From telecom-request@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Thu May 11 17:15:57 1995 1995 17:15:57 -0400 telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 11 May 1995 10:15:25 -0500 1995 10:15:22 -0500 To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 May 95 10:15:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 236 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Phones Fight Fraud (Steve Geimann) Announcement: Nautilus 0.9.0 Now Available (Bill Dorsey) Book Review: "Handbook of LAN Technology" by Fortier (Rob Slade) Rural Internet via Coops (Dean Hughson) MCI Invests in News Corp. (Steve Geimann) Data Pagers w/PCMCIA Interface (Douglas Neubert) Re: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN (Willard F. Dawson) Re: NPA Arrangmenets (John Mayson) FCC Press Release on Caller ID (Andrew Robson) Southeast Louisiana and Gulf Coast Flooding (Mark Cuccia) 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. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- By Steve Geimann Senior Editor {Communications Daily} U.S. telephone companies have turned to customers to fight $3.37 billion in fraud, launching video campaign with fox mascot and enlisting financial support of industry to supplement current antifraud technology. Alliance to Outfox Phone Fraud has six members at its launch, including three RBOCs, and said it hoped remaining large companies and smaller service providers would join soon. Not-for-profit organization assesses members based on size, ranging from $500 for small companies to $50,000 for Baby Bells yearly, said Chmn. Mary Chacanias, Bell Atlantic (BA) fraud prevention manager. "This really is worldwide. It crosses all boundaries." Alliance effort focuses on raising consumer awareness of fraudulent activities, ranging from stealing access codes and PINs from PBXs, persuading clerical workers to release confidential information under guise of repair service and eavesdropping as callers use credit cards at pay phones. Industry statistics show $1.6 billion in fraud using PBXs, $1.7 billion from calling card and cellular theft. Total fraud rose $70 million (2.1%) last year, with average loss of $168,000 for businesses, while losses to PBXs dropped to $20,000 from $24,000 in 1993. Chacanias said BA cut credit card fraud 22% last year, is aiming at 50% this year. BA, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, Ill. Consolidated Telephone, American Telecommunications Enterprises and Communication Fraud Control Assn. are the first members of alliance. Patrick Hanley, BA president, Carrier Services, said some RHCs might be reluctant to admit they have fraudulent calls: "It's almost like it's become an accepted cost of doing business." Public service announcements to begin in July will use "Freddie the Phone Fraud Fox" in urging customers to protect calling card information, avoid accepting third party or collect calls at home, demand identification from anyone calling themselves phone company employees, avoid allowing anyone to use cellular phone and call companies immediately if any phone-related equipment is stolen. SWB detected sharp increase in fraud directed at Latin population in Southern Tex., where individuals posing as SB representatives instruct consumers to engage call-forwarding feature "as a test," said Marcia Grabish, area mgr.-operator service, then make fraudulent calls through customers' phones. One recent victim got bill for $6,000, she said. Some customers have asked company to block nondomestic calls from their cards, she said. Industry officials hailed recent arrest in $50-million phone fraud case involving Cleartel reseller in D.C., in which someone gained access to computer tape with PINs, Chacanias said. In Illinois, Cheryl Smith-Rardin, manager, Corporate Fraud, ICT, said growing problem of jail inmate phone fraud, in which prisoners order service in name of warden, is prompting new system involving debit bracelets using bar code. ------------------------------ Announcing Nautilus 0.9.0 (Beta Test) WHAT IS NAUTILUS? Nautilus is a program that lets you have encrypted voice telephone conversations with your friends without needing any special equipment. All you need is a standard personal computer (386/25 or faster PC with Soundblaster compatible sound board, or Sun Sparcstation) and a high speed modem. Its speech quality is reasonably good at 14.4kbps and acceptable at 9600 bps. It currently won't work at any slower modem speeds. Nautilus is the first program of this type that we know of to be distributed for free with source code. A few similar commercial programs have been distributed without source, so that their security cannot be independently examined. HOW DOES IT WORK? Nautilus uses your computer's audio hardware to digitize and play back your speech using a homebrew speech compression routine included with the program. It encrypts the compressed speech using your choice of the Blowfish, Triple DES, or IDEA block ciphers, and transmits the encrypted packets over your modem to your friend's computer. At the other end, the process is reversed. The program is half-duplex; just hit a key to switch between talking and listening. Nautilus's encryption key is generated from a shared secret passphrase that you and your friend choose together ahead of time, perhaps via email using PGP, RIPEM, or a similar program. Nautilus itself does not currently incorporate any form of public key cryptography. Further details are in the release notes included with the program. FTP SITES Nautilus is available in three different formats: nautilus-0.9.0.tar.gz - full source code naut090.zip - MSDOS executable and associated documentation naut090s.zip - full source code It is available at the following FTP sites: ftp://ripem.msu.edu/pub/crypt/other/ This is an export controlled ftp site: read /pub/crypt/GETTING_ACCESS for information on access. ftp://ftp.csn.org:/mpj/I_will_not_export/crypto_???????