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TELECOM Digest Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:55:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 464
Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson
Yahoo Shuts Chat Rooms Promoting Child Molestation (Jonathan Stempel)
EU to Force Telecoms to Keep Records (Associated Press News Wire)
New Orleans Cable, Phone Service Spotty (Michael Chance)
MEF Announces Carrier Ethernet Certification Plan (Telecom Daily Lead)
Microsoft and Yahoo! Announce Landmark Interoperability Agree (Solomon)
Faulty Radar Serving Logan Leaves Thousands Stranded (Monty Solomon)
You Need Not be Paranoid to Fear RFID (Monty Solomon)
Cellular-News for Wednesday 12th October 2005 (Cellular-News)
Re: Device That Interfaces Between CallerID / Serial Port (C Navarro)
Re: Device That Interfaces Between CallerID / Serial Port (G. Burditt)
Re: NEC 2400 Out of Extensions (Carl Navarro)
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are
included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address-
included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the
email.
===========================
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters,
viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome.
We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. Geoffrey Welsh
===========================
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jonathan Stempel <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Yahoo Shuts Chat Rooms Promoting Child Molestation
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 12:28:11 -0500
By Jonathan Stempel
Yahoo Inc. the online media company, has agreed to shut down Internet
chat rooms designed to promote child molestation.
The agreement with the attorneys general of New York and Nebraska is
the first to institute systemwide controls over chat rooms likely to
be frequented by child predators.
Yahoo said it voluntarily suspended all user-created chat rooms on
June 15 and is evaluating whether to reinstate the ability of users
to create them.
Earlier that month, Yahoo removed or barred the posting of 70,000
rooms whose names suggested illegal conduct, including the promotion
of sex between adults and children. The number represents 11.4 percent
of the 614,000 names Yahoo reviewed.
Some rooms carried labels such as "kiddies who love sex," "girls 13 & up
for much older men," "8-12 yo girls for older men" and "teen girls for
older fat men." Many were located in chat categories titled "Schools and
Education" and "Teen." One that persistently showed up was "Sex B-4
Age 8 or its Too Late" and also "Sex Education Classes for 7 yo boys"
In an October 7 letter agreement with New York Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer, Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan acknowledged that
"certain individuals, interested in engaging in sexual conduct with
minors, have at times entered or even created chat rooms for such
purposes. Yahoo is committed to continue to work with (the) law
enforcement community, to minimize, target and take action against such
behavior."
The agreement is "an affirmative step for Yahoo," Spitzer said at a news
conference. The attorney general said his office will look at other
Internet service providers that may have similar problems.
"Because of this agreement, Yahoo chat rooms are a safer place today,"
said Jon Bruning, Nebraska's attorney general, in a statement.
Yahoo agreed to pre-screen user-created chat room names, to reject names
encouraging sexual activity between adults and children and, upon
finding chat rooms encouraging such activity, to purge them within 24
hours. It also agreed to develop education materials promoting the safe
use of chat rooms.
In a statement, spokeswoman Mary Osako said Yahoo will also enhance
online users' safety by restricting Yahoo Chat to users 18 and older
and removing the Teen category.
New York and Nebraska began their investigations this year after
learning that children had unfettered access to adult chat rooms.
One investigator, posing as a 14-year-old girl, reported receiving 35
personal messages of a sexual nature over 25 minutes, Spitzer
said. The senders of those messages appeared to be adult chat room
participants, he said.
Yahoo also agreed to donate $175,000 to the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children's New York affiliates and additional
free online advertising to promote Internet safety.
(Additional reporting by Michele Gershberg and Ed Leefeldt)
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.
NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.
------------------------------
From: Associated Press News Wire <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: EU to Force Telecoms to Keep Records
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 12:27:49 -0500
EU to Force Telecoms to Keep Records
The European Union agreed Wednesday to legally require
telecommunications companies to keep records of their phone and e-mail
traffic for at least a year as part of the bloc's anti-terrorist
campaign.
The decision by the 25 EU justice ministers comes after years of
European debate over the privacy and cost concerns of data retention.
