TELECOM Digest Tue, 21 Feb 95 17:05:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 113 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "New Riders' Official Internet Yellow Pages" (Rob Slade) Help Needed With Modems for Telephony API (John Michael Okeefe) NYNEX and PIN's (Doug Fields) Information Wanted About Tone Decoder SC11270 Chip (S. Ramanan) Cubix Remote Access Server (Daryl Morey) Peculiar Callbacks Received (Philip D. Martin) MPR Teltech Ltd Announces Home Page (Ross Parker) Source Inc. Opens Telephony WWW Site (Todd Bruning) Bell Atlantic Asks: How About Us as a LD Service? (Charles McGuinness) Using a Laptop Modem With ATT Public Phones (Thomas Hinders) NYNEX Pay Phones and the '#' Key (Thomas Hinders) Internet Conference Call Tonight (Mark Kelly) Re: MCI Bureaucratic Blunder (Richard Wildman) Humor at the FCC (was Re: How to Revive Nicad Batteries) (B.Z. Lederman) FLeetwood Exchange in Seattle Area (Carl Moore) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 13:54:27 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "New Riders' Official Internet Yellow Pages" BKNRYLPG.RVW 950118 "New Riders' Official Internet Yellow Pages", Maxwell/Grycz, 1994, 1-56205-408- 2, U$29.99/C$39.99/UK#27.49 %A Christine Maxwell %A Czeslaw Jan Grycz %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1994 %G 1-56205-408-2 %I New Riders Publishing/MacMillan Computer Publishing (MCP) %O U$29.99/C$39.99/UK#27.49 75141.2102@compuserve.com mckinley@mckinley.com %P 802 %T "New Riders' Official Internet Yellow Pages" Will the real "Yellow Pages" please stand up? Is it this one? Hahn and Stout's original "Internet Yellow Pages" (cf. BKYELPAG.RVW)? NIS (Network Information Services, the "yp" programs)? I suppose it doesn't matter: we'll see all manner of "yellow pages" over time. This outfit, the McKinley Group, is certainly serious about the task. All entries have a standard format with title, rating (zero to four STARs -- yes, they made an acronym of it), brief description, keywords, audience, and user information, ending with a URL (Universal Resource Locator) listing. Once you get used to it, this is a very quick overview containing almost everything you need. For old hands at the Internet, this is a very handy resource. For newcomers, it might be a bit terse. There are seven "chapters" of introductory material. These total a lot less than thirty pages, and are very hard to follow, as they are interspersed with directory entries. The differences between mailing list programs are downplayed and the explanation of URLs fails at several points. (By the way, don't expect any consistency in the use of forward and back slashes in URLs here.) (In fact, don't expect all the URLs to *be* URLs.) The listings have a very heavy emphasis on mailing lists and newsgroups. ftp sites are far less common in the directory than on the net. There are a great many listings for commercial services whose only Internet connection is that you can use telnet if you have an account. (If those systems are time sensitive, telnet might not be what you want to use for access.) There are paid advertisements, in the same format as other listings. You can't have everything in an Internet directory: the net is too big and changes too fast. Having done a few dozen searches, I found that the total number of listings, and the index access, to be less useful than the Hahn/Stout work. Offsetting this, to a certain extent, is the fact that the "keywords" in each entry act as a second level of indexing. Following a keyword search is something like reading a Thompson Chain Reference Bible, but it does guide your search in directions you might not otherwise have chosen. (Ahem. Most computer viruses are *not* obtained from downloaded files. Yes, you *can* have a virus attached to a Windows document. VIRUS-L is also comp.virus. And why does the "Computer Viruses" keyword have CAD sites in it?) The standard format and keyword linking are good features and promise well for future editions. The introduction, listings, index and proofing need work. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKNRYLPG.RVW 950118. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. 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: jmokeefe@nachos.engr.ucdavis.edu (John Michael Okeefe) Subject: Help Needed With Modems for Telephony API Date: 21 Feb 1995 20:42:58 GMT Organization: College of Engineering - University of California - Davis I'm looking for a voice/data/fax modem that supports Microsoft's telephony API (TAPI). If you know of a modem that supports TAPI or voice/data communication could you please E-Mail me with the name of the modem and the manufacturers phone number? Thanks, John O'Keefe University of California, Davis Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Biomechanics and Sports Lab E-Mail: JMOKEEFE@ENGR.UCDAVIS.