TELECOM Digest Thu, 9 Jun 94 08:11:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 279 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Access From Cuba (Bob King) Dual PPI-14.4Kbaud -- Can't Talk! (Dave Spensley) Looking for Cheap, Portable Terminal (Tim Nyce) Historical Private Line Price Compression (Scott Pope) Position: Sr. Software Engineer - Telecom/Telephony - MN (John F. Nymark) PacBell "California Calling Plan" (Lloyd Matthews) 1-800-CALL-ATT x 21 Returns! (Paul Robinson) Which Court Case Decided Phone Records Were (Almost) Public? (D. Burstein) Help Needed With Meridian Trunks (Paul Samuelson) Toll-Charge 800 Numbers (Richard King) Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted (Nathan N. Duehr) Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose (John R. Haggis) Re: Seeking Answering Machine With Voice Mail (John R. Haggis) Re: Bills Online, Action Needed Now (James D. Wilson) Re: New Book: The Electronic Traveler (Carl Moore) Re: Geographical Boundaries of COE's Reference Needed (Carl Moore) Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? (K. M. Peterson) Re: Call Waiting (Carl Oppedahl) Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311? (S.H. Schwartz) Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311? (Les Reeves) Re: Is Meridian 1 Option 11 Current? (rpkrpk@aol.com) Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" (Dee Hardiman) Re: Bellcore CID Specifications Wanted (Lynne Gregg) Question About FCC FTP (defantom@aol.com) Cisco Mail List (defantom@aol.com) Help - Telecommuting Information Needed (szfast@chip.ucdavis.edu) Re: Last Laugh! Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' (puma@netcom) 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: bking120@news.delphi.com (BKING120@DELPHI.COM) Subject: Internet Access From Cuba Date: 9 Jun 1994 04:28:02 -0000 Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation Some friends of mine are traveling to Cuba later this month on journalists' visas and are seeking a convenient way of sending articles back to the United States. Does anyone know if Internet access is available in Cuba -- and if so, how easily available? Much thanks! Bob King Sarasota, FL bking120@delphi.com ------------------------------ From: davesp@comm.mot.com (Dave Spensley) Subject: Dual PPI-14.4Kbaud -- Can't Talk! Organization: Motorola Land Mobile Products Sector Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 03:29:17 GMT Gentlepeople, A friend and I are having trouble connecting two PPI 14.4K baud modems together! Even though we use the same modem settings, we get major CRC errors, limiting our transfer rate to <800 cps. We are both using Procomm for Windows. One modem is internal, one is external. Are Procomm settings interfering with modem efficiency? Any clues will be appreciated. moc.tom.mmoc@psevad \ yelsnepS evaD | Dave Spensley / davesp@comm.mot.com ------------------------------ From: tnyce@netcom.com (Tim Nyce) Subject: Looking for Cheap, Portable Terminal Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1994 19:24:13 GMT I have a friend who needs an inexpensive terminal that can be attatched to a modem or has one built in. Not particularly fancy, just cheap with a decent-sized display. He wants to be able to check mail, read news, etc. If you have any reccomendations, sources, or units for sale, please reply or mail me and I will pass it on to him. Thanks, Tim Nyce tnyce@netcom.com TRA# 2492 Dallas Hi-Power 214-783-4563 NAR# 58591 ------------------------------ From: scott_pope@wiltel.com Subject: Historical Private Line Price Compression Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 16:03:58 PDT Organization: WilTel Does anyone know where I could find a study showing compression of private line prices from 1984 or 1985 to present? ------------------------------ From: jnymark@nycor.win.net (John F. Nymark) Date: Wed, 08 Jun 1994 10:50:58 Subject: Position: Sr. Software Engineer - Telecom/Telephony - MN Reply-To: jnymark@nycor.win.net (John F. Nymark) SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER TELECOMMUNICATIONS TELEPHONY Here's an opportunity to have your contributions greatly impact a company's growth and success. Rapidly growing, telecommunications company in beautiful, Minnetonka, Minnesota needs strong C/UNIX software engineer with 7+ years software cycle development experience, 3+ years experience working on designing wide and local area networks and 4+ years in a lead or management role. Will be working on products geared to interactive voice response and recognition, faxcimile on demand, and many other telephony products. Ideal candidate