From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jan 15 19:19:49 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i0G0Jnx10706; Thu, 15 Jan 2004 19:19:49 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 19:19:49 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200401160019.i0G0Jnx10706@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V23 #23 TELECOM Digest Thu, 15 Jan 2004 19:19:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 23 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson VOIP, Video-Conferencing Apps Face Security Risk (Marcus Didius Falco) Curious About Call Routing Through Vonage (Christopher R. Sabine) Re: 800-555-1140 was Re: Analog Phone Line Question (BV124@aol.com) Re: 800-555-1140 was Re: Analog Phone Line Question (Justin Time) Re: Analog Phone Line Question (J Kelly) Re: Analog Phone Line Question (No Spam) Re: MCI's Current Market Status (Nick Landsberg) Re: Vonage Virtual Number Crap Shoot (John Levine) Re: AT&T Reserving Numbers For Customers Who do Not Exist (BCDIO) Re: Caller ID and Spying??? (Daniel W. Johnson) Re: Maps of Central Office Locations (Dink) Interested in Publishing Articles in Digest (Ijaz Ahmed) Free Source of Telecom Classifieds (Steve Christie) 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 is 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 03:43:56 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: VOIP, Video-Conferencing Apps Face Security Risk (eWeek) http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1435890,00.asp http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3048,a=116401,00.asp VOIP, Video-Conferencing Apps Face Security Risk January 13, 2004 Multimedia applications such as voice over IP telephony and video conferencing could be vulnerable to security breaches because of flaws in the way a major telephony standard is being used. Some vendors' implementations of the H.323 protocol, an International Telecommunications Union standard for communication among telephony and multimedia devices, are vulnerable to denial of service attacks and, to a lesser extent, the execution of code and system takeovers through buffer overflows, according to an article advisory issued Tuesday by the United Kingdom's National Infrastructure Security Co-Ordination Centre (NISCC). Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. were the only vendors to issue patches and advisories as of Tuesday afternoon, even though products from several other vendors also could be at risk. RELATED LINKS Senator Preps Bill to Define VOIP, Curb FCC A Giant Leap for VOIP Microsoft Connecting Web Conferencing with IM Cable, Phone Industry Move to Sell VOIP Services Avaya, Polycom Partner on Desktop Video Conferencing As part of a series of security bulletins it issued on Tuesday, Microsoft released one rated "critical" for its Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000 software, pointing to a flaw in the H.323 filter that could allow an attacker, through a buffer overflow, to take over control of the system. Microsoft issued a batch of security bulletins on Tuesday. To read more about the vulnerabilities, click here. Cisco, of San Jose, Calif., in a security advisory said that all products that run Cisco's IOS network system software and support H.323 packet processing are affected by a vulnerability that can cause denial of service attacks. Cisco supports H.323 in its IOS software with version 11.3T and later. Other vendors that identified potential vulnerabilities were Nortel Networks Inc., Radvision Corp. and Tandberg. Avaya Inc., Lucent Technologies, Fujistu Ltd. and Hewlett-Packard Co. told the NISCC that they are investigating whether their products are vulnerable to the security flaw. Among those reporting that their products are not vulnerable were Apple Computer Inc., CyberGuard Corp., eSoft Inc., Hitachi Ltd., the NetBSD Project, Objective Systems Inc., Red Hat Inc., Symantec Corp. and uniGone. In the United States, the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center also issued an advisory about the vulnerabilities in H.323 implementations. It noted that one possible workaround, along with vendor patches and upgrades, is to block ports 1720/tcp and 1720/udp on network parameters. According to CERT, more than 50 vendors had not yet reported whether their products were vulnerable. Check out eWEEK.com's Security Center at security.eweek.com for security news, views and analysis. Copyright (c) 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Ziff Davis Media. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Christopher R. Sabine Subject: Curious About Call Routing Through Vonage Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 19:03:21 -0500 Hello all. I just opened an account with Vonage about three weeks ago, and the service is working great for me with my Broadband connection. However, I discovered a few oddities about how calls seems to be routed through the Vonage network. First, my Vonage number is in Columbus, Ohio, and my ANI is consistent with my Vonage account. However, when I tried to use Vonage to call an in-state toll-free number in Ohio, I got a fast busy. I was able to determine that toll calls are routed through New York, despite my ANI and Vonage number being in Columbus and the corporate headquarters of Vonage being in Edison, NJ, a different LATA from New York. Also, I do have occasion to make international calls using Vonage. When When I made a call to Norway and another to New Zealand, the ring tones were NANP-like ESS tones, not those you associatd with Norway or New Zealand. I'm just wondering if this is a product of a direct connection of a VOIP gateway. Thanks, Chris. