for our products and services file. TELECOM Digest is distributed free of charge to qualified subscribers anywhere who are reachable by electronic mail via the Internet. In addition, the Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it is known as the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup, a moderated forum. To subscribe, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Back issues and many other files of interest are available free of charge in the Telecom Archives. Internet users with FTP permission may connect via anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then 'cd telecom-archives'. All others are invited to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service by sending email to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. Write and ask for our help guide to using the archives. Over twelve years of telecom news and discussions are stored there. TELECOM Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993 by Patrick Townson Associates. Please request permission before posting Digest articles elsewhere. Net addresses shown are for the sole purpose of facilitating communiciations between our correspondents; not for any sort of mass mailing. The Digest is made possible by the generous support of our friends. Your voluntary contributions in amounts you deem appropriate are greatly appreciated. Your help keeps our $300 per month phone bill paid most of the time. Send Tithes, Love Offerings and other Tokens of Sincerity for our inspection to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 USA. :) Article submissions come to: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu, and if you wish, you may reach us by phone: 312-465-2700 or fax: 312-743-0002. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 04:09:20 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Long Distance Special Ring [From Bell News, Bell Ontario 11 Oct 1993. The following is Bell Canada publicity and does not necessarily mean a unique occurrence in the telecom world.] LD Signal service to be trialed in Lindsay. Bell has filed a letter with the CRTC announcing our intention to conduct a market trial for Long Distance Signal (LD Signal). LD Signal provides a distinctive "long-short-short" ring and call waiting tone to alert residential and single-line business customers of an incoming long distance call. The market trial will take place in Drummondville, Quebec and Lindsay, Ontario from October 16 to December 16, 1993, inclusive. Depending on trial results, LD Signal will be rolled out by Bell and other Stentor members over the next two years. More about LD Signal service: Q. What is Long Distance Signal? A. Long Distance Signal provides a distinctive "long-short-short" ring or call waiting tone through the telephone set to alert residential and single-line business customers of an incoming long distance call. Q. How does it work? A. If the customer's telephone is not engaged, a distinctive "long-short-short" ring announcing the incoming long distance call will be heard. If the customer's telephone is engaged, a similar, distinctive call waiting tone is heard (even if the customer does not subscribe to Call Waiting) twice -- ten seconds apart. If the call is not answered within a 25-second time period, the caller will receive a network announcement indicating the line is busy. The announcement will be followed by a standard busy tone. Q. What are the objectives of the market trial? A. The trial has two main objectives: ** to gather more information about the need for and acceptance of LD Signal. ** to gather long distance call termination information to determine the effect of LD Signal on long distance call completion. Q. What are the customer benefits of this feature? A. Convenience, choice, improved service and cost savings are the main benefits. Convenience because it gives the customer valuable information not otherwise received. Long distance calls tend to have higher perceived value over local calls. Choice because the activate or de-activate capability means the customer chooses whem and if the feature is to be used. Improved service because non-Call Waiting, single-line business customers are provided greater call completion opportunities and therefore, better customer service. And finally, cost savings, because fewer long distance calls will need to be returned. Q. Why were Drummondville, Quebec and Lindsay, Ontario chosen for the market trials? A. Drummondville and Lindsay both have a small population and are fairly removed from large, urban centres thus giving greater management and control capabilities to the communications function and activities that will take place throughout the trial. Both locations also have a good mixture of Calling Feature and non-Calling Feature subscribers, which helps Bell gather essential data. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ From: elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) Subject: Creative Phraud Phoiling? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 16:33:06 GMT Hmpf. How about a creative idea for phoiling phrauds? Provide customers with some kind of false card and PIN number. The false number is actually some sort of flag or booby trap. When a possible fraud calls for your card number, give him the false one. When the @$$%! uses the phalse number, the long-distance company's computer is instantly alerted to the originating phone number as a possible fraud in progress. What could the false number be? Heck if I know. Your PIN number spelled backwards?? Yup, I can see the commercials now ... "If someone call you on the phone and asks you for your phonecard number FOR ANY REASON, give your PIN number backwards. Then alert your long-distance company. If the call was legit, no problem. If the call was fraudulent, your long-distance company will appreciate you for possibly helping to catch a criminal." I am as non-tech as non-tech can get (while still loving computers and the net) so please don't ask me about the technical specifics of how this plan would work. If it's feasible, someone who speaks tech could make it work. HOWEVER ... if this is useful, it would be fun to give the criminals a bit of a pause ... is the number he just social-engineered out of someone a real one or a booby trap??? If the system uses a backwards PIN number as the flag, he would never know until it's too late. Hmmmm ... brainstorm continues ... allow a set limited number of calls on a flag phonecard number, and then ... I'll leave the rest of this brainstorm up to you guys. Regards, Elana ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 11:28:34 -0400 Subject: Special Accounts Group and AT&T From: jfreeman@porch.com (Jeff Freeman) Reply-To: jfreeman@porch.com I had an interesting call the other day from a woman (supervisor) who said AT&T had a special deal they were offering their customers. They would be lowering my LD rates by an average of 20%. Tough to disagree with that. She would be faxing me a sheet to fill out and fax back. The fax was four pages. Cover sheet, two AT&T SDN ads, and a sheet requesting info and agreement that the Special Accounts Group would be handling our LD. Whoa ... time to study this offer more carefully. No address to be found. Only two toll free numbers (voice and fax). While they attempt to come off as AT&T reps it's obvious they are resellers of AT&T service. I didn't fill out the form and figured on a call back. When the lady called the next day I told her I needed more information. She seemed a bit disgusted that 20% savings (20% of WHAT?) wasn't all I needed to sign the paper. I told her that we used more carriers than AT&T so I wanted to see comparisions of the rates with other LD carrier plans or a copy of their interstate rates based on time of day and mileage. She promised she'd get the information right to me ... haven't seen it yet. Doubt I will. They want easy customers. Jeff Freeman 1-800-GO-PORCH Toll-Free Front Porch Computers 1-706-695-1888 4742 Highway 52 Alt. 1-706-695-1990 Chatsworth, GA 30705 75260,21 Compuserve ID # ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 10:18:19 EDT From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Julian Dates I have a FORTRAN program that computes the Julian Date since January 1, 4713 B.C. which I think has some historical significance in either Chinese or Jewish cultures but I'm not sure. I'd be willing to share the program with anyone if they will send me email to any of the addresses below (they all end up at the same place). Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request Date: 17 Oct 1993 03:53:29 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access David R. Lee (davidlee@netcom.com) wrote: > I am currently looking at purchasing a voice mail system for our > company. I'm sure others will scream at me for this suggestion, but why not call Centigram in San Jose. I've installed and maintained some of their systems and have had good results with them and precious little downtime. Centigram makes the VoiceMemo brand, often used by public vendors like Amvox (!), American Voicemail, American Message Centers, etc. Also, they have the most incredibly EASY key layout: Press P to play the message, K to keep it, D to discard it, etc. And this same kind of keypadding works on all levels: message playback, outgoing greetings, distribution lists (for broadcasting messages to groups), etc. The VoiceMemo runs in its own little UNIX box and takes up no more room than a PC (not including an interface to your own phone system, of course.) After having worked with their system for a couple years and using voicemail acocunts on their boxes for about five years now, I don't see how anyone can go back to Audix or that horrendous Octel Aspen system. (I'm sorry, but 90% of the Aspen features are not used by people and they just make things more difficult to learn -- and they've never heard of mneumonics.) [Okay, now dump all over me!] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 11:28:26 -0400 Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? From: jfreeman@porch.com (Jeff Freeman) Reply-To: jfreeman@porch.com oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes a very good article on travelling with telecom gear. But: > Many countries use a voltage about double that of the US but with the > same frequency, 60 Hz. Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where the normal domestic supply is 240/60. Brazil has quite a few cities with 220v 60 Hz. The Leeward Islands has 230v 60 Hz power. Most of the cities in Peru are 220v and 60 Hz. > If you are in a 50-Hz country (e.g. Japan) and have a device that > says ... > Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 > Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have > worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. Maybe so but Japan has both 50Hz and 60Hz power <100/200v> depending on the city you are in. I knew I'd get some use from that "Electric Current Abroad" book I picked up a while back. Jeff Freeman 1-800-GO-PORCH Toll-Free Front Porch Computers 1-706-695-1888 4742 Highway 52 Alt. 1-706-695-1990 Chatsworth, GA 30705 75260,21 Compuserve ID # ------------------------------ From: alasnik@merle.acns.nwu.edu (Adam Lasnik) Subject: Re: Prodigy Link Date: 17 Oct 93 15:14:07 GMT Reply-To: keys@nwu.edu >> Incoming email messages should not exceed 60,000 bytes, or they will >> be returned to the sender. This is no longer the case. The limit has been expanded to one megabyte. Also, the main administrator in charge of the Mail Manager (offline mail system) has stated that he intends to make the pricing more competitive once the product comes out of beta. Adam "Keys" Lasnik ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Ten Base T (?) Lines Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 16:42:23 GMT In article goodwid@prism.cs.orst.edu (David Goodwin) writes: > Hello. Recently, the University I attend installed new wiring in the > residence hall I live in. This new wiring consited of a standard > phone line, a co-axial cable TV line, and something called a 'ten base > t' line, which I know nothing about. > Anyway, it would be most appreciated if some could relate to me just > exactly what a ten base t line is and how I could take advantage of it > with an IBM-PC. Thanks. 10Base-T is an ethernet standard. It amounts to 10Mb/sec on twisted pair. To use it with a pc, you need a "NIC" (network interface card) that installs in your pc expansion slot, and appropriate software. What software you need depends on what this network is connected to. It could be a Novell network, in which case you would need Novell client software (often comes with your network card, but in any case is free) and an account to log onto the server. If the connection is to Internet, you would need a packet driver (may come with your network card) and TCP/IP software (NCSA telnet is free). The network cards run from about $60 for a generic to $120 or so for a name brand card with multiple interfaces (so-called combo cards, with 10Base-T, thin net, and AUI). You need to talk with the person in charge of the Network. Many buildings are pre-wired for future expansion, there may be nothing on the other end of the wire! puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: paulf@henson.cc.wwu.edu (Paul deArmond) Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic / TCI Merge - Competition? Organization: Western Washington University Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 14:49:02 GMT birchall@pilot.njin.net (Shag) writes: > Though I support this merge (I'm a big fan of Bell Atlantic, > particularly since they're feverishly working to put fiber-optics and > ISDN all over the place here in New Jersey :) I'm a little worried > about how this will relate to a traditional multi-level competition > scheme, and how it will relate to the recent legal decision allowing > RBOCs to _provide_ video. > As I understood it (from reading about the French implementation of > ISDN, and from reading about the legal decision and other ISDN-related > things here in the US), the RBOCs themselves would continue to be > regional carriers as they are now, but expand _what_ they carry to > include video and such, thus enabling suppliers of video (ie, CATV > companies) to offer their services across the RBOC's networks (or even > across LD networks between RBOCs), reaching more consumers and > sparking more competition. > If Bell Atlantic and TCI merge, the line between the "carrier" and the > "provider" gets blurred or erased. Will the resulting company allow > the signals of other video providers to be made available over its > network? (Or, looking at it from the other side -- is there any way > they can prevent it?) I'm sure the merge will make it easier for them > to undercut the prices of other video providers, since Bell Atlantic > (as the carrier) will be getting a cut of the other guy's prices > anyway. > Any thoughts out there on this? I don't even _have_ cable, so it's > not really affecting me ... but there are 90-some strands of Bell > Atlantic fiber strung outside my house, and it's getting very tempting > to hook up. One very real concern in among multi-media developers is that the current direction of telecommunications policy will restrict rather than widen competition among content providers. With the recent advances in digital video processing and the incredible price drop in low end equipment, there is the possibility of explosive growth in low-end video production. This could very well be as widespread as the impact of desk-top publishing has been over the last ten years. The bottleneck for this new sector is the high cost and relative scarcity of distribution channels. Current Hi-8 and S-VHS technology is more than adequate for many purposes. The rapid drop in post-production equipment will open up a tremendous market for content that is directed at small markets. As an example of what is happening, look at the recent prices of low end video switchers (mixers) and effects generators. Four years ago, the very low-end equipment cost was around $10 - $12K, there are now units with equivalent capacity for under $2K, with further declines in prices expected to continue. The 3DO box (a home multi-media appliance) is able to do very sophisticated real-time video processing, (equivalent to a Video Toaster according to some sources). It is priced well under $1K. Similar things are happening with digital video editing, where the video signal is stored either in RAM, or on high-capacity disk drives. All of these changes are economic, not technical. the situation is very similar to the impact of laser-printers on photo-typesetting, or VCRs on reel to reel video recorders. The result is that video production is poised for a period of tremendous expansion if distribution costs don't form a barrier. If the telcom and cable mergers inhibit the growth of common-carrier video, or widely available upstream access, this could choke a whole new economic sector at birth. The cable companies have not been eager to provide two-way full bandwidth capacity to homes (possibly because of the added cost of switching equipment.) The RBOCs have been very hesitant in the area of two-way video dial-tone services. The mergers will divert large amounts of capital that could be used to expand infrastructure into debt-servicing and other financing costs. I fear that the net result of large mergers will be a slow-down in the development of public high-bandwidth service. The rationale behind most mergers is to limit competition and reduce the pressure for change. Before everybody starts to party in the streets, the implications of the mergers need to be fully thought out. I suspect that we will see an increase in inertia and foot-dragging as a result of the elimination of competitive pressures through consolidation. This would be a real pity, because we would be throwing away a tremendous opportunity, by avoiding some short term risk. Paul de Armond ------------------------------ From: Alan Frisbie Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Date: 17 Oct 93 09:35:05 PDT Organization: Flying Disk Systems, Inc. In article > Hope this isn't too off-subject, but could you tell us what generated > the NBC chimes? I'm sure that in later years it was just a cart, but > it never sounded like "real" chimes (like the way orchestra bells or a > xylophone or something would sound). I've heard that in the '20s there > was actually a mechanical device which generated the tones -- sort of a > cylinder which rotated with a microphone in the middle. Any clarifica- > tion on this would be most appreciated! I have another question about the NBC chimes. Many years ago, my father told me that there was an additional (fourth) tone that was seldom heard. If sounded, it was a signal to all NBC employees that, "Something important is happening. Get to your job ASAP". Does anyone know if this is just a wild story or did it really exist? Alan E. Frisbie Frisbie@Flying-Disk.Com Flying Disk Systems, Inc. 4759 Round Top Drive (213) 256-2575 (voice) Los Angeles, CA 90065 (213) 258-3585 (FAX) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 12:24:25 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Correction to Archives File Name I recently mentioned a new file in the Telecom Archives dealing with Slip setups ... unfortunatly it went in the Archives under one name and in the announcement here under another :( .... Try 'technical/slip.setup.server.machine' when requesting the file, or just the short form 'slip.setup.server.machine' should work also. Sorry if you tried to pull the file and got back a 'no such file name in the Archives' notice. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #707 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08114; 19 Oct 93 17:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28649 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 19 Oct 1993 12:39:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25251 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 19 Oct 1993 12:39:04 -0500 Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 12:39:04 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310191739.AA25251@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #708 TELECOM Digest Tue, 19 Oct 93 12:39:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 708 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson 1994 Int'l Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems (Mike Christel) IBT to Ameritech Transition (John J. Butz) CCS7 Statistics (Justin Strong) NTSC and 50Hz (Peter Leif Rasmussen) Colorado/Front Range VR (Rick Duffy) Call Waiting as New Service in France? (Christian Weisgerber) Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? (Nathan Lane) Telecommunications in Nepal (David Walker) UNISYS Wins $1.4M Network Application Platform Order (Randy Gellens) Notice, Advisory and Disclaimer on Lists and Groups (Paul Robinson) ---------------------------- TELECOM Digest is an e-journal devoted mostly -- but not entirely -- to discussions on telecommunications in general, and voice telephony in particular. It is published daily, and is reader-written, meaning the people who read it are the people who submit articles to it. The Digest is a not-for-profit activity of Patrick Townson Associates, a telecommunications consulting firm in Chicago, Illinois. PTA markets a variety of telecom-related services including a no-surcharge telephone calling card known as the Orange Card. In addition, we are marketing representatives for AT&T, and US Fibercom, AT&T's largest aggregator/ reseller. Telepassport is our international discount calling plan. Write and ask for our products and services file. TELECOM Digest is distributed free of charge to qualified subscribers anywhere who are reachable by electronic mail via the Internet. In addition, the Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it is known as the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup, a moderated forum. To subscribe, write and tell us how you qualify: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu. Back issues and many other files of interest are available free of charge in the Telecom Archives. Internet users with FTP permission may connect via anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then 'cd telecom-archives'. All others are invited to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service by sending email to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. Write and ask for our help guide to using the archives. Over twelve years of telecom news and discussions are stored there. TELECOM Digest is compilation-copyrighted, 1993 by Patrick Townson Associates. Please request permission before posting Digest articles elsewhere. Net addresses shown are for the sole purpose of facilitating communiciations between our correspondents; not for any sort of mass mailing. The Digest is made possible by the generous support of our friends. Your voluntary contributions in amounts you deem appropriate are greatly appreciated. Your help keeps our $300 per month phone bill paid most of the time. Send Tithes, Love Offerings and other Tokens of Sincerity for our inspection to PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 USA. :) Article submissions come to: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu, and if you wish, you may reach us by phone: 312-465-2700 or fax: 312-743-0002. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mac@sei.cmu.edu (Michael Christel) Subject: 1994 Int'l Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems Organization: The Software Engineering Institute Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 10:15:07 EDT CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 1994 International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems Sponsored by The IEEE Computer Society's Task Force on Multimedia Computing May 14-19, 1994 Copley Plaza Hotel Boston, Massachusetts, USA Conference Chair: Laszlo A. Belady, Mitsubishi Electric Research, USA Program Co-Chairs: Scott M. Stevens, Carnegie Mellon University, USA and Ralf Steinmetz, IBM European Network Center, Germany Multimedia systems are expected to result in the convergence of consumer electronics, computers and communications. Their applications will transform how people work, learn and play. This conference, sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and its Task Force on Multimedia Computing, offers a world class forum for practicing engineers and researchers to report on and exchange the latest ideas in this exciting field. Immediately preceding the conference, tutorials will provide opportunities for interaction with experts in the related fields. Through this call for papers, the organizers seek contributions of high quality papers and proposals for panels or tutorials. The field of multimedia is still evolving, hence the scope of the conference is broad. We anticipate papers covering many aspects of the transmission, processing, and use of multimedia information. We encourage submissions which describe work -- finished or in progress, practical development or theory -- on the following or related subjects: Systems Network architecture Hardware architecture Operating systems Distributed systems Database and information systems Techniques Video compression and processing Real-time scheduling Human-computer interaction Programming paradigms Content-based retrieval Applications Capture and creation of content Synthetic information and video generation Modeling and simulation Human learning Mobile computing Group collaboration Video dialtone PAPERS AND PANEL PROPOSALS Authors are requested to submit six copies of the manuscript (maximum of 20 pages) including abstract and keywords by Nov. 15, 1993. Final papers are restricted to eight IEEE model pages. Each paper must be accompanied by a submission letter that indicates the most relevant one or two conference areas and primary author contact information including: postal address, email address, telephone and Fax numbers. Exceptional papers will be recommended for publication in the IEEE Multimedia Magazine. The use of prototypes and demonstration video for final presentations is encouraged. Important Dates: ---------------- Nov. 15, 1993: All submissions due Jan. 15, 1994: Notification of acceptance Feb. 15, 1994: Final manuscripts due Submit all papers and panel proposals to: Scott M. Stevens Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15313 USA email: sms@sei.cmu.edu Phone: 412 268-7796 Fax : 412 268-5758 TUTORIALS In addition to papers, proposals for one and two day tutorials are solicited in any of the conference areas. Proposals should include the conference area, a summary of the content, schedule, and a brief summary about the instructors' backgrounds. If more than one instructor, include the postal address, postal address, email address, telephone and fax numbers of the one who will handle conference correspondence. Proposals should be submitted by Nov. 15, 1993. Submit tutorial proposals to: Erich J. Neuhold GMD-IPSI / Technische Hochschule Darmstadt Dolivostr. 15 P.O. Box 10 43 26 6100 Darmstadt Germany email: neuhold@darmstadt.gmd.de Phone: +49 6151 869-802 Fax : +49 6151 869-818 ORGANIZING AND PROGRAM COMMITTEES Conference Chair: Laszlo A. Belady, Mitsubishi Electric Research, USA Program Co-Chairs: Scott M. Stevens, Carnegie Mellon University, USA and Ralf Steinmetz, IBM European Network Center, Germany Tutorial Chair: Erich Neuhold, T.H. Darmstadt, Germany Reg. & Finance Chair: Joseph Boykin, GTE Laboratories, USA Local Arr. Chair: Michael Bove, MIT Media Lab, USA Publicity Chair: John Buford, UMass Lowell, USA Exhibits Chair: William Lambert, Horizon Research, USA Publication Chair: Tibor Vais, Compuserve, USA Program Committee: Joseph Boykin, GTE Laboratories, USA John F. Buford, Univ. of Massachusetts Lowell, USA Michael Christel, Carnegie Mellon Univ., USA Roger Dannenberg, Carnegie Mellon Univ., USA Martin Fruehauf, ZGDV Darmstadt, Germany Nicolas Georganas, Univ. of Ottawa, Canada Bernd Girod, U. of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany Christoph Hornung, FHG Darmstadt, Germany Tadao Ichikawa, Hiroshima University, Japan Wolfgang Klas, GMD Darmstadt, Germany Andrew Lippman, MIT Media Lab, USA Thomas D.C. Little, Boston University,USA Peiya Liu, Siemens, USA Mark Miller, Apple, USA Darren New, Bellcore, USA Radu Popescu-Zeletin, GMD-Fokus, Germany Arturo Rodriguez, Kaleida, USA Masao Sakauchi, University of Tokyo, Japan Elliot Soloway, University of Michigan, USA Arun Sood, George Mason University, USA Otto Spaniol, RWTH Aachen, Germany ICMCS '94 1994 International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems SPONSORED BY THE IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY Task Force on Multimedia Computing ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 12:10:19 EDT From: jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John J Butz +1 908 949 5302) Subject: IBT to Ameritech Transition The "billboard painter" on the Ameritech/Illinois Bell Billboard which grace the shoulders of some of Chicagoland's *finest* tollways, is almost finished! The "painter," actually an overall clad, stuffed dummy on a ladder has been "painting over" the old Illinois Bell logo, with the new Ameritech logo. It has taken she/him/it several weeks to accomplish this feat and it was a fairly clever marketing gimick. Now is this rebranding really just a gimick or is it intendend bring about something beneficial? Could you imagine if Ameritech ran their business like the Illinois tollway system? You would find payphones to be like tollboths, each with a different price, some $0.15, some $0.25, others might be $0.40, $0.50, or even $0.90! Your home phone would be like some of the construction here, workers would show up everyday for several years and move the phone from one room to another and surround it with pylons. The exit signs would be as misleading as those mysterious line items on your bill. Sure it says right lane for 88 West, but the right lane is behind a temporary divider and there's just no way you could have made that call. You might be able to drive for a 1/2 mile or so on newly paved, "static free" surface only to be interrupted by 10 miles of noise spikes, pot-holes, cut-offs, groved pavement, and uneven surfaces, where the right side of the car is 6dB lower the left side. I'll be glad to return to my native New Jersey Bell, ooops, I mean Bell Atlantic-NJ (LD provided by AT&T of course), and the ever popular New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. J Butz jbutz@hogpa.att.com AT&T - CCS ------------------------------ From: strong@mprgate.mpr.ca (Justin Strong) Subject: CCS7 Statistics Organization: MPR Teltech Ltd., Burnaby, B.C., Canada Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 20:09:19 GMT I am trying to get information on what CCS7 performance statistics would be usef ul for real-time network management. I realize that this is a fairly broad area but I would be interested to hear about any experience with using CCS7 stats or what people's opinions are of what would be useful. I have read several papers on the subject, however, they were mostly written fro m the ivory tower point of view. I have found that the CCITT and Bellcore recomm endations include far too many statistics to be useful in a real-time environment (yes, I realize that not all stats are appropriate for real-time management). I will summarize to individuals that request it. Thanks in advance, Justin Strong ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 10:25:34 JST From: plr@ichigo.os.nasu.toshiba.co.jp (Peter Leif Rasmussen (SY-Gi)) Subject: NTSC and 50Hz As I live in Japan, I get curious when I read the following: Tony Harminc wrote: > Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz > countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where > the normal domestic supply is 240/60. >> If you are in a 50-Hz country (e.g. Japan) and have a device that says ... > Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 > Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have > worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. When Tony Harminc so surely writes that NTSC would never have worked in a 50Hz area, I would like to know why? Japan is a 50Hz _and_ a 60 Hz area. The east is 50Hz and the west is 60Hz (the parting line is about the city Nagoya I think). Surely the television system is NTSC and the voltage is 100V. Peter Leif Rasmussen ------------------------------ From: duffy@pogo.den.mmc.com (Rick Duffy) Subject: Colorado/Front Range VR Organization: DenVR Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 14:09:51 GMT A N N O U N C E M E N T T O D e n v e r F r o n t - R a n g e V i r t u a l R e a l i t y S t u d en t s a n d P r o f e s s i o n a l s October 19, 1993 There is currently an effort to form a virtual-reality special interest group for students and professionals in the Colorado front-range area. This is an independant effort, with no affiliation with any company or other organization. As this group is formed, it will be up to the members as to whether they want to become "attached" to some other entity (e.g., the IEEE, the VRASP group, etc.). The goals will be along the lines of information exchange, education, and exploration. There is currently no structure in place for this group (other than a handful of people who felt this might be a good thing to start) - this will also all be decided by the members. The purpose of this posting is to determine if there is interest along the front-range for such a group as this. If so, please send email to me (Rick Duffy) at duffy@pogo.den.mmc.com. Also, if you know of others who do not have email, but might be interested, please pass this post on to them, and respond via email in their stead. I will collect all responses, let all the respondees know the reults (in a couple weeks), and try to organize a meeting (if the response warrants it) to decide where we want to go from here. Sincerely, Rick Duffy Martin Marietta Astronautics duffy@pogo.den.mmc.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 21:58:08 +0100 From: naddy@ruessel.sub.org (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: Call Waiting as New Service in France? I've just seen a commercial on French TV (TF1) where a well-known French actor advertised Call Waiting for France Telecom. So, I wonder ... - Is this a new service in France? - Cost? - Availability? Would one of our French readers comment, please? Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@ruessel.sub.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 20:07:36 -0700 From: nathan@seldon.foundation.tricon.com Subject: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? I need to know if anyone has any sources for type 101 or type 66 punchdown blocks (along with the special tool for the type 66) and 25/50 pair solid core copper wire. The last time my phone guy was out here, I asked if I could have 50 ft. or so of 25 pair cable and he said "help yourself", which was great, but he wouldn't give me any punchdown blocks (understandable!) I've got 12 pair coming into my house right now and I'm getting tired of demarc box after demarc box after demarc box placed on the eaves of my roof! (I also want to wire RS/232 terminals and other such things to a central point). Sources for the 25/50 pair would also be helpful, as I have since run out. I've called a variety of electronics places around here and they say "a what?" and then tell me to call the phone company. I noticed one poster mentioned GTE's surplus place, but he gave no phone number. In desperation, I'll snag one of the abandoned in place ones from work, but I don't think the building owner would be happy if he needed it! (GTE just redid all of the demarcs in the county, and officially abandoned all inside wiring, except for residential customers in units <=2 (i.e., duplexes)). Thanks for any information on this topic! Nathan Lane Triicon Systems, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA ------------------------------ From: David Walker Subject: Telecommunications in Nepal Date: Mon, 18 Oct 93 19:43:18 PDT I am a grad student looking for info on telecommunications in the country of Nepal. Are there any reports that anyone could tell me about in the research I am undertaking? Is there a database that can be searched for info of this nature? Thanks, David Walker ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 18 OCT 93 17:44 Subject: UNISYS Wins $1.4M Network Application Platform Order I thought readers might be interested in the following announcement I saw recently: UNISYS WINS $1.4M NETWORK APPLICATION PLATFORM (NAP) ORDER IN ARGENTINA Unisys announced that Movistar, a private cellular phone provider in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has placed an order for the country's first Unisys Network Application Platform (NAP). The $1.4 million solution will provide Movistar with an integrated hardware and software environment specifically enhanced for telecommunications applications. According to Elias de la Cruz, President, Movistar, "The Unisys system was chosen for its inherent ability to support multiple applications, handle a large number of calls and deliver the high level of service Movistar customers expect." Initially, the new NAP system will provide 30,000 Movistar customers with call answer, voice mail and call notification. These services will be followed by a wide range of products and services such as fax messaging, automated attendant and interactive voice response. Movistar plans to serve up to 60,000 subscribers on the NAP system. Based on a Unisys A 11 enterprise server and utilizing specialized network and voice-interface modules, NAP provides Movistar an advanced development environment in Unisys LINC, fourth-generation language. This open-systems environment interfaces with databases from information suppliers providing a comprehensive range of audiotext and interactive voice-response systems. Movistar was established in March, 1993 as a subsidiary of Telecom and Telefonica, the two companies that control telecommunications in Argentina. Eight of America's 10 largest phone companies call on Unisys to execute millions of mission-critical transactions daily. Thirty-five of the world's largest telecommunications companies also rely on Unisys to deliver innovative new sources of revenue. NAP provides cost-effective solutions for the rapid introduction of voice messaging, fax mail, enhanced 911 capability, and other market- sensitive offerings. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 01:12:58 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Notice, Advisory and Disclaimer on Lists and Groups Notice, Advisory and Disclaimer: Be advised that when you subscribe to a Bitnet or in some cases, Internet mailing list, if the list is public, unless you say otherwise, anyone on Internet can find out who subscribes to that list. If the mailing software makes a mistake, it may hand someone the entire list of all subscribers even if your identity is not supposed to be disclosed. If you send ('post') a message (or a reply to an earlier message) to the mailing list's publication address (or post a message to a newsgroup), you are consenting to give your message (and with your Personal Name and E-Mail address) publicly to everyone who subscribes to it. This may include remailing services that "explode" a message, news group exchangers that post messages to or from Usenet News Groups to/from mailing lists, archivers that store messages, and even to processors that copy all public messages to CD-ROM. Rumor has it the U.S. National Security Agency has computers that monitor Internet mailing lists and news groups looking for "suspicious messages" as well. By posting a message to a list, the chances are good to excellent that your message will be stored permanently. Readers may copy your message to their own disk storage for reference or sites may archive messages posted to newsgroups and mailing lists, and some sites route Internet messages to printers or fax machines. Some people may repost your message to a different group even despite any request on your part or without your consent, if they think more (other) people should see it. While under most countries laws copyright exists from the moment of creation, assume anything you post on a news group or mailing list will be treated as if it is in the public domain. The managers and operators of a list or newsgroup have no capability to control this and by posting a message you are essentially consenting to having your message be around potentially forever. Be advised also that under both major international copyright treaties (Universal and Berne) someone may copy your message as part of theirs in order to quote it to respond to it; this is legal, is an integral part of the Internet culture, and there is no right under law you can have to prevent it even if you were to explicitly claim copyright on your message. Also, any claims or statements made in a message should be taken only as the personal opinion of the writer (without regard to the organization their messages come from) unless they explicitly declare this to be the position of a company or organization. If you have something personal to say in response to someone, be absolutely certain your message is sent only in private mail to them. You should assume that anything you write in a public message should be considered in the same light as if it was going to be printed on the front page of the {International Herald Tribune}, {New York Times} or {Jerusalem Post}. Please feel free to recirculate this notice. Paul Robinson, Tansin A. Darcos & Company October 18, 1993 [Moderator's Note: Thanks for sending along this rather chilling reminder. I've always *attempted* to keep the telecom mailing lists private out of courtesy to the people listed therein, but there have been occassions in the past when the list was ripped off. There are IMHO, poorly documented ways to trick the mailing software at a remote site into revealing the names on a mailing list unless the owner of the list (for example, this Digest) takes precautions against it. The lists here are now protected by not being kept where the mail software can find them except for the few seconds needed to copy them into the mailqueue. The script shoves the lists out one at a time where the mailer can see them, lets the mailer have each list as the queue empties of the one before it, then yanks it back and puts it away in a (relatively) protected area. I say 'relatively protected' since of course accounts can also be broken into. Any enterprising and crafty person can simply grep the contents of each issue of the Digest looking at the names of the article authors and obtain quite a list of names -- at least of the active writers in the Digest if not the large number who only read without writing. This is rather unethical, IMHO, and in response, the Digest is compilation copyrighted which means simply that you cannot compile your own lists based on my compilations and use them for your gain. The trouble with this is that reptiles have no sense of copyright law or interest in obeying it. An alternative would be to print the writer's *names only* and eliminate the net address part, forcing replies to writers to be sent through the Digest. I don't want to do that, and I don't want to do anything which hinders the flow of communication between writers who chose to respond direct to each other. The result then is that despite copyright law and despite general net prohibitions against compiling lists of names for junk mail, political, and flaming pur- poses, it will happen. As Paul points out, people *do* read what you write, and make their little lists accordingly. If you receive unwanted mail which you suspect was generated as a result of your name appear- ing in an article here, please let me know, and be assured that the mailing lists themselves are NEVER sold, rented, given away for free or otherwise put out for examination. Of course, that doesn't stop some people ... :( PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #708 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11918; 20 Oct 93 5:33 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15906 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:02:46 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29126 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:02:13 -0500 Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:02:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310200802.AA29126@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #709 TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Oct 93 03:02:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 709 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (Mark Chartrand) Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (David Breneman) Re: US Naval Observatory Questions (Andrew M. Dunn) Re: Atomic Clocks (John R. Bruni) Re: Atomic Clocks (Paul S. Sawyer) Re: Capacity of Area Code (Monty Solomon) Re: Capacity of Area Code (Rob Boudrie) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Martin McCormick) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request (Kath Mullholand) Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request (Jim Ferguson) Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? (Tony Harminc) Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? (technews@iitmax.iit.edu) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mrc@access.digex.net (mark chartrand) Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions Date: 20 Oct 1993 00:49:28 -0400 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA In article , David A. Kaye wrote: > George Hannah (george.hannah@cld9.com) wrote: >> 49273 286 143645 UTC >> I understand the 286 is the day_of_year, and the 143645 is the hour, >> but the 49273 means nothing. > The first number is called the Julian Date, meaning the number of days > which have passed since a time before recorded history when a whole > bunch of astronomical things coincided, like a solstice, eclipse, and > whatever. Actually, it's only the last part of the Julian date. I > think there are about four or five digits missing (though nobody uses > them). You may not be aware of it, but your computer ALSO may have > its own Julian Date in it. On IBM-PC compatible computers a couple > memory registers keep track of how many days have elapsed since > 1/1/1980. A simple "MOD 7" command in BASIC with this number can > indicate what day of the week any particular date falls on. > How to convert 49273 to current date? Hmm. Well, if 49273 is today > (in GMT, of course) then you know where to start! 49274 would be > tommorow, etc. Not quite. There is very frequent confusion with "Julian" terms. The number referred to here is the Modified Julian Day Number, which is a version of the Julian Day Number, which is the number of the day beginning at noon on January 1, 4713 BCE. It is NOT a Julian Date, which is a day (with month/day/year) in the Julian calendar. The latter was proposed by Sosigenes and proclaimed by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE. The Julian calendar (Julian dates) were in use until 1582 when Catholic countries adopted (per papal fiat) the Gregorian Calendar (other places adopted it later: the U.K and American Colonies in 1752; Russia in 1917). Julian DATES and Julian DAYS have nothing to do with one another. For more info on why 4713, check a good encyclopedia. Mark Chartrand mrc@digex.net ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions Date: 19 Oct 93 20:19:34 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA George Hannah (george.hannah@cld9.com) wrote: > I recently found out about the US Naval observatory, which one can > call and get the current date via modem. The format of the date, > however eludes me. When I called on Oct. 13, I got the following: > 49273 286 143645 UTC > I understand the 286 is the day_of_year, and the 143645 is the hour, > but the 49273 means nothing. For a more user-friendly readout, call 303 494-4774 (1200 baud). When the connection starts, enter "?" for the help file. Better have a printing terminal or screen grabber, though, since it's about 2-1/2 pages. Even at 1200 baud it's a little fast to read. It gives information about upcoming leap-seconds and stuff like that. One full 80-character line per second. David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ From: amdunn@mongrel.adscorp.on.ca (Andrew M. Dunn) Subject: Re: US Naval Observatory Questions Organization: A. Dunn Systems Corporation, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 16:05:31 GMT In article michael.clays@cld9.com (Michael Clays) writes: > George Hannah spake unto All on 10-13-93: >> out there know what the UTC means? > Universal Time Coordinated, or some such thing I think. The UTC abbreviation is from the French, not the English, for the same reason that CCITT is. The standards body speaks French. It stands for Universelle Temps Coordinate. Which when transmogrified into English is Universal Coordinated Time. And writing it 'Z' (or 'Zulu' when spoken) is much faster. Thus 2345Z, instead of 11:45 p.m. GMT. Andy Dunn or ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 15:01:14 PDT From: John R. Bruni Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks In Article , Alan Frisbie wrote: > In article >> Hope this isn't too off-subject, but could you tell us what generated >> the NBC chimes? Sorry, can't answer that one, but I can fill in a surprising bit of trivia. The pitch sequence was G-E-C which stood for General Electric Corporation, an early owner of NBC. NBC Network TV is owned by GE today, and they're busily destroying the child they helped spawn. > I have another question about the NBC chimes. Many years ago, my > father told me that there was an additional (fourth) tone that was > seldom heard. If sounded, it was a signal to all NBC employees that, > "Something important is happening. Get to your job ASAP". Does > anyone know if this is just a wild story or did it really exist? I'd like to know the answer to this too. I *can* tell you that all radio studios had, as part of the aforementioned intercom box, a closed-circuit intercom system. On a news alert, tones would be fed down the line that activated a buzzer and light to let the staff know something was afoot. A "Code 2" advisory was a mandatory interrupt ... programming would cease ... the announcers would tell listeners to standby for a special bulletin. While there were a fair amount of these alerts, as well as code 3 and so forth, I never heard of a "Code 1." I used to joke that we never got Code 1 alerts because it meant the end of the world was coming and no alert would be needed -- everyone would know about it at the same time. This is fairly far off the topic of this conference, so please accept my apologies for that ... but of course, if one studies the history of radio, it soon becomes apparent that long-line telephone links were what made the radio networks feasible ... ------------------------------ From: paul@senex.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Date: 19 Oct 1993 17:32:21 GMT Organization: UNH Telecommunications and Network Services I can remember touring the NBC studios in NYC in the mid-50's, when I was about 10-12, and we were shown a 3-bar xylophone and told ~"... here is how we make our famous chime ..." and then the guide played the tones, just like on TV! For a while after that, I thought that was how they did it, though I suppose in the earlier days of NBC Radio, that would have been exactly how they did it. I don't know exactly when this was, but we could watch J. Fred Muggs from the sidewalk window on the Today Show. Paul S. Sawyer - University of New Hampshire CIS - Paul.Sawyer@UNH.Edu Telecommunications and Network Services VOX: +1 603 862 3262 50 College Road FAX: +1 603 862 2030 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 22:53:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code In comp.dcom.telecom article Lars Poulsen wrote: > AT&T, as mentioned, use 700 for Easy-Reach. The Alliance conference > system is also reached in this way. And as mentioned, 1-700-555-4141 > reaches a recording to inform you of the carrier name. Which, if you > did not dial a carrier selection code, will be your PIC (Preferred IXC > or "your dial-1-carrier"). Many times I reach the AT&T operator instead of a recording when I dial 1-700-555-4141 from a payphone. I have observed that many New England Telephone payphones incorrectly state the long distance carrier. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty%roscom@think.com ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code Organization: Center For High Perf. Computing of WPI; Marlboro Ma Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 15:14:42 GMT > 200 Some BOCs use for testing > 211 COCOT Customer Service > 311 TDD services in some areas (I believe 911 for TDD) > 700 Long-Distance Carrier specific (AT&T runs EasyReach this way) > 811 BOC/LEC Customer Service Let's not forget: 411 Some areas use for local directory assistance 611 Some areas use for repair service 710 Pseudo "Area code" usable only by people the government considers special and important (phones must be enabled). Detailed info on 710 appears to be largely unavailable. ------------------------------ From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? Organization: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 18:45:15 GMT In article Tony Harminc writes: > Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz > countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where > the normal domestic supply is 240/60. > NTSC television would never have worked in a 50 Hz area ... I have good information that Saudi Arabia uses 60HZ and provides a mixture of 110 and 220-volt primary services to its citizens. An instructor who once taught at Oklahoma State and who had traveled extensively in South Korea told me that they also use 60HZ AC and provide a mix of 110 and 220-volt service. He said that the larger towns could supply you with a 110-volt line, but the rural areas were almost totally 220-volts at the wall outlet. Another instructor, here, who had lived in Jamaka told me that the standard AC power was 50HZ at 110 volts to add a further twist to the "standard." From having listened to shortwave broadcasts originating in South America, I know that the Southern part of South America appears to use some sort of 50HZ service. The video standard for television in South America also seems to reflect the same mixture of influences that one finds in the electrical power systems. There are some PAL color T.V. systems which use a 60HZ field rate and even a 3.58MHZ color carrier frequency, but which encode the color signal just as it is done in Europe so it won't work on an NTSC set. One day, in the mid 80's I was listening to Chile's national radio network on shortwave when a speech by Augusto Pinochet was droaning on. There was something funny about the sound and I couldn't quite figure out what it was until it dawned on me that there was a 60HZ buzz intermittently mixed in with the 50HZ purr of the normal audio. I realized that they must use a 60HZ field rate for television and that the speech was being simulcast over Chile's television system. The radio was probably getting its feed from the television network and there was a problem with sync buzz which happened each time a certain view was broadcast. If you ever get to look at an international model of a phonograph or tape recorder which derives its speed control via synchronous motor, look at the jungle of taps on the power transformer or motor and think about all the possibilities for smoking things which exist, there. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? Date: 19 Oct 1993 15:57:28 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In Tony Harminc writes: > oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes a very good article on > travelling with telecom gear. But: >> Many countries use a voltage about double that of the US but with the >> same frequency, 60 Hz. > Really? Could you give an example? There are plenty of 240 V 50 Hz > countries, and several 120 V 60 Hz ones, but I don't know of any where > the normal domestic supply is 240/60. Thanks for the correction, and thanks to many others who had suggestions also. A revised FAQ in in the works. >> If you are in a 50-Hz country (e.g. Japan) and have a device that says ... > Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 > Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have > worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. Again, thanks. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: k_mullholand@unhh.unh.edu (Kath Mullholand, UNH Telecom, 862-1031) Subject: Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request Date: 19 Oct 1993 13:05 EST Organization: University of New Hampshire In article , davidlee@netcom.com (David R. Lee) writes: > I am currently looking at purchasing a voice mail system for our > company. We have AT&T G1 PBXs networked together with DCS. We'll > probably be upgrading these switches to G3i v2 in the near future. We > will have 800-1,000 mailboxes with light to medium usage. > Do you have any suggestions on what kind of system I should buy? Is > AT&Ts AUDIX a good product compared to the rest of the market? Are > they pricier? Any input that you might have would be greatly > appreciated. Thanks in advance. At the University of New Hampshire, we have AUDIX. It is a very good system, and we really have no regrets, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind: 1. If you ever expand and need more than the 2,000 capacity box, you need a second AUDIX. While these network together fairly well, you cannot log into a mail box on system B from system A, which is more of a drawback than it seems on paper. Ask lots of questions and verify the answers on this one, as AT&T is convinced that more than one AUDIX machine will be "fully networked", but when I talk to owners of other systems, I hear that "fully" is in the eye of the beholder. 2. AUDIX only upgrades using AT&T pieces, such as disks for storage, and you will pay a premium price for anything that you purchase after the initial purchase. There are *lots* of pluses; we really like our AUDIX and use its features to the maximum. It is a great machine with great support. I expect you'll get your fill of hearing about the things AUDIX does well from your AT&T rep ;-) . Kath Mullholand ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 12:05:01 CDT From: Jim Ferguson Subject: Re: Voice Mail Suggestions Request In regards to the comments from David A. Kaye: > ..., I don't see how anyone can go back to Audix or that horrendous Octel > Aspen system. (I'm sorry, but 90% of the Aspen features are not used by > people and they just make things more difficult to learn -- and they've > never heard of mnuemonics.) Well this is not to dump on you, everyone has a right to an opinion, and here is mine ... I am a certified OCtel installer and have worked with their Aspen system for approximatly five years; As an onsite tech for a university, and with an interconnect company in Dallas. In working with other accounts and universities, some who bought OCtel and some who didn't (low bid stuff), most of them wanted the OCtel equipment specifically. The problem with OCtel that most people will agree on is the price of the systems, it's expensive as the devil...now as far as features and the PBX integrations I think it is one of the best (emphasis on one of...). Companies like U.S. West, Wiltel, GTE, and others are using OCtel for resale of voice mail to the public through LEC offices, so it can't be to horrendous. The reason why 90% of the people never use anything is because, they are not properly trained to do so. The lack of training is the fault of the system administrator, not the equipment. > Press P to play the message What about P to pause? What about R to rewind or replay? What about S to send or save? All of these are located on the number "7" and are valid responses to a voice mail application. Mnuemonics, Why does this system make anymore sense than another? OCtel has easy to follow flow charts and online help, what more can a user need? With regards to the mnuemonics, since when did telephone people do things that computer people thought made sense, but that's another discussion. Many new advances are being addressed in this market, faxes, IVR, to name some. I saw Applied Voice Technology at Networld in Dallas, week before last, and they now have a integrated package that works with the PC to let you see your voice mail, who sent it, how long it is, and if there are any fax attachments, and these can be routed to a fax or telephone for playback. This equipment will also work behind a PBX, and is quite affordable and in differernt configurations. So to say one is superior over another, you must really be willing to go out on a limb ... I prefer OCtel from my own experiences, but I will not say they are the best or worst, just my preference. But, if you would like to compare product to product and end user satifaction and references, I would be glad to support my position. To the original author David R. Lee who is looking for a voice mail system, I give this advice, ask for references ... then hunt for a user group of the product you want to evaluate, and ask people there on the product. Disclaimer: All of the above, is my own opinion, and not necesarily the opinion of my current employer, who doesn't have voice mail yet... Jim Ferguson Telecommunications Analyst Southern Arkansas University jcferguson@saumag.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 12:23:31 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) wrote: > Hmpf. How about a creative idea for phoiling phrauds? > Provide customers with some kind of false card and PIN number. > The false number is actually some sort of flag or booby trap. When a > possible fraud calls for your card number, give him the false one. > When the @$$%! uses the phalse number, the long-distance company's > computer is instantly alerted to the originating phone number as a > possible fraud in progress. Some burglar alarm companies use something much like this. If you set off your own alarm, you can call the alarm company and give them your security code to cancel the response. But they also give you a handy pocket-sized card with a false security code on it. If you are surprised by an intruder who has set off the alarm, and forced to make the call, you read the fake number off the card and the alarm company immediately knows that there is a much more serious situation than a simple alarm trip. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: technews@iitmax.iit.edu (Tech=) Subject: Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? Organization: Technology News, IIT, Chicago, IL Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 21:13:37 GMT In article elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) writes: > Hmpf. How about a creative idea for phoiling phrauds? > Provide customers with some kind of false card and PIN number. > The false number is actually some sort of flag or booby trap. When a ) possible fraud calls for your card number, give him the false one. ) When the @$$%! uses the phalse number, the long-distance company's ) computer is instantly alerted to the originating phone number as a ) possible fraud in progress. ) What could the false number be? Heck if I know. Your PIN number ) spelled backwards?? ) Yup, I can see the commercials now ... "If someone call you on the ) phone and asks you for your phonecard number FOR ANY REASON, give your ) PIN number backwards. Then alert your long-distance company. If ) the call was legit, no problem. If the call was fraudulent, your ) long-distance company will appreciate you for possibly helping to ) catch a criminal." Of course the phreaks will know about this first, and will reverse the digits of the PIN number so as to get the real PIN -- but if they reach an idiot who gives them the real PIN, reversing it will give them the "trap" number ... even more fun. technews@iitmax.iit.edu kadokev@harpo.iit.edu My Employer Disagrees. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #709 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12179; 20 Oct 93 6:04 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08758 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:23:35 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14917 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:23:00 -0500 Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:23:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310200823.AA14917@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #710 TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Oct 93 03:23:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 710 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? (Monty Solomon) Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? (Josh Backon) Re: Prodigy Internet E-Mail Beta Test (Ed Ravin) Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel (Art Kamlet) Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel (David Breneman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Oct 93 23:48:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? In comp.dcom.telecom article Don Alvarez wrote: > Does anybody know who provides fax to email service? I'm looking for > somebody who receives faxes and then emails a bitmap in exchange for > money (or for warm fuzzy feelings if possible, but somehow I think > that's unlikely :-) I'm also curious about going the other direction, > but what I really need is to be able to receive the faxes. From: TPC Information Subject: FAQ for "An Experiment in Remote Printing" Table of Contents part type/subtype size description multipart/mixed 14K An Experiment in Remote Printing 1 multipart/mixed 2134 General Information 1.1 text/plain 448 What is this experiment, anyway? 1.2 text/plain 848 Outreach? What are you really doing? 1.3 text/plain 74 How can I keep informed? 1.4 text/plain 36 By the way, how can I get another copy ... 2 multipart/mixed 8408 How can I send something? 2.1 text/plain 286 What's the simplest way? 2.2 text/plain 711 Fine. What does this mean? 2.3 text/plain 1104 What about the rest of it? 2.4 text/plain 818 Gee, is there global coverage already? 2.5 text/plain 1770 "Cells"? 2.6 text/plain 557 How can I find out if there is access ... 2.7 text/plain 477 Suppose I want to send images instead ... 2.8 text/plain 990 Suppose I want a lot of information on ... 2.9 text/plain 63 Is there software to help me compose ... 3 multipart/mixed 6924 What does it take to run a cell? 3.1 text/plain 262 Suppose I want to operate a remote ... 3.2 text/plain 186 Is there a document describing the ... 3.3 multipart/mixed 3147 Tell me about the policy 3.3.1 text/plain 675 Who sets policy? 3.3.2 text/plain 172 What is this policy? 3.3.3 text/plain 468 What do Malamud and Rose get out of this? 3.3.4 text/plain 493 Is there any guarantee that my fax ... 3.3.5 text/plain 460 What about privacy? 3.4 text/plain 260 Who can I contact for administrative ... 3.5 multipart/mixed 2078 What about the connectivity and ... 3.5.1 text/plain 507 Do I really need an IP-connected machine? 3.5.2 text/plain 401 Is there software available? 3.5.3 text/plain 614 What's in the openly available software? 4 multipart/mixed 528 Just who is this Arlington Hewes anyway? 4.1 text/plain 70 And what does TPC stand for? 4.2 text/plain 83 And what's with the post horn for a logo? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa1" Content-Description: General Information ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What is this experiment, anyway? The experiment is a project in outreach: to integrate the e-mail and facsimile communities. Working together, many sites cooperatively provide "remote printing" access to the international telephone network. This allows people to send faxes via e-mail. The general-purpose Internet e-mail infrastructure takes care of all the routing, delivering the message to the appropriate remote printer gateway in a manner totally transparent to the user. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Outreach? What are you really doing? We believe that by providing easy access to remote printing recipients, enterprise-wide access is enhanced, regardless of kind of institution (e.g., commercial, educational, or government), or the size of institution (e.g., global, regional, or local). This approach to outreach allows an organization to make it easier for the "outside world" to communicate with personnel in the organization who are users of facsimile but not e-mail, such as the sales person, the university registrar, or the (elected) official. The ease in which the Internet mail infrastructure can be used to provide this facility is (yet) another example of the power of a general-purpose infrastructure. Of course, as the experiment progresses, some of the things we'll be studying are economic and policy models that deal with issues such as accounting and settlement. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: How can I keep informed? There's a mailing list. Send a note to tpc-rp-request@aarnet.edu.au ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: By the way, how can I get another copy of this FAQ? Send mail to tpc-faq@town.hall.org. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa1-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa2" Content-Description: How can I send something? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What's the simplest way? Is this simple enough? To: remote-printer.Arlington_Hewes/Room_403@0.1.5.2.8.6.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int This will get automatically routed to a remote printer server, which will transmit a facsimile to the recipient. When the transmission completes, a message will be sent back to you. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Fine. What does this mean? Let's look at the strings on either side of the '@'-sign. The left-hand part identifies the kind of access (remote-printer) along with the identity of the recipient (Arlington_Hewes/Room_403). Because some mailers have difficulty dealing with addresses that contain spaces, etc., you should be very careful as to what characters you use to identify the recipient. It safest to use upper and lower case letters, digits, and two special characters ('_' and '/'). When a cover sheet is generated, the '_' will turn into a space and the '/' will turn into an end-of-line sequence. So, given the address above, the cover sheet might start with Please deliver this facsimile to: Arlington Hewes Room 403 ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What about the rest of it? The right-hand part identifies the telephone number of the remote-printer. It must be an international telephone number. Telephone numbers are usually written like this: +code-number where "code" identifies the country and "number" is the telephone number within the country, e.g., +1-415 968 2510 For those interested in telephonic trivia, the maximum number of digits is 15. In order to get the Internet e-mail infrastructure to automatically route messages, the punctuation characters are stripped out, e.g., 14159682510 and then the string is inverted and turned into an Internet domain name, e.g., 0.1.5.2.8.6.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int (Note that the telephone number should not include any international access codes.) This approach allows us to map from the Internet naming scheme onto the entire international telephone network. And, as you might expect, you can mix remote-printing and e-mail recipients in the same message, e.g., To: remote-printer.Arlington_Hewes/Room_403@0.1.5.2.8.6.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int cc: Marshall Rose In fact, the replies generated by the e-mail recipients can even go to the remote-printing recipients. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Gee, is there global coverage already? Get real. The official kick-off of the experiment was 16 July 1993. At that time, service was operational for: - all of Australia (+61) - Washington, DC (+1-202) - most of Silicon Valley (+1-408, +1-415, +1-510) - parts of Riverside, California (+1-818, +1-909) - the University of Michigan (+1-313) In addition, we expect the following countries to come on-line soon: - Denmark - Finland - Ireland - Japan - Sweden Many enterprises, such as companies, universities, and government R&D centers, are also coming on-line. The basic idea is that each participating site registers a "cell" indicating the portion of the international telephone number space that they are willing to provide access to. A cell can be a continent, a campus, abuilding, or a single phone number. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: "Cells"? Well, we call them cells. The idea is that there are really four kinds of participating sites: - neighborhood sites - regional sites - enterprise sites - personal sites A neighborhood site is run by someone who provides access to any facsimile machine in its "local calling area". The idea being that metered access to this area is fairly inexpensive, and the site is willing to provide access as a part of their community spirit. Access to Silicon Valley is provided by several neighborhood sites. The interesting thing to note is that neighborhood sites may choose to shrink or expand their cell, depending on factors such as demand and cost. A regional site is basically just a large neighborhood site, usually providing access to an entire country or a large part of a country, such as an area code. The continent of Australia is an example of a regional site. An enterprise site is run by a company that provides access solely to its own facsimile machines. They register exactly those telephone prefixes which apply to their enterprise. The University of Michigan is an example of this. Of course, a geographically-disperse enterprise such as a multi-national company could also do this. A personal site is run by someone who provides access to exactly one facsimile machine, usually one that resides on their desktop. In this case, when the remote printer server gets the message, it will just deliver it to the owner of the desktop -- via e-mail. Note that there can be overlapping remote printer servers for a given area. A personal site, for example, might be in the area served by a neighborhood site. Since the Internet domain name system always favors the longest match, the smaller site gets precedence for its own traffic ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: How can I find out if there is access to a particular number? If you're a guru, you just use your standard DNS lookup tools. If you don't know what the DNS is, there's a command-line tool available: % rpvalidate +1-415-968-2510 accessible The section below on "Is there software available?" will tell you where to find the rpvalidate command. Of course, you can always just send the message and see if it bounces, which is a pretty good indication that there is no service for that number yet. You can also send mail to tpc-coverage@town.hall.org, and you'll get back a list of the current coverage areas. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Suppose I want to send images instead of text? Use MIME. MIME is the Internet-standards track technology for multi-media messaging. Remote printer servers support, at a minimum, the following MIME content types: - text/plain - message/rfc822 - application/postscript - image/tiff - multipart So, you might send something like the following: To: remote-printer.Arlington_Hewes/Room_403@0.1.5.2.8.6.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: application/postscript %! ... ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Suppose I want a lot of information on the cover sheet? You want a lot of things don't you? A MIME content-type has been defined for this. It's called application/remote-printing. Here's an example: Content-Type: application/remote-printing Recipient: Marshall Rose Title: Principal Organization: Dover Beach Consulting, Inc. Address: 420 Whisman Court Mountain View, CA 94043-2186 US Telephone: +1 415 968 1052 Facsimile: +1 415 968 2510 Originator: John Q. Public Organization: The Public Domain Telephone: +1 801 555 1234 Facsimile: +1 801 555 6789 EMail: "John Q. Public" Any text appearing here would go on the cover-sheet. To use this mechanism, the top-level content in your message must be multipart/mixed, and the very first content in that must be application/remote-printing. Also, if you use this, then the left-hand part of the recipient's address should just be "remote-printer". ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Is there software to help me compose messages like this? Yes. See the section below on "Is there software available?". ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa2-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa3" Content-Description: What does it take to run a cell? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Suppose I want to operate a remote printer server? You need four things: - a computer on the Internet - a fax modem and phone line - fax spooling software - glue software You also need to agree to operate the cell in a fashion consistent with the policies associated with the tpc.int subdomain. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Is there a document describing the technical details? Yes. See RFC 1486, "An Experiment in Remote Printing". It's available at the usual RFC repositories. In the future, there will probably be several documents, including one on policy. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa4" Content-Description: Tell me about the policy ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Who sets policy? The tpc.int subdomain is structured as a cooperative of the remote printer servers around the world. Policy for the subdomain is made in the time-honored tradition of hoping that things will run well enough on their own. In cases where additional guidance is necessary, a Board of Arbitration and Conciliation considers situations brought to it by the members and issues written opinions. Initially policy was set by the two people who started the experiment, Carl Malamud of the Internet Multicasting Service, a non-profit organization, and Marshall Rose of Dover Beach Consulting, Inc. (Rose spends half of his time on openly available projects, of which this is one.) ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What is this policy? Ultimately, it's all about maintaining basic principles for the subdomain such as: functionality, fairness, cost recovery, performance, efficiency, security, and legality. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What do Malamud and Rose get out of this? An indictment by a federal grand jury. Just kidding. Ha, ha. They're doing research on how to integrate special-purpose devices like G3 facsimile printers into the fabric of a general-purpose infrastructure like the global Internet compute rnetwork. Neither Malamud nor Rose will profit from the project, though they sincerely hope that operators in the tpc.int subdomain are able to recoup their costs, save consumers money, and maybe even make a healthy profit. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Is there any guarantee that my fax will get delivered? No. For now, there's one simple rule: It is perfectly acceptable to deny access on the basis of originator identity, but it is not acceptable to deny access on the basis of recipient identity The reason for this is simple: if a site finds that some originator is acting in an abusive manner, then the site can deny access. But, when a site registers a cell, it agrees to provide access to every telephone number in that cell. Of course, it can always register a smaller cell. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What about privacy? There are strict rules as to the kind of auditing information which a remote printer server may keep. Basically, this information is necessary for debugging purposes, e.g., if you send a message and don't get a completion or failure acknowledgement later on, the site providing access may need to check into it. Also, there are strict rules guaranteeing that the contents of a fax are secure and will not be monitored by the remote printer server operators. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa4-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Who can I contact for administrative questions? That would be Mr. Arlington Hewes (tpc-admin@town.hall.org). Mr. Hewes is a busy man, so before sending a note to this mailbox, please consider whether the general discussion list (tpc-rp@aarnet.edu.au) mentioned earlier might not be a more appropriate forum. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa5" Content-Description: What about the connectivity and software requirements? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Do I really need an IP-connected machine? Not really. Technically, just about any computer on the Internet could run a remote printer server. However, we recommend that the computer have IP-connectivity, since this tends to make the service faster than with systems connected with polling mechanisms like UUCP. Still, the tpc.int subdomain is not picky and if you can provide service for an area that would otherwise not have it, welcome aboard! The more important requirement is that you have fax spooling software available for your computer. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: Is there software available? Yes. An openly available implementation can be found on site: ftp.ics.uci.edu area: mrose/tpc file: rp.tar.Z Be sure to retrieve it in BINARY mode, eh? In addition, if you're running Innosoft's PMDF software for OpenVMS, then you can contact them at service@innosoft.com for the details. Also, if you're a vendor who adds support for remote-printing to your software, we want to hear from you. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: What's in the openly available software? It contains pointers to existing openly available software along with some "glue" software for BSD-derived UNIX systems. For sites that want to run remote printer servers, there is support for both the openly available FlexFAX package and the Bristol Group's IsoFax product. For sites that want to use remote printing, there are some scripts, primarily for MH users. If you are willing to contribute to the openly available software package, we'd love to hear from you. For example, we'd love to see Mac clients, a Z-mail macro, or a new LISP interpreter/mail agent written entirely in sendmail rewrite rules. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa5-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa3-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----- =_aaaaaaaaaa6" Content-Description: Just who is this Arlington Hewes anyway? ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: And what does TPC stand for? Go rent the film "The President's Analyst", Paramount Pictures, 1967. ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Description: And what's with the post horn for a logo? Go read Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49", Harpers and Row (New York, 1986). ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa6-- ------- =_aaaaaaaaaa0-- ------------------------------ From: backon@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? Date: 19 Oct 93 22:48:04 GMT Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem In article , dla@athena.princeton.edu (Don Alvarez) writes: > Does anybody know who provides fax to email service? I'm looking for > somebody who receives faxes and then emails a bitmap in exchange for > money (or for warm fuzzy feelings if possible, but somehow I think > that's unlikely :-) I'm also curious about going the other direction, > but what I really need is to be able to receive the faxes. Yes, there is an inbound fax to email service (as well as email to fax gateway). Send an email message to: info@awa.com Josh backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL ------------------------------ From: elr@elephant.dev.prodigy.com (Ed Ravin) Subject: Re: Prodigy Internet E-Mail Beta Test Date: 19 Oct 1993 21:12:10 GMT Organization: Prodigy Services Company In article Steve Coletti writes: > Also mentioned somewhere was that Prodigy does not yet have a domain > address list set up. E-Mail passing into another network from the > Internet should be addressed in the proper "path" format. Huh? Prodigy's domain is "prodigy.com" -- anyone on the Internet can send mail to "user@prodigy.com" just like with any other Internet email address. Ed Ravin elr@wp.prodigy.com Prodigy Services Company eravin@panix.com 445 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 +1 914 993 4737 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 22:10:12 EDT From: ask@cblph.att.com Subject: Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio In article dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) writes: > TELECOM Moderator moderated: >> [Moderator's Note: "I've Got a Secret" featured host Garry Moore and >> was a great example of the early days of television. Does anyone remember >> the names of the four panelists there on a regular basis? > Peggy Cass (stage and screen actress), Bill Cullen (host of Price is > Right), the tall brunette woman -- uh -- she got into fashions or > perfume or something. All I remember about her from the program was > that she once resented being called a "thespian" on the air. Someone > had pronounced it "thezzbian" and she said, "Absolutely not! I am a > 'thessss-PEE-an'" From "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows" ISBN 0-345-35610-1 I've Got A Secret First Telecast: June 19,1952 Last Telecast July 5, 1976 (note: the day after the first 5ESS cut over :^) Jun 1952-Jun 1953 CBS Thu 10:30-11:00 Jul 1953-Sep 1961 CBS Wed 9:30-10:00 Sep 1961-Sep 1962 CBS Mon 10:30-11:00 Sep 1962-Sep 1966 CBS Mon 8:00- 8:30 Sep 1966-Apr 1967 CBS Mon 10:30-11:00 Jun 1976-Jul 1976 CBS Tue 8:00- 8:30 Moderator Garry Moore (1952-1964) Steve Allen (1964-1967) Bill Cullen (1976) Panelists Louise Allbritton (1952) Laura Hobson 1952 Walter Kiernan 1952 Orson Bean 1952 Melville Cooper 1952 Bill Cullen 1952-1967 Kitty Carlisle 1952-1953 Henry Morgan 1952-1976 Laraine Day 1952 Eddie Bracken 1952 Faye Emerson 1952-1958 Jayne Meadows 1952-1959 Betsy Palmer 1957-1967 Bess Myerson 1958-1967 Pat Collins 1976 Richard Dawson 1976 Elaine Joyce 1976 Theme "Plink, Plank, Plunk" by Leroy Anderson Producers: Mark Goodson and Bill Todman Assoc. Producer: Allan Sherman (1952-1958) (a note: It was seen in syndicated version during the 1972-73 season, hosted by Steve Allen.) " ... on the occasion when Monty Woolley appeared as guest celebrity. His secret was that he slept with his beard inside the covers. When asked why, he replied, 'As a matter of fact I don't. That's merely the secret they decided upon for me.' Garry Moore, for once, was speechless." Art Kamlet a_s_kamlet@att.com AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Ive Got a Secret - The Panel Date: 19 Oct 93 20:15:04 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA David A. Kaye (dk@crl.com) wrote: > TELECOM Moderator moderated: >> [Moderator's Note: "I've Got a Secret" featured host Garry Moore and >> was a great example of the early days of television. Does anyone remember >> the names of the four panelists there on a regular basis? > Peggy Cass (stage and screen actress), Bill Cullen (host of Price is > Right), the tall brunette woman -- uh -- she got into fashions or ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > perfume or something. All I remember about her from the program was > that she once resented being called a "thespian" on the air. Someone > had pronounced it "thezzbian" and she said, "Absolutely not! I am a > 'thessss-PEE-an'" Are you thinking of Kitty Carlisle? If so, you may be thinking of the panel of To Tell the Truth, also hosted by Gary Moore: Bill Cullen Kitty Carlisle Orson Bean Rotating Panelist (usually Nipsie Russell in later years). David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #710 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12472; 20 Oct 93 6:51 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19330 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:18:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17577 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:17:43 -0500 Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:17:43 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310200917.AA17577@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #711 TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Oct 93 04:17:40 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 711 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Information Sources Needed (Phil Price) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (Dave Lapin) Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play (Jonathan Haruni) Re: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs (Bill Hofmann) Re: V.P. Gore's Comments on TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger (Lauren Weinstein) Re: Cost of Modems (Ken Weaverling) Re: Carrier or Provider? (Eric N. Florack) Re: T1 Through HDSL Boxes (Syd Weinstein) Re: Amusing Misdialed Call (Eric Kiser) Re: Amusing Misdialed Call (John R. Levine) Re: Bell Atlantic and TCI Cable Merge (Carl Moore) Re: Need Help; Cellular Modem (Ronbert Kadis) Re: DTMF Decoders (Mike Lyon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pprice@qualcomm.com (Phil Price) Subject: Re: Information Sources Needed Date: 19 Oct 1993 16:14:50 GMT Organization: Qualcomm Inc. In article , Kevin D. Cooke wrote: > I am looking for basic information on a number of technologies. The > information is intended for the non-technical reader and should answer > the following questions: > What is it? > How is it implemented? > What are the Pros/Cons? > What does the future hold? > The technologies are ISDN, Broadband ISDN, Cell Relay (ATM?) and > SONET. If anyone could lend me a hand, or just suggest ftp sites I > would greatly appreciate it. The following mail was sent out to NEW-LIST subscribers, and contains a list of addresses where you should be able to get info on broadband ISDN ... Phil Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 09:47:34 CDT Reply-To: ldr@VeriTech.com Sender: NEW-LIST - New List Announcements From: "Lee D. Rothstein" Subject: SEARCH,ADMIN: Broadband Networks & Interfaces, and Related Lists To: Multiple recipients of list NEW-LIST Editor's Note: This is not really a search but a compilation of lists. I thought it might be useful to share it. It is from Lee D. Rothstein, ldr@VeriTech.com . mgh Network, Broadband, ATM, Cell Relay Address: cell-relay@mythos.ucs.indiana.edu Subscribe To: cell-relay-request@mythos.ucs.indiana.edu Topics: Cell relay/ATM, general Network, Broadband, ATM, Cell Relay Discussion Address: cell-relay-newsgroup@netnews.nwnet.net Subscribe To: cell-relay-newsgroup-request@netnews.nwnet.net Usenet Gateway: comp.protocols.cell-relay Network, Broadband, ATM Contributions Address: atm_contrib-request-request@sun.com Topics: Subscribe To: atm_contrib@sun.com Topics: ATM contributions Network, Broadband, ATM, ATM Forum Address: atm_forum@atm.eng.sun.com Subscribe To: atm_forum-request@atm.eng.sun.com Topics: ATM Forum Background: The ATM Forum is a not-for-profit organization that primarily represents vendors, but also represents users. All, however, are primarily focused on CPE use of ATM (as opposed to telecomm services based on ATM.) Contact: The ATM Forum c/o Interop Company 480 San Antonio Rd, Suite 100 Mountain View, CA 94040-1219 415-962-2585 415-941-0849 (fax) Anne Ferris, aferris@interop.com Network, Broadband, ATM, IP Over ATM Address: atm@hpl.hp.com Subscribe To: atm-request@hpl.hp.com Topics: IP over ATM Access: Reflector. Open. Network, Broadband, Cell-Relay See: Network, Broadband, ATM, ... Network, Broadband, FDDI See: Network, Management, SNMP, MIB, FDDI See: Network, Broadband, FDDI, Repeater WG Network, Broadband, FDDI, Repeater WG Address: repeater%sunoco@relay.nswc.navy.mil Subscribe To: repeater%sunoco-request@relay.nswc.navy.mil Topics: FDDI Repeater WG Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Interface, Fiber Channel, Extensions Address: fiber-channel-ext@think.com fibre-channel-ext.think.com Subscribe To: fiber-channel-ext-request@think.com fibre-channel-ext-request@think.com Maintainer: Topics: Fibre Channel Extensions Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Interface, Fiber Channel, Fibre Channel Association (FCA) Address: fca@amcc.com Subscribe To: fca-request@amcc.com Maintainer: Don Deel, dond, amcc.com Topics: Fibre Channel Association Access: Reflector. Archive: ftp.amcc.com Network, Broadband, Frame Relay, Frame Relay Forum Technical Committee (FRFTC) Address: frftc@nsco.network.com Subscribe To: frftc-request@nsco.network.com Topics: Frame Relay Forum (RF) Technical Committee (TC) (FRFTC) Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Interface See: Network, Management, SNMP, MIB, Interface Network, Broadband, Interface, Scaleable Coherent Interface (SCI) Address: sci@hplsci.hpl.hp.com Subscribe To: sci-request@hplsci.hpl.hp.com Topics: Scaleable Coherent Interface (SCI) technical discussion. Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Interface, Scaleable Coherent Interface (SCI), Announcements Address: sci_announce@hplsci.hpl.hp.com Subscribe To: sci_announce-request@hplsci.hpl.hp.com Topics: SCI: general interest Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, ISDN Address: isdn@list.prime.com Subscribe To: isdn-request@list.prime.com Topics: ISDN Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, SMDS, SMDS SIG, Technical Commttee Address: smdstc@nsco.network.com Subscribe To: smdstc-request@nsco.network.com Topics: SMDS Interest Group Tech. Comm. Access: Reflector. Network, Broadband, Wireless Address: wireless@tandem.com Subscribe To: wireless-request@tandem.com Topics: Wireless communication Access: Reflector. Network, Brouter, Benchmarking WG Address: bmwg@harvard.edu Subscribe To: bmwg-request@harvard.edu Topics: Bridge/router Benchmarking Methodolgy WG Network, Brouter, cisco Address: cisco@spot.colorado.edu Subscribe To: cisco-request@spot.colorado.edu Maintainer: David C. M. Wood Topics: Network products from Cisco Systems, Inc; primarily the AGS gateway, but also the ASM. Configuration, protocols, routing, loading, serving. Access: Open. Reflector of subscribees, only. Even though this is a cisco sponsored newsgroup, there is an extraordinary degree of valuable information about complex generic routing and networking topics. Usenet Gateway: Email list articles are posted to comp.dcom.sys.cisco. Newsgroup articles are not posted back to the email list, however. Background: If you are a Cisco Maintenance customer, you are encouraged to send technical problems and questions directly to the Cisco TAC (Technical Assistance Center) via e-mail at: tac@cisco.com; by telephone at (800) 553-2447 or (415) 903-7209, or by FAX at (415) 903-8787, for any technical problems or questions. If you wish to contact Cisco customer service for non-technical issues, you may call them at (800) 553-6387 or send mail to: customer-service@cisco.com, or cs@cisco.com. Lee D. Rothstein LDR@VeriTech.com VeriTech 7 Merrymeeting Drive Merrimack, NH 03054-2934 603-424-2900 Fax: 603-424-8549 ------------------------------ From: DLAPIN@eccsa.Tredydev.Unisys.com Date: 19 OCT 93 17:02 Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play I sent the following to gregm@WPI.EDU directly, partly because I saw no reason to clutter the Digest with such stuff and partly because my internet connection tends to be flaky. However, since there seem to be several other, much less realistic and much less reliable suggestions, I'll submit this to the Digest, as well. ------- Forwarded message ------- > I'm looking for a device, preferably cheap/do-it-yourself for ringing > a phone. The phone will be on a stage during a play, and the director > wants it to be able to ring. Any help that you could give me would be > greatly appreciated. I do a lot of theater technical stuff for a hobby (community theater) and have a couple of techniques you can use. By far the simplest is to use standard wall current (120 volts, 60 Hz) into the normal bell circuit. You can control it by any normal means of controlling wall current: plug the thing in, pull it out; wire up a switched extension cord; rig a push button on an extension cord; set up some exotic timer circuit that switch the extension cord (I'm sure you get the idea). Inside the phone: If it is a normal phone with a mechanical bell, take the two leads from the cord (usually red & green) and run them across one of the possibly two bell coils. If you want to be extra sophisticated (I usually am :-)), run one or both of the leads through the switch-hook so the circuit is closed when the phone is on-hook and opens when the phone goes off-hook. This makes it impossible for the actor to screw up the phone-ringing-person by picking up the phone in mid-ring (i.e., the phone stops ringing!) (this often impresses the h*ll out of the audience and non-technical directors/actors/producers/ etc). Make your own adaptor from modular phone cord or four-prong phone cord or whatever you have to standard wall plug (male). If I've lost you in technical details or you need more details, feel free to contact me. Dave Lapin UNISYS/ASN/ECDC (215)648-3508 (net**2 385-3508) internet: dlapin @ eccsa.tredydev.unisys.com ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Haruni Subject: Re: Ringing a Phone on the Stage in a Play Reply-To: jharuni@micrognosis.co.uk Organization: Micrognosis International, London Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 14:47:26 GMT lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) wrote: >> ... There's a REALLY easy way to make a standard phone's bell ring. ... >> Just put the ... wires from the ringer inside across 120VAC, in series >> with a capacitor ... Pardon the gratuitous editing. I think it would be worth mentioning, when giving advice like this to a wide audience, that it would be very easy to electrocute an actor if you do not take appropriate safety measures. There is a big difference between doing this sort of thing in your own home, and in a very public place like a theatre. Disconnect the wires connecting the base of the phone to the receiver, and either remove these wires or cut them so they are too short to reach any of your 120V wiring. Better yet, remove ALL electrical components and wiring from the phone except the bell. Connect the metal chasis of the base (probably the underside only) to ground. Make sure the ground is wired correctly and is actually plugged in to a grounded outlet, which it is apt not to be if it gets wired all through the theatre and back to the control room. Make sure it is difficult to disconnect the ground without disconnecting the power as well, and difficult to apply power whithout the ground connected. Make sure the 120V cable coming in to the back of the phone is strapped firmly to the chassis, so there will be no strain on your connections if the phone is dragged by this wire. The little crimps used for this purpose with normal phone wiring are not good enough. Make sure that your theatre's insurance policies (industrial accident, and fire) do not require a qualified electrician to do these tasks, or that they are carried out by someone with the appropriate qualifications. Place stickers on the phone, warning others that it is connected to high voltage and not to open it. Make sure the stickers are not easily removable. So it's not REALLY that easy; I think some of the other suggestions are preferable for use on a stage, which is a dangerous place to begin with, even if they are a bigger engineering challenge. IMHO, the best suggestion was to replace the guts of the phone with a 12V doorbell. Plug a 12V transformer into one of your lighting circuits and operate it from your lighting board. Jonathan Haruni ------------------------------ From: wdh@netcom.com (Bill Hofmann) Subject: Re: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 01:03:56 GMT djcl@io.org writes: > This is already the case in 416 and 905, thus no further changes are > expected for those area codes. This will affect other Bell area codes: > Ontario's 519, 613, 705 and 807, plus Quebec's 418, 514 and 819. Are these and other Canadian codes currently 1 + seven for toll in area code and 1 + ten for toll outside area code? Bill Hofmann ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 20:37 PDT From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Re: V.P. Gore's Comments on TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger Cliff Barney wrote: > Could there be any clearer indication than this press release that the > administration lacks a clue as to what is going on in the telecommun- > ications industry? I disagree. I thought the wording of the statement, which essentially just said that formal investigations would have to reveal whether the proposed merger was pro- or anti-competitive, was precisely the right thing for him to have said. They know very well what's going on and how controversial this issue is. To say anything else at this point could easily be construed as "tainting" the later investigative process. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ From: weave@hopi.dtcc.edu (Ken Weaverling) Subject: Re: Cost of Modems Date: 20 Oct 1993 06:03:42 GMT Organization: Delaware Technical & Community College In article , TELECOM Moderator noted: > [Moderator's Note: In the next couple years it will cost $25. I have a > desk drawer full of 300/1200 baud modems here. I could maybe get $5-10 > each for them if someone wanted them for backups, etc. That's life. PAT] A local pawn shop has a genuine Hayes 1200 Smartmodem in the window for only $79.95! I went in for fun and tried to talk the guy down on it. He said that he couldn't go any lower, since this thing costs $600 brand new! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:44:40 GMT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Carrier or Provider? birchall@pilot.njin.net (Shag) Writes in #703: > Though I support this merge (I'm a big fan of Bell Atlantic, > particularly since they're feverishly working to put fiber-optics and > ISDN all over the place here in New Jersey :) I'm a little worried > about how this will relate to a traditional multi-level competition > scheme, and how it will relate to the recent legal decision allowing > RBOCs to _provide_ video. The situation is fairly analogus to Cable TV systems, such as GRC here in Rochester, providing their own programming, when they started as a carrier. Apparently, the commission is thinking that since the cable companies can do it, so will the telephone folks. If competition is your concern, then perhaps you ought to re-consider your support of the proposal. E/ ------------------------------ From: syd@dsi.com (Syd Weinstein) Subject: Re: T1 Through HDSL Boxes Date: 19 Oct 1993 10:42:21 -0400 Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc., Huntingdon Valley, PA Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM David M Sokolic writes: > I was wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with using > HDSL (High bit rate digital subscriber line) technology to provide > repeaterless T-1. There are several manufacturers (Paairgain > Technologies, Adtran, Alcatel, Tellabs) that make this kind of > equipment. I was wondering if anyone out there has looked into the > different equipment and has any comments about how the different > offerings compare. Don't get me started :-) Bell of PA didn't want to condition a new set of trunks for one of our T-1's, so they ran HDSL's from Pairgain Technologies. Well, let me tell you, what a nightmare it was. It took them close to 30 days to solve the problems. (and they worked on it for 30 days, I had no problems keeping them focused on the problem) ... first: There is no way to check out the circut except at the end points. (Your BERT is useless inbetween.) Second: out of the box reliability is suspect. Actual problem: four brand new units out of the box each had different defects, most of which were very subtle and occurred only intermittently (like every 15 minutes). However, once in, let me tell you that they work well. Just don't assume any trouble you see is in the wiring or other sections. These units, at least the pairgain ones, need better factory QA. Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator - Current 2.4PL23 Datacomp Systems, Inc. Projected 3.0 Release: ??? ?,1994 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd Voice: (215) 947-9900, FAX: (215) 938-0235 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 12:04:03 EDT From: kiser@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil Subject: Re: Amusing Misdialed Call I have had a couple of similar experiences with this, although mine were not as amusing, and I was on the receiving end. I have been on the road alot lately on business, and have seen more than my share of motels. One night at a motel in Cleveland, I was plagued with a series of one-ring phone calls. These rings started one evening, and would continue into late night/early morning. The symptoms were always the same; the phone would ring once, I would pick up, and get PBX dial tone. The first few times this occurred, I called the front desk thinking I might have a message. Nothing. Then I thought it might be my wife trying to get me to call back home. Nope. What was it?!? As I stared at my stupid phone, I thought of what had to be the answer. I was staying in room #180. What must have been happening was that another room would start to dial a 1-800 number. They would key in 1-8-0, then my phone would ring once, then 0-xxx-xxxx. As soon as the second 0 was pressed, the PBX would error out, and my phone would not ring again. Needless to say, I have blacklisted any room that is numbered 180. Well, I thought what a fluke! I'm sure glad this is behind me! Oh well, not so fast, the next week I was in Dallas. Guess which room they gave me? Room #214. OH NO, IT'S THE AREA CODE FOR DALLAS! AHhhhhhhhh Sure enough, I had several instances of the 1-ring phone problem, although it was not a frequent as the 180 instance. The moral? Never stay in rooms 180, 911, 411, etc. Eric ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 93 02:14 GMT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Amusing Misdialed Call Organization: I.E.C.C. > His solution? He expects AT&T to change *their* number since > people cannot remember to 'dial one eight hundred first' The argument might be made that Royko had his number first. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl [Moderator's Note: If you want to make that kind of an argument, which I think is sort of dumb, then carry it to its logical extension: There is only one absolute set of numbers available, 2xx-xxxx through 9xx-xxxx and that is all we have because 'someone got them first'. We cannot have two numbers the same in any two areacodes because someone might forget to dial 1 plus the areacode and reach the other person by error. AT&T does not need to change anything, but Royko needs to be put out to pasture. He is just a crude, rude idiot anyway. I've followed his writing since he was a reporter on the crime beat for the Chicago News Bureau (a service owned jointly by all the newspapers here for local stuff) thirty years ago, including his first big-time assignment of writing a daily column for the long gone {Chicago Daily News}. He does not impress me as anything but a boor. In response to his demands that AT&T change their number so that their non-800 dialing customers can annoy someone else for a change, AT&T basically told him to take a jump off a bridge somewhere. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 11:35:21 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic and TCI Cable Merge I have heard somewhere that, in those areas which have both phone service from a Bell Atlantic company and cable service through TCI, the cable company would have to be sold. I moved recently, and this would affect both the old and new residences. Newark (Delaware) has Diamond State telephone and TCI of New Castle County. In Cecil County, I got C&P telephone, and cable service is from TCI in Elkton. ------------------------------ From: drwho@mindvox.phantom.com (Robert Keyes) Subject: Need Help: Cellular Modem Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800-MindVox) Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 18:50:47 GMT I picked up a Morrison & Dempsey Cellular Modem the other day. Modem AB2X. 1200 bps. Anyhow, The cable that cam with it is for the Panasonic EB-310, 311, and 362 phones. I don't have a panasonic phone, I have a novatel and a motorola. The modem manual says there are two types of handset configurations (oh, the modem goes between the handset and the transceiver) - AMPS and serial. Novatel says they use a serial interface. Can't get any info from motorola yet, and panasonic is impossible to get ahold of. I have several questions for the Net: 1) Anyone have info on the proper cables for the motorola or novatel for use with this modem, or cables to sell? 2) What is the Amps specification? what pins do what? what is the spec on the handset for the novatel, and for the panasonic? 3) How can I get a hold of tech support for either panasonic or Morrison and dempsey (the latter seems to have dissappeared)? Any help would be appreciated drwho@mindvox.phantom.com ------------------------------ From: mlyon@eis.calstate.edu (Mike Lyon;Pac Bell) Subject: DTMF Decoders Message-Id: Organization: Calif State Univ/Electronic Information Services Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 22:26:27 GMT To: comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.uu.net Status: RO Does any one know where i could get a schematic for a dtmf decoder? Thanks, mlyon@eis.calstate.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #711 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16635; 20 Oct 93 15:55 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23338 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 12:35:57 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18445 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 20 Oct 1993 12:35:17 -0500 Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 12:35:17 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310201735.AA18445@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #712 TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Oct 93 12:35:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 712 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Video Phones - ATT vs MCI (Neil Berger) PC Based SS7 Products (Richard Nash) Lightwave Switching (Rick Carlton) Wireless PBX (Hanwook Jung) Delay Simulator (Takao Hotta) Service Interruption Statistics (Greg Donaldson) What's Going on Here? (Could'a Used Caller-ID) (Theodore M.P. Lee) What's the Pocket Phone Dialer of Choice? (Carlos McEvilly) Comdial PBX For Sale (Charles Frankston) Voice Processing Revenge (John Pescatore) Information Wanted on Line Concentrators and Flexible Muxes (David Sokolic) Redundant Line Options (T1) (Joel Sather) Magnalink Series 5000 (Joel Sather) Deregulation - Why is Cost Still High? (Nathan Lane) Need a Cellular Repair Manual (Eric D. Davis) Cellular Pay Phone on Intercity Bus (Josh Backon) Dialback Modem that Provides Dialtone Instead of Carrier? (Lee Chen) NEC, NEAX User Groups Information (Randal Hayes) Automatic Busy Number Redial (Randall Gellens) ANI in HI? (Eric N. Florack) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 10:33:04 CDT From: U34625@uicvm.uic.edu Subject: Video Phones - ATT vs MCI Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago, ADN Computer Center Some time ago I asked if anyone had information on these phones, and I am now an "expert" having used both of them. I will summarize: MCI $750 for first, $712.50 for any additional + local tax and $15 shipping per phone. Two week delivery date. Thirty day money-back guarantee. It is light gray, and has a pleasing shape -- sort of English industrial design. Modern, but not imposing. Warrantee for 1 year, not extendable. Operates at two modem speeds, fast and slow. Fast is 14.4 and slow is 9.6 kb. Uses some sort of video compression. Made in UK. Uses the M(arconi)VTS standard. It will not work with ATT's video phones. If there is noise on the line the speed goes down. (It has never actually happened to me.) Buttons on the phone include: Privacy, Pause, Memory store, Memory recall, Flash, Redial, Speaker. In addition, video functions include: contrast, color, freeze frame, video refresh, self view, timer on/off. Screen size 3x3", with a fixed focus lens, 10 number memory, excellent VOX speakerphone. This phone always attempts to send and receive pictures at 10 frames/second. If the subject is moving, or the light is less than optimal, the picture becomes degraded. Loss of detail is seen by a blocking of large portions of the picture. It is not pleasant. If this happens, you must ask the party to stop moving around so much, or you can press freeze frame. This will cause an excellent picture to be transmitted. You can update that picture by pressing video refresh. This is tedious, but the quality of the picture is impressive. Pressing freeze frame again will return you to 10 frames/sec. A self view picture within a picture is included in the upper left hand corner of the screen. It can be turned off. The phone provides the times of the length of the call, number of calls made, and has self diagnostics. The video buttons are hard to use, and harder to read the labels on. People over 70 will have trouble seeing them. MCI has a particular "feature?" that the sound is slightly delayed so that the movement of the persons lips in the picture appears to coincide with the voice coming over the phone. This can be confusing, and leads to substantial pauses when used with the speaker phone feature. The memory is backed up for five years with the power off. The screen and camera are movable in one plane, the phone must be moved to get movement in the other plane. Dislikes include: if you answer first on a non-video extension, you may have to fiddle with the "call" and "answer" mode settings on one or the other of the video phones to get it to work. ATT 2500 Videophone: $999 list. Available through Sears, ATT stores. It has been discounted for as low as $955 INCLUDING tax, shipping with a two week delivery date from CitiShopper with a two year guarantee. (reason enough for joining if you don't already belong.) The normal one year warrantee can be extended for an additional year at $125, available from ATT. It operates at 19.2 Kb. It uses video compression. It has many on-screen menus to set color, brightness and number of frames/sec transmission rates. Screen is 3.5x3.5" with a fixed focus lens. The screen is 128 pixel by 112 lines. If you set the "focus" to fast it will send 10 frames/sec -- down to slow (in five steps) at 2 frames/sec. The quality of the picture is the inverse of the speed of transmission. At its worst, it is slightly better than the worst of the MCI pictures. At its best it seems to be about equal to the MCI phone in freeze frame mode, but then the picture is updated at 2 frames per second. This gives NO feeling of any motion, and in a sense is very disconcerting. At 10 frames/sec the movement of the speaker's lips and the sound are not synchronized. The buttons and controls seem to be much easier to use. There is no selfview picture within a picture available. You can check your picture if you want but you loose sight of the party you are calling for that moment. It seems to work better than the MCI phone in low light situations. The power supply is far more robust, and a battery backup is provided. The phone itself is heavier and takes up more space. It is black and looks like other ATT offerings. It will not work with the MCI phone. It does not seem to suffer from the call-answer problems that the MCI phone has (see above) when the first answer is by a non-video phone. 12 number memory, flash button, redial, etc. most if not all of the same features as the MCI phone.The screen and the camera are movable in two planes. Both phones will only work in video mode when they are the only phones off the hook. Voice mode must be established first. Then both parties must press the video button. After a short pause, during which no voice communication can be made, you will be in video mode. No additional phone rates are associated with their use. This is a budding technology which will get better and cheaper if you can afford to wait. I can't, and they are a dream come true for my family. As my 85 year old parents said "We feel like we've already made it into the 21 century." I presently own the MCI phone, but I may switch to the ATT model since it seems easier for my older parents to use -- although the pictures seem quite comparable. Neil Berger Department of Mathematics UIC 851 S. Morgan Chicago IL 60607 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 22:53:54 -0600 Reply-To: rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca From: rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca Subject: PC Based SS7 Products Is anyone aware of a PC based system that could be used as an SSP which could launch Calling Card Queries to the various SCP's, and receive a validation reply? No doubt someone has made, or is building such a machine. Please reply directly, although I am sure other folks on the net would also be interested. Richard Nash rickie@trickie.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca ------------------------------ From: CARLTOJR@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu Subject: Lightwave Switching Organization: Vanderbilt University Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 14:09:04 GMT I am looking for information concerning lightwave switching products, pilots, or research updates. The last information I had seen on this topic was a brief discussion of Bell Labs research into the switching of photons. This was several years ago and I have not seen a recent update on this topic. Any information would be appreciated; post or email. Rick Carlton Vanderbilt University Telecommunications Phone: (615) 322-0000 Fax: (615) 343-5555 Internet: carltojr@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu Compuserve: 71534,1746 ------------------------------ From: hjung@acsu.buffalo.edu (Hanwook Jung) Subject: Wireless PBX Organization: UB Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 15:59:13 GMT Hello guys! I want to know the address of companies who makes wireless PBX to get some related informations. And I want to implement a test-bed wireless PBX with PC. Would you give me some good advices on this? I'll greatly appreciate for it. Thanks. H Jung hjung@eng.buffalo.edu ------------------------------ From: hotta@besot.kddlabs.co.jp (Takao Hotta) Subject: Delay Simulator Organization: KDD R&D Labs., Network Engineering Support Group Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 10:45:51 GMT Dear Networkers, I have found the equipment to generate a delay for simulating long distance circuit or satellite circuit. Please let me know what information you might have on it. _______ _______ / \ / \ | network |--- delay ----| network | \_______/ \_______/ Thanks in advance, Takao Hotta hotta@kddlabs.co.jp ------------------------------ From: itsmgjd@nebula.syscon.hii.com Subject: Service Interruption Statistics Date: 19 Oct 93 22:02:46 -0700 Organization: SYSCON Corporation Folks, I am looking for an unbiased source where I can get long distance carrier interruption statistics. Any ideas? Thanks! Greg Donaldson, Senior Systems Analyst GDONALDSON@SYSCON.HII.COM SYSCON Corporation 1000 Thomas Jefferson St. NW Washington, DC 20007 202-342-4123 ------------------------------ From: tmplee@tis.com (Theodore M.P. Lee) Subject: What's Going on Here? (Could'a Used Caller-ID) Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 21:42:32 -0600 Organization: Trusted Information Systems, Inc. I had a strange phone call earlier this evening. I answer, voice one says "someone will be with you in a minute." Voice two then comes on and asks for someone in the Lee residence. Voice two says, "We're trying to reach one of your neighbors, [gives name]" and then I think asked "do you know where we can reach him." The person in question is the oldest son of our next door neighbor. I said "they live next door". Answer: "good. Do you know if he lives there or not?" Actually I didn't, since he's been intermittently moving in and out and I said so. "OK, we have other numbers we can try." I immediately called next door -- several people were home and had obviously been for some time; I reported the strange call, which was news to them -- no attempt had been made to call them. I was quite busy at the time or I would have had the presence of mind to both shut up earlier than I did and to ask a question or two. Does anyone have any guesses as to what was going on? If the call had been long distance, is there any way one could talk the telco into tracking down where it came from, knowing about when it was made? Ted Lee tmplee@TIS.COM [Moderator's Note: You were most likely contacted by a bill collection agency in an effort to see if you knew the whereabouts or telephone number of the person they were trying to reach. 'Criss-cross' or cross- reference phone directories placed you as one of the neighbors. I find those automated 'dial-ahead' systems they use for placing calls to be very obnoxious; the fact that they call me then expect me to wait until they have time to come to the phone to speak about information they want is an example of how arrogant some of those people can be. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mcevilly@netcom.com (Carlos McEvilly) Subject: What's the Pocket Phone Dialer of Choice? