HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 11:06:26 CST
From: Joe Konstan <konstan@cs.umn.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Good Opportunity For Fraud (actually ATMs)
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 39, Message 8 of 12

In TELECOM Digest V13 #37, Henry Mensch writes about the Citibank ATMs
in Chicago vs. New York:

> Actually, they have newer ones.  Citibank was, I think, the first bank
> in the New York metro area to offer ATM cards ... and they designed
> all their own hardware (nobody else was doing it at the time). From
> day one, Citibank ATMs in New York did not have the possibility of
> retaining your card (they even used to advertise this fact ... some
> customers early on were wary of machines which "ate" the card for a
> while).

Almost.  Citibank was far from first, but they did become the biggest
based on ATMs.  Two elements in the story are interesting (though
their Telecom relevance is somewhat minimal):

First, in NYC at least, the earliest "Cash Machines" were just cash
machines -- no other banking.  At Dollar Savings Bank you would have
to open a special, non-interest bearing account, which always needed
to have either 200 or 300 dollars in it AFTER any withdrawl (or it
would eat your card).  They put in a couple of machines at the
branches, and as best I could tell the machines were completely
off-line.  They recorded information on your card and reconciled
balances and transactions at the end of the day.

Not long thereafter, larger banks started moving into real ATMs.
Chemical Bank (where I later worked) was both proud and chagrined by
the fact that it had the first ATMs of the major banks in NYC.
Chagrined because of what a smaller bank by the name of First National
City Bank did.

And here is the second part of the story.  First National City Bank,
which was not, at the time, in the top 5 banks, seized on the idea of
ATMs and 24 hour service.  They changed their name to Citibank and
armed themselves with the slogan "The Citi Never Sleeps."  Soon,
Citibank ATMs were everywhere and they left the competition in the
dust.  In an industry with tremendous consumer inertia, Citibank
pulled off one of the biggest coups of all time.

Much later, a number of other NYC banks put together NYCE (the New
York Cash Exchange), a local network of ATMs that was designed to
counter Citibank's predominance in the ATM business.  While this is
less important now, with the high degree of interconnectivity, I
believe that NYCE transactions are still generally made without ATM
fees.

There are other stories involved in home banking (with which I was
involved at Chemical), the Atari 400, and related topics, but I'll
save those for another time.


Joe Konstan   konstan@cs.umn.edu
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 93 21:39:12 GMT
From: gay@mprgate.mpr.ca(Stephen Gay)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Anyone Know of Telecommunication GUI Standards? 
Organization: MPR Teletch Ltd
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 36, Message 6 of 8

Greetings, 

I am trying to locate any standards or recommendations for the
graphical display of information pertinent to monitoring a
telecommunication network.

For instance, is there a standard or recommendation that says that a
normal condition should be green and that an alarm condition should be
red, or that a point that has been in alarm and has not been
acknowledged should blink?

I would appreciate any information about such a standard or which
group is working on such a standard or any other information you could
supply.

Please email me directly at gay@mprgate.mpr.ca.


Thanks in advance,

Stephen M. Gay     MPR Teltech Ltd.  gay@mprgate.mpr.ca
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 10:29:41 CST
From: hitchy@multi.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Modem Dial Lines and Problems
Organization: Multi-Tech Systems, Inc., Mounds View, MN
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 40, Message 13 of 13

                      Multi-Tech Systems Inc.
                        Tom - Tech Support
                      800-972-2439 Ext.#602

  To: Jack Lowry  
  Re: Connection problems w/ V.32 modems
 
The modems should be able to connect over voice quality dial-up lines.
You should not need a special data line.  There are a couple of
questions I have for you:

       A. What is the exact model of the modems you are
          using?
       B. What are the serial numbers? I can see what vs.
          EE prom is currently in the modem.  
       C. Are you using error correction on the modems?  
       D. Did you try connecting at 4800 baud?

