DP Tool Club 15/CD_ASCQ_15_070894.iso/vrac/tc14_228.zip/TC14-228.TXT

Text File | 1994-05-18 | 28KB | 658 lines

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 15 May 94 20:31:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 228

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: San Carlos Joins Internet (Andrew Laurence)
    Re: San Carlos Joins Internet (Paul Robinson)
    Re: San Carlos Joins Internet (Steve Cogorno)
    Re: Need Criteria for Choosing a Phone Number (Anton Sherwood)
    Re: Need Criteria for Choosing a Phone Number ([e-mail])
    Re: Radio Frequency Interference on Residential Telephone Line (Bill
Tighe)
    Re: Wireless Data Services (Rob Lockhart)
    Re: Used Telco/Test Equipment Suppliers? (John Lundgren)
    Re: Verifone Programming Manuals (Glenn McComb)
    Verifone Junior Programmed! (Ry Jones)
    Re: Radio by Phone (Paul Robinson)
    Re: Replace POST-MAIL by FAX (Herb Effron)
    Re: Cellular Call Forwarding (James Holland)
    Re: Caller-ID Gets Me Jealous (David Hayes)
    Re: Annoying Delays: LD Customer Service (Jonathan Loo)

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'.

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The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick
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                     Skokie, IL USA   60076
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*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the              *
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* ing views of the ITU.                                                 *
*************************************************************************

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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: [e-mail] (Andrew Laurence)
Subject: Re: San Carlos Joins Internet
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Sat, 14 May 1994 19:43:08 GMT


[e-mail] writes:

>> Anyone who has access to the Internet ...  can reach City Hall by
>> addressing their message to [e-mail].

> Why are they in the Commercial domain, and not the Government domain?

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Because, as I understand it, '.gov' only
> applies to the *federal* government. I don't think it was ever defined
> for local or state government use.   PAT]

Wrong! It's because the entire city appears to be using an individual
account at CRL, a well-known public access provider in the San Francisco
Bay Area.


Andrew Laurence            Oakland, California USA
[e-mail]  Pacific Daylight Time (GMT-7)

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 14 May 1994 23:25:51 EDT
From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: San Carlos Joins Internet
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA


>> Anyone who has access to the Internet ...  can reach City Hall by
>> addressing their message to [e-mail].

> Why are they in the Commercial domain, and not the Government domain?

Probably because they obtained a mailbox on that system.  The FCC has
a mailbox at [e-mail] the same
way.

CRL.COM is listed as a domain server and as a site, so they can probably
handle domain service in the future.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Because, as I understand it, '.gov'
> only applies to the *federal* government. I don't think it was ever
> defined for local or state government use.   PAT]

Doing a lookup on the Internic database, I think the following would
disagree with you:

Hawaii State Government (HAWAII2-DOM)      Domain Name: HAWAII.GOV
Iowa State Government, Department of Public Safety (IA-DOM1)
                                           Domain Name: IA.GOV
Maryland State Government (MD-DOM)         Domain Name: MD.GOV
North Carolina State Government (NC-DOM)   Domain Name: NC.GOV
Ohio Data Network (OHIO-DOM)               Domain Name: OHIO.GOV


Paul Robinson - [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Steve Cogorno)
Subject: Re: San Carlos Joins Internet
Date: Sat, 14 May 1994 22:36:36 PDT


>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Because, as I understand it, '.gov' only
>> applies to the *federal* government. I don't think it was ever defined
>> for local or state government use.   PAT]

> I obtained a copy of all US sites that have an Internet connection
> from Internic via the whois command (whois -h rs.internic.net "domain
> *") on my Sun workstation (other systems may vary) and it listed
> federal, state and local governmental entites as '.gov'

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for the clarification and
> correction. I guess I've no idea why they are in .com then.  PAT]

Look at the account name again: [e-mail].

The reason is that they have ONE account on a dial-up host.  The
company is CRL, which is based in San Francisco.  I think that there
use of "joins the internet" is a little misleading when they really
only have one accout.


