TELECOM Digest Sat, 25 Dec 93 20:29:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 837 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review Index (Rob Slade) Fax Machine as Scanner? (Hiro Sugawara) V.35 to RS-232 Conversions (Brad Walker) Questions About CSU/DSU Link Speeds (Brad Walker) Notice to AT&T Customnet and Pro Wats Customers (Paul Robinson) Indiana NPA 317 Dialing Change Breaks Many COCOTS (George Goble) ATM and Multimedia (Xavier Garcia) ATM (Donald Army) ISDN Clarification (Mike D. Schomburg) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 25 Dec 93 11:53 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review Index [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although as Rob points out he is unable to send back issues, most of the books listed in the index below have been reviewed by Mr. Slade here in the Digest during the past year. If you are interested in seeing reviews you missed earlier, what you can do is grep the index to the Digest for the past year using the keyword 'Book Review:' You'll get the issue numbers involved and can obtain those copies from the Archives. Generally Mr. Slade's reviews have appeared here two or three times per week for the past several months. If you like seeing his book reviews in the Digest, drop him a note and let him know, asking him to continue them in 1994. Thanks. PAT] ------------------ Pre-scriptum: No, I can't send you back issues. No, there is no ftp or mail-sever site -- yet. Two outfits have expressed interest, but neither have gotten their ASCII together yet. REVIEW.LST 931114 Book review index This is a listing of (mostly technical) book reviews. The initial coding is the review file name (and approximate size of the file): this is followed by the name of the book and author(s) and a very brief description. (Some versions of this file may also contain listings of software reviews.) BK2NDCNT RVW 2832 "Second Contact", Resnick - fiction about hacking for data, some reasonable database security stuff BKABCLAN RVW 5439 "The ABC's of Local Area Networks", Dortch - practical, but somewhat limited in detail, good intro for small LAN BKAMGTMN RVW 2012 "A manager's guide to multivendor networks", Enck - like it says BKBBS4BS RVW 6728 "Bulletin Board Systems for Business", Wood/Blankenhorn - very PC oriented (COM932) BKBSECCS RVW 4880 "Building a Secure Computer System", Gasser - heavy on technical, particularly secure hardware BKBURGER RVW 11277 "Computer Viruses and Data Protection", Burger - poorly written with little solid information, some viral programs in source code BKCMCOOP RVW 3668 "Communications for Cooperating Systems", Cypser - IBM biased view of OSI and TCP/IP BKCMPSEC RVW 5779 "Computer Security Basics", Russell/Gangemi - good overview, but some problems (SEC931) BKCMVRCR RVW 3662 "Computer Virus Crisis", Fites/Johnston/Kratz - somewhat sloppy and a number of errors BKCONINT RVW 4132 "Connecting to the Internet", Estrada - good reference for contact with Internet providers, hopefully to be improved in future versions BKCURRY RVW 3171 "Unix System Security - A Guide for Users and System Administrators", Curry - not as good as Spafford/Garfinkel (SEC932) BKDEDMAC RVW 3614 "The Dead Mac Scrolls", Pina - diagnosis guide for Mac hardware BKDEMAN RVW 2784 "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks", Frey/Adams - valuable reference on email details between networks BKDENING RVW 8118 "Computers Under Attack", Denning, ed. - collection of essays roughly related to security, also "the net" BKDMGTOU RVW 8012 Dr. Macintosh's Guide to the On-Line Universe, LeVitus/Ihnatko - somewhat flippant but very thorough introduction to computer communications regardless of system BKDTCMDC RVW 2912 "Data Communications & Networking Dictionary", Pardoe/Wenig - a basic glossary, not overly biased, not overly complete BKEMAIL RVW 4066 "E-Mail", Caswell - good business proposal, but limited and dated BKETHICS RVW 4331 "Computers, ethics and society", Ermann/Williams/Gutierrez - textbook for computer ethics course: not great BKETHPKT RVW 2529 "Ethernet Pocket Guide", Byron Spinney - big on cabling and stuff BKETWOOS RVW 6481 "Exploring the World of Online Services", Resnick - looks at Compuserve and Prodigy, very