Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (5.58/4.7) id AA23834; Tue, 24 Jan 89 01:39:54 EST Message-Id: <8901240639.AA23834@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Tue, 24 Jan 89 1:22:33 EST From: The Moderator Reply-To: TELECOM@bu-cs.BU.EDU Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #26 To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 Jan 89 1:22:33 EST Volume 9 : Issue 26 Today's Topics: cheap & easy circuit backup Plantronic Headsets Re: Pacific Bell Calling Card Blunder Re: Pacific Bell Calling Card Blunder 1+areacode Re: 1+ dialing and new AC for SF Bay Area? Re: Victims of Wrong Numbers Re: Query about Telebit [Moderator's Note: Thank you to everyone who pointed out that the movie star reference yesterday should have been to Judy Holiday -- not Judy Garland. P. Townson] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To: Telecom Digest Subject: cheap & easy circuit backup Date: Mon, 23 Jan 89 09:58:08 -0800 From: ben ullrich Every once in awhile, out local telco manages to cripple our customer support (among other things) by cutting several of our analog circuits. this seems to happen because the area we're in is under heavy construction, but nevertheless we're looking to get some sort of backup for out incoming and outgoing circuits for this and other (perhaps more disastrous) outages. we're looking for something that won't be too expensive, since we are something of a smallish operation (only 16 did's and 16 co trunks) and don't have a lot of money to dump into something we'll almost never need. one idea being kicked around is plain ol cellular phones. the budget-writers here really like this one, but i'd like to know what others more experienced in both cellular and backup systems have to say. i'd also like suggestions for inexpensive backup circuits. the general end is to skip the local telco in the area from our building to the CO. this seems to me to require the the solution be wireless. (microwave is too expensive). thanks to any help you folks can provide. please mail to me, and i'll summarize if there are enough responses. ...ben ---- ben ullrich consider my words disclaimed,if you consider them at all sybase, inc. "everybody gets so much information all day long that emeryville, ca they lose their common sense." -- gertrude stein (415) 596 - 3654 ben%sybase.com@sun.com {pyramid,pacbell,sun,lll-tis,capmkt}!sybase!ben ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Jan 89 21:20:30 mst From: stjhmc!stjhmc!ddodell@asuvax.asu.edu (David Dodell) Subject: Plantronic Headsets To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu.ARPA I have seen advertised lately Plantronics headsets for the small business market. Does anyone have any experience with them, and if so, a good source for obtaining them? They seem to be going in the $50 to $70 range. Thanks, David St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center - Phoenix Arizona uucp: {decvax, ncar} !noao!asuvax!stjhmc!ddodell uucp: {gatech, ames, rutgers} !ncar!noao!asuvax!stjhmc!ddodell Bitnet: ATW1H @ ASUACAD FidoNet=> 1:114/15 or 1:1/0 Internet: ddodell@stjhmc.fidonet.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jan 89 23:15:58 EST From: harvard!ima.ISC.COM!johnl (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Calling Card Blunder In article john@jetson.UPMA.MD.US (John Owens) writes: > >The only real difference I know of, besides the International Number >being on the AT&T card, is that AT&T card reader phones (with the >video displays) won't take BOC cards, and that the card reader phones >placed by BOCs don't claim to take AT&T cards. The BOC phones increasingly do take all of the LD carrier cards. The phones at the Denver and Los Angeles airports in fact take AT&T, MCI, and Sprint cards even though the illustrations on the phones are of Visa and Amex cards. High time, too. I was at the Cleveland airport last week and about half of the phones there are a strange hybrid -- it's a regular AT&T coin phone with the dial replaced by a thing about three times the size which includes a tone pad, a mag stripe reader, and a bunch of extra buttons probably intended for carrier selection but currently programmed for 411 and 911. I was unable to make any of these card readers accept any card at all, be it AT&T, Sprint, or Visa. At least the lack of access is equal. -- John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 { bbn | spdcc | decvax | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something You're never too old to have a happy childhood. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jan 89 17:54:09 PST From: gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Calling Card Blunder > I have a few comments on the question of PINs on calling cards, > In addition, since card reader phones are quite rare, and the vast > majority of calling card use is not card reader use, there's > practically no purpose to a calling card without a PIN printed on it. No, the PIN can be on a separate sheet, which you have to memorize. Do you want your computer to print out your password after you type your login name? Further, the card reader phones are just as big of a security problem if you do not have to type the PIN. And they cost more, which raises telephone rates. > > As I have already destroyed the offending card and plan to cancel it > > (I have been using it regularly for AT&T long distance; it seemed to > > work just fine) and replace it with an AT&T card, can someone explain > > what the practical differences, if any, are between the AT&T card and > > a calling card issued by a telco? > And, finally, the AT&T card DOES print the PIN on the card, as do all > other long distance carrier cards I've seen. Allnet does not issue a standard looking credit card so the PIN is not on it. On the other hand, I seem to remember that it is about 10 digits long, so you probably have to write it down, unless you can figure out a good acronym for your random number. Also, they change the number frequently and expire the number if you do not use it for a month or two or so. And they have 2 different numbers depending on whether you are dialing their 950 number or their 800 number. David Gast gast@cs.ucla.edu {uunet,ucbvax,rutgers}!{ucla-cs,cs.ucla.edu}!gast ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jan 89 10:39:48 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) To: bovine!john@apple.com Cc: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: 1+areacode Wasn't it as recent as 1982 when "local & nearby calling" in 415/408 was only 7 digits, even if crossing that areacode boundary? Then, the change made was to require the areacode on all calls, even local, crossing areacode boundary, so you got what New York City had until late 1980. Area 415 is apparently growing fast enough to be running out of NNX. As I recall, all or part of areas 516 and 914 (these pick up NYC suburbs) have not required 1 before area codes, nor has Pittsburgh (area 412), and several years ago I dialed "800" from 3 pay phones in Delaware (prefixes 674, 475, 478) without the leading 1. I don't know if any of these changed. ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@rutgers.edu From: ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) Subject: Re: 1+ dialing and new AC for SF Bay Area? Date: 23 Jan 89 18:15:07 GMT Mostly this comes from the use in the local area of exchanges that have N0X/N1X prefixes. Washington DC just went through this change as well. Since they never used to allocate prefixes from this range, it never used to be a problem, but now it needs 1+ to indicate that what follows is an area code and no 1+ to indicate that the prefix is following. From what I've read, the Numbering plan has always intended to have NXX prefixes, but it was a convenient hack to differentiate area codes by this basis in the past. It certainly saved dialing time, but touch tone and autodialers made this less of a problem. -Ron ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU From: desnoyer@Apple.COM (Peter Desnoyers) Subject: Re: Victims of Wrong Numbers Date: 24 Jan 89 01:22:55 GMT Along those lines - The exchange for dormitory phones at MIT is 225, and there is a room in New House? Next House? with the phone number (617) 225-8xyz, where 1-800-225-8xyz is the toll-free number for reservations for the Sheraton across the river. I knew someone who was unfortunate enough to live in that room - the problem is that you can't dial 800 numbers from outside the U.S., so many of the people who call the number are foreign, speak English poorly, and are in a different time zone. Several callers were persistent enough that she had to take reservations to get rid of them. (or so she says) The switch was an old step-by-step, and the crafts where surly part-time students, so the easiest way for her to change her number was to move to another room. Peter Desnoyers ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.UU.NET From: boottrax@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Perry Victor Lea) Subject: Re: Query about Telebit Date: 24 Jan 89 05:12:26 GMT Do not use a Telebit modem on an amiga, that is if it's over 9600 baud. Amiga systems use as a standard US Robotics ONLY! I have never found a 9600 + baud system that operates with a US robotics. US, has promised to upgrade their modems and promise compatibility. Without one, people will not be able to call your BBS, trust me, I use one, and run a bbs. [-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-] | "Undermine their pompous authority, make anarchy and disorder your | o trademarks cause as much disruption and chaos as possible, but don't let o | them take you alive" - Sid Vicious | o ____ ____ o | Boo\ /rax bootrax@csd4.milw.wisc.edu | [-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest *********************