From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Sep 27 14:45:41 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id i8RIjfr22458; Mon, 27 Sep 2004 14:45:41 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 14:45:41 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200409271845.i8RIjfr22458@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 #451 TELECOM Digest Mon, 27 Sep 2004 14:45:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 451 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson JPEG/GDIplus Vulnerability (Rob Slade) Get an Unlocked Motorola V220 Camera Phone Almost Free (John R Levine) Realtime Keyword Voice Recognition; Not Just For NSA (Danny Burstein) XandMail SMS Access Solution Give Access to Personal Data (PressRelease) Re: Voicepulse Disconnects Remote Computers When Phone Used (C Griswold) Re: Voicepulse Disconnects Remote Computers When Phone Used (jmeissen) Re: No Call Ref ID in SS7/C7 Why? (Ariel Burbaickij) Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? (Dave Thompson) Re: Out of Area Calls (John McHarry) Re: Movies/Documentaries That Feature Crossbar, Panel, SxS? (L Hancock) Re: BART Cop Orders Radio Turned Off to Protect Trains (Lisa Hancock) Re: Help Needed With Wireless NetGear 802.11b Device (jmeissen@aracnet) Re: Help Needed With Wireless NetGear 802.11b Device (jdj) Don't Let Rules Shackle Internet Phone Service (Jack Decker - VOIP News) Canada: A Eureka Moment at the CRTC (Jack Decker - 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: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 15:03:54 -0800 Subject: JPEG/GDIplus Vulnerability Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca If you have not been living under a rock (in security terms), you will likely have heard something about the GDI+ vulnerability in the past few days. JPEGs and other files that may be handled in the same way are now potentially "dangerous" data files. In 1994 a graphics file was spread via Usenet that contained oddities in the header, and at about the same time a virus warning hoax was created that warned of a viral JPEG file. Neither of these was, in fact, related to actual malicious software, but I did some study on the subject and found header structures in both formats that could, potentially, have been used as malware vectors, under certain conditions. The specifics of the current JPEG/GDI+ vulnerability are very difficult to obtain, even when you have copies of the various "exploits" that have been released. However, it does seem to be simply your common or garden buffer overflow. As I write I am not aware of any specific exploits that have been released with the intent to use them maliciously. However, given the number of "exploit" samples that have been released I dare say that it will not be long before we see the real ones come out. It is unlikely that viruses will be created using this vulnerability, but it is quite probable that viruses will be created that carry graphics files (likely pornographic) that will use the vulnerability to open links to malware on Web sites, or simply open backdoors on machines for exploitation and amalgamation into botnets of various types. Microsoft security bulletin MS04-028 (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-028.mspx) has some links that, if you manage to follow them all the way through, will lead you to a patch. The Windows and Office Update sites will also provide you with the patches, but not always easily. (For example, Windows Update seems to insist that you install SP2 first, although there is a way around this.) Affected systems use certain versions of the gdiplus.dll file. The most widespread of the affected versions of the file come with Microsoft Windows and Office, 2003 and XP versions. Other Microsoft (and other vendors) products also have vulnerable versions of the file. The file is fairly ubiquitous. I've got eleven copies (and two compressed copies) of five different versions of gdiplus.dll on my machine. (Versions of it also exist with different file names.) The Microsoft site does provide details of which version numbers are vulnerable or not -- but no information about file sizes or dates that might allow you to determine which versions are which. If you follow links through from that page there is also a "detection" tool -- but it only tells you that you *are* vulnerable, rather than identifying specific instances. SANS also has provided a scanning tool, at http://isc.sans.org/gdiscan.php. (Actually two, a GUI version and a command line version. The GUI version, as provided, seems to want a disk in drive F:, but if you tell it to continue seems to function.) This tool identifies which versions are vulnerable and which are not, and also scans other filenames which are, in fact, renamed copies of the gdiplus.dll file, such as: C:\I386\ASMS\1000\MSFT\WINDOWS\GDIPLUS\GDIPLUS.DLL Version: 5.1.3097.0 <-- Vulnerable version C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\Software Suite\PhotoImpression 5\Share\gdiplus.dll Version: 5.1.3097.0 <-- Vulnerable version C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE11\MSO.DLL Version: 11.0.6360.0 C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll Version: 6.0.2800.1106 <-- Possibly vulnerable (Win2K SP2 and SP3 w/IE6 SP1 only) C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\GDIPLUS.DLL Version: 6.0.3264.0 Banning JPEGs is unlikely to be effective as a security measure. Untrained users will probably not know how to turn off the relevant functions, or be willing to so "cripple" their Web browsing. In any case, graphics files of various types can be renamed, and Windows will still identify them from internal structures, and run them through GDI+. Using firewalls to block .jpeg, .jpg, and the various other normal file extensions would therefore also probably be ineffective in some cases. Microsoft has provided some new patches (patches for Office and Windows apparently have to be installed separately), and others will possibly do so as well. It may be difficult to find the appropriate patches for all applications. One would assume that all versions of gdiplus.dll could simply be replaced by the latest (safe) version, but, knowing the industry, one would probably be wrong. ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@sun.soci.niu.edu Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. - Booker T. Washington http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev or http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade ------------------------------ Date: 27 Sep 2004 00:54:01 -0400 From: John R Levine Subject: Get an Unlocked Motorola V220 Camera Phone Almost Free My wife decided that she needs a cell phone, so we dropped by the local Cingular store to get one and add it to my account. (Cingular has excellent coverage here due to the antenna that I lease them space for on my water tower.) So after the nice sales lady told me that most of the free phones were far crummier than my Nokia 6340i (no longer available because it's GSM/TDMA and now they only sell GSM), we looked at a Moto V220 camera phone for $50. As we set up the account, I asked her to turn on international roaming since it's a triband phone, and she said "if you use it in Europe much, you can get a local SIM and use that." "Isn't it locked?" "Naah, they don't usually bother." I happened to have a Swiss SIM here and whaddaya know, she's right, it's unlocked. Not a bad deal. Unfortunately the phone is 850/900/1900 and the SIM is from Orange Switzerland which is 1800 only, but it's easy enough to get a different SIM next time. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of The Internet for Dummies, Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Mayor "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly. ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Realtime Keyword Voice Recognition; Not Just for the NSA Anymore Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 12:59:52 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC "Phone a call centre and you are likely to spend ages on hold listening to canned music -- and then find the operator cannot find the information you need. But an artificial intelligence system that hunts down the required information is aiming to slash the time people waste this way. "Using a mixture of speech recognition and search engine technology, the system, being developed by IBM, will trawl a call centre's databanks for the information a customer wants and present it to the operator before the caller has finished explaining what they want. By giving operators rapid access to the right information, calls will be dealt with faster. "The system works by listening in to the conversation and identifying keywords spoken by the customer." http://www.newscientist.com/news/print.jsp?id=ns99996430 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 17:31:58 +0400 From: Editor Subject: New XandMail SMS Access Solution Gives Access to Personal Data PRESS RELEASE NETWORK http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com New XandMail SMS Access Solution gives access to personal data -- from emails to photos -- via SMS XandMail, the digital communication solutions provider released its SMS Access Solution, a service enabling mobile telephony subscribers to manage their emails, address books, calendars and pictures by SMS. Paris, France - Sep 27, 2004 (PRN): XandMail, the digital communication solutions provider announces the availability of XandMail SMS Access Solution (SAS), a comprehensive and carrier-grade solution providing access to personal data - Mail, Address Book, Calendar and Photo - from any mobile phone using simple SMS commands. SAS enables subscribers to store messages from any personal or external email account directly on their mobile phones by sending an SMS to a dedicated short number given by the operator. Users can also query and manage their address books and calendars, or turn personal pictures into logos for their mobiles. XandMail SMS Access Solution is designed for mobile operators who want to provide their subscribers with premium mobile data services. It is composed of an SMSC Connector that ensures compatibility with multiple standards (e.g. SMPP, UCP, CMID2, OIS), middleware that transforms the SMS into a server query (LDAP, POP, IMAP, SMTP) and sends back the result to the Connector, which