Steve   [e-mail]
#608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Anton Sherwood)
Subject: Re: Need Criteria for Choosing a Phone Number
Organization: Crackpots for a Better Tomorrow
Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 20:09:57 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, Hugh Pritchard <0006348214@
mcimail.com> wrote:

> ... be warned that repeating digits increase the chances of people
> dialing your number by accident.  Some people tend to double a digit
> by mistake when they're dialing.  The doubled digit may make the
> dialed number into YOUR number.  I have a phone number of the form
> -xxyz.  People trying to dial -xyzt sometimes, "mysteriously," find
> they've dialed me instead.

I haven't had much trouble with that -- except when my number was
5333, I got a lot of calls for a furniture store at 5533.


Anton Sherwood   *\\*   [phone]   *\\*   [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Many years ago a friend of mine had
an almost identical situation. His number was 2588, and the bus terminal
was 2558. No matter what the hour, day or night, his phone would get
calls from people wanting to know what time the bus was coming through
town, etc.  He finally gave up and got his number changed.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Lord of Love!)
Subject: Re: Need Criteria for Choosing a Phone Number
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 20:16:15 GMT


The solution is simple ...

First of all: CallerID isn't gonna be offered in California for some
time to come! So put that fear (if you ever had one) to rest.

Second: When I choose my new phone number I picked 310-XXX-7777. It's
very easy to remember and will cause you no trouble at all! People
just keep it in their minds VERY easily. Trust me.

Third: Don't call Pac Bell and ask if the number is free! Check for
yourself!  When I called for my number they told me it was unavailable
 ... when I checked my requests it was not in use ... don't rely on their
help.  Once you get the number ... it's yours to enjoy and believe me ...
people will rarely forget it.


[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Just because a number is not in service
does not mean it is available. The old owner may have it on temporary
suspension, or he may have paid to have an intercept there to refer it
elsewhere for a few months. Also, a number not in service may in fact be
reserved for some other customer who also requested it.   PAT]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Bill Tighe)
Subject: Re: Radio Frequency Interference on Residential Telephone Line
Date: 15 May 94 14:44:18 GMT


[e-mail] (Michael D. Sullivan @ Express Access Online
Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA) once wrote....

> [e-mail] (Paul N. Bates) writes:

>> In article <[e-mail]>,  <[e-mail]> wrote:

>>> My home is wired for two residential telephone lines.  Because of my
>>> proximity to an am radio transmitter (am 1550khz), many of my audio
>>> and telephone devices suffer from "radio noise", from that one station
>>> only though.  Some days it is worse than others, some days there is no
>>> interference at all.

> This is apparently an increasingly common occurrence, prompting the
> FCC to issue an information sheet that lists two phones that have
> tested as being highly resistant to RF interference.  I don't have the
> info at hand, but it might be available on ftp.fcc.gov.

At K-Mart yesterday I saw an in line RF filter for telephones. It was
a small plastic box with RJ-11 connectors on two ends and a short
RJ-11 extension cable.  The price was $8.95 and it was in an AT&T
bubble pack.  This might solve your problem.


Bill Tighe             Email:  [e-mail]
Phone:  [phone]   FAX:    [phone]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (RLockhart)
Subject: Re: Wireless Data Services
Date: 15 May 1994 12:08:05 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Pete
Farmer) writes:

> I've noticed that there's been very little posted to this list
> regarding wireless *data* services.  Anyone know why?  There are some
> very interesting developments in the wireless arena, both for short,
> bursty text messaging (a la RAM or Ardis) and for higher bandwidth, IP
> connectivity within metropolitan areas.

Certainly the most successful (read 'profitable' <grin>) of the
'short, bursty text messaging' services, alpha paging, gets some
coverage here as do the CDPD and circuit-switched cellular data links
in the Wireless Data Food Chain, but you're right in that there's not
a lot on the packet data services (e.g., ARDIS, RAM, generic DataTAC,
upcoming NexTel and the rest of the SMRs (pronounced SMuR like in
those little blue guys that used to be on Saturday morning cartoon
television :))) and eSMRs).  Some of these other links in the Wireless
Data Food Chain are covered in various places like comp.std.wireless
or comp.protocols.misc or ... but none seem to cover the overall
breadth of TELECOM Digest (or get the coverage on the commercial
services that Pat does).

