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Message Digest Volume 28 : Issue 6 : "text" Format Messages in this Issue: Re: Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Re: Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Re: Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Re: Re: Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Re: Restoring a 302-type telephone Re: How to find out mobile carrier's web-to-sms gateway address? Re: Sex Offenders in Georgia Stripped of Privacy, Must Hand Over Passwords ====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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, and other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 6 Jan 2009 05:42:01 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Cc: redacted@invalid.telecom-digest.org Subject: Re: Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Message-ID: <20090106054201.52799.qmail@simone.iecc.com> > Has Magic Jack thought of selling a stand-alone device that would >take an IP address from your home/office router and do the same thing >[without tying up the resources on your home/office computer]? It >could use their network and achieve the same end. I'd gladly pay a >bit more for the device up front to get the twenty dollar per year >rate for service. That's what all the regular VoIP providers do. They give you a box which has an ethernet plug on one side and an RJ-11 on the other, or in some cases they sell you a router with the VoIP box built in. Lingo has a $7/mo plan with free incoming calls, free outgoing to US/Canada toll-free numbers and other Lingo customers, and about 3 cpm for most other calls. I like them, I used that plan when I was running a small business for which I needed a real phone number that rang and I could answer. R's, John ------------------------------ Date: 06 Jan 2009 22:19:25 GMT From: David Clayton <dcstar@NOSPAM.myrealbox.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Message-ID: <4963d8ed$0$28518$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au> On Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:40:36 -0500, John Levine wrote: >> Has Magic Jack thought of selling a stand-alone device that would >>take an IP address from your home/office router and do the same thing >>[without tying up the resources on your home/office computer]? It could >>use their network and achieve the same end. I'd gladly pay a bit more >>for the device up front to get the twenty dollar per year rate for >>service. > > That's what all the regular VoIP providers do. They give you a box > which has an ethernet plug on one side and an RJ-11 on the other, or in > some cases they sell you a router with the VoIP box built in. ......... Anything that just plugs into a 'net connection without QoS at the local congestion point - usually the last router/modem - is not going to provide decent VoIP on a link with any sort of high utilization. Many people are starting to use VoIP and are getting it wrong by not having a QoS device managing their traffic, and this can lead to a lot of disappointment with the technology. -- Regards, David. David Clayton Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 19:13:14 -0500 From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Message-ID: <MPG.23cdbda767e74592989859@reader.motzarella.org> In article <20090106054201.52799.qmail@simone.iecc.com>, johnl@iecc.com says... > > Has Magic Jack thought of selling a stand-alone device that would > >take an IP address from your home/office router and do the same thing > >[without tying up the resources on your home/office computer]? It > >could use their network and achieve the same end. I'd gladly pay a > >bit more for the device up front to get the twenty dollar per year > >rate for service. > > That's what all the regular VoIP providers do. They give you a box > which has an ethernet plug on one side and an RJ-11 on the other, or > in some cases they sell you a router with the VoIP box built in. > > Lingo has a $7/mo plan with free incoming calls, free outgoing to > US/Canada toll-free numbers and other Lingo customers, and about 3 cpm > for most other calls. I like them, I used that plan when I was > running a small business for which I needed a real phone number that > rang and I could answer. > MagicJack provides all the features you mention. If it's really that big a drag buy a cheapo laptop (used or refurbed) and plug the MagicJack into that and thence to your phone system of choice. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 18:05:40 -0700 From: "Fred Atkinson" <fatkinson@mishmash.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Re: Any user reviews of the Magic Jack? Message-ID: <010501c97064$f72494a0$0200650a@mishmash> > > Has Magic Jack thought of selling a stand-alone device that > > would take an IP address from your home/office router and do the > > same thing [without tying up the resources on your home/office > > computer]? It could use their network and achieve the same end. > > I'd gladly pay a bit more for the device up front to get the > > twenty dollar per year rate for service. > That's what all the regular VoIP providers do. They give you a box > which has an ethernet plug on one side and an RJ-11 on the other, or > in some cases they sell you a router with the VoIP box built in. I realize that. But do you know of any of them that offer it for twenty dollars per year? That's why I'd prefer to use their network but with a standalone device rather than having to tie up cycles on my PC. As I previously said, I'd gladly pay an extra one time charge for the hardware. > Lingo has a $7/mo plan with free incoming calls, free outgoing to > US/Canada toll-free numbers and other Lingo customers, and about 3 > cpm for most other calls. I like them, I used that plan when I was > running a small business for which I needed a real phone number that > rang and I could answer. Sounds good. Maybe I'll look into them. In the meantime, I wish Magic Jack would consider my idea. Regards, Fred ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:28:58 -0800 From: TouchToneTommy <touch_tone_tommyNOSPAM@yahoo.