HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: esl!jcyu@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Jeff Yu)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Looking for ISDN PC Adapters
Date: 15 Nov 92 18:20:48 GMT
Organization: ESL Inc., Sunnyvale, CA
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 850, Message 13 of 13

Hi,

   I am looking for an ISDN adapter card for an IBM-compatible PC.  I
am primarily interested in ab Basic Rate Interface (BRI), but Primary
Rate Interface (PRI) cards (if any) are also of interest.  I would
appreciate any direct comments, pointers to {PC Week / Data Commun-
ications} /etc. guides, or FTP archives.  If this is a FAQ, I would
appreciate a pointer to that FAQ list.

   I would prefer responses by direct e-mail, since I don't follow
this newsgraoup regularly (yet).  I will post a summary of responses
later.


Thanks in advance,

Jeff Yu		Advanced Systems Laboratory
jcyu@.esl.com	ESL Inc.
The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of anyone at all.
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 09:48:00 -0800 (PST)
From: booloo@framsparc.ocf.llnl.gov (Mark Boolootian)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: A Telephone Service Call
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 850, Message 6 of 13

This has passed through several hands and I thought I would pass it on
to the folks here.  I got a good laugh out of it.


 Date: 10/30/92 8:59 AM
 From: Gene Ledbetter
 Judith,

I used to be in Telephone Operations (long ere ever ye knew me), and I
KNOW without a doubt that some of your old hands would love to hear
the following gospel-true story (which just arrived over the wire from
a friend in D.C.):

A TELEPHONE SERVICE CALL

This story was related by Pat Routledge of Winnepeg, ONT about an
unusual telephone service call he handled while living in England.

It is common practice in England to signal a telephone subscriber by
signaling with 90 volts across one side of the two wire circuit and
ground (earth in England). When the subscriber answers the phone, it
switches to the two wire circuit for the conversation. This method
allows two parties on the same line to be signalled without disturbing
each other.

This particular subscriber, an elderly lady with several pets called
to say that her telephone failed to ring when her friends called and
that on the few occasions when it did manage to ring her dog always
barked first.  Torn between curiosity to see this psychic dog and a
realization that standard service techniques might not suffice in this
case, Pat proceeded to the scene. Climbing a nearby telephone pole and
hooking in his test set, he dialed the subscriber's house.  The phone
didn't ring. He tried again. The dog barked loudly, followed by a
ringing telephone. Climbing down from the pole, Pat found:

    a.   Dog was tied to the telephone system's ground post via an iron
         chain and collar. 
    b.   Dog was receiving 90 volts of signalling current. 
    c.   After several jolts, the dog was urinating on ground and barking. 
    d.   Wet ground now conducted and phone rang.

Which goes to prove that some grounding problems can be passed on.


Mark Boolootian		booloo@llnl.gov		+1 510 423 1948


[Moderator's Note: Oh dear me! This story has been around *so long* --
it has appeared in this Digest at least a half-dozen times over the
past ten years. When Jon Solomon used to moderate this Digest several
years ago he printed it once or twice; I've used it before also. I
guess it makes a good story for the newcomers now and then.  :)  PAT
From: weber@charlie.iam.unibe.ch (Stephan Weber)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Network Design Algorithm
Date: 21 Nov 92 08:40:58 GMT
Reply-To: weber@iam.unibe.ch
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Berne, Switzerland
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 864, Message 1 of 15

Help Wanted For Network Design Algorithms !!!!

I am working on a project to design telecomunication networks. I found
in the book "Data Networks " by Dimitri Bertsekas and Robert Gallagher
(1987) the description of the Capacity Assignment Problem. There are a
formal Description and a heuristic algorithm given.

Now I have a question. Do you know other papers or books which
describe this kind of problems (Design of Backbone - Network based on
traffic matrices).  Also I would like to get in concact with people
working in thies area to discuss problems and questions.

My interests are specially in people working with operation research
methods and on the other side with artificial intelligence methods. My
question is, how these two techniques can be used to design in a
efficient way cost-effective telecommunication networks.

I appreciate all the information you can provide me. Thanks a lot.


Stephan Weber  
Institut fuer Informatik und angewandte Mathematik
Universitaet Bern  Laenggassstrasse 51  CH - 3012 Bern
Telephone:  ..41 31 65 49 03   TeleFax	..41 31 65 39 65 
eMail	weber@iam.unibe.ch
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 11:13:55 -0500
From: glaser@dsmail.lkg.dec.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: The Worst Phone Lines in the US?
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 846, Message 2 of 13

stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) described a story with Atlantic
Ritchfield buying Southwestern Bell (SWB) lines and using private
microwave to send the over to GTE territory.