The ministers agreed phone companies must keep records for 12 months and
Internet access providers must retain data on Web sites visited and
e-mail addresses used for six months.
The EU's counterterrorism efforts began taking shape after the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks in the United States. Some have already been enacted.
The phone and Internet data retention bill took on added urgency after
the July 7 suicide bombings in London that killed 52 people on the
city's transit system.
British Home Secretary Charles Clarke, whose country holds the
rotating EU presidency, said he was pushing hard for a European law by
year's end.
He said it will happen with or without the backing of the European
Parliament which has raised privacy concerns. Some of its members have
spoken of "invasive measures."
The EU assembly's approval is crucial, however, if the measure is to
be quickly enacted across Europe. Without it, the law would be much
weaker and the EU's executive office would not be able to pressure
countries that drag their heels in putting it into force.
Clarke said the legislation would be flexible and that countries may
require data to be kept for more than a year. Italy and Ireland would
be allowed to continue to require their telecommunications companies
to keep traffic data for three and four years respectively as
currently required by national laws there.
In recent months, the telecommunications industry has warned that
keeping traffic data on record for a year or longer would cost
millions of dollars, especially if the industry must also keep track
of calls that received no answer. Law enforcement agencies are
interested in those calls because they can set off remote bombs.
Clarke said it would be left up to individual nations to compensate the
industry.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.
Also see news stories at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html
(and) http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html
------------------------------
From: Michael Chance <mchance@swbell.net>
Subject: New Orleans Cable, Phone Service Spotty
Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:48:10 GMT
Some flickers of progress seen
By Keith Darce
Business writer, New Orleans Times-Picayune
Telecommunications service remains spotty in New Orleans and many
suburban communities six weeks after Hurricane Katrina decimated the
underground and overhead wires that carry telephone conversations,
Internet traffic and cable television signals.
Many people returning to their homes and businesses are finding
electricity and water flowing, but no dial tone in their phones and no
picture on their screens.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/business/t-
p/index.ssf?/base/money-0/11290987883030.xml
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 13:31:28 EDT
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: MEF Announces Carrier Ethernet Certification Plan
USTelecom dailyLead
October 12, 2005
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vAsYatagCrtLcNDsDP
TODAY'S HEADLINES
NEWS OF THE DAY
* MEF announces Carrier Ethernet Certification Plan
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Microsoft, Yahoo! to merge IM networks
* Sycamore turns a profit
* Global Crossing cleared to offer voice service in Mexico
* Pac-West broadens its horizons
* Leap Wireless signs deal with Nortel
USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT
* Register this week for TELECOM '05 and save!
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
* Linksys unveils Skype cordless phone
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* Microsoft settles with RealNetworks
Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vAsYatagCrtLcNDsDP
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 12:10:36 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Microsoft and Yahoo! Announce Landmark Interoperability Agreement
Microsoft and Yahoo! Announce Landmark Interoperability Agreement
to Connect Consumer Instant Messaging Communities Globally
- Oct 12, 2005 10:30 AM (PR Newswire)
Consumers will be able to exchange instant messages, see presence,
share emoticons and add friends from Yahoo! Messenger or MSN
Messenger.
SUNNYVALE, Calif. and REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/
-- Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today
announced a landmark agreement to connect users of their consumer
instant messaging (IM) services on a global basis. The industry's
first interoperability agreement between two distinct leading global
consumer IM providers will give MSN(R) Messenger and Yahoo!(R)
Messenger users the ability to interact with each other, forming what
is expected to be the largest consumer IM community in the world,
estimated to be more than 275 million strong.
Being able to instant message between IM communities is one of the
features most requested by MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger users,
and Microsoft and Yahoo! share a commitment to provide IM
interoperability while keeping consumer security and privacy first and
foremost. In addition to exchanging instant messages, consumers from
both communities will be able to see their friends' online presence,
share select emoticons, and easily add new contacts from either
service to their friends' list, all as part of their free IM service.*
Yahoo! and Microsoft plan to introduce these interconnectivity
capabilities between MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger to customers
around the world in the second quarter of 2006, and in doing so expect
to help make IM an even more useful part of consumers' online
communications and communities.