Just out of curiousity, what does 'Tetherless Access Ltd.' do?  (If
that's an inappropriate question, Pat, my apologies.)


Rob Lockhart, Resource Manager, Interactive Data Systems
Paging Products Group, Motorola, Inc.
Desktop I'net:  [e-mail]
Wireless I'net (<32K characters):  [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (John Lundgren)
Subject: Re: Used Telco/Test Equipment Suppliers?
Date: 14 May 94 16:08:13 GMT
Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network


Eric Pearce ([e-mail]) wrote:

> Are there dealers for used telco and test equipment in the Bay Area
> (or by mail order catalog)?

> I'm looking for stuff like test sets, digit grabbers, T-BERDs, etc.

Check out the latest Nuts & Volts magazine.  They have tons of ads for
used test equipment and much of them are from the Bay Area and Silicon
Gulch.

Also, the trade rags such as Communications Week, Data Comm, Network
World, etc.  You might call the local electronics stores, since they
may have surplus equip, but they probably have copies of N & V
available, too.

Best of success.


John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs
Rancho Santiago Community College District
17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706
VOI (714) JOHN GAB \ FAX (714) JOHN FRY
[e-mail] \ [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Glenn McComb)
Subject: Re: Verifone Programming Manuals
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 06:49:31 GMT


Ry Jones ([e-mail]) wrote:

> With all this talk about Verifones, I am reminded that I have one (a
> Verifone Junior, tan model, green LED screen) with no manual. I bought
> it at a Tru Value going out of business sale; they didn't have the
> manual, or password, or anything. I called Verifone in Hawaii, and
> never got a response (and that was not a cheap call!).

I would be willing to sell you my verifone programming manuals.  Email
or call for details.  Make an offer, pay by check or credit card.



Glenn McComb  [phone]  McComb Research
Fax           [phone]  10440 Mann Drive
Internet      gm @ mccomb.com  PO Box 220
Compuserve    >MHS:gm@mccomb   Cupertino, CA 95015

------------------------------

From: Ry Jones <[e-mail]>
Subject: Verifone Junior Programmed!
Date: Sun, 15 May 94 14:53:57 PDT


Many thanks to the person who sent me the Verifone Junior default
password!

For my version, 2.05, the code "166816" was indeed the password.

I am posting this to the list for posterity. If anyone ever needs this
code again, it will be in a well-known place.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 14 May 1994 23:00:01 EDT
From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Radio by Phone
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA


"Gregory P. Monti" <[e-mail]>, writes:

> An FM radio newsletter {FMedia!} notes that a Dallas firm, Media
> Technology, is offering a service called Media Dialup.  Subscribers
> can monitor live radio using touch tone commands....  As a sampler,
> the firm allows you to listen to Dallas radio stations using
> touch tone commands on 214 330-8821.  For FM, press 1.  For
> AM, press 2.  To scan to the next lower station, press 4.
> Next higher station, press 6.  Ordinary toll charges apply.

> I guess the market for this service is program directors and
> consultants who want to hear what the big-market boys are doing.

Or it could be used to allow people to dial up a system that provides
announcements and listen to several different ones, or provide for
announcements in foreign languages.  If they can design a touch-tone
programmed radio, they can do it for tape recorders and other things.

Some examples would be offering conference call audio to multiple
callers without their being heard by the participants.  Another would
be to allow someone to set up a series of "feeds" for various events
and let other stations call up a number and tap into them, live as
opposed to needing a specialized downlink.  For a telephone connection
the sound was adequate, about what you usually expect for radio piped
over the telephone, e.g.  some of the information is clipped in a
noticable way.  Adequate for speech broadcasts, not so good for music.


Paul Robinson - [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Herb Effron)
Subject: Re: Replace POST-MAIL by FAX
Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 08:22:37 +0800
Organization: Seagopher


I have never had a fax machine. Instead, I use a 14.4 fax modem (which is
always set to receive) to handle almost all my correspondence today. I also
use e-mail of course.

BTW I'm a 28-year user of computers. That's 'years'! not 'years old'. ;-)

After the first two years of using a fax modem ('upgraded' myself from
my old 1200 baud modem), I was prompted from my experience with it to
make two major changes in the way I carry out routine business.