/ This is an export controlled ftp site: read /mpj/README for information on access. ftp://miyako.dorm.duke.edu/mpj/crypto/voice/ This is an export controlled ftp site: read /mpj/GETTING_ACCESS for information on access. INTERNATIONAL USE Sorry, but under current US law, Nautilus is legal for domestic use in the US only. We don't like this law but have to abide by it while it is in effect. Nautilus is distributed through export-restricted FTP sites for this reason. Please do not export it. IMPORTANT This is a BETA TEST VERSION of a BRAND NEW CRYPTOGRAPHY PROGRAM. Although we've done our best to choose secure ciphers and protocols for Nautilus, its design details have not yet been reviewed by anyone except the authors, and it's VERY EASY to make mistakes in such programs that mess up the security. We advise against putting too much faith in the security of the program until it has undergone a lot more reviewing and debugging. We encourage cryptographers and users alike to examine and test the program thoroughly, and *please* let us know if you find anything wrong. We hope to release an updated version within about one month fixing any serious bugs found in the current version, though probably not having many new features. Finally, although we'll try to fix any bugs reported to us, WE CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS. CONTACTING THE DEVELOPERS Nautilus was written by Bill Dorsey, Pat Mullarky, and Paul Rubin. To contact the developers, please send email to nautilus@lila.com. This announcement, and the source and executable distribution files, are all signed with the following PGP public key. Please use it to check the authenticity of the files and of any fixes we may post. You can also use it to send us encrypted email if you want. We will try to keep such email confidential, but cannot guarantee it. - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- mQCNAi+tZx4AAAEEALUDK2d68thTyVmD5bXeBEELLFtAgNU6O+M+anooPjXr9sBD 7HsHt4VYtDNY3ecefQAFTzTrBwn9V7Ya2EwVttT2cTEiOj9O6mii+QvOXplxsyWo SHsuLIjUzHqY9KvlDDMrBuVhs1qWdbXXax4uKB83kZUlABCVAinl/J//FNOFAAUT tCdOYXV0aWx1cyBEZXZlbG9wZXJzIDxuYXV0aWx1c0BsaWxhLmNvbT6JAJUCBRAv rWeHg1x2TS1X7GUBAYw4BACNBO/efXHqyMfFw8fzfwuUhHqGf4+VRbLWTvL6/JfH 9Vb8G7dhPQQvm6Q6KVnO6LyNskjb1d5noA03vIObC7hwTbr9sznohSd2OyRsTHiE Zdqnx0uv+ypsK+ZTOs4uRoKLd2C4sMqdylKaoF2D7Ob7rCwaGucQBuom8L0C0O7n eokAlQIFEC+tZ04p5fyf/xTThQEBe9EEAJS5fQWa7ev5Ke8Rpzx7zKqkbu7MyJS3 KSKIpsxyYqmx8k/9GmzNP4xxXUCjfro1zPp84WS3oeft0Qg9fOee09PFsjQ3yxI6 bH06tPO/mKmNrTGcLQmncrqyf4iOscBoIPYjXSSAG/ULz7Hwa2+vmjUkWk1K93BL port+RWomAoq =M+h4 - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQCVAgUBL7EA+inl/J//FNOFAQGexQP/RDIanlbvluQwPb+JTIzwmy0nIyh4vNxQ BcGoK/pKLGKHMsOYJF7DEBq39mEJ3Fn/AP6PPlW6yjKOn2Ngxl4WfhIbRdpXyjlr zbDlm/yZ7zY713RpM2BiPjUoZ7IZWRxhH+WfgvjqTahmSLuBYxnOLWLaQPko9p6N R6c5FKhDT7c= =l/tv -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Bill Dorsey "Nothing that results from human progress is achieved dorsey@lila.com with unamimous consent. And those who are enlightened PGP 2.X pubkey before the others are condemned to pursue that light available in spite of the others." -- Christopher Columbus ------------------------------ BKLANTCH.RVW 950331 "Handbook of LAN Technology", Paul Fortier, 1992, 0-07-021625-8 %A Paul Fortier %C 2600 Tenth St., Berkeley, CA 94710 %D 1992 %G 0-07-021625-8 %I Intertext Publications/McGraw Hill %O 510-548-2805 800-227-0900 lkissing@osborne.mhs.compuserve.com %P 732 %T "Handbook of LAN Technology" This is a collection of papers on various aspects, primarily theoretical, of local area network technology. Given the structure, and the variety of authors, there is a great deal of repetition of material. As well as general background, topics covered include error management, topologies, protocols, control, routing, interconnection, security, modelling and simulation, network operating system theory, software, programming languages, tools, architecture, and implementations. This would be of use principally as a collection of references in introduction to specialized theoretical topics. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKLANTCH.RVW 950331. 