From: lkimes@alshain.usc.edu (Lance 'Moof' Kimes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: Re: PD soft. for telephone pagers
Date: 28 Jul 1992 14:06:38 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: alshain.usc.edu


In article <Bs45u1.E0E@world.std.com>, aml@world.std.com (Andrew M Langmead) writes:
|> lkimes@alshain.usc.edu (Lance 'Moof' Kimes) writes:
|> >My pager company doesn't have a tech. dept. to answer these questions.
|> >Can the Motorola Advisor model receive straight text input from a
|> >modem & terminal program? What are the specifics? Beginning & ending
|> >codes? TTY or vt100? Anything else that comes to mind? If anyone would
|> >be kind enough to answer these specific questions without guessing,
|> >I will spend two weeks developing a PD paging software for the Mac.
|> 
|> 
|> >Lance Kimes
|> >Systems Programmer
|> >USC
|> 
|> Numeric and Alpha-numeric pagers speak a syncronous serial protocol very
|> unlike the ansyncronous serial protocols like MODEMs do. (No start or
|> stop bits, but a special sync word every 16 words (a word can contain
|> 5 digits for numerica pagers, must be two words for alpha.) Each pager
|> also has a capcode (or like an address) to differentiate this pager
|> from every other pager in existance. (Or at least on that frequency in
|> a given area, I'm not sure.)  When you dial a phone number for a
|> pager and give DTMF (touch tone) tones the host at the paging company
|> makes a phone number to cap code translation and send the data to the
|> proper pager.
|> 
|> For alpha pagers, Motorolla developed the iXO protocol. The Telecator
|> group later standardized on it as the way to send alpha numerica data
|> to pagers and renamed it TAP (Telecator Alphanumeric Protocol.) Basically
|> a computer logs in and then sends messages in packets like
|> telephone_number<CR>message<CR>checksum<CR>
|> with the host responding in with ACKs/NAKs/RS.
|> Obviously, this isn't sent to the phone line given the pager. This is 
|> a special line hooked to a MODEM and a host expecting TAP. There is 
|> also and option for a manual mode that doesn't need checksums and
|> gives more prompts. ("Enter the pager's Number", "Enter message", "Page
|> accepted, Thank you.") Either would be no-echo TTY (manual mode may
|> be host echo, depending on the system.) 300 baud is defined in the spec, but
|> I've seen TAP terminals that run at 9600 baud.
|> 
|> Some companies also distribute a TAP program (that probably runs on a PC)
|> to send pages by MODEM in a menu driven mode.
|> 
|> 
|> If your paging company doesn't have a TAP line, I don't know what you can
|> do about the Ansering Service charges, though. The only way you can
|> talk to your pager is through the paging companies host, and if the
|> only inputs they allow you is either DTMF numeric entry and the answering
|> service, those are your choices.
|> -- 
|> |Andrew Langmead - A frustrated Mac/Unix programmer stuck in an MS-DOS job    |
|> |Usenet=aml@world.std.com      |S. O'Conner "We Live in a dangerous Age       |
|> |bix=a.langmead CI$=72411,1560 | To say how you feel is to lay your own grave"|


Thank you very much!!! Really, that was exactly what I needed.
I have some unix source code for ixo translation & the phone number the
paging company has for "TAP" connections. I am presently converting TPage
to MPW. Give me a week & a good bit of luck and we should be in business.


Again, thank you very much Andrew.
To those who proceeded to give me a length explaination of WHAT pagers
were, get a life & a brain while you're at it.


Lance Kimes
Systems Programmer
USC
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm