From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jun 20 21:18:59 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i5L1IxT17582; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 21:18:59 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 21:18:59 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200406210118.i5L1IxT17582@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 #298 TELECOM Digest Sun, 20 Jun 2004 21:19:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 298 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telus Has Fraudulently Forced Advertising on Our Company (Brian) Telus Prevents Residential Clients From Sending Email (Brian) Re: Who Got the Message? There's a Way to Know (Gary Novosielski) Re: Who Got the Message? There's a Way to Know (Gary Breuckman) Re: Who Got the Message? There's a Way to Know (Tony P.) SIP Help Please? (JustSomeGuy) Internet Connection With WLL Link (jayant) Re: Telephony Software Recommendation (GD) Re: CLI via CSTA (Siemens HiPath 3000) (Phil McKerracher) Unable to Login in to Yahoo via N. Virginia Comcast (Mark) Help on Ancient Equipment? (Michael Muderick) Norvergence Questions (Franki Truth) Re: Strange 202 Number? (Tony P.) VoIP Available for Singapore? (J M) ITXC Founder Ready For New Role (VOIP News) 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: Brian Subject: Telus Has Fraudulently Forced Advertising on our Company Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 18:16:46 GMT http://www.thecomplaintstation.com/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi/Forum/Sub= topic/TopicID=3D2487/SubtopicID=3D00048454/firstrecord=3D0/finalrecord=3D= 14/ On September 12th, 2003 our Company cancelled our advertising with Telus, (Superpages). We have a copy of the cancellation. This was for the 2004 business year. We tried several times to cancel prior to this date, but kept getting excuses of why we couldn't. So we had to wait for the renewal date which was September 2003. At any rate, we finally got the advertising cancelled or so we thought. Last week (June2004), I being the owner of the company was reviewing our company phone bill, which I might add is a war and peace novel it is so big. I noticed in my review that we were still being billed for advertising. I immediately called in my office manager and enquired why. She was unable to explain it, she hadn't noticed it. So we have been getting charged 75.00/month for advertising since last September that we had cancelled. I subsequently contacted Telus, who advised I had to talk to Superpages.ca, who handles their advertising. I did, and had to spend a full week trying to weed through their hiarchy, until I finally got someone who had some authority. Today, June 11th, 2004, I spoke to an adverising manager who advised me that he has reviewed our account and that they would not cancel the advertising. I was flabbergasted. He advised that yes he saw our cancellation on file from September/2003 for the year 2004. But he also had on file a signature from one of my staff, authorizing advertising in August of 2002 for the 2003 business year. So he said that was sufficient authorization as far as he is concerned, to continue the advertising. This advertising is apparently on the internet and he has put us in several directories around the Province, which was the 2002 contract. That contract was only for the 2003 year, not the 2004 year. But this is what he said to me "If your business manager authorized it for 2003, then we felt that it was authorized for 2004." I of course blew my stack at him and told him to cancel this immediately and to reimburse our money. He refused. I explained that I am the CEO, and I might add, the owner of this company, and I wanted this cancelled. He again refused and said, no. Can you believe this???? Unreal. He refuse to give me anyone higher than him to talk to. I contacted Telus and they advised that they could do nothing because it was not their problem, they contract out their advertising to Superpages. I advised them maybe they do, but that Superpages bills through Telus on the Company phone bill and so I was holding them accountable. They said they will get back to me. I contacted the CRTC, who advised that there was nothing they could do, but suggested I contact a lawyer. Can you believe this. This is fraud, it is theft, it is outrageous. In order for me to cancel this advertising which was legitimately cancelled a year ago, I am now be forced to hire a lawyer and fight it in court. Telus is out of control. I wonder how many other companies this is happening to and are not even aware of it. ------------------------------ From: Brian Subject: Telus Prevents Residential Clients From Sending Email Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 18:22:29 GMT The following is a letter I sent Telus because they cut off my email in hope of forcing me to upgrade to a Business high speed ADSL account. I would like to know how many people are affected by their decision to force users to use only Telus SMTP servers. Brian, Vancouver --------------------------------------------- Barry Baptie, Executive Vice-President Technology & Operations Telus Corporation Barry.Baptie@telus.com Blair Miller, Director of Internet Services blair.miller@telus.com Peter Pereira, Vice President, Chief Information Officer Telus Corporation Peter.Pereira@telus.com June 17, 2004 Headline: Telus prevents residential clients from sending email by disallowing non-Telus SMTP servers Dear Mr. Baptie, I am writing you to expedite the resolution of an important problem your company has introduced to thousands of its residential high speed internet customers. This is much more than a technical issue and negatively affects