Phoenix Rising BBS/phoenixrising.zip/phoenixrising/tele-dig/td14-046.txt

Text File | 1994-01-27 | 26KB | 635 lines

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 27 Jan 94 10:45:00 CST    Volume 14 : Issue 46

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: New Area Code 360 in Washington State (Matt Fisher)
    Re: New Area Code 360 in Washington State (Greg Trotter)
    Re: New Area Code 360 in Washington State (Hiro Sugawara)
    Cutover Dates For New Area Codes (David Esan)
    Re: Internet ISDN Connection (Tarl Neustaedter)
    Re: Internet ISDN Connection (Patrick Installe)
    Re: Internet ISDN Connection (Patrick Wong)
    Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions (Chris Labatt-Simon)
    Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions (Al Varney)
    Re: How Does Inmarsat Work? (Pat O'Neil)
    Re: How Does Inmarsat Work? (Thomas Chen)
    Re: Truckstop Calling Cards (Matthew B. Landry)
    Re: Truckstop Calling Cards (Ray Normandeau)
    Re: Looks Like a Hacker (T. D'Amico)
    Re: Earthquake and 818 AC (Robert McMillin)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Matt Fisher)
Subject: Re: New Area Code 360 in Washington State
Date: 26 Jan 1994 20:00:25 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
Reply-To: [e-mail]


[e-mail] writes:

> So far I have seen nothing about this in the local media, so maybe you
> heard it here first.

They was a short blurb about it on the from page of the {Seattle Times}
on Jan 15.  It was not much more informative than your message.

These are the boundaries it gave:

{Seattle Times}, Associated Press "206 Code to be split"

"...Under the new plan, the 206 area will extend from Everett to Fort
Lewis.  Marysville will be in the 360 code area as will Lacey, Yelm
and Olympia.

   To the west, the 206 boundary will be the Pierce County line up
Case Inlet and a small part of southeast Kitsap County. All the rest
of Kitsap County will be in 360 except for Bainbridge Island.

                On the east, Sumner in Pierce County will be 206, but
Buckley will be in 360.  The eastern King County boundary is still
under discussion, but Issaquah and Duvall will remain in 206.  Most of
Snohomish County will be in 360."


Matt Fisher <[e-mail]>  -=- [phone]
374 McCarty Hall, GR-10, University of Washington, Seattle, WA  98195.

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

From: [e-mail] (Greg Trotter)
Subject: Re: New Area Code 360 in Washington State
Date: 26 Jan 1994 20:34:40 GMT
Organization: Home of the TimeLords...


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

> I got a notice from Bellcore confirming the rumored split of area code
> 206 in Washington State.  The new NPA is 360, and will cover all of
> the area that is currently within 206, but outside of the Seattle/Tacoma
> area.

> The split happens on 1/15/95, with permissive dialing until 7/9/95.

This is interesting. I live in an NPA (405) that uses 1 + 7D for calls
within the NPA. I've not heard any announcement on changing this here.
I suppose they'll announce something, if I'm ever to hear from my
non-local intra-LATA friends again, as my NNX is 360.


Greg Trotter   Norman, Oklahoma

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

From: [e-mail] (Hiro Sugawara)
Subject: Re: New Area Code 360 in Washington State
Organization: Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc., Los Gatos, CA
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 00:36:39 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

> I got a notice from Bellcore confirming the rumored split of area code
> 206 in Washington State.  The new NPA is 360, and will cover all of
> the area that is currently within 206, but outside of the Seattle/Tacoma
> area.  (truncated)

Just curious. I heard that all area codes have either 0 or 1 as the
second digit and so do all special numbers such as 911 and 411. Is
"360" possible?