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 14:27:36 -0500 From: Doug Fields Subject: NYNEX and PINs Some interesting information: Having recently signed up with NYNEX when they offered their free- weekend airtime offer, I was assigned a pin I have to dial after my phone number; I'm sure all telecom readers know this already. However, last night while driving back to the city from New Haven, in SNET Cellular territory, I passed an accident on I-95 which had just happened not ten seconds before, on the northbound side, near exit 17. Seeing nobody on the scene I called it in to 911. Dial 911, hit send, busy signal. Okay, *911, send ... it wants my PIN! This is a major safety problem. (Eventually I get through and the state police says thanks, we have troopers on the way.) I objected to being required to have a pin from the start but they will under no circumstances that I have found remove it. They did send out a flyer saying that they will not charge airtime for the time to dial the PIN, but who knows how accurate that will be. Sorry if this isn't as detailed a report as you expect of people named Doug, but I just thought you might want to tell anyone who may need your phone your PIN -- you never know when *911 may save a life. Cheers, Doug Fields, http://www.interpage.net PGP key: "finger admiral@panix.com" ------------------------------ From: udee059@kcl.ac.uk Subject: Information Wanted About Tone Decoder SC11270 Chip Date: 21 Feb 95 17:35:54 GMT Organization: King's College London Hello there, I am looking for telecom IC chip used as a tone decoder -- Tone decoder SC11270 or SC11271 manufactured by Sierra Semiconductors. Have any of you out there used this chip or heard about it? Please can you let me know where can get more info and purchase this chip? Email : udee059@bay.cc.kcl.ac.uk Thanks in advance, S. Ramanan King's College London ------------------------------ From: dmorey@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Daryl Morey) Subject: Cubix Remote Access Server Date: 21 Feb 95 15:24:18 GMT Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, US Has anyone used Cubix products? We are looking at their remote access server solution for our dial-in lines. We have pretty much picked their product but I wanted to get some comments from the field. Thank you, Daryl drmore@searle.monsanto.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 07:09:41 EDT From: Philip D Martin 45-904-368-8859 3106 Subject: Peculiar Callbacks Received Hello everyone. My name is D.J. Martin. I work for Sprint/United Telephone-Florida and am new to Internet and TELECOM Digest. I have a question that I cannot answer and have been to several sources seeking advice to no avail. If you have the time, I would like your thoughts on it. Scenario: A person pushes the play button of their answering machine and has a message "the number you have dialed cannot be completed as dialed. You must use a zero or one." This is an outgoing call message. Or they have a message of a operator asking if they can help them. Operators do not call people to assist them. Although both cases appear as an incoming message, no call was made from the location. This problem has been reported to me from all types of central offices and answering machines. I have called my home from my cellular phone, reached my answering machine and left a message. Twenty minutes later my cellular phone rang and it was my answering machine with my outgoing message. I would appreciate any ideas you have on this subject. My address is MARTINDJ@UTELFLA.COM Thanks for your time. D.J. TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Welcome to the Internet and this Digest. You might want to correct your login name and the way your messages go out to the net since they refer to you as Philip D. Martin. We've touched on this topic from time to time, and one of the most common reasons for the scenario you describe is that pranksters with three- way (or more) calling like to hook together strangers at random just to listen in amusement as the two (or more) called parties each angrily accuse the other(s) of making the calls. After all, they know *they* did not make it. They dial your answering machine, let it start its outgoing message, then quickly flash the hook, get new dial tone and dial some(one)thing else, click again, and by that time your machine is ready to start taking a message from the befuddled operator who came on the line asking if she might help, or the intercept message which announces 'your call cannot be completed as dialed'. Occassionally they dial into a conference bridge then put the bridge on hold and dial some other person so that that person (or his answering machine) get to hear several people talking at once on a call in the background they know they did not originate. The person wakes up in the middle of the night