should have a software development background out of the telecommunications/telephony industry, have lead development teams and/or have been in a management role. Should also have a strong business/market savvy to be able to cater to market trends in research and development. Salary and bonus commensurate with experience. To learn more, contact Julie O'Connell The NYCOR Group 4930 West 77th Street Suite 300 Minneapolis, MN 55435 (612) 831-6444 (612) 835-2883 FAX Please send E-Mail to jnymark@nycor.win.net ATTN: Julie. Please let your friends know of this opportunity. WE LOVE REFERRALS. ------------------------------ From: lloyd@pebbles.esl.com (Lloyd Matthews) Subject: PacBell "California Calling Plan" Date: 8 Jun 1994 23:01:39 GMT Organization: TTC - ESL, Inc. My boss has heard at nth-hand of a business service offered by PacBell called the "California Calling Plan", that's supposed to be cheaper than an 800 number. The salestypes at PB don't have a clue what it is. Do any TELECOM Digest readers know if this service exists? Thanks, Lloyd Matthews (Lloyd_Matthews@SMTP.esl.com) ------------------------------ From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: 1-800-CALL-ATT x 21 Returns! Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 19:25:15 EDT Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA About a year and a half or so ago, I posted a notice here that AT&T had announced that their 1-800-CALL-ATT, then dial 2-1 to get to AT&T's switch computer to place calls using a Local Exchange Company or AT&T Calling Card had been discontinued in favor of 1-800-32-10ATT. Now, AT&T's 1-800-CALL-ATT number has been returned to service for this purpose, with the announcement saying to press "1" to make a call. But the interesting thing is that the old "2-1" (e.g. extension 21) dialing will *ALSO* work! Oh, and the 1-800-32-10ATT number still works. It does the same thing as 1-800-CALL-ATT but without having to dial 1 or 21 first. What goes around, comes around ... Paul Robinson ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Which Court Case Decided Phone Records Were (Almost) Public? Date: 8 Jun 1994 19:13:00 -0400 Reference has been made numerous times in this Digest that a person's telephone billing records are business records of the phone company, and are not personal or private. As I recall the thread, since these records belonged to the telco, the phone company could cheerfully hand them over to the local gendarmes (among others) without a warrant. Being an ordinary mortal wihout access to Lexis or other legal data bases, if I tried searching blindly for this case it would take me forever. Could some kind soul out there in net-land extend a gentle hand and guide me along? Thanks muchly, Danny Burstein dannyb@panix.com (or dburstein@mcimail.com) ------------------------------ From: pss@aol.com (PSS) Subject: Help With Meridian Trunks Date: 8 Jun 1994 21:07:06 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) I am having a problem programming an analog trunk card. I need to be able to program CO Call Forward Variable (72# XXX-XXXX and 73#) on a 1FB (I guess it might not be a 1FB if I run it through the switch, but I will worry about that later). I would like to run the line thru an analog trunk to be able to program the forwarding from any phone on the switch. My problem is when I seize the trunk with the trunk access code, I cannot send DTMF directly to the trunk. The PBX seems to be absorbing digits or not sending them directly. I can seize the trunk and dial a local number, but not change the CFV. Any tips? Thanks, Paul Samuelson ------------------------------ From: rpk@watson.ibm.com (Richard King) Subject: Toll-Charge 800 numbers Date: 8 Jun 1994 17:39:51 GMT Organization: IBM T. J. Watson Research I just read in my local paper that there is such a thing as toll- CHARGE, rather than toll-FREE, 800 numbers. This struck me as so completely outrageous and bizarre that I was wondering if any of you folks out there could confirm or deny the existence of such things. Richard [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes indeed, we do know about these things. Actually, you are not paying for the call to the 800 number; you are paying for the 'information' passed over the phone line to you as part of the call. Consider it like calling an 800 number to make airline reservations or some mail order purchase. In those instances you call the number, then make your purchase and give your credit card number for payment. In the cases you mention however, the charge for the services rendered (but not the call into the information provider in and of itself!) is billed to your telephone bill in the same way 900/976 calls are billed. Since we just finished a thread on this during the past couple weeks it seems premature to start the discussion all over again so I refer you to the back issues of this Digest during the last part of May and the start of June for more details. The consensus here seems to be most of those operations are sleazy, however they are legal, and a perfect work-around to the 'problem' many information providers were encountering with 900 of being unable to collect their fees. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nduehr@netcom.com (Nathan N. Duehr) Subject: Re: Average Data Speed of Wire Telegraphy Wanted Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 03:06:27 GMT wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wrote: > Press operators were, I think probably the elite of operators sending > in the wire telegraph days. Perhaps those working for brokerage wire > houses could also put in a claim to this, but I'm not sufficiently > familiar with them to be able to judge. Don't forget the railroad ops ... they had their fair share of traffic as well! Regards, Nate Duehr nduehr@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: haggis@netcom.com (John R. Haggis) Subject: Re: Help: Bad Phone Lines in San Jose Organization: Millennium Research Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 01:07:50 GMT In article sgiblab!hh.sbay.org!terry@ uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com (Terry Greenlee) writes: > And a special thanks to Pacific Bell. Yeah, but they were finally just doing their job. Days/weeks later ... JohnR (haggis@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: haggis@netcom.com (John R. Haggis) Subject: Re: Seeking Answering Machine With Voice Mail Organization: Millennium Research Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 01:49:07 GMT In article clampett!nrn@uunet.uu.net (Norman R. Nithman) writes: > I'm looking for an answering machine with at least two voice mailboxes > in the $100 range. Any suggestions will be helpful. Norm, There are several available <= $100, with caveats. See my post in this group with the title: "Re: interactive Voice Mail system for PC". In summary, National Semi Tyin, Complete PC Communicator EZ, Computer Peripherals Viva Message Center. Go to a good computer store. JohnR (haggis@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: NetSurfer Subject: Correction Re: Bills Online, Action Needed Now Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 21:03:35 HST On Mon, 6 Jun 1994, Carl Moore wrote: > Your message to telecom includes: > >Dale Kildee (D-MI) > >ph. 202-25-3611 fax 202-225-6393 NO EMAIL > Is the first phone number supposed to be 202-225-3611? > Apparently a digit is missing from it. Yep - put it to good use ... James D. Wilson V.PGP 2.4: 512/E12FCD 1994/03/17 P. O. Box 15432 finger for key / Viacrypt Reseller Honolulu, HI 96830 Serendipitous Solutions Also NetSurfer@sersol.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Jun 94 14:38:23 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: New Book: The Electronic Traveler I'd suggest using "+", the country code, the city code, and the local number. > Fountain Travel BBS 0273 584827 What country? > Modern Traveller 7-0562-425901 > Time Traveler BBS 886-4-276-0160 > Traveller-Box 49-7664-95185 > Travelmatic 39-11-502423 Each of these is the complete telephone number, including the country code? > Belize Tourism 011501233711 Should use + instead of the leading 011? ------------------------------ From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Geographical Boundaries of COE's Reference Needed Date: Wed, 8 Jun 94 15:12:34 EDT I vaguely recall hearing that the correlation between telephone exchange and location was telephone-company proprietary information. In that case, what I know (largely -- not all -- being near me) is just a case of reverse engineering. I noticed 508-753 in Worcester, Mass., so if that 617-753 is an actual prefix, it came in after the 617/508 split was fully cut over. I do correlate telephone exchange and zipcode if possible, but some phone-company place names turn out to be nonpostal. And I am even less familiar with such correlations occurring outside the United States. Pilot Books on Long Island (in New York) does publish a zipcode- areacode correlation. ------------------------------ From: kmp@tiac.net (K. M. Peterson) Subject: Re: Can ANI be Blocked From Call Recipient? Date: 8 Jun 1994 14:53:23 GMT Organization: KMPeterson/Boston In article keith.knipschild@asb.com writes: > Is it true that you can have your local