TELECOM Digest Fri, 25 Mar 94 12:44:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 147 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Hunt Groups/Ring-No-Answer-Call-Forwarding (Scott M. Pfeffer) ISDN PC-Boards and Supplementary Services (Svein-Ivar Lillehaug) Digital Audio Conference Bridges (MCUs) (Svein-Ivar Lillehaug) Will Widespread Use of Cell Phones Reduce Crime? (Howard Gayle) Telex / Telephone / Country Code List (Paul Robinson) Phone Equipment Catalogs (mwolf@pattie.wellesley.edu) "Fooling" Caller-ID (A. Padgett Peterson) Modem-Connectable Cell Phones? (bobfromtn@aol.com) Info Needed About Local LD Carriers in Turkey (Henry Griner) Pacific Bell Voice Mail Types (Keith Laaks) One Equals On (John Starta) Area Code 215 Changed to 610, Why? (Juha Veijalainen) Sprint 800 Outage From 201 Area Code? (Paul R. Coen) Re: Pager Scam Resurfaces (Christopher Zguris) Re: Pager Scam Resurfaces (David Jones) Re: CATV Modems (Garrett Wollman) Re: CATV Modems (George Gilder) Re: CATV Modems (Tony Harminc) Re: CATV Modems (Aaron Leonard) Internet Address Wanted (Patrizio Menchetti) 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. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sp9183@swuts.sbc.com (Scott M. Pfeffer) Subject: Hunt Groups/Ring-No-Answer-Call-Forwarding Date: 25 Mar 94 04:01:30 GMT Organization: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company Anyone watching this newsgroup worked with hunt groups a lot? I am trying to figure out how to do the following, and would really appreciate input from folks with experience in this area: The basic idea is to provide 32 dialup modem lines with a backup configuration in case a modem goes bad or the rack containing half the modems goes bad. Simply, speaking something like this would be nice: If the line chosen by the switch is one of the first sixteen, but there is no answer after two rings, find a line in the second sixteen and ring it instead. This way, if I have a rack of modems on the first sixteen go down, or a bad modem is hit on the first rack, the rack on the second sixteen will receive the call. Likewise, if the line chosen by the switch is one of the second sixteen, but there is no answer after two rings, find a line in the first sixteen and ring it instead. This way, if the second rack goes down or a bad modem is hit on the second rack, the rack on the first sixteen will receive the call. Finally, if possible, I'd like a backup arrangement to the backup arrangement. A few ideas have been sent my way, but I am not sure what makes the most sense ... A few folks I know have come up with some possibilities, but still I am not sure. Here are some ideas. What do you think? 1. Provide a simple 32-line distributed line hunt group. Then a dial-in user may fail on the first call, but will eventually be able to get in after multiple retries. Am I correct that Distributed Line Hunting will choose the "least recently used" line? Limitation: User will have to redial to get in if there is no answer. It may take up to 16 calls to get to the OTHER rack. 2. 32-line hunt group. Each line N in the hunt group will have busy call forwarding and ring-no-answer call forwarding to another line. This way, if a call comes in to a bad modem or rack, the call gets immediately sent to the other rack. If THAT rack has a bad modem or if the line is busy, the call gets sent to the next line in the first rack. The cycle will continue in this sequence: N --> N + 16 --> N + 1 --> N + 17 --> N + 2 --> N + 18 --> N + 3 ^ --> N + 19 --> N + 4 --> N + 20 --> N + 5 --> N + 21 --> N + 6 | --> N + 22 --> N + 7 --> N + 23 --> N + 8 --> N + 24 --> N + 9 | --> N + 25 --> N + 10 --> N + 26 --> N + 11 --> N + 27 --> N + 12 | --> N + 28 --> N + 13 --> N + 29 --> N + 14 --> N + 30 --> N + 15 | --> N + 31 --> N + 16 --> N + 32 --: |_____________________________________| 3. Part 1: A 32-line distributed line hunt group. Numbers N through N+31. Part 2: A 15-line distributed line hunt group. Numbers N+1 through N+15. Part 3: A 16-line distributed line hunt group. Numbers N+16 through N+31. Part 4: Ring-no-answer for line N through N+15 goes to hunt line N+16. Part 5: Ring-no-answer for line N+16 through N+31 goes to hunt line N+1. Then, if a caller gets ring-no-answer, they get routed back and forth between the first 16 lines and the second 16 lines. Very similar results to solution 2? As I am new to these features (although I understand the basics), can anyone shed some light as to how far off the track I am with this and tell me how to get to Grandma's house? Thanks, Scott Pfeffer Information Services, Southwestern Bell Telephone ------------------------------ From: sveini@mack.uit.no (Svein-Ivar Lillehaug) Subject: ISDN PC-Boards and Supplementary Services Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 15:09:00 GMT Organization: University of Tromsoe, Norway The 1989 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) identifies 25 supplementary services as priority 1 and 2 (5 + 20) for Euro-ISDN. ISDN adapters may access supplementary services through either the Facility Information Element (IE) or the Keypad IE on D-channel messages. The Facility