From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jan 30 15:51:01 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i0UKp1726274; Fri, 30 Jan 2004 15:51:01 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 15:51:01 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200401302051.i0UKp1726274@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 #48 TELECOM Digest Fri, 30 Jan 2004 15:48:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 48 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Some *Good News* About Norvergence! (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: VOIP Over Private IP (Bob Snyder) RCN Adds CBS Programming in High-Definition; Can Enjoy (Monty Solomon) Re: Spoofing a "Bounced" E-Mail Error Message? (Nick Landsberg) Strangeness with the W32.Mydoom.B@mm Virus (Darryl Smith) Re: Microsoft Cancels Further Upgrades to Windows or Explorer (Margolin) Make "FREE" Long Distance Calls with VoIP-Valet (Cousin Charles) No More Blank/Fake Caller ID For (Most) Telemarketers (Danny Burstein) Re: Words and Numbers (was: T-Mobile USA Show Biggest Gains) (Al Gillis) Treo 600 - Not Turning Off (Jeff) Help Wanted With Call Attendant System (James) Re: Need to Host Child Porn, Illegal Content, or Spam? (Matt Simpson) Share Day Message for January, 2004 (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 is definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 02:21:56 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Some *Good News* About Norvergence! Lord knows we have had enough bad news about the Norvergence people here in recent weeks, lawsuits, complaints from people who say they were defrauded, lured into seemingly endless deals with finance companies, disgruntled employees, etc. Fifty years ago on the radio, I used to listen to Gabriel Heatter, with his fifteen minute nightly news summary. It seems the man seldom had anything but bum raps for all politicians, government policies, etc. With his whining, sniveling voice he seemed to delight in making sure you heard all the really rotten news of the day; ie. the Korean conflict, that red-baiter, Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wisc) and whatever else there was to complain about. Gabriel Heatter did not miss a beat. But on the rare occassions when there was genuine, honest, good news in those days, Heatter would always sign on the air saying in an earnest voice, 'there is GOOD news tonight!' Some readers have suggested your Moderator seems to delight in making trouble for people and companies also, Maybe so ... but in this issue of the Digest I want to tell you about some people who really and truly think Norvergence is a great service. In response to my request a couple weeks ago inviting Norvergence and/ or Mssrs. Thomas and Peter Salzano or Norvergence CEO Alex Wolf to speak to readers and tell us the way things really are, they chose to send me testimonials *along with telephone numbers and in many cases email addresses* of several of their customers who are quite satisfied with the 'Matrix Box' solution to their telecom needs. This arrived several days ago in my mail as a huge, thick file full of testimonials from CEO's and others. You are invited to verify all these for yourself. They also feel the majority of the negative public relations the company has received in recent weeks was due to a disproportionatly angry response by a discharged employee, and nothing to do with their products and services as such. Anyway, read these excerpted testimonials, verify them as you wish, *then* decide what you think, and where the truth lies. After all, as the gospel of John tells us in Chapter 8 and verse 32, if we know the truth, the truth will make us free. So here are testimonials from a few folks who want to speak truthfully about the Matrix solution from NorVergence. ------------- Dale Y. Morris of Access Integrated Technologies, Morristown, NJ on 866-741-2580 email dmorris@accessitx.com is the office manager for the company. He writes that they have been a satisfied customer of NorVergence for two years. He says the system has been extremely reliable, stable and clear. He recommends Matix to anyone who needs a good system. If you have any questions, email or call him. ------------- Scott Frankel, President of Animatic Media, Lynbrook NY on 516-887-8820 email info@animatic.com said he gets a large amount of solicitations from sales people every day. Most he does not return. But the call he received from NorVergence sounded too good to be true, but skeptically he decided to hear them out. Mr. Frankel says he is a very 'hard sell' and many/most salesmen don't spend much time on him. He says the savings was mostly a wash, but they did go from DSL to a full T-l, and that they now save about $2500 per year. He has been telling business associates about NorVergence and invites your call or email. ------------ Pat Keller, of Arena Partition, Inc. in Columbia, MD, phone 410-997-6399 has been using Matrix Solution about a year (turned on in January, 2003 when letter was written in December, 2003) and claims it is more reliable than their electric supplier. They had only two minor outage incidents in the year, and in both cases they were back on line in less than two hours, and during that time, they still had their T-1 connection to the internet and they were able to make any phone calls needed on the wireless phones included in their contract with NorVergence. The savings have been overall about what was expected, but their main convenience comes from consolidated wireless communication, internet communication, internet services, and long distance calling. Although they do not make a lot of international calls, they appreciated the rates charged by NorVergence when they did. You are invited to discuss this further with Pat Keller. ------------ Bill Barney, President of Automated Print, Atlanta. GA on 404-892-1751 email automatedprint@mindspring.com noted that unlimited cell