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52313290
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:02:45 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Faulty Radar Serving Logan Leaves Thousands Stranded
Monitors show objects that don't exist; solution uncertain
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | October 11, 2005
A malfunctioning radar system serving Logan International Airport
caused flight cancellations and delays of several hours yesterday,
stranding thousands of passengers on a holiday weekend and adding to
the woes of an airport that has logged several runway incidents in the
past few months.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/11/faulty_radar_serving_logan_leaves_thousands_stranded/
Radar malfunction causes long delays at Logan
October 11, 2005
BOSTON --Flight delays continued Tuesday at Logan International
Airport as federal officials worked to repair malfunctioning radar and
controllers using a backup system added extra space between planes.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/11/radar_malfunction_causes_long_delays_at_logan/
Airport travelers play the waiting game
Many in the dark about radar glitch
By Heather Allen, Globe Correspondent | October 11, 2005
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/11/airport_travelers_play_the_waiting_game/
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:29:51 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: You Need Not be Paranoid to Fear RFID
By Hiawatha Bray
It's one of the cutest of those cute IBM Corp. TV commercials, the
ones that feature the ever-present help desk. This time, the desk
appears smack in the middle of a highway, blocking the path of a big
rig.
"Why are you blocking the road?" the driver asks. "Because you're
going the wrong way," replies the cheerful Help Desk lady. "Your
cargo told me so." It seems the cartons inside the truck contained
IBM technology that alerted the company when the driver made a wrong
turn.
It's clever, all right -- and creepy. Because the technology needn't
be applied only to cases of beer. The trackers could be attached to
every can of beer in the case, and allow marketers to track the
boozing habits of the purchasers. Or if the cargo is clothing, those
little trackers could have been stitched inside every last sweater.
Then some high-tech busybody could keep those wearing them under
surveillance.
If this sounds paranoid, take it up with IBM. The company filed a
patent application in 2001 which contemplates using this wireless
snooping technology to track people as they roam through 'shopping
malls, airports, train stations, bus stations, elevators, trains,
airplanes, rest rooms, sports arenas, libraries, theaters, museums,
etc.' An IBM spokeswoman insisted the company isn't really prepared to
go this far. Patent applications are routinely written to include
every possible use of a technology, even some the company doesn't
intend to pursue. Still, it's clear somebody at IBM has a pretty
creepy imagination.
And it's not just IBM. A host of other companies are looking at ways
to embed surveillance chips into practically everything we purchase --
and even into our bodies. It's a prospect that infuriates Harvard
graduate student Katherine Albrecht.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/10/10/you_need_not_be_paranoid_to_fear_rfid/
------------------------------
Subject: Cellular-News for Wednesday 12th October 2005
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 07:38:33 -0500
From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news.com>
Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com
Alcatel Testing WiMAX in Norway
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14359.php
Alcatel has signed an agreement with Norway's NextGenTel to conduct
its first field-trial of WiMAX in Oslo and Bergen. Under the terms of
this agreement, Alcatel will supply, install and support NexGenTel
with its WiMAX ...
Roaming on CDMA and GSM Networks in Australia
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14360.php
Australia's Telstra is launching a service that enables customers to
roam between its CDMA and GSM networks while retaining the same phone
number. Telstra's Head of CDMA, Ms Jenny Roche, said the new calling
solution all...
Danish Switchboards
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14361.php
Denmark's Sonofon has just launched a service that is says is designed
to aid small businesses in dumping their landlines -- the Mobile
Switchboard. The Mobile Switchboard lets several co-workers in the
company share swit...
Pannon Launches Hungarian 3G Network
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14362.php
Less than a year since the company was awarded its 3G license,
Hungary's Pannon GSM has launched its commercial 3G network. Video
calls will continue to be free until the end of this year as a
continuation of the existin...
GSM Jumps Back to the 450 Frequency Band
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14363.php
Nokia and Ericsson have both returned to the GSM450 market, announcing
plans to start selling infrastructure in the 450Mhz band, currently
dominated by CDMA450. The GSM vendors had originally planned to deploy
GSM servic...