rah, rah, not much info BKEYESTM RVW 2465 "Eye of the Storm", Gold Eagle/Worldwide - fiction, virus is minor subplot BKFANLAN RVW 2782 "Fantastic LANtastic", Talbott/Raker - good one stop reference for users, managers and installers BKFARROW RVW 3556 "Unix System Security", Farrow - basic BKFEUDO RVW 4414 "Computer Virus Desk Reference", Feudo - collects basic virus reference sources for those without online access BKGIGNET RVW 3564 "Gigabit Networking", Partridge - good overview of some of the latest hot topics in comms BKGLBTCH RVW 7883 "Globalization, Technology and Competition", Bradley/Hausman/Nolan - what business thinks about technology and communications - not much BKHGHLND RVW 5286 "Computer Virus Handbook", Highland - good overview, unfortunately somewhat dated BKHGTWFW RVW 4648 "Hacker's Guide to Word For Windows", Leonhard/Chen - necessary information to augment Word for Windows with its bugs and documentation BKHODGE RVW 2393 "Rid Me of This Virus!", Hodge - short, uneven material, perhaps a good pamphlet BKHOFMAN RVW 5768 "Rogue Programs", Hoffman, ed. - good collection of essays BKINTCMP RVW 5422 "The Internet Companion", LaQuey/Ryer - short and quick, not many helps and sometimes too many details, passable intro BKINTDCM RVW 7280 "Introduction to data communications", Gelber - bad start, good contents later BKINTSYS RVW 3175 "Internet System Handbook", Lynch/Rose - essays by people involved with the Internet, strong on protocols, weak on direction BKINTTCP RVW 3105 "Internetworking with TCP/IP", Comer/Stevens - good overview, also good basic network comm concepts BKKROL RVW 4616 "The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog", Ed Krol - excellent introduction to the Internet as well as resource for experienced users (COM931) BKLEVIN RVW 3793 "Computer Virus Handbook", Levin - vague and undisciplined BKLRNUNX RVW 1941 "Learning the UNIX Operating System", Todino/Strang - like it says. Short. BKLUDWIG RVW 6838 "Little Black Book of Computer Viruses", Ludwig - MS-DOS specific, not very accurate, viral source code BKLUNDEL RVW 4304 "Virus!", Lundell - a lot of research, but a lot of errors as well BKMANUCP RVW 2114 "Managing uucp and Usenet", O'Reilly/Todino - clear and complete overview BKMATRIX RVW 7009 "The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide", Quarterman - almost everything you ever wanted to know about "inter" networks BKMCAFEE RVW 5668 "Computer Viruses, Worms, Data Diddlers, Killer Programs and Other Threats to Your System", McAfee/Haynes - some interesting speculations buried in a mass of undisciplined garbage BKMDMREF RVW 4939 "The Modem Reference", Banks - fairly complete overview, but with errors and without much organization BKMGENIE RVW 5560 "Glossbrenner's Master Guide to GEnie", Glossbrenner - somewhat dated with the changes in the system, but still very useful BKMSTNVL RVW 4432 "Mastering Novell Netware", Currid/Gillett - a very *basic* intro to Novell BKMSUNCM RVW 4464 "Mastering UNIX Serial Communications", Gofton - good, but very brief, intro to serial comm and some UNIX programs BKNTINTG RVW 1458 "Network Interface Technical Guide" - lists important data for any and all network cards, invaluable for LAN admins BKOPSYNT RVW 3366 "Open Systems Networking", Piscitello/Chapin - Solid management and technical review of the "hot topic" BKPCVIRS RVW 6620 "PC Viruses: Detection, Analysis and Cure", Solomon - very accurate, slightly dated, somewhat demanding technically BKPICKGD RVW 2333 "A Guide to the Pick System", Dale Dougherty - like it says, intro BKPRTCOM RVW 4160 "Portable Communications", Banks - very little portable, but some reasonable communications background BKPRUNSC RVW 3705 "Practical UNIX Security", Garfinkel and Spafford - very practical, very secure, very UNIX (SEC932) BKPTHWRK RVW 1992 "The Complete Guide to Pathworks", Spencer - DOS and VMS only, but a reasonably good overview BKRDDBSC RVW 3796 "Research Directions in Database Security", Lunt (ed.) - rather generic, but a good intro to the various problems in a very complex area BKSCNCMP RVW 2839 "Security in Computing", Pfleeger - reasonable textbook, but some shortcomings BKSGTCVR RVW 6052 "Survivor's Guide to Computer Viruses" - relatively good, but disappointing