I heard that Burroughs (now Unisys) did the same trick in the LA area
back in the 60s for their Pasadena CA plant.

On a different, but related front ...

In the early 70s, SWB in Houston realized that they had a major mess
in their cable plant.  They hired phone workers from lots of other
Bell companies for a major "document and rewire the city" effort.  For
about a year it was not unusual to see phone trucks all over town with
Mountain Bell / Pacific Bell / Southern Bell / ... logos on them.  A
college friend that worked for SWB during the summers told me the
story.

Maybe they just didn't "do" Dallas? :-)


Steveg


[Moderator's Note: Is that what they meant when they made the movie
"DEBBIE Does Dallas"?  DEBBIE = Decrepit, Eroded Baby Bell, Inc. Etc.
I wish 'they' would do Chicago also. It is a mess here too.  :)  PAT]
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992  00:19:43 EST
From: Paul Robinson <FZC@CU.NIH.GOV>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Telephone Lines Being Disconnected; Question
Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 853, Message 11 of 13

Several people have commented about alarm systems being cut and other
such things.  (I deleted the message I had from a gentleman in South
Africa; I replied to him about telephone reliability).  Other people
have spoke about "pinging" lines and so on.

In the original Die Hard (the one that started all of the competitors
including Die Harder, Under Siege, Passenger 57, and so on) the
opening scene involves a group of criminals intercepting certain phone
lines with a briefcase sized device that apparently generated a tone
on a certain frequency, probably to simulate a circuit being active
for alarms that are triggered if cut.

The other member of the group then cut all the phone lines for the
building by running a chainsaw through the four conduits which are
about as thick as a man's arm, cutting off everyone's phone service.

I notice that in the first film, one of the people had either a
cellular or older wireless telephone in a suitcase to call 9-1-1 with
(looked like a cellular handset) but it was very large.

I'm not sure if cellular has gotten much more popular recently than it
was before, but then again most people don't have cellular phones at
their desks when they have a fully working centrex system.

In the second film several cellular phones were used, including some
trick shots, like calling UP to a plane radiotelephone, nice try but
not yet available.

Question: Does anyone on here have a personal 800 number that shows
ANI, and called it from a cellular phone, as well as a cellular phone
on a plane, to see what phone number showed up on the ANI list?  Or
tried calling that special ANI id number on AT&T's private phone
network (someone remember, it's a number in Atlanta on a special 10xxx
exchange?)


Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM   These opinions are mine alone.



[Moderator's Note: Cellular phones have gained a lot of popularity
here in Chicago in the past few weeks because of several vicious
attacks on motorists traveling alone on the highway who have been
murdered by people who stopped to 'help them get their car going',
etc. To Caller-ID in Chicago, a call from a cell phone registers as
'outside'; with 800 ANI, in the case of Ameritech Mobile, those calls
show up with a phone number in the Illinois Bell CO in one of the
soutwest suburbs. Try calling back to that number and you are told the
number xxx-xxxx is not in service for incoming calls. Do a name and
address check on the number and you are told it is listed to "Eye Bee 
Tea Co." at an address on West 87th Street in one of the suburbs which
happens to be the street address of the CO.   PAT]
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 16:35:52 GMT
From: brc@cseyrie.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Brian Cooper)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Today's LECs Would Prefer Metering
Reply-To: brc@aber.ac.uk
Organization: University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 848, Message 3 of 10

In article <telecom12.821.2@eecs.nwu.edu>, mandarin@cix.compulink.
co.uk (Richard Cox) writes:

> shri%unreal@cs.umass.edu said:

>> each five minutes amounts to a new call. They could not have implemented
>> it before they got these fancy stored program exchanges, so that's one
>> nice thing about strowgers and crossbars :-)

> and asks:
 
>> I heard that some PTTs in Europe have always had metered local calls,
>> or at least that it was so planned ... is that true?

> In the UK all calls are metered by time, local or not: with the
> exception of one city (Kingston upon Hull -- Hull for short) where
> local calls are untimed.

> The arrangement here (apart from in Hull) is that a "new call" is
> registered every "time unit" -- which varies from *57.5 seconds* in the
> morning to three minutes forty seconds in the evening and (also at
> weekends.)

> We are somewhat envious of the tariffs enjoyed in the USA !

Since British Telecom, which was a state owned monopoly, was
denationalised in 1984, the price of local calls has increased sharply
whilst the cost of long distance inland calls has fallen. The ratio of
most/least expensive calls used to be nine -- it is now down to four.
My guess is that under the impact of competition on long distance
routes, this ratio will fall further.