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 03:55:07 GMT Which pocket phone dialer is best? Is there a consensus on this? I have heard about the Radio Shack models, and seem to dimly recall having read that they recently discontinued a model that had some desirable feature. Of course even discontinued models are sometimes available in certain stores long after discontinuation. Any suggestions? Carlos McEvilly finger for info about Bamboo Helper Chinese mcevilly@netcom.com Text Tools, or ftp netcom.com:/pub/mcevilly ------------------------------ From: Charles_Frankston@frankston.com Subject: Comdial PBX For Sale Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 01:03 -0400 We have a ComDial Digitech PBX, configued to the max: 24 CO lines, 48 extensions, with five ATI devices (analog to digital converters, this is a digital PBX and requires convertors to get analog phone lines for modems and faxes) that support a total of ten analog lines. This is a fairly state-of-the-art small business PBX. We're pretty happy with the system, but we're out of capicity and will probably upgrade to the larger Digitech DXP. Only problem is we don't like the trade-in allowance that the PBX vendors are offering (many won't even make an offer!). So, if there's anyone out there who's interested in this, we might be willing to go as low as 50% of original purchase price. ------------------------------ From: pescatore_jt@ncsd.gte.com (John Pescatore) Subject: Voice Processing Revenge Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 07:47:24 -0400 Organization: Rockville, MD "Automated Revenge" Associated Press (10/19/93) Roanoke, Va. -- A Virginia man disturbed by a local bank's automated telephone system that did not offer access to a human being recently used his computer to file a protest. Brian McConnell developed a computer program that automatically dialed eight First Union Bank employees and treated them to a recorded message. "This is an automated customer complaint," the message said. "To hear a live complaint, press ..." Individuals who dialed the specified number were informed that "The customer is unable to come to the phone right now, but your call is very important. Thank you for being patient." A First Union Bank representative later contacted McConnell -- who heads a firm that writes automatic phone system software -- and apologized. [I would buy that piece of software in a heartbeat -- or at least lease it every time I refinanced my mortgage. JP] John Pescatore WB2EKK GTE Government Systems Rockville, MD pescatore_jt@ncsd.gte.com [Moderator's Note: I know someone who's only published phone number goes to an answering machine with a recorded message which says, "for your convenience, this line is answered 24 hours per day by this message taking system; you will NEVER reach anyone live at this number and you MUST leave your name and number if you expect a callback ..." Still, he gets quite a few hangup calls from people who refuse to leave a message thinking sometime -- maybe at 3 AM on Sunday morning -- someone will actually answer the line. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 10:12:07 EDT From: David M Sokolic Subject: Information Wanted on Line Concentrators and Flexible Muxes Hello all - I am looking for information on line concentrators -- i.e. boxes that squeeze more traffic onto 2Mb lines then 30 channels. Who makes them? What do they cost? Does anyone have an info/experience using them? Also, how about flexible multiplexers, Who is using them? For what purposes? Thanks for your help. I will post a summary for those that are interested. Thanks, David Sokolic dsokolic@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: satherj@ac.com (Joel Sather) Subject: Redundant Line Options (T1) Date: 20 Oct 1993 15:27:00 GMT Organization: Andersen Consulting - Minneapolis Reply-To: satherj@ac.com Hi- I am in the process of trying to make a number of our T1 lines redundant. AT&T has been very helpful, and they will guarantee redundancy down to the POP. I am not sure that this is the most cost effective option avaliable, and was wondering if anyone has any advice. I looked into VSAT, but that is too expensive for only five sites. Oh, these lines go into Canada and Mexico. Thanks, Joel Sather Work: 612-372-2601 Snail-Mail: Andersen Consulting Andersen Consulting Fax: 612-372-2525 333 South 7th St. TIS-North Central E-Mail: Joel.Sather@ac.com Minneapolis, MN 55402 ------------------------------ From: satherj@ac.com (Joel Sather) Subject: Magnalink Series 5000 Date: 20 Oct 1993 15:30:13 GMT Organization: Andersen Consulting - Minneapolis Reply-To: satherj@ac.com We just got in two Magnalink Series 5000 LAN/WAN Optimizers for evaluation. Has anyone used this product? What do you think? What kind of performance increase did you see? Joel Sather Work: 612-372-2601 Snail-Mail: Andersen Consulting Andersen Consulting Fax: 612-372-2525 333 South 7th St. TIS-North Central E-Mail: Joel.Sather@ac.com Minneapolis, MN 55402 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 20:14:14 -0700 From: nathan@seldon.foundation.tricon.com Subject: Deregulation - Why is Cost Still High? I've been meaning to ask this for sometime -- recently in California, all inside wire was completely deregulated, except for residential units of less than two or four units (forget which). GTE, PacBell and others have abandoned all inside wiring in place (AIP, as they say). Since they have done so, why didn't they reduce the cost of the installation of 56K ADN and DDS circuits? It is still $620.00 per end and they WILL NOT wire it up all the way to the destined location. (I finally convinced them to because I was so angry and we had an analog leased line already to the lines location, so all they had to do was hook up the four pair at the GTE demarc). I talked with our lineman and he said "well, we'll do it if it takes less than 15 minutes, but we're not supposed to". Then I mentioned "do you think any company around here would even KNOW what a 56K ADN or DDS was?" ... he said "no". (We did have to have a third party come in for one of our offices and he, of course, rolled the TX/RX pairs). Less service, same money? Can it be true? Nathan Lane Triicon Systems, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA [Moderator's Note: Of course it can be true and it is true. Far less technically complex situations than yours have demonstrated this over and over since divestiture and degregulatio Phone bills everywhere are higher than ever, and customers are expected to know more and more about making do for themselves. Don't you love it? :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: ericd@cats.ucsc.edu (Eric D Davis) Subject: Need a Cellular Repair Manual Date: 20 Oct 1993 00:08:40 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz I have a dead phone ... I have an Motorola Ultra Classic and I am in need of the service manual. If you have one, or one for ANY OF THE CLASSIC MODELS, please let me know. If you know where one can be found, plese also let me know. I will be glad to pay for shipping, copying, and your time. Thanks, Eric Davis ericd@synoptics.com On the air: KD6HTO ( 440.85, +, 100Hz PL, North-Central CA ) On packet radio: KD6HTO @ N6IYA.#NOCAL.CA.US.NA Home: LAT:37 03 04 N LON: 122 00 49 W ALT: 570 finger ericd@am.ucsc.edu or mail ericd@synoptics.com for PGP key ------------------------------ From: BACKON@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: Cellular Pay Phone on Intercity Bus Date: 19 Oct 93 18:22:36 GMT Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem The local PTT in Israel has just installed an experimental cellular pay phone in an intercity bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The phone is next to the driver and calls are made with regular phone cards. It was quite interesting to see someone walk up and call home from the pay phone in the bus. Josh backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL ------------------------------ From: lee@phantom.com (Lee Chen) Subject: Dialback Modem that Provides Dialtone Instead of Carrier? Organization: Mindvox Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 23:19:36 GMT I am looking for a device similar to a dial-back modem but instead of a data carrier, it provides a dial tone (voice line) instead. Specifically, I need to hook up a telephone line to this device and when an incoming call reaches the device, the device will prompt for a security code (or perhaps just listen for a ring) and call back the caller on that same line and provide a dial tone from another telephone line connected to the device. Does such a thing exist? Of course, I'd be willing to commission the construction of such a device if it does not currently exist ... Regards all, Lee [Moderator's Note: There are lots of these devices around, but they are known as 'call extenders' or 'WATS extenders' rather than dial-back modems. They work a lot the same, but the latter are for data and the former for voice. There are 'call-extenders' which ask for a security code then extend dialtone once security has been satisfied. I think there are some which will even call you back if desired. I know this is the method Telepassport uses for our inter- national callback service. You call it; it calls you back and asks for your password. PAT] ------------------------------ From: HayesR@uihc-telecomm-po.htc.uiowa.edu Date: 20 Oct 93 10:41 CST Subject: NEC, NEAX User Groups Information > Does anyone know of any user groups or lists for users of NEC or NEAX > Switches? The NEAX 2400 is a fine user group. Contact Mr.Carlisle Reams at 803/798-4800 for more information. Just one more opinion from ... randal-hayes@uiowa.edu ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 20 OCT 93 02:03 Subject: Automatic Busy Number Redial I got the GTE call features booklet in the mail today, and there is another difference between Busy Number Redial and Automatic Busy Number Redial. As I mentioned before, BNR only works for numbers in your switch, while BNR works for any SS7-connected switch (currently only other GTE offices). The other difference is that BNR only works for one number at a time, while ABNR works for many numbers at once (no mention of a limit). I wonder if this is a influenced by the terminating switch queueing method used by the GTD-5 as opposed to the originating switch queueing method used by the 5ESS and DMS100? I still say that "Automatic" is a stupid modifier, since it is no more automatic than BNR. "Extended" or "Enhanced" would be better, IMO. Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software Unisys Corporation [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 04:27:03 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: ANI in HI? Can anyone give me a list of what exchanges in Hawaii have ANI available as a feature, and who those features are available to? I mean, is it just a 911-only thing, or is it available as an added-cost feature to joe and Jane Six-pack? /E ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #712 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04298; 22 Oct 93 14:19 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19728 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:55:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15667 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:54:46 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:54:46 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310221554.AA15667@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #713 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:54:45 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 713 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Legal Action Against Sprint re Modem Offer (Chris Ambler) Re: US Sprint Modem Mess - Read This ASAP (Brett Person) Sprint Fax/Modem Offer (Jack Mcgee) Sprint Modem Offer Revisited Yet Again (Joshua E. Muskovitz) Sprint Modem Ripoff - Sprint's Response (k1klb@hamgate.merit.ampr.org) Sprint Modem Ripoff (action@indirect.com) Re: Sprint Modem Update (Don Davis) Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery (Clay Jackson) Re: Cost of Modems (dai@mprgate.mpr.ca) Re: Cost of Modems (Glenn R. Stone) Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? (Dinesh Rehani) Re: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? (David Josephson) Re: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? (Gary Breuckman) Re: Calling Card Scam (H. Shrikumar) Re: Ten Base T (?) Lines (Lars Poulsen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler - Fubar) Subject: Legal Action Against Sprint re Modem Offer Organization: The Phishtank Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 00:57:12 GMT I am expecting a callback from Sprint on Monday, so it is urgent that readers of the Digest respond to me before then if they are involved in the modem offer. I spoke with Mr. Shawn Larimer just now, and he informed me that, indeed, the modem is a 2400Data 9600/4800Fax internal PC half-card. I told him that I was promised, on all seven of my lines, a 9600Data/Fax external modem. He explained that he was aware of the problem, but that I should understand that he is not in a position of being a hardware supplier. He did not mention a compromise or settlement until I did. At that time, he offered me $50 of credit as compensation. I countered that the difference in cost between what was promised and what is actually shipping was more like $140. He assured me that they would never agree to such an amount. I then suggested that he contact the department dealing with the hardware supplier to inquire about the availability of the promised item (9600 external). He agreed, and will be calling back on Monday. Bottom line: I get either a 9600Data/Fax external modem, the difference in credit (I would accept $100 per line), or I am going to take legal action. I have done some research, and the activation of my service with Sprint is grounds for value received on contract, and they are obligated to send me what I was promised in return for switching long distance carriers. If anyone else has signed up for this, and has not accepted his offered $50 (which he said many people have), I would like to hear from you. A cooperative effort should carry more weight. In addition, their offering and previous success at a $50 settlement is, I have discovered, sufficient acceptance of responsibility on their part. Sprint made an offer, I accepted. I am not about to let them out of it. If you feel as I do, please get in touch with me. cambler@zeus.calpoly.edu | Christopher J. Ambler chris@toys.fubarsys.com | Author, FSUUCP 1.41 FSVMP Voice BBS Demo System - 805-544-3754 ------------------------------ From: person@plains.NoDak.edu (Brett Person) Subject: Re: US Sprint Modem Mess - Read This ASAP Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 19:35:32 GMT Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network > [Moderator's Note: Not to burst your bubble, but I imagine you will be > required to prove that such commitments were made (i.e. 9600/9600) > and that your impression was not the result of a misunderstanding > as to what the rep(s) actually said. PAT] What do Sprint's PUBLISHED ads say? Often, companies will mis-represent things like this IN PRINT. Then, I suspect, you would have something to go to court over. Brett Person North Dakota State University person@plains.nodak.edu || person@plains.bitnet [Moderator's Note: I do not believe there are any *published* ads regards the modem offer. Has anyone seen anything? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Sprint Fax/Modem Offer From: jack.mcgee@ehbbs.com (Jack Mcgee) Date: 22 Oct 93 02:40:00 GMT Organization: Ed Hopper's BBS - Berkeley Lake (Atlanta), GA - 404-446-9462 Reply-To: jack.mcgee@ehbbs.com (Jack Mcgee) The Sprint fax/modem offer has been rescinded as of Friday, 10/15. I just tried to sign up on that deal today (Mon, 10/18) and the Sprint lady said that the offer was pulled back Friday. Apparently it was supposed to have expired some time ago, but it wasn't pulled from the computer or some such, anyway she said the deal was no longer available, but ... I will be sent a plain vanilla 2400 baud modem with 30 hours on the Sierra Network. Whoopee. Ed Hopper's BBS - Home of uuPCB - Usenet for PC Board Node 1 - USR HST - 404-446-9462 Node 2 - V.32bis - 404-446-9465 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 08:48:05 EDT From: Joshua E. Muskovitz Subject: Sprint Modem Offer Revisited Yet Again Gee, the folks at Sprint are really quite friendly -- I seem to get more calls from them than I actually place using their service :-) I got a phone call from Diane Worthy the other night, after reporting her name as the correct contact, and after retracting that statement. Now I must retract my retraction. Confused? So am I. At last count, the correct story is: Diane Worthy *IS* in fact the correct contact for the DVORAK program, and she also claims to be the manager of the program, despite the fact that another Sprint employee (named in a previous post) claimed the exact same thing. Both deny that the other is in charge. Diane confirmend yet again that the DVORAK offer ended October 1 and that the details of the offer are correct as I have reported them. What she also told me is that the offer was killed on Oct 1 because of the tremendous (and unexpected) response. They have been overrun with orders. She also hinted to me that come the first of the year they may be making a similar (but much better) offer. Something about an internal 14.4... :-) (But you didn't hear it from me ...) Those of you interested in clarifying any issues of the DVORAK program with Diane can reach her directly at 913-624-4475. Be sure to tell her that I gave you her number. Maybe I'll get a commission. Josh PS: Hopefully this will be my last correction ... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 02:27:27 EST From: k1klb@hamgate.merit.ampr.org Subject: Sprint Modem Ripoff - Sprint's Response Sprint's response was basically: No way are we going to make good on the modem offer. They are trying to contact everyone who signed up for the offer and get them to accept some free long distance and a modem. The modem is an internal 2400 baud fax/modem. Its a $20 piece of junk. As far as those of you who have the names of your representative and their manager's names, get this! Sprint Legal is going to take the position that everything that was said is hearsay and just not true. See, this is just the reason why telephone companies love to do verbal business. Sprint says that the offer on the radio program was specific, that their reps are not technical, and that they cancelled the "trial offer" on Oct 1, 1993. Sprint claims that the rep's are NOT technical and that people on BBS systems as well as the Internet are to blame for this entire mess. We the Internet community have distorted the facts of the offer! Sprint also promises to send you a modem after approximatly four to six weeks from the time you place your first call on their network. This is also NOT TRUE. Sprint is just now trying to get people to agree to the cheap modem and place an order for the product. My opinion is that Sprint management does not care about the general user/ phone customer. Thats all TV talk. The company made a dumb mistake and they want us to pay our LD bills and take less than what they offered. I do not intend to do that. I will be filing a lawsuit against U.S. Sprint next week in small claims court. I urge all of you that have been ripped off to do the same. It will cost Sprint far more to go to small claims court all over the country than it will to honor the deal. Sprint is a company without honor. I have heard all the claims about un-trained rep's before. People, it is an excuse they drag out of the back room when something goes wrong. Hundreds of you wrote to me and all of you tell the same story. This company is going to try and get out of this anyway they can. If you are still connected to Sprint I urge you to call AT&T, explain that they ripped you off on this modem deal and you want to switch back. Tell AT&T that you will return if they will give you a check (real money) for $75.00 that they have been offering. Call 900-222-0300 also ask about the i plan and see if they can get you a discount deal. One important thing to remember is that accounts from $1.00 to $80,000.00 pay the money that runs these telephone companies. Firms like United Airlines, TWA, IBM, and others get service at near cost just because companies like Sprint want to "BUY" their business. Why should the rest of us pay the frieght ? The new E-MAIL address for the SPRINT MODEM RIPOFF is nettech@crl.com. Please send me your comments! ------------------------------ From: Action Subject: Sprint Modem Ripoff Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 06:44:49 MST The great Sprint modem rip-off. I got a call from two people at Sprint today and they were both lacking on information as to what Sprint will do about this. I figure that the people in Sprint legal are trying to decide what to do. The problem is wide spread. Their own people admit it. One Sprint employee asked me if I was trying to get something for nothing and was this all true! These people are really interesting. The information I publish here is obtained from Sprint employees as well as other sources. I stand by what I report to you on the net. At this point I have asked to have the VP of Sprint Operations call me. The program manager is just too far down the food chain to deal with this problem. I will report my findings back on the net. NOTICE: For all those that have mailed me!!! Hundreds... I have a new e-mail address - please send mail there at once . This system just can't hold all the mail and the up-time is poor. My new mail address is nettech@crl.com CRL has a fantastic Sun system setup and I would highly recommend them to anyone. ------------------------------ From: ddavis@dgdhome.meaddata.com (Don Davis) Subject: Re: Sprint Modem Update 10-16-93 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 09:30:45 EDT Organization: The Dayton Home for the Chronically Strange At 12:20 today (Sunday) Diane Worthy called again to ask me for my decision on alternatives to Sprint's modem offer. It was an interesting discussion. I told her that I would not change my position, and that I wanted the modem that was offered to me: a 9600 baud modem with FAX. I also said that I intended to wait and see what resulted from the various discussions between Sprint and the people who are talking about the offer on Usenet. She did not press hard, but it was clear that she would have liked me to accept the internal 24/96/48 modem or one of the alternative software or credit offerings. Significant aspects of the call: 1. Mrs. Worthy insisted that there was no problem at Sprint. The problem, according to her, was that people were reading about the offer on the Internet, and calling Sprint with incomplete information. 2. She asserted that, because the offer had expired before I called on October 11, Sprint had no legal obligation whatsoever to me. 3. She stated several times that there was no offer for a 9600 baud modem with FAX. The material which was broadcast was very specific as to the model and capabilities of the modem, and that "... we have the tapes ..." of what was broadcast. 4. Mrs. Worthy suggested that, since the available offers were not what I was looking for, I should call back to customer service and cancel my order. My response to all of this was to insist that on October 11, a Sprint representative told me that if I would convert my line to Sprint's LD service, Sprint would send me "a 9600 baud modem with FAX." That's what the rep told me on October 11, and that's what I expect. I guess we'll see what happens. Don Davis Internet: dgdhome!ddavis@meaddata.com | Tel: 513-235-0096 [Moderator's Note: I got a call from Ms. Worthy last Sunday also, with more or less the same conversation. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cjackso@uswnvg.com (Clay Jackson) Subject: Re: The Sprint Modem Mystery Date: 22 Oct 93 08:58:53 GMT The saga continues - I just tried a couple of the numbers previously posted here and got told "The offer expired October 1st". Oh well, I'm actually not that unhappy with AT&T. Clay Jackson - N7QNM uunet!uswnvg!cjackso ------------------------------ From: dai@mprgate.mpr.ca Subject: Re: Cost of Modems Reply-To: dai@mprgate.mpr.ca Organization: MPR Teltech Ltd. Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:40:46 GMT > A local pawn shop has a genuine Hayes 1200 Smartmodem in the window > for only $79.95! I went in for fun and tried to talk the guy down on > it. He said that he couldn't go any lower, since this thing costs > $600 brand new! Close ... Seven years ago I paid $499.95 for mine. It was well worth it then considering the 300 baud alternative. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 93 20:44:53 GMT From: taliesin@netcom.com (Glenn R. Stone) Subject: Re: Cost of Modems In Telecom 13.711.6, weave@hopi.dtcc.edu (Ken Weaverling) writes: > A local pawn shop has a genuine Hayes 1200 Smartmodem in the window > for only $79.95! I went in for fun and tried to talk the guy down on > it. He said that he couldn't go any lower, since this thing costs > $600 brand new! Yeah, the Smartmodem 1200 is an industrial product now. My father uses them to remote-control the Instrument Landing System (ILS) transmitters he's responsible for maintaining ... just a plain-Jane SM1200, set (for some screwy reason) to answer in originate mode, and some firmware in the monitor section ... he can do everything he can from the front panel, including power cycle the transmitter proper. Since they aren't in demand by the general public, but they are by industry (gee, mister VP, it's a Real Hayes!), Hayes jacks the prices out of proportion. Meanwhile, I just bought an Optima 2400 with V.42bis for $80 in the Georgia Tech bookstore ... granted that carries an educational discount, but it's not that much more in the "real world" ... Glenn R. Stone (taliesin@netcom.com) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 14:45:24 GMT From: rehani@utcdsv.SINet.SLB.COM (DINESH REHANI +44 400 81999) Subject: Re: Does a US Modem Work in the UK? Yes, it does ... Thanks to all who responded, both to the list, and directly to me. It was a tremendous learning experience, being that I am practically a novice in the field. The trick is, as I found out, to identify the 'speech pair' in the respective telephone systems you are trying to interface. The US style RJ11 has the speech pair on pins 2 and 3. The BT style plug has them on pins 2 and 5 (that is, the last-but-one on each end). Trivial info for the initiated, sure, but took me 3 days to find out! Anybody has any suggestions on good books to read up on for such stuff? Dinesh Rehani rehani@utcdsv.sinet.slb.com ph : (44-400) 81999 fx : (44-400) 82073 ------------------------------ From: davidj@rahul.net (David Josephson) Subject: Re: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? Organization: a2i network Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 18:41:17 GMT Graybar Electric, a nationwide electrical contractor's supply house, also stocks telecom supplies like 66 blocks, Dracon 714 tools, butt sets etc. Their store in San Jose has all of the above in stock, I'm sure there are many others. David Josephson ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Source For Punchdown Blocks (Type 101)? Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 01:56:25 GMT In article nathan@seldon.foundation.tricon. com writes: > I need to know if anyone has any sources for type 101 or type 66 > punchdown blocks (along with the special tool for the type 66) and > 25/50 pair solid core copper wire. The last time my phone guy was out > here, I asked if I could have 50 ft. or so of 25 pair cable and he > said "help yourself", which was great, but he wouldn't give me any > punchdown blocks (understandable!) I've got 12 pair coming into my The places that sell computer networking parts and components sell terminal blocks, wire, and tools. Inmac, Global, etc. It's a bit cheaper from someplaces that sells telephone equipment and communications supplies, but for small quantities the Inmac and such are better set up for consumer orders and aren't priced that much more. Inmac has 66 and 110 blocks, patch panels, connectorized blocks, adapters, pre-made and raw cable, etc. If you can't find an Inmac catalog, call them 800-547-5444. Black box carries pretty much the same stuff as Inmac, call Black Box at 412-746-5530 (Black Box is interesting -- they want you to FAX orders, so they have a toll free fax line and voice line that's on your dime -- most places if you want to send a fax it's at your cost ...) For more equipment, Jensen Tools at 800-426-1194 or Specialized Products 800-866-5353. Jensen and Specialized have lots of tools, tool kits, and test equipment (telco test (butt) sets, tone generators, etc) but not much in supplies. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:11:57 -0400 From: shri@sureal.cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar) Subject: Re: Calling Card Scam Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India In article fec@arch2.att.com ... >> I know AT&T started telling people *never* to give out their >> card numbers over the phone. > We do and so do the other carriers. And the TV news specials have > reinforced consumer awareness of such scams. I dont know if what I relate below is related to frauds or not ... but whenever Sprint does something funny with my calling card (and they do it often enough ... so that's one reason to carry cards of more than one IXC), the first explanation I try has to do with Card Fraud. I can usually figure the thing out after a couple of calls to Custumer Service, sometimes getting bounced to supervisor level before I can get an answer. But my recent experience is really really inexplicable ... Sprint says I can use my Sprint card to Direct dial calls to India ... but not with operator help. The exact words they read off their screen is something like "Operator placed calls to this country not allowed. You can please direct dial this call and bill it your card." ... and it does go thru if I DTMF the number. So what happens if I get stuck at a rotary phone or a COCOT that eats DTMFs? I cannot place a call to India thru Sprint at all then? And since I can presumably place calls within the US on my card with an operator entering my card number ... whats the deal? I intend to try out actually placing a call within the US with timeout to operator on the Sprint FonCard 800 number ... and then after confirming that to call again and just sit on the line and not let go unless someone tells me why they cannot help complete my call to India, one of these days. Unless of course, the Sprint has bought a DTMF dialer manufacturer in the recent past and wants to encourage sales ! :-) shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in ) [Moderator's Note: The main thing to remember is that Sprint is not a full-service phone company. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Ten Base T (?) Lines Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:34:24 GMT In article goodwid@prism.cs.orst.edu (David Goodwin) writes: > Hello. Recently, the University I attend installed new wiring in the > residence hall I live in. This new wiring consited of a standard > phone line, a co-axial cable TV line, and something called a 'ten base > t' line, which I know nothing about. 10baseT is one of the wiring options for Ethernet: 10base5 - "yellow" thick ethernet coax 10base2 - RG58U "thin" ethernet coax 10baseT - unshielded twisted pair With 10baseT, two twisted pairs are terminated on an RJ-45 type connector, and on the other end is a multiport repeater, or "hub" which ties into the campus Ethernet backbone. To use this, plug an ethernet card into your PC, and you too can be an internet node. Congratulations. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK Internets: designed and built while you wait ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #713 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04881; 22 Oct 93 15:00 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07138 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:29:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08575 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:28:47 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:28:47 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310221628.AA08575@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #714 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Oct 93 11:28:30 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 714 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Mitch Kapor's Keynote at The Networked Economy USA Conference (R. Keller) NPA Readiness for 1995 (Gregory P. Monti) Motorola Files Infringement Lawsuit (John Gilbert) Variation on "Prize" Phone Call (Thomas Lapp) Dealing With "Bad" COCOTs (Eddy J. Gurney) Remote Call Forwarding - Alternatives?? (Dannie Gregoire) AirPhones on Air Canada Flights (Dave O'Heare) What Exactly is ATM? (John Biederstedt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: rjk@telcomlaw.win.net (Robert J. Keller) Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 09:35:21 Subject: Mitch Kapor's Keynote at The Networked Economy USA Conference From: rjk@telcomlaw.win.net (Robert J. Keller) Yesterday I was fortunate to be at the morning session of The Networked Economy USA conference here in Washington, DC, at least long enough to hear Mitch Kapor's keynote address. The theme of the day was some version of "The Information Highay" buzzword that is currently in vogue here inside the Beltway. Here is a brief summory of Kapor's remarks: DISCLAIMER 1: The following is my interpretation of what I think I heard Mitch Kapor say, based on my notes and my own imperfect memory. DISCLAIMER 2: I am a fairly good typist, but I am a lousy speller and I have fat fingers. If the particular mailer I am using now has a spell-checker, I have not yet discovered how to access it. Enjoy! 1. We do face a significant policy issue of who will provide the investment to build the so-called Information Highway: the government or the private sector. Kapor favors the private sector, but realizes that it raises many issues and concerns. 2. Policy makers concerned with the public interest ramifications of the IH have historic reason to be skeptical and even cynical. Each major telcommunications technological advancement (telephone, radio, TV, cable television) has emerged amid great promise of social benefits that have often never materialized. (E.g., cable's promise of wide-spread public access, local programming, more varied fare, etc.). The IH may end up being the same ... great promise now, but eventually just giga-version of the current CATV system. 3. Policy makers must understand that many of the public interest concnerns are significantly affected by technological factors. For example, if the IH is to acheive its current promise, it must be a truly two-way system (as opposed to the current CATV system which is essentially one-way.) For effective business applications as well as consumre-level interactivity, there has to be subtantial capacity and capability in _both_ directions. While this is an important policy objective, it depends on technology. The policy can not be implemented later if now we simply build a system that consists of eight lane highways going out, with only foot-paths coming back. That will allow little more than enhanced CATV and home-shopping. We have to engineer the system now to aovid this pitfall. (He talked in terms of as much as a half to a full gigabyte of two-way bandwidth per end user.) 4. There are cetain groups that are understandably excited and enthusiastic about the promise of the IH, but at the same time seriously concerned about what the ultimate policy regarding it will be. Two examples: - Publishers, producesrs, etc.: the IH promises a less restrictive ability to reach broad public audiences without the need for substantial investment or ceding an interest to a TV network or a publisher. But will this promise be realized if the investor/builder/owner of the IH is the private sector? - Internet Pioneers: they are used to a very decentralized, unregulated or self-regulated, open access system. Will this environment survive in a business-oriented, private sector IH? 5. In addressing these various issues, we must move away from a "channel" of communications concept (which grew out of the world of spectrum scarcity) and move instead to a "capacity" or "switched digital system" (which is possible because of things like fiber optics and digital communications). Spectrum scarcity need no longer drive the policy and regulatory issues. Thus, the IH is less analogous to the current CATV system (in which large amounts of centrally controlled information is distributed to users) and much more analogous to the current PSTN (in which any user can directly connect to any other user). It is also less analogous to broadcasting (in which programming is geared to the common denominator and broadly disseminated) and more analogous to print media (in which I can go into a bookstore or library and choose a narrowly focused book). 6. Universal Service! How do we achieve the old concept of univarsal service in the IH without re-creating or perpetuating outdated and counter-productive regulatory beaurocracies? In the truly open access system (universally available) the IH capacity provider acts as a common carrier. It makes the access available to whomever wants it, without regard to the content of the information. But if the private sector is putting up the investment to build and operate the IH, can we tell them they can not control content? Is that fair? 7, This is NOT a Solomon's Choice! According to Kapor, we are no longer in a world of spectrum scarcity, so we don't have to decide between the public benefits of open accsess and the fundamental fairness of private sector control. We can build the IH with enough capacity to satisfy two different regulatory approaches: private and common carrier. The IH would be divided between the two, not on a "channelization" basis, but on a "capacity" basis. Part of the capacity would be used by the IH provider on a private basis, and the IH provider would have control over content. But part of the capacity would also have to made available on a common carrier, full open access basis, in which the IH provider would have absolutely no control over content. Bob Keller (KY3R) Tel +1 202.939.7918 rjk@telcomlaw.win.net Fax +1 202.745.0916 rjk@access.digex.net CIS 76100,3333 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 19:28:53 EDT From: Gregory P. Monti Subject: NPA Readiness for 1995 This list attempts to document those area codes that are ready for "interchangeability day", January 1, 1995, and those that are not. The key item of readiness is whether subscribers are required to dial 1 + seven digits for toll calls within their own NPA or not. 1 + seven digits will be discontinued throughout North America and replaced with either plain seven digits or 1 + ten digits. I've based the list on postings here in TELECOM Digest, on published stories in other media and on first-hand information, bill stuffers people have handed me, etc. Your corrections are welcomed. If Patrick doesn't mind the space it uses, I'll post an update every one or two months. Thanks for your help. The column headings didn't translate well from Microsoft Excel, so: The first two columns are the NPA and state or province it serves. Next is the current (or ANNOUNCED) dialing pattern for intra-NPA toll calls, whichever is more recent. The "yes/no" column indicates whether this NPA's telcos have prepared themselves for 1995 yet or not. Notes are on the right. 201 NJ 7 yes 202 DC n/a yes there are no toll calls within 202 203 CT 1+7 no 204 MB 1+7 no 205 AL 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1990 206 WA 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 1992 207 ME 7 yes 7 digits announced 1992 208 ID 1+7 no 209 CA 7 yes 210 TX 1+10 yes 212 NY n/a yes there are no toll calls within 212 213 CA n/a yes there are no toll calls within 213, I think 214 TX 1+10 yes 215 PA 7 yes 216 OH 1+7 no 217 IL 1+7 no 218 MN 1+7 no 219 IN 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 8/93 301 MD 1+10 yes 302 DE 1+7 no 303 CO 1+7 no 304 WV 1+7 no 305 FL 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 93 306 SK 1+7 no 307 WY 1+7 no 308 NE 1+7 no 309 IL 1+7 no 310 CA 7 yes 312 IL n/a yes there are no toll calls within 312 313 MI 7 yes 314 MO 1+7 no 315 NY 1+7 no 316 KS 1+7 no 317 IN 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 8/93 318 LA 1+7 no 319 IA 1+7 no 334 AL 1+10 yes New code; Starts January 15, 1995 401 RI 7 yes 7 digits announced 1992 402 NE 1+7 no 403 AB,NT,YT 1+7 no 404 GA 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1989 405 OK 1+7 no 406 MT 1+7 no 407 FL 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 93 408 CA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 409 TX 1+7 no 410 MD 1+10 yes 412 PA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 413 MA 1+10 yes Mass DPU ordered 1+10 in 10/93 414 WI 1+7 no 415 CA 7 yes has always been 7 digits for toll 416 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1991 417 MO 1+7 no 418 QU 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 419 OH 1+7 no 501 AR 1+7 no 502 KY 1+7 no 503 OR 1+10 yes 1+10 announced mid 1992 504 LA 1+7 no 505 NM 1+7 no 506 NB 1+7 no 507 MN 1+7 no 508 MA 1+10 yes Mass DPU ordered 1+10 in 10/93 509 WA 1+7 no 510 CA 7 yes has always been 7 digits for toll 512 TX 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 1991 513 OH 1+7 no 514 QU 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 515 IA 1+7 no 516 NY 7 no inter-NPA calls are 10, must change to 1+10 517 MI 1+7 no 518 NY 1+7 no 519 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 601 MS 1+7 no other BellSouth states now 1+10, is MS? 602 AZ 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1990 603 NH 7 yes 7 digits announced 1992 604 BC,AK 1+7 no 605 SD 1+7 no 606 KY 1+7 no 607 NY 1+7 no 608 WI 1+7 no 609 NJ 7 yes 1+7 disallowed beginning 9/93 610 PA 7 yes New code; Starts January 4, 1994 612 MN 1+7 no 613 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 614 OH 1+7 no 615 TN 1+10 yes 1+10 posted on pay phones 9/93 616 MI 1+7 no 617 MA 1+10 yes Mass DPU ordered 1+10 in 10/93 618 IL 1+7 no 619 CA 7 yes 7 digits toll announced 9/93 701 ND 1+7 no 702 NV 1+7 no 703 VA 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1987 704 NC 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1990 705 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 706 GA 1+10 yes 1+10 announced mid 1992 707 CA 7 yes 7 digits announced 10/93 708 IL 7 yes has always been 7 digits toll 709 NF 1+7 no 712 IA 1+7 no 713 TX 1+10 yes 1+10 digits announced early 1993 714 CA 7 yes has always been 7 digits toll, I think 715 WI 1+7 no 716 NY 1+7 no 717 PA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 718 NY n/a yes there are no toll calls within 718 719 CO 1+7 no 801 UT 1+7 no 802 VT 7 yes 7 digits announced 1992 803 SC 1+10 yes 1+10 posted on pay phones 9/93 804 VA 1+7 no 805 CA 7 yes 806 TX 1+7 no 807 ON 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 808 HI 1+7 no 809 Caribb 1+7 no 810 MI 7 yes New code, starts December 1993 812 IN 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 8/93 813 FL 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 93 814 PA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 815 IL 1+7 no 816 MO 1+7 no 817 TX 1+7 no 818 CA 7 yes has always been 7 digits toll 819 QU 1+10 yes 1+10 announced 10/93 901 TN 1+10 yes 1+10 posted on pay phones 9/93 902 NS,PE 1+7 no 903 TX 1+10 yes has always been 1+10 toll 904 FL 1+10 yes 1+10 announced early 93 905 ON 1+10 yes has always been 1+10 for toll 906 MI 1+7 no 907 AK 1+7 no 908 NJ 7 yes has always been 7 digits toll 909 CA 7 yes 910 NC 1+10 yes New code; starts November 14, 1993 912 GA 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 8/92 913 KS 1+7 no 914 NY 7 no inter-NPA calls are 10, must change to 1+10 915 TX 1+7 no 916 CA 7 yes 7 digits announced 9/93 917 NY n/a yes there are no toll calls within 917 918 OK 1+7 no 919 NC 1+10 yes 1+10 implemented 1990 74 NPAs ready for 1995 70 NPAs not ready for 1995 144 Total NANP NPAs 29 NPAs using 7 digit solution so far 40 NPAs using 1+10 digit solution so far *YOUR* *CORRECTIONS* *ARE* *WELCOMED* Post a brief message here or send me a brief E-mail. Remember, this list shows the dialing patterns that have been ANNOUNCED as well as IMPLEMENTED. Once an announcement appears in TELECOM Digest, {Teleconnect}, {Communications Daily}, or any other source I happen to see, the new plan is added to this list. Greg Monti, Technical Project Manager, Future Interconnection System Project Office, National Public Radio, 2025 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 Voice: 202 822-2633 Fax: 202 822-2699 Internet: gmonti@cap.gwu.edu ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Motorola Files Infringement Lawsuit Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 21:48:09 GMT The following is an official press release from the public relations office of Motorola's Land Mobile Products Sector. Any questions relating to this press release should be addressed to Pat Schod of Motorola Public relations at (708) 576-6612. Reference: ADM9371 Pat Schod Date: October 14, 1993 (708) 576-6612 MOTOROLA FILES INFRINGEMENT LAWSUIT SCHAUMBURG, IL -- Motorola, Inc. said that it filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against two firms and three individuals for infringement of various Motorola copyrights and trademarks and misappropriation of Motorola secrets. The complaint alleges that Communications Consultants Systems, a company called "CCW", Harold Pick, Gerard Pick and Milton Bell, copied copyrighted software to modify identification codes in Motorola two-way radios that the defendants sold to others. This enabled them to illegally use the radio communications systems operated by either Motorola or its legitimate customers without paying Motorola for that use. The modified radios were sold or rented as genuine Motorola products. The case centers principally on the unauthorized copying of proprietary Motorola software designed to program individual customer two-way radios and communications systems, related trade secrets and the trademarks used by Motorola to identify the source of the products it markets and sells. "This action is part of a program to enforce Motorola's intellectual property rights against their unauthorized, illegal and misapplied use. We continue to strive to protect the rights of our customers -- from public safety agencies to small businesses -- who rely on the integrity of their radio communications systems," says Anthony J. Biell, manager of software protection for Motorola's Land Mobile Products Sector. "The unauthorized use of Motorola's proprietary software could compromise the performance of our customer's systems. In the case of public safety, that could result in serious consequences." # # # Motorola is one of the world's leading providers of electronic equipment, systems and components for worldwide markets. Products include two-way radios, pagers, cellular telephones and systems, semiconductors, defense and aerospace electronics, automotive and industrial electronics, computers, data communications and information processing and handling equipment. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 19:23:22 EDT From: Thomas Lapp Subject: Variation on "Prize" Phone Call I got an interesting variation of the you've-won-at-least-one-prize scams tonight. Rather than just the first cold call which starts out, "Hello Mr. Lapp, how are you this evening?*", the first call was a sneaky method of making sure that I would hang around the phone for a while while building my interest in the call which was to follow. The first call was a female voice saying that "she had a pre-paid person-to-person call for Thomas Lapp" but that "she was having trouble putting the call through" and that would I stay near the phone, as she would have them call me direct. No operator or RBOC or IEX identification. (Now I wish I had worked that first call over and asked questions like "why can't you put it through?" or "what carrier is having problems tonight?" :-) Of course, the call that came a few minutes later was the scam call telling me I had won a prize. I thought from the sound of it (private group, person-to-person call, not everyone is winner) that it might be ligit, so I cut to the chase and said that if it was a prize and involved money to obtain it, we could stop right now. Too bad. She begged me a good evening and rang off. (*See last week's newspaper comic strip Blondie for some humor related to that line. Dagwood, when he receives that line, responds something to the effect of "you have reached a number which has been changed. The new number is 555-8787. Please make a note of it." Turns out that 555-8787 was "his boss, Mr. Dither's home number.." :-) tom internet : mvac23!thomas@udel.edu or thomas%mvac23@udel.edu (home) Location : Newark, DE, USA ------------------------------ From: egurney@hpvclq.vcd.hp.com (Eddy J. Gurney) Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 11:09:00 -0700 Subject: Dealing With "Bad" COCOTs Greetings everyone. I'm curious what everyone else does when they run into a COCOT that isn't properly configured. I remember the "sticker" thing from a few years ago ... maybe I should print some out. :-) But I don't want to get in any trouble, either ... My latest experience went like this. I look at the phone and see that it's handled by Outrageously Overpriced Backroom Communications Ltd. So I dial 10288+0+number to use AT&T. I wait a couple of seconds, and I actually get the "Bonngg... AT&T". I go to key in my calling card number and the TONES THE PHONE IS NOW SENDING ARE NOT REAL TOUCH-TONES(tm)! They were shifted somehow, and it was totally obvious (to me, anyway.) I tried AT LEAST five times to use a calling card from this phone, and somehow it "knew" when to start messing up the tones. I got an AT&T operator (with 10288+0) and she suggested I try their 800 number (1-800-321-0288). This worked; I was able to enter my calling card with the keypad via this method. It still ticked me off that I couldn't select an alternate LDC though. The phone next to it acted the same way. Another time at a different phone, the label said calls were handled by AT&T when they weren't! This phone didn't even allow you to dial 10xxx at all; you immediately got an intercept. Even a local call from the phone seemed to be "buffered" internally and then dialed (you could hear the dialing after it "approved" the number). That also ticked me off. It's amazing how much COCOT garbage there is. But what can you do? Eddy J. Gurney N8FPW Hewlett-Packard Company, Vancouver (USA!) Division egurney@vcd.hp.com #include ------------------------------ From: dannie@coplex.coplex.com (Dannie Gregoire) Subject: Remote Call Forwarding - Alternatives? Organization: The Internet Gateway of Louisville, KY Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 12:31:02 GMT I am looking for some methods of providing local dial-in access in surrounding cities to our BBS. I have heard that remote call forwarding would provide this functionality. o Does anyone have any experience with a similar setup? o Which long distance carrier provides cheapest service for remote call forwarding? o Are there any suggested alternatives that would provide the same service at cheaper-than-long-distance rates? Thanks greatly for any suggestions. Dannie J. Gregoire dannie@coplex.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:01:23 -0400 From: doheare@jetform.com (Dave O'Heare) Subject: AirPhones on Air Canada Flights Pat: I don't know if these have been mentioned before, but they were new to me. On recent flights on Air Canada, I noticed that the seat in front of me held a device called an AirPhone. There was a slot for a credit card to release it from its cradle, and a squarish handset. Removing it from its cradle shows a handset with a conventional-looking tone pad, and a slot along one side; you are to slide the magnetic stripe of your credit card through this slot to activate the phone. The in-flight magazine gives quite clear instructions on use, including a caution to be patient because it might take 15 to 30 seconds to get a dialtone. They say that the cost is $3 per minute for calls within Canada, and $6/min for calls outside Canada (dunno what they'd charge for a call to an Inmarsat site -- tarriffed at $12/min in Canada). I can't comment on the sound quality -- I couldn't think of anybody I was willing to spend $3 a minute to talk to. As well, the safety instructions (on videotape) at the beginning of each flight say that "Cellular phones cannot be used in flight because of a risk of interference with aircraft electronic equipment". I suspect that what they really meant was "Do not use" -- why can't people say what they mean (off-topic I know, but Geez). Dave O'Heare doheare@jetform.com +1 613 594 3026 ------------------------------ Subject: What exactly is ATM? From: John Biederstedt Date: 21 Oct 93 21:24:11 -0600 Organization: Mankato State University Somebody told me that ATM is a service like Frame Reley. From what I've read, ATM is a service more akin to T1 or T3 (but somewhere in between is terms of bandwidth). Are there any gurus who can clarify? Email: John@MSUS1.MSUS.EDU John Biederstedt Computer Services Mankato State University Mankato, MN 56002 [Moderator's Note: What is ATM? Well, it depends on who you ask, the butcher, the banker, the candlestick maker. 'ATM' is used in various applications, 'automatic teller machine' being one that comes to mind when you ask most people about it. But we here know it associates with various things. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #714 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05316; 22 Oct 93 15:41 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10677 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 12:17:16 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28446 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 12:16:26 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 12:16:26 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310221716.AA28446@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #715 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Oct 93 12:16:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 715 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Robert Shaw) Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Christian Taube) Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? (Carl Moore) Re: Mailing List for uk.telecom, aus.comms (Keith Mitchell) Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? (Archie Cobbs) Re: NTSC and 50Hz (Lukas Zahas) Re: NTSC and 50Hz (H.Shrikumar) Re: Atomic Clocks (David Breneman) Re: Atomic Clocks (Sam Pemberton) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 19:44:25 +0100 From: SHAW Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net dsokolic@world.std.com (David M Sokolic) wrote: > I was wondering if anyone out there can give me a concise guide to Telecom > resources that are out there on the net. > I have heard of the TELECOM Digest. What else is there? > Can you get stuff from BELLCORE and ETSI through the net? Are there > any other mailing lists that are good. I am particularly interested in > Fiber-In_The _Loop, HDSL , ADSL, and ISDN. You can access a lot of telecom-related electronic information resources from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITUDOC electronic document database. For a full ITUDOC user's guide (~40K) , send a message with the line HELP in it to: itudoc@itu.ch Here's a short summary. INTERACTIVE ACCESS Interactive access to ITUDOC is available as one of ITU's 'Open Services' available in TIES (Telecom Information Exchange Services). There are other services available (e.g., X.400 databases, access to United Nations databases, UN email profiles, etc.) The interface is Gopher. Connectivity to TIES is possible via: 1. GOPHER CLIENT Pointer to the ITU Gopher Server is: Name=International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Host=info.itu.ch Port=70 2. TELNET Telnet: ties.itu.ch or info.itu.ch (login name 'gopher') 3. X.25 Call the X.25 DTE address, on TELEPAC, the Swiss PSPDN #228468111112 where # is local prefix for international routing, login name 'gopher' 4. DIAL-UP +41 22 733 7575 (Swiss telephone number, login name 'gopher') Supported modem protocols include ITU-T (CCITT) V.21, V.22, V.22bis, V.32, V.42, V.42bis Recommendations, Bell212A and MNP 2, 3, 4, 5. Basic settings should be no parity, 8 data bits (necessary for on-line reading of multilingual material), speed 300 to 9,600 bps. For downloading documents/files, several file transfer methods are supported (e.g., Kermit, XModem, Text, email). EMAIL ACCESS For complete details, send a message with the line HELP in it to: itudoc@itu.ch For example, to retrieve any ITUDOC document, you send the command: GET where is the UPI (Unique Permanent Identifier) for the document. For example, to retrieve the index of the ITU-T (ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector) Group, send the command: GET ITU-1100 See below for the UPIs of other index files. You can place multiple commands in a single message (maximum 50). ITUDOC ROAD MAP AND INDEX FILES Here are UPIs for key ITUDOC road map and index files. Road map and index files describe the structure of groups and list UPIs for all documents available in the group. They are updated every two weeks. Title: Road Map and Index for ITUDOC (About ITUDOC) Group UPI: ITU-1800 Title: Road Map and Index for GS (ITU General Secretariat) Group UPI: ITU-1700 Title: Road Map and Index for ITU-D (ITU Development Sector) Group UPI: ITU-1300 Title: Road Map and Index for ITU-R (ITU Radiocommunication Sector) Group UPI: ITU-1200 Title: Road Map and Index for ITU-T (ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector) Group UPI: ITU-1100 NB: the group above is former-CCITT and contains telecom standardization-related documents (e.g., List of Recommendations, CCITT/ITU-T Recommendations) Title: Road Map and Index for SIGS (Special Interest Groups) Group UPI: ITU-1500 Title: Road Map and Index for TIES (Telecom Information Exchange Services) Group UPI: ITU-1400 Title: Road Map and Index for the complete ITU Document Store UPI: ITU-1600 Title: Road Map and Index for UN/EDICORE (United Nations UN/EDIFACT Standards Database (EDICORE)) Group UPI: ITU-1900 Robert Shaw Information Services Department International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland TEL: +41 22 730 5338/5554 FAX: +41 22 730 5337 X.400:G=robert;S=shaw;A=arcom;P=itu;C=ch Internet: shaw@itu.ch [Moderator's Note: I am wondering how difficult/feasable/useful it would be to place many of the ITU documents in our own archives for use by Internet people. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:51:35 +0100 From: taube@isa.de (Christian Taube) Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) writes: > At least two countries have national telecom-related newsgroups: > aus.comms from Australia and uk.telecom from the United Kingdom. Both > newsgroups are widely available in North America, and may be useful if > you are specifically interested in the telecommunications systems in > those countries. At least three. Germany has a hierarchy called de.comm.*, of which de.comm.misc would hold anything that's telecom-related (the others being are de.comm.gateways, de.comm.internet, de.comm.ham, de.comm.uucp, and de.comm.gatebau). All of these should be carried by the major national backbones. Christian Taube (taube@isa.de), ISA GmbH, 70174 Stuttgart, Germany Any opinions expressed are mine, and mine only! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 07:14:32 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Telecom Resources on the Net? Well, don't forget to forward to telecom items which are of interest to people beyond, say, United Kingdom or Australia. [Moderator's Note: I've been thinking about that for awhile now. PAT] ------------------------------ From: keith@unipalm.co.uk (Keith Mitchell) Subject: Re: Mailing List for uk.telecom, aus.comms Organization: Unipalm Ltd., 216 Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge CB4 4WA, UK Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 11:39:25 GMT ae446@Freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) writes: > I posted a message to comp.dcom.telecom about national telecom > newsgroups such as uk.telecom and aus.comms, and received a reply > from someone who didn't have access to uk.* or aus.* newsgroups, > but wondered if they were available as a mailing list. PIPEX feed all the uk.* groups one-hop on to UUNET, so I am a little surprised to hear there are people who can't get at uk.telecom -- they should maybe try and see if they can get a feed, because it does leave the country. It has struck me before that a News->Mail gateway for uk.telecom would be a good idea as well, though. One possible use of it might be for moderated cross-posting of uk.telecom articles of more general interest on to comp.dcom.telecom. Keith Mitchell Network Manager Public IP Exchange keith@pipex.net 216 The Science Park keith@unipalm.co.uk Cambridge, UK keith@uk.co.pipex (non-IP JANET sites) Phone: +44 223-250120 Fax: +44 223-250121 PIPEX is part of the Unipalm Group [Moderator's Note: Well, if the people in charge of those lists would send them here, I would see that they got housed in the Telecom Archives so that others could refer to them. It is possible also there could be an 'international' edition of the Digest specifically devoted to excerpts of things from those lists. Even though this Digest is certainly interna- tional in readership, it has a United States slant to it which could be cured with the inclusion of excerpts from the uk and aus mailings. PAT] ------------------------------ From: archie@cory.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Archie Cobbs) Subject: Re: Transmorgrifying Fax + $$ -> Email? Date: 22 Oct 93 13:09:30 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley In article , dla@athena.princeton.edu (Don Alvarez) writes: > Does anybody know who provides fax to email service? I'm looking for > somebody who receives faxes and then emails a bitmap in exchange for > money (or for warm fuzzy feelings if possible, but somehow I think > that's unlikely :-) I'm also curious about going the other direction, > but what I really need is to be able to receive the faxes. Forwarded message: FaxLinq FAQ FaxLinq is a service of Antigone Press. What is FaxLinq? FaxLinq provides an electronic "gateway" from FAX to electronic mail (e-mail). With FaxLinq, e-mail users worldwide will now be able to receive facsimile messages, without having to acquire fax equipment. FaxLinq subscribers receive faxes at Antigone's central dispatch office via e-mail. Faxes are then attached to an e-mail message and forwarded to the subscriber. What e-mail accounts can be accessed by FaxLinq? Any e-mail address that can be reached via the Internet. This includes: BITNET, ArpaNet, Compuserve, Fidonet, Sprintmail. MCImail, UUCP, Applelink, GEnie, America Online and many others. How do I subscribe to FaxLinq? There is a yearly subscription fee of $39. For this fee, you are entitled to receive ten pages of facsimile transmission. Additional pages received and transmitted to your e-mail account are billed at the rate of $1 per page. FaxLinq accounts are "deposit" accounts. Your subscription fee will put a credit of ten pages in your account. You may also purchase additional page credits at the time of your subscription. Monthly statements of your account will be rendered by e-mail. If you intend to receive more than ten pages, you must keep your account balance replenished. Should a fax be received for you and your account balance is not sufficient to cover the number of pages received, you will be notified by e-mail. Please allow ample time for your remittance to reach us if you are expecting a fax that will exceed your account balance. How does someone send me a fax? Faxes must be sent to Antigone's fax number. The e-mail address (preferably) or name of the final recipient must be clearly marked on the FIRST page of the transmission. Is this any different for the sender than sending a "normal" fax? No. The sender doesn't even have to know that they are sending to Antigone. You can even put our fax number on your letterhead and business cards. What do I receive? We take the fax transmission, convert it to a TIFF file, and send you a MIME-compliant mail message, using the image/TIFF Content-Type to enclose the fax. You may read the message using any one of many MIME-compliant mail readers in existence for different computer platforms. If you can read NeXTmail, the fax will be delivered to you in NeXTmail format. What is MIME and where do I get more information on MIME? You may obtain a FAQ (list of Frequently Asked Questions and their answers) by sending e-mail to . This includes a list of known MIME-compliant mailers. Do you offer Optical Character Recognition? At this time we do not have the facilities to offer OCR processing for incoming faxes. What if the fax is unreadable? The fax sender is responsible to ensure the quality of their transmission. We will forward anything we receive for you. We do not inspect the contents or quality of the transmission, for reasons of privacy. If the fax is unreadable, you must contact the original sender and request that they resend the fax. How long does it take to turn around a fax? As soon as we receive a fax we start processing it immediately. Many possible delays are built-in to the chain of events, most of which are beyond Antigone's control (network failure, failed mail delivery). We cannot be responsible for delays in receipt of a fax or in the transmittal of the TIFF fax file via electronic mail. Liability will be limited to refunding the transmittal fee if our negligence is determined. What about the other direction? (E-mail to FAX) Send e-mail to for more information on sending a fax from an e-mail message. Text, TIFF and PostScript are supported by the Experiment in Remote Printing, which already serves many areas in the world. This is great! How do I open a FaxLinq account? Fill out the form below and return it to us, with your check, via postal mail. FaxLinq facsimile transmission account application Please fill out, sign, date and return with your payment to: Antigone Press 1310 Clayton Street Suite 15 San Francisco CA 94114 USA Name: Title: Company: Street Address: City: State or Province: ZIP Code: Telephone: E-Mail address: I can accept NeXTmail: YES NO Please accept my subscription for FaxLinq ______ Yearly subscription fee .......................... $39.00 (Includes 10 pages of fax transmission) ______ Additional pages of fax transmission @ $1.00...... _______ TOTAL enclosed .................................. _______ ======= Payment must be made to Antigone Press, in US Dollars, in the form of: - a check drawn on a US bank account - an international Money Order in US Dollars I hereby contract with Antigone Press (Antigone) for the service of receiving facsimile transmissions destined to me. At their discretion, Antigone will forward these transmissions to the electronic mail account I have provided above. I agree to pay Antigone in advance, as per the schedule above, for each and every fax received by them which bears the electronic mail address I have given above or which bears my name. I understand that Antigone's liability will be limited to refunding the transmittal fee if any error or negligence on their part is determined. Name: Signature: Date: ------------------------------ From: lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) Subject: Re: NTSC and 50Hz Date: 21 Oct 1993 18:14:35 GMT Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA Reply-To: lzahas@acs2.bu.edu (Lukas Zahas) In article plr@ichigo.os.nasu.toshiba. co.jp (Peter Leif Rasmussen (SY-Gi)) writes: >> Um, I've never been there, but all I've read says that Japan is a 60 >> Hz country, usually at 100 or 120 V. NTSC television would never have >> worked in a 50 Hz area, and Japan is NTSC. > When Tony Harminc so surely writes that NTSC would never have worked > in a 50Hz area, I would like to know why? Japan is a 50Hz _and_ a 60 > Hz area. The east is 50Hz and the west is 60Hz (the parting line is > about the city Nagoya I think). Surely the television system is NTSC > and the voltage is 100V. The author is correct that NTSC can work with power supplies other than 60Hz. The original poster is under the incorrect assumption that the 60Hz frequency is used in timing the fields and, subsequently, the frames. In the early days of television, the 60Hz AC line was used as a convenient reference, but when color TV was introduced, the speed was changed from 30 frames per second to 29.97 frames per second, making the frame rate completely independent of the power supply frequency. Lukas Zahas lzahas@bu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 02:23:43 -0400 From: shri@sureal.cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar) Subject: Re: NTSC and 50Hz Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India In article plr@ichigo.os.nasu.toshiba.co. jp wrote: > When Tony Harminc so surely writes that NTSC would never have worked > in a 50Hz area, I would like to know why? Japan is a 50Hz _and_ a 60 > Hz area. The east is 50Hz and the west is 60Hz (the parting line is > about the city Nagoya I think). Surely the television system is NTSC > and the voltage is 100V. Well, back in the early days of television (no! I am not that old !!) the power supplies in the TV sets were not too good and would have a fair amount of ripple. So if the field rate is the power cycle rate and is in sync, the dark band on screen would stay at the same place and hence at least will not be very noticable. But before long, TV stations networked far beyond the service areas of the local utility company, and luckily the consumer grade power supplies also became much better. So NCST "would never have worked" ... back then. Today power line sync has all but been given up. BTW I believe Bahrain has a 50Hz 220v power due to British connect- ions in history, but a lot of 110V 60Hz as well due to large ARAMCO installations. Perhaps someone from that area could confirm that. shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in ) ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Date: 21 Oct 93 20:31:50 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA Paul S. Sawyer (paul@senex.unh.edu) wrote: > I can remember touring the NBC studios in NYC in the mid-50's, when I > was about 10-12, and we were shown a 3-bar xylophone and told ~"... > here is how we make our famous chime ..." and then the guide played the > tones, just like on TV! For a while after that, I thought that was > how they did it, though I suppose in the earlier days of NBC Radio, > that would have been exactly how they did it. This sounds like a tour gimmick to me. Even in the early days a mechanical device generated the tones, as I mentioned in an earlier post. The film of it I saw (and this was about 15 years ago, that's why I'm a little fuzzy) showed a rack-mounted device that would probably be in an equipment room. On the front of it was a horizontal cylinder about 8" in diameter (big enough to get one of those Western Electric carbon button mics inside) and maybe 18" long. When a button was pushed, the microphone was cut into the audio circuit, and the cylinder rotated one revolution, generating the tones. Apparently on it's interior wall were three xylohpone-like bars, tuned to G-below- middle-C, E-above-middle-C and middle-C, along with their accompanying resonators. A fixed articulated clapper struck the bars in succession as the cylinder rotated, producing the three notes. However, in later years (like when I was growing up, in the 60's) the NBC "chimes" I heard on the radio and TV (such as those that accompanied the animated "Snake" at the end of programs -- see my earlier ASCII artwork) sounded more like plucked strings than struck chimes. Maybe they were chimes, but they just didn't sound "chimey". As an aside, on the occasion of NBC's 60th anniversary, all their affiliated radio and TV stations recieved a little oak plaque with a set of doorbell-sized "NBC Chimes" mounted on it. The chimes were painted red blue and green and arranged to look like NBC's logo from the late 40s / early 50s: ___ ___ ___ | || || | | || || | | N || B || C | | || ||___| | ||___| |___|--------O with the mallet in a bracket forming the "microphone" across the bottom. Unfortunately, the chimes are about the quality you'd find in a doorbell, and are optomized for appearance not resonance, so it sounds pretty cheap. Still it's a nice souvenir. On the back of the resonator box is an inscription by some-company-or-other "Official Manufacturer of NBC Chimes." John R. Bruni (jbruni@sfe.com) wrote: > In Article , Alan Frisbie disk.com> wrote: >> I have another question about the NBC chimes. Many years ago, my >> father told me that there was an additional (fourth) tone that was >> seldom heard. If sounded, it was a signal to all NBC employees that, >> "Something important is happening. Get to your job ASAP". Does >> anyone know if this is just a wild story or did it really exist? > I'd like to know the answer to this too. OK, maybe we should start a comp.dcom.telecom.nbc newsgroup... :-) Yes, the tone pattern G-E-C-G signified an upcoming news bulletin. This is documented in Reuven (sp?) Frank's book about the history of network news, I believe. David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ From: samp@pro-gallup.cts.com (Sam Pemberton) Subject: Re: Atomic Clocks Organization: ProLine [pro-gallup] BBS +1 505 722 9513 24hrs Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 06:56:02 MDT In paul@senex.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) writes: > I can remember touring the NBC studios in NYC in the mid-50's, when I > was about 10-12, and we were shown a 3-bar xylophone and told ~"... > here is how we make our famous chime ..." and then the guide played the > tones, just like on TV! For a while after that, I thought that was > how they did it, though I suppose in the earlier days of NBC Radio, > that would have been exactly how they did it. Was NBC ever owned by a General Electric Corporation or Company? The reason I ask is that I've heard on occasion that the three tones represent the company initials, G-E-C. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #715 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07655; 22 Oct 93 19:18 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18580 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for johngee@etrib.com); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:50:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18324 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:50:02 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:50:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310221850.AA18324@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #716 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Oct 93 13:50:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 716 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Help Request with Northern Telecom Phone Frauds (Jean-Bernard Condat) BellSouth Yellow Pages Raises Hackles of Planned Parenthood (Bill Seward) Net-Connect & GEIS (catcim@eig.unige.ch) Caller ID Information (Randall H. Smith) Seeking Centrex Voice Mail Hardware Pen-Pals (Mark Johnson) 954 Prefix in C&P-Land (Carl Moore) Power Questions (was Does a US Modem Work in the UK?) (Bill Riess) Calling Card Woes (Javier Henderson) Visual Basic IVR System (John W. Barrus) Alcatel Voice Guide Help Needed (Isak Jonsson) Sprint Personal 800, Using SSN (Ray Normandeau) V.35-->RS-232 (was Confused: 56K Data Lines (Paul Joslin) EMI Information for UTP? (Donald D. Rice) UTC (was US Naval Observatory Questions) (Mark Brader) WATS or Call Extenders (John Perkins) 900/976-Type of VOICEMAIL Software Sought (gates@mca.info-gw.mese.com) My Kind of Town, Chicago is ... (Steve Hutzley) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cccf@altern.com (cccf) Subject: Help Request with Northern Telecom Phone Frauds Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 7:22:08 EDT Bonjour, What do you know of Northern Telecom phone frauds on some PBX (via Meridian Mail, e.g.)? Thank you very much for your kind collaboration to my article on phone frauds. Battling Toll *Fraud* Doesn't Have to be Costly 411 Newsletter September 20, 1993 V. 14 NO. 18 WORD COUNT: 475 PUBLISHER: United Communications Group The telecom industry has done more this year to prevent toll *fraud* than at any other time. Yet, toll *fraud* losses will top more than $2 billion again this year. If you aren't doing anything to prevent being hit, it's not a matter of if you'll be hit, it's when you'll be hit and for how much. So, here are some low-cost ways to stop toll *fraud* - or at least lessen the blow if you do get hit. Bud Collar, electronic systems manager with Plexus in Neenah, Wis., transferred from its payphone operations branch, so he's been thoroughly exposed to toll *fraud*. So, as the PBX manager, he's blocked all outside access to his Northern Telecom Meridian 1 and *Meridian* *Mail*. Just in case a *hacker* does gain access, Collar bought a $600, PC-based software package from Tribase Systems in Springfield, N.J., called Tapit. With Tapit, Collar runs daily reports on all overseas call attempts and completions. He doesn't have many international calls, so going over the daily reports only takes a few seconds. The drawback to Tapit is that by itself it has no alarm features, so if a *hacker* does get in, Collar won't know about it until he runs the next report. Tribase does offer *Fraud* Alert with alarms for $950, but Collar chose not to use it. If you make a lot of international calls, going through daily reports may take too much time. In that case, a software package that can run more individualized reports would be better. But with all Collar's outside access points blocked, his chances of getting *hacked* are slim. For someone that does need outside access, they have to be set up beforehand, and it's a one-time shot. Erica Ocker, telecom supervisor at Phico Insurance in Mechanicsburg, Pa., also wanted to block all of her outside ports. But she has maintenance techs who need routine access, so she needed a way to keep her remote access ports open, without opening up her Rolm 9751 to toll *fraud*. The solution: She bought LeeMah DataCom Security Corp.'s TraqNet 2001. For $2,000, Ocker got two secured modems that connect to her maintenance port on her PBX and to her Rolm Phone Mail port. When someone wants to use these features, they dial into the TraqNet and punch in their PIN number. TraqNet idech cost an additional $50, whichever model you get. COPYRIGHT 1993 by United Communications Group Subscription: $279 per year as of 1/92. Published biweekly. Contact United Communications Group, 11300 Rockville Pike, Suite 1100, Rockville, MD 20852-3030. Phone (301) 816-8950. FAX (301) 816-8945. INDUSTRY: Telecommunications (TL) Dr. Jean-Bernard Condat, General Secretary, Chaos Computer Club France [CCCF] B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France. Phone: +33 1 47874083, Fax: 47874919. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 11:04:53 -0400 From: seward@35.20.ncsu.edu (Bill Seward) Subject: BellSouth Yellow Pages Changes Raises Hackles of Planned Parenthood The following was found in the Greensboro, NC {News and Record}. It is from the Associated Press, and datelined West Palm Beach, Florida. "BellSouth has eliminated birth control and pregnancy headings from the Yellow Pages in nine states, including North Carolina, leaving Planned Parenthood stuck under an abortion label and the organization officials unhappy. The only categories that BellSouth Advertising and Publishing Co. offered were 'Abortion Services' or 'Abortion Alternatives'." The article goes on to state that Planned Parenthood officials are concerned that this placement will limit access to health care, since a man looking for a vasectomy or a woman wanting a pregnancy test would be unlikely to look under this heading. BellSouth apparently refused comment at the time the article was being written, saying that company attorney Hubert Owens would be available Monday for comment. (Personal comment: Their attorney? Are they expecting legal trouble from this decision?) A letter from Owens to Planned Parenthood written in May stated that BellSouth was deleting certain headings "that were previously used by abortion services and abortion alternative providers was to give my client better control over the administration of the sensitive headings of 'Abortion Services' and 'Abortion Alternatives'." I won't comment too much except to say that it makes precious little sense to me to try to sell an advertisement to a group that places them under a label that is traditionally not widely associated with them -- unless you don't want to sell them the ad at all, and are too scared to say so. Bill Seward SEWARD@CCVS4.CC.NCSU.EDU Hey, I'm a guest here--they don't speak for me, and I don't speak for them! ------------------------------ From: catcim@eig.unige.ch Subject: Net-Connect & GEIS Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 15:00:45 GMT Hello networkers, Do you know of a company named Net-Connect? They are selling a product called Net-Connect that's a 3270 emulation program. That product is used by GEIS. Any information on how to contact that company would be appreciated. Thanks, Centre d'Appui en Telecommunication Christian ALT ------------------------------ From: smithrh@rtsg.mot.com (Randall H. Smith) Subject: Caller ID information Date: 22 Oct 1993 15:13:49 GMT Organization: Motorola Cellular Reply-To: smithrh@rtsg.mot.com (Randall H. Smith) Hello! There's a small debate at work here about Caller-ID, specifically in Illinois (Ameritech/Illinois Bell). The question is whether or not the new Caller-ID boxes recieve the caller name from the switch, or if they have to be programmed to associate a name with a number. For example, would my number here be displayed just as shown below, or would a generic "Motorola" be displayed along with the number? I would be tempted, of possible, to block calls by that type of criteria - e.g., blocking calls from telemarketing organizations. Of course, this would depend on the name of the caller (not just the number) being transmitted. Thanks for the net.wisdom! Randall H. Smith Motorola, Inc. smithrh@marlin.rtsg.mot.com Cellular Infrastructure (708) 632-7707 Arlington Heights, IL USA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:50:02 -0700 From: mjohnson@netcom.com (Mark Johnson) Subject: Seeking Centrex Voice Mail Hardware Pen-Pals I've built a gadget for use with Centrex phones which gives a visual indication that You Have Voice Mail ... a feature sadly lacking from Centrex (because the equipment including the voice mail is at the telco central office, not in your firm's building). I would like to correspond with others who have also built and installed similar doo-dads, to compare notes on what worked and what worked really well and what didn't work and what helped non-technical users the most. If you've built one of these, please send me email. Let's swap stories. Thanks! If you haven't built one, please don't send mail. Thanks! Mark Johnson, mjohnson@netcom.com unwilling user of Pacific*Bell Centrex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 11:58:24 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: 954 Prefix in C&P-Land I just got my first C&P phone bill, and on the back of each page is some stuff printed in light blue ink. (I am omitting discussion of "PAYING YOUR C&P BILL", but I will here note Federal Tax Identifi- cation Number 52-0270070.) But here is some interesting note on the 954 prefix: C&P REPAIR SERVICE NUMBERS You can report trouble with C&P service from anywhere in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C. or West Virginia, 24 hours a day, by dialing one of the following, toll-free, seven-digit numbers: For home service call....... 954-6611* For business service call... 954-2222* * Customers calling from outside of Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia must dial 1 + 410 + the seven-digit number, and will be billed for the call by the long distance company. (End of phone bill remarks.) In the footnote, doesn't it seem that 954 is pointing to Baltimore even in 301 area or in DC or Va. or W.Va.? (at least in the C&P portions -- does 954 mean anything in Md./Va./W.Va. portions not under C&P? DC and 301 area have C&P only, as does 410 except for Rising Sun.) ------------------------------ From: bill_riess@il.us.swissbank.com Subject: Power Questions (was Does a US Modem Work in the UK?) Organization: Swiss Bank Corporation CM&T Division Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 23:18:46 GMT Just to throw in a few cents worth (sorry I could not resist -- I once worked at a power company): In most of the US of A residential the power is (nominal) 110/220 at 60 Hz. (Commercial comes in many flavors, for differing situations.) The line from the pole to the house has two "phases" and a neutral. This is *usually* NOT really two phases, but a feed from a center tapped transformer. THUS: --------- ---------- "phase A" Dist. )( )( 110 Nominal Voltage )( )(---------- Neutral (ties to ground at the house) (6-12 KV )( )( 110 Nominal in many areas) )( --------- ----------- "phase B" Neutral to phase is the nominal voltage, phase to phase yields twice that. Breaker boxes are generally set so every other breaker is on the "other phase" -- so a 220 circuit has two adjacent breakers tied together. NOTE that the actual nominal voltage can very from 110 to about 120 and the "phase to phase" can thus be 220 to 240. Switzerland (and a some other contries) deliver real 208 phase to neutral and 240 phase to phase (let's see, that's cosine theta times ... well I forget). Anyway, some appliances from over seas will work on US power, wired as 220 -- some won't. (Tools and coffee makers seem to work and much of the electronics has "universal" power supplies, due to all the different standards. In fact most appliances come WITHOUT A PLUG, you must put (the correct) one on your self.) DID THE ORIGINAL QUESTION GET ANSWERED? I lost track, what WAS the original question? I truely hope it was posted to "comp.dcom.modems" as well ... And what did all this have to due with telecom? SO ... --------> BACK TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING? <------------ Bill Riess - Swiss Bank Corp. - Chicago Illinois The opinions expressed above are NOT those of Swiss Bank Corp., and I will likely disavow they are mine if confronted. ------------------------------ Subject: Calling card woes From: henderson@cam1.mln.com Date: 21 Oct 93 15:33:38 PDT Organization: Mayo Laboratory; Ventura, CA I had the following problem the other day, and I'm wondering if there's a workaround ... I tried to place a call with my Orange Calling Card from a privately owned payphone. I dial the toll free number to get the dial tone, it goes through, then as I dial the sequence of numbers to reach the person I needed to talk to I get interrupted by a fast busy. Two more tries give the same result. An attempt to use my MCI calling card also fails. I called the operator, and she said that 'to curtail the use of their phones in drug deals they limit the number of digits one can punch per call'. Do you think that is the real reason? Or are they just making it impossible to use calling cards other than 0+number? I assume they can collect their fee$ only on 0+number calls? (and coin paid calls, of course). Javier Henderson henderson@cam1.mln.com [Moderator's Note: There are regulations attached to COCOTS and their operation, accessibility to the network, etc. The War on Drugs has been blamed (or credited!) for all sorts of slimey, sleazy tactics. I have often wondered myself how I could use illegal drug abuse to my advantage in my various projects. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: John W. Barrus Subject: Visual Basic IVR System Organization: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 13:39:05 GMT I am familiar with a new Interactive Voice Response development system that is an add on to Visual Basic. It allows windows programmers to create voice mail, fax on demand, etc. programs. I would like to post an informational note (press release) about it, but I don't know if that is allowed on this newsgroup. Can someone send me e-mail (I don't read this group regularly) about whether or not that is allowed? Thanks in advance, John Barrus barrus@merl.com ------------------------------ From: dpijn@cs.umu.se (Isak Jonsson) Subject: Alcatel Voice Guide Help Needed Organization: Dep. of Info.Proc, Umea Univ., Sweden Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 08:51:57 GMT Hi! Does anyone know how to program the Voice Guide in the Alcatel 4300? Thanks beforehand. Isak Jonsson Intenet: dpijn@cs.umu.se ------------------------------ Subject: Sprint Personal 800, Using SSN From: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) Date: 22 Oct 93 10:39:00 GMT Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) > Interestingly, on the pictured sample card, the number is nine-digit > social security number. This purports to make it easier to remember. > But, if it recognizes one's voice, why does the number on the card Well, maybe you want the numbers input by a modem and your modem doesn't speak English well ... ------------------------------ From: pjoslin@mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil (Paul Joslin) Subject: V.35-->RS-232 (was Confused: 56K Data Lines) Date: 22 Oct 1993 13:32:22 GMT Organization: Model Based Vision Lab, Wright Laboratory On 13 Oct 93 12:07:28 GMT, xorcist@crl.com (Peter Stone) said: > Switched and unswitched 56KB DSUs are different and the switched costs > more because of the dialing logic. I don't know if you can plug > either into your MAC. The last time I played around with this (and it > was a while ago) you needed a V.35 or RS449 interface to connect to a > 56KB DSU. But my knowledge could be outdated on that. Others can > correct me. Telebyte Technology makes a V.35 --> RS-232 convertor that claims "up to 72K bps". Unfortunately, at $195, they're not cheap. The Telebyte catalog has a technical reference section that lists the pinout and usage of various standards. For V.35, they say, "V.35 (CCITT Std) for data transmission at 48Kbps using 60-108KHz group band circuits." Telebyte is at +1 800 TELEBYTE (+1 800 835 3298); you can also use +1 516 385 3232 or 8080. Similar products are available from Black Box, MISCO and others. I used Telebyte as an example because their catalog was on my desk. Paul R. Joslin +1 513 255 1115 ------------------------------ From: ddr@flux.isr.alaska.edu (Donald D Rice) Subject: EMI Information for UTP? Organization: Geophysical Institute, Fairbanks, AK Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 19:13:52 GMT I've been casting about for information on EMI generation and susceptibility for unshielded twisted pair (UTP) ethernets without much luck. The vendors generally deny all knowledge. I know that the power spectrum associated with a chunk of UTP will depend on length, physical layout, and the traffic across it at the moment, but any sort of information, whether worst-case or typical, would be useful. Some folks here are worried about UTP radiation interfering with certain delicate measuring devices. They operate these devices in the presence of standard store-bought PCs, and some of _my_ measurements show contamination from PCs 50 feet away in metal enclosures, so I suspect that if their stuff works next to a PC, the presence of a UTP network won't matter. But I would be happier if I could find a spec for 10BaseT radiation, or measurements for a typical network. A comparison of 10BaseT EMI on Category 3 vs. Category 5 wire would also be of interest ... how much practical difference does the additional twisting make? Any pointers to studies, specs, publications, or just experienced commentary would be appreciated. Don Rice E-mail: ddr@flux.isr.alaska.edu (Internet) Geophysical Institute fnddr@alaska (BITNET) University of Alaska flux::ddr (SPAN) Fairbanks, AK 99775 Phone: (907) 474-7569 GPS: 64.86N 147.85W ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: UTC (was: US Naval Observatory Questions) Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 10:22:28 GMT >>> ... know what the UTC means? >> Universal Time Coordinated, or some such thing I think. > The UTC abbreviation is from the French, not the English, for the same > reason that CCITT is. The standards body speaks French. > It stands for Universelle Temps Coordinate. Wrong. The French abbreviation is TUC. UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time, in English. The letter C is last because it's really a *subscript*; there are other varieties of UT with other subscripts. (The French given above is misspelled, too.) Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ From: johnper@bunsen.rosemount.com (John Perkins) Subject: WATS or Call Extenders Organization: Rosemount, Inc. Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 21:23:45 GMT > [Moderator's Note: There are lots of these devices around, but they > are known as 'call extenders' or 'WATS extenders' rather than > dial-back modems. They work a lot the same, but the latter are for > data and the former for voice. There are 'call-extenders' which ask > for a security code then extend dialtone once security has been > satisfied. I think there are some which will even call you back if > desired. I know this is the method Telepassport uses for our inter- > national callback service. You call it; it calls you back and asks > for your password. PAT] Pat, could you be more specific? Where exactly can one get hold of these devices? Who manufactures them? Any idea on cost? I could really use something like this to access my home calling plans (I have two lines at home) and thereby avoid the high price of making certain calls from a phone outside the house. For example I made a call to England recently and left a message on an answering machine. The duration of the call was < 1 minute and the bill was $3.07 -- this included $1.75 for credit card surcharge (!) and then a ridiculous first minute charge for the call. From home, using MCI F&F, it would have cost me $0.48 (quite a difference). John [Moderator's Note: I'm not certain if by 'I could really use something like this' you are referring to call extenders or the Telepassport Service. The latter is an international discounted calling plan which I offer; calls to/from the UK as one example are fifty cents per minute regardless of where you call from. If you use a payphone to reach our 800 number for the purpose of making your international call, add 9 cents per minute to the total. I'll send Telepassport information and a sign up application to anyone who requests it. Proceeds benefit the Digest. Call extenders, a/k/a WATS extenders have been around for many, many years. I'm not certain, but I think you can get them from Hello Direct (the official vendor for Ameritech's work at home program, BTW) as well as various other telephone supply houses. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gates@mca.info-gw.mese.com Subject: 900/976-Type of Voicemail Software Sought Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 05:30:24 EDT Organization: Medical Center Associates Inc. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM writes: > This kind of ticks me off. You are planning to start a competitive > service and are unwilling to spend perhaps $10-$20 to find out how it > works? This would be like someone who had never even dialed a phone > to decide to start their own telephone company. You must be having a bad day Paul. Where did you conclude from my message that I was unwilling to spend any money to check out the competition. How do you think that I was able to determine the weakness (in my opinion) of the existing service. If it is any of your business, I have spent well over $200 just studying the strengths and weakness of this service. All I asked was a pointer to a company that provides this type of system. So before you have another self-contained fit, try read the original posting and have a margarita while you are at it ;-). Regards, Phil Medical Center Associates Inc. gates@mca.info-gw.mese.com ------------------------------ From: hutzley@ranger.enet.dec.com (Steve Hutzley) Subject: My Kind of Town, Chicago is ... Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 10:55:56 GMT PAT, I was in Chicago several days ago for a trade show, and I would just like to comment on the city. I was suprised at how clean this city is -- I'm impressed. Chicagoans must really take pride in this, because I have seen the trash receptaclas on the streets full!. And no trash or papers blowing around on the streets. I see IBT (or Ameritech) has its collective heads, along with the government(s), placed where they belong by nature (unlike NET/NYNEX and the New Hampshire government(s)! The services are incredible, from busy number retry, to Caller ID and last caller redial. And the fees aren't that bad either. The quality must be fantastic, I have yet to see any data garbage on the line from my motel room (dialing to a local Tymnet number) at 2400 baud. Unfortunately, I wasn't be able to do much sight-seeing (work prevailed) ... Nice City! Steve [Moderator's Note: As Frank Sinatra once crooned, you probably even saw a man dancing with his own wife. Tell me this, how many blocks west of the lakefront did you travel? They do try hard to keep the area around McCormick Place very clean as well as North Michigan Avenue and the Near North/Streeterville area, since they like to impress the tourists who bring money with them. I venture to say you did not go south and east of McCormick Place, nor west of downtown (what little still remains of it). I venture to say you went nowhere on the west side and to very little of the south side. Overall, Chicago is a rotten place; very dirty, full of cheating politicians, and lots of ramshackle, falling down, burned out buildings. The crime rate is very high, and the public schools are virtually non-existent. In many parts of our city, children are not permitted to play outside alone or walk to school alone because there is too great a risk they will be killed in a gun battle between two other people. Last year there were 97 children killed (total 900+ people) in crimes of violence involving handguns. This year to date there have been 67 kiiled. In my immediate neighborhood, the building across the street is a drug-house. When one bunch of dealers had a fight with another bunch of dealers over whose territory it was, the solution was to burn the place down. After that event a year ago, many of us in the neighborhood assumed the dealers would go elsewhere ... but no, they continue to hang out in the burned out building across the street which has never been torn down or fixed up. We are getting out ASAP. There are no longer other options, but since you like it so much here, *you* move in. The mayor is desparate to find taxpayers these days. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #716 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16526; 24 Oct 93 14:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13128 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 24 Oct 1993 12:18:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06840 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 24 Oct 1993 12:18:03 -0500 Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 12:18:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310241718.AA06840@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #717 TELECOM Digest Sun, 24 Oct 93 12:18:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 717 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (Chris Labatt-Simon) Multi-carrier Service From Cincinnati Bell (Douglas Luce) Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services (Mathew Englander) 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN (Steve Chafe) Mead Service via AT&T Mail (Les Reeves) Nationwide Caller ID is Here! (Emmanuel Goldstein) Re: Four-wire Pay Phones? (Scott McClure) Alarms on NT SL1-XT (Ken Stone) Re: 56k Confusion (Gordon Jacobson) Help Needed Paging via Unix Script (Steve Hills) Re: Remote Call Forwarding - Alternatives? (Paul Robinson) 9600 =baud= Doesn't Exist (Brad Hicks) Re: Western Union Building in St. Louis Being Razed (Scott M. Pfeffer) Re: Capacity of Area Code (David A. Cantor) Where is CallerID Implemented? (Charles Hemstreet) 708-796-9600 Charges You Extra! (John Landwehr) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) Subject: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Date: 24 Oct 1993 07:39:53 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY I have a client who I am doing some work for right now involving the connection of an IBM RS/6000 in Virginia to a Novell network in NY. I will be using Retix bridges/routers between the two locations. In the past, the telecom vendor has provided me a RS-449 connection to a DSU/CSU, but in this case, I have yet to contact the vendor. The client has a T1 line (fractional) of which two channels are currently being utilized. Let me start by saying that I know nothing of telecommunications, but this is more for my personal knowledge. The way I think they have it connected right now is as follows. The T1 terminates at a CSU, which is then hooked into a Micom Marathon box. The box then sends the signals to a terminal server, where 32 9600 baud connectionsbranch out to vt220 compatible terminals. What I would like to do is take about 15 of the remaining channels and "merge" them to provide 960k of bandwidth between the two Retix routers. The routers can handle speeds of up to 2.048Mbps and can be configured with either RS-449, RS-232 or V.35 connections. First of all, is it possible to merge the channels and get a single connection to the router? Or would I have to purchase fifteen routers for each side (theoretically)? What would be required? 15 CSUs connected to a "reverse" multiplexer with a single DSU? If I'm getting my terminology wrong here, please correct me. In addition, if somebody could point me in the direction of a hardware manufacturer (preferably with a name and telephone number, plus product name), it would be greatly appreciated. Mail or telephone -- either would be great. Chris Labatt-Simon Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting pribik@rpi.edu (518) 495-5474 Tel (518) 786-6539 Fax ------------------------------ From: doug@lm.net Subject: Multi-carrier Service From Cincinnati Bell Date: 23 Oct 1993 22:33:54 -0400 Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA Yesterday I got a call from someone at Cincinnati Bell. This person was plugging their innovative new long-distance service. Apparantly, they havqe a special switch which selects the cheapest long distance carrier (based on time of day and destination of call) at the time the call is made. They broker time from the five major long-distance carriers (MCI, Sprint, etc) and some regional carriers. They wholesale this time through their special switching equipment, somehow making sure that their customers get the best deal. They also offer calling cards and other normal carrier incentives. This person went on to say that Cincinnati Bell is one of the few (perhaps the only) Bell Operating Companies that was allowed to do long distance businesss after the Bell breakup. Does anyone know about this product? Is this sort of deal particularly remarkable? Is he hiding something about Cincinnati Bell being a BOC and allowed to do long distance? Thanks, Douglas Luce Telerama [Moderator's Note: Cincinnati Bell is not and never was a 'Bell System' or Bell Operating Company. True, they have 'Bell' in their name, but AT&T was (maybe still is) only a minority stockholder. Thus, they were not/are not subject to the rules the BOC's have to follow. There are various services around which sell bulk rate long distance from various carriers and claim to choose the best (cheapest) for the occassion. It comes down to a question of their math and calculations versus your math and caclulation. It is not a bad deal for inexperienced users who want someone else to price out their long distance service for them. You can generally do as well by reviewing it yourself. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 03:52:39 PDT From: Mathew Englander Reply-To: Mathew Englander Subject: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services The Canada Direct service is set up so that in many countries around the world you can dial a local (or toll-free) number and be connected directly to a Canadian operator in Montreal or Vancouver, who will put through your call to any Canadian number and charge it either to your calling card (as a station-to-station call) or to the number being called (as person-to-person). It's the Canadian rates that are charged. My question is, why do the operators always ask what country you're calling from? Don't they know? And what happens if you tell them a different country from the one you're actually in? Seems like you could dramatically reduce the price of your calls that way. Perhaps this aspect of the service has changed since I last used it (in January 1992). Do American call-home services also ask what country the caller is in? Mathew Englander [Moderator's Note: This reminds me of many years ago when the long- distance operator would ask what number you were calling from for the purpose of writing up the charge ticket. (They honestly did not know, other than the prefix you were on.) Do you suppose the 'Direct' operators don't know either? I would urge against fraud however. PAT] ------------------------------ From: itstevec@hamlet.ucdavis.edu (Steve Chafe) Subject: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN Organization: University of California, Davis Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 18:12:27 GMT Hello, I have a question about ANI-related signalling as it goes through the public switched network. I just found two 800 numbers that cause charges to be billed back to the originator of the call. I understand that this is possible due to the fact that people who buy 800 numbers can get ANI with their calls if they want. But -- I called this number from our two different switches, and one call did not go through while the other (from the other switch and a different trunk group) did go through. Is it possible that there is some additional information, besides ANI, that went through the network and caused the 800 service to not accept the call from the first switch? Does anyone have any technical details if this is actually what is happening? I have a call into our Pac Bell account rep to see what they can tell me, but I thought I would pose the question to this group since there is so much expertise here. Is this legal now (to charge toll on an 800 call)? I thought it wasn't after the $120 per call 800-psychic-hotline thing had been taken out of service. All comments would be appreciated! Thanks, Steve Chafe UC Davis Communications Resources steve@telcom.ucdavis.edu/itstevec@hamlet.ucdavis.edu [Moderator's Note: AT&T says it is not legal to bill back a charge on an 800 number to the caller. Frank Carey, are you reading this? It is likely that if for some reason the receiver of the call was unable to capture the calling number from the one switch, they chose to ignore the call and let it go unanswered rather than accept it and not get paid for it (via their method of 'getting paid'). The whole concept of 800 service is TOLL FREE TO THE CALLER. I hope Frank or an associate will discuss this with you. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 21:56:57 EDT From: LESREEVES@delphi.com Subject: Mead Service via AT&T Mail AT&T Mail users will have access to a especially developed off-line electronic news services from Mead Data Central. The service, Pubcite, allows AT&T Mail users to subscribe to electronic tables of contents for 15 business and industry magazines, delivered to subscribers' e-mailboxes. Users may then order the full text of an article which is delivered by e-mail or fax. Pubcite costs $29 per month per title, plus $4.75 for each article ordered. ------------------------------ From: Emmanuel Goldstein Subject: Nationwide Caller ID is Here! Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 16:53:53 -0700 Apparently, nationwide Caller ID is beginning. The phone companies are denying this but we here at {2600 Magazine} have received several calls on our special Caller ID line that identify themselves as being from outside the state. So far, we've received calls into area code 516 from area codes 703, 314, 203, and 909. The latter code is California, which raises interesting questions since Caller ID has not yet been approved there. On at least one occasion, the call was placed using MCI as the long distance carrier. We are conducting an experiment over the next week or so. People calling our main office line (516-751-2600) will be forwarded to a line that has Caller ID and we will see what comes through and what doesn't. If you wish to participate, call this number and let it ring twice. This will be enough time to transmit the Caller ID data and you won't be charged since our machine doesn't pick up until after the third ring. (Don't worry, it's perfectly legal.) You might want to experiment with different long distance carrier access codes (10222, 10333, 10288, etc.). We will submit the results of this experiment to this conference. In the meantime, doesn anyone know the legal implications of Caller ID data being transmitted from California? ------------------------------ From: scott@ryptyde.nix.com (Scott McClure) Subject: Re: Four-wire Pay Phones? Organization: NIX - The Network Information eXchange Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 13:27:34 GMT Paul Robinson writes: > Scott McClure , writes: >> I was tracing a line in our building the other day >> (ahh, the joys of can-diving!) and came across what appeared >> to be a four-wire line for a pay phone. Is this normal? What >> would each of the four conductors be used for, compared with a >> normal two-wire line? > Anti-Theft alarm. That's actually pretty funny, in this case. The phone in question is inside a bunker-like building for training nuclear weapons technicians for the DON, and has a high fence with barbed wire, guards, CCTV cameras everywhere, and located on a major military installation. You have to have a SECRET clearance just to get in the building. I guess PacBell doesn't trust anyone these days ... 8-) Scott INTERNET: scott@nix.com Non-MX: ryptyde!scott@nosc.mil ICBMnet: 32-54N/117-15W [Moderator's Note: Actually, 'trusted employees' of companies and organizations sometimes turn out to be bigger thieves than the general public they serve. It is not unlikely that an employee of the facility might try to rip it off, knowing it likely he could walk in or out of the facility without the usual questions asked of outsiders. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Alarms on NT SL1-XT Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 15:41:51 -0700 From: Ken Stone I need to hook up an NT SL1-XT to our external alarm monitoring system. Trouble is, I can't figure out where things like power alarms, cabinet alarms, etc are available ... I found them on our newer column style RPE cabinets but I can't find hide nor hair on the switch itself. Any help appreciated. Ken Stone ------------------------------ Reply-To: gaj@pcs.win.net (Gordon Jacobson) Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 17:03:39 Subject: Re: 56k Confusion From: gaj@pcs.win.net (Gordon Jacobson) > I make hundreds of short calls from A to B each month. I can't > dial direct without doing business with AT&T, which I want to > avoid. So I set up a 800 number with some other company that > terminates at B and can only be called from A. The best rates > I've seen for my purposes are 0.165 per minute measured in 1/10 > minute increments with no monthly or per call fees for calls from > 617-352 to 603-598. By the way, what do you gurus think about > these rates? Can I get better in this market? I have looked > around a little and seen much worse. Joe - For Boston to Nashua (etc) there are better rates available. And remember 800 service is almost always more expensive then regular outbound service so you are paying some kind of premium under the setup described above. In order to make suggestions concerning viable alternatives, I have two questions that need to be answered: 1. Is this a business line or residential we are discussing? 2. What do you think your monthly LD bill comes to? As an afterthought -- why do you want to avoid doing business with any specific vendor? Regards, GAJ ------------------------------ From: Steve Hills Subject: Help Needed Paging via Unix Script Date: 23 Oct 93 21:26:09 GMT Organization: NCR Engineering & Manufacturing-San Diego Hi, A project I am working on has the ability to run UNIX shell scripts or executables when certain events occur on the system. We have been requested to provide a paging capability via a shell script or executable. Does anyone have any information (or perhaps a shell script) that could be of help to me? Steve Hills steve.hills@sandiegoca.ncr.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 23:05:40 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: Remote Call Forwarding - Alternatives? From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > I am looking for some methods of providing local dial-in access in > surrounding cities to our BBS. I have heard that remote call > forwarding would provide this functionality. And there will certainly be charges to you, depending on where the called number is at and where the terminating number is. There will be call transfer charges of possibly 2-15c per call, and possibly time and mileage charges of anything from 2-15c per minute. Try E-Mail to info@holonet.net. Holonet is offering dialup services for BBSs at lower rates around $3 an hour and Holonet has dialups in 850 cities. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU1=0205925@mhs.attmail.com Date: 23 Oct 93 19:47:33 GMT Subject: 9600 =baud= Doesn't Exist Just to add a little fuel to the fire: I hope y'all who're irritated at Sprint realize that if Sprint promised you a "9600 baud" modem, y'all are going to have to wait a =long= time before you get it -- because nobody has invented a 9600 baud modem. In fact, the fastest approved modem standards are for 2400 baud modems using 6 bit frequency shift keying (FSK) to produce throughput of 14400 bits per second. But they're still 2400 =baud=, because baud is a measurement of the carrier frequency, not the bit rate. (I leave it as an exercise for the student -- or the courts -- to decide if this gets Sprint off the hook.) See Harry Newton, _Newton's Telecom Dictionary_ (6th ed), "Baud Rate," on pages 120 to 121, for the truly definitive definition. If you're the kind of person who reads this mailing list/group/whatever, you simply =need= this book. J. Brad Hicks Internet: mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs.attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad ------------------------------ From: sp9183@swuts.sbc.com (Scott M. Pfeffer) Subject: Re: Western Union Building in St. Louis Being Razed Date: 23 Oct 93 19:44:30 GMT Organization: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company In article wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL Will Martin) writes: > The Western Union building in downtown St. Louis is now being razed. > This sits on a piece of downtown real estate that has long been slated > to become part of a grassy mall, but the plans for and construction of > this mall had been changed and delayed for many years. One issue I > recall reading about when it was initially proposed was that there was > a major confluence of telecommunications cabling under the WU > building, and there was a great expense involved in moving and > rerouting all this infrastructure. > I saw the wrecking ball working on the back side the other day -- the > building is VERY solidly constructed, and it looks like it will take a > while to reduce it... I have been unable to find out what communications facilities in and around the building have been affected. However, upon survey of the exterior of the structure as well as the street block, I noted several painted street markings delineating the location and direction of fibre and other cabling presumably beneath the surrounding roadways. One manhole cover is clearly marked with the letters MCI. Several two-way arrows have also been drawn, in bright florescent orange, showing SWBT line locations, direction, etc. The best estimate I have been able to obtain was that the building will take three to four weeks to demolish. It is indeed very sturdy. The wrecking ball operator needed over 30 minutes to bash a hole through four floors this afternoon ... When I queried a fellow employee at One Bell Center about the building being destroyed across the street, he simply replied: "I guess telegraph service isn't going to boom afterall." Any one want to buy a brick from an old Western Union Building??? &-). These are not the opinions of my employer, or any other entity. Scott Pfeffer Information Services, Southwestern Bell Telephone ------------------------------ From: cantor@mv.mv.com (David A. Cantor) Subject: Re: Capacity of Area Code Organization: MV Communications, Inc. Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 14:32:15 GMT In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > Many times I reach the AT&T operator instead of a recording when I > dial 1-700-555-4141 from a payphone. I have observed that many New > England Telephone payphones incorrectly state the long distance > carrier. On a payphone, you need to dial 0-700-555-4141 to find the long distance carrier. David A. Cantor +1 603-888-8133 131 D.W. Highway, #505 Nashua, NH 03060 ------------------------------ From: hemstree@lamar.acns.colostate.edu (Charles Hemstreet) Subject: Where is CallerID Implemented? Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 14:59:56 GMT Organization: Colorado State University I have CallerID at my home and really like having it. I am a bit frustrated that it seems that Denver on up the Front Range is the only one that has CallerID (area code 303). Even here in Ft. Collins I call my wife from across the street and "Out of Area" shows up on my box occassionally. Can someone fill me in with some more details? Thanks, Charles H. Hemstreet IV internet: hemstree@cs.Colostate.Edu Colorado State University or hemstree@lamar.Colostate.Edu [Moderator's Note: Another correspondent in this issue says the Caller-ID has become almost universal and that he is seeing numbers show up from all over the USA. I can confirm that since I get those same results on my Caller-ID display here. But there seem to still be offices even here in Chicago not yet equipped to sent it out. The message 'out of area' is given if the sending CO did not provide the caller's number -- even on a private 'do not pass this along to the end user' basis -- to the CO serving you. There still seems to be a hodge-podge of which offices are equipped and which are not, but check in again here next year this time; I'll bet the conversion will be nearly complete. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Oct 93 17:47:52 CDT From: John_Landwehr@NeXT.COM Subject: 708-796-9600 Charges You Extra! Warning: I received a note on my Ameritech bill with the following line: 4 Call/s to Name and Address Service $1.40 So all I can figure is that if you call 708-796-9600, they charge ya extra! (This number was listed in an earlier Digest as a number to name lookup.) jland [Moderator's Note: Uh, yeah, they charge for it, contrary to Usenet customs and all where everything is supposed to be free and handed out on silver platters. Talk about commercializing the net, eh! Calls to (312/708) 796-9600 are billed at 35 cents for each two lookups when calling from a (312/708) number. I think outside the area, just normal toll charges apply. You can use either area code to reach it; we just dial the seven digits. You will get an auto- mated service which tells you to punch in the (312/708) areacode and desired seven digit number. The voice will read back the name and address of the subscriber, or will tell you it is non-pub or that there is no record of the number. You can have two lookups per call then must dial back. A charge is made whether or not the lookup is successful (produces the desired results). An online menu is available to help you use the system. Watch for a message tomorrow in news.groups talking about this latest 'sleazy commercial use of the net' (by this message appearing here). By the way, the phone book here *does* say telco charges for the ser- vice; it is not secret charge stuck on your bill. No mention is made however of whether or not they cleared with the net.police the require- ment that Usenet readers would have to pay to use the database, con- trary to common wisdom around here. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #717 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16776; 24 Oct 93 15:24 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21664 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 24 Oct 1993 13:05:50 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11754 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 24 Oct 1993 13:05:15 -0500 Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 13:05:15 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310241805.AA11754@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #718 TELECOM Digest Sun, 24 Oct 93 13:05:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 718 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Calling Card Woes (Steve Kass) Re: Calling card Woes (Gary Morris) Re: Calling Card Scam (Chaim Frenkel) Re: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents (Bill Nott) Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? (Mike Morris) Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? (Gregory Youngblood) Re: Screwed Up 900 Service (Steve Brack) Re: Amusing Misdialed Call (David Appell) Re: Amusing Misdialed Call (Gordon Croft) Re: Alarms on NT SL1-XT (John K. Scoggin, Jr) Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (John K. Scoggin, Jr) Wanted: Best Price on Low-Usage 800 and Calling Card Service (Thom Byxbe) Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors (Tom Scheer) Re: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs (Jeff Bamford) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 19:09:04 EDT From: SKASS@DREW.DREW.EDU Subject: Re: Calling Card Woes In TELECOM Digest Issue 716, Javier Henderson writes: > I tried to place a call with my Orange Calling Card from a privately > owned payphone. I dial the toll free number to get the dial tone, it > goes through, then as I dial the sequence of numbers to reach the > person I needed to talk to I get interrupted by a fast busy. Two more > tries give the same result. An attempt to use my MCI calling card also > fails. I called the operator, and she said that 'to curtail the use of > their phones in drug deals they limit the number of digits one can > punch per call'. It's not only from COCOTs that this will happen, and even a pocket tone generator doesn't get around it. I spent some time trying to figure this one out, and as best I can tell, local law enforcement officials think they can make it harder for drug dealers to access voice mail by implementing this "feature." The cops then convince the various phone owners (BOCs included) to "help in the war against drugs." At least I surmised this much from various conversations with phone companies and regulatory officials, none of whom would say exactly this outright. They're also trying to limit theft of phone service from businesses with outgoing lines that can be called up and accessed with the right button punching, I think. The big customers have more pull than most of us. Steve Kass/ Math & CS/ Drew U/ Madison NJ 07940/ skass@drew.drew.edu [Moderator's Note: Yeah, but they cannot lawfully prohibit the use of telephone calling cards under the new rules. I do not care whose calling card it is, Orange or otherwise. Report it to the FCC. PAT] ------------------------------ From: garym@alsys.com (Gary Morris @ignite) Subject: Re: Calling Card Woes Organization: Alsys Group, San Diego, CA, USA Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 21:24:54 GMT In henderson@cam1.mln.com writes: > I tried to place a call with my Orange Calling Card from a privately > owned payphone. I dial the toll free number to get the dial tone, it > goes through, then as I dial the sequence of numbers to reach the > person I needed to talk to I get interrupted by a fast busy. I run into this problem a lot on pay phones, either trying to use my calling card or trying to access my voice mail (via an 800 number). The pay phones around here either cut off the keypad after they connect the call or after you punch a few numbers. The response I get from the operator is that the phone is probably not working and they will tell repair, but I don't believe it. My workaround is to avoid all independent pay phones and only use Pacific Bell, where I have never had wthis kind of problem. GaryM [Moderator's Note: Private (COCOT) payphones which do this are not working correctly in accordance with law. You need to mark them out of order in such a way that unsuspecting users cannot deposit coins in them accidentally until they have been repaired/reprogrammed. We have printed labels available in the Telecom Archives for this pur- pose. And keep after the owner of the instrument until it is fixed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: chaim@thor.fsrg.bear.com (Chaim Frenkel) Subject: Re: Calling Card Scam Date: 24 Oct 93 03:43:50 GMT Organization: Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. Is it possible that they wish to avoid the old trick of passing messages in the name? Most operators would not recognize a legitimate Hindu name, let alone a fake one. Customer: Operator I would like to place a person-to-person call to Operator: Just one moment ... ... Meanwhile ... I am sorry but is not available but would you speak to Customer: No, Thank you operator. Chaim Frenkel On contract at: chaim@nlk.com chaim@fsrg.bear.com Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. [Moderator's Note: There is no convenient work-around by telco. That is why person-to-person calls carry such a high surcharge; so that the customers who do not use this method of petty theft get to pay the bills for the ones who do. And the automated collect calling service (where you record your name when requested for playback to the called party) does not help any. It actually is aggrevating this petty fraud. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bill=Nott%Graphics=Dev%PCPD=Hou@bangate.compaq.com Subject: Re: Re: Scam to Get Calling/Credit Card Numbers From Parents Organization: Compaq Computer Corporation Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 21:33:52 GMT In article , John Sullivan wrote: >> I just got this e-mail from my mother. As you will see, someone is >> trying to get people to give out their calling card numbers by >> pretending to have collect calls from loved ones, and then saying >> there is a block. > [ .. long story about the actual scam deleted] > I am wondering, if you suspected a scam why did you not give a bogus > number because a real AT&T operator could easily validate the number > while a false one would not be able to so easily? If it were a real > operator then you could say you mis-remembered the number etc. This is a good thought, but an associated question is: How long would it take for someone to think of this and use it when they are being "held emotional hostage" by the scammer? I believe many scams succeed because of the emotional angle being played, rather than depending on a victim's inability to think quickly or thoroughly. Maybe this can be a key to help us all be more scam resistant; remind ourselves to beware whenever we get a questionable phone call with emotional content. Bill ------------------------------ From: morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) Subject: Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? Organization: College Park Software, Altadena, CA Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 06:33:01 GMT Tony Harminc writes: > elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) wrote: >> Hmpf. How about a creative idea for phoiling phrauds? >> Provide customers with some kind of false card and PIN number. >> The false number is actually some sort of flag or booby trap. When a >> possible fraud calls for your card number, give him the false one. >> When the @$$%! uses the phalse number, the long-distance company's >> computer is instantly alerted to the originating phone number as a >> possible fraud in progress. > Some burglar alarm companies use something much like this. If you set > off your own alarm, you can call the alarm company and give them your > security code to cancel the response. But they also give you a handy > pocket-sized card with a false security code on it. If you are > surprised by an intruder who has set off the alarm, and forced to make > the call, you read the fake number off the card and the alarm company > immediately knows that there is a much more serious situation than a > simple alarm trip. Many alarms also have a "I've got a gun pointed at my head" feature. Let's say that you have a storefront business, and you are opening up one morning, and some thug with an IQ of egg white sticks a gun in your ribs, and tells you to disarm the alarm system, and open the safe. Let's say that your disarm code is 1234. You dial 1235 and that causes the alarm company to see a "duress disarm" code, and they scramble the cops to your address expecting a hostage situation. Generally the last digit of your disarm code is even, and the odd digit above it is the duress code. Mike Morris WA6ILQ PO Box 1130 Arcadia, CA. 91077 818-447-7052 evenings ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Creative Phraud Phoiling? From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Sat, 23 Oct 93 19:38:36 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems > Some burglar alarm companies use something much like this. If you set > off your own alarm, you can call the alarm company and give them your > security code to cancel the response. But they also give you a handy > pocket-sized card with a false security code on it. If you are > surprised by an intruder who has set off the alarm, and forced to make > the call, you read the fake number off the card and the alarm company > immediately knows that there is a much more serious situation than a > simple alarm trip. In addition, or in lieu of this method there is also the method where all people with access have a security code to punch in when they enter the building. If they are forced to enter the code then they are to enter one number higher (i.e. 1213 would be 1214) and this would trigger an immeidate response (supposedly -- I've fortunately never been in the position to test this one). Greg The Complete Solution BBS | Allfiles List: | Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-9058 (24hrs, v.32) | ~/tcsbbs.lst | Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site | zeta@tcscs.com | Cellular Telephoney Groups ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 93 02:53:41 -0400 From: Steve Brack Subject: Re: Screwed Up 900 Service johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) writes, on Sat, 9 Oct 93 00:35 EDT: > When the pile of bogus calls started, nofriends' group noticed it > immediately, since the calls were all on a new 900 line that they'd > just installed but hadn't started to advertise yet, so they weren't > expecting any calls at all there. They brought it to the attention of > their AT&T salesman who denied that anything odd was going on. > The calls went on for several months in strange bursts of dozens of > calls at intervals of under a minute, clearly not at all a normal > calling pattern. It sounds as though that 900 number may have been used by some other organization. A scenario I could imagine is that an owner-operator (privately owned semi truck) scheduling service uses a 900 number to give drivers their instructions, thereby ensuring collection of service fees. Through some sequence of events, whether it be telco misrouting, or the company ceasing to use that 900 number, calls intended for it go to "nofriends's" company, on a brand new line that hasn't even been advertised. Driver calls in, gets the business information announcement, hangs up, and tries again, maybe a few times. By the same token, this new number could have been misprinted on some sort of advertising posted near the phones. It reminds me of a problem we had here a few months ago. One of the larger Girl Scout councils in this area contracted for an 800 number on which to take credit card orders. Unbeknownst to them, the number had previously been used by a phone sex line. Ironically, the number the Girl Scouts were using was 1 - 800 - BAD - GIRL. > A more relevant question is why AT&T is claiming fraud, rather than > admitting that they made an error and relying on provisions in the 900 > service contract to get back overpayments. Presumably if they > admitted that it was their mistake, a court would be much less > sympathetic to their attempts to recover the money at this late date. > The principle of mitigation of damages suggests that AT&T's failure to > do anything about the strange calls in a timely way after it was > brought to their attention greatly weakens their claim to have been > defrauded. As far as I know, the owner of a phone line is responsible for all charges incurred by its use, other than costs beyond his or her control. If AT&T owned a line, and allowed 1-900 calls to be made over it, then no one, other than AT&T is liable, IMO especially since the owner of the line informed AT&T of the problem. If some intermediary, like the local telco, failed to carry out AT&T's blocking orders, then that intermediary assumes liability. At least, that's the way things stood as of my last business law class. 8) Steven S. Brack sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu Toledo, OH 43613-1605 STU0061@UOFT01.BITNET MY OWN OPINIONS sbrack@nyx.cs.du.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 93 15:36 GMT From: David Appell <0005946880@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Amusing Misdialed Call PAT wrote: > AT&T does not need to change anything, but Royko needs to be put out > to pasture. He is just a crude, rude idiot anyway. I've followed his > writing since he was a reporter on the crime beat for the Chicago News > Bureau (a service owned jointly by all the newspapers here for local > stuff) thirty years ago, including his first big-time assignment of > writing a daily column for the long gone {Chicago Daily News}. He does > not impress me as anything but a boor. He may be a crude, rude idiot ... but he has succeeded in getting you to read his (and his paper's) column for 30 years, no? David [Moderator's Note: Well, you have a very valid point there. If being a crude, rude and lewd idiot is what it takes, then maybe I should practice up on my boorishness. Some would probably say I don't need to practice up; this mailing list is larger than it has ever been before. Consider all the people who write me to tell me how much they hate this Digest; they still seem to read it all the time also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gordon_Croft@mindlink.bc.ca (Gordon Croft) Subject: Re: Amusing Misdialed Call Date: 23 Oct 93 22:59:41 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada > Joe Bergstein writes: > I thought TELECOM Digest might get a chuckle from incident which > occurred to me last week. I was dialing from Maryland area 301 and > was trying to reach someone at Microsoft in Redmond Washington. Well I > dialed 206-635-xxxx, and the phone rang and was answered with > "Citizens Bank, Customer Service". I asked "Is this 206-635-xxxx (the > real number I was dialing), and without missing a beat, the bank rep > said "Oh you're trying to reach Microsoft ... you forgot to dial the > '1' first". I guess Citizens Bank of Maryland (301-206-6xxx numbers) > must be getting an awful lot of calls for Microsoft from Washington > D.C. area folks forgetting the dial 1 prefix! Pardon my ignorance but do you mean that you DON'T have to dial the "1" when you call long distance? Up here in the "Great white north" we dial "1" all the time for long distance!!! :) Gord [Moderator's Note: Yeah, precisely Gord. You are supposed to dial '1' and the caller forgot to dial '1' so they wound up with a wrong (local) number. Understand now? PAT] ------------------------------ From: John K Scoggin Jr Subject: Re: Alarms on NT SL1-XT Date: 24 Oct 1993 17:16:20 GMT Organization: Delmarva Power & Light Reply-To: scoggin@delmarva.COM In article 8@eecs.nwu.edu, Ken Stone writes: > I need to hook up an NT SL1-XT to our external alarm monitoring system. > Trouble is, I can't figure out where things like power alarms, cabinet > alarms, etc are available ... I found them on our newer column style > RPE cabinets but I can't find hide nor hair on the switch itself. Well, on an SL-1NT, there is a cable called an "Alarm and Transfer (P10) Cable" which is attached to connector J10 on the top panel of the Common Equipment cabinet. Look at Installation Practice DP1008. If you need the pin-out, holler ... John K. Scoggin, Jr. Email: scoggin@delmarva.com Supervisor, Network Operations Phone: (302) 451-5200 Delmarva Power & Light Company Fax: (302) 451-5321 500 N. Wakefield Drive NOC: (800) 388-7076 Newark, DE 19714-6066 The opinions expressed are not those of Delmarva Power, simply the product of an over-active imagination... ------------------------------ From: John K Scoggin Jr Subject: Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Date: 24 Oct 1993 17:21:18 GMT Organization: Delmarva Power & Light Reply-To: scoggin@delmarva.COM In article 1@eecs.nwu.edu, pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > What I would like to do is take about 15 of the remaining channels > and "merge" them to provide 960k of bandwidth between the two > Retix routers. The routers can handle speeds of up to 2.048Mbps > and can be configured with either RS-449, RS-232 or V.35 connections. > First of all, is it possible to merge the channels and get a single > connection to the router? Or would I have to purchase fifteen routers > for each side (theoretically)? What would be required? 15 CSUs > connected to a "reverse" multiplexer with a single DSU? If I'm > getting my terminology wrong here, please correct me. In addition, if > somebody could point me in the direction of a hardware manufacturer > (preferably with a name and telephone number, plus product name), it > would be greatly appreciated. Mail or telephone -- either would be > great. One way is to install a mini-DACS between the CSU and the router and Micom boxes. There are also some CSUs that will create 2 V.35 data connections from a T-1 - the Digital Link DL551VX will do this at a reasonable price (approx $3100-3200 at each end). Digital Link sells through distributors like Glasgal (201-768-8082) or direct. John K. Scoggin, Jr. Email: scoggin@delmarva.com Supervisor, Network Operations Phone: (302) 451-5200 Delmarva Power & Light Company Fax: (302) 451-5321 500 N. Wakefield Drive NOC: (800) 388-7076 Newark, DE 19714-6066 The opinions expressed are not those of Delmarva Power, simply the product of an over-active imagination... ------------------------------ From: ao943@yfn.ysu.edu (Thom Byxbe) Subject: Wanted: Best Price on Low-Usage 800 and Calling Card Service Date: 23 Oct 1993 02:06:35 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net I'd like to know what the best available rate is for low usage 800 service (preferably with no or low monthly fee) and also which travel card has the lowest per-call surcharge and best per-minute rates. I am aware that the moderator offers services of this type and have sent him an email message requesting information, but would also be interested in any competitive offerings that readers may feel are exceptional deals. Please send any replies via e-mail. [Moderator's Note: I have told him about Orange Card and my new 800 numbers which charge 18.4 cents per minute flat rate at all times, but perhaps others will contribute to his efforts to find a good deal. PAT] ------------------------------ From: scheert@nic.cerf.net (Tom Scheer) Subject: Re: Stutter Dial-Tone Detectors Date: 24 Oct 1993 07:53:17 GMT Organization: CERFnet Dial n' CERF Customer In article hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly. edu (Harold Hallikainen) writes: > Am I missing something here? Why are stutter dial-tone > detectors needed? I understand that a stutter dial-tone will be sent Yes, you are missing something. You don't get a voice-mail message every time your phone rings. Some people hang up and don't leave a message. What the original poster wants is something to alert him that he has a message waiting, not that his phone rang in his absence. There is no way to detect the stutter dial tone without taking the line off-hook. Tom Scheer scheert@cerf.net ------------------------------ From: jeffb@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Jeff Bamford) Subject: Re: Bell Canada Long Distance Dialing Changes For New NPAs Organization: Audio Research Group, University of Waterloo Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 13:45:51 GMT In article , Bill Hofmann wrote: > djcl@io.org writes: >> This is already the case in 416 and 905, thus no further changes are >> expected for those area codes. This will affect other Bell area codes: >> Ontario's 519, 613, 705 and 807, plus Quebec's 418, 514 and 819. > Are these and other Canadian codes currently 1 + seven for toll in > area code and 1 + ten for toll outside area code? Essentially yes, in area code 519 (where I attend school) you only need to dial 1 + number for calls inside 519, however 1 + 519 + number also works. In fact it is possible to phone locally with 519+number. However, in area code 506 (where I am from) it is not possible (the last time I tried) to phone locally within 506 and specify the areacode. I have not tried long distance. To my knowledge it was only 416 that required 1 + 416 for long distance within the areacode, when 905 started it also need this requirement. Jeff Bamford jeffb@audiolab.uwaterloo.ca -- NeXT Mail welcome jeffb@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca / jeffb@physics.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #718 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25900; 26 Oct 93 2:51 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25907 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 25 Oct 1993 23:56:56 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26090 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 25 Oct 1993 23:56:20 -0500 Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 23:56:20 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310260456.AA26090@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #719 TELECOM Digest Mon, 25 Oct 93 23:56:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 719 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson CPSR NII Paper (Dave Banisar) Combinet Remote Control Program (David E. Martin) A Comparison of Services (Dave Levenson) FCC #10 (Leonard Erickson) Fiber Optic System Testing (Leonard Smart) Chinese-Text Pager? (Lee Chen) Summary: Octel Forwarded to Pager (Steve Gibbons) We're Sorry the Monster is Busy (Jeff Jonas) Info on New Emergency Locator Transmitters (Delavar K. Khomarlou) Replacement Handset Needed For Replica Western Electric Phone (D. Veeneman) AT&T System 75 Switch to NT Meridium 1 (Tim Kramer) Latin America Telecom T (Hector Myerston) Our Moderator and Death (Tim Schmitt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Organization: CPSR Washington Office From: Dave Banisar Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 21:14:55 EST Subject: CPSR NII Paper CPSR NII Paper Contact: Todd Newman (CA) 415-390-1614 Eric Roberts (CA) 415-723-3642 Coralee Whitcomb (MA) 617-356-4309 Marc Rotenberg (D.C.) 202-544-9240 COMPUTER SCIENTISTS RAISE SOCIAL AND DESIGN CONCERNS ABOUT THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY Palo Alto, Calif., October 25, 1993 -- In the wake of sudden corporate mergers and rapid technological developments, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) today voiced concern that the planned information superhighway will not realize its full potential. The public interest organization put forward specific guidelines for the National Information Infrastructure (NII) in a paper titled, "Serving the Community: A Public-Interest Vision of the National Information Infrastructure." Urging the Clinton Administration to move quickly to adopt these principles, CPSR President Eric Roberts said, "Although there is widespread agreement on general goals, there is no specific plan to ensure that these goals are met." "It is much easier to state a vision than to achieve it, " said Dr. Roberts, who is also Associate Chair of the Computer Science department at Stanford University. "And there are many dangers on the horizon that threaten to compromise the value of the NII as a resource for the public. "For example, if a small number of companies dominate the market, we're in danger of stifling competition and innovation on the network. If those same companies control the programming, then open and diverse speech is limited. If pricing structures do not cover universal service, the average person and the poor will be struggling to use the backroads of the information highway. If privacy isn't protected, your TV could keep more detailed records of your finances than the IRS. And, if the NII is not designed to allow everyone to communicate freely and to publish their own contributions, it could become nothing more than a medium for delivering 500-channel television, with interactivity limited to home-shopping and trying to guess the next play during sporting events." CPSR's paper expands on these dangers and makes specific policy and technical recommendations for the newly formed Information Infrastructure Task Force. The Task Force is expected to coordinate network policy for the Clinton Administration. "In its 'Agenda for Action' document, the Administration has set forth a positive vision of what the NII can be," said Dr. Roberts. "To achieve that vision, however, the government must play a major role in the design, development, and regulation of the network." CPSR recommends that the Administration adopt the following policies: o Promote widespread economic benefits by evaluating the NII's economic success using measures that reflect its impact on the society as a whole, not merely the profits of NII investors and service providers. o Evaluate the social impact of the NII by conducting periodic reviews as the NII is implemented and used to guarantee that it continues to serve the public interest. o Guarantee equitable and universal access through an appropriate mix of legislation, regulation, taxation, and direct subsidies. o Promote the development of a vital civic sector by ensuring resources, training, and support for public spaces within the NII where citizens can pursue noncommercial activities. o Promote a diverse and competitive marketplace in terms of the content carried over the NII. o Provide access to government services and information over the NII. o Encourage democratic participation by ensuring full public disclosure, and actively promoting democratic decision-making and public participation in all stages of the development process. o Actively facilitate the seamless connection of America's NII with the information infrastructures of other nations by working to resolve such issues as security, censorship, tariffs, and privacy. o Guarantee the functional integrity of the NII by establishing critical technical requirements including ease of use, widespread availability, full functionality, high reliability, adequate privacy protection, and evolutionary expansion. The recommendations follow from a yearlong review of the NII conducted by CPSR. The process included collecting more than 1,200 suggestions for NII policy from network users across the country, drafting a report, holding special chapter meetings on the NII in Berkeley, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and having a multiple-draft review process by the membership. Final changes to the report were made at the annual meeting of CPSR, where the report was adopted unanimously by the CPSR Board of Directors. Dr. Roberts noted that he was very pleased by the level of participation in the NII report. "The computer community knows that the NII is the critical technological issue facing the United States today. Our members were extremely responsive when we asked them to participate in this project, because they understand from their own experience how much the NII has to offer." CPSR also worked closely with the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable (TPR), a coalition of more than sixty nonprofit, consumer, labor and civil rights organizations based in Washington, DC. CPSR's paper endorses the principles set forth by TPR. TPR will unveil its founding principles in a press conference, Tuesday, October 26th at 10:00 a.m. at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. CPSR is planning a conference next April in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the future of the NII, The Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing. The conference will investigate at a more specific level how to achieve the principles in the CPSR report. Founded in 1981, CPSR is a national, nonprofit, public interest organization of computer professionals and others concerned with the impact of computer technology on society. With offices in Palo Alto, California, and Washington D.C., and 22 chapters across the country, CPSR works to encourage public discussion of decisions involving the use of computers in systems critical to society and to challenge the assumption that technology alone can solve political and social problems. CPSR's NII paper is available electronically by sending email to listserv@cpsr.org. In the message write the command "GET CPSR NII_POLICY" The paper will automatically be mailed to you. You can also FTP/WAIS/Gopher cpsr.org/nii/cpsr_nii_policy.txt. For a hard copy of the paper or for more information about CPSR, call 415-322-3778 or write to cpsr@cpsr.org. For information about the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable, contact Jeff Chester at 202-628-2620 or cme@access.digex.net. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 18:27:35 CDT From: David E. Martin Reply-To: David E. Martin Subject: Combinet Remote Control Program Announcing Version 1.1 of the Combinet Remote Control Program (CBRC). CBRC implements the Combinet remote control protocol over IP. It runs on Sun SparcStation's running SunOS 4.1.x. After typing cbrc , you can control a Combinet bridge exactly as if you were connected via the serial port. I appreciate all bug reports and ports. The software is made available in a UNIX tar file, and is retrievable via: WWW URL: gopher://www.hep.net:70/99/info_center/utilities/unix/cbrc11.tar Gopher Bookmark: Name=Combinet Bridge Remote Control Program via IP for Sun (tar) Type=9 Port=70 Path=9/.anon_ftp/utilities/unix/cbrc11.tar Host=gopher.hep.net Anonymous FTP: server: ftp.hep.net file: utilities/unix/cbrc11.tar DECnet COPY (only for those connected to HEP-NSI DECnet) HEPNET::[ANON_FTP.UTILITIES.UNIX]CBRC11.TAR David E. Martin National HEPnet Management Phone: +1 708 840-8275 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory FAX: +1 708 840-8463 P.O. Box 500, MS 368; Batavia, IL 60510 USA E-Mail: dem@hep.net ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: A Comparison of Services Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 23:18:40 GMT Last week at a customer site, I had an opportunity to compare customer service response by two carriers -- a truly apples-to-apples comparison. The customer is a voice service bureau with a bunch of 900 numbers. Some of these are intra-LATA, provided by New York Telephone (a Nynex company) under the service offering called Circuit-9. Others are inter-LATA, and provided by MCI Communications. Both services are delivered via T-1 facilities; both terminate at the same address, and both are connected to a Westmark-supplied interactive voice system implemented with Dialogic hardware and our application software. On that day, both T-1 lines showed normal synchronization (the circuits themselves were connected) and calls to 900 numbers in both groups resulted in telco-supplied recordings indicating that the call did not go through. Our equipment showed that all channels on both T-1 spans were idle. I called MCI first. A technician called me back within ten minutes. He listened to my description of the symptoms, took a look at his translations database, and had the lines working five minutes later. Then I called New York Telephone. A technician called me back in about an hour. He listened to my description of the symptoms and then said he'd call me back. About 30 minutes later, he called again with another technician conferenced in. The other technician was a T-1 transmission specialist. I told him that we had synchronization, but that we were getting no calls. The T-1 specialist told me that if we had synch, it wasn't _his_ trouble. The original technician then told me that if we had a good T-1 link and no calls, it must be the long distance carrier. I told him that NY Tel _is_ the carrier, and that the service was intra-LATA. He told me that NY Tel did not provide local service over T-1 facilities. (That was becoming obvious!) I told him that they did offer it, under the service mark Circuit-9, and provided one of the directory numbers associated with the service. He told me it was news to him and that he'd have to call Brooklyn. (Brooklyn is only a local call from Manhattan, just across the East River, but he said it as if here were contemplating a call to a different hemisphere.) Someone from Brooklyn (they apparently do central office translations work in Brooklyn!) called later on and said that there is, indeed, something called Circuit-9, but that the guy who knows how it works was off that day. Perhaps some competition in the local loop would be helpful here. I ought to ask Teleport about their equivalent service! Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 19:20:16 PDT From: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Erickson) Subject: FCC #10 I keep hearing about "FCC #10" and it sounded like it'd be just what I needed to get a *good* list of exchanges for the local area codes. So I dropped by the local US Goverment Printing Office bookstore. They said they'd never heard of it. "Do you know the SUDOCs number?" (or was it "SUCCODE"?) So I went to the local depository library. With much the same results. I'd greatly appreciate it if someone would tell me the magic number ... uucp: uunet!m2xenix!puddle!51!Leonard.Erickson Internet: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ From: smart@mindlink.bc.ca (Leonard Smart) Subject: Fiber Optic System Testing Date: 26 Oct 93 03:10:43 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada I have a client who has an in-place fiber-optic trunk system (actually several segments, each several hundred miles long) built over several years by several different contractors using different technology vintages. He is anxious to test the systems to determine performance limitations with respect to supporting current high speed (SONET-class) services -- and identify bottlenecks. Can any one suggest how he should approach this problem, know who might know how, or where we might turn to have this kind of work done? Thanks, Len Smart Leonard Smart Telephone: (604) 420-5114 President Fax: (604) 420-1795 L.W. Smart & Associates Ltd. Internet: smart@mindlink.bc.ca 8182 Woodlake Court Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 3P4 ------------------------------ From: lee@phantom.com (Lee Chen) Subject: Chinese-Text Pager? Organization: Mindvox Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1993 19:00:21 GMT I have an immediate need for a large quantity of pagers capable of displaying simplified Chinese text. Does such a thing exist? Regards all, \\Lee ------------------------------ From: sunquest!nereid!steve@uunet.UU.NET (Steve Gibbons) Subject: Summary: Octel Forwarded to Pager Date: 25 Oct 93 05:57:00 GMT Organization: Sunquest Information Systems, Instrument Interfacing Almost a month ago, I posted an article to this group/list asking for help WRT forwarding my Octel Aspen system's voice mail (notification therof, rather) to my digital pager. I admit now that I committed the "great Usenet sin of not Reading TFM." I still haven't RTFMed because TFM is locked up in a closet in the basement, and it's a pain to get to. But I did find a solution to my problem. Aparently, the user must enable the pager-forwarding feature themselves by accessing their Octel account and choosing option 4, sub-option 4; in addition to any changes made from the console. This did not seem to be necessary, while attempting to configure the forwarding from the Aspen's console. Let this be a lesson, kids. (I'm so ashamed...) My thanks to the one person on this forum that did respond, and to the Octel personell that responded. Steve@sunquest.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 23:55:21 -0400 From: Jeff Jonas Subject: We're Sorry the Monster is Busy There's a promotion on Coca-cola products with SPRINT where you call an 800 number and enter the number under the cap to see if you own anything. I just dialed it and got the intercept "all lines are busy, please try again later". I'd say Sprint got a black eye -- a telecom company running out of lines? Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@panix.com [Moderator's Note: How do you know the recording came from Sprint and not from your local telco which may have been experiencing some con- gestion in getting through to that carrier or in their own central office? How do you know it was Sprint and not some service bureau hired to talk to people in their behalf? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Delavar.K.Khomarlou@hydro.on.ca (Delavar K. Khomarlou) Subject: Info on New Emergency Locator Transmitters Reply-To: Delavar.K.Khomarlou@hydro.on.ca Organization: Ontario Hydro Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 10:25:39 -0400 I am looking for information on the new emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) operating at 405 Mhz (?) I understand the frequency stability requirement is high on these units. I need to know how tight the ocillator sepc is and h w the messaging link on these operate. An email to Delavar.k.Khomarlou@ Hydro.ont.ca would be best. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Subject: Replacement Handset Needed for Replica Western Electric Phone From: Dan Veeneman Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 16:33:42 EDT Organization: Fountainhead Title Group Hello, My grandmother, being the nostalgic person that she is, wants to press into service an old hand cranked telephone she's had since the 1930's (she's served by a community telephone service, which is another story). Rather than gut the old telephone, I picked up a secondhand Western Electric replica. It has a rotary dial on the front, and a hookswitch on the side on which a handset hangs. It has a normal RJ-11 connector out the back, and appears to have been put into service in Illinois around 1984, so it's not *that* old. The problem is that the handset is missing the mouthpiece. The handset is connected to the telephone by a standard handset jack, so I could always pick up a brown handset, but that would break the replica feel of the phone. The original handset had a wood handle and a wood earpiece cover, which I would like to duplicate as closely as possible. Does anyone know of a place where I could find replacement parts (specifically, a handset for this particular telephone? If it helps, the back of the telephone has a couple stickers on the back; one with a serial number (168054) and the other with the numbers 951A1-3 and 80154. Thanks for any information, Dan uunet!anagld!ftgcorp!dan dan@ftgcorp.UUCP (Dan Veeneman) The Fountainhead Title Group Corporation Real Estate Title Services [Moderator's Note: You might tell grandma also that as nostalgic as the old phone might be, in service it is going to sound awful. The technology has changed so much over the years, and so gradually, we have become accustomed to better transmission without realizing it. I think she will be a lot happier with the 'antique phone' you purchased for her even it it isn't entirely historically accurate. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tim Kramer Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 07:23:21 -0500 Subject: AT&T System 75 Switch to NT Meridium 1 I'm currently using vectoring on an AT&T System 75 which I know NT has used for years. I just don't see any major advantage of getting rid of everything including the phones for a change. I know NT is great stuff so I know that I'm missing some specs somewhere. What are the biggest reasons for switching over from an AT&T System 75 to a Northern Telecom Meridium 1? Any small switch gurus out there that can help? Thanks! Tim Kramer tkramer@phc.com ------------------------------ Date: 25 Oct 1993 09:49:09 -0800 From: Hector Myerston Subject: Latin America Telecom Trade Shows I am looking for information on Latin America telecom trade shows. If you have any information on this (companies in US or in Latin America) who sponsor, show dates etc) please reply address below. Thanks in advance. myerston@sri.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 15:51:48 PDT From: tims@ocsg.com (Tim Schmitt) Subject: Our Moderator and Death Patrick, When you move onto that great telephony in the sky, what will happen to this Digest? By the way, have you considered being cremated and having your ashes put in a phone? It sure beats a vase :) The possi- bilities go on and on (a twenty-one ring salute, the first teleconfer- ence services, or having your coffin lowered into the ground with telephone wire.) Tim tims@ocsg.com (A concerned reader) [Moderator's Note: Dear Concerned Reader: Thank you very much for your letter. It sure was good to hear from you. Let me pause and smoke a cigarette while I think of an appropriate response to yours. I like your idea involving telephone wire, but instead of using it to lower my coffin (I am not finished building it yet; I add a few nails each day :] ) in the ground I shall have a live wire pair buried with me attached to a modem and terminal so I can continue propogandizing, commercially abusing and unduly influencing the net in the afterlife. I'm hoping the landlord gets air conditioning installed before I get there. I wouldn't be the first person to take a live phone circuit with me: there have been stories for many years about Mary Baker Eddy doing the same thing in the early 1900's. When the directors of her organization finally decided she was going to be 'resting' longer than they expected and put her in the ground, they put a phone in with her so that when she 'woke up from her nap' she could call and let them know to come and get her. No mention has ever been made of the type of calling plan she was given or the default long distance carrier. Death does not concern me. You cannot be in a violence-riddled area like Chicago in a neighborhood full of drug dealers and be scared all your life. But I don't *live in Chicago any longer*. More about that in the next issue. As of this week, I live in Skokie, IL. The welfare of the Digest *does* concern me however, and to that extent I hope someone else would take it over and continue it. Maybe I will leave it in my will to John Higdon or a committee of the college freshmen who read news.groups since they are so adept at knowing how these things ought to work. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #719 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27318; 26 Oct 93 5:03 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00352 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 26 Oct 1993 02:26:45 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15155 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 26 Oct 1993 02:26:09 -0500 Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 02:26:09 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310260726.AA15155@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #720 TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Oct 93 02:26:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 720 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Fiber Optics (Craig Neeld) 1-800 Nasties (Tim Schmitt) PBX vs. Key System (Colleen Clancy) Re: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services (Laurence Chiu) Re: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services (Chaim Frenkel) Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (John P. Dearing) Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (Barton F. Bruce) Have You Used Excel "Dumb Switches"? (wright@LAA.COM) Re: Nationwide Caller ID is Here! (Arnette Schultz) Re: Nationwide Caller ID is Here! (Lynne Gregg) Re: My Kind of Town, Chicago is ... (Doug Rorem) Administrivia: Special Mailing Coming Next (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cneeld@garnet.acns.fsu.edu (Craig Neeld) Subject: Fiber Optics Organization: Florida State University Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 20:56:33 GMT I am looking for some information on fiber optics. Nothing too technical. Please email the info, whether it be internet sources or old fashioned books. Thanks, Craig Neeld ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 15:41:28 PDT From: tims@ocsg.com (Tim Schmitt) Subject: 1-800 Nasties I watched a news segment the other day describing my state's (Washington) screening process for personalized plates. Of course, all offensive words on plates are not allowed. In addition, candidates' plates are also crossed checked in the Dictionary of Slang, foreign dictionaries, and backwards spelling (when plates are observed in rear view mirrors). This made me wonder what the screening process for numbers is, if at all. How would you like to be the poor sap who ends up with 1-800-F***-YOU? I called the number to see if the number was active, and I don't think the owners mind too much -- it's a sex line. Another candidate, 1-800-EAT-S**T, was constantly busy. Maybe the phone company is one for two? I remember crank calling these numbers when I was a teenager, right after calling the bowling alley to ask them if they had 16 pound balls. tims@ocsg.com ------------------------------ From: cclancy@mac.avid.com (Colleen Clancy) Organization: avid Technology, Inc. Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 16:58:28 EDT Subject: PBX vs. Key System I am researching telephone systems for a field office of approximately 30 people that could possibly grow to 60 people. This office is primarily a sales office, but we intend on having some Customer Support Reps there to take calls. We have a Definity G3i PBX in our headquarters and are considering an aT&T G3s for the field location. The cost of the G3s would be approximatly $70k and I can not justify spending that amount of money for a relatively small field office. Not to mention that we would also require voice mail on top of that! Does anyone have any suggestions? Below are some additional questions. 1. What are the benefits of a PBX as compared to a smaller phone system (key system?)? 2. What is a good system that can handle T1's and DID connections in addition to voice mail for up to 60 people? Cost? 3. Has anyone heard of the atlas IIID digital phone system? 4. Where does the aT&T Merlin system fall in the hiearchy of telephone systems? ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services Date: 25 Oct 1993 21:25:33 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] In article , Mathew Englander wrote: > My question is, why do the operators always ask what country you're > calling from? Don't they know? And what happens if you tell them a > different country from the one you're actually in? Seems like you > could dramatically reduce the price of your calls that way. Perhaps > this aspect of the service has changed since I last used it (in > January 1992). > Do American call-home services also ask what country the caller is in? In my experiences of call home services (I used them from New Zealand using both MCI and AT&T) I was never asked what country I was calling from. In AT&T's case since their USA DIrect is completely automated, there is rarely a chance to even speak to an operator. I would suspect they would know what country you are calling from since the local Telco or PT&T would have to setup special lines or at least routings for a toll-free number to be able to reach the US. Laurence Chiu lchiu@crl.com Walnut Creek, CA Tel (work) (510)215-3730 ------------------------------ From: chaim@riddler.fsrg.bear.com (Chaim Frenkel) Subject: Re: Question About Overseas "Call-Home" Services Date: 25 Oct 93 20:22:59 GMT Organization: Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. In article mathew@unixg.ubc.ca (Mathew Englander) writes: > The Canada Direct service is set up so that in many countries around > the world you can dial a local (or toll-free) number and be connected > directly to a Canadian operator in Montreal or Vancouver, who will put > through your call to any Canadian number and charge it either to your > calling card (as a station-to-station call) or to the number being > called (as person-to-person). It's the Canadian rates that are > charged. When I was calling home from Israel and asked AT&T's USA Direct for the charges, I found that the charges were much higher than my the calling plan's in effect for my home number. They were even higher than the local PTT's (Bezek's) rates! The operator quoted (approximatly) US$5 for the first minute. My calling plan was US$0.41 in the reverse direction. Any ideas? Chaim Frenkel On contract at: chaim@nlk.com chaim@fsrg.bear.com Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. ------------------------------ From: jdearin@pacs.pha.pa.us ( John P. Dearing) Subject: Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Date: 26 Oct 93 01:00:53 GMT Organization: Philadelphia Area Computer Society In article , pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: -=[stuff about RS/600 and Novell deleted]=- > What I would like to do is take about 15 of the remaining channels > and "merge" them to provide 960k of bandwidth between the two > Retix routers. The routers can handle speeds of up to 2.048Mbps > and can be configured with either RS-449, RS-232 or V.35 connections. > First of all, is it possible to merge the channels and get a single > connection to the router? Or would I have to purchase fifteen routers > for each side (theoretically)? What would be required? 15 CSUs > connected to a "reverse" multiplexer with a single DSU? If I'm > getting my terminology wrong here, please correct me. In addition, if > somebody could point me in the direction of a hardware manufacturer > (preferably with a name and telephone number, plus product name), it > would be greatly appreciated. Mail or telephone -- either would be > great. You definitely won't need 15 routers. Does the current T1 CSU/DSU have more than one "output" port? If it has a port that is available, you can plug the router into that port and once you get the configuration right, things will just hum right along. At work, we use a bunch of Larse Split-T units. These units take a fractional T-1 circuit and allow you to split the individual DS0's between the two output ports. You can split them up just about any way you choose and can even have different configurations based on the time of day. For example, during the day you split it 50-50 between the two ports, but at night you give port "a" 80% of the DS0's and the rest to port "b". Don't know what they cost, but they sure work nicely and are pretty straightforward to set up and configure. Sorry, I don't have an address or phone number handy. All that info is at work. 8-( Bottom line is, with the right hardware you *can* do exactly what you propose to do. The only downside is that you may need different hardware from what you have right now. John Dearing @ PACS Multi-SIG BBS (Philadelphia Area Computer Society) Email: jdearin@pacs.pha.pa.us U.S.Snail: 725 Ripley Place, Phila. PA, 19111-2524 (USA) Voice Phone: +1.215.725.0103 (after 5pm Eastern) ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 25 Oct 93 02:45:34 -0400 In article , pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > I have a client who I am doing some work for right now involving the > connection of an IBM RS/6000 in Virginia to a Novell network in NY. > I will be using Retix bridges/routers between the two locations. In > the past, the telecom vendor has provided me a RS-449 connection > to a DSU/CSU, but in this case, I have yet to contact the vendor. > The client has a T1 line (fractional) of which two channels are > currently being utilized. Let me start by saying that I know > nothing of telecommunications, but this is more for my personal > knowledge. The way I think they have it connected right now > is as follows. The T1 terminates at a CSU, which is then hooked > into a Micom Marathon box. The box then sends the signals to It is a FT1 type CSU/DSU that is either giving you 112kb (2x56 if someone didn't know how to order properly) or 128kb (2x64kb). You can order more DS0s. The existing CSU/DSU may have only that one port, or may have two, four or more that you can get Nx56/63 out. It may also be a DI (Drop & Insert) unit that lets the rest of the T1 pass through to either a PBX or yet another similar box. > a terminal server, where 32 9600 baud connectionsbranch out to > vt220 compatible terminals. The Marathon itself can play terminal server, statmux, and ethernet bridge. If they are using it for compressed voice channels and are peeling bridged ethernet out to some EXTERNAL terminal server, be careful with your Retix -- maybe best to DUMP any Micom bridging and let the Retix feed the terminal server. If you have two bridges in parallel, you get loops unless spanning tree shuts down one path. Then, other than as a spare, it is WASTED as is its bandwidth. If you do offload the Marathon, maybe you can cut it back to 1 DS0. 449 isn't all that common here in the states. V.35 (love it or hate it) is very common. 530 is goodness, but too new to be readily available. You need to really understand WHAT is happening NOW. If there is NO voice I would assume the marathon is at least then doing some statmuxed terminal traffic (that is its heritage, anyway). If it isn't even doing that (what is it doing??), and you really can handle everything on a bigger Bridge/Router, consider the various Frame Relay offerings from ALL the IXCs. You may get much better performance for LESS $s. You can still keep the one or two DS0s the whole way for the Marathon if needed for voice, but the big router/bridge CAN use the same T1 local loops to access that carrier's F/R. With the current two plus the 15 you propose, you probably DON'T want to be buying FT1 by the DS0 ala-carte, but buying the WHOLE T1 and saving money if you MUST use a leased line the whole way. But F/R is a whole other game you HAVE to look at. You may want to change carriers to get the F/R service/price packaging you like. Whoever you get can do FT1 DS0s for the marathon or whatever voice applications. It is the F/R that varies so much between carriers. SHOP. If the data goes F/R, and assuming the marathons are now ONLY voice, their use MUST be reevaluated. With NO data, 2xDS0 may NOT be justified by voice alone. Use the T1s local loops to get past the LEC and get GOOD IXC switch voice prices. If the customer is BIG (>10K / mo IXC bills, or is using MCI that offers V-NET to smaller accounts!!) using a SDN/VPN/V-NET like service lets you do BOTH ends of switched calls between sites on the T1s bypassing the LEC and this saves $s. It also gives you DID like dialing to THE desktop even without LEC DID tks. If you are selling them some bigger consulting package and don't need to claim Telecom/Datacom expertise, get someone who KNOWS what is going on for that area. It is better than having the customer discover later you really missed the boat on something obvious. ------------------------------ From: wright@LAA.COM Subject: Have You Used Excel "Dumb Switches"? Date: 25 Oct 1993 18:19:59 GMT Organization: Lynn-Arthur Associates, Ann Arbor, MI Reply-To: wright@LAA.COM I'm looking for others who have experience with Excel PCX-512 and LNX-2000 switches. Please contact me. I'm also interested in hearing about other manufacturer's switches. ------------------------------ From: kityss@ihlpe.att.com Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 17:50 CDT Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID is Here! In article , Emmanuel Goldstein writes: > Apparently, nationwide Caller ID is beginning. The phone companies > are denying this but we here at {2600 Magazine} have received > several calls on our special Caller ID line that identify themselves > as being from outside the state. On at least one occasion, the > call was placed using MCI as the long distance carrier. Curious. Just a reminder to one and all -- this is only really noteworthy if {2600} subscribes to true Caller-ID (e.g. CLASS or LASS based) and not ANI delivery. Yes -- choice of carrier (IXC) is very important in this, as is LATA of origin. There are (at least) two places that Calling Party information could be "dropped" -- between the originating local telco and the IXC and likewise between the IXC and the terminating telco. Either entity may exclude Calling Party ID. from the SS7 information passed to the "connected" network. As far as I know there is an approximately two year old FCC proposed Rule making on inter-state Caller ID, but a final rule was never issued. So what happens will be very "Carrier dependent" at this point. > We are conducting an experiment over the next week or so. People > calling our main office line (516-751-2600) will be forwarded to a > line that has Caller ID and we will see what comes through and what > doesn't. If you wish to participate, call this number and let it ring > twice. This will be enough time to transmit the Caller ID data and you I called twice (MCI and AT&T) from work, but I just realized I "0+'d" the call (via 10xxx - 0 - number). Going via operator assistance (even robotic credit card validation) may invalidate the test. I'll try again from home (same CO) via 1+ later. Caller-ID is defeated via the operator, I just don't remember if that applies to only "0" (or "00") or also to "0 + NPA-NXX-XXXX". > In the meantime, doesn anyone know the legal implications of Caller > ID data being transmitted from California? Fun, fun, fun. Looks like some IXC(s) got tired of waiting for the FCC to say "yes" or "no" and started doing inter-LATA Caller-ID. Under the current Federal (e.g. inter-state) regulations -- the fact that the California PUC has barred CID should have no jurisdiction on inter-state calls. (Note, I'm not a lawyer, I don't even play one on TV.) Coming soon to a Supreme Court near you ... State of non-CID PUC vs IXC/Some Telco offering CID. Bets anyone??? Arnette Schultz kityss@ihlpe.att.com (Standard Disclaimer applies - I do not speak for AT&T only myself.) ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 09:47:00 PDT Caller ID, true, is widely deployed among Bell Cos. However, the INTERCONNECTION is another matter. I'm very interested in your results Emmanuel and even contributed my call from W. Washington's GTE-land to your test. Please post results. I'm eager to see what you find. Interconnection has been the real issue in making caller ID workable between carriers. Emmanuel, you also pose a very interesting question about legality of shipping Caller's number out of California. In view of the stance PacBell and GTE have taken in not deploying Caller ID in the State, my assumption would be that CLID doesn't get passed. Lynne [Moderator's Note: I'd like you to know that at our new home in Skokie the exchange I am on does NOT have any SS-7/CLASS stuff at all. Not a bit. No Caller-ID, no Call Screening, Last Number Redial -- none of those features. We don't even get *67, presumably because there is nothing to be blocked. I did not know such central offices were still around this area. Now I know they are! PAT] ------------------------------ From: rorem@eecs.uic.edu (Doug Rorem) Subject: Re: My Kind of Town, Chicago is ... Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 02:15:34 GMT TELECOM Moderator noted in response to Steve Hutzley: >> I was in Chicago several days ago for a trade show, and I would just >> like to comment on the city. I was suprised at how clean this city is >> -- I'm impressed. Chicagoans must really take pride in this, because I >> have seen the trash receptaclas on the streets full!. And no trash or >> papers blowing around on the streets. >> Nice City! |> [Moderator's Note: As Frank Sinatra once crooned, you probably even |> saw a man dancing with his own wife. Tell me this, how many blocks |> west of the lakefront did you travel? They do try hard to keep the |> area around McCormick Place very clean as well as North Michigan |> Avenue and the Near North/Streeterville area, since they like to impress |> the tourists who bring money with them. I venture to say you did not |> go south and east of McCormick Place, nor west of downtown ... **** West ... unless you meant Lake Michigan :) As far as Chicago goes ... (I know this is getting out of the telecom realm) I think there are plenty of other cities in the US with crime and school problems too. There are good and bad people everywhere, Chicago just has more of both. Doug Rorem UIC [Moderator's Note: Yes you are correct, I meant 'south and west of McCormick Place' ... and Chicago has a lot more of both. I finally got my wish of many years though: we are moving to Skokie, IL. We started moving over the past weekend and will be taking the computer stuff on Tuesday, so it might be a day or so before I get another issue out to you. This will be combination office and home. The nice thing is we will be able to walk outside at night and the four-year old will be able to play outside as well as have a decent school to go to next year when he starts kindergarten. I'll give out the new office fax and phone numbers in a couple days when it all gets organized. God knows where the money will come from to pay for it; the rent is $300 more than we are paying now; more than my old place and the Howard Street office put together, but we had to do something. The building we have lived in for about ten years has become a drug house for the neighborhood. We are really fleeing for our lives. :( Seriously. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 01:41:46 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Special Mailing Coming Next With all the commotions in recent weeks about the proposed new Usenet group comp.dcom.telecom.tech and my 'undue influence' upon the readers of the Digest (I had the temerity to say I thought the new group a bad idea and recommended a vote of NO), I've had numerous discussions with folks in email about whether or not life is fair and I am paranoid or not. In email correspondence with David Lawrence (aka 'tale') I suggested that we might end the nonsense about 'one sided presentations' here if a special edition of the Digest was devoted exclusively to the topic of the merits or lack thereof of an unmoderated Usenet telecom newsgroup. I suggested it should be done *without my participation* other than doing the mailing. That way, no one will see anything that others don't see. They'll select the remarks for inclusion, they'll edit it, they'll distribute it as they see fit, and they will hand it to me for mailing to the TELECOM Digest mailings lists and comp.dcom. telecom. I even suggested to David Lawrence that I thought former Digest participant John Higdon would make an excellent guest moderator for the occassion; but apparently they have decided Ron Dippold should handle it instead, even though JH made the original proposal. Have you ever hypnotized a chicken? It is really quite easy. First you pick the bird up gently so it is not frightened, and you hold it in your arms quietly, allowing it to rest. Hold in your fingers a small shiny object; a piece of mirror perhaps, or polished metal. Slowly move the shiny object with your fingers in front of the chicken so it catches the bird's attention. Notice the chicken's eyes following the shiny object as it moves back and forth. In thirty seconds or so, the bird will go into a hypnotic trance, its one-volt brain overloaded. Once trance has been induced, you speak quietly to the chicken and tell it, "Chicken, I want you to go get an email account somewhere and send a NO vote on comp.dcom.telecom.tech. I want you to go back to the henhouse and teach the other chickens how to get email accounts and send in NO votes also. If you get three or four email accounts, send in three or four NO votes ... make sure you get your whole family to vote NO also, and anybody you work with is to vote NO as well." I also suggested to David Lawrence and others (and will repeat myself here) that they don't need to wait six months before having another election. I'll waive any such guidelines so folks can vote again next week if they like. Frankly, I'm curious to see if they lose again what their complaint will be next time if they don't have the Moderator to kick around any longer. 'Undue influence', my a--! Do they presume I hypnotized telecom readers and sent secret messages out? Anyway, in your next mail from me, Ron Dippold will call for your participation in an open discussion about comp.dcom.telecom.tech and over the next weekend, he will publish the comments of his choice. I urge everyone to read and participate. (Watch them squall and scream at me now for even telling you to listen up and participate ....). Send your responses ONLY as directed by Mr. Dippold, NOT to me. If you have not been a reader of telecom since at least sometime prior to when this long, protracted stink began and/or if you do not have access to Usenet News on a regular basis, then please do NOT partici- pate in any ensuing vote which may take place unless/until Mr. Dippold or other net.gods direct otherwise. (There! Are you happy now? ...). Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #720 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03514; 26 Oct 93 18:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31060 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 26 Oct 1993 14:36:44 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06101 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 26 Oct 1993 14:36:01 -0500 Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 14:36:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310261936.AA06101@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #721 TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Oct 93 14:36:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 721 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (Erik Ramberg) Cellular Security (Richard W. Brezina) VSI94 Announcement (A. Padgett Peterson) USTA Favors InterLATA Relief (Richard Trevor Bassett) Text to Speech Vendors? (Troy Howard Fore) Internet Access from a Rural Exchange (Tom Olin) T1 Signal Decoding Algorythm/Information (Wilfred Gomes) MCI Wants a Piece of the Action (Sean Slattery) Administrivia: Special Mailing Coming Next (Karim Alim) Re: Our Moderator and Death (B. Z. Lederman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) Subject: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Date: 25 Oct 1993 23:38:12 GMT Organization: ESL Inc. Being passed along FYI: TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD TRW teams with PacTel Cellular to attack cellular fraud SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, Oct. 19, 1993 - ESL incorporated, a subsidiary of Cleveland-based TRW Inc., is testing an electronic system with PacTel Cellular that tracks, identifies and blocks illegally made cellular telephone calls. Called TRW PhonePrintTM, the system is designed to prevent fraudulent access to cellular networks across the United States by persons using stolen telephone access numbers. Increasingly under siege from illegal access into cellular telephone networks, cellular operators have been seeking more advanced electronic systems that can not only identify but block illegal network access. By intercepting the caller's telephone frequency and then reading the access code and telephone number, cellular "counterfeiters" can illegally install duplicate numbers in tampered phones (a process known as "cloning") and steal cellular services. Jeff Phillips, TRW program director, says that TRW PhonePrintTM will increase the level of security for both cellular carriers and their customers. The TRW system determines the legitimacy of a call by comparing the unique signal frequency patterns, or 'fingerprint' of the phone making the call with the pattern on record for that telephone number, Phillips said. When the signal frequency pattern does not match the one on file for a telephone number, TRW PhonePrintTM will terminate the call before the system is accessed. The system works by making an electronic "print" based on the unique signal transmission characteristics for each cellular phone. Because each phone has a unique print - an electronic version of a human fingerprint - it cannot be duplicated. Once the real print is recorded, detection of a counterfeit print can be made. TRW PhonePrintTM is able to provide real-time analysis of each print every time a call is made and can block access within seconds of a counterfeit call be placed. "This real-time technology is the most effective tool so far in our batter to keep people from fraudulently accessing our network. When fully implemented, our customers will be protected from fraud through the unique characteristics of their own phones," said Dave Daniels, manager of fraud control for PacTel Cellular in Los Angeles. "This innovative technique is a major breakthrough in wireless access control. Clearly the big winners will be our customers." Daniels said that PacTel Cellular has been working for a number of years to develop more advanced systems that significantly reduce fraudulent access to the cellular network. He said the company determined that it needed a more sophisticated method to catch counterfeiters in the act and actually prevent them from getting on the network. "TRW PhonePrintTM enhances existing PacTel fraud detection systems with its own 'fingerprint' technology to provide the most sophisticated solution to an industry-wide problem," Daniels said. TRW's Phillips estimates that the TRW PhonePrintTM network access controller system will conclude its test with PacTel Cellular in Los Angeles early in 1994. It will then be made available to cellular carriers nationwide. TRW provides high technology services to the automotive, space and defense, and information markets. The company's 1992 sales totaled $8.3 billion. PacTel Cellular, PacTel Corporation's largest wireless subsidiary, has control or shared control over cellular systems in ten of the top 30 U.S. cellular markets: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento, Atlanta, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Detroit. The company also has interests in 34 additional markets. PacTel Corporation, based in Walnut Creek, California, is a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis Group, a worldwide diversified telecommunications corporation based in San Francisco. FACT SHEET What is TRW PhonePrintTM ? TRW PhonePrintTM is a system designed to block illegal access to cellular networks by cellular "counterfeiters" who use stolen telephone identification numbers. How Does It Work? Each cellular telephone emits unique signal transmission characteristics - an electronic version of a human fingerprint - which cannot be duplicated. These characteristics are matched with the mobile identification number (MIN) and the electronic serial number (ENS) of the phone to develop a unique pattern for each legitimate customer, TRW PhonePrintTM uses sophisticated signal analysis hardware and software to analyze and file the patterns belonging to legitimate customers. When a caller attempts to access the network, the system compares incoming patterns to those on file. If the patterns do not match the call is immediately terminated. Who Benefits? Cellular telephone fraud costs the industry up to $300 million annually. TRW PhonePrintTM benefits cellular operators and customers by: % Terminating fraudulent calls before they can access the system % Eliminating the need for legitimate users to change phone numbers or codes. % Increasing the capacity of the network by eliminating the flow of illegal traffic. % Building customer confidence in the security of the cellular network. When Will It Be Available? TRW PhonePrintTM is currently being tested by PacTel Cellular, Los Angeles. Testing is expected to be completed in early 1994, and the system will be made available to cellular carriers nationwide. The Company TRW, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is strategically focused on providing products and services with a high technology or engineering content. -------------------------------------- hmmmmm.... Nothing that I say can be construed as the opinion of my employer. ------------------------------ From: Richard W. Brezina Subject: Cellular Security Date: 26 Oct 93 10:36:33 EST Organization: HRB Systems, Inc. Request for technical support: I am developing a database of telecommunications applications and related security issues involving the use of encrypting techniques. I am currently looking for information pertaining to the use of algorithms such as RSA and DES in digital cellular phone systems. Interest extends to their use within the SIM in GSM. Comments related to user security feature acceptance, network needs and system flexibility will be catalogued. Potential database users post a message. Disclaimer! =========== Any ideas or opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the ideas or opinions of HRB. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 09:00:36 -0400 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: VSI94 Announcement "On the Whole, I'd Rather Be In Philadelphia" - Mahatma K. Jeeves CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT VSI '94 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - USA March 29-30, 1994 Presented by the Virus Security Institute "A Different Kind of Information Security Conference" ________________________________________________________ VSI '94 -- two intense days of interactive collaboration focused on the development of a working information security model appropriate to both the management and technical challenges of the mid-90s. Security is not a book of rules; it is an organic and dynamic process. This principle will be expanded through an agressive combination of speakers, scenarios and solutions. VSI '94 is not a hit-or-miss conference. The program is carefully structured to provide not only state-of-the-art information but practical techniques that "push the envelope". DAY ONE: In the morning, industry experts will present a limited number of papers dealing with state-of-the-art considerations divided into three areas: scientific, technical, and managerial. This will provide a primer for what is to follow. In the afternoon, articipants will restructure a traditional organization to reflect the information security needs of the mid- 90s. The Management Track will address requirements for executives, financial and legal considerations, operating parameters, policies and procedures, re-engineering, communications requirements and a five-year plan. The Technical Track will explore tools and techniques currently available, define requirements and techniques to preserve vital information that may come under attack from any quarter, automation of support functions, necessary networking and risk assessment. Industry experts in each field will be present to make suggestions and offer examples. The afternoon will be divided into segments for each of the tracks with a focus provided for each. If the participants fail to reach a concensus withing the segment's alotted time, the legacy baseline will be used on the next day. Further planning is encouraged in the bar and at the reception. DAY TWO: Each of the elements of the restructured model will be examined and challenged, both by speakers and participants. Management will be given legal, financial, and stockholder concerns to address. Technical will defend against attack scenarious ranging from viruses to terrorists to incendiary cows & leaking tunnels. PLENARY: A recap of the proceedings analyzing strengths and weaknesses of the model as developed, challenged, and improved. PAPERS: We solicit papers/speakers focusing on the subjects of fiendish attacks, brilliant solutions, organizational indifference, and prognostication. The focus will be on salvation from the Networks (both interpretations apply). SITE: The entire conference floor of the Philadelphia Airport Hilton has been reserved for VSI '94. Rooms for Birds-of-a-Feather meetings may be reserved in advance, subject to availability. Facilities will be available for larger, lengthy formal meetings on Monday, March 28. The hotel is designed to facilitate "H" (hall) track sessions. Room Rates: $72/night, single or double. Contact the Hilton (302)792-2700 The Hilton provides a complimentary continental breakfast to all hotel guests. TRAVEL: Philadelphia International Airport (transportation from airport provided by the Hilton) is served by most major airlines. Drive time from either Washington, DC or New York is approximately 2 hours. AMTRAK serves Philadelphia's 30th Street Station (local train available every half hour to airport for Hilton pickup). Discounted airfares are available from Sand Lake Travel (800)535-1116 / (407)352-2808 / FAX (407)352-2908 AMENITIES & AMUSEMENTS: Philadelphia is rich in attractions, from the Liberty Bell to the Franklin Institute to the Art Museum to the bustling 9th Street Market. Excellent shopping in both Philadelphia and tax-free Delaware. Nearby is the famous Brandywine Valley, home of Winterthur, Longwood Gardens and Andrew Wyeth. A full activities packet will be available to all registrants. INFORMATION: For more information, E-Mail or Fax: EMAIL: VSI94_info@dockmaster.ncsc.mil (case sensitive) FAX: (302)764-6186 (include E-Mail address, please) ____________________________________________________________ Honorary/Convening Chairman - Dr. Harold Joseph Highland, FICS Conference Chair: Pamela Kane Program Chair: Padgett Peterson PSKane@dockmaster.ncsc.mil Padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com _________________________________________________________ Founding Members and Directors of the Virus Security Insitute Vesselin Bontchev Dr. Klaus Brunnstein Dr. William Caelli Jon David Christoph Fischer Ross Greenberg Dr. Harold Joseph Highland, FICS Pamela Kane A. Padgett Peterson, P.E. Yisrael Radai Fridrik Skulason Dr. Alan Solomon ------------------------------ From: rtbassett@attmail.com (Richard Trevor Bassett) Date: 26 Oct 93 14:09:42 GMT Subject: USTA Favors InterLATA Relief Patrick, I saw an article in a recent issue of {Telephony} which states "The U.S. Telephone Association is ready to endorse the lifting of the interexchange carrier ban on the Bell regional holding companies, ending the long contentious issue that has divided small telcos from giants within the trade group ..." Does this mean that we will soon see ANI (Caller ID) info being exchanged across LATA's? If so, how soon? Richard T. Bassett rtbassett@attmail.com Bermuda [Moderator's Note: I bet in the next year we see a huge increase in the exchange of Caller-ID data, which by the way should *not* be confused with ANI, although the end results are about the same. We already have full exchange of ANI all over the nation. PAT] ------------------------------ From: thfore@crl.com (Troy Howard Fore) Subject: Text to Speech Vendors? Date: 26 Oct 1993 11:15:45 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access Can anyone direct me to a list of text-to-speech vendors? It needs to be a pc based system and it would be nice if they had some way to hook up to a telecom (Dialogic) interface. I know about both the Berkeley Speech Technology and the Digital Equipment DECVoice systems. Can anyone direct me to a system that they know runs either of these or a third system? I prefer some type of true speech synthesis rather than word or phoneme concatenation method but the bottom line is that it be fairly intelligible. Thanks, Howard Fore Macintosh/LAN Administrator Eason Publications thfore@crl.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 16:53:19 EDT From: adiron!tro@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Olin) Subject: Internet Access from a Rural Exchange I want to obtain some type of Internet access from my home, which is located in a small exchange (315-861) that is long distance to just about every place that's anyplace. I would prefer to use any halfway decent Internet-capable system that is a local call from home, but there appears to be no such beast. None of the commercial dialup services that I've contacted - CompuServe, America Online, Delphi, GEnie, and Prodigy - have an access number local to me. If I have to pay long distance, I would prefer not to have to pay for a host account on top of that. And if I'm going to pay for long distance, I might as well consider sites outside of New York State, since interstate rates will likely be lower than intrastate rates. It seems, then, that I need a good discount long-distance plan and a free, public-access system. The former is pretty much limited to AT&T, since my local exchange does not yet have equal access dialing. The latter is open for suggestions. Other solutions are welcome, as well. Please respond via e-mail. I'll summarize if there is sufficient interest. Tom Olin PAR Technology Corporation Tel:(315)738-0600 Ext 638 tro@partech.com New Hartford, NY Fax:(315)738-8304 ------------------------------ From: gomes@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu (Wilfred Gomes) Subject: T1 Signal Decoding Algorythm Information Organization: University of Hawaii, Dept. of Electrical Engineering Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 08:57:48 GMT Hi, I was working on a data acquisition project. The data is in the T1 extended superframe format i.e 24 channels of PCM using the ccitt-g733 format. I need to acquire this data using a signal processing chip (Motorola 56001). Just now I am interested in finding out some literature which talks about the T1 signal decoding algorithms any pointers to such implementations, (i.e in any form ) would be very useful I would appreciate it very much if you could post replies to: gomes@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu Thanks very much, Wilfred ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 11:51 GMT From: Sean Slattery Subject: MCI Wants a Piece of the Action Pat, Look what I just got. Looks like it was sent to the TELECOM Digest readers who get their issues via MCIMail. My question is: I just switched to Sprint for a Star Trek screen saver, what is MCI offering, and do they really want me as a customer, seeing as how I dropped AT&T for such a paltry enticement. (8-)> Sean Slattery(vonslatt@mcimail.com) Network Administrator Airflow Research =================================================== From: Susan Sirmai (3188677) Date: Monday, October 25, 1993 10:26 pm Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V13 #713 ENV Date: Mon Oct 25, 1993 2:28 pm EST From: Susan Sirmai EMS: MCI Mail MBX: 0003188677 [Moderator's Note: A *long* cc: list (of which my name was included) has been deleted here. Ms. Sirmai cc'd quite a few subscribers to the Digest. PAT] /END ENV* IN RESPONSE TO THE MEMOS ABOUT SWITCHING CARRIERS, IF YOU ARE CHOOSING A LONG DISTANCE CARRIER, MCI SHOULD ALSO BE CONSIDERED. MCI CAN BE REACHED BY CALLING YOUR ACCOUNT TEAM, IF YOU HAVE ONE ASSIGNED, OR, 1-800-444-4444 FOR RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS AND 1-800-444-2222 FOR BUSINESS CUSTOMERS. REGARDS, SUSAN [Moderator's Note: What I want to know is are you giving away modems like Sprint, or $75 checks like Mother? If not, don't bother me. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 13:38 GMT From: Karim Alim <0006143365@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Administrivia: Special Mailing Coming Next > Have you ever hypnotized a chicken? This isn't one of those MIT purity tests, is it? > Notice the chicken's eyes following the shiny object as it moves back and > forth. Just don't notice TOO much or you may be hypnotized yourself. > its one-volt brain overloaded (author clucks) BTW, it's 1.25. Chicken brains can be substituted for NiCad batteries in many applications. > "Chicken, I want you to go get an email account somewhere...." So the message would be composed by (giggle) "hunt-and-PECKERS?" (author rolls on floor, laughing) > Do they presume I hypnotized TELECOM readers and sent secret messages out? It's really not the hypnotism I mind so much as the subliminal messages. If you examine the line breaks on some recent issues of the Digest, and turn the screen sideways, you find that it spells out "ORANGECARD MEANS SEX," "TELEPASSPORT TO LOVE" and other messages of ... questionable objectivity. (big grin) k. This disclaimer Copyright (c) 1993 Karim R. Alim. [Moderator's Note: And did you know that if you read each issue backward that the tenth letter on every line which begins with a /q/ and ends with a /z/ spells out the address 'PO Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690' and and urges readers to send tithes and love offerings, along with other Tokens to Prove their Sincerity for my examination? I use my Undue Influence to promote all kinds of things. PAT] ------------------------------ From: B. Z. Lederman Subject: Re: Our Moderator and Death Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 26 Oct 93 08:57:06 -0400 > [Moderator's Note: Dear Concerned Reader: Thank you very much for your > I wouldn't be the first person to take a live phone circuit with me: > there have been stories for many years about Mary Baker Eddy doing the > same thing in the early 1900's. When the directors of her organization Close, but not quite. The book "Rumor" (it's at home so I don't have the authors handy) chased this one down. A telephone line was installed at the site where the grave / memorial was being built so the contractor could communicate with Mrs. Eddy during construction. It was removed when the work was done. But there have been stories like this ever since. False burials were apparently fairly common in the last century (medical science wasn't as advanced then, nor was medical training, so someone with a weak pulse could be buried. No EEG or EKGs then), and the Patent office recieved a lot of applications for devices to allow buried people to indicate that they weren't dead yet, including electric bells. It wouldn't surprise me if some people were buried with telephones in their coffins, but I can't find any specific references, or any factual record of one actually being used. [Moderator's Note: Thanks for setting the record straight where Mrs. Eddy was concerned. One reader this morning wrote me a not-for-pub note saying he knew of a specific instance of a phone phreak who was buried with a 2500 set in the coffin with him, although it was not hooked up to anything. We are still busy moving to the new place and the computers are going off line after this issue, but I will be back in a day or so. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #721 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10248; 27 Oct 93 16:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26054 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:31:56 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00074 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:31:18 -0500 Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:31:18 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310271731.AA00074@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #722 TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Oct 93 12:31:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 722 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Presto Chango! (A New Box) (David Kovanen) Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking (David Kovanen) Caller ID Question (Mike Godwin) CPSR Crypto Resolution (Dave Banisar) Canada's New Government and Telecommunications (Nigel Allen) Modems for Kenya (Jason M. Githeko) Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Gary Breuckman) First N1X Exchange in 813 (Paul Knupke) Looking For NirvanaNET (Robert Koscki) Answering Device With Forward Options (Gary Breuckman) US Modem Host Wanted (Marcus Fest) Are Local Calls Kept on Record? (Denis Ouellette) Top 10 Reasons for TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger (Paul Robinson) Two Cellular Phones - One Number (Tom Mackay) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (Willie Smith) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (John R. Covert) Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels (Lars Poulsen) Administrivia: The Moving Continues (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 13:50:07 PDT From: Kovanen@First.Com (David Kovanen) Subject: Presto Chango! (A New Box) I recently had the opportunity to witness an interesting object in operation. The individual demonstrating it called the device a "Presto Chango" box. It resembled one of those infamous Blue or Black Boxes of years gone by ... The Presto Chango box would blank out the Caller-ID information sent by the telephone company and would substitute *ANY* desired information on the caller's display. It seemed to do the job nicely -- and it worked for the time, date, telephone number, and name display elements. As I understand it, the capability to do this is published in Bellcore Specifications under the indescript title of "Analog Services Display Interface (ASDI)". I did call Bellcore and they confirmed the existence of such documents. :-) Continuing on my understanding, the Presto Chango Box works by transmitting Caller ID information to the distant end using the same data format as the central office does. Apparently, this is an asynchronous message using Bell 202T modulation, and can be done using off-the shelf parts and components. Accordingly, the device can only "change" the display information once the caller has answered, as it used the voiceband path. Also, it doesn't actually eliminate the real information from memory, although many would not realize this. It works by sending the new display information as soon as the caller answers. Most units will gladly receive new display information at any time -- not just between ring one and ring two. Because the information is "In Band" it carries through the voiceband just fine and this is what allows end-to-end updating. The slight problem is that the caller hears the modem tones while this is being done. But, it was explained, this audible noise can be blanked from the answering party by sending a momentary "dual-tone" blanking tone (part of the ASDI specification) first to the display, followed by the update data. This dual-tone masks the following transmission for those display units that can do this. I was so ammused by this that I did can Bellcore and verify the existence of these documents. I also talked to an "expert" at Bellcore and (obtusely) asked if this end-to-end update was possible. She confirmed that it was. (!) All that I can say is that security people shouldbe alert for "false" Caller-ID information being sent -- and they should know that it is possible to send this data in-band and that Caller-ID does not necessarially provide an adequate level of access security (contrary to the common erroneous belief.) Just when we thought phreaking by using "boxes" was over, we seem to have a new one on our hands. BTW: I write this message with the assumption that use of "Presto Chango" boxes are technically legal, given the Bellcore publications. I also write to help those who must manage system security and need to understand significant security threats. David J. Kovanen EMail: Kovanen@First.Com Kovanen@Innovator.Com Kovanen@Foundation.Com Kovanen@Caledonia.Com 70353.2063@CompuServe.Com Voice: (206) 925-1000 Facsimile: (206) 925-2000 Address: 10 Caledonia Summit NE Browns Point, Washington U.S.A. 98422-1620 [Moderator's Note: Who do you think would be fooled by this? If you observe the display between the first and second ring, act on the information given as you see fit *then* answer, how could anything someone did after that point matter? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 13:29:31 PDT From: Kovanen@First.Com (David Kovanen) Subject: Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking There is a service available called "Call Blocking Unblocking" that is quietly available from a number of IXCs. I subscribe to this service from "Cable & Wireless". "Call Blocking Unblocking" works as follows: You give people a 800 number that is assigned to you. Callers dial this 800 number instead of your local number. When they do, their telephone number shows up on your Caller-ID display unit. I have it and it is 100% reliable. Of particular note is that it works on both an intrastate and interstate basis and every telephone number is displayed -- even numbers that are blocked and are intrastate. This service has been proven to be quite a surprise for many people who thought that they were calling me anonymously. :-) I have seen interstate Caller-ID function, although it has been sporadic and unreliable. However, the 800 number Call Blocking Unblocking service that I have is 100% effective from everywhere. Just to clarify, this is not ANI number delivery. When people dial my 800 number the information displays on my Caller-ID display through the local telco delivery of Caller-ID. David J. Kovanen EMail: Kovanen@First.Com Kovanen@Innovator.Com Kovanen@Foundation.Com Kovanen@Caledonia.Com 70353.2063@CompuServe.Com Voice: (206) 925-1000 Facsimile: (206) 925-2000 Address: 10 Caledonia Summit NE Browns Point, Washington U.S.A. 98422-1620 ------------------------------ From: mgodwin@bdmserver.mcl.bdm.com (Mike Godwin) Subject: Caller ID Question Date: 27 Oct 1993 11:02:00 -0400 Organization: BDM International, Inc. I've seen ads out there for Caller-ID boxes which not only display the number of the calling party, but the name the phone number is registered to. Is this service available from the phone company yet and if so, in what areas? I'm particularly interested in Northern VA, since that's where I live (duh!). Thanks in advance, Mike [Moderator's Note: It is available in quite a few areas although I do not have the specifics about Virginia, and it is telco offering the service. PAT] ------------------------------ Organization: CPSR Washington Office From: Dave Banisar Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 21:40:51 EST Subject: CPSR Crypto Resolution CPSR Crypto Resolution CPSR Cryptography Resolution Adopted by the CPSR Board of Directors, San Francisco, CA October 18, 1993 WHEREAS, Digital communications technology is becoming an increasingly significant component of our lives, affecting our educational, financial, political and social interaction; and The National Information Infrastructure requires high assurances of privacy to be useful; and Encryption technology provides the most effective technical means of ensuring the privacy and security of digital communications; and Restrictions on cryptography are likely to impose significant costs on scientific freedom, government accountability, and economic development; and The right of individuals to freely use encryption technology is consistent with the principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States; and The privacy and security of digital communications is essential to the preservation of a democratic society in our information age; and CPSR has played a leading role in many efforts to promote privacy protection for new communications technologies: BE IT RESOLVED THAT Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility supports the right of all individuals to design, distribute, obtain and use encryption technology and opposes any government attempt to interfere with the exercise of that right; and CPSR opposes the development of classified technical standards for the National Information Infrastructure. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 93 07:56:19 EDT From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Canada's New Government and Telecommunications Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca Monday's general election in Canada brought a new party to power, but it isn't yet clear what this means for telecommunications policy. Earlier this year, the Progressive Conservative government of Kim Campbell split up the old Department of Communications, with culture going to a new National Heritage department, the government's internal telecommunications services going to Government Services, and telecommunications policy and research and spectrum management going to the department of Industry and Science. We don't know yet what further changes soon-to-be Prime Minister Jean Chretien will make to the government structure, but if the current structure is retained, it looks likely that Montreal-area member of parliament Paul Martin wil become industry minister and hence minister responsible for telecommunications. I suspect that the new government will be happy, at least at first, to leave telecom-related decisions to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. There is considerable pressure from the business community to reduce long distance rates, but the Liberals are less close to the business community than the Conservatives. We may not see an increase in funding for telecommunications research, but we probably won't see any further decreases in funding either. The Conservatives talked a lot about reducing the federal government's deficit, and some observers feel that their obsession with the deficit at the expense of other issues was a significant factor in their electoral loss. The other parties represented in the new House of Commons have not talked much about telecommunications policy. I expect that the Reform party, which is fairly right-wing by Canadian standards, will favour further deregulation of telecommunications, and the Bloc Quebecois will want to make sure that Quebec gets its "fair share" of federal government telecommunications-related spending. The New Democratic Party, a social-democratic group, will probably oppose further telecommunications deregulation on the groups that it would adversely affect consumers and unionized telecommunications company employees. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: j-githeko@uiuc.edu (Jason M. Githeko) Subject: Modems for Kenya Date: 27 Oct 1993 05:36:08 GMT Organization: University of Illinois I have made this request before but here goes again. I am looking for low cost (or donations) Hayes compartible data modems for a self-help project to connect Kenyan Universities to the Internet. Anything at leat 2400 baud would do. Preferably can operate on DC voltages or 240 V AC. Thanks. Jason M. Githeko University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1310 S. 6th, #345, Champaign IL 61820 e-mail: j-githeko@uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3573 Fax: 217-244-5632 [Moderator's Note: There are many worthwhile charitable endeavors on the net which deserve the support of reader/participants, but as always I stress that one should investigate these things to the best of one's ability before sending money, merchandise or computer equip- ment to a stranger. Make sure these things are on the up and up. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 19:10:25 -0700 From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones >From the {Providence (RI) Journal}, quoted in the {Milwaukee Journal}: Cellular Phone call tips police to car burglaries Famous last words: 'That cop doesn't even know I'm on the phone.' East Providence, R.I. - Police said that a man, talking to his girlfriend on a cellular telephone while driving around early Monday, bragged that he had looted several parked cars. What Robert Pimental, 22, didn't know, police said, is that an officer patrolling nearby happened to be listening in on the call on his cruiser's scanner. The monitoring that lead to Pimental's being charged with possessing stolen goods was just "one of those coincidences," said Lt. Daniel Evans. Patrollman Bruce Atwell was cruising the area, according to Evans, and was monitoring a scanner frequency that picks up cellular phone calls. Atwell's ears perked up when he head a man tell a woman that he had stolen items from several parked cars in Bristol, Evans said. The man also told her he was driving along Crescent View Ave. Atwell drove onto the avenue and pulled behind a small car whose male driver was talking on a car phone, Evans said. And on his scanner, Evans said, Atwell heard the man say there was a police cruiser behind him. The article goes on to say how he bragged about the cop not knowing he was on the phone, was then pulled over, and the loot recovered. Someone should tell the officer that it's illegal to monitor those frequences. puma@netcom.com [Moderator's Note: Someone should tell Robert Pimental that it is illegal to strip autos. My sympathies are entirely with the police officer on this one. PAT] ------------------------------ From: knupke@cfrrisc1.cfr.usf.edu (Paul Knupke) Subject: First N1X Exchange in 813 Date: 26 Oct 1993 21:46:36 GMT Organization: Univ. of Soth Florida, Central Florida Regional Data Center I just received that 1993-1994 Tampa telephone book. I was looking through the exchange list and noticed the first N1X exchange I have ever seen in any phone book in the 813 NPA. The exchange is 219. It was last year, at this time when GTE and United Telecom both began requiring 1-813- for all calls within the 813 NPA. Paul Knupke, Jr. - University of South Florida * Tampa, FL knupke@cfrrisc1.cfr.usf.edu 1:377/61@fidonet KD4VMD ------------------------------ From: robert_koscki@optilink.dsccc.com Subject: Looking For NirvanaNET Date: 26 Oct 93 19:41:00 GMT Organization: MIB "Men In Black" Hi, I recently read about a network called NirvanaNET that is supposedly in Berkeley or somewhere in the bay area. Does anyone out there know about this? If so, can someone please e-mail me some info about it and how to access it? Thanks! Robert ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 14:34:51 -0700 From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Answering Device With Forward Options There have been some questions recently about answering machines that could call pagers, etc., when messages were received, possibly based on the urgency of the message. The following advertisement appeared today in the {Milwaukee Journal}, from Office Depot ... WARNING - the price is $349.99 Bogen Communications - Bogen "Friday" 2000 all digital answering system. A two-line digital (no cassette tapes) message center with 18-minute capacity expandable to 36 minutes. Digital message center with 4 voice mail boxes / call forward to any remote phone number, cellular phone, pager, etc. 3 announce - notification mail boxes serving as an audio bulletin or private messages. Remote notification notifies any mailbox owner instantly of urgent messages by calling their pager, cellular, or any other location. Message stamp for day/date/time/new/old message, timed memo record, auto fax detection to fax or PC. Visual prompting for easy step by step instructions. No. 569-673, list $499.00, sale $349.99 puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: marcfest@fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de (Marcus Fest) Subject: US Modem Host Wanted Date: Wed, 27 Oct 93 7:03:04 MST Hello, folks. Maybe some Internet-whizkid could help me with this: There is a US bulletin board that I dial up very frequently. From within the US I have toll free access but from here (which is Berlin, Germany) I have to pay the international phone call rate each time I call. Could I possibly by-pass the costly part of the call by using the internet and telneting to an American host that lets me use its terminal program and modem facility? Does anyone know a host like this? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Marc P.S.: No all Germans hate foreigners. Actually its only a minority who does. I just returned from Atlanta and was devastated when I realized how much the American view of Germans is dominated by the recent anti-foreigner violence news from here. [Moderator's Note: Another option you can use to reduce your inter- national call costs -- but not eliminate them entirely -- is by using a service which lets you connect to 800 numbers in the USA with very discounted rates on the international part, such as Telepassport. Rates for international calls via Telepassport are typically half of what the PTT charges. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 93 07:50:36 CDT From: Denis Subject: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? I was always under the impression that records of local telephone calls were kept on magnetic tape for a certain period of time by the local telco. But when I asked Michigan Bell for their records to a certain number (an attorney was all set to send in a subpoena) they said they didn't keep such records. Was I infomed correctly? Does this vary from place to place or was I under the wrong impression to start with? (BTW without these records a criminal defense ended up being much weaker -- somehow I suspect that if the police/prosecution wanted such records they might have miraculously appeared.) Denis Ouellette ouellett@ucs,indiana.edu [Moderator's Note: Whoever you spoke with misinformed you. The best approach is to simply have issued the subpoena from the beginning. Call records are available for some period of time, and telco will produce the records when they are served requesting same. It does not matter if it is the defense or prosecution making the service, since it is no skin of telco's nose either way, but legal service is absol- utely required. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 10:50:43 EDT Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Top 10 Reasons for TCI/Bell Atlantic Merger From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA 10. Nice Logo. 9. Needed "3-Letter" name to compete with MCI and ATT. 8. Opportunity to create a merger/buyout even bigger than RJR/NABISCO (See the movie "Barbarians at the Gate") 7. With such lousy service is the usual from cable companies, nobody will care about the tests of phone over Cable TV . 6. Wanted deeper discounts from QVC. 5. TCI was misunderstood when it said it wanted money from the phone company, e.g. a refund on its deposit. 4. Make a mess and use that to argue that the "New Information Infrastructure" can only be done if the government pays for it. 3. Quick way to piss off Judge Greene. 2. When video dial tone is found to be a loss, dump it into TCI the way AT&T dumped its computer business into NCR. 1. Chairman of Bell Atlantic got mad at cable company's service and pulled a Victor Kiam. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: mackay@speedway.net (Tom Mackay) Subject: Two Cellular Phones - One Number Date: 27 Oct 1993 10:14:42 -0500 Organization: Speedway Free Access, dial 10288-1-503-520-2222 I recently received some information from a company in Dallas called Cellular Options that for $199.50, will alter a cellular phone to allow more than one phone per cellular telephone number. In their literature they discuss the procedure of cloning or ESN emulation and even mention the fraudulent use of this method. They state that now several legitimate companies are offering legal cloning or emulation. Has anyone dealt with this or a similar company? Is is completely legal, or is it in a grey area? What do the cell companies think of this? Does it work? Looking forward to hearing from this techno-literate group. Tom Mackay on Speedway Free Access -- Dial 10288-1-503-520-2222 for info mackay@speedway.net [Moderator's Note: This is a grey area at best -- very grey. Most contracts from cell carriers prohibit the practice. It certainly does not aid in fraud prevention, and could actually contribute to more fraud, as the company's own literature states. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wpns@newshost.pictel.com (Willie Smith) Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Organization: PictureTel Corporation Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:36:01 GMT erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) writes: > Being passed along FYI: > TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD > Jeff Phillips, TRW program director, says that TRW > PhonePrintTM will increase the level of security for both cellular > carriers and their customers. The TRW system determines the > legitimacy of a call by comparing the unique signal frequency > patterns, or 'fingerprint' of the phone making the call with the > pattern on record for that telephone number, Phillips said. When the > signal frequency pattern does not match the one on file for a > telephone number, TRW PhonePrintTM will terminate the call before the > system is accessed. Ha! All this probably means is you have to clone the same manufacturer and model of phone. Especially with the big push to Six Sigma (every product is identical to one part in a million), it's going to be really difficult to tell phones of the same model apart without denying service to folks at slightly different temperatures, battery charge levels, and altitudes. How long do you think it'll take the cloners to crack this one? [FWIW, I have no cellphone, and not much interest in one ...] Willie Smith wpns@pictel.com N1JBJ@amsat.org ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 16:27:47 EDT From: John R. Covert 26-Oct-1993 1629 Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Interesting. But, of course, there's a problem. I can legitimately use my cellular phone's telephone number and ESN on three different transmitters: 1. The Micro-TAC itself. 2. The 3W VA in my own car 3. The Extended System in my wife's car. Actually, I can legitimately use it in _any_ compatible transmitter that provides the plug to go into the bottom of the phone. /john ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Fractional T1 - Using Multiple Channels Date: 27 Oct 1993 06:30:45 -0700 Organization: Rockwell International - CMC Network Products In article pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > The client has a T1 line (fractional) of which two channels are > currently being utilized. ... The T1 terminates at a CSU, which is > then hooked into a Micom Marathon box. > What I would like to do is take about 15 of the remaining channels > and "merge" them to provide 960k of bandwidth between the two > Retix routers. The routers can handle speeds of up to 2.048Mbps > and can be configured with either RS-449, RS-232 or V.35 connections. Many vendors of T1 channel banks have DSU's that can pull multiple channels off a single T-span and deliver the merged bandwidth on a single DCE connector. If your current CSU does not have this option, you need a new CSU rack, and then two DSU's to plug in: One for the MICOM, one for the new router. Each one gets configured with the channel numbers that it pulls off the T1 frame. Look for a drop/insert multiplexer in the catalog. In addition to the single- and multi-channel data cards there are analog voice cards available in such systems. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l Telephone: +1-805-968-4262 Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083 TeleFAX: +1-805-968-8256 ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: The Moving Continues Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 12:10:00 CDT We've spent quite a bit of time since Sunday moving to our new location in Skokie, and I now have temporary connections set up with a terminal and modem so that at least a Digest per day can be sent out. What's more important to us though is that our little one had to be admitted to the hospital on an emergency basis yesterday due to an infection which had started a day or two earlier. He had not responded to his medication; yesterday the doctor said get him in the hospital immediatly. While in the hospital, his temperature went up to 103.5 and they are having a hard time getting it down to normal. He is now getting his medication via IV. :( Please have some patience with me for a couple days. :( For your records, the new fax number for all correspondence is 708-329-0752. Please change your records where it appears otherwise. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #722 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14038; 28 Oct 93 0:11 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07593 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 27 Oct 1993 21:11:31 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15483 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 27 Oct 1993 21:10:54 -0500 Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 21:10:54 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310280210.AA15483@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #723 TELECOM Digest Wed, 27 Oct 93 21:10:50 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 723 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Ameritech PCS Trial Update #7 (Andrew C. Green) Sprint Cellular/Motorola Release (Roger Theriault) Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! (Jack Decker) Need Numeric Pager Recommendation (Kinson Ho) Car Phones and Accidents? (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Administrivia: The Moving Continues (Bill Walker) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 14:33:24 CDT From: Andrew C. Green Subject: Ameritech PCS Trial Update #7 Here's another Ameritech PCS Update, a series of reports on the progress of a trial of digital spread-spectrum portable phones being conducted by Ameritech in the Chicago area. Yours truly was enlisted for day-to-day telephone testing as a member of the general public. Since the middle of 1992 the PCS network has been tested, with a variety of phones and varying capabilities, in downtown Chicago, the Lincoln Park residential area to the north, and the northwest suburbs in the vicinity of Arlington Heights. The test is scheduled to end in December 1993. Two-Way PCS Phone Arrives The long-promised Two-way PCS phone was finally delivered recently. Previously, I was issued a phone with only outbound dialing ability, with a Pager/Voice Mail setup to field incoming calls. Since the phone remained off (except for a minor power drain to the pager) when not in use, the network had no idea where it was (i.e. it didn't know which transceiver to route incoming calls to) until the user switched it on in search of a dial tone. This proved an acceptable compromise, since the PCS transceiver signal is comparatively weak, requiring transceivers every half mile or so depending on the terrain, whereas the pager network can blast a signal pretty much anywhere it wants, and almost never failed to hit my PCS with an incoming page. (It's my understanding that the pager network is Ameritech's standard product, however; only the PCS system is under test.) Comparing the pager-equipped PCS handset with its non-pager, Two-way-calling partner is instructive. The pager-equipped model weighs in (with battery) at 7.3 ounces, meaning that if you plaster a return address label on the little phone so that someone can mail it back to you if you lose it, you must also paste $1.90 in stamps on its back. However, the non-pager unit weighs in at a tidy 7.0 ounces in a distinctly thinner case, so two-way calling saves you 23 cents in postage. This marketing breakthrough has gone unnoticed by Ameritech, though whether the little PCS would make it through the Post Office cancelling machines in one piece is unclear. Two-Way Operation The missing link with the Pager PCS is, as I mentioned, the fact that the system doesn't know where it is. The two-way PCS is configured to "register" with the nearest transceiver every few minutes so that an incoming call can be routed to the phone and ring it. In some limited testing this worked fine, with the phone properly ringing when within the test area, but some current limitations became apparent after a while: 1) I don't spend enough time in the service area, or at least within electronic earshot (i.e. outside, not within a steel-framed building, car, etc.), to be likely to field many incoming calls. This is really due to the small test area and the fact that not many people call me when I'm out and about in that area, so this part of the test isn't getting too many data points from me. More significant here is that outside the service area, the little phone is deaf as a post. Incoming calls go to Voice Mail as before, but there is no pager in the phone, so it's up to the user to remember to call his Voice Mail periodically to see if anything's arrived. That can cost airtime. 2) The same interruptions and dropouts that complicate conversations also interfere with the ringing sensitivity. Wherever dial tone and conversation can drop out (caused by electronic interference, weak batteries or whatever), the ring signal develops hiccups too. On occasion, the phone could barely chirp if I was moving it around. 3) The current programming of the phone leaves it susceptible to more power consumption than its pager-equipped brethren. Once turned on, the phone is programmed to stay in contact with its network if at all possible, pinging its transceiver every few minutes to tell the world that it's still there. This is fine (and required, since you may be moving from site to site), but draining on the two little AA NiCads that power it. The phone must be left on, in a sort of "idle" mode, in order for it to ring an incoming call. The snag here is that once it finds a transceiver to talk to, the phone is programmed to hang on to it for dear life. During a test, I went downtown to a service area and activated the phone. As usual I pressed its green button to ping for a transceiver and get a dial tone. I received a prompt tone and my outbound call went through properly, but the phone stayed on when I closed it up, a detail that I find easily overlooked in day-to-day use, especially since I know it was off prior to the call. (The phone does not remain on afterward if no transceiver was found during a dialing attempt.) It wouldn't switch off to save power after a successful call unless I specifically pressed its Off button prior to closing its flip cover, its motive apparently being that I might get some incoming calls, and I'm still in the service area, so hey, it was just trying to be helpful and stay in service. Hmmm. Next, I started over with the phone switched off. I opened the flip cover again as if to make a call, but then just let it sit. After a moment's thought, the phone decided to take matters into its own hands and go find a transceiver. "rE9" ("register", in LCD-speak) blinked briefly in its display as it sent out its own ping, followed by a blinking arrow to indicate that it had received a transceiver acknowledgement. Clearly pleased with itself at this achievement, it then stayed on when I closed the flip cover. Every few minutes after that, it would burp out a new registration just to reassure the transceiver that it hadn't left town. The drawback here is that if I _did_ leave town, so to speak, the little phone would cheerfully keep going, merrily burping its registration into the ozone at no one in particular until its batteries went dead, without regard to whether or not it could actually still find a transceiver to chat with. It might be useful to cancel the power-wasting Phone-On/Constant-Registration mode after, say, five failed attempts in a row. This behavior has indeed shortened daily battery life by a small but noticeable amount in my case. The PCS manual grudgingly acknowledges that you must "Press Off to turn off phone (to conserve battery power)" but does not explain why the phone wants to keep itself on in the first place. This would not be as significant with a more robust battery pack, of course. So in summary, I think I prefer my old Pager PCS type of inbound communication over the current two-way unit, primarily because of battery considerations, but also because in the current scenario the pager network has proven much more effective than the inbound PCS ringing signals in finding my telephone. However, in the interests of Telecom science, we will plow ahead with our testing of the two-way PCS. Besides, Ameritech won't give me my pager back. Coming Attractions For length and bandwidth reasons I'll continue with a separate Update submission in a couple of days. In PCS Update #8: -- Another visit to Ameritech Headquarters -- A recap of the current PCS service options -- Any late-breaking developments that might occur! Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: theriaul@mdd.comm.mot.com (Roger Theriault) Subject: Sprint Cellular Selects Motorola Infrastructure Date: 27 Oct 1993 23:32:22 GMT Organization: Motorola - Wireless Data Group; Richmond, BC Erin Kingston, Motorola, (O) 604/241-6132; (cellular) 604/230-6852 Diana Brendza, Sprint Cellular, (O) 312/399-5153; (cellular) 312/415-6189 SPRINT CELLULAR SELECTS MOTOROLA TO PROVIDE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CELLULAR DIGITAL PACKET DATA (CDPD) TRIAL CHICAGO, October 27 1993 -- Capitalizing on one of the fastest growing segments of cellular, Sprint Cellular Company today said it has signed an agreement with Motorola's Wireless Data Group for equipping Sprint's cellular network to allow cellular users to transmit wireless packet data over cellular. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Under the agreement, Motorola will provide Sprint Cellular with cellular digital packet data (CDPD) equipment necessary to conduct a wireless data transmission trial in early 1994. The CDPD trial will allow an oil and gas company to control and monitor their remote gas well heads through Sprint's cellular network channels. "Customers have told us they need to be able to send data over a cellular network from anywhere, to anywhere and at anytime," said George Hutton IV, executive vice president -- operations for Sprint Cellular. "Through our trial, we will be able to test CDPD technology as well as develop a better understanding of what features may be desired by our customers." "We are pleased that Sprint Cellular has chosen Motorola," said Bob Growney, executive vice president and general manager of Motorola's Paging and Wireless Data Group. "The supply of CDPD equipment to Sprint Cellular reinforces our commitment to the CDPD specification and the widespread growth of wireless communications. As an experienced leader in the cellular and wireless packet data communications field, we have the expertise to develop network and subscriber equipment to ensure the successful deployment of CDPD." In April 1992, nine cellular carriers and IBM came together to support the development of the CDPD open industry specification to enable the wireless transmission of data over the existing cellular spectrum. Those specifications have been released in order to ensure hardware and applications software would be available when carriers were ready to deploy CDPD. Hutton said Sprint Cellular has embraced the group's specifications and is committed to delivering CDPD services. Sprint Cellular recently formed a national cellular data team to oversee the company's efforts in the area of cellular data transmission. "The team's primary mission is to deliver circuit switched data services today and packet switched services in the near future," said Hutton. Motorola's Paging and Wireless Data Group (PWDG) incorporates the company's business activities involved in the design, manufacturing and distributing of paging and wireless data communications products, systems and services for computer companies, carriers and end-users. Motorola, Inc., headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., is one of the world's leading manufacturers of electronic equipment, systems and components for worldwide markets. Additional products include two-way radios, cellular telephones and systems, integrated circuits and discrete semiconductors, defense and aerospace electronics, automotive and industrial electronic equipment, and information processing and handling equipment. Sales in 1992 were $13.3 billion. Sprint Cellular, based here, is one of the nation's leading cellular communications companies. It provides service to more than 500,000 customers in 42 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA's) and 46 rural service areas (RSA's) in 14 states serving a total population of more than 18 million potential customers. Sprint is a diversified international telecommunications company with $10 billion in annual revenues and the United States' only nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network. In addition to its cellular operations, Sprint's divisions provide global long distance voice, data and video products and services, and local telephone services to nearly six million subscriber lines in 19 states. ---------------- Roger Theriault Internet: theriaul@mdd.comm.mot.com /\/\otorola -=--==-==--=- UUCP: {uw-beaver,uunet}!van-bc!mdivax1!theriaul / \ Wireless Data Group CompuServe: 71332,730 (not too often) I am not a spokesman for Motorola or anyone else besides myself. ------------------------------ From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! Date: 27 Oct 1993 18:08:54 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net Just a word of advice to all: If you are looking for great deals on long distance service, don't overlook the small carriers that may be operating in your state or region. I'm not going to mention names of specific companies, but here's a couple of deals I've found (in doing some research for a friend) that are especially attractive in low to moderate calling volume situations. A small carrier that serves only about 60% of the state of Michigan offers a plan where you pay $5.00 per month and commit to a 15 month contract (however, you can cancel without penalty during the first three months of the contract, after which you are locked in for the 15 months). The daytime rate on calls to anywhere in the United States, including calls within Michigan, is 13 cents per minute. This drops to 11.4 cents per minute after 5 P.M. and on weekends. The calls are billed in 30 second increments, however, they do NOT charge at all for any call of under 32 seconds in length (and no, they don't use inferior connections to the local telcos anymore, this is just a benefit they offer!). Also, calls to Directory Assistance are billed at only 50 cents for interstate calls, and only 15 cents for intrastate calls. And they offer free account codes (two to four digits dialed after you dial the called number), which allow you to track calls by project or employee (unfortunately, the codes are not verified in any way; the switch will accept any code with the correct number of digits, but for a small business it's a great way to help assign project costs). The $5.00 monthly charge makes this plan unattractive in very low volume situations, but for anyone engaged in business that does a fair amount of calling (especially intrastate calling and/or especially during the daytime hours), it's an excellent plan, in my opinion. Sure, other carriers might come close if you have a LOT of volume or are willing to sign a multi-year contract, but this carrier is the second oldest carrier operating in Michigan and has a reputation for giving excellent customer service. A different carrier that serves Michigan and parts of Indiana (and MAYBE some other midwest states) offers an 800 service that is pretty good. This company has a $5.00 per month charge FOR AS MANY 800 NUMBERS AS YOU WANT. Whether you need one 800 number or 100, it's still only $5.00 per month. Rates are 17.5 cents per minute during the business day, 14.5 cents per minute after 5 P.M. and on weekends, and billing is in six second increments. Should you ever have more than $200 of usage per month, a volume discount (of 6.5%) kicks in (I think there may be even more discounts after certain higher usage levels). This particular company also prides itself on being able to provide very detailed billing should you require it. I did find carriers with lower monthly charges, but they either had much higher per-minute rates or (in one particular case involving a national third-tier carrier) simply turned up their noses at anyone who might have less than $100 per month billing. The customer that wants the 800 number may indeed reach that level someday, but for right now he's just starting out and is unwilling to commit to any particular volume level (and actually, the regional carrier still has slightly better rates). One thing to consider when buying outbound (regular "Dial 1" long distance) service, especially if you make many calls within your own LATA (and especially if you are asked to sign a long term contract): Ask if the carrier will provide and maintain a dialer on your premesis, so that your intraLATA calls will be routed to your long distance carrier at their rates, rather than to your local telephone company (assuming that intraLATA competition is permitted in your state). If they want to charge you a monthly fee for the dialer, ask if they will waive that fee to get your business. Refurbished dialers only cost the carrier a couple hundred dollars or so (and you can buy them yourself for that price), so don't get suckered into paying a high monthly rental fee for one. Smaller carriers will often provide a dialer just to get your business, and to make sure they get your intraLATA toll traffic! I'm not trying to sell these services to anyone (indeed, your calling volumes and patterns may indicate that different plans would better suit your needs), but just want to make the point that if you are considering buying long distance service of any kind, set aside two or three hours and get out the yellow pages (of the nearest major city if you're not located in one) and start calling long distance carriers listed there. Some of the small carriers that no one's ever heard of offer excellent deals, and in addition, they may be far more responsive to your individual requirements (and have more flexibility to make deals) than the big carriers. If you find a calling plan you like, ask the company pertinent questions like how long they've been in business, what their customer retention rate is, how detailed their billing is, and what hours you can reach the company for emergency service. If you like the answers you get, go with them. If by some odd chance things don't work out, you can always cash that $75 check that AT&T will doubtless send you to entice you to switch back to them, and smile ... :-) Jack (This article Copyright 1993 by Jack Decker, but may be reprinted freely without payment of any kind so long as this copyright notice is included.) [Moderator's Note: I wish you had given the names and phone numbers of these companies so people could investigate them further. Your point about finding a company that meets your needs is a good one. Time and again here when people contact me to have me handle their 800 numbers or 1+ dialing, they want to know what plans I offer. The fact is, I now go through various companies with a whole range of good things and invariably my first question in return is 'tell me about your calling patterns, etc ..' I am not going to put them on a flat rate plan if (for example) ATT/SDN would be less expensive, etc. So when you come across deals such as you described above, by all means let us all in on it! :) I catalog those things and constantly refer to them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ho@helen.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Kinson Ho) Subject: Need Numeric Pager Recommendation Date: 27 Oct 1993 21:14:34 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley I am looking for a numeric pager for use in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have never used a pager before. What are the things to look for regarding: a. Pager hardware: Which models or features? Approx cost? Do I have to buy the unit from the service provider, or can I buy the unit and shop around for the best service plan? (Given a pager, can I switch service providers?) b. Service providers: Who provides good/bad service? How much does it typically cost (per month/year)? What else is important? Please send replies to me by email. Thanks. If there is sufficient interest, I will post a summary. Kinson Ho ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 15:46:27 EDT From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Car Phones and Accidents? Organization: Penn State University Does any one have any definitive statistics of the use of car (cellular) phones and traffic accidents? Peter M. Weiss "The 'NET' never naps" +1 814 863 1843 31 Shields Bldg. -- Penn State Univ -- University Park, PA USA 16802-1202 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 14:36:52 -0700 From: wwalker@qualcomm.com (Bill Walker) Subject: Re: Administrivia: The Moving Continues Organization: Qualcomm, Inc. In article , TELECOM Moderator moderated: > What's more important to us though is that our little one had > to be admitted to the hospital on an emergency basis yesterday due > to an infection which had started a day or two earlier. He had not > responded to his medication; yesterday the doctor said get him in > the hospital immediatly. While in the hospital, his temperature went > up to 103.5 and they are having a hard time getting it down to > normal. He is now getting his medication via IV. Best wishes for his speedy recovery, Pat! Bill Walker - WWalker@qualcomm.com - QUALCOMM, Inc., San Diego, CA USA "First thing we do, we kill all the lawyers." - Shakespeare [Moderator's Note: Thanks for your note and the several others people have sent today. The doctor said it was/is 'very close to' meningitis. The doctor had a long, rather complex reason why it was not technically meningitis; basically it is a bacterial infection in his head which is not normally categorized as meningitis, but with similar results if not treated promptly. Apparently we got him into the hospital in the nick of time. He'll be in the hospital at least a few more days, and the doctor is unwilling to be specific at this point about his recovery. One or the other of the three of us (adults) is with him at the hospital at all times; my brother and his wife then go to their respective jobs and I've been moving stuff bit by bit from our old place to the new place; a job all three of us had assigned roles to carry out, but a friend is coming over tomorrow to help me with some heavy furniture. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #723 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa21485; 28 Oct 93 16:04 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16862 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 28 Oct 1993 12:14:21 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05115 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 28 Oct 1993 12:13:39 -0500 Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 12:13:39 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310281713.AA05115@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #724 TELECOM Digest Thu, 28 Oct 93 12:13:20 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 724 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Question About T1 Equipment (Aninda Dasgupta) BT: Malicious Callers - Prosecutions Up (Jean-Bernard Condat) Milipol Paris '93 [Nov 23-26] (Jean-Bernard Condat) New Phone Numbering System For Turkey (Serdar Boztas) Interrogative BOCA and/or Complete PC (Ken Leonard) Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker (Bonnie J. Johnson) Networking Equipment (root@kingdom.com) GTE Now Offers Express Dial Tone (Denny L. Marsh) Looking for Cell Fraud Sources (Scott D. Fybush) Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number (Kristen Anne Pribis) Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number (Gregory Youngblood) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (Roy Smith) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (David Kovanen) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (Christopher M. Wolf) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Oct 93 09:43:17 EDT From: add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) Subject: Question About T1 Equipment I am trying to get an estimate of equipment needed for a T1 connection. I was looking at various data-comm catalogs and found so many options that I don't know which is the right one. Here's what I have in mind: |-------| |----| |---| | | |----| |Prsn| |--| | | | | | | | 1's|-|M1|--|MCI|--\ | | |---| |Work| | PC | |--| |POP| \ |Public | |---| |----| |-------|--|M1 |-|Stn | |----| |---| \|Network| | |T1 |CSU/| |Unknown|. |---| | | . |(Think |--|MCI|---|DSU |--|Box |. | | . | of a | |POP| |box | | |. |---| | | . | boxy | |---| |----| |-------|--|M24|-| | . /| cloud | |---| | | |----| |---| / | :-) | | | |Prsn| |---| | |--/ | | |----| |24's|-|M24|-|MCI| | | | PC | |---| |POP| | | M1 to M2 |----| |---| | | are v32,v42 |-------| modems. Are they necessary? M1 to M24 What should are v32,v42 the "Unknown Box" modems above be in scenarios 1 and 2 below? Scenario 1: Let's say I have a workstation and 24 geographically distributed salespersons. My salespersons want to dial into my workstation using modems. I get an 800 number, linked to a hunt group of 24 lines, from MCI (i.e. I get a T1 link to the MCI POP, provided by my LEC). What equipment (DSU/CSU, etc) do I need at the workstation end, to be able to provide these connections , keeping in mind that I will never originate any outgoing calls? The 24 salespersons will dial my 800 number, MCI will carry their modulated digital signals to the MCI POP nearest to me. I assume MCI will somehow add and drop signals from my salespersons into the 24 slots of the T1 link from their POP to my workstation. So I will obviously need a DSU/CSU unit to be able to receive the DS1 frames from the POP. Will I also need some kind of demux to be able to break up the 24 DS0's. Obviously, to this point, the incoming signals will be digital. Now, to anwer to the handshakes (v32 etc) of the salespersons' modems will I also need 24 modems that will probably talk some protocol like v35 or RS422 with the DSU/CSU? And what about getting back the voice signals that were generated by the salespersons' modems? Somehow all this doesn't quite make sense. Are there any "in-one-box" solutions to such applications? Scenario 2: Everything is almost the same as the scenario above, but now I also want to be able to originate calls to my 24 salespersons. Therefore, I suppose I need a special "box" that will sit between the DSU/CSU and my modems so that I can control the adding and dropping of connections into the DS1 time slots. Also, how can I notify the MCI POP what number I want to be dialed to reach a salesperson? Is this what a dial-up (switched) CSU/DSU allows me to do? With such a CSU/DSU, can I choose the 24 different numbers to dial up over the T1 link to MCI POP, or do I have to give one number to dial up where all 24 DS0's will end up? If the former, how is the routing information (the 24 dialed numbers) delivered to the MCI POP using a T1 frame (I mean, is the routing signalling done out of band or something)? What are good sources for such equipment? I have some catalogs from BlackBox and MISCO. I have seen some AT&T boxes lying around in our computer and PBX rooms. Hope some kind folks will enlighten me or point out some good references. I would love to get my hands on any book that demystifies all the various T1 equipment. Thanks in advance. Aninda DasGupta (add@philabs.philips.com) Ph:(914)945-6071 Fax:(914)945-6552 Philips Labs\n 345 Scarborough Rd\n Briarcliff Manor\n NY 10510 ------------------------------ From: cccf@email.teaser.com (Jean-Bernard Condat) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 14:15:06 GMT Subject: BT: Malicious Callers - Prosecutions Up BT has announced that prosecutions and police cautions of malicious phone callers rose by 600 per cent in the last year. This follows BT's introduction in July last year of a national network of specialist bureaux devoted to helping customers who are receiving malicious calls. Since the launch of the bureaux BT has helped an average of 6,000 of 6,000 customers every week. Up to 7,000 lines have been on call trace at any one time and BT has handled 1,000 new requests from the police each week to trace calls. As a result, some 1,200 offenders were cautioned or proecuted during the year to June 1993, compared with fewer than 200 during the previous year. More than 2,000 customers a week have their telephone numbers changed free of charge, and there has been an average of 600 calls a day to the free recorded Adviceline on 0800 666 700. Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France, B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Private Address: P.O. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France Phone: +33 1 40101764, Fax: +33 1 47877070 InterNet: cccf@altern.com or cccf@email.teaser.com ***For a free subscription to _Chaos Digest_, send a message to: linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi with a mail header or first line containing the following information: X-Mn-Admin: join CHAOS_DIGEST and you will put freely on the ChaosD mailing list. Don't hesitate! ** ------------------------------ From: cccf@email.teaser.com (Jean-Bernard Condat) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 14:22:32 GMT Subject: Milipol Paris '93 [Nov 23-26] For more information related to Milipol '93, the international exhibition of police, civil and military security equipment organized by the International Milipol Committee November 23-26, 1993 Paris, Le Bourget (France) don't hesitate to ask for more information to Mrs. Annie Marchand (69 rue Brillat Savarin, 75013 Paris, France; Phone: +33 1 45894432 and fax: +33 1 45815438) or place an e-mail message on my e-mail box with your complete address. Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France, B.P. 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Private Address: P.O. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08, France Phone: +33 1 40101764, Fax: +33 1 47877070 InterNet: cccf@altern.com or cccf@email.teaser.com ------------------------------ From: serdar@fawlty8.eng.monash.edu.au (Serdar Boztas) Subject: New Phone Numbering System For Turkey Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia. Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 06:36:32 GMT The telephone numbering system in Turkey has recently been revamped. There used to be more than 5000 local area codes of varying lengths (one to five digits to the best of my knowledge) with correspondingly varying local number lengths (seven to three digits). The new system is based on 77 three-digit area codes for provinces and seven digit local phone numbers. Istanbul is the exception and it gets three area codes (I think two for the European side and one for the Asian side). 0 will be the long distance dialing prefix while the international dialing prefix will be 00. The country code for Turkey is 90. For the next few months, both old and new codes will be usable. Adana 322 AdIyaman 416 Afyon 272 AGrI 472 Aksaray 382 Amasya 358 Ankara 312 Antalya 242 Ardahan 478 Artvin 466 AydIn 256 BalIkesir 266 BartIn 378 Batman 488 Bayburt 458 Bilecik 228 BingOl 426 Bitlis 434 Bolu 374 Burdur 248 Bursa 224 Canakkale 286 CankIrI 376 Corum 364 Denizli 258 DiyarbakIr 412 Edirne 284 ElazIG 424 Erzincan 446 Erzurum 442 Eski$ehir 222 Gaziantep 342 Giresun 454 GUmU$hane 456 Hatay 326 IGdIr 476 ICel 324 Istanbul-1 212 Istanbul-2 214 Istanbul-3 216 Izmir 232 K. Mara$ 344 Karaman 338 Kars 474 Kastamonu 366 Kayseri 352 KIrIkkale 318 KIrklareli 288 KIr$ehir 386 Kocaeli 262 Konya 332 KUtahya 274 Malatya 422 Manisa 236 Mardin 482 MuGla 252 Mu$ 436 Nev$ehir 384 NiGde 388 Ordu 452 Rize 464 Sakarya 264 Samsun 362 Siirt 484 Sinop 368 Sivas 346 $. Urfa 414 $Irnak 486 TekirdaG 282 Tokat 356 Trabzon 462 Tunceli 428 U$ak 276 Van 432 Yozgat 354 Zonguldak 372 KKTC 392 ^ This last code is for dialing the Turkish Cypriot part of Cyprus. Serdar Boztas serdar@fawlty8.eng.monash.edu.au ------------------------------ From: leonardk@happy.vf.ge.com (Ken Leonard) Subject: Interrogative BOCA and/or Complete PC Organization: GE Aerospace - VF Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 12:54:31 GMT Howdy ... I have a modem with "BOCA" inside and "Complete PC" on the outside. Can someone tell me how to contact Complete PC? (online) Can someone tell me how to contact BOCA? (online, offline, anyhow) Thanks, Ken ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Oct 93 10:57:52 EDT From: Bonnie J Johnson Subject: Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker I pulled this information off the Risks listserv and wondered if any of you know if there is an validity to it? "Not too long ago a Telecom worker in Western Australia was reportedly killed when a fragment of fibre optic glass accidently got into his blood stream". We are pulling, rehabbing, terminating, etc. our own fiber and if it is true of the safety hazard, it would be nice to know. Anyone out there been warned (safety classes, bulletins, the like) about handling fiber? ty, bj ------------------------------ From: root@kingdom.com (Charlie Root) Subject: Networking Equipment Date: 28 Oct 1993 12:43:23 GMT Organization: Kingdom Communications, Inc. San Francisco, California USA I am looking for some networking equipment like routers, terminal servers, CSU/DSUs and don't know where to begin to look. Can someone point me in the right direction to the correct newsgroup if this is the wrong newsgroup and also refer me to some mail-order sources along with their phone numbers and addresses that carry these things and magazines which have either ads or articles on it. Thanks! Cheers, Vince root@kingdom.com System Administrator/Owner Kingdom Communications, Inc./California Unix Public Access Systems, Inc. San Francisco, California USA ------------------------------ From: DENNY.L.MARSH@gte.sprint.com Date: 27 Oct 93 12:11:42-0400 Subject: GTE Now Offers Express Dialtone Passed along FYI from corporate literature: EXPRESS DIALTONE NOW OFFERED IN GTE LOCATIONS GTE now provides a new service called Express Dialtone, which allows GTE customers to plug their phone into the phone jack in their new home or business and call GTE immediately. Express Dialtone provides a quick way to initiate phone service without having to visit the GTE service office or use someone else's phone to place the call. GTE has implemented the new service in Carrollton, Kemah, Robstown and Lakeshore this year and plans to offer it in Garland, Plano, Pilot Point, Keller, San Angelo, Del Rio, Ruidoso, Weslaco, Lake Brownwood and Gonzales by year-end. Express Dialtone makes it easy for people moving into a vacant home or apartment to initiate their phone service or check previously ordered service without a lot of hassle. It also helps GTE by eliminating the need to drive to the customers' location, which takes additional time and costs more. In some situations, customers receive a discount on their service connection charge, because the business office and switching center handle the changes, eliminating the need for a GTE representative to travel to the location. Here's how it works: When GTE customers leave their business or residence and disconnect their service, Express Dialtone is placed on the line. The phone line will still be connected to the GTE office, but no other calls may be placed from the phone. When a new resident moves in, they can lift the receiver and automatically call GTE to have regular service connected. Express Dialtone is automatic for all single-party residential and business phone lines in those locations where it has been implemented. ------------------------------ From: fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) Subject: Looking for Cell Fraud Sources Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 22:46:19 EDT As some of you already know, I am a newswriter for WBZ radio in Boston. We're interested in doing a piece on cellular-telephone security. I don't want to get into all the "does 800 MHz a few inches from your head cause cancer?" angle ... but I *am* interested in exploring issues such as ECPA, phony ESNs, and the like. So ... I'm looking for people to talk to, preferably people willing to go on the air with us. If you have something to contribute, please e-mail me, or better yet call me at WBZ at +1 617 787 7250 between 11 AM and 7 PM eastern time. In exchange, I promise not to fall into the usual mass-media traps. Let's see if we can get some factual, non-sensational information out there for people to chew on. Thanks! Scott Fybush - fybush@world.std.com - WBZ radio Boston MA USA ------------------------------ From: pribik@rpi.edu (Kristen Anne Pribis) Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number Date: 28 Oct 1993 04:42:12 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA mackay@speedway.net (Tom Mackay) writes: > I recently received some information from a company in Dallas called > Cellular Options that for $199.50, will alter a cellular phone to > allow more than one phone per cellular telephone number. In their > literature they discuss the procedure of cloning or ESN emulation and > even mention the fraudulent use of this method. They state that now > several legitimate companies are offering legal cloning or emulation. > Has anyone dealt with this or a similar company? Is is completely > legal, or is it in a grey area? What do the cell companies think of > this? Does it work? > [Moderator's Note: This is a grey area at best -- very grey. Most > contracts from cell carriers prohibit the practice. It certainly does > not aid in fraud prevention, and could actually contribute to more > fraud, as the company's own literature states. PAT] One of the options I can choose as part of my Cellular One package (in Albany, NY) is to have two phones assigned to the same number. They use some sort of call forwarding technique where you assign a primary phone. If the call is not answered on the primary, it will ring through to the secondary, and then on to phone mail. Now, if they could only get rid of that static ... Actually, mentioning static, I was wondering how many areas are currently offering digital cellular service. The last I heard, it was only in Tampa. Chris Labatt-Simon Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting pribik@rpi.edu (518) 495-5474 Tel (518) 786-6539 Fax [Moderator's Note: But please note it is two phones with two numbers and presumably two ESN's ... with the carrier routing things as you have requested. It is not using the same ESN in both phones. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 93 01:21:38 PDT Organization: TCS Computer Systems mackay@speedway.net (Tom Mackay) writes: > I recently received some information from a company in Dallas called > Cellular Options that for $199.50, will alter a cellular phone to > allow more than one phone per cellular telephone number. In their > literature they discuss the procedure of cloning or ESN emulation and > even mention the fraudulent use of this method. They state that now > several legitimate companies are offering legal cloning or emulation. > [Moderator's Note: This is a grey area at best -- very grey. Most > contracts from cell carriers prohibit the practice. It certainly does > not aid in fraud prevention, and could actually contribute to more > fraud, as the company's own literature states. PAT] I think this would ultimately violate most contracts like you said. However, it also does more. First, (I can't remember if it was here or in one of my trade magazines -- or both?) there is a new security system in place, or going in place in a few markets created by a subsidiary of TRW (?). Supposedly it generates an RF fingerprint of sorts. Then, it can pre-validate calls based upon that "fingerprint". Personally it sounds too good to be true, and I can't imagine that no two phones wouldn't have similar traits, but I'm not up on that end of cellular telephony. This cloning method would cause one or both units to fail under such a security net. Lastly, it would obviously void the phone warranty, and if you ever ended up with a Diamondtel with a Motorola ESN you would be in for some interesting explanations, let alone trying to resell the phone, or trade it in, or whatever at a later date. Personally, I'd love it. I could use it and get rid of having three numbers. But, this method is not something I'd look for. Your best bet is to check with the carriers. I seem to remember that there was an experimental service being offered a while back which allowed customers to establish accounts with more than one phone on a single number. I can't remember how they worked out the roaming (I think the primary, or first, phone could roam, but the others could not) but I do remember that it was done at the switch level and did NOT require the modification of any phone hardware. There is also another company offering some equipment and software to do this with the switches as well (I had their brochure about a year ago). I think that as the current trend of some carriers dropping their low-ball plans for slightly higher rates that other features such as this will come following soon. Imagine, chargin $29.95 per month for the LOWEST plan, but, add additional phones for $7.95 or 11.95 to the same number. Would encourage multiple users. Of course it would be ideal if the billing could separate the bills by ESN, but I haven't seen the bills generated by the experimental service. I do know it would just be a matter of setting up the billing software. Greg The Complete Solution BBS | Allfiles List: | Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-9058 (24hrs, v.32) | ~/tcsbbs.lst | Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site | zeta@tcscs.com | Cellular Telephoney Groups ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 93 14:35:35 -0400 From: roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) Organization: New York University, School of Medicine > [Moderator's Note: Who do you think would be fooled by this? If you > observe the display between the first and second ring, act on the > information given as you see fit *then* answer, how could anything > someone did after that point matter? PAT] Telco has been marketing Caller ID, in part, as a protection against harassing phone calls. In one of the commercials they ran on TV around here, the phone rings and a woman picks it up. After talking for a while, she realizes it's a creep on the other end and says something like, "I've got your number [looks at CID display] 555-1234!" I don't know about anybody else, but the lady in the commercial sure would have been fooled. Roy Smith Hippocrates Project, Department of Microbiology, Coles 202 NYU School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 [Moderator's Note: As our writer pointed out, the original (valid) information sent is not deleted however; it is stored in the buffer of recently calling numbers. So when it is discovered that the latest information is bogus, reviewing the data from the call 'right before it' -- like probably booked in the display at the very same minute and always the call right before the bogus one, no? -- will in fact reveal the truth. Sure, there are some people who will be fooled by almost anything. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 17:13:47 PDT From: Kovanen@First.Com (David Kovanen) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) I feel that many people can be fooled! (As you indicate, the lady in the commercial would be fooled.) I also know of one [undisclosed] Voice Mail system that would be fooled, trust me. The system receives Caller-ID and sets up a security level using this information. But, the Voice Mail system isn't smart enough to IGNORE subsequent transmissions of Caller-ID information -- thus callers can become whomever they wish to be after the system answers. I hesitate to mention this, but there is a similar device to the Presto Chango box that does the same thing to E911. Big problem! ------------------------------ From: cmwolf@fsh.mtu.edu (Christopher M. Wolf) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 12:22:11 EDT In response to the following witty comment by TELECOM Moderator: > [Moderator's Note: Who do you think would be fooled by this? If you > observe the display between the first and second ring, act on the > information given as you see fit *then* answer, how could anything > someone did after that point matter? PAT] Possibly someone who normally does not look at the display, but then gets a "nasty" (TM) message, and looks down and calls the police with the (new) number. Like the reason many people say they like it, so they can keep track of obscene phone calls. What if you look down and see some new number that you don't know, assume nothing, realize after answering that its an obscene call, and when you look down to get the number, see it changed. Hope you have a good memory. Christopher Wolf Electrical Engineer/Computer Scientist cmwolf@mtu.edu [Moderator's Note: Remember, the old information just gets put on the stack when the new information arrives. Why do you think they put a 'review' function on your Caller-ID box if not so you could flip through it looking at calls received over some period of time? Therein will be the correct information about the caller, invariably at the same time or in the previous minute. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #724 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25358; 30 Oct 93 20:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22319 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 30 Oct 1993 17:44:42 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18611 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 30 Oct 1993 17:44:02 -0500 Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 17:44:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310302244.AA18611@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #725 TELECOM Digest Sat, 30 Oct 93 17:44:00 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 725 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "The Unicode Standard" (Rob Slade) Ameritech PCS Trial Update #8 (Andrew C. Green) Technical Support Specialist Wanted (Steve Pinkston) Telecommunications Key to Multimedia (Randy Gellens) Programming the NEC P4 (Julian Francis) Laguna Beach Fires (Randy Gellens) Canadian Government News Releases via Email (Tyson Macaulay) Administrivia: Moving, Sick Kids, Time Change (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 Oct 93 12:20 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Unicode Standard" BKUNICOD.RVW 980921 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 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-527-5210 617-944-3700 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 or Unicode, Inc. 1965 Charleston Road Mountain View, CA 94043 (415) 961-4189 Fax: (415) 966-1637 "The Unicode Standard", U$32.95/C$42.95 steve@unicode.org unicode-inc@unicode.org rick_mcgowan@next.com In the dim and distant past, the late, and generally unlamented, SUZY information system was born in Vancouver. Rather an oddball as far as online services went, one "feature" was that the programmer had tried to allow for the use of all of the IBM graphics characters. This lead to an entirely new field of "smiley" or "emoticon" (emotional icon) endeavours. Instead of the usual sideways happy face of the colon, hyphen and right parenthesis; ":-)"; we were able to use the "Ctrl-A" alternative of the IBM PC character set. Having a decimal value of one, this character is an upright happy face. This allowed other expansions, such as Ctrl-A and the right square bracket, which looks like a face and a telephone handset, and was used (usually in the "chat" modes) for "I am on the phone." "How nice," I hear you mutter between clenched teeth. "Can we now get on with the review?" Patience, stout nerds. This *is* the review. As SUZY users, particularly those who had been introduced to computer communications on the system, moved on to other services or local bulletin boards, they were usually quite shocked to find that their favourite symbols no longer worked. The little diamond (Ctrl-C) would kill a message on a VAX. Fidonet users might find that the cute tagline they had formed from graphics characters completely disappeared when they sent the message through an Internet gateway. ASCII (the American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is widely, and mistakenly, believed to define two hundred and fifty-six characters. It doesn't. Furthermore, of the hundred and twenty-eight characters it does define, many are "control" rather than printable characters. (The "card suit" symbols on the IBM PC graphics set are defined as "end of text", "end of transmission", "enquiry" and "acknowledgement" under the real ASCII standard.) In addition, many believe ASCII to be a universal standard; also not true. An octet with the decimal value thirty-five, for example, is the number sign (sometimes called an "octothorpe") in the United States, but a pound sign (the British currency) in Britain. As with most fields of computer endeavor, the nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from. Many vary only slightly -- but they vary. The point is that there are a number of symbols which we commonly know, but which cannot be consistently displayed on terminals or printers. Certain terminals will have certain "international" character sets, but not all are identical. Accents and other phonetic modifiers may be difficult to handle: entire character sets are given over strictly to accented characters. (In Canada we are acutely aware of the problems, with "French" keyboards used at many sites. On one, I was having difficulty finding some necessary punctuation marks for network addressing, and asked a Francophone programmer for help. "Who knows," he growled, "I never use the ____ things!") Unicode seeks to address this problem. Including not only the variations on the Latin alphabet, Unicode incorporates Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew and other alphabets. It also includes punctuation, diacriticals, mathematical and scientific symbols and miscellaneous graphics. Asian ideographs are also assigned codes. This is no longer suitable, of course, for a seven-bit code, and Unicode is based on a sixteen-bit address space. The book gives some background and plans (chapter one), general principles and rules for conformance (chapter two). To comment on these in any meaningful way would be to rewrite these chapters. This is technical material, though not the same technology that computer types are used to. Some background study in linguistics would be a good idea, although it is not strictly necessary to understand and use the Unicode standard. There are, however, a wealth of symbols, punctuation marks and typesetting codes which Unicode gives standardized access to. On the other hand, any application which used the standard in a significant way would likely require a linguistics background in any case. The bulk of the books (two volumes) is, of course, taken up with the actual code charts. (Volume two, in fact, is almost completely concerned with Han ideographs. In spite of the recent widespread use of the English alphabet, this is still the standard written language of Chinese, Japanese and Korean: CJK in Unicode terminology.) The charts are augmented with verbal definitions of the symbols, and with cross references to similar forms. The Unicode standard is recent. In comparative terms its current usage is negligible. However, it is the defacto standard for broadly based international character sets. With the recent rejection of the proposed ISO thirty-two bit standard, and the recasting of that standard to follow Unicode's lead, Unicode is a significant factor in the development of any international applications. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKUNICOD.RVW 980921 (Postscriptum - Unicode Inc. maintains an FTP site at unicode.org (192.195.185.2). Some of the mapping tables, and the Han cross reference lists are available. Some tables are also available on IBM PC or Mac compatible floppy disks.) Permission granted to distribute only with unedited copies of 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 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1993 17:32:09 CDT From: Andrew C. Green Subject: Ameritech PCS Trial Update #8 This is Ameritech PCS Update #8, a series of reports on the progress of a trial of digital wireless portable phones being conducted by Ameritech in the Chicago area. Yours truly is a member of the general public, randomly selected for the test by Ameritech, to their everlasting regret, we'll bet. :-) Updates and Corrections Since the last posting I received some interesting replies from Telecom readers, including one pointing out that "spread spectrum" wasn't a terribly accurate description of the communication in the case of this particular PCS test program, and a couple of others asking what _was_ the actual method in use. Most queries have suggested three different Multiple Access methods of communication: Frequency Division, Code Division and Time Division (FDMA, CDMA and TDMA respectively). I've since had an enlightening conversation with Mr. Fred Miri at Ameritech, who informs me that Enhanced FDMA is the format in use, "Enhanced" referring to the two-way calling ability added to all transceivers in May and June of this year. They originally had been leaning in favor of TDMA, but ran into "timeframe problems", I was told. Some testing of CDMA is still under way using OmniPoint equipment, although I did not pursue details of that with Fred. In other areas that I got wrong (sigh), Fred tells me that the "registration" burst sent out by the PCS occurs only when the initial transceiver signal falls off and the PCS decides to try and register with a neighboring area; it does not arbitrarily occur every few minutes. I misled myself on this point by testing the phone in a moving train traveling from Arlington Heights to Mount Prospect, the next town over. Fred also clarified that this applies to registration for routing of incoming calls only; it is not a handoff procedure for calls currently in progress. The PCS cannot hand off calls, at least not yet. Finally, Fred stated that initial tests of power consumption indicated that the full two-way (with registration) phone consumed slightly less battery power than the pager-equipped outbound-only handset, not more power as I said previously. While my batteries have been giving problems earlier in the day with my two-way phone, we decided that it might be due to aging batteries rather than increased power consumption. Additional Surveys Recently I was summoned with some other participants to Ameritech's sprawling headquarters again for another evening of PCS review, for which we each received $50. This was just days after they announced their grand merger of all their subsidiaries under the Ameritech banner, and I noticed as I approached the huge landscaped sign in the outer ZIP code of their palatial estate that it was already sporting their new logo. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, it seems that Ameritech decided to avoid a completely symbolic original style, with the attendant risk of concocting another AT&T Death Star, in favor of a pleasantly bland, typical-90's upper/lower case serif "Ameritech" set in a looping circle, with the loop supplying the crossbar of the "A" in a design detail copied from the Hyatt Hotels logo. Anyone who has seen the film "Brazil" would recognize the visitor's area of the Ameritech complex, with its 30-foot ceilings, 12-foot doors and insanely complicated polished-metal panel detailing. One expects Robert De Niro (from "Central Services", if memory serves; see the film, anyway) to pop out of the wall at any moment. The intriguing architecture is apparently designed to make you feel _very_ small, and the huge lobby has surprisingly few chair groupings in it, spread far apart in an apparent effort to keep different visitors from overhearing one another. I can't go into detail here as the evening's activity was prefaced by a Non-Disclosure Agreement, but I think a Reasonable Person May Deduce that, in general, I was obviously there to give my views on the quality of PCS operation so far. Suffice to say that I've found it useful to rate PCS call quality on a scale I made up recently: EXCELLENT: Land-line voice quality, no dropouts, no problems; GOOD: Fairly distinct voice quality, brief and negligible dropouts; FAIR: Signal dropouts so bad that the caller must resort to a "Let Me Get Back to You" and abort the call; POOR: Signal dropouts to the point where the other party cannot be understood at all; call dropped by user; UNACCEPTABLE: Complete failure of signal; call dropped by system. Using my own rating system, I've had calls ranking all over the scale, but the PCS quality is averaging somewhere between a solid Good and a very high Fair. I think that as an engineer I'm a bit more forgiving of the equipment than an average user might be, and I have learned to always ping the transceiver and walk around to locate a steady dial tone before attempting a call; thus my "Geiger counter" style of calling is skewing my own results higher on the satisfaction scale than those of a person who simply pulls the PCS out of their pocket at some random location and starts banging away on the keypad. I suspect that people in other fields may be more critical than I am, expecting perfection in all cases, and thus I would be skeptical about trying to sell the PCS in its current incarnation. Service Options Trying to define what the "current incarnation" actually is may be getting too far ahead, however. Currently I know of at least three distinctly different PCS service arrangements which are all in active use at this time: OUTBOUND CALLING ONLY: The PCS can dial out in any public service area, but has no base unit for land-line connection and "extension phone" operation, and no provision for inbound calls of any kind. OUTBOUND CALLING/INBOUND PAGER: Outbound dialing in public as above, plus a base unit and "Private" mode capability for use with your home phone. Inbound calling capability supplied by routing callers to a Voicemail box which in turn beeps a pager installed in the PCS handset. FULL TWO-WAY INBOUND AND OUTBOUND CALLING: Same features as above except no pager (user must actively call the mailbox to check for messages). Voicemail intercepts inbound caller if PCS is not in service (registered with a transceiver somewhere) or doesn't answer after approximately six rings. Phone must be switched on in order to register with nearest transceiver and ring for inbound calls. What is to be offered as a final product is anyone's guess at this point. For example, the "Private" mode capability can operate independently of the three variations above, so making that optional doubles the permutations of service options to six on the spot. My strictly-personal preference is for the Pager, for although its concept initially struck me as a temporary kludge to enable inbound communication during the test, it turned out to be more resilient in terms of reliability, reachability and power than the full two-way mode that presumably is intended to improve on it. Coming Attractions I have blathered on at length in the past about the call quality so I won't repeat it all here, but I believe Ameritech is on the case and we might look for improvements in the next go-round, whenever that may be. We are now entering the last couple of months of the current PCS Trial, so I will be looking forward to hearing about the immediate future of the program and products. I'll report on developments as they occur. In PCS Trial Update #9, sometime in the near future, I'll review some of the Frequently Asked Questions that I've been getting with these postings. DISCLAIMER: Just a reminder -- I have no connection to Ameritech other than as a PCS Trial Program user, and any activities for which I was paid by them have been identified as such in these postings. Opinions and factual blunders are of course my own. Writing this stuff is giving me a new understanding of why the popular press tends to get technical matters wrong so often! Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: pinkston@kentrox.com (Steve Pinkston) Subject: Technical Support Specialist Wanted Organization: Kentrox Industries, Inc. Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1993 21:49:39 GMT TECHNICAL SUPPORT SPECIALIST KENTROX INDUSTRIES, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ADC Telecommuni- cations, Inc., is a primary supplier of digital transmission equipment for the telecommunications industry. Kentrox is well positioned in the marketplace and our commitment to quality, product reliability, and complete customer satisfaction is stronger than ever with our recent ISO 9001 certification. We are currently seeking a TECHNICAL SUPPORT SPECIALIST to provide telephone assistance for our customers. Responsibilities will include configuration and troubleshooting assistance for Wide Area Voice and Data Networks on T1, FT1, T3 E1 and E3 circuits and fast packet services. You will also be responsible for limited on-site training and assistance. The selected candidate will have a two year telecom degree or four year technical degree plus two years of experience in digital telecommunications. Experience with LANs and Novell Netware is a big plus. The ability to communicate clearly, work calmly under pressure, and troubleshoot digital networks is essential. Kentrox is an organization with an unmatched reputation for product reliability and customer support. We offer excellent benefits and a smoke-free environment in which to expand your skills. For prompt consideration, please send your resume, including salary history, to: ADC Kentrox Attn: Human Resources P.O. Box 10704 Portland, OR (USA) 97210-0704 An equal opportunity employer. No relocation compensation. Please do not send e-mail to the poster of this article. ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 29 OCT 93 12:40 Subject: Telecommunications Key to Multimedia [This was in an internal news round-up] * * * JAPANESE FIRMS RECONSIDER MULTIMEDIA STRATEGY * * * WHILE JAPAN HAS SOUGHT to dominate the multimedia market through consumer electronics and Hollywood studios, mergers between American communications companies have cast a new light on who will control multimedia, according to the Wall Street Journal (10/15/93). Japanese companies are learning that control over how information is transmitted over networks may be as important as hardware and software. "We are worrying," said Hiroyuki Mizuno, an executive vice president at Matsushita, which owns MCA, a major U.S. movie studio. "When it comes to telecom and computers, the U.S. is beyond us." Japanese government officials are considering loosening restrictions on the nation's primary telephone company, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, to boost development of Japan's telecommunications networks. "We'll see more Japanese electronics companies involved (with U.S. partnerships) in the next year," predicts Robert Townsend, a partner with U.S. law firm Morrison & Foerster in Tokyo. The firm recently held a multimedia seminar, which was attended primarily by Japanese companies. ------------------- Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software Unisys Corporation [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA to: rgellens@mcimail.co Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Oct 93 12:33 GMT From: Julian Francis Subject: Programming the NEC P4 I would like some information on programming the NEC P4 cellular phone. This phone may also be known as the P400. In particular I want to change the lock code without having to go back to my dealer. When this was originally programmed an adapter was clipped onto the phone, is this really necessary, or could I short out some pins. Any help would be most appreciated, particularly information on all other programmable features. Julian Francis University of Glamorgan ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 30 OCT 93 11:25 Subject: Laguna Beach Fires With large areas in Southern and Northern California on fire, I don't have much to note. However, the Laguna Beach fire is pretty bad. The entire town (~25k people) is under mandatory evactuation, with no one allowed in. The winds died down during the night, and the fires are now getting under control. Earlier this year, I moved from downtown Laguna Beach to just outside the city limits. (My house is right where the police set up the roadblock to keep people from entering.) The fire did get fairly close (the other side of a major steet). I still have my Laguna Beach phone number (I moved the drop to a friend's house), forwarded to my new phone. If I tried from any of my home or office lines to call my number (or any Laguna Beach number), I got an "all circuts busy" recording. However, a friend who lives about 15 miles away was able to call my Laguna Beach number and get forwarded. Not sure why he could get a trunk to Laguna Beach and then back out, when I couldn't, but it was repeatable. The devastation is immense. A friend of mine just called to say he is OK. He is still in his Laguna Beach home (ignoring the evacuation order). He melted a window on his Jeep last night helping friends get stuff out. He has a few strangers staying with him. He found them while helping his friend. They were stranded, as their automatic garage door opener wouldn't work, and they couldn't get their cars out. Lucky for everyone my friend was there to rescue them. Because the fire blocked the road, my friend didn't know any way out of the fire area, but the people he rescued did. I work about 15 miles inland, and the area is covered with a dense layer of smoke, from other fires further inland. Local high schools have been turned into shelters for evacuated people, but many are also open for classes. Pets are not permitted, but local animal shelters and veterinarians have offered to take care of pets of evacuated people. So far, no deaths have been reported, but the Marines have been called out to search for bodies. Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software Unisys Corporation [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself [Moderator's Note: Thank you very much for sharing the sad news from southern California. During most of the day Thursday we had coverage of it on television here and you speak the truth: it was just devas- tating to watch. I hope you -- and other southern California readers of the Digest -- will, as conditions permit, continue to write and let us know the telecom situation there. It was 122 years ago in October, 1871 that Chicago was devasted with a major fire which destroyed over half the town. Even the {Chicago Tribune} offices and printing plant burned to the ground, but after a day's suspension the {Tribune} was on the street the next morning (after the Sunday night/all day Monday fire) with a front page editorial entitled 'Cheer Up' ... and after discussing the huge losses noted that the business of sign-painting was a good one to be in "... as we walked downtown yesterday getting our own affairs in order at the building we hastily purchased for the Tribune's relocation, we passed hundreds of signs stuck up on lamposts, doorways, and telegraph poles intended to advise the public where the former occupant of the premises had relocated. At the shell which was formerly the grand McVicker's Theatre, only the box office remains unscorched, and a sign on the front states that should the public wish to go in and view the ruins of the magnificent theatre, they should leave five cents in the basket sitting in the box office window. Cheer up! Chicago will rise again, of that you may be sure." ... [From Chicago Tribune, October 11, 1871] I think as devastated as they must be, that is good advice for the people in southern California as well. Two years from now, let us see if there is even the slightest evidence of the fire still remaining. Southern California will rise again; of that we may be sure. Please write again and share your experiences and telecom news. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Oct 93 16:48:42 EDT From: Tyson=Macaulay%DTP%DGCP=HQ=ADMSR@dgbt.banyan.doc.ca Subject: Canadian Government News Releases via Email New Canadian Government Listserv ISCNEWS will distribute the News Releases and Fact Sheets issued to the public by the Communications Canada Portion of Industry and Science Canada. The **News Releases** are Information that has been issued to the public and media about decisions made by the Canadian government regarding communications policy. The **Fact Sheets** contain information about developments in communications technology and applications in Canada. ISCNEWS fera la distribution au publique des communiques de presse et des feuillets d'information provenant d'une partie de Communications Canada du ministere de l'Industrie et Sciences Canada. Les **communiques de presse** constituent de l'information qui a ete distribue au publique et au media concernant des decisions prises par le gouvernement canadien sur la politique des communications. Les **feuillets d'information** contiennent de l'information sur les developpements de la technologie et des applications des communications au Canada. To subscribe to the list, send email to / pour vous en registrer, envoyer par courir electronic au suivant: listserv@debra.dgbt.doc.ca and in the body of the message put the command / dans le message faites la command suivante: subscribe iscnews Firstname Lastname (e.g., "subscribe iscnews Jacques Cartier") Addresses / Adresses: Administration: listserv@debra.dgbt.doc.ca Problems: server@debra.dgbt.doc.ca Listserv Commands / Commandes Listserv: The basic commands you will want to know about are / les commandes principles seront donc: subscribe iscnews Firstname Lastname (e.g., "subscribe iscnews Clark Kent") unsubscribe iscnews information iscnews (information about the list -- the same as this message / information concernante la liste -- la meme que ce message) help (more information on listserv commands / amples information sur commandes Listserv) ARCHIVES: Archives of Gazette Notices are available via FTP and Gopher / Archives des Avis de Gazette du Canada sont disponible a travers FTP et Gopher: FTP hostname: debra.dgbt.doc.ca login: anonymous directory: /pub/isc/iscnews Gopher gopher name: debra.dgbt.doc.ca port 70 ***Note: The archives are not indexed. It is suggested that you gopher to the site and use the WAIS text-searcher to find news-releases and fact-sheets related to your topic. \ Les archives ne sont pas compris dans l'index. Nous suggerons que vous "gopher" a l'endroit desire et utilisez le chercheur de texte WAIS pour trouver les nouvelles de presse et les feuillets d'information qui sont relies a votre sujet. Pour de plus ample renseignement concernant les feuillets d'information et des communiques de presse, veuillez communiquer avec : Further information about on the Fact Sheets and News Releases can be acquired from: Information Services 300 Slater Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C8 (613) 990 4900 or from regional offices/ou des bureaux regionaux : Moncton, N.B. (506) 857 6525 Montreal, Que. (514) 283 2307 Toronto, Ont. (416) 973 8215 Winnepeg, Man. (204) 983 4391 Vancouver, B.C. (604) 666 5468 SVP envoyer vos questions et commentaires a / Please send your questions and comments to: tyson@debra.dgbt.doc.ca Tyson Macaulay Industry and Science Canada 7th Floor, Journal Tower North 300 Slater Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C8 (613) 991 4903 e-mail: tyson@debra.dgbt.doc.ca tyson.macaulay@crc.doc.ca ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Moving, Sick Kids, Time Change Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 16:50:00 CDT The move to Skokie is almost complete. Saturday evening and Sunday we intend to move the remaining furniture, etc. The little one got out of the hospital this afternoon, but must remain inside and on medication for at least a few more days. The danger seems to be over, but the doctor will see him again early next week. Don't forget, Saturday night is when we set our clocks back one hour in the USA. Officially, the magic hour is 2 AM Sunday morning, when it will become 1 AM all over again. For a good time, try calling 202-653-1800 at 1:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time and listen for the full minute allowed. You'll note after 1:59:50 it becomes 1:00:00 again without missing a beat on the master clock. Pat ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #725 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25692; 30 Oct 93 21:57 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02023 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 30 Oct 1993 19:35:08 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19561 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 30 Oct 1993 19:34:27 -0500 Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 19:34:27 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199310310034.AA19561@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #726 TELECOM Digest Sat, 30 Oct 93 19:34:15 CDT Volume 13 : Issue 726 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Dr. Macintosh's Guide to the Online Universe" (Rob Slade) Problems with CNID (lunatix!chelf@ms.uky.edu) Accuracy of CNID (vs. "Presto" Box) (Lauren Weinstein) Nationwide Caller ID Update (Emmanuel Goldstein) Network Announcements (Keith Laaks) IP Over ATM Follow up (John L. MacFarlane) UK Plugs, Pinout Needed (Helmut Heller) Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (Randy Gellens) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 30 Oct 93 15:34 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Dr. Macintosh's Guide to the Online Universe" 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 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-527-5210 617-944-3700 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 Dr. Macintosh's Guide to the On-Line Universe, LeVitus/Ihnatko, U$24.95/C$31.95 76004.2076@compuserve.com levitus@aol.com levitus@mcimail.com r.levitus@genie.geis.com 2511.204@compuserve.com At the low end of the computer world there are tremendous fights about "my computer is better than your computer." Most books aimed at the beginner show one sort of bias or another. Only at the higher ranges of computerdom does one realize that it is not what is on the desk that counts, but what you *do* with it. Therefore it is refreshing, and heartening, to find a book ostensibly for the Macintosh user which could be an excellent introduction for *any* computer user. The preface, and chapter one as well, is the pitch. Here the authors (or the verbose one, anyway) extol the virtues of the "online life". Although, as is very often the case, they include some very specific examples which may not convince the, "but what if I'm not interested in *that*?" crowd, it is nice to see a conservative approach to the presentation. A welcome change from those who promise the earth ... and often deliver very little. Chapter two covers the modem side of things. Actually, it is a bit broader than that, as it also deals with phone jacks, and even a bit about phone service (with reference to the missing bits later in the book). Some points are discussed very flippantly, such as the explanation that the modem turns data into "a noise like static" and then back again. At other points the book contradicts itself, for example stating (page 33) that 9600 bps is the highest speed manufacturers agree on and, then (page 34), discussing the V.32 bis standard of 14,400 bps modems. These minor quibbles aside, the level of detail is probably just right for the new user, and yet pretty much all the important topics are covered in sufficient depth to give the newcomer a fighting chance at the modem store. Chapter three discusses software. Not in as much detail as hardware; in fact, it's downright terse. One aspect I would have liked to have seen at least mentioned is the ability to put a comm window in the background ... and still have it operate. (Don't take this for granted: it *doesn't* always work.) Also, while a preference is expressed for shareware, MacKermit isn't mentioned and it's free. (Well, OK. The last version I saw *was* a little shy on features.) Again, however, these are minor complaints in the face of a well- prepared and presented coverage of the features to be examined. There is also a quick set of reviews of the major programs. Most books on computer communications are unwilling to tackle that all important setup and first session(s) on line. LeVitus and Ihnatko have done a very thorough job in ensuring that all the bases are covered. Everything from cabling to command strings to software setup to communications parameters are mentioned. Not always thoroughly, mind you. Getting a full "verbose" result from a modem usually requires two, or even three, different commands. Again, the material contradicts itself, stating that a modem *doesn't* require a "handshaking" cable for data compression on page 77, and that it *does* on page 93. (Most salesmen will likely have difficulty finding a "hardware handshaking cable" at that. More standard terminology refers to "terminal" cables, with four connectors wired, "modem" cables, usually with eight connectors wired, and "serial" or "RS-232" cables with all twenty-five connectors wired. These last, of course, could not accommodate the Mac eight-pin connector.) However, once again, these limitations are fairly minor in comparison to the overall value of this chapter, right down to examples of screens when either the speed or data parameters are mismatched. Chapters five and six cover the two most common aspects of the new users' online life, Messaging (either private email or posting public messages) and downloading of files. Again, the progression and the explanations are both logical and clear. The examples are all taken from a TBBS bulletin board: examples from other systems would likely have been helpful in broadening the concept. The explanations, though, are quite complete, and it should be fairly easy for the reader to extend the concepts to other systems. (Again, one Mac- specific reference reminds me of how little "Mac only" material there is here, and how useful to users, regardless of computer "stripe".) One oddity is the discussion of "real time conferencing" in chapter six, with files, when it might more logically be lumped in with messaging. Chapter seven gives an overview of the various types of online services to which one can connect. Local BBSes, as well as specialized commercial services, are covered, as is the use of Fido technology for networking. Intriguingly, the Internet is lumped in with CompuServe, America Online and GEnie as part of a "big four". (The authors make the common mistake of confusing the Internet with Usenet newsgroups.) Still, for once we have a book that recognizes *all* the levels of services, including private corporate BBSes. The online community, and the etiquette thereof, are discussed in chapter eight. This chapter covers pretty much the whole range of online behaviour, and the different activities that are acceptable on different types of systems. Depth, however, may be lacking in certain areas. For example, users are warned against the different types of unacceptable messages, and specifically against abusive messages, or flames, but nothing is said about the unintentional slights, such as flippant responses to emotionally charged messages, which may trigger "flame wars". (Also, in light of the previous chapter's familiarity with newsgroups, Usenet's standard "This message will be posted to thousands of machines: are you sure?" could have been used in support of the sections on "hogging" -- and fits right in with the authors' quirky views.) Chapter nine deals with advanced topics: computer-to-computer communications, for two individuals, running a BBS, scripting and others. Chapter ten talks about security. First is a basically sound overview of the virus situation, and then a reiteration and extension of the discussion of passwords started in chapter five. There are six appendices. The glossary is quite reasonable, as is the "AT" command set listing, although the descriptions are necessarily brief and may not be terribly helpful with the rather bizarre setup contortions that are required to deal with real problems. An overview of the Macintosh Communications Toolbox is interesting, and the vendor address listing may be very helpful, indeed. The "Smattering of BBSes" is just that, while the serial wiring diagrams would be *very* useful -- if it weren't for the fact that the two diagrams use completely different terms for the pins that need to be connected. The preface starts out with, "You're standing in the bookstore ... wondering if it's worth buying. The answer is, yes." I can agree with that. The book may very well be the best way to learn to use data communications with a Mac: it certainly is one of the best introductions for new users regardless of the system. For those somewhat familiar with computer communications, the section detailing the guide to the online universe is nothing new, but for neophytes, this is an excellent introduction. (Interesting. Of all the communications books reviewed so far, the best "introductions" are not the supposed generic and basic books, but two very system specific books: "Using MS-DOS Kermit" (cf BKUMSKMT.RVW), and this.) copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKDMGTOU.RVW 930917 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 ------------------------------ Subject: Problems With CNID Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 15:13:56 EDT From: lunatix!chelf@ms.uky.edu A friend of mine has been having trouble with Caller ID. Since he doesn't have access to a computer, I'm posting this for him. Occasionally, he'll get a call from an irate GTE customer saying that he just called them (either via the Caller ID box, or *69). Trouble is, no one at my friend's apartment make any phone calls prior to these incidents. Both of us have noticed that the phone's (a Panasonic Easa-Phone) in-use light lights up for no reason sometimes. However, the angry callers don't always call after the light is on. I set up a scanner in his apartment to try to find out if someone was using his line with a similar cordless phone (although this is a pretty new phone and I thought that you couldn't do that anymore). I placed the phone on a channel and left it there. I put the scanner on the corresponding freq. 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. My friend would like to get this worked out ASAP. Angry callers at midnight and later get annoying after a while. Thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Oct 93 12:35 PDT From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Accuracy of CNID (vs. "Presto" box) > [Moderator's Note: Remember, the old information just gets put on the > stack when the new information arrives. Why do you think they put a > 'review' function on your Caller-ID box if not so you could flip > through it looking at calls received over some period of time? Therein > will be the correct information about the caller, invariably at the > same time or in the previous minute. PAT] Pat, while this is definitely true for the sophisticated user, it is doubtful that most "average" users would even be aware what was going on. They'd tend to act on (e.g. report) whatever number was sitting on their display, not go scrolling through the memory. It wouldn't even occur to them that the boop-beeps they heard had anything to do with CNID, or that the number currently on the display could be anything but accurate. Endless problems could be caused by malicious persons altering displayed numbers in that fashion. You or I (or other TELECOM readers) would be suspicious when we heard the odd tones -- the average phone user wouldn't. It would also be possible (though more of a hassle) for a caller to wipe out the memory of some of these devices simply by sending bogus information repeatedly. They could drop the real number right off the bottom of the stack since most units don't have very many slots (8? 16?) Sure, that would mean more tones, but they'd find some way to explain it away. Or here's a scenario for you. The caller dials someone's answering machine that has an associated caller-ID box. Let's assume that the outgoing message makes it impossible for them to send their fake ID tones during that phase of the call. OK, so when it comes time for them to leave their message, they start feeding in their fake numbers -- enough to push the real calling number (and any other numbers recorded earlier in the device) off the stack and into oblivion. The callee comes home, and finds nothing in their CNID memory but the bogus numbers. Even playing back the tones recorded on the answering machine won't do them any good, because *only* the bogus information is recorded there -- the only time the *real* number was transmitted was *before* the machine answered. Of course, CNID devices could be built so that they stopped listening to the line after a phone went off-hook. I believe some are indeed built that way. In such a case, the whole issue becomes purely academic. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 02:52:25 -0700 From: Emmanuel Goldstein Subject: Nationwide Caller ID Update We've got some answers as to what's been going on and, as it happens, it wasn't exactly what we thought -- yet. It seems that one of our 800 numbers was misrouted back to the billing number instead of where it was supposed to go. It was only by total chance that we discovered this phone company programming error, the company in this case being Cable & Wireless. This means that the numbers we were getting were *not* coming from direct dialed calls but rather from the 800 number. What's interesting about this revelation is that apparently Caller ID is now being transmitted through 800 numbers in addition to, or instead of, ANI. This means that anyone with an 800 number now has the ability to instantly tell who's calling them, rather than having to wait until the bill comes. Usually, only the largest companies have this ability. This is a development that I've seen no mention of anywhere so apparently it's in the testing stages. What's odd is that I'm able to get a readout by calling the 800 number from some digital switches 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 ~rthe possibility exists of capturing it on non-800 calls. Using an operator, as always, blocks the number transmission. But here's something interesting: if you call your own number from your own number you will get a busy signal even if you have call waiting. This is because you've never left your local switch and it knows exactly what you're doing. If you route through a long distance company and try the same thing, your call waiting will go off. When we tried this with the 800 number, it treated the call as if it had never left our switch and gave us a busy. In other words, our 800 number is silently becoming a whole lot more sophisticated. [Moderator's Note: That happens here also. Dialing my own 800 number just gets me a busy signal, the same as had I dialed my own regular P7 ------------------------------ From: itbkl@puknet.puk.ac.za (Keith Laaks) Subject: Network Announcements Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 07:26:55 GMT Organization: ITB Department, University of Potchefstroom I am posting this for a friend who requires information for his M-Diploma research project. Kobus Bester says: I am currently investigating different methods for replacing tones in the local Telecommunication Network in order to establish a solution for implementing a voice announcement system. Literature on this subject is not readily available locally. Any contribution will be greatly appreciated. Yours Sincerely Kobus Bester Pretoria South Africa -------- Here in South Africa, we use tones to indicate engaged/route busy/etc. to the caller. When the caller phones a number that does not exist (or has changed), he/she will hear either a tone, or a FIXED announcement that inform the caller that the number that was dialed is no longer in service, and that he/she should call the number enquiries people to get more information. When exchange codes are changed (due to equipment cut-overs, etc.) we find that the number enquiries people are not able to cope with the increased traffic. Our network still contains many (about 50%) electromechanical switches, and we are only beginning with the implementation of SS#7. Any comments on how to solve this problem? How did your Telco solve this problem in the past before SS#7 and IN? Thanks, Potch Univ. Email : Tel: Potchefstroom itbkl@puknet.puk.ac.za Voice (0148) 992126 West Transvaal South Africa FAX (0148) 992799 ------------------------------ From: John.MacFarlane@Software.Com (John L. MacFarlane) Subject: IP Over ATM Follow Up Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 01:25:16 GMT Organization: Software.Com Folks, My original post concerned the 48 byte data payload of each ATM cell adversely effecting IP transmissions due to fragmentation. First, it was pointed out that the fragmentation of the IP packets would generally occur in the Segmentation And Reassembly (SAR) layer of ATM (i.e. AAL5) for packet sizes less than the MTU of the ATM link (negotiable with a default of 9160 bytes). Thus the fragmentation into the 48 byte cell would be invisible to the IP layer. IP would thus avoid any fragmentation concerns with ATM links (assuming packets are at or below the MTU given above). Additionally, it was pointed out that fragmentation in ATM is different than in IP. This is primarily due to the sequenced nature of ATM vs. IP. Because IP does not guarantee sequenced delivery of packets, when fragmentation does occur, the receiving end doing the reassembly must allocate a buffer for the fragmented packets. This buffer can be in existence for a fairly extended amount of time (until the IP layer is sure that a missing part of the fragmented packet was lost and the whole sequence should be discarded). ATM avoids this problem by requiring sequenced delivery of the cells. Thus when one cell of a larger data package is lost, the received, buffered, sequence can be discarded immediately by the receiving AAL5 reassembly agent. If the physical layer connection between two communication nodes is generally reliable, this is a non-issue as the buffer for an IP layer fragmentation can be released as soon as all (fragmented) packets have arrived, just as the ATM equivalent would do. However, if the physical layer connection is generally unreliable, the IP layer fragmentation would unquestionably suffer a performance penalty as fragmented packets would be lost and the reassembly buffer could not be immediately released. ATM does not suffer a similar fate as the AAL5 agent would be able to immediately determine that a cell was lost and the entire buffer could be released immediately. Several people stated that the AAL5 segmentation and reassembly would be accomplished in hardware rather than software. Thus the segmentation and reassembly would be inherently faster. This argument seems to be somewhat naive to me for the following reasons: If a given workstation were communicating with a single peer over an ATM link the interface could easily support a hardware implemented segmentation and reassembly based on the AAL5 flags indicating the data package boundaries. Each node would need a 64K byte buffer (this is the maximum package size that AAL5 can fragment and reassemble) and would simply put incoming cells into this buffer until the final cell (with appropriate AAL5 finish flag) arrived. After all cells arrived for a particular data package (or IP packet) the AAL5 hardware would give the entire unit to the upper layer. No problem doing this in hardware. However, in the real world, a given workstation with an ATM interface is member of an LIS (Local Internet Subnetwork as the IETF IP-over-ATM Draft calls them) with several other member nodes. Each of these member nodes are fully connected (or meshed) with the given workstation. Thus for a hardware implemented, AAL5 agent, there would be a 64K byte buffer necessary for each member node connection. This just does not seem to be a reasonable solution. As is seemingly evident, a software solution will be required for this agent which manages a given (limited) buffer among all the ATM virtual connections. Thus, as far as I can reason, AAL5 fragmentation and reassembly WILL be done in software. Although for the reasons of guaranteed sequencing inherent in ATM as stated above, this task will be easier than the IP equivalent. Note: If any of the proposed ATM flow control parameters are implemented, significantly greater sophistication will be required in the AAL5 Agent. My humble opinions only. John L. MacFarlane John.MacFarlane@Software.Com ------------------------------ From: heller@nirvana.imo.physik.uni-muenchen.de (Helmut Heller) Subject: UK Plugs, Pinout Needed Reply-To: heller@nirvana.imo.physik.uni-muenchen.de (Helmut Heller) Organization: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum, Muenchen (Germany) Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 12:58:57 GMT Hello, My girl friend has to travel a lot to the UK and she would like to connect her laptop computer to the phone net over there so that she can make fax and data calls. The computer (modem) has an American telephone socket (western or whatever its called) but she was unable to find an adaptor from the UK phone system to the US phone system in several UK stores, so she bought some UK four-way line plugs 431A (from Tandy). I am now going to attach one of those plugs to a US phone cable with a US plug on the other end (for the computer). However, I don't know which two of the four contacts carry the phone signal in the UK!! Could some kind soul help me, please?? Since my girl friend is again leaving tomorrow, Sunday, afternoon, I would need the information ASAP, best to e-mail to me: heller@nirvana.imo.physik.uni-muenchen.de Thanks a lot in advance, Servus, Helmut (DH0MAD) Phone: ++89/2394-4565 heller@nirvana.imo.physik.uni-muenchen.de FAX: ++89/2394-4607 Helmut Heller, Ludwig Maximilians University, Institute for Medical Optics Theoretical Biophysics Group, Room 230 ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 30 OCT 93 12:43 Subject: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet [This was in an internal news round-up] Sri Lanka is joining the Internet, a worldwide computer network that connects computer users in more than 100 countries (UPI, 10/20/93). "By connecting universities, schools and laboratories in Sri Lanka to the Internet, the U.S. hopes to foster cooperation between the people of our country and the people of Sri Lanka in all fields of science, technology and the environment," said U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who signed the Internet access agreement with Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ramil Wickremashighe. Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software Unisys Corporation Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #726 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01048; 1 Nov 93 2:58 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24805 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 1 Nov 1993 00:00:25 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07784 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 31 Oct 1993 23:59:45 -0600 Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 23:59:45 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311010559.AA07784@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #727 TELECOM Digest Sun, 31 Oct 93 23:59:45 CST Volume 13 : Issue 727 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Network Interface Technical Guide" (Rob Slade) AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers (Nigel Allen) Bellcore's Catalog of Technical Information (Nigel Allen) Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Pierre Coullet via Nigel Allen) Dialing From the UK With Sprint (Jonathan Rosenberg) 800/900-Numbers Needed (Reinhard Abdel Hamid) The Modem Tax Scare ... Again (William H. Sohl) AT&T Public Phone 2000 (jeff@nsipo.nasa.gov) AT&T 2000 Public Phone (Greg Abbott) Re: Interrogative BOCA and/or Complete PC (Gary Edwards) ADSI (David Kovanen) Help With NMEA 0183 (Philip G. Burger) Frame Relay Information Request (Michael Lewis) California Fires (Steven H. Lichter) Wither the Special Issue? (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 31 Oct 93 21:46 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Network Interface Technical Guide" BKNTINTG.RVW 930927 Micro House Kimberly Roche, Director of Marketing P. O. Box 17515 4900 Pearl East Circle, Suite 101 Boulder, CO 80301 303-443-3389 800-926-8299 or P.O. Box 10492 Clearwater, FL 34615 800-741-3282 813-443-6194 "Network Interface Technical Guide", 1992 If you've got more than two nodes in your LAN, it's likely you've got more than one network interface card. And then, there's the gateway to the Arcnet LAN that the Art Department was so proud to get a "deal" on back in ... 1988, wasn't it? And the token ring that Finance *had* to have so that they could talk to the AS/400? And where is that last copy of the NE2000 documentation that the client support rep was going to get back to you without fail next week ... nine months ago? This book is for you. Over seven hundred pages list hundreds of cards from dozens of manufacturers with all the jumper settings, base addresses, diagnostic indicators and so forth. Chapters one to three give you some very brief reference material on LAN topology, access protocols, and calling. Chapter four gives you a directory of manufacturers just in case you don't have all the info within the book. Chapter five is the guts of the book, listing the cards by manufacturer and model. Five appendices list a glossary, node IDs, standard memory settings, common interface connector pin assignments, and a very brief bibliography. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKNTINTG.RVW 930927 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 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 06:17:28 -0500 From: ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) Subject: AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers Organization: Internex Online, Toronto Here is a press release from AT&T. AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers Monty Hoyt 908-221-8789 (office) 908-953-9172 (home) Michael Lordi 908-221-6382 (office) 215-559-7765 (home) FOR RELEASE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1993 BASKING RIDGE, N.J. -- The 10th anniversary edition of the AT&T Toll-Free National 800 Consumer Directory, the only national 800 number directory published today, currently is being mailed to nearly one million consumers around the country. Brighter and easier to use, this enhanced yellow-page direc- tory contains more numbers and easy-to-locate categories than ever before. It lists 60,000 businesses that can be reached toll-free. A companion directory, the AT&T Toll-Free National 800 Business Directory, lists 160,000 companies. It will be published and mailed early in November to more than one million businesses. "These directories are a national shopping mall," said Patricia Selden, publisher of the AT&T directories. "They are designed to save consumers time and money and to promote business growth. "Without ever leaving their homes or offices, shoppers can order everything from gifts to computers, office supplies and hard-to-find items -- anywhere in the U.S." Many of the more popular yellow-page sections, such as florists and travel, are broken down into convenient state-by- state headings. Both the 640-page consumer directory and the 1,260-page business directory carry large, full-color shopper's advertising showcases. Toll-free 800 numbers for consumer hotlines, health and government services are listed in the directories as well. The directories are priced at $14.99 (consumer edition) and $24.99 (business edition), and are available by calling 1-800-426-8686. Callers should allow two weeks for delivery. Businesses interested in placing advertisements in future AT&T 800 directories should call 1-800-562-2255. # # # ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 15:00:07 -0500 From: ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) Subject: Bellcore's Catalog of Technical Information Organization: Internex Online, Toronto You can receive a free copy of Bellcore's 1993-1994 Catalog of Technical Information by writing to: Customer Service Bellcore 8 Corporate Place Piscataway, NJ 08854-4156 U.S.A. or by faxing your request to (908) 336-2559 or (908) 699-2692. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ndallen@io.org ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 15:33:26 -0500 From: ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) Subject: Earthquakes and Telecommunications Organization: Internex Online, Toronto I found the following message in misc.misc, and thought it really belonged here. If you follow-up to this message, please send a copy of your message to the original poster, coullet@ecu.unice.fr (Pierre Coullet). >From: coullet@ecu.unice.fr (Pierre Coullet) >Subject: Earthquakes and Telecommunications >Date: 30 Oct 1993 18:27:02 GMT >Organization: University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis Does someone know about any report relative to the telecommunication problems encoutered after an Earthquakes (or any document related to this topic as for example the actions needed to prevent telecommunication problems or about the infrastructure needed to preserve communication after the earthquakes). References to newspapers or books and technical documents are welcolmed. Many thanks. (end of forwarded message) Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ndallen@io.org ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Rosenberg Subject: Dialing From the UK With Sprint Organization: Bellcore Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 02:01:23 GMT Next week I'll be in the UK & I'd like to be able to dial back to the modem pool here in NJ using my Sprint Foncard. The people at Sprint tell me the only way to call back to the US is to call an access number that connects you to a human operator, who collects the information and completes the call. But, that won't work for me since I'm dialing via my portable's modem. Does anyone know of a way around this? E.g., is there, in fact, a way to avoid the human operator? Or is there a way have a call start with a human operator and then plug into my modem? Any ideas? JR [Moderator's Note: Set your modem to dial a null string; have it just dial the ATDT part with nothing following. Place the call manually as instructed, then when the operator places the call and the distant modem answers, hit your return key and let the modem think it is dialing something. A second or two later it will 'finish dialing' and start listening for the other end to answer, which of course it will have done. Your modem and the other one will handshake as usual and you can begin your session. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de (Reinhard Abdel Hamid) Subject: 800/900-Numbers Needed Reply-To: hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de Organization: Universitaet Hannover, Theoretische Nachrichtentechnik Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1993 16:07:10 GMT One day I will visit the USA. To follow the technology of telephone entertainment systems I need some numbers: Could anyone please send me some (legal) 800-numbers of winning-games and entertainment-services and advertising. Also 900-numbers of dating-services, sex, winning-games and entertainment also are welcome. I will choose the best ones. BTW: what are 700-numbers for? Please don't post the numbers here, because of unwanted advertising for it in this newsgroup. Plese send them by email to me. Thanks in advance. Reinhard hamid@tnt.uni-hannover.de [Moderator's Note: I'm sure some readers will respond with lists of the services they know about. 700 numbers are assigned to carrier- specific services and features. There are also many services of the type you are are seeking with 700 numbers, but you need to be a subscriber to the specific carrier offering the service to use them. Unlike other phone numbers which terminate in one place regardless of the carrier used to get there, 700 numbers are duplicated. That is, 700-xxx-yyyy might get you one thing if you dial via Sprint, and something else entirely if you dial via AT&T. PAT] ------------------------------ From: whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: The Modem Tax Scare ... Again Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 19:09:42 GMT Pat, Just to alert you to the rise again of the infamous "modem tax" claim once again. The following is my response to the item posted in the misc.legal and misc.legal.computing newsgroups. Maybe this recent rumor can be shut down well before it takes on its own life again. Cheers, Bill Sohl ------------cut here------------- In article <931028.75709.MIKEJON@delphi.com> Mike Jones writes: > I also posted this in MISC.LEGAL I got this off of a local BBS and > was alarmed so I thought I'd do what the good man at the end of the > file said and act on it! read this and act. or you may be paying more > to get on internet > This message was from ED GUSTINA to ALL > originally in conference FD_Echo > and was forwarded to you by BILL STARR via KEVIN MCCRORY > and was posted in TELECOMS.FR by Robert Soubie > Two years ago the FCC tried and (with your help and letters of > protest) failed to institute regulations that would impose additional > costs on modem users for data communications. > Now, they are at it again. A new regulation that the FCC is quietly > working on will directly affect you as the user of a computer and > modem. The FCC proposes that users of modems should pay extra charges > for use of the public telephone network which carry their data. In > addition, computer network services such as Compuserv, Tymnet, & > Telenet would also be charged as much as $6.00 per hour per user for > use of the public telephone network. These charges would very likely be > passed on to the subscribers. > Jim Eason of KGO newstalk radio (San Francisco, CA) commented on the > proposal during his afternoon radio program during which, he said he > learned of the new regulation in an article in the New York Times. -------------------- Since this claim is an almost annual event and is usually pure myth, it would be especially relavent to have the exact {NY Times} article (Headline, date, etc.) before everyone runs off in a frenzy. (who to call and what to say deleted to avoid panic reactions) >> Message number 28, written by Doom at Jul 14 > Subject: FCC Regulation P4 > In short, a modem call is the same as a voice call and therefore > should not be subject to any additional regulation. I've both read many FCC documents and been involved with commenting on more than one FCC proposed action and the reference to anything even remotely identified as FCC Regulation P4 simply does not fit the regular FCC document/rules process. Proposed FCC rules are usually identified as Docket numbers (eg. 81-216), NOIs (Notice of Inquiry), NOPRs, Notice of proposed rule making), etc. So, my challenge to all is this: Before we again see the flood of letters to the FCC, would someone please VALIDATE any of the claims relative to the, probably again fictitious, modem tax. And, from my perspective, if no one can produce a copy of any definitive FCC documentation to substantiate the claim, then let's treat it as just another reappearance of the myth. 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: Thanks for the tipoff Bill, but it is going around on Usenet ... what do you expect? In fact, that very same article, word for word, appeared on Usenet several months ago; someone else sent it here saying 'stop it before it multiplies'; we chatted about it here for a couple weeks; everyone went 'tsk tsk, that rumor is going around again ...' and that was that. So now it is back again. In another six or nine months (once the current flame war over it stops) it will be back again. That is the nature of Usenet and its denizens: for goodness sake, never read an FAQ first, never research old news items; don't even read the answers posted yesterday ... just post your article while patting yourself on the back realizing how brilliant you are. If you know the magic incantation needed to make the 'modem tax' myth go away, for goodness sakes go to the groups in question and utter it, but I doubt it will matter. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: AT&T Public Phone 2000 Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 20:45:05 -0700 From: jeff@nsipo.nasa.gov Does anyone know the latest on the situation with AT&T's Public Phone 2000 with reference to using it as a terminal? Everytime I go to the airport, I try it to see if it's been turned back on yet. Thanks, Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 11:35:27 CST From: Greg Abbott Reply-To: gabbott@uiuc.edu Subject: AT&T 2000 Public Phone While on a recent business trip, I attempted to use an AT&T 2000 Public Phone (the model with a keyboard attached). I was unable to get it operate, but didn't have a whole lot of time to read all of the instructions. I was attempting to use my AT&T Corporate Calling Card and the CRT on the phone kept telling me something like "Service unavailable ... please try again later". I got this reponse on all three attempts. I didn't really need to use it, but being a techno-buff, I decided it would be fun to play with. Does anyone know if I was doing something wrong? Does it work with a calling card or does it have to be billed to a "real" credit card? Thanks! GREG ABBOTT 9 9 1 1 INTERNET: GABBOTT@UIUC.EDU 9-1-1 COORDINATOR 99999 == 1 == 1 COMPUSERVE: 76046,3107 9 1 1 VOICE: 217/333-4348 METCAD 9 1 1 FAX: 217/384-7003 1905 E. MAIN ST. 9 111 111 PAGER: 800/222-6651 URBANA, IL 61801 PIN # 9541 [Moderator's Note: You were probably not doing anything wrong. That style phone had to be temporarily (maybe permanently?) suspended when one of the other carriers (I think it was MCI) had a hissy fit and said if they could not have it also, then no one could. They got a court order to force AT&T to quit offering the service; that litiga- tion is pending in the courts. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Interrogative BOCA and/or Complete PC From: uttsbbs!gary.edwards@PacBell.COM (Gary Edwards) Date: 31 Oct 93 11:05:00 GMT Organization: The Transfer Station BBS, Danville, CA - 510-837-4610/837-5591 Reply-To: uttsbbs!gary.edwards@PacBell.COM (Gary Edwards) Ken Leonard wrote: > I have a modem with "BOCA" inside and "Complete PC" on the outside. > Can someone tell me how to contact Complete PC? (online) Can someone > tell me how to contact BOCA? (online, offline, anyhow) Complete PC - 407/997-9683. Boca - 407/241-8088. uttsbbs!gary.edwards@PacBell.COM The Transfer Station BBS (510) 837-4610 & 837-5591 (V.32bis both lines) Danville, California, USA. 1.5 GIG Files & FREE public Internet Access ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 11:51:18 PST From: Kovanen@First.Com (David Kovanen) Subject: ADSI (fwd) To David Kovanen: (Kovanen@First.Com) Originally from Ralph Carlsen +1 908 949 7503 on Oct 28: David, Re: Your note on Analog Display Services Interface (ADSI) (not ASDI). What you have discovered is the next wave of terminal equipment. Terminals will include screens to make current Central Office features work better, and make new ones possible. ISDN was supposed to do that but people are getting tired of waiting for it. If you get the Bellcore Specs on ADSI you will see that one of their motives is to get call waiting to work better. People want to know who is waiting before they ask the current party to hang on while they pick up another call. Switch manufacturers and telephone manufacturers were not doing anything about it so Bellcore decided to start the ball rolling by defining a protocol both switch manufact- urers and telephone manufacturers could use. Actually I think Northern Telecom had a lot to do with it. The protocol is to send a DTMF "D" digit (fourth column, fourth row on DTMF dial) to the phone, and if the phone is ADSI equipped it responds with a "D" digit and opens the transmission path to the handset. Then the CO sends the ASCII characters it wants to display using the calling party ID protocol. Then the transmission path is connected again. What you have is an alternate voice and data arrangement, where the user hears some clicks while data is down loaded into the phone. I can see how a rather simple calling party display unit would respond to the Presto-Chango box you described. This also highlights one of the problems I have with ADSI. The protocol is too simple. There is no way to coordinate multiple applications. For example, Northern Telecom is running a trial of ADSI in Boston using a bank at home application. If the user got a call waiting with ADSI identification of the waiting party, the banking data would get screwed up. If you would like to discuss this a little more, give me a call. Ralph Carlsen AT&T Bell Labs 908-949-7503 ------------------------------ From: pgb6562@zeus.tamu.edu (BURGER, PHILIP GREGORY) Subject: Help With NMEA 0183 Date: 31 Oct 1993 14:17 CST Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services I need to know of any way to convert NMEA 0183 data transmission to RS232. I have heard that NMEA 0183 'acts' like RS442. Are there any hardware devices out there that do this conversion; what is the pin-out of RS422; and what is the probablity that I can build an interface cheaply if one does not exist? TTL is no problem for me, but I just don't fully understand what RS422 requires for conversion. Also, does anyone know what the datastream of NMEA 0183 'looks' like? Thanks for any input! PGB6562@ZEUS.TAMU.EDU (Flip) ------------------------------ From: Michael Lewis Date: Sun 31 Oct 93 13:51:36 -0700 Subject: Frame Relay Information Request Hello: We are migrating our network from X.25 to Frame Relay and I am interested in all the information I can get on the subject. I can find a lot about both Cell-Relay and ATM on the Internet, but precious little about Frame Relay other than one RFC. Does anyone know where this subject is hidden? Best regards, Michael L. Lewis DHL Systems Inc. Network Engineering 700 Airport Blvd Phn: (415) 375-5135 Global Communications Burlingame, CA 94010 FAX: (415) 571-7073 Internet: mlewis@ssf-sys.dhl.com ------------------------------ Date: 31 Oct 93 19:37:35-0500 From: /G=COE.PERS/S=J.MOSS/O=GTE/PRMD=GTEMAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com Subject: California Fires Well I have been a bit busy since the fire in the Hemet area took out a couple of our Mux's so I don't have much time other then to say most of the service is back in or will be shortly. No major damage to anything other then outside plant cable and some fiber. Phone trailers have been installed in Malibu and Laguna Beach giving the people there free local and long distance service with the exception of international service. ATT, Sprint and MCI are supplying the LD services. More as I get a little time to type it out and not try to do it online. Steven H. Lichter GTECalif COEI [Moderator's Note: Thanks for taking a couple minutes to write us, and please write again soon letting us know how GTE is responding to this almost unparalleled tragedy in southern California. PAT] ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Wither the Special Issue? Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 11:30:00 CST I had hoped to receive the special issue of the Digest to send out to you at some point Sunday, but it hasn't yet shown up! I assume the guest moderator Ron "Asbestos" Dippold is still working on it. This special mailing, when it shows up, will be a fair, unbiased and well-distributed discussion on the merits of an unmoderated telecom group on Usenet to be known as comp.dcom.telecom.tech. They had said in the special RFD last weekend that it would be in circulation on the net Sunday, and handed off to me at the same time for the mailing list. Maybe it will show up Monday. I've already checked in news.groups and alt.dcom.telecom and it isn't in either of those esteemed forums either. You'll get it as soon as I do, given the usual turn around time. I'm waiting for it eagerly as all readers must be, since as most all of you know, the very idea of a fair and unbiased forum for telecom discussions is an alien concept to me. :) We'll all be able to learn from Mr. Dippold's presen- tation, I'm sure. Patrick T. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #727 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01510; 1 Nov 93 4:55 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25352 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 1 Nov 1993 02:09:22 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12388 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 1 Nov 1993 02:08:43 -0600 Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 02:08:43 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311010808.AA12388@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #728 TELECOM Digest Mon, 1 Nov 93 02:08:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 728 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Problems With CNID (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Problems With CNID (Gary Breuckman) Re: Problems With CNID (Rich Greenberg) Re: Nationwide Caller ID Update (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Nationwide Caller ID Update (Dick Rawson) Re: Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking (Justin Greene) Re: Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking (Brett Frankenberger) Calling Number Identification on Private Exchanges (David G. Cantor) Fiber Use in Apartment Building? (Ronald J. Logsdon) VCR Plus+ Codes (Peter T. Lyman) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (Paul Joslin) Administrivia: Special Mailing to Follow Immediatly (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Problems With CNID Date: 31 Oct 1993 07:41:28 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In lunatix!chelf@ms.uky.edu writes: > A friend of mine has been having trouble with Caller ID. Since he > doesn't have access to a computer, I'm posting this for him. > Occasionally, he'll get a call from an irate GTE customer saying that > he just called them (either via the Caller ID box, or *69). Trouble > is, no one at my friend's apartment make any phone calls prior to > these incidents. Both of us have noticed that the phone's (a > Panasonic Easa-Phone) in-use light lights up for no reason sometimes. > However, the angry callers don't always call after the light is on. > I set up a scanner in his apartment to try to find out if someone > was using his line with a similar cordless phone (although this > is a pretty new phone and I thought that you couldn't do that > anymore). I placed the phone on a channel and left it there. I > put the scanner on the corresponding freq. > 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. You say, "when the in-use light went on". Now, you don't say what model of phone it is, and I would probably not recognize it if you did, but is that light one that tells you (1) that the cordless (radio) portion of the phone is in use, or (2) that the phone has detected a voltage drop indicating that someone, somewhere, is using the line? Many telephones nowadays, especially those with two line capability, do number two. If yours is that type, then you are barking up the wrong tree. The unauthorized use might be the type that would continue even if you unhook the cordless telephone. The cracker may be in the basement, or out on a telephone pole, making use of your dial tone. When you noted the light flickering, was the cordless handset in repose on the base? If so, (and if your cordless phone is like most these days) then the base will refuse to accept any transmissions from other handsets, and there is little or no security risk of the cordless variety. But that leaves unchanged the fact that your cracker could be in the basement or on the pole. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Problems With CNID Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 17:06:02 GMT In article lunatix!chelf@ms.uky.edu writes: > Occasionally, he'll get a call from an irate GTE customer saying that > he just called them (either via the Caller ID box, or *69). Trouble > is, no one at my friend's apartment make any phone calls prior to > these incidents. Both of us have noticed that the phone's (a > Panasonic Easa-Phone) in-use light lights up for no reason sometimes. > However, the angry callers don't always call after the light is on. > 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 would talk with your telco's security department, and also ask them to get a call detail listing for the line. It's possible that someone is attached somewhere on your wire pair and is using the line, not through the Easa-Phone. Depending on whether the 'in-use' light indicates just a signal at the phone or actual line-in-use, this might not be an indication of the actual problem. Also, all of the cordless phones that I've seen will not allow any remote access when YOUR remote unit is actually sitting in the phone's base unit. All the new ones have security codes that prevent others from actually using your line, although they may cause interference with YOUR use if they are on the same frequency. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Problems With CNID Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 06:02:42 GMT Is it possible that someone has bridged your friend's wire pair somewhere and is making calls that way? Next time the in-use lite comes on, pick up the phone or hit the speaker (and then the mute) button and listen. Especially if your friend is in an apartment, I would consider this likely. 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: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID Update Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 06:42:51 GMT Emmanuel Goldstein writes: > We've got some answers as to what's been going on and, as it happens, > it wasn't exactly what we thought -- yet. It seems that one of our 800 > numbers was misrouted back to the billing number instead of where it > was supposed to go. It was only by total chance that we discovered > this phone company programming error, the company in this case being > Cable & Wireless. This means that the numbers we were getting were > *not* coming from direct dialed calls but rather from the 800 number. > What's interesting about this revelation is that apparently Caller ID > is now being transmitted through 800 numbers in addition to, or > instead of, ANI. C&W has the policy of taking the ANI data it receives and sending it back out (at the terminating LEC) as CNID. This, on 800 calls to C&W 800 numbers, the CNID display on the receiving end will show the billing number of the calling end (which may or may not be the same as the actual calling number, although it usually is). > This means that anyone with an 800 number now has the ability to > instantly tell who's calling them, rather than having to wait until > the bill comes. Although it is technically for any company to take the received ANI and send it back out as CNID, as far as I know, only C&W is doing this. > Usually, only the largest companies have this ability. Up until the implementation of this ANI->CNID hack, the only real way to get real-time ANI was to get your 800 number service on T1 spans from the IXC (the long distance company), as there was no way for ANI to be passed through the local loop for 800 numbers that terminate on a POTS line. There was/is one company (whose name escapes me) that did offer real-time ANI on POTS terminated 800 numbers -- when your phone rang, you picked it up, and they send the ANI as DTMF tones. When you were done processing the ANI, you sent a DTMF tone back, and the call was connected. > This is a development that I've seen no mention of anywhere so > apparently it's in the testing stages. I'm not sure how appropriate it is for an IXC to do this. They are mixing up ANI and CNID, and that's not a good idea. For example, if POTS number A is forwarded to your 800 number, and POTS B dials POTS A, the ANI will be A, but the CNID will be B. But once C&W gets through mangling them, the CNID will also be A. (Without C&W's mangling, the CNID would probably be non-existent). It is fairly well known among the semi-telecom-literate that you can 'defeat' ANI with call forwarding, but not CNID. But if the CNID is going via a C&W 800 and, you can 'defeat' the ANI. (Example (one that has been used in the past): Joe must call parole officer from home daily. Joe decided to get wise, and forwards his home number to the parole officer. Joe than calls his number from anywhere and figures the CNID readout will show his home number. Won't work, as has been discussed at length in the past. But, Joe can get a C&W 800 number and have it terminate on the parole officer's number (C&W doesn't care where you terminate your number), and then forward his home phone to the 800 number. Then, when he calls home, the ANI shows up on the parole officer's CNID display, and the call appears to have come from home -- with, say, an AT&T 800 number, the CNID would either be the correct CNID (where the call actually came from) or not there at all -- same for sprint, MCI, etc.) > What's odd is that I'm able to get a readout by calling the 800 > number from some digital switches but not from others where Caller ID > definitely works. Interesting. Since it is based on ANI, and ANI works from all equal-access switches, it should work from everywhere (or 99% ...) > Dialing *67 has no effect -- your number is always transmitted onto > the Caller ID box regardless of privacy setting. That's because ANI is always sent, and you are really getting ANI -- it's just being sent an CNID. > 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. *67 *never* controls whether or not CNID data is sent. CNID data is generally sent over SS7 connected LEC switch trunks, and also to and from certain IXC's, if they are set up to exchange CNID (and are SS7 connected). *67 only sets a privacy flag, which the terminating switch looks at, and if it is set, it doesn't send out the CNID. Since C&W is junking the CNID field (if it even receives it), and using the ANI, *67 is not relevant. So, yes, it would be technically possible for a telco to program a switch to ignore the privacy bit and send the CNID data anyway -- blocking depends on the terminating switch complying with the spec. (But I see no reason why they would do such a thing). > Using an operator, as always, blocks the number transmission. But > here's something interesting: if you call your own number from your > own number you will get a busy signal even if you have call waiting. > This is because you've never left your local switch and it knows > exactly what you're doing. Yes, it is leaving the switch. The reason you are getting a busy is that in many cases, call waiting will *not* work until the call has supervised. That is, from the time you pick up the phone until the time the party you are calling answers, you won't get call waiting, and any callers to you will get busy. This is almost always the case with calls that don't leave the switch. If the call leaves the switch, it depends on what kind of trunking there is and how the switch is set up. (It might not allow call waiting until the call is out of the switch, or it might not allow call waiting until the called party has answered). Your LEC doesn't know or care how your 800 number is routed (unless you are buying it from them). The call does leave the switch on all calls to it. > If you route through a long distance company and try the same thing, > your call waiting will go off. The same LD carrier as your 800 number? As I said above, it depends on the kind of trunking and other parameters as to when call waiting is allowed. (It's also conceivable that the switch is reading the CNID data to determine that you are 'calling yourself', although I suspect that it is lack of answer supervision that is causing the busy signal). > When we tried this with the 800 number, it treated the call as if it > had never left our switch and gave us a busy. In other words, our 800 > number is silently becoming a whole lot more sophisticated. Well, the ANI -> CNID hack is the major increase in sophistication. C&W still can't tell the LEC that the call terminates in the same switch it came from, so it should not bother routing it out and back in. > [Moderator's Note: That happens here also. Dialing my own 800 number > just gets me a busy signal, the same as had I dialed my own regular > number. Again, the switch is getting smarter and deciding to block call waiting until answer supervision for calls that leave the local switch (instead of just waiting until they leave the switch and then allowing call waiting). Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: drawson@sagehen.Tymnet.COM (Dick Rawson) Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID Update Date: 1 Nov 1993 03:06:52 GMT Organization: BT North America (Tymnet) In ISDN, at least according to the standards, the CNID is always sent; an indication is also sent along saying whether the CNID should be delivered to the called party. (Given regulatory issues, what the phone companies implement might be different.) The switch serving the called user is expected to include or not include the CNID as indicated. That's ISDN. I realize that you aren't using ISDN if you use a caller ID box with an analog line. Dick ------------------------------ From: jgreene@nyx.cs.du.edu (Justin Greene) Subject: Re: Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept. Date: Mon, 01 Nov 93 01:02:05 GMT > proven to be quite a surprise for many people who thought that they > were calling me anonymously. :-) > Just to clarify, this is not ANI number delivery. When people dial my > 800 number the information displays on my Caller-ID display through > the local telco delivery of Caller-ID. It would seem to me that C&W is using ANI to get the number of the calling party and then sending the data to you using your Caller ID box (blip of data between rings one and two I think?). Call block would have no effect on this since it isn't truely Caller ID. P.S. Who would call an 800 number and think the call was anonymous :-) Justin Greene Finger for PGP 2.x public key [Moderator's Note: Who would consider a call to an 800 number to be anonymous? Oh, a lot of people would. This discussion came up on Usenet (snicker) recently in one of the privacy discussion groups and some people were outraged to find out that the persons/companies paying for their (800) calls were getting the information as to who was calling and whose calls they were paying for. PAT] ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 22:43:34 GMT Kovanen@First.Com (David Kovanen) writes: > interstate basis and every telephone number is displayed -- even > numbers that are blocked and are intrastate. This service has been > proven to be quite a surprise for many people who thought that they > were calling me anonymously. :-) > I have seen interstate Caller-ID function, although it has been > sporadic and unreliable. However, the 800 number Call Blocking > Unblocking service that I have is 100% effective from everywhere. > Just to clarify, this is not ANI number delivery. When people dial my > 800 number the information displays on my Caller-ID display through > the local telco delivery of Caller-ID. Sort of. It is the ANI that is being delivered, but it is being delivered by CNID. The IXC (Cable & Wireless) is taking the ANI data they receive (from the originating LEC), and sending it out to the terminating IXC as CNID data. There is a noticable difference. Forward phone A to your 800 number. Then, go to phone B and dial phone A, and look at the CNID display on your 800 number. You will see the number of phone A. That's ANI -- the billing number is displayed (billing number being the number that would pay any charges to the caller, of course, there are no such charges to the caller for an 800 #, but if there were, A would pay, so A's number is the ANI). On true CNID, B's number would show up, as B is the number that is actually calling. There is almost no such thing as an anonymous 800 calls. While this real-time ANI->CNID conversion might be new, many (if not most) personal 800 providers have provided a list of calling numbers on the monthly bills. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ Subject: Calling Number Identification on Private Exchanges Reply-To: dgc@math.ucla.edu Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 17:52:36 -0800 From: David G. Cantor Some large institutions, such as UCLA, own their own telephone exchanges. Don't their switches receive the calling number identification and couldn't the institution implement a form of Calling Number ID, which would give the correct billing number of the calling party? Doesn't this, in effect, violate California PUC regulations? UCLA uses a Northern Telecom switch. Is there a convenient way for giving the calling number to the recipient of a call? What about other switches? David G. Cantor Department of Mathematics University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024-1555 Internet: dgc@math.ucla.edu ------------------------------ From: RJ@shebute.com (Ronald J. Logsdon) Subject: Fiber Use In Apartment Building? Organization: Shebute' inc. Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 19:13:52 GMT Greeting all, I am charged with developing a plan to install and find uses for fiber in an 800+ apartment building. Some of the things we are looking at doing are using it to deliver normal services like phone, cable TV but would also like to add advanced security, computer network services, and as many high tech options as we can. I personally know little about available fiber equipment both for service routing and end user. I would greatly appreciate any feed back I can get. Oh yah, The building has fiber to it, just not to the apartments. Thanks, Ronald J. Logsdon ------------------------------ From: lyman@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter T Lyman) Subject: VCR Plus+ Codes Date: 1 Nov 1993 04:52:53 GMT Organization: Image Analysis Systems Group, JPL Does someone on the net have the method for constructing the vcrPlus+ codes that are listed in the TV Guides? (This is the code that one enters in the vcrPlus+ to specify: date, channel, starttime, duration.) Thanks, Peter T. Lyman NET: lyman@SpaceSoft.Com TEL: 818-794-4170 NET: lyman@jpl.nasa.gov FAX: 818-791-5020 ------------------------------ From: pjoslin@mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil (Paul Joslin (Sverdrup)) Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Date: 31 Oct 1993 18:05:42 GMT Organization: Model Based Vision Lab, Wright Laboratory In article , Willie Smith (wpns@newshost. pictel.com) wrote: > erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) writes: >> Being passed along FYI: >> TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD > Ha! All this probably means is you have to clone the same > manufacturer and model of phone. Especially with the big push to Six > Sigma (every product is identical to one part in a million), it's > going to be really difficult to tell phones of the same model apart > without denying service to folks at slightly different temperatures, > battery charge levels, and altitudes. How long do you think it'll > take the cloners to crack this one? In the short term, how are cloners supposed to find out the make and model of the phone from the transmission they're stealing the ESN from? Buy their own TRW system, and start characterizing signatures? I think you're right in the long term. Professional thieves will "borrow" a phone from a parked car, get the ESN, then return the phone, or buy model number/ESN pairs from dishonest employees of the cell companies. Perhaps this system will at least prevent the "casual" thieves. Paul R. Joslin +1 513 255 1115 ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Administrivia: Special Mailing Follows Immediatly Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 2:05:00 CST The special issue of the Digest prepared by Ron "Asbestos" Dippold arrived here shortly after midnight. It will be following this issue of the Digest in the next several minutes. It will discuss in a fair and unbiased way the relative merits or demerits behind an unmoderated Usenet telecom group to be called comp.dcom.telecom.tech. I hope you will read it and consider carefully what the participants in the special mailing have to say. As for me, I'll be back sometime later Monday! :) Patrick T. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #728 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09147; 1 Nov 93 23:16 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08048 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 1 Nov 1993 20:06:48 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21513 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 1 Nov 1993 20:06:20 -0600 Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 20:06:20 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311020206.AA21513@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #729 TELECOM Digest Mon, 1 Nov 93 20:06:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 729 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Fire Information From GTE (Steven H. Lichter) Re: Laguna Beach Fires (Pete Tompkins) Re: Laguna Beach Fires (Robert L. McMillian) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (Al Stangenberger) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (Paul Joslin) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (Donald R. Newcomb) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (John Gilbert) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (S.E.P. Brown) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (Haakon Styri) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (S. Rathinam) Re: Presto Chango! (ad nausea) (Christopher M. Wolf) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (Gary Segal) Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) (Harold Hallikainen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 Nov 93 16:37:01-0500 From: /G=COE.PERS/S=J.MOSS/O=GTE/PRMD=GTEMAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com Subject: Fire Information From GTE I've take some of a bulletin that was issued over out Electronic Mail System which give most of the information as of Friday. Here in the Hemet area all service is restored. Posted: Fri, Oct 29, 1993 1:43 PM PDT Msg: GGJD-5635-7049 From: B.J.BARBER To: gtca, gtel, l.higson Subj: Fire Damage Bulletin Restoral work continues on damage from Southern California fires Only 650 of GTE California's 3.1 million customers statewide were still out of service Friday morning as a result of fires that ravaged Southern California for the last four days. Only about 2,500 customers had been out of service due to the fires. With major relief work left for the hard-hit Laguna Beach and Thousand Oaks areas, by Friday morning GTE had about 300 customers in Malibu and Newbury Park without phone service, and about 350 customers without service in Laguna Beach. Elsewhere, calling conditions mostly have returned to normal. No GTE buildings have been damaged, all critical telephone switching centers are operating and no employee injuries were reported. Damage occurred earlier to outside plant facilities in Laguna Beach and facilities in Malibu, San Bernardino, Hemet and Temecula. Employees have worked around the clock to restore service. Telephone poles are now being replaced on Laguna Peak in the Santa Monica Mountains. Cable damage in Carlisle Canyon, near Thousand Oaks, and isolated cable distribution problems in Hemet are also being worked on. In Mentone, fiber optic cable has been restored for about 1,200 customers who lost telephone service after fire melted the 12,000-foot cable. Another fiber-optic cable providing non-GTE communications was restored yesterday on Laguna Peak in the Santa Monica Mountains. That earlier cable loss did not disrupt basic communications at the Pt. Mugu Naval Yard, only ancillary services. A temporary customer service center also has been set up at GTE's central office in Laguna Beach. To speed up fire-recovery efforts for the recurring fires in the Westlake Village/Lake Sherwood communities, GTE California has provided its corporate headquarters as a command center for the Ventura County Sheriff's Dept. The sheriff's department moved into the facility late yesterday. "We want to do everything in our power to assist the fire-fighting and fire-relief effort," said Larry Sparrow, GTE West Area president. "We're opening our doors and resources to the recovery effort." GTE has waived payment of the basic monthly phone rate for 90 days for Californians displaced by the fires. We also are offering fire victims free local and toll calling from coin phone trailers located in Malibu and Laguna Beach. AT&T, MCI and Sprint are providing free long-distance service from those phones, excluding international calls. "We also are providing customers with free remote call forwarding, so they can be called on their usual phone number, which can be transferred to another location within GTE or Pacific Bell. Customers would pay only toll costs for this service. Or, displaced customers within GTE can use Personal Secretary at no charge. After 90 days, they would pay their basic phone rate, but could receive remote call forwarding or Personal Secretary free of charge until October 1994," Sparrow said. To facilitate communications among firefighters, GTE has provided mobile cellular phones to fire departments in Ventura County and Laguna Beach. Additionally, GTE has provided phone lines to the Ventura County Sheriff's Dept., and for the emergency services command centers in Laguna Beach, Malibu, Thousand Oaks and Hemet. The company also installed a portable microwave facility to serve the Laguna Beach Police Dept. and is continuing to work with emergency agencies to provide communications capabilities. Steven H. Lichter GTECalif COEI [Moderator's Note: I received a fax Monday morning from someone at GTE which gave a lot of the same information as quoted above by Mr. Lichter. GTE certainly seems to be responding admirably to the disaster with all the resources at their disposal. I hope the kind person who faxed me will do so again later this week with more updates; or perhaps Mr. Lichter will write again when his work allows a few minutes free time. Have the fires finally been completely extinquished, or at least brought totally under control? PAT] ------------------------------ From: tompkins@pete.tti.com (Tompkins) Subject: Re: Laguna Beach Fires Reply-To: tompkins@pete.tti.com (Tompkins) Organization: Transaction Technology, Inc. Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 16:15:27 GMT In article , RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys. COM writes: > I still have my Laguna Beach phone number (I moved the drop to a > friend's house), forwarded to my new phone. If I tried from any of my > home or office lines to call my number (or any Laguna Beach number), I > got an "all circuts busy" recording. However, a friend who lives > about 15 miles away was able to call my Laguna Beach number and get > forwarded. Not sure why he could get a trunk to Laguna Beach and then > back out, when I couldn't, but it was repeatable. Excuse me! But why the heck are you screwing around with experiments when there is an emergency and others may have a real NEED for their telephone. Who CARES why he could get into Laguna and you couldn't. The fact that you couldn't indicates there is a service problem and NEITHER of you should have been trying until the emergency passed. I'm sorry for the ranting, but I have seen so many acts of discourtesy in the many fires I have been near: in the San Gabriel Valley, in Bel Air and Pacific Palisades, and in my current home of Malibu (no, I don't know how the phones worked -- I minimized my use, since I am on the same CO as all of the Malibu homes that were burned or threatened). In any disaster, I encourage all to use a little common sense: stay off the phone unless you have a real need; stay out of the area unless you live there -- in short, the best support you can give is to stay away (unless, of course, you are providing direct assistance to family or loved ones). Pete Tompkins [Moderator's Note: Thank you for that very important reminder. In any time of national or local-area emergency, *always* keep phone facilties open and available for use by the persons affected, rescue workers and others directly involved. This cannot be stressed enough. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Laguna Beach Fires Organization: Surf City Software/TBFW Project Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 22:47:32 GMT On 30 OCT 93 11:25, RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM said: > With large areas in Southern and Northern California on fire, I don't > have much to note. However, the Laguna Beach fire is pretty bad. The > entire town (~25k people) is under mandatory evactuation, with no one > allowed in. The winds died down during the night, and the fires are > now getting under control. The official tally is right now hovering at just under 400 homes: 380 or so was the last count, and we expect this not to change, as the fire has been contained. As with the earlier Chicago floods that took such a huge toll on the downtown, the Laguna firestorms were almost completely preventable. Laguna residents pride themselves on living in an "artists' community"; in point of fact, it has become a snobby, effete, and largely liberal town of ditherers and ecotopians with too much money. As is usual with such catastrophes, it was the residents and town council who bear the heaviest blame for the ashes. Fire prevention surely ranked low on the hypersensitive Laguna Beach city council's agenda. As a multiple choice test, let's see how the readers of the Digest would score on this Fire Safety Quiz: Which is a more rational response in an area with high winds, dry air, and lots of tinder-dry chaparral? 1. (a) refitting fire hydrants to state specifications (per a California law passed in 1990 after the equally disastrous Oakland fires)? (b) passing a law banning leaf blowers? (No kidding, this is the kind of trivia that the LB city council occupied themselves with in recent months.) 2. (a) building a three million gallon underground reservoir? (b) opposing said reservoir on the grounds that the land is "too environmentally sensitive" (eco-speak for Not In My Back Yard!)? 3. (a) Keeping brush a reasonable distance away from your hillside home? (b) Allowing it to grow *under* your house-on-stilts because you like the "wild" look? (The politically correct euphemism for this is "overly landscaped." Talk about a tinderbox!) 4. (a) Allowing the county fire department to set periodic controlled burns to keep down the chaparral? (b) Blocking said burns because you like the "wild" look? 5. (a) The 3rd pig question: do you build your house of stucco, spanish tile, and fire resistant materials, or do you... (b) use wood shake roofing? If you chose (b) every time, you'd have the same record as the Laguna Beach city council and the people whose homes vanished in grey-brown clouds of ash. I have not too much sympathy for the arrogant Lagunans who tempted fate by building houses like gigantic woodpiles, did nothing to the tinder growing under them, and then had the nerve to tell off county fire officials when it came time to take preventative measures. Naturally, not all the people in the affected area were of this mind; the {Times} showed a lone house still standing, unscathed, while all his neighbors' houses were piles of smoking rubble. The difference? His house was built of fire-resistant materials, and he kept brush away from his house. In other words, he reacted rationally to the threats around him. Make no mistake, the taxpayers will end up getting burned for this. The people involved could have prevented *all* of this disaster, and acted, for the most part, stupidly. Robert L. McMillin | Surf City Software | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Dude! [Moderator's Note: I would not compare it to the collapse of the tunnel system which led to the underground flooding here a year and a half ago. True, the usual bureaucratic fumbling by inept government employees was the main reason for the flood, but the citizens -- nor for that matter city council here -- had any role in it. No one told us before it was too late. A better comparison would be to the fire here in October, 1871. In that instance, truly the city council and the citizens chose to ig- nore countless warnings from the experts (of the 19th century) on things like fire prevention and safety. For several months before the fire, the {Chicago Tribune} had been ranting almost daily about fire hazards in our town. Houses and stores made of wood; wooden plank sidewalks; weeds growing under every house along with tons of trash accumulated under the buildings; a summer that had been very short of rain; all the signs pointed to a fire. A constant stream of small fires day after day led the {Chicago Tribune} two days before the big one to editor- ialize that something had better be done fast. Tribune editor Horace White commented that '... the bell in the courthouse steeple is rung so often to indicate a fire has started that people hear it and like the Sword of Damocles, after living under it long enough, they simply choose to ignore it ... they say oh, its another fire again somewhere and go back to what they were doing ...' At the time, our city council spent most of their sessions bickering about how to divide the loot they were getting from the industrial barons who had 'discovered' Chicago during the previous decade. PAT] ------------------------------ From: forags@smokey.berkeley.edu (Al Stangenberger) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) Date: 31 Oct 1993 18:07:30 GMT Organization: U.C. Forestry & Resource Mgt. Reply-To: forags@smokey.Berkeley.EDU In response to the following witty comment by TELECOM Moderator: > [Moderator's Note: Remember, the old information just gets put on the > stack when the new information arrives. Why do you think they put a > 'review' function on your Caller-ID box if not so you could flip > through it looking at calls received over some period of time? Therein > will be the correct information about the caller, invariably at the > same time or in the previous minute. PAT] Pat - How many consumers (don't forget that CID devices are marketed as consumer items) are computer-literate enough to even KNOW what a stack is, or to even RTFM for the box and know that it has a review feature? IMHO the answer is probably about the same as the number of people who can program a VCR. In other words, very few! 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: Hey Al, show up around here sometime and I'll pop your stack for you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pjoslin@mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil (Paul Joslin (Sverdrup)) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) Date: 31 Oct 1993 18:10:54 GMT Organization: Model Based Vision Lab, Wright Laboratory > [Moderator's Note: Who do you think would be fooled by this? If you > observe the display between the first and second ring, act on the > information given as you see fit *then* answer, how could anything > someone did after that point matter? PAT] What if you're not home, and your caller id aware answering machine (or recording Caller-ID box) says you've got a call from Bill Clinton? Or better yet, a 900 number? You could scroll back before the current entry, but the call could be made from a blocked number. Paul R. Joslin +1 513 255 1115 ------------------------------ From: dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu (Donald R. Newcomb) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) Date: 31 Oct 1993 15:10:03 -0500 Organization: University of Southern Mississippi In article , Christopher M. Wolf wrote: > Possibly someone who normally does not look at the display, but then > gets a "nasty" (TM) message, and looks down and calls the police with > the (new) number. Like the reason many people say they like it, so > they can keep track of obscene phone calls. > What if you look down and see some new number that you don't know, > assume nothing, realize after answering that its an obscene call, and > when you look down to get the number, see it changed. Hope you have a > good memory. Shortly after we moved into our home some 15 years ago, I received a call from one of our new neighbors who verified my identity and asked if I had called his wife asking her for a "date"! Only after I spoke for a while did a female voice come on the line saying, "Honey, that's not the voice of the man who called." After that we discussed who might "have it in for me." I can just imagine his reaction if someone gave my name and the last number displayed on his CID matched my phone number! This is the sort of practical joke that can get people killed! I think our Moderator assumes people will know enough to check the stack before burning down your house. Remember, it must be the number, the computer says so. Donald R. Newcomb University of Southern Mississippi dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu dnewcomb@falcon.st.usm.edu [Moderator's Note: I'll remember your advice the next time I call to ask someone for a 'date'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 21:25:26 GMT I heard that there was an update to the caller ID spec to allow additional information to be sent on an in-progress call for caller ID with call waiting. It sounds like this box simulates this condition. John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ From: shawnb@ecst.csuchico.edu (S.E.P. Brown) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) Date: 31 Oct 1993 18:23:13 GMT Organization: California State University, Chico This "box" (if it can be called that) would work just fine in conjunction with CLID blocking (*67). The person using the box could enable CLID blocking, then transmit the information over the line in the manner discussed, and the person called would just think that there was some delay in transmission of the CLID signal, or think nothing of it at all. Shawn ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 01 Nov 93 13:34:53 +0100 From: styri@balder.nta.no Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) [box description deleted] > [Moderator's Note: Who do you think would be fooled by this? If you > observe the display between the first and second ring, act on the > information given as you see fit *then* answer, how could anything > someone did after that point matter? PAT] Well, I'd say that's only half the story. If you replace the "Who" with a "What" the obvious reply would be "a computer." It would be no surprise if a system displaying information based on the Caller ID acted on the new information with the result of fooling some operator. Haakon Styri Norwegian Telecom Research ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 08:49 CDT From: S.Rathinam Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) So all that the box needs to do it to send enough numbers to overflow the buffer at the customer end. If these numbers are the same, the called party might suspect something funny happened right away (if they review the list stored). If these numbers are different, the called party will still suspect if he/she reviewed enough numbers and found these earlier numbers looked unfamiliar as well. The question is, what happens when one dials *67 in this case -- is the number sent to Law Enforcement a copy stored in another 'smart' buffer (that doesn't get fooled, that stores the calling number before the second ring) in the switch - or will it be the bogus number? [i.e., does the switch get fooled or just the customer?) Email: rathinam@ins.infonet.net irrespective of when the header might say. (I speak only for myself). [Moderator's Note: Only the customer is fooled. The switch is never fooled. Furthermore, *67 does not prevent the number from being sent to the police by using *53 (or whatever it is called in your community). The only thing mixed up is what the customer thinks and whatever the Caller-ID box has as its immediate display. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cmwolf@fsh.mtu.edu (Christopher M. Wolf) Subject: Presto Chango! (ad nausea) Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 11:22:46 EST > [Moderator's Note: Remember, the old information just gets put on the > stack when the new information arrives. Why do you think they put a > 'review' function on your Caller-ID box if not so you could flip > through it looking at calls received over some period of time? Therein > will be the correct information about the caller, invariably at the > same time or in the previous minute. PAT] But how do you know if its wrong when looking down? So, you take down the wrong number, and call the authorities, and the number belongs to the mayor, and everyone thinks you're crazy, and then you try and call back with the number you looked up in memory. At the very least it can give the caller time to get well away from the phone. It all depends on when you look down. You shouldn't make it such a black and white issue. Some people will get fooled, if for just being sloppy. Christopher Wolf cmwolf@fsh.mtu.edu Electrical Engineer/Computer Scientist [Moderator's Note: What makes you think the Mayor does not make obscene calls asking women for 'dates'? The president of American University in Our Nation's Capitol was arrested for making calls like that -- from his phone on campus yet! -- and forced to resign a couple years ago as you may recall. A federal judge here in Chicago a few years ago -- and a well-known highly respected black judge at that -- was known 'in certain quarters' to be an active, agressive pedophile. Of course the Mayor can make those calls! But I get your point; the current display on the box along with its history stack have to be taken in context along with information stored by the switch itself in order to identify the offender positively. PAT] ------------------------------ From: segal@rtsg.mot.com (Gary Segal) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) Date: 01 Nov 93 15:06:18 GMT Organization: Motorola Cellulsr Infrastructure Group Well, then the enterprising Presto Chango user sends MULTIPLE Caller-ID bits. Then the user doesn't know which of the buffered information represents the real call data. Of course, a sophisticated user coud have a computer log and timestamp each bit of data to figure it out, but how many people will do that? The point is simple: a sophisticated ABUSER can fool the average telephone user with the Presto Chango device. As has been discussed (beaten to a pulp) here before, Caller-ID does not give a 100% indication of who the calling party realy is. Devices like Presto Chango only lower that percentage. Yet TELCO still sells Caller-ID as 100% reliable. Me, I'll just stick with old-fashioned Caller-ID: "What is your name?" Gary Segal Motorola Inc. segal@rtsg.mot.com Cellular Infrastructure Division ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Presto Chango! (A New Box) Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 18:22:54 GMT Actually, the use of the caller ID tones for other signalling seems quite useful. Some ideas include ... 1. On placing a call, the CO or LD carrier could send a quick burst of data indicating what the rates for the call would be. The "box" then uses this rate info (typically first minute and additional minute rates) to continuously display the cost of the call. 2. On call-waiting, the call-waiting tone could be modified to be Bell 202 and carry info about the call that's waiting (such as the phone number or name of the person calling). 3. On call forwarding, info about the forwarded call could be displayed. This could include the fact that a call was forwarded (eliminating the need for stutter dial tone), who the call was from, and the date and time. 4. Distinctive ringing or directed inward dialing could be replaced with a Bell 202 data stream that identifies what number was dialed. This seems like a more reliable method of handling fax machines and other devices on the same local loop but with different phone numbers (as opposed to using ring patterns to identify the number). Fax machines, answering machines, etc. could be programmed to only answer after receiving a specified "caller-ID" data stream corresponding to the called number. I'm sure there are lots of other applications. This stuff could all be handled on the data channel of ISDN, but for now it could be handled with caller-ID technology on analog lines. Harold -- Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@oboe.aix.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #729 ****************************** From telecom Tue Nov 2 09:19:08 1993 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05078 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /homes/telecom/.elm/inbound-filtering); Tue, 2 Nov 1993 09:19:08 -0600 Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 09:19:08 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311021519.AA05078@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #730 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 2 Nov 93 09:19:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 730 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Mike Harpe) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Carl P. Zwanzig) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Randy Gellens) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Chaim Frenkel) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Grover McCoury) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (trader@cellar.org) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (John Gilbert) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Brett Frankenberger) Big Turnout for Openview Forum Conference (Openview Forum News) CFP - SIGCOMM'94 (Patrick Dowd) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mike@hermes.louisville.edu (Mike Harpe) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1993 01:24:28 GMT Organization: University of Louisville > [Moderator's Note: Someone should tell Robert Pimental that it is > illegal to strip autos. My sympathies are entirely with the police > officer on this one. PAT] Well Pat, next time you are talking about other forms of eavesdropping with your usual distaste I think i'll point this comment out. I guess the end justifies the means in your world? That evidence is illegal and should be thrown out. If this is allowed to stand, then the ECPA is meaningless. I hope they throw the book at the cop ... Michael Harpe, Programmer/Analyst Information Technology mike@hermes.louisville.edu University of Louisville (502)588-5542 Louisville, Ky. 40292 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 01 Nov 1993 02:13:17 -0400 From: Carl P. Zwanzig Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Organization: The Midnite Group In article is written: > From the {Providence (RI) Journal}, quoted in the {Milwaukee Journal}: > Cellular Phone call tips police to car burglaries > Famous last words: 'That cop doesn't even know I'm on the phone.' > Someone should tell the officer that it's illegal to monitor those > frequences. > [Moderator's Note: Someone should tell Robert Pimental that it is > illegal to strip autos. My sympathies are entirely with the police > officer on this one. PAT] BAAMP!, I'm sorry, thank you for playing. I'm sure that Robert Pimental knows that it's illegal to strip cars. That's separate from the "wiretapping" by the officer. Mr. Pimental has not been convicted of a crime, he has only talked about it off the record (let's not forget "miranda"). Officer Atwell used information gathered in a probably unlawful manner to make an arrest, which becomes public record. Carl Zwanzig ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 01 NOV 93 19:17 Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones > Someone should tell the officer that it's illegal to monitor those > [cellular telephone] frequences. Yes, but it is trivial to monitor cellular telephone traffic without monitoring verbotten frequencies. Usually, the cellular stuff can also be heard above or below the 'real' frequencies. Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com A Series System Software Unisys Corporation [Please forward bounce messages Mission Viejo, CA to: rgellens@mcimail.com] Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself ------------------------------ From: chaim@thor.fsrg.bear.com (Chaim Frenkel) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: 02 Nov 93 04:54:13 GMT Organization: Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. It is quite likely that half of the readers, would agree with our ESTEEMED Moderator. Many people over the years have felt that voiding evidence obtained illegally was a major blow to effective police operations. Chaim Frenkel On contract at: chaim@nlk.com chaim@fsrg.bear.com Nonlinear Knowledge, Inc. Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. ------------------------------ From: gcm@fns.com (Grover McCoury) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: 02 Nov 1993 03:12:26 -0400 Organization: Fujitsu Network Switching--Raleigh, NC > What Robert Pimental, 22, didn't know, police said, is that an officer patrolling nearby happened to be listening in on the call on his cruiser's scanner. > Someone should tell the officer that it's illegal to monitor those > frequences. > [Moderator's Note: Someone should tell Robert Pimental that it is > illegal to strip autos. My sympathies are entirely with the police > officer on this one. PAT] "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 'nuff said... Grover C. McCoury physical: Fujitsu Network Switching Of America, Inc. 4403 Bland Road Raleigh, NC 27609 audio: 919-790-3111 electronic: gcm@fns.com [Moderator's Note: Very good point Mr. McCoury. We've had very little liberty or personal safety in many parts of the USA for several years. In Chicago for example, one certainly does not have the liberty to walk around wherever one would like at night. We are hardly safe by simply staying in our own homes either. How's the crime rate in Raleigh this year, Grover? Did you have 97 children under the age of 12 killed last year in street violence between competing gang members, etc? How many drug houses are there on the block where you live? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones From: trader@cellar.org Date: Mon, 01 Nov 93 16:46:45 EDT Organization: The Cellar electronic community and public access system puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) writes: ... about yet another case of criminal stupidity. To which Pat adds... > [Moderator's Note: Someone should tell Robert Pimental that it is > illegal to strip autos. My sympathies are entirely with the police > officer on this one. PAT] Hmmm ... I don't recall any sympathies being expressed for "Mr." Pimental. While I thank Pimental for providing comic relief to what has otherwise been a rather hellish day, I must take you to task for your blase disregard of criminal acts performed by the "good guys". I'm pretty certain that Mr. Pimental understood the legal issues involved in breaking into cars and removing articles from them. However, I'm even more certain that the local law enforcement folks understood the laws involving the monitoring of cellular phone frequencies. This being the case, either one or both of the following problems exist: a) the officer in question was acting of his own volition in violating the privacy of the citizens -- of whose privacy it is his job to protect, or b) there is department-wide abuse of/neglect for the privacy of the citizens within their jurisdiction In either case, if I were a resident of said municipality, I'd get very cranky if the officer were not severely punished. Furthermore, I was under the impression that scanner manufacturers were no longer allowed to enable scanning of cellular frequencies (I'll admit that I may have this confused with mobile frequencies). If this is indeed the case, are these simply older scanners, or have they been modified to enable illegal scanning? This is a serious incident, and I'm certain that it is not an isolated example. For the Moderator of a list which is partially concerned with illegal usage of telecommunications technologies to assume such a flippant posture because the "good" guys "won" this battle is outrageous. (paragon-of-integrity mode off) (or, at least, resuming normal operation ;-) [Moderator's Note: So you feel the officer must be severely punished, eh? Let's see, would ten years in prison be sufficient in your opinion? And you don't recall hearing any sympathies expressed for Mr. Pimintel? Don't worry, you will soon. The ACLU might hold a banquet and name him their outstanding oppressed citizen of the year. At the very least, his attorney will advise the court of how Pimintel was put upon and abused. I never had any doubts that Pimintel will get off easily with no punishment at all, and I still don't. That's the shameful part of it all. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 21:36:24 GMT If the accused has an astute lawyer, I would expect he would have little problem getting out of this one. The policeman's use of the scanner should taint any evidence subsequently obtained as a direct cause of the officers illegal action. In the eyes of the law, this is no different than an illegal wiretape of a land telephone. Now if the policeman had just happened to observe the crime in progress or stopped him for "suspicious activity," it would be a different story. Now that the cop has admitted how the evidence was obtained, I think that they may have a difficult time making the case. John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com [Moderator's Note: You feel it would have been better had the police officer lied about how the evidence was obtained, eh? As for the oppressed and put-upon Mr. Pimintel, the ACLU has not yet announced the name of the attorney appointed to represent him, but I am sure the counsel will be asute. PAT] ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 22:53:18 GMT > [Moderator's Note: Someone should tell Robert Pimental that it is > illegal to strip autos. My sympathies are entirely with the police > officer on this one. PAT] Mine aren't. Unless the cop had a valid warrent, he broke the law. I certainly hope he is prosecuted for that violation. (Presumably, he put his monitoring of the cellular phone is his report as justifi- cation for the arrest. Said report could be used as evidence against him.) I certainly don;t approve of what Mr. Pimental did, but I feel strongly that the police must obey the law just as I must. The ends do not justify the means. Can the cops search every house in my neighborhood because there have been some robberies? What if they find the loot in the fifth house. Certainly, some good will have come from the searches (the guys in the fifth house will be arrested). But more bad will have come. Four innocent people will have had their civil rights trampled on. I don't feel much sympathy for Mr. Pimental, but for the sake of protecting my rights, I hope he is released on insufficient evidence (since the illegally monitored cell phone conversation is taintd, and so just about anything following that is tainted also - I'm sure the courts would rule that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy while on a cell phone, since federal law bans monitoring of cell phone calls). Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: Openview_forum@dmewrk1.orl.mmc.com Subject: Big Turnout for Openview Forum Conference Organization: Martin Marietta Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 22:13:58 GMT Conference a BIG TURN OUT!!!!! Over 367 Users and Developers signed-Up!! REGISTER BEFORE it's too late!!!!! Call TODAY!!! PAYMENT INFORMATION Payment fees can be paid in U.S. currency only by check, money order, VISA, MasterCard or American Express. Please indicate your method of payment (check one and complete the required information). CHECKS must be drawn on a USA bank or a USA branch of a non-USA bank. Make all checks payable to CONFERENCE REGISTRATION. EMAIL, MAIL OR FAX YOUR COMPLETED REGISTRATION FORM TO: OpenView Forum P.O. 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Taxi service is also available for approximately $26 each way. ***************************************************************** BECOME AN OPENVIEW MEMBER TODAY! * Become Part of a Coordinated Voice to Communicate Your Needs to Vendors. * Influence the Development and Implementation of Relevant Industry Standards. OpenView Forum* is a non-profit corporation formed by the largest licensees of Hewlett-Packard OpenView to represent the interests of OpenView users and developers world-wide. * OpenView Forum is an independent corporation, not affiliated with Hewlett-Packard Company. Openview is a trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company. ELIGIBILITY FOR MEMBERSHIP Qualified to be a regular member of OpenView Forum are companies, institutions, and government organizations which currently hold a runtime license for and OpenView platform or an OpenView product that is dependent upon an OpenView platform runtime (platforms include OpenView SNMP, Distributed Management, and OpenView for Windows). Membership is held by the organization, as opposed to the individual. We ask that each member entity provide the name of a Member-of-Record who will receive all membership mailings. Although each entity will have one membership and one Member-of-Record, all representatives of member entities are welcome to participate in OpenView Forum conferences. Annual membership dues are $300 (U.S.) per organization. FOR MORE MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION CALL TODAY 1-800-538-6680 1-415-512-0865 (outside U.S.) EMAIL: amotive@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: dowd@mangrove.eng.buffalo.edu (Patrick Dowd) Subject: CFP - SIGCOMM'94 Reply-To: dowd@eng.buffalo.edu (Patrick Dowd) Organization: State University of New York at Buffalo Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 20:34:16 GMT Call for Papers ACM SIGCOMM'94 CONFERENCE Communications Architectures, Protocols and Applications University College London London, UK August 31 to September 2, 1994 (Tutorials and Workshop, August 30) An international forum on communication network applications and technologies, architectures, protocols, and algorithms. Authors are invited to submit full papers concerned with both theory and practice. The areas of interest include, but are not limited to: -- Analysis and design of computer network architectures and algorithms, -- Innovative results in local area networks, -- Mixed-media networks, -- High-speed networks, routing and addressing, support for mobile hosts, -- Resource sharing in distributed systems, -- Network management, -- Distributed operating systems and databases, -- Protocol specification, verification, and analysis. A single-track, highly selective conference where successful submissions typically report results firmly substantiated by experiment, implementation, simulation, or mathematical analysis. General Chair: Jon Crowcroft, University College London Program Chairs: Stephen Pink, Swedish Institute of Computer Science Craig Partridge, BBN Publicity Chair: Patrick Dowd, State University of New York at Buffalo Local Arrangements Chair: Soren-Aksel Sorensen, University College London Papers must be less than 20 double-spaced pages long, have an abstract of 100-150 words, and be original material that has not been previously published or be currently under review with another conference or journal. In addition to its high quality technical program, SIGCOMM '94 will offer tutorials by noted instructors such as Paul Green and Van Jacobson (tentative), and a workshop on distributed systems led by Derek McAuley. Important Dates: Paper submissions: 1 February 1994 Tutorial proposals: 1 March 1994 Notification of acceptance: 2 May 1994 Camera ready papers due: 9 June 1994 All submitted papers will be judged based on their quality and relevance through double-blind reviewing where the identities of the authors are withheld from the reviewers. Authors names should not appear on the paper. A cover letter is required that identifies the paper title and lists the name, affiliation, telephone number, email, and fax number of all authors. Authors of accepted papers need to sign an ACM copyright release form. The Proceedings will be published as a special issue of ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review. The program committee will also select a few papers for possible publication in the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. Submissions from North America should be sent to: Craig Partridge BBN 10 Moulton St Cambridge MA 02138 All other submissions should be sent to: Stephen Pink Swedish Institute of Computer Science Box 1263 S-164 28 Kista Sweden Five copies are required for paper submissions. Electronic submissions (uuencoded, compressed postscript) should be sent to each program chair. Authors should also e-mail the title, author names and abstract of their paper to each program chair and identify any special equipment that will be required during its presentation. Due to the high number of anticipated submissions, authors are encouraged to strictly adhere to the submission date. Contact Patrick Dowd at dowd@eng.buffalo.edu or +1 716 645-2406 for more information about the conference. Student Paper Award: Papers submitted by students will enter a student-paper award contest. Among the accepted papers, a maximum of four outstanding papers will be awarded full conference registration and a travel grant of $500 US dollars. To be eligible the student must be the sole author, or the first author and primary contributor. A cover letter must identify the paper as a candidate for this competition. Mail and E-mail Addresses: General Chair Jon Crowcroft Department of Computer Science University College London London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom Phone: +44 71 380 7296 Fax: +44 71 387 1397 E-Mail: J.Crowcroft@cs.ucl.ac.uk Program Chairs Stephen Pink (Program Chair) Swedish Institute of Computer Science Box 1263 S-164 28 Kista Sweden Phone: +46 8 752 1559 Fax: +46 8 751 7230 E-mail: steve@sics.se Craig Partridge (Program Co-Chair for North America) BBN 10 Moulton St Cambridge MA 02138 Phone: +1 415 326 4541 E-mail: craig@bbn.com Publicity Chair Patrick Dowd Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering State University of New York at Buffalo 201 Bell Hall Buffalo, NY 14260-2050 Phone: +1 716 645 2406 Fax: +1 716 645 3656 E-mail: dowd@eng.buffalo.edu Local Arrangements Chair Soren-Aksel Sorensen Department of Computer Science University College London London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #730 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa23880; 3 Nov 93 13:41 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27554 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ben@zis.ziff.com); Tue, 2 Nov 1993 10:22:36 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26735 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 2 Nov 1993 10:22:06 -0600 Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 10:22:06 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311021622.AA26735@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #731 TELECOM Digest Tue, 2 Nov 93 10:22:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 731 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker (Steve Malone) Re: Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker (Richard Cox) Re: Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker (Peter Casey) Re: Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker (Gordon Croft) Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number (Kristen Anne Pribis) Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number (Robert J. Keller) Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number (Michael O'Brien) Re: VCR Plus+ Codes (Mark Johnson) Re: VCR Plus+ Codes (Christopher Zguris) Re: VCR Plus+ Codes (Carl Oppedahl) Re: VCR Plus+ Codes (Alan Larson) Re: VCR Plus+ Codes (Eric De Mund) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (Paul Joslin) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (John Nagle) Re: Question About T1 Equipment (Fred R. Goldstein) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ag213@yfn.ysu.edu (Steve Malone) Subject: Re: Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker Date: 01 Nov 1993 18:31:56 GMT Organization: St. Elizabeth Hospital, Youngstown, OH Reply-To: ag213@yfn.ysu.edu (Steve Malone) In a previous article, COM104@UKCC.uky.edu (Bonnie J Johnson) says: > I pulled this information off the Risks listserv and wondered if any > of you know if there is an validity to it? > "Not too long ago a Telecom worker in Western Australia was reportedly > killed when a fragment of fibre optic glass accidently got into his > blood stream". > We are pulling, rehabbing, terminating, etc. our own fiber and if it > is true of the safety hazard, it would be nice to know. Anyone out > there been warned (safety classes, bulletins, the like) about handling > fiber? I've never heard of a fatality working with fiber, but there are basic precautions to take. Namely, you should wear eye protection and make sure to keep track of the small scraps of fiber (the glass itself) that get created in splicing, terminating, etc. The scraps can get under your skin or in your eyes easier than you might think. One way to handle this is to roll a piece of tape with the sticky side out and stick the scraps to it. My disclaimer is that there are many other precautions to be taken; these two are the basics. Steve Malone ag213@yfn.ysu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 Nov 93 10:58 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk I recently had an opportunity to witness BT engineers terminating fibres for ISDN and 2Mb private services. The precautions were prolific -- these people had to really know what they were doing. The same level of waste disposal management as is used in hospitals for needles/scalpels ... and every engineer working on the fibre was supervised by another for safety. Richard Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff, Wales Voice: +44 956 700111 Fax: +44 956 700110 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1993 03:52:50 GMT From: caseypa@elec.canterbury.ac.nz (Killer) Subject: Re: Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker Organization: Electrical Engineering, University of Canterbury, New Zealand Bonnie J Johnson (COM104@UKCC.uky.edu) wrote: [scary stuff deleted] > We are pulling, rehabbing, terminating, etc. our own fiber and if it > is true of the safety hazard, it would be nice to know. Anyone out > there been warned (safety classes, bulletins, the like) about handling > fiber? Well I believe it. I was working at the local telecom with the fiber jointers for a while and all the time they were splicing they would take the offcuts and put them all in a neat pile in a little tray. I got a stern warning when I dropped a few casually on the floor. The little pile got disposed of very carefully. Killer caseypa@elec.canterbury.ac.nz ------------------------------ From: Gordon_Croft@mindlink.bc.ca (Gordon Croft) Subject: Re: Optic Fibre Fragment Kills Telecom Worker Date: 02 Nov 93 07:24:21 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada I don't have any first hand experience with fiber cable but my company does use it and I have heard that the EXPOSED fiber is quite dangerous. By EXPOSED I mean after the clading has been stripped for splicing, etc. The problem is, apparently, that the glass is so pure that it is almost invisible to the human eye and isn't picked up on x-rays either. I believe we have some fairly stringent safety rules for people who are working with fiber. If you are not doing any splicing of the actual glass, I don't think there is any problem. Just my (CDN)$0.02 worth, Gord ------------------------------ From: pribik@rpi.edu (Kristen Anne Pribis) Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number Date: 01 Nov 1993 19:52:46 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA mackay@speedway.net (Tom Mackay) writes: > One of the options I can choose as part of my Cellular One package (in > Albany, NY) is to have two phones assigned to the same number. They > use some sort of call forwarding technique where you assign a primary > phone. If the call is not answered on the primary, it will ring > through to the secondary, and then on to phone mail. Now, if they > could only get rid of that static ... > Actually, mentioning static, I was wondering how many areas are > currently offering digital cellular service. The last I heard, it was > only in Tampa. > [Moderator's Note: But please note it is two phones with two numbers > and presumably two ESN's ... with the carrier routing things as you > have requested. It is not using the same ESN in both phones. PAT] This is two phones with one number. You can't call the secondary without calling the primary, and you can actually switch which phone is primary and which phone is secondary by entering a * code. Chris Labatt-Simon Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting pribik@rpi.edu (518) 495-5474 Tel (518) 786-6539 Fax ------------------------------ Reply-To: rjk@telcomlaw.win.net (Robert J. Keller) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1993 10:12:08 Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number From: rjk@telcomlaw.win.net (Robert J. Keller) In Volume 13 #722, Tom Mackay wrote about a firm that advertises the modification of cellular phones so that one can have two cellular phones with the same number. He asks: > Has anyone dealt with this or a similar company? Is is completely > legal, or is it in a grey area? What do the cell companies think of > this? Does it work? The legality is questionable, at best, and will depend on how this feat is acoomplished. The FCC staff has taken the position that _any_ modification of the SSN in a cellular phone after it leaves the manufacturer is violative of the cellular compatibility standards, which are incorporated into Title 47 Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations. They have been contemplating more direct prohibitions, but have not yet issued any such regulation. Under this interpretation, cloning numbers, modifying numbers, etc., is illegal. There are some in the industry, however, who argue that if they acoomplish the desired end by intercepting and translating the transmitted SSN (as opposed to actually modifying it) they have not "modified" the phone and therefore have not violated the prohibition. The FCC staff is very negative on this, but it has not yet been forced to a formal decision. The situation that has to be avoided, from both a fraud as well as a system administration point of view, is having two phones on the street with the same SSN. The system will, at best, reject one as a fraud, and at worst, get confused and refuse to accept either one. What _is_ acceptable, according to FCC staff, is an arrangement whereby the two phones have two different numbers, but an interception and translation is done at the cellular switch by the cellular carrier. This apparently requires the cellular carrier to invest in additional equipment and software, but at least some carriers are beginning to offer this capability. BTW, one 'legitimate', albeit very possibly illegal, reason for cloingin numbers is to provide a customer with a replacement phone while the original is being repaired. It seems that the replacement could be registered with the carrier, and then the original phone re-registered after repair, and this would not reqquire the customer to change phone numbers, but many cellular carriers charge a hefty fee (in the range of $40) for each registration. Thus, many resellers and equipment vendors are simply cloning the subscriber's SSN into the replacement phone. I have even heard that manufacturers are making it easier to clone numbers lest they lose sales to vendors. Bob Keller (KY3R) Tel +1 202.939.7918 rjk@telcomlaw.win.net Fax +1 202.745.0916 rjk@access.digex.net CIS 76100,3333 ------------------------------ From: obrien@aero.org (Michael O'Brien) Subject: Re: Two Cellular Phones - One Number Date: 01 Nov 1993 20:58:35 GMT Organization: The Aerospace Corporation In article , zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) writes: > Supposedly it generates an RF fingerprint of sorts. Then, it can > pre-validate calls based upon that "fingerprint". Personally it > sounds too good to be true, and I can't imagine that no two phones > wouldn't have similar traits, but I'm not up on that end of cellular > telephony. For what it's worth, they don't generate the fingerprint; it's already there. The FCC is currently using this technique to gather evidence against illegal transmitters. Any radio, when it first begins to transmit, does so with a slightly different spectral signature than any other radio. This signature can be used as positive identification of a particular transmitter, no matter what audio (or data) is then broadcast on the carrier. Mike O'Brien obrien@aero.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 05:55:36 -0800 From: mjohnson@netcom.com (Mark Johnson) Subject: Re: VCR Plus+ Codes lyman@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter T Lyman) writes: > Does someone on the net have the method for constructing the vcrPlus+ > codes that are listed in the TV Guides? (This is the code that one > enters in the vcrPlus+ to specify: date, channel, starttime, > duration.) The correct place to make this request is of course "rec.video". (Where it is indeed made with bone-numbing regularity). Programs have been published on the net that perform both directions of the encoding/decoding process: (date, time, duration, channel#) <---> VCRplus code# Here is one of the never ending stream of pointers to such pgms: From: troch@gandalf.Rutgers.EDU (Rod Troch) Newsgroups: rec.video Subject: Re: VCR Plus codes Date: 7 Sep 93 00:14:41 GMT Organization: Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey In-reply-to: jrv@truth.mitre.org's message of 6 Sep 93 20:45:23 GMT >>>>> Regarding VCR Plus codes; jrv@truth.mitre.org (Van Zandt) adds: JVZ> Has anyone worked out the numeric codes printed in the JVZ> television listings? Apparently, each number signifies a JVZ> channel, start time, and duration. However, I haven't JVZ> been able to determine the pattern. Ftp to bart.kean.edu (131.125.1.100), cd to pub/misc and get (in binary) vcrplus.zip. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 15:15 GMT From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: VCR Plus+ Codes In TELECOM Digest V13 #728 Peter T Lyman (lyman@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov) writes: > Does someone on the net have the method for constructing the vcrPlus+ > codes that are listed in the TV Guides? (This is the code that one > enters in the vcrPlus+ to specify: date, channel, starttime, duration.) I remember following a thread about this a while ago in, I belive, VIDEOTECH digest on the net and the concensus was the codes follow no pattern. Obviously, if the codes were decipherable and people built their own devices people wouldn't buy the vcrPlus+ wares. Sorry this doesn't help. Christopher Zguris CZGURIS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: VCR Plus+ Codes Date: 1 Nov 1993 12:01:10 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In lyman@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter T Lyman) writes: > Does someone on the net have the method for constructing the vcrPlus+ > codes that are listed in the TV Guides? (This is the code that one > enters in the vcrPlus+ to specify: date, channel, starttime, duration.) This was gone into a year ago on one of the encryption groups. Three people figured it out and published it in Cryptologia, as I recall. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 15:29:43 PST From: larson@net.com (Alan Larson) Subject: Re: VCR Plus+ Codes Organization: Network Equipment Technologies This question has been asked regularly, and is even answered in some of the news.answers or newusers groups. Here is an answer from a while back. There have been postings of a program that claims to do the first five or six digits of the codes, but there are lots of reports of serious bugs in that program (writing past end of arrays, etc.) Perhaps the Moderator can find a copy to send back to those who persist in asking in the future. Alan From: luiland@meaddata.com (Yum Ting Lui) Newsgroups: rec.video Subject: Re: VIDEO PLUS (again) Date: 31 Mar 1993 18:09:03 GMT Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH In article dic@dcs.ed.ac.uk (David Chapman) writes: > A few weeks ago, someone asked for a repost of the algorithm for decoding > VIDEOPLUS programming numbers. > This never appeared, and I would _love_ to get this piece of information. black.ox.ac.uk (127.67.1.165) /src/vcr+.shar.Z This is the US version, the UK version is named a little different in the same directory. For those in US: wuarchive.wustl.edu in /usenet/alt.sources/articles/7020.Z Information on decoding the first 6 digits is described in "Decoding a VCR Controller Code" Cryptologia, 16(3), July 1992, pp 227-234. Yum Ting Lui Source Packaging Systems Mead Data Central luiland@meaddata.com (513) 865-6800 X4387 ...!uunet!meaddata!luiland ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 02:40:33 -0800 From: Eric De Mund Subject: Re: VCR Plus+ Codes Reply-To: Eric De Mund Organization: Netcom Online Communication Services Peter, > Does someone on the net have the method for constructing the vcrPlus+ > codes that are listed in the TV Guides? (This is the code that one > enters in the vcrPlus+ to specify: date, channel, starttime, duration.) Closer followers of sci.crypt will be able to tell you about the status of the lawsuit/saber-rattling brought against the person who recently (i.e. within the last year or so) cracked VCR+ and published/was about to publish his solution on the net. I'll simply point you to question 8.16 of the cryptography-faq: 8.16. What is the coding system used by VCR+? One very frequently asked question in sci.crypt is how the VCR+ codes work. The codes are used to program a VCR based on numerical input. See [SHI92] for an attempt to describe it. [SHI92] K. Shirriff, C. Welch, A. Kinsman, Decoding a VCR Controller Code. Cryptologia 16(3), 227--234, 1992. The whole faq is available via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu [18.70.0.209] in the files /pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/\ cryptography-faq/part{0[1-9],10}. Eric De Mund ------------------------------ From: pjoslin@mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil (Paul Joslin) Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Date: 02 Nov 1993 08:05:42 GMT Organization: Model Based Vision Lab, Wright Laboratory In article , Willie Smith (wpns@newshost.pictel.com) wrote: > erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) writes: >> Being passed along FYI: >> TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD > Ha! All this probably means is you have to clone the same > manufacturer and model of phone. Especially with the big push to Six > Sigma (every product is identical to one part in a million), it's > going to be really difficult to tell phones of the same model apart > without denying service to folks at slightly different temperatures, > battery charge levels, and altitudes. How long do you think it'll > take the cloners to crack this one? In the short term, how are cloners supposed to find out the make and model of the phone from the transmission they're stealing the ESN from? Buy their own TRW system, and start characterizing signatures? I think you're right in the long term. Professional thieves will "borrow" a phone from a parked car, get the ESN, then return the phone, or buy model number/ESN pairs from dishonest employees of the cell companies. Perhaps this system will at least prevent the "casual" thieves. Paul R. Joslin +1 513 255 1115 ------------------------------ From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 22:56:28 GMT erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) writes: > TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD > Each cellular telephone emits unique signal transmission > characteristics - an electronic version of a human fingerprint - which > cannot be duplicated. These characteristics are matched with the > mobile identification number (MIN) and the electronic serial number > (ENS) of the phone to develop a unique pattern for each legitimate > customer, TRW PhonePrintTM uses sophisticated signal analysis hardware > and software to analyze and file the patterns belonging to legitimate > customers. When a caller attempts to access the network, the system > compares incoming patterns to those on file. If the patterns do not > match the call is immediately terminated. I suspect this is an exaggeration of the actual capabilities. There are only a few chipsets used for these things, after all, and two units with the same chipset should perform very similarly. But they might be able to tell which chipset was being used. Statisti- cally, though, that alone gives them a good chance of catching someone who records over-the-air info. Cellular ID systems should have been public-key from day one. Someday, they will be, government opposition or not. John Nagle ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Question About T1 Equipment Date: 02 Nov 1993 01:50:38 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA In article add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) writes: > I am trying to get an estimate of equipment needed for a T1 > connection. > Scenario 1: > Let's say I have a workstation and 24 geographically distributed > salespersons. My salespersons want to dial into my workstation using > modems. I get an 800 number, linked to a hunt group of 24 lines, from > MCI (i.e. I get a T1 link to the MCI POP, provided by my LEC). What > equipment (DSU/CSU, etc) do I need at the workstation end, to be able > to provide these connections , keeping in mind that I will never > originate any outgoing calls? There are, of course, two approaches. The "Primitive Pete" approach takes a T1 CSU/DSU, a channel bank, and 24 separate modems. The alternative approach is to use a T1 modem. I am aware of two or three vendors of such equipment. Primary Access (San Diego) makes one which can terminate a bunch of T1s. It uses digital signal processing to do the modem function, so a faster modem is a software upgrade. US Robotics makes a smaller, cheaper one, but I don't know too much about it; I think it's aimed at the onesie-twosie market. I also hear that AT&T Paradyne may have one. The price is higher than for individual modems, but probably competitive with modems plus channel banks. And it's easier to maintain than having all those wires! I really don't know much in detail about these things but I know you can find something out there if you've got the big bucks. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #731 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14946; 2 Nov 93 15:36 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25292 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 2 Nov 1993 11:44:35 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27498 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 2 Nov 1993 11:44:00 -0600 Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 11:44:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311021744.AA27498@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #732 TELECOM Digest Tue, 2 Nov 93 11:44:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 732 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! (Thomas J. Beckman) Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! (Gregory K. Johnson) Re: UK Plugs, Pinout Needed (Brian Hess) Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint (Don Davis) Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint (Rich Mintz) Re: ADSI (Al Varney) Re: VCR Plus+ Codes (Paul Robinson) Re: Nationwide Caller ID Update (Al Varney) Re: Help Needed Paging via Unix Script (Eric Douglas) Re: FCC #10 (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (Paul J. Bell) Re: Frame Relay Information Request (Chris Labatt-Simon) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Scott Coleman) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Bill Fischer) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: beckman@cats.ucsc.edu (Thomas J Beckman) Subject: Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! Date: 02 Nov 1993 02:03:13 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz A good, small long distance company in California is Execuline of Sacramento. I've had all of my business with them for over a year, and no other carrier can beat their rates. We use around 15K minutes per month. Execuline's number is 800-655-0444. Tom Beckman beckman@cats.ucsc.edu ------------------------------ From: gkj@konichiwa.cc.columbia.edu (Gregory K. Johnson) Subject: Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! Date: 02 Nov 1993 03:41:15 GMT Organization: Columbia University In article , Jack Decker wrote: > Just a word of advice to all: If you are looking for great deals on > long distance service, don't overlook the small carriers that may be > operating in your state or region. I'm not going to mention names of > specific companies, but here's a couple of deals I've found (in doing > some research for a friend) that are especially attractive in low to > moderate calling volume situations. I'm not going to quarrel with your basic advice about shopping around for long distance carriers. However, I feel compelled to note that the rates you are quoting for this particular long-distance calling plan do not seem to be all that great of a bargain. When I established telephone service in San Jose, I selected Sprint as my long distance carrier. When I established the account with Sprint, I inquired about discount long-distance calling plans. I ended up selecting their service which is similar to Reach Out America, i.e. you purchase an hour of calls at a particular price (I think in this case it was about $8, or less) and then all your calls at off-peak hours beyond the first hour are billed by the minute. The rate for calls at off-peak hours under this calling plan was ten cents per minute, which is significantly cheaper than the 11.4 cents per minute described above. It also doesn't have as much overhead cost ($8 for the first hour is $2 above the cost of the flat-rate per minute cost, versus $5 for this plan. Sprint also doesn't have a 15 month minimum contract. But my basic point is this: thus far I haven't seen anything that seems to be a better deal than service with the major three long distance companies. Greg ------------------------------ From: bnh@active.com (Brian Hess) Subject: Re: UK Plugs, Pinout Needed Organization: Performance Systems Int'l Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 05:26:18 GMT In article heller@nirvana.imo.physik. uni-muenchen.de (Helmut Heller) writes: > However, I don't know which two of the four contacts carry the phone > signal in the UK!! Could some kind soul help me, please?? Sorry this is a bit late, but if it gets published, at least it will end up in the archives and someone can look it up someday ... U.K. U.S. (connectors viewed from above, metal contacts up) ^||||^ ^||||^ WGBR RW Where ^ = open (non-metal) contact slot | = metallic contact W = white, G = green, B = blue, R = red 1) Sorry for the odd colors in the wire, but it's what I got from ye olde local telecom shoppe when I asked for six inches of line cord. 2) The UK connector, when the metal connectors are uppermost, has its plastic spring clip on the right edge. The US connector has it on bottom. 3) It's a little tricky to shove the outermost wires in the cord into the middle of the USA RJ modular plug, yet still crimp it on the sheath. Peel back the sheath a bit to clip the B/G wires deep, or even pull them out, if the cord is short enough. Brian Hess Active Ingredients, Inc. bnh@active.com ------------------------------ From: ddavis@dgdhome.meaddata.com (Don Davis) Subject: Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 21:28:12 EDT Organization: The Dayton Home for the Chronically Strange In article , telecom@eecs.nwu.edu writes: [omitted: guy wants to dial to US modem pool from UK through human operator] > [Moderator's Note: Set your modem to dial a null string; have it just > dial the ATDT part with nothing following. [...more bandwidth conserved...] 1. Most modems nowadays are engineered to look for the dialtone, and won't dial (even a null string) unless they see it -- or unless they are told to dial "blind". The way to do this is to set your X parameter to 1 (works for most modems) in the dial command. 2. The trailing T is optional in the dial command. 3. You end up entering ATX1D and your modem should begin exchanging moose calls and other noises with the remote system. 4. Enjoy your trip to the UK! Don Davis | Internet: dgdhome!ddavis@meaddata.com | Tel: 513-235-0096 ------------------------------ From: rmintz@ecst.csuchico.edu (Rich Mintz) Subject: Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint Date: 2 Nov 1993 12:46:51 GMT Organization: California State University, Chico > Next week I'll be in the UK and I'd like to be able to dial back to > the modem pool here in NJ using my Sprint Foncard. The people at > Sprint tell me the only way to call back to the US is to call an > access number that connects you to a human operator, who collects the > information and completes the call. > [Moderator's Note: Set your modem to dial a null string; have it > just dial the ATDT part with nothing following. Place the call > manually as instructed, then when the operator places the call and the > distant modem answers, hit your return key and let the modem think it > is dialing something. A second or two later it will 'finish dialing' > and start listening for the other end to answer, which of course it > will have done. Your modem and the other one will handshake as usual > and you can begin your session. PAT] This won't work for many of the newer modems. You must also specify AT X3 (X <= 3) so that the modem doesn't refuse to "dial" because there is no dial tone present. Thrown all on one line, one would say "ATX3D" (return). I'm not sure if the original poster thinks he must unplug his voice phone in order to plug in his modem, thereby disconnecting the line. "Y" jacks are available all over the place that will let you plug both your phone and modem into the same telephone jack. This will allow you to speak with the operator, type the modem dial command, then hang up the voice phone. The "Y" jack plugs in just like a modular cable (slightly larger) so should work fine with whatever adapter you're using in the U.K. Rich ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 18:15:18 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: ADSI Organization: AT&T In article Kovanen@First.Com (David Kovanen) writes: > What you have discovered is the next wave of terminal > equipment. Terminals will include screens to make current Central > Office features work better, and make new ones possible. ISDN was > supposed to do that but people are getting tired of waiting for it. ADSI (Bellcore TR-NWT-001273 has the EO and "server" requirements, SR-INS-002461 has the CPE requirements) is, however, a kludge. The EO-to-CPE communications that can take place after off-hook (for example, call waiting per TR-NWT-000030, Issue 2) cannot be reliably segregated from far-end-CPE-to-CPE communications. In fact, TR-1273 suggests it is OK for far-end-CPE ("servers") to send "caller identification messages" just like the EO does. TOTALLY INSECURE. Of course, the EO knows who called you, but the fancy ADSI box won't. Bellcore was told about this problem (and others) in comments to TA-NWT-000030, which also suffers from this problem when the CPE supports Caller ID Delivery on Call Waiting (using off-hook data transmission). At least they repeated my suggestion for a CPE switch that would disable all off-hook data reception in the pre-ADSI CPE requirements in TR-NWT-002476, Issue 1. Unfortunately they added extra text from the TA-comment-copy suggesting the switch was just there so users that didn't use off-hook messaging wouldn't be bothered by false detections of the "data alerting signal". BS -- it is there so the CPE can't be spoofed by far-end CPE. I hope the SR-2461 CPE requirements are including such a CPE switch and other security-related information mentioned in comments. (I don't have nor want SR-2461 -- I may not be able to fight City Hall, but I don't have to read the stuff.) Note that ISDN does NOT have a problem distinguishing EO-to-user D-channel messages from user-to-user (or inband DTMF) messages. If you want to spoof my ISDN Caller ID data, you'll have to play games with SS7 or switches. > If you get the Bellcore Specs on ADSI you will see that one of > their motives is to get call waiting to work better. People want to > know who is waiting before they ask the current party to hang on while > they pick up another call. Switch manufacturers and telephone > manufacturers were not doing anything about it so Bellcore decided to > start the ball rolling by defining a protocol both switch manufact- > urers and telephone manufacturers could use. TR-000030 Issue 2 already supported Call Waiting with Caller ID. ADSI goes beyond that customer need. > Actually I think Northern Telecom had a lot to do with it. Mmmm, yeh, you could say NTI is pushing ADSI -- certainly vs. ISDN. But then they've got the CPE models, the switch changes and probably the "servers" all ready to roll. Almost before the ink was dry on the TRs. > I can see how a rather simple calling party display unit would > respond to the Presto-Chango box you described. This also highlights > one of the problems I have with ADSI. The protocol is too simple. TR-1273 specifically states that ADSI boxes will accept Caller ID information from sources other than the EO. Bellcore/NTI must think it's a feature, not a problem. > There is no way to coordinate multiple applications. For example, > Northern Telecom is running a trial of ADSI in Boston using a bank at > home application. If the user got a call waiting with ADSI > identification of the waiting party, the banking data would get > screwed up. 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. It does say you can't flash during a session -- so any Call Waiting you get will just mess up the session, and remain unanswered. Anyway -- I tried to get a reliable switch-vs-"server" indicator into the protocol (like reverse battery from the switch when it was sending a message). Didn't get far. Sorry for the "I" messages. Unlike many of their other efforts, I don't think BNR considered the security angle on this one. When some "server" starts re-programming your ADSI "one-button-calling" keys, you might agree with me. Al Varney - just my opinion, and not that of others at AT&T ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 19:13:46 EST Reply-To: 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM Subject: Re: VCR Plus+ Codes From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA > Does someone on the net have the method for constructing the > vcrPlus+ codes that are listed in the TV Guides? (This is the code > that one enters in the vcrPlus+ to specify: date, channel, starttime, > duration.) I have a copy of a program someone sent me in C that is supposed to do this for any program which starts on the hour or 1/2 hour. My sister decided to take back the VCR Plus unit she loaned us, so I've never tried it; I only know what I discovered from reading the source some three months ago. Anyone who wants it can write me and I'll mail it, or find a site where it can be FTPd from, or both. It's not large, about 36K or so. Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 18:36:00 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID Update Organization: AT&T In article brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) writes: > Emmanuel Goldstein writes: >> [Moderator's Note: That happens here also. Dialing my own 800 number >> just gets me a busy signal, the same as had I dialed my own regular >> number. > Again, the switch is getting smarter and deciding to block call > waiting until answer supervision for calls that leave the local switch > (instead of just waiting until they leave the switch and then allowing > call waiting). This behavior (blocking three-way calling and call waiting interruptions on unanswered calls) is the US standard for EOs. This was an agreement in the ICCF and in NOF. Failure to do so allowed many customers to flash, initiate a three-way call (unknowingly) and then get billed for the eventually-answered first leg of the call. If they dialed the same number again, they got busy (since the first leg was still ringing the called number). The new procedure cuts down on false billing, customers answering calls with the caller not there and general network waste. It probably forces one to hang up for a tad longer (beyond flash interval of about .8 seconds) on switch announcements when you misdial and get Vacant Code, Reorder or Intercept -- on some switches, that is. Al Varney - just my opinion ------------------------------ From: ericd@ucs.csufresno.edu (Eric Douglas) Subject: Re: Help Needed Paging via Unix Script Organization: California State University in Fresno Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 18:51:46 GMT In article Steve Hills writes: > A project I am working on has the ability to run UNIX shell scripts or > executables when certain events occur on the system. We have been > requested to provide a paging capability via a shell script or > executable. Does anyone have any information (or perhaps a shell > script) that could be of help to me? A friend has done this before on his Unix machine ... I don't have a shell script for you, but a few pointers that should get you started: Attach a modem to a serial line on the machine. Open up the device that the modem is attached to ... send the Hayes ATDT string, the dial string will contain the number of the pager, followed by several commas (to pause the modem dialer while the pager service picks up the line) then send the number you want displayed on the pager. This should be a 10 line C program, or try a shell script piping commands to `cu' or `tip' via stdin. Best wishes, Eric W. Douglas eric_douglas@csufresno.edu California State University, Fresno Computing, Communications, and Media Services +1 209 278 3923 ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: FCC #10 Date: 02 Nov 1993 01:18:50 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA In article Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105. z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Erickson) writes: > I keep hearing about "FCC #10" and it sounded like it'd be just what I > needed to get a *good* list of exchanges for the local area codes. So > I dropped by the local US Goverment Printing Office bookstore. They > said they'd never heard of it. "Do you know the SUDOCs number?" (or > was it "SUCCODE"?) > So I went to the local depository library. With much the same results. > I'd greatly appreciate it if someone would tell me the magic number ... You're barking up the wrong tree! "FCC #10" sounds like a reference to AT&T's Tariff FCC #10. This is NOT a government document, but a government-APPROVED document issued by AT&T. As a "dominant carrier", AT&T has been obligated by law to issue tariffs for all network services, and the interstate tariffs require FCC approval, hence the name. Recently, a court ruling has forced MCI and others to file tariffs too, so they too have FCC tariffs, but the FCC pro-competition policy means that these tariffs are accepted with minimal, if any, review. So contact AT&T Communications. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: pjb@23kgroup.com (Paul J. Bell) Subject: Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet Reply-To: pjb@23kgroup.com Organization: The 23K Group, Inc. Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1993 10:19:47 GMT In article , RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys. COM writes: > Sri Lanka is joining the Internet, a worldwide computer network that > connects computer users in more than 100 countries (UPI, 10/20/93). > "By connecting universities, schools and laboratories in Sri Lanka to > the Internet, the U.S. hopes to foster cooperation between the people > of our country and the people of Sri Lanka in all fields of science, > technology and the environment," said U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who > signed the Internet access agreement with Sri Lanka Prime Minister > Ramil Wickremashighe. Does anyone have any idea why it was necessary or even meaningful for Gore or anyone representing the U.S. Government to sign or even be a part of Sri Lanka's joining the Internet? What rights or control does the U.S. think they have over Internet access? Is there something here that I am missing, or is this just more Clinton/Gore meddling? ------------------------------ From: pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) Subject: Re: Frame Relay Information Request Date: 1 Nov 1993 13:48:27 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA Michael Lewis writes: > We are migrating our network to Frame Relay and I am interested in all > the information I can get on the subject. > I can find a lot about both Cell-Relay and ATM on the Internet, but > precious little about Frame Relay other than one RFC. > Does anyone know where this subject is hidden? You might call up Cisco Systems -- they have a protocol brief detailing how Frame Relay works and how it differes from X.25. Chris Labatt-Simon Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting pribiK@rpi.edu (518) 495-5474 Tel (518) 786-6539 Fax ------------------------------ From: genghis@ilces.ag.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: 2 Nov 93 15:40:43 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) writes: > If the accused has an astute lawyer, I would expect he would have > little problem getting out of this one. The policeman's use of the > scanner should taint any evidence subsequently obtained as a direct > cause of the officers illegal action. In the eyes of the law, this is > no different than an illegal wiretape of a land telephone. [...] > [Moderator's Note: You feel it would have been better had the police > officer lied about how the evidence was obtained, eh? ...] Frankly, the police officer was stupid not to have lied. Having already based an arrest on evidence obtained illeally, by not lying he not only makes it a virtual certainty that the case will be thrown out of court, the burglar will get off completely, and his own butt will undoubtedly be in a sling. Stupid, stupid, stupid! It would have been so easy to ID the burglar's vehicle, trail him for a little while until he went to strip his next car, and then just "happen to show up" in tie to nab him in the act. Bingo! One crook in jail, with an airtight case, and the cop comes out smelling like a rose. One thing's for sure: the publicity surrounding this incident will not get rid of crooked cops violating the ECPA - it will simply drive them farther underground, making them more careful in how they act upon their illegally obtained evidence. :-/ From the virtual desk of... Scott Coleman, President ASRE (American Society of Reverse Engineers) Ed Green Fan Club #005 - Disintegrate the SGA! tmkk@uiuc.edu ------------------------------ From: bill.fischer@t8000.cuc.ab.ca Organization: T-8000 Information System Date: Tue, 02 Nov 93 09:58:09 Subject: Re: Illegal Monitoring Of Cellular Phones Pat, we support the law enforcement community on this issue, as well, and offer a discount to them on our cellular surveillance equipment. Laws are not designed to give an advantage to the criminal (at least they shouldn't be!). We would be pleased to provide any of your readers an e-mail copy of our product sheet. Please have them contact us directly. 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: Consider the readers notified, but now, let's not be commercializing Usenet with any commercial propoganda :). As Ehud would say, I, the Barney of Orange Cards forbid it. Commercial- ization of the net and monopolization of telecom discussions is mine alone, sayeth Moderator Barney. Any of you who were, uh, fortunate enough to see his diabtribe loose in the news stream, but posted with pride in some news groups, how'd you like the way he flipped out? I think he comes from some place where the police are extremely oppressive and he figures here in the USA anything would be an improvement. I guess it comes down to whether you prefer getting bopped over the head by a police officer or by a criminal on the street. Given my druthers, I'll go with the former. Barney. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #732 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15805; 2 Nov 93 16:38 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11878 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 2 Nov 1993 12:53:45 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31174 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 2 Nov 1993 12:53:10 -0600 Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 12:53:10 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311021853.AA31174@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #733 TELECOM Digest Tue, 2 Nov 93 12:53:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 733 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN (Michael Maxfield) Re: 1-800 Nasties (Fred Ennis) Re: The Modem Tax Scare ... Again (Brendan B. Boerner) Re: The Modem Tax Scare ... Again (Eric N. Florack) Re: AT&T 2000 Public Phone (Tony Pelliccio) Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint (Gary Breuckman) Re: AT&T System 75 Switch to NT Meridium 1 (Vance Shipley) Re: Sprint Modem Offer (Jeff Garber) Re: AT&T Public Phone 2000 (Robert J. Woodhead) Re: Laguna Fires (Arthur L. Shapiro) Re: Car Phones and Accidents? (Stefan Zingg) Re: Problems With CNID (Christopher Zguris) Re: Time Change (Harold Hallikainen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tweek@netcom.com (Michael D. Maxfield) Subject: Re: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN Organization: Seymore's Bleacher Manufacturing Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1993 06:06:11 GMT In article posted to comp.dcom.telecom: itstevec@hamlet.ucdavis.edu (Steve Chafe) writes: > I have a question about ANI-related signalling as it goes through the > public switched network. I just found two 800 numbers that cause > charges to be billed back to the originator of the call. I understand > Is this legal now (to charge toll on an 800 call)? I thought it wasn't > after the $120 per call 800-psychic-hotline thing had been taken out > of service. Here is a post I am going to be posting to alt.bbs.ads,misc.consumers. It is about an ad posted for a FREE 800 BBS with 62 lines and each caller allotted 1440 minutes per day. [Lotto winner ... or fraud?] Subject: Re: Umm, FREE! FREE! References: <1993Oct29.174735. 3757@tradenet.com> <2askte$ejh@news.ysu.edu> In article <2askte$ejh@news.ysu.edu> posted to the Usenet Newsgroup(s) alt.bbs.ads s0130703@cc.ysu.edu (Daniel East) writes: > Dan noticed that Gordon Soukoreff once wrote: >> Yeah, I just called the thing and found out the 1-800 no. is routed thru a >> 1-900 no. and you pay for the call. THis BTW, I found out while in their >> teleconferancing area. I asked some pointed questions and got the above as >> an answer from one of the users. No mention of it during logon..so >> theoretically I paid for the call. Nevertheless, I will be contacting my >> Telephone company and refusing to pay for this " as it looks " fraudulant >> BBS service. >> Disclaimer: Investigate further before making assumtions > Can anyone verify this? I called (for about 10 minutes, until I realized > how lame it was, and that irc is 1000 times better) and did not see ANYTHING > to remotely suggest that this was a 1-900 service. If it is, I suggest we > inform as many people about this illegitimate (and most likely > illegal) system > as possible. ALL 800 numbers are INDEXED by AT&T since the 800 number portability ruling. I just got off the phone from AT&T ... the particular 800 number is serviced by AT&T. The lady who I spoke to was not too sure, but thought that if any forwarding occured to a 900 number, the charge would stop at the 800 point (thus ... the 800 number would get the 900 bill). [Anyone with any knowledge on this?] The lady did mention that she has heard of some services charging callers of an 800 line for their calls, but such charges would be independant of the phone company and believed legally required to be preceeded by an announcement stating such a charge. (There is NO audio announcement on the line ... I just called it). Such a charge would probably come from the use of an ANI system at the site ... and the bill would come from the information provider, and not the telco ... (Suggest you save a copy of the prior post as evidence just in case there is any hanky-panky) NOTES: I have deleted the number for this posting - to protect the provider, should he be innocent - to protect others should the provider be fraudulent I have added misc.consumers to the newsgroups line. I shall also forward a copy to comp.dcom.telecom asking for their wisdom here. ==========================end of forwarded article============== I will attempt to watch for a reply here... But there are many others in alt.bbs.ads who are interested as well... if you could also forward your response there as well, or give me permission to forward it there, I would be ever so happy. tweek@netcom.com tweek@tweekco.uucp WWIVNet 1@511 DoD #MCMLX ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 1-800 Nasties From: fred@page6.pinetree.org (Fred Ennis) Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1993 13:34:00 -0400 Organization: Page 6, Ottawa, Ontario +1 613-723-5711 tims@ocsg.com (Tim Schmitt) writes: > This made me wonder what the screening process for numbers is, if > at all. How would you like to be the poor sap who ends up with > 1-800-F***-YOU? I called the number to see if the number was active, Well, when I switched cellular carriers, they let me pick my own number (I gave them a list and the second one on my list was available). I am now the proud owner of a cellular number which indeed does spell something rather rude. In fact the guy who told me the number was available said, "Did you pick that to spell ________?" I told him yes and he burst into laughter. Most people don't think of such things. As a perfect example, our company phones all begin with 739-. No one was aware that it was "SEX" until I pointed it out. I guess the majority of folks don't have that kind of thought process. Cheers! Fred Ennis, fred@page6.pinetree.org [Moderator's Note: When the City of Chicago switched to centrex service in the middle 1960's, getting rid of the old City Hall cord switchboard and RANdolph 6-8000 after a half century, they upgraded the Police Department switchboard as well, getting rid of WABash 2-4747. In its place, the new centrex exchange was 312-744 for all city departments including police. Trouble is, 744 was deliberatly picked by someone at IBT who was in sympathy with the 1960's as we used to say ... 744 spells PIG, as the police were often called in those days of rage. No one bothered to notice it for a few years except the joker at IBT who selected it and a few insiders. Finally though the word began getting around: under the new phone system (centrex), to speak with any specific officer, one simply dialed PIG and his four digit extension. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: BBOERNER@novell.com (Brendan B. Boerner) Subject: Re: The Modem Tax Scare ... Again Organization: Novell, Inc. --Austin Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 19:35:06 GMT In article whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) writes: > [Moderator's Note: Thanks for the tipoff Bill, but it is going around > on Usenet ... what do you expect? In fact, that very same > article, word for word, appeared on Usenet several months ago; someone > else sent it here saying 'stop it before it multiplies'; we chatted > about it here for a couple weeks; everyone went 'tsk tsk, that rumor > is going around again ...' and that was that. So now it is back again. > In another six or nine months (once the current flame war over it > stops) it will be back again. That is the nature of Usenet and its > denizens: for goodness sake, never read an FAQ first, never research > old news items; don't even read the answers posted yesterday ... just > post your article while patting yourself on the back realizing how > brilliant you are. If you know the magic incantation needed to make > the 'modem tax' myth go away, for goodness sakes go to the groups in > question and utter it, but I doubt it will matter. PAT] OK, OK, normally I'm not _too_ paranoid or willing to tolerate conspiracy theories :-) but what would prevent this item from resurfacing every six months or so for a couple of years and then the FCC or whomever really does decide to enact it, on the theory that everyone will assume it's the same old urban legend and not pay any attention to it? Curious, Brendan B. Boerner Phone: 512/346-8380 MHS: bboerner@novell Internet: bboerner@novell.com \ Please use either if replying or Brendan_Boerner@novell.com / by mail exterior to Novell. Disclaimer: My views are my own, not Novell's. They pay me to write code, not speak for them. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 05:29:41 PST From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: The Modem Tax Scare ... Again In 727, Bill Sohl < whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com> writes,: > Since this claim is an almost annual event and is usually pure myth, > Proposed FCC rules are usually identified as Docket numbers (eg. > 81-216), NOIs (Notice of Inquiry), NOPRs, Notice of proposed rule > making), etc. > So, my challenge to all is this: Before we again see the flood of > letters to the FCC, would someone please VALIDATE any of the claims > relative to the, probably again fictitious, modem tax. And, from my > perspective, if no one can produce a copy of any definitive FCC > documentation to substantiate the claim, then let's treat it as just > another reappearance of the myth.<< It`s no myth, though mis-informed and perhaps over-stated. The tax being referred to is not a tax per se`, but is an outgrowth of proposals in dockets 87-215 and 89-79. 87-215, as you may know, this proposal caused quite a stir in the modem community since both proposals contained rules that would have wiped out packet switchers, such as PCP, and Compu-bux, Prodigy, and so on, by raising the costs of access to unrealistic levels. I`m not sure, but would suggest that it`s logical that the P-4 designation is a sub-section of the latter of these two proposals. The concepts in those proposals, IMHO, /are/ worth opposing. At the same time it would seem that there is some mis-information floating about, which does not help the cause. I`ve seen notes from FCC watchers that suggest that the commission considers this proposal to be the foundation for much of their current work ... in spite of the fact that so much opposition was raised to the idea, way back in late 1987 right through to today. I should point out, in fairness, that the text you`ve posted, matches, byte for byte, what was posted on my system a couple years ago. At the same time, let`s be fair to the folks reposting this from system to system, and list to list: Given the current administration, I doubt many people find it hard to believe rumors of yet another tax. Regards, /E [Moderator's Note: Not only has that message appeared on many various BBSs and elsewhere, I think by now it has even been reprinted more often than that chain letter 'sent to you for good luck' which it is claimed has been around the world seven times. Maybe we could start calling it the 'Modem Tax Chain Letter Which is Being Sent to You For Good Luck by the Missionaries at Compuserve". PAT] ------------------------------ From: cs_pelliccio@devel.adis.brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: AT&T 2000 Public Phone Date: 1 Nov 1993 15:47:48 GMT Organization: Brown University Alumni & Development Office In article , Greg Abbott wrote: > While on a recent business trip, I attempted to use an AT&T 2000 > Public Phone (the model with a keyboard attached). I was unable to > get it operate, but didn't have a whole lot of time to read all of the > instructions. I was attempting to use my AT&T Corporate Calling Card > and the CRT on the phone kept telling me something like "Service > unavailable ... please try again later". I got this reponse on all > three attempts. I didn't really need to use it, but being a > techno-buff, I decided it would be fun to play with. > Does anyone know if I was doing something wrong? Does it work with a > calling card or does it have to be billed to a "real" credit card? > [Moderator's Note: You were probably not doing anything wrong. That > style phone had to be temporarily (maybe permanently?) suspended when > one of the other carriers (I think it was MCI) had a hissy fit and > said if they could not have it also, then no one could. They got a > court order to force AT&T to quit offering the service; that litiga- > tion is pending in the courts. PAT] Figures. As far as I'm concerned MCI should be banned from doing business in the United States. Hey, if they want public terminals let THEM put them in. AT&T has no obligation to share their equipment with a bozo carrier like MCI. We see the same thing in Amateur Radio. The American Radio Relay League offered to administer the re-started club callsign database. The W5YI group yelled and screamed to the FCC about it so now there will be no re-start. Bunch of crybabies if you ask me. Make me want to send my W5YI accreditation back to them with about 400 pages of nastygram attached, postage due. Tony Pelliccio cs_pelliccio@devel.adis.brown.edu Brown University Alumni & Development Computing Services Box 1908 Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-1880 ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 17:27:19 GMT In article Jonathan Rosenberg writes: > But, that won't work for me since I'm dialing via my portable's modem. > Does anyone know of a way around this? E.g., is there, in fact, a way > to avoid the human operator? Or is there a way have a call start with > a human operator and then plug into my modem? Any ideas? > [Moderator's Note: Set your modem to dial a null string; have it just > dial the ATDT part with nothing following. One additional note: you will likely have to use the string ATX0DT so that the modem will not look for dialtone. I'm sure some modems will recognize carrier even if they never heard dialtone, but most will be stubborn and will sit waiting for the dialtone unless you tell them (via X0) to not look for it. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: AT&T System 75 Switch to NT Meridium 1 Organization: XeniTec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1993 11:34:22 GMT In article , Tim Kramer wrote: > I'm currently using vectoring on an AT&T System 75 which I know NT has > used for years. I just don't see any major advantage of getting rid > of everything including the phones for a change. I know NT is great > stuff so I know that I'm missing some specs somewhere. What are the > biggest reasons for switching over from an AT&T System 75 to a > Northern Telecom Meridium 1? Any small switch gurus out there that > can help? It's actually Meridian 1. I was surprised to see you statement about call vectoring. I have extensive experience with the SL-1/Meridian 1 PBX line but only a "what I've read" knowledge of AT&T's PBX products. However from what I've seen "Call Vectoring" is the single biggest feature their switches provide which the Meridian 1 does not. The Meridian 1 supports both SCR and MCR type DN appearances. A normal DN (Directory Number) appearance would be an SCR (Single Call Ring) type. The same DN could be provisioned on another set, also as an SCR, to allow someone else to answer this DN. When either set was using the DN the other would show it as in use and a subsequent call would receive busy treatment. If both sets had been given MCR (Multiple Call Ring) type DN appearances then the DN remains available as long as one of the appearances is idle. So if a call rang the DN it would ring both sets but once it was answered by one the DN of the other would show idle and another call would still ring in to this other appearance. The Meridian 1 does not allow mixing of SCR/MCR types on the same DN. The AT&T switches have the same basic ability but they do allow mixing of types. Imagine a group of customer support stations, each having two sets in a workstation. A common DN is used to direct calls to the group. Each set has an appearance of the DN, once a user answers a call the DN is idle on the other workstation's sets. The other set at the workstation is busy though because it has been grouped with the other set. The user might put the call on hold and take it at the other set. Other workstations have no appearance of the call. This I understand to be "Call Vectoring" in it's more complicated form. I guess the simple "MCR" feature of the Meridian 1 might qualify as well. [ If an AT&T expert out there sees glaring innacuracies in these statements please do publicly correct me. I hate being misinformed :) ] Vance Shipley, vances@xenitec.on.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 Nov 93 01:18 GMT From: Jeff Garber <0005075968@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Sprint Modem Offer In article , cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler) writes: >I switched over EIGHT (count 'em EIGHT) lines with a promise of EIGHT modems of that variety. Yet more inconsistencies. I have two lines (the second one was already on Sprint). When I called to switch my first line so I could get a modem, the rep put me on hold to check if I could get two since I have two lines that will both be on Sprint (her suggestion, not mine). The answer she came back with was "Sorry, they said only one per household. I tried." I learned that if you don't say DVORAK, no one knows about this offer. I had to call twice, because the first time I didn't remember the name of the offer, and the rep was unable to find information about any modem offer. After going back over the thread here, I called back and asked about the offer by name, and the (different) rep knew exactly what I was talking about. It has been mentioned here that the offer was over Oct. 1. What about those of us who called after that and were promised modems? Will we receive them since they were promised to us? Has anyone received their modem from Sprint yet? I signed up for this a couple weeks ago, and my phone still hasn't been switched over (per 700-555-4141), so I used the FonCard they sent me to call an interLATA friend and "activate" my account for the modem to be sent. I guess I shouldn't hold my breath ... Jeff Garber ------------------------------ From: trebor@foretune.co.jp (Robert J Woodhead) Subject: Re: AT&T Public Phone 2000 Organization: Foretune Co., Ltd. Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 13:56:24 GMT jeff@nsipo.nasa.gov writes: > Does anyone know the latest on the situation with AT&T's Public Phone > 2000 with reference to using it as a terminal? Everytime I go to the > airport, I try it to see if it's been turned back on yet. Plug your portable PC into the modem jack. Lift receiver. Let it read your card. Have PC dial. When screen says so, put receiver down. Voila. Modem and Faxmodem calls, billed to your card. You can also manually dial the number too. The only thing that doesn't work is the silly keyboard. Robert J. Woodhead, Biar Games / AnimEigo, Incs. trebor@forEtune.co.jp AnimEigo US Office Email (for general questions): 72447.37@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: ARTHUR%MPA15C@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 02 NOV 93 09:51 Subject: Re: Laguna Fires Pat, I wonder if the porcine blathering of one Robert L. McMillin blaming the dreaded "liberals" for the Laguna Beach firestorm was so preposterous as to not merit inclusion in the Digest. We see so much of this neo-Fascist attitude here in Orange County; folks like Mr. McMillin still can't accept that the beloved bible-thumping war-mongering president was so roundly defenestrated. Mr. McMillin can certainly point to narrow streets and non-aggressive brush clearing policies in Laguna Beach as major contributory factors in the tragedy, but I'm hard pressed to accept that being liberal (which around here means any non-extreme conservative view) was relevant. Laguna Beach has a high gay population. Go ahead and tell us that the fires were god's wrath on the gays, Mr. McMillin. Oink, Oink. Arthur L. Shapiro ARTHUR%MPA15C@MPA15AB.MV-OC.UNISYS.COM Software Engineering Unisys Corporation Speaking as a civilian, rather than for Mission Viejo, CA Unisys, unless this box is checked: [ ] [Moderator's Note: Sorry, Mr. Shapiro, this is the first I have heard anything about the population demographics in that area. I don't know if Mr. McMillan is aware of what you claim or not, but knowing what little I do about him, I suspect he is laughing hysterically at your comments as he reads them. I doubt the private sex lives of the citizens there concern him at all. As I said, this is the first I've heard of it myself. I suspect McMillian's crime against nature is being libertarian in his philosophy. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Car Phones and Accidents? From: Stefan Zingg Date: Mon, 01 Nov 93 19:38:15 +0100 In article , Peter M. Weiss writes: > Does any one have any definitive statistics of the use of car > (cellular) phones and traffic accidents? If you caused an accident, would you tell the police: "I didn't see the [red light/other car/old lady/young man/whatever] because I was concentrating on my phone"? So I think both answers are "no". Stefan Internet: (preferred), UUCP-net: ...gator!ixgch!stefan!stefan Voicenet: +41 61 - 261 28 90 Papernet: Stefan Zingg, St.Johanns-Vorstadt 19, 4056 Basel, Switzerland ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Nov 93 15:15 GMT From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Problems With CNID In an article in TELECOM DIGEST lunatix!chelf@ms.uky.edu writes: > A friend of mine has been having trouble with Caller ID. Since he > doesn't have access to a computer, I'm posting this for him. > Occasionally, he'll get a call from an irate GTE customer saying that > he just called them (either via the Caller ID box, or *69). Trouble > is, no one at my friend's apartment make any phone calls prior to > these incidents. Both of us have noticed that the phone's (a > Panasonic Easa-Phone) in-use light lights up for no reason sometimes. > However, the angry callers don't always call after the light is on. I'm in NYC and I had a similar problem, for no reason I would get strange messages on my machine and the occasional odd phone call when I was around to pick up. I disconnected my cordless phone, but that was not the problem. When I used the ANAC number (In NYC its 958- there must be a FAQ listing them) to check my number (it is ANAC right- Automatic Number Anouncement C-what?) it read back my telephone numbers, sometimes a different telephone number, and sometimes BOTH numbers at once. I tried to dial repair from that line, the call went out on the two cross-connected lines at once, and I had two repair people pick up at _exactly_ the same time with the same greeting. I called back (I didn't want to talk to two repair people at once, although it might have been interesting to see how they handled it), gave them my number and the crossed number and they cleared the problem. The problem was in the CO switching system somewhere- it was NOT a wiring error in my building. Maybe you have a similar problem? If it ls a crossed line (either locally or in the CO) I would think you could find out by repeatedly dialing the problem number from the problem line, if it's crossed to another line you won't get a busy every time (the same with using ANAC). Do it maybe 10 or 15 times though, my problem seemed to be semi-intermittent. Hope this helps! Christopher Zguris CZGURIS@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: hhallika@tuba.aix.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Re: Time Change Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1993 20:23:48 GMT In article TELECOM Moderator writes: > Don't forget, Saturday night is when we set our clocks back one > hour in the USA. Officially, the magic hour is 2 AM Sunday morning, > when it will become 1 AM all over again. For a good time, try > calling 202-653-1800 at 1:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time and listen > for the full minute allowed. You'll note after 1:59:50 it becomes > 1:00:00 again without missing a beat on the master clock. Somewhere I read that at 2:00 am Sunday morning, all the Amtrak trains stopped for an hour to allow the clocks to catch up with the trains. I wonder, though, what do they do in the spring? Harold [Moderator's Note: What they do in the spring is they try hard to catch up the loss by running the trains faster. I know I did the very same thing Sunday morning: I stopped what I was doing for one hour and waited for the clock to catch up with me. I was asleep at the time by the way, so I woke up, sat there on the edge of my bed and waited until the clock was accurate again, then went back to sleep. That's the way all right-thinking Barney of the Orange Card Moderators did it. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #733 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25028; 3 Nov 93 15:41 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11723 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for butler@adc.com); Wed, 3 Nov 1993 03:33:08 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29223 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 3 Nov 1993 03:32:39 -0600 Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1993 03:32:39 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311030932.AA29223@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #734 TELECOM Digest Wed, 3 Nov 93 03:32:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 734 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Fire Update (Steve Lichter) Fires at Will (Jeff Sicherman) Book Review: "Globalization, Technology and Competition" (Rob Slade) Telecom-Tech Mailing List (Tom Ace) Canadian Internet Resources (Rick Broadhead) LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Thaddeus H. Wood) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 2 Nov 93 16:16:42-0500 From: Steven Lichter Subject: Fire Update [Moderator's Note: This was written *before* Malibu ...and was delayed in transmission due to Steve's difficult work assignment at present. My thanks also go to the person at GTE who is faxing me updates; but Steve's account below seems to be quite detailed. We'll have to wait until later to hear what the scoop is on Malibu. PAT] Posted: Mon, Nov 1, 1993 3:53 PM PST Msg: NGJD-5641-2522 From: M.AMADOR To: GTCA, GTEL, CRISIS.COMM, R.J.PALMER, T.EDWARDS, P.MINER, L.NIGG, M.FOSTER, D.FIASCO, T.WHITE, M.ESSTMAN, T.ZIEGLER Subj: FIRE UPDATE - GTE CALIFORNIA The following is another in a series of updates that relate to the catastrophic fires in Southern California: STATUS AS OF 9:00 AM PST - NOVEMBER 1, 1993 I. CUSTOMER FACILITY IMPACTS: A. NETWORK SERVICES INLAND VALLEYS DIVISION The network has been fully restored. There are no outages. The Ortega fire area assessment has been completed. There is no GTE facility damage in that area. CENTRAL VALLEYS DIVISION The network has been fully restored. There are no outages. OCEAN VALLEYS DIVISION The network is fully restored. B. NETWORK PROVISIONING INLAND VALLEYS DIVISION There are no reported problems in this division. CENTRAL VALLEYS DIVISION Division personnel worked over the weekend to restore customer services in those areas impacted by the fire. Laguna is comprised of several small community divisions. In those divisions, the customers that are out of service are not the entire community; but spotty. 373 homes were destroyed. 91 customers have been returned to service. Total restoration for customers in this area requesting service and requiring outside plant repair or replacement will be completed on 11/4 Customer impact: Approximately 100 OCEAN VALLEYS DIVISION The areas of Mugu, Sycamore Canyon and Santa Paula have all been fully restored. Laguna Peak is restored and awaiting installation request from the customer. Carlisle Canyon is 40% restored. It will be 70% restored by the end of business November 1. Total restoration will be achieved by Thursday November 4, 1993. Customer impact: 20 - 25 customers Yerba Buena Canyon remains the most difficult area to restore. It is in a mountainous and difficult terrain. Complete restoration will require replacing 60,000 feet of cable and at least 12 utility poles. Crews are working to place poles in hard rock and elevated areas. It is estimated the majority of the customers in that area will be restored within 6 - 7 days. Total restoration may take up to 2 weeks. Customer impact: 200 - 250 customers SUMMARY: The remaining restoration efforts are concentrating on repair and replacement of outside plant. Only 375 of GTE California's customers remain out of service. This figure is down from the 2500 originally requiring restoration efforts. There is no damage to GTE buildings and all critical switching centers are operating. Repair call volumes from customers are at a normal or slightly lower than normal level. II. EMPLOYEE ISSUES Division personnel continue to work to provide service to GTE customers. The Customer Disaster Center established in Laguna Beach has processed over 100 orders and will remain open until Friday November 5, 1993. Ocean Valleys Division will augment the workforce in the restoration of Yerba Buena Canyon once the poles have been properly placed. At that time additional employees will be required. No employees have suffered a loss of their homes as a result of the fires. III. COMMUNITY RESPONSES The coin trailers placed in response to the disaster effort remain in the area and active. They provide free local and long distance calling to victims in the fire areas. Two of the trailers have been moved at the request of the cities either to misuse (in Malibu) by non victims or to improve accessibility. The Division of Ratepayers Advocates has contacted Regulatory to say they appreciated our periodic updates on fire response and restoration at GTE. Public Affairs continues to release internal and external statements to keep GTE activities in the forefront of employees and customers. Over 200 interviews have been given to the media and Public Affairs is in the process of drafting an advertisement to appear in local papers thanking customers and employees during this period. A $75,000 grant from the GTE Foundation has been requested to donate to the Red Cross. It is in the approval process and it is hoped the funds will be available for distribution no later than Wednesday November 3, to capitalize on press opportunities. The next scheduled conference call is on Tuesday November 2, at 9:00 AM PST. At that conference, attendees will receive an initial report on expenditures and determine the need for further calls. All restoration efforts and work completed will be permanent wherever possible. This will minimize duplication of restoration efforts. All charges of labor, material and labor are to be charged to the open ended work orders assigned to this project. Any questions from the field regarding the work order numbers may be called to Valerie Clairmont at 805/372-8106, if you are unable to resolve locally. The Emergency Operating Center is closed for calls; but personnel remain on stand by. Any questions regarding the information in this telemail or the Emergency Operating Center, other than the work orders, may be directed to M. Amador at 805/372-7512. M. AMADOR Administrator - Emergency Preparedness Posted: Mon, Nov 1, 1993 4:01 PM PST Msg: CGJD-5641-2791 From: B.J.BARBER To: gtca, gtel CC: l.higson Subj: Fire Damage Update The following is an all-employee bulletin November 1, 1993 Final fire damage restoration underway Approximately 375 of GTE California's 3.1 million customers statewide were still out of service on Monday morning due to the fires that hit Southern California last week. As of this morning, the GTE network is 100 percent operational. Employees continued to work throughout the weekend to restore service to customers. In the Laguna Beach area, more than 100 customers used the GTE service center set up at the Laguna Beach central office. Cellular phones were lent to 10 Laguna customers and a coin trailer was moved to the Laguna Beach City Hall. A total of 373 customer homes were destroyed in Laguna but work will be completed by Thursday to restore an additional 100 customer lines that were out of service due to the fire. In the Thousand Oaks fire, employees are working to restore more than 20 customer lines that were damaged by the fire in Carlisle Canyon. Most customers there will be back in service today. Complete restoration is expected by Thursday. In the Yerba Buena fire, employees are replacing a 60,000 foot cable, which includes stringing cable over canyons and an extensive amount of hand digging. Telephone service for 250 customers who were affected in that area will be restored in the next six to 14 days. "We are very service conscious and it is times like this when the real GTE comes out," said Mike Crawford, Vice President General Manager for GTE West Area. There were no employee injuries and no damage to employee homes reported from the fires. GTE has waived payment of the basic monthly phone rate for 90 days for Californians displaced by the fires. We also are offering fire victims free local and toll calling from coin phone trailers located in Malibu and Laguna Beach. AT&T, MCI and Sprint are providing free long-distance service from those phones, excluding international calls. GTE also is providing customers with free remote call forwarding, so they can be called on their usual phone number, which can be transferred to another location within GTE or Pacific Bell. Customers would pay only toll costs for this service. Or, displaced customers within GTE can use Personal Secretary at no charge. After 90 days, they would pay their basic phone rate, but could receive remote call forwarding or Personal Secretary free of charge until October 1994. To facilitate communications among firefighters, GTE has provided mobile cellular phones to fire departments in Ventura County and Laguna Beach. Additionally, GTE has provided phone lines to the Ventura County Sheriff's Dept., and for the emergency services command centers in Laguna Beach, Malibu, Thousand Oaks and Hemet. The company also installed a portable microwave facility to serve the Laguna Beach Police Dept. and is continuing to work with emergency agencies to provide communications capabilities. I sure hope you got this. Things are starting to cook here again. The Hemet fire is still going and now there is one in Woodland Hills. Steven Lichter GTECalif COEI [Moderator's Note: Steve's comment 'I sure hope you got this' is due to the fact that the first transmission of this bulletin was lost in transit. Little did he know (or maybe not, maybe experience has already prepared him) that Malibu would become an inferno next. :( PAT] ------------------------------ From: sichermn@csulb.edu (Jeff Sicherman) Subject: Fires at Will Date: 2 Nov 1993 21:28:20 GMT Organization: Cal State Long Beach The latest blaze ... the Calabasas/Topanga/Malibu fire (choose one, it'll be there before long anyway) is heading in the general direction of Saddle Peak, which is -- according to news reports -- a major installation site for PacBell, GTE, and emergency agencies communications (relay) equipment. It might be cellular stuff; they weren't too precise about it. Jeff Sicherman [Moderator's Note: A long time reader of the Digest wrote me Tuesday evening to say he woke up Tuesday with the fire a mile or so away, which I guess would make anyone jump out of bed in a hurry. It was good luck for him though that winds were blowing the fire away from him by that time. Maybe when he sees this he will write to comment on Saddle Peak, what he knows about it, and if it is skipped by the fires or not. What is going on in southern California? I mean, *everyone* knows California has fires every year; it is in the nature of things there. But this past week ... jeeze ... it seems much more extreme than in my past memory. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 2 Nov 93 15:13 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Globalization, Technology and Competition" BKGLBTCH.RVW 980930 Havard Business School Press Soldiers Field Road Boston, MA 02163 617-495-6700 617-495-6117 800-545-7685 617-495-6444 617-495-6334 fax: 617-496-8066 or McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne 300 Water Street Whitby, Ontario L1N 9B6 416-430-5000 416-430-5047 Rita Bisram, Marketing fax: 416-430-5020 or 2600 Tenth St. Berkeley, CA 94710 USA 415-548-2805 800-227-0900 "Globalization, Technology and Competition", Bradley/Hausman/Nolan, U$34.95 The inclusion of "globalization" and "competition" in the title, as well as the imprimatur of the Harvard Business School indicate that this will be other than a technical manual. At the same time, the subtitle does give one hope that there will be some technical material of interest. One should know better by now. When business and technical interests clash, business always wins. "Business" research, along with much of economics, reminds one of the statement about much of educational research: if it isn't blatant nonsense, it's stuff your grandmother knew. As they say in Russia, there is no pravda in Izvetsia, and no izvetsia in Pravda (a pun on the names of the two major papers, the "Truth" and the "News"). This compilation of papers appears to have been taken from a single symposium and made to fit into a book. The heavy preponderance of professors from Harvard and MIT make the work seem quite self-indulgent. The range of companies studied goes from big to big: by the time you are finished you will know more than you ever wanted about the International Stock Exchange, General Electric Information Services, Saturn, Benetton, Wal-Mart and Rosenbluth Travel. In the absence of a preface or foreword, chapter (or paper) one, with the slightly reordered title of "Global Competition and Technology", would seem to fill that role, particularly as it is the only content of part one. However, after an initial laying of some foundations and a seeming introduction to part two, this first paper drifts into a mini-"Megatrend" essay which tries to touch all of the communications, technology and globalization bases without much apparent structure. The technical background is suspect in places, as where the authors applaud the death of standards, suggesting that this will drive the movement to open systems. This indicates a very profound lack of understanding of the necessity of standards for the open systems concept to even exist, and a limiting of the definition of "standard" to "proprietary standards", itself almost an oxymoron. Part two discusses organizational structures. If the aim is to propose any suggested style for "global" organizations, it is only scantily achieved. Malone and Rockart give us some rewording of Naismith's "networking", structure with an organization (as opposed to the hierarchical pyramid of traditional companies) with "adhocracies" and "answer networks". However, they appear to be proposing that such structures already exist within large corporations: their only evidence is a "gee whiz" listing of some information technologies already in use. Some idea of the framework under which a global organizational structure could develop would be helpful. Eccles and Nolan appear to want to give us that. Instead, we get a retreading of the usual "policy vs procedure" model of delegation from management to line workers (under the new phrase "superordinate design"). Tacking an additional title onto an existing acronym (GIS, commonly known as geographic information systems but here used as global information systems), Konsynski and Karimi purport to help us to design worldwide networks. Instead, we have vague business terms being applied to complex networking problems; one admission that networks might be limited by available technologies; and one "case study" which lists applications which are, again, impressive but do not address current major problems. Part three purports to talk about the creation and restructuring of industries. Whether this is supposed to be prescriptive (how to restructure) or descriptive (what new industries *will* look like) is left open. In any case, definitive statements about restructuring are hard to come by. Bradley's article lists some new industries and some restructured companies. But the role of information technology is not directly linked to any changes. The promised examination of the value and cost justification is limited to two paragraphs stating that measurements of return on investment for networks are difficult, seldom done, but should be done. Not very helpful. (In addition it is very difficult, in the paper, to distinguish technical networking from business, political or social "networking".) Hayter's chapter discussing the changes wrought by the introduction of electronic trading to the International Stock Exchange is fascinating but somewhat limited by the lack of specific examples of change to affected companies. The restructuring of a manufacturing industry is examined in the case of a particular company, but the Jaikumar/Upton paper goes to the opposite extreme and fails to give any account of technology in this firm limited not only to one nation, but to a restricted area within Italy. The Hammond article does study one technology area ("point of sale" information) and one industry (retail sales, particularly fashion) and produces the best of the bunch. More detail would have been helpful. One example in the fashion industry cites a six-week response time. That is half a "season" in fashion: it would be interesting to see how to shorten it. Part four is ostensibly aimed at the general manager who needs to respond strategically to the changes of globalization and technology. One would assume, therefore, that this section would be primarily practical. Not so. A paper by Clemons again trying to cover the whole field (and, again, demonstrating a basic misunderstanding of the business aspects of computing by the statement that information technology investments are feasible and not restricted to a single use with a single partner), a presentation of an IBM study on globalization that stresses "balance", and an interesting study of GM's Saturn division which makes almost no mention of technology. The one useful article details the international "expansion" of a travel agency through alliances with "local" firms in other countries and the use of technological assistance which supports and cements the alliance. The final section of the book is entitled, "Competing with Technology". However you wish to interpret that, the three papers have little to do with it. Hausman lists activities of various telecommunications carriers overseas, while the other two articles are two versions of peering into the future. The Marx article is quite "blue sky" in its assessment. The Hald and Konsynski article is more detailed but perhaps no more useful. The technologies it examines are certainly interesting. However, the recent development of a dependable replacement for the century-old gas meter design will likely turn a seven hundred million dollar gas meter supply industry into a twenty-five million dollar industry within three years (and have an even greater impact on gas service.) This may not be as "sexy" as virtual reality, but it will affect business much more over the next five years. The conference that prompted this book may simply have been a bad one. In all likelihood, though, this is a fair representation of current business thinking with regard to technology. Fuzzy. I would recommend that managers with a technical background study this book. My reason is the same reason I would give for studying BASIC. In self defence, it behooves you to know what the brass is being fed, and, what nonsense you might have to deal with. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKGLBTCH.RVW 980930 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 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Nov 93 14:43:26 PST From: crux!tom@hercules.aptix.com (Tom Ace) Subject: Telecom-Tech Mailing List If (like me) you don't have a news feed, you can now read and participate in the discussions in alt.dcom.telecom, as it is now also available by mail as a digest. To quote from the heading of a recent issue: The Telecom-Tech Mailing List is an unmoderated forum for the discussion of the various technical aspects of modern and historical telecommuniations. Major topics include switching, physical means of transmission of analog and digital data, wireless communications, and methods of control and distribution of services. Discussions of legislation and regulation as they directly affect technology are also welcome. Telecom-Tech is bi-directionally gated to the newsgroup alt.dcom.telecom. Please send subscription requests and changes to: TeleTech-Request@zygot.ati.com Please send your articles to: teletech@zygot.ati.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 Nov 93 18:11:47 EST From: Rick Broadhead Subject: Canadian Internet Resources Calling all Canadian Internet users! Rick Broadhead and Jim Carroll are working on an Internet book called the Canadian Internet Handbook. The Canadian Internet Handbook is expected to be the first Internet book with a Canadian perspective. To help us make this book truly Canadian, we are asking Internet users to send us information about Canadian Internet resources. Specifically, we are collecting the following types of information for the book: (1) Internet resources ** where the subject matter pertains to Canada ** (these resources don't have to be located in Canada) e.g. mailing lists, Gopher resources, telnet sites, FTP files, Canadian library catalogs accessible via the Internet (2) Internet resources located in Canada e.g. Gopher servers, IRC sites, telnet sites, FTP sites, archie sites, finger sites, and other Internet services available in Canada (3) Canadian organizations doing interesting work that involves the Internet (4) Canadian organizations that offer courses/seminars on how to use the Internet. Canadian organizations that do Internet training and consulting. (5) Statistics and interesting facts about the Internet in Canada (Canadian Internet trivia) (6) Anecdotes about how people and organizations are using the Internet in Canada. Do you have an interesting story to tell? How has the Internet helped you or your business/organization? We need your help! Here's how to submit information for the book: For items (1) and (2), please complete the enclosed form and return it to HANDBOOK@VM1.YorkU.CA. For items (3), (4), (5), and (6), please send the information directly to HANDBOOK@VM1.YorkU.CA. All contributions are greatly appreciated! Name of Canadian Internet Resource: Brief Description (1-4 sentences): How to Access the Resource (please provide instructions): Thank you for your contribution. For more information about the Canadian Internet Handbook, please contact the authors, as detailed below. Rick Broadhead, FAS, York University | Jim Carroll, J.A. Carroll Consulting Internet: HANDBOOK@VM1.YorkU.CA | Internet: jcarroll@jacc.com Voice: (416) 487-5220 | Voice: (905) 855-2950 ------------------------------ From: pustule@cats.ucsc.edu (Thaddeus H. Wood) Subject: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Date: 2 Nov 1993 05:47:36 GMT Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz Okay. Here's my thought-dilemma. It's my intuitive belief that a file maximally compressed with a non real-time LZW algorithm, such as used in pkZIP or lha, should not be able to be compressed with a real-time algorithm such as v.42bis. This seems logical to me. If anyone can say otherwise, please do. Now, it is also my understanding that when using a 14.4kbs modem, one should be able to send 1440 bytes/second. Taking into consideration 1 start and 1 stop bit per byte. Now, what I want to know is why when I transfer a highly compressed file using a v.32bis and v.42bis modem, I almost always see a throughput of nearly 1650 bytes/second. My mind tells me that this compression ratio should not be possible in a real-time environment on already compressed data. So, my question is what am I not taking into account here, if my suppositions are correct? And if they are correct, then why hasn't anyone implemented a non real-time v.42bis implementation to compress those "uncompressable" LZW compressed files? Should save considerable HD space, no? And, of course, if this message seems totally ludicrous to you, please be forgiving. It's been a long day. Thaddeus H. Wood 715 Washington St. Suite D Santa Cruz, CA 95060 pustule@cats.ucsc.edu -- +1 408.423.8733 -- pustule@gorn.echo.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #734 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa26210; 3 Nov 93 17:51 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23154 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 3 Nov 1993 13:52:49 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA00595 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 3 Nov 1993 13:52:18 -0600 Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1993 13:52:18 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311031952.AA00595@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #735 TELECOM Digest Wed, 3 Nov 93 13:52:15 CST Volume 13 : Issue 735 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Fire Update, 11-2-93 3:04 PM PST (Steve Lichter) Fire Update, 11-2-93 5:34 PM and 6:34 PM PST (Steve Lichter) Fire Update, 11-3-93 1:32 AM (Faxes received by TELECOM Moderator) Re: Fires at Will (Rich Greenberg) Long Distance Provider Access Codes (Alan M. Foonberg) Non-Bell Local Loop (Carl Oppedahl) Great Lakes Long Distance (Bill Leeke) Remote Call Forwarding (Jon Zeeff) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 2 Nov 93 19:49:37-0500 From: /G=COE.PERS/S=J.MOSS/O=GTE/PRMD=GTEMAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com Subject: Fire Update 11-2-93 3:04 PM PST Posted: Tue, Nov 2, 1993 3:04 PM PST Msg: LGJD-5644-4852 From: M.AMADOR To: GTCA, GTEL, CRISIS.COMM, R.J.PALMER, T.EDWARDS, P.MINER, L.NIGG, M.FOSTER, D.FIASCO, T.WHITE, M.ESSTMAN, T.ZIEGLER Subj: FIRE UPDATE - GTE CALIFORNIA This is another in the series of updates on the status of the catastrophic Southland Fires. STATUS AS OF 9:00 AM PST - November 2, 1993 I. CUSTOMER FACILITY IMPACTS: A. NETWORK SERVICES There are no outages or network problems remaining in the impacted areas. B. NETWORK PROVISIONING INLAND VALLEYS DIVISION There are no reports for this Division. They will be excluded from future updates unless the status changes. CENTRAL VALLEYS DIVISION Only 6 known customers remain out of service as of this report. They are in a remote area. Cable providing service was underground but melted. Temporary service will be restored by 10:00 AM PST today. They have been using cellular phones provided by GTE in the interim. Canyon fiber optic and copper cable that was damaged will be replaced by next Saturday. Customers have been advised we are working on the cable. The microwave facility installed on Wednesday has been removed. The coin trailer in front of the Laguna CO will be removed today. The other site will be contacted to establish how long it will remain. Most recent statistics are 393 homes destroyed, 191 with heavy damage and 17 with moderate damage. Laguna is experiencing high winds as the Santa Ana conditions return to the area. Fire Departments are very visible and there appears to be no cause for concern. OCEAN VALLEYS Carlisle Canyon is 70% restored. Total restoration will be completed by late Wednesday or early Thursday. Yerba Buena - Contractors have begun placing cable. 9500' of 100 pair cable required placing. Only 1000' feet remain to be done. Tomorrow splicing and setting of terminals will begin. 11,000' of 600 pair cable is being laid up into the remote areas. They will begin splicing the initial footage tomorrow. The time delay is due to the fact the cable runs for approximately 1 1/2 miles before it encounters any customers in a sub community called Yellow Hill. This area, like Laguna, has several sub communities. Yellow Hill is the first sub community along the 600 pair cable span. Restorations will begin on Thursday. The Deer Creek area requires 18,000' of assorted cable. The pole work here has been completed and inspected. Lashing the poles will begin today and cable will be placed within 2 - 3 days. It is estimated terminals will be cut in and restoration will begin on Thursday in this area. As a reminder, this is a very remote area with steep terrain. Workers are placing poles in hard rock and on or near cliff type edges. Some of the terrain is inaccessible by vehicle and cable and poles must be manually transported to the work site. The most recent statistics for this area are a loss of 66 structures. Customer impact remains 200 - 250 II. EMPLOYEE ISSUES The high winds have returned and are blowing ashes and embers. Visibility is down. Work was delayed this morning as crews were provided with goggles and masks to ensure their safety while working. The fire department is aware we are working in the area and is in communication with the Newbury Park Field Command Site. III. COMMUNITY RESPONSES Arrangements have been made for the First Presbyterian Church to utilize the former service office in Laguna as a storage site. The facility is empty. The utilities have been turned back on and the necessary legal documents signed. No status was provided for the grant from the GTE Foundation. Today the Santa Ana conditions have returned to Southern California. Fire Departments are in a proactive mode. They are patrolling potential hazardous areas and are confident they can handle the situation. As of this morning all of the fires are contained. While Altadena and Thousand Oaks continue to have burn areas, they are included in the contained sites. During the conference call this morning, attendees in the Divisions reviewed how they tracked time and materials during the initial response prior to the establishment of the open ended work orders. The determination was made to discontinue the conference meetings. Divisions will report status daily via telemail to ensure the response effort is completed. The Emergency Operating Center remains closed; but is on stand by until the Santa Ana conditions cease. Any questions regarding the information in this telemail are to be directed to M. Amador at 805/372-7512. M. AMADOR Administrator - Emergency Preparedness Posted: Tue, Nov 2, 1993 3:29 PM PST Msg: AGJD-5644-5527 From: B.J.BARBER To: gtca, gtel CC: l.higson Subj: FIRE BULLETIN 11/02/93 The following is an all-employee bulletin November 2, 1993 Fires continue to burn in Southern California GTE's Emergency Operations Center was reactivated in Thousand Oaks at 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday after two more fires hit the Southern California area this afternoon, charring parts of the Calabasas and Banning/Beaumont areas. In Calabasas, the fire is moving south west toward Malibu. So far, no GTE facilities have been affected, however, the Malibu yard has been evacuated as a precautionary measure. The fire skipped over Saddle Peak, a major microwave site for the Los Angeles area. The fire is moving 12 miles an hour. Several homes have been lost and two injuries have been reported. Evacuation centers have been set up at Calabasas High School, Pacific Palisades High School, Agoura High School and the Malibu Community Center. Schools in the Calabasas, Agoura and surrounding areas have been evacuated. Three arson suspects are being sought for starting the fire. Fire also is raging through the Banning/Beaumont area, heading south west. So far, 3,000 areas have been burned and parts of Highland Springs, Cherry Valley and Beaumont have been evacuated. No GTE facilities have been affected. The concern is with the winds which are due to peak this afternoon. As of this morning, all GTE Laguna Beach customers were back in service. About 200 customers in the Carlisle Canyon and Yerba Buena areas, near Thousand Oaks, are still out of service due to extensive fire-related cable damage which is still being repaired. ------------------ Well, as I took this off our main system the news is showing a Coast Guard Cutter is off the beach at Malibu which has the fire right down to the highway, they don't know if it is to help with evacuation or fighting fire by pumping ocean water on to the fire. We have three offices right in the fire area and I believe I saw one on the news, no reports of any damage but if it keeps coming we may have some major damage. The fire is coming down to the center of Malibu where the civic center and shopping area are. Steven H. Lichter GTECalif COEI ------------------------------ Date: 2 Nov 93 23:46:24-0500 From: /G=COE.PERS/S=J.MOSS/O=GTE/PRMD=GTEMAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com Subject: Fire Update 11-2-93 5:44 PM and 6:34 PM PST Posted: Tue, Nov 2, 1993 5:44 PM PST Msg: NGJD-5644-8102 From: M.AMADOR To: GTCA, GTEL, CRISIS.COMM, R.J.PALMER, T.EDWARDS, P.MINER, L.NIGG, M.FOSTER, D.FIASCO, T.WHITE, M.ESSTMAN, T.ZIEGLER Subj: FIRE UPDATE - GTE CALIFORNIA This is another in the series of updates on the catastrophic fire situation in Southern California. The Conference Status Calls have been reinstated and will occur every four hours or as required. The Emergency Operating Center in Thousand Oaks has been re- activated and will remain operational 24 hours a day until further notice. The telephone number there is 805/372-8400. These updates will be distributed after the conference calls conclude. Mid - morning on Tuesday November 2, 1993 PST, fires erupted in the Calabasas/Topanga area and in the Banning/Beaumont area. Because of the high winds, the fires quickly spread and remain out of control. STATUS AS OF 4:00 PM PST: NETWORK SERVICES OCEAN VALLEYS The Malibu CO is processing calls and is on generator power. The CO has been evacuated except for one technician who is installing the 25 lines requested by LA County EOC. 50% Dynamic Service Control is in effect. A DMS Urban unit serving 384 lines is off line and the status is unknown. We are unable to access the damage. Saddle Peak survived the fire. The fire passed over the peak. The fire, smoke and Halon discharge alarms went of and the unit is on generator power but processing traffic. CENTRAL VALLEYS Incoming calls to Beaumont CO are choked. 2 MUX's out of Banning are on standby power. NETWORK PROVISIONING OCEAN VALLEYS Malibu yard has been evacuated to the Zuma CO. Fire officials have been alerted to the 12,000 gallon underground tank. A command center is being established at Pepperdine University. A coin trailer is in transit from Carlisle Canyon to the college incident command. Employees from Yerba Buena left that area early as the road at PCH and Yerba Buena was closed. They were evacuated as a precautionary measure only. Conference calls attendees agreed a Customer Disaster Center should be established as soon as possible at the yard to assist GTE customers. INLAND VALLEYS All MUX's and RSU's are ok. There is sure to be damage to plant but we are unable to survey the situation this early. II. EMPLOYEE ISSUES: The Central Valleys Division is not impacted by the recent fires but is confronting labor issues associated to using Contract labor to assist in restoration of services in Laguna. Safety is the first consideration of employees working in the impacted areas. III. CUSTOMER ISSUES: Call volumes to service centers remain at normal. GOPAK units and cellular phones have been offered to LA, Ventura and San Bernardino County response agencies. Command centers have been established at Pepperdine Univ. in Malibu, Cabazon in the desert area, and Beaumont Police Department. Coin trailers have been readied and one is in route to the command center at Pepperdine. A Customer Disaster Center will be established at the Malibu Yard as soon as possible. Controls are in place to assist in routing of calls. The network remains very congested. MISCELLANEOUS: The work order process for tracking time and materials associated to the disaster response was reviewed and guideline for establishing new work orders for the new areas provided. Jeff Chodos from supply assured attendees he has made arrangements with out of state contacts and feels sure he can get any supplies required quickly. Susan Clay asked him to research getting a DMS Urban Unit in the event the one in Malibu has been burned. The next Status Conference Call is scheduled for 8:00 PM PDT. An update will be prepared and distributed after the conference conclusion. Any questions regarding the material in this telemail are to be directed to M. Amador in the Emergency Operating Center at 805/372-8400. M. AMADOR Administrator - Emergency Preparedness Posted: Tue, Nov 2, 1993 6:34 PM PST Msg: NGJD-5644-8452 From: M.AMADOR To: GTCA, GTEL, CRISIS.COMM, R.J.PALMER, J.CHODOS Subj: FIRE UPDATE - GTE CALIFORNIA In response to the recent outbreak of fires in Calabases and Banning areas, the EOC has again activated. Updates will be provided as information becomes available. CALABASAS Roads: PCH at Las Posas to Sunset closed. PCH North at McClure Tunnel to 1 mi north of county line closed. Mullholand closed to Decker Canyon. Mullholand at Topanga closed Topanga Canyon Hwy 1 - Local residents only. Kanan Rd is only way out Residents leaving Malibu area can travel PCH southbound only. Malibu Canyon Rd. closed. Sweetwater Mesa Rd. closed Statistics: 6,000 + acres 30-50 homes damaged 1 fatality Evacuation Centers: Calabasas 22855 Mullholand Dr. Pacific Palisades High School Agoura High School Malibu Community Center Notes: Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Zuma switches are running OK. Network Management requested, at 1630 hrs, ATT withhold 25% of incoming traffic. BANNING Roads: Wilson Rd closed Oak Glen Rd. and Wildwood Rd. Cherry Ave offramp closed at I-10 Cherry Valley closed Statistics: Evacuation Centers: New Beaumont High School 100 Westward St. National Guard Armory Nicolette Notes: Beaumont and Banning switches are both running OK. RANCHO BERNARDO (SAN DIEGO COUNTY) No info at this time. Please watch TELEMAIL for updates. Any questions, call the EOC at 805 372-8400 Notes: Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Zuma switches are running OK. Network Management requested, at 1630 hrs, ATT withhold 25% of incoming traffic Evacuation Centers: New Beaumont High School 100 Westward St. National Guard Armory Nicolette Notes: Beaumont and Banning switches are both running OK. RANCHO BERNARDO (SAN DIEGO COUNTY) No info at this time. Please watch TELEMAIL for updates. Any questions, call the EOC at 805 372-8400 --------------------- This will be it for a bit as I have to go out to Banning. Use what you want. Also the death reported in Malibu we are told was false. Steven H. Lichter GTECalif COEI ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Fire Update 11-3-93 1:32 AM Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1993 12:30:00 CST My fax machine has been bringing fire updates from GTE throughout the night whenever new developments occur. Steve has been providing much the same information as I am getting on the fax, but here are some additional details since he was last in contact: Malibu CO is operating on emergency generator. The office is staffed by two persons there to handle emergencies. AT&T has been asked to withhold 25 percent of the traffic. Pacific Palisades is operating normally, but again, inbound LD traffic is being choked off at about 75 percent of what is offered. Topanga CO has been left unattended because of the impossibility of getting employees out of the area should the fire approach it. Saddle Peak remains on backup power and unattended. It is believed there is no damage. The fuel supply is adequate to operate the site for several days unattended if necessary. Contel has contacted GTE and offered personnel and other assistance as needed in the restoration efforts. ---- above notes excerpted from several faxes ---- This series of fires in California has attracted world-wide attention. Tuesday was also an election day in many areas of the USA, and our television coverage here Tuesday was split between election news and the fire. All the stations here had continuous coverage of it all day and well into the night. Some of the fire scenes were just incredible. GTE is responding in a magnificent way to the disaster, and is to be commended for the coordination of their efforts. I am sure when Steve gets someplace where he can connect with the network again, he will have more details for us. The shocker to me was how it was thought the worst was over, only to have Malibu flare up as well. More fire update news as it arrives. :( (unfortunatly ...). PAT ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Fires at Will Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1993 16:04:29 GMT In article by sichermn@csulb.edu (Jeff Sicherman), our Esteemed Moderator noted: > the fires or not. What is going on in southern California? I mean, > *everyone* knows California has fires every year; it is in the > nature of things there. But this past week ... jeeze ... it seems > much more extreme than in my past memory. PAT] Its the worst fires in several years. The last ones of this magnitude were about ten or eleven years ago. And in spite of a voice to the contrary, the factors described by Mr. McMillan are major contributing factors. People don't seem to be able to learn from history ... The latest flareup of the Calabassas/Malibu fire yesterday morning was visible from my office window. (Near LAX). 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 [Moderator's Note: This is not a good time to take sides and discuss the 'conservatives versus the liberals', or Orange County in general versus the citizens of Laguna Beach in particular. My personal belief is that frequently 'liberals' live in the way they wish the world *could be* while 'conservatives' tend to have a more realistic view of the way things *actually are*. I classify myself as the latter on most issues. Messages from a few people this morning were the first knowledge I had that Laguna Beach is mostly a gay community. I guess it isn't the kind of thing which would have occurred to me to ask. We're told the fires thus far have probably been the work of arsonists, and if that is the case, then one's political or sexual orientation could hardly have made any difference. If the fire in LB got as bad as it did due to some (non-sexual) facet in the lifestyle of the citizens there, i.e. how they collect/dispose of leaves, deal with wild brush growing in the mountains, or otherwise attempt to semi-manage nature, then my sympathies go out to them. No one deserves what they have gone through. The notion of 'Gods punishment for gays', as Shapiro accused McMillin of implying is a foolish one, and McMillin did not have that in mind, nor did I when running his article. But this is far from the beaten path; let us talk telecom some more today. PAT] ------------------------------ From: foonberg@aero.org (Alan M. Foonberg) Subject: Long Distance Provider Access Codes Date: 3 Nov 1993 12:25:54 GMT Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA Can someone tell me where I might find a list of the 10-xxx long distance provider access codes? Thanks, Alan Foonberg foonberg@aero.org [Moderator's Note: Sure ... in the Telecom Archives, in the sub-directory dealing with carriers. We have a complete list of 10xxx codes there. If you can do anonymous ftp, do it to lcs.mit.edu, and 'cd telecom-archives'. If not, then use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service. You send a note to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu with lines in the text saying: REPLY yourname@site HELP INDEX END That will get you a help file and index to start you using the service. Review the help file and index, then order the files you want. PAT] ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Non-Bell Local Loop Date: 3 Nov 1993 10:27:10 -0500 Organization: Oppedahl & Larson The October 11, 1993 issue of {Network World} (page 27) talks of MFS Communications, Inc. which has supposedly launched a local and long-distance package for small and midsize businesses in New York City. Supposedly the service offers no-toll local calling and flat-rate long distance at 14 cents per minute. The article does not give contact information for MFS. I wonder if it is a subsidiary of Metropolitan Fiber, the company that is running fiber in competition with New York Telephone? Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 [Moderator's Note: Yes it is; same company, same difference. But 14 cents a minute is not necessarily a bargain for calls. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Bill Leeke) Subject: Great Lakes Long Distance Date: 2 Nov 1993 21:31:41 GMT Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston IL USA I just received a mailing from Great Lakes Long Distance. They promise calls 10% to 21% cheaper than the standard direct dial rate. The funny thing is you don't have to change your long distance carrier. Just use an access code simular to the ATT operator code. (10923) + number. Bill [Note to Pat: Is there any chance we could have lunch next time I'm in Chicago. You sound like an interesting person. I found so few in my time at Northwestern.] "Beaten paths are for beaten men." bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu [Moderator's Note: Anyone who wants to buy me lunch is a friend of mine and will certainly receive my respectful attention for a couple hours! ... call my social secretary to set up the time. Thanks for your note about Great Lakes. I never heard of them. If anyone wants to try it out and report back, please do. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jon@montego.umcc.umich.edu (Jon Zeeff) Subject: Remote Call Forwarding Date: 3 Nov 1993 10:23:08 -0500 Organization: UMCC, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Other than the devices made by: Technel Palmdale, California Phone: 805-722-4679 And LOGOS, 800-442-4887 Are there any other solutions for remote call forwarding where I need to remotely change, on a rapid and frequent basis, where a phone forwards to? The phone company won't do it rapidly and I'm off-site. I'd really like something where I would call, enter a password and phone number, and it would connect me to the entered number. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #735 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05921; 4 Nov 93 15:31 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26393 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 4 Nov 1993 11:35:37 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16673 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 4 Nov 1993 11:35:07 -0600 Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1993 11:35:07 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311041735.AA16673@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #736 TELECOM Digest Thu, 4 Nov 93 11:35:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 736 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Saddle Peak and the Southern California Fires (Michael O'Brien) California Fires (Phillip Dampier) Brush Fires in Southern California (H.A. Kippenhan Jr.) Re: Fires at Will (Mark Boolootian) Re: Fire Update 11-2-93 3:04 PM PST (Carl Moore) Analog Telephone Interfaces For Computers (Joe Picone) External DAA Needed (Ben Burch) Mitsubishi To Make Portable Data Terminal Developed by IBM (Randy Gellens) Call for Participants - Incident Response Tools (Michael S. Hines) Sat Pagers = Modems? (Ken Kopin) AT&T Lock and Key Features (Tim Kramer) Telephone Query System Questions (Kevin Tsuji) Telephone Pioneers Opens up Membership, etc. (Dave Leibold) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: obrien@aero.org (Michael O'Brien) Subject: Saddle Peak and the Southern California fires Date: 3 Nov 1993 23:10:22 GMT Organization: The Aerospace Corporation I am an amateur radio operator. Two or three of the repeaters I use are located on Saddle Peak. So far, all are still in operation. Saddle Peak is not very high, it just happens to be (a tiny bit) higher than the surrounding hills. It's very rugged country but this has tended to attract rather than discourage homeowners, whose rather expensive houses are straggled throughout the surrounding canyons. Getting to the Saddle Peak radio site involves punching a combination into a "gated community" unmanned electric gate, for example, to reach the higher parts of the hill. Saddle Peak itself is bald as an egg, and deliberately so. There is some brush close to one end where a half-completed house stands as monument to the reversal of some semi-famous entertainer's fortunes about a decade ago or so. The rest of the site doesn't have anything flammable anywhere around. For those who have not seen a radio site, it consists of a collection of nearly featureless rectangular buildings about thirty feet on a side, each next to a very high tower that can look like anything from a "traditional" radio tower to what looks like a semi-dismantled crane arm. The buildings are (mostly) windowless, sealed, and climate-controlled. Behind many of the buildings stands a smaller, similarly sealed building, containing an emergency generator. The building housing our main repeater started life as a refrigerated shipping container, so its insulation against (short-term!) external heat is excellent. At least one of the repeaters I use, sends on-air status information whenever it detects that it is running on battery power. Anecdotal information says that our building up there is now running on generator power, but since this is indistinguishable (to the repeater) from main AC power, I have no way of determining the truth of this. If power isn't restored in about three days we'll be in trouble when we run out of fuel. Similar anecdotal information says that an FAA building toward one end of the site did sustain some damage. I have no real information on this either, however. There certainly is a large collection of GTE microwave link horns on that hill. However I don't recall seeing any cellular antennas. The coverage from that hill is too broad for it to make a good cell site, since cells want to restrict their coverage areas. Mike O'Brien, KC6OJW obrien@aero.org [Moderator's Note: A fax sent to me yesterday from the GTE Emergency Command Center said that Saddle Peak had not been damaged in any way. Their concern was only that it would run out of fuel before they are able to get there and replenish the supply or get conventional power restored. PAT] ------------------------------ From: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org (Phillip Dampier) Reply-To: phil@rochgte.fidonet.org Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1993 17:07:59 -0500 Subject: California Fires Coverage of the California fires continues at this time on most Los Angeles stations on a continuous basis. Many of these stations are being transmitted via satellite for CNN and other news media and those with satellite dishes should check Telstar 302, Galaxy 2, and Galaxy 7 for coverage from KCAL, KTTV, and the network affiliates. KTLA is available to subscribers on Spacenet 3, Channel 15 on a continuous basis. KTTV, the Fox affiliate, is found on Telstar 303 on one of several available Fox network transponders. Coverage includes regular updates from telephone companies. Most callers to the stations are reporting that circuits become jammed whenever a fire approaches a particular area. Authorities are pleading with people to stay off the phones. Slow dial tones were reported in Laguna Beach and now in Malibu/Fernwood. Signal Hill, a telecom microwave relay station which may have also helped to distribute cable television across the Southland went up in flames last week. Long distance circuits have not really been jammed, in my experience. My work requires that I contact associates in southern California, some of whom are in fire areas, and when I do have to communicate, I try to send faxes at the moment to keep my usage of facilities to a bare minimum. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1993 14:24:52 CST From: H.A. Kippenhan Jr. Subject: Brush Fires in Southern California Hi P.T.: You asked (a couple of days ago) about the reasons for the large number of fires in Southern California this year. I lived there at one time (Santa Monica) and perhaps I can provide a little insight. It usually quits raining in Southern California somtime in late February or early March. It often won't rain again until late October/early November. In that period of time the brush in the canyons, etc. gets as dry as kindling thats been cut/stored in a dry place. When any sort of spark hits this stuff it goes off like a flashbulb (or a dry Christmas tree). Due to the land values in that area, homes are built on pieces of ground that really shouldn't be used. Houses are up against rock formations, etc. and in close proximity to underbrush. It's a real headache (and lots of work) to cut the brush away; even if you do that, what do you do with it (you can't burn it). Smart homeowners can minimize their risk, but they can't eliminate it. So it gets dry and you have brush fires (it's inevitable). Then some person with the IQ of a sheep decides it will be great sport if he goes out and helps things along by setting a little blaze of his own. It's just a bit worse than usual this year. Best regards, H.A. Kippenhan Jr. Internet: Kippenhan@FNDCD.FNAL.GOV National HEPnet Management HEPnet/NSI DECnet: FNDCD::KIPPENHAN Fermi National Accelerator Lab. BITnet: Kippenhan@FNDCD.BITNET P.O. Box 500 MS: FCC-3E/368 Telephone: (708) 840-8068 Batavia, Illinois 60510 FAX: (708) 840-8463 [Moderator's Note: We get fires in Chicago every day from arsonists. With luck, all they do is burn down the house of their perceived enemy (a competing drug dealer, etc) but sometimes they get out of control. Arsonists belong in prison, and I'd have no objection if the prison caught fire while they were locked in their cell. PAT] ------------------------------ From: booloo@framsparc.ocf.llnl.gov (Mark Boolootian) Subject: Re: Fires at Will Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1993 13:29:46 PST Jeff Sicherman wrote: > The latest blaze ... the Calabasas/Topanga/Malibu fire (choose one, > it'll be there before long anyway) is heading in the general direction > of Saddle Peak, which is -- according to news reports -- a major > installation site for PacBell, GTE, and emergency agencies > communications (relay) equipment. It might be cellular stuff; they > weren't too precise about it. When I was a teenager, I use to drive up to the top of Saddle Peak. There was some old facility up there which I believed (at that time) to be an old military installation. There was an old concrete bunker and a large raised platform which I use to imagine was for some kind of transmitter. I'm sure that area was abandoned back then (this would be around 1975). The view up there was incomparable. On a clear night, you could see the Los Angeles basin, Thousand Oaks, the San Fernando Valley, and you could follow the outline of coast a long, long way south. Up until this week, I had forgotten about the places I used to wander: Tuna Canyon, Saddle Peak, Top of the World. Too bad the reminder had to come in the form of a firestorm. Mark Boolootian booloo@llnl.gov +1 510 423 1948 Disclaimer: booloo speaks for booloo and no other. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Nov 93 15:46:52 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Fire Update 11-2-93 3:04 PM PST I heard a TV news report which also mentioned the Coast Guard. It said the Coast Guard was concerned about people possibly being trapped between the fire and the ocean. [Moderator's Note: Very interesting ... another good analogy to the big fire in Chicago in 1871. On that Monday morning, as the fire was working its way north and east across our town, people who got burned out of their homes went out to Lincoln Park (a big lakefront park here) and stood around out there -- many thousands of them. As strong winds blew smoke, soot and burning embers toward them, they pushed their way out into Lake Michigan and for upwards of an hour or so until the wind changed directions again they stood in the lake, water up to their necks facing east; they just stood there waiting for it to end. One person writing about their memories of the fire later noted that a 12 year old girl stood out there with her pet parakeet in its cage. She held the cage above her head to keep the bird from drowning, but as it turned out, the writer noted, the bird succombed to the acrid smoke in the air anyway. As a heavy rain started to fall Monday night, that brought an end to the great Chicago fire, but 300,000 people who were burned out of their homes that day stayed in Lincoln Park overnight, standing there in the rain, getting what shelter they could. Mayor Mason instructed the aldermen to get on their horses, ride out to Lincoln Park, circu- late among the citizens and let them know what emergency plans the city was making for their welfare, and to hand out what food the city had collected so that 'everyone might have some supper, even as they stand there in the rain ...'. As unhappy as people usually would be about a heavy rain storm while they were out in the park, the rain that Monday night was a welcome sight indeed. I am sure the local historians in Laguna Beach and Malibu will be taking copious notes all this week; your great-granchildren a century from now will be fascinated reading about the fires, just as we who are familiar with Chicago history are extremely indebted to Horace White, Mable McIlvaine and others here in the 1870's who made very detailed notes of our fire which we now reference when studying the tragedy. PAT] ------------------------------ From: picone@copland.csc.ti.com (Joe Picone) Subject: Analog Telephone Interfaces For Computers Reply-To: picone@csc.ti.com Organization: Computer Science Laboratory Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1993 15:15:52 GMT Can somebody suggest a good state-of-the-art telephone interface that can be computer controlled? Our requirements are the following: o Excellent audio quality (there is a lot of bad stuff out there) o Two-wire telephone line I/O (RJ-11 standard telephone jacks) o RS-232 serial line interface for phone handling (we use a UNIX workstation serial port as our software platform) o Line-level audio input/output (we drive these with DATs) o Simple ASCII or Hayes command interface We currently use a Gentner TC-100 (~$700) and a black box (which we built) to transform the TC-100 serial interface to RS-232. We obviously would like to get rid of the black box. I have also recently evaluated a Teltone TC-311 and found the audio quality somewhat inferior to the Gentner. Thanks in advance. Regards, Joe Picone | email: picone@csc.ti.com Texas Instruments | Phone: (214) 995-0392 Central Research Lab | Fax: (214) 995-0304 PO Box 655474, MS 238 | Msg: JP27 Dallas, Texas, USA 75265 | Alias: "The Terminal Man" ------------------------------ From: Ben Burch Subject: External DAA Needed Organization: Motorola, Inc. Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1993 23:05:34 GMT Hello! We are testing a new wireline product, and it is not yet FCC-approved for use with the public switched network. Can anybody provide me with a vendor of external FCC-approved DAAs so that we can Alpha-test this machine without breaking any laws? If you are a vendor of such equipment, or know of one, please e-mail me directly. I will summarize what I learn in a later message. Thank You! "I don't speak for Motorola; They don't speak for me." -Ben Burch | Motorola Wireless Data Group: Ben_Burch@msmail.wes.mot.com | Good PDAs go EVERYWHERE. ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 03 NOV 93 18:10 Subject: Mitsubishi To Make Portable Data Terminal Developed by IBM [Saw this in an internal news round-up:] Mitsubishi will make a portable data terminal developed by IBM to sell in the United States (Agence France-Press International, 11/1/93). The device will be a "next-generation" communications device and will be built in the Japanese company's plant in the state of Georgia. BellSouth will market the terminal under its brand name. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that BellSouth's cellular phone division will market IBM's planned Simon personal digital assistant in its coverage area. Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com| A Series System Software Unisys Corporation [Please forward bounce messages| Mission Viejo, CA to: rgellens@mcimail.com]| Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak only for myself| ------------------------------ From: Michael S. Hines Date: 3 Nov 93 15:17:10 EST Subject: Call for Participants - Incident Response Tools The Incident Response Tools Working Group (IRTWG) of the Forum of Indicent Response and Security Teams (FIRST) has been formed for the purpose of developing a catalogue to assist incident response teams (oftern called Computer Emergency Response Teams or CERTs) in the selection and acquisition of tools for use in incident response tasks. The catalogue will be available in electronic form to anyone who wants a copy. David Cury of the Purdue CERT (PCERT) is charing the group. My name is Mike Hines, also of the PCERT. I am a Senior Internal Auditor for Information Systems at Purdue. I have volunteered to coordinate compilation of a mailing list of potential providers of tools for use in incident response situations. At this point I need two pieces of information from you: (1) An indication if you would like to assist me in compilation of this mailing list. We want to get as broad of coverage as is possible in this task. If you happen to have a source of several addresses, I would like your assistance. This is mostly providing me leads so we achieve as wide of coverage as is possible. I will be creating and maintaining the mailing list here at Purdue. (2) Any and all leads for sources of tools for incident response handling. Areas we are focusing on are: (a) Incident Detection ... tools such as virus scanners, file integrity checkers, auditing systems, and intrusion detection systems ... tools which monitor systems for signs of security violations. (b) Incident Response ... tools such as keystroke monitoring systems, network packet capture, program disassemblers, and source code fingerprinting ... tools which can be used to gather information during an incident. (c) Incident Recovery ... tools such as virus eradicators and file integrity checkers ... tools which can be used to determine the scope of the damage done during an incident and which can help restore the sytem to pre-incident state. (d) Incident Tracking ... tools such as specialized database systems of one sort or another ... tools which can be used to maintain statistics about incidents and archives of know attacks and devenses. For each vendor/publisher/creator of tools in the above categories, please send the following information: Contact Name: Company Name: Street Address: City: State: Zip/Postal Code: Country: E-Mail Address of Contact: Product Name(s): Also if you know of another person who would be a good contact as a source of leads, please send their name and e-mail address along. I will contact them with this message to solicit new leads. Thank you for your assistance. Internet: mshines@ia.purdue.edu Michael S. Hines Bitnet: michaelh@purccvm Internal Auditor-EDP Purdue WIZARD Mail: MSHINES Purdue University GTE Net: (317) 494-5845 1065 Freehafer Hall Disclaimer: My personal opinion only! West Lafayette, IN 47907- 1065 ------------------------------ From: aa377@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ken Kopin) Subject: Sat Pagers = Modems? Date: 04 Nov 1993 09:19:53 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Reply-To: aa377@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ken Kopin) 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? 2. If so, do the pagers cost huge ammounts of money? 3. If not, then I propose the following ... Why not start a low-cost computer service. Build Rs232 receivers to use the Sat frequencies, and continuously broadcast info/messages/ files/whatever at 300 baud, or whatever speed it is. I know it's slow, but leave the computer on at night, gathering data. It'd be cool. You could even have a way of sending messages to the system through Internet or a land line. Ken Kopin *** I Buy KOOL-AID Points *** Internet: AA377@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu 1-499 1/3 cent each. Bitnet: 500-1499 1/2 cent each. AA377%Cleveland.Freenet.edu 1500-? 1 cent each. Disclaimer: I didn't do it. ------------------------------ From: Tim Kramer Date: Thu, 4 Nov 93 07:47:04 -0600 Subject: AT&T Lock and Key Features Has anyone out there used AT&T's Lock and Key boxes? This is a piece of hardware that requires the same "key" to get into the remote maintenance port via a modem. I know how easy it is to hack AT&T's pre-defined profiles and I need another deterrent to keep my system safe. If any hackers are able to get through it can you send other products that you find to be superior ... Thanks! Timothy C. Kramer tkramer@phc.com ------------------------------ From: ktsuji@uhunix3.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Kevin Tsuji) Subject: Telephone Query System Questions Organization: University of Hawaii Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1993 00:11:31 GMT Hello, 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. The college I work for has a student registration system on a VAX/VMS environment, we're looking for a system that is capable of directly or indirectly (preferred, we're trashing this system soon) querying our databases to handle students request for grade and class information. I've seen a system set up by another department using cards from DIALOGIC and software environment called EASE (its an acronmym for something). It's very good and now their expanding it to handle telephone registrations. Unfortunately, its based on the IBM PC -- I would prefer a Macintosh environment. 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. Finally, I need a "How-To" book on this subject. I'm ignorant to the point of embarassment. I need to know what some of the terms mean. Can anyone here suggest a good book? Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1993 03:05:04 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Telephone Pioneers Opens up Membership, etc. [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 25 Oct 93] You too can now be a Telephone Pioneer ... Now everyone can be a Telephone Pioneer. Delegates to the annual meeting of the Telephone Pioneers of America voted in favour of eliminating the years of company service (15 in Bell Canada) requirement for membership. "Pioneering was built on the fellowship, talends and commitment to service of our long-time employees, and that won't change. With this vote, we welcome thousands more to join us in our community endeavours," says Bell Ontario Pioneer rep Chuck Hill. Last year, the 823,000 North American (23,374 in Bell Ontario) member organization set a performance record with 31 million hours (220,487 in Bell Ontario) of volunteer service. Pioneers also raised millions of dollars for community service programs $223 913 in Bell Ontario). Pioneer representatives will be available during lunch hours at most Bell buildings and work centres throughout the week. And Tuesday November 2 has been declared Pioneer Day and reps will be available throughout the day to answer question and sign-up new volunteers. For more information on being a Pioneer volunteer or to find out who your local chapter contact is, call (416) 581.4025 (collect calls will be accepted). "We are hoping to increase our Pioneer base of volunteers to help our communities as never before" says Chuck. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG [Moderator's Note: I strongly commend the Telephone Pioneers to all readers. They are a fine organization of people dedicated to making life better for others. I share their goals and desires. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #736 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11491; 5 Nov 93 4:24 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08697 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 5 Nov 1993 01:24:42 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA23782 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 5 Nov 1993 01:24:11 -0600 Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1993 01:24:11 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311050724.AA23782@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #737 TELECOM Digest Fri, 5 Nov 93 01:24:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 737 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Fire Update 11-4-93 3:28 PM PST (Steven Lichter) Nationwide GTE 800 Outage? (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Saddle Peak and the Southern California Fires (Michael O'Brien) Phone Number Changes in Turkey (Mustafa Soysal) New List: Telecommunications and Information Marketing (David J. Cordeiro) Earthquakes and Telecommunications (David Chessler) Re: Brush Fires in Southern California (R. Kevin Oberman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 4 Nov 93 22:08:17-0500 From: /G=COE.PERS/S=J.MOSS/O=GTE/PRMD=GTEMAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com Subject: Fire Update 11-4-93 3:28 PM PST Posted: Thu, Nov 4, 1993 3:28 PM PST Msg: MGJD-5651-2641 From: M.AMADOR To: GTCA, GTEL, CRISIS.COMM, R.J.PALMER, T.EDWARDS, P.MINER, L.NIGG, M.FOSTER, D.FIASCO, T.WHITE, M.ESSTMAN, T.ZIEGLER Subj: FIRE UPDATE - GTE CALIFORNIA This is an update of the status of the catastrophic fire situation in Southern California over the past 24 hours. STATUS AS OF 2:00 PM PST - November 4, 1993 I. FACILITY IMPACTS: A. NETWORK SERVICES: No traffic controls are in place. Malibu was returned to commercial power at 5:30 PM on November 4, 1993. Microwave and radio crews have been dispatched to Saddle Peak to connect microwave and radio links for service restoration in the worst hit areas. FCC circuits will be provisioned at Saddle Peak today. MCI and AT&T will be provisioned on Friday, November 6, 1993. 1520 lines in Malibu and 170 lines in Pacific Palisades/Topanga remain locked out as a result of a seizure or short on the cables. II. NETWORK PROVISIONING: OCEAN VALLEYS DIVISION Engineering crews are working in the burned areas to identify cable up the canyons from bottom to top and are in the process of procuring microwave dishes. In Malibu on Serra Rd, placing will begin today 11/4 and spicing and restoration will begin on 11/5. Customer impact: 325 customers Inaieaon, placing and splicing have been completed for 95% of the area. Full restoration will be completed on 11/5. Customer impact: 8 customers Yerba Buena Canyon has 65% of the cable placed. The canyon project required supply and replacement of 52,000 feet of cable. Splicing is ongoing with the majority of services to be restored between Saturday 11/6 and Monday 11/8. Laguna Peak is completely restored and FAA services have been installed. A van from Contel has been deployed to the Rambla Pacifica area. This area incurred major damage. Only about one out of every 4 houses remain liveable. Crews are in the field spotting houses still standing that might require service and looking for patterns of the surviving residents to provision the most people quickly with the same provisions. BAY CITIES DIVISIONS Technicians continue to clear ends in the canyons. Old Topanga has two 25 pair cables burned in the middle. Repair should be simple and quick. The lower portion of the canyon and Fernwood have no major damage except to the distribution system. Tuna Canyon has begun restoration with technicians in the field clearing ends. Cable is being cleared and new cable being delivered today. Placing will begin this weekend and restoration in some areas within 2 days and in the remainder within 7 days. 28,000 feet of cable needs replacing and about 20 poles. The bulk of the damage is in Tuna Canyon and at Saddle Peak. Crews are finally gaining access to the areas involved in the fire yesterday. Materials are being order and deliveries begin at noon today 11/4. Restoration will be completed as a reverse build; from the top of the canyon down. CENTRAL DIVISION Division is working with the city to develop transition plans to close the Customer Disaster Order Center in Laguna Beach. II. EMPLOYEE ISSUES: Employees are being identified to staff the Customer Disaster Order Center in Malibu. Some contract employees working in Laguna are being reassigned to Malibu as they are released. III. CUSTOMER ISSUES: The following additional temporary lines have been installed to assist in the response and restoration efforts: - 25 lines at Saddle Peak for the Fire Department - Several lines at the old county building in Malibu for the new Utility Disaster Center. - 8 lines for the Cabazon Fire Department - 16 lines for the State of California - OES - 2 for Topanga Fire Department IV. MISCELLANEOUS: Ocean Valleys will participate in a Multi Utility Order Center to be installed on Cross Creek Rd in Malibu. However, the Division is still opening the Customer Disaster Order Center at the yard on Friday as The Multi Utility Center will not be open until sometime next week. The Governor's office has been quoted as commending GTE for it's efforts. Station KCRW mailed correspondence indicating they were impressed with the responses and service GTE is providing. As of 2:00 PM, November 4, there are coin trailers at the following locations or enroute: Pepperdine University - 2 trailers Yerba Buena Canyon - 1 trailer Newbury Park - 1 trailer Malibu Civic Center - 1 trailer Laguna Beach - 1 trailer Tuna Canyon/Saddle Peak - 1 trailer Topanga/PCH - 1 trailer Santa Monica Yard - 1 trailer waiting deployment The cellular trailer has been positioned in the Rambla Vista area. Updates will continue to be provided as new information becomes available. The Emergency Operating Center in Thousand Oaks has been secured. Any questions regarding the information in this telemail are to be directed to M. Amador at 805/372-7512. M. AMADOR Administrator - Emergency Preparedness --------------------------- This should be the last update since the EOC has shut down, but then it shut down last week and had to open up. The weather has cooled a bit and the winds are from the west and damp. Damage in Hemet and Banning/Cherry Valley are out or under control and we only had outside cable and a fiber cable lost plus a number of Mux's. I can only go by what I have read and heard about the damage in the Malibu fire area other then to say that there was no loss of any of the switches or remotes units other then Mux's. Lots of cable was burned up to say the least and they have set up microwave from Saddle Peak and there is talk about replacing it with fiber and puttiing it underground, but with the area as rugged as it is that will be hard. I had once worked in that area and was a reserve sheriff out of Malibu some 20 years ago. I went through the fire there in 1971 and I can say that the fire then was nothing like this one, but things are a bit dim on that because it was so long ago. Besides it was just after the 71 Sylmar quake which I had just gone through. Back to my regular job I guess at least for now. Steven H. Lichter GTECalif COEI [Moderator's Note: Thanks for sending these updates to us. Actually I have been editing these based on your reports and on what the fax machine has been feeding me; GTE has been most kind to send me direct a number of items relating to the fires which I have incorporated with your stuff. If any further reports reach you or final announcements please send them along. I'll be watching my fax machine for the same thing. Maybe this time it is actually over. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 93 21:06 PST From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Nationwide GTE 800 Outage? My girlfriend called me in the middle of the day today to ask how she could call the 800 number they used at her work for credit card verification. Apparently, she said that she had been told that GTE had a nationwide 800 routing failure! Has anyone else heard of this? Who else has been affected? (FYI, my girlfriend works in Torrance, CA, 310-373.) Robert L. McMillin | Surf City Software | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Dude! ------------------------------ From: obrien@aero.org (Michael O'Brien) Subject: Re: Saddle Peak and the Southern California fires Date: 4 Nov 1993 22:05:26 GMT Organization: The Aerospace Corporation > [Moderator's Note: A fax sent to me yesterday from the GTE Emergency > Command Center said that Saddle Peak had not been damaged in any way. Maybe _their_ site hasn't been damaged but the word is out now that the FAA building at one end of the complex was destroyed. Certainly they seem to be off the air. > Their concern was only that it would run out of fuel before they are > able to get there and replenish the supply or get conventional power > restored. PAT] The major danger to returning homeowners (both current and ex-homeowners!) is from downed power lines. Therefore the news reports show that the power companies have already gone in and set new poles, though wires have not yet been strung. And certainly Saddle Peak is a high-priority item. I have learned that our own building's emergency generator has enough propane to run for at least seven to ten more days, and 3,000 amp-hours of battery backup beyond that, so it looks like we'll continue in uninterrupted service, serving Disaster Communications Service and the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. Good luck to GTE! They're in another building and I don't know how well set they are. Mike O'Brien obrien@aero.org [Moderator's Note: GTE's message to me was they have enough fuel on hand to run several more days, but at the same time it might well be a few days before everything is back to normal there, so they feel it might be a close call. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1993 23:29:31 EDT From: Mustafa Soysal Subject: Phone Number Changes in Turkey I am including a section from the Turkish-FAQ regarding the phone information. Istanbul has only two area codes contrary to the previous post by Serdar Boztas. There used to be three area codes, but the new guide lists only two. Regards, Mustafa Soysal Archive-name: Turkish-FAQ Last Modified: 1993/10/31 03:16:06 Version: 1.16 soc.culture.turkish Frequently Answered Questions (FAQ) List You can send updates to sctfaq@mistik.express.net (Mustafa Soysal) 1993/10/31 03:16:06 -> How can I call TR collect from the US? (800 numbers) (by Metin mgokcen@us.oracle.com and Zafer Latif latifz@sunrise.cse.fau.edu) 1-800-VATANIM (1-800-828-2646) via PTT -> New area codes for dialing to Turkiye. [Maintainer's Note: I would like to express my sincere and special thanks to Mr Orhan GOkCol (UCGOKCOL.TRITU.Bitnet) for going thru the effort of sending me the list of the new codes and changes from TR with fax and postal mail. He made it possible to have detailed information about the area code changes, affected cities, and the changes relating to each city. Thank you!] The area codes for the cities in TR are changing. The current ones will be working until the end of 1993, but it is a good idea to start using them now. Calls to another area code in TR start with a '0', and international calls start with '00'. All phone numbers are being changed to 7 digits. The following is a known list of new area codes and a summary of changes for each city. In changing the phone numbers to 7 digits, a number of digits will be inserted in front of the original phone number explained in the comments part of the table below. City Code Comment Adana 322 KarSIyaka, K.Esat, K.KOprU, TepebaG: insert 3 GazipaSa, AtatUrk, ZiyapaSa, Bul, CemalpaSa: insert 4 Yurt, Yeni Baraj, MahfesIGmaz: insert 2 AdIyaman 416 Numbers starting with 2: insert 23 Numbers starting with 3 and 6: insert 21 Afyon 272 insert 21 AGrI 472 insert 21 Aksaray 382 insert 21 Amasya 358 insert 21 Ankara 312 No Change Antalya 242 Numbers starting with 27,20,41-43,47,58: insert 2 Numbers starting with 21-23,25,26,30,32,34,39,40,44: insert 3 Ardahan 478 Insert 211 Artvin 466 undetermined AydIn 256 Numbers starting with 2,3,4: insert 21 Numbers starting with 5: insert 22 BalIkesir 266 Insert 2 BartIn 378 Numbers starting with 2: insert 21 Numbers starting with 7: insert 22 Batman 488 Insert 21 Bayburt 458 Insert 211 Bilecik 228 Insert 21 BingOl 426 Numbers starting with 27: insert 23 Numbers starting with 3: insert 21 Bitlis 434 Numbers starting with 61-64: insert 21 Numbers starting with 65-67: insert 22 Bolu 374 Insert 21 Burdur 348 Numbers starting with 22-24: insert 21 Numbers starting with 3,4,21,26: insert 23 Bursa 224 Numbers starting with 20-24,33-36,43,46,47,50-55,57: insert 2 Numbers starting with 27-29,60-62,66-68: insert 3 Numbers starting with 41,42: insert 4 canakkale 286 Insert 21 cankIrI 376 Insert 21 corum 364 Numbers starting with 2,3: insert 21 Numbers starting with 4,6: insert 22 Numbers starting with 48: insert 23 Denizli 258 Numbers starting with 61-66,68: insert 2 Numbers starting with 71,73,77: insert 3 DiyarbakIr 412 Insert 2 Edirne 284 Numbers starting with 2-3: insert 21 Numbers starting with 57,58: insert 23 Numbers starting with 5: insert 22 ElazIg 424 Numbers starting with 2,8,51: insert 21 Numbers starting with 4: insert 22 Numbers starting with 3,6,7: insert 23 Numbers starting with 71: insert 24 Erzincan 446 Numbers starting with 2,4: insert 21 Numbers starting with 3: insert 22 Erzurum 442 Numbers starting with 2,8: insert 21 Numbers starting with 3-4: insert 23 Numbers starting with 5-6: insert 31 Numbers starting with 7: insert 32 EskiSehir 222 Numbers starting with 21,27,28,30-34,36,37,39: insert 2 Numbers starting with 20,22-24,35: insert 3 Gaziantep 342 Numbers starting with 20,25,26,30-35,50: insert 2 Numbers starting with 21,23,24,36,38,39: insert 3 Giresun 454 Insert 21 GUmUShane 456 Insert 21 Hatay 326 Insert 21 Hakkari 438 Insert 211 IGdIr 476 Numbers starting with 71-74: insert 21 Numbers starting with 75-77: insert 22 Isparta 246 Numbers starting with 8,20,21: insert 21 Numbers starting with 3,7: insert 22 Numbers starting with 2: insert 23 ICel 324 Numbers starting with 23,31-35,37,38: insert 2 Numbers starting with 20,21,24-26,28,36: insert 3 Istanbul 212 European Side. No Change in numbers. 216 Asian Side. No Change in numbers. Izmir 232 Alsancak area: insert 2 KarSIyaka area: insert 3 Hatay area: insert 4 K.MaraS 344 Numbers starting with 2,4,55-57: insert 21 Numbers starting with 3,50,51: insert 22 Numbers starting with 6,7: insert 23 Karaman 338 Insert 21. Kars 474 Numbers starting with 2: insert 21 Numbers starting with 3: insert 22 Kastamonu 366 Insert 21 Kayseri 352 Numbers starting with 22-25,31-35,40: insert 2 Other numbers: insert 3 KIrIkkale 318 Numbers starting with 2,8: insert 21 Numbers starting with 4: insert 22 Numbers starting with 3: insert 23 Numbers starting with 5: insert 24 Numbers starting with 62-65: insert 25 Numbers starting with 69: insert 26 KIrklareli 288 Numbers starting with 2,4: insert 21 Numbers starting with 7: insert 22 KIrSehir 386 Numbers starting with 26: insert 25 Other numbers: insert 21 Kocaeli 262 Numbers starting with 21,22,24,25,31,64: insert 3 Numbers starting with 23,26,29,39: insert 2 Konya 332 Numbers starting with 33-36,39,41,44,45,47-49: insert 2 Other numbers: insert 3 KUtahya 274 Numbers starting with 2,6: insert 21 Numbers starting with 3-5: insert 22 Malatya 422 Numbers starting with 38: insert 2 Other numbers: insert 3 Manisa 236 Insert 2 Mardin 482 Insert 21 MuGla 252 Insert 21 MuS 436 Insert 21 NevSehir 384 Insert 21 NiGde 388 Numbers starting with 3,20,21: insert 21 Numbers starting with 22-24: insert 23 Ordu 452 Numbers starting with 2,4: insert 21 Numbers starting with 30-33: insert 22 Numbers starting with 34-36: insert 23 Rize 464 Numbers starting with 2,30-32: insert 21 Numbers starting with 33-36: insert 22 Sakarya 264 Insert 2 Samsun 362 Numbers starting with 28,30-34,38,39: insert 2 Numbers starting with 20,31,32,35,37: insert 4 Siirt 484 Numbers starting with 2: insert 21 Numbers starting with 3: insert 22 Sinop 368 Insert 2 Sivas 346 Insert 2 sanlIurfa 414 Numbers starting with 5,6: insert 21 Numbers starting with 2-4: insert 31 sIrnak 486 Insert 21 TekirdaG 282 Insert 2 Tokat 356 Insert 21 Trabzon 462 Numbers Starting with 21,22,25,26: insert 3 Numbers Starting with 23,24,29: insert 2 Tunceli 428 Insert 21 USak 276 Numbers Starting with 2,5: insert 21 Numbers Starting with 3,7: insert 22 Van 432 Numbers Starting with 2,4,6,7: insert 21 Numbers Starting with 3: insert 22 Yozgat 354 Insert 21 Zonguldak 372 Insert 2 Please send updates to sctfaq@mistik.express.net (Mustafa Soysal) soc.culture.turkish Frequently Answered Questions (FAQ) List ------------------------------ From: RITIM Date: Thu, 4 Nov 93 17:27:11 EST Reply-To: Subject: New List: Telecommunications and Information Marketing Technology in the Household*The Future of Cyberspace*The Cable Industry* Telecommunications and Public Policy*Homeshopping*Postmodern Perspectives -- These and many other topics are being discussed on RITIM-L. The Research Institute for Telecommunications and Information Marketing (RITIM) now sponsors an E-Mail list called RITIM-L. Its purpose is to provide a forum for scholars and managers to exchange ideas and experiences in technology and marketing. The list also serves to distribute RITIM working papers to those who are interested. Upon request to the list administrator (RITIM@URIACC.URI.EDU) you will be sent a listing of our publications as well as a brief biography of our researchers. If you would like to join our discussion send the following message to LISTSERV@URIACC.URI.EDU: SUBSCRIBE RITIM-L firstname lastname Sincerely, David J. Cordeiro The Research Institute for Telecommunications and Information Marketing (RITIM) College of Business Administration The University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI 02881-0802 (USA) Tel: 1-401-792-5065 Fax: 1-401-792-4312 E-mail: RITIM@URIACC.URI.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Nov 93 01:35:00 EST From: chessler@cap.gwu.edu (David Chessler) Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications Reply-To: chessler@cap.gwu.edu ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) wrote: > I found the following message in misc.misc, and thought it really > belonged here. If you follow-up to this message, please send a copy of > your message to the original poster, coullet@ecu.unice.fr (Pierre > Coullet). >> From: coullet@ecu.unice.fr (Pierre Coullet) >> Subject: Earthquakes and Telecommunications >> Date: 30 Oct 1993 18:27:02 GMT >> Organization: University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis >> Does someone know about any report relative to the telecommunication >> problems encoutered after an Earthquakes (or any document related to >> this topic as for example the actions needed to prevent >> telecommunication problems or about the infrastructure needed to >> preserve communication after the earthquakes). References to >> newspapers or books and technical documents are welcolmed. Many >> thanks. In approximately 1969 there was a serious earthquake in Santa Barbara, Calif., which damaged several telephone company central offices. In approximately 1972, the _Bell_System_Technical_ _Journal_ (BSTJ) had an article on the earthquake. Among the techniques recommended was bolting a 3.5 cm by 8.5 cm (nominal two inch by four inch, the basic construction timber module in the U.S.) wooden board from wall to wall, and bolting the tops of the equipment racks to the board. There were probably articles in such journals as _Telephony_ and _Telephone_Engineer_and_ _Management_, and perhaps _The_Public_Utilities_ Fortnightly_ as well. These would have been published closer to the date of the actual earthquake. BSTJ should be available in any good engineering library anywhere in the world. The other trade publications may be harder to locate outside the U.S. This is the only U.S. earthquake in the last twenty years that had any significant effect on the telephone system. However, the Alaska Earthquake of 1966 (I believe), flooded several communities with Tsunamis ("Tidal Waves"). This would have had effects upon the telephone system. General research strategy: _The_New_York_Times_Index_ is available in paper format for those years. This will give the exact date of the earthquake, which can be looked up in microfilms of that newspaper, and _The_Los_ _Angeles_Times_. (the L.A. Times is unrelated to the N.Y. Times, and is the major newspaper closest to the earthquake site). Indices of trade publications, such as Telephony are available. Ask a librarian. However, if they are unavailable to you, search copies of the magazines for a year or so after each earthquake, for articles about the quake and what was done. David.Chessler@f459.n109.z1.fidonet.org chessler@cap.gwu.edu chessler@trinitydc.edu ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: Brush Fires in Southern California Date: Thu, 4 Nov 93 18:16:46 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory In article sheep are abused: > So it gets dry and you have brush fires (it's inevitable). Then some > person with the IQ of a sheep decides it will be great sport if he > goes out and helps things along by setting a little blaze of his own. > It's just a bit worse than usual this year. All right. Let's stop this terrible libel on sheep. They may not be really smart (oops, I meant that they may be intellectually challenged), but I've never heard of a sheep that was a pyromaniac. R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: koberman@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #737 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11764; 5 Nov 93 4:49 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30644 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 5 Nov 1993 02:18:51 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA27055 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 5 Nov 1993 02:18:19 -0600 Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1993 02:18:19 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311050818.AA27055@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #738 TELECOM Digest Fri, 5 Nov 93 02:18:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 738 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson CONNECT Nov/Dec '93 (Patricia Snyder-Rayl) No ISDN Despite Big Talk (Carl Oppedahl) The Canadian Internet Handbook (Rick Broadhead) Question About T1 Equipment (Jon Carmichael) Pactel Cellular Wants to Go Digital (Alex Cena) Internet Access From a Rural Exchange [Summary] (Tom Olin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pegasus@cyberspace.org (Patricia Snyder-Rayl) Subject: CONNECT Nov/Dec '93 Organization: GREX Public Access Unix +1 313 761 3000 Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1993 00:50:28 GMT CONNECT Magazine -- Table of Contents Vol. 1, No. 4 November/December 1993 On Sale November 1st! FEATURES White House Connections by David Noack The Clinton Administration has opened connections with the online community in a big way. This article shows how you can get involved in the discussions and often directly contact the White House via the commercial online services, the Internet, Fidonet and compatible networks, and federally-run or organization-sponsored bulletin boards. ONE BBSCON Briefs by Clint Bradford One of the over 100 vendors attending the recent ONE BBSCON convention shares his experiences and observations concerning the show. Sysops Invade Colorado Springs! by Steve Richardson Another ONE BBSCON attendee gives his impressions of the four-day "COMDEX, but for sysops." ONE BBSCON -- Adult Images Conference Focus by Jim Mallory Discussion of adult images online, sysop liabilities, and what constitutes pornography were discussed in detail at one of the 137 educational conference sessions held at ONE BBSCON. This article condenses that discussion, along with a look at what some of the other sessions had to offer. Fighting the Good Fight, A Look at WWIV BBS by Wayne Heyward A review of WWIV BBS, an IBM-based shareware bulletin board package from Wayne Bell. Includes discussion of enhancements to be included in the next release, as well as a focus on networking with WWIV. In the Grove with Ruby Begonia by Del Freeman Digital publishing is at its literary best in the antics and escapades of Ruby Begonia, a fictional character who appears regularly in the electronic magazines Ruby's Pearls and Smoke & Mirrors. This article introduces CONNECT readers to Ms. Begonia and gives some insight into the character's popularity. The Online Reference Shelf by Thomas Pack From encyclopedias and dictionaries to movie reviews and consumer product reports, users of online services have a wealth of reference materials available to them 24 hours a day. This article shows you the most popular reference works available on CompuServe, Prodigy, GEnie, DELPHI and America Online. Is a GUI BBS in Your Future? by Brian Cummings RIP graphics is taking the BBS community by storm, and this article focuses on current RIPscrip support in terminal packages, BBS software, and paint programs from major commercial and shareware developers in the PC and Macintosh markets. The Automatic Internet by Peter Plantec With resources like Hytelnet, the focus of this article, getting around the Internet has never been easier. The author shows you how Hytelnet functions and provides a list of Hytelnet servers you can access if your current Internet provider doesn't offer this resource directly. The FedWorld BBS by Kathleen Creighton Many agencies of the federal government make information publicly available via bulletin board systems, and this article tells you how the FedWorld BBS lets you access these systems easily and efficiently. COLUMNS The Inside Line Editorial Staff Columnist Michael A. Banks takes a look at shareware, unscrupulous shareware distributors, and the Association of Shareware Professional's efforts to protect buyers and programmers. Eye on America Online Your America Online guide, Columnist Julia Wilkinson, takes you on a tour of AOL's Travel & Shopping offerings. Connecting with CompuServe Columnist Jim Ness shows you CompuServe's Electronic Mall, where you can spend money online, and then stops off in the Financial Services area, where you can possibly make money online. Telecomputing the DELPHI Way The stores available in DELPHI's main shopping area are introduced by Columnist Dick Evans, who also points you to other places on DELPHI to search for bargains. GEnie's Treasures Columnist Jim Mallory takes you on a shopping spree through GEnie's online mall, which includes a new German import store carrying German software, toys, books and clocks you'll be cuckoo for. The Internet Gateway Downloading files from the Internet using anonymous FTP is covered step-by-step by Columnist Paul Gilster, who also points you to a couple good sites for graphics on the Internet. Clear To Send (CTS) RIPterm, the freeware RIP terminal package from TeleGrafix Communications, Inc., is reviewed by PC Columnist Victor Volkman. Dial M For Macintosh Macintosh Columnist Ross Scott Rubin shows you the "remote possibilities" offered by AppleTalk Remote Access (ARA) when combined with third-party ARA tools. Staying Connected For About A Pound Palmtop Columnist Marty Mankins discusses "Communicating the Infrared Way" with palmtops from Hewlett-Packard, Sharp, Apple, Casio and Tandy Corp. CONNECT magazine is available at the following magazine outlets: B.Dalton Bookseller, Bookstop, Bookstar, Barnes & Noble, Doubleday, Scribner's, Crown Books, Tower Books, Little Professor, Lichtman's News and Books, Coles Book Stores, CompUSA, Computer City and Software Etc. chains, as well as other chains and independent newsstands, book stores and computer dealers in the U.S. and Canada. Call (313) 973-8825 to find the magazine dealer nearest you who carries CONNECT. CONNECT is a bi-monthly magazine covering the major commercial online services (such as America Online, BIX, CompuServe, DELPHI, GEnie and Prodigy), the Internet, and bulletin board system networks (such as Fidonet, WWIVnet, and GlobalNet). The magazine is platform-independent, with columns focusing on PC-specific (DOS and Windows), Macintosh- oriented, and Palmtop/PDA-related topics. Each issue also contains an editorial column by renowned telecomputing author Michael A. Banks. CONNECT Magazine |(313) 973-8825 | Covering commercial online The Modem User's Resource"|(313) 973-0411 fax | services, Internet and BBS 3487 Braeburn Circle |(313) 973-9137 BBS | networks from a user's Ann Arbor, MI 48108 | 14.4Kbps V.32bis| perspective. ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: No ISDN Despite Big Talk Date: 2 Nov 1993 10:01:56 -0500 Organization: Oppedahl & Larson I sent this letter today. Any comments? Richard A. Jalkut, President New York Telephone 1095 Sixth Avenue New York, NY 10036-6702 November 2, 1993 Dear Mr. Jalkut: In about July of 1993 my new law firm obtained telephone service in Yorktown Heights. The telephone numbers installed were 914-245-3252 and 914-245-2889. Since then I have made inquiry with your business office about getting ISDN service in Yorktown Heights. I have been told that New York Telephone has no ISDN facilities in the central office serving 914-245 and has no plans to install ISDN facilities there. I have also made inquiry and have been told that New York Telephone has no ISDN facilities in the central office serving 212-787 and has no plans to install ISDN facilities there either. Is this true? If New York Telephone does have plans to install ISDN facilities in either of those central offices, this would be most helpful to me as I plan where to locate additional office facilities for my law firm. At present, due to the unavailability of ISDN service in two of the three New York Telephone service areas about which I have made inquiry, I am considering making no further expansion in New York Telephone's service areas but instead am considering expanding in areas outside of New York Telephone's service area. 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. I look forward to your prompt reply. Sincerely, Carl Oppedahl P O Box 1504 New York, NY 10276-1504 Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer) 1992 Commerce Street #309 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412 voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Nov 93 00:20:51 EDT From: Rick Broadhead Subject: The Canadian Internet Handbook Press Release: November 1, 1993 Announcing.... THE CANADIAN INTERNET HANDBOOK The Definitive Guide to the Internet in Canada Toronto - Rick Broadhead and Jim Carroll are pleased to announce that they have signed a contract with Prentice Hall Canada to write a book on the Internet. To be released in early 1994, the Canadian Internet Handbook will be the first book devoted to the Canadian Internet, and the first Internet book aimed at the Canadian market. The Internet has been described by some as the most significant development in human communication since the invention of the printing press, telephone, and television. A vast international computer network that is used by professionals, educators, hobbyists, academics, students, and government officials, the Internet is quickly emerging as the backbone of the global information highway. October 1993 saw almost 15,000 commercial, research, and government networks linked to the Internet, with each network representing hundreds or thousands of individual computer users. There are now more than two million computers on the Internet, and over 137 participating countries. Unlike other Internet books, the Canadian Internet Handbook will focus on Internet resources and Internet Providers in Canada. It will provide guidance to individuals, businesses, and organizations on how they can access and participate in this vital and important global resource. An extensive, province-by-province directory of Canadian Internet Providers will be included in the book. The authors have a great deal of experience with the Internet, and are uniquely situated to summarize information concerning the network. Rick Broadhead, B.B.A., is an MBA student in the Faculty of Administrative Studies at York University in Toronto. Rick is Executive Director of the Toronto Free-Net, a planned community computer network in Metropolitan Toronto that will be connected to the Internet. A pioneer member of the Internet Society, Rick has contributed to the _Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks_ and _The Internet Complete Reference_. Jim Carroll, C.A., is principal and owner of J.A. Carroll Consulting, a Toronto-based firm which assists organizations with telecommunications technology, with a primary focus on electronic mail and on-line information research systems. J.A. Carroll Consulting has been in operation since October, 1990, and since that time has provided consulting services to some of Canada's largest organizations. Also a pioneer member of the Internet Society, Jim is a prolific writer with a regular monthly column on electronic mail in Computing Canada. His articles have also appeared in CA Magazine, The Bottom Line, CMA Magazine, and The Internet Business Journal. Jim is an Associate Editor of a new Canadian-based publication, Information Highways. The authors are accumulating information on useful and significant Internet resources that pertain to Canada (regardless of where they are on the Internet). The authors are also compiling a list of interesting Internet resources that are located on Canadian Internet sites. Interesting anecdotes, statistics, and facts about the Canadian Internet are also being solicited. Contributions, ideas, and suggestions for the book are encouraged. All enquiries about the Canadian Internet Handbook should be directed to the authors, as detailed below: Rick Broadhead Jim Carroll Faculty of Administrative Studies J.A. Carroll Consulting York University, Toronto Internet: jcarroll@jacc.com Internet: HANDBOOK@VM1.YorkU.CA Voice and Fax: (905) 855-2950 Voice: (416) 487-5220 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Question About T1 Equipment From: atrium!cntinuum!jon.carmichael@cs.utexas.edu (Jon Carmichael) Date: 05 Nov 93 00:03:00 GMT Organization: The Continuum PCBoard - South Pasadena, CA - 818-441-2625 Reply-To: atrium!cntinuum!jon.carmichael@cs.utexas.edu (Jon Carmichael) > What are good sources for such equipment? I have some catalogs from > BlackBox and MISCO. I have seen some AT&T boxes lying around in our > computer and PBX rooms. > Hope some kind folks will enlighten me or point out some good > references. I would love to get my hands on any book that demystifies all > the various T1 equipment. It seems to me that you have a business problem you need to solve and you're going about it using the wrong tools. A T1 is a tool, -- it has an application and in my experience I use them as a digitial pipe, where occasionally I'll use the feature of a DSU to break off a 56K chunk or two. -- however as I read your problem, I would say that a T1 is an inappropriate tool for the job. If I were you, I would be prepared to buy dial up lines from your carrier or grow your PBX if you have one and pass those salespeople laptops with 14.4Kbps modems, perhaps your should consider a internal company bulletin board. JONC The Continuum PCBoard -*- @9600+ call 818-441-2625 @2400- call 818-799-9633 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Nov 93 16:20:25 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: Pactel Cellular Wants to go Digital [from a PacTel Cellular press release] Years of testing and review have convinced PacTel Cellular Corp. that its customers will be best served if the conversion to digital technology awaits the commercial introduction of the most advanced digital cellular technology available: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Many cellular carriers are currently choosing between two forms of digital technology -- CDMA and TDMA. After evaluating both technologies, PacTel Cellular chose CDMA because of its belief that the customer benefits it will provide -- including clearer calls, fewer busy signals, greater privacy and fewer dropped calls -- are superior to those of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). CDMA is based on technology developed to provide secure communications for the military. Its wideband channel, advanced receiver technology and sophisticated encoding scheme results in a signal that is highly resistant to interface, restricts eavesdropping and is expected to offer at least ten-times current capacity of analog communications. While other carriers are opting to introduce TDMA equipment this year, PacTel Cellular has decided it is in the best interests of its customers to wait until testing and refinement of the more advanced CDMA is complete before making the switch from analog to digital. "At PacTel Cellular we recognize there are merits to the TDMA technology, but we are not convinced the current offering will provide customers with better service than PacTel's analog technology," said Brian Jones, area vice president and general manager, PacTel Cellular -- Los Angeles. "Our primary goal," he said, "is not to be first to market, but to introduce to our customers an enduring product that offers the highest quality and best meets our customers' needs." PacTel Cellular anticipates that its CDMA digital technology will be in place and ready for customer use early in 1995. Until then, the company believes its advanced analog engineering techniques, including patented PacTel MicroCell service with digital technology, will compete very favorably with the early TDMA equipment being put into use by other carriers. "This is in our tradition of working to offer the highest customer satisfaction," Jones said. According to a customer satisfaction study conducted for PacTel Cellular by J.D. Power and Associates, PacTel is highest in overall customer satisfaction among cellular telephone users. TDMA has incurred delays in coming to market and is being challenged by customers who question its quality. In a recent news release, Ameritech Corp. announced that it is reconsidering its decision to utilize TDMA equipment because consumer testing has revealed customer dissatisfaction with the product. "We encourage our customers to wait for CDMA and the long-term solutions that technology offers. We would not want to see early purchasers stuck with obsolete digital equipment as the owners of Beta format VCRs were when the VHS format became the standard for home videotape recordings," Jones said. PacTel Cellular, PacTel Corp.'s largest wireless subsidiary, has control or shared control over cellular systems in ten of the top 30 U.S. cellular markets: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento, Atlanta, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit, serving more than 832,000 customers. The company also has interests in 34 additional markets. PacTel Corp., based in Walnut Creek, Calif. operates cellular, paging, vehicle location and international wireless ventures in some of the world's top markets including the United States, Japan, Germany, Portugal and Spain. PacTel is a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis Group, a worldwide diversified telecommunications corporation based in San Francisco. Pending regulatory review and the satisfaction of other conditions, Pacific Telesis Group is working to complete the spin-off of its wireless businesses (PacTel Cellular, PacTel Paging, PacTel Teletrac and Pacific Telesis International) in the first half of 1994. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 93 10:15:55 EST From: adiron!tro@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Olin) Subject: Internet Access From a Rural Exchange [Summary] Here's a summary of the responses to my query about Internet access from a small, rural telephone exchange. My original message: > I want to obtain some type of Internet access from my home, which is > located in a small exchange (315-861) that is long distance to just > about every place that's anyplace [including access points to the > major on-line services, such as CompuServe, AOL, etc.] > If I have to pay long distance, I would prefer not to have to pay for > a host account on top of that. And if I'm going to pay for long > distance, I might as well consider sites outside of New York State, > since interstate rates will likely be lower than intrastate rates. > It seems, then, that I need a good discount long-distance plan and a > free, public-access system. The former is pretty much limited to > AT&T, since my local exchange does not yet have equal access dialing. > The latter is open for suggestions. > Other solutions are welcome, as well. I received over two dozen replies. Most of the suggestions listed below were echoed by more than one person. * 800 NUMBER ACCESS From: uunet!cup.portal.com!atfurman ... consider the option of last resort: "800" number access. You can find providers who offer it in the PDIAL and "Forgotten Sites" directories, which are posted from time to time on alt.internet.access.wanted. A typical example of this service is from OARnet in Ohio. It costs $10 or $12/hour prime time (8-6 weekdays) and $8/hour off-prime-time, which is 13 cents a minute, plus a signup fee and/or small monthly charge. Rates up to 14.4 kbits/sec are supported. I thought I saw an announcement on alt.internet.access.wanted of someone who had this for $5/hour off-prime, but I forget who. You will have to check on whether these operators have Usenet and email along with the deal. * CALL FORWARDING One reader suggested installing a phone line in an exchange that is local to both mine and a network access area (e.g., Utica) and using call forwarding on that line to allow me to access the common services. [Such an exchange exists in my case, but I don't believe it has call forwarding yet.] * CNS (CONSUMER NEWS SERVICE) From: uunet!ocnet.cscns.com!kbethke (Kenneth Scott Bethke) I call a system in Utah I think ... called CNS (Consumer News Service) They have an 800 Number to the machine and it tops out at about $8 an hour including system connect time. I opt for AT&T Reach Out America (about $5.90 per hour), and online connect charges are $2/hr. * FREE BBS From: uunet!unix1.sncc.lsu.edu!eevasa (R.M.S. Vasan) If you are willing to pay for the call, there are a bunch of free BBSes (Unix-like if you prefer or gopher or rn based services) around the country. I have used bbs.oit.unc.edu (North Carolina) and nyx.cs.du.edu. Both are free to get a guest account, need to snailmail a form to get posting priviliges. The latter lets you to ftp, mail, even uucp over dial-ups; only 2k or (2M ?) storage limit. Launchpad at unc provides rn or nn access, posting privileges, but no ftp access; all messages have to be downloaded (Kermit works best). * FREENET From: uunet!lanl.gov!rgt (Richard Thomsen) I am in the same position, in a rural area in northern New Mexico. I access the Denver Freenet. It will cost me a long-distance call to get in, but access time is free. You might check for freenet access around your area. You can get the addresses of freenet sites from the following: First -- use anonymous ftp to nptn.org. Pull the several files in the /pub/info.nptn directory. Read them closely, then for more information write to: info@nptn.org * INFOSERVE From: uunet!dlogics!dlm (Dave Mausner) Mail a request for info to postmaster@infoserve.com [no other information provided] * MCIMAIL From: danny burstein What is it? MCIMAIL is an e-mail system with dialup lines. It allows you to send and receive email ACROSS INTERNET for some pretty decent pricing. However, it does not have any sort of telnet/ftp capability. Pricing: This is the part that's quite good. There is a single $35/year registration fee, and then there is a charge for SENDING messages (ranges from $.50 for a thousand characters and another 25 cents or so for each additional K) There is NO CHARGE for RECEIVING, and there is NO CHARGE for CONNECT TIME. And, to dial in, you call a 1-800 number, so that part is free as well. Since it's now connected to Internet, you can get e-mail from individuals, and from any listserv-type GROUP you subscribe to. What you don't get: there is no access to usenet nor to other systems. You have email, but you do not have ftp or telnet. For further info, give them a call at: 1-800-444-MAIL * NET IOWA (IOWA NETWORK SERVICES) From: "S.Rathinam 319-395-8290" Until the end of this year, netIOWA is providing an 800 number access for $1/day (use it or not). I am not sure if this number works outside Iowa. Contact kevin@ins.infonet.net for more info and account. * PC PURSUIT From: uunet!netcom.com!wurton (William L.Urton) One cheap way would be to use Sprintnet's PC-Pursuit (about $30 for 30 off-peak hours/month, $50 for 50 off-peak hours/month) to access a flat rate service like Netcom or Netsys (disclaimer-I have no connection to PC-Pursuit or Netcom other than as a satisfied customer). PC Pursuit's info number is (800) 736-1130. * PDIAL uunet!netcom.com!puma (Gary Breuckman) There's a file called "PDIAL" that lists many public commercial systems, I'll send you a copy separately. [To receive the current edition of the PDIAL, send email containing the phrase "Send PDIAL" to "info-deli-server@netcom.com".] * RABBITNET From: uunet!triple-i.com!jeffw (Jeff Wasilko) Rabbitnet offers access via a toll-free number for less than $5/hour off peak (7p-7a). THey provide interactive access or UUCP accounts. Mail liason@rabbit.net for info. * SPEEDWAY From: uunet!iecc.com!johnl (John R Levine) Sounds like you're a good candidate for Speedway, which offers a reasonable set of Internet services for no charge beyond the toll call. You have to call via AT&T, we assume that since they have a direct connection, AT&T rebates part of the cost of the call to them. You can use any of AT&T's calling plans, some of which are pretty cheap at off hours. [Speedway features unlimited connect time; SLIP, PPP, E-Mail, News; V.32bis modems; and it's all free but for the phone call. For more information, write to support@speedway.net.] Several people suggested various services like PSI, Netcom, Halcyon, and others, which charge a monthly fee. Since I'd have to pay long distance tolls on top of their fees, I'm going to look at the various free or 800-access services first. Thanks to all who responded. Tom Olin PAR Technology Corporation Tel:(315)738-0600 Ext 638 tro@partech.com New Hartford, NY Fax:(315)738-8304 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #738 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa29472; 7 Nov 93 13:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24617 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 7 Nov 1993 10:28:08 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28928 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 7 Nov 1993 10:27:37 -0600 Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 10:27:37 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311071627.AA28928@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #739 TELECOM Digest Sun, 7 Nov 93 10:27:30 CST Volume 13 : Issue 739 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Orange County DACS Outage (Urban Surfer) Dialup by Modem Bank to Ethernet (Scott M. Pfeffer) Fire Update 11-5-93 9:00 AM PST (Pete Tompkins) "Fake Switch" Box or Tester (Karl Bunch) Canada Goes 1+ 10D For All Long Distance, Sept '94 (Dave Leibold) Skokie, IL, and Telephone History (Dave Levenson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1993 13:20:02 PST From: Urban Surfer Subject: Orange County DACS Outage Reply-To: matt@phs.com Organization: Pacificare Health Systems About six weeks ago, I posted in the Digest an account of the DACS outage in Orange County, CA. I received several queries for more information. It seems that a lot of people were disturbed to learn about the potentioal points of failure on a DACS as well as the bug we experienced. I recently took a tour of the affected CO and met with the switch and DACS administrators to ask further questions. At this point, they believe that they have fully addressed all software and procedural issues with the DACS IV. They also stated that the software patches they applied have been propagated throughout the entire Bell network. The following is the public disclosure report sent to the FCC from Pacific Bell. This report was retyped from a fax, so any errors are mine or my secretary's. FINAL SERVICE DISRUPTION REPORT CATEGORY: 50,000+ REPORTING COMPANY: Pacific Bell REPORT CONTACT/TELEPHONE: Eva Low (510) 823-2910 LOCATION OF DISRUPTION: Anaheim, California (ANHMCA#11) 1. DATE AND TIME AND INCIDENT: 9/15/93 0752 HRS. 2. GEOGRAPHIC AREA AFFECTED: The failure of this Digital Crossconnect System (DCS) affected a portion of the city of Anaheim, California. This geographic area is located in the Los Angeles, California LATA 730. 3. ESTIMATED NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS AFFECTED: Potentially, 67,528 customers could have been affected by this failure. This estimate was derived based on the number and type of working circuits on the DCS. 4. TYPES OF SERVICES AFFECTED (e.g., INTEREXCHANGE, LOCAL, CELLULAR, 911 EMERGENCY SERVICES.): All services using the interoffice transport network, into and out of, the Anaheim 11 central office building were affected. This included two local switching entities which were isolated from the interoffice network (intraoffice call was not affected.) Operator and directory assistance services were adversely affected and the Anaheim Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) was without Automatic Location Identification (ALI) during this failure. 5. DURATION OF THE INCIDENT: Date and time of disruption: 9/15/93 at 0752 Date and time of full service restoral: 9/15/93 at 1557 Duration of incident (minutes): 485 6. ESTIMATED NUMBER OF BLOCKED CALLS: Approximately 746,950 calls were blocked during this incident. This estimate is based on data from the switches using the same day and time of the week prior to the incident. 7A. CAUSE OF THE INCIDENT: This service outage was caused by a software defect in the Digital Access Cross-Connect System IV-2000 (DACS IV-2000). The software defect caused information in an area of the database called "Frame Data Page" to become corrupted. This corruption did not have an immediate impact on service. The Frame Data Page contains critical information related to the systems software program identity which is used by the DACS IV-2000 during system recovery. This corruption went undetected and was propagated from active memory to the hard disk and system backup tapes. Prior to the outage, most input commands issued to the DACS IV-2000 were responded to with "Retry Later" (RL) messages. In accordance with standard procedures, a system reset was activated to clear the system of RL responses in order to reestablish communications with the DACS IV-2000. The system design is such that when a system reset is activated, data resident on the hard disk is loaded onto active memory. On this occasion, the aforementioned corrupted Frame Data Page caused the DACS IV-2000 to reinitialize the cross-connect map and drop all active cross connects in the system. A total system outage ensued. Attempts to recover the system by rebooting from system backup tapes failed because the corrupted Frame Data Page also existed on these tapes. AT&T determined that the database corruption resulted from improper software process interactions involving the preemption of a lower priority process by a higher priority process during a very specific small window of time when the program was manipulating internal data pointers. The use of these data pointers by the higher priority process resulted in corruption of the Frame Data Page described above. 7B. NAME AND TYPE OF EQUIPMENT/VENDOR NAME: Name: Digital Access Crossconnect System IV-2000 (DACS IV) Type: Digital Crossconnect System (DCS) Vendor: American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) 7C. SPECIFIC PART OF THE NETWORK INVOLVED (e.g..LOOP SWITCH, INTEROFFICE): This disruption involved the interoffice transport portions of the network. 8. METHOD USED TO RESTORE SERVICE: Standard emergency action recovery procedures were executed by Pacific Bell field personnel under the direction of Pacific Bell Electronic Systems Assistance Center (ESAC), in consultation with AT&T RTAC, TSO, and Bell Laboratories (Bell Labs). Multiple attempts to recover system operation from storage media failed since the corruption was present on the hard drive as well as all backup tapes maintained in the office. A special software debugging tool called "DACSmate: was thereupon attached to the DACS IV-2000. Through the use of DACSmate, AT&T Bell Labs performed an intensive analysis of the database on the backup tape and determined that the extent of the corruption was confined to the Frame Data Page only: the cross-connect map itself maintained integrity. Bell Labs used DACSmate to copy the existent cross-connect map from taped and reloaded the DCS hardware, thereby restoring transmission for customer service, however the system controller remained in an out-of-service state. Subsequently, Bell Labs prepared a "new" database containing both a valid Frame Data page and the cross-connect map information. Standard procedures were used to load this database from tape into the system, and full functionality was restored to the DACS IV-2000. 9. STEPS TAKEN TO PREVENT REOCCURRENCE OF THE OUTAGE: 1. AT&T issued/reissued the following bulletins, called either COACH or Urgent Problem Notification (UPN) Bulletins, as a result of this incident: a) UPN Bulletin 9309171.1 was issued on September 17, 1993, alerting the industry that system resets can result in service interruptions, and hence, are not to be performed as part of normal troubleshooting of main controller problems. The UPN also recommends that the next level of support be contacted because it may be necessary to use special debugging tools to ensure that data corruption is not present. b) UPN Bulletin 9309171.2, issued on October 13, 1993, amends UPN Bulletin 9309171.1. The amended version describes the cause of the data corruption and also identifies the correcting software program releases (see item 2 below). c) COACH Bulletin #050393.2, issued on September 17, 1993, cancels the use of resets (recommended in Bulletin, #050393.1). This issue recommends that the next level of support be contacted and the next level of support be contacted and that special debugging tools may be needed to ensure that data corruption is not present. 2. The correction for the process interaction problem is available in the following software releases: Redundant Controller: 2.3drc (avail 11/7/93) 3.0drc (avail now) 2.3d (avail 10/25/93) Additional defensiveness measures have been developed to have the system automatically validate the database for integrity and to prevent the inadvertent propagation of corrupted data. These changes (tracked via MR CS 93-26601) will be available as follows: Redundant Controller: 2.3drc (avail 11/7/93) 3.01drc(avail now) Simplex Controller: 2.3d (avail 10/25/93) A software patch (overwrite) for MR# CS 93-26601 was developed for Simplex Controller 2.2d and Redundant Controller 2.2drc and is now available. Pacific Bell is planning to deploy Release 2.3 or later in all DACS IV-2000 offices by 1994. Patch application prior to this will be determined on a site-by-site basis. 3. Pacific Bell issued an ESAC Flash, 93-010F prohibiting the use of system resets without ESAC involvement. Moreover, ESAC will use DACSmate to verify that the database is not corrupted prior to initiating a reset. Deployment of additional defensive measures (2.2 patch, Release 2.3 and 3.0.2 software) provides this data validation internal to the DACS IV-2000 software. (See also item 2 and 4 in this section). 4. The DACSmate software debugging tool currently does not have remote access capability; however, enhancements for remote access via an x.25 wide area network are under development. This remote capability requires development of a companion called DACSlink, which AT&T will be jointly testing with Pacific Bell in December 1993. Pending successful completion of testing, Pacific Bell will implement DACSlink in all of its DACS IV-2000 offices during 1994. On October 8, 1993, AT&T provided Pacific Bell with additional portable DACSmate units, pending the deployment of DACSlink. Matt Holdrege matt@phs.com MH235 ------------------------------ From: sp9183@swuts.sbc.com (Scott M. Pfeffer) Subject: Dialup by Modem Bank to Ethernet Date: 6 Nov 93 18:44:05 GMT Organization: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company Dialup to modem bank. Investigating options such as Trailblazer series, etc. Need information on availability, pricing, recommendations, caveats, or experiences with implementing dialup to a host which can route TCP/IP traffic across modems. Nice picture: -------- | OFC/ | _____ _______ | HOME | | | /| | | CPTR |---|Modem|---SWITCHED TELCO----| Modem | | | |_____| \| Pool | -------- |_______| ||||||| --------- ________ \_____/ | Network\ _________ | Linkup | || | of |=====|Sun SPARC| <======| Device |======>// | Suns / |_________| |________| --------- Specifically, I am looking for information on the following pieces: 1. The Modem Pool. (What vendors, advice...) 2. The Linkup Device between the modem pool and the Sun (can be PC bridge, or an interface card in the Sun for the modem pool device, or anything else...) (Trailblazer?). 3. I have no questions about the the OFC/Home cptr, the Modem attached to the home computer, or the network of suns. Those details have already been worked out... Requirements: 1. Support 2400, 9600 baud. Autobaud detection would be nice. Initially 8 or 16 modems at least. Must be easily expandable. 2. Support compression, error control, but allow non-compression and/or non-error-control modems at the OFC/HOME to work (through automatic negotiation). 3. Total transparency between Sun and OFC/HOME CPTR. That is, once connected, ALL data from OFC to Sun will be delivered untouched, and from Sun to OFC, too. This means the linkup device as well as the modem pool device must not interfere or attempt to interpret the data coming across once the connection is established. 4. Cost reduction information valuable... Why: 1. Have client application on OFC/HOME computers that I want to talk to a server application on the Sun SPARC via DIALUP. 2. Client talks TCP over phone line using SLIP/PPP for serial IP. Thanks in advance. Please reply to: Scott Pfeffer sp9183@swuts.sbc.com or call direct: (314) 235-7213 Information Services, Southwestern Bell Telephone 18-N-22, One Bell Center,St. Louis, Missouri 63101 ------------------------------ From: tompkins@pete.tti.com (Tompkins) Subject: Fire Update 11-5-93 9: 00 AM PST Reply-To: tompkins@pete.tti.com (Tompkins) Organization: Transaction Technology, Inc. Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 17:35:30 GMT I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of the telephone service throughout Malibu the last three days. Outbound calls were totally unrestricted at all times; inbound volume was limited intentionally to insure our ability (and more importantly, emergency personnel's ability) to call out as necessary. A number of areas in east Mailbu (310-456 exchange) still get a busy. I suspect cables going to some of the fire areas have been welded together by the fire. Away from phones for a minute: I just drove into work for the first time since Monday. Pacific Coast Highway is open to Malibu residents (acutally, its open to anyone, but none of the canyon accesses are open to non-residents). The scene was one of total devastation -- but it was also a scene of many successes. For ten miles along PCH, the fire burned right up to the Highway where there wasn't a structure. And for that same stretch, it burned up to the back wall of the structures that fronted PCH. La Costa (one of the areas that has gotton a lot of news coverage) looked like a bomb hit it -- but the La Costa houses on PCH are untouched even though they are a mere 50' from their neighbors to the rear, which, in most cases, were destroyed! In Carbon Canyon, the fire raced through in seconds. The residents all assumed their houses were gone -- but the vast majority were missed -- partly the luck of the draw, and partly the hard work of fire fighters, partly aided by the large separation between houses (these are two to ten acre lots). In one case (a close personal friend), the fire fighters apparently cut out a piece of burning roof; broke in through a window to extinguish some burning furniture. They actually went out of their way to cover the other furniture, obviously taking pains to minimize the damage they caused -- they hauled the smoldering furniture a hundred yards down the canyon, and went on to the next house. This is one family who left KNOWING their house was gone and returning to find really minor damage! Further west (PCH DOES run east and west through Malibu, in spite of what the TV newspeople might have you believe!), a ring of burned out brush encircles the Civic Center and also the Malibu Knolls residential area, but nothing was burned (at least as far as you see from the Highway). Anyone who has visited Malibu has probably noticed the castle overlooking the Civic Center. Its walls are singed, as are the walls of many of its neighbors. Hughes Research, Pepperdine and the neighboring residential area, Malibu Country Estates: same stroy -- fire right up to the edge of the buildings. Four houses at Puerco Canyon (a little further west) have burnt brush all the way around them, with no apparant damage! Some hot spots still exist in Corral Canyon on the west flank and also in and around Topanga on the east flank, but there is no further threat to structures. We all thank God for the cool, damp sea breezes that returned to the area Wednesday. I don't want to minimize the devastation and the loss of hundreds of people, but it is obvious that in many areas the skillful and hard work of thousands of fire fighters from all over the western U.S. saved many hundreds more homes. The hearts of all of Malibu goes out to these hard working people. Pete Tompkins ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1993 19:37:02 GMT From: karl@ttank.ttank.com (Karl Bunch) Subject: "Fake Switch" Box or Tester Organization: Think Tank Software, Norwalk, CA 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. I'm extremely ignorant as to how phones even ring. So be very complete in any reply you may make. Please reply by e-mail. Thanks for any help, Karl Bunch UUCP: ..!uunet!cerritos.edu!ttank!karl Think Tank Software INTERNET: karl@ttank.