coming from the Virus Bulletin BKSHKWAV RVW 2582 "Shockwave Rider", John Brunner - fiction, "tapeworm" is a minor but important aspect of the plot BKSMILEY RVW 2704 "Smileys", David W. Sanderson/Dale Dougherty, 1993 - short, mostly listing, some discussion (COM931) BKSMLDCT RVW 1444 "The Smiley Dictionary", Seth Godin - not as complete as Sanderson and Dougherty, but nicer format BKSNDMAL.RVW 3201 "sendmail", Costales/Allman/Rickert - complete overview and reference on sendmail BKSYSLAW RVW 3685 "Syslaw", Rose/Wallace, 1992 - legal aspects of BBSes and online systems (COM932) (SEC932) BKTCHDCM RVW 4029 "Technical Aspects of Data Communications", McNamara - an intro to data comm course between covers BKTERMCP RVW 3666 "termcap and terminfo", Strang/Mui/O'Reilly - good overview and tutorial BKTRMCMP RVW 12846 "Terminal Compromise", Schwartau - fiction, some good security ideas buried in a lot of bad writing BKUNICOD RVW 4962 "The Unicode Standard" - just like it says BKUMASSC RVW 4709 "Using McAfee Associates Software for Safe Computing", Jacobsen - printed docs for SCAN et al BKUMSKMT RVW 5143 "Using MS-DOS Kermit", Gianone - excellent documentation for MS-Kermit, excellent overview of terminal emulation and file transfer in general BKUPOS RVW 4625 Unix, Posix, and Open Systems, Quarterman/Wilhelm - good intro to one of the current "buzz phrases" BKUSUUCP RVW 1548 "Using UUCP and Usenet", Todino/Dougherty - short BKWNPROG RVW 2471 "Windows Network Programming", Ralph Davis - good programming reference MVSNEAKR RVW 4726 "Sneakers", Universal Pictures - fictional, but reasonably good portrayal of a "tiger team" Publishers or authors wishing to have their books reviewed and added to the list should have copies sent to Rob Slade at 3118 Baird Road, North Vancouver, BC, Canada, V7K 2G6. Please note that all shipments from outside of Canada should state very clearly that the material is for evaluation and has no commercial value. In addition, it is úÿ advisable to declare a media cost of $1 per disk and an "intellectual property" value of $1 per item such that the total does not exceed $15. Rob Slade does not take any responsibility for shipments delayed or refused at Customs for failure to follow these directions. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 REVIEW.LST 931114 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and affiliated newgroups/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: hiro@lynx.com (Hiro Sugawara) Subject: Fax Machine as Scanner? Organization: Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc., Los Gatos, CA Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 22:20:01 GMT Does anyone know a good way to use a fax machine as a scanner to send image data to a fax modem through a local connection? I would be very possible and easy if I had two telephone lines, but I do not. I use a Mac IISi and a LineLink modem with MaxFax. Here are what I have done so far: 1. FaxScanner I bought a device called FaxScanner from a small Florida company for some $70. They sent me a sub-cigarette box size device with a 9V battery and a "BitFax" program. I followed the instruction and installl BitFax with MaxFax termporarily removed. My fax machine transferred image to BitFax successfully. Here are the problems with this: - BitFax is *very* slow handling image data. - BitFax's user interface is much poorer than other fax programs I have used (MaxFax and GlobalFax), so I don't want to use BitFax as my resident fax program. - Believe or not, this configuration transferred image *without* the black hardware device. It's a kind of scam! I didn't need to buy it! Another company in San Diego is selling a similar product called FaxScan for some $100. I would recommend keeping away from these. 