telephone company BLOCK ANI, > So that when you call a 800 number they can't know who you are? > I am not talking about Caller ID. I know the difference. Speaking of which: There was a shooting here in Boston a couple of days ago. I noticed that the telephone number that our TeeVee stations are advertising to call information into the Boston Police is an 800- number. I wonder if the ability to get ANI has anything to do with having an 800-number rather than a local number. By the way, in Massachusetts, local calls on [non-COCOT] payphones are still $.10 . K. M. Peterson email: KMP@TIAC.NET phone: +1 617 731 6177 voice +1 617 730 5969 fax [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You betcha it does! They are not so much interested in making sure poor people can call them for free to provide theories on the crime as they are in getting the phone number of the people who choose to call for whatever reason. Be extremely careful of calling those 800 numbers given to 'help the police' as shown on the shows like 'Unsolved Mysteries' and 'FBI Most Wanted'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Call Waiting Date: 9 Jun 1994 01:12:30 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In hal9001@panix.com (Robert A. Rosenberg) writes: > In Article <2su4jt$bel@panix.com>, andrewk@panix.com (Andrew Taeyon Kim) wrote: >> Is there a way to temporarily disable call waiting so that I wouldn't get >> disconnected in the middle of the download? > Yes - prefix your number with *70W (or *70,, or, if you have a dial phone, > 1170,,). Thus *70W1-212-787-3100. On the central offices I have used, there is quite a noticable stutter of the dial tone after I dial *70, giving the impression that one must wait until the dial tone is steady again to dial the rest of the telephone number. Contrary to this impression, however, I found I could leave out the W or the commas. This saves quite a bit of time in dialing if it works. YMMV. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes Carl, this is quite true. Any of the service codes which can be prepended to the dialing string will produce the stutter tone, such as *70 or *67 for ID blocking, etc. I've found you can dial straight through them without any pause at all. PAT] ------------------------------ From: schwartz@nynexst.com (S. H. Schwartz) Subject: Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311? Date: 8 Jun 1994 17:58:45 GMT Organization: NYNEX Science & Technology, Inc Reply-To: schwartz@nynexst.com In article 5@eecs.nwu.edu, keith.knipschild@asb.com () writes: > When I dial 311 (I live on LI.N.Y -NYNEX-) I get connected to a > TELETYPE sounding device. Does anyone know what this is? In the past > 311 would announce the telephone number you were calling from, like > 958 does. THIS RESPONSE IS NOT AN OFFICIAL MESSAGE OF THE NYNEX CORPORATION OR ANY OF ITS SUBSIDIARIES. Just covering my rear. :-) 311 is now set up by NYNEX-New York to handle TDD calls for emergency services, whether or not 911 is configured in that local area. TDD = Telecom. device for the deaf Steven H. Schwartz Network Operations Laboratory schwartz@nynexst.com NYNEX Science and Technology Center PROFS: SCHWARTZ@UNIX 400 Westchester Avenue 914-644-2960 White Plains NY 10604 ------------------------------ From: lreeves@crl.com (Les Reeves) Subject: Re: What Do I Get When Dialing 311? Date: 8 Jun 1994 17:26:23 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Dave Niebuhr (dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov) wrote: > In TELECOM Digest V14 #274 keith.knipschild@asb.com >> When I dial 311 (I live on LI.N.Y -NYNEX-) I get connected to a >> TELETYPE sounding device. Does anyone know what this is? In the past >> 311 would announce the telephone number you were calling from, like >> 958 does. > I posted an article about this not too long ago in TELECOM Digest. > 311 is used by NYNEX in its service area for hearing impaired people > to be able contact emergency services in a similar manner as normally > hearing people do by dialing 911. > The sound is a TTY device, the same one as heard when dialing a > hearing impaired person. Is this the code which the Telecommunications Relay will use nation-wide? I heard they had lobbied for a standard national access number to the relay service. FWIW, 311 has been going to something which does not answer here in Atlanta for the past two months. Les lreeves@crl.com Atlanta,GA 404.874.7806 ------------------------------ From: rkprkp@aol.com (RKPRKP) Subject: Re: Is Meridian 1 Option 11 Current? Date: 8 Jun 1994 14:56:01 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) In article , root@arc.ug.eds.com