thousands of Telus ADSL residential clients. In the name of fighting SPAM and beginning May 14, 2004, Telus modified its routers to disable customers' ability to use non-Telus SMTP servers to send mail. This was explained to me today by a Telus technical support worker, but only during my second call as the first technician I spoke to was not aware of this new Telus policy which has caused me to waste almost two days trying to fix the same email setup I used successfully for over one year on several computers. Like thousands of Telus residential ADSL customers, I prefer to send email using another mail server so that my email is seen to come from an organization other than Telus. My primary email address no longer works, except to receive messages. Needless to say, this is a major problem as this business email is among the several used by those who need to communicate with me and my employer. The fact is that only a very small number of internet users are responsible for SPAM and what Telus is doing is clearly profit-motived and aimed at forcing thousands of its high speed residential customers to pay substantially more for business accounts which do not enforce this rule. Telus through its adoption and enforcement of this new anti-residential client policy has already undoubtedly caused grief for thousands of British Columbians who over the last month have wasted time trying to determine why their email accounts no longer work. Similar to other telcoms' notorious actions forcing customers to opt-out of services they don't want to avoid paying for, Telus has without informing its customers pulled another 'fast one' in this recent attempt to force some of us to pay much more for services we do not need or want. Please let me know how you plan on resolving this most urgent matter, and when. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Excuse me Brian, but it is unclear to me how Telus, or any ISP you wish to use, is able to prevent you from logging into and using as desired, the mail service of any other ISP where you have an account and are otherwise authorized to use the service. What kind of a mailing client (such as Outlook Express to name a familiar one) are you using? Are you *certain* the POP and SMTP settings on that client (you use) are set correctly? If you are attempting to use ISP 'x' and your mail is failing, why didn't you call tech support at 'x' for assistance instead of Telus who would not normally be concerned with it? I've got a feeling your calls to Telus simply confused the issue more, and that the second tech person at Telus misunderstood what you were trying to say, and thought perhaps you were trying to use 'x' as an unauthorized relay. As an example: I have a personal account with cableone.net and I can either call into Cable One and use their mail service directly, or I can use my mail client (Outlook) with the proper settings for POP and SMTP. I also have (among others) an account with Terra World and can do the same thing: log into TerraWorld, go to mail, send and receive, or most of the time just use Outlook with a *second set of parameters* set up for TerraWorld. Ditto Compuserve, ditto massis.lcs.mit.edu . Now one day it started flaking out on TerraWorld. I could not pull mail from there for any reason or send mail through them. I did *not* call my ISP of record (Cable One) and ask them why ... I called TerraWorld tech support, naturally. As it turned out, Terra World had made a slight change in procedures which was that logins were changed from just 'screen name' (in my case 'ptownson') to 'screen name@terraworld.net' (or in my case, 'ptownson@terraworld.net'. ) No other parameters had changed except that very important one. So before you blame Telus for what may not be their problem (except lack of good communication with customers) why not first check with brand 'x' and ask them to walk you through the login procedures and see if it changed at all. And anyway, what currenty prevents you from logging into 'x' and using their mail service directly while you sort the mess out? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Who Got the Message? There's a Way to Know Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 20:20:40 GMT Well, if I get an e-mail telling me to click on a link, I'm not fool enough to do so. If I did, I would presume that absolutely ANYTHING, of which I might or might not approve, might be going on. So in fact the service would not work on me. Gary Gary Breuckman wrote: > You can't defeat these new services, they don't work like that. > They way they work is they hold the email on their server, and send > the recipient a 'new' email that just contains a link to their server. > When you open the link to read the mail, they know. > But the only way to avoid notifying the sender is not to open the link, > and then you don't get to read the mail. > -- Gary Breuckman ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: Who Got the Message? There's a Way to Know Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 15:25:57 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com In article , Gary Breuckman wrote: > You can't defeat these new services, they don't work like that. > They way they work is they hold the email on their server, and send the > recipient a 'new' email that just contains a link to their server. When > you open the link to read the mail, they know. > But the only way to avoid notifying the sender is not to open the link, > and then you don't get to read the mail. > -- Gary Breuckman > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Can't you browse to the server holding > the mail on your own (manually copy only the pertinite parts of the URL > **less the cookie