phone capability saves his company almost $300 per month. He says they were able to reduce the number of telco lines coming in by 25 percent, and the upgrade from dialup to T-1 was very welcomd by the graphics department at the company. Call or email him for more specifics. ------------ Jeni Murphy, President of Bernie's Roofing in East Hartford, CT on the phone number 860-528-5595 and 860-289-6557 http://welchroofing.com wrote to say although they expected there would be downtime on their phones and computers during the cutover, it went smoothly and quickly. They especially appreciate being able to send a photograph of a problem from the job site immediatly to the supervising executive in the office for fast turn around in their roofing work. She noted 'our employees were thrilled with the cell phone set up.' ----------- Some additional accolades came from these people: Steve Bock, Birds-Eye-View, Atlanta, GA 770-457-9597 Rich Giancola, Controller, Boston ECR, Phone 800-635-0273 Robert Greco, President, Central Auto and Transport, LLC 195 Maxim Road, Hartford, CT - 860-246-7616 Kevin Pickett, CFO, Channel Fish Processing, Inc. Boston, MA 617-464-3366 Michael J. Starovich, President, C&M Auto Service, 1723-A Waukegan Road, Glenview, IL 847-724-6311 service@cmauto.com Richard Colagouri, President, Colwood Electronics, Inc. 15 Meridian Road, Eatontown, NJ 732-544-1119 Computer and Electronic Enterprises, 5545 Chene, Detroit, MI 313-925-4100 Kirby Lunsford, Executive Pastor, Crosby Church Steve Weiskirch, DNW Enterprises, 540 Frontage Road, Northfield, IL Phone: 847-784-1072 email: dnwent@hotmail.com Joseph Sandy, VP, East Coast Resources, LLC 9304 D'Arcy Road Upper Marlboro, MD 301-333-8551 www.eastcoastresources.com Garland Sparks, President, eFluidpower EFPS, Inc. PO Box 45093 Houston, TX 713-973-9211 Sam Karimi, CEO Elite Technology Group, 870 East Higgins Rd. Schaumburg, IL 847-995-9525 SKarimi@EliteTechnology.com Les Chernauskus, VP, Geosciences Testing and Research, Inc. 33 Middlesex Street, North Chelmsford, MA 978-951-9395 Michael Gibbons, President, Gibbons Construction, Inc. 1020 Lunt Avenue, Schaumburg, IL 708-893-5947 Mark E. Grace, Controller, Grace Technologies http://gracetechnologies.com Del Dolive, President, Great Southern Iron Works, 440 Hembree Hollow Roswell, GA 770-664-1213 Jim O'Connor, Grove Automotive, Phone 714-893-0777 Rick Alfaro, VP Hallmark Personnel of Florida, Inc. 3201 W. Commercial, Fort Lauderdale, FL 954-739-0600 ralfaro@hallmarkpersonnel.biz Sean Kevin Roark, Harry E. Jones and Associates, Advertising Specialties 5773 Woodway, Houston, TX 713-463-0029 --------------- and about 30 more letters were recieved in the package which arrived here a few days ago. Altogether, about 50-60 letters in the package sent to me from Norvergence. An observation by myself: Every single one of these letters were written by the companies involved above during December, 2003, very frequently on December 9 or December 11. A few are dated later in December. I do not know if Norvergence did all that business in the late fall (so to allow the customers at least a month or two to evaluate the system and write letters) or if Norvergence specifically solicited letters of recommendation from their customers,or if all those customers decided to write at the same time, etc. I do know that when the very first negative words about Norvergence appeared here (or in some other newsgroup) I received *two* positive letters sent in email on the *very same day*. Just an observation, for whatever it is worth; maybe nothing. I also note that these letter writers for the most part, had been using Norvergence for between one and three months at the time they wrote their letters of recommendation. Perhaps one or more readers will follow up with inquiries in a few months and see if the letter writers remain satisfied. Anyway, my sincere thanks to the Salzano brothers, Alex Wulf and (very possibly) Susan Carol for sending me this batch of testimonials for review. I'll have them all on file here (along with the couple dozen or so space considerations forbade me printing here) in the event they come in useful some day. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Subject: Re: VOIP Over Private IP From: Bob Snyder Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 14:31:23 -0500 nyukfah@pd.jaring.my (nyuk fah) writes: > My current internet connection is private ip and behind a firewall. > Thus I wonder any solution VOIP over HTTP? Which I can solve the > private IP and firewall limitation? No, not over HTTP, at least if you want decent quality VoIP, since HTTP uses TCP as it's transport. TCP guarantees a complete and in-order data stream, and does this by stopping the flow of data to an application under it gets missing packets resent by not acknowledging them to the sender. Thus, a couple of missing packets could easily cause at least several seconds of no audio, even though the missing packets may only make up a fraction of a second of loss. VoIP usually uses UDP for the audio connection, with H.323 or SIP controlling it. Many firewalls have provisions to be configured to properly NAT H.323, or you could use a gatekeeper routed setup for H.323. SIP has provisions for proxy servers and NAT inside the protocol. You probably want to check your firewall's documentation and see if it supports firewalling/NAT'ing H.323. Bob ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 21:56:35 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: RCN Adds CBS Programming in High-Definition; Customers Can Enjoy Super Bowl XXXVIII in HD Format PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RCN Corporation (Nasdaq: RCNC) today announced that it has added CBS to its High-Definition TV platform. With award-winning sitcoms, popular crime dramas, and a great sports lineup including this Sunday's Super Bowl XXXVIII, CBS adds great entertainment choices to an already potent High-Definition lineup. The HD format will be available in RCN's Boston, Manhattan, Queens, Philadelphia, Washington DC, San Francisco and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania markets. http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?story=200401291648_PRN__PHTH025 ------------------------------ From: Nick Landsberg Subject: Re: Spoofing a "Bounced" E-Mail Error Message? Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 03:03:36 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet [snip] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Most computers have a user account > known as 'Mail Daemon' (often times running with root privileges) > which send out those notices. Set up a user called Mail Daemon to > get that 'from' address. PAT] Most of us don't have our own mail servers and have to rely on the ISP to do the mail handling. Thus, if everyone tried to create an account on Earthlink or Worldnet with the name MailerDaemon or some such, then only the first few with creative spellings would succeed. But I will try over the weekend and report back on the results ::grin:: Now, if ISP's would provide the "bounce" service as part of their package, that's something! BTW -- preliminary investigation shows that different mail services bounce message in different ways. For example, worldnet says: Error 551: Not our customer Yahoo does it totally differently. Maybe the 551 error is sufficient? "It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious" - A. Bloch [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are all kinds of variations on 'Mail Daemon'. Try it without a space in the middle, using an upper case /M/ and /D/. Try being Mailer Daemon, again with and without a space in the middle. Or become Mail Daemon 2 or whatever. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Darryl Smith Subject: Strangeness with the W32.Mydoom.B@mm Virus Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 16:07:39 +1100 Pat, Something strange is happening with the W32.Mydoom.B@mm virus that we all seem to get hit with right now. I have been getting some strange 'bounce' messages -- specifically messages saying that they are from Apache@uranium.radio-active.net.au Well, This is very strange, because the only people who have ever sent email to that address are spammers. No-one has a valid reason to send from or to the uranium sub-domain (and I am the only one who uses it anyway). And I *NEVER* use the apache address - it is just one of the standard alias'. Every week or so I get an email to that address ... well until the last few days when I am getting at least one bounce a day saying that the email was from that address. There are two options here ... a) the writer of the Virus is sending out the virus still, using to and from addresses from a Spam list. b) A spammer has caught the virus. Both have some interesting implications. Darryl Smith, VK2TDS POBox 169 Ingleburn NSW 2565 Australia Mobile Number 0412 929 634 [+61 4 12 929 634 International] www.radio-active.net.au - www.radio-active.net.au\web\tracking [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Don't you just wish it were true: a plague on both their houses; spammers get infected and virus writers start getting spammed heavily. As they spend their time and resources fighting with each other, the rest of us could go back to regular, everyday computing for the first time since the mid- to late 1990's. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Microsoft Cancels Further Upgrades to Windows or Explorer Organization: Looking for work Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 05:40:47 GMT In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > Microsoft cancels Eolas-related software changes > SEATTLE, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp., (NASDAQ:MSFT) > reversing its plans, said on Thursday that it will not make any > changes to its Windows operating system or Internet Explorer > Web browser in response to a verdict that said some components > of those programs infringe on another company's technology. I hope Monty was just having fun with his Subject line. I don't think MS has cancelled all Windows and IE changes, just the ones related to this lawsuit. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA ------------------------------ From: mysuccessmentor@excite.com (CousinCharles) Subject: Make "FREE" Long Distance Calls with VoIP-Valet Date: 29 Jan 2004 22:01:30 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com CALL your friends, family and business contacts around the world ... WITHOUT the worry of how much it's going to cost! Make FREE Long Distance Calls with VoIP-Valet and enjoy the opportunity to earn income at the same time! HEAR the quality and clarity of VoIP-Valet! http://www.cmp5830.calltheplanet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'll stick with Vonage, thank you, especially since they just recently (last few days) expanded into the 620 area code of rural southeastern Kansas. They are not yet in a position to port my local number 620-331 over, but Winfield, Kansas is very close. Anyone who wants an e-coupon for a free month of Vonage service can ask me for one in not-for-pub email. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: No More Blank/Fake Caller ID For (Most) Telemarketers Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 03:33:42 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Compliance on the Line: Telemarketers to Start Transmitting Caller ID Information Beginning January 29, 2004, telemarketers must transmit Caller ID information in order to comply with the Federal Trade CommissionŐs Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). This information will help consumers choose which sales calls they want to take. Telemarketers are required to transmit their telephone number, and if possible, their name, to consumersŐ Caller ID services. While it is technologically possible to transmit callersŐ numbers nearly everywhere, transmitting callersŐ names may not be available everywhere yet. [ snip ] http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/01/callerid.htm _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Family Radio was chattering about it all day yesterday in their newscasts. At last, the 'reject last caller' feature of SWB Tel will be worth something. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Re: Words and Numbers (was: T-Mobile USA Show Biggest Gains) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 03:25:44 -0800 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote in message news:telecom23.45.17@telecom-digest.org: >> Deutsche Telekom's (DE:DTEGn) T-Mobile, the sixth largest >> U.S. wireless service, said it added 1.015 million customers > Purely as a curiosity, why would anyone write "1.015 million" instead > of "1,015,000" (or, even better, "just over a million customers")? > -Joel Those Germans just think everything has to be so precise! ------------------------------ From: jeff@customfitness.com (Jeff) Subject: Treo 600 - Not Turning Off Date: 30 Jan 2004 11:57:08 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hello, Ever since I got my Treo 600, it has not been able to turn itself off when it is charging. Even though, I have the setting "turn off after 1 minute", it stays on all night when I have it plugged in and charging! It will NOT turn off when it's plugged in. I don't know if some setting transfered over from my Sony Clie when I first did a sync to tranfer the data over from my Clie to the Treo. Is there a way to fix this? If not will this hurt the Treo if the screen stays on overnight when charging? Thanks, Jeff ------------------------------ From: jcoronat@paulbunyan.net (James) Subject: Help With Call-Attendant System? Date: 30 Jan 2004 12:32:13 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Can anyone help in constructing an automated telephone answering system for me? The idea is to allow a caller to sample one or more long books over the phone. Each of the one or more books will be playing continuously, and a caller will simply tap in to a particular recording at whatever point it happens to be when the caller calls in. It should work as follows: the caller dials our toll-free number and connects to our system ("System" - the one you supply me). The System should then: 1. automatically answer the call and play an outgoing message of 1-2 mins ("Hello and thank you for calling! To hear Book One, press"); 2.then automatically connect to a live feed-through for 2-4 minutes minutes (this is one of the continuously playing CD players or tape players); 3. then automatically disconnect or fade out the live feed-through and play a short termination message ("Thank you for listening. For additional information write"); 4. then automatically disconnect the call. To start the System, I'd insert my book CD or audiocassette into a CD or tape player, set the player on "continuous play" mode, and jack it into the live feed-through port on the machine you supply. If the system had more than one port, I'd jack additional CD players, each playing different books, into the other ports. Then I want to walk away and have it service callers unattended. To summarize: when callers dial in, they'll hear an introductory message, then 2 to 4 minutes of the book's text at whatever point the recording happens to be at that moment; then, a short message telling what to do if more information is desired. At the end, the system disconnects the caller automatically. Does anyone know how I could assemble a system of telephone equipment that will do this? Sincerely, James. ------------------------------ From: net-news02@jmatt.net (Matt Simpson) Subject: Re: Need to Host Child Porn, Illegal Content, or Spam Server? Date: 30 Jan 2004 09:30:37 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lisa Minter wrote in message news:: > I got this spam in email today. My question is, why don't police or > FBI nip this in the bud, stop it before it even gets started? Maybe because it's the police or FBI sending it out as a sting operation, trying to catch people stupid enough to respond to something that's so blatant about being illegal. ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Share Day For January Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 2:00:00 EST Instead of changing the Digest over to an advrtising supported forum, I have always elected to keep it as a user supported forum, and for the most part keep it spam and virus free. I am *only* able to do this because of financial support from readers here, and if you would rather not see these messages every month, then please pitch in and help now and then! Consider it sort of like public radio, which goes on for days at a time trying to raise money ... and maybe I should adopt the same system. Turn over the entire Digest once or twice a year to fund raising (entire issues, etc) and stop doing it when the budget for the year has been raised. But for now, I will stick with the present system of devoting a few messages at the end of each month to raising money for the Digest publication expenses. Out of 400-500 messages per month, in a spam, virus free environment, two or three (only) devoted to fund raising. You know who you are; please provide some help here financially. You can use Pay Pal to donate with a credit/debit card by going to our web site http://telecom-digest.org and at the bottom of the home page look for the PayPal 'donate' button. Or if you prefer, send a check or money order to Patrick Townson/TELECOM, Post Office Box 50, Independence, Kansas 67301-0050. The amount you send is entirely up to you. You know best how much you can afford and whether or not this Digest has any value for you. Thank you very much. Patrick Townson, Editor/Publisher TELECOM Digest ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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