Hacker Chronicles 2 (Alt)/The_Hacker_Chronicles_Volume_II-CD2.iso/td2/td14_135.txt

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TELECOM Digest     Thu, 17 Mar 94 10:26:00 CST    Volume 14 : Issue 135

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    History of the Term "Switch" (Jonathan Welch)
    GTI LD Service (US) ([e-mail])
    NPA-NXX V&H Coordinates Request (Gary K. Nitzberg)
    Local CID Showing Out of Area (Jim Derdzinski)
    911 Used From Car Phone (Carl Moore)
    Canadian Government WWW Project (Tyson Macaulay)
    LCI Has Network Problems (Alec Isaacson)
    Looking For Introductory Books, FAQ (Roger West)
    Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment (Bob Schwartz)
    Re: Communications Software For UNIX/HPUX Wanted (Bill Mayhew)
    Re: USR's New Modem ([e-mail])
    On Telex Answerbacks (Paul Robinson)
    Re: ICs in CHINA (Andrew Wu)
    Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip (Charles Randall Yates)
    PA Bell in California? ([e-mail])
    Re: Hardware Recommendations For Phone Bank Wanted (David Devereaux-Weber)
    Last Laugh! BBB on 900 Bumber (Carl Moore)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of
Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and
long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers.
To reach us:  Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone
at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: [e-mail].

    ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

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 gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated
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Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience
of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All
opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 19:14:58 -0500
From: Jonathan_Welch <[e-mail]>
Subject: History of the Term "Switch"


I saw a brief image on TV how the first so-called switch consisted of
movable contacts mounted on a board, serving eight customers.

Presumably this is where the term came from for today's complex
switching equipment.

But was the term switch invented for telegraph equipment?  I don't
think the light bulb existed when the telephone was invented, so it
wouldn't have been used in that context (correct me if I'm wrong).


Jonathan Welch  VAX Systems Manager  Umass/Amherst  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: GTI LD Service (US)
Date: 16 Mar 1994 20:39:22 -0500
Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation


For all you long distance users out there, I have found a service that
is cheaper than anything I've seen. The telecom is called GTI, based in
Seattle, Washington. Below is a summary of what the service costs and has
to offer. If you have more questions or would like signup info, send email
to '[e-mail]'. I would be happy to give you further info about this
great service.

o Rates as low as *$2.60/hr*
o *No change* in present Long Distance carrier required
o All calls are routed thru an 800 number
o Calls may be placed from *anywhere* in U.S. to *anywhere* in U.S.
o Most pay phones require no coins
o *No time restrictions* -- call anytime you like
o 60 day risk free guarantee (sign-up fee will be refunded)
o Itemized summary of calls made each month

Faxed brochures are available for convenience. Please include this in
your EMAIL if you prefer this method instead of "Smail."


Allen


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We've had this one before, and the
catch lies in the 'rates as low as $2.60 per hour' thing, as a couple
readers have pointed out. There are a few other things not completely
described above, but as an educational exercise I shall let new readers
send in for the brochure and learn about the program.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Gary K. Nitzberg)
Subject: NPA-NXX V&H Coordinates Request
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 01:59:04 GMT


I am taking a class which requires a WAN designation within the United
States and the instructor has supplied us with NPA-NXX numbers for the
purpose of the project.  Unfortunely, to acquire the major and minor
V&H coordinates for these locations, I would need to purchase the
documentation from Bellcore. Not to mention hoping they would come
before the class is over.  I was wondering if anyone could be so kind
as to lookup the V&H coordinates for the following locations or maybe
know of a on or offline location this information is available for the
purpose of education.  Thank you in advance.

 Irvine, CA.        714-753
 Milpitas, CA.      408-945
 San Diego, CA.     619-336
 Atlanta, GA.       404-717
 Franklin Park, IL. 708-288
 Westboro, MA.      508-836
 Austin, TX.        512-343
 Dallas, TX.        817-685


Gary K. Nitzberg   [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 21:15:06 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Local CID Showing Out of Area


> When CID was deployed in my area (516 area code), I tried calling home
> from a pay phone and the number was displayed.  However, when I call
> home while I'm having my car serviced at a local service station, the
> number doesn't show.

