TELECOM Digest Sat, 12 Feb 94 22:36:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 78 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls (Lars Poulsen) Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls (Steven H. Lichter) Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls (Daryl R. Gibson) Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls (Richard Barnes) Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls (Bill Llewellyn) Re: Phone Number History (Dr. Daniel L. Jones) Re: Phone Number History (Robert Casey) Re: Phone Number History (Mark W. Schumann) Re: Phone Number History (Jim F. Williams) Re: Phone Number History (Ken Jongsma) Re: Don't Trust The Phone Company (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Don't Trust The Phone Company (Carl Chatski) Re: Don't Trust The Phone Company (Alan Boritz) Re: Busy Call Return and Hunt Groups (Al Varney) How to Get Long Duration Tones From a Rolm Phone? (David Chasman) Paging Available on Cellular Phones (Scott Colbath) How to Build Modified Three-Way Calling? (Misuzu Nakazawa) Seeking Internet Providers (Charles John Statton, Jr.) A Switch Slipping Time (Dan Srebnick) Displease Mr. Postman (Col. G.L. Sicherman) 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. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 10:37:38 GMT Bill Garfield (bill.garfield@yob.com) wrote: >> OK all you telephone company techno-jocks, I need some help with this. >> We are being besieged by single-jingle (one ring) calls. In article mbutter@clark.net (Mario M. Butter) writes: > Could this be a phone company problem? I had the same thing happen to > me yesterday at home. About 30 times over a three hour stretch, the > phone rang once then stopped. I picked it up a few times on the first > ring, but there was no connection on the other end. Also, this was > happening on both of my lines, not just one. I have run into this problem with some FAX modems that did not like unfamiliar call progress signals, and hung up just as the call went through. Very annoying. In particular, some modems recognize UK-style "double ringback" (as provided by Panasonic switches) as BUSY. I have also caught some PBXs sending short tone bursts (monofrequency) during DID call handovers. This problem is especially bad if you use non-telecom-approved U.S. modem models (the technical term is "non-homologated") in Europe, but given the great variety of equipement, it could happen anywhere. 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: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls Date: 13 Feb 1994 03:00:35 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) We have had that going on for about three weeks now. I finally called repair and it checked out ok. I figured it was a problem and would stop even if they said there was no problem. I finally filed a report with the police and gave the number to the telephone company. Shortly after the trace program was placed in the switch it happend. It would happen six or seven times a day during the hours of 6 AM and 10 PM Pacific time. After a while the telephone company was able to locate the caller and it turned out to be a collection agency that was dialing my number looking for someone with the same last name as mine but only the same first initial. They must have been real stupid or at least played that way since the person that they claimed they were trying to reach was located in another city and another county. This happened to my answering machine, but it was still a pain. I sure wish California would wake up and allow full Caller ID and to hell with the little old ladies and rights groups that feel their rights are being violated; what about our rights to know who calls us? Almost every other state has it now and there is no good reason California could not have it. The time is now here for the people in California who want it to write their reps to pass laws that would force the PUC to place the service as designed and not the piece meal way they want the companies to set it up. Either that or get rid if the PUC as they seem to think we work for them. The above are my personal thoughts and not those of whatever company I may or may not work for. This was also done on my own time with my own computer and telephone. SO There!!!!!!!!!! Sysop: Apple Elite II -=- an Ogg-Net Hub BBS (909) 359-5338 12/24/96/14.4 V32/V42bis Via PCP CACOL/12/24 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 17:33:13 MST From: Daryl R. Gibson Subject: Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls mbutter@clark.net (Mario M. Butter) wrote: > Bill Garfield (bill.garfield@yob.com) wrote: >> OK all you telephone company techno-jocks, I need some help with >> this. >> We are being besieged by single-jingle (one ring) calls. > Could this be a phone company problem? I had the same thing happen to > me yesterday at home. About 30 times over a three hour stretch, the > phone rang once then stopped. I picked it up a few times on the first > ring, but there was no connection on the other end. Also, this was > happening on both of my lines, not just one. I remember a case in southern Utah that had this problem. The telephone installer went out, couldn't find a thing. Finally, he watched and noted that the rings came whenever somebody used the toilet. Turned out the phone was grounded to the sewer pipe, was badly grounded, and the pressure from the "movement" caused a temporary short and made the phone ring. Bad ground, maybe? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is this some sort of variation on the dog in the UK who was tied to the pole in the back yard and whatever? Everyone remembers that story, right? :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: rbarnes@crl.com (Richard Barnes) Subject: Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls Date: 12 Feb 1994 21:56:01 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] We had this happen a while back, and frequently at night. We had to call the phone company several times, and finally talk to a supervisor (we got incorrect information from everyone else). The supervisor said it was the phone company's test equipment. After talking to this person the calls tapered off over a period of one or two weeks. ------------------------------ From: thinker@rahul.net (Bill Llewellyn) Subject: Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls Organization: a2i network Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 07:08:38 GMT I have heard of fax auto-dialers which randomly dial telephone numbers searching for a fax modem carrier. The intent is to broadcast junk faxes, simialr to junk mail, to any and every fax machine the broadcaster can find. If the calling machine hears no carrier after one ring, it hangs up and moves on. They are set up this way because most fax machines are programmed to answer on the first ring and immediately put out a carrier on the line. We've had a number of "one-ringers" at our home over the years -- any time of day or night. It is frustrating. Perhaps your system is the unfortunate victim of an overly aggressive junk fax broadcaster? Regards, Bill Llewellyn <>< thinker@rahul.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Anyone who gets those 'one ringers' from some company looking for fax numbers (or for that matter, some phreak looking for modems, call extenders and miscellany) should make an effort to stop the caller dead in his tracks. That's the great thing about Caller- ID and 'return last call': Even one ring is enough to capture the data most of the time; if the party hangs up after a ring usually the data is still transferred over to you, so call 'em back! Ask what's going on and if they might begin having the courtesy to apologize for dialing a 'wrong number' at 3 AM or whenever. Either that, or just keep a log of the calls for a week or three, then confront them. Caller-ID is a great tool; it is the poor man's self-help to peace and quiet on the telephone. Oh, I know the ACLU and the Socially Responsible People don't approve of it, but then, I don't approve of them either. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jcc-one!djones@uunet.UU.NET (Dr. Daniel L. Jones) Subject: Re: Phone Number History Organization: Jones & Jones Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 19:35:49 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think the party line suffixes in most > places were -J, -M -R and -W. I never had a party line, but a friend of > mine did. Do party lines still exist anywhere or are they all discontinued > by now? PAT] Party lines are alive and well in the rural west and midwest. Here in NE Colorado, most farms have the choice of a party line or no line. (two or four party primarily, although some outlying areas have eight party lines as the only option.) It always takes me a few moments to re-learn not to blindly answer the phone when visiting friends and relatives in the country. "No, don't answer that -- ours is two longs and one short, not one short and two longs" is a common experience. The newer two and four party lines use a signal box at the demarc to filter all but incoming calls for the right party. If the line is in use and you pick up to dial, you get a fast busy signal. The older eight party lines are live to all parties at all times. You have to listen to see if there is someone talking on the line before dialing. You learn not to say anything confidential on the phone since anyone could be listening. There is a law with some teeth requiring that you immediately hangup if another party breaks into your conversation with the words "This is an emergency, please clear the line." I believe that the PUCC has required the availability of private lines by 2000 for most of the region. The wide spread availability of cellular in the region and its declining cost will probably make this a moot point. djones@sykes.com Daniel L. Jones Office: 303-522-6638 djones@jones.com Direct: 303-522-0652 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not only is there a law in almost every jurisdiction which requires that a communications link (i.e. telephone) be released upon demand when an emergency has been declared, but the same law usually goes on to say that to influence the use of the telephone (i.e. get someone to disconnect) by declaring an emergency to exist when in fact none does exist is also a crime, punishable in most jurisdictions (either way it goes down) by a fine and or some period of imprisonment. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Re: Phone Number History Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 18:26:50 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There were some exchange names which seemed > to be common everywhere, while others were unique to some community. Many > places had PLAza, and we had a WABash here in Chicago. But some we had here > I have never heard of in other places: GRAceland, MULberry, TUXedo, > INTerocean, VICtory, EDGewater and IRVing are a few which come to mind. PAT] My parent's house was in the COlfax exchange (261-xxxx), so, we were Colfax-1-xxxx. My father tells me that Colfax was some local politician, like town mayor, congressman, or some such. If so, this may be a unique exchange name. I was about ten years old when the phone company abandoned the exchange name thing, and started just using numbers. I first thought our phone number had changed, but then realized it worked out the same on the dial. The phone company's got your number! ------------------------------ From: catfood@rosebud.strinc.com (Mark W. Schumann) Subject: Re: Phone Number History Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 18:28:08 GMT Organization: Systems for Today's Retailer, Brecksville, Ohio USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think the party line suffixes in most > places were -J, -M -R and -W. I never had a party line, but a friend of > mine did. Do party lines still exist anywhere or are they all discontinued > by now? PAT] My ma/pa-in-law still have one, although they're the only party. Ohio Bell (Ameritech) has repeatedly said they'll take it away and start charging them regular single-line rates but that hasn't happened yet. What's funny is that they're in the 216-741 exchange, which is about five miles out of downtown Cleveland. You would think this would have been one of the first places to eliminate party lines. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If Ameritech wants to get them off the single-party 'party line', the best way would be to (use their right to) assign some other subscriber to the party, preferably some subscriber with *a lot* of incoming and outgoing calls; maybe a family with a few teenagers, etc. That would drive your in-laws/outlaws or whatever off in a hurry, and Ohio Bell could smile sweetly and tell your relatives how sorry they were to lose them as a party-line subscriber. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: jfw@world.std.com (jim f williams) Subject: Re: Phone Number History Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 03:32:31 GMT The J M R and W suffixes were used to designate the side and polarity of ringing for party lines. I don't remember the scheme but for example pretend that R meant ring on the Ring wire and ground wire with + polarity; J meant ring on the Tip wire and ground wire with - polarity. This would allow up to four parties to share a single pair and not hear other than their own ringing. (T +, T -, R +, R -) Larger party lines were something like 1044R2 line 1044, ring ring + to ground, ringing pattern 2. I don't think the JMRW were derived from Morse, rather were chosen to be phonetically distinct. (This was the way it was in Fairmont, WV pre-dial). J. Williams [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are correct; it was phonetic distinc- tion the telephone company was concerned with. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 16:46:41 EST From: Ken Jongsma Reply-To: jongsma@swdev.si.com Subject: Re: Phone Number History (Gordon asks about an old yard stick that says "Grand Rapids Lumber") You might try calling the company and asking them. I looked them up in our phone book. It said to see Caretaker Products (616) 784-4875. I called them up and they confirmed that the same family still owns the company. The receptionist was very nice. I'm sure she could fill you in on the history of the company and how old the yardstick is. Kenneth R Jongsma jongsma@swdev.si.com Smiths Industries 73115.1041@compuserve.com Grand Rapids, Michigan +1 616 241 7702 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 21:29:26 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: Don't Trust The Phone Company I am almost reluctant to say it after all of the high-tech answers but to me the key is "wife's best friend". My first thought was of some neighborhood prankster with a lineman's handset walking up to the telco junction on the side of the house, making the call, and lurching away chortling with visions of Mr. Bodine searching the electronic world for an answer ... Warmly, (85 today: hee, hee, hee) Padgett PS: Look for someone who knows Tom and his wife's best friend's family well enough to know that the WBFF has Caller-ID. ------------------------------ From: chatski@umbc.edu (chatski carl) Subject: Re: Don't Trust The Phone Company Date: 12 Feb 1994 20:25:50 -0500 Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County In article , Robert Hettmansperger wrote: > In article : >> Also FYI, on forwarded calls, the CallerID delivered is supposed to be >> the number of the original caller, not the number of the forwarding > >station [TR-31, 3.8F]. > Of course, this is what Bellcore requires on paper. What you find in > the real world may differ due to switch manufacturer noncompliances or > bugs. About two years ago I formed a business, and designed a computer based system which relied on the receipt of original Caller ID through forward- ing. In the Baltimore/Washington area this simply does not work -- you get the number of the last forwarding phone. This put an end to the business. In there any way to work around this variance from specification? Will switches be brought into compliance at some time in the future? Thanks. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Don't Trust The Phone Company From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 08:30:22 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) writes: > However, would the original writer know if the victim's husband used > the TELCO call-return feature, or a Caller-ID box's call-return > feature. Some people (when relating a story like this) may not know > enough to differentiate the two. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well if the victim's husband read the > number off of the Caller-ID box and used its call-return feature, then > I'd say Mr. Bodine has got a bit of a problem. If he used telco's same > feature out of the switch instead, then who knows ... PAT] Oh, no, exactly the opposite. If I pick up my phone after the first ring I know for a fact that my box will miss the Caller-ID data, so retrieving the last call and dialing it will get me the SECOND to last phone number (since the last is missing). If the irate husband had bought a Caller-ID box from "the phone company" he might refer to the dial button on the box as a "phone company return call feature." If the wife who received the obscene phone call answered the phone too fast (before the Caller-ID data stream came down the line) the scenario could have happened, and be reported, just as I described. Now all they need is a good "block-the-blocker" Caller-ID box and they'll be all set ... ;) bobh@cc.bellcore.com (Robert Hettmansperger) writes: > By Bellcore's requirements, the record of the last incoming call > should NOT be updated if the incoming call is given busy treatment > [TR-227, Appx A]. It SHOULD be updated if it is given call-waiting > treatment. Wouldn't this have substituted the (second) victim's phone number for the real obscene caller if the irate husband have also ordered call waiting on his line, and the woman's best friend had called DURING the obscene call (but was too distracted to answer)? On the other hand, if the CO switch, or ancillary equipment, had re-initialized close to or during the obscene call wouldn't that have prevented the caller-id data from being updated to show the obscene caller's phone number? aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Who said either the victim or her husband picked up the phone during the first ring? Around here, Caller-ID is delivered *immediatly* following the first ring; had they picked up the phone even two seconds after the first ring stopped but before the second ring began the number shown would have been correct. I don't recall reading anything here about them answering during the first ring which would have had to have happened if the previous call data was still in the buffer. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 17:13:44 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: Busy Call Return and Hunt Groups Organization: AT&T In article djcl@io.org writes: > I have a busy call return feature on a phone line for the time being. > When *66 is dialed after a call to a busy line, the service is > supposed to give a special ring back (short-short-long?) when the line > is no longer busy. > I tried this after getting a busy on a number that represents a hunt > group of many incoming lines. The free line special ringing never > seems to occur despite the many incoming lines that would connect and > disconnect on a frequent basis. I eventually dialed again manuallly > and getting through. I have attempted such a call return on a few > occasions by now, and get similar results. > Does the busy call return (depending on the telco) only signal a free > line if only a specific incoming line (such as the first line) of a > hunt group becomes free, or should it signal the line is free when any > one of the hunt group lines become free? Unfortunately, the answer is "it depends", including a lot of factors that will probably change over time. Lines that use Series Completion will signal free only when the line associated with a dialed number is free. If Forward on Busy/Forward on No Answer is used to effect a type of "multiline hunting", the *66 attempt will either be denied or will wait for the specific line to become idle (more dependencies). If the terminating switch does not support "terminating scanning" or the use of "queues" for *66 requests, the originating switch looks periodically (say, every 30 seconds) to see if the requested DN or MLHG group has an idle line. If not, it looks again in 30 seconds. You and