TELECOM Digest Thu, 23 Feb 95 13:07:00 CST Volume 15 : Issue 114 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telephone Solicitations and the FCC (Stan Brown) Gateways, Routers and Network Design (Karl Finkemeyer) FCC Raises Line Charges for ISDN (David St. Pierre) Wanted: RS232-Controlled Dialer/Phone Patch (Jeff C. Glover) UC Berkeley Short Courses on SONET/ATM and Wireless Comm (Harvey Stern) AT&T Calling Card Mixup (Robert Scott) FATMA - What Does This Term Mean / Stand For? (Harry P. Haas) OSI NetExpert Users Wanted (Chris Hardaker) Looking for Interactive Voice Response Provider (Dean Lennox) Example of MIB Needed (Bob McLaughlin) Jobs Available at MCI (Van R. Hutchinson) Herbert Hoover (was Re: Humor at the FCC (Bob Keller) Wanted: Sources for Network Reliability Statistics (Glenn Russell) Last Laugh! Burned Out Newspapercreatures (Daryl Gibson) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: brown@NCoast.ORG (Stan Brown) Subject: Telephone Solicitations and the FCC Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 23:11:34 GMT Organization: Oak Road Systems, Cleveland Ohio USA I've been having more trouble than usual lately with telemarketers, so I decided it was time to go straight to the horse's mouth and get the FCC's writeup on the U.S. Telephone Consumer Protection Act. That Act regulates telemarketing calls to residences. It requires each telemarketer to maintain a "do not call" lists and to put you on its list if you so request. Unfortunately (and rather amazingly), a telemarketer is still allowed to call you once a year without penalty _after_ you have asked to be put on its "do not call" list; however, the second call in any 12-month period entitles you to sue for $500 or actual monetary damages, whichever is greater. The FCC's document is headed PUBLIC NOTICE; it was released January 11, 1993 (yess, 1993) and there's a reference number DA 92-1715. The title is Consumer Alert: Telephone Solicitations, Autodialed and Artificial or Prerecorded Voice Message Telephone Calls, and the Use of Facsimile Machines. It's eight letter-sized pages long. The FCC head office is: 1919 M St NW, Washington DC 20554 +1 202 632-5050 I got my copy from the Detroit office: 24897 Hathaway St. Farmington Hills MI 48335-1552. +1 810 471-5605 Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems brown@Ncoast.ORG Can't find FAQ lists? ftp to 'rtfm.mit.edu' and look in /pub/usenet (or email me >>> with valid reply-to address <<< for instructions). I can also send new-user information on Usenet--ask if you want it. ------------------------------ From: karlf@acm.org Subject: Gateways, Routers and Network Design Date: Wed, 22 Feb 95 17:49:29 CDT Organization: On-Ramp; Individual Internet Connections Folks, I need some help with a gateway/router/network design issue: Situation: One WAN Ethernet which carries TCP/IP, Netware, SNA and other traffic -- plus -- an additional WAN which carries only very interactive and time-critical TCP/IP traffic. The original idea was to keep the two networks totally separate in order to guarantee good interactive response on the second WAN. Problem: For system administration, operating, control, and maintenance purposes, we do need connectivity between the two networks. Our CISCO gurus tell us that the only way to have connectivity and still keep unwanted traffic off the 2nd WAN would be to use only static routing - which would create an administrative nightmare because then apparently every router has to know every single IP address. Question: Can we use a real gateway (i.e. more $$ than a regular CISCO Router) to have connectivity between the two networks, but still ensure that only packets which have their source or destination on the second WAN get routed onto this second WAN? In other words, would a gateway be smart enough to make its routing decisions strictly on the basis of the FIRST byte of the source and destination IP addresses, without knowing all the IP addresses on both networks, i.e. without the administrative table-maintenance nightmare which static routing via CISCO Routers seems to require. Again, the goal is to keep the second WAN free of all traffic which can be routed over the standard (first) WAN. Our worst nightmare is a large file transfer or some Netware IPX/SPX transfer jeopardizing the interactive TCP/IP responsiveness on the second WAN. Which type of gateways should we be looking at? Any recommendations? Any help would be very much appreciated. Please reply to TELECOM Digest or via email to "karl.finkemeyer@fmr.com". Karl Finkemeyer Fidelity Investments karl.finkemeyer@fmr.com (also: karlf@acm.org) ------------------------------ From: david@srv.PacBell.COM (David St. Pierre) Subject: