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 ****************************** ****************************************************************************** Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253