Fully Automatic HSDPA Optimization Solution
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14364.php
Radioplan, the German automatic mobile network optimization (ACP)
vendor, has announced that the latest version of their automatic cell
planning solution features fully automatic HSDPA optimization
functionality....
Anti-Virus for Microsoft Mobiles
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14365.php
The anti-virus company, F-Secure has launched an anti-virus package
for mobile phones running on Microsoft?s Windows Mobile operating
system. Symbian Series 80 users will also get a new product called
F-Secure Mobile Sec...
Trinidad & Tobago Braces for Intense Competition
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14366.php
The opening of Trinidad and Tobago's telecommunications market
represents one of the last Caribbean markets to open its sector to
competition, leaving the Bahamas as the only other closed market in
the region. The entran...
FOCUS: Russia mulls fighting mobile handset thieves
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14293.php
Russia is facing a rising problem of mobile handsets theft. In 2004,
the Moscow police officially registered over 7,000 mobile handset
thefts. However, analysts consider that the real number of stolen
mobile handsets is ...
Belarus MDC mobile subscriber base up 4.1% in September
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14297.php
The subscriber base of Belarus
mobile phone operator Mobile Digital
Connection (MDC) increased 4.1% on the month in September to 1.645
million users, the company said Tuesday. ...
Ukraine's Jeans mobile subscriber base up to 5 mln users Sep 30
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14300.php
The subscriber base of Ukraine's Jeans rose 74% since the beginning of
the year to 5 million users as of September 30, Ukrainian Mobile
Communications (UMC) said in a press release. ...
Russia's Euroset to cooperate in MVNO project with MTT
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14301.php
Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset has concluded an
agreement with Multiregional Transit Telecom (MTT) on cooperation in
the development of Euroset's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO)
project, an MTT...
TeliaSonera says holders to invest $60 mln in Moldova's Moldcell in 5 yrs
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14303.php
Shareholders of Moldova's mobile service operator Moldcell plan to
invest U.S. $60 million in the company within five years, Anders Igel,
CEO of TeliaSonera, Moldcell's key shareholder, said Wednesday. ...
Belarus' BeST to buy $234 mln equipment from Alcatel Shanghai
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14313.php
Belarus state-controlled mobile operator Belarus Telecommunications
Network, or BeST, has signed an agreement with China's
Alcatel Shanghai Bell to purchase the Chinese company's
telecommunications equipment for U...
Russia's VimpelCom to launch tariff with free cell phone in Dec
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14316.php
Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom plans to launch a
tariff with a free mobile handset included in the price of the
subscription fee, the company said in a press release Thursday. ...
Russia's VimpelCom user base in Far East hits 1 million people
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14319.php
The subscriber base of Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom in the country's Far Easqt Federal District has exceeded 1 million people, the company said on Thursday. ...
Russian court freezes SMARTS' shares once again
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14325.php
Russia's regional court in St. Petersburg has frozen 100% of the shares of Russian regional mobile operator SMARTS, Kommersant business daily reported Friday, citing Gennady Kiryushin, the company's general director. ...
Finland's Elcoteq opens telecom equip plant in Russia
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14326.php
Russia's ZAO Elcoteq, a subsidiary of Finland's electronics
manufacturing company Elcoteq Network Corporation, opened a
telecommunications equipment plant in St. Petersburg on Friday,
Elcoteq's CEO Antti Piippo said at...
PRESS: Russia's VimpelCom may start ops in 9 Far East regions
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14342.php
Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom may get
frequencies for operation in GSM 900 frequencies in nine regions in
the Far East Federal District, Vedomosti business daily reported
Monday, citing a letter fro...
MegaFon says ups base stations in Moscow to 1,500 units
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14344.php
Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon has increased the
number of base stations in the Moscow License Area (MLA) to 1,500
units as of now from 1,000 units as of January 1, the company's
General Director Sergei...
AC&M says Russia's mobile user base up to 111.74 mln on Sep 30
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14346.php
The number of mobile phone service subscribers in Russia increased to
111.74 million people as of September 30 from 107.33 million people as
of August 31, Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M) said in a report
released ...
Russia's SMARTS launches EDGE technology in test mode
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14347.php
Russian regional mobile operator SMARTS has launched Enhanced Data
rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) technology in test mode, the company
said Monday. ...
Nokia Launches Software Devt Products With Symbian
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14355.php
Finland's Nokia Oyj (NOK) Tuesday said it has launched two new
software development products together with Symbian Plc (SYN.YY) in
the U.K. ...
Vodafone Sweden Offers BlackBerry Services For 3 New Phones
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14356.php
Telecommunications operator Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) Tuesday said its
branch Vodafone Sweden is introducing its BlackBerry connection
services to three new mobile phones. ...
Nokia, TeliaSonera Sees Explosive Mobile E-mail Growth
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14357.php
Swedish telecommunications companies TeliaSonera AB (TLSN.SK) and
Nokia Corp. (NOK) sees usage of e-mail in mobile phones growing
rapidly in the coming year, despite current obstacles to growth. ...
Ukraine's UMC mobile subscriber base up to 10.916 mln Sep 30
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14358.php
The total subscriber base of Ukraine's Mobile Communications, or UMC,
Ukraine's largest mobile phone operator, rose 3.8% on the month to
10.916 million subscribers as of September 30, UMC said in a press
release on i...
------------------------------
From: Carl Navarro <cnavarro@wcnet.org>
Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port?
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:03:21 GMT
Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com
On Mon, 10 Oct 2005 12:53:17 -0700, anon1@sci.sci wrote:
>> Assuming you are looking for a device that receives Caller-ID, and the
>> voice menu stuff is done by something else, ..
> That's a very bad assumption. It's the voice-menu touch-tone: press 1
> if you are a personal acquaintance whose first name I would recognize;
> press 2 if you are calling me in regard to an existing business
> relationship such as a credit card or bank account; press 3 if you are
> a stranger trying to call me to advertise a product or service; press
> 4 if you are offering me a job; press 5 if you are a stranger trying
> to call for personal reasons such as you want to discuss something
> interesting I posted in a newsgroup; press 6 if we met in person but I
> don't yet know your name but I'd remember meeting you.) which I don't
> have and am seeking.
> Do you know what such a device would be called and which newsgroup
> would be appropriate for asking about such devices? It would be nice
> if that one device also included decoding of caller-ID, so that I can
> put up different touch-tone monus depending on whether the call
> provides caller-ID or not and if so then whether the call is from
> somebody whose number I already know, and if a number I already know
> then depending on the number: -- You have harassed me and I asked you
> to stop calling. But here you go calling me to harass me again. Your
> call will be reported to the police. -- Hi daddy. Phone is ringing
> now. If I'm here, I'll answer shortly. -- Hi Margaret. Nice to hear
> from you. If I'm here, I'll answer shortly.
Let me start again. You didn't tell me that you couldn't read, so
here's a specific link to products that you can use.
http://www.callerid.com/?page=ezid
You need an IVR that can process the CID DTMF. Amanda comes to mind,
but I'm sure there are others.
> I don't think a mere "card" would be of any use to me. It doesn't
> sound like anything I can connect up to a phone line and
> program/configure in any simple manner. But just in case I'm mistaken
> in rejecting your suggestion, please tell me how somebody would
> program the "card" to set up the various touch-tone menus? Is there a
> keypad on the "card" for entering configuration commands, and a LED or
> LCD display on the "card" for getting responses to verify what I'm
> doing?
>> Try www.callerid.com and check out the Whozz Calling box.
> I looked on that Web site, but didn't see any description of the Whozz
> Calling box nor any link to such information. The only mention was
> "using our Whozz Calling? family of multi-line hardware." with no link
> to info about the device. The text " Features simple viewing, logging,
> and networking of both incoming and outgoing Caller ID . Setup screen,
> search and find hardware routine, help screens, documentation, and
> source code included." appears to refer not to the box but to some
> software that wouldn't run on my Macintosh in any case, and there's no
> mention of either software or hardware providing any touch-tone menu.
http://www.callerid.com/?page=wc4
Wow. www.callerid.com Clicking on the products tab brings up the
entire line of products. In about 30 minutes, you ought to be able to
build a pretty long wish list and download some use(ful/less)
software.
