Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id IAA09264; Sat, 31 May 1997 08:35:10 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 08:35:10 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199705311235.IAA09264@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #141 TELECOM Digest Sat, 31 May 97 08:35:00 EDT Volume 17 : Issue 141 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson 619 Split in 1999 (Tad Cook) Spamford's org (Dorothy Klein) Spam With 800 Numbers (Steven Lichter) Fallout From Spam Filter (Ken Levitt) Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available (Michael Neary) Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available (James Carlson) Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available (Steve Bunning) Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available (Paul Rubin) Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available (Andrew Crawford) Re: Stopping the Splits (Tim Russell) Re: Stopping the Splits (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Stopping the Splits (Brian Elfert) Re: Stopping the Splits (Stanley Cline) June 1: A Day For New Area Codes (Pierre Thomson) Re: What Constitutes a Second Residential Line? (Fred R. Goldstein) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * subscriptions@telecom-digest.org * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-727-5427 Fax: 773-539-4630 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org (WWW/http only!) They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to archives@telecom-digest.org to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: 619 Split in 1999 Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 17:23:45 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) 619 Area Code To Split Again In 1999; Escalating Number Demand Pushes Relief Date Up By One Year SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 1997 Due to increased demand for telephone numbers, another area code will be introduced in portions of southern San Diego County that now use the 619 area code. The new area code is expected to be in use as early as May 1999. This area code introduction will come two years after the 760 area code split off from the 619 area code in March of this year and one year earlier than previous projections due to unprecedented number demand. `The good news is that not everyone will have to change their area code in 1999,` said California Code Administrator Doug Hescox, who coordinates area code relief planning statewide for the telecommunications industry. `Only those customers who kept their 619 area code last time will be affected this time around. No 760 area code customers will have to change their area code. `Of course the downside is that anytime you introduce a new area code, it inconveniences customers. But there's no choice if we hope to meet the need for new phone numbers,` Hescox said. The 619 area code serves southern San Diego County, while the 760 area code now serves northern San Diego County and several other Southern California counties. That area code split occurred on March 22, 1997 and is still in the `get acquainted` dialing period which allows customers to use either the old 619 or new 760 to reach customers in the new 760 area code. Customers need to begin using the correct area code on Sept. 27, 1997. The 760 area code is expected to accommodate number growth for about eight years. Originally, the newly split 619 area code was not expected to split again until the year 2000. `However, the demand for telecommunications services far exceeded the industry's expectations, so we've had to move the next area code introduction date up by one year,` Hescox said. Hescox said the skyrocketing demand for new phone numbers is being seen not only in San Diego, but across the state. `California now has 15 area codes -- more than any other state -- and will need to add another eight by the end of 1998 to keep pace with demand,` Hescox said. Two primary factors driving that demand are local telephone service competition and the high-technology explosion. `With the onset of widespread competition in California's local telephone market in 1996, each new provider requires its own supply of phone numbers. In California, we have more companies entering local telephone competition than any other state. Further, the rising demand for fax machines, pagers, cellular phones, modems for Internet access and other high-tech equipment also is increasing the demand for phone numbers,` he said. A telecommunications industry group representing more than 30 companies is currently developing and evaluating various options for splitting the 619 into two area codes, known as a geographic split. In a geographic split, the existing area code is divided with part of the area keeping the existing area code and part receiving a new area code. Under California law, public participation and comment is obtained before the industry submits a proposed area code relief plan to the