[e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In the past, what you said was correct.
The supply of combinations in the form you suggest is now exhausted and
area codes now being issued look like almost any other three digit
number. Telcos did a lot of things in the past they no longer can afford
the luxury of doing such as never assigning the same prefix in two
adjacent area codes. They cut that out about fifteen years ago. Until
about thirty years ago, the three digit prefixes were letters of the
alphabet rather than numbers and those letters were the first three
letters of words. As the usable supply of those became in short supply
exchange names were ditched in lieu of using all numbers. Time marches
on. Who knows what our phone numbers will look like a decade from now.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (David Esan)
Subject: Cutover Dates For New Area Codes
Date: 26 Jan 94 13:14:32 GMT
Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY


I am aware that there are at present three new area codes scheduled
for 1995: 334 in Alabama, 260 in Arizona, and 360 in Washington.  I
have the cutover dates for 334 (1/8/95) and for 206 (1/15/95), and the
end of permissive calling for 360 (7/9/95).  However, I am missing the
end of permissive calling for 334 and 260, as well as the initial use
date of 260.

I also somehow missed the article that describe the Arizona split and
where it is going to take place.  Any help would be appreciated.


David Esan      [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Internet ISDN Connection
Date: 26 Jan 1994 02:15:02 GMT
Organization: Consultsrios Telefsnicos, S.A. de C.V.


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

> Does anyone know how an ISDN user (56K/64K) can access Internet?

PSI offers a service they call LAN-ISDN at $350/month. Send email to
[e-mail] for full details.


Tarl Neustaedter        [e-mail]      [work]
Ashland, MA, USA        [e-mail] [home]
Disclaimer: My employer is not responsible for my opinions

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

From: [e-mail] (Installe P.)
Subject: Re: Internet ISDN Connection
Date: 26 Jan 1994 14:12:23 GMT
Organization: Brussels Free Universities (VUB/ULB), Belgium


[e-mail] wrote:

> Does anyone know how an ISDN user (56K/64K) can access Internet? Since
> 9.6 rates are still considered fast for single user is it too soon to
> consider ISDN connections?

I try now to test such a solution.

At the first level you have to know what the single user has as for
computer. Trivial but crucial.

The least common denominator is that both parties have a terminal
adapter (TA) that acts as a modem. Quick, fast and simple, but
expensive.

If you need IP (for ftp, X, ...) it is more complicated.

Like for modems, the TA supports the passage of slip or ppp protocols,
but both computers should support that protocol. And that is the start
of the problems.  Unix boxes are generally able to support these
protocols.  PC, Mac, Atari, Amiga, ... don't directly, but some of the
networks of them support IP. So the level of interaction is much like
a router between networks.

Another level is the fact that there are "cheap" PC cards on the
market which appear now (in Europe, at least...). There are fossil,
packet driver, ndis, odi drivers for some of them, I investigate those
now but it is still quite tricky for me.

I am also interested to hear other opinions/solutions.


Patrick Installe

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 00:07:56 GMT
From: Patrick Wong <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Internet ISDN Connection


> Does anyone know how an ISDN user (56K/64K) can access Internet? Since
> 9.6 rates are still considered fast for single user is it too soon to
> consider ISDN connections?

Hello I am Patrick Wong the Product Manager at Combinet.  Combinet
offers and Single-User ISDN BRI-to-Ethernet bridge for list $990, a
Workgroup ISDN BRI-to-Ethernet bridge for list $2190 and a Switched
56-to-Ethernet bridge for list $2490.  The single-user bridge is
intented for work-at-home applications where there is a single
computer connected to the bridge on the Ethernet.  The workgroup
bridge is used for connecting remote LANs.

Combinet products are MAC-layer bridges that work with all protocols
including TCP/IP.  Contact your phone company to see if ISDN is
available in your area.  Switched 56 is another service that is
available in more areas than ISDN.  Combinet Switched 56 product is
compatible with ISDN products.

Let me know if you are interested in product literature or if you have
any questions.  I can mail you literature if you provide me with your
mailing address.


Patrick Wong     408-522-9180    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Chris Labatt-Simon)
Subject: Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions
Date: 26 Jan 1994 22:31:32 GMT
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA


[e-mail] (Dave Cherkus) writes:

> You can get this info on-line from the Combinet BBS:

> By popular demand, the Combinet "BBS" providing information on ISDN
> availability in many areas of the US is now available via the
> Internet.  The information is supplied by Bell Communications Research
> and various Operating Companies and is updated periodically as new
> information becomes available.

