TELECOM Digest Sat, 14 May 94 01:15:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 226 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Cellular Privacy (Matt Metzinger) Re: Cellular Privacy (Mike Borsetti) Re: Let Your Fingers do the Walking on the Internet (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Government Regulates Number of Modem Redial Atttempts? (Ari M. Footlik) Re: NANP and Switches (David Esan) Re: Handy Money Saving Cellular Tip (John R. Covert) Re: Wireless Data Services (Pete Farmer) Re: 800 Numbers for Radio Shows (Laurence Chiu) Re: Caller ID With Serial Port - Where? (Dan Lanciani) Re: Cell One/NY Rates for DC and Boston (Brent Whitlock) Re: Mail Order Source for Cell Phone Accessories (John R. Levine) Re: Mail Order Source for Cell Phone Accessories (Shawn Gordhamer) Re: Phone Line in Use Indicator From Radio Shack (1JCR7732@ibm.mtsac.edu) Re: Direct Billing by AT&T (Brent Whitlock) Used Telco/Test Equipment Suppliers? (Eric Pearce) Cordless Phone Suggestions Wanted (Anand Gupta) Re: Black Magic! Telecom Design Tricks - Free Book (Ken Thompson) Re: 'NNX' Area Codes? I Think 'NXX' is More Appropriate (Carl Moore) Caller ID Gets Me Jealous (Joseph Romero) Re: ZMODEM - Proprietary? (Christian Weisgerber) Re: Call Screening Device (Leroy Casterline) Re: History of Underseas Cables (Tony Harminc) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: matt.metzinger@tranquil.nova.com (Matt Metzinger) Date: 14 May 94 02:30:54 GMT Subject: Re: Cellular Privacy? Organization: Fidonet: The Tranquility Grille (1:147/3038) Friday May 06 1994 09:58, weisen@alw.nih.gov wrote: > Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 changed all of this. Does anyone know where the full text of this can be picked up in electronic format, preferably by FTPmail? I have no direct FTP access. Matt Metzinger metz@tranquil.nova.com metz%tranquil%okgate@yokm.pillar.com 1:147/3038@fidonet.org 405-755-6136 The Tranquility Grille BBS ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 20:19:05 PDT From: Mike Borsetti, Cellular One/San Francisco Subject: Re: Cellular Privacy Let me add to the discussion that digital cellular provides much higher privacy, as there are no publicly available scanners that can descramble the "buzzing" generated by a digital conversation. Additionally, the TDMA digital standard supports encription, which will be available sometime in the near future. Today's phones will only need a simple reprogramming to take advantage of encryption. mike.borsetti@bactc.com Cellular One/San Francisco ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 16:31:43 EDT From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: Let Your Fingers do the Walking on the Internet Organization: Penn State University Many universities are running a mail re-director at their domain name e.g. @PSU.EDU which allows the user to always specify that as their e-mail address, yet have it forwarded to their preferred e-mail system. In fact, there may be no mail reading capability at the x.EDU server. Also, mail to that address, which specifies a non-unique name, will usually produce a list of userids/names that are close matches (some limitations do apply). Likewise, FINGER access, as well as Gopher and PH will usually be found at such institutions. Our gopher can be found at info.psu.edu which has a link to our PH database. Pete-Weiss@psu.edu ------------------------------ From: afootlik@dcl-nxt50.cso.uiuc.edu (Ari Micah Footlik) Subject: Re: Government Regulates Number of Modem Redial Atttempts? Date: 14 May 1994 05:22:56 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana jon_sree@world.std.com (Jon Sreekanth) writes: > Or the modem should detect voice and put out a AT-command like > response ("VOICE") which would cause the comm software to cease, just > like a "NO ANSWER" timeout. Shouldn't be hard for the DSP to detect > voice. Do common modems provide any such voice indication? Actually, I know that my old modem, a PPI 2400 internal, used to be able to distinguish voice answers from data or no connections, but, I don't remember how I got it to do that. A number of comm programs I have used have "VOICE" as a no-connect message option, though I don't know if it is implemented. Till Later! Ari Micah Footlik University Of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Illionis E-Mail To: afootlik@uiuc.edu ------------------------------ From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: Re: NANP and Switches Date: 13 May 94 19:52:26 GMT Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY In article jslupsky@pwss.gov.ab.ca (James Slupsky) writes: > Mr. Lee also writes: >> CO codes in the N0/1X range have been around for some time, especially >> in dense metropolitan NPAs, such as 212, 213, 312, 415, 202, etc.. > I don't believe this. The whole purpose of the new NANP was to change > from NNX to NXX, and to allow NXX type NPA's. All switch routing > software was designed to recognize that an NPA was N0X or N1X, and the > CO code was NNX. There are 2910 NXXs that have the format NPA (N[0|1]A) in 62 NPAs. I will not include the NXXs here but the NPAs that have