TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Jun 94 00:28:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 271 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "A DOS User's Guide to the Internet" by Gardner (Rob Slade) ISDN PRI Problem (Matt Monsoor) Bell Science Series (Ken Jongsma) Need Book of Standard Telco Symbols and Icons (James D. Murray) Answering Machine Recommendations? (John O'Shaughnessy) Country and Area Codes on PC Software (J.J. Fai) Call Progress Modems (Bob Heath) Seeking Answering Machine With Voice Mail (Norman R. Nithman) Re: Cellular Privacy? (Steven Bradley) Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Ken Stone) Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (bluewtr!tom@orca.mbari.org) Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D (John Robert Grout) Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose (Terry Greenlee) Re: How to Get White Pages Data From GTE? (bkron@netcom.com) Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System (Dan Matte) Re: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts (Gordon Burditt) Re: What Did You Have For Dinner Today? (Paul A. Lee) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 03 Jun 1994 13:49:46 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "A DOS User's Guide to the Internet" by Gardner BKDOSINT.RVW 940308 Prentice Hall 113 Sylvan Avenue Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 (515) 284-6751 FAX (515) 284-2607 phyllis@prenhall.com 70621.2737@CompuServe.COM Alan Apt Beth Mullen-Hespe beth_hespe@prenhall.com Mortice Kern Systems Inc. 35 King Street North Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9 (519) 884-2251 inquiry@mks.com 73260.1043@compuserve.com Fax: (519) 884-8861 "A DOS User's Guide to the Internet", Gardner, 1994, 0-13-106873-3, This title is almost completely misleading. This book is not for DOS users, except that you must be running DOS to run the MKS UUCP for DOS programs for which this book is a manual. This book is also not about the Internet, as such. Both the specifics and the concepts refer to UUCP rather than the Internet. The text of the book does point out that there are differences, but the examples given relate to UUCP. That said, for those who are interested in making their first move to a direct Internet connection, this could be an excellent choice. UUCP was designed to be quite comfortable with dialup connections, and this book, and associated programs, help to automate a number of the connection functions while freeing the user from much of the technical detail that TCP/IP requires. Mail and news are basically the same and file transfer can be explored later when a dedicated connection is available or desirable. Given the author's residence in Canada, the US-centrism of the Internet Provider/Service supplier list is all the more disappointing. In truth, any Internet connected UNIX site should do you. (Perhaps even a fellow DOS user running MKS UUCP.) There could also be a bit more detail on how to configure the remote site, although someone at the remote system should be able to help you. This is not an Internet book: it is a niche market, plug and manual for MKS software. However, given the current interest in the Internet and the limited supply of "plug and play" connectivity solutions, this is worth serious consideration. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKDOSINT.RVW 940303. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated news groups/mailing lists. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca User p1@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ From: monsoor@nextnet.ccs.csus.edu (Matt Monsoor) Subject: ISDN PRI Problem Date: 3 Jun 1994 23:44:45 GMT Organization: California State University Sacramento We have an AT&T Definity Switch, G3RV2.2, and are trying to connect an Ascend Communications, Inc., Ascend "Classic" Multiband using ISDN PRI. The Ascend "Classic" work's using it on a normal T1 with inband signaling, etc but when we set up both the AT&T Switch and the Ascend to ESF, B8ZS, with the D-Channel set for channel 24 it fails. What we see is a level 3 failure. The Switch does not see the D-Channel from the Multiband and the Multiband does not see the Switch's D-Channel. If anyone has a AT&T G3R Switch, access to Switch administration, is using an Ascend Multiband, and ISDN PRI We would like to compare notes. Email me at monsoor@csus.edu with a phone number and I will contact you as soon as I can. Thanks in advance. Matthew G. Monsoor USMAIL: 6000 J st., Sacramento, Ca 95819-6091 (916) 278-6288 Internet: monsoor@csus.edu pager: (916) 328-8913 Packet: n6zsk@km6px.