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