to a ringing phone, answers and hears these two other people having hot chat or whatever. Naturally his first reaction is he went into the Twilight Zone or something. Or he comes home, listens to his answering machine and hears two other people talking in a conversation of their own on his tape; they are oblivious to the whole thing. Or maybe he takes your outgoing message and plays it into the incoming message on someone else's machine. Maybe instead he takes your outgoing message and plays it to a live but unwitting listener on the other end. Everyone becomes convinced the phone system must have some major malfunction going on. I said (or more) above because some people have two line phones with three way calling on each line; they bring up a three-way call on each line then use their own conference button to connect all four of the innocent parties. Naturally at least one or two of the recipients of the calls will be ignorant (I mean ignorant!) and that adds to the 'fun' of it all ... As to your own answering machine taking a message then 'calling your cell phone twenty minutes later to play your outgoing message' my assumption is that its not supposed to work that way; i.e. your answering machine is not a real fancy one that makes outcalls. Therefore it might behoove you to stop and think for a few minutes and try to identify a person in your life who has all these traits in common: (a) they know your home phone number; (b) they know your cellular number; (c) they have three- way calling; and (d) they like to play pranks with the telephone. I am also assuming in the middle of this no one spoke up and said 'oh sorry, hold on, the answering machine started" or anything like that. In other words it was not a 'legitimate' call from someone at your home who accidentally bumped the play button on the machine while they were dialing your cell phone or whatever. I got one of those calls once. I looked at my Caller-ID box in the middle of being harangued for waking someone up at 2 in the morning ... I asked them, is your number xxx-xxxx? No, they said it was not. I hung up and then dialed the number on the display. I had to let it ring a good thirty or forty times but was prepared to just leave my phone off hook the rest of the night and let it ring all night if that was needed. Presently someone answers; a real innocent, questioning 'hello?' ... Too innocent and too questioning; too naive ... he sounded to me like a young phreak in about the 7th grade or so. "We like to play games with our phone at night do we?" ... "What do you mean?" ... "Tomorrow I am going to look up the address which goes with this phone number then call your parents and talk to them ..." "Oh, don't do that ..." Well, that was the clue right there. There can be other reasons for the scenario you describe but they are rare, and outrageously boring to sit here and describe. Try and eliminate phreaking by (chronological or mental) children before investigating further. PAT] ------------------------------ From: parker@mprgate.mpr.ca (Ross Parker) Subject: MPR Teltech Ltd Announces Home Page Reply-To: www@mpr.ca Organization: MPR Teltech Ltd. Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 05:06:25 GMT MPR Teltech Ltd. is pleased to announce the availability of it's new home page. MPR Teltech is a high-tech company that provides advanced telecommunications systems and products. Incorporated in 1979, it is owned by BC TELECOM and serves an international portfolio of customers. The company employs more than 600 people at six locations in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. MPR's home page includes an overview of the company, a description of its products and services, an MPR news category, and employment opportunities. The location of the MPR Teltech home page is: For more information on MPR Teltech's WWW home page, products and services, contact MPR Teltech customer inquiries, 8999 Nelson Way, Burnaby, B.C. V5A 4B5. North America: 1 800 555-7700, International: 604 473-5888. email: info@mpr.ca (If you run into any problems accessing our home page, please email our webmaster at 'www@mpr.ca' - thanks!) ------------------------------ From: source@unicomp.net (Todd Bruning / Kelly Jones) úÿ Subject: Source Inc Opens Telephony WWW Site Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 12:25:30 Organization: UniComp Technologies International Corp -- Internet Service Source, Inc., headquartered in Dallas, TX is the leading independent provider for current and evolving business applications of computer and telephony integration. Founded in 1971, Source supplies technology-neutral product support, repair and consulting for all major manufacturers equipment. Through its unique information management system, Source provides an objective resource for more than 8000 customers. The Source Home Page gives complete