It is possible since you are connecting over a Fiber line that the
modems are over driving each other preventing you from getting
connected. There is an undocumented register that can be changed.
That register is S20. Try changing this register to a 8.(ATS20=8&W)
This will boost the transmit level to a -8db. The factory setting is a
-10db. It is not advisible to go any stronger than this on a dial-up
line. If this makes it worse change the S20 register to a 12 (ATS20=12&W).

If you have any questions Please give me a call or respond via mail.
The hours here are 8:30 to 5:00 cst.

Regards,

Tom Hitchcock
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 20:05 GMT
From: Bruce Sullivan <Bruce_Sullivan++LOCAL+dADR%Nordstrom_6731691@mcimail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Apartment Security Stupidity
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 39, Message 4 of 12

> [Moderator's Note: I am rather surprised that this system actually
> dialed a seven-digit phone number. Most such arragements simply seize
> the pair at some point between the CO and the tenant to (1) temporar-
> ily disconnect the wire from the CO and (2) impose their own battery
> and ringing current on the line. Under the system where your in-law
      (rest of message deleted....)
 
I was relatively unfamiliar with/naive about these systems when I had
an interesting experience a couple years ago with one which *did* dial
a seven-digit number. I received a call at work from a rather confused
person who was standing at the front door of an apartment building
about three miles away. Seems they'd punched in the access code for
their friends' apartment and got me instead. I suppose the building
management must have had a finger check when the input the number. I
got the tenants phone number & actually tried to transfer the call to
them. Couldn't do that for some reason, but I did call her up and say,
"This is Bruce at such-and-so company. Bob is waiting for you at the
front door and you should let your manager know that there's a
problem."
 
Frankly, 'Bob' and the tenant took it in stride. I think *I* was a bit
more taken aback at the time than they were. I was unfamiliar with the
workings of these systems. Since then, I've lived in a number of
buildings which had similar systems -- all of which required the use
of my phone *and* seven-digit number (and, subsequently, call-waiting).
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 93 11:18:31 PST
From: awry!tom@hercules.aptix.com (Tom Ace)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: 702-333-8444 (was Strange International "Chat Line" Service)
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 36, Message 7 of 8

Our Telecom Moderator writes:

> ... AT&T denies it of course, but 702-333-8444 is a good example.> 
> Try calling it on any carrier *other* than Mother. AT&T graciously
> accepts the twelve cents per minute and cuts the 'bridge tender' in on
> the action.  PAT]

10333 1 702 333 8444 completed the call.  What were you expecting
would happen?


Tom Ace    tom@aptix.com


[Moderator's Note: I *know* two things happened. Someone is taking
your 10333 and either ignoring it and handing it off one plus by
default to AT&T or changing it to 10288 which is another way of
getting Mother. I tried 10333 from here and the call definitly would
not complete. Actually, it *did* complete to that number, which is an
answering machine telling the caller to redial using 10288. On the
other hand, AT&T sees those calls arriving in Reno (I think), grabs
them and sends them over a T-1 direct to the bridge tender without
handing them to the local telco for completion as does Sprint, MCI,
etc.  Are you in control of your 10xxx assertions when you dial, or is
some PBX/COCOT/other private system making those decisions whether you
like it or not ... or indeed even if you know it or not?  Try 10333 + 0
and ask the operator who she is ... betcha she'll say AT&T, because
your system kicked you over there when you thought otherwise. Please
let us know the results of your further testing.   PAT]
From: tener@cs.widener.edu (Stuart Tener)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: "Secret" Phone Codes
Date: 26 Jan 93 10:08:02 GMT
Organization: Widener University CS Department, Chester PA
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 45, Message 2 of 7

> In one of those discussions, about a year ago, a number was posted
> that purported to work nationally: 10732-1-404-988-9664.  10732 is a
> private ATT network.  I know that this number does return your area
> code and number verbally from 213, 310 and 818 area codes, and I have
> read reports from others that it works elsewhere.  It does add an
> "eight" to the end of any number I've ever called it from.

