From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 29 14:47:21 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4TIlLS14872; Sat, 29 May 2004 14:47:21 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 14:47:21 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405291847.i4TIlLS14872@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 #267 TELECOM Digest Sat, 29 May 2004 14:47:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 267 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Buffalo Spammer Headed for Prison (Marcus Jervis) Re: Phishing: Latest Spam/Scam; Very Dangerous (jdj) Re: DSL vs. Cable Modem? (Geoffrey Welsh) Re: Consumer Advocates Tell FCC That VoIP Telephone Customers (John Levine) Re: Consumer Advocates Tell FCC That VoIP Telephone Customers (Tony P.) Re: Why Would I Want a Local T1? (Steven J Sobol) Re: Taking my Cell Phone to Switzerland? (John Levine) Re: Modern Telecom Frustration (Tony P.) Antique Phone Parts Available (Rich Greenberg) Bell Canada Buys Canadian Assets of 360 Networks (Geoffrey Welch) Memories of Illinois Bell in Better Times (TELECOM Digest Editor) 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: Marcus Jervis Subject: Buffalo Spammer Headed for Prison Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 05:06:31 +0000 'Buffalo Spammer' Is Sentenced To Prison for Junk-Mail Barrage BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A man who sent 850 million junk e-mails through accounts he opened with stolen identities was sentenced to prison Thursday after telling the judge the case against him was overblown and had no victims. "I obviously regret this whole involvement," Howard Carmack began before being sentenced to three-and-a-half to seven years in prison on charges including forgery, identity theft and falsifying business records. He went on to accuse Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of treating him unfairly, calling the case politically motivated. Mr. Carmack was the first person prosecuted by Mr. Spitzer's office under New York's identity theft statute. "I don't see any victims," Mr. Carmack said. "I'm having a heck of a time figuring out why you think everybody is unfair to you," Erie County Judge Michael D'Amico responded before imposing the maximum sentence. "You think it's OK to take somebody's identity and use it for whatever purpose you want," the judge said. "You caused a great deal of harm to a lot of people." Atlanta-based Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. said Mr. Carmack ran 343 illegal e-mail accounts under false names from 2002 until his arrest last May, and used them to send unsolicited e-mail ads for things like get-rich-quick schemes and sexual enhancers. A jury convicted Mr. Carmack March 31 of defrauding EarthLink and eight men from New York, Ohio and Washington, D.C., by either obtaining EarthLink accounts in their names or using their corporate e-mail addresses to sell products. EarthLink obtained a $16.4 million civil judgment against Mr. Carmack, 37 years old, last May in Atlanta and sought a criminal conviction and prison as further deterrents. Crimes like Mr. Carmack's are not uncommon but spammers can be elusive and difficult to stop. The case against Mr. Carmack took more than a year to crack as he hid behind stolen identities. "Before spammers send one more spam e-mail, we think they should remember that what happened to Howard Carmack can happen to them, the lengthy prison sentence by the state and the multimillion dollar civil judgment against him by EarthLink," said Karen Cashion, EarthLink's assistant general counsel. The ISP has yet to receive any payment from Mr. Carmack on the civil judgment, Ms. Cashion said. Spitzer spokesman Brad Maione said the case was important because it highlighted the threat of identity theft on the Internet, where criminals lure victims with fake Web sites and e-mails seeking bank account numbers and passwords. "As soon as you begin to take a look at one fraud scheme another seems to pop up very quickly," Mr. Maione said. Prosecutors estimated Mr. Carmack was making $60,000 to $70,000 annually before his arrest last May. Wayne Felle, Mr. Carmack's attorney, said he is appealing his client's conviction. Mr. Felle attributed Mr. Carmack's comments before sentencing to nerves and said they did not properly reflect his client's attitude. He said Mr. Carmack is sorry for his actions. Copyright 2004 Associated Press ------------------------------ From: jdj Subject: Re: Phishing: Latest Spam/Scam; Very Dangerous Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 23:43:55 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com It's not only crackers, spyware and trojans collecting your info from your computer, etc., trashers and divers are also reselling whatever personal and account info they find in the trash instead of using it themselves. And don't think you're safe just because the info you discovered was stolen from you has not been used in the past few years. "It hasn't been used yet" means just that and not "therefore it will never be used". ------------------------------ From: Geoffrey Welsh Subject: Re: DSL vs. Cable Modem? Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 12:55:39 -0400 Organization: Primus Canada Lisa Hancock wrote: > Each says they're far superior (faster data and more reliable) and > cheaper than the other. Of course they do -- what kind of advertising campaign would it be if they didn't? > Any opinions on cable modems vs. DSL in today's world? I've dealt (both for myself and on behalf of others) with a couple of cable companies and several DSL companies and I've got to tell you that, once the basic requirements such as availability in the area and the quality of the cabling are met, your experience as a customer depends not on whether the media is cable or DSL, but on the design, implementation, and maintenance choices made by the service provider. They choose what bandwidth they make available to you, how they provision their network, how they connect it to the rest of the internet, how they provision and run their servers, etc. Some time ago Bell Canada's ISP, Sympatico, ran ads implying thet their DSL service was faster than the cable company (Rogers) because it was "never shared" -- but that is misleading, if not an outright lie, since DSL subscribers DO share connections past the DSLAM (or, in the case of the Nortel equipment, the line card drawer.) When people asked me if cable's shared medium made a difference, I'd tell them that it had as much effect as sharing a driveway has on your drive to work. (Bad analogy, though, since it might be very easy to get completely blocked in on a shared driveway.) Sympatico's network was better able to carry the traffic that its subscribers generated, leveraging both Bell Canada's extensive network -- built as much for their commercial customers as for their residential broadband subscribers - and their IP connectivity. Rogers, on the other hand, was not well served by their @Home membership, nor particularly by their arrangement with Teleglobe after @Home collapsed. Both companies had terrible reputations for their customer service. Aurora Cable, with a limited territory north of Toronto, was another story: perhaps because of their limited geographical coverage, they built a very robust network and provided excellent connectivity. I heard plenty of praise and not a single complaint about them. Similarly (though not to the same magnitude) before Shaw traded their Eastern operations to Rogers, their internet service had a better reputation than Rogers' did. The quality of the service depends on what the provider decides to invest in it, not on which media is used. Tony P. wrote: > Far as I know, you can't get consumer cable IP feed without > subscribing to cable television. Rogers Cablesystems charges you an extra $10/month for cable internet if you're not a cable television subscriber. Tony P. wrote: > Try it some time. Around here you get basic cable along with the Internet > service because there isn't any feasible way for them to filter it. If that is true, then I should cancel my Rogers analog cable service ($50/month) and my Primus Canada* DSL service ($35/month; would be more if I didn't own my own DSL modem) and subscribe to Rogers cable internet ($45/month plus $10/month since I'm not a cable subscriber) and -- as you say -- I'll get analog cable anyway, saving me at least $30/month (more if I take into account that the cable service includes modem rental or that dropping my DSL service permits me to switch my phone line from Bell Canada to Sprint Canada, which I currently can't do if I want to get DSL service on it.) Given that Rogers offers two independent add-on packages for their analog cable service(basic is channels 2 through 26, plus 59 through 74; one package is channels 27 through 42, and the other is channels 46 through 58), I doubt that they have any problem filtering out basic cable for internet-only customers. Shucks, $30/month isn't a fortune, but it would pay for a coffee a day ... * I should cancel my Primus Canada DSL service anyway: their USENET news server is absolutely terrible and, in the few weeks I've been their customer, I've had problems logging in to fetch my e-mail, problems connecting PPPoE sessions, and even problems dialing up as a workaround. Also, despite what looks like diverse IP connectivity by Primus Canada and through Primus USA, throughput is disappointing especially at peak times. Geoffrey Welsh [This space for rent] ------------------------------ Date: 29 May 2004 03:32:08 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Consumer Advocates Tell FCC That VoIP Telephone Customers Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Comment: These so-called "consumer advocates" sound like they want > to kill VoIP, not protect consumers. Hopefully the FCC will realize > that "enhanced" 911 is currently IMPOSSIBLE due to the portability > of VoIP devices Don't be silly. The vast majority of VoIP phones are plugged in one place and stay there. For the sort-of-911 on my Vonage phone, I tell them where the phone is, and they program their system to call the local 911 center if I dial 911. Yeah, now and then I take the phone with me on trips, but the other 99% of the time it's right where 911 thinks it is. I suppose it would be nice if there was a note displayed to the 911 operator to verify the phone's location if possible, but that's a tiny detail. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Consumer Advocates Tell FCC That VoIP Telephone Customers Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 05:04:06 GMT In article , VOIP News says: > Comment: These so-called "consumer advocates" sound like they want to > kill VoIP, not protect consumers. Hopefully the FCC will realize that > "enhanced" 911 is currently IMPOSSIBLE due to the portability of VoIP > devices (that is, you can plug one in anywhere there is a broadband > connection, and the VoIP provider simply has no way of knowing where > you are). Therefore any absolute requirement for enhanced 911 would > have the effect of killing VoIP. I don't know what "consumers" these > advocates purport to represent, but they sure do not represent me nor > my views on the subject. I'd love to know where these people get > their funding. E-911 is completely possible. The people just can't see the forest for the trees. If they can build GPS into a cell phone, they sure as hell can build it into a VOIP router and then send that info to a server that does a database dip, finds out the jurisdiction and send it to the PSAP. But stupidity rules, as usual. ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Why Would I Want a Local T1? Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 21:45:47 -0500 xasdfg123456@yahoo.com wrote: > From what little documentation the previous admin here left, I see 12 > trunks in operation: six lines for our Panasonic DBS and six other > lines for other purposes (faxs, modems). Is this something that our > local carrier would not be able to provide for us? Not all of these > are necessary anymore. It just seems like it would be much less > expensive (like hundreds) to use the lines already in the building. Well, twelve lines is half a T-1 worth of bandwidth. Are you using the other 768K of bandwidth for data? T-1s can carry up to 1,536KB/s of data, up to 24 voice lines, or a combination. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ Date: 29 May 2004 03:26:22 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Taking my Cell Phone to Switzerland? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I would seriously recommned *not* to rent a phone. Prices for phone > rental are high and you can actually buy you a second-hand compatible > phone to use with the service cheaper than renting a phone. So I discovered. Renting a phone costs $50/wk, so I just bought a used Moto GSM 900/1800/1900 for $48 on eBay, which should show up next week. Then I called up Cingular to turn on international roaming so I can use my SIM to pick up SMS messages in Switzerland, since I have my Vonage voicemail set to send notices with phone numbers to my SMS, and Cingular assures me that inbound SMS don't cost extra no matter where they're delivered. Then I can switch to a prepaid Swiss SIM to return the calls. But the Cingular rep told me that they couldn't turn on int'l roaming without knoing what phone I plan to use. This sounds wrong based on everything I know about GSM, but I guess I'll just have to wait until the Moto phone shows up to find out. If I have to call Cingular and give them the IMEI every time I move the SIM to the other phone, this makes their system considerably less useful. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Modern Telecom Frustration Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 05:01:54 GMT In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: > Why I question modern technology: That's ok -- I used to work for the local AG's office. I tried calling a friend of mine there a week or two ago and got RNA. Hmmm ... punch up their state Centrex number and get through. Looks like the first line in the hunt group has a problem. They usually don't notice it during the day because call volume is such that it doesn't get chalked up to anything. But call late afternoon and you get RNA. I finally got hold of my friend on her cell phone. They're aware of the problem but neither they nor the specialists from state telecom can fix it. I told em' I'm on the state purchasing agreement, call me in and I'll fix it by putting a 600 ohm resistor across the trunk side (They're all loop-start lines!) and then put my test set on the main pair and dial from another pair and see if I hear the ring. If I do I know it's a bad circuit card, if I don't it's time to call Verizon and tell them to fix it. I told her I'd only charge em' $500 for their own damned stupidity. Frustrates the hell out of me. ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Antique Phone Parts Available Date: 29 May 2004 14:11:33 -0400 I am cleaning house and found a few items that may be of interest to telephone collectors: 1) 2 each 4 prong sockets and cover plates (for mounting on a wall box). 2) 2 each Adapters, 4 prong male to modular female. 3) Not sure exactly how to describe this. Its a cord and connector block for hard wireing a phone. Since a picture is worth 10,000 words (or so they say), See: http://www.panix.com/~richgr/cord.jpg All free to a good home except that if you are not close enough to pick up, I would appreciate the cost of the postage back. Rich Greenberg N6LRT Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ From: Geoffrey Welsh Subject: Bell Canada Buys Canadian Assets of 360networks Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 14:28:39 -0400 Organization: Primus Canada Patrick, please forgive me if this has been covered and I just haven't seen it because of my ISP's lousy USENET news server ... but I can't believe that there has been no mention of this deal. I'm certain that it will be a headliner in Monday's Telecom Update. On Wednesday May 26th, Bell Canada -- Canada's largest telephone