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You will run into those oddities about intra-state and interstate calling of 800 numbers using Vonage. The whole system of inter/intra 800 calling was devised long ago, and I doubt telco will change it. To the *called party* (who is the one paying for the call, you are NOT in Ohio, regardless of what your phone tries to tell them. Vonage customers are all 'in' New York/New Jersey, etc regardless of their physical location. For instance, I am in Kansas. My 'real' Vonage number is (in effect) a 'virtual' number in the 415 area code, just like your Vonage number in Ohio is a 'virtual' number. But assuming you are somewhere in Ohio, why waste the 'minutes' you bought with your Vonage account when you could call the toll-free number from your direct landline phone at no charge. And if you are NOT in Ohio, then why not call the company on their *non-Ohio only toll free* number -- in other words, their toll number -- using Vonage since you paid for it already anyway? And regards your international calls, I *think* Vonage is just giving you a 'dummy ring' while in the background they are completing your call. Do you get answers on your international calls? By the way, any person or company who wants to try Vonage for a month free (the second month) should email me and get an e-coupon to use for free service. I will send you a link to click on to get Vonage on a trial basis after you get the little Cisco ATA box from them. Send a not for pub note to ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu and ask. PAT] ------------------------------ From: BV124@aol.com Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 18:19:18 EST Subject: Re: 800-555-1140 was Re: Analog Phone Line Question Just tried it on my cell (AT&T Wireless) in the 818 NPA and my landline (Pacific Bell) also in the 818 NPA. It answered back with ANI = "00818-XXX-XXXX for the landline and ANI = "62818-XXX-XXXX for the cell. Hmmmm. ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: 800-555-1140 was Re: Analog Phone Line Question Date: 15 Jan 2004 05:52:02 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) wrote in message news:: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That toll free number, 800-555-1140 >> also works fine here in my town. I bet it will for everyone. PAT] > Hmm. Just tried it from a cell phone, and the ANI was *not* my cell > number. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I tried *my* cellular phone also from > here, and it did not return correct results either. However my > Vonage phone did have the correct results, and my wireline phone as > well. Uhmm, could it be the ANI being reported was for the trunk from the wireless carrier that carried the call? That's the problem with ANI and cell phones that 9-1-1 centers have been having for years. Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Analog Phone Line Question Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 14:04:01 -0600 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy-nospam-.com On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 02:07:50 GMT, Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > On 12 Jan 2004 12:25:48 -0800, Dmitry posted the following to > comp.dcom.telecom: >> Hi, >> I have a live analog telephone line and can dial out just fine, but I >> don't know what the phone number is to dial in. Is there a number I >> can dial in Washington D.C area that would tell me the number I am >> calling from? >> I realize I can call any number with caller ID, but I've heard that >> Telco has a number which provides that information also. >> Thank you in advance, >> Dmitry > Dmitry, > A couple of numbers that work here in the DC area at the moment (just > tried them) are 1010732-1-770-988-9664 and 1-800-555-1140. The latter > one will provide you with a lot of information (line number and a > bunch of other stuff I can't interpret) as well as the calling number, > which is identified by ANI (pronounced "Annie"). I have no idea who > the sponsor of these numbers is. I probably got them from Telecom > Digest at one point or another and keep them in my PDA. > Michael D. Sullivan > Bethesda, MD, USA > Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That toll free number, 800-555-1140 > also works fine here in my town. I bet it will for everyone. PAT] I get what sounds like a remote dial tone when it is all done. I didn't try to dial to see what would happen. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I got the same thing! Sounds a lot like a loop-around doesn't it? Well, I know one old phreak who took the 'dial tone challenge' and discovered no matter what digits were pressed, he could not break dial tone. No matter what, on his landline phone, either of his cellular phones or his Vonage phone. It just wouldn't work ... and inspired by the pleasant surprise he found from years gone by with the old Unitel network of United Airlines and its local loop-around/WATS extender line in Chicago, he tried furiously all the things in his bag of tricks to get past that remote dial tone. Alas, nothing. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 18:09:43 -0500 From: No Spam Subject: Re: Analog Phone Line Question Michael D. Sullivan responded to Dmitry on the subject of Re: Analog Phone Line Question on Wed, 14 Jan 2004 02:07:50 saying: > On 12 Jan 2004 12:25:48 -0800, Dmitry posted the following to > comp.dcom.telecom: >> Hi, >> I have a live analog telephone line and can dial out just fine, but I >> don't know what the phone number is to dial in. Is there a number I >> can dial in Washington D.C area that would tell me the number I am >> calling from? >> I realize I can call any number with caller ID, but I've heard that >> Telco has a number which provides that information also. >> Thank you in advance, >> Dmitry > Dmitry, > A couple of numbers that work here in the DC area at the moment (just > tried them) are 1010732-1-770-988-9664 and 1-800-555-1140. The latter > one will provide you with a lot of information (line number and a > bunch of other stuff I can't interpret) as well as the calling number, > which is identified by ANI (pronounced "Annie"). I have no idea who > the sponsor of these numbers is. I probably got them from Telecom > Digest at one point or another and keep them in my PDA. > Michael D. Sullivan > Bethesda, MD, USA > Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That toll free number, 800-555-1140 > also works fine here in my town. I bet it will for everyone. PAT] Actually, the toll-free number (800-555-1140) says that it's giving you ANI, but it appears to belabelling Calling Party Number as ANI in some cases. The two are very different. (I called it and it read the Calling Party Number I have programmed in my PBX, not the ANI or Billing Telephone Number that is sent out through the network.) This would explain Dr. Joel's experience from his cell phone as well. If you are trying to identify a residence line, or a POTS line in a small business, it is probably safe to use, but it will not work reliably for a business with a PBX and ISDN-PRI trunks, or analog trunks in a hunt group. Joshua My opinions are my own and not necessarily that of my employer although sometimes we agree. ------------------------------ From: Nick Landsberg Subject: Re: MCI's Current Market Status Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 04:19:58 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet Joseph wrote: > On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 20:04:46 -0500, Brett Nelson > wrote: {Much snipped] > Well considering MCI/Worldcom and its rivals Sprint and AT&T I > wouldn't go directly with any of 'em. You can get lots better deals > through many resellers who may use any of the above services. > Personally I wouldn't trust MCI or Sprint as far as I can spit. I > don't think AT&T has any great virtures either. > remove NO from .NOcom to reply > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We really have some great choices these > days don't we? PAT] And we have Judge Green to thank for it, Pat. "It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious" - A. Block ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jan 2004 06:31:31 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Vonage Virtual Number Crap Shoot Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Now, I don't think that the "Keys" are all one exchange, so that does > look like a crap shoot. But in all other cases, if you select an > exchange that is a local call to your mother, you'll get a number in > that exchange. I think that Bellsouth has been doing some long overdue rate center merging and the Keys are now treated as one rate center. See http://members.dandy.net/~czg/lca.php?exch=219350 The guy is claiming that Vonage's support told him that you can't pick a rate center. That seems hard to believe. ------------------------------ From: BCDIO@aol.com Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 15:59:20 EST Subject: Re: AT&T Reserving Numbers For Imaginary Customers Mr. Townson - I am trying to secure an 800 number for my small business that is in its start-up phase. I hired a private investigator and having done some investigating myself found that the number's resporg is Worldcom WilTel 01 and that the party being billed is AT&T. AT&T continues to reserve the number over and over and I cannot get Worldcom to release the number to my business. I found an article online at the link below to which you commented in a "Moderator's Note:" stating... "One thing AT&T is still doing that the FCC is going to make them quit doing before long is reserving numbers for imaginary customers who do not exist. They are doing this with 'good' numbers they want to hang on to. I've tried to get 800 numbers for customers of my service only to have the RESPORG tell me that the number 'belongs to' AT&T. When you dial it, it goes to intercept, and no actual customer ever seems to show up, yet the number keeps getting reserved over and over for sixty days at a time. I recently talked directly to a staff attorney at the FCC who asked me to call him personally with a list of 800 numbers in this category and I am compiling them now. PAT" (See http://digest.textfiles.com/TELECOMDIGEST/vol13.iss0801-0844.txt) AT&T is not "selling" the number and Worldcom claims that they cannot release it. Can you tell me who to contact at the FCC and/or if this is now legal for AT&T to do. Your comments are from 1993, and the law may have changed since then. All assistance would be appreciated!!! Sincere thanks, Beth-Anne [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What I would say now, eleven years after that note above was written is that it would appear AT&T and Worldcom are still at their old tricks. You might wish to speak with an 800 number recovery specialist for assistance on this matter. I would suggest you contact Judith Oppenheimer for professional assis- tance on this. Ms. Oppenheimer deals with resporgs all the time and knows how to get things done through them. Ms. Oppenheimer is in New York City, and to email her, go to http://telecom-digest.org and there on the front page of our web site, look for her picture and a short mention. Click on the picture or the email link. In fact you can email her at the address http://1800TheExpert.com which should also work fine. Please mention