information on products and services as well as information on current industry issues. Current issues discussed include effects of the recent changes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), T1 implementations, and what to look (out) for when choosing a vendor to repair telecom equipment. Upcoming information will include such topics as ISDN, PBX topis, digital switches, and others. Source, Inc., Telecom Sales and Support - 214.450.2700 Visit our home page for telecom gear and technical information, http://sourcetele.com/sourcetele, E-mail to source@unicomp.net ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 23:34:39 -0500 From: marks!charles@jyacc.jyacc.com (Charles McGuinness) Subject: Bell Atlantic Asks: How About Us as a LD Service? Yesterday, around dinner time (ain't it always that way), I got an interesting call. It was a market research call (you know, let's play 100 questions). This one was (clearly) Bell Atlantic trying to figure out how to get into the long distance market (surprise, surprise!). The questions focused on two main areas: (1) Trying to expand their 10NJB business I live in Hoboken, NJ, which is right across the Hudson from New York City. Because of an exception in the MFJ, Bell Atlantic is currently allowed to provide LD service into NYC, which you access by the carrier code 10NJB. They wanted to know if I knew of it, how I heard of it, etc. Then they asked if I'd consider making them my default carrier. (No) They then went through various proposals for pricing and packaging plans for calling into NYC. None were particularly good (I had a hard time stiffling a laugh when he suggested a $.15/minute rate all the time). Other plans were a fixed fee for a fixed number of hours. Somehow, a fixed fee for unlimited hours wasn't on the list. The only thing unusual was interest in whether I have a home computer and how much "work at home" I do. I guess those ISDN trials will be underway soonest. (2) Testing the waters for full LD service They asked me some questions that were clearly oriented towards scoping out the full interlata LD market. Nothing exceptional here. What would make me switch (price). How much of a percentage discount would it take to make you switch (percentage of what, I asked -- no answer). I can only hope that their offering is better put together than their survey ;-) Charles McGuinness [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ameritech now has a survey company they use to call everyone who called Repair Service within the previous week. They start out by asking questions about your opinion of Repair Service (how fast were you answered, how quickly were repairs done, etc) but soon enough they get into questions about Ameritech as a long distance carrier, and how would you like that? The repair questions are positively phony; its the LD stuff they want to talk about, but its like they are trying to be cool and very casual about it. Their final question was, 'are you aware that Ameritech and AT&T are two separate companies?'. I thought for a minute trying to thing of a good answer to that and finally I said, "No! Really? When did that happen?". PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 21 Feb 1995 11:12:21 EDT Reply-To: THINDER@SOFTSW.SSW.COM From: Hinders, Thomas Subject: Using a Laptop Modem With ATT Public Phones The instructions for using the Data Port on the ATT Public phones are confusing (dialing the line waiting for the modem to answer). Why can't you dial-through? Thanks in advance ... reply directly and I'll summarize and re-post. Tom Hinders thinder@ssw.com Lotus Dev ------------------------------ Date: 21 Feb 1995 11:12:21 EDT Reply-To: THINDER@SOFTSW.SSW.COM From: Hinders, Thomas Subject: NYNEX Pay Phones and the '#' Key When I am in New York City, and I call back to our voice mail system using our 1-800 number, I am often cut off in mid-call. It would seem NYNEX is "sensitive" to the number of #'s pushed. Is there an explanation? I do not encounter this problem when I'm in DC or Atlanta ... only NYC. Thanks in advance ... reply directly, I'll summerize and re-post. Tom Hinders thinder@ssw.com SE Lotus Dev ------------------------------ From: mkelly@gabriel.resudox.net (Mark Kelly) Subject: Internet Conference Call Date: 21 Feb 1995 20:39:07 GMT Organization: Resudox Online Services [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am sorry to report this message reached me only yesterday! It was stuck in a queue somewhere. Better late than never I guess ... maybe some of you will participate. PAT] The following may be of interest to some members of this newsgroup or alternatively, to people you know who aren't very familiar with the Internet. February 21/95 at 8:00 pm EST, Advanced Multi-Point Conferencing (AMC) and Resudox Online Services are jointly hosting an Internet Information