company, incumbent carrier to nearly two thirds of the population, and part-owner of some smaller regional telephone companies -- announced that they were buying, for $CDN 275 million, the Canadian assets of 360networks, including CLEC GT Group Telecom, which 360 purchased soon after both emerged from bankruptcy protection. To make the deal palatable to Canada's Competition Bureau, Bell will sell some of 360/GT's retail business and bits of the network in eastern Canada, where Bell is already dominant, to Call-Net Enterprises, the Canadian company that owns Sprint Canada. http://www.bce.ca/en/news/releases/bce/2004/05/26/71251.html The deal serves many purposes for Bell Canada. The official explanation is twofold: (1) Although it has a dominating presence in eastern Canada, its battle with Telus -- which was formed by the merger of regional incumbent carriers in the West but which has been working its way into the larger Eastern markets -- has been heating up and the acquisition gives Bell Canada significant long-haul and municipal fiber, as well as retail customers, in the heart of Telus' territory. The fact that Montreal-based BCE, owner of Bell Canada, chose to hold their "annual and special meeting" and make the announcement in Vancouver symbolizes the escalation of Bell's muscling in on Telus' territory. (2) Bell, which is profitable, inherits $CDN 1.5 billion of 360networks' tax loss provisions, which 360 couldn't use for lack of profits to tax but Bell can use. Although 360 comes out $275 million ahead in cash, Bell is essentially being paid well over a billion dollars to take 360's Canadian operation off their hands. However, unofficially, the acquisition 'sends a message' to companies like Manitoba Telecom Services ("MTS") and SaskTel, who are attempting to a piece of Bell's profitable business in eastern Canada: although MTS is 22% owned by Bell Canada, it is trying to buy (Bell has filed an unjunction to block the deal) Allstream in order to make it a national player, and SaskTel, through its Navigata division, has been slowly pushing into Bell territory. The message, clearly, is that any smaller regional carrier looking to profit by taking a chip off Bell's gem had better be prepared to defend their own treasure against a powerful competitor. Geoffrey Welsh [This space for rent] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 13:54:39 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Memories of Illinois Bell in Better Times Or really, all the old Bell System; Illinois Bell was nothing special or different, but it is the one of which I had some knowledge, and the last chairman of AT&T prior to divestiture came out of Illinois Bell, and I had a very passing aquaintence with Charles Brown, from when we both lived in the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. Then he went on to live in Glencoe, a northern suburb as the president of Illinois Bell, before taking on the task of chairman at AT&T. That would have been the middle 1970's. How does the old song phrase it? "Things to painful to remember, we simply choose to forget" ... who wrote or popularized that song? Anyone remember? One incident I remember pretty well took place in the early 1960's, in an IBT central office called 'Chicago-Wabash', 65 East Congress Parkway, corner of Congress and Wabash Avenue, south end of downtown Chicago, an older, and 'original' part of the city, dating back to even before the great fire of 1871, and the central office building itself dating back to the teen years of the 20th century, entirely step by step, except for a 'newer' section which was crossbar. Not without good reason was it called the 'Wabash Cannonball', a person calling into or out of the WABash central office always got a lot of 'bangs' and 'pops' in his eardrum from the relays opening and closing as the switch trains would set up, travel their route around the office, and occassionally derail. And if weather-wise it was a hot, humid night in July or August when the windows were open (no air conditioning in those days; a/c was a relatively new invention which arrived in most business places only in the early to middle 1960's) -- well, when the windows were open on Wabash Avenue/Congress Parkway, the 'Wabash Cannonball' could be heard up to a block away by passersby walking down the sidewalk; extremely noisy; the din was just as bad as the Western Union public office a few blocks away; but at WUTCO, after a few seconds of silence while all the teletype machines were 'resting', only to have one machine wake-up with a soft whirr as the gears engaged and one or more of the machines started 'chattering' its news, Wabash CO was different. On one of the rare instances when there was no call being set up or taken down, the switches would sit there silently for a few seconds but then with no advance notice of course -- neither at WUTCO was there any advance notice -- all of a sudden BANG! the switches would move into action and a switch train would move out to wherever. During 'busy hour' times, the switches would be going constantly, since Wabash CO was a very busy downtown office. It was only late at night, or maybe a Saturday or Sunday evening during the summer when the occassional breaks of quiet could be heard off and on. This was the setting for the story I will tell you now. The office clerks there at Wabash CO were all gone over the weekend, especially