It's interesting.  The Combinet BBS has info about Albany, NY, which
does not have ISDN capabilities yet (after calling them, and talking
to four different people, they said BRI will be available in '95).  It
does not, however, have information on Troy, NY (10 minutes from
Albany), which does have both BRI and PRI service available.


Chris Labatt-Simon                            Internet: [e-mail]
Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting              CIS: 73542,2601
Albany, New York
PHONE: [phone]                              FAX: [phone]

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

Date: Wed, 26 Jan 94 22:14:32 CST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions
Organization: AT&T


In article <[e-mail]> Susan Sirmai <0003188677@
mcimail.com> writes:

   A very nice summary of SW-56 and ISDN data service from/to the USA.
I'll try to add a little more "data"....

>> 1. Which countries/provinces have SW-56 service and are ISDN capable?

> Today over 20 countries around the world currently have some level of
> ISDN service.

> MCI International 64 Service currently provides switched digital
> connectivity to Canada and most of the European and Pacific Carriers
> capable of providing the service today. Current MCI Tariffed Countries
> include: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France,
> Ireland, Italy, Japan (IDC, ITJ, KDD), New Zealand, Netherlands,
> Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom.
> Additional countries are planned for 1994.

   AT&T Switched Digital International (SDI) (1-800-841-4135, I
believe) has had SW-56/ISDN-56K data available to most of the above,
as well as Jamaica, Bermuda, Spain, Germany and Hong Kong since 1992.
ISDN-64K data service is or will be available to these countries in
1993-1994, as well as to the Philippines, Malaysia, Luxembourg and
Rep. of Korea.  [This is year-old information -- the SDI folks have
more up-to-date information.]

>> 2. Here in the US what cities have been converted to ISDN, and who are
>> still operating at SW-56?

> Availability depends on the local exchange carrier.

   Also, whether the CO has SS7 connectivity can influence whether or
not 64K data rates can be handled.  So you need to contact your
IXC/INC (international carrier) for that information.  I believe AT&T
ACCUNET support on 1-800-222-SW56 has such information.

>> 3. If you know, who are their carriers?

> Service is provided locally by the US Local Exchange Carriers and
> interexchange and internationally by the interexchange carriers
> offering the service.  The carriers in-country overseas are the PTTs
> or ITOs who provide local and/or international service.

   Thanks again for the well-written summary.

   I think the point here is that lots of countries, several IXCs and
many LECs offer ISDN or at least SW-56 connectivity.  Your PTT, IXC or
LEC should at least be able to get you some initial information on how
to contact the other parts needed for the connection.  ISDN isn't just
for islands anymore.  :)


Al Varney      AT&T, but not Marketing -- and just my opinion

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

From: [e-mail] (Pat O'Neil)
Subject: Re: How Does Inmarsat Work?
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 19:15:48 GMT
Organization: Hughes Network Systems Inc.


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(Koos van den Hout) writes:

> While making some remarks about Inmarsat, I suddenly realized myself
> one thing:

> So, is there anybody out there who can tell me? I'd like to know if
> it's digital or analog, how base stations are verified, how the
> satelite 'rings' the base station and stuff like that.

I know a remember a bit about it, having worked on it about 12 years
ago.  The Standard A service has analog scpc voice and 50b/s telex,
which is carried tdm shore-to-ship and tdma ship-to-shore.  Each ocean
region has an NCS which coordinates use of the satellite channels.
There are one or more shore stations in each ocean region.  The shore
station ties the network into the public phone and telex systems of
the country it resides in.

Voice call setups, as far as I can recall, are done out of band.
There are one or more special signalling channels that are used to
initiate calls from ships.  I seem to recall that access to these
channels is aloha.