converts the answer into an SMS. With SAS, the subscriber is only one SMS away from obtaining his inbox status, viewing, forwarding and replying to messages, and even sending out new messages. With a limited number of SMS, he can also view some or all of the contacts stored in his personal address book, add new contacts with details such as name, alias, phone number and email address, or search his address book for a specific contact. As for the calendar management, the user can add an event and indicate its title, the date on which it will take place, and duration. Similarly he can choose to access the details of a defined event or all the events registered for one given day. Moreover, SAS also makes it possible to transform a personal picture the user has stored online -- in a photo album for example -- into a logo for his mobile. "Our SMS Access Solution addresses two needs: that of the operators who want to offer profitable and attractive new services based on SMS, and that of the users who want to manage their personal data, anytime, anywhere from their mobile, thanks to SMS, a tool they are familiar with," declares Ky-Ming Jen, Chief Operating Officer, XandMail. Based on the robust EMS architecture and products, SMS Access Solution is an ideal complement to XandMail Mobile Communication Solution, a value-added mobile personal information solution. About XandMail Founded in 1990, XandMail conceived and developed Income Generating Services, a market-proven range of multi-channel services enabling fixed and wireless Telcos, xSPs, Portals and UM Providers to generate additional revenue while leveraging previous investments. Thanks to its integrated product range and support services, XandMail has already deployed licenses for 65 million mailboxes throughout the world. http://www.xandmail.com About Income Generating Services Income Generating Services (IGS) are online services provided by Telecommunication companies, ISPs and Portals at a cost. IGS help these companies increase their revenue and improve their bottom line. IGS are well-targeted, value-added services designed to address the special needs of specific user segments. While most standard communication and email services are provided for free, IGS are easy to invoice because they bring real value to end-users. For more information, contact: Pamela Corbin XandMail, SA Tel: +33 (0) 148-368-903 Email: corbin@xandmail.com Website: http://www.xandmail.com Information from Press Release Network may be freely distributed to any publication. Wherever applicable, please cite Press Release Network as the news source. Editor & CEO Press Release Network editor@pressreleasenetwork.com http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Voicepulse Disconnects Remote Computers When Phone is Used Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 20:33:17 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Chris Eilersen wrote: > Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening and what I can do to > fix it? Doesn't ring a bell, but I would start by making sure your router has the latest firmware from the Linksys web site. You are using stock firmware and not one of the hacked versions, right? ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Voicepulse Disconnects Remote Computers When Phone is Used Date: 27 Sep 2004 17:07:28 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , Chris Eilersen wrote: > I recently got Voicepulse phone service and it works fine except I > just noticed that my network connection on the remote machines only is > lost when I use the phone. (I have a GE 2.4 GHz phone with a cordless > "satellite" handset). If I use the cordless handset, the connection > returns when I hang up. If I use the corded phone, I have to reboot > the remote machines and wait until the connection is restored. [...] > Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening and what I can do to > fix it? Get a different cordless phone? Since they operate on the same frequencies, a big issue with 802.11g, which also applies to 802.11b, is considerable RF interference from other 2.4 GHz devices, such as cordless phones. Try a 900mhz phone instead. The problem with the corded phone is not so obvious, and will be difficult to explain without knowing more about how your network is configured. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: ariel.burbaickij@gmail.com (Ariel Burbaickij) Subject: Re: No Call Ref ID in SS7/C7 Why? Date: 26 Sep 2004 15:41:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) wrote in message news:... > In article , Ariel Burbaickij > wrote: >> Hello dear newsgroup participants, >> Could someone explain to me why it was decided not to have call >> reference ID in at least plain ISUP (i.e. not B-ISUP where it could be >> present)? There is call ref id in DSS1, in SIP and again transaction >> id in SCCP/TCAP (with transaction being defined as series of queries >> and responses), so why no call ref ids in ISUP? > SIP and TCAP are end-to-end. What purpose would you expect a "call > reference ID" to serve in ISUP, which is hop-by-hop? Excuse me but I do not see hop by hop nature as the main hurdle for defining unique call