California Public Utilities Commission and administrators at Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), the organization that administers the North American Numbering Plan. Hescox said a series of meetings will be held before December 1997 to seek public comment and input on potential options for splitting the 619 area code. Locations, dates and times of the public meetings will be announced at a later time. Boundaries for the new area code, as well as the actual three-digit number, will be announced in 1998. The 619 area code serves the southern portion of San Diego County. Some of the cities in this area include the city of San Diego (except the San Pasqual Valley which is served by the 760 area code), Chula Vista, National City, Coronado, Del Mar, Solana Beach, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, El Cajon, Rancho San Diego, Santee, Poway and portions of the unincorporated area of San Diego County, including Rancho Santa Fe, Spring Valley, Rancho San Diego, Lakeside, Alpine, Pine Valley, Jacumba and Campo. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 12:28:32 EDT From: Dorothy Klein Subject: Spamford's org AGIS's spammers (Cyberpromo, Sally/Nancy/Mary/BimboNet, quantcomm, and a couple others) hve formed (unwillingly?) an Internet Email Mass Marketing Coalition, or something like that -- IEMMC.org. They will allegedly keep an opt-out list through which all their spam must pass, and have vowed to pass all their spam through it, and only through it, and to not forge headers, use others' systems, etc. Agis says they'll not spam again until the list is working, June 3-5. Agis said this, oh, last Fridayish. Forged crap bearing the scent, or actual routing, of the above spam-domains has been reported by many netizens since then, including myself. "Business" as usual. It's pretty funny, watching Walt Rines (Quantcomm, the "administrator" of IEMMC) try to justify IEMMC/ its non-working opt-out mailto on its web-page/ its lies on its web-page AND ignore all the IEMMC members' violations of its charter, in his posts to news.admin.net-abuse.email. At least, it's funny the first three long-winded times. Now, it's tedious. So that's what's up. Later, Dorothy Klein The REAL dklein@pluto.njcc.com Accept No Imitations! * This address uses the NAGS filters against junk email. * See http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~ivl/nags/index.html for more info. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All those people are liars, so do not beleive anything they say until/unless you see it happening. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevenl@pe.net (Steven Lichter) Subject: Spam With 800 Numbers Date: 30 May 1997 19:08:46 -0700 Organization: PE.net - Internet access from the Press-Enterprise Company In an effort to help you learn about new products on the Internet that include 800 numbers so you don't have to pay for the call or waste postage. The following number will allow you to buy all kinds of spy cameras, 800-760-2447. Besure to ask for Nick and tell him what you think of his spammed E-mail. By the way, this clueless fool is using AOL to spam from. I guess it is ok for them to send out thousands of E-mails, but not get them. The following number will tell you how to become a Fortune 500 company; 800-811-2141, you must also put in the ID 13684 so that you will get all the information that you need and the fool who e-mailed using Cyberpromo.com gets the bill. It is suggested that you use a pay phone or large PABX while calling the number and remember it is against the law to harass. I don't get many at my primary E-mail address since we now have software in place that blocks most of the major Spam factory sites, but I have on address that is open to any fool that wants to spam it and if they include an 800 number or Fax number so that they can be reached I'll post it. *****LEGAL NOTICE TO ALL BULK E-MAILERS***** NOTICE TO BULK EMAILERS: Pursuant to US Code, Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, 227, any and all nonsolicited commercial E-mail sent to this address is subject to a download and archival fee in the amount of $500 US. E-mailing denotes acceptance of these terms. I ALSO DON'T BUY FROM BULK E-MAILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SysOp Apple Elite II and OggNet Hub (909)359-5338 2400/14.4 24 hours, Home of GBBS/LLUCE Support for the Apple II and Macintoch computers. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 09:43:28 From: Ken Levitt Subject: Fallout From Spam Filter Today by chance, I happened to spot an unread copy of TELECOM Digest in my deleted mail folder. Digest v17 n136 was primarily devoted to discussions about spammers and something in my anti-spam filtering decided that this was a spam message. I guess I'll have to rework my filtering. Getting rid of spam gets harder and harder each day. Ken Levitt Note - All mail sent to the above address is deleted without me ever seeing it. If you want to reach me send to kl21@usa.nospam and replace the nospam with .net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is why I suggest never sending the output of a filter which is presumed to be all spam directly to /dev/null. It is better to send it all to a directory and leave it there until you get time to scan it quickly looking for legitimate email which may have gotten caught by the filter in error. Once you make a final 'approval' of what is in that directory then just delete the entire thing en-masse. Instead of deleting it however, you might want to use the idea suggested yesterday: take all the spam accumulated over a few days which has collected in the output of the filter, put it all together as one huge file, then email it back to a couple spammers of choice. Make sure the header information is correct; the object is to get it bouncing back and forth forever between the autoresponder of one spammer and the autoresponder of another spammer. Make sure your own address is nowhere in sight! That stuff bouncing back and forth -- if it gets returned to you -- will slow your own mail down to a crawl and take up every bit of available disk space in a hurry. What you want is for two or three spammers to pass it back and forth until *their* mail slows down to a crawl. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 11:20:58 PDT From: Michael Neary Organization: Xerox Corporation, El Segundo, CA Subject: Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available Pat, In an earlier Digital press release, the "superior price" of this magic modem is $600. A careful reading makes it clear that their "invention" needs two seperate phone connections (33.6K each) to achieve 67K. The claim of "without the installation and associated expense" of ISDN is interesting, since the required second phone line won't be free. It'll be interesting to see how many ISPs are willing to let customers use two dialup channels at a time. Their patented "Simple Analog Channel Sequencing" should be interesting reading: I've seen free or cheap software for Win95 which binds two serial data streams into one. This also sounds a lot like what they did to get "live" Apollo 11 landing pictures from the dishes in Spain back to NASA for processing. That was 1969. (It's in the TELECOM archives.) With 33.6 modems selling for as low as $55, this works out to $490 for the software. Mike ------------------------------ From: James Carlson Date: Fri, 30 May 97 09:24:33 EDT Subject: Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available > Below is a press release sent to me recently regarding a new modem > now available which is extremely fast. It should make it a lot > easier to get massive amounts of spam out on the net faster than > ever before! .... if you are not interested in reading a > press release praising new modem technology, then stop reading > here and delete this message. In a word -- unlikely. I had technical discussions with the marketing genius who came up with this dual-modem-in-a-box idea several weeks ago. He seemed unaware that people can already get this performance -- and can get it for free, and can get it without investing in his proprietary technology. The solution is something called "Multi-link PPP" or MP, and is publicly documented in RFC 1990. This protocol is built into virtually ever terminal and communications server sold today (which is the box that people are usually connecting to when they dial into their local ISP), and is supported by many user-level systems as well (such as MS Windows95), and works great to combine together two modem links into one double-speed access line. In other words, the idea's not new, and this particular solution is not compatible with the freely-available solutions that are already in common use in the marketplace. I know of nobody in the server end of the world (where many of those annoying spammers get their net access) who plans to support this protocol. It would thus require dedicated hardware on the part of the ISP for each user who wants to dial in. This seems like an unlikely investment for most ISPs. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 09:21:42 -0400 From: Steve Bunning Subject: Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available You wrote: > ROCKLEDGE, FLORIDA...May 27, 1997...Transend Corporation advanced > modem speeds to new heights, without the need for digital connections > at either end, with their announcement today of the Transend > Sixty-Seven, delivering speeds of 67 kbps both upstream and > downstream, over existing analog phone lines. A very intesting claim. Most "analog phone lines" are converted at some point to a 64 kbps digital stream (or an even lower rate with robbed bit signalling). It would be a true technical miracle to get 67 kbps of data through a 64 kbps data pipe. The only way this modem could possibly work would be on a true end-to-end analog connection or through some form of data compression. If the modem requires an end-to-end analog