data** ) and get to it that way? PAT] Well now, it wouldn't be very secure if you could do that, would it :) You can't just browse, you need a code, when they inform you of the mail for you, they give you a link with an active page, something like http://www.readmymail.com/read.asp&id=123456789abcdef The only way you can read a message is if you have a correct code, so you supply the code, they record that you've seen the message, and then they send you to a screen with the message on it. No code, you just see pages advertising their services. Take a look at http://www.readnotify.com/ The 'ensured' email works this way. -- Gary Breuckman [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Makes sense to me. You know, another obnoxious outfit like that at least once a day sends me a notice saying 'we have messages about you on our server. Click on this link to see what people have said.' And they take great pains to tell me that if their message to me (notifying me of things someone was saying) fell into a spam bucket, 'be sure to let the administrator of your spam bucket know of this error on his part, since our stuff is not spam.' And after a page and a half later of their spiel, they then conclude 'if you are not interested in reading what others have said about you, then click this remove link and we won't bother you again.' As Oscar Wilde once remarked, "I do not care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name correctly.". ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Who Got the Message? There's a Way to Know Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 00:51:43 GMT In article , puma@catbox.com says... > In article , Tony P. > wrote: >> In article , monty@roscom.com says: >>> outgoing messages have been opened. But DidTheyReadIt is the first such >>> service to keep itself a secret from the recipient, as well as the >>> first to report on where the message was read. >> Easy enough to defeat. Just put a new rule on the firewall that doesn't >> let it get back. Who would have thought it, or prevent viewing HTML in >> Eudora or Outlook -- that can be done too. > You can't defeat these new services, they don't work like that. > They way they work is they hold the email on their server, and send > the recipient a 'new' email that just contains a link to their server. > When you open the link to read the mail, they know. > But the only way to avoid notifying the sender is not to open the link, > and then you don't get to read the mail. Not true -- in the case of didtheyreadit.com they put a web bug in the message that 'phones home'. If you put an entry in your hosts files that points didtheyreadit.com to 127.0.0.1 it'll never get back. I tried several tests and not one of them managed to say I'd read the test messages on my main mail account. Yes, if you have to click a link to read the message it kind of defeats the whole purpose. I refuse to click a link to read an email message and anyone stupid enough to subscribe to such a service will find out very quickly how touchy users can be about email. > -- Gary Breuckman > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Can't you browse to the server holding > the mail on your own (manually copy only the pertinite parts of the > URL **less the cookie data** ) and get to it that way? PAT] Don't know, didtheyreadit.com doesn't work that way. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 22:12:33 GMT From: JustSomeGuy Subject: SIP Help Please? Organization: Shaw Residential Internet I'd like to make a test through iptel.org 5060. I believe the sip protocol is a bit like SMTP If there is someone here who wouldn't mind answering a few SIP questions.. Let me know? ------------------------------ From: pjayant@vsnl.com (jayant) Subject: Internet Connection With WLL Link Date: 19 Jun 2004 17:52:08 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Some of the I.S.P.s in India have just started providing 115 kbps fixed line Internet connections with WLL. The only Option provided is to take the LG Electronics Telephone Instrument which obviously incorporates a modem, provided by them. The Sales and Marketing people cannot specify what modem is there inside the instrument. Is this the common pracice all over the world? Or can one select the best available modem in the market? If YES, which is the best external modem for 115 kbps WLL link? Are there any reviews of modems of this type? Any references to the web-sites which provide information on WLL connections and the DOs and DON'Ts of it would be highly appreciated. P. Jayant ------------------------------ From: GD Subject: Re: Telephony Software Recommendation Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 22:30:06 -0400 On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 21:25:25 -0400, Larry Snider wrote: > I was wondering what kind of software would be best for the following > hardware configuration: > Alliance Server Rack > Dual PIII 550Mhz CPU Card > 54 Gb (3 x 18 Gb drives) > 1 Dialogic VFX/40ESC > 2 Dialogic D/41E > 1 Dialogic D/480SC-2T1 > 2 Dialogic MSI/240SC Global cards each with 2 SI/80SC Global daughterboards > 1 Dialogic DCB/SC Global > Larry > www.eSnider.net Not sure what you are trying to accomplish, but if you are looking to use the above as a PBX you should look into a software from Interactive Intelligence: http://www.inin.com/products/eic/eic.asp -Glenn ------------------------------ From: Phil McKerracher Subject: Re: CLI via CSTA (Siemens HiPath 3000) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 13:50:29 GMT Organization: blueyonder (post doesn't reflect views of blueyonder) Matt Hall wrote in message news:telecom23.286.10@telecom-digest.org: > ... I am trying to get this working on a