If I'm not mistaken, the satellite receives C-band from the shore
stations, and relays to ships on L-band.  It receives on L-band from
ships and relays to shore stations on C-band.  The ship terminal has a
parabolic dish antenna about two feet in diameter.  There is a servo to
keep it aimed at the satellite.  Price of a ship terminal was around
$50K ten years ago.  Don't know what it is now

There is another service offered by Inmarsat -- Standard C.  It is
data only at 600b/s.  Don't know if it's 5 or 7 bit.  I believe the
ship-side interface here is also L-band.  The antenna is an
omnidirectional plate about 6 inches in diameter.  I don't think it's
a spread spectrum system, but there is lots of DSP because the power
is low and the antenna has very little gain.

> I'm also curious about the security of the whole system (both the
> 'listening in to calls' security and the 'making calls at the expense
> of another user' part).

No security.  No encryption.  Everything in the open.  The ship ID is
burned in a ROM in the terminal.  You might be able to fake it out.
But if you use a true ship ID (which you'd have to) and that ship is
in your ocean, the call setup might get tangled up.


Pat O'Neil   Hughes Network Systems   Germantown, Md

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

From: [e-mail] (Thomas Chen)
Subject: Re: How Does Inmarsat Work?
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 22:56:59 GMT
Organization: Hughes Network Systems Inc.


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(Koos van den Hout) writes:

> While making some remarks about Inmarsat, I suddenly realized myself
> one thing:

> I don't know how Inmarsat works.

> So, is there anybody out there who can tell me? I'd like to know if
> it's digital or analog, how base stations are verified, how the
> satelite 'rings' the base station and stuff like that.

> I'm also curious about the security of the whole system (both the
> 'listening in to calls' security and the 'making calls at the expense
> of another user' part).

There are different types of Inmarsat service called A, C, and M. The
cost structures are different and it really depends on what type of
data you need to send and where you are.


Tom

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

From: [e-mail] (Matthew B. Landry)
Subject: Re: Truckstop Calling Cards
Date: 27 Jan 1994 03:37:10 GMT
Organization: Project SAVE International


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John R
Levine) writes:

> target market is: people with no home phone (particularly students)?

   Bingo! I don't know what their other targets are, but they are
CONSTANTLY hawking them on campus here and everywhere else I know.

> people who are too clueless to get a calling card? The anonymous call

   It's not necessarily a matter of being "clueless". AT&T runs credit
checks on people requesting calling cards, and they are considerably
less tolerant of newcomers than, say, Citibank. If you have
established perfect credit already, then you may be able to just call
AT&T and ask.  Otherwise, forget it. (Sprint, however, seems to be
better about this sort of thing.)

> The anonymous call crowd?

   Well, if you share a phone line with someone else, it is often nice
to be able to make telephone calls without giving the other person the
ability to track them. So, these cards also seem to be popular among
people under 18.


Matthew B. Landry
President of Project SAVE
[e-mail]

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

Subject: Re: Truckstop Calling Cards
From: [e-mail] (Ray Normandeau)
Date: 26 Jan 94 18:50:00 GMT
Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Ray Normandeau)


>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Those are called 'Talk Tickets' and

> they are a bit expensive at 50 cents per minute of domestic use.
> Considering that they are paid for up front, talk tickets should cost
> no more than ten to fifteen cents per minute.  Think about it.  No
> billing, no uncollectables, no customer service, no credit for wrong
> numbers, no nothing.

> The cost of talk tickets should in no way exceed standard direct
> dialed rates.  Anything more is a rip-off.

How about the allowance for the commission to the truck stop selling
them?

At One Times Square you can buy tickets at 25 cents a minute.

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Looks Like a Hacker
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 00:20:48 CST
Organization: UM-St. Louis


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Clarence
Dold) writes:

> An "800" customer of mine called to complain that a lot of calls were
> on her bill from the same caller, but she tried calling the number
> back, and it was disconnected.

> I checked the SMS database, and there was no record found.  I checked
> against a small run of telephone logs, and found a lot of calls from
> the same ANI, mostly into our 800-voicemail.  Smells like a hacker ...