New way #1:

I now send a "Quick Fax" -- when I want to ask a brief question or
send someone an item. This avoids obligatory 'socialization' time when
calling someone by phone. By faxing a note, the recipient's answering
machine is not cluttered up with junk, provides a pre-prepared note
which frees the receipient from having to write down the message, its
phone number, when I called, etc. -- and then remembering where she
put the note.

If the recipient uses a fax modem also, then there's no paper to lose
either. Some of my colleagues tell me this is good for the environment
and they we should ask for a tax credit. :-)

The time it took for the 'comfort level to move from my brain to my
'gut' (having it feel 'natural') was about three weeks.

New way #2:

I now send _only_ fax correspondence (in place of 'paper') whenever
possible. This includes all of my business correspondence on letterhead
w/logos from two companies. A Mactintosh computer make this very easy
to do. The letter that's received is 'visually clean', i.e. it has no
streaks, spots, etc.

The time it took for the 'comfort level to move from my brain to my
'gut' (having it feel 'natural') was much longer in this case. About
two months.

I think it was the absence of a conventional 'signature' that was most
difficult for me to accept. At first I 'pasted' in my signature from a
scan. Now, I just put:


/s/ Herb Effron

and no one has yet complained.

BTW ... visit Seattle USA on the Internet. You can get there by gophering
to:
   gopher.seattle.wa.us

or just look for us in Washington State or under "S" in the gopher
directories.


Herb Effron

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Mr. James Holland)
Subject: Re: Cellular Call Forwarding
Date: 15 May 1994 16:56:01 GMT
Organization: Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark W. Earle)
writes:

> I'm in the process of closing out my cellular account with Southwestern
> Bell Mobile Systems of Corpus Christi, TX.  In the last bill was an
> insert sheet (yellow) indicating that starting with the July bill,
> calls forwarded would incur full airtime for the duration of each
> forwarded call. Presumably, the set up "star" code call to activate
> and deactivate forwarding will now cost a minute also.

> This is a significant change -- previously, there was no call to set
> up the forwarding (or turn it off) and no charge for the forwarded
> calls. Many folks used this as a super local area extender ... forward
> your phone, dial your cell phone number, and talk free for a long time
> to an area that was a LD/Toll call from the regular phone.

I have Cellular One service here in middle Tennessee. They offer a
service called "Super System" which basically makes the whole state a
local call.  I combine this with free weekends (for $10 extra/month)
and call-forwarding ($2 extra/month) [Super System is $15] and I have
the entire state as a local call. I use it extensively for modem
communications as well as voice.  This state is fairly large and both
area codes (615 and 901) are local to me (on the weekends). Also, I
can call FROM any area in the state that has Cellular One coverage. I
can use it from Memphis to call to Nashville and it either costs me my
regular local airtime rate or it's free on the weekend.

Call forwarding used to be free here also, but they changed that after
businesses started abusing it. They could forward to their business
number and get a much larger 'free' dialing area.

Are there other states/systems with something similar to Super System?
I'm curious ...


James Holland   [e-mail]

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (David Hayes)
Subject: Re: Caller ID Gets Me Jealous
Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 14:39:09 -0600
Organization: ISIS, Inc.


In article <[e-mail]>, Joseph Romero <1jcr7732@
ibm.mtsac.edu> wrote:

> I hear of caller ID and I get jealous ... it is not offered here in
> Los Angles, CA.  However, we do offer the services of call return and
> call block.

Pac-Tell proposed Caller ID to the California Public Utilities Commission.
The Commission said "Yes, provided ..."

The "provided" is the crux of the problem. Some people do not like the
idea that every business they call will be able to build a telemarketing
list from the calls of the general public. Some people value privacy,
and buy unlisted phone numbers. Thus, Caller ID has technical answers
to this problem. The answers are called "blocking".

There are two kinds of Caller ID blocking. "Per-call blocking" is
activated when the caller dials a special prefix, *67, before a phone
call. If the telephone subscriber wishes to block all their calls,
they must dial *67 before every call they make.