id. One obvious solution would be to include some number unique to the originating switch (its pointcode?) plus gmt plus some random value. Not always ISUP is actually hop-by-hop as you surely know. ISUP over SCCP will give you end-to-end nature. > ISUP signaling messages are associated with trunks between a pair of > switches. Until the state machine for the call ends, all messages for > a given call can be the TCIC field, which includes the trunk between > the pair of switches for a given hop. Furthermore, most national > variants specify a use of the Signaling Link Selection (SLS) field > that will cause all messages for a given call to flow over the same > path through the SS7 network, allowing them to be monitored from a > debugging tap at a single location. Sure, for one link. What about debbuging which involves several switches. How are you going to guess which messages belong toghether in such an environment? > In article , Phil Anderton > wrote: >> ISUP does have mechanisms for end to end signalling, but in normal use >> it's almost exclusively link by link signalling, and for that all you >> need is OPC+DPC+CIC. > You know, I hear that from time to time. But aside from the PAM > (Pass-Along-Message) which is so loosely defined by the standard that > it is unclear whether or not it could actually be used, I'm at a loss > as to just what these "mechanisms for end to end signaling" are. > I had occasion to try to generate and send PAM messages in a test > environment a few years ago. It is difficult, to say the least, to > understand exactly what should be in them: one reading of the standard > suggests that it should be a complete encapsulated ISUP message, with > addresses and all. Now, _that_ begs the question "how do I know what > address to put in the inner message, since I don't know the address of > the terminating-end switch?" There are many similar issues. > The Nortel DMS switch documentation describes one very obscure > DMS-only feature that is evidently implemented using PAMs; but as of > the time I last studied this, if that feature actually works at all, > that's the only environment in which it would. > Can you give me better examples of end-to-end signaling in ISUP? I'd > love to have some. Again, I would say ISUP over ISUP. This is surely not ISUP mechanism but it gives you this end-to-end possibility. > Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com With Best Regards, Ariel Burbaickij ------------------------------ From: Dave Thompson Subject: Re: What is the Name of #? How did # Get its Name? Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 05:10:01 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 13:51:34 +0000, bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) wrote: > The 80-columns wide 'standard' for a video display is simply a > reflection of the 80-column width of a standard punch-card. Because, > in the 'commercial' environment, 'input' software *was* standardized > at 80 columns -- directly attributable to the punch-card antecedents. > Many early 'budget' video terminals for home/hobby use did *not* show > 80 columns -- it was difficult to achieve that many characters across > a standard TV receiver display -- Right; see below. (Except they were mostly used locally and called displays not terminals.) > As to 'why punch cards were 80 columns', the answer is probably > similar to "why railroad tracks are 4' 8-1/2" apart." Standard > lettering for a _lot_ of business applications is 10 characters/inch. > A punch-card is 8-1/2" wide. between the cut corner, and the rounded > edge, you have just over 8" available for the printing on the top. Although it was entirely possible, and not that rare, to use cards without printing on them. And for that matter to get cards without the top-left corner cut -- either none, or a different one -- or with a colored band across the top, for visual markers or sorting, which incidentally made printing illegible. > 80 cols was *not* universal, though. Burroughs used a 96-column card, > that was less than 1/2 the size, side-to-side, of the Hollerith card. > They would _completely_ fit in a shirt-pocket. So did IBM, later, around the S/34 or S/36 IIRC, not too long before punch cards passed out of mainstream usage altogether. > The 24 rows of text, on the other hand, is directly traceable to the > timing standards employed in a standard (TV set type ) video display. > Of the nominal 525 lines in the raster, only 484 are 'visible'. > [and only half distinguishable due to interlace = 242] Maybe somewhat less depending on how well the set was built and maintained, especially in the analog days of yore. (I don't know if that's why you used the scare quotes.) > The minimum cell for a character-generator capable of > clearly displaying upper _and_lower_ case letters is a 7x9 cell. Add > one 'dot space' between lines, and it takes 10 dots vertically, per > line of text. With an 'available' space of 242 dots to work with, > Guess how many lines you can fit in? > You could go 'upper-case only' -- requiring a > 5x7 character cell, [perhaps doubled] But this is anachronistic (mythtaken?). The first "textual" video displays used in any number were IBM 3270 