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 Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ User .fidonet.org Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ It appears to me that some of the readers here are local coops. I wanted to share that in our rural Northern Missouri area the local telephone coops have shown some real leadership in forming a new group and offering affordable slip access to the Net to areas as small as mine (12 miles from a town of 886 people for instance). That is the advantage I see in telephone coops -- they can do things that much larger telephone companies can't quickly ... while my rural area has Internet access many larger cities in Missouri don't ... Dean Hughson ------------------------------ By Steve Geimann Senior Editor, {Communications Daily} Washington MCI plans $2 billion investment in News Corp. as part of global venture, giving MCI access to content and News Corp. ability to expand distribution and setting stage for delivering information to homes and businesses. MCI Chairman-CEO Bert Roberts and News Chairman-CEO Rupert Murdoch said venture will expand delivery of entertainment and information to homes and businesses worldwide. Roberts said focus will be on businesses as well as entertainment in homes and venture will be "by far is the most expansive and most impactful" of new communications/entertainment joint ventures. Murdoch said that two industries are changing rapidly and that both companies can "create opportunities from those changes." MCI's initial investment is $1 billion in preferred stock and warrants that could increase to $2 billion. At any time in next 4 years, MCI can convert warrants, giving it 13.5% stake in News Corp. and making it second largest shareholder after Murdoch's family. Agreement permits MCI to buy additional shares, up to 20%, after initial equity position. MCI will provide $200 million cash immediately, and News Corp. will offer investments in BSkyB worth up to $200 million to capitalize joint venture at $400 million. Roberts and Murdoch will supervise venture jointly. Staff size wasn't immediately known. Standard & Poor's said it wasn't immediately clear how two companies would provide services, Telecommunications Group Dir. Robert Siderman saying: "It's not quite as clear on its face without more details." MCI's link to U.S. homes is through local telephone companies, making immediate synergies hard to see, he said. He said MCI isn't lacking for cash, and its current rating of A- reflects expectation company planned to spend its cash. Moody's confirmed its A2 and Prime-1 ratings on MCI's senior unsecured debt and commercial paper and placed News ratings on review for possible upgrade. Agency said: "While the investment reduced MCI's cash balances by about one-third, the preferred stock structure ... provides immediate market reeturns although from a lower rated credit." Roberts said it's too early to identify services or offerings of joint venture, but speculated it would be in on-line services and information rather than entertainment. Several times in conference call with reporters, Roberts stressed focus will be on information and entertainment. "This is not just an alliance for entertainment into the home," he said. Although MCI doesn't have immediate access to home, both executives said many other delivery systems, including DBS, cable TV and "eventually" telephone lines will be available. Roberts said MCI-News combination wasn't "a timid deal." ------------------------------ ·_ Can anyone tell me if there is a company that sells a service, that would give my field techs a display pager with an I/O port via PCMCIA or DB9 serial interface. I am trying to send the techs daily routs to the techs and right now they all call in and use the 800 service. This is very costley and with only 20 modems and around 300 techs getting in can be tough. If you can be of any help in this issue at all please E-mail me with any info. Thanx. Doug Neubert Engineering/Tech. Supp. Telsource Corp. ------------------------------ ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) writes: > In article , Willard F. Dawson com> wrote: >> ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) writes: >>> Redundancy is better -- let all subscribers use whatever works best at >>> the moment, as determined by a well-maintained set of routers. >> Redundant routers that kick in to the selected carrier of data rather >> than falling over to a different carrier are also possible ... and, >> required, in a RBOC environment that must compete with the likes of >> MFS and their "miss 1% a year, get the next year for free" attitude. > Yes but frequently the selected carrier of IP data cannot get packets > around. For instance, I have had the worst luck with Sprint, however > since my main host only connects via it (argg when are they going to > upgrade?), I have a dependence on them. My solution is to also have a > Netcom account, plus maintaining a short list of friends' passwords > for emergency use. Last month, I think one out of five login sessions > had to be done via Netcom. Tonight, Netcom hosts were down, luckily > Sprint isn't being a problem to me. > If I upgrade my system of two providers plus access to three others in > emergency needs (included are seven regional, international and > national networks), I'd want some incentive like automated packet > routing via whatever network is working and other redundancy measures. Good (or is that great) service providers will themselves be redundantly connected, and will configure their routers to use BGP to ensure that outages with one provider do not kill their routes to and from the 'net. Cheaper providers will cut corners, and hopefully pass the savings on to you, the user. If not, I suggest you jump ship, in a hurry. If so, then you're choice to remain with them should be an educated decision ... Unfortunately, too many net-newcomers don't know enough to ask these kinds of questions. Perhaps there