2. MaxFax Having discovered that the black box is unnecessary, I tried to make MaxFax do the same thing, manual transmission from the fax machine and manual receiption to MaxFax, but no success. MaxFax somehow recognizes the fax machine and fax machine displays MaxFax's station ID, but the negotiation eventually fails and no data is transferred. Listening to the negotiation signals carefully, I noticed that MaxFax makes different tones from what it makes when it answers to regular incoming calls with ringing. So, I think if there's any way to simulate ringing, MaxFax can make it. I checked with some telephony books and found that the central office uses 90Vrms ringing signal and ringing has to be removed within 200ms after detection of an off-hook. Does anyone know more about this or any *cheap* commercial product? hiro@lynx.com ------------------------------ From: oilean!bwalker@sgi.com (Brad Walker) Subject: V.35 to RS-232 Conversions Organization: Island Software Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 08:44:12 GMT I'm curious to know where to look for information on the v.35 spec. In addition I'm curious to know if anyone has done v.35 to rs-232 conversions. I've done several device drivers for SBus serial cards that had the capability to do up to 256Kb/port. And I noticed that on most datacom equipment like routers they have a v.35 connection that hooks into a CSU port. What I would like to do is build a Point to Point link using Cisco routers. But, would like to plug the Cisco directly into my SBus board. The only problem is that the Cisco speaks v.35 and the SBus board speaks rs-232. Hence my question. Thanks for any and all info. brad w. ------------------------------ From: oilean!bwalker@sgi.com (Brad Walker) Subject: Questions About CSU/DSU Link Speeds Organization: Island Software Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 08:36:58 GMT I'm curious to know if you can concatenate two 56Kb links from a local service provider to get 128Kb through put. What I'm interested in is what is the next increment up from 56Kb. Is it fractional T1 or what? And if it is fractional T1 then what kind of CSU/DSU does one need. Thanks, brad w. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 02:12:13 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: Notice to AT&T Customnet & Pro Wats Customers Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA December 25, {New York Times}, Page A23 NOTICE TO AT&T CUSTOMNET[TM] AND AT&T PRO(R) WATS SERVICE CUSTOMERS A tariff was filed with the Federal Communications Commission on December 21, 1993, pursuant to which AT&T will substantially restructure the AT&T CustomNet[TM] Service Type 2 rate schedule for direct dialed international calls from locations on the United States mainland and Hawaii. As part of the restructure, rates will be divided into two rate periods, called "Standard" and "Economy". Also, the timing interval for additional periods will be reduced from six seconds to one second. Based on existing calling patterns, CustomNet Service Type 2 users will experience rate changes ranging from a 39% decrease to a 34% increase. On average, these changes will result in a 3.1% decrease across all such users. In addition, AT&T filed tariff changes that reduced the timing interval for additional periods on domestic AT&T CustomNet Service calls from six seconds to one second, and increased usage rates for such service by 1%. Further, AT&T increased PRO(R) WATS schedule (b) usage rates by 1%. AT&T CustomNet Service and PRO WATS schedule (b) will also be simplifying the rate periods on domestic calls to peak/off-peak periods. The latter change will have no effect on rates. The tariff changes are scheduled to become effective January 4, 1994. For information on International Services contact an International Sales Representative at 1 800 222-0900. For information on Domestic Services contact a Domestic Sales Representative at 1 800 222-0400. ------------------------------ From: ghg@ecn.purdue.edu (George Goble) Subject: Indiana NPA 317 Dialing Change Breaks Many COCOTS Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 13:39:47 GMT Nov 1, GTE (Lafayette, IN), and Indiana Bell (Indianapolis) announced, that Dec 1 all non-local area calls in NPA 317 (i.e 1+ and I assume 0+ ) would be REQUIRED to include the NPA. The reason stated was the shortage of NPAs and this change would free some up. Prior to November 1, many 1 + NPA + NXX + YYYY reached an intercept saying "not necessary to dial the NPA". 