Perhaps telephone usage tariffs have been a long way from being cost
based ever since the legions of "long distance telephone operators"
were made redundant by the technology?  If anyone has any historical
cost data on this subject I would be most interested to hear from
them.


Brian Cooper, Research Associate, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK.
Voice +44 970 622419
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 19:28:58 -0700
From: rickie@trickie.ualberta.ca (Richard Nash)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Microsoft/Intel Team up on Video for PCs
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 869, Message 7 of 8

In article <telecom12.842.8@eecs.nwu.edu> >Paul Robinson writes:

> Microsoft and Intel are putting together a combined software and
> hardware package to allow people to work with video, including editing
> and retrieving video footage into documents, thus allowing a PC to
> etc.....

> Note: The article -- either because the writer thinks it's dead, or
> because he's never heard of it -- fails to say anything about the
> Video Toaster that has been out for the Amiga for two years and
> already does this stuff.

As usual the Amiga is not recognized by the PC media. Is it really
free unbiased reporting or rather the extreme ignorant mentality of
the industry that refuses to acknowledge the exceptional work of Steve
Jobs' Next or the Amiga from Commodore that even today the PC MS
Windows crowd is trying to mature above?


Richard Nash  Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6K 0E8
UUCP:      rickie%trickie@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 21:43:46 CST
From: roy@cybrspc.UUCP (Roy M. Silvernail)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: PP 2000 and USWest
Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 857, Message 8 of 11

I have now received two phone bills since my California trip, and the
charges for my Public Phone 2000 calls have yet to appear.  The other
calling-card charges I made were on the last bill.  It will be
interesting to see when (or if) they do finally appear.

Also in my USWest bill is a notice that, under the orders of the
Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, tiered service rates are being
discontinued, in favor of a modified single rate structure.  Being in
a formerly Tier I location, my basic rate increases from $14.17 to
$14.59.  Tier II saw a $0.03 reduction, Tier III was reduced $1.08 and
Tier IV (which, I believe, is only far outlying suburbs of Minneapolis)
was cut by $3.31.

The enclosure noted old vs. new rates for business and residence
service in all four tiers.  Curiously, the business rates are all
exactly three times the residential rates, plus or minus a penny.


Roy M. Silvernail |+|  roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu
From: mshiels@TMSoftware.Ca (Michael A. Shiels)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Roving Laptops and Automatic Phone Number Conversions
Date: 21 Nov 92 12:05:55 GMT
Organization: MaS Network Software and Consulting
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 864, Message 5 of 15

Is it possible to automatically edit a phone number (assuming it
includes full area code information) based upon the user saying where
they are now?

I know here in area code 416 it was difficult during the change over
where we went from just dialing 1-xxx-xxxx for long distance to
1-416-...

How can you find out which area codes require dialing long distance as
1-areacode and which only use the 1?

Thanks!


Michael A. Shiels                    | mshiels@masnet.uucp
MaS Network Software and Consulting  | mshiels@tmsoftware.ca
Date: 15 Nov 92 12:52:00 EST
From: TOM GOODDEN <TGOODDEN@gmuvax.gmu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Introduction to a New Subscriber
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 849, Message 11 of 13

     Greetings to all from a newcomer.  Some of you saw and were kind
enough to respond to my first unsucdfessful attempt at an introduction.

     I am Tom Goodden, a graduate student pursuing a Doctorate in
Public Administration (DPA) here at George Mason.  My dissertation
topic is the influence of a nation's political system on its
telecommunications development.  Hudson, Jussawalla, Snow, and many
others have treated the impact of national economics on
telecommunications and the reverse.  I believe it would be valuable to
consider looking at political behavior which tends to open or close
society via telecommunications.  I am fortunate to be studying under
Professors R. Akwule, R.P. Clark, S.M. Lipset, S. Ruth, and L.G.
White, who have excellent backgrounds in comparative political
systems.

     I have written to each of 213 operating PTT's world-wide
requesting annual reports, statistical summaries of operations,
planning documents, and telephone directories of the national capital
city.  Surprisingly, perhaps, over 40 have thus far responded.  I have
also a growing data base of ITU, World Bank, NTIA, and other
government statistics.  I have also extracted from six of the major
public telecom journals for the last eight years.

     As you might guess, the major need is grass roots community level
data, especially from rural villages and hamlets.  I need to know how
many telephones are in the villages?  Who has them?  How many calls
are made per month?  For what general purposes, work, family,
emergency, government assistance?  How much do calls cost per minute?
How reliable is service (call completion rates)?  How long are waiting
periods for telephone installation?  Repair?