A friend of mine tried this number, and said it works from 215!  Only
thing is he said that it gave an "8" at the end of the number?!?


stuart b. tener, N3GWG     tener@cs.widener.edu
(215)-338-6005    n3gwg@k3pgb.#epa.pa.usa.na (packet)
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 16:36:14 GMT
From: bcapps@atlastele.com (Brent Capps)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Beware: Portability
Organization: Atlas Telecom Inc.
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 43, Message 4 of 12

In article <telecom13.29.6@eecs.nwu.edu> bill@toto.info.com writes:

> BCS-34 (BCS: Bad Canadian Software ;-).

FYI, the software that drives the DMS-250s used by Sprint is written
by BNR -- in Richardson, TX.


Brent Capps                         
bcapps@agora.rain.com (gay stuff)   
bcapps@atlastele.com (telecom stuff)
From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Phone Translation Experiment
Date: 26 Jan 93 07:09:48 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 44, Message 2 of 15

Reuters reports of a Japanese project to provide live phone
translation.  An experiment was scheduled for this week to test
translation among Japansese, English and German speakers located in
Japan, U.S.A. and Germany respectively. Advanced Telecommunications
Research Institute (ATR) in Tokyo says 90% of regular vocabulary can
be processed, though it may take another decade for such a system to
be placed into public service. ATR, Carnegie Mellon University
(Pittsburgh) and University of Karlsruhe (Munich) are the partners in
this experiment.

The idea is to take voice from one party of a conversation, apply
speech recognition to convert that voice to text, then translate the
text, then send the voice synthesised translation in the language of
the other party.  The process of translating from voice to voice takes
about 20 seconds with this experimental technology.

On other translation topics:

* AT&T's Language Line exists today to provide translation staff for
phone calls. Some organizations such as the Toronto Transit Commission
will connect to AT&T Language Line when handling public inquiries.

* The Nation's Capital Freenet project (Ottawa, Canada - akin to the
Cleveland FreeNet) has an expressed interest to provide automated
e-mail and newsgroup translation for the English and French
communities.


Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98
INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG
From: hwr@pilhuhn.ka.sub.org (Heiko W.Rupp)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Papers on Fibre Wire Using Solitons
Date: 25 Jan 93 09:52:51 GMT
Organization: The Home of the Pilhuhn
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 44, Message 12 of 15

Hi,

I'am in search of some literature about solitons in optical data
distribution in general and about the news fibre wire connecting USA
and Europe in special.

I think having seen, that this cable has been installed by AT&T and
Deutsche Bundespost. The cable uses solitary waves, so it needs only
few (or no) repeaters.

I set the followup to poster, as I normally don't read these groups.


Thanks in advance.

Heiko W.Rupp  Gerwigstr.5  7500 Kh'e 1  hwr@pilhuhn.ka.sub.org  +49 721 693642
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 01:13:32 CST
From: Jack.Winslade@axolotl.omahug.org (Jack Winslade)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Telecom Management Degrees
Reply-To: jack.winslade%drbbs@axolotl.omahug.org
Organization: DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 43, Message 12 of 12

In a message dated 14-JAN-93, J.D. Delancy writes:

> Does anyone know what colleges/universities offer a Telecommunications
> Management Degree program starting at the associates level?  All I've
> seen has been a Masters Level program at places like Univ of Maryland.
 
College of St. Mary in Omaha offers such a thing.  (Joe, are you
listening in?)  One of our users is currently registered.  I am hoping
he will respond as well.  You might write or phone for info.