1 + NPA + ... (where NPA wasn't needed) has caused all sorts of various behaviors over the last 20 years. After November 1, 1 + NPA dialing would work, with mandatory being 12/1/93. On 12/1/93, 1 + NXX + YYYY still worked, but sometime around the middle of December 1 + NXX + YYYY just started getting a fast busy, but no message. My Cellular ONE phone, still works for 1 + NXX dialing (switch based in Indy). This change appears to have broken piles of software in PBXs, Voicemail outcalls, etc, etc, and most importantly COCOTS! I have seen numerous signs on COCOTS in the Lafayette Area "Long distance does not work". I know one of the business owners, the Levee Coin OP Laundry. I have been lecturing him for years on the Evils of COCOTS/AOS's and gave him telecom printouts. Now their COCOT/AOS SCREWED them. The provider wants a whole bunch of money, and a signed new contract (via mail, you know over XMAS), before they will think about reprogramming the phone. I think they have been down approximatly two weeks. My Cellular One voice mail has pager outcall. THe Voice mail switch is in Indy, my pager in Lafayette, not in "local area", but both in NPA 317. When setting up my voicemail to pager outcall in the past (about a year ago) I set it to 1-317-423-YYYY, but it did not work. Their switch/software/routing ONLY would work if set to 1-423-YYYY. I remembered that, and told Cellular one around Dec 1. They didn't do anything and around December 7 it all quit, but the voice mail would not accept 1-317- ... All pagers were broke for approximatly two weeks before they got somebody to reprogram things to take 1+317+NXX+ ... I would imagine that there are tons of PBXs, which try "least cost" routing, etc, which are totally hosed by this change. The public only had 30 days notice. Has this sort of thing happened in recent times before without major havoc? This all coincides with the holidays, with many of the important players on vacation. ghg ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 14:48:53 +0100 From: Xavier Garcia Subject: ATM and Multimedia Organization: EPFL Does anyone know how can I contact the Multimedia Forum or tell me what are they working on (e.g video compression standards AAL2 definition.)? Thanks, Xavier Garcia research engineer Telecommunications laboratory Swiss federal Institute of technology, Lausanne 1015 Lausanne Switzerland Internet: garcia@tcomhp20.epfl.ch Phone: +4121 6935258 Fax: +4121 693 4660 ------------------------------ From: darmy@symantec.com (Donald Army) Subject: ATM News Groups Wanted Date: 25 Dec 1993 15:41:48 GMT Organization: Symantec Corporation Are there any news groups on ATM?? Thanks, darmy@symantec.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 25 Dec 93 09:07:57 CST From: mschomburg@ltec.com (Mike D. Schomburg) Subject: ISDN Clarification úÿ Concerning Mike Lanza's remarks about ISDN on 12-22-93, it should be noted that the 2B+D spec is the Basic Rate Interface, or BRI. The Primary Rate Interface, or PRI, contains 23B+D, and fits within a conventional T-1 bit stream. While the BRI and PRI are commonly lumped together as narrowband ISDN, they play very different roles in the network. PRIs are becoming quite common as high (relatively) capacity delivery vehicles from IXCs to customer premises, with at least two advantages over vanila T-1. The call control is message-oriented -- over the D channel -- and caller ID is delivered over the D channel, making it much easier to manipulate. The purpose of the BRI is to bridge the analog gap between the customer premise and the (virtually) all-digital LEC-IXC network. ISDN specs define the B and D channels generically, meaning there is no arbitrary constraint on the use of the channels. Either or both B channels (64kbps) can be used for voice or data (but Mike is correct that there is no advantage to digital voice). Particular LECs may choose to offer only one B channel, or any combination of the possibilities. One last point -- personal computer cards are available that provide 64kbps connectivity for the computer, and also have an RJ-11 jack for your plain old phone. You do not necessarily have to junk your phones. My appologies if this is redundant. Opinions expressed are my own and are not to be confused with my employer's. Mike D. Schomburg mschomburg@ltec.com Lincoln Telephone Co. 402 476 5351 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #837 ****************************** Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253