series, which were either 12x40 (model 1, cheaper) or 24x80 (model 2). They clearly got the 80 from cards, but I have no idea where they got the 24 -- possibly so that, as you also noted, the screen buffer is < 2KC. By "textual" I mean a raster chargen display as opposed to some earlier vector or "graphic" displays which could build a few characters out of line segments, but would flicker unusably for more than a few full lines of text; and Tektronix storage tubes which solved the flicker problem at the cost of taking a minute or several to draw each page, up to about 80x120 (squarish) IIRC, which then could not be edited. IBM was followed, closely in time, and I believe in numbers, by DEC's VT50, VT52, and later VT100, which were also 24x80 standard; some models had options for different sizes. (I think VT05 also but don't recall for sure.) A number of third-party manufacturers also followed 24x80 -- LearSiegler, Beehive, and PerkinElmer spring to mind, but I know there were more I've forgotten. (In addition to the third-party clones of IBM which of course had to.) All of these were custom designed and built video circuitry which could use whatever lines and dots they chose, and never (AFAIK) used interlace. In particular some of the later IBMs (3276/8) that I used fairly extensively had really beautiful video, much crisper than you could get on a normal TV and looking more like a good (and expensive!) laboratory oscilloscope -- or a good computer (digital) or HD monitor of today. (Although the systems those terminals connected to might be a different story. ) In many cases they were actually 25 lines -- 24 data and one reserved for terminal status, operation, and configuration. It was over a decade later when hobbyist computers like Apple, Altair, Imsai, Cromemco, Ohio Scientific wanted to use cheaply available consumer TVs that the NTSC limits of about 240 lines usable per field and 400-some dots usable per line in the standard video bandwidth of ~4MHz became an issue, and yes 24x80 was pushing it and often less and often only uppercase 5x7 or 5x9 was used. - David.Thompson1 at worldnet.att.net ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Out of Area Calls Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 15:16:13 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net John Levine wrote: > I get a few out of area calls, none from telemarketers, but I haven't > kept track of where they're from. Calls from outside North America > mostly show up as out of area. It should be noted there are two CLID codes involved here, one for calling number restricted and one for calling number not available. Overseas calls tend to be in the latter category. Some CLID boxes will present them differently. Oddly, I got a call from Germany a few years ago that presented the whole number, in violation of German privacy law. I think I was behind an ISDN connected PBX, so it may not have been set up to honor the privacy bit, or it may have been presenting ANI. Both I and the caller found it rather amusing. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Movies/Documentaries That Feature Crossbar, Panel, or SxS? Date: 27 Sep 2004 09:30:20 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com jdj wrote: > "Three Days of the Condor" with Robert Redford. The Condor enters a > switch to call up the CIA and diddles the switch to keep his call from > being traced. The CIA scene shows automated tracing in use. Was the automated tracing depicted in the movie actually available in city switchgear in use (either panel or crossbar) in the mid 1970s? "Three Days of the Condor" is a good movie, even if a bit implausible in parts. Especially interesting nowadays with the debates over the role of the intelligence community. Also some of the film was filmed in the World Trade Center. I recommend it. [Personal opinion: The film didn't paint the CIA or some of its "game playing" in the best light. This was a common attitude in the U.S. at the time as a result of the 60s anti-establishment revolution, Nixon's attempt to use the agency, and Hoover's FBI abuses that were coming to light. Laws were passed that restricted information sharing and operations. I can't help but wonder that if the CIA/FBI had a greater free hand in conducting intelligence and sharing information than perhaps they may be in a better position to fight terrorism today than they are.] One of the key actors, Cliff Robertson, was later a spokesman for AT&T. There was some other telephone tidbits in the film, such as Redford tape recording someone's TT dialing and calling an agency computer to translate the tones into human numbers; then him finding out the name/address belong to that number. I don't know if it's said in the film, but in the book version they tell us the character spent time working for the phone company. Another implausible scene was his departure from NYC, where Faye Dunaway dropped him off at the Erie-Lackawanna terminal in Hoboken for him to catch a train to Washington. No trains at the E-L terminal went to Washington, only the suburbs. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: BART Cop Orders Radio Turned Off to Protect Trains Date: 27 Sep 2004 09:52:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I agree with all of the good points you make below. But the criminal justice/public safety system is more complex than just the cops. There is also the district attorneys/prosecutors who play a big role, the town and city councils, and the courts. We don't hear about them as often, but some DAs make some huge mistakes and a lot of innocent people suffer. My area just had a big case that fortunately made the newspaper about very weak and unsubstantiated accusations of child beating against a school principal. Parents were outraged when they found their own kids -- who had suffered no abuse -- were listed in court papers as being victims. I don't know the criminal court system very well, but I suspect DA's have a lot of leeway on who they want to pursue and who they let go; and if they decide to go after you and use all their resources, you're in big trouble. For instance, if they decide to wiretap your phone or search your house and take away your computer, is it really that hard for them to get a warrant to do so? Police and city councils are also under a lot of pressure from various parts of the public. In my own town, citizens demand the town council have the police be super zealous in going after speeders in the town. At one meeting, town residents asked the cops to try all sorts of things that were illegal or even unconstitutional and were upset when the police chief tried to explain all that. But on the flipside, the business community wanted to cops to ease up on traffic tickets since it upset customers coming into town to do shopping. So which tact should the cops do -- aggressive enforcement or light enforcement? FWIW, I watched them do a speed trap. The speed limit is 25 mph on a residential narrow street. The cops set the detector at 40 mph, that is, only people going 40 or faster would get pulled over. Speed limit signs were prominently posted all along the street. But even at 40 they still pulled over plenty of people. Said motorists were pretty angry, and I heard some young women use some language that would make a sailor blush. Some motorists were intimidating and threatening, though none of them got into any more trouble. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are correct that police and prose- > cutors are human beings (or human beans as Mayor Daley once said > after the nasty riots in April, 1968 when MLK was assassinated.) And, > people do get very angry when they discover their supermen and super- > heros are just as human as they themselves. That being said, however, > because police officers are routinely given so much more trust than > the rest of us, the trade off should be they are *very careful, almost > exceptionally well behaved and honest* -- at least that's how it > should be. Police officers are often times fond of saying, 'we have > our civil liberties and free speech rights also.' Yes, they do, but > IMO some of their 'free speech rights' and 'civil rights' should be > an agreed on trade off in exchange for their jobs. An officer who lies > or otherwise misbehaves should be dealt with very sternly, not just a > slap on the wrist as they often times get if they get caught. I mean, > if you cannot depend on *them* to tell the truth and behave themselves, > then exactly who are we supposed to be able to trust? PAT] ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Help Needed With Wireless NetGear 802.11b Device Date: 27 Sep 2004 17:18:00 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , Patrick Townson wrote: > I have a four port Netgear Router with wireless 802.11 capability. > My problem is the range of the wireless part seems rather skimpy. > I can get out in my (relatively small) back yard and use the > computer, but a few steps away and it konks out. [....] > Any suggestions or ideas? I used to research this a lot in alt.internet.wireless back when I was trying to set up a point-to-point link. What I found was that the equipment you use makes a big difference. A lot of the consumer stuff is crap. In my personal experience I was using a Linksys WAP-11 access point and a US Robotics PCMCIA card on my laptop. I have an older house that uses wire mesh for lath in walls, so I have serious reception problems. On the basis of repeated suggestions in a.i.wireless to try Orinoco equipment I replaced my laptop card with an Orinoco Silver card. The difference is like night and day. Where I couldn't even get a signal before I can now access the Linksys without any problems. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: With what I say next, I mean to give no offense, nor take any: What is the group's general impression of the NetGear four port wireless router and its companion 'PCMCIA-like' card to go in the laptop? Good? Bad? Total Crap? I am lucky to get about 50-75 feet *reliably*. I just remembered, I do have *two* cordless phones also plugged in which are 900 mhz units, and they get me about a half block away from home with no trouble. Might *they* be causing interference with the wireless router? PAT] ------------------------------ From: jdj Subject: Re: Help Needed With Wireless NetGear 802.11b Device Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 00:35:45 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 17:00:00 -0500, Patrick Townson wrote: > I have a four port Netgear Router with wireless 802.11 capability. My > problem is the range of the wireless part seems rather skimpy. I have a MR314 with same problem. The unit uses an MA401 card inside. It is the "non-US" model with a place for installing a jack. The antenna is connected via coax to this point within the plastic part of the MA401 case. The card has to be pulled out of the PCMCIA socket carefully, the case split open and the coax unsoldered. I have not had the opportunity to do the whole thing but I do plan on replacing that little stub antenna with a TNC or RP-TNC bulkhead mount jack with a "factory attached" pigtail and soldering that into the MA401. Then a gain antenna would be plugged in to the TNC jack. The MA401 is rather low-powered compared to other "real" access points. So it would help to use the best possible low-loss coax for the pigtail and the antenna, such as something from the Times Microwave LMR series. While waiting for a well-rounded tuit to do the MR314, I set up a Linksys AP with noticeably more power and added a gain antenna. With the price of 802.11b AP's coming down it may be less expensive and certainly easier to get another AP. If you are one of us hardcore hardware hackers, then the above will be the better way. There is somewhere a website which shows how easy it is to split the "non-US" MA401 open without damage. I thought I had a link filed away but it seems to have misplaced itself like filing tends to want to do. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I had not given much thought to taking the PCMCIA card apart, and I am not sure it can be disassembled. Now, the router box, with its rubber-ducky antenna is all plastic, and I *could* take it apart (but I have not dared to do so yet) and I was hoping maybe there was a little 'trimmer' of sorts in there somewhere I could barely tweak and make some sort of difference, hopefully for the good. As long as I stay in the same room (my office) my coverage is reasonable. Only when I leave the room does the transmission get very 'iffy'. Add that to the fact I have the PCMCIA card in an older IBM Think Pad model 770 (circa 1995-96) which was originally Win 95 but upgraded to Win 98, but still shows all the characteristics of a very slow older laptop (many freeze-ups and lockouts) and perhaps you see why I am pulling my hair out on account of it much of the time. One of our computer stores here in town (Computer Generation) is also the Radio Shack dealer, and he stocks 802.11b stuff. What would *you* suggest I do for replacement stuff if anything? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 06:50:20 -0400 Subject: Don't Let Rules Shackle Internet Phone Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/9770728.htm By Bruce Mehlman and Larry Irving A decade ago Congressman Ed Markey, then chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, noted that there was good news and bad news about the Internet. The good news was that everyone in Washington supported it. The bad news was that no one there had the slightest idea what it was. Unfortunately, history is repeating itself with the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a technology that turns telephone signals into digital information and delivers it over the Internet. This summer, VoIP has became a national phenomenon. Phone companies began nationwide promotions of this new service to an eager consumer and business base. [.....] Policy-makers need to be reminded that the Internet grew precisely because legislators resisted the urge to regulate. This was no accident: Politicians understood the public wrath that would come down on them if they tried to interfere. Now we are on the cusp of a second Internet revolution, a revolution driven by applications such as Internet calling that will drive broadband adoption. Full story at: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/9770728.htm (Free registration required) 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/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 06:43:14 -0400 Subject: Canada: A Eureka Moment at the CRTC Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1096236608086&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851 TYLER HAMILTON There's no better cure for insomnia than slapping on computer headphones and listening to a CRTC hearing via Webcast. The jargon is mind-numbing and a new layer of glaze coats the eyes with each acronym spoken -- SIP, PSTN, NANP, ILEC, CLEC - to name just a few. Last week's hearing on VoIP, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, was no exception. The country's telecom watchdog is trying to figure out whether it should regulate VoIP "Internet phone" services, and if so, what's the best way to go about it. Full story at: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1096236608086&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851 ------------------------------ 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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