TELECOM Digest Sun, 13 Feb 94 23:21:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 82 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Harrassing One-Ring Calls - Update (Bill Garfield) Help! Asynchronous <==> Synchronous Conversion (Habibie Sumargo) Dial Zero to Block ANI (David Quist) Turning Away Unwanted Calls (Gary Breuckman) Looking for an Internet Service Provider (Michael Casillas) Digital Cellular Phones (Jonathan Weinberg) Call From 610 Area on January 8 (Carl Moore) AT&T Tape-less Answering Machine (Tan Ken Hwee) LATA Maps Sought, or LATA Overlap Zones Wanted (Stephen Balbach) Re: Caller ID in UK? (Nick Taylor) Re: AT&T's New 900 Mhz Cordless Phone (Bruce Laskin) Re: Two Stories on MCI (Clive D.W. Feather) Re: Internet Costs and Software Are Free (Brian Behlendorf) Re: VTech 9 "Tropez" and Sony SPP-ER1 900 MHz Phones (Bill Mayhew) Drugstores 8-) (Bill Bradford) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Harrassing One-Ring Calls - Update From: bill.garfield@yob.com (Bill Garfield) Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 22:25:00 -0600 Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569 Reply-To: bill.garfield@yob.com (Bill Garfield) Having initially reported to this forum about my single-jingle call malady across my DID trunk group, I thought it time for an update. First a recap: 96 DID trunks spread across seven spans of a fiber DS-3, all in the 713-627 exchange, number block 4000-6899, inclusive. Problem: Random one-ringer calls, five seconds duration or less, generally singling out a couple extensions to repeatedly bang on. In a few days the single jingles move on to pester someone else. These calls are outpulsing to us and -immediately- releasing. Also incomplete (short) digits. All this is happening during working hours. SMDR logs indicate little/no occurrence during off-hours. Circuit id: 21DINA7136275401 D500-D595, inclusive. Twenty-four (21TKNA7136275400) combo trunks spread across three of those same seven spans are not being bothered. Ironically, 120 more DID trunks spread across five spans of the same DS-3, but all in the 713-989 exchange, number block 0000-9999 (yes, all of it). No one-ringer problem. Circuit id: 21DINA7139897000 D500-D619, inclusive. Both trunk groups are said to reside in the same 5E at Southwestern Bell's "National" CO. in Houston's upscale Galleria district. On the SWBT side, the trunks in the 627 route index are tied into D4 channel banks. The 989 group is full digital and terminate direct into the 5E. On my side both groups are full digital, terminating direct onto DS-1 formatter cards in three Mitel SX2000SG's (eight cabinets total). The Mitels are all at MS2005/L13.0 and networked together. If I can believe my SMDR logs, occasionally, the one-ringers will even come simultaneously on two trunks (but in different spans) to the same target extension. However the problem is spread equally across all members of trunk group 108. This has been occurring for several months, with random complaints from my users about the frequent one-ringers. Until last Thursday eve (2/10) the 627 group was loop (pulse) and the 989 group was DTMF. They are now both DTMF, immediate start. I'm happy to report the squeaky wheel is getting some grease. We escalated the problem locally, and have also had some very good feedback as a direct result of the TELECOM Digest posting last week . Southwestern Bell has had people on site on three occasions last week, including folks who seem to be most knowledgeable and genuinely interested in helping us get to the root of this -very- vexing problem. Beginning last week, my first discovery was that we were timed to a span which was slipping. I changed sync sources and SWBT's techs corrected the slip problem by replacing the LIU at the CO. SWBT also changed the 627 group to make it DTMF like our 989 group. Unfortunately, the one-ringers in the 627 group still persist. We will continue to pur- sue this and I will report progress as it is achieved. At 5AM Friday we lost a 320' microwave tower to seven inches of radial ice in Shaw, Mississippi, so understandably I was unable to stay focused on the SWBT issue as planned. More as the situation unfolds. bill.garfield@yob.com The PBX guy Panhandle Eastern Corp. Houston Ye Olde Bailey BBS Zyxel 713-520-1569(V.32bis) Hayes 713-520-9566 (V.FC) Houston,Texas yob.com Home of alt.cosuard ------------------------------ From: habibie@vision.fiu.edu (Habibie Sumargo) Subject: Help! Asynchronous <==> Synchronous Conversion Date: 14 Feb 1994 03:03:53 GMT Organization: Florida International Univeristy Hi, I would like to know how to convert from an asynchronous serial line to a synchronous one. For instance, if I have two asynchronous lines with different baud rate as such line #1 has 38.4 KBPS and line #2 has 19.2 KBPS, their outputs are synchronized at 19.2 KBPS. Please kindly response through email. Thank you very much. ------------------------------ From: dquist@ben3b01.attmail.com (dquist) Date: 14 Feb 94 01:09:12 GMT Subject: Dial Zero to Block ANI Blocking ANI as easy as dialing "0"... at least in NYNEX (NET) areas. Dial an 800 number or test-readback number using a NYNEX Operator and your ANI will not be carried. Example: I called my 800 number from Maine and asked the NYNEX Operator to assist ... AT&T Starterline 800 invoice arrives with calling party 207-000-0000. Use an AT&T operator to assist using the same routine and the call appears on my bill with the actual ANI. I also used this on AT&T's new ANI readback 800 number from Massachusetts this evening and NYNEX Operator dialed calls read back 508-000-0000. An AT&T operator assisted call reads back NPA-NXX-LINE #. I wonder why? Caller ID is coming next month; I wonder if this will work. Dave ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Turning Away Unwanted Calls Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 17:11:29 PST In article endicott@netcom.com (Robert Endicott) writes: > I have wished for years that the Telephone Gods would add an extra digit > (or two) that would have to be dialed for my phone to ring. It could be > an extra charge service in which the subscriber chose the extra digit (or > two) for calls to ring thru. Part of the service could be voice mail that > would take a msg so the caller would never know that the extra digit(s) > was (were) required. You could, if you wished, purchase a cute little box for your line that would do this. FOX used to make a box that you could attach to your line that would answer the call with a sexy voice and say 'please enter my fox code', without which it would not ring through. I don't know if that device is available any longer, but you can use one of the units designed to route FAX calls. I have a ComSwitch 660 that has three outputs: FAX, TELEPHONE/ANS (two connections, but tied together), and AUX. This box answers the call after the first ring, and then routes it. You can use it two ways: It will detect the CNG (calling) tone from a fax in auto mode, and ring the fax output, it will detect a 'reverse modem tone' (a modem calling in answer mode) and ring the AUX output, or after a short wait ring the TEL/ANS output. You can also assign two touchtone codes (up to four digits each) to the FAX and AUX outputs. You can also disable the CNG and Reverse Modem recognition. So, you could have this answer calls, and if the caller entered one of two codes route the call to an output. Calls with no tones could end up at an answering machine, or go into the bit bucket. This unit costs about $90. ------------------------------ From: MCASILLAS@OPG.CCMAIL.CompuServe.COM Date: 13 Feb 94 13:48:23 EST Subject: Looking for an Internet Service Provider The Office of Budget and Management, a division of the Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico is interested in obtaining information on Internet service providers in Puerto Rico. Right now we have to go through an e-mail hub set up through Compu$erve. We are interested in a direct connection to the Internet. Sincerely, Michael A. Casillas, MIS Director Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico Office of Budget and Management Internet: mcasillas@opg.ccmail.compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 11:18:25 EST From: jweinber@ccgate.tfincc.DLJ.COM Subject: Digital Cellular Phones I was talking to someone the other day, and he told me that the latest and greatest in cellular phones was digital. Apparently, you get one of the newer generation phones and you are connected over a digital link rather than an analog one. How does this work? He said something about not getting "bumped off". I was kinda in a rush, so I did not get the full story from him. Also, does the service provider need to have digital capabilities, or do they all have them by default. Any information on this would be appreciated. Thanks, Jonathan Weinberg Network Insight ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 10:55:42 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Call From 610 Area on January 8 At 6:58 PM Eastern Standard Time on January 8, according to my phone bill, there was a call from Oxford, PA on the 932 exchange. It shows area code 215, although 610 was to be active as of that day. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It sounds to me like the accounting department was a little behind in their work. PAT] ------------------------------ From: law00057@leonis.nus.sg (Tan Ken Hwee) Subject: AT&T Tape-less Answering Machine Date: 13 Feb 1994 14:24:00 GMT Organization: National University of Singapore I was wondering if someone would be so kind as to let me know how much (ballpark) the AT&T Tape-less Answering Machine costs? The one that uses RAM? It sells for about SIN$220 or about US$130. Is this an ok price or should I wait until I go to America to buy one? I'm aware of the voltage difference and will get a transformer for that. Thanks in advance. Ken Hwee TAN National University of Singapore ------------------------------ From: stephen@clark.net (Stephen Balbach) Subject: LATA Maps Sought, or LATA Overlap Zones Wanted Date: 13 Feb 1994 05:08:06 -0500 Organization: Clark Internet Services, Balt/DC, mail all-info@clark.net There must be a public place I can find LATA maps. Local Bell Atlantic rep is under policy not to give map out. More specifically I'm trying to locate an area between two LATA's where an overlap exists. Thus making it possible to be local to two LATA's at the same time. This would specifically be in the Washington/Balt area. Thanks for any help, Stephen Balbach Clark Internet Services stephen@clark.net (410) 740-1157 [voice] FAX (410) 730-9765 linux-all@clark.net all-info@clark.net Internet for the 90's [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We touched on this very topic just about a week or two ago. Perhaps interested readers will forward the thread direct to Mr. Balbach. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nickt@netcom.com (Nick Taylor) Subject: Re: Caller ID in UK? Organization: University of Sunderland Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 10:24:49 GMT Steven Cooper (Steven@leigh.demon.co.uk) wrote: > Has anone got any idea if the caller ID facility will become available > in the UK?? Are there any moves on this by BT/Mercury? I've got hold of the consultative document from OfTel (the UK Telecomm watchdog) and it looks like CLI is at least a year away. The facility already exists, in fact it logs calls to the emergency services at present, but OfTel says there are moral, privacy questions to be answered. Hope this helps, Nick Taylor, University of Sunderland, UK | nickt@isis.sund.ac.uk ------------------------------ From: blaskin@panix.com (Bruce Laskin) Subject: Re: AT&T's New 900 Mhz Cordless Phone Date: 13 Feb 1994 23:32:04 GMT Organization: Circuit Research Corp. In article , Alex Cena wrote: > There's been quite a bit of disccusion regarding cordless phones so I > thought it may be helpful to share my experience over the last month > with my new cordless phone. I have had the opportunity to try AT&T's > new Dragon, which is a 900 Mhz cordless phone with 1000mw of power. > It uses spread spectrum technology based on frequency hopping. I > placed it in the library of our house and here is what I found: 1000mw ... really! ... WOW! -- that's significantly more than the 600mw maximum power output for handheld cellular sets! The 600mw limit for cellular sets was intended to prevent health hazards, so how is AT&T able to use 1000mw? (Most wireless home phones put out no more than 0.5mw.) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Two Stories on MCI Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 18:02:56 GMT From: Clive D.W. Feather Quoth Alan Boritz: > Excuse me, Paul, but the little girl doesn't speak with an "English" > accent. My first guess was South African, or Australian, though I > lost the original post on this subject. They don't speak "English" in > New Zealand, or at least they don't speak it very well. They do, however, speak it much better than in New Jersey (or the rest of the Americas, for that matter). Clive D.W. Feather Santa Cruz Operation clive@sco.com Croxley Centre Phone: +44 923 816 344 Hatters Lane, Watford Fax: +44 923 817 688 WD1 8YN, United Kingdom [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Touche, and thank you very much Clive. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bbehlen@soda.berkeley.edu (Brian Behlendorf) Subject: Re: Internet Costs and Software Are Free Date: 13 Feb 1994 20:57:46 GMT Organization: Computer Science Undergrad Assoc., UCBerkeley In article , A. Padgett Peterson wrote: > Personally, my biggest fear is Junk E-Mail swamping the net. If > anything should be regulated it should be that and with hanging, > drawing, and quartering prescribed for offenders (I know, the ASPCA > would probably object to using horses). Ack! I know you were perhaps using hyperbole to illustrate your point, but the distinction between junk email and "real" email is sometimes fairly fine. For example, if someone posts about a new piece of SLIP/PPP software they are selling to an IP protocol mailing list, is that public notice or an ad? I share your sentiment, in that I don't want to see catalogs from Builder's Emporium appearing in my mailbox every week -- however, also remember that businesses won't need to send a mass mailing of e-catalogs now that we have distributed infosystems services like USENET and WWW. Your point was that the bandwidth to businesses could conceivably be overburdened by e-mail with a low value to the business. If I really thought it was a problem I'd be more worried about email users subscribing to high-volume mailing lists than getting unsolicited email ads, which don't happen much anyways and probably won't. > Free Software. Just because I do not charge for any of my released > software does not mean that it is free. Rather, I consider it to be > only fair that since I have learned so much from people that I put > something back. > The other motive is educational. I have learned more by saying things/ > releasing software and having people (*lots* of people) tell me where > I am wrong than I ever could with my limited resources. Nothing > ventured, nothing gained so I venture a lot 8*). Exactly. I think the paradigm for software in the future will be that programs will be essentially offered for free, but users will pay for support. Cygnus and Qualcomm (with Eudora) are prime examples of this. Programmers will still be around because the companies will always want new improved less buggy versions of programs or new programs altogether. > Besides, ignorance is the tool of dictators and fools. By helping to > stamp out ignorance ("this can be done") and with open discussions, I > like to think that we are supporting democracy. "Save the World!" - Larry Wall. Brian ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: VTech 9 "Tropez" and Sony SPP-ER1 900 MHz Phones Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 23:23:51 GMT I posted an article reviewing and summarizing the Vtek Tropez model 900DX phone one week ago in comp.dcom.telecom.tech. I'll reiterate briefly. The 900DX is materially similar to the 900LX. The DX has 2-way paging and intercom capability. The LX is a basic model. The 900DX appears to be fully digital, using the 902-928 MHz shared band. Power output is reportedly 0.0005 watts (1/2 mW) according to another net reader. I found the effective range to be around 600 feet with the base sitting on top of a 66 MHz 486 DX/2 computer. The audio quality is excellet. I wish the handset could be turned up a little louder, but volume level is OK. Sidetone in the handset is a bit louder than I like. The Topez units use a 16 bit security code that appears to be downloaded to the handset when it is placed on the base unit. A check with a 900 MHz radio shows that the base unit sends out some burst about 500 mS after the handset is placed in the charger cradle. It is not clear if this is the security download -- that would be pretty stupid, or more likely a quick "are you there" to see if there are any other handsets in the area -- the intent to be sure the channel is clear. I don't have sufficiently good test equipment to determine what is actually going on. Whenever the handset is away from its home on the base, the base sends out some sore of "are you there?" message every 15 seconds for ~500 mS. The message probably repeats a couple of times. The handset answers the ping with a ~100 mS replay. I don't know what sort of info is exchanged, but it seems pretty robust. I tried putting the handset inside the closed refrigerator several rooms away and discovered that both units were still able to detect each other. That short 900 MHz carrier wave appearently sneaks though the thin gap offered by the rubber seal around the door. If the handset wanders out of range of the base, it starts to emit a short be-beep every 30 seconds or so once it has missed a couple of pings from the base unit. The base unit blinks its "charge" LED when it realizes that it can't find the handset. The out-of-range protocol works whether or not the your are idle, line engaged or on the itnercom. The