IE supports identification of specific supplementary services according to standards. The Keypad IE identifies strings of keypad codes according to the Keypad Protocol (for example *21*#). Applications can map high level user interface menu choices to keypad codes. In addition, tone signalling such as DTMF (Dual Tone Multiple Frequency) is desirable in some cases (for example for remote operation of videophones). Unfortunately it seems like (most?) ISDN adapters only support a limited number of the services described above. Hopefully I am wrong - therefor I wonder if anyone out there are aware of ISDN boards that offer all (or most -- or as many as possible) of the 25 supplementary services through their APIs (or CAPI / ETSI-PCI). The access obviously has to go through the Keypad IE or the DTMF , signalling. Regards, Svein-Ivar ------------------------------ From: sveini@mack.uit.no (Svein-Ivar Lillehaug) Subject: Digital Audio Conference Bridges (MCUs) Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 15:12:40 GMT Organization: University of Tromsoe, Norway I am interested in manufacturers (name, address, phone and fax numbers) of digital audio MCUs. To be more specific (and exclude some products) an interesting product must support the following functionalities: * Signal interfaces: Digital line signalling DTMF * Possibilities for subscribers to set up the conference * Allow for parallel conferences and up to 30 (or 50) conference participants at the same time. * Allow for dynamic management of conferences (hang ups as well as including new participants during the conference). * Direct operation through a PC interface for set up of conferences, registration and administration of subscribers and cost charges. What is a reasonable price for equipment like this? Thanks in advance, Svein-Ivar ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 07:25:29 PST From: howard@hal.com (Howard Gayle) Subject: Will Widespread Use of Cell Phones Reduce Crime? Reply-To: howard@hal.com A friend suggested to me that, sometime in the future, almost everyone will carry around a cellular phone almost all the time. She thinks this will significantly reduce the amount of crime, because it will be very easy to report a crime or other suspicious behavior that one observes. I'm skeptical, but it seems like an interesting topic for discussion. howard@acm.org ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 11:26:36 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: Telex / Telephone / Country Code List Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA The following is a correction to a prior message. In a prior issue of TELECOM Digest I noted that a listing of three- digit telex codes, telex answerbacks, worldwide telephone area codes, and ISO 3166 country codes was listed in my Internet RFC 1394. The correct location for RFCs is on site DS.INTERNIC.NET (in addition to other sites that keep a complete set) and not on RS.INTERNIC.NET. 'RS' only has a limited subset of the RFCs. The complete collection is on 'DS' in the /rfc directory. I have just checked, and the file is there. Please excuse any inconvenience this may have caused you. Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM ------------------------------ From: mwolf@pattie.wellesley.edu (MUR) Subject: Phone Equipment Catalogs Organization: WELLESLEY COLLEGE Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 16:45:12 GMT I'm looking for a mail order outfit, other than Hello Direct, that carries a wide variety of phone accessories such as caller ID boxes, auto-dialers etc.. I only excluded Hello Direct, as they are already sending me a catalog. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 08:55:59 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: "Fooling" Caller-ID Since my FAQ posting on Caller-ID, several people have written to say that they have heard of a box that can produce an erroneous record via a data burst on DE Pickup. None provided details. My understanding is that the Motorola chip and most Caller-ID boxes are designed to only accept data *before* pickup and to stop listening when the line is answered. Further, the through connection is only made once the line has been answered. For this reason there should not be a problem. Further, I have understood that a Caller-ID box would only accept one valid sequence per call. Two logical possibilities arise: 1) Some Caller-ID boxes might have a lag between call pickup and last acceptance of digits. 