writes: Option 11 is current and there are plans in place to continue to expand and enhance the product. I would feel very comfortable recommending an Option 11 to anyone in the appropriate size range. If you have any specific questions, feel free to e-mail me. I'm with Southwestern Bell Telecom and we distribute the Northern Telecom product. One thing that may be a bit confusing is that the Option 11 has lagged the other Meridian 1 systems by 1 release level in software. For example, most Meridian 1's are at release 19, while Option 11 is at Release 18. By the end of this year that discrepancy should go away. The Option 11 is a great system. ------------------------------ From: hardiman@cbnewst.att.com Date: 8 Jun 94 20:04:00 GMT Subject: Re: Pac Bell's "ISDN Anywhere" Organization: AT&T Helpful info: PacBell runs an ISDN BBS. 510-277-1037 for pokey old modems. 510-823-4888 for speedy new BRI or SDS 56/64K access The sysop is Scott Adams and can be e-mailed at sradams@pacbell.com Please understand that the LEC sales teams, like many telco sales reps spend most of their time selling 800 type service, and that data is a small part of their bag. Hence the field training is sometimes thin. PacBell happens to be one of the better LECs wrt getting information out to the field and the customers. dee hardiman (AT&T isdn sales support for N. CA & pacific nw) ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: Bellcore CID Specifications Wanted Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 16:50:00 PDT Bellcore Customer Service 800/521-CORE in U.S. or 908/699-5800 for outside U.S. TR-TSY-000860 ISDN Calling Number ID Services (and Supplement 1). TR-NWT-000031 LSSGR CLASS Feature Deliv. Calling Number Delivery. Regards, Lynne ------------------------------ From: DeFantom@aol.com Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 20:48:53 EDT Subject: Question About FCC FTP Hello all. I seem to recall that the FCC began requiring long distance carriers to file outage reports with the FCC if the outage resulted in the blockage of over 90,000 calls. (This was in the wake of 'the' AT&T outage a couple of years ago. Remember when their CCS7 crashed?) Anyway does anyone know if these outage reports are available thru a FCC FTP? I'd appreciate any info! defantom@aol.com ------------------------------ From: DeFantom@aol.com Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 20:56:58 EDT Subject: Cisco Mail List Another question, (figured I would make use of a great resource). Has anyone ever heard of an Internet distribution list for Cisco? I saw it listed in the Internet yellow pages but I have not received any kind of response back. (This was two weeks ago.) If anyone knows please drop a note. From what I read about the list it sounds like a good one to get on to. Thanks! defantom@aol.com ------------------------------ From: szfast@chip.ucdavis.edu Subject: Help - Telecommuting Information Needed Organization: University of California, Davis Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 02:36:36 GMT Hi everyone - I'm trying to put together a proposal for work to convince the boss to let a few of us telecommute. I'm looking for information to present which shows telecommuting in a positive light. Can anyone recommend some good sources, either on the net or magazine articles/books/organi- zations where I might find this type of information? Thanks in advance! ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (puma) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Re: Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' Date: Thu, 09 Jun 1994 10:00:00 GMT > is a common term for the situation which arises when > a terminarwl user spills their coffee or coke into the ventilating slits > on top of the terminal casing. In such an instance, there is usually > a large "ssssspppppppphhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiittttttzzzzzzzing" sound And TELECOM Digest Editor partially noted in respose: > Yes, remember to always keep beverages out of reach. Trouble is most > of us have to learn the hard way; I know I did. PAT] Folks are always spilling drinks into keyboards here. Some can't be disassembled or are designed in such a way that they never work again. The funniest story I have was when a professor spilled a cup of coffee into the vents of the lower portion of a WYSE computer terminal, where the circuit board is located. He then proceeded to try and dry it out (without cleaning it first) with a heat gun, and melted the plastic case down on top of the circuit card. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #279 ******************************