RF carrier used for the call appears to be fully digital. The manual does not clearly say so, but my 900 MHz radio could find the carrier without being able to demodulate any discernable voice. Most of the parts inside the unit are marked, "Motorola." There is one chip that has a Vtek logo. I'd give the construction a B-; it is fine for consumer grade but not as nice as that in my Motorola cell phone or Icom amateur radio HT. There are a lot of nice features. The intercom can be used while you put a call on hold. You can answer a call at either the handset or base, put the caller on hold, use the intercom to page the other end, then conference if desired. For privacy, either unit can temporarily lock out the other. In use I discovered the base tends to experience drop-outs in reception before the handset loses the base transmission. When I hit the fringe, the person I was talking to reported choppy drop-outs of syllables here and there, but no detectable increase in static or interference. Check in the .tech group if you want more details. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-0095 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu amateur radio 146.58: N8WED ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 14:40:20 CST From: Bill Bradford Subject: Drugstores 8-) The TELECOM Digest Editor noted: "My goodness, drugstores haven't had fountains for twenty years or more." In my home town of Anadarko, OK, there is one. Melton's Drug, which is a franchise (?) of HealthMart, has had a fountain for as long as I can remember. You go back and give Phillip your prescription, and he'll give you a ticket for a Coke to drink while you wait. These are REAL cherry Cokes, not the mass-produced Cherry Coke. The decor and furnishings of the fountain/lunch counter look straight out of the 60s. I just wanted to pass that along to our Esteemed Editor that the drugstore fountain is NOT dead. The druggist's son, who I graduated high school with in '93, is planning to take over the family business in a few years, so the tradition is going to continue! Bill Bradford * "If Hendrix had a modem, would it be a Purple Hayes?" stubradfowc@mercur.usao.edu = University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma bill.bradford@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu = U. of OK BBS wl-mr_bill-h-p@society.com = HodgePodge BS Internet Mail [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In Independence, Kansas (a very fine little town of 9000 people; I hope to move there some day, Digest and all) there exists downtown a drugstore with a fountain, although the fountain is but a shell of its former self. They serve pre-packaged microwave sandwiches and snacks, but no real old-fashioned 'drug store food' like we used to get until sometime in the late 1960's when the Walgreen's chain led the way by closing every *damn* one of theirs. Here and there they opened up a 'Wags Restaurant' in its place, but those are few and far between. Charles (senior, the old man) Walgreen and his wife Myrtle Walgreen would never have allowed it. He came to Chicago as a young man around the start of this century with his new bride and he took over a drugstore on the south side at 43rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue from another fellow who had operated it for quite a few years. Myrtle would bring lunch to Charles each day at his shop and one day it occurred to him that other folks would probably like his wife's soup and sandwiches as much as he did. They set up a lunch counter and soon decided to start including ice cream and other things. From that first store, Mr. Walgreen branched out to about a hundred drugstores in the Chicago area and thousands of other 'Walgreen Agency' drugstores across the USA. Soon he had a competitor when the Rexall Drugs chain (the name came from 'RX' -- a medical abbreviation -- and 'All' meaning all forms of medicinal products) decided to add soda-fountains to all their stores. In the case of Walgreen's two 'parent stores' here -- State/Madison and State/Randolph Streets downtown -- they had a large cafeteria in the basement of each. I remember Myrtle Walgreen as a very old woman speaking at the Chicago Temple telling some very entertaining stories about the early days when they had the one store on the south side of Chicago. So Bill, you are correct that drug store fountains are not entirely gone, but I venture to say most readers here have never seen one. :( PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #82 *****************************