> Then I saw some not-so-malicious patterns.  I called PacBell security,
> to track the ANI down.

>        510 893-0781    Cellular One Outbound Trunk

> Hmm ...

>        How many ANI are like this?  Does anyone have a table?

> V&H data only shows it as Oakland, CA, which is true.

     I don't know if this is specifically related, but a few years
ago, Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems in St. Louis was unable, for
whatever reason, to bill (900) numbers, collect calls, and third-party
billed long distance calls to cellular phones, IF the call went
through a long-distance carrier.

     If the call was Long Distance (that is, collect or third-party)
and handled by Southwestern Bell, you'd get a nasty phone call a few
days later, demanding that you allow the call to be billed somewhere
else.

     SWBMS has since blocked collect and third-party calls from being
billed to cellular phones, and, I think, (900) numbers too.  Right
after they began doing this, though, it was possible to call the
company and tell them that you no longer wanted to block these calls.
The customer-service drone, assuming that the block had been ordered
by the customer, would generally remove it on the spot.

     Since SWB would call you when you made a call of this sort that
was handled by them, and (900) and LD carrier calls were not billed,
my assumption is that ANI just doesn't work on some (all?) cellular
systems.  Anyone know why, other than to save money?  Is this a
limitation of the technology, or something that can be configured
either way?


T. D'Amico   [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 03:44:00 PST
From: [e-mail] (Robert L. McMillin)
Subject: Re: Earthquake and 818 AC


On 18 Jan 1994 17:07:59 GMT, [e-mail] (Chris Labatt-Simon) said:

> Yesterday I learned of the earthquake because of my calling a tech
> support department in the 818 area code.  I received a message back
> saying "We're sorry, your call cannot be completed at this time due to
> the earthquake in the area".

> This morning around 9:30 (EST) I called again, and got the same
> message.  I then tried the 800 number and got through.

> When I just tried the 818 number again, at about 11:30 EST, I got the
> message that all circuits are busy.  Guess they're starting to let
> calls through again.

Phone service to Northridge, the hardest-hit region, and the
surrounding neighborhoods is *still* choked by AT&T, et al., as of
this writing, according to KFWB Newsradio.  Pac*Bell reports in excess
of 35 million calls per hour completed at the height of the disaster;
this number is slowly receding with time.

I can't really speculate successfully on how much help the Internet
was in getting calls through to relatives from out of state, but if
the traffic on ca.earthquakes is any indication, a number of people
used that forum for urgent messages like "My brother is in Chatsworth,
can you contact him?"  Since the passage of California Assembly Bill
AB1645, state business, pending bills, and announcements are available
on the Internet (supposedly sen.ca.gov and asm.ca.gov -- mail me for
further info).  There's also a couple of finger servers
([e-mail] and [e-mail]) and a
special telnet server (telnet oes1.oes.ca.gov 5501) for earthquake
info and other announcements.

One poster reported calling a local radio station with information he
received by ftp'ing it from the state announcement server (above); the
person at the other end screeched WE NEED FATALITY STATISTICS DO YOU
HAVE THESE NUMBERS???? or something equally obnoxious.  Death sells, I
guess.

> On another note, I just wanted to mention how great technology is.
> I've been following the earthquake info on the Internet Relay Chat and
> on CompuServe.  The compassion that I'm finding in both of these
> places is great to see.  Many people are e-mailing from both in CA and
> out of CA getting in touch with relatives and friends for people over
> the phone.

This site's not very good for monitoring that sort of thing -- I'm two
UUCP hops away from the Internet.  Sometimes news takes a day to reach
here after it's reached the main California sites, though mail is much
faster.  However, my UUCP feed stayed up where Netcom crashed.  To be
fair to the Netcom people, they were up (if unreliably) in pretty short
order, all things considered.

For those people still wondering about relatives in the San Fernando
Valley who haven't gotten through yet, you can e-mail me and I'll try
and get through for you.


Robert L. McMillin  | [e-mail] | Netcom: [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #46
*****************************