connection, then I doubt you will every see 67 kbps in normal dial-up use. If it uses compression, then the performance is not remarkable. It's not April 1 is it? * Steve Bunning | ACE*COMM | 301 721-3023 (voice) * * Product Manager | 704 Quince Orchard Road | 301 721-3001 (fax) * * TEL*COMM Division| Gaithersburg, MD USA 20878 | sbunning@acecomm.com * * NASDAQ:ACEC | "CDRs in Real-Time" | WWW= www.acecomm.com * ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 02:13:26 -0700 From: phr@netcom.com (Paul Rubin) Subject: Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available Organization: Netcom On-Line Services In article <05.30.97.988e32q4@telecom-digest.org> is written: > Below is a press release sent to me recently regarding a new modem > now available which is extremely fast. It should make it a lot > easier to get massive amounts of spam out on the net faster than > ever before! .... if you are not interested in reading a > press release praising new modem technology, then stop reading > here and delete this message. Why the heck did you post this ad? Since when is multiplexing two modems on two phone lines new technology? The Telebit Netblazer was doing that in the 80's, and it wasn't new then either. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 11:06:58 +0000 (GMT) From: Andrew Crawford Subject: Re: New, Very Fast Modem Available On Fri, 30 May 1997, TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Below is a press release sent to me recently regarding a new modem > now available which is extremely fast. It should make it a lot > easier to get massive amounts of spam out on the net faster than > ever before! .... if you are not interested in reading a > press release praising new modem technology, then stop reading > here and delete this message. Isn't this "technology" already available? It's sometimes called "Using Two Modems" :) Andrew ------------------------------ From: russell@probe.net (Tim Russell) Subject: Re: Stopping the Splits Date: 30 May 1997 19:55:45 GMT Organization: Probe Technology Internet Services ellis@ftel.net (Rick Ellis) writes: > I can't help wondering just how many phone numbers are eaten by the > practice of assigning a number to each incoming line even if they are > in a hunt group. If an ISP puts 1000 lines in a POP, they get 1000 > phone numbers. All they really wanted was one phone number. I don't > get it. Not necessarily true -- by the time most ISPs get to 1000 lines, they're using channelized T1's, if not PRI circuits. We're in the process of installing our eighth T1, and each circuit (with 24 voice channels) has only one phone number. A good thing, too, since in the process of all this, we discovered that Northern Telecom DMS-100 switches will only busy-forward over four lines, then will stop. I won't go into the mess of describing the workaround. Suffice it to say that it's ugly. Tim Russell System Admin, Probe Technology email: russell@probe.net "The worst censorship is self-censorship, because fear has no limits." -- Grady Ward ------------------------------ From: fgoldstein@bbn.|nospam.|com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Stopping the Splits Date: 30 May 1997 20:47:53 GMT Organization: BBN Corp. In article , ellis@ftel.net says: > I can't help wondering just how many phone numbers are eaten by the > practice of assigning a number to each incoming line even if they are > in a hunt group. If an ISP puts 1000 lines in a POP, they get 1000 > phone numbers. All they really wanted was one phone number. I don't > get it. That generally applies to analog lines, not digital ones. And ISPs who have a lot of analog lines in a hunt group are ISPs with unhappy customers and/or a huge maintenance headache. With our large ISDN PRI hunt groups, we have a single set of numbers (a small DID block or Multiple Subscriber Numbers, as required; generally only a few) for the group as a whole. The individual PRIs do NOT have numbers. This does make incoming testing a little harder, but that's how it works. At least on the DMS, I'm told (I don't know the 5E's equivalent limit), we *could* assign each PRI or small group of PRIs a "test" number, and have the real number point to this "hunt of hunts". But there can only be 14 numbers in that "hunt of hunts", and each PRI is treated as a hunt automatically. We have lots more than 14 PRIs in lots of hunt groups. So we end up with more than 100 channels/number in many cases. What really eats numbers? The requirement that each *rate center* ("exchange area") have a separate prefix code for EACH local exchange carrier. With LEC competition, if you have five LECs in a 1000-line town, with the Incumbent LEC having 900 lines and four LECs averaging 25 each, you'd still need 5 prefix codes. The fix is obvious, to allow codes to be shared among LECs, but right now the switch software routes to the switch based on the prefix code. It would need an enhancement (not rocket science, but not trivial) to make it route on, say, the first digit