FCC Raises Line Charges for ISDN Date: 22 Feb 1995 19:59:47 GMT Organization: Pacific * Bell If you use ISDN to get into the Internet quickly and cost-effectively, suddenly it's going to cost you more. The Federal Communications Commission has ordered Pacific Bell and other ISDN providers to raise the number of required line charges for all ISDN products. For Pacific Bell customers, who have enjoyed among the lowest ISDN prices in the country, increases will range from a maximum of 29 percent for Home ISDN and Centrex ISDN, up to 43 per cent for SDS ISDN and as much as 50 percent for Primary Rate ISDN. Here's why: Until now, each ISDN line coming into your home or office was billed as one line. Now the FCC has ruled that each ISDN customer must be charged for each ISDN channel rather than each line. Pacific Bell has filed a waiver asking the FCC to restore the original one-for-one ISDN line charge. We believe ISDN must remain affordable and easy to access so that individuals, schools, libraries, researchers, and businesses of all sizes can benefit from the Internet. If you feel that the increased line charge will make ISDN less affordable for users like you, please E-mail your comments to us at fccisdn@policy.net, and we will carry your message to the FCC. To help you understand the issue, we're making available these documents via E-mail. Just E-mail to these addresses to receive them. No entries necessary for subject or message body. For Pacific Bell's news release on its FCC filing yesterday: ptnrel@policy.net For the FCC's most recent decision on ISDN subscriber line charges: fccd2@policy.net For Pacific Bell's filing on ISDN subscriber line charges: ptfil@policy.net Robert Deward, Manager, External Affairs, Pacific Telesis David St. Pierre 510/823-6800 ------------------------------ From: jeffg@loki.engr.sgi.com (Jeff C. Glover) Subject: Wanted: RS232-Controlled Dialer/Phone Patch Date: 22 Feb 1995 20:09:51 GMT Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA I'm looking for a device for a UNIX workstation, not a PC card. Basically I want something that connects to a RS232 port and an audio port (in/out). I know that some modems (Zyxel) provide CELP encoded audio via RS232, but I don't want that. Simply put, it must: * have RS232 I/O for dialing, status indications; * provide line-level audio inputs and outputs. It'd be nice if: * it could detect and report usage of the phone line extensions; * access audio of extension usage (e.g. access database while talking with someone; *99 [*WX] gives local weather report). Jeff ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Courses on SONET/ATM and Wireless Comm Date: 22 Feb 1995 22:27:09 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces 3 Short Courses on Broadband Communications, Wireless Networks MODERN TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Wide Area Networks, Personal Communication Systems, Network Management and Control, and Multimedia Applications (March 2-3, 1995) This course is designed as a gentle but comprehensive overview of telecommunications including current status and future directions. This course traces the evolution of telecommunications, starting from its voice roots and progressing through local, metropolitan, and wide area networks, narrowband ISDN, asynchronous transfer mode, broadband ISDN, satellite systems, optical communications, cellular radio, personal communication systems, all-optical networks, and multimedia services. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (March 29-31, 1995) It is widely accepted that future broadband networks will be based on the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards and the ATM (Asynchronous transfer Mode) technique. This course is an in-depth examination of the fundamental concepts and the implementation issues for development of future high-speed networks. Topics include: Broadband ISDN Transfer Protocol, high speed computer/network interface (HiPPI), ATM switch architectures, ATM network congestion/flow control, VLSI designs in SONET/ATM networks. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: H. Jonathan Chao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brooklyn Polytechnic University. Dr. Chao holds more than a dozen patents and has authored over 40 technical publications in the areas of ATM switches, high-speed computer communications, and congestion/flow control in ATM networks. NETWORKS FOR DIGITAL WIRELESS ACCESS: Cellular, Voice, Data, Packet, and Personal Communication Systems (March 6-8, 1995) This comprehensive course is focused on the principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, and market forces driving wireless access. At the core of this course are the cellular/microcellular/ frequency reuse concepts needed to enable adequate wireless access capacity for Personal Communication Services (PCS). Presented are both the physical-level issues associated with wireless access and the network-level issues arising from the inherent mobility of the subscriber. Standards are fully treated including GSM (TDMA), IS-54 (North American TDMA), IS-95 (CDMA), CT2, DCT 900/CT3, IEEE 802.11, DCS 1800, and Iridium. Emerging concepts for wireless ATM are also developed. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. For more information (complete course descriptions, outlines, instructor bios, etc.) send your postal address or fax to: Harvey Stern or Loretta Lindley U.C. Berkeley Extension/Southbay 800 El Camino Real Ste. 150 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel: (415) 323-8141 Fax: (415) 323-1438 ------------------------------ From: rbs@cs.city.ac.uk (Robert Scott) Subject: AT&T Calling Card Mixup Date: 23 Feb 1995 16:09:38 GMT Organization: School of Informatics, City University, London Reply-To: rbs@cs.city.ac.uk I'm a British citizen living in London. Recently there was an ad drive by AT&T to get people to use their calling card for calls to the US and elsewhere. Of course, I signed up for one. Now as I understand it they are free as long as you don't use them. But for some reason I noticed sums of $8.50 being charged and then credited to my account. It seems that I have been put on some Military Saver scheme which is very strange since I'm not in the US military or anything approaching it. My question is: Is there an AT&T email address that I can send a complaint to and get my card sorted out? I have a feeling that it might be easier to sort out by email rather than letters or phone calls. Rob Scott Dept of Comp Sci, City University, London, UK. http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/homes/rbs/homepage.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think the fact that they charged your account (erroneously) $8.50 then credited it (correctly) on the same or a subsequent statement demonstrates that the problem has in fact been resolved. Probably when they got your original application for service someone erroneously entered you in the military plan since AT&T does have such an arrangement for American soldiers in Europe. Later, or perhaps about the same time it was discovered this was incorrect and an adjustment was made. All the various AT&T international and domestic calling plans and calling card arrangements have numbers assigned to them. Someone at a terminal processed your application and enrolled you in (for example) 'plan #123' then they said, ooops, I meant plan #231 ... or similar. Or it went through and later a supervisor caught it. If you keep on getting marketing and promotional materials for the military plan *then* let us know, but I think you'll be okay. Honestly though, if it were me, I'd hope they did *not* discover the error. AT&T gives the soldiers a very good deal with absolutely rock-bottom pricing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hh2@prism.gatech.edu (Harry P. Haas) Subject: FATMA - What Does This Term Mean / Stand For? Date: 23 Feb 1995 09:51:10 -0500 Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology I recently ran across the acronym FATMA. If anyone is familiar with this term, could you please define it for me? Thanks in advance. Harry Haas GTRI/SEAL Georgia Tech Research Institute Research Engineer II 225 North Ave. harry.haas@gtri.gatech.edu Atlanta Georgia, 30332 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Have you checked the glossary files in the Telecom Archives just to see whether or not it might be in there? That's a good place to start looking for abbreviations and acronyms you are unfamiliar with. Anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. PAT] ------------------------------ úÿ Subject: OSI NetExpert Users Wanted From: hardaker@clear.co.nz (Chris Hardaker) Date: 23 Feb 95 08:22:55 EST Is there anyone out there who are using or planning to use the NetExpert system by Open System Integrators on a PSTN network? We at CLEAR in New Zealand are in the first stage of implementing NetExpert on a SUN Solaris platform ported to Oracle 7 and would like any contacts who are willing to swap information and experiences. For those of you who have never heard of this, this system is designed to receive messages from all manner of devices (switch, FOTS management systems, Routers, Lan analysers etc) and present the events to an operator. The system can also handle correlating events. In CLEAR's instance, we are looking at masking all subsequent alarms and only having the