them are: 201 210 303 313 410 506 602 615 706 718 818 909 202 212 305 404 415 510 604 619 707 805 903 910 204 213 306 405 416 512 606 702 708 808 904 916 205 214 310 407 501 513 609 703 713 810 905 917 206 215 312 408 503 514 610 704 714 813 908 919 209 301 David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 94 18:33:24 EDT From: John R. Covert 13-May-1994 1836 Subject: Re: Handy Money Saving Cellular Tip johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) wrote: > If you use an LD carrier who bills through your cell carrier (notably > AT&T), the LD times are all the same as the cellular times, meaning > that you're paying for LD minutes you didn't actually use. Well, we have the same cellular carrier -- NYNEX, and I have noticed that this is _not_ true. NYNEX only prints one time on the bill, the air time, but the LD charge is correctly calculated for the number of supervised minutes, on both roamer LD charges and local AT&T charges billed by NYNEX. john ------------------------------ From: petef@well.com (Pete Farmer) Subject: Re: Wireless Data Services Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 16:22:53 -0800 Organization: Tetherless Access Ltd. In article , I wrote that I had noticed very little posted to this list regarding wireless *data* services, and asked if I was looking in the wrong place. I have since received a couple of e-maiols pointing me to comp.std.wireless, where I do find postings regarding wireless services. Thanks, Peter J. Farmer Internet: petef@well.com Vice President, Marketing Voice: 415-321-5968 Tetherless Access Ltd. Fax: 415-321-5048 ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: 800 Numbers for Radio Shows Date: 13 May 1994 16:27:39 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access In article , Mark W. Schumann wrote: > What Do You Know gives its number as 1-800-WHA-KNOW. As in "One, > eight hundred, wah-no. Or whack now." In the SF Bay Area, the local sports station provides a toll free number (*SPORTS) if you are calling from a cellular phone via GTE. And then the nationally syndicated computer talk show On Computers (Sunday 10:00PDT) has a toll-free number. Laurence Chiu Walnut Creek, California Tel: 510-215-3730 (work) Internet: lchiu@crl.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 94 21:31:43 EDT From: ddl@das.harvard.edu (Dan Lanciani) Subject: Re: Caller ID with Serial Port - Where? joharris@io.org (John Harris) wrote: > Try contacting Vive Synergies Inc., > 30 West Beaver Creek Road, Unit 2, > Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 3K1 > (905) 882-6107 Fax (905) 882-6238 > This manufacturer advertises in the local paper as having a "CALL > EDITOR II" for $199.00 Beware of this device. The design is seriously flawed and Vive isn't interested in fixing it. Here is something I wrote about it a while back when I (foolishly) bought one from HAL. (HAL sells Vive's Call Editor II, obviously ...) The HAL box also has a fairly severe bug. When a call comes in, you see a lot of garbage characters on the RS-232 interface before the actual CNID string. Worse, what you are seeing is the box's echo of garbage characters that it thinks came in over the RS-232 interface. Sometimes it gets enough garbage to generate an ``Unknown Command'' response. Chances are, sooner or laater, it will think it saw a dial command ... Details for those who care: The Call Editor II (made by Vive) attempts to share the single serial input of its 8031 microcontroller between the CNID chip and the external RS-232 port. It uses 1/4 of a 4053 (a rather odd choice given that the other 3/4s appear unused!) for this purpose. When the CNID chip detects ``interesting'' stuff on the line the 8031 switches the 4053 with one of the P3 output bits (I forget which one) so it can look at the CNID data. When it is done, it switches back to listening to the RS-232 port. Unfortunately, they are forgetting to clear their serial buffer (or, at least, forgetting to wait a character time to account for garbage in transit during the switch) so the command interpreter gets to see random bytes. The command interpreter echos these bytes to the RS-232 port and, of course, acts on them. (The details here could be off as they are based on a fairly cursory inspection of the circuit and some of the ICs have their part numbers obscured...) I tried to explain the problem to technical support at Vive but I don't really expect much. The first person didn't know what I was talking about. The second person denied the problem and added the usual line that nobody else had ever reported anything similar. The third person said that it is the fault of the CNID chip that they use and cannot be fixed. He insisted that all I needed to do was write a ``software filter'' to ignore the garbage. He did not seem to understand that their command interpreter was seeing the garbage and could generate spurious dial commands (or who knows what else). He also said that this isn't a problem with telephones in Canada (where they are). An ``engineer'' is supposed to get back to me sometime so I can tell him how to fix the firmware... (Needless to say, the engineer never called back.) Dan Lanciani ddl@harvard.