after the prefix. Then of course there are the pagers that have their own numbers (rather than PIN codes behind a single number, as SKYPAGE does). Plus the fax servers that assign a separate number for each employee, so one server can pretend to be a "personal fax machine" for each user. And so on and so on. Had we envisioned these uses of numbers forty years ago, the country might have adopted a more flexible numbering plan. Fred R. Goldstein k1io fgoldstein"at"bbn.com BBN Corp., Cambridge MA USA +1 617 873 3850 Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ From: belfert@citilink.com (Brian Elfert) Subject: Re: Stopping the Splits Date: 30 May 97 17:03:47 GMT ellis@ftel.net (Rick Ellis) writes: > I can't help wondering just how many phone numbers are eaten by the > practice of assigning a number to each incoming line even if they are > in a hunt group. If an ISP puts 1000 lines in a POP, they get 1000 > phone numbers. All they really wanted was one phone number. I don't > get it. We will be switching to MCI in a few weeks. If we wanted our channelized T1s to be trunkside (to all 56K modems to work), we could only be assigned a single phone # for the entire hunt group. I told them that this wouldn't be a problem. It'll save 47 phone numbers initially. Brian ------------------------------ From: roamer1@RemoveThis.pobox.com (Stanley Cline) Subject: Re: Stopping the Splits Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 16:24:46 GMT Organization: An antonym for Chaos Reply-To: roamer1@RemoveThis.pobox.com On 29 May 1997 10:27:54 GMT, in comp.dcom.telecom ellis@ftel.net (Rick Ellis) wrote: > I can't help wondering just how many phone numbers are eaten by the > practice of assigning a number to each incoming line even if they are > in a hunt group. If an ISP puts 1000 lines in a POP, they get 1000 > phone numbers. All they really wanted was one phone number. I don't > get it. For channelized T1's, where a "line" is a multiplexed analog line, yes, there is almost always one directory number per line. Many ISPs are switching to PRI (ISDN primary rate) lines, though, and for these types of lines, telcos will either assign no "plant test" numbers at all (my employer/ISP has run into that repeatedly with GTE) or will assign one per PRI span (23 lines.) Reason: It's uncommon to find a single DS0 channel in a PRI span out of service (although it has happened a few times), and therefore one directory number per DS0 is silly and wasteful. With Ascend Maxes and USR Total Control modem chassis, where modems are dynamically mapped to PRI DS0s (instead of having a DS0 always mapped to the same modem, a call on a single DS0 could hit any one of up to 48 modems) there isn't any need for PTNs per DS0 to test modems -- just one per PRI. Stanley Cline (Roamer1 on IRC) ** GO BRAVES! GO VOLS! CLLI MRTTGAMA42G NPA 770 ** (wk) scline(at)mindspring.net (hm) roamer1(at)pobox.com ** http://www.pobox.com/~roamer1/ **NO SPAM!** http://spam.abuse.net/spam/ and http://www.cauce.org/ ------------------------------ From: Pierre Thomson Subject: June 1: A Day For New Area Codes Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 08:50:26 -0400 Organization: Mid Hudson Valley Network Reply-To: mmommsen@mhv.net Get ready for the biggest day of new area codes in history! On June 1, 1997: New NPA 973 splits off 201 in northwestern New Jersey New NPA 732 splits off 908 in east central New Jersey New NPA 340 splits off 809 in the U.S. Virgin Islands New NPA 868 splits off 809 in Trinidad & Tobago New NPA 240 overlays 301 in western Maryland New NPA 443 overlays 410 in eastern Maryland For more details and exchange lists for all of these new area codes, visit the following URLs: http://frodo.bruderhof.com/areacode/ http://www.lincs.net/areacode/index.html Pierre Thomson Telecom Manager Rifton Enterprises ------------------------------ From: fgoldstein@bbn.|nospam.|com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: What Constitutes a Second Residential Line? Date: 30 May 1997 20:53:16 GMT Organization: BBN Corp. Picking up on an old thread, I have looked at the FCC's actual Report and Order, now available in HTML (and other formats) on their very handy web page. So what's a second line? Essentially, they've stated that they don't have a specific answer yet. This is one of several loose ends to the access charge decision that still has to be worked on. They also stated that if a telco really really opposed making this distinction, they are permitted to treat all residential lines as primary; however, they are generally not allowed to make up the revenue elsewhere. I suppose in some cases a telco might consider this a valid marketing expense, or a write-off against the cost of administering a primary/secondary distinction. Expect to hear more as this gets ironed out by year end or so. Fred R. Goldstein k1io fgoldstein"at"bbn.com BBN Corp., Cambridge MA USA +1 617 873 3850 Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #141 ******************************