is or should be a FAQ on proper questions to ask of potential Internet Service Providers. ------------------------------ > In your post, you criticized the current method of NPA splits. > I didn't quite understand what specific NPA you were referring to, what > specifically you didn't like, and what you would prefer instead. > Could you elaborate? Thanks. Well, that posting was more of a run-on thought that anything else. Basically my problem is we aren't trusting the LECs to make these decisions, instead we're allowing state regulators and "concerned" citizens who probably watch too much Oprah to make them. Having lived in Atlanta for many, many years, I see the 404 splits as a perfect example. The Georgia PSC was afraid of excluding outer communities from being "part of Atlanta", so they didn't split anywhere near enough off when they created 706. Now we've got this 404/770 split along I-285 which the local media hyped would keep Southern Bell from forcing Atlantans to dial 10-digits and would make it easier for "our" children to memorize their phone numbers (as if Southern Bell is out to get the people of Atlanta). However this is totally false since there is much cross-Perimeter dialing and a very large "border population" along I-285. They might as well have made an overlay so callers wouldn't have to guess what they need to dial. Hopefully Southern Bell will allow permissive 11-digit dialing These splits are becoming like the gerrymandered Congressional districts, IMHO. Like I said in my original post, yeah, there are bigger and better things to worry about in life. But my Libertarian nature has gotten a little miffed over state and local governments claiming they're acting in the people's best interest by "protecting" them from the LECs and their quest to create more telephone numbers. Personally I prefer overlays for large metro areas (e.g. Houston, Atlanta, South Florida), but splits for larger, more sparcely populated areas, such as Oregon (Were they REALLY considering a statewide overlay?). John Mayson (MS 100/2243) Senior Engineer Harris Electronic Systems Sector PO Box 99000, Melbourne FL USA 32902 Voice (407) 727-6389 | Fax (407) 729-3801 | Pager (407) 635-3606 internet john.mayson@harris.com | http://p100dl.ess.harris.com ------------------------------ [The following is a press release downloaded from fcc.gov and lightly edited for line formatting] Report No. DC 95-71 ACTION IN DOCKET CASE May 4, 1995 FCC FINALIZES RULES FOR CALLER ID; ALLOWS PER LINE BLOCKING WHERE STATES PERMIT; PBX CALLER ID RULES PROPOSED (CC DOCKET 91-281) The Commission today voted to approve national Caller ID rules that will protect the privacy of the called and the calling party by mandating that carriers make available a free, simple and consistent, per call blocking and unblocking mechanism. Under the rules adopted today, callers dialing *67 before dialing a particular call will, for interstate calls, block calling party information for any interstate calls and those callers using a blocked line can unblock the line and release that information by dialing *82. The Order permits carriers to provide privacy on all calls dialed from a particular line, where state policies provide, and the customer selects, that option. Today's action came as the Commission reconsidered its original Caller ID nationwide Caller ID system is in the public interest. It found that passage of the calling party's number, or CPN, could benefit consumers by encouraging the introduction of new technologies and services to the public, enabling service providers and consumers to conduct transactions more efficiently. The rules adopted today will take effect December 1, 1995. Public pay phones and partylines will be required to be in compliance by January 1, 1997. The Commission also issued a rulemaking proposal concerning PBX and private payphone obligations under the Caller ID rules. In March 1994, the Commission adopted a Report and Order that concluded that a nationwide Caller ID system was in the public interest and stated that the potential benefits of a Caller ID system -- efficiency and productivity gains, infrastructure development and network utilization, and new service and employment opportunities -- would only be possible if CPN is passed among carrier networks. It noted two areas of concern however -- compensation issues related to passage of CPN for interstate calls and varying state requirements intended to protect the privacy rights of calling and called parties on interstate calls. In today's action the Commission affirmed its finding that common carriers, including Commercial Mobile Radio Service providers, with Signaling System 7 (SS7)call set up capability, must transport CPN without charge to interstate connecting carriers. The Commission clarified that carriers without SS7 call set upcapability do not have to upgrade their networks just to transport CPN to connecting carriers. The Commission noted that local exchange carriers are required to resell interstate access for Caller ID to other carriers wishing to compete for end-user business in this market. The Commission modified its previous decision that only per-call blocking would be allowed. Today's action permits per-line blocking for interstate calls instates where it is permitted for intrastate calls, provided the customer elects per line blocking. The