> The difference is that the pay phone on the corner is NYNEX owned,
> and the other one is a COCOT.

This sounds to me like your area might be served by a CO with two
vintages of switches (i.e., one is SS7 compatible, and the other
isn't) The Nynex telephone is probably connected to the SS7 compatible
switch in that CO and the COCOT telephone is probably connected to the
non-SS7 switch.  As you can see, this also results in some prefixes in
your exchange being able to get and display CID and the rest not being
able to.

Situations like this exist here in Chicago (although becoming rarer)
The Chicago-Superior exchange comes to mind.  It is possible in this
area to place calls from different telephones in the same building and
have the CID work with some, and "Out-of-Area" on the rest.  One
person in an apartment building can readily subscribe to CID, but
their next door neighbor can't unless they change their number.  (I
always thought it was kind of funny that I can see when my mom in St.
John, IN <about 40 miles away -- same LATA> calls me, but I can't see
when my friends within walking distance of here call.  Ahh, modern
telecommunications ...)

It is my understanding that these partial CO upgrades are a result of
various equipment depreciation tables, tariffs and all that other
stuff.  However, a buddy of mine at Ameritech told me recently that
they hope to have the entire Chicago area CID capable by the end of
this year.


Jim Derdzinski   Chicago, IL  [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:53:01 EST
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: 911 Used From Car Phone


KYW news-radio has noted the use of 911 from a car phone.  That's
apparently how a tanker-truck crash at Conshohocken, PA was reported
(this happened on I-76/I-476 interchange) this week.  The driver of
that truck was killed, and nobody else was hurt.

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

From: [e-mail] (Tyson Macaulay)
Subject: Canadian Government WWW project
Organization: Communications Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 21:08:58 GMT


(This notice is directed primarily to systems administrators.  More
information will be forthcoming shortly - please do not email requesting
general information.  Thanks in advance.)

This is a solicitation for participant from Canadian and potentially
international Internet hosts for the *Open Government* project.

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

          The Open Government Pilot is a World-Wide-Web demonstration
project that is being developed by the Directorate of Communications
Development, Industry Canada.  The Open Government Pilot is an
Internet-based service that provides single-window access to the
various segments of the federal government including: the House of
Commons; the Senate; the Supreme Court; and, federal departments and
agencies.

          The Open Government Pilot provides pointers to various
Internet sites within the federal government as well as sites around
Canada. Information that is available from these sites includes:
contact information and information about members of Parliament;
information about the Supreme Court, including its rulings; contact
information for both federal and provincial government departments and
agencies; and, constitutional and treaty documents.

          The Open Government Pilot is intended to be an educational
tool.  Its primary goal is to inform Canadians and people from around
the world how the federal system of government works and who the key
participants are.  Its secondary function is to provide a central
access point for those seeking contacts within House of Commons, the
Senate, the Supreme Court, or government departments and agencies.

This pilot is now in beta-test and a tentative launch date has
been set for March 31st.

     *** Because of the projected load of this service, and to supply
as good service as possible to the Internet community, Industry Canada
wishes to create mirror sites of the Open Government project. ***

Parties that may be interested in acting as host to a mirror site
please send email to:

[e-mail]


Tyson Macaulay - Internet Applications Consultant
DTP/DGCP  Industry Canada, 7th Floor, Journal Tower North
300 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. K1A 0C8
Email: [e-mail]  Voice: 613 99304236

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

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:47:12 EST
From: Alec Isaacson <[e-mail]>
Subject: LCI Has Network Problems


As of 1:30 EST Wednesday LCI Communications has had network problems.
As far as I can see it covers at least southern Ohio, and probably
reaches farther than that.  If you try to dial long distance on a
phone that defaults to LCI you get either a re-order, an "All circuits
are busy" or "Due to network problems, your call cannot be completed
as dialed."  This problem also affects some T1s that my employer uses
for internal voice and data traffic between sites distributed across
the eastern U.S.  Their help desk people say they know about the
problem, but had no details.  If I get any more news, I'll let you
know.