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1993 23:06:58 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Canada Goes 1 + 10D For All Long Distance, Sept '94 [from Bell News, Bell Ontario, 25 Oct 93. Text is Bell Canada's.] Canadian dialing patterns to change in 1994. Get ready for the next big change in dialing patterns. The way callers make long distance calls within their own area code will change for everyone in Canada (and most of North America) on September 4, 1994. Currently, to dial long distance within your own area code, you dial 1 or 0 and then the seven-digit number. Area code 905 is the only exception to this. But population growth, as well as the boom in new technologies such as cellular and fax machines, have used up almost all of the available area codes under the present North American Numbering Plan (NANP). To solve the problem, calling long distance within your own area code will require you to drop in your area code and dial 1 or 0 + area code + xxx-xxxx (just as you do when making long distance calls to other area codes). No change will take place in the way that local calls or long distance calls to other area codes are dialed. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Skokie, IL, and Telephone History Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 17:59:11 GMT In light of our Moderator's recent move from Chicago to Skokie, IL, I thought I'd share a bit of telephone trivia from the mid 1960's. 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. (Now that Pat lives there, the number is probably higher!) 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 [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] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #739 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa29906; 7 Nov 93 14:14 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28121 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 7 Nov 1993 11:02:31 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29439 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 7 Nov 1993 11:02:00 -0600 Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 11:02:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311071702.AA29439@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #740 TELECOM Digest Sun, 7 Nov 93 11:02:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 740 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Motorola PT550 Cellular Phone Info Requested (Ed Greenberg) Preparing my Case Against Sprint (Chris Ambler) Received My Free Sprint Modem Today (Rosella Bartonico) CFP94 Scholarships (John F. McMullen) Recommendations For Programmable Audio Synthesizer Wanted (Brett Delmage) Frame Relay Summary (Michael Lewis) Books, Interesting to Some People (James H. Haynes) Telecom at the Opera (Aninda Dasgupta) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Motorola PT550 Cellular Phone Info Requested Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 22:17:53 GMT I have the above cellular telephone and wonder if anybody out there has the documentation for test mode. I can get into test mode easily enough, since that is documented, for the purpose of programming the rejection list of systems that you don't want to use for roaming. What I'd like to know is: * Standard test mode display is alternating between the cell frequency and signal strength on one flash, and a seven digit number on the other flash which remains constant for each cell. Does anybody know the interpretation of this number? * What else can you do in test mode? Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler - Fubar) Subject: Preparing my case against Sprint Organization: The Phishtank Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1993 13:53:21 GMT I promised I'd keep you up to date on this, so here is the current situation, and a call for help, if you can. (This, in relation to their "Dvorak offer" fiasco, for which I am suing them in small claims court) I called Sprint, to ask them for the proper address at which to serve them. They refused me this information, pointing me at the Secretary of State for my state (CA). I called there (after an hour of busy signals) and was told that they no longer give that information out over the phone. Wonderful. I love our goverment. It now must be done via writing, and costs $4. I sent that off. Meanwhile, I've been doing legal research, and have come to the conclusion that their verbal offer on the phone, my acceptance, the switching of my lines, and the one long-distance call to "activate" the plan constitutes a valid contract. Point of help number 1. If anyone has specific case references for verbal offer and acceptance, when acceptance relies on specific performance of an action intended to benefit the party which made the inital offer, this would be of great use to me. Also, if anyone knows if the section of the law dealing with "rewards" is relivant here, I'd like to know about it. Is there a section dealing with offers to the public of a premium in exchange for perchase of item or service? I also sent a letter, via registered mail, to Sprint, outlining what I am preparind my case against them for, what I contracted for, and what they offered. I then outlined the deficiency, and assigned it a fair monetary value (average of ten street prices for the modem initially offered). Point of help number two: If anyone knows anything I'm missing here, I'd like to know about it. I have legal citations to show that the contract was valid, I have a letter demanding performance of the contract, and I have documentation of names and times of phone calls where they refused to honour the contract. What am I missing? At this rate, I should have a court date some time in December or January. If there's anyone else who is taking Sprint to court over this, I'd like to hear from you as well, we can share information. One last thing. Those of you who called Sprint and were told that they offered a 9600 baud external data/fax modem, could you PLEASE document this, with the name and time you called (if you have it) and sign it and send it to me? Simply a personal letter saying that you, too, were promised this over the phone by Sprint. I was told that this would be of invaluable help in any case. If you are taking Sprint to court as well, I would be happy to send you the same. My address is: Christopher J. Ambler 1720 Diablo Drive San Luis Obispo, CA 93405 (805) 782-8000 More info as I get it. Thanks to all who have kept in touch over this. While it's not something I want to do again, I am learning quite a lot over this and enjoying the process, as frustrating as it is :-) ++Christopher(); // Home of the 30K plan! | cambler@cymbal.calpoly.edu Christopher J. Ambler, Author, FSUUCP 1.41 | chris@toys.fubarsys.com Call The Central Coast Connection, Voice BBS: (805) 544-3754 - Avail 15 Nov! ------------------------------ From: rosellab@hawaii.edu (Rosella Bartonico) Subject: Received My Free Sprint Modem Today Organization: University of Hawaii Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 02:39:43 GMT 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. It came via UPS 2nd day air. The modem comes in a shrink wrapped package. Here are the specs: 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 QUICKLINK WinDos Software and a free month of Compu$erve for $8.95. A letter was also included with the shipment that said: November 1, 1993 Dear Customer, Due to the emergency situation that we have had over the past week in Los Angeles, we have had logistic difficulties with UPS and other carriers. Best Regards, Best Data Products So the Mac owners are outta luck, since this is indeed an internal modem for the PC. Let me just say that I don't think Sprint should be held accountable because in the radio commercial that announced this promotion, they clearly specified that it was an internal PC 2400 data modem w/fax. I know, I heard it with mine own ears. Of course, it's unfortunate that the computer illiterate Sprint Reps didn't know the difference between a 9600 bps data and 9600 bps fax. Sprint should only switch the misinformed back to their original carrier at Sprint's expense and compensate the customer with whatever they might have lost for being with Sprint. ($50 is very fair). [steps down from soapbox] Aloha. ------------------------------ Subject: CFP94 Scholarships From: mcmullen@mindvox.phantom.com (John F. McMullen) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 93 08:41:05 EST Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800-MindVox) The Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP'94) is pleased to announce that it will once again provide a number of full tuition scholarships for attendance at the conference. The conference will be held in Chicago, IL from March 23rd through March 26th, 1995 and will be hosted by the John Marshall Law School under the chairmanship of George Trubow. The conference traditionally attracts an extremely diverse group of persons concerned with issues relating to the rapid development of the "information society"; civil libertarians, information providers, law enforcement personnel, privacy advocates, "hackers", sociologists, educators and students, computer professionals, cryptography advocates, government policy makers and other interested parties have all played major roles in the three previous conference. Speakers at previous conferences have included Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) co-founders John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor, FBI Deputy Director William A. "Al" Bayse, writer Bruce Sterling, privacy advocate Simon Davies, Harvard University law professor Lawrence Tribe, hacker "Phiber Optik", Georgetown University's Dorothy Denning, "Cuckoo's Egg" author Clifford Stoll, Prodigy counsel George Perry, USA Today founder Al Neuwith, former FCC Chairman Nicholas Johnson, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)'s Marc Rotenberg, Arizona prosecutor Gail Thackeray, and Bay Area Women in Computing's Judi Clark. The scholarships are intended to provide access to the conference to those that would like to attend the conference but are unable to afford the tuition. They are available to undergraduate and graduate students in any discipline (previous student attendees have come from computer science, law, sociology, liberal arts, journalism, and womens' studies backgrounds), law enforcement personnel, hackers, social scientists, and others interested in the future of the information society. Persons interested in a scholarship should send the following information (e-mail greatly preferred) to: John F. McMullen CFP'94 Scholarship Chair Perry Street Jefferson Valley, NY 10535 mcmullen@panix.com (914) 245-2734 (voice) (914) 245-8464 (fax) 1. Personal Information -- Name, Addresses (including e-mail), Phone Numbers, School and/or Business Affiliation 2. Short Statement explaining what the applicant helps to get from CFP'94 and what impact that attendance may have in the applicant's community or future work. 3. Stipulation that the applicant understands that he/she is responsible for transportation and lodging expenses related to the conference. The scholarship includes tuition and those meals included with the conference. 4. Stipulation that the applicant would not be able to attend the conference if a scholarship is not granted. 5. Stipulation that the applicant, if granted a scholarship, will attend the conference. 6. Stipulation that the applicant, if granted a scholarship, will provide a written critique of the conference to the scholarship committee by April 30, 1994. Applications will be accepted until December 31, 1993 and scholarship winners will be notified by approximately February 1, 1994. Please contact John McMullen at the above e-mail address or phone numbers with any questions. John F. McMullen mcmullen@mindvox.phantom.com Consultant, knxd@maristb.bitnet mcmullen@well.sf.ca.us Writer, 70210.172@compuserve.com mcmullen@panix.com Student, GEnie - nb.nyc mcmullen@eff.org Teacher ------------------------------ From: bd@hydra.CARLETON.CA (Brett Delmage VE3JLG) Subject: Recommendations for Programmable Audio Synthesizer Required Reply-To: bd@hydra.carleton.ca Organization: JATOM Systems Inc. Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 22:26:05 GMT I am looking for a replacement / back-up for my employer's (Plantronics) Wilcom T-296 Programmable Frequency Synthesizer. I have not any luck finding anything in catalogues in the last year :( The T-296 is a two channel programmable audio synthesizer. It is programmable by a front-panel keypad, and stored control programs can be entered in a BASIC-like language, for example, 10 DTMF 123*# 20 DELAY 2000 30 GOTO 10. Full user control over each tone frequency, level (in 1dB steps) and timing (~1ms) is provided, which is an important feature for us. Ideally, we would like a plug-in card for the ISA (IBM PC) bus that can provide similar functionality. A free-standing box that can be controlled over an RS232 link would also be acceptable. We are willing and able to program the device at a lower-level to the hardware, in C. One of the biggest shortcomings of the T-296 is that programs must be entered on the front-panel keypad and cannot be saved externally. It's getting to be quite a pain to reenter several- hundred program lines when the T-296 loses its mind, which is happening more and more in its old age :( Please email your suggestions and recommendations. Contact information (model, manufacturer/supplier and phone number) and personal experience with the product would be appreciated if you can provide it. Thanks in advance! Brett Delmage, JSI Telecom 613) 591-5910 bd@hydra.carleton.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 02:16:53 -0800 From: Michael Lewis Subject: Frame Relay Summary I would like to thank those of you who responded to my recent request for guidance in the field of Frame Relay. I have compiled the following responses: Michael L. Lewis DHL Systems Inc. Network Engineering 700 Airport Blvd Phn: (415) 375-5135 Global Communications Burlingame, CA 94010 FAX: (415) 571-7073 Internet: mlewis@ssf-sys.dhl.com ------------------- Try getting a hand on cisco's Internetworking Technology Overview. They condense the X.25 to 6 pages and then go into frame relay for another 8 pages, comparing frame relay to X.25. Sounds like just what you want for a broad overview. StrataCom is evidently the keeper of Frame Relay Interface Specification. 040-207460, Rev. 2.3, August 9, 1990. cisco is at (800) 553-6387. I have no idea how to reach StrataCom, perhaps the cisco folks know. They implement frame relay well. Ron Rietz rreitz@sadis01.kelly.af.gov Well, let me see if I can help you a bit .. If the "one RFC" you're referring to is 1294, it has now been replaced by 1490, which you should get a copy of. I can mail it to you if necessary (I'm a co-author). You should call or send mail to the Frame Relay Forum. I'm on the road right now so I don't have the phone number, but send email to vivianb@interop.com - she's in charge of the FRF Secretariate. She can mail you plenty of info, along with pointers and references on where to find more. There's also the ASNI specs if you want technical detail - T1.606, T1.617, T1.618. My company also sells FR switches and routers with FR interfaces - let me know if we can be of assistance. Hope this helps. Regards, Andrew G. Malis malis@maelstrom.timeplex.com -or- malis_a@timeplex.com Ascom Timeplex 289 Great Rd., Acton MA 01720 USA~ +1 508 266-4522 I found that MCI has a pretty good overview of their services in a little booklet which also described FR in general. P.S.: This is no endorsement of their services of course :-) Alex Bochannek Phone : +32 2 778 42 00~ Technical Support Analyst Fax : +32 2 778 43 00 Cisco Systems Belgium SA/NV RFC822: abochann@cisco.com Complex Antares, 5th Floor 72 Avenue des Pleiades 1200 Brussels, Belgium~ Currently on vacation in Berlin, Germany We are just starting to work with BT Tymnet on a frame relay option for our net also. Our Canadian affilate has some frame relay in place using Cisco ags routers. I will inquire about their findings and results. What data rates and locations are you looking at - I assume some international sites. Warren Smith wsmith@vaxl1.danavictor.com Dana Corp / Victor Reinz Division You might consider joining the Frame Relay Forum. Jim Battan - Sequent Computer Systems, Beaverton, OR battan@sequent.com or uunet!sequent!battan Too bad you just missed Interop. The vendors are the ones who seem to be carrying and promoting Frame Relay services although in a dizzying array of capabilities and costs. A few articles of interest from the trade magazines would be: "Coping with Public Frame Relay: a Delicate Balance" Data Communications, 21 Jan. 1992 "What are the Network Design Choices for Frame Relay Based Networks?" Networks-in-Depth, Feb. 1992 (If you cant get these articles, I can send a copy to you) Also about a year ago, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) began a multivendor OSI/Frame Relay Interoperability Trial that presumably is finished and the results are in. You may not be interested in the OSI aspects, but the list of vendors and results may be of interest. You can get information on the trial from Doug Montgomery, dougm@osi.ncsl.nist.gov . Some of the participants were AT&T, Cascade Communications, ISDN Systems, NCR, Sprint, StrataCom, 3Com. Elin Klaseen Research Engineer SRI Int'l 333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025 (415) 859-4425 klaseen@erg.sri.com ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (James H. Haynes) Subject: Books, Interesting to Some People Date: 6 Nov 1993 23:31:35 GMT Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz Here's some books and things advertised in the latest issue of Morse Telegraph Club newsletter. I have no connection with any of the vendors, have bought some of the books and enjoyed having them. Morsum Magnificat - International bi-monthly journal for Morse telegraphy, past, present, & future. Details from: Morsum Magnificat 9 Wetherby Close, Broadstone, Dorset BH18 8JB, England or subscribe via Wise Owl Worldwide 4314 W. 238th St. Torrance, CA 90505. $21.50 surface or $26.50 airmail QNC! Journal for amateur radio c.w. enthusiasts; cognizant that landline gave rise to wireless. QNC! 85000 Laughlin Rd., Eugene, OR 97405 The Vail Correspondent - Journal for key and telegraph hobbyists. Free subscriber ads. Sample copy $2; subscription (4 issues) $10. The Vail Correspondent POB 88, Maynard, MA 01754 (same as Artifax Books) Railroad Telegrapher's Handbook. 60 pages. Excellent, Illustrated. $11.95 ppd. [also good for model railroaders] also coming soon: Ted McElroy Biography Illustrated. Hardcover $41.95 ppd, softcover $21.95 ppd. Printing date early December. Artifax books, Box 88-D Maynard, MA 01754 The Story of Telecommunications by George P. Oslin, Western Union's first public relations director. Hard cover, 507 pages, 150+ illustrations. Comprehensive history covers smoke signals to fax machines. $35. Mercer University Press 1400 Coleman AVe., Macon, GA 31207 800-637-2378 Ext 2880 Collector Reprints of Bunnell Learners Manual of 1884, Drawings & diagrams, telegraph fundamentals, $8 check or MO, L.A. Bailey 813-442-1557 909 S. Evergreen Ave., Clearwater FL 34616 [I have a copy of this -- he did a beautiful job of reproducing the old booklet] The Telegraph by Lewis Coe. Hardcover 184 pages. Illustrated. Excellent overview of the telegraph. $25.95, McFarland & Co. 919-246-4460 Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 06:49:56 EST From: add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) Subject: Telecom at the Opera Last week I was at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC. We had real bad seats (not my fault, I was there courtesy of my date) and were seated in a box on the top left balcony, literally hovering over the stage. As a result, part of the stage was blocked from my view and all I remember seeing from up there are the cleavages of the dimensionally disadvantaged divas and the bald patch on Placido Domingo's cerebral-box (although the singing was great, not to mention the music, but I digress). Looking on towards the stage, one saw the orchestra pit, which was, as is usual, sunk below the audience, then there was the front part of the stage, in the middle of which was the prompter's box. So the prompter was actually standing on the floor at the same level as the orchestra pit, with his head barely reaching the stage floor and only the performers could see him in the hole. Sitting right above the stage allowed me a nice view of the backstage, the prompter's hole and the orchestra pit. I saw that the prompter had a Black and White TV (about 10" wide), on which the conductor's gestures were being constantly shown. The performers could stare at the two sides of the auditorium and nicely concealed from the rest of the audience were strategically placed TV monitors, which also showed the conductor. Thus, the prompter could watch the conductor's arm movements and, using hand signals, prompt the different performers to sing lines. Simultaneously, the performers would from time to time look at the walls and see the conductor's wand and at other times watch the prompter for signals to start, slow down or stop singing. The lines were also being scrolled on a little LED/Bulb strip that was sunk into the front of the stage and which only the performers could see. Backstage were a number of TV monitors that allowed the director to watch and direct the whole thing via audio with the prompter. Outside the Lincoln Center (of which the Metropolitan Opera House is a part) was a huuuuge tractor trailer with the word "Unitel" painted on it. The trailer had some neat modules that were hydraulically pushed/ raised out of the trailer's walls and steps lowered to allow people access to the interior of the trailer. There were no antennae or dishes anywhere on the trailer, but I did see a guy scuttle in and out wearing headphones. I wonder what the trailer was for; I know the local PBS station was recording the performance for a future broadcast. All in all, I was surprised that they use such telecom for classical performances. I can only wonder how they did things in the days when Verdi composed the music for the opera. (Now don't you go comparing my experience with what you saw at the Megadeth concert.) Aninda DasGupta (add@philabs.philips.com) Ph:(914)945-6071 Fax:(914)945-6552 Philips Labs\n 345 Scarborough Rd\n Briarcliff Manor\n NY 10510 "Err.., Phillips Petroleum gives you gas; fortunately Phillips Chemical makes antacid. Philips is with one "el", we make lightbulbs. And other shtuff" [Moderator's Note: Forty years ago during the 1950's, one could always tell when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was doing a radio broadcast since in the alley behind Orchestra Hall where the alley intersects with Adams Street there would appear a very large semi-trailer/truck with the words 'Illinois Bell Telephone Company' on its side. A thick cable would snake out of the stage entrance of the Hall and into this van, then it would come out the van and go down into a manhole in the street. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #740 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa00318; 7 Nov 93 14:52 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25184 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 7 Nov 1993 12:09:16 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14023 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 7 Nov 1993 12:08:46 -0600 Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 12:08:46 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311071808.AA14023@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #741 TELECOM Digest Sun, 7 Nov 93 12:08:45 CST Volume 13 : Issue 741 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson My Meeting With the Commish (Charlie Hofacker) Voice Processing with Visual Basic (IVR Toolkit) (John W. Barrus) Book Review: "Windows Network Programming" by Davis (Rob Slade) New Method Triples Capacity of Fiber (Josh Backon) Telephone Pioneers Activities and Goals (Dave Leibold) Looking For Software Distribution and/or File Transfer Programs (T. Hull) Need Cellular Rates For New York Metro Area (Seng-Poh Lee) Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems (Robin Singla) ATM Newsgroup: is There Any? (Kees de Graaf) Telephones in Italy (Steve Cogorno) Where to Find Amp for Phone Extension? (Bill Leeke) Brought to You by the Letter Q (Bill Leeke) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Charlie Hofacker Subject: My Meeting With the Commish Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 04:52:28 EST Well, I got my chance to have lunch with FCC Commissioner Barrett. There was a brief question and answer session at lunch. I decided to ask him about universal access, and whether the concept of universal access should be updated to include more than POTS. I think it would be fair to say he was not enthusiastic about the whole idea of universal access. In fact, I might summarize his reply in the form of a rhetorical question he asked me back: who pays? (Inspiration for my question came from Bob Boucher ). Later he told me that he was still thinking about the issues and he had not closed his mind to any point of view. Perhaps the most amusing moment came when a student asked him about the FCC and censorship. He insisted that the FCC does not engage in censorship and is wholly unconcerned with any content whatsoever with the possible exception of kids TV. It was apparent that he is spending some time in the UK studying the telecommunications situation there. Thanks to all who submitted possible questions. Needless to say there was a lot of competition to ask him questions so I could only get one in. Charlie Hofacker chofack@cob.fsu.edu ------------------------------ From: John W. Barrus Subject: Voice Processing with Visual Basic (IVR Toolkit) Organization: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 11:14:11 GMT Contact: Krisztina Holly 617-621-9545 STYLUS INNOVATION'S VISUAL VOICE TRANSFORMS MICROSOFT'S VISUAL BASIC INTO A POWERFUL VOICE PROCESSING TOOL CAMBRIDGE, MA (November 1, 1993) - Stylus Innovation, Inc., today announced the release of its new software product, Visual Voice(TM). Visual Voice is a Visual Basic custom control and graphical workbench which allows developers to quickly build sophisticated, PC-based voice processing applications. Using Visual Voice, developers can create a variety of applications including fax-on-demand, Touch-Tone(TM) order entry, and voice mail. Typical business applications include prospects requesting faxed product brochures, customers placing orders, sales reps accessing shipment status, or employees inquiring about benefits information. One Billion Node Network "Voice applications developed with Visual Voice can interact with practically every available data source and network because of Visual Basic's extensive third party and built-in support. This is client/server with a one billion node network: the PC is the server and any phone in the world is a client," explained Michael Cassidy, president of Stylus. "Not surprisingly, our market research revealed that MIS departments and system integrators would prefer to develop voice processing applications with industry standard Visual Basic instead of spending weeks learning a toolkit based on a proprietary language. Most MIS groups today already have developers familiar with Visual Basic. And anyone who knows Visual Basic will immediately pick up Visual Voice." Explosive Growth in Voice Processing The voice processing industry continues its rapid 30% annual growth and reached nearly $4 billion this year. Key growth drivers have been declining digital signal processing (DSP) chip prices and emerging industry standards for the computer-telephone interface. Visual Voice allows someone with no voice processing experience to develop voice processing applications. Visual Voice handles all of the following functions: - waiting for inbound calls and detecting ringing, connection, line dropping, etc. - making outbound calls and detecting ringing, connection, busy signals, etc. - prompting for Touch-Tone input once calls are established - playing and recording voice files "Stylus Innovation's new Visual Voice product is a great example of pragmatic component software at work," said Tom Button, Microsoft's Group Product Manager for Applications Programmability. "Now, voice processing capability is as easy to build into mission critical solutions as data access, workgroup, multimedia, and the breadth of other functionality available from third parties in the form of tightly integrated Visual Basic custom controls." Visual Voice also includes the Visual Voice Workbench, a set of visual tools designed to speed up development. The Workbench helps create and revise all voice processing objects including voice prompts, menus, and files. Enormous Visual Basic Installed Base There are more than 500,000 Visual Basic developers today. "One of the hard parts of building interactive voice response applications is the database connectivity issue. That involves getting information out of a database to give to someone calling for information. Visual Voice solved that problem," said Jim Burton, president of CT Link, a leading computer-telephony consultancy in Boston. "If you're an organization that has a little bit of development capability and has a need for voice processing, this is a no-brainer." One can equip a PC for voice processing by simply installing a voice response board. Visual Voice is a high level, easy to use interface which controls boards from vendors such as the industry leader Dialogic. Stylus has recently been named a member of Dialogic's Open Developer Program. Low end boards start at a few hundred dollars and prices increase with the number of simultaneous phone lines handled. Also, Visual Voice will support the Microsoft/Intel Telephone Application Programming Interface (TAPI) when it is made available. This means that Visual Voice will work with every voice response board which supports the TAPI. Visual Voice has an introductory price of $495 and can create applications which handle two phone lines simultaneously. Visual Voice Line Extender will handle an unlimited number of lines (up to the capacity of the host PC) for an additional $1495. Visual Voice requires a 386 or higher PC and Windows 3.X. Stylus Innovation (Cambridge, MA) was the winner of the Best Invention of the Year competition given by MIT in 1991. Stylus has developed several other innovative hardware and software products for the voice processing industry. Stylus Innovation, Inc. One Kendall Square Bldg 1500 Cambridge, MA 02139 Voice (617) 621-9545 FAX (617) 621-7862 Note: Visual Voice, Visual Voice Workbench, and Visual Voice Line Extender are trademarks of Stylus Innovation, Inc. All other products are trademarks of their respective companies. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Nov 93 11:25 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Windows Network Programming" by Davis BKWNPROG.RVW 930929 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 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-527-5210 617-944-3700 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 Windows Network Programming, Ralph Davis, U$29.95/C$38.95 I recall a message posted by the developer of a piece of security software. He was explaining the process that was being used to assign priorities for new features for his program. One of the first things mentioned was the time being consumed by ensuring the product would work with Windows. Thereafter, about every two paragraphs, we noted a reiterated cry of, "Have I mentioned how much I hate Windows?" as various features that should have been added to the product were pushed into the background. I have heard the same from communications software developers. Windows has a number of features making initial program development rather easy, but it is full of traps for the unwary once you get into the interesting stuff. Davis' book is intended to address the most complex of communications issues, that of networking. His rather understated intention is to "explore some of the issues" in writing networked applications. In this he would appear to have succeeded admirably. The programmer intending to start building "network aware" applications under Windows would do well to start here. In addition, the experienced programmer who has concentrated on a single API (Application Program Interface) will find this a helpful bridge to other systems. Chapter one serves as both preface and introduction to the work. There is background material on the major protocols and APIs of use in the Windows environment and some comparison as to feature and users. Part one details the protocols, procedures, architectures and data structures of NetBios, IPX/SPX, VINES and Sockets (TCP/IP) as well as a general API. Source code is given for DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries) for all systems. Part two deals with specific "built-in" network services, once again covering all the major APIs. Part three covers Windows NT, Win32 and Windows for Workgroups. This work is intended as a serious programming reference. Experienced programmers will appreciate the fact that no attempt is made to address a novice audience. The code listings are tight, with minimal, but clear, commenting. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKWNPROG.RVW 930929 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of TELECOM Digest and assocated 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: backon@vms.huji.ac.il Subject: New Method Triples Capacity of Fiber Date: 7 Nov 93 08:18:57 GMT Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem I just heard on the news that an Israeli physicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science developed a new technique based on holographic technology to triple capacity of optical fiber. The report indicated that this will have a major impact on telecommunications. Josh backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1993 23:02:52 -0400 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Telephone Pioneers Activities and Goals [From Bell News, Bell Ontario, 25 Oct 93; text Bell Canada's.] From past to present - The Telephone Pioneers of America began in 1911, when three men recognized they shared a number of common interests: pride in the network they had helped build, satisfaction in doing a job well and concern for their co-workers. This handful of special people began an association of long-time and retired telephone workers, whose goal was fellowship and comtinuity of the service philosophy their industry represented. There were 734 members in the first group of Telephone Pioneers. Today there are more than 800,000 active members from the telecommuni- cations industry in Canada (23 374 in Bell Ontario) and the United States. THE ENVIRONMENT The environment is one of the Telephone Pioneers' major areas of concern. Their support of environmental groups and programs include: * the collection of trash from streets, highways and recreation areas for sale to recycling agencies to raise funds for other clean-up activities; * numerous reforestation efforts throughout Canada and the U.S; * the "adoption" and ongoing clean-up of miles of highways, nature trails, streams and river beds. THE COMMUNITY Pioneers have been responsible for the creation and ongoing support of many community services: * programs to combat illiteracy; * providing volunteers and support to homes for battered women; * helping hospitals purchase expensive specialized equipment. THE DISABLED Pioneers' work with the disabled has resulted in a number of worthwhile projects: * built or refitted parks and playgrounds for the disabled; * invented and manufactured "beeping" sports equipment that enables the visually impaired to participate in nearly every sport; * designed special smoke detectors for the deaf * the only organization designated by the U.S. Library of Congress as the official repair depot for Talking Books program; THE CHILDREN Many programs have been initiated or supported by the local chapters of the Telephone Pioneers. Here are just a few: * supplied law enforcement and other agencies with more than 95 000 teddy bears to hand out to traumatized children, victims of child abuse or traffic accidents; * purchased equipment and provided volunteers for infant hearing assessment programs in many hospitals; * support and participate in programs that locate missing children. THE PIONEER PURPOSE IS FIVE-FOLD: * promote and participate in activities that respond to community needs; * provide a means of friendly association for all employees and retirees; * foster among members a continuing fellowship and a spirit of mutual helpfulness; * contribute to the progress of the assocation and promote the happiness, well-being and performance of the membership; * exemplify and perpetuate those values that have come to be regarded as the ideals and traditions of our industry. ------------------- Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG [Moderator's Note: And now I believe many chapters of the Telephone Pioneers and Independent Pioneers have waived the fifteen or twenty year employment requirement for full membership. If you are not a member of the Pioneers, you should inquire about membership in this worthwhile organization today. PAT] ------------------------------ From: terryh@engin.umich.edu (Terry Hull) Subject: Looking For Software Distribution and/or File Transfer Programs Date: 7 Nov 1993 04:05:54 GMT Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor 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. Everyday, each branch offices will be sending data to and receiving data from the central office. We are currently using RemoteWare from XcellNet to do the job. The RemoteWare Server runs on OS/2 PC residing in the central office, and each branch office has a RemoteWare node runs on a DOS PC. This is a master slave relation between the Server and The nodes. The Server part of the RemoteWare has the scheduling ability. You can program it so that it will initiate calls to the nodes via modem. While this works fine, it is approaching its capacity to handle larger volume of data. 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. But I don't know anything more besides that. At this moment, we are open to all ideas. If you know anything about this, or have heard of similar products, please drop a line. All help will be greatly appreciated. ------------------------------ From: Seng-Poh Lee Subject: Need Cellular Rates For New York Metro Area Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 22:26:43 EST I need the full set of rates for the cellular carriers in the New York Metro area. I understand the two carriers are Bell Atlantic Mobile and Cellular One. In particular, I need to know if either has a low usage rate, ie low monthly fee, but higher per minute charge. I've been told that you cannot get an account for less than $36 per month. Surely every cellular carrier has a low usage plan. As an example, I currenly pay only $9.95/month, 75 cents/min for my wife's phone, which I consider reasonable for occasional/emergency use. In fact, it used to be NO monthly fee up to about two years ago. Seng-Poh Lee ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1993 20:59:58 CST From: U19250@uicvm.uic.edu Subject: Wanted: Info on Cellular Phone Monitoring Systems Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago, ADN Computer Center 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)? Thanks, Robin Singla u19250@uicvm.uic.edu ------------------------------ From: kees@cv.ruu.nl (Kees de Graaf) Subject: ATM Newsgroup: is There Any? Organization: University of Utrecht, 3D Computer Vision Research Group Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 10:30:51 GMT 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? Thanks in advance, Kees [Moderator's Note: I dunno, I suppose the bankers of America must have some newsgroup devoted to discussing their cash machines and how they work. :) Don't worry, Kees, its just an inside joke around here. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Telephones in Italy Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 03:26:52 PST Next September, I will be living in Italy for a year. However, from the limited experience I have had with their telephone system, I think I am going to be in for some serious problems modem-wise. Can anyone tell me where I can purchase a RJ-11 to whatever converter, how to make one, etc.? Also, my computer is self adjusting, but the other devices aren't. What kind of power converter will I need, and how reliable is the current? I don't want anything to fry ... Thanks in advance! Steve cogorno@netcom.com #608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015 ------------------------------ From: bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Bill Leeke) Subject: Where to Find Amp For Phone Extension? Date: 7 Nov 1993 10:40:06 GMT Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston IL USA Could someone point me to where I can buy an amp for a phone line extension. (38v->48v) This is an extension to another building in which I've had problems with lightning on an old intercom. What kinds of lightning protection is available? Later, Bill bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu ------------------------------ From: bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Bill Leeke) Subject: Brought to You by the Letter Q Date: 7 Nov 1993 10:33:42 GMT Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston IL USA Why is there no digital equivilent for the letter Q or Z on my phone? Later, Bill bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu [Moderator's Note: Because in the opinion of The Telephone Company -- does anything else matter? -- there are no names which begin with Q or Z which are worthy of use as exchange names. Furthermore, it is believed that if you are on a voicemail system and your name begins with Q or Z (or has one of those letters in the middle of it somewhere) you should change it to something different. 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. The problem with Q is that it must be followed by U in 99 percent of all words in common use, thus it is rather limited and unflexible where phone exchange names were concerned. Z is far more flexible, but easily confused with S, said The Telephone Company. According to the System as they developed it, there were only enough places for 24 letters of the alphabet (while keeping 1 and 0 completely unambig- ous from the time they were 'pulled' and not context-dependent on what proceeded or followed them) so the two they decided to leave out were Q and Z. No great loss, I say ... modern voicemail systems make a concession to the folks who insist on using those letters in their name; they usually substitute the digit '1' in their stead. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #741 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04091; 8 Nov 93 4:30 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17954 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 01:18:32 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07095 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 01:18:00 -0600 Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 01:18:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311080718.AA07095@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #742 TELECOM Digest Mon, 8 Nov 93 01:18:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 742 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Fire Update 11-5-93 9:00 AM PST (Christopher Salter) Long-Distance Resellers (Van Hefner) Comments on SynOptics 5000-series Hub? (Will Estes) On Line GSM Recommendations? (Bui Anh Jonathan Banh) ISDN API Assistance Needed (Sin-Kuen T. Ko) New Area Code: 610 (Ken Jongsma) Area Code Boundaries (Craig Vosburgh) Eritrea Tariffs (David Esan) Security Management on Combinet's Products (Bob Larribeau) Wanted: USED Dialogic Equipment (Dr. John V. Jaskolski) Question About Area Codes in USA (Yilmaz Cengeloglu) Common Carrier Information Wanted (Thomas Freeman) Sources on No. 4 ESS Needed (Pawel Brzozka) Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? (Bob Tykulsker) Looking For *Current* Access Code Listing on LD Carriers (Caryl Mulchand) Battery Cross-Reference Information Needed (Arthur L. Shapiro) Help Needed With Ethernet Terminal/Comm Servers (Dave Somers) Wanted: Information on DEC Internet Over Cable TV Device (Stephen Balbach) Cheaper Long Distance Company (Lloyd Brodsky) Anyone Else With a "Connection 14.4" Modem? (Tim Clinkenpeel) Kaliningrad Staying in Russia? (Carl Moore) Armstrong in Rising Sun, MD (Carl Moore) "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." (Elana Beach) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: chris@loncps.demon.co.uk (Christopher Salter) Subject: Re: Fire Update 11-5-93 9: 00 AM PST Organization: TBA Reply-To: Chris@loncps.demon.co.uk Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 18:26:21 +0000 In article tompkins@pete.tti.com writes: > In Carbon Canyon, the fire raced through in seconds. The residents > all assumed their houses were gone -- but the vast majority were > missed -- partly the luck of the draw, and partly the hard work of > fire fighters, partly aided by the large separation between houses > (these are two to ten acre lots). In one case (a close personal > friend), the fire fighters apparently cut out a piece of burning roof; > broke in through a window to extinguish some burning furniture. They > actually went out of their way to cover the other furniture, obviously > taking pains to minimize the damage they caused -- they hauled the > smoldering furniture a hundred yards down the canyon, and went on to > the next house. This is one family who left KNOWING their house was > gone and returning to find really minor damage! Pete, it's probably of little import that your "first hand account" should draw a response from someone in the U.K. I am, I admit, somewhat worried by the thought of people risking their lives to protect property. At the same time I have the utmost respect for Emergency Services, amongst whom "Fire Fighters" must rank amongst the bravest. How they see their job is, in the end, not for me to comment on except to offer praise. I must thank you for your report which seemed more immediate than all the footage in the TV News Broadcast's. Maybe I should really email this but I don't feel it's stretching the purpose of this particular newsgroup too much in the circumstances to respond publicly. Christopher P Salter London England Internet : chris@loncps.demon.co.uk Compuserve : 73064,357 [Moderator's Note: Like yourself, I was quite impressed with the original message. In fact the messages sent to us all last week from GTE were quite factual and dramatic in content. I want to thank both Pete Tompkins and Steve Lichter for their correspondence, as well as the kind person at GTE who saw to it my fax machine received regular updates all last week -- the 'week that was' in southern CA. PAT] ------------------------------ From: vantek@aol.com Reply-To: vantek@aol.com Date: Sun, 07 Nov 93 14:52:16 EST Subject: Long-Distance Resellers I am looking for information on long-distance telephone service resellers. I've seen a few ads in magazines (Home Office Computing and Entrepreneur) from three companies in particular The Phoenix Network, National Tele-Communications, and Business Network Communications. From what I've read all of these companies want some small payment for their 'manual'. Has anyone out there had any actual dealings with these companies? I own a small service bureau and was wondering if long-distance reselling would be a good sideline to my business. Is this like an actual business, or some kind 'get rich quick' scam? They all promise to pay royalties on all outgoing calls that your clients generate, but how exactly would you be able to verify that? I saw another ad for a (recruiter) reseller that actually promised to throw in a Lincoln Continental, or something. I think I tossed that one though. Any kind of info would be appreciated. Thanks. Van Hefner Vantek Communications ------------------------------ From: westes@netcom.com (Will Estes) Subject: Comments on SynOptics 5000-Series Hub? Organization: Mail Group Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 23:37:54 GMT Does anyone have a comment on SynOptics' recently-announced 5000-series hub? They are positioning this as a "hub of hubs" to manage the enterprise backbone. What strikes me as potentially revolutionary about this product is the claim that you can define logical networks across an enterprise that are totally divorced from the network's topology. Is this a big leap, or do other products do this now? Will Estes Internet: westes@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 11:47:00 +1100 From: Bui Anh Jonathan Banh Subject: On Line GSM Recommendations? Can someone tell me where (ftp sites) I might find some GSM recommendations/standards (on line), particularly, signalling protocols and interface. Similarly, recommendations/standards on DCS1800. Thanks in advance. Bui Anh Jonathan Banh email : bbanh@snrc.uow.edu.au Switched Network Research Centre | Telephone : +61 42 21 3244 University of Wollongong | or : +61 42 21 3065 Northfield Avenue, Wollongong, | Fax : +61 42 21 3236 NSW 2522 Australia ------------------------------ From: bellcore!stk.cc.bellcore.com@uunet.UU.NET (Sin-Kuen T. Ko) Subject: ISDN API Assistance Needed Organization: Bellcore Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 19:30:18 GMT We are getting some ISDN API sets for our offices and are planning to connect them to our PCs and MACs over an RS232 connection. The API is based on the Hayes AT command set enhanced for ISDN. Does anyone have information regarding call management products (on PCs or MACs) which work with these ISDN API sets and provide functions such as maintaining a call log of incoming calls, displaying information related to the caller of an incoming call, redial from the call log, etc. I've found a couple products such as the AT&T Client/Profile software and the Excell/DIAL and Excell/ICLID but would like to investigate further. Thanks, Sin-Kuen Ko ------------------------------ From: jongsma@esseye.si.com (Ken Jongsma) Subject: New Area Code: 610 Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 12:46:11 EST According to a full page ad in {Communications Week}, Bell Atlantic has announced the assignment of area code 610 to eastern Pennsylvania. The map in the ad indicates that the immediate area around Philadelphia will retain the 215 area code, with a surrounding ring that extends out beyond Allentown getting the new 610 area code. Permissive dialing starts 1/8/94, mandatory use is 1/7/95. Ken Jongsma Smiths Industries jongsma@swdev.si.com Grand Rapids, Michigan 73115.1041@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 14:35:52 MST From: VOSBURGH@godel.snms.cs.mci.com Subject: Area Code Boundaries I am looking for a Latitude/Longitude Data set that describes the boundaries for the area codes. I am writing an application that presents a map of North America and am interested in overlaying the area code information. If any one could help, it would be greatly appreciated. I can be reached at E-mail: "vosburgh@godel.snms.cs.mci.com" Voice : 719-535-5108 Thanks for any help. Craig ------------------------------ From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: Eritrea Tariffs Date: 7 Nov 93 18:48:13 GMT Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY Just got in a bunch of new tariffs for calls from the US to Eritrea. (Eritrea, for those who don't know, is the newest country in Africa, having finally won their independance from Ethiopia, after a multi-decade civil war.) According to AT&T, the new country code for Eritrea is 291. I still have not seen what the correct code is for Macedonia, 388 or 389. Some of the pieces of the USSR have acquired individual country codes: 370 Lithuania 371 Latvia 372 Estonia 373 Moldava 994 Azerbaijan Has anyone seen codes the the other pieces of the xUSSR? David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ From: Bob Larribeau Subject: Security Management on Combinet's Products Date: Mon, 08 Nov 93 00:19:10 -0700 Organization: Combinet I was asked to post the following: Bob -------------- The Combinet bridges now have a remote login capability. This capability was mentioned in Dave Martin's note (dem@hep.gov) describing a Unix that can be used to access this interface. With the capability of remote configuration comes the problem of protecting the bridge from unauthorized access. Combinet provides security features to prevent such access. The commands for preventing such access are:. SET PASSWORD SYSTEM and providing a suitable password. This password can be used for remote access (over the LAN or ISDN ports) or for local access (over the local serial port). This is done by the command: LOgin for remote access LOgin for local access As the Combinet bridges are shipped, they have no password. It should be noted that network access to the bridge is via the MAC address or the IP address. If the user is accessing through one or more routers, then only the IP address access is available. The Combinet bridges are shipped with no IP address. Thus, to get remote access, they must first have an IP address assigned. When this is assigned, it is strongly advised that a system password be set to prevent unauthorized remote configuration access. If you have any questions, please contact support@combinet.com. Thank you, Bob Downs Combinet bob@combinet.com ------------------------------ From: jvj@yorkshire.com Subject: Wanted: USED Dialogic Equipment Reply-To: jvj@yorkshire.com Organization: Cognitive and Neural Systems Research Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 15:36:25 GMT Hello, I am looking for some USED Dialogic equipment. I am interested in any of the following equipment: Dialogic D121x Dialogic D41x boards Dialogic LSI120 (or its predecessors (if there are any)) Dialogic MSIC board (24 port conferencing board) Dialogic SA120 I am looking for this equipment USED precisely because I cannot afford Dialogic's brand new prices. Please E-mail me if you have any of this equipment and want to sell it. Sincerely, Dr. John V. Jaskolski jvj@yorkshire.com ------------------------------ From: cengelog@cambridge.dab.ge.com (Yilmaz Cengeloglu) Subject: Question About Area Codes in USA Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1993 20:07:42 GMT Organization: Martin Marietta, Daytona Beach, Florida The second digit of all area codes in USA either 1 or 0. Is there any specific reason for that? Yilmaz [Moderator's Note: What you say is correct, but for not much longer. In about the next year, area codes will have middle digits like any other number. The original idea was that area codes would 'look different' than prefixes, which (originally) had digits 2 through 9 in the middle, but never a 0/1 as the first or second digit, and never a zero as the third digit. Several years ago, these restrictions on prefixes caused the supply to run short, so the rules were changed to allow 0/1 as the second and/or third digit, but never two 0's or two 1's in the same prefix. By keeping area codes 'looking different' than local exchange prefixes, there was no need to require a leading digit 1 to indicate 'long distance' or to use 'time outs' in dialing to indicate a local call, etc. The shortage of prefixes led to the elimination of this nice feature a few years ago; the shortage of area codes will eliminate the other side of this at the end of 1994. The first 'non 0/1 area code' will be 334 in Alabama next year. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tfreeman@netcom.com (Thomas Freeman) Subject: Common Carrier Information Wanted Please Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 03:42:00 GMT Does anyone out there know of a good source of information about the law concerning common carriers? How difficult/costly is it to become a common carrier? I'm looking for something that a non-lawyer can understand. Thanks in advance. Tom Freeman tfreeman@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: pawelb@ecs.comm.mot.com (Pawel Brzozka) Subject: Sources on No. 4 ESS Needed Organization: trunking_fixed Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 02:56:38 GMT Hi, I am taking a Telephone Switching class for my MSEE. Part of the class is a term paper. My topic is "No. 4 ESS". I am looking for good books and articles, preferably fairly recent, with description, analysis, critique, etc. of the No. 4 ESS. Could someone direct me to good (or just any) sources? Thanks a lot! Pawel Brzozka pawelb@comm.mot.com ------------------------------ From: bobt@zeus.net.com (Bob Tykulsker) Subject: Wiring a New Home - Suggestions? Date: 8 Nov 93 05:04:45 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 ------------------------------ From: mulchand@pyramid.com (Caryl Mulchand) Subject: Looking For *Current* Access Code Listing on LD Carriers Date: 7 Nov 1993 10:51:37 -0800 Organization: Pyramid Technology Corporation Need info on: 1. Access Code/Companies 2. Tariff (sp?) or regulations on their billing procedures 3. Who regulates items 1 and 2? Thank you all, caryl ------------------------------ From: ARTHUR%MPA15C@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 08 NOV 93 00:54 Subject: Battery Cross-Reference Information Needed I've owned a pre-breakup American Bell speakerphone for a few years, purchased for a whopping $5 at a rummage sale. It's an interesting unit, with nice display panel and 63 number storage. Of interest to Telecom readers is the incredible design deficiency whereby one cannot switch to the speakerphone once the handset has been used -- one can't put a picked-up call on the speaker! I'm sure the reason that this Touch-a-matic 6000 was given away was the reason that's been bugging me: if there's a loss of electric power, the entire memory gets cleared and thus the time, date, stored phone numbers have to be reentered. Quite a nuisance. Last night I tore the thing apart to see what might be wrong, and was surprised to find that a NiCad battery rather than, say, a storage capacitor is used to maintain power. Clearly the battery is kaput. Alas, it's such a bizarre battery -- Sanyo! -- that none of my references seem to tabulate anything similar. Can anyone provide a source of an equivalent unit to this guy? It's a Sanyo N-50SB3, a tubular battery 2"x3/8", with wire leads that solder to the PC board. Specifications include 3.6v/45mAh; the standard charge is 1.5mA. I'd be grateful for any leads! Arthur L. Shapiro ARTHUR%MPA15C@MPA15AB.MV-OC.UNISYS.COM Software Engineering Unisys Corporation Speaking as a civilian, rather than for Mission Viejo, CA Unisys, unless this box is checked: [ ] ------------------------------ From: dsomers@nunic.nu.edu Subject: Help Needed With Ethernet Terminal/Comm Servers Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 00:18:40 GMT Can anyone give me suggestions for 16 port ethernet terminal/comm servers? The requirements are: Multi-Session support, full modem (including hardware flow control) support, Telnet, SLIP, decent security features and RTelnet (not essential, but nice). We've already looked at Xyplex, Lantronix and Chase with varying degrees of satisfaction. Any suggestions will be MUCH appreciated. Thanks, Dave ------------------------------ From: stephen@clark.net (Stephen Balbach) Subject: Wanted: Information on DEC Internet Over Cable TV Device Date: 7 Nov 1993 21:37:09 -0500 Organization: Clark Internet Services, Balt/DC, mail all-info@clark.net I read recently of a device by DEC that allows an Internet feed through normal cable lines. It costs about $6000 on the cable provider side and an undiscolsed (but lesser amount) on the subscribers side for the hardware. Any information on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Stephen Balbach . Clark Internet Services . Washington D.C./Balt. metro area . mail all-info@clark.net . SLIP/PPP/UUCP/CSLIP . FAX 410-730-9765 Linux on Disk . 32 disks $45 . linux-all@clark.net . voice 410-740-1157 Time Card . Electronic Punch-Card System DOS . email stephen@clark.net ------------------------------ From: lbrodsky@copper.denver.colorado.edu (Lloyd Brodsky) Subject: Cheaper Long Distance Company Date: 7 Nov 93 22:21:19 GMT Organization: University of Colorado at Denver If anybody's interested, I'd be happy to forward contact information for a Denver-based firm I know that uses a computer program to identify the long distance carrier that minimizes your phone bill -- their fee is savings-based (no savings, no fee) and they self-describe as being useful to anybody with a three digit long distance bill. Lloyd Brodsky Internet: lbrodsky@copper.denver.colorado.edu P.O. Box 101804 Voice: 303-758-1474 Fax: 303-758-2037 Denver, Colorado 80250-1804, USA ------------------------------ From: tpehrson@slack.sim.es.com (Tim Clinkenpeel) Subject: Anyone Else With a "Connection 14.4" Modem? Date: 7 Nov 1993 16:24:12 -0700 Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation Reply-To: tpehrson@slack.sim.es.com I'm running Waffle with this ultra-cheap PC Card modem I picked up at software, etc. "Connection 14.4" is the name on the box. My users complain about getting good high speed connects. My powers of observation tell me the problem might be v.32 people are actually getting v.42 or something strange that produces only garbage. I am unable to connect high speed from my USR v.32 dual standard to this modem above 2400. Help? tim clinkenpeel: aberrant analytical skeptical agnostic idealist. -- i exclusively represent myself -- Editor: VidBits digital gaming magazine -- send mail or call bbs for info. Sysop: the Lizard's Den bbs (801) ITS-YODA - usenet, nethack, XiX, pc/amiga/mac ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 23:42:40 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Kaliningrad Staying in Russia? I wrote long ago about the Kaliningrad area (part of the Russian republic in the former USSR) being physically separate from the rest of that republic (you'd have to go through Lithuania and Belarus, and Lithuania is one of the Baltic republics and has gotten its own country code). A non-telecom item appearing today (Nov. 5) in the (Baltimore) {Evening Sun} mentions "In 2001, a space odyssey"; the story is about a U.S.- Russia space-station agreement, and the article even mentions Mission Control (capital letters as used by the newspaper!) in Houston (Texas) and Kaliningrad. I never heard of Kaliningrad being the home of a Mission Control for the then-Soviet space program. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 23:38:17 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Armstrong in Rising Sun, MD My eyebrows were raised a little today when I heard of cable service being provided by an Armstrong company with a phone on 410-658 prefix (that's Rising Sun, MD). I asked and heard that this is indeed connected with Armstrong Telephone serving Rising Sun (the only non-Bell company doing business in a Maryland exchange). I have recently noted that, in the Bell Atlantic / TCI merger proposal, Bell Atlantic would have to spin off the TCI companies doing business within its (Bell Atlantic's) service areas. Not complaining, but curious, with reference to the Armstrong cable service (their phone was answered "Armstrong Utilities" when I called it, but at this writing I don't have further business there). ------------------------------ From: elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) Subject: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 04:38:04 GMT Hello all, I run a nice little organization of folx who love progressive, instrumenatal, electronic music. Today some seriously hot news came in regarding some VIP's rare album. I would have loved to been able to put some of that on my answering machine so everyone else could hear it. Of course, there is no trying to put a lot of great news on an OGM when someone out there is going to be impatiently waiting for the beep. 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. That way, my phone line can double as a news hotline. Does any answering machine exist like this? What other features would it have? Thanks in advance, -E. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #742 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04703; 8 Nov 93 5:54 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09332 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 03:00:35 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14511 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 03:00:01 -0600 Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 03:00:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311080900.AA14511@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #743 TELECOM Digest Mon, 8 Nov 93 03:00:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 743 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Tony Curtis) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Chaim Frenkel) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Kevin C. Almeroth) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Tom Adams) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Dan Spencer) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Jon Gefaell) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (trader@cellar.org) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Mike Harpe) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Dave O'Shea) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Robert M. Topolski) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (John Rumpelein) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Jan Morales) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Tom Watson) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Mike Gore) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Stephen Friedl) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Pawel Dobrowolski) Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones (Eric N. Florack) Police and Criminals (Jim Wenzel) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones From: curtex@ZGNews.LoneStar.Org (Tony Curtis) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 93 11:32:28 CST Organization: The Zeitgeist BBS, Plano, TX 214 596 3720 puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) writes: > From the {Providence (RI) Journal}, quoted in the {Milwaukee Journal}: > Cellular Phone call tips police to car burglaries > Famous last words: 'That cop doesn't even know I'm on the phone.' > East Providence, R.I. - Police said that a man, talking to his > girlfriend on a cellular telephone while driving around early Monday, > bragged that he had looted several parked cars. What Robert Pimental, > 22, didn't know, police said, is that an officer patrolling nearby > happened to be listening in on the call on his cruiser's scanner. The > monitoring that lead to Pimental's being charged with possessing > stolen goods was just "one of those coincidences," said Lt. Daniel > Evans. Patrollman Bruce Atwell was cruising the area, according to > Evans, and was monitoring a scanner frequency that picks up cellular > phone calls. Atwell's ears perked up when he head a man tell a woman > that he had stolen items from several parked cars in Bristol, Evans > said. The man also told her he was driving along Crescent View Ave. > Atwell drove onto the avenue and pulled behind a small car whose male > driver was talking on a car phone, Evans said. And on his scanner, > Evans said, Atwell heard the man say there was a police cruiser behind > him. > The article goes on to say how he bragged about the cop not knowing he > was on the phone, was then pulled over, and the loot recovered. > Someone should tell the officer that it's illegal to monitor those > frequences. > [Moderator's Note: Someone should tell Robert Pimental that it is > illegal to strip autos. My sympathies are entirely with the police > officer on this one. PAT] What are the frequencies for cellular mobile communications? Didn't the FCC require scanner manufacturers to exclude these frequencies and aren't there some kits you can buy to enable these frequencies? ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: Sun, 07 Nov 93 20:49:14 -0500 From: Chaim Frenkel Personal to the Moderator: I distinctly recall, a large portion was in your favor. Why the (heavy handed) editing? > It is quite likely that half of the readers, would agree with our > ESTEEMED Moderator. Many people over the years have felt that voiding > evidence obtained illegally was a major blow to effective police > operations. [Moderator's Note: I don't recall any such thing. Maybe you should go back and read the earlier articles again. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kevin@cc.gatech.edu (Kevin C. Almeroth) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Organization: College of Computing, Georgia Tech Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 17:35:45 GMT Brett Frankenberger wrote: >> [Moderator's Note: Someone should tell Robert Pimental that it is >> illegal to strip autos. My sympathies are entirely with the police >> officer on this one. PAT] > Mine aren't. Unless the cop had a valid warrent, he broke the law. I > certainly hope he is prosecuted for that violation. >I don't feel much sympathy for Mr. Pimental, but for the sake of > protecting my rights, I hope he is released on insufficient evidence > (since the illegally monitored cell phone conversation is taintd, and > so just about anything following that is tainted also - I'm sure the > courts would rule that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy > while on a cell phone, since federal law bans monitoring of cell phone > calls). Okay, how about this hypothetical situation: Instead of breaking into someone else's car, suppose it was your car. Better yet, suppose he was bragging about killing one of your family members. How would you feel then? Especially considering you knew who the murderer was, but he was released on a technicality. Granted, what the officer did was illegal, but laws should not be absolute. When the breaking of a law benefits everyone except the criminal, then I say go for it. Laws should not be read word for word, but applied based on the situation. Kevin Almeroth (kevin@cc.gatech.edu) Telecommunications Systems Group College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology [Moderator's Note: Re your 'hypothetical situation' mentioned above, I've strongly believed for many years that federal judges and ACLU lawyers need to have their noses rubbed in their own mess. There should be a law that judges and lawyers are required to live among the people they manipulate so they could see the practical results of their ideas. In Chicago for example, police officers and city workers are required to live in Chicago. Too bad federal judges can sit in their ivy tower courtrooms, tell the rest of us what to do, then rush to the train sta- tion to get the 5:09 home to their lilly-white, rich, crime-free sub- urban community where they drink their martinis dry and fulminate on all the ways they saved us from ourselves that day. Ditto the lawyers. They should all be required to live in the housing projects for a few months, or maybe across the street from a burned out drug house. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tadams@wedge.sbc.com (Tom. Adams 529-7860) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: 7 Nov 1993 19:57:32 GMT Organization: Southwestern Bell Technology Resources Reply-To: tadams@sbctri.sbc.com Grover McCoury (gcm@fns.com) wrote: > [Moderator's Note: Very good point Mr. McCoury. We've had very little > liberty or personal safety in many parts of the USA for several years. > In Chicago for example, one certainly does not have the liberty to > walk around wherever one would like at night. We are hardly safe by > simply staying in our own homes either. How's the crime rate in Raleigh > this year, Grover? Did you have 97 children under the age of 12 killed > last year in street violence between competing gang members, etc? How > many drug houses are there on the block where you live? PAT] I'm a city dweller also. We've got plenty of problems in St. Louis. The city proper is becoming less and less safe, especially for children. And I and anyone else that can afford to will eventually take the same course PAT has and move somewhere else. Locations nearest our country's major centers of business more and more resemble barbaric third world countries with total economic and moral collapse. Perhaps rather than enterprise zones we need war zones with a complete suspension of civil liberties. I'd much prefer the confiscation of automatic weapons from our children than those of Somalia. Yet until civil liberties are suspended we as a society cannot allow our police force to break laws to convict people. How far would you allow the police to go? The cases in Detroit and LA show that some police officers can become violently out of control. Is that behavior acceptable? No matter who it is directed against? I suspect if you were even slightly harmed by a government official breaking a law that you'd be livid. Maybe even to the point of accepting help from that gosh awful ACLU (who I wish would choose cases with some understanding of PR fallout). And I or someone else may think your plight an acceptable consequence of safer streets. A better question is if the acts made illegal under the ECPA should be illegal. What reason is there to make monitoring this portion of the airwaves a crime? Why is it ok if the police or I overhear a crime on CB, pagers, 49 or 900 Mhz cordless phones, baby monitors, business FM or commercial broadcast, but not some particular portion of 800 Mhz. Damn stupid. Where's the ACLU when you need them? Tom Adams Southwestern Bell Technology Resources Telephone:314-529-7860 Fax:314-529-7573 Use this email address -->> tadams@sbctri.sbc.com <<<--- I speak for only one of the 50,000 people that work here. ------------------------------ From: dspenc1@uswnvg.com (Dan Spencer) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: 7 Nov 93 19:55:01 GMT Undoubtedly the privacy laws in the "Great White North" seem to be a bit lacking. Of course, this goes hand in hand with the fact that Victoria BC dumps raw sewage into the Straight of Juan de Fuca, and that citizens involved in peaceful protests to stop clearcutting of the last old growth forest on Vancouver Island are sentenced to 60 days+ in jail. Don't export your philosophy to a free country!!! ------------------------------ From: Jon Gefaell Subject: Re: Illegal Monitoring Of Cellular Phones Organization: Security and Technology Planning, ITC/UVA Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 22:51:51 GMT > I guess it comes down to whether you prefer getting bopped over the head > by a police officer or by a criminal on the street. Given my druthers, > I'll go with the former. Barney. I guess you've never heard of Rodney King, or for that matter you've never imagined worse situations that occur with all to great regularity. You are naive sir. Any opinions expressed herein are not intended to be construed as those of UVA Jon Gefaell, Computer Systems Engineer | Amateur Radio - KD4CQY Systems Research, ITC OSSSD/Carruthers Hall | -Will chmod for food- The University of Virginia, Charlottesville | Hacker@Virginia.EDU ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones From: trader@cellar.org Date: Sun, 07 Nov 93 22:00:23 EST Organization: The Cellar electronic community and public access system (Previous discussion of illegal monitoring of cellular phones deleted for brevity) > [Moderator's Note: So you feel the officer must be severely punished, > eh? Let's see, would ten years in prison be sufficient in your opinion? > And you don't recall hearing any sympathies expressed for Mr. Pimintel? > Don't worry, you will soon. The ACLU might hold a banquet and name > him their outstanding oppressed citizen of the year. At the very least, > his attorney will advise the court of how Pimintel was put upon and > abused. I never had any doubts that Pimintel will get off easily with > no punishment at all, and I still don't. That's the shameful part of > it all. PAT] Yes I feel that the officer should be severely punished. However, severely punished doesn't necessarily mean prison time (let alone ten year's worth). The officer needs to be punished, and at the same time, other officers need to understand that invasion of privacy and violation of Federal laws is not to be tolerated. I think that the best punishment in this case would be the removal of the officer from law-enforcement activities. And there's no need to inject hyperbole here. The ACLU serves an important function in protecting people against invasion of privacy (and other) abuses perpetrated by authorities -- much as the CPSR and EFF do. I assure you that they aren't going to name Mr. Pimental their "oppressed citizen of the year". Mr. Pimental will (or at least deserves to) get off this time. But, as is evident from the original story, Mr. Pimental is not a very bright fellow. Mr. Pimental will walk away from this and brag to all his friends about how he 'beat the man'. Mr. Pimental will continue to commit petty crimes, and he WILL get caught again. if the cops do their job right, he won't get off again. The knowledge that Mr. Pimental WILL eventually be caught again is justification enough for disallowing the general monitoring of/invasion of privacy of the population as a whole. ------------------------------ From: mike@hermes.louisville.edu (Mike Harpe) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 14:30:16 GMT Organization: University of Louisville Pat, I really like to think you're playing Devil's Advocate here. I simply cannot believe this blatant disregard for Fourth Amendment rights. The Law applies to everyone, Pat, even those charged with enforcing it. In fact, those who enforce it should be held to the highest possible standards of behavior. The behavior of that officer violates laws that you support!! I know this is a difficult position to be in, but I think you should at least be self-consistent. In our system, the suspect does get his charges dropped if his rights were violated or if the evidence was obtained unlawfully. If you think the constitutional protections afforded to all citizens are shameful then maybe you ought to find another country to live in. I understand that some of the third-world countries are not real big on civil rights and they even need help getting their phones set up. What a deal! You can be the telecom guru and judge and jury. Gee, just like TELECOM Digest but with real live people..... > [Moderator's Note: Very good point Mr. McCoury. We've had very little > liberty or personal safety in many parts of the USA for several years. This does not justify abandonment of the Constitution, Pat. I visited Chicago recently and I did notice the incredible violence. I also noticed that people seem to have given up, like you have. The Police cannot do it themselves. You have the liberty to go where you wish. Liberty is different from security. The only person preventing you from walking the streets is yourself. No one has said, "Patrick Townson cannot walk the streets at night". You made that call yourself. What has been limited, however, is your personal right to defend yourself if you are attacked. If you are attacked and you rightfully defend yourself with your fists, a knife, or even a gun, you will also be the bad guy. The same cops that you seem to think can do no wrong will promptly haul you off to jail in the same car with your assailants. Then you are challenged to prove that you are the victim. Oh sure, you get your day in court, but that by no means guarantees you win, nor should it. What you are really saying is that you don't believe in the system that these cops represent. You certainly don't trust them to protect you. This is bad, but it does not mean the system is wrong. It means that people have allowed the system to get to a state where the victim matters very little. Whether they are victims of an assault or the victim of unlawful evidence, a victim is a victim. There is no real difference between a person who is afraid to walk the streets and a person who has his Civil Rights violated by a police officer. From a more technical point of view, what is the difference between the cop monitoring cell phones and the cop using a lineman's set to listen to various phone lines at random? Using the lineman's set would absolutely violate Federal wiretap laws unless he has a Court Order. How can you possibly say that he has not violated the provisions of the ECPA? I do not accept that the fact that he a well-intentioned police officer excuses this. I want to know how you would explain this in Court as an expert witness under cross-examin- ation. That is one of things you do for a living, right? I know this is my second letter regarding this. I feel very strongly that you are taking an unreasonable position. It wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't for the extreme inconsistency of your views here. If that's intentional and intended to stimulate debate, that's one thing. What scares me is that you really believe this stuff. If you do, you are not the type of person that I want to be in charge of anything. It would be impossible to expect anything but capricious and arbitrary enforcement of the rules to your own purposes and ideals. This is the stuff of facism. Mike Harpe University of Louisville Michael Harpe, Programmer/Analyst Information Technology mike@hermes.louisville.edu University of Louisville (502)588-5542 Louisville, Ky. 40292 ------------------------------ From: dave_oshea@wiltel.com (Dave O'Shea) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 12:32:36 EST As repulsive as I often find the ACLU, I hope they do get involved in this case. The Law Is The Law, and putting police officers above it encourages a strong contempt for not only the police but the laws themselves. It's often quite easy to eavesdrop on conversations. Many apartment buildings have the demarc blocks in an unlocked cabinet in the basement. Should a cop sit there with a butt set and listen into anyone that he thinks might be doing something wrong? I mean, since you're a law-abiding citizen, you have nothing to fear from Sgt. Jones sitting in your basement listening in on your private conversations, right? Personally, I hope Pimintel gets Darwinized in a drive-by shooting, but my feelings towards him in no way excuse illegal eavesdropping by the very people we trust to uphold the laws. You're wrong on this one. Dave O'Shea dos@wdns.wiltel.com Sr. Network Support Engineer 201.236.3730 WilTel Data Network Services [Moderator's Note: As repulsive as I *always* find the ACLU, I am sure they will get involved. Pimintel will probably sue the city, get a lot richer than he ever would from stripping autos and write a book about how his rights were violated. PAT] ------------------------------ From: topolski@kaiwan.com (Robert M. Topolski) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Organization: KJ6YT Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 17:31:35 GMT There has to be more to this story. If the officer blatently, knowingly, and outright illegally collected this evidence, then his case is blown and Pimental will walk free. However, if the officer had a warrant to monitor for another call, and stumbled upon this -- or if the officer just happened upon this not intending to listen to cellular calls -- then IMH (and usually incorrect) O he still has a valid case. Nevertheless, even if the evidence gets suppressed and the case gets dismissed, Pimental is done in that jurisdiction. The crime was thwarted, the property (will be) returned to his rightful owner. The suspect is a marked man who will seldom be able to walk in public unnoticed by the cops. Perhaps justice doesn't prevail, but it doesn't entirely lose either. ---- PS ---- The ECPA is bad legislation. The fact that I can hear these calls on my scanner partnered with the facts that cellular customers don't like it, is a natural, free-market incentive for the industry to create security technology against it. The ECPA creates a false sense of security that their calls are secure. Someone in this thread compared it to wiretapping. I don't agree. While the crime may be intended to be the same, wiretapping requires a bit more active malice than passive, random monitoring does. Robert M. Topolski [Moderator's Note: Actually, the stolen goods do not get returned to their owners automatically. The owners have to go through a long, drawn- out process of proving they own the stuff, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1993 18:03:46 GMT From: jrumpele@ic.sunysb.edu (John Rumpelein) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones In article , wrote: > Pat, we support the law enforcement community on this issue, as well, > and offer a discount to them on our cellular surveillance equipment. > Laws are not designed to give an advantage to the criminal (at least > they shouldn't be!). I'm all for effective law enforcement, but I really have to strongly disagree with you folks on this issue. Investigators in the United States are required to follow strict guidelines for very good reasons. Most of these have to do with the Constitutional rights of US citizens. Did the officer in question know that the person he was listening to was a criminal? How many private conversations did he monitor driving around in his car, snickering to himself, while he should have been paying more attention to doing his job? People with no respect for the rights of honest citizens have no place on a police force in a free nation. Catching a car looter (who he might have caught anyway if he wasn't so busy eavesdropping) does not justify violating the privacy of an unknown number of innocent people. I'd love to see that car looter go to jail, but I'd also like to see that cop thrown off the force. [stuff deleted] > [Moderator's Note: Consider the readers notified, but now, let's not be > commercializing Usenet with any commercial propoganda :). > As Ehud would say, I, the Barney of Orange Cards forbid it. Commercial- > ization of the net and monopolization of telecom discussions is mine > alone, sayeth Moderator Barney. Any of you who were, uh, fortunate > enough to see his diatribe loose in the news stream, but posted with > pride in some news groups, how'd you like the way he flipped out? I > think he comes from some place where the police are extremely oppressive > and he figures here in the USA anything would be an improvement. I > guess it comes down to whether you prefer getting bopped over the head > by a police officer or by a criminal on the street. Given my druthers, > I'll go with the former. Barney. How bizarre. Whatever pill you took before you wrote that, I'll take two. But quite seriously, I'd rather be bopped over the head by a criminal than a police officer -- you can fight back against a criminal. If you ever hit a police officer you can expect to be charged with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. No judge is going to criticize you for pummeling a would-be mugger. Just a little reality check. All the anti-crime posing is very appealing, I live in a high-crime area also, but I'm still glad I don't have to worry about the cops *and* the criminals when I venture out at night. John JR / POB 339 / Stony Brook, NY 11790-0339 U.S.A. PGP2.3 public key available / Keep Internet Free Official mail: jrumpele@ic.sunysb.edu [ CompSci ] Encrypted mail: usviking@src4src.linet.org [ PGP-Admin ] IRC-related: usviking@imageek.york.cuny.edu [ Mjolnir3 Admin ] [ I speak for no one but myself unless it is stated otherwise explicitly. ] [Moderator's Note: Where I disagree with you is that I can get bopped over the head by the police and still argue the matter in a rationale way in court. Criminals cannot be dealt with rationally. If you don't do as they say, they have no compunction against killing you, dope- crazed as so many of them are. The government does not scare me; I know the rules they follow and can play along. I may lose or I may win, but I have a fair chance at winning. With a criminal, you don't know what rules he intends to follow, if any. Arguing with a rational entity (the government) I stand a chance of winning or at least not losing violently. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jan@filetek.com (Jan Morales) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Organization: FileTek, Inc., Rockville, Maryland, U.S.A. Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 20:33:57 GMT Pat, The shameful part is that you take your liberty so much for granted that you don't even recognize that you're suggesting giving it away. By this line of reasoning you also favor sobriety checkpoints, piss tests, loyalty oaths, etc. I don't know if you've addressed this question directly, but from reading your comments on this subject it follows (if logic serves me) that you believe either: 1. that it should be legal for people to listen in on cellular phone conversations (or at least the police should be able to do so without a warrant), or 2. that the use of evidence obtained in violation of law should be allowed in the prosecution of the accused. I find both possibilities to be terrifying and completely un-American. Jan Morales Internet: jan@filetek.com FileTek, Inc. UUCP: uunet!fltk!jan Rockville, Maryland, U.S.A. [Moderator's Note: Personally, I find the drug dealers who took over our old apartment building in Chicago to be terrifying, but I doubt you would know anything about that, living in blissful ignorance of the big city as you apparently do. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tsw@cypher.apple.com (Tom Watson) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: 7 Nov 1993 21:59:41 GMT Organization: Apple Computer (more or less) I have a 'wager' with the person in the next cube ... can somebody cite the exact federal code section that dis-allows [reception- radios-etc.] of cell phone calls. I may make some money on this terrible mess. Thanks. (standing by for the expected flood of e-mail, probably from the Moderator.) Tom Watson tsw@cypher.apple.com ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 19:24:08 GMT > It is trivial to monitor cellular telephone traffic without > monitoring verbotten frequencies. Usually, the cellular stuff can > also be heard above or below the 'real' frequencies. I believe you are referring to image frequencies, whereby it is illegal to listen to B, so you tune your scanner to A, but receive B (because A was specially chosen to be 2 * IF from B). This is not legal. You are still listening to B. (Can I build a scanner that always shows - 100 MHz on the display, then set it to the high 700 MHz band and listen to cellular. Surely not. Note that in the above example, you are still receiving RF energy at frequency B and listening to it. The fact that the only reason it works is that the filters in the scanner are not perfect is irrevelant. I suppose theoretically you could take advantage of non-linearities on the RF transmitters and actually receive RF energy at some other frequency than B (2*B, for example) and listen to that. That would be borderline, but probably you could win in court. But that isn't trivial to do, so I assume what you were referring to was simply shifting the 'requested' frequency on the scanner by 2*IF and getting the signals that way, which doesn't make it legal. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: magore@icr2.uwaterloo.ca (Mike Gore) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 14:13:06 GMT I think I understand the question being implied here: Why is it that the police officer's evidence (illegal monitoring) must be thrown out, because it is morally tainted, but Mr. Pimental's evidence (illegal auto parts) must not, even though the evidence is also the result of an immoral act as well? (Yes I know the law would seem to say this will happen, it's it's mainly a rethorical quetion.) My understanding is that the key reason one tosses out such evidence is to give a healthy negative reason for doing it - but would not also the simple fact of possible jail time do the same? That is, if a police officer felt strongly enough that yes he may "nail" the person but only in exchange go to jail for it. In summary my actual question is: why is it only done the way it is now? As an alternative would it in fact be reasonable to see two posible crimes with two sets of evidence? Mike Gore, Technical Support, Institute for Computer Research Internet: magore@icr2.uwaterloo.ca UUCP: uunet!math!icr2!magore These ideas/concepts do *not* imply views held by the University of Waterloo. ------------------------------ From: friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen Friedl) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: 8 Nov 93 02:29:28 GMT Organization: Software Consulting, Tustin, CA Chaim Frenkel writes: > It is quite likely that half of the readers, would agree with our > ESTEEMED Moderator Only those that favor outcome over process. Stephen J Friedl | Software Consultant | Tustin, CA | +1 714 544-6561 3B2-kind-of-guy | I speak for me ONLY | KA8CMY | uunet!mtndew!friedl Attorneys are paranoid because they assume everyone else is dishonest too. [Moderator's Note: And there are quite a few of us who favor outcome over process. Make no mistake about it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dobrowol@husc8.harvard.edu (Pawel Dobrowolski) Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Date: 7 Nov 1993 17:41:45 GMT Organization: Harvard University Science Center Folx I think a point needs to be made about the fact that there is a trade off between privacy and efficiency. E.g. the password on my account slows me from getting to my mail, but I am prepared to accept in order to prevent strangers from reading my mail. The same is true in case of scanning cellular frequencies. And the main problem seems to be that those living in high crime areas are willing to accept less privacy for more efficient law enforcement. But since laws affecting these issues are frormed at the Federal level, those wanting more efficient law enforcement will inevitably clash with those living in safe areas who are intersted in more privacy. Trading insults here won't solve the problem; I don't know what will: maybe moving jurisdiction over these issues to the state or city level could help soften this conflict. Pawel ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 08:07:25 PST From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: Illegal Police Monitoring of Cellular Phones Ya know, Pat, for all of the chatter in here about the Fourth Amendment rights, and how the car-stripper`s rights were violated by the cop, I have to wonder, in light of current events in the Senate, how many would feel the same about Bob Packwood, and his rights to privacy? I know this is not exactly Telecom in nature, but I`m taking the argument they`re using, and drawing a parallel in non-telcom issues. I mean, they`re charging you with being selective in your application of the Fourth. Are they, re: Packwood? Then how can they apply their standards, in the case under discussion? As always, /E ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1993 09:54:00 -0500 From: jim.wenzel@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (Jim Wenzel) Subject: Police and Criminals Reply-To: jim.wenzel@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (Jim Wenzel) Organization: The GrapeVine BBS *** N. Little Rock, AR *** (501) 753-8121 TM> pride in some news groups, how'd you like the way he flipped out? I TM> think he comes from some place where the police are extremely TM> oppressive and he figures here in the USA anything would be an TM> improvement. I guess it comes down to whether you prefer getting TM> bopped over the head by a police officer or by a criminal on the TM> street. Given my druthers, I'll go with the former. Barney. I have restrained myself from replying to this but, can no longer do so. When the police act like criminals who is going to act like Police? If I get bopped over the head by a criminal I have some recourse. If by the police what recourse do I have? If I shoot a criminal in my house stealing it is called self-defense. If I shoot a policeman performing search and seizure in my house it's called murder. You say one is authorized and the other isn't. Authorized by who I ask? I run a BBS and must face this possibility every day. I try to keep it as clean as I can get it ... yet, at anytime, my equipment may be ceased. Maybe for a text file? or a .gif picture? Who knows? It's not even necessary for them to press charges anymore it seems. You mention the murders in your city, particularly among the young. I ask what have *you* done about it? Or do you leave it to the government to take care of for you? If your not willing to fight and/or help educate then you are part of the problem. I work with alchoholics and drug addicts (toward recovery) yet, I still carry a gun as well. Giving our rights away is not the answer. Expecting those that enforce the laws to abide by them is paramount to a civil society. When the line between Police and Criminal gets blurred we all suffer. The GrapeVine Bulletin Board System (501) 753-8121 PGP Distribution Site, UseNet, RIME, ThrobNet, MediaNet, U'niNet, ForthNet RecoveryNet, MetroLink. Putting Communications back in Telecommunication ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #743 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05040; 8 Nov 93 6:37 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01618 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 03:26:34 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21588 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 03:26:00 -0600 Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 03:26:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311080926.AA21588@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #744 TELECOM Digest Mon, 8 Nov 93 03:26:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 744 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Mart Molle) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (R. Kevin Oberman) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (John R. Levine) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Dave McCracken) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (H. Peter Anvin) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Steven King) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Brett Frankenberger) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Tony Harminc) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Devon Sean McCullough) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Tom Murray) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (Tod McQuillin) Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression (David Hough) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mart@csri.toronto.edu (Mart Molle) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 11:01:57 -0500 pustule@cats.ucsc.edu (Thaddeus H. Wood) writes: > Okay. Here's my thought-dilemma. It's my intuitive belief that a > file maximally compressed with a non real-time LZW algorithm, such as > used in pkZIP or lha, should not be able to be compressed with a > real-time algorithm such as v.42bis. This seems logical to me. If > anyone can say otherwise, please do. It seems logical to me too. > Now, it is also my understanding that when using a 14.4kbs modem, one > should be able to send 1440 bytes/second. Taking into consideration 1 > start and 1 stop bit per byte. This is where the inconsistency in your thought-dilemma comes in. The serial connection between your computer and your modem is indeed =asynchronous= ASCII (with 10 bits per character, including start/stop bit overhead). However, the telephone connection between the two v.32bis modems is =synchronous= so it uses only 8 bits per character, plus framing overhead for delimiting blocks of data and checksums, which adds less than 2 bits per character. Observe that the conversion from an asynchronous to a synchronous stream of characters reduces the bit rate from the user by 20%, which frees up enough bandwidth for a modem to do error correction, even without compression. > Now, what I want to know is why when I transfer a highly compressed > file using a v.32bis and v.42bis modem, I almost always see a > throughput of nearly 1650 bytes/second. 14400/8 = 1800 bytes/second, without =any= compression, if we ignore framing and error correction overhead. Your observed performance sounds reasonable to me, since it includes about 10% overhead. There is nothing to suggest that using v.42bis for off-line compression of disk files would be A Good Thing. Mart L. Molle Computer Systems Research Institute University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 1A4 (416) 978-4928 ------------------------------ From: oberman@ptavv.llnl.gov Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 14:59:02 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Your intuition is incorrect in many cases. LZW is a wonderful compression algorithm as is V.42bis. I don't know why you call one "real time" and the other not "real time" since both operated on a data stream and are well suited to operating on data "in transit", which makes them seem like "real time" to me. It was exactly this characteristic which made LZ (the predecessor of LZW) such a huge breakthrough in compression. In any case, compression algorithms by recognizing repeated patterns in the data flow and replacing them by a single copy of the pattern and a pointer to that pattern in each location where the pattern originally occurred. But different algorithms deal with both in what is recognized as a pattern and over what scope a pattern is recognized. Thus a file that has been compressed with LZW will simply grow larger if you attempt to compress it again. But if you take data that has been compressed with, say, RLE, another algorithm like LZW will further compress it. While I'm not familiar with the details of V.42bis, I believe it is very near to state of the art and very efficient. Even if no more efficient than LZW, simply differing operational constraints might result in better compression of an LZW compressed file. But it is also possible that you could take a V.42bis compressed file, run it through LZW, and wind up with a smaller file, too. Unfortunately I don't know of any compression code that includes the V.42bis compression algorithm, so this is hard to check. R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: koberman@llnl.gov (510) 422-6955 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 09:27 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Organization: I.E.C.C. > [I'd think that a zipped file shouldn't be further compressible by v.42] > ... when using a 14.4kbs modem, one should be able to send 1440 bytes/second. > Taking into consideration 1 start and 1 stop bit per byte. > [So why do] I almost always see a throughput of nearly 1650 bytes/second? You're right, V.42 doesn't do squat for compressed data since it uses LZW compression itself. But its communication is internally synchron- ous. It sends a block of data with header bits but no internal start and stop bits, so the bytes are really 8 bits, not 10. This gives you a raw data rate of 1800 cps before all the overhead, which makes everything believable. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: dmc@austin.ibm.com (Dave McCracken) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Date: Sun, 07 Nov 93 09:20:26 -0600 In article pustule@cats.ucsc.edu (Thaddeus H. Wood) writes: > Now, it is also my understanding that when using a 14.4kbs modem, one > should be able to send 1440 bytes/second. Taking into consideration 1 > start and 1 stop bit per byte. > Now, what I want to know is why when I transfer a highly compressed > file using a v.32bis and v.42bis modem, I almost always see a > throughput of nearly 1650 bytes/second. There's a very simple explanation here. V.32bis modems strip off the start and stop bits, so are only sending 8 bits per byte, instead of the 10 on an async line. This makes a theoretical speed of 14400/8, or 1800 chars/sec. In practice the limit is usually quoted as around 1700 chars/sec. Dave McCracken IBM DCE Threads Development, Austin, TX IBM email: dmc@austin.ibm.com Real email: dcm@cactus.org ------------------------------ From: hpa (H. Peter Anvin N9ITP) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Reply-To: hpa@nwu.edu (H. Peter Anvin) Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 18:24:34 GMT > Now, it is also my understanding that when using a 14.4kbs modem, one > should be able to send 1440 bytes/second. Taking into consideration 1 > start and 1 stop bit per byte. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I have underlined the assumption of yours that isn't correct. 1 start bit and 1 stop bit per byte is stripped already in the error- correction protocol (V.42). So even if V.42bis says "it's a compressed file, just let it go", V.42 will still strip the start and the stop bits and *sychronously* transmit your data in packet form. There is some packet overhead (which is why you don't see 14400/8 = 1800 CPS), plus the overhead of your transfer protocol, but it by far beats asynchronous framing. The only place you will have start and stopbits is on the local RS-232 cable between your modem and your computer. hpa INTERNET: hpa@nwu.edu FINGER/TALK: hpa@ahab.eecs.nwu.edu IBM MAIL: I036073 at IBMMAIL NeXTMAIL: hpa@speedy.acns.nwu.edu ------------------------------ From: king@rtsg.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Date: 7 Nov 1993 19:06:55 GMT Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group Reply-To: king@rtsg.mot.com Ah, but you've overlooked an important (and little-known) point. You've assumed 10 bits/character to arrive at your 14400 bps = 1440 cps figure. This approximation is good for raw data transmission -- 8 data bits plus 1 start bit plus 1 stop bit equal 10 bits per character. However, the V.42 and MNP4 error correction schemes strip the start and stop bits. Note that this is the error correction scheme doing the work here; data compression is turned off for the "uncompressible" files. Nope, there's no magic ultra-compression protocol that should be implemented in your archiver. You're just seeing some of the overhead of data communications stripped away. Here's a section from the text file "What You Need To Know About Modems", by Patrick Chen. I don't recall where I got it originally, though the copyright notice claims that it may be freely distributed. This file itself is a section of Mr. Chen's book, "The Joy of Telecomputing". Write me and I'll send the entire file (over 100 Kbytes!) which includes ordering information for the book. This file is a *very* good description of all the fancy new modem technology. ------------------- V.42 & MNP-4 can improve throughput The other benefit of V.42 (or MNP 4) is that it can improve throughput. Before sending the data to a remote system, a modem with V.42 (or MNP 4) assembles the data into packets and during that process it is able to reduce the size of the data by stripping out the start and stop bits. A character typically takes up 1 start bit, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit for a total of 10 bits. When two modems establish a reliable link using V.42 or MNP 4, the sending modem strips the start and stop bits (which subtracts 20% of the data) and sends the data to the other end. The receiving modem then reinserts the start and stop bits and pass the data to the remote computer. Therefore, even without compressing the data you can expect to see as much as 1150 characters per second on a 9600 bps connection. (Although the modem subtracts 20% of the data, the speed increase is less than 20% due to the overhead incurred by the error control protocol.) Here are the test results obtained by downlaoding the same file (1) without any error control protocol, (2) with MNP-4, and (3) with V.42. No data compression protocol is used. Filename No EC MNP-4 V.42 ------------------------------------------------------------------ the-wave.txt 935 cps 1151 cps 1128 cps dayrpt.arc 863 1023 1002 dayrpt.wks 898 1071 1052 sunset.arc 838 971 953 sunset.pic 903 1080 1065 text109k.arc 908 1085 1064 text109k.txt 937 1150 1127 ---------------- Steven King -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 00:12:47 GMT pustule@cats.ucsc.edu (Thaddeus H. Wood) writes: > Okay. Here's my thought-dilemma. It's my intuitive belief that a > file maximally compressed with a non real-time LZW algorithm, such as > used in pkZIP or lha, should not be able to be compressed with a > real-time algorithm such as v.42bis. This seems logical to me. If > anyone can say otherwise, please do. Well, that's a general statement, and I doubt it is 100% true, but in general, yes, that's correct. And, in fact, you probably aren't getting any compression ... read on ... > Now, it is also my understanding that when using a 14.4kbs modem, one > should be able to send 1440 bytes/second. Taking into consideration 1 > start and 1 stop bit per byte. > Now, what I want to know is why when I transfer a highly compressed > file using a v.32bis and v.42bis modem, I almost always see a > throughput of nearly 1650 bytes/second. Well, your start-stop bit assumption isn't exactly right ... it is true that standard asynchronous serial uses one start and one stop bit. Thus, if you run your serial port at 14400bps, you will only get 1440 byte/sec. But, you are probably running your serial port at at least 38400bps, giving a max of 3840 byte/sec. Thus, the limiting factor becomes the modem. Since we know the modem is sending 14400 bits per second out the phone line, there are two ways it could possibly get 1650 byte/sec ... (1) Compression ... but we have established with reasonable certainty that your files are not being compressed by v.42bis, so the other reason is: v.42 (which is error correction, as opposed to v.42bis with is compression ... v.42bis runs 'on top of' v.42 (but you can disable v.42bis without disabling v.42) is more efficient than standard async. They realized that since v.32bis (the modulation protocol for 14400bps) is inherently synchronous, there is little need to send the start and stop bits over the phone line. Thus, they are stripped out at the transmitting modem and then added back in at the receiving modem. This gives a maximum modem data rate (assuming no compression) of 14400/8=1800cps. So why do you only get 1650 and not 1800. Overhead. First, v.42 adds some overhead for the checksums and acknowledgements, etc., since it is an error correcting protocol. Second, what ever download protocol you are using (zmodem, for example) also adds some overhead. Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Nov 93 19:07:03 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression You are not taking into account that the modem doesn't have to send 10 bits per byte. It can run in synchronous mode, sending just 8 bits/byte. Of course there is some overhead, framing, sync bits, etc. but it doesn't come out to nearly as much as 2 bits/byte. So if you start from a base of 14400/8 = 1800 bytes/second, then your measured speed of 1650 is an indication of how much overhead the modem has introduced. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Date: 8 Nov 1993 05:21:46 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA In article pustule@cats.ucsc.edu (Thaddeus H. Wood) writes: > ...Now, what I want to know is why when I transfer a highly compressed > file using a v.32bis and v.42bis modem, I almost always see a > throughput of nearly 1650 bytes/second. > My mind tells me that this compression ratio should not be possible in > a real-time environment on already compressed data. One element of the algorithm you may not be counting: The "1440 characters" speed is async, at 10 bits/byte (due to start and stop bits), but the 1650 bytes/sec is based on synchronous transmission, since V.42bis converts the data into synchronous blocks at 8 bits/byte. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: devon@ai.mit.edu (Devon Sean McCullough) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Date: 7 Nov 93 03:39:50 Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory > Now, what I want to know is why when I transfer a highly compressed > file using a v.32bis and v.42bis modem, I almost always see a > throughput of nearly 1650 bytes/second. I'm fairly sure v.32 is synchronous over the wire, in fact I think everything over 600 is, and just talks asynch on the DTE side. In any case stop/start bits are the first thing I would flush in data compression, therefore no mystery, 14400/8=1800>1650. Is this so? ------------------------------ From: tmurr@hw22.ma30.bull.com (Tom Murray) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Organization: Bull Information Systems Inc. Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 15:37:13 GMT In article , pustule@cats.ucsc.edu (Thaddeus H. Wood) writes: > Okay. Here's my thought-dilemma. It's my intuitive belief that a > file maximally compressed with a non real-time LZW algorithm, such as > used in pkZIP or lha, should not be able to be compressed with a > real-time algorithm such as v.42bis. This seems logical to me. If > anyone can say otherwise, please do. I believe you are correct. In fact, trying to compress a compressed file can make it bigger. I -think- the actual transmission protocol used is actually synchronous (HDLC) and therefore it isn't 10bits/byte but 8bits/byte, there are no start/stop bits. 14400/8 = 1800 bytes/second. then you have to take framing bytes into account, which will drop it somewhat. > And, of course, if this message seems totally ludicrous to you, please > be forgiving. It's been a long day. Not at all, and please note this is My level of understanding, I'm sure other knowledgeable folks will correct it where it is in error. Tom Murray Zenith Data Systems (508) 294-2285 300 Concord Road MA30/MS853A T.Murray@ma30.bull.com Billerica, MA 01821-4186 ------------------------------ From: mcquill@keen.ccit.duq.edu (Tod McQuillin) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Date: 7 Nov 1993 23:47:35 GMT Organization: Duquesne University v.32bis modems use a modulation protocol where start and stop bits are not actually transmitted over the phone line -- start/stop bits are stripped off at the sending modem and reattached at the receiving modem. So in fact it only takes 8 bits to send a byte with v.32bis as opposed to 10. So at 14400 bps, you get (theoretically) 14400/8 cps, or 1800 cps. Probably the reason you don't see a full 1800 bps is the overhead of trying to recompress already compressed data, or error correction overhead, or the overhead of whatever file transfer protocol you're using. Tod McQuillin Duquesne University ------------------------------ From: dave@llondel.demon.co.uk (David Hough) Subject: Re: LZW Compression -vs- v.42bis Compression Reply-To: dave@llondel.demon.co.uk Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1993 20:21:30 This is true - it should not be possible to compress an ideal algorithm. Note that PKZIP is not ideal, because it stores filenames as plain text (try an ASCII dump of a ZIPped file sometime). A 14400bps modem uses synchronous comms, so there are no start/stop bits. You will find some overhead, because there will be start/stop flags on blocks of data, and some form of link protocol for error correction etc. Not bad -- with no overhead you would get 1800bytes/second (14400/8) but you are probably close to optimum. For non-compressed files make sure you have the modem<>PC link at 38400bps otherwise that may turn out to be a bigger bottleneck than the modem<>modem link! Dave G4WRW @ GB7WRW.#41.GBR.EU AX25 dave@llondel.demon.co.uk Internet g4wrw@g4wrw.ampr.org Amprnet ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #744 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11860; 8 Nov 93 22:44 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25875 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 19:58:44 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24771 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 19:58:13 -0600 Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 19:58:13 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311090158.AA24771@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #745 TELECOM Digest Mon, 8 Nov 93 19:58:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 745 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Secure Software (David R. Arneke) Mobitex Software and Experiences (Peter van Eijk) Book Review: "Fantastic LANtastic" by Talbott/Raker (Rob Slade) Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Russell Sharpe) Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Ethan Miller) Bill Collectors Calling a Neighbor (Carl Moore) Re: UK Plugs, Pinout Needed (Louis Emmet Mahoney) Re: UK Plugs, Pinout Needed (Ian Payton) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (coyne@thing1.cc.utexas.edu) Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (Steve Forrette) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: darneke@attmail.com (David R Arneke) Date: 8 Nov 93 10:06:17 GMT Subject: AT&T Secure Software Attached is a press release from AT&T Secure Communications Systems that isn't really telecom-related, but might be of interest to Internet users. We'll be demonstrating these and other data security products at COMDEX next week (we're in the NCR booth). We have a variety of secure communications products in our line, hardware and software, voice, data, fax, video and wireless. I'll keep the information coming as we put it out. Thanks again. Sincerely, David Arneke Media Relations Manager, AT&T Secure Communications Systems 919 279-7680 david.arneke@att.com AT&T INTRODUCES SECURITY SOFTWARE TO PROTECT PC, WORKSTATION DATA AND COMMUNICATIONS GREENSBORO, North Carolina -- AT&T is introducing software programs that protect a variety of laptop, PC and workstation applications. The shrink-wrapped programs, announced today, provide data privacy, digital signatures and secure data transmission. They are the first in a series that will provide end-users with public key cryptography capabilities. AT&T Secure Communications Systems has previously developed a multilevel secure UNIX software package. The products announced today are its first security-related offerings in the DOS/Windows and Macintosh markets. "These programs are a user-friendly means of establishing privacy for files stored on laptops, PCs and workstations," said Bill Franklin, business development manager for AT&T Secure Communications Systems. "They also provide privacy and other security functions for electronic mail, electronic data interchange, electronic commerce and a variety of other communications applications that users may want to keep private. The emphasis is on enterprise and inter-enterprise security applications." The software has particularly strong business and mobile computing applications. "These programs offer key capabilities for anyone working on the road, from home, at remote work sites or in a mobile-office setting," Franklin said. "They can reduce the risks of communicating over public networks." The programs incorporate emerging and established federal standards and operate across a wide variety of platforms, including MS-DOS, Windows, Macintosh and various UNIX systems. The first programs in the series are: -- AT&T SecretAgent (R), which implements the Digital Encryption Standard for privacy and the Digital Signature Algorithm and Secure Hash Standard to protect the integrity of files stored on or transmitted from personal computers. It operates transparently to e-mail systems. -- AT&T dsaSIGN (TM), which provides authentication and data integrity assurance for electronic documents through use of the Digital Signature Algorithm and Secure Hash Standard. -- AT&T SecureZMODEM (TM), which encrypts data on the fly as it is transmitted using the ZMODEM communications protocol. Additional software products based on RSA public-key technology are also available. "We will also introduce access control products, com- patible with the products we're announcing today, for PCs, workstations and networks in the coming months," Franklin said. All three programs were developed for AT&T by Information Security Corporation of Deerfield, Illinois. They are available exclusively from AT&T and its distributors. ISC will be AT&T's primary representative in the government market for these and related products. The programs use proven technology that has been available in the government market for more than a year. "All three have gained strong acceptance among government computer users," said Tom Venn, president of Information Security Corporation. The single-copy price for AT&T SecretAgent is $329.95; for AT&T dsaSIGN, $149.95; and for AT&T SecureZMODEM, $99.95. Site and enterprise licenses and volume discounts are available. All programs are available now directly from AT&T Secure Communications Systems and its distributors. Customers can get more information on AT&T software security programs by calling 1 800 203-5563. For media inquiries, call David Arneke at AT&T Secure Communications Systems, 919 279-7680. ------------------------------ From: cvitoa!pve@uunet.UU.NET (Peter van Eijk) Subject: Mobitex Software and Experiences Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 10:56:34 GMT Organization: Centrum Voor Informatieverwerking, Utrecht, The Netherlands Dear datacom people, As you may be aware of, Mobitex is a protocol for mobile packet switched datacom. Mobitex networks are operational in several countries of the world, including the USA. A substantial number of these is run by RAM Mobile. My company is starting to get involved in developing and deploying Mobitex based applications. I am now following leads w.r.t. software that will help us doing so. Suppliers i know of are: Nettech of NJ, AU system of Sweden, Research in Motion of Waterloo, Ontario. At this moment i am interested in sharing experiences in Mobitex application development. Also it would be nice to have email addresses of suppliers (we do have a six to nine hour time difference with North America). Given interest, I'll summarize. Peter van Eijk, CVI (Dutch Rail Automation), +31 30 924632 pve@cvi.ns.nl PO Box 2233 3500 GE Utrecht NL. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Nov 93 14:36 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Fantastic LANtastic" by Talbott/Raker BKFANLAN.RVW 931027 OnWord Press 1580 Center Drive Santa Fe, NM 87505 "Fantastic LANtastic", Talbott/Raker, 1992, $US29.95, 0-934605-68-8 However you feel about LANtastic itself, this book has one very major point going for it: it is written for everyone. There are four well-defined sections for users, advanced users, administrators and installers. The ordering (as listed) is very helpful. Novice users will find their material first, whereas those wanting more advanced functions will be those who are used to computer documentation. One minor quibble in this regard is that the table of contents, at more than twenty pages, may scare off the newcomer before he or she gets to the opening chapter (forty-four pages in). The text is light and informal, and well supported by screen illustrations from both the DOS and Windows versions of the network operating system interface. The informality may go too far at times. (The material contains many helpful troubleshooting hints. An early one recommends abusing the network installer, and then asking for help. I'd think it would work much better the other way around.) Also, some of the hints may not be the best approach to a problem. Using an "external" editor for mail requires that the file be saved in ASCII or DOS text format. It is recommended in Word, to print to a file using the TTY format. Word, however, does have a feature to save to a text file built in. Part four, dealing with network installation, is a valuable resource often left out of LAN-related books. Unfortunately it is long on very detailed product specific information, and short on generic advice for the novice installer. Since LANtastic is very attractive to those wanting to network a few machines to share simple resources, this latter omission could be important. Chapter nineteen (the first chapter in part four) supposedly deals with designing a network. While it asks all the right questions, it doesn't tell you how to deal with the answers. There are other omissions. Security is given a reasonable amount of space. However, while password setting, changing and aging are discussed, selection of good passwords is not. There is a brief section on viral programs. If I understand it correctly, the authors have a good grasp of the realities of the situation. Unfortunately, this is one area where their humour has been granted too much leeway, and it is difficult to interpret what has been written. Altogether, this book is a very useful "one stop" reference for LANtastic networks. Given the preference for LANtastic in situations that are either very limited or highly technical, the shortcomings of the work may be either unimportant or easily covered. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKFANLAN.RVW 931027 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of 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: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (russell sharpe) Subject: Re: Earthquake Preparedness Date: 8 Nov 1993 09:38:24 GMT Organization: Wellington City Council, Public Access Reply-To: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz In article , ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) writes: > Does someone know about any report relative to the telecommunication > problems encoutered after an Earthquakes (or any document related to > this topic as for example the actions needed to prevent > telecommunication problems or about the infrastructure needed to > preserve communication after the earthquakes). References to > newspapers or books and technical documents are welcolmed. Many > thanks. 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. - Trunk Route Diversity - There is more than one Cable route in/out of each major building (ie.at least one cable entrance at one end of the building, and one at the other. - National routes, use diversified Fibre Optic Transmission systems (FOTS), Coaxial Transmission Systems, and Digital Microwave Sytems to provide more than one route. - Switches All switches, and their buildings have been maintained upto very stringent seismic rules (Some of these are Government rules, and some Telecom's). Examples are: - When a new building is erected next to an existing Switching Centre, the Switching building must be upgraded to the same seismic rating as the new. - All switches are strongly bonded to the building with steel seismic braces, so no equipment will have the tendency to fall over. - Misc equipment, such as instruments, and ladders, must be properly stored away, or strapped to the wall to prevent falling. - Staff At every site the are Civil Defence Cabinets, which contain light rescue equipment, food/water supplies, and other Civil Emergency equipment that might be needed in an emergency. Russell Sharpe UseNet: sharpe_r@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz FidoNet: 3:771/370 Voice: +64 4 5637779 snailmail: 171 Holborn Drive Stokes Valley 6008 New Zealand ------------------------------ From: elm@cs.berkeley.edu (ethan miller) Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications Date: 8 Nov 93 10:21:51 Organization: Berkeley -- Shaken, not Stirred Reply-To: elm@cs.berkeley.edu David Chessler writes: > In approximately 1969 there was a serious earthquake in Santa > Barbara, Calif., which damaged several telephone company > central offices. > This is the only U.S. earthquake in the last twenty years that > had any significant effect on the telephone system. 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. Just goes to show that you can plan all you want to avoid physical trauma to the phone system, but that doesn't guarantee the system will be working usefully 100% of the time. ethan miller--cs grad student elm@cs.berkeley.edu #include ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 23:47:28 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Bill Collectors Calling a Neighbor Page 2A of the November 5 {Baltimore Sun} has a Mike Royko column (obviously syndicated) about some bill-collector tactics. He writes of Dave Gault, age 32 and living in Chicago, getting calls from bill collectors who are not after him but after a NEIGHBOR. According to the article, Mr. Gault knows nothing about this deadbeat neighbor except that he is a neighbor. It mentions Mr. Gault making a 1:30 AM phone call to the worst of the callers, a woman in Ohio whose first name is Jane, and Jane threatened to file charges if he did that again (it was 2:30 AM in Ohio). The article goes on to say that there are federal and state laws to help people in situations like Mr. Gault's. [Moderator's Note: The same article was in the {Chicago Tribune}, and as usual, Royko made a silly commentary. Unfortunatly for Mr. Gault, 'Jane' is right and he is wrong. Under *no circumstances* according to the law could 'Jane' or others like her call at 1:30 AM to discuss whatever they want to talk about. By virtue of him placing his call deliberatly at that hour, he was harassing her. His answer was that since his sleep during the day (he is a night worker) was interuppted, 'Jane' should have her sleep interuppted also. That's not the way the law pertaining to bill collectors reads. The law says collectors can call between 8 AM and 8 PM local time, and never on Sunday. The law makes no particular allowance for night workers who may be asleep at those hours. Bill collectors working evening shifts make calls to the east coast first *then* start calling the west coast since they are allowed by law to call until 8 PM *local* time, which is maybe 10-11 PM if they themselves are on the east coast. Mr. Gault does have legal recourse: he can tell the agency to cease further contacts with him for any reason and the agency must comply. He would talk to 'Jane' when she called in the middle of the day, advising her he could not help with contacting the neighbor, and from the story was resentful of her repeated calls asking him to help, but there is no indication that at any time he specifically said *do not call me again*. Those magic words would have ended the calls, at least from any ethical collection agency which follows the law. But since 'Jane' originally called in good faith with no knowledge that Mr. Gault would be asleep during permissible calling hours, she did not harass him. By disturbing her on purpose, he did harass her. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pooka@access.digex.net (Louis Emmet Mahoney) Subject: Re: UK Plugs, Pinout Needed Date: 8 Nov 1993 17:50:39 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA bnh@active.com (Brian Hess) writes: > In article heller@nirvana.imo.physik. > uni-muenchen.de (Helmut Heller) writes: > U .K. U.S. (connectors viewed from above, metal contacts up) > ^||||^ ^||||^ > WGBR RW > Where ^ = open (non-metal) contact slot > | = metallic contact > W = white, G = green, B = blue, R = red > 1) Sorry for the odd colors in the wire, but it's what I got from ye olde > local telecom shoppe when I asked for six inches of line cord. If one happens to _be_ in the U.K., Radio Shack shops there used to carry US-to-UK modular converter adapters. They are probably still available. ------------------------------ From: payton@nmp.nokia.com (Ian Payton) Subject: Re: UK Plugs, Pinout Needed Date: 8 Nov 1993 09:32:42 GMT Organization: Nokia Mobile Phones Reply-To: payton@mobira.nmp.nokia.com Just to clarify an important point ... it is illegal to connect a piece of equipment to the public network in Britain unless the equipment has been approved by the appropriate British approvals people for Telecoms equipment. This is very unlikely to be the case for equipment sold outside the UK. Ian Payton | Standard disclaimer: The views expressed above payton@mobira.nmp.nokia.com | are my own, and do not necessarily represent Camberley, UK | the views of any organisation to which I belong. ------------------------------ From: coyne@thing1.cc.utexas.edu Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Date: 8 Nov 1993 17:45:23 GMT Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas In article pjoslin@mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil (Paul Joslin) writes: > In article , Willie Smith > (wpns@newshost.pictel.com) wrote: >> erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) writes: >>> Being passed along FYI: >>> TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD >> Ha! All this probably means is you have to clone the same >> manufacturer and model of phone. Especially with the big push to Six >> Sigma (every product is identical to one part in a million), it's >> going to be really difficult to tell phones of the same model apart >> without denying service to folks at slightly different temperatures, >> battery charge levels, and altitudes. How long do you think it'll >> take the cloners to crack this one? Identifying a transmitter that would prefer to remain anonymous has been a matter of some interest to spy guys since the beginning of radio. In the days of Morse code it was easy. A skilled operator could recognize the "fist" at the key of the transmitter much as you can recognize a voice on the phone. After WWII ended Teletypes replaced Morse code and it was tougher to ID a transmitter. When a transmitter is keyed up, it does not fire up instantaneously on frequency. It may be a little low or high and it takes a while to settle. In severe cases this will be audible to the listener as a "chirp." The direction, amount, and settling time vary from radio to radio. Presumably, some attribute(s) of the chirp varies widely radio to radio even of the same model and little from day to day. It is not something you align the radio for as long as it settles "quickly" and does not interfere with adjacent channels. It seems likely that high frequency synthesizers built under fierce cost, space, and power constraints would chirp rather nicely. Currently cloners buy a scanner at Radio Shack and need only phone programming skills. Measuring a chirp requires rather expensive gear not currently available at RS. I am sure the security guys will not willingly publish which chirp attributes they measure or how closely. There may be other suitable attributes besides the chirp. It will be complicated for the good guys by the requirement to not deny service to the rightful users. It could be spoofed, but you would need to add extra components in the zero available space to tune the chirp and it would require MUCH more than the usual skill at aligning radios. Cell fraud will, at the very least, cease to be a cottage industry. The Japanese navy spoofed the US by leaving the usual code operators at home to generate the usual traffic with the usual fist when their fleet sailed for Pearl Harbor. It may have been easier then than now. ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud Date: 8 Nov 1993 02:18:04 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) writes: > TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD > TRW teams with PacTel Cellular to attack cellular fraud > SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, Oct. 19, 1993 - ESL incorporated, a subsidiary > of Cleveland-based TRW Inc., is testing an electronic system with > PacTel Cellular that tracks, identifies and blocks illegally made > cellular telephone calls. > The system works by making an electronic "print" based on the > unique signal transmission characteristics for each cellular phone. > Because each phone has a unique print - an electronic version of a > human fingerprint - it cannot be duplicated. Once the real print is > recorded, detection of a counterfeit print can be made. TRW > PhonePrintTM is able to provide real-time analysis of each print every > time a call is made and can block access within seconds of a > counterfeit call be placed. 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. 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. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #745 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12332; 8 Nov 93 23:53 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07764 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 21:09:43 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18837 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 21:09:11 -0600 Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 21:09:11 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311090309.AA18837@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #746 TELECOM Digest Mon, 8 Nov 93 21:08:45 CST Volume 13 : Issue 746 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A.Townson Re: VCR Plus+ Codes (Barrey Jewall) Re: VCR Plus+ Codes (Robert Cohen) Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (Lars Poulsen) Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond) Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (Dale Williams) Re: The Modem Tax Scare ... Again (John R. Levine) Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint (Alan Hales) Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint (Garrett Wollman) Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! (Clarence Dold) Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! (Jack Decker) Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! (Bob Schwartz) Re: Great Lakes Long Distance (Ken Hoehn) PC Pursuit no Longer Accepting New Users (Dan Goemon) Looking For Automatic File Transfer/Software Distribution Program (T. Hull) Looking For Docs on 'SATCOM 1-4 SYSTEM' Home Exchange (Koos van den Hout) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: barrey@Novell.COM (Barrey Jewall) Subject: Re: VCR Plus+ Codes Organization: Novell, Inc. Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 00:06:27 GMT In larson@net.com (Alan Larson) writes: > For those in US: > wuarchive.wustl.edu in /usenet/alt.sources/articles/7020.Z I ftp'd this, and compiled it with no problems. Subject to its limits, it works well. I enclose part of the readme.txt file, for your edification: | There are a few weak spots in these programs. | | 1. They only work for the usual kinds of tv shows, | a. Must start on an even half-hour or hour | b. Must end on an even half-hour or hour | | 2. They only handle VCRPLUS code values that are 1-6 digits | long (these are the ones that start and end on | half-hour or hour boundaries) | | 3. Both programs ask for today's date. They should | instead get this from the computer itself but that is | too much involved with O/S details. | | 4. Integers are used everywhere, even for time_of_day. | a. You need to use a 32-bit computer | b. So, nine o clock at night, comes out 2100 | | 5. The VCRPLUS hardware uses "channel mapping" for | channel numbers above 19, and for cable tv stations. | Just decode some VCRPLUS code numbers from each unusual | channel and get the "mapped channel" numbers. For | example in this area the VCRPLUS people have | mapped cable station ESPN to "channel 22". Bah Barrey Jewall - Network Admin. - Novell, Inc. - San Jose - barrey@novell.com- I don't speak for Novell, and they don't speak for me. ------------------------------ From: robc@netcom.com (Robert Cohen) Subject: Re: VCR Plus+ Codes Organization: Calif. Home for the Unruly Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 07:57:41 GMT You might try /info-mac/util/mac-vcr-plus.hqx at sumex-aim.stanford.edu. Haven't tried it but know it is there. Robert Cohen robc@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 20:08:49 GMT In article pjb@23kgroup.com writes: > Does anyone have any idea why it was necessary or even meaningful for > Gore or anyone representing the U.S. Government to sign or even be a > part of Sri Lanka's joining the Internet? What rights or control > does the U.S. think they have over Internet access? Is there > something here that I am missing, or is this just more Clinton/Gore > meddling? The Internet is widely privatized, but a major part of it is located in the USA. The Federal Networking Council reserves the right to determine which networks can be reached from the USA. For instance, nodes in the former Soviet Union cannot be reached from the USA and vice versa, because neither the NSFnet backbone nor the CIX carries their routes. (Just try "traceroute kremvax.demos.su" from within the US versus from any site in Europe.) Presumably, this agreement provides Sri Lanka with connectivity to the USA. Thus the government involvement. This agreement should please Arthur C. Clarke. 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: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 13:34:05 +0000 Organization: Imperial College, London, UK. Subject: Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet In article , RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys. COM writes: > Sri Lanka is joining the Internet, a worldwide computer network that > connects computer users in more than 100 countries (UPI, 10/20/93). > "By connecting universities, schools and laboratories in Sri Lanka to > the Internet, the U.S. hopes to foster cooperation between the people > of our country and the people of Sri Lanka in all fields of science, > technology and the environment," said U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who > signed the Internet access agreement with Sri Lanka Prime Minister > Ramil Wickremashighe. I am quite surprised about this press release. Sri Lanka has been reacheable by electronic mail for more than a year, and they already have an extensive UUCP network. I guess that all what they asked for was money [$$$] from the U.S to replace UUCP dialup with leased lines/satellite transmission. The U.S must be feeling rich, I guess. ;-> Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond, Digital Comms. Section, Elec. Eng. Department Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BT, UK Internet/Bitnet: - Janet: ------------------------------ From: dale@icm1.icp.net (Dale Williams) Subject: Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet Date: 9 Nov 1993 00:32:04 GMT Organization: Sprint In article , pjb@23kgroup.com (Paul J. Bell) wrote: > Does anyone have any idea why it was necessary or even meaningful for > Gore or anyone representing the U.S. Government to sign or even be a > part of Sri Lanka's joining the Internet? What rights or control > does the U.S. think they have over Internet access? Is there > something here that I am missing, or is this just more Clinton/Gore > meddling? I wasn't at the meeting obviously, but as the NSF's International Connections Manager, I can report what I hear nth hand. When Gore met with Wickremashighe, he asked how the US might help Sri Lanka. Wickremashighe replied that his first priority request was for Internet access! ( Like many foreign countries, Sri Lanka is anxious for access to the US 'domestic' internet, both for the US based services available, AND for international connectivity. Most foreign countries 'home' or 'hub' to the US internet. Traffic from Scandinavia to Germany goes via the US, for example.) The problem was relayed to NSF, then to us. Sri Lanka is a little isolated from the world's communications infrastructure. We see it as an engineering "opportunity!" Dale ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 23:14 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: The Modem Tax Scare ... Again Organization: I.E.C.C. > what would prevent this item from resurfacing every six months or so for a > couple of years and then the FCC or whomever really does decide to enact it, > on the theory that everyone will assume it's the same old urban legend and > not pay any attention to it? The FCC being a government bureaucracy, can't sneeze without doing the paperwork first. If they were going to change the rules related to connections of data carriers to the PSTN, there'd have to be a docket number, comment period, and all the other bureaucratic stuff. If we see a modem tax proposal with a current date and docket number, then it's time to be concerned. The outcry to Congress was so loud last time that I doubt we'll be seeing it again any time soon. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: alan@dadd.ti.com (Alan Hales) Subject: Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint Organization: Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas TX Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 05:19:44 GMT Rich Mintz wrote: > This won't work for many of the newer modems. You must also specify AT > X3 (X <= 3) so that the modem doesn't refuse to "dial" because there > is no dial tone present. Thrown all on one line, one would say > "ATX3D" (return). A simpler solution is to use "ATO", where the "O" stands for "on-line". This will bypass any tests for dial tone. Alan Hales alan@dadd.ti.com ------------------------------ From: wollman@trantor.emba.uvm.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Dialing From the UK With Sprint Organization: University of Vermont, EMBA Computer Facility Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 00:21:02 GMT In article , Rich Mintz wrote: > This won't work for many of the newer modems. You must also specify AT > X3 (X <= 3) so that the modem doesn't refuse to "dial" because there > is no dial tone present. Thrown all on one line, one would say > "ATX3D" (return). Have so many people forgotten their ``AT'' command set? (Well, maybe they have, now that computers remember it for them.) The command to use is ``ATO'' (`O' is for `Originate'), which should be entered once the other side has started sending its answer tones. Garrett A. Wollman wollman@emba.uvm.edu uvm-gen!wollman UVM disagrees. ------------------------------ From: dold@rahul.net (Clarence Dold) Subject: Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! Organization: a2i network Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 04:40:57 GMT Jack Decker (ao944@yfn.ysu.edu) wrote: > Just a word of advice to all: If you are looking for great deals on > long distance service, don't overlook the small carriers that may be California allows Intra-LATA services, as part of a package of call detailing, along with some amount of required Inter-LATA service. That disclaimed, NVTS/Ameritel does offer Dialers at no charge, has been doing so for over 10 years, and services a fair portion of Northern California. NVTS/Ameritel 800-799-7000 707-257-3875 Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA. ------------------------------ From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! Date: 8 Nov 1993 12:07:56 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net On Mon Nov 1 22:41:15 1993, gkj@konichiwa.cc.columbia.edu (Gregory K. Johnson) wrote: > I'm not going to quarrel with your basic advice about shopping around > for long distance carriers. However, I feel compelled to note that > the rates you are quoting for this particular long-distance calling > plan do not seem to be all that great of a bargain. > When I established telephone service in San Jose, I selected Sprint as > my long distance carrier. When I established the account with Sprint, > I inquired about discount long-distance calling plans. > I ended up selecting their service which is similar to Reach Out > America, i.e. you purchase an hour of calls at a particular price (I > think in this case it was about $8, or less) and then all your calls > at off-peak hours beyond the first hour are billed by the minute. > The rate for calls at off-peak hours under this calling plan was ten > cents per minute, which is significantly cheaper than the 11.4 cents > per minute described above. It also doesn't have as much overhead > cost ($8 for the first hour is $2 above the cost of the flat-rate per > minute cost, versus $5 for this plan. > Sprint also doesn't have a 15 month minimum contract. MCI has similar plans for off-peak calling (I don't know if it's still available, but they used to have a plan called Super Saver that let you make calls on Saturday for $5.00/hour. Then, if you are calling someone in your Friends & Family circle, you may get another 20% off of that, which would bring the effective rate down to $4.00/hour, or six and two thirds cents per minute, which of course is considerably under the 11.4 cents per minute in the plan I mentioned). But, the customer for the service I mentioned (the one I was rate-shopping for) has a small business and will be making the vast majority of his calls during the daytime rate period, and probably few or none during the night rate period. For his intended usage, the 13 cents per minute daytime rate is far more important than a slightly lower evening rate. And none of the big three carriers (in fact, NO other carrier that I'm aware of) will give you calls of less than 32 seconds for free, which to me is a definite plus when you play a lot of "telephone tag". One other thing I did not mention in my original post is that this particular carrier offers intraLATA calling (within the same area code) by dialing 1-700 + number. One problem with the "big three" is that many of their best rates apply to interstate calls only (or at the very least, you have to pay extra if you want the intrastate calling plan, and often the per-minute rates aren't quite as good). With this smaller Michigan-only carrier, the rates apply to both in-state and out-of-state calls. Of course, since it's a flat rate, it may be possible that calls to very nearby toll points would actually be a bit higher with this carrier, but the customer in question is in a rural area that is in the fortunate (and highly unusual for Michigan!) position of having all immediately adjacent exchanges as local calls, and most of his nearby calls are to points where Ameritech's basic rate is considerably higher than 13 cents per minute. And of course, he could always force calls through another carrier (or let intraLATA calls default to Ameritech) if he ever finds it advantageous to do so. As for the 15 month contract, again keep in mind that it's not binding until you've had the service for three months. Prior to that, you can get out at any time, with no penalty (they'll even pay for you to switch back to your original carrier). I'm not crazy about the contract but I don't think it's particularly onerous, either. Ameritech does the same thing; if you want to get on some of their better calling plans you have to make a commitment for some period of time (which I believe can run as long as 36 months, but don't quote me on that). For the benefit of Pat, and others who asked, the company offering this service is called Metronet, and they are located in Holt, Michigan (near Lansing). They do NOT offer service outside of Michigan, nor in the Detroit metropolitan area (yet), nor in the areas served by GTE in the Muskegon area (yet). I also do not think they serve the Upper Peninsula. The other company I mentioned in my original post (that offers reasonably-priced 800 service in most of Michigan and parts of Indiana) is called Teledial, and is headquartered in Grand Rapids (but has sales offices in a few other Michigan cities and in Indianapolis, Indiana). Their Dial-1 rates are also pretty good, but in my opinion, not as good as Metronet's for small business customers. I'm not connected with either of these companies in any way. I'm certainly not implying that no one can do better than either of these companies, particularly if you are a residential customer and/or most of your calls are during the night/weekend rate period. I'm just saying that for many customers, the "big three" carriers may not offer the best rates, particularly if the vast majority of your calls are intrastate or intraLATA. Jack ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Don't Overlook Smaller Long Distance Companies! From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Date: Mon, 08 Nov 93 16:50:29 PST Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California gkj@konichiwa.cc.columbia.edu (Gregory K. Johnson) writes: > In article , Jack Decker > wrote: >> Just a word of advice to all: If you are looking for great deals on >> long distance service, don't overlook the small carriers that may be >> operating in your state or region. I'm not going to mention names of >> specific companies, but here's a couple of deals I've found (in doing >> some research for a friend) that are especially attractive in low to >> moderate calling volume situations. > The rate for calls at off-peak hours under this calling plan was ten > cents per minute, which is significantly cheaper than the 11.4 cents > per minute described above. It also doesn't have as much overhead > cost ($8 for the first hour is $2 above the cost of the flat-rate per > minute cost, versus $5 for this plan. > But my basic point is this: thus far I haven't seen anything that > seems to be a better deal than service with the major three long > distance companies. If rate were the only consideration I'd agree with you but ... generally, it's the smaller companies that can handle your Service Area Traffic while the big three can't/don't. Also billing and features flexability is sometimes better from the small players. Answer supervision as it relates to billing accuracy is also important and this can slice either way. Smaller companies are more likely to *inadvertantly* inflate your bill with unanswered calls or even more likely a longer average hold time which can add 30% to your monthly amount due. Smaller companies are also more likely to have liberal refund policies because of this (this is the advantage that slices in their favor :). If your in an area where Service Area doesn't mean much and you dont have the time to track average hold times the majors do have lots of flexible billing plans and reports as well as competative rates. Bob Schwartz bob@bci.nbn.com Bill Correctors, Inc. +1 415 488 9000 Marin County, California ------------------------------ From: kenh@w8hd.org (Ken Hoehn) Subject: Re: Great Lakes Long Distance Date: 8 Nov 1993 09:31:17 -0500 Organization: The w8hd Group bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Bill Leeke) writes: > I just received a mailing from Great Lakes Long Distance. They promise > calls 10% to 21% cheaper than the standard direct dial rate. The funny > thing is you don't have to change your long distance carrier. Just use > an access code simular to the ATT operator code. (10923) + number. I have used Great Lakes for about a month, since I live in the sticks a 1 call away from everything. Matter of fact, this message is being typed into my serving system via them. Have not seen the bills yet, but the line quality is fine. kenh@w8hd.org Ken Hoehn - Teletech, Inc. Compuserve: 70007,2374 N8NYO P.O.Box 924 FAX: (313) 562-8612 Dearborn, MI 48121 VOICE: (313) 562-6873 ------------------------------ From: Goemon Subject: PC Pursuit no Longer Accepting New Users Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 13:18:58 EST Organization: Ohio State University; Physics Department I called PC Pursuit's information line (1-800-736-1130) and although it was past their business hours, there was a recorded message. It stated that PC Pursuit is NO LONGER ACCEPTING NEW USERS, effective November 1. What is the thinking behind that? Aren't they in this to try to MAKE money? I would think they would want as many subscribers as possible to make it cost effective. Or is this another typical Sprint anal retentive move? Dan ------------------------------ From: terryh@engin.umich.edu (Terry Hull) Subject: Looking For Automatic File Transfer/Software Distribution Program Date: 8 Nov 1993 03:55:42 GMT Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor 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. Everyday, each branch offices will be sending data to and receiving data from the central office. We are currently using RemoteWare from XcellNet to do the job. The RemoteWare Server runs on OS/2 PC residing in the central office, and each branch office has a RemoteWare node runs on a DOS PC. This is a master slave relation between the Server and The nodes. The Server part of the RemoteWare has the scheduling ability. You can program it so that it will initiate calls to the nodes via modem. While this works fine, it is approaching its capacity to handle larger volume of data. 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. But I don't know anything more besides that. At this moment, we are open to all ideas. If you know anything about this, or have heard of similar products, please drop a line. All help will be greatly appreciated. ------------------------------ From: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl (Koos van den Hout) Subject: Looking For Docs on 'SATCOM 1-4 SYSTEM' Home Exchange Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1993 22:17:00 GMT Organization: HIN / BBS Koos z'n Doos I'm looking for documentation on a little exchange (one outside line, four phone sets) I got from someone. It seems to only work with pulse dial. But I hope this can be changed. Some identifying characteristics (I hope): On the (gray-beige) cover it says 'SATCOM 1-4 SYSTEM'. The main circuit board has a marking 'SATCOM PBTM 001S'. The largest microchip on the circuit board is a 'HD6301YOP'. Does anybody have any information on this exchange? Can it be modified/ programmed to accept DTMF? How can I transfer a call to another extension? Grtx. Koos van den Hout ----------------------------------------------- Sysop --\ Datacomm, networking, E-mail... BBS Koos z'n Doos (+31-3402-56619 2400) Inter-: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl (+31-3402-36647 14400 v32b v42b MNP5) net : koos@hacktic.nl| PGP key by finger | Fido: Sysop @ 2:500/101.11012 Schurftnet : KILL !!! | koos@hacktic.nl | Give us a call !! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #746 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12976; 9 Nov 93 1:53 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07000 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 22:34:47 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03679 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 8 Nov 1993 22:34:14 -0600 Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 22:34:14 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311090434.AA03679@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #747 TELECOM Digest Mon, 8 Nov 93 22:34:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 747 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (Erik Ramberg) Re: AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers (D. Levenson) Re: Remote Call Forwarding (Gary Morris) Re: Long Distance Provider Access Codes (Clarence Dold) Re: Question About T1 Equipment (Marc A. Tamsky) Re: Non-Bell Local Loop (Tony Pelliccio) Re: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN (Kath Mullholand) Re: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN (David A. Kaye) Re: Telecom-Tech Mailing List (John Stanley) Re: AT&T 2000 Public Phone (Jon Gefaell) Re: Telephone Pioneers Opens up Membership, etc. (David Leibold) Re: Frame Relay Information Request (Tom Wiencko) Re: Nationwide Caller ID Update (John Kennedy) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 8 Nov 1993 18:34:14 -0800 From: Erik Ramberg Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud [Moderator's Note: Erik sent in a couple replies in this thread which got mangled in processing. They've been reconstructed below and I apologize for the delay in using them. PAT] Paul R. Joslin wrote: > In article , Willie Smith (wpns@newshost. > pictel.com) wrote: >> erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) writes: >> Ha! All this probably means is you have to clone the same >> manufacturer and model of phone. Especially with the big push to Six >> Sigma (every product is identical to one part in a million), it's >> going to be really difficult to tell phones of the same model apart >> without denying service to folks at slightly different temperatures, >> battery charge levels, and altitudes. How long do you think it'll >> take the cloners to crack this one? > In the short term, how are cloners supposed to find out the make and > model of the phone from the transmission they're stealing the ESN > from? Buy their own TRW system, and start characterizing signatures? > I think you're right in the long term. Professional thieves will > "borrow" a phone from a parked car, get the ESN, then return the > phone, or buy model number/ESN pairs from dishonest employees of the > cell companies. Perhaps this system will at least prevent the > "casual" thieves. First of all, one of our test fixtures is to take five phones that were manufactured one after another on the assembly line, and see if our system can differentiate the phones. In other words, six sigma only has relevance if the six standard deviations are of a feature that we look at. And since these features are the result of complicated mechanical/electrical/RF factors, the six sigma standard has little relevance to us. Second, it will be a long time (if ever) before one can modify a phone to match another. John R. Covert wrote: > Interesting. > But, of course, there's a problem. I can legitimately use my cellular > phone's telephone number and ESN on three different transmitters: > 1. The Micro-TAC itself. > 2. The 3W VA in my own car > 3. The Extended System in my wife's car. > Actually, I can legitimately use it in _any_ compatible transmitter > that provides the plug to go into the bottom of the phone. We know of these situations and our algorithms take this into account, thus allowing your legitiment use but denying the criminal access to your account. John Nagle wrote: > erik_ramberg@SMTP.esl.com (Erik Ramberg) writes: >> TRW INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY TO BLOCK CELLULAR FRAUD >> Each cellular telephone emits unique signal transmission >> characteristics - an electronic version of a human fingerprint - which >> cannot be duplicated. These characteristics are matched with the >> mobile identification number (MIN) and the electronic serial number >> (ENS) of the phone to develop a unique pattern for each legitimate >> customer, TRW PhonePrintTM uses sophisticated signal analysis hardware >> and software to analyze and file the patterns belonging to legitimate >> customers. When a caller attempts to access the network, the system >> compares incoming patterns to those on file. If the patterns do not >> match the call is immediately terminated. > I suspect this is an exaggeration of the actual capabilities. > There are only a few chipsets used for these things, after all, and > two units with the same chipset should perform very similarly. But > they might be able to tell which chipset was being used. Statisti- > cally, though, that alone gives them a good chance of catching > someone who records over-the-air info. Unfortunatly I cannot disclose the workings of our algorithms, but we can distinguish between identical phones. You have to remember that there are many steps that a signal takes between formulation and transmission...and though these may be non-performance impacting variations they are nevertheless variations that can be measured. It's these parts that we call the PhonePrint(tm) and if you use a phone in a heavy fraud area I'm sure you'll notice an improvement in the cellular service. > Cellular ID systems should have been public-key from day one. > Someday, they will be, government opposition or not. 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! Erik ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 21:14:34 GMT In article , ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) writes: > AT&T Ships 800 Number Directory to One Million Consumers > Brighter and easier to use, this enhanced yellow-page directory > contains more numbers and easy-to-locate categories than ever before. > It lists 60,000 businesses that can be reached toll-free. 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. 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 ------------------------------ From: garym@alsys.com (Gary Morris @ignite) Subject: Re: Remote Call Forwarding Organization: Alsys Group, San Diego, CA, USA Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 01:10:27 GMT In jon@montego.umcc.umich.edu (Jon Zeeff) writes: > Are there any other solutions for remote call forwarding where I need > to remotely change, on a rapid and frequent basis, where a phone > forwards to? 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. If forwarding is all you need then the portable cell phone alone could do the job, the monthly cost may be more than you want to spend though. In addition to using my cell phone for remote forwarding, I also use it in conjunction with voice mail and a pager. I forward the cell phone to whatever location I'm at and when I don't want calls or am not near a landline phone, I forward it to my voice mail number. When at home, I forward it to my home number which rolls over to the voice mail if there is no answer. Voice mail with pager notification works better than receiving calls on the cell phone, since I don't have to keep the cell phone on and using batteries. This system is better for other people too, since they only have to know one phone number to reach me instead of my cell phone, pager, home phone, various work phones, car phone, etc. The total cost is not real cheap though when you add up the pager, voice mail and cell phone. Gary Morris KK6YB Internet: garym@alsys.com San Diego, CA USA SD Sheriff's Dept - RACES Strike Team ------------------------------ From: dold@rahul.net (Clarence Dold) Subject: Re: Long Distance Provider Access Codes Organization: a2i network Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 04:43:17 GMT Alan M. Foonberg (foonberg@aero.org) wrote: > Can someone tell me where I might find a list of the 10-xxx long > distance provider access codes? > [Moderator's Note: Sure ... in the Telecom Archives, in the sub-directory Surely you jest? The most recent date is 1991. Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA. [Moderator's Note: Well actually, that date might be in error because Carl Moore frequently works on the files in the area code and carrier sub-directories. Check and see if the files there are not peppered with [update,dated xx] remarks. So far as I know the carrier access codes file is accurate. If anyone wants to take a look and see what updates are still needed, if any, I'll be glad to put a new version of the file there. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tamsky@cco.caltech.edu (Marc A. Tamsky) Subject: Re: Question About T1 Equipment Date: 8 Nov 1993 10:20:48 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena In article add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) writes: > I am trying to get an estimate of equipment needed for a T1 > connection. > Scenario 1: > Let's say I have a workstation and 24 geographically distributed > salespersons. My salespersons want to dial into my workstation using > modems. I get an 800 number, linked to a hunt group of 24 lines, from > MCI (i.e. I get a T1 link to the MCI POP, provided by my LEC). What > equipment (DSU/CSU, etc) do I need at the workstation end, to be able > to provide these connections , keeping in mind that I will never > originate any outgoing calls? I recently got some material sent to me by both Cisco and Ascend. Ascend seems to make exactly what you are looking for ... Very brief summary: Pipeline Access Router, supports 1-4 T1 circuits, call management, and their larger units support anywhere from 8-40 additional digital v.32bis modems. Ascend phone 510.769.6001 Marc Tamsky Finger for pgp 2.2 key. tamsky @ {cco.caltech.edu | rain.org | cs.ucsb.edu | crash.cts.com} ------------------------------ From: Anthony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: Non-Bell Local Loop Date: 8 Nov 1993 21:28:14 GMT Organization: Brown University Alumni & Development Office In article , oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: > The October 11, 1993 issue of {Network World} (page 27) talks of MFS > Communications, Inc. which has supposedly launched a local and > long-distance package for small and midsize businesses in New York > City. > Supposedly the service offers no-toll local calling and flat-rate long > distance at 14 cents per minute. > The article does not give contact information for MFS. > I wonder if it is a subsidiary of Metropolitan Fiber, the company that > is running fiber in competition with New York Telephone? Here at Brown University they're replacing alot of New England Tel's lines with a fiberoptic loop. Here in my dept we're replacing our three 56kbps lines and 100 voice lines passed through NET with a microwave system. I love it. Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR Anthony_Pelliccio@Brown.edu Brown University Alumni & Development Computing Services Box 1908 Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-1880 ------------------------------ From: k_mullholand@unhh.unh.edu (Kath Mullholand, UNH Telecom, 862-1031) Subject: Re: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN Date: 8 Nov 1993 13:17 EST Organization: University of New Hampshire In article , tweek@netcom.com (Michael D. Maxfield) writes ... > s0130703@cc.ysu.edu (Daniel East) writes: >> Dan noticed that Gordon Soukoreff once wrote: >>> Yeah, I just called the thing and found out the 1-800 no. is routed thru a >>> 1-900 no. and you pay for the call. >> Can anyone verify this? The University of NH has had some experience with callers dialing 800 numbers and their ANI getting charged for calls billed as third party calls, collect calls or credit card calls. In every case, the number charged was the ANI number for the trunk that placed the 800 call. The provider insisted that they had received a call from the caller, had terminated that call and called the caller back. Since the numbers billed are out-only services, we knew they were, at best, billing for unsuccessful call-backs, or, at worst, lying through their tranceivers. None of the telephone numbers referenced on the bills are the 800 number that was actually dialed. We have documentation from those who placed the calls that: 1) they were not informed there would be a charge. 2) they did not receive an incoming call from the service 3) they did receive the service they expected to receive, usually by pressing one or a series of numbers on their phone. (Since PBX callers' ANIs are not the phone number of the phone they are calling from, there's the additional problem of figuring out who actually placed the calls, but I'll stick to the issue of charging for 800 calls.) In addition, the time the calls were billed disagreed with the actual time of the 800 call by as much as three hours. We documented the instances and complained to the FCC. No response. We then copied that complaint, added additional information to it, and, since all the calls were billed by a single provider, sent a new complaint to our BOC asking them to refuse to act as a billing agent for this particular company. We copied the FCC, and our PUC. No responses from anyone except the PUC, who wrote to tell us it was out of their jurisdiction. BUT, there is (sort of) a happy ending. The FCC recently ruled that this kind of billing back to an ANI from an 800 number is illegal (sorry, I don't have the citation at my fingertips -- maybe a reader here does?) *unless* the caller establishes a customer relationship with the company. From this, we're assuming that the company would have to collect at the very least a name and address for the caller. It doesn't protect UNH from the secondary ANI/Caller ID discrepancy problem, but it should protect consumers from unexpected charges to some extent. (Right ... just like the FCC ruling on autodialers has protected us. I still get autodialed sales calls at least once a week.) My basic feeling about the issue is that we have established a social expectation that 800 numbers are free. For companies to abuse that expectation in order to provide harder-to-block 900-type services is something that the FCC should stomp on very quickly, in order to preserve the integrity of our national phone system. **soapbox mode off** Michael, you have my premission to post this to other groups. I'd do it myself if I were more familiar with the system. Kath Mullholand University of New Hampshire ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: 800 Phone Sex, ANI, and Call Blocking Through PSN Date: 8 Nov 1993 18:28:04 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Michael D. Maxfield (tweek@netcom.com) wrote: > The lady did mention that she has heard of some services charging > callers of an 800 line for their calls, but such charges would be > independant of the phone company and believed legally required to be > preceeded by an announcement stating such a charge. (There is NO > audio announcement on the line ... I just called it). There is a legal term called "informed consent" which means that a person can consent to a contract (in this case to pay for a phone call) ONLY when informed about it. People rightfully believe that a call to an 800 number is a free call (it's in the front of the phone book, after all), so I don't think any service will succeed in pushing for payment for a call when they have not warned the caller there would be a charge. ------------------------------ From: stanley@skyking.oce.orst.edu (John Stanley) Subject: Re: Telecom-Tech Mailing List Date: 8 Nov 1993 19:43:32 GMT Organization: Coastal Imaging Lab, Oregon State University In article , Tom Ace wrote: > If (like me) you don't have a news feed, you can now read and > participate in the discussions in alt.dcom.telecom, as it is now also > available by mail as a digest. To quote from the heading of a recent > issue: This should pretty much put to rest the complaints about how much the non-USENET Telecom Digest readers will lose should comp.dcom.telecom. tech be created. If you get TELECOM Digest by mail you can certainly get Teletech by mail. That leaves no reason for TELECOM Digest readers to vote against the group. [Moderator's Note: Unless like me, they just want to be contrary and vote NO out of spite. :) By the way, I had heard that after that special mailing by Asbestos Dippold the other day to offset the undue influence and Bad Thoughts I propogate each day while commercializing the net that they were gonna have another vote; one that would be clean and honest, and without any undue influence or hypnotized voters, etc. I assumed by now Asbestos probably would have issued the Call For Voting, but maybe he is afraid if they have another vote they will lose *again*; then who will they blame, the votetaker? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jon Gefaell Subject: Re: AT&T 2000 Public Phone Organization: Security and Technology Planning, ITC/UVA Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 22:45:47 GMT In article , Tony Pelliccio wrote: > In article , Greg Abbott edu> wrote: >> While on a recent business trip, I attempted to use an AT&T 2000 >> Public Phone (the model with a keyboard attached). I was unable to >> get it operate, but didn't have a whole lot of time to read all of the >> instructions. I was attempting to use my AT&T Corporate Calling Card >> and the CRT on the phone kept telling me something like "Service >> unavailable ... please try again later". I got this reponse on all >> three attempts. I didn't really need to use it, but being a >> techno-buff, I decided it would be fun to play with. >> [Moderator's Note: You were probably not doing anything wrong. That >> style phone had to be temporarily (maybe permanently?) suspended when >> one of the other carriers (I think it was MCI) had a hissy fit and >> said if they could not have it also, then no one could. They got a >> court order to force AT&T to quit offering the service; that litiga- >> tion is pending in the courts. PAT] Same thing happened to me today I was at a seminar in D.C. and wanted to check my email from on of those phones in the hotel, Service unavailable. I was angry. I tried to use a phone like this six months or so ago and had the same experience. At least I know why now. Damn Judge Green. As for MCI, I think if they want to put the equipment in, good for them. but I see no reason that AT&T should make THEIR equipment available to MCI. > We see the same thing in Amateur Radio. The American Radio Relay > League offered to administer the re-started club callsign database. > The W5YI group yelled and screamed to the FCC about it so now there > will be no re-start. Bunch of crybabies if you ask me. Make me want > to send my W5YI accreditation back to them with about 400 pages of > nastygram attached, postage due. You are distorting the truth. The fact is, W5YI *DID* yell, but what they yelled about was that the ARRL should not be allowed to be the _only_ group authorized to do this. The ARRL suffers from the idea that they are the end all and be all of Amateur Radio, yet they discriminate and for various other reasons are not unanimously supported by all Amateurs. This is entirely different from the above situation. W5YI doesn't want to use ANY of the ARRL's resources, it(he) is just demanding the right to be able to represent Amateur Interests. Any opinions expressed herein are not intended to be construed as those of UVA Jon Gefaell, Computer Systems Engineer | Amateur Radio - KD4CQY Systems Research, ITC OSSSD/Carruthers Hall | -Will chmod for food- The University of Virginia, Charlottesville | Hacker@Virginia.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Nov 93 20:50:44 EST From: David Leibold Subject: Re: Telephone Pioneers Opens up Membership, etc. A few important follow-up items from the original Bell News post on the Telephone Pioneers. Contrary to the impression the article text might have given, membership is limited to telecommunication personnel, not the general public. Also, the phone number is the contact for Bell Canada, and not a main office for the Telephone Pioneers (though it may be a point of contact for those who can't find out about the Pioneers otherwise). David Leibold replies: dleibold1@attmail.com djcl@io.org Fido: 1:250/730 ------------------------------ From: tew@netcom.com (Tom Wiencko) Subject: Re: Frame Relay Information Request Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 19:38:03 GMT Michael Lewis writes: > We are migrating our network from X.25 to Frame Relay and I am > interested in all the information I can get on the subject. > I can find a lot about both Cell-Relay and ATM on the Internet, but > precious little about Frame Relay other than one RFC. > Does anyone know where this subject is hidden? Several books I have stumbled into lately: Data Network Design (McGraw Hill, Darren Spohn) Frane Relay Networks (McGraw Hill, Uyless Black) Hope this helps. Tom Wiencko tew@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: warlock@csuchico.edu (John Kennedy) Subject: Re: Nationwide Caller ID Update Date: 8 Nov 1993 20:30:58 GMT Organization: California State University, Chico In article , Dick Rawson wrote: > In ISDN, at least according to the standards, the CNID is always sent; > ... (Given regulatory issues, what the phone companies implement might > be different.) ... On our switch, we have pretty much all of the 916.898-xxxx locked up and dedicated to our University. Anyone calling my ISDN set in the office (that is calling from the university) has their phone number show up on my display. This works if the call is being made to me from POTS or ISDN lines. A while back, when the 899-xxxx prefix was added, someone apparently forgot to block them out and we could see 899 numbers show up too. They fixed it later and now they show up as "PRIVATE". This was all done on the local switch, as far as I can tell. We're obviously in a far different situation as far as privacy is concerned when we're dealing with campus-campus calls, although 899 privacy is obviously being looked out for. I believe there is a key sequence to press (doubtless costing $$$/month) that will let anyone conceal themselves as "PRIVATE". Off-site (or non-899) calls come in as "IN-COMING" on the display. John Kennedy ; Communications Services; USENET admin Windows/NT - From the people who brought you EDLIN ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #747 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13305; 9 Nov 93 2:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA03057 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 9 Nov 1993 00:06:33 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21670 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 9 Nov 1993 00:06:01 -0600 Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 00:06:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311090606.AA21670@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #748 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 Nov 93 00:06:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 748 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Computer CNID Solution Summary Sought (Scott Coleman) Apple Newtons Recalled in Australia (Mark Cheeseman) Signaling System #7 Cost/Performance Information (Dave Munsinger) Re: Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking (Mark Steiger) Cordless Phone Systems (Delavar K. Khomarlou) Information on Mobile Data Systems/Technologies (Peter Chan) Landline Telegraph Service (Gabe M Wiener) Tech Job Available (Ian Eisenberg) AT&T Craft Access Butt-Sets (Eric Kiser) Re: Analog Telephone Interfaces For Computers (Andy Behrens) Re: Nationwide GTE 800 Outage? (Brian Nunes) Re: Brush Fires in Southern California (Stephen Friedl) Re: Preparing My Case Against Sprint (Chris Labatt-Simon) Re: Busy Signal Strangeness (John Desmond) Re: My Meeting With the Commish (Christopher Zguris) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: genghis@ilces.ag.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) Subject: Computer CNID Solution Summary Sought Date: 8 Nov 93 16:32:39 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Caller*ID is _finally_ making it to my podunk neck of the woods next month. Consequently, I'm in search of a CNID box with a computer interface. Since I'm sure there's a collection of prevailing net.wisdom on which CNID boxes are a) decent and b) can be interfaced to a computer in some fashion already summarized somewhere, if someone would be kind enough to forward me a copy of said summary I'd be most appreciative. Additional info: I'm running a 386SX Intel platform machine (MSDOS). I currently run a BigmOuth/Powerline I PC voice mail card, which I would like to augment with CNID capability. If there is another low-cost solution, such as a voice mail card with CNID capability built in, or perhaps one of the newer V.32bis modems with CNID and voice processing capabilities, I'd consider that also. NOTE: If my initial assumption is incorrect, and no summaries of this type of info exist, I'll be happy to produce a summary of responses and make them available. Thanks for your help. From the virtual desk of... Scott Coleman, President ASRE (American Society of Reverse Engineers) Ed Green Fan Club #005 - Disintegrate the SGA! tmkk@uiuc.edu ------------------------------ From: cheese@active.asstdc.oz.au (Mark Cheeseman) Reply-To: cheese@active.asstdc.oz.au Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1993 19:49:52 Subject: Apple Newtons recalled in Australia Organization: Radio Active BBS, Sydney Australia. A recent report in [Newsbytes] states that Austel (the Australian telecomminications regulatory authority) has forced Apple Australia to recall all Newtons sold in the country, for a firmware lobotomy (ie, re-programming the firmware so that it is no longer capable of generating DTMF tones). [Sorry I can't quote the actual story, but I left it at work, and if I leave it until tomorrow to post this, I'll forget.] The reason given was that the device was not submitted to Austel for approval, despite the fact that there is no electrical connection between the Newton and the telephone line, and that many unapproved DTMF diallers are for sale on the Australian market. Looks like I'd better go and get my vocal chords approved before they're recalled too :-) I intend following this up with Austel tomorrow, and will post any results I get to the Digest. Mark Cheeseman cheese@active.asstdc.oz.au Fido: 3:712/412.0 [+61 2 399 9268] PO Box 199 Alexandria NSW 2015 Ph +61 2 353 0143 Fax +61 2 353 0720 ------------------------------ From: dave@qualcomm.com (Dave Munsinger) Subject: Signaling System #7 Cost/Performance Information Date: 8 Nov 1993 20:43:07 GMT Organization: QUALCOMM, Inc. Does anyone have information on SS7 networks either currently deployed or scheduled for deployment by the end of 1994? Specifically: 1) What are the transaction costs (two-way) associated with the network? 2) Are there costs associated with initiating service and interface equipment? 3) What are the delays (two-way) through the network? 4) Any other information or contacts? ------------------------------ From: Mark.Steiger@tdkt.kksys.com (Mark Steiger) Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1993 12:39:11 -0600 Subject: Re: Caller ID-Blocking Unblocking Organization: The Dark Knight's Table BBS: Minnetonka, MN (Free!) > P.S. Who would call an 800 number and think the call was anonymous :-) > [Moderator's Note: Who would consider a call to an 800 number to be > anonymous? Oh, a lot of people would. This discussion came up on > Usenet (snicker) recently in one of the privacy discussion groups and > some people were outraged to find out that the persons/companies paying > for their (800) calls were getting the information as to who was calling > and whose calls they were paying for. PAT] Lesseee ... why should the person who is PAYING for the call have the right to that information ... :) That's why caller blocking is available on a local level. The guy making the call is paying for the call, either with the monthly charge, or per call charges. Where I work, we're in the process of integrating Caller-ID with our phone/computer system. We have 400+ incoming T1's for voice. We use one T1 for caller-ID data for every six T1's in use. When a customer calls up, their account information will be brought up on the computer in front of the operator taking the order. If it's a previous customer, we could concevably take the order in under one minute. We're currently trying to get some forms printed up to protect us against an unauthorized person calling from someone's house and using their account. It's there and available. As a matter of fact, we have it now, but on a limited basis. If we get an "unwanted" call, we can type in the trunk number and get the ANI off of it. Origin: The Igloo BBS 612-574-2079 (1:282/4018.0) Mark Steiger, Sysop, The Igloo BBS (612) 574-2079 Internet: mark@tdkt.kksys.com Fido: 1:282/4018 Simnet: 16:612/24 ------------------------------ From: Delavar.K.Khomarlou@hydro.on.ca (Delavar K. Khomarlou) Subject: Cordless Phone Systems Reply-To: Delavar.K.Khomarlou@hydro.on.ca Organization: Ontario Hydro Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 13:29:09 -0500 Our company is investigating the use of cordless phones (with mobile base stations) in our stations (harsh environment). Generally, the walls inside plant are very thick concrete (nuclear grade) and line of sight is not available. 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? Our preliminary tests show that we get alot of fading and loss of portions of speech (I suspect due to sync loss or framing loss) and more likely due to multipath fading. I don't check the newsgroup very often. The best way to respond would be email: delavar.k.khomarlou@Hydro.ont.ca Thank you very much. ------------------------------ From: pthc@ee.mu.OZ.AU (Peter Chan) Subject: Information on Mobile Data Systems/Technologies Organization: Dept of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Univ of Melbourne Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 00:57:50 GMT Hello netters, Does anyone know where I can find articles and/or technical reports regarding the following mobile data systems/technologies: - Motorola Mobitex; - Aridis; - Cellular digital packet data; - D-AMPS and GSM (phase 2). - others ?. Please reply through email to pthc@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au. I will post a summary to the newsgroups if there is any appropriate reply. Thanks a lot. Regards, Peter Chan (pthc@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au) Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engineering University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia. Tel: 344 4672 Fax: 344 6678 ------------------------------ From: gmw1@konichiwa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) Subject: Landline Telegraph Service Date: 9 Nov 1993 04:37:49 GMT Organization: Columbia University 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. I assume there were local private lines as well as inter-city trunks. Were these switched a la the early cordboards? i.e. could someone with a private line send directly to another city? Or only to the WU office? How did the WU operators switch between lines? What was the protocol for raising an operator at the other end? How did one "get in" on a busy line? Etc ... Is there a comprehensive history of the operating practices of the landline telegraph service in the US? 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: The first TWX machine I recall seeing sometime in the 1950's was not a dial unit. The person at the machine went off hook and presently a message would be typed out to him on the paper saying 'here is optr may i help u?' to which the person at the machine would respond by typing the desired TWX number he wanted to connect with. If the person at the machine did not respond in a timely way the 'optr' would ring the Control-G BEL at him a few times and maybe another message line 'r u there' . Of course if 'optr' was slow to respond or took the request but then seemingly disappeared and did not either connect or give a report in a few seconds to a minute later, the clerk would do the same tactics in return -- pound the BEL key to which the central office would reply, 'optr here mom' where 'mom' = 'moment please' or 'stand by' or more rudely, 'hold your horses, I am busy and will get to you in a minute'. Or they might just type 'mom'. Western Union had an automatic gizmo for their operators to use which (from a telex you got the Western Union operator) responded with a message typed out every thirty seconds or so, 'ALL POSITIONS BY ... MOM' where 'BY' was the historic abbreviation for 'busy'. After passing the number you wanted there was no audible or written confirmation the other end was ringing, but if the other end answered the calling machine would see the typing start on the paper. Otherwise the operator would return sooner or later to type out 'nbr da' (doesn't answer), 'nbr by' (busy), 'nbr od' (machine at that end out or order) or perhaps 'sorry nc' (no circuits available now, try again later) or 'sorry nsn' (no such number, or such a number but it was a voice phone and not a TWX). There were other responses as well, two were 'wud' and 'ocd' for Western Union denies service and other Carrier denies service. Typically this meant the subscriber to Western Union telex (or other carrier's telex with whom you were asking for interconnection, like a long distance call today) had been disconn- ected for failure to pay their bill. You could also use your TWX/telex to call 'collect' if you wanted the machine on the other end to be billed for the call. You added that phrase in the opening request given to 'optr'. She would type out to the other end that it was collect and get their okay to put it through else she would get back to you with the reply 'sorry cr u pay' (charges refused, will you pay for it?). PAT] ------------------------------ From: ian@cyberspace.com (Ian Eisenberg) Subject: Tech Job Available Date: 8 Nov 1993 19:31:06 -0800 Organization: (CYBERSPACE) Public Internet 206.286.1600 My company is looking for a technician in the Seattle area. Must be well versed in PCs and general telephony. Knowledge of analog and digital preferred. PC knowledge should include ability to change drives, troubleshoot etc. Worldwide travel necessary. Progressive fast paced company. Send Email to ian@cyberspace.com or fax resume to Ian Eisenberg 206-286-5298. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 22:14:12 EST From: kiser@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil Subject: AT&T Craft Access Butt-Sets I'm sure you've all seen them advertised recently, surplus. The safety-yellow AT&T craft-access butt sets are available new, in the box with two batteries, charger and manual for $60 (how's that for pennies on the dollar, AT&T?). Well ... I broke down and bought one (ok -- I bought three). Even the standard TALK and MONITOR are swanky on this thing. The entire thing is menu driven on a 3"x3" LCD, with user input through a four-way plus button joystick and the standard 3x4 DTMF keypad. (Alpha input is via the keypad -- press 1 once for 1, twice for Q, thrice for Z, etc.) The dialed number is menu driven, or you can do it manually. MONITOR and TALK modes have digital volume access, and MONITOR has a QUIET mode for extra sensitive noise hunting. I got all that working ... The trick is these were used by AT&T folk to access the work scheduling computer system, and they have a 1200 baud Bell 212 modem and terminal program built in. But I can't seem to figure out the protocol used by the terminal program. On CONNECT, the butt-set sends tildes (~) until the remote system sends ACK, and then some five-digit something that I can't figure out; every time I enter the fifth digit, it goes back to tildes. I took the thing apart (a real trick, since it had #10 TORX screws with the security restriction post in place all the way around) and yanked the uP program EPROM. It disassembled to more than 20000 lines of 8031 (Intel MCS-51 series) assembly language. I've been able to wade througha lot of it, but isn't there an easier way? Does anyone have access to / references on the protocol used by these things? I'd hate to reprogram it from scratch; I'd like to write a small BBS for my PC that would interact with the screen, joystick and keypad using the current protocol, if I could find out what it is. Thanks, Eric Kiser 74007.303@compuserve.com kiser@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil ------------------------------ From: Andy.Behrens@coat.com Subject: Re: Analog Telephone Interfaces For Computers Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 18:13:03 GMT 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: 212-355-2886 E-mail: <1015032@mcimail.com>, <70600.2451@compuserve.com> Andy Behrens Burlington Coat Factory, Schoolhouse Rd., Etna, N.H. 03750 (603) 643-2800 ------------------------------ From: bnunes@netcom.com (Brian Nunes) Subject: Re: Nationwide GTE 800 Outage? Organization: This Way Out, the int'l lesbian & gay radio magazine Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 23:08:51 GMT On Thu, 4 Nov 93 21:06 PST Robert L. McMillin (rlm@helen.surfcty.com) wrote: > My girlfriend called me in the middle of the day today to ask how she > could call the 800 number they used at her work for credit card > verification. Apparently, she said that she had been told that GTE > had a nationwide 800 routing failure! Has anyone else heard of this? > Who else has been affected? > (FYI, my girlfriend works in Torrance, CA, 310-373.) I work in West Los Angeles, also covered by GTE, and we too could not dial out to any 800 numbers yesterday. We couldn't reach any of our vendors, etc., without digging up backup numbers, and we couldn't even connect to any of our computer data services. It's OK now though ... Grr ... Brian Nunes=*-*-*-*-*-* bnunes@netcom.com -*-*-1-213-656-9117 7985 Santa Monica Blvd. #109-473, West Hollywood, CA 90046-5112 ------------------------------ From: friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen Friedl) Subject: Re: Brush Fires in Southern California Date: 8 Nov 93 14:17:38 GMT Organization: Software Consulting, Tustin, CA H.A. Kippenhan Jr. writes: > You asked (a couple of days ago) about the reasons for the large > number of fires in Southern California this year. The explanation given was very good, but there are a few additional factors here. First, last year's rainy season was huge, following years of drought. Brush and weeds simply shot up this spring. Now we have much more of this kind of dry fuel lying around just waiting to catch fire. Second, because we truly do live in a desert, some of the plants take interesting defense measures to keep alive. They produce a kind of volatile oil that seals in what little water they can find, and this stuff burns very well. Eucalyptus trees reportedly do the same thing, and they literally *explode* when they get hot. Finally, around this time of year we get a weather condition known as the Santa Ana winds where hot and bone-dry air from the desert blows in at very high speeds -- two weeks ago the wind was something like 50 miles an hour in my back yard. Sales of Chap-Stic (tm) have got to shoot up, because this wind is incredibly drying. Sparks happen all the time, and now the confluence of all these factors means that once a fire gets a bite, it will go on and on. All the fire chiefs know that *this* is the fire season. The first fire was started accidently started by a transient who was just trying to get warm, and it got out of hand. He is reportedly only being charged with a misdemeanor because all the officials in charge know that he didn't intend to do any of this. He is not from around here and had no idea about all of the above. Note that it gets worse. Many of the areas that burned are on hillsides and canyons, and the houses that remain are now surrounded by scorched earth instead of groundcover. The rainy season is coming around in a few months, and those poor folks are going to have a devil of a time keeping their houses out of the bottom of the canyon. This is sad news even for the "rich folks". Stephen J Friedl | Software Consultant | Tustin, CA | +1 714 544-6561 3B2-kind-of-guy | I speak for me ONLY | KA8CMY | uunet!mtndew!friedl ------------------------------ From: pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) Subject: Re: Preparing My Case Against Sprint Date: 8 Nov 1993 21:34:40 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA I'm in the process of going through a Business Law course right now, so here goes ... cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler - Fubar) writes: > Meanwhile, I've been doing legal research, and have come to the > conclusion that their verbal offer on the phone, my acceptance, the > switching of my lines, and the one long-distance call to "activate" > the plan constitutes a valid contract. Your guarantee to them that you are going to use their services is not thought of as valid consideration. In order for there to be valid consideration, you must offer them something which is detrimental to yourself. > Point of help number 1. If anyone has specific case references for > verbal offer and acceptance, when acceptance relies on specific > performance of an action intended to benefit the party which made the > inital offer, this would be of great use to me. Also, if anyone knows > if the section of the law dealing with "rewards" is relivant here, I'd > like to know about it. Is there a section dealing with offers to the > public of a premium in exchange for perchase of item or service? In this case, courts will probably decide that no valid contract exists. Unless what Sprint did caused you unfair harm (e.g. you quit your job, sold all of your stuff and moved to Idaho, and then they refused to give you your modem), the law is usually more lenient with the defendant. > monetary value (average of ten street prices for the modem initially > offered). The most you would be allowed in a case like this would be any expenses incurred because of the lack of a modem (this doesn't mean lawyer fees, research fees, your time, etc.). In order to get more, you would have to prove something like emotional duress or great monetary loss. > Point of help number two: If anyone knows anything I'm missing here, > I'd like to know about it. I have legal citations to show that the > contract was valid, I have a letter demanding performance of the > contract, and I have documentation of names and times of phone calls > where they refused to honour the contract. What am I missing? 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. > At this rate, I should have a court date some time in December or > January. If there's anyone else who is taking Sprint to court over > this, I'd like to hear from you as well, we can share information. You can always talk to a lawyer about a class action suit. This will enable a lawyer to sue Sprint on behalf of everyone who lost out on the modem offer. I'm not a lawyer. This is not advice, but rather observations and comments, which may or may not be correct. Chris Labatt-Simon Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting pribik@rpi.edu (518) 495-5474 Tel (518) 786-6539 Fax [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] ------------------------------ From: John.Desmond@tdkt.kksys.com (John Desmond) Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1993 00:07:00 GMT Subject: Re: Busy Signal strangeness Organization: The Dark Knight's Table BBS: Minnetonka, MN (Free!) mking@fsd.com (Mike King) wrote: > After hearing various stories about strange busy signals, I thought > I'd add mine to the list: > I used to dial CI$ in downtown Washington, DC (202-338-3303, since > replaced), from the MD suburbs. I'm on either a 5E or DMS-100, while > the CI$ number is on a 1A. SS7 covers most of DC and suburban area. > One night while trying to dial, I heard the 120 ipm "All Circuits > Busy" indicator, but before the modem recognized the signal, all of a > sudden, I heard -! I got a normal connection, and > proceeded to check my mail, etc. It sounds to me like the 1A switch has a ringing trunk wired to a 120 IPM audio source rather than a audible ring source. I have seen that happen before only the case I saw was a 60 IPM trunk was wired to a 120 IPM audio source. That is not quite so bad as the problem you came across. On an SS7 call the audible ringing signal does come from the called CO. It could be that you will never come across this again assuming that there is only one trunk wired wrong. Sorry for the long delay in posting this. I'm just catching up on some reading. :) John Desmond - U S WEST Communications jdesmon@nwnt07.mnet.uswest.com -or- k0tg@amsat.org Origin: HAM>link< RBBS 612/HAM-0000 Saint Paul, MN [K0TG] (1:282/100) The Dark Knight's Table BBS +1 612 938 8924 Minnetonka, MN USA ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 20:53 EST From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: My Meeting With the Commish In TELECOM Digest V13 #741 Charlie Hofacker (chofack@cob.fsu.edu) > Well, I got my chance to have lunch with FCC Commissioner Barrett. > There was a brief question and answer session at lunch. I decided to > ask him about universal access, and whether the concept of universal > access should be updated to include more than POTS. I think it would ---------------- > be fair to say he was not enthusiastic about the whole idea of -------------------------------------------------------------- > universal access. In fact, I might summarize his reply in the form of ----------------- > a rhetorical question he asked me back: who pays? (Inspiration for my > question came from Bob Boucher ). Amazing position. What was the FCC's original position regarding breaking up AT&T and letting competiion into the market? > Perhaps the most amusing moment came when a student asked him about > the FCC and censorship. He insisted that the FCC does not engage in > censorship and is wholly unconcerned with any content whatsoever with > the possible exception of kids TV. What about what he and/or the FCC is doing to Howard Stern? I'm sure most of you despise Mr. Stern, but the FCC is certainly attempting to censor him. It may not be a direct effort to silence Mr. Stern, but adding fine after fine to make him poison within his industry is censorship pure and simple with the added effect of scaring everyone in the industry int "compliance" with the FCC's view on things. You mentioned in your original list of questions that you would bring up the Howard Stern question, did you? Christopher Zguris CZGURIS@MCIMAIL.COM P.S. If this is a flame, it is _not_directed at you Charlie! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #748 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13708; 9 Nov 93 3:31 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12725 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 9 Nov 1993 00:54:34 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA31360 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 9 Nov 1993 00:54:01 -0600 Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 00:54:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311090654.AA31360@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #749 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 Nov 93 00:54:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 749 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? (Jack Brand) Re: Help Needed Paging via Unix Script (Bill Leeke) Re: Car Phones and Accidents? (Adrian Warren) Re: Question About T1 Equipment (Aninda Dasgupta) Re: Pactel Cellular Wants to go Digital (Craig Ibbotson) Re: ADSI (Robert Hettmansperger) Re: AT&T Lock and Key Features (Bob Bosen) Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk> (John Eichler) Want CSUs With Sync<->async @vr 57.6 With EIA Flow (Doug Mildram) Re: Telecom at the Opera (Curtis Bohl) Re: Armstrong and Rising Sun MD (Gregory P. Monti) Re: Battery Cross-Reference Information Needed (John Gilbert) Re: Sat Pagers = Modems? (John Gilbert) Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." (H. Shrikumar) Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." (Jon Sreekanth) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: uswnvg!jlbrand@uunet.UU.NET (Jack Brand) Subject: Re: Are Local Calls Kept on Record? Date: 9 Nov 93 00:27:31 GMT Organization: US West NewVector, Inc., Bellevue, WA 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. jb [Moderator's Note: If the switch is ESS, then there are local call records kept for some period of time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Bill Leeke) Subject: Re: Help Needed Paging via Unix Script Date: 8 Nov 1993 16:30:59 GMT Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston IL USA In article , Eric Douglas wrote: > In article Steve Hills sandiegoca.NCR.COM> writes: >> A project I am working on has the ability to run UNIX shell scripts or >> executables when certain events occur on the system. We have been >> requested to provide a paging capability via a shell script or >> executable. Does anyone have any information (or perhaps a shell >> script) that could be of help to me? I wrote a program that did kinda what you want. It served to protect a Network Node Manager. I had several clients ping the NNM at intervals. When the NNM did not respond the server (residing on another machine) would dial a pager (Kermit) Bill bailey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu ------------------------------ From: adrian@netcom.com (Adrian Warren) Subject: Re: Car Phones and Accidents? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 14:53:41 GMT Stefan Zingg (stefan@stefan.imp.com) wrote: > In article , Peter M. Weiss > writes: >> Does any one have any definitive statistics of the use of car >> (cellular) phones and traffic accidents? > If you caused an accident, would you tell the police: "I didn't see > the [red light/other car/old lady/young man/whatever] because I was > concentrating on my phone"? > So I think both answers are "no". Q: What's the first thing an attorney does after he/she rear-end's you ??? A: Hangs up the phone!!! Adrian Warren adrian@netcom.com or adrian.warren@tekelec.com Tekelec 818-880-7961 Fax 818-880-6993 #include #include ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 18:20:01 EST From: add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) Subject: Re: Question About T1 Equipment atrium!cntinuum!jon.carmichael@cs.utexas.edu said in comp.dcom.telecom > It seems to me that you have a business problem you need to solve and > you're going about it using the wrong tools. A T1 is a tool, -- it > has an application and in my experience I use them as a digitial pipe, > where occasionally I'll use the feature of a DSU to break off a 56K > chunk or two. -- however as I read your problem, I would say that a T1 > is an inappropriate tool for the job. > If I were you, I would be prepared to buy dial up lines from your > carrier or grow your PBX if you have one and pass those salespeople > laptops with 14.4Kbps modems, perhaps your should consider a internal > company bulletin board. We want to use the T1 link as a digital pipe too. We want our salespeople to dial into an 800 number (don't want to have them worry about calling cards etc.) MCI says to get us a T1 link running to their POP. And MCI is willing to manage the T1 link for $1000 (or so) and install it for free (from what I hear from the people here who deal with them). That saves us the hassle of dealing with NYTel. (I called NYTel and asked for T1 rates and the guy is yet to get back to me with the info. It's almost as if NYTel doesn't care if we do business with them. Compared to that, if MCI wants to do everything for us, we'd prefer that). So, we have to get a T1 link in order to get the good bulk rates for 800 service from MCI. And come to think of it, it makes sense to get T1 and not worry about all the wiring and cabling to our workstation from 24 separate lines. Using a T1 link I can use DNIS service to get three 800 numbers and depending on what the salesperson dials, use the DSU to route the call to a modem, fax machine or voicemailbox. I understand that DNIS service is not available without T1. Thanks for your comments. Since many people have asked me to forward what information I got from my original question posted a few days ago, in a following message I will post what I have been able to gather. Aninda DasGupta (add@philabs.philips.com) Ph:(914)945-6071 Fax:(914)945-6552 Philips Labs\n 345 Scarborough Rd\n Briarcliff Manor\n NY 10510 "Err.., Phillips Petroleum gives you gas; fortunately Phillips Chemical makes antacid. Philips is with one "el", we make lightbulbs. And other shtuff" ------------------------------ From: ibbotson@rtsg.mot.com (Craig Ibbotson, x2343) Subject: Re: Pactel Cellular Wants to go Digital Date: 8 Nov 1993 15:43:24 GMT Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group > [from a PacTel Cellular press release] > "We encourage our customers to wait for CDMA and the long-term > solutions that technology offers. We would not want to see early > purchasers stuck with obsolete digital equipment as the owners of Beta > format VCRs were when the VHS format became the standard for home > videotape recordings," Jones said. What a great marketing technique! Tell all those people buying TDMA mobiles that they are buying the "Beta VCRs of the 90's". It seems difficult to educate the public in the TDMA vs CDMA battle but telling them that buying a TDMA mobile is like buying a Beta VCR is something that will hit home. (Please don't read this as an endorsement of TDMA or CDMA -- I have no first-hand experience with either digital air interface). It's interesting how all the digital cellular marketing is based on analogy to other consumer products. Cellular 1 here is touting their digital (TDMA) does "what the compact disk did for audio". I wonder if Ameritech will now start the "Beta vs VHS" ads? Craig Ibbotson, Motorola Inc. ...uunet!motcid!ibbotsonc Cellular Products Division / General Systems Sector ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1993 10:27:38 +0100 From: bobh@cc.bellcore.com (Robert Hettmansperger) Subject: Re: ADSI Organization: Bellcore 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. It does say you can't flash during a > session -- so any Call Waiting you get will just mess up the session, > and remain unanswered. This is not quite true. Visual Screening List Editing is merely a new user-interface to the existing Screening List Editing feature (TR-220). Requirement R-202 (page 3-72 in TA-1436) specifies that the feature interactions for VSLE are to be the same as the ones for SLE. If you look in TA or TR-220 (any issue) in section 3.8 there will be a requirement for the interactions with Call Waiting features. For example in TA-220, Issue 4, requirements R-248 and R-250 (page 3-93) specify that a Screening List Editing session can *not* be interrupted by Call Waiting or Calling Identity Delivery on Call Waiting. Granted, this is a somewhat roundabout way of disallowing Call Waiting interruptions during a Visual Screening List Editing session, but the requirement exists. 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. Robert Hettmansperger MTS, Bellcore CLASS Requirements ------------------------------ From: bbosen@netcom.com (Bob Bosen) Subject: Re: AT&T Lock and Key Features Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 17:35:40 GMT Tim Kramer writes: > Has anyone out there used AT&T's Lock and Key boxes? This is a piece > of hardware that requires the same "key" to get into the remote > maintenance port via a modem. Tim, I don't know if this will solve your problem or not, but you might want to take a look at the Cisco/Enigma Logic announcement for "SafeWord for Cisco", which supports "super-smart card" access security into any CISCO box's maintenance port(s), or into the comm ports of any CISCO Comm server, or any other box that supports the "TACACS" protocol as documented in rfc 1492. Bob Bosen Senior Scientist Enigma Logic Inc. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1993 10:34:00 -0500 From: john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) Subject: Re: No ISDN Despite Big Talk Reply-To: john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (John Eichler) Organization: The GrapeVine BBS *** N. Little Rock, AR *** (501) 753-8121 oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: > Richard A. Jalkut, President > New York Telephone [material deleted] > 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. 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. Comments welcome! SM 1.06 ----- . Email: john.eichler@grapevine.lrk.ar.us The GrapeVine Bulletin Board System (501) 753-8121 PGP Distribution Site, UseNet, RIME, ThrobNet, MediaNet, U'niNet, ForthNet RecoveryNet, MetroLink. Putting Communications back in Telecommunication ------------------------------ From: mildram@xylogics.com (Doug Mildram ) Subject: Want CSUs With Sync<->async @ 57.6 With EIA Flow. What to Buy? Organization: Xylogics, Inc. Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 14:14:20 GMT Hi ... sync modem users especially: Our Annex Communications Server, acting in this case an async SL/IP router, is recently achieving (inhouse) 57.6 async, and I want to USE this (trans-USA) over a dedicated DDS (sync) line. While I barely speak sync-ese, I'm learning that modern CSU/DSU's offer async (conversion from 56k sync), at various speeds. The Codex 3500 is limited to 19k async, so I got an eval on two new Adtran modems which do async @ 57.6 ... but no RTS/CTS "eia flow" control! (SLIP can be used w/o flow, but poorly or worse in demanding Xwindow apps!) Naturally, in-band flow control (xon/xoff) is not a workable slip alternative. | 57.6 async 56k sync 57.6 async | annex------------- modem ....DDS line.... modem --------------------annex | | network network What modem should I buy/evauate? Is there anything inherently impossible in getting end-to-end "EIA flow" (pin4, pin5)? Many thanks in advance for recommendations, even guesses for BRANDS to try. Doug Mildram, UNIX systems admin + Ceiling Rat Xylogics, Inc. 53 Third Ave, Burlington, MA 01803 mildram@xylogics.com 617-272-0924 x244 ------------------------------ From: EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu (Missouri 4-H Youth Development Programs) Subject: Re: Telecom at the Opera Organization: University of Missouri Date: Mon, 08 Nov 93 23:36:32 CST In article add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) writes: > Backstage were a number of TV monitors that allowed the director to > watch and direct the whole thing via audio with the prompter. Outside > the Lincoln Center (of which the Metropolitan Opera House is a part) > was a huuuuge tractor trailer with the word "Unitel" painted on it. > The trailer had some neat modules that were hydraulically pushed/ > raised out of the trailer's walls and steps lowered to allow people > access to the interior of the trailer. There were no antennae or > dishes anywhere on the trailer, but I did see a guy scuttle in and out > wearing headphones. I wonder what the trailer was for; I know the > local PBS station was recording the performance for a future > broadcast. All in all, I was surprised that they use such telecom for > classical performances. I can only wonder how they did things in the > days when Verdi composed the music for the opera. The trailer was probably the TV production truck. Many of the newer production units have extendable wings in the main control room to give the director, producer, etc. more room for monitors and switchers. Many of the major TV networks have trailers like this, more so that independent production companies. They may have been recording the performance, or transmitting via fiber optics to a "teleport" site, which is why you probably didn't see any dishes around. > [Moderator's Note: Forty years ago during the 1950's, one could always > tell when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was doing a radio broadcast since > in the alley behind Orchestra Hall where the alley intersects with Adams > Street there would appear a very large semi-trailer/truck with the words > 'Illinois Bell Telephone Company' on its side. A thick cable would snake > out of the stage entrance of the Hall and into this van, then it would > come out the van and go down into a manhole in the street. PAT] Reminds me of when all TV programs were still transmitted by coast-to- coast microwave. I think the last time microwave was used for a national broadcast here at MU was in 1984, MU vs Notre Dame football game. (I run the scoreboards for all the games, so I get to see the behind the scenes). GTE had some transmission equipment that took the video & audio feed from the ABC trucks and sent it downtown to the GTE CO by coax. From there it was bounced by microwave to the AT&T Long Lines microwave tower at Prarie Home, about 30 miles away, and on to the ABC network. The last time I saw the equipment used was probably around '86-87, and has since been removed from the telephone room (it was also used for basketball games.) Another unique story concerns the early days of television. The University started (and still has) a commercial TV station in 1955. For about 6 months in '56, the station originated a national country music program for ABC. They wanted to do it out of Springfield, MO, but because Columbia was on the AT&T microwave network, and Spring- field wasn't, the performers traveled to Columbia each week to do the program. Interesting how a small TV studio in the middle of the University's beef farm originated a national program in those days! Curtis Bohl Computer Programmer/Analyst extmo4h@mizzou1.missouri.edu 4-H Youth Development Alternate: bohlc@ext.missouri.edu Programs (314) 882-2034 University of Missouri-Columbia ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 10:23:04 EST From: Gregory P. Monti Subject: Re: Armstrong and Rising Sun MD Only the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies and GTE Telephone Operations are required to restrict their lines if business by the Modified Final Judgment (in the case of the former AT&T comapnies) and in a separate ruling (in the case of GTE). Generally the restrictions are: -- no cable TV ownership within the monopoly local telephone service area; -- no outward inter-LATA long distance service from within monopoly local telephone service area; -- no ownership of "information services" (whatever those are); -- no equipment manufacturing or repairing (equipment made and repaired by someone else can be sold with an RBOC name tag on it but cannot be made by the RBOC itself). Armstrong Telephone in Rising Sun, MD, is neither an RBOC nor GTE so it doesn't have the restrictions. This was, and probably still is, thought to be a good idea because, in rural areas, the cost per subscriber to built cable or telephone is higher and allowing co-ownership of facilities and services can bring economies of scale. Contel, now being a part of GTE, has the GTE restrictions. Hmmm. Wonder if the non-restrictions also apply to Centel, which is now a part of Sprint. No small rural telephone company, that. Does Sprint own any cable TV operations? Greg Monti, National Public Radio, 2025 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 Voice: 202 822-2633 Fax: 202 822-2699 Internet: gmonti@cap.gwu.edu ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Battery Cross-Reference Information Needed Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 22:25:50 GMT In article , ARTHUR%MPA15C@MPA15AB. mv-oc.Unisys.COM wrote: > .... Can anyone provide a source of an > equivalent unit to this guy? It's a Sanyo N-50SB3, a tubular battery > 2"x3/8", with wire leads that solder to the PC board. Specifications > include 3.6v/45mAh; the standard charge is 1.5mA. I'd be grateful for > any leads! Try "Mr. Nicad" E.H. Yost & Company 7344 Tetiva Road Sauk City, Wisconsin 53583 (608) 643-3194 They seem to have just about anything -- including strange size cells and cells with tabs for making your own battery packs. John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Sat Pagers = Modems? Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 22:11:39 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 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 17:55:37 -0500 From: shri@sureal.cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar) Subject: Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India In article elana@netcom.com 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. That way, my phone line can double as > a news hotline. Does any answering machine exist like this? What > other features would it have? I believe there are answering machines that can be used by up to two or four people, with four mail boxes. This might serve your purpose. (I have the model number for one ATT model at home .. I can mail it if you like.) In fact I am on the look out for such answering machines and would be grateful for any recommendations. I'd like to be able to accept DTMF beeps from the caller which I could advise them of in the initial OGM, followed by different OGM for different folk. Any number from two to six people is fine. I am also quite a geek when it comes to features so I'd like to hear about any other techno-geek features. Thanks for all reccommendations. I will summarize to the net if there is interest. shrikumar (shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in) ------------------------------ From: jon_sree@world.std.com (Jon Sreekanth) Subject: Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." Organization: The World Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 04:31:57 GMT In article elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) writes: > 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. That way, my phone line can double as The reverse feature seems to be standard on Panasonic answering machines. Pressing "*" during the outgoing message stops the OGM and starts the incoming message tape. The most common use for this feature is to skip the OGM when you are calling your own answering machine to remotely check your messages. But since a lot of machines out there are Panasonics, I usually find I can skip the OGM on the answering machines of other people by pressing *. Anyway, to wind down : you could have a message at the beginning of the OGM tape saying, "to leave a message for me at any time, press *", and record your music on the rest of the OGM tape. I think the OGM can be arbitrarily long; my Panasonic Easaphone KX-T1460 comes with a C-15 cassette tape for OGM (7 1/2 minutes max.) Jon Sreekanth Assabet Valley Microsystems, Inc. Fax and PC products 5 Walden St #3, Cambridge, MA 02140 (617) 876-8019 jon_sree@world.std.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #749 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa18202; 9 Nov 93 14:26 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01271 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 9 Nov 1993 11:05:51 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15668 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 9 Nov 1993 11:05:17 -0600 Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 11:05:17 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199311091705.AA15668@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #750 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 Nov 93 11:05:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 750 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? (Karim Alim) IBM's Simon Revealed (Personal Communicator) (hbeast@mindvox.phantom.com) DECtransporter and Mobitex (Lawrence A. Cardani) Wiring a New Town? (Larry Walker) Those Sprint FaxModems (Mark Earle) East-West or North-South? (Carl Moore) Novell Networking Question (Tony Simkus) What is Transpac? (Philip Green) Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (Lars Poulsen) Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (Chris Labatt-Simon) Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet (John R. Levine) Re: PC Pursuit no Longer Accepting New Users (Tony Pelliccio) Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." (Bruce Howells) Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." (Dave Strieter) Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." (David A. Kaye) Re: New Area Code: 610 (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 9 Nov 93 10:33 EST From: Karim Alim <0006143365@mcimail.com> Subject: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS? In Volume 13, Issue 749 of the Digest, Craig Ibbotson (ibbotson@rtsg. mot.com) writes: > Tell all those people buying TDMA mobiles that they are buying the "Beta > VCRs of the 90's". It seems difficult to educate the public in the TDMA > vs CDMA battle.... (Please don't read this as an endorsement of TDMA or > CDMA -- I have no first-hand experience with either digital air interface). The November 1993 issue of *Wired* magazine has a terrific article on the proposed global cellular phone systems (Motorola's Iridium and others). Anyone with half a brain will take what the article says with a grain of salt, but it definitely makes Motorola look like the Bad Guy, partly because of Iridium's use of TDMA. The competing global phone systems apparently all use CDMA, which is positioned as a standard that allows competing systems to co-exist, in addition to getting "10 to 20" times the calls in the same frequency spectrum. TDMA, on the other hand, is positioned as an older, bandwidth-eating technology that will only allow for one company (Motorola) to dominate the market. (boo hiss) 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) The article has very basic explanations of the differences between TDMA and CDMA, as well as technical comparisons of the proposed systems (number of satellites used, cost, orbit types and altitudes, and estimated costs of the handsets and airtime). It also gives some insight into the political wrangling currently going on. The writing style is breezy and gossipy for a technical piece -- again, perhaps not the most objective, but a pleasant change of pace from the usual dry analysis. Craig, I notice you work for Motorola ... maybe you SHOULD be endorsing TDMA ... (big grin) k. (usual disclaimers apply) (I don't even WANT a cellular phone) ------------------------------ Subject: IBM's Simon Revealed (Personal Communicator) From: hbeast@mindvox.phantom.com (Herd Beast) Date: Tue, 09 Nov 93 08:02:32 EST Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800-MindVox) The missing link revealed: IBM's personal communicator. Now, after the release of products by AT&T, Apple/Sharp, or Tandy/Casio, Bellsouth presents IBM's answer in this field. Simon, who is still awaiting FCC authorization, looks similar to a cellular phone with a small, flat monitor. Its length is about 20 cm and it weighs close to 300 grams. Simon includes fax, e-mail, a beeper and more. Unlike the other communicators, Simon is unique because it's an IBM PC with a pen monitor; the Newton operates on a British chip, the Zoomer on a Casio chip, and the Eo on AT&T's Hobbit. Simon operates on an Intel '486SL, and will probably have the PowerPC imbedded in it in the future. It has 4 megabytes RAM and its OS of choice will be DOS and a pen controlled version of Windows. Simon is produced by IBM, Mitsubishi and Lotus (who will supply an e-mail program). Bellsouth Cellular is the sole distributor of Simon in the U.S. During the next December, Simon will be available in four towns in Florida. By April, 1994, it will be available in the entire U.S. The price? "Less than $1000". 999.95, I'll bet. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Nov 93 05:59:30 PST From: Lawrence A. Cardani LKG1-2/F08 J7 Subject: DECtransporter and Mobitex Hello, Digital Equipment Corporation has a product named DECtransporter which has Mobitex and ARDIS wireless packet radio support. V1 has been shipping since June, 93. We have been working very closely with RAM Mobile Data and ARDIS. DECtransporter allows most TCP/IP applications written to NETBIOS or WINSOCKETS to work over Mobitex and ARDIS, some without any changes at all! DECtransporter performs all of the Mobitex and ARDIS protocol handling so the applications do not have to. For more information, please contact the DECtransporter Product Manager Celeste Hyer in the US at 508-486-5503. Larry Cardani DECtransporter Project leader ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 22:58:36 CST From: walkerl@med.ge.com (Larry Walker) Subject: Wiring a New Town 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 site is 150 acres on the edge of Madison, Wisconsin (pop ~200,000), which is the state capital and home of the University of Wisconsin. The neighborhood will include 500-700 dwellings, from 1/2 acre single-family dwellings to 1/6 acre small houses to townhouses to a 16-unit co-op housing group. A school, a community center and a "main street" retail/office complex are also planned. The issue is to help the urban planner define what "electronic infrastructure" to specify. The area is served by TCI Cable and by Mid-Plains Telephone. TCI has announced plans to begin stringing fiber in '94 (but only fiber-to-the-curb, as far as I can tell). Mid-Plains says they do not expect to have ISDN or Switched-56 service within the next two or three years, although they think they might be able to offer ISDN by foreign exchange connection to Wisconsin Bell (oops: Ameritech, as of last month ...). 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. A couple of starting points: 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). 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). 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? Thanks in advance, Larry Walker ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 20:02:58 CST From: mearle@cbi.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Those Sprint FaxModems Well, I received mine today, complete with the aforementioned note about delays due to recent problems in California. All works as expected, except: The V.42 and MNP 2-4 are in _software_ when using the provided Quick Link ][ fax/data software. It does work -- my usual "pick up phone while connected" test caused no problems to my session. Using the modem with a "standard" program such as Procomm gets you a plane jane 2400 modem. The fax side of the software is great. Minimum hassles, you can run things from the dos prompt; don't have tedious driver hassles, etc. Printing to fax is supported from dos aps that can print to a laserjet series ][. Works well. The windows side of the software is fine. Overall, I'm happy, especially at the price: 0.00, plus $50.00 worth of LD 'rebate' checks over the next five months' bills. The fax software is a great improvement over a package of the same name but 1.5 years old that came with a different modem we have at the office. 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 some obscure option, but it's definately not mentioned anywhere. So, with the port at 2400, you'll not get more than 230 or so cps on file transfers. Also, the supported protocols are xmodem, ymodem/ymodemG and Kermit. No zmodem. Oh well. My main interest was / is using it as a cheap substitute for a fax machine; it appears that those needs will be served fine by this product. The above 2400 /230 cps problem may be solvable with a call to the support; we'll see. I'm extremely happy that my 286/12 which otherwise is pretty useless can serve as my fax box. Mark Earle mwearle@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 17:54:22 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: East-West or North-South? 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. If it says north-south in news reports, that is probably because the signs reflect the bigger scheme of things in that it's part of California route 1 or U.S. 101, each a north-south route. But in the Malibu area, PCH physically runs east-west due to local conditions. 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. To name a few: 1. a brief stretch of road in Chester County, Pa. has U.S. 1 south and Pa. 52 north. 2. a brief stretch of expressway in southwestern Virginia has I-81 south and I-77 north. 3. I-95 and U.S. 40 run parallel through northeastern Maryland, but the signs for the former say north-south and for the latter, east-west. 4. At least part of U.S. 1 in Connecticut has signs saying EAST and WEST. ------------------------------ From: simkus@cs.odu.edu (Tony Simkus) Subject: Novell Networking Question Date: 08 Nov 1993 17:28:08 GMT Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA 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. Your help is appreciated. MNS ------------------------------ From: phil@concave.cs.wits.ac.za (Philip Green) Subject: What is Transpac? Date: 9 Nov 93 10:38:35 GMT Organization: University of the Witwatersrand Can anyone tell me what Transpac is? A public network in France perhaps? Thanks. Philip Green (MSc student) phil@concave.cs.wits.ac.za Department of Computer Science, University of the Witwatersrand 2050 Wits, South Africa ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Tue, 9 Nov 93 10:08:16 GMT In article dale@icm1.icp.net (Dale Williams) writes: > Most foreign countries 'home' or 'hub' to the US internet. > Traffic from Scandinavia to Germany goes via the US, for example.) This is not exactly true. (Though it may be true for traffic between PPT-sponsored X.25 networks.) Internet access in Europe is mostly separated in "Educational" access paid for by government/university funds, and "Commercial" access which is entirely paid for by the users. For various political and economic reasons which I cannot understand, the commercial providers cannot use the two megabit links used to interconnect the educational networks, but have rented their own (64 kilobit) lines between providers. Thus, traffic from me (a commercial DKNET customer) to UNI-C in Lyngby (the academic computer center operating the educational DENET network) travels to Amsterdam before crossing into the EBONE backbone network, and then to Stockholm before coming back to Denmark. 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: pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) Subject: Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet Date: 9 Nov 1993 15:02:56 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) writes: > The Internet is widely privatized, but a major part of it is located > in the USA. The Federal Networking Council reserves the right to > determine which networks can be reached from the USA. For instance, > nodes in the former Soviet Union cannot be reached from the USA and > vice versa, because neither the NSFnet backbone nor the CIX carries > their routes. (Just try "traceroute kremvax.demos.su" from within the > US versus from any site in Europe.) 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 ... Chris Labatt-Simon Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting pribik@rpi.edu (518) 495-5474 Tel (518) 786-6539 Fax ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 23:46 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Sri Lanka is Joining the Internet Organization: I.E.C.C. >> Does anyone have any idea why it was necessary or even meaningful for >> Gore or anyone representing the U.S. Government to sign or even be a >> part of Sri Lanka's joining the Internet? > The Federal Networking Council reserves the right to determine which networks > can be reached from the USA. For instance, nodes in the former Soviet Union > cannot be reached from the USA and vice versa, because neither the NSFnet > backbone nor the CIX carries their routes. (Just try "traceroute > kremvax.demos.su" from within the US versus from any site in Europe.) Uh, when I try "traceroute kremvax.demos.su" from my site here in Massachusetts, I get a route via Alternet to kremvax. (My connection to the backbone is via Sprint.) Ping, telnet, etc. to kremvax all work just fine. I'd expect that the US Government is arranging some sort of subsidized link from Sri Lanka to NSFnet, hence Gore's photo-op. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl ------------------------------ From: Anthony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: PC Pursuit no Longer Accepting New Users Date: 9 Nov 1993 15:57:14 GMT Organization: Brown University Alumni & Development Office In article , Goemon wrote: > I called PC Pursuit's information line (1-800-736-1130) and although > it was past their business hours, there was a recorded message. It > stated that PC Pursuit is NO LONGER ACCEPTING NEW USERS, effective > November 1. > What is the thinking behind that? Aren't they in this to try to MAKE > money? I would think they would want as many subscribers as possible > to make it cost effective. Or is this another typical Sprint anal > retentive move? Nope ... I have a feeling it's due to lack of bandwidth. They don't have the facilities to switch anymore packets than the already do. Don't forget that PC Pursuit is simply an extension of SprintNet (aka Telenet for those of us who've been around longer than Sprint!) and from what I've seen of dealing with SprintNet it's fairly bogged down with old equipment right now. Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR Anthony_Pelliccio@Brown.edu Brown University Alumni & Development Computing Services Box 1908 Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-1880 [Moderator's Note: There is an interesting history behind the whole thing. Prior to about 1984 when PC Pursuit began operation, Telenet had their data network going, which dates from sometime in the 1970's. Like the phone network, it was busy all day and almost deserted all night. Telenet started PC Pursuit as a way to make use of all the facilities sitting idle all night long. I was one of the first half-dozen or so users to sign up for PC Pursuit when it started operation back then. They used a clumsy, rather tedious call-back system where you dialed in, entered your (authorized) call-back number, disconnected and waited for their return call to put you on the network. There were about five cities we could call in the beginning, at 300/1200 baud only. PC Pursuit was greatly improved upon as the years went by. For many years they even offered *unlimited* access between 6 PM and 7 AM for $25 per month. It was such a good deal they eventually had to put limits on the amount of time people could use the service each month without extra payment. I would not be surprised if they are now swamped beyond their capacity to handle the traffic. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bruce@bgs.com (Bruce Howells) Subject: Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 16:23:16 GMT Organization: BGS Systems, Waltham MA In article elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) writes: > 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. That way, my phone line can double as > a news hotline. Does any answering machine exist like this? What > other features would it have? Many AT&T answerers will do exactly this; if you press * during the OGM, you skip right to the beep. I've seen them used for things like musical competitions: "You have reached xxx-xxxx. Press * to leave a message, or listen for the finalists of the competition ..." Coupled with a nice long OGM tape, this is probably a good solution to your problem. Bruce Howells, bruce@bgs.com ------------------------------ From: strieterd@postoffice.agcs.com (Dave Strieter) Subject: Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." Date: 9 Nov 1993 10:17:05 GMT In article , elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) writes: > 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". ... > ... Does any answering machine exist like this? There are several Duo-Phone models from Radio Shack that will do this. The feature is called "Voice Mail". How it works is that you record the regular outgoing message and a second "confidential" outgoing message. The second message is accessed using a three-digit code preceded by an asterisk, the intent being that you can give the code to people you want to leave a special message for. Certainly if you give the secret code in the standard outgoing message, then you get the feature you want ("Press *123 for info on ..."). The drawback is that on at least one model the remote code for configuring the answering machine is forced to be one less than the voice mail code, so you'd be making it easy for some nasty person to figure out how to screw up your machine, change your message, etc. I believe that the Phonemate 8800 also has a similar feature, but I don't know how it works. Dave Strieter ( strieterd@agcs.com ) ====== These are not my employer's positions...just my ramblings. ====== AG Communication Systems Phoenix AZ 85072-2179, USA +1 602 582 7477 ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: "Press (__) to Hear Special Message ..." Date: 8 Nov 1993 22:10:04 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Elana Beach (elana@netcom.com) 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 This isn't the answer you want, but it's cheaper to hire a voicemail company which has menu capabilities at maybe $20 a month than to go through the hassle of voicemail cards or DTMF detect circuitry for that kind of use. Then, get a little Radio Shack phone/recorder connection and play the audio into the phone line through it. Works ok. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Nov 93 10:10:47 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: New Area Code: 610 What do you mean, "around Philadelphia"? The Digest has already heard from me about maps of 215/610 which have started appearing in Bell of Pennsylvania directories. Philadelphia, along with about 4/5 of Bucks County and about 1/2 of Montgomery County, stays in 215. But if you go, say, across City Line Avenue into Bala-Cynwyd or down the Industrial Highway into Lester and Essington, you'd be in the new 610 area. Bell of Pa. directories have been listing 215-area prefixes in three categories: Phila., suburban Phila., and other places in 215; each of the latter two categories would be split between 215 and 610. I already had a note in the "history" file that Jan. 1995 was full cutover for 610, and I have added "7" to that entry for next archive version. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #750 ******************************