Teleconference. Participation is free although if you are outside of the 613 area code, long distance charges will apply. The call will last about one hour and will cover basic Internet topics like: the history, networking, tools, application, etc. A question and answer session will be held at key points to answer any questions that may arise. Space is limited so if you are interested, please register by calling 1-800-900-4249 or sending me an e-mail. Please enclose your fax number or e-mail address so we can get some 'follow-along' info out to you. mkelly@resudox.net Mark Kelly | Serving the North American Advanced Multi-Point Conferencing | Conference Call Market 320 March Road, Suite 102 | with Kanata, Ontario | CLEAR DIGITAL SERVICE K2L 1Z8 | 1-800-900-4249 (Reservations) | Operator Dial-Out,Meet-Me 1-613-592-5752 | and 1-800 Meet-Me ------------------------------ From: rich@hpfcla.fc.hp.com (Richard Wildman) Subject: Re: MCI Bureaucratic Blunder Date: 21 Feb 1995 16:15:56 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard Fort Collins Site Thought I would update this. After my original posting I received about 14 responses, most of which had similar horror stories to tell about MCI billing problems. As I mentioned previously, the bill was paid in full by credit card in January. This week (of 2/5), we had a phone call from MCI where we were told we had not paid our bill -- I interrupted and told the woman, "Yes, we had, by credit card." "We already have the credit card billing with the MCI payment on it" -- the exact amount she was saying we still owed! She hesitated a moment, and then said, oh yes, I see it now! Makes one wonder just how complicated a form she is looking at, and what is wrong with their programmers if such a field is not checked before the bill is flagged as not paid! In addition, on Feb. 9, we received notice in the mail warning us that our bill would go to a collection agency if we did not pay. [This is the second mail from MCI in the past week -- we did receive a listing of calls made, though it did not appear to be a bill -- my guess is that this resulted from an emailing to an MCI employee whose address I pulled off of a news group, and who faxed the original posting to MCI's Consumer Executive Customer Relations (Residential).] In any case, my wife called this time. She got ahold of a woman and explained the situation to her. But no, the woman said, her records did not show we had paid. She, in turn, called another office, who then told her, yes, we had paid! The woman assured my wife that the problem would be cleared up. We are not holding our breath. The MCI nightmare continueth. RW [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So what is the latest update now on this, a couple weeks later? By the way, *who are you*? Your name is very familiar to me for some reason. PAT] ------------------------------ From: B. Z. Lederman Subject: Humor at the FCC (was: Re: How to Revive Nicad Batteries) Date: 21 Feb 95 17:52:04 EST Reply-To: Lederman@intransit_tsc.vntsc.dot.gov Organization: INTRANSIT (VNTSC) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You know, BZ, I wish I'd had someone like > you around a number of years ago to remind me about 'standard precautions' Many years before this, when I took my first FCC licence exam (I think it was a Ham license, not my Radio Telephone License), there was one question about the best way to protect people from high voltage power supplies. Like all exams it was multiple choice. There was one answer about bleeders and interlock switches on the access door which was the answer they were looking for at the time, a couple of answers which were close, and one all-time great answer: "Buy double indemnity life insurance." At least there was a time when SOMEBODY in the government had a sense of humor. P.S.: I refuse to say exactly how long ago this was. But in case anyone thinks I'm really old, when I got my first Radio Telephone license I went around looking for a summer job in various TV repair shops and met one owner who had his first Radio Telephone license on the wall. It was signed by Herbert Hoover, when he was still Secretary of (I think) Commerce, before he was President. B. Z. Lederman. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Hoover was in charge of the Federal Radio Commission I believe (forerunner of FCC). PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Feb 95 15:44:22 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: FLeetwood Exchange in Seattle Area In notes for the Time-Life music collection (1959 Hit Parade) it says: "Originally called Two Girls and a Guy, the groop changed its name [to The Fleetwoods] at the suggestion of a Seattle record distributor, who took it from his telephone exchange." ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #113 ******************************