College of St. Mary
1901 S. 72
Omaha, NE 68124
402-399-2400
 

Good day!      JSW
DRBBS   (1:285/666.0)
From: andyr@wizzy.com (Andy Rabagliati)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: US Losing Lead in Telecom - USC Report
Date: 21 Jan 93 20:33:40 GMT
Organization: W.Z.I.
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 37, Message 4 of 15

In article <telecom13.19.3@eecs.nwu.edu> MCMANGPH@NUSVM.BITNET (Ang
Peng Hwa) writes:

> This report is from UPI:

> Los Angeles -- America's traditional lead in telecommunications is
> eroding very rapidly as other nations promote new technologies,
> according to a study released Wednesday.

> Nations like Japan, the United Kingdom, Singapore and others write
> off and replace equipment twice as fast as most US carriers."

Well, the United Kingdom had Strowger mechanical exchanges in a lot of
places up until eight years ago. They held back on their equipment
replacement until BT's System X was ready.


Cheers,   

Andy.
andyr@wizzy.com      W.Z.I. Consulting (719) 635-6099
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 12:29:21 GMT
From: Graham Toal <gtoal@pizzabox.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Do Telcos Record the Numbers of Local Calls?
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 45, Message 7 of 7

Not exactly.  Think about this -- the call was placed from a payphone,
and they didn't know which one -- they just knew the called number.
Unless the logs for the called number now include the calling number
of incoming calls, we can conclude that the telco has structured its
data so that you can do a fast search on the called number, ie the
data is indexed by both callers number (for billing) and called number
(for security services purposes).

This is exactly what I said some years ago that the UK System X
service does. I can even make an educated guess that the data
structure used to index the phone numbers is a linked dag, and that
the lookup is almost instantaneous.  (Heck, even with an ISAM it would
be pretty fast ...)

Over here, the over-the-shelf phone cards have serial numbers, so even
though they're anonymous, the security services can still find out who
all the other people you called are even if they found your call to a
single target.  Anonymity of payphones is an illusion.

Also, in London, a great many public phones are in areas covered by
security cameras.  This is how they caught an hoax bomb caller last
year -- they picked him up in the area minutes after making a call on
a payphone.

BTW, there's some commercial neural net software out now for detecting
cliques in graphs.  Want to bet its first application was studying
phone network logs?


G
From: toddi@mav.com (Todd Inch)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Opinions on PBX - Toshiba Strata DK-56
Date: 23 Jan 93 18:43:22 GMT
Organization: Maverick International Inc.
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 41, Message 8 of 12

In article <telecom13.18.6@eecs.nwu.edu> rathmann@nic.cerf.net (Raul
Rathmann) writes:

> I am considering picking up a Toshiba Strata DK-56 PBX with various
> handsets.  Does anyone have any opinions on this unit, good or bad?

I looked at this and chose a Tadiran Coral system instead.  The Coral
is more flexible and slightly cheaper -- several interconnects I spoke
to are making it their system of choice.

One problem (from memory -- my notes aren't handy) is the Toshiba
would not connect to a certain type of line -- either T-1 or DID.
Also someone mentioned that there is something wrong with the dialing
buttons on Toshiba -- they either don't produce real tones the user
can hear (minor annoyance) or they have timed tones which won't sound
for as long as you hold down the keys, which is a real pain trying to
access answering machines and some voicemail-type services.

Also, the Coral is almost infinitly expandible, while the Toshiba
contains the number 56 for a reason :-).

The Coral also has some funky data features that we may want to use in
the future, such as an integral serial data jack (optional) on phones,
data-pbx functions, and built-in modems.  It has one built-in
maintenance modem for remote programming and diagnostics.  Since I'm
really the DP guy, this appealed to me.

The Coral has "CoralMail" as a VM option, so I didn't inquire further.