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NA ------------------------------ From: Jongsma, Ken Subject: Bell Science Series Date: Fri, 03 Jun 94 16:07:00 PDT A while back, we were discussing the old Bell Science Series movies that many of us watched in grade and high school science class some years ago. I recently received a video catalog that has four of these movies listed! Hemo the Magnificent Our Mr. Sun About Time and Gateway to the Mind are all available from Time Warner Viewer's Edge for $9.49 each. Each movie is about 1 hour long. The first two were written, directed and produced by Frank Capra. The catalog does not list a non 800 voice number, but it does have a FAX number: Time Warner Viewer's Edge PO Box 3925 Milford, CT 06460 (800) 224-9944 (Voice) (203) 876-8234 (FAX) Enjoy! ------------------------------ From: jdm@netcom.com (James D. Murray) Subject: Need Book of Standard Telco Symbols and Icons Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 22:00:03 GMT I need a book that lists commonly used/understood symbols found in the telco and telecommunications world. I've been thumbing through Bellcore's Catalog of Technical Information, but haven't found such reference yet. A source at Alcatel indicated to me that an AT&T document containing such information, but could give me no leads. Any references would be greatly appreciated, James D. Murray, Software Engineer PairGain Technologies Cerritos, CA Voice: 310.404.8811 x540 Fax: 310.407.5274 James D. Murray POB 70 Tel: 714.288.0141 jdm@netcom.com Orange, CA 92666 USA Fax: 310.407.5274 ------------------------------ From: John O'Shaughnessy Subject: Answering Machine Recommendations Wanted Date: Fri, 3 Jun 94 17:22:47 CDT Our four year old AT&T answering machine seems to have spun it's last capstan into the dirt. I assume that a machine that was purchased for $70.00 would cost more than $50.00 to have repaired, so I'm in the market for a new answering machine. The features I'm looking for include: * Time & Date stamp * Remote access * VOX activated/unlimited incoming call length * High Quality What machines would TELECOM Digest readers recommend? Which machines/ brands should be avoided? Thanks, John O'Shaughnessy ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 20:45:30 -0400 From: JJ Fai Subject: Country and Area Codes on PC Software PC's, the great communicators, don't even provide us with basic information that we can use, such as country codes and area codes for leading cities around the world. As a new subscriber, I wonder whether there is a .DBF, .CSV, .TXT or other generally compatible databse available that lists this vital information. Even my little Psion 3A palmtop has country and area codes built-in, yet the leading PIM's and database programs for DOS and Windows ignore them. If such a database has not yet been compiled and been made widely available, it's about time that we fill the glaring gap. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Check out the country.codes directory in the Telecom Archives, and also the areacodes directory. You should find quite a bit of information there. Anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bobheath@aol.com (BobHeath) Subject: Call Progress Modems Date: 3 Jun 1994 19:27:07 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Does anyone know of any modems that provides call progress features? Thanks, Bob ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 94 13:09:05 CDT From: clampett!nrn@uunet.uu.net (Norman R. Nithman) Subject: Seeking Answering Machine With Voice Mail I'm looking for an answering machine with at least two voice mailboxes in the $100 range. Any suggestions will be helpful. Norm nrn@sgwoi.com ------------------------------ From: steven@sgb.oau.org (Steven Bradley) Subject: Re: Cellular Privacy? Organization: The Forest City Exchange, Forest City, Florida Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 18:38:37 GMT > About form 740, I was told that form 740 could not be used to get > around the law. Again, maybe not enforcable, but still illegal. Why not? It is for any non certified device in quantities up to three for non commercial purposes. >> the 800 mhz band), no re-tuning is needed. In theory, if they made >> the EPROM replacable for purpose of field upgrades, and sold the >> cellular full access EPROM as an after-market item, it would certainly >> get around the dumb restriction. It does not stop you from getting >> the scanners, nor does it stop the modifications, merely makes it more >> difficult, but does not stop it. > I doubt that this would work as the ready availability of plug-in > parts to reenable cellular on the radio would render the radio "easily > modifiable" and, therefore, supposedly illegal to import/manufacture. Ok, then I think it is time that they (the scanning industry) included a serial port on every unit, with the limitations in frequencies covered being locked out in the MPU for internal keypad operation, and have code on the computer to do the actual loading and scanning -- such that under serial control, the microcomputer (ibmpc) software would be under full control, this would meet the language of the law and still permit it to be scannable under computer control, since the serial interface accessory would "not yet be available" at time of testing, therefore the FCC would find it meeting the requirements. It would be the same as a Pro 2006 with builtin Opto 456 controller. I wonder what the cellular industry and FCC think of that situation! It is a fact they can NOT touch it. Internet: steven@sgb.oau.org Steven G. Bradley steven@gate.net GEnie: s.bradley6@genie.geis.com Don't you think it's about CompuServe: 73232.505@compuserve.com time we FIRED the Federal America Online: sgbradley@aol.com Communications Commission? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 15:28:17 -0700 From: Ken Stone Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" Organization: Hewlett Packard, San Diego Division In article is written: > I saw in a news report about a new service from Pacific Bell called > "ISDN Anywhere." When I called up Pac Bell, they had no idea what I > was talking about. The news report didn't give much more information > other than they would start offering it in about a month. > Does anybody else have any ideas about what is so different about "ISDN > Anywhere?" Well it does exist and it is different and it does work!! Up until recently, we here in PacBell land had two tariff's. One for Centrex which was no repeaters (ie 18k ft from CO), but no message units within the Centrex and one called SDS/IS (I believe) that had repeaters included but no Centrex capability. Either of these >required< your CO to be ISDN ready. With ISDN Anywhere, you get just what they say. Right now, I am having a repeatered Centrex line installed that I could not get before. I also have several people that we could not serve due to non ISDN ready COs that I should be able to get lines to now ... how they do it is their problem. I am assuming that they will back haul to a CO that is capable. Ken Stone Hewlett Packard, San Diego Site Telecomm ------------------------------ From: bluewtr!tom@orca.mbari.org Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" Date: Fri, Jun 3 21:07:35 1994 GMT ISDN Anywhere means that you can have ISDN anywhere in the Pacbell area for the price of local ISDN. If your serving CO does not offer ISDN Pacbell will provide the FX for free. Part of what Pacbell is pushing as: POTS to PANS Plain Old Telephone Service to Pretty Advanced Network Stuff ... T3 ------------------------------ From: jg2560@cesn4.cen.uiuc.edu (John Robert Grout) Subject: Re: 716 Now Split Between 7D and 1 + 716 + 7D Date: 03 Jun 1994 19:22:44 GMT Organization: U of I College of Engineering Workstations In article Carl Moore writes: > I have been assuming statewide uniformity in these dialing changes, > and this is the first I have heard of a split of this nature. If a state's PSC didn't enforce uniformity (probably forcing 1+AC+7D), setting a "de facto" standard within a LATA would usually fall to the "Baby Bell" providing service within it. So, the most reasonable explanation for substantive nonuniformity within a state is the existence of a LATA (in a multi-LATA state) which has all local service provided by non-Baby Bell companies. So, if one ignores the corner of Greenwich, CT which is not in the CT LATA, the Rochester (NY) LATA is the only one I know which meets this test. I expect that New York's PSC will eventually bully Rochester Telephone into uniformity with NYNEX. John R. Grout INTERNET: j-grout@uiuc.edu ------------------------------ From: sgiblab!hh.sbay.org!terry@uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com (Terry Greenlee) Subject: Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose Date: 3 Jun 94 05:38:17 GMT Organization: Hip-Hop BBS In an article to comp.dcom.telecom I wrote: > I am having trouble with my phone lines at home and I was wondering > if anyone else had this same thing happen to them? My existing two > lines in my home work fine at 14.4. The phone company brought in more > lines to add a third line. > The third line will only connect at 7200 bd at best and usually > 4800 bd. I tested them at the box beside the house to make sure > it was not my inside wires. The phone company tested it from > the main office and found no problem. Well, when Pacific Bell came out, I had my laptop and a 14.4 modem on the side of the house to demonstrate the problem. I did stress that the bad line was for a fax and the modem was for debugging. A good friend did suggest that I be extra polite but insistent. If they did not fix this line, they would have dug up two front yards for nothing. What the repair man found was that the two good lines went to the main connection box (many blocks away) thought a 27 pair line and the new bad line used a 30 pair line. He changed it so all three lines went through the 27 pair trunk line. The change took 1.5 hours and then the problem was fixed. The modem connected at 14.4 and all that 'bis' stuff. The main logic is not that anything was wrong with the 30 pair trunk, just that the other lines worked great through the 27 pair and why do anything different. Always stick to what you know works, first. I want to thank everyone that sent me advice on this. It all helped. And a special thanks to Pacific Bell. AIX/UNIX Systems Administration AIXadmin@hh.sbay.org ------------------------------ From: bkron@netcom.com (Krusty) Subject: Re: How to Get White pages Data From GTE? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Sat, 4 Jun 1994 00:34:01 GMT fjd@rain.org (Frank Dziuba) writes: > I would like to get the White Pages listings for my area from GTE in a > computer-readable format. I know that there are cd-roms of the US > phone books available, ... > ... GTE said they don't sell that data, but how did ProPhone get it? When I looked at ProPhone about a year or so ago, it didn't contain any GTE listings -- only Baby Bell listings. In fact, I have yet to find a CD-ROM product which contains GTE listings (unless, of course, the GTE subscriber has purchased a listing in a Baby Bell directory). Also, discussions about these products which I've had with their manufacturers has confirmed that they don't contain GTE directory data. ------------------------------ From: Reon_Can@mindlink.bc.ca (Dan Matte) Subject: Re: Performance of L.A. Cellular System Date: Fri, 03 Jun 94 17:37:09 PDT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada True, priority for email is low in general. This particular application will have an organization that will be directly involved in emergency response using the cellular email setup for internal communication. We are fairly certain that any cell numbers would be deemed as Class-A (priority service). The part of the solution that has caused the most concern is Reverse Control Channel Occupancy rates that would result in call blocking. Forward Control Channel Occupancy Rates a less of a concern as the wireline carrier would also impose Class-A service in case of a major disaster. This would drastically reduce the number of wireline to cell calls made and reduce the Forward Control Channel Occupancy rate. As we have not had a wide scale disaster in British Columbia that would require Class-A only service, I have been looking for call blocking statistics for the L.A. Earthquake. I know that some cellular carriers' philosophy is not to implement Class-A service only and give the highest level of access to all subscribers. Despite this difference, blocking rates would be useful in order for us to determine if cellular email is really the most effective solution for this application. If anyone has any insight to these statistics(load, blocking rate etc), I would be greatful. I would be happy to post any relevant info that I find. Dan Matte REON Corp reon_can@mindlink.bc.ca ------------------------------ From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Government Regulates Modem Redial Attempts Organization: /usr/lib/news/organi[sz]ation Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 11:24:58 GMT > Why, though, would one want to redial upon encountering a "VOICE" or a > "NO ANSWER" result? A "VOICE" result would typically indicate that the > modem's dial attempt has reached either an intercept message or a live > body at the dialed number, indicating that a wrong number is being > dialed (for legitimate purposes, at least). A "NO ANSWER" result on a > valid number typically results from a problem with the modem or fax > machine that should have answered at the other end. You would want to redial (eventually) on a "NO ANSWER" result because: 1. Call waiting generally makes sure you never see a "BUSY". 2. Systems occasionally go down and sometimes for short periods of time. 3. You might get a "NO ANSWER" as a result of a collision of the recipient picking up the phone to dial out, answering your call. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 June 1994 15:08:00 GMT Name: Paul A. Lee Organization: Woolworth Corporation Subject: Re: What Did You Have for Dinner Today? In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 264, our Editor wrote (in part): > Why the two most recent well-known cannibals in the USA both came from > Wisconsin -- within fifty miles or so of each other -- I do not > know. Maybe it is something in the atomosphere. As a relatively recent transplant to the Milwaukee area, I'm prompted to offer this hypothesis: Maybe these two guys were driven mad by the *taxes* here in Wisconsin (the highest in the country, according to a 1992 survey). Perhaps the "ultimate eating disorder" could be one of the results of the high tax rate. After all, I've seen widespread sociopathic behavior in the way people here _drive_ ... (I hope I can forfend being flamed by hundreds of Wisconsin natives by emphasizing that most of the folks here are as genial, friendly, and helpful as any I've met anywhere ... as long as you keep them out of their cars!) Paul A. Lee Voice 414 357-1409 Telecommunications Analyst FAX 414 357-1450 Woolworth Corporation CompuServe 70353,566 INTERNET [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Funny you should mention it. The way it is usually explained around here, it is the people in California who 'drive crazy'. Maybe a lot of them were originally from Wisconsin. Speaking of good, wholesome things to eat, I've always liked the lunch counters at Woolworth's stores here in Chicago. The two big stores on State Street downtown both have nice, inexpensive food. The little Woolworth's near where I used to live did not have a lunch counter, but I still liked shopping there. When they closed for good last year they still had the old red colored 5/10 cent sign over their front door even though there was nothing left there which cost five cents any longer except possibly the individual pieces of bubble gum. The 'dime store' was there for years and years and years -- as long as anyone in the neighborhood could remember; then last year right after Christmas I went past one day and the signs were gone, everything was boarded up and another neighborhood institution was gone. The two stores downtown are still in business, even if not exactly thriving. Now let's forget about the cannibals, eh, unless someone has something further to add. Have a nice weekend, one and all! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #271 ******************************