operator presented with the 'root cause' alarm. As you can appreciate, in the instance of losing a 2Gig fibre, this means a lot of chaff is separated from the wheat. In fact our last 565Meg fibre event resulted in over 2 Megabytes of data in a five minute period and to cull this down to one single event would save around 30 minutes of analysis. (My apologies if this sounds like advertising) Any responses to me personally, thanks. Chris Hardaker Network Management CLEAR Communications Auckland New Zealand Ph +64 9 912 4286 Fax +64 9 912 4451 Email HARDAKER@clear.co.nz ------------------------------ From: maxim@cerfnet.com (Dean Lennox) Subject: Looking for Interactive Voice Response Provider Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 13:41:28 Organization: Maxim Communications I am looking for an interactive voice response company to play back a prerecorded message about a new product to all callers. Please email, or phone. Candler Brooks 908-707-3290 maxim@cerfnet.com Dean Lennox Maxim Communications maxim@cerfnet.com ------------------------------ From: bmclaugh@imagetel.com Subject: Example of MIB Needed Date: Wed, 22 Feb 95 14:32:36 PDT I am looking for an example MIB in an electronic form. I need to craft one for 38Ghz radios. Thanks, Bob McLaughlin ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Feb 95 09:17 EST From: Van R. Hutchinson <0005493896@mcimail.com> Subject: Jobs Available at MCI Pat, Subscribers who are in a career frame of mind (translation: looking beyond current job or currently between jobs) may wish to send me an e-mail for more info. GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) _ MCI Communications Corp. has decided to add 475 workers to its residential sales center in Greenville. The move comes after the company hired 350 workers in November. MCI spokesman Matt Schwab said the success of the company's Friends and Family calling program prompted the expansion. He said the company has done most of the new hiring and will complete the task by the end of this month. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 10:30:13 EST From: Bob Keller Subject: Herbert Hoover (was Re: Humor at the FCC) In TELECOM Digest V15 #113, the TELECOM Digest Editor noted, in response to B. Z. Lederman : > Hoover was in charge of the Federal Radio Commission I believe > (forerunner of FCC). Mr. Lederman was correct that, prior to the FCC or the FRC, Hoover was Secretary of Commerce. I don't think Hoover served at the FRC. In fact, I am reasonably certain that he continued as Secretary of Commerce and was a moving force behind the legislative proposals leading to enactment of the Communications Act of 1934. The pre-1927 Commerce Department had jurisdiction over radio licensing. Hoover and his staff attempted to resolve growing interference problems from an uncooperative new broadcasting industry, by placing conditions on licenses restricting things such as frequency (or, in the parlance of the day, wavelength), hours of operation, etc. But the courts held, and the Attorney General concurred, that the Secretary's statutory authority did not go this far and that such restrictions were therefore unenforceable. It was in response to this problem that the Radio Act of 1927 was enacted, creating the Federal Radio Commission. The 1927 Act is remarkably similar to Title III of the current Communications Act. This is because the substantive regulatory portions of the Radio Act of 1927 was essentially transplanted into Title III of the Communications Act of 1934. The 1934 Act created the Federal Communications Commission and transferred to it the radio jurisdiction of the Radio Commission as well as jurisdiction over Telegraph and Telephone lines which previously resided with the Interstate Commerce Commission. Bob Keller (KY3R) Email: rjk@telcomlaw.com Law Office of Robert J. Keller, P.C. Telephone: 301.229.5208 Federal Telecommunications Law Facsimile: 301.229.6875 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good old Herbert Hoover, or as the radio announcer on WLS once accidentally referred to him on the air, "Hoobert Heever". That was, I think, in 1929 when he gave an address to the nation over the radio on WLS. Hoover was the last in a series of three Republican presidents (Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and himself) who led the United States over a twelve year period 1920-32, each of whom got just a single four year term. After the disasterous chain of events in October, 1929 which led to the Great Depression in the 1930's in the USA, people soured on the Republicans, and when Hoover ran for re-election in 1932 against Franklin D. Roosevelt he was defeated, beginning a twenty-year period of