Siemens HiPath 3000 PBX, which I > have been told will output the data using CSTA, however, I'm having > trouble decoding the data that I am receiving. > Has anyone else had any experience in decoding the ASN.1 encoded data, > and recognising the semantics of the data once it has been decoded?... I had quite a bit of experience of this at my previous job. I don't have the HiPath spec any more, but if you e-mail me specific questions I may well be able to help. My e-mail address is valid. Phil McKerracher www.mckerracher.org ------------------------------ From: markstout@gmail.com (Mark) Subject: Unable to Login in to Yahoo via N. Virginia Comcast Date: 20 Jun 2004 16:32:24 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Starting sometime Saturday, I have not been able to login to Yahoo via Comcast High Speed Cable. Friends in other parts of the country can login to Yahoo. Any Comcast customers here in N. Virginia can confirm my problem? Thank you. ------------------------------ From: Michael Muderick Subject: Help on Ancient Equipment? Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 19:56:28 -0400 I just de-installed an Executone Equity II system. With it was a Candela TC 312 with remote access. It has some notes on the bottom about "burst" and a series of dip switches. It has 2 multi-pin jacks on the rear- one is the power supply. The other went to a couple of RJ 11's. Does anyone know what this box is and what it was used for? Any applicability in today's world other than a door stop? Any manuals out there>? TIA. BTW, the Equity II is available for an offer.=6 phones, 2 ksu's. Michael@muderick.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 20:23:41 EDT From: Franki Truth Subject: Norvergence Questions I would be willing to give all the information that I know. But unfortunately I don't have much juicy info. Ask away and I will be willing to share. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So anyone who wants to know The Truth about Norvergence can contact Franki Truth directly. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Strange 202 Number? Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 00:35:51 GMT In article , benj@bellsouth.net says: > I received a call from a Washington, D.C. number, 202-700-0000. What would > cause that number to show up on my CID? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well there can be numbers with four > zeros and you see them now and then. For example, in Chicago, callers > to police can dial 312-787-0000 which is what '911' aliases to if > they know about the number, and do it in secret (use *67) as desired, > where 911 won't allow that; and is chargeable; where 911 is of course > auto-reverse-charged to the police and travels through a couple of > sometimes inconvenient data bases on the way. > So since '0000' is a legitimate (but sort of odd suffix), what about > the '700' prefix? Also, admittedly odd, they do have central office > codes like that sometimes. Have you checked the criss-cross listings > on computer to see if the number actually exists? PAT] I was actually surprised to see a number come up as 401-301-xxxx. Apparently 301 is a valid exchange in RI now. So I wouldn't doubt a double 0 would also be in service. I'll have to look at the assigned database and check. ------------------------------ From: J M Subject: VoIP Available For Singapore? Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 17:52:07 GMT Is VoIP service to consumers available in Singapore? TIA! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: VOIP is available anywhere there is high speed, broadband internet service. One caveat however, certain of the vendors, such as Vonage for example, only issue USA/Canadian numbers, and will only ship the TA device to a USA/Canadian address. But with that in mind, anywhere they can see your adapter out there, they'll authorize the adapter to give you a dial tone. So have someone in the USA get the adapter for you and remail it to you, along with the monthly bills. I'll even give you an e-coupon for a month of free service on Vonage if you wish. ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 15:09:02 -0400 Subject: [VoIP News] ITXC Founder Ready For New Role Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--businessexchange0620jun20,0,6371068.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire By ANDREW D. SMITH The Times of Trenton June 20, 2004, 11:18 AM EDT PLAINSBORO, N.J. -- When Tom Evslin founded ITXC in 1997, he bet the farm that most Americans would soon abandon traditional telephone companies and begin dialing their friends directly over the Internet. Evslin lost his bet, but he did not lose his company. In fact, despite his decision to found the business on a wildly inaccurate prediction, Evslin managed to build ITXC into one of the world's largest telecommunications wholesalers. Now that ITXC has come under new ownership -- Canada's Teleglobe Holdings bought the Plainsboro-based business for stock effective June 1 -- Evslin is looking back at his years as an entrepreneur and looking forward to his years as a philanthropist. He is also predicting a bright future for the remnants of his former company and pointing out -- with an audible note of satisfaction in his voice -- that folks are finally starting to ditch traditional phone companies and make calls over the Internet. Full story at: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--businessexchange0620jun20,0,6371068.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ 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. 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If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #298 ******************************