Perhaps your computer is broken?
Now try that again and click on SOFTWARE PARTNERS and you will find
related software that you might find useful.
Click on PRICING within the descriptions above and see if it's a
barrier to entry.
The IVR solution requires some serious hardware. In an Amanda
implementation you need a voice mail card (2 port version about $600
or find one on eBay and get yourself a PC that accepts ISA boards) and
the software. Or try for a Brickmail solution and ask if it can do
mailbox lookups. In Amanda token language programming, it's pretty
elegant when coupled with an easyID box. Amanda allows variable
length digit strings to be sent before the greeting and can route
according to the digits received. If the 10 digit mailbox esists,
play the greeting, if it doesn't, play the greeting you suggested
above. You establsh 3 mailboxes of all 6's 7's and 9's to handle Out
if Area, Private and no CID. If the lookup fails, you end with a
regular auto attendant.
A couple of years ago, I picked up both Amanda hardware and software
for less than $500 on eBay.
To save you time, references for the above:
www.brickmail.com
www.taa.com
Now putting it all together:
EasyID2 $300.00
Amanda $500.00 used
PC $150.00 used
Not a lot of change back for $1000.00. Or search for an IVR solution
or use the Whozz Calling 4 port box that allows blocking for $500 and
check out the DOWNLOADS and SOFTWARE PARTNERS tabs on the callerid.com
website.
Carl Navarro
------------------------------
From: gordonb.ivsfa@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt)
Subject: Re: Device That Interfaces Between Phone/CallerID and Serial Port?
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 18:36:21 -0000
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com
>> Assuming you are looking for a device that receives Caller-ID, and the
>> voice menu stuff is done by something else, ..
> That's a very bad assumption. It's the voice-menu touch-tone: press 1
> if you are a personal acquaintance whose first name I would recognize;
> press 2 if you are calling me in regard to an existing business
> relationship such as a credit card or bank account; press 3 if you are
> a stranger trying to call me to advertise a product or service; press
> 4 if you are offering me a job; press 5 if you are a stranger trying
> to call for personal reasons such as you want to discuss something
> interesting I posted in a newsgroup; press 6 if we met in person but I
> don't yet know your name but I'd remember meeting you.) which I don't
> have and am seeking.
Since you didn't ask for a way for this device to transfer calls to
other phones, I don't see how it's going to work even if it does the
voice menus and the touch-tone decoding.
> Do you know what such a device would be called and which newsgroup
> would be appropriate for asking about such devices? It would be nice
> if that one device also included decoding of caller-ID, so that I can
> put up different touch-tone monus depending on whether the call
> provides caller-ID or not and if so then whether the call is from
> somebody whose number I already know, and if a number I already know
> then depending on the number: -- You have harassed me and I asked you
> to stop calling. But here you go calling me to harass me again. Your
> call will be reported to the police. -- Hi daddy. Phone is ringing
> now. If I'm here, I'll answer shortly. -- Hi Margaret. Nice to hear
> from you. If I'm here, I'll answer shortly.
>> "a cheap modem". It needs Caller-ID but it doesn't need 56K or even
>> 33.6k speeds. You don't want to set it up to auto-answer. The modem's
>> RING response code will include caller-ID if it's set up to return it.
> I already have a modem, a SupraExpress 56. When the phone rings, the
> modem sends just the word RING on a line by itself, with a blank line
> between consecutive RINGs. I don't know of any way to make it detect
> caller-ID and report that.
Reasonably modern modems (anything over, say, 7 years old) should be
settable to report caller-ID, typically with a command of the form
ATX<something goes here> , although what the something is varies with
the modem. Of course, you need caller-ID on the line.
>> The various Digium PCI cards used by Asterisk to interface with analog
>> phone lines let you do a lot more, including the voice menu stuff
>> itself, but they don't do RS-232.