Democratic leadership which would not end until 1952 when General Eisenhower, the war hero of WW-2 was elected. I think Hoover was appointed to his position at Commerce by Warren Gamiel Harding during his term, 1920-24. Radio (or rather, broadcast radio, on AM frequencies) as we know it began in 1921. During 1922-23 a half-dozen stations were operating in Chicago alone, including WLS and WGN, both of which are widely known and listened to today. PAT] ------------------------------ From: glennr@teal.csn.org (Glenn Russell) Subject: Wanted: Sources for Network Reliability Statistics Date: 22 Feb 1995 21:24:47 GMT Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc. Hello, We are attempting to gather network reliability statistics on various IXC's, LEC's, and CAP's. Preferably this data will come from independant sources. We are interested in verification of error free seconds or outage frequency following installation. Information such as the percentage of error free seconds per 24 hour period for DS1 fiber with an interoffice route greater than 250 miles, would be helpful. And the same information for DS3 routes under 50 miles. The specific IXC's: MCI, AT&T and Allnet; LECS: US WEST, NYNEX, and PACBELL; CAP's: MFS and ICG. Does anyone know of any sources that track this type of information? Thanks in advance! Glenn Russell glennr@csn.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 08:55:04 -0700 (MST) From: Daryl Gibson Subject: Last Laugh! Burned Out Newspapercreatures Forwarded for your amusement, (with permission) from: The Burned-Out Newspapercreatures Guild's Newsletter BONG Bull, Charley Stough, Chief Copyboy Copyright (c) 1995 by BONG. All rights reserved. SURFING THE INTERNET. This week the Other Side Lives Committee found the Usenet group alt.shenanigans, devoted to merry pranks called "shens." Some of its postings also appear in alt.revenge, a group that appreciates somewhat more vitriol in its pranks. Some shens: -- When confronted by an answering machine, contributors were particularly creative. One fellow leaves messages in a normal voice, then suddenly switches to SUPERFASTSQUEAKYVOICE and then to v-e-r-y l-o-w, s-l-o-w v-o-i-c-e, leaving the machine owner with worries about his equipment. Another plays back the operator saying this number is not in service. And then there's the guy who recorded the AT&T intercept tape for callers to the Northridge, Calif. area. "Due to an earthquake in the area you are calling, your call cannot be completed at this time," and put it on his own machine; he lives in Chicago. (In that vein, Dayton Daily News cartoonist Mike Peters has been known to answer his phone with an empty coffee cup over his mouth, creating that perfect mechanical echo sound. Conversations go: "THIS IS MIKE. I CAN'T COME TO THE PHONE RIGHT NOW, BUT YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO ME. PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE AFTER THE BEEP (*beep*)." "Mike, this is Charley, it's 2:15 Tuesday, and -- " "(Still in machine mode) OH HI, CHARLEY! HOW YA DOIN'?") -- Pagers are another foil. A contributor gets even with his weenie supervisor when he knows the super isn't near a phone. He calls the super's pager, then punches in the super's boss's number. (Dayton Daily News reporters with voice pagers, waiting in lines at the bank, have been known to get loud calls saying, "YOUR LAWYER CALLED AND HE SAYS YOU SHOULD MARRY THE GIRL.") STRAWBOSS, THIS IS SNAKEYES, GIMME ARTILLERY SUPPORT. Also at the Dayton Daily News in the days before cellular phones, the company invested megabucks in a Battle-of-the-Bulge walkie-talkie system. But it couldn't bring its human resources on-line. When a reporter went to a crime scene in a very troublesome poor-white neighborhood, one of the airier brains on the city desk broadcast through the thing, "And hey, tell the guys to watch yourselves out there! I hear there's a lotta bad-ass rednecks in that neighborhood!" The reporter, standing in a crowd of now even more dangerous neighborhood residents, replied, "Tell 'em yourself! You're talking to 'em!" With that he handed the walkie-talkie to the nearest bad-ass redneck and made an escape. Never one for hidden pockets when a secret compartment would do, BONG Chief Copyboy Charley Stough, Dayton Daily News, 45 S. Ludlow St., Dayton, Ohio 45401 salutes NYTNS haulers worldwide! Phone (513) 225-2445 after 3 p.m. eastern. E-mail ae035@dayton.wright.edu. Fax 225-2489. ------------------ To subscribe: Email to LISTSERV@NETCOM.COM. In text say SUBSCRIBE BONG-L. Daryl (801)378- 2950 (801)489-6348 drg@du1.byu.edu 71171.2036@compuserve.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #114 ******************************