all the other folks trying to reach the MLHG will have to be lucky to hit a time when a line is idle. Even if the line is idle, by the time you answer the special ringback and the switch attempts to connect you, there may be no idle lines. The "Call Return" function is thus of limited use in attempting to reach someone behind a busy, large MLHG. Bellcore has even recommended that attempts to "Call Return" to some types of heavily-called numbers (radio stations) be blocked by marking such lines as "choke" lines -- these would also possibly be set up for Gapping, to prevent overloading the terminating switch. Al Varney ------------------------------ From: chasman@chem.columbia.edu (David Chasman) Subject: How to Get Long Duration Tones From a Rolm Phone? Organization: Center for Biomolecular Simulation Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 16:42:30 GMT I have a Rolm phone in my office -- and an old answering machine that requires a three second continuous tone to retrieve messages at home -- does anybody out there know how to generate such a tone from the keypad on my Rolm? ------------------------------ From: scol@az.stratus.com (Scott Colbath) Subject: Paging Available on Cellular Phones Date: 12 Feb 1994 20:03:13 GMT Organization: Stratus Computer Inc, Marlboro MA Greetings. I haven't been reading this group much lately so this may be old news to some. I just wanted to pass it on. Bell Atlantic here in Phoenix announced yesterday that they were making available to their cellular phone customers the ability to be pagable on their cell phones. Is this being done anywhere else? It sounds like a good idea. One is able to ditch the pager and just carry a phone. Any comments? Scott Colbath Stratus Computer Phoenix, Az. (602)852-3106 Internet:scol@scottsdale.az.stratus.com ------------------------------ From: aj681@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Misuzu Nakazawa) Subject: How to Build Modified Three-Way Calling? Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 16:51:16 -0500 I am trying to build a three-way telephone conference circuit where parties A and B can communicate with party C (in both directions). C can hear A and B and A and B can hear C. The catch though is that I do not want A and B to be able to hear each other at any time during the call. Does anyone out there know how to build such a circuit, or where to get equipement that would do this? Thank you, Misuzu Nakazawa aj681@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: dm139@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Charles John Statton, Jr) Subject: Searching For Internet Providers Date: 12 Feb 1994 22:02:29 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) I am looking for Internet Service Providers in the Erie, PA area. So far I have only found PREPNet. Are there any others for this area? Chuck Statton dm139@cleveland.freenet.edu ------------------------------ From: dan@islenet.com Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 13:54:22 -0500 Subject: A Switch Slipping Time Organization: Isle-Net Telecommunications (BBS +1 908 495 6996) Earlier this evening, I gave Bell Atlantic a trouble report because some of my BBS users were complaining about excessive line noise. I could not identify any problem at my location, and could not even confirm the problem because an intra-switch call revealed no line noise at all. I surmised that the problem lay in the connection between my switch and the rest of the network. Fortunately, the 611 clerk understood that the problem was not here. All too often, they want to dispatch a repair truck for C.O. related problems. In this case, the problem was passed on to the C.O. I got a call back an hour later saying, "This is Bell Atlantic. We've fixed the problem. The switch was slipping time." Can someone provide a more technical explanation of what happened here? I believe I am on a DMS-100 switch. Dan Srebnick ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 16:39:43 EST From: gls@hrcms.att.com Subject: Displease Mr. Postman Organization: Save the Dodoes Foundation In , Carl Moore writes: > Trains came in the 19th century, and I remember reading someplace > that 30 miles per hour was considered fast back then. (In some old > "Highlights for Children" magazine of about 30 years ago, I recall > some composer being held back in some studying out of fear of "hurting > the brain".) The American chess grandmaster Harry Pillsbury was widely thought to have died from overtaxing his brain with too many simultaneous exhibitions. (Actually it was tertiary syphilis.) By the way, George Gilder was right on all counts. Postman hasn't even figured out that central government is technologically obsolete; he knows just enough about the future to prefer the past. I read his _Entertaining Ourselves to Death._ All plausible, and all wrong. Postman is one of those would-be disciples of Marshall McLuhan who assimilate as little of McLuhan's teaching as they need to make a point: they swallow a corner of the oyster. Col. G. L. Sicherman gls@hrcms.ATT.COM ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #78 ***************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253