Commission's original rules required a caller to dial *67 before each call in order to block the called party from knowing the caller's number. The Commission has now modified its rules to permit carriers to provide privacy on all calls dialed from a particular line, where state policies provide, and the customer selects, that option, provided carriers permit callers to unblock calls from that line by dialing *82. Where state policies do not require or permit at the customer's election per line blocking, carriers are bound by the federal privacy protection model to provide privacy only where *67 is dialed. The Commission noted that it continues to exempt calls to emergency lines from its rules; that is, a carrier's obligation to honor caller privacy requests to emergency numbers will be governed by state policies. As an additional privacy measure, the Commission requires that when a caller requests that the calling party number be concealed, a carrier may not reveal the name of the subscriber to that line and callers requesting that their number not be revealed should be able to block an automatic call return feature. The Commission continues to require that carriers with call set up capability that pass CPN or transmit Automatic Number Identification (ANI) educate customers regarding the passage and usage of this information. Finally, the Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing that Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems and private payphones capable of delivering CPN to the public switched telephone network also be capable of delivering a privacy indicator when users dial *67 and be capable of unblocking the line by dialing *82. Action by the Commission May 4, 1995, by MO&O on Reconsideration, Second R&O and Third NPRM (FCC 95 - 187). Chairman Hundt, Commissioners Quello, Barrett, Ness and Chong. -FCC- News Media contact: Susan Lewis Sallet at (202) 418-1500. Common Carrier Bureau contacts: Marian Gordon at (202) 634-4215. ------------------------------ I can only speak for New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana - We are now 100% ESS/Digital ESS. The flooding this time seems worse than in previous storms. I did not have any flooding in my apartment nor was there flooding in any of my relatives' homes. Some of the New Orleans metro area had flooding which 'never' flood. Electric power, of course, was out at one time or another for most of us -- the power at home was out for 5 minutes and later for 55 minutes Monday nite, and there were split-second power flashes and 5 second 'brown-outs' from Monday nite thru Wednesday. Monday nite, the local SCBell class-5 central office where I live was on battery rather than commercial power. Sometimes I was off hook up to two minutes off-hook before getting dial-tone. I did get re-order signals on some call attempts. There were times where I could NOT do a '*66' -- I would get re-order on those Telco Auto-Redial attempts. I am a rather new customer of BellSouth Mobility -- I had some trouble getting a cellular call out -- and when I DID get a channel, the signal was quite bad and I got cut-off. Cable-TV service was still on in MY area of New Orleans, but Monday nite and part of the day Tuesday some channels were out. ALL Cable channels were on (and clear) on Wednesday. I did not come into work on Tuesday or Wednesday -- and when I got to work today, the System Administorator told us that we had been 'cut-off' from the outside world on Tuesday -- but most of our email would come in if the sender or their system kept resending. When I came in this morning, all issues of TELECOM Digest were waiting in my e-mail-box, and the receipt date/time was Wednesday nite. New Orleans has a 'flood-of-the-century' every year or so, and has since the late 1970's. We are actually BELOW sea level (most of the area is built on a SWAMP) and the climate is sub-tropical. Sometimes even a SIMPLE rain shower will cause street flooding. The 1983 annual 'flood-of-the-century' (April 17, 1983) caused FAR WORSE telephone trouble -- the 'main' telco building in the business district (Toll, Tandem, TSPS, AND ESS local office) was flooded in the basement, where telco power was located. When commercial power went out, South Central Bell was unable to start up their emergency generators. They had to go on storage battery power which eventually became DRAINED. At that time, most all network radio and television, including newswires had NOT yet gone to satellite distribution -- they still relied on the Bell System (AT&T). New Orleans was more-or-less cut off from the outside world. Western Union could not Telex in or out of New Orleans and WUTC was also probably down locally -- their switches were just one or two blocks away from Bell/AT&T and were probably flooded. No OTHER private line services/networks were able to transmit to/from New Orleans, and probably not even locally. THIS time, the business-district area did NOT flood -- and also there are other carriers and networks and technologies out there instead of just Ma-Bell. For about 30 minutes Tuesday morning, I did NOT even have sidetone on the Central Office serving my home -- I did have a 'hum' of battery, but no sidetone (I could not 'talk' through the receiver) Meanwhile, I am dry. Mark ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #236 ******************************