Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id EAA04377; Mon, 10 May 1999 04:07:05 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 04:07:05 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199905100807.EAA04377@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V19 #77 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 May 99 04:07:00 EDT Volume 19 : Issue 77 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Pioneers/Internet History Site Now Open (TELECOM Digest Editor) Malicious Hacker Steals Hotmail Passwords (Monty Solomon) Re: Forcing MCI to Change Advertising (Chuck Till) FTC: Kids' Web Site Was Deceptive (Monty Solomon) AT&T Wireless: NYC System Down For Most of Today (Alan Boritz) Re: Which Cellular Provider Allows US/European Connectivity? (John Starta) Re: Area Code For Wireless Urged (L. Winson) Public Utility or Free Market? (L. Winson) Re: The Day the Telephone Company Burned Down (Alan Boritz) Mother's Day Phone and Internet Traffic (John Fricks) 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 networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copywrited. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occassional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 765 Junction City, KS 66441-0765 Phone: 415-520-9905 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe/unsubscribe: subscriptions@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 03:24:28 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Internet Pioneers/Internet History Site Now Open I am very pleased to announce that with considerable assistance from John Levine the Internet Pioneers and Internet Historical Society web site is now open. URL -- http://internet-pioneers.org *or* http://internet-history.org will deliver you to John's site where qualified persons (i.e. a 'Pioneer' netizen with at least fifteen year's presence on the net) can post comments as desired. ANYONE is free to visit the site and read what others have written. Although it is pretty bare-bones as of today, Monday, it is my hope that very soon there will be various links in place, as well as many commentaries. Posting is limited to only those persons who meet the criteria to be a Pioneer (see notes on the opening page there) however links will be given to any related site which is involved in the preservation of our early history. Occassionally an exception might be made for a posting of importance from a person who is not a Pioneer. Postings are not immediate. The site is moderated in a loose fashion, and mail is examined to see if it is spam or commercial in nature before it is released for viewing, hopefully within a few hours. --------------------- None of the messages in the 'Internet Pioneers' thread which appeared here mostly in April are being carried over. The people who posted here are certainly welcome and encouraged to post there instead, especially to help get a discussion going. --------------------- Please visit http://internet-pioneers.org http://internet-history.org today, and I hope you will enjoy this new service to the net. Mail should be addressed to 'pioneers@' (whatever). PAT ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 18:40:24 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Malicious Hacker Steals Hotmail Passwords By Paul Festa Staff Writer, CNET News.com May 6, 1999, 12:55 p.m. PT Hotmail password-stealing exploits are no longer the sole province of bug-hunting, ethical hackers. Microsoft's MSN Hotmail said it has implemented a patch to thwart a JavaScript exploit that snared the passwords of about ten users. Although Hotmail has faced numerous similar exploits in the past, they were merely demonstrations crafted by security-minded programmers anxious to expose security holes before they were exploited for real. http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36213,00.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not see what is new about this. People have been stealing passwords for years, by running password hacking programs, etc. Everyone should make a point of changing thier password(s) on a regular basis. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ctill@mindspring.com (Chuck Till) Subject: Re: Forcing MCI to Change Advertising Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 01:06:43 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Reply-To: ctill@mindspring.com >> Want to hear something REALLY hysterical? Sprint is now mailing out >> its bills in certain parts of the country (the bills issued by their >> office in Tyler, Texas) with a slogan on the front of the envelope >> saying 'Celebrating 100 years of service' ... yes, you read that >> correctly ... Sprint is claiming to be one hundred years in business. > Yeah... I suspect that this is from their ownership of, say, United > Telecom, or some other little podunk outfit they bought. Let's get the facts straight. United Telecom bought Sprint, not the other way around: United Telecom had a long history of local telephone service. In 1982, they made their first move into long distance by buying Isacomm, an Atlanta reseller of SBS. (That's another story). Their next major move was buying US Telecom, another reseller. Meanwhile, GTE had bought Sprint from the railroad. GTE and United Telecom pooled their long distance operations into US Sprint. GTE sold their share of US Sprint to United Telecom. US Sprint was renamed Sprint. Sprint outgrew United Telecom's local service operation, so United Telecom renamed itself Sprint. Sprint continues to be the local telephone provider in a number of regions and has every right to proclaim its longevity in those markets. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 21:11:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FTC: Kids' Web Site Was Deceptive By Tim Loughran, Reuters May 7, 1999 6:27 AM PT WASHINGTON -- When Liberty Financial Inc. created its www.younginvestor.com Website in November 1996, the company said it wanted to teach children the rules of investing and economics. On Thursday, however, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said the Boston-based financial services company mishandled information gathered from the site and broke one admonition Liberty Financial executives should have learned when they were children: thou shall not lie. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2255023,00.html ------------------------------ From: aboritz@CYBERNEX.NET (Alan Boritz) Subject: AT&T Wireless: NYC System Down For Most of Today Date: Sun, 09 May 1999 20:19:11 -0400 AT&T Wireless in the New York CGSA has been down for most of today. I was passing through the Bronx just after noon and the system wouldn't authorize my phone (couldn't reach the operator or customer service). Still no service anywhere from Nassau county through Hackensack, NJ, as of an hour ago. In fact, there was no service outside of of the AT&T Wireless headquarters office at the Mack IV office center, in Paramus, NJ. A customer service rep told me (after I got to NJ) that a weather-related incident caused it and they didn't have an estimate for when the system would be back up. (later update) Fox News, on WNYW-TV, confirms that AT&T Wireless is experiencing a serious system outage in the NYC area. Currently, there is no service in Manhattan above 59th St., no service anywhere in the Bronx or Brooklyn, or in southern Westchester. In the same news show, Fox also reported on the three times this past month that the NYC E911 system was down, the last time being this past Tuesday when all callers were greeted by 30 seconds of silence. I wonder if anyone will notice that with the AT&T Wireless system down in NYC, and very few pay phones on the streets in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Westchester, that there may be more people at risk than those who AT&T are accommodating in storm-ravaged Oklahoma. ------------------------------ From: John Starta Subject: Re: Which Cellular Provider Allows US and European Connectivity? Date: Sun, 09 May 1999 21:47:11 -0700 Organization: Frontier GlobalCenter Inc. Charles Conn wrote: > I am looking for a cell phone provider that allows me to do the > following: > Have a cell phone which works in the US, but when I travel to Europe, > it will ring there as well (when someone calls my US phone number). > I assume that I would have to call the cellular provider and inform > them of when I would be in Europe, and they would turn on service > during this window. Is this how it works? > Any help on the type of phone needed (GSM etc), or a company that > provides similar international service would be appreciated. Bosch makes the World 718 phone (http://www.bosch.de/uc/eg/english/produkte/) which is capable of operating on GSM 900 and 1900 bands. The latter is in use by a number of PCS providers here in the states. (There's also the Iridium phone which operates "everywhere" using satellites.) Finding service is going to be a challenge; everyone I've approached has said no thanks. Let me know if you have better luck. jas ------------------------------ From: lwinson@bbs.cpcn.com (L. Winson) Subject: Re: Area Code For Wireless Urged Date: 9 May 1999 15:21:03 GMT Organization: The PACSIBM SIG BBS > Of course, the public thinks a separate code for wireless would solve > the problem. The telcos have repeated the lie, that the problem is > caused by the proliferation of such devices, so much that most people > believe it. But since that is around ten percent of the problem, the > remaining ninety percent being competitive carrier assignments, such a > code won't make a significant dent in the problem. This is not a "telco lie". For years now the baby Bell's have stated that new exchanges were needed as a result of local competitors needing their own exchanges, even if only a few customers were served. It took for the news media to switch their "conventional wisdom" in their stories, but it is reported now. The question is who will pay to modify all the existing switchgear, tamden routers, and billing centers to accomodate more flexibility in number assignments? The newcomers obviously want the baby Bells to do it, and the baby Bells obviously don't. I don't think they should. Some people argue the Bells, having enjoyed monopoly protection, are morally obligated to do so. I don't see it that way at all. While the Bells had a monopoly, they also were tightly regulated and they didn't get any benefits. My feeling is, that if the newcomers think the local business is so profitable, let them build their own exchanges and lay their own cable. Indeed, the newcomers argue Bell is costly, inefficient, and technologically obsolete (using copper instead of fibre). Well, given that, they should be glad for the opportunity to build their own modern and efficient systems. If they want free enterprise, they have to take the drawbacks, too. Another problem I have with