2) Some switches may connect through before pickup. If anyone *knows* of any instance where this is true (other than party lines or COTS PBX equipment), I would like to know. Warmly, Padgett padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com ------------------------------ From: bobfromtn@aol.com Subject: Modem-Connectable Cell Phones? Date: 25 Mar 1994 01:03:02 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Does a FAQ exist with comprehensive list of cell phones and features? Specifically I am seeking a phone which will connect to an existing modem (not PCMCIA-based). ------------------------------ From: Henry Griner Subject: Info Needed on Local LD Carriers in Turkey Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 00:54:01 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) I need information about who the LD carriers are in Turkey. Also, I had something about the rates going up by 100% or more in the near future. I would also like to contact anyone in business in Turkey to discuss this further. Any leads or help would be great. Thanks, Henry ------------------------------ From: itbkl@puknet.puk.ac.za (Keith Laaks) Subject: Pacific Bell Voice Mail Types Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 09:36:36 GMT Organization: ITB Department, University of Potchefstroom Hi, Don't you just love it when you can't access the information you want because the information hotline number you have is a Toll-Free number in another country? I see that Pacific Bell's Voice Mail for Business comes in two flavours: a) Standard ($19.95) b) Deluxe ($29.95) Can anybody tell me how these two mailbox types differ? Do they also provide a residential Voice Mail/Call Answer service? Also, do Telco's provide voicemail to customers with their own PABX? If so, how are the calls routed to the Voicemail equipment? I take it the Telco will have a centralized VoiceMail node, and will route (divert) calls from the business to such equipment. Is Voice Mail a regulated service? If so, what are these regulations? Keith Email: itbkl@puknet.puk.ac.za Potch Univ. Email : Tel: Potchefstroom itbkl@puknet.puk.ac.za Voice (0148) 992126 West Transvaal South Africa FAX (0148) 992799 ------------------------------ Subject: One Equals On From: tosh!starta@enuucp.eas.asu.edu (John Starta) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 19:57:43 MST > Kenn Krasner, Sr. Consultant One Equals On kkrasner@mordor.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yep, 'one equals on' is the way he > wrote it. Its not my typo! Maybe Kenn will explain it. PAT] If I had to guess I would say that Kenn's company name is a reference to the state of a bit in binary; 0 is off, 1 is on. john starta [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good guess! That had not occurred to me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: JVE%FNAHA@eccsa.Tredydev.Unisys.com Date: 24 MAR 94 18:45 Subject: Area Code 215 Changed to 610, Why? The other day I managed to dial a non-existing number in the USA. Area code was 215 and number 385 xxxx. The error message said I called area code 610 and number 385 xxxx and, of course, that the number did not exist. Is area code 215 being changed, split or what. Once I got the correct number, I could complete my call with 215. Juha Veijalainen System analyst, tel. +358 40 5004402 Unisys Finland Internet: JVE%FNAHA@eccsa.tredydev.unisys.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Area 215 has been/is being split into two parts with one part called 610. Carl Moore is around that area and keeps track of these things extensively; maybe he will fill you in. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 12:23:32 EST From: Paul R. Coen Subject: Sprint 800 Outage From 201 Area Code? Organization: Drew University Academic Technology I had some trouble getting through to one of our software vendors today. Whenever I called their 800 number, I got a "all carrier circuits are busy, please try later. 1C201" intercept. Anyway, I figured it wasn't AT&T, because we have AT&T long distance service. So one of my co-workers tried Sprint's FON card access number (800) 877-8000 -- same intercept. MCI seems to be okay. Looks like Sprint's 800 service is out from this area. Anyone know what is going on? I don't know if this is true on regular Sprint long distance, either. I'll try it later on from a payphone. I suppose the problem could be Bell Atlantic/NJ Bell, as well, but I would expect it to be causing other problems. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 08:29 EST From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Pager Scam Resurfaces > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'm sure our readers ** in the metro > New York City area ** appreciate the reminder, but bear in mind that > ** no one ** outside the NYC area (212/718, maybe 914/516 ?) can reach > this number even if they were paged. '540' is a very local, restricted > prefix for the simple reason that the telco in New York has no way to > collect on calls outside their area. Dialing 212-540-anything from > Chicago for example on MCI gets an intercept saying 'MCI does not > complete calls to 976 numbers at this time' ... and via AT&T it just > goes to a re-order. I'm not certain, but I think if it is dialed via > 10xxx or 1+ , it won't even leave the local CO if outside of NYC and > environs. So if anyone chooses to copy out your message and post it as > a warning in a company newsletter, etc, I hope they'll include my note > as well. Essentially outside of NYC, this is a non-issue, and in my ----------- ------- -- --- ---- -- - --- ----- --- -- -- > opinion, New Yorkers are entitled to whatever they get themselves into! ------- --- ------- --- -------- -- -------- ---- --- ---------- ---- Do you write this stuff to intentionally tick people off? Besides