* ------------------------------ From: whitlock@photon.vlsi.uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: Re: Cell One/NY Rates For DC and Boston Date: 14 May 94 02:09:18 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Reply-To: whitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Does anyone know if there are any arrangements for roaming between Ameritech (Central IL in particular, although Ameritech also operates a cellular system in the Chicago area) and the systems in the Westchester County, NY area (between NYC and Poughkeepsie)? Hopefully, there is something besides the $3.00 per day/$0.99 per minute deals... Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology whitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 94 01:25:00 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Mail Order Source for Cell Phone Accessories Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. I have bought stuff from The Wholesale House, 33852 Del Obispo, #45, Dana Point CA, +1 714 489 4390, WHOLESALEHSE@delphi.com. They seem mostly to handle electronics closeouts and overstocks. Orders must be prepaid by check or COD, no plastic. For cellular phones, they have chargers, battery eliminators, cases, and spare batteries, mostly in the $20 to $30 range. For $120 they have hands-free car mount kits. I haven't bought any cellular stuff from them, since my phone is permanenty mounted in the car and doesn't need any accessories, but other stuff I've gotten has been good. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: shawnlg@netcom.com (Shawn Gordhamer) Subject: Re: Mail Order Source for Cell Phone Accessories Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 18:38:54 GMT HayesR@uihc-telecomm-po.htc.uiowa.edu writes: > Hutton Communications > 4112 Billy Mitchell Drive > Dallas, TX 75244-2315 > 214-239-0580 Fax-214-239-5264 > 800-442-3811 > They had quite a few cellular accessories. I called, and the salesperson told me they were strictly wholesale and would not sell to individuals. Shawn Gordhamer shawnlg@netcom.com Rochester, Minnesota USA ------------------------------ From: 1JCR7732@ibm.mtsac.edu@cc.usu.edu Subject: Re: Phone Line in Use Indicator From Radio Shack Date: Fri, 13 May 94 19:22:00 PST Organization: Mt. San Antonio College > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But a quick stock check at the local > 'shack' on the computer there priced it at $12.99. It is just a little > plastic box with a short modular cord on the end. It plugs into any > phone outlet and sits wherever you place it. When a phone on that line > goes off hook, the LED lights up. Simple as they come. Well, how would I go about making one? Should be simple parts? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Check out the file in the Telecom Archives. Your question is one quite commonly asked around here. PAT] ------------------------------ From: whitlock@photon.vlsi.uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: Re: Direct Billing by AT&T Date: 14 May 94 02:22:39 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Reply-To: whitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Jeffrey C Honig writes: > Also, my wife just received a $20 check offer from MCI. Is AT&T still > countering these offers? MCI recently sent me a check for $50 if I would switch back to them. I called AT&T and asked if they would match it. I was told that AT&T does not do that any more. They don't want to play that game anymore. The LD phone company wars have been good to me recently. MCI convinced me to switch with some incentives such as $100 free calling on weekends in one month. I was convinced to take their offer and let them switch me. Then AT&T called me to ask who authorized my long distance company to be changed. I felt like I was a kid being reprimanded by my Mom. I think the sales rep could have been a bit more tactful. But at any rate, she offered me $45 cash and a promise of 20% discount on all phone calls for six months to switch back. So, since I'm not really all that fond of MCI, I took it. Now, I'm being offered $50 cash to switch back to MCI in addition to the incentives they offered me before. I don't know ... I think I would rather stay with AT&T. Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology whitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 21:10:17 -0700 From: eap@ora.com (Eric Pearce) Subject: Used Telco/Test Equipment Suppliers? Are there dealers for used telco and test equipment in the Bay Area (or by mail order catalog)? I'm looking for stuff like test sets, digit grabbers, T-BERDs, etc. Thanks, Eric Pearce | eap@ora.com | O'Reilly & Associates Publishers of Nutshell Series Handbooks and X Window System Guides 103 Morris St, Sebastopol, CA 95472 1-800-998-9938 or 707-829-0515 ------------------------------ From: Anand Gupta Subject: Cordless Phone Suggestions Wanted Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 03:56:24 GMT Organization: Lafayette College I am in the market for cordless phones. I am planning to purchase around four or five phones for home use. I would like some recommendations