TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 Jan 94 08:34:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 18 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T and NYTel (Larry Nathanson) How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (Maaruf Ali) Looking For Information on Faxmail Systems (Greg Trotter) Technical Description of PBXs Wanted (Don Pelton) High Speed Telephone Cables for Residences (Daren Cline) SprintNet Access From the Internet (Robert J. Rodriguez) User Interface From Hell (John Limpert) "Dynamic" SLIP? (Mike Eggley) Two Changes to Caller*ID in NJ (Dave Levenson) Multi-line BBS's (Dannie Gregoire) Methods to Prevent Stalking and Phone Harrassment (Nevin Liber) GSM Recs on the CD ROM (Volkmar Scharf-Katz) Looking For Cordless Headset Phone (Gregory Corbett) Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers (William M. Eldridge) Re: Merlin Question (Paul Cook) Re: Use a 9600 Baud US Modem in UK? (Laurence Chiu) Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas (David H. Close) Re: Help Needed With V.42bis (Sean P Peacock) Re: Announcing networkMCI (Tom Horsley) Re: How Do I Subscribe to Computer Underground Digest? (Monty Solomon) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 13:12:25 -0500 From: Larry Nathanson Subject: AT&T and NYTel I've just had an interesting time on the phone with the droid-reps of NYTel and AT&T ... It seems that my last bill came in with a munged minutes column of the AT&T portion. (Half of the calls had no minutes value, and there was a $10.14 call to Sacramento at 11pm that said 8 minutes! (The call is my roommate's -- I'm not sure how long it really was for.)) I called AT&T, whose rep suggested that I call NYTel, as the problem was with their printing of the bills. The NYTel rep said that AT&T had messed up the tapes, and that they had dropped the minutes column for calls that were between one and four minutes. (Obviously this is not the whole story -- many of the calls in that range are listed, not to mention the $1.25+/min call to CA!) When I suggessted that I'd like a corrected bill, she said "Oh no, were not equipped to do that!" When I persisted, she called AT&T, and her final conclusion was that AT&T would call her back with the minutes information in about two weeks, and then she would call me. At that point I asked to speak to manager (I consider yelling at droids on a par with teaching pigs to sing). I was told that one would call me back later ... As far as I'm concerned, if they want my money, they'll have to send me an accurate bill. Some of the lines on the bill fail simple sanity checking -- so as far as I'm concerned, the whole page is suspect. Anyone else have a similar experience with them? L ------------------------------ From: MAARUF ALI Subject: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Date: 8 Jan 94 08:42:04 GMT Organization: King's College London Could someone please tell me how to phone US 0800 numbers from the UK? Thanks. Maaruf Ali [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We do not have '0800' numbers. If you mean 800 (toll free numbers), the answer is that generally you cannot call them from outside the USA. Most of the subscribers to 800 service only pay to accept calls from places inside the USA. Subscribers in the USA who wish to accept toll-free (reverse charge) calls from other countries have numbers assigned to them in the actual format used by the other country. In other words, if there is an 0800 number listed in your directory which states that it rings into the USA somewhere, you can call it. If you otherwise see (in advertising or whatever) a number in the USA marked 800-something, you *cannot* call it from outside the USA under normal conditions. They don't want to accept your call and have to pay for it. One exception to this is that you can call the 'home direct' services of the various carriers and some of these carriers will handle it so that you pay for a call to the USA and the 800 subscriber on this end pays only for the portion of the call which is in the USA. You need to match carrier with 800 number for this however; the carrier of the 800 number is the carrier who's 'home direct' service you need to connect with, *and not all of them will do this*, although I think AT&T and MCI will. PAT] ------------------------------ From: greg@gallifrey.ucs.uoknor.edu (Greg Trotter) Subject: Looking For Information on Faxmail Systems Date: 8 Jan 1994 08:52:12 GMT Hello! I am looking for information on systems that can handle fax calls on a store-and-forward basis. I've used systems like FaxFacts from Copia, but am not sure about their support on a few key issues: CLID support DID support If anybody has information on software/hardware to do this, I'd appreciate the information. greg ------------------------------ Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Date: Friday, 7 Jan 