so-called "local competition" is that a lot of companies aren't really "companies" but resellers. They want to come in and act as a middleman and resell Bell's services. I can't see how the customer would benefit from that -- to me it's like sleight of hand card tricks. I see it as this: say Acme had a legal monopoly on town supermarkets. The government says no more. Well, let competitors build their own supermarket across the street. But they don't want to invest capital and risk in doing that, rather, they are demanding the existing Acme give them space in the parking lot and inside the store. Years ago, the Holiday Inn chain pioneered the modern roadside motel and was very successful at it. Other business people, seeing that success, came along and opened their own motels, often directly across the street. If they could run their hotel as well as the Holiday Inn, they did well. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have used the same analogy as yourself in the past when arguing that competitors should be required to actually compete. Picture a store in which your comp- etitor gets to purchase your products at a greatly reduced price then stand the same store as yourself and sell them at a slightly reduced cost to people who had been your customers until he got a judge somewhere to agree that it was 'unfair' to make him build his own store. He also uses your shopping carts and often times has your cashiers ring up his customer's sales and then remit to him. If something goes wrong with the product he resells, or it is unsuitable for the customer's needs, he blames you for it and is continually sending his customers to see you, out of frustration since he makes it difficult for the customers to get through to him with complaints, etc. The above scenario is what 'local comp- etition' in telephone service amounts to. When cable companies began getting the go-ahead to wire towns all over the USA several years ago, look how fast they did it, and in a usually very inconspicuous way. Within a year or two they had even large cities like Chicago virtually wired, with cable service available to everyone once the city council approved the franchise. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lwinson@bbs.cpcn.com (L. Winson) Subject: Public Utility or Free Market? Date: 9 May 1999 15:29:04 GMT Organization: The PACSIBM SIG BBS With deregulation, the newcomers in the telephone industry make a very big deal about it being a free market now, open to the wonderful world of competition. It's just like selling deorderant, tires, stomach remedies, etc. Of course, when it suits, them, they will suddenly claim to be a public utility, not subject to the usual rules and limitations of the free marketplace. Omnipoint wants to put a cellular tower in the center of small towns. The tower violates the town's historic district law and zoning laws. Omnipoint says it is a public utility and thus exempt from all those nasty little local restrictions. It has taken small towns to court to force themselves on them. Unfortunately, small towns don't have the money to pay for extended court fights, and Omini can win by wearing them down in court. Why? If Proctor & Gamble wanted to build a soap factory or distribution warehouse, it would have to comply with local zoning restrictions. They couldn't say "well, we're the leading national manufacturer of soap products, so we can supercede local rules". Seems to me that the principle of deregulation that allowed Ominipoint to get into business in the first place means that it has to play by other regulations too. ------------------------------ From: aboritz@CYBERNEX.NET (Alan Boritz) Subject: Re: The Day the Telephone Company Burned Down Date: Sun, 09 May 1999 20:58:49 -0400 In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Eleven years ago this week -- the second Sunday in May, 1988, also > commonly known as Mother's Day was the day that it happened. One of > the worst telecom disasters in history; the fire at the Ameritech > (then still mostly known as Illinois Bell) central office in Hinsdale, > Illinois. > Although the fire in New York City about 1974 was very bad also, the > central office there did not have as many functions and duties as > the one in Chicago. ... With all due respect, I think you're way off base. Either the tandem office in Brooklyn that burned in '87, or the office in Manhattan were were far worse and affected many more people than the incident you've documented. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, all those incidents are always very bad news, and although the New York incident affected more people, I do not think it took as long to repair, nor covered as many different aspects of the network. Reader comments? PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Fricks Subject: Mother's Day Phone and Internet Traffic Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 02:09:35 GMT I remember that Mother's Day typically shows a major peak in AMA data records as people make long distance calls to Mom. My observation -- unscientific -- is that the opposite is true for Usenet postings. John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sunday was a rather slow day in my mailbox and at the telecom web site http://telecom-digest.org ... each got about half as much traffic as usual. You may have made a valid observation. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V19 #77 *****************************