being obnoxious, this info is wrong to some degree. I know for a fact that the Pennsylvania lottery operates a 976-xxxx or similar number that is billed at a higher rate than a standard call. If they have that, than isn't it possible they have other numbers with the same higher-priced billing? Are you saying NYC is alone on this continent in its' ability to provide non-900 numbers billed at higher rates? Residents of _any_ city (or state) that have 976-xxxx or similar numbers and pagers should be aware of this. > It is even doubtful if the operator of this scam is breaking the law, > as sleazy as it may be. Yes, he is requesting that you call a premium- > priced phone number, but so do countless other advertisers on radio and -- -- --------- ----- ----------- -- ----- --- > television each day. No one is making you call the number and the ---------- ---- --- The ones I have heard on radio and TV _advertise_ the price for the call as well as the number, last I heard that was the law. > presumption is you should know where you are calling before you dial. PAT] With continuous area code splits (some for local calls, some for long distance) that will be a neat trick! Christopher Zguris czguris@mcimail.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I said nothing about New York being alone in its ability to do anything. I did say (and we have discussed here in the past) that telcos seem to have an understanding with each other not to allow calls to each other's premium lines *of the 976 type*. '540' is just a variation on '976' in NYNEX-land. Ditto where 900 service is concerned to some extent: Long distance carriers will not handle each others calls. That is you cannot use MCI to call an AT&T 900 number. You cannot use any LD carrier to call a local telco's 900 number. You *can* use any telco to call a long distance carrier's 900 number however unless your line is blocked from same. The Information Provider does not want his lines full of non-revenue (to him) calls from other areas of the country, and the phone companies cooperate with that request. You mention the PA Lottery. Certainly, almost every metro area of the USA has 976 service (or in NYNEX's case 540 and 976 service). We have dozens of such 'services' here ... try calling a Chicago area 976 number in New York ... a few, very benign services, i.e. weather and time of day *may* be permitted (I do not have a list of who is what) ... but I'll guarentee you the sex-chat and high-priced telemarketing ones never arrive here, nor in reverse. The other thing which makes this 'modem scam resurfaces' thing fishy in my opinion is that suppose you have a pager and get such a call. Where do you usually go to return the call? Either a pay phone or you use your cell phone ... and telcos do not connect to 976 or 900 numbers from pay phones either. How are they gonna get paid; are you gonna stand there and deposit fifty dollars in quarters in the box? And cellphone carriers also typically disallow 976 and 900 calls. Usually the only place you can complete these calls is from a private phone within the LATA. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dej@eecg.toronto.edu (David Jones) Subject: Re: Pager Scam Resurfaces Organization: University of Toronto, Computer Engineering Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 09:51:24 -0500 In article Stephen Goodman <0003945654@ mcimail.com> writes: > Be aware that the pager scam using area code > 212/540-XXXX What happens if this number is called from a payphone in NYC? This may be a way to cut your losses to 25 cents. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What happens if it is called from a payhone is (if NYNEX treats 540 the same way other telcos treat 976/900, and I cannot see why they would not) is the call goes to intercept with a message that the call 'cannot be completed from the phone you are using; and an operator will not be able to complete the call for you ...'. All payphones have 900/976 blocking on them which I assume includes 540; it must because when you try 212-540-anything via MCI for example, you are told MCI won't connect to 976 numbers (their words) if in fact the 540 you dialed exists; otherwise you just get a not in service message. Local premium service by whatever name (sometimes local telcos even have their own 900 service) never can be called from outside the LATA. Now this was not always true ... until maybe five years ago people in the San Fransisco area for example who dialed 976-GAYS were told the call would cost 'just two dollars for up to three minutes of lively adult conversation ... have fun!' while people in Chicago who dialed 1-415-976-GAYS heard the same message but could safely ignore it knowing they would only pay toll charges of 12 cents per minute during the night. It got to the point where no one called their local hot-chat; why pay two or three dollars when they could call one in another city for only the cost of the toll charges since telcos had no way to bill those out of the LATA? The hot-chat lines were packed; the locals could not reach their own service if they wanted to with all the out of town callers on board; the information providers were making zero since they relied on telco commissions (there were none, the calls were all long distance); and the telcos finally put an end to it at the urging of the IP's. End result and bottom line today: you can't call 976/540 unless you are within the reach of the local telco. No payphone connections, no credit card billings, no collect calls, no third-numbers, etc. That is why the 'pager scam' can cause limited damage if it is still going on. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wollman@ginger.lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: CATV Modems Date: 24 Mar 1994 19:31:49 GMT Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , wrote: > Do you know any equipment (modem, remodulator, ...) that allows data > communication over the CATV cable. On the user side, the modem should > feature a well-known interface (RS232C, Ethernet, ...). When I was at UVM, we used aging Ungermann-Bass equipment which did this, running at 5Mbit/s per direction per channel. We used two channels in each direction (3P forward/Q reverse, 4A forward/R reverse). We were contemplating replacing this equipment with 10-Mbit equipment from Chipcom, but decided instead to decommission the broadband data network. Garrett A. Wollman wollman@lcs.mit.edu formerly known as wollman@emba.uvm.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 09:28 EST From: George Gilder <0004091174@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: CATV Modems Digital Equipment in Littleton, Massachusetts, offers a CATV modem called Channelworks that offers full duplex 10 megabit per second Ethernet services of up to 70 miles over two cable channels. Intel, General Instrument, and Hybrid Technologies have announced an asymmetrical CATV modem which receives at 10 megabits per second but sends at 256 kilobits, with plans for upgrades to a megabit. Cable coax, reaching 63 percent of the nation's homes and passing some 90 percent, is a huge untapped resource for computer communications and in the future, I predict, will be used more by computers than by TVs. Each cable has a two-way potential of one gigahertz. Because CATV operates at over 50 decibels of signal to noise, however, it can accomodate as many as 16 bits per hertz, for a total capacity of some 16 gigabits per second. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 15:51:05 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: CATV Modems gabioud@uni2a.unige.ch wrote: > A CATV cable has a huge bandwidth available. A part of it is usually > not used for TV channels and could be used (at least from a technical > standpoint) for data transmission, if a return channel is available. > Do you know any equipment (modem, remodulator, ...) that allows data > communication over the CATV cable. On the user side, the modem should > feature a well-known interface (RS232C, Ethernet, ...). There is all sorts of gear available to use the CATV plant for data transmission. Probably the most prominent vendor is Scientific Atlanta (you guess where they're based :-) ). But you must understand that there is no end-user widget you can just attach to your end of the cable that will do anything useful along these lines. The entire cable plant has to be engineered for data transmission. SA has a set of gear that can provide a POTS or ISDN connection as well as the RG59 TV signal via a black box that attaches to the side of your house. Probably they'd be happy to send you the glossies. Tony H. (I have no connection with SA, etc...) ------------------------------ From: leonard@telcom.arizona.edu (Aaron Leonard) Subject: Re: CATV Modems Date: 24 Mar 1994 23:37:02 GMT Organization: University of Arizona Telecommunications Reply-To: Leonard@Arizona.EDU In article , gabioud@uni2a.unige.ch writes: > A CATV cable has a huge bandwidth available. A part of it is usually > not used for TV channels and could be used (at least from a technical > standpoint) for data transmission, if a return channel is available. > Do you know any equipment (modem, remodulator, ...) that allows data > communication over the CATV cable. On the user side, the modem should > feature a well-known interface (RS232C, Ethernet, ...). DEC (excuse me, Digital Equipment Corp.) sells a box called a ChannelWorks bridge, which bridges Ethernet at full 10Mbps over two CATV channels. It's priced in the middle four figures, and is quite fast (in terms both of latency and bandwidth). However, it's rather finicky in terms of how clean the cable signal must be for it to work well. I understand that Zenith also has (or is working on) such a device, although Zenith's is cheaper and only provides .5Mbps. Aaron Leonard (AL104), University of Arizona Network Operations, Tucson AZ 85721 ------------------------------ Subject: Internet Address Wanted Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 12:22:19 CET From: Patrizio Menchetti Can anybody tell me if the Secretary of State of the State of New York has an Internet address? Thank you in advance. Patrizio Menchetti ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #147 ****************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253