Ironic part: I had to force my phone to AT&T (10ATT0) to call LCI to
report trouble, just dialing their 800 number didn't cut it.


Alec D. Isaacson  [e-mail]
Miami University, Oxford, OH

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

From: [e-mail] (Roger West)
Subject: Looking For Introductory Books, FAQ
Date: 16 Mar 1994 22:38:10 GMT
Organization: Texas Instruments, Speech Mushrooms.
Reply-To: [e-mail]


Can anyone recommend any books which provide an overall introduction to
telecommunications technology?  The only one I'm familiar with is:

  "Voice/Data Telecommunications Systems, An Introduction to Technology"
  by Gurrie and O'Connor, Prentice Hall, 1986.

but I would like to find something a little more current, if possible.
Also, there wouldn't happen to be a FAQ for this newsgroup, would there?

Thanks for any help.


Roger West             internet: [e-mail]
Texas Instruments         voice: [phone]
Telecom Systems Division____fax: [phone]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes there would happen to be an FAQ for
this group. It is located in the Telecom Archives at lcs.mit.edu, and
is available using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu.    PAT]

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

Subject: Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment
From: [e-mail] (Bob Schwartz)
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:01:07 PST
Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Only a few people probably remember when
> the FCC ordered our very own WLS (890 AM) off the air one night over
> thirty years ago -- about 1960 sometime -- when one of the DJ's of the
> 'new' managment (the team which dumped the Prairie Farmer, religion and
> soap opera format for hard rock music) uttered the word 'damn' over the
> air. Yep, that's all it took in those days. A telephone call from the
> FCC enforcement representative in this area to the home of the General
> Manager (it was late at night) followed by a call from the GM to the
> engineer on duty caused the station to go off the air. They went off
> so fast in fact they stopped the music they were playing in the middle
> of the song and the DJ did a formal identification process of the station
> (call letters, power, location of station, that they were licensed by the
> FCC, etc) and concluded by saying that 'the Federal Communications Comm-
> ission has ordered that this station remain silent until further notice
> and accordingly we leave the air at this time.'. That was it, and within
> five seconds or so of that they dropped the carrier and were gone. Maybe
> ten minutes had passed between the 'damn' and WLS being ordered off the
> air. That was a Saturday night, and they came back on the air about 10 AM
> the next morning, probably after the station attornies and management
> straightened it out with the FCC people. They were required by the FCC
> to play a recorded message *once every hour* for two days and four times per
> day for the rest of the week from the management of the station apologizing
> for the indiscretion and informing the listeners how to contact the FCC
> to file other complaints against the station if they wished to do so.  PAT]

Pat, as an avid listener of WLS at that time , my recollection is of a
disk jockey, Dick Biondi, telling two jokes thought to be off color.
One was about short skirts (mini skirts were just about to apear on
the market or maybe it was about the first ones). The joke I recall
went something like , if women's skirts get shorter they'll have two
more cheeks to powder and more hair to comb. there was also a second
joke but I just can't recall it. Not long afterwards, Art Roberts
filled Biondi's spot. Could the jokes and the 'd' word been on the same
night? Faint recollections are hinting that damn was in the punchline
of the second joke. Dick Biondi was a great DJ! Biondi blue horizon ...


Regards,

Bob Schwartz                                       [e-mail]
Bill Correctors, Inc.   [phone]   Marin County, California


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way you describe it is the way I
recall it also. WLS got an order from the FCC (in regards to Biondi)
to 'cut him off the air right away' and Art Roberts took over the
microphone. Still not placated, the FCC ordered the whole thing shut
down. The main thing to remember here was that no one, including the
FCC was very happy with the format change at WLS. Older listeners of
WLS who had been tuned there for years did not like it; none of the
couple dozen Sunday preachers liked it who got their shows dumped with
a month's notice (on Sunday, WLS went from about 5:00 AM through 1:00
AM Monday morning with brokered pre-recorded religious programs one
after another in those days, all fifteen to thirty minutes in length);
the national association which represented farmers had two or three
shows every weekday on WLS and they did not like it, etc.