     Some may recognize my queries as essentially based on the work of
Dean Ahmad Kamal and Professor Ali H. Dessouki, University of Cairo,
as reported by Indu Singh (1983).  If anyone has interest in this
topic, I invite correspondence and would offer such as I might find on
U.S. telecommunications in return.


I am,

T. Goodden@GMUVAX  on BITNET, add gmu.edu for INTERNET.  Regards.
Date: 22 Nov 92 07:41:58 GMT
From: rjh2@crux1.cit.cornell.edu (Radu Hambasan)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Can I Use a US Modem in Switzerland?
Organization: Cornell Information Technologies
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 868, Message 5 of 8

Does anyone know if there is any reason why a modem made for use in
the United States would not work correctly in Switzerland?

The Swiss government says you must use modems that are "homologue"
(approved) by the PTT, the Swiss postal/telecom authority. However
such modems cost hundreds of dollars more and I am skeptical as to
whether there is any functional difference -- it seems more like a
form of economic protectionism.

Then there is the problem of jacks: Swiss phones apparently do not
plug into the wall via the tiny plastic connectors used here, but use
much larger connectors that would never find room on the back of a PC,
much less a modem card.

I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me, from experience or
otherwise, if Switzerland uses a different voltage in its phone lines,
if touch tones are of the same frequency as here, and where I could
get the appropriate connectors, or would simply patching the wires be
OK?

Thanks in advance for your help. (I'd rather not pay $500 for an
"approved" 2400 baud modem!)


Radu Hambasan   -->   rjh2@cornell.edu
Date: 19 Nov 1992 00:13:49 GMT
From: kempf@suntana.Eng.Sun.COM (James Kempf)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Latency in Current Analog Phone Lines?
Reply-To: kempf@suntana.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 862, Message 7 of 8

Does anybody have an idea what the approximate latency is in current
analog phone lines? By "latency" I mean the time between when you send
off a signal down the wire and when it gets to the other end. Most
useful would be if this could be categorized by transport medium (e.g.
local wire, national microwave, satellite, cellular, etc.), but a
rough figure will do.

Please reply to me directly, since I don't regularly monitor this
group. Thanks.


jak
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 8:26:20 CST
From: Will Martin <wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Phone Harassment (a New Solution?)
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 856, Message 2 of 13

> Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell will put a trap on a line to catch
> the person involved, but only on one condition: you must first give
> them a written okay to turn their evidence over to the police and
> agree to prosecute the offender ... no exceptions. IBT won't get in
> the middle of it; it could be a total stranger, some sick person or
> perhaps someone you know -- a relative or a 'friend'.  IBT won't do a
> trap and play detective for you just to satisfy your curiosity.

I understand how this attitude would prevail in the old Bell System
days, but I find it hard to understand the telco maintaining this
position in the current climate. Why won't IBT just do it and charge
you for it? After all, every other telco "service" or "feature" is now
viewed as a money-making opportunity these days, from Directory
Assistance to wiring maintenance. Why not just figure out what it
costs to do this, and then charge double or triple (or more! :-) for
doing it on a completely private basis, not inolving law enforcement.

After all, this is really no different than Caller-ID, so if the telco
is in a state where the local authorities have approved Caller-ID,
then there should be no legal hassle to the telco in selling this
service.

Sure, I can see them not doing it on a no-charge basis unless you
agree to follow-up with a criminal complaint. But if the customer
wants the telco to put a trap-and-trace on his own line, and is
willing to pay for it, why not just do it for the bucks?


Regards, 


Will   wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil


[Moderator's Note: The difference is that with Caller-ID, the calling
party usually can use *67 to avoid registering his call on the called
party's device. On the other hand, with 'trap and trace', no one is
able to avoid detection. So by collecting the information and selling
it to the called party, Caller-ID and Name/Address information is
being provided by a backdoor method. If the called party has no valid
reason for the information, evidenced by his refusal to prosecute the
caller, then the caller could claim *his* privacy had been violated
and that normal procedures in effect to protect his privacy, i.e. *67
to block the Caller-ID display, had been circumvented.  Telco is
saying that if you expect *them* to put their neck on the chopping
block you will begin by signing off on the whole thing and having
*your neck* out there also. This is much like asking a police officer
who did not personally witness a crime to arrest someone you claim
committed a crime. The cop says if you are willing to sign a
complaint, he'll arrest the person, not otherwise ... no fool is he
when it comes to false arrest charges. Nor will telco put itself in
a postion to have ugly charges and lawsuits brought against them.  PAT]