on brands. I am looking to buy soemthing less than $ 100 each and need only minimal features. What matters most is range, speech quality and reliability. Brands that I am seriously considering: AT&T, Panasonic and Sony and also Southwestern Bell. I would like personal opinions preferably with model numbers etc. Thanks a lot for your help. If somebody has any phones that he would like to sell then contact me also. Thanks, Guptaa Guptaa@lafcol.lafayette.edu ------------------------------ From: Ken Thompson Subject: Re: Black Magic! Telecom Design Tricks - Free Book For Digest Readers Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 10:02:38 Organization: AT&T Global Information Solutions In article python@bytes.kiwi.gen.nz (Terry Hardie) writes: > From: python@bytes.kiwi.gen.nz (Terry Hardie) > Subject: Re: Black Magic! Telecom Design Tricks - Free Book For Digest > Readers > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You would write to Dr. Race to receive > your copy of the book. I am reprinting this as a reminder since several > people have written *me* asking for a copy. I can't help you! Write > to the author at the address shown for him at the top of this message. PAT] I did and my message bounced. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well then, I suggest you try Terry Hardie, the person who sent the original message, per his address above. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 94 12:27:05 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: 'NNX' Area Codes? I Think 'NXX' is More Appropriate Actually, the history file does refer to area codes being generalized from N0X/N1X to NXX. ------------------------------ Subject: Caller ID Gets Me Jealous From: 1JCR7732@ibm.mtsac.edu Date: Fri, 14 May 94 10:00:24 PST Organization: Mt. San Antonio College I hear of caller ID and I get jealous ... it is not offered here in Los Angles, CA. However, we do offer the services of call return and call block. Here is my theory ... if they offer these two services, then the _phone numbers_ must be there. Further more, they must be in the phone bandwidth of 300-3kHz ... so the, if I had a scope, I could check out the ring and notice patterns if I know who's calling ... right?? I could then build a decoder ... am i just dreaming? They set up the system, I'm just trying to use it. Joseph Romero 1jcr7732@ibm.mtsac.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually yes, you are just dreaming. Caller-ID has nothing to do with the ring you receive on your phone at all. It is transmitted as data between the first and second rings. No matter what kind of fancy equipment you wish to install at your end of the line, the Caller-ID data will not be available to you until/ unless the central office sends it down the line ... an unlikely state of affairs in California at this time. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 14 May 1994 00:55:00 +0200 From: naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: Re: ZMODEM - Proprietary? In comp.dcom.telecom William J Rehm writes: > As I understand the situation, zmodem is indeed a proprietary > protocol. No. The ZModem *protocol* is public domain. Note there's an updated version ZModem-90 which indeed is proprietary to Omen Technology. ZModem implementations follow various schemes, e.g. Chuck Forsberg's Unix rz/sz are somewhere between shareware and crippleware. > I have admittedly limited knowledge of this situation, but this is how > it was explained to me when I contacted the author's company. I think you misunderstood Omen's/Chuck's response. Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 17:43:32 -0600 From: Leroy Casterline Subject: Re: Call Screening Device > I am interested in purchasing a low cost ($30-$60) Call screener > which connects to my phone. Typically I expect it to block the > ringing of the incoming call on my phone unless the caller presses in > a security code using his/her DTMF phones. I know somebody makes > them. I will appreciate any information on it. I have such a device, called 'Friends Only', which a client purchased for me to evaluate. The device seems to work as promised, and does what was specified above. According to the last page of the small manual, the manufacturer is: KES Communications 2029 S. Loop 250 Midland, Texas 79703 They neglected to list their telephone number, a curious omission for a communciations company. One thing to consider before placing such a device on your line is emergency calls. These devices block ALL calls for which the caller does not have the proper ID. If the caller is calling to tell you that a loved one was in an accident or to request permission to perform emergency surgery on a dependant, you may regret your decision to install the device. Leroy Casterline ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 94 16:08:03 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: History of Underseas Cables Some apparent anomalies in all three of these great stories may be resolved by noting that Newfoundland did not join Canada until 1949. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #226 ******************************