that you read about her in TELECOM Digest. Good luck with getting the number released. PAT] ------------------------------ From: panoptes@iquest.net (Daniel W. Johnson) Subject: Re: Caller ID and Spying??? Date: 14 Jan 2004 12:13:12 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com desiv wrote in message news:: > Just a heck of a coincidence that it happend to match this other > person, who has a totally different last name and happens to be > involved in a messy situation. One question: Is there any chance that your mother's friend has received a phone call from that "other person" at some point? (I noticed that the friend seemed to recognize the name, anyway.) > I guess that's why they call it a coincidence. At least a 1 in 60,000 > chance (Approx. number of people in the calling area), but a chance > nontheless. People win the lottery with worse odds.. :-) If the database corruption happened at Callwave and the other person had called the friend, the "60,000" can be replaced by the number of people who have called the friend. ------------------------------ From: Dink Subject: Re: Maps of Central Office Locations Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 16:38:10 -0600 Organization: Frijoles Refritos On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 12:04:25 -0500, John E. Connerat wrote: > I am trying to determine the location of the central office for the > 404-624-xxxx area. At one time, Mapquest had a reasonably good map > service that allowed you to type in the area code and exchange, and it > would show you the approximate central office location for the > information that you typed in. > I can no longer find that service on Mapquest. Is it available > anywhere else? > I am trying to troubleshoot a DSL connection and I do not know how far > away the service location (404-624-xxxx) is from BellSouth's central > office in that neighborhood. It may come as no surprise, but the DSL > "helpdesk" has no idea either. > Thanks, > John Connerat http://www.dslreports.com/coinfo This will show a map. As you put the mouse pointer on one of the CO tiny squares on the map, the CO name is displayed in a tip and on the status bar. Just mouse around until you find the square whose CO name matches the one returned by the NPA-NXX search. Elsewhere on this site, you can enter the full number and street address and receive an estimate of the CO distance. ------------------------------ From: ijaz ahmed Subjet: Submitting Articles to TELECOM Digest Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 01:28:05 +0500 Articles About Telecommunication Dear Sir / Madam Hi ! Happy New Year to you . My name is Ijaz Ahmed . I am a 35 years, male from Lahore, Pakistan. I am working in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited Since last 13 years . I am a Graduate and working as an Engineering Superviser in PTCL . I am an Ericsson Expert . I have a lot of Telecommunication trainings and International working experience in United Arab Emirated , and China in the fields of Telecommunication . I have worked in China Ericsson ( China ) , Emirates telecommunication Corporation ( UAE ) . I have also been selected for Ericsson Dallas ( USA ) . Dear Sir / Madam I have also worked in the Research & Development section of telecommunication for many years . I have written some articles about different fields of telecommunication like Mobile communication , wireless communication , satellite communication , transmission media used in communications , computers networking techniques such as Wans , Lans and Mans , TCP/IP and other Protocols used in communication after readings a lot of books and after years of practical trainings and work in the different fields of telecommunication . I would request you to please publish some of my work , so that people who have an idea about computer networking and modern telecommunications could get benefit from my work . My articles in the telecommunication will definately be appreciated by the knowledge loving persons . If you allow me , i will send some of my articles by fax or e-mail to you so that you can publish it for the benefit of knowledge loving reader . My e-mail is : ijaz18@hotmail.com My Home Address is : 502 RAZA BLOCK , ALLAMA IQBAL TOWN, LAHORE, PAKISTAN My Phone number is :+ 92 300 410 2217 Thanks & take care. Waiting for your reply. Ijaz Ahmed TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you for writing to the Digest. I would be pleased to examine some of your writing about your telecom experiences in the places you mentioned, and about telecom engineering in general. Submit your articles to ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu and I request that you use *only* ascii text for your articles and no html in your submissions. Please make a reasonable effort -- to the extent of your knowledge of English grammer -- to edit and format your material as you see it done in this and other issues of the Digest. Perhaps the editors/publishers/moderators of other newsgroups/Digests on internet who read this message will want to correspond with you also. Thanks again for writing from Pakistan. In addition to this public reply, I also sent email to Mr. Ahmed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: steven.christie1@ntlworld.com (Steve Christie) Subject: Telecom Classifieds Date: 15 Jan 2004 14:55:31 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Free posting of global telecom classifieds - http://www.telecomclassifieds.net ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, 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-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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