Overall, the Toshiba looks like a decent system, though.  I found at
least two local interconnects who I like and favor the Tadiran, but
getting parts/service on the Toshiba is probably easier, maybe
significantly so in your area.  Service can be a big issue for PBX's.
The people trying to sell me a Toshiba sell nothing else, so they are
biased, whereas the Coral-pushers have sold and serviced many brands
including the Toshibas.
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 06:41:46 -0500 (EST)
From: Paul Robinson <tdarcos@access.digex.com>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Subscribable Mailing Lists on Internet?
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 38, Message 7 of 11

A TELECOM Digest reader asked me if there was a way to get a list of
Internet news lists he could subscribe to.  Here is a copy of the
reply I sent him:

It depends on whether your system charges you for incoming mail.  If
they don't (or you don't mind paying the charges, which could be as
high as US $12 or more at the typical outrageous 5c/K some X.400
services like Sprintmail can get away with for charges), and you can
receive a *large* message (250K) then send a message with the
following text (subject is ignored):
 
LIST GLOBAL
 
To the following internet address:
 
LISTSERV@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU
 
This will send you the "List of Lists" of what mailing lists that are
available from Bitnet.  Including lists that peer each other (where
the list runs out of two or more sites to reduce network overhead)
there are about 3200 lists, 2500 of which are probably different,
ranging from the APL language (APL-L) to the ZWriter Users group
(ZWSUG).
 
Internet doesn't have any trouble sending a file this large because I
got it via MCI Mail once.  I once E-Mailed myself (via Internet) a
single file to MCI Mail that was 840K.  It received it and MCI Mail
allowed me to download it.
                       
Someone else may have the list of Internet based subscribable lists, I
know there is one I just don't know who makes it.  I will CC this
message to TELECOM Digest and allow the readers there to give some
insight.


Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM
Date: 24 Jan 1993 11:38:40 -0800
From: dave@telco-nac.com (David Cornejo)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Internet *67 Service
Organization: Telco Systems NAC, Fremont, CA
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 43, Message 3 of 12

In article <telecom13.36.3@eecs.nwu.edu> Paul Robinson <tdarcos@access.
digex.com> writes:

> Note earlier in this message I said "the one that's left".  There was
> a service being run in Australia that did even more.  First you used
> the program PGP - a free RSA Public key generator - to create a public
> and private key.  You could then send the service your public key
> first, then send messages which were UUENCODEd using the matching
> private key, and told that system where to send the message.  It would
> use the previously supplied key to decrypt the message and then
> forward it under the unique ID.

> Unfortunately the backbone supplier for his area caught on to what he
> was doing, and like most stuffy governmental authorities, takes a dim
> view of people keeping their private matters private, informed him
> that the activity he was doing was not a valid use of the network and
> ordered the service discontinued.  Boo.

In a note that I saw posted somewhere, the operator of this service
said that the other reason given by the backbone supplier was that the
links to Australia were overburdened even without this added traffic.
This was the primary reason why he chose not to protest too strongly.

My own feeling is that these services are innappropriate for use on
the Internet. I feel that since some other entity pays to transport my
traffic on its network that I owe them some accountability. (I know
that we usually pay for the connection to the Internet, but in general
the transport is at the expense of someone else) If the Australian
network (which I believe has educational/government funding) feels
that someones late night mumblings to alt.sex.* is inappropriate given
their charter who are we to complain? It is after all their dime.


Dave Cornejo, Telco Systems NAC   voice 510.490.3111
4305 Cushing Parkway                        ext 5158
Fremont, CA 94538                   FAX 510.490.9396
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 15:00:52 GMT
From: dannyb@Panix.Com (Daniel Burstein)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 702-333-8444 (was Strange International "Chat Line" Service)
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 39, Message 9 of 12

In <telecom13.36.7@eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Moderator noted in response
to awry!tom@hercules.aptix.com (Tom Ace):

> Try 10333 + 0 and ask the operator who she is ... betcha she'll say
> AT&T, because your system kicked you over there when you thought
> otherwise. Please let us know the results of your further testing.  PAT]

Or, in most cases, you could try 10xxx-1-700-555-4141
                                 10xxx-0-700-555-4141

to get the automated notice of long distance carrier.


dannyb@panix.com