The other type of blocking is "per-line blocking". Under this system,
the caller's phone number is blocked for all calls placed from that
phone. If the caller wants to, they may unblock a specific call by
dialing *67 before that call.

So the difference between these two is that the default with per-call
blocking is "Block when I tell you to," while per-line blocking says
"Block unless I tell you not to."

These two types of blocking can coexist. Some phones can have per-line
blocking, and others per-call blocking. The California PUC told
Pac-Bell that they could sell Caller ID if:

  1. They notified all subscribers that Caller ID and the two blocking
     services were available;

  2. They provided an opportunity for subscribers to select which type
     of blocking they wanted on their phone;

  3. If a subscriber with an unlisted phone number did not take action
     to select a particular blocking option, their phone would have
     per-line blocking.

So Pac-Tell does have permission to offer Caller ID. This service is
not available in your area because Pac-Tell chooses not to offer it,
not because the government prohibits it.

This same sort of thing has happened in other states, as well. The
phone companies have been extremely reluctant to offer Caller ID in
states where the public utilities commissions have required per-line
blocking.  Personally, I believe that the phone companies are afraid
that so many people would select per-line blocking (rather than
per-call) that no one would want to pay for Caller ID service.


David Hayes             PGP public key available on request, or send
[e-mail]  mail subject: help to [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 14:44:44 -0400
From: Jonathan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Annoying Delays: LD Customer Service


I agree that delays when calling the telephone company or anybody else
are troublesome.  In particular, the telephone company should answer
calls to repair service and the operator quickly, because many of
these calls are quite urgent: some people call 0 for emergencies, and
611 resembles 911, and the telephone company even recognizes that a
few calls to 411 are about life-threatening emergencies.  The repair
service at C&P Telephone, a Bell Atlantic Company (now simply Bell
Atlantic) was a bad culprit; not only was the wait sometimes in excess
of 5 minutes, but the initial recording when calling Maryland 611
failed to identify itself as Repair and not 911.  The automated system
that C&P/Bell Atlantic uses is not the best way to handle this.  C&P
has since hired more representatives, and Bell Atlantic (formerly C&P)
is now routing more calls to the smaller, but less busy, Washington,
D. C. office.

There are several ways to further improve the situation: allow both
the Maryland and D.C. repair offices to accept Maryland trouble
reports but continue to send calls from the Maryland suburbs to the D.
C. office, for example.  If there is more room available in the D. C.
office then they could even expand the D. C.  office, answer more
calls there, and allow users to dial the repair number with an area
code to choose an office.  Automatic routing to the least busy office
is not recommended, because if the system fails then it could be a
serious problem.


On a different topic, TELECOM Digest Editor noted:

What is really annoying though is when they leave their desk (at any
time of day or night) and *forget to unplug their headset* from their
work station. The Automatic Call Distributor which tosses incoming
calls out to the reps uses a plugged in headset as its basis for
thinking a position is occupied and a person there is willing to take
calls. Normally the rep sits there and a 'click' in their headset
followed by hearing a person breathing on the other end tells them a
call has been given to them. If no headset is plugged in, the ACD
bypasses that position and moves to another idle one. So if you ever
call, wait on hold awhile and get 'answered', only to sit there and
hear talking in the background but no one actually talking to you then
you'll know what happened -- a headset is laying on the desk plugged
in while its owner has gone out to the bathroom or for coffee or
whatever. Given the volume of traffic they get, as soon as you abandon
the call to dial in again, there'll be an immediate seizure and some
other poor devil is now on that line waiting for a rep who never will
speak to him!

I agree.  There should be a better way to handle the representatives'
leaving their desks; what happens if they remove the handset just
after a new call arrives?  I have had the experience that Pat has
described; if I wait a while then sometimes they hang up on me after I
sit there for a few minutes.  Sometimes it appears that people unplug
their handsets right after my call goes in; this may happen to the 0
operator once in a while.  (The experience that Pat describes does not
seem specific to any one company.)  Either way, it is very annoying.


Jonathan D. Loo  8147 Ellicott Hall
College Park, Maryland  20742    [phone]
(spring 1994 address good through May 16)

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #228
******************************