One local preacher here had the 11:00 AM - 12:00 noon slot every Sunday
on WLS; his contract was solid for another two or three years and he
would not accept WLS' offer to buy him out so after the format change
to rock music the station still had to stop the music to put him on. The
DJ on Sunday morning would always stop his music at 10:58 AM with a
comment that "now it is time for Reverend Bradley at People's Church,
Lawrence and Sheridan Avenues ... me, I'm going out for breakfast across
the street at Walgreen's cafeteria. I'll be back at noon, and you better
be back also! Please don't tune us out."  And *precisely* at noon they
cut the feed (the religious program was live) and the DJ was back on the
air screaming about the top 40 hits of the day.  They did that for about
two or three years until the contract expired.  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Bill Mayhew)
Subject: Re: Communications Software For UNIX/HPUX Wanted
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 00:07:34 GMT


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

> I am looking for a good communications package for use on a UNIX
> (HP/UX) system.  What I want to be able to do is send Hayes commands
> to my modem from a UNIX command prompt.  Kermit is not too helpful for
> this purpose.

I test most of our modem pool lines every day.  I do so by dialing out
from an HP-9000 running HP-UX version 7.  (yep, I know, that's old!)
I use the cu program.  It is lean and mean and quite handy for issuing
quick 'n dirty AT commands to modems.  Cu is not a terminal emulator
by any means, but it is available on virtually any UNIX system.  Check
out the man pages; cu is one of the standard commands.  Kermit, I
agreee, is too much excess baggage for simple jobs.

It has been about five years since I wired the ports, but I recall the
wiring recommended in the manuals for tty -> modem is suboptimal.  I
use uugetty instead of the standard getty command so that I can
support both incoming and outgoing use of the modems on the HP system.
You have to make nodes for the cul and cua devices for uugetty.  Cua
honors modem control signals, but cul seems to ignore the control
signals.  I have dial-ins use the uugetty running on a cua device and
dial out manually with cul since I don't have to re-invoke cu every
time the carrier drops.

The uugettys occasionally lock up, so I run a shell program from the
crontab once per hour to kill the uugettys if there isn't an
interactive shell or uucp program running on the associated port at
the moment.  The hourly kill repsawns the uugettys and helps assure
maximum availability of the modems for incoming traffic.

I still dial most of the lines in our modem pool on a regular basis
manually.  There is a lot of qualitative feel that you don't get
from an automated script that dials the numbers.  The problem is
that we're getting enough lines now that dialing them is getting to
take quite a bit of time.


Bill Mayhew        NEOUCOM Computer Services Department
Rootstown, OH  44272-0095  USA      phone: [phone]
[e-mail]       amateur radio 146.58: N8WED

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: USR's New Modem
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 00:53:59 GMT


[e-mail] wrote:

> U.S. Robotics is releasing a new modem in five weeks. The modem will
> be upgradable to the V.34 standard when it is approved via a software
> download. The new modem will have read/writeable EPROMS which will
> allow this. The modem will have all the current protocols, making it
> the best modem on the market. And since there's no fee to get the
> V.34, I'd say it'll be the best buy when it comes out. For more info
> call USR at 1-800-DIALUSR.

Yeah, and what you forget to mention is that their one of the highest
priced modems on the market, whos twisted the arms of customers for
years by pushing their so-called HST protocol which wasn't even worthy
of use for bidirectional transfers.  Then they came out with their
v.32terbo modems which just introduced more problems -- They like to
'train down' to speeds below V.32bis.  Their solution to the problem
was to remove an S register option instead of correcting the protocol
implementation.  They offer poor technical support, low turn around
time, and poor over all response.  Personally, I'd rather not pay
their high cost for a modem that says 'USR' on it.  They're starting
to remind me of COMPUCOM before they finally folded.

As far as v.34 is concerned, Microcom is offering a sysop deal vFAST
modem for $140.00 RIGHT NOW.  You can order them, and they'll be on
their way.  When v.34 is finally announced they will send you an
upgrade for $39.00.  Microcom can be reached at 800-822-8224.

Zoom is offering a similar deal as well, but I haven't researched it.

