Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (5.58/4.7) id AA06068; Sun, 8 Jan 89 00:22:18 EST Message-Id: <8901080522.AA06068@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Sun, 8 Jan 89 0:12:42 EST From: The Moderator Reply-To: TELECOM@bu-cs.BU.EDU Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #7 To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu TELECOM Digest Sun, 8 Jan 89 0:12:42 EST Volume 9 : Issue 7 Today's Topics: Remote Method To Switch Incoming Lines Re: Telephone gizmo for one-line customers Re: Excuses instead of info Re: Excuses instead of info Re: finding ringback numbers Re: For Callback Security Use a Different Line Re: Time marches on... OUT OF CHANGE? message ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu.UUCP Date: 6 Jan 89 11:20:30 CST (Fri) From: pdg@chinet.chi.il.us (Paul Guthrie) Subject: Remote Method To Switch Incoming Lines In article soley@ontenv writes: >In article , black%ll-micro@ll-vlsi.arpa (Jerry Glomph Black) writes: >: I just read a short review in PC Week about a $400 gizmo which >: answers your phone, then issues a robot-voice announcement to the >: caller requesting that the (hopefully touch-tone-equipped) person >: press the '3' button. The caller is then connected to your voice >: phone, which rings as usual. If '3' is not pressed, the gizmo >: box assumes that a fax or modem is calling, and your data >: equipment receives the incoming call. Seems like a good way to >: get double use of one line. >I think what you were reading about is a product called Watson, in >addition to doing what you say it also is a modem and comes with >voicemail software for the PC (a little rudimentary, but workable) >considering this the price is quite reasonable. Yes, the watson can do this, as can other similar devices such as bigmouth and Dialogic boards. They range in price from $189 or so for Watson, to $2000 for dialogics (but they can handle 8 lines with conferencing and call progression sensing etc). I have also seen a dedicated specific device like the original poster mentioned for about the $300 price. All of these take software support, and forget it if you don't have a IBM compatible running MessyDos. The best way to go, though, is to call KISS engineering at 1 (800) 442-2285 and order `The one ring thing'. What it does is let you call in, let the phone ring once and you hang up. The next time you call (for one minute), it will have switched to the second line. Therefor this works if you have both an answering machine and a modem. I don't recall the price, but its less than $50. By the way, if anybody is interested I have a Unix device driver for Dialogic boards (in beta test). Also, dialogic has a nice new board that lets you bring a T-Span into a PC. You can then link it with another board they sell to do the conferencing, A/D APCM conversion etc. Useful now for big telemarketing people, but will be great for gateways if they eventually provide ISDN PRI user side support. -- Paul Guthrie chinet!nsacray!paul ------------------------------ To: uunet!comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.UU.NET From: van-bc!sl@uunet.UU.NET (pri=-10 Stuart Lynne) Subject: Re: Telephone gizmo for one-line customers Date: 7 Jan 89 09:09:12 GMT In article chaney@E.MS.UKY.EDU (Dan Chaney) writes: >In article soley@ontenv writes: >>In article , black%ll-micro@ll-vlsi.arpa (Jerry Glomph Black) writes: >>: I just read a short review in PC Week about a $400 gizmo which >>: answers your phone, then issues a robot-voice announcement to the >>.... > >-- Is there a way to differentiate between FAX and regular modem-logins? > I understand that there are el-cheapo FAX programs that, using your > modem, act as a document-based fax machine. These programs are much > cheaper, on the order of $50-$100. No, there is no way to use a normal (Hayes 1200/2400) type modem for Fax. > What I would like to be able to do is have the computer pick up > the phone and run either the FAX program if this is a fax call or > go ahead and run a login to Unix. I can also for see DOS people > wanting to choose between FAX, UUCP and possibly a third BBS package. > Am I dreaming or is this at all possible? I do not have any specs > on FAX protocol but would be interested if anyone has such data. > I heard a rumour yesterday about a Fax Modem with a built in Hayes 2400 compatible modem that can offer a dial tone to incoming calls. The caller then can send another touch tone digit to activate the service he requires. So you could tell your uucp users to dial: atdt555-1212W1 And your fax users to dial: atdt555-1212W2 Assuming W stands for "wait for tone". Of course if the fax person is really calling from a fax machine he may have to use other modifiers for the dial strings, but this is the equivalent to getting through a PBX which most machines seem to be capable of. On the computer side it would see some messages from the modem along the lines of "DIGIT 1" or "DIGIT 2". Sounds like just the thing for small systems where you don't really want to dedicate a line to both uucp *AND* fax. You just need software that can watch the modem and give a normal login for some connects, and go direct to a fax receive program for others. Of even more interest the person I talked to claimed that this would be in an external box that you can talk to over a serial port! So it's not tied to the PC architecture. I'll forward more details when I confirm all this. -- Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca {ubc-cs,uunet}!van-bc!sl Vancouver,BC,604-937-7532 ------------------------------ To: tikal!uw-beaver!comp-dcom-telecom@beaver.cs.washington.edu From: mcgp1!donn@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Donn Pedro) Subject: Re: Excuses instead of info Date: 6 Jan 89 16:23:12 GMT In article , hp-sdd!rog@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Roger Haaheim) writes: > Back in the good old days...one could dial a special number, > hang up, and the dialing phone would ring; some kind of > echo. It was used by phonefolks who came to fix the phone, > to check to see if it was working. They had no problem > telling the customer what that number was so the customer > could dial back to him/herself. Why has that capability > become proprietary? I know it's still done, but when I > ask...excuses, but no number. How come? Because while i worked for Pacific Bell in California those numbers were limited to a very few per central office. If I gave out the ringback codes to everyone who asked it would not be available for our use for testing. People used it to busy out their phones so as not to be disturbed. How convenient! They did not want to disconnect their phone so it would ring like they were not home. So thats why you werent privvy to that info. Its proprietary information necessary to the function of the repair tech and gets abused by the general public when it gets out. Former phone man, Donn F Pedro {the known world}!uw-beaver!tikal!mcgp1!donn -------------------------------------------------------------- "You talk the talk. Do you walk the walk?" ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.UU.NET From: zorac!dretor.dciem.dnd.ca!chk@uunet.UU.NET (C. Harald Koch) Subject: Re: Excuses instead of info Date: 6 Jan 89 19:58:53 GMT In article jacobson@gamma.eecs.nwu.edu (Dan Jacobson) writes: >My house, say 475-9999, uses: >dial 1-572-9999, hear funny tone, click phone, hear tone, hang up, it rings. >You can loop here^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ Here in Toronto, you can use 57x-xxxx, where x-xxxx are the last five digits of your phone number. This only works on touch-tone phone lines though. (If the exchange supports touch-tone, but you haven't suscribed, it doesn't work). -- C. Harald Koch NTT Systems, Inc., Toronto, Ontario chk@zorac.dciem.dnd.ca, chk@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu, chk@chkent.UUCP "I give you my phone number. If you worry, call me. I'll make you happy." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Jan 89 16:02:56 EST From: harvard!ima.ISC.COM!johnl (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: finding ringback numbers In article Miguel_Cruz@ub.cc.umich.edu writes: >On most ESS systems, if you set up a reasonably intelligent modem to dial >each possible exchange followed by the last 4 digits of your phone number ... > >[Moderator's Note: The main thing that I do not like about this approach >is the ringing of *random telephones looking for something else.* ... Clearly the ringback prefix can't be the same as a valid exchange or you couldn't call anybody in that exchange. Program your modem to call only the unassigned prefixes to avoid pestering people. Most local phone books have a list of assigned prefixes in the local NPA. I also note that telcos often use a range of prefixes, e.g. in New Jersey they use 550 to 559 excepting 555. If you look at the assigned prefixes and see ten in a row that are unused, that's probably it. -- 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. ------------------------------ To: uunet!comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.UU.NET From: visdc!jiii@uunet.UU.NET (John E Van Deusen III) Subject: Re: For Callback Security Use a Different Line Date: 7 Jan 89 00:28:09 GMT The problem of verifying that a penetrator is not hanging on the line could be solved by first dialing your own system and doing some secret handshaking. This method does not require extra lines, (unless the call mix is 100% call-back of incoming calls), or optional services. Some programming is required, and the penetrator will see the login sequence used to do the verification. It would be, therefore, one of those single-command logins with no password. ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@decwrl.dec.com From: jbn@glacier.stanford.edu (John B. Nagle) Subject: Re: Time marches on... Date: 7 Jan 89 18:41:14 GMT The John Crerar Library at IIT in Chicago had, and probably still has, a number of classic pamphlets and books on early telephony. I don't have the titles, but they included a pamphlet for the public describing, in great detail, with pictures, what happens when various types of calls are placed in a large metropolitan area with strictly manual boards. The level of detail is amazing; the functions of A, B and toll boards are covered, and in one scenario, a line is down, and its use blows a grasshopper fuse, triggering a minor alarm and sending craftsmen into the frames to fix the problem. There's also a large-format book on step-by-step switching, describing in excruciating detail, over many pages, the Strowgear system of step-by-step switching. The author wanted a full diagram of the switch on each facing page, opposite the text explaining the function being discussed, and this led to much extra space, which he filled with religious homilies. Are these gems still there? Somebody in Chicago might check. John Nagle ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Jan 89 17:48:39 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: OUT OF CHANGE? message About a year ago, I said that 804 and 703-area C&P pay phones have the same OUT OF CHANGE? message. They do differ in the instruction for 0+ local calls: 0+number and 0+areacode+number respectively. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest *********************