1994 11:26:29 PST From: Don Pelton Subject: Technical Description of PBXs Wanted I'm looking for sources of good technical descriptions of PBX technology and standards. Can anyone suggest books, articles, newsgroups and/or other internet resources? Standards documents? Thanks, Don Pelton (dep@slac.stanford.edu) ------------------------------ From: dcline@PICARD.TAMU.EDU (Daren Cline) Subject: High Speed Telephone Cables for Residences Date: 7 Jan 1994 22:17:43 GMT Organization: Department of Statistics, Texas A&M University Subject: High Speed Telephone Cables for Residences I am designing a home to be built this spring and summer and I want to specify the telephone cables it will have. With all the news about phone companies improving their networks for higher speed transmission I wonder if there will be (in, say, five years) correspondingly higher standards for residences. I'd like to anticipate them if possible. Locally, at least, it seems that fiber optics is out of the question since it would require very expensive multiplexing and demultiplexing equipment. For twisted pair copper cable, the industry grades by "level" which is roughly corresponding to speed or throughput. Apparently most homes have level 1 or 2. Level 3 supposedly can handle up to 10 megabits per second, level 4 higher and level 5 maybe 20mbps. I have two questions. Responses by e-mail are welcome. 1) Is there any reason to expect that level 3 will not be sufficient in the near future, keeping in mind what the phone and cable TV companies are likely to provide? 2) Besides cable and jacks, what else should I be careful to specify? (I do plan to specify 4 twisted pairs per cable.) Daren Cline ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 17:32:22 EST From: Robert J. Rodriguez Subject: SprintNet Access From the Internet Has anyone found a public gateway to access SprintNet (specifically PC Pursuit) from the Internet using a TELNET connection? This might be useful at sites that don't have direct modem dialout access but do have an Internet connection. Robert Rodriguez (alternate address kjjy@musicb.marist.edu at Marist College) ------------------------------ From: johnl@medusa.gsfc.nasa.gov (John Limpert) Subject: User Interface From Hell Date: 7 Jan 1994 22:58:00 GMT Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- InterNetNews site I just received the user guide for our ROLM PBX voice mail system. Although I like to think of myself as technologically literate, the user interface for the voice mail system intimidates me. The rather thick user guide lists many features, options and user commands. The system structure is summarized in 6 pages of decision tree diagrams. User commands are things like "*73" (replay a message), and there are alot of them. I already have an 89 page user guide for my ROLM telephone. Does anyone else find this as frustrating as I do? The local phone company uses similar commands to access the new features that have been added to their switch software. I don't mean to single out ROLM, I'm sure other vendors have similar systems and problems. The ROLM PBX has some nice features that I never use because I can't remember groups of commands like "FLASH-*-*-3". The telephone has mutated from an easily understandable electric instrument to a terminal for a complex computer/data switch. It still has the same basic external layout except for the addition of a few extra buttons in some telephones. How can telephones be made easier to use? The local phone companies are going to have a hard time selling new features to their customers if they expect them to press "*-*-FLASH-4-2-#-6-6-6" every time they use them. John Limpert johnl@medusa.gsfc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ From: mse@ins.infonet.net Subject: "Dynamic" SLIP Date: 8 Jan 1994 04:12:21 GMT Organization: INFOnet - Iowa Network Services, Inc. Reply-To: mse@ins.infonet.net My understanding of SLIP is that it is a point-to-point dedicated configuration, requiring a modem on the receiving end to be dedicated to a specific user (due to IP I think). I've heard some talk about so-called 'dynamic' SLIP -- where the SLIP connection is made, but through a mux or terminal server, allowing the provider to serve multiple dial-up customers instead of a 1-1 ratio. Any insight, knowledge on this would be much appreciated. If this is totally off-base I'd like to know that too. Thanks, Mike Eggley mse@ins.infonet.net ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Two Changes to Caller*ID in NJ Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 02:21:26 GMT Effective January 1, NJ Bell has begun offering two new services related to Caller*ID: Anonymous calling, and anonymous call rejection. For no additional charge, you may dial *67 before any call, and your number will not be revealed to the called party. But, if you dial *77 at any time, others who attempt to call you after dialing *67 are routed to a telco-supplied recording advising them that you do not accept calls with blocked identification. Anonymous call rejection is available at no additional charge to all customers who subscribe to Caller*ID. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 00:56 EST From: dannie@coplex.coplex.com (Dannie Gregoire) Subject: Multi-line BBS's Hi Pat, I'll direct this question to you if possible, as you are the true phone system guru. I asked it in the newsgroup a couple of months back with no useful response. I would like to know how some of these bulletin boards have 60-100 lines running into them (eg EXEC-PC). Do they simply have that many individual lines run or is there a nifty service that the TELCO offers through a PBX? I apologize if this is a stupid question, but it is one that has baffled me, and I gotta know the answer. Thanks for any help ... Dannie J. Gregoire dannie@coplex.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for the compliment, but you overestimate my skills a little. Depending on your application or needs, you can have as many actual lines run as desired. I suspect most very large systems these days however use what is called T-1 or similar, where a large number of circuits are multiplexed or handled over just a few actual pairs of wires. In addition to T-1, there are similar methods for bringing in a large number of circuits on only a few wires. In my own personal applications in the past, I always just had the physical wires, but that was several years ago before the present technology became available. Perhaps Fred Goldstein or one of the *real* tech people here will reply. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nevin@cs.arizona.edu (Nevin Liber) Subject: Methods to Prevent Stalking and Phone Harrassment Date: 8 Jan 1994 23:59:20 -0700 Organization: University of Arizona CS Department, Tucson AZ A friend of mine (in Cook County, IL) is currently being stalked by a mutual acquiantance of ours. This has been going on for over a year. Unfortunately, the only evidence that my friend has is circumstantial (eg: the phone calls temporarily stopped when the suspect went on vacation, and resumed when the suspect returned back to IL). Much of what the suspect is doing is in the way of harassing phone calls, including calls from various payphones in the area where my friend lives, calls at all hours of the day and night, calling pagers and leaving my friend's phone number, etc. Does my friend have any recourse (legal or technological)? He has tried many of the new technological means (I don't want to go into detail, since the suspect has net access and potentially reads this newsgroup), but he's running out of ideas. A legal means might be preferred (since that might help against the stalking as well as the harassment), but just being able to curtail the phone harassment (and it is happening at both his home and his work, so just changing the phone number won't be enough) would be helpful. Nevin ":-)" Liber nevin@cs.arizona.edu (602) 293-2799 ^^^ (520) after 3/95 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are laws against stalking and harassment in place here in Illinois. If your friend wants to do something about it legally, I suggest that he go to court and ask for a 'peace bond'. If the court agrees the circumstances warrant it, the other person will be told to come to court and the 'peace bond' will be issued against him; he'll be ordered to keep his distance and refrain from harassing activities. Failure to do so will result in his arrest. Your friend may get a run-around from court personnel if he shows up without an attorney so he might want to hire a lawyer to go in and get it done for him. Changing his home phone number will eliminate at least some of the problem, however it is hard to say what might help at work since you don't mention the type of phone system there. Really though, he should not have to change his number at home. That is an inconvenience on him. I think my first steps would be to secure the peace bond and install selective call screening (subscriber can punch in up to ten numbers from which he does not wish to receive calls) on my line. Each time the guy called, I'd add 'last call received' to my list of screened numbers. That would keep him looking for new payphones to use since I'd always keep *his* home phone(s) and office phone(s) on the screened list. If that did not discourage him, then with the peace bond in hand I'd ask Illinois Bell to install a trap on my line. I assume your friend has the stalker's home address and place of employment? Getting served with a court order to lay off might be all it takes; the person might be sufficiently discouraged at that point. What kind of phone system does your friend have at work? Would employees there (for example the operator/receptionist) be willing to help eliminate the problem? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Volkmar Scharf-Katz Subject: GSM Recs on the CD ROM Date: 8 Jan 1994 08:24:48 +0100 Organization: Detecon GmbH - Projekt Digitaler Mobilfunk - Vermittlungstechnik Does anybody know whether GSM Recommendations are on CD? Best regards, Volkmar Scharf-Katz (katz@duitex3.pdmv.detecon.de) ------------------------------ From: gcorbett@husc8.harvard.edu (Gregory Corbett) Subject: Looking For Cordless Headset Telephone Date: 8 Jan 94 05:47:50 GMT Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts Can anyone help me? I am looking to obtain a cordless, "Headset" telephone that operates with a small microphone and "walkman-like" earpiece. Where can I obtain such a phone? Thanks in advance. Greg Corbett gcorbett@husc.harvard.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Try the "Hello Direct" mail order catalog. Phone 1-800-HI-HELLO for details. "Hello Direct" is now an official supplier of equipment to Illinois Bell customers through telco's 'work at home center'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bill@COGNET.UCLA.EDU (William M. Eldridge) Subject: Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers Date: 8 Jan 1994 00:42:09 -0800 Organization: UCLA Cognitive Science Research Program > According to a wire service account in the {Boston Globe}, AT&T is > changing their rates to be more like MCI and Sprint. The list price As somebody who just switched from AT&T to MCI, I have a few qualifications for this. On international calls, MCI has all weekend rates, while AT&T leaves its three Day-Evening-Night slots the same, seven days a week. MCI has better hours during the week. AT&T had worse setup (first minute) charges. For U.S. calls, the MCI regular charges are not much more than the AT&T monthly plans (something like .12/minute vs. 11/minute at night). Bill Eldridge bill@cognet.ucla.edu 310-206-3960 (3987 fax) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Jan 94 03:09 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Merlin Question vdugar@stortek.stortek.com (Vince Dugar) writes: > Why does the Merlin system charge users so much (I forget now, but > it's a lot) to buy a special modem adapter? Is there a cheaper > solution? What about using an acoustic modem? (only want it for > CompuServe mail handling, so low baud would be OK) This is a device that talks to the Merlin KSU using it's proprietary signalling, but can connect to a modem, standard single line phone, or fax machine, and provide ringing and a standard, 2-wire telco line type connection on the output side. If you just want to use the modem for dial out, a much cheaper solution is to bypass the KSU with an exclusion device that will provide protection against interruption to both the Merlin system and the modem, since there is no reason to have the added expense of ringing or an expensive connection to the key system's station side. You can use Proctor's 41434 Voice/Data Privacy module. Install it on one of the CO lines ahead of the KSU. One of the outputs will go to the same place on the KSU where this outside line used to plug in, and the other output will run directly to the modem. When this trunk isn't in use, the modem can seize it and dial out. If the line is already in use, the modem will be blocked. If someone attempts to place an outgoing call on this line from the Merlin system while the modem is using the line, they will be blocked from interrupting the modem transmission. If you have a number of incoming lines in a hunting rotation, and one line is used the least, install the modem access on that least used line. For more information, contact Proctor via fax/email/telephone via one of the numbers below. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Use a 9600 Baud US Modem in UK? Date: 8 Jan 1994 01:08:30 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access In article , Linc Madison wrote: > In article you wrote: >> I've got a friend who'll soon be moving to the UK (Durham actually). >> She's got a Hayes compatible 9600 baud modem that she would like to >> take with her and use there. > (4) If your phone line in the UK is pulse, you may want to add into > the setup string the code to set the make/break pattern to UK standard > instead of US standard. However, in practice, most phone switches are > not sensitive enough to tell the difference between 39/61 and 33/67. > The command is AT&P1 for UK, AT&P0 for US. Touch-tone is the same in > both. Don't even try to use pulse in Scandinavia or New Zealand. Why not in New Zealand? You just have to change your numbers so that they are modulo 10. I think since the old telephone dial went 0....9. Of course there's no earthly reason to use pulse in NZ since all exchanges are MTDF capable. Laurence Chiu | Walnut Creek, California Tel: 510-215-3730 (work) | Internet: lchiu@crl.com ------------------------------ From: dhclose@cco.caltech.edu (David H. Close) Subject: Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas Date: 8 Jan 1994 07:28:00 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena /G=J.SCOTT/S=PELHAM/O=GTE/PRMD=GTEMAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com writes: > When dialing within one area code, in the Metroplex, you only dial > seven digits regardless of whether it is a GTE or SW Bell number. > When dialing from one area code to the other you dial 1+, just like > you would from any other two area codes. The difference is when the > number being called, *or* the number being called from, is a "Metro" > number. Apparently much has changed or you didn't understand it in > the first place. It could look that way if you live in either Dallas or Fort Worth. But if you live near the boundary, the problem is complicated by the fact that some exchanges in the "other" area code are local. So you don't dial the one, even though the number is not metro. However, if you call from one end of either area code to the other end, such that the call is not local, you do dial the one and the area code, even within your own area code. What that all means is you can memorize all the metro exchanges (a big job) but it still won't always help you. Whether a call requires a one or not depends on whether it is local, and that depends on both the calling and the called numbers. So if you recognize an exchange as not being metro and dial the one, you can still get the intercept if the exchange just happened to be local anyway. I found it exceedingly stupid and time-wasting. They only accept one way to dial each possible call and you really can't always guess right. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu dave@compata.attmail.com ------------------------------ From: speacock@netcom.com (Sean P Peacock) Subject: Re: Help Needed With V.42bis Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 07:36:47 GMT ral (bobphin@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca) wrote: > I have a Zoltrix 14,400 data/fax modem. I am not sure if I am getting > compression or if so what kind. My manual indicates the S95 registar > gives extended result codes. For example S95=003 will give me the > Protocal: result code, usually Lap-M. Since S95 is bit mapped, I do > not know the values I should use to get the codes I want. > The manual further says: > Bit Description > 0 CONNECT indicates DCE speed > 1 Append/ARQ to the connect result code if the protocol is other than > NONE > 2 Carrier result code > 3 PROTOCOL: result code > 4 reserved > 5 COMPRESSION: result code > 6 reserved > 7 reserved Bitmap codes: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ------------------------ 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 So if you wanted them all it would be 1+2+4+8+32=47 > I should also say that when S95=003, I get codes for bit0,1,2,3. In > other words I get everything I want, except for the compression code. > I've tried S95=005, but this does not work.Please help. Answer here > or e-mail bobphin@nbnet.nb.ca Although v.42bis is not all that useful in file transfers it it _very_ useful in news reading, terminal emulations etc. There is a noticable difference when I get an MNP 4 connect. Sean ------------------------------ From: tom@travis.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) Subject: Re: Announcing networkMCI Date: 08 Jan 1994 03:25:49 GMT Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division > Roberts said that networkMCI is being introduced to the public via > a national advertising campaign utilizing television, magazines and > newspapers to explain the company's vision to consumers, businesses, > investors and potential partners. Is that what the MCI TV commercials with the little girl with the pseudo-Nritish accent standing in a puddle spouting existential gibberish are all about? And I thought they were just trying to finally beat AT&T for the worst imaginable ad campaign :-) domain: tahorsley@csd.harris.com USMail: Tom Horsley Delray Beach, FL 33444 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 08:16:12 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: How Do I Subscribe to Computer Underground Digest? > Unfortunately some of us don't know how to get hold of the current > issue of the CUD. Could you please post a pointer to it, or post the > appropriate sections here. Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are available at no cost electronically from tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu. The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-0303), fax (815-753-6302) or U.S. mail at: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL 60115. 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Please avoid quoting previous posts unless absolutely necessary. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #18 *****************************