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

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 20:40:59 EST
From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Subject: On Telex Answerbacks
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA


Sheldon W. Hoenig <[e-mail]> writes in TELECOM Digest:

> The telex system uses an answerback code [and]... a suffix... [which]
> tells which telex carrier supplies the telex number and service...
> Does anyone have a list...?

As it happened, I wrote one which is part of the Internet library as
Internet RFC 1394.  I have finished and will be releasing within the
next 60 days a revised edition that is more than twice as large.

To obtain a copy of the currently available listing, which shows ISO 3166
country codes, telex answerback codes, telex numbers (three digit) and
telephone area codes throughout the world, you can get a copy by anonymous
FTP as follows:

FTP rs.internic.net
anonymous
[e-mail]
cd /rfc
get rfc1394.txt
quit


Paul Robinson - [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Andrew Wu)
Subject: Re: ICs in CHINA
Date: 17 Mar 94 02:32:16 GMT
Organization: cisco Systems


Yes, there were a couple of IC manufacturers in mainland China about four
years ago when I left there and at least one of them, at Shanghai, was
a joint venture with foreign investment.

Unfortunatly, I don't know much about the IC and don't have much information
about them. But you may want to post your questions to some .china news
groups, as I know many engieers, scholars, students from China read these.


Good luck,

andrew

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

From: [e-mail] (Charles Randall Yates)
Subject: Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip
Date: 17 Mar 1994 03:11:14 GMT
Organization: University of South Florida


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Philip
Elmer-DeWitt) writes:

> To accompany an article on the Clipper Chip in this week's TIME, the
> magazine commissioned a poll on public attitudes toward wiretap
> issues. The relevant graph:

>  "In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by
> Yankelovich Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect
> the privacy of phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to
> conduct wiretaps.  When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they
> opposed it."

Why shouldn't the government have the right to listen in? Any law-abiding
citizen should have nothing to hide. I'm for it.


Randy Yates    Signal Processing & Communications/Mathematics Student
University of South Florida   <[e-mail]>


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, umm, err, uh, I dunno about that.
I come down a bit more conservative than many people around here and I
don't think I would like your idea. Were you, like our suicide-hotline-
on-a-900-number fellow yesterday just getting an early start on April
Fool's Day this year or do you really believe Big Brother should get to
listen and see everything?  Never mind, don't answer, my mailbox would
get flooded worse than ever.   PAT]

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

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 18:15:19 -0500
From: Jonathan <[e-mail]>
Subject: PA Bell in California


Some contributor wrote the following on this newsgroup: The radio news
reported a fire on the 13th floor of a pa bell building in downtown LA
that affects part of the 911 service and also mentioned connections to
MCI, et al PA Bell?  I didn't know that PA Bell had service in LA.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's not PA as in Pennsylvania (nor MA
as in Massachusetts). It's 'pa' as in the opposite of 'ma' or your mother.
Now some might contend that it really was supposed to be 'Pac' with your
editor committing a typographical error by omitting the 'c' and failing
to upper-case the 'P' as in 'Pac', the short form of 'Pacific'. But really
the author was talking about Pa (as in Father) Bell. Or even if he
wasn't, I thought it was cute that way and left it alone.  PAT]

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

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 16:51:43 CST
From: [e-mail]
Reply-To: David Devereaux-Weber <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Hardware Recommendations For Phone Bank Wanted


[e-mail] wrote about his suicide hot line ...

mmm:

It's 16 days before April Fools Day.  Did you figure you'd beat the rush?

> ... policy of not charging for calls where the client eventually does
> commit suicide ...


David Devereaux-Weber, P.E.             [e-mail] (Internet)
The University of Wisconsin - Madison   [phone] (voice)
DoIT - MACC Communications; B263        [phone] (FAX)
1210 W Dayton St.                       Madison, WI 53706

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

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:47:15 EST
From: Carl Moore <[e-mail]>
Subject: Last Laugh! BBB on 900 Number


I saw this on a billboard, I think it was along I-95 in Philadelphia:

"Tired of rip-offs?  Call 1-900-CALL-BBB. 95 cents / minute"

(The number translates to 1-900-225-5222.  BBB stands for Better
Business Bureau.)

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #135
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