> I don't think a mere "card" would be of any use to me. It doesn't
> sound like anything I can connect up to a phone line and
> program/configure in any simple manner.
The card is a hardware interface to a telephone line (or several
lines. One exists to handle a whole T1, for example. Another handles
up to 4 analog phones and/or phone lines on one card). The software
is Asterisk, which gives you all sorts of abilities like a small
business PBX, voice menus, voice mail with hundreds or thousands of
mailboxes, VOIP gateway, etc. I'm not sure whether there is any other
software that uses these cards.
> But just in case I'm mistaken
> in rejecting your suggestion, please tell me how somebody would
> program the "card" to set up the various touch-tone menus? Is there a
> keypad on the "card" for entering configuration commands, and a LED or
> LCD display on the "card" for getting responses to verify what I'm
> doing?
Asterisk configuration files aren't that friendly but they allow a lot
of flexibility. I think there are some more friendly front-ends for
the configuraton. You can do lots of menus, playing a recording and
then branching on what tones were entered - as many levels as you
want. (The distribution comes with an interesting "telemarketer
torture" set of voice menus that illustrate all the BAD things to do
with voice menus: loops, commonly used options LAST, etc.)
You can also do things like sending the call to voice mail, forward it
to an extension (possibly trying several in sequence), hanging up,
etc. The number of different voice prompts you can record is limited
essentially by the size of your hard disk. You can route based on
caller-ID. You can do caller-ID blacklists (and unlike the ones sold
by the phone company, having a blacklist a couple hundred thousand
numbers long is possible and shouldn't slow things down much).
For an Asterisk setup, you'd probably want a dedicated PC on 24x7.
You don't have to dedicate it, but for reliability it's probably
desirable.
> * See any DTMF digits dialed ON INBOUND CALLS! Use this to verify
> what mailbox was dialed along with the Caller ID number! I assume
> DTMF is the technical name/abbreviation for the tones used by "touch
> tone" dialing. In the absense of any outgoing message, there's no
> reason anyone would key in any DTMF tones after getting a connection,
> so by itself this is of no use here.
Some gadgets have a pre-canned "please enter your passcode now" prompt
which you can't change. This is of limited usefulness, especially for
your purposes.
> I really need something that will enforce a touch-tone (DTMF) menu,
> which anonymous or other unknown/suspicious callers must traverse
> before they will be allowed to ring my phone. I don't see any
> indication that Whozz will provide that capability. If there's no such
> device that handles both touch-tone menus and caller-ID decoding to
> pick which menu to use at the start, then I'd settle for a device that
> didn't have any caller-ID decoding at all, merely uses the same
> touch-tone menu for all callers, and rings my phone only if the caller
> passes a "Turing" test for establishing the person as a known friendly
> acquaintance or relative. (I currently get ten to twenty harassing
> calls per day, and maybe one or two non-harassing calls per month. I
> would like the touch-tone menu to filter out everything except those
> very few non-harassing calls.)
You haven't indicated much about what you want the caller to be able
to talk to *BESIDES* voice menus. What does it do with the call after
that? Forward it to a phone with a live person? (how is that phone
connected)? How many possible different live people on how many
different phones? Forward it into voice mail? (what provides that
and how do you reach it)?
Gordon L. Burditt
------------------------------
From: Carl Navarro <cnavarro@wcnet.org>
Subject: Re: NEC 2400 Out of Extensions
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:09:17 GMT
Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com
On 10 Oct 2005 12:54:29 -0700, Jason Wasser <jasonwasser@gmail.com>
wrote:
> We have an NEC 2400 and we're running out of extensions. How do we
> get more? We're currently only using three digit extensions.
You ask this question in 100 newsgroups, send $10,000 to 6 people and
in 3 months you will get a semi pulling up to your door with an
expansion to your PBX
Or send a picture of yourself with INSERT HOOK HERE in the appropriate
place.
If either of those options doesn't appeal to you, start with your NEAX
vendor.
Carl Navarro
------------------------------
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