on Saturday night. The repair clerk (the person you used to get when you dialed '611') was about the only person around, since '611' was manned 24/7, along with one 'frames tester' or guy to take care of the office in general. As you would probably expect, calls to '611' were few and far between late on Saturday nights in the downtown area, with stores and offices all closed, etc. But there was a sort of weird case there at Wabash. One subscriber (they did not know who he was) seemed to be fond of calling 611 and making obscene calls to the repair clerk. It went on for several months; on a regular basis; this sick puppy would always, at minute or two past 6 PM on Saturday night, always dial 611, talk nasty to the clerk and eventually hang up. I guess the guy figured there was no way to 'trace his call' so he would not get caught. It got to be quite a joke among the technicians; this one lady was always on duty Saturday evenings at 6 PM, and always got the brunt of the 'humor'. The one technician on duty would glance at his watch, note that "it is about time for your 'boy friend' to call"; they (clerk and technician) would both get a big laugh out of it, and they could almost set their watch by that call coming in. One Saturday night, the tech got a bright idea: let's catch the joker in the act. I'll tell you how we will do it. There are so few calls coming in to 611 early Saturday evening it won't be a problem. When your phone lights up for 611 I want you to put on your very best 'recorded message voice' and tell the caller, "Repair service has changed its number. The new number for repair service is '290'. Please hang up and dial two nine oh. Thank you, this is a recording." Then, click off. We are going to answer him tonight on the test board. Sure enough, at 6:02 PM repair buzzed and lit up; the lady sat down to take the call, and in her best recorded message voice said just what the tech had told her, "Repair service has changed its number. The new number is two nine oh. Please hang up and dial two nine oh. Thank you, this is a recording" ... Click! In a minute or less, the call arrived on the test board. "Get over here and get the board!" the technician told her. She hurried over and plugged in. The tech plugged in on the 'supervisors jack' next to her and listened silently. Sure enough it was their man, her 'boy friend' as the tech would tease her from time to time. Within seconds the caller started his sick puppy routine and the tech's eyes lit up as he quietly moved his fingers over to a couple of the keys on the test board. Then instantly, just as he flipped the keys and saw that the lock was in place he spoke up: ah, you son of a bitch, we finally caught you! Dead, very shocked silence for a couple of seconds, then a click as the caller disconnected. But not to worry ... when the technician flipped the keys he locked up the connection, stopped the tandem from collapsing, holding the caller in place, regardless of what he did with *his* phone. You used to be able to do that with 290 on the test board. When the guy did not pick up his receiver again, the tech, now more detirmined than ever started manually ringing the line. Three or four regular rings, then a prolonged ring, then three or four little dings, another long blast, etc. After about twenty minutes of this type of manual ringing, the line was finally answered by this little mousy man in a timid voice, 'hello?' The tech used the old Earnestine routine: 'have I reached the party with whom I am connected?' After a little stalling, "I was just walking past and answered the phone when I heard it ringing, I am just a janitor, call back on Monday when someone is here" and an equally adamant technician telling him "you are the person I need to speak with; tell me what your number is" the man finally told him his number (there was no caller ID back in the 1960's either). Tech said, "well, thank you, but I am not sure I can believe you on your number. Tell ya what I am going to do. Its about 7 PM and time for my supper break. I am going out to eat now and I will just leave the 'shoe' up on you until I get back from supper. When I do, then I will go in the frames and check to be certain you are telling the truth." Across the street and up a block from the c.o. was a Pixley and Ehlers Cafeteria. In the 1960's there were as many Pixley and Ehlers cafeterias downtown as there are McDonald's and Burger Kings today, almost every block or two. Pixley and Ehlers were places where office clerks ate during the day time; drunks and winos and other down and outters hung out all night. Always very wonderful meat loaf, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, etc. Steaming mugs of hot coffee. Everyone either loved P&E Cafeterias or they hated them, just like McD and BK places today, which took over the world about 1975 or so when P&E went out of business in Chicago. Tech comes back from his supper break about an hour later. He said he did walk in the frames, "and by golly, the man was telling the truth. The number he gave me earlier was correct." "What we did was tell the Business Office on Monday; they slapped his wrist is all, told him not to make obscene phone calls in the future. I know we never did hear any more about it from him or the Business Office." PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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