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Restoring a 302-type telephone Message-ID: <6gu5m4t324d5tavbqnh4l66k8g9gti2v04@4ax.com> On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:56:01 -0500 (EST), "Al Gillis" <al.1020@hotmail.com> wrote: >I want to make a dial card (the paper thingus that goes behind the >plastic window in the middle of the dial) but don't know what fonts >to use. I've seen photos of such cards that are black with a white >window where the telephone number was typed. Above the window was >the text "Wait" (in white characters on a black background) and below >the window was the text "For Dial Tone" also white on black. The >font used for the text was a sort of script and the telephone number >was typed in a fairly block-ish font. Anyone have an idea how to >replicate these fonts in a Windows font? Find your number cards here: http://www.telephonearchive.com/numbercards/ ------------------------------ Date: 6 Jan 2009 06:01:44 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Cc: telecomdigestmoderator@telecom-digest.org Subject: Re: How to find out mobile carrier's web-to-sms gateway address? Message-ID: <20090106060144.57673.qmail@simone.iecc.com> >Is there anyway to find the e-mail to SMS gateway a mobile carrier >uses to route email as SMS messages? I am talking about any carrier: >I found some lists on the internet, but they don't cover all the countries. >(http://www.mutube.com/projects/open-email-to-sms/gateway-list/) I wouldn't pay too much attention to lists like that. A lot of the entries are obviously wrong, networks that don't even offer service in the countries listed, and I did a few spot checks trying to send messages to my own mobile number in the UK, which didn't work. Outside North America, SMS is caller pays, but there's no caller to charge for an e-mail gateway. That means that free gateways tend to be very limited, typically only available to a carrier's own customers. >If I can send sms messages from a web interface my carrier provides >this means that this carrier has a gateway of the ones I am talking >about. I need a way to find these addresses regardless of the >carrier and the country. If this project is urgent enough to be worth spending a small amount of money, Clickatell's paid SMS gateway works great. They offer a zillion ways to send messages, including their own email gateway (where messages have to include your account number and a password) and a nice HTTP POST interface that I use. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com/, ex-Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 11:33:16 -0800 (PST) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Sex Offenders in Georgia Stripped of Privacy, Must Hand Over Passwords Message-ID: <ac3cbc5a-6452-4b83-9f5c-8077ef75fe58@v15g2000yqn.googlegroups.com> On Jan 5, 5:35 pm, John Mayson <j...@mayson.us> wrote: > I really wonder if state legislators even understand the > laws they pass. Often, they don't, especially when dealing with complex or technical issues. I doubt most legislators understand telecom laws they pass. Sometimes laws, such as on this topic, are so knee-jerk emotional that it's virtual political suicide to vote against them, even if it is clear it's bad law. Sometimes a battery of laws are passed at end of session, without sufficient time to study them. Often times the final version of a law is a mishmash of compromises. > There are two terms that are guaranteed to generate a knee-jerk > reaction: "sex offender" and "child pornography".  The masses think we > should just burn these people at the stake without any further > investigation or even proof of guilt.  And no one is interested in > what these people did in the first place. Very true. And the knee-jerk reaction makes things _more_ dangerous, not less, because laws and their consequences are not fully thought out. For instance, many communities simply outlaw sex offenders from living in them which leaves the ex-offender (who has completed his prison time) with no place to go. So the ex-offender goes underground. When an ex-offender is underground, he is not under any kind of supervision or counseling, and more at risk to re-offend. When one is above ground, at least they're checking in with their parole officer or counselor to prevent a relapse or risky situation. > We have a friend who is a sex offender.  What happened was he was young. > And drunk.  She was barely underage and didn't disclose this. He ended up > spending seven years in prison and his life today is a living hell.  . . . This, sadly is a common problem, such people (e.g. a teenager who hooked up with another teen) lumped together with the truly dangerous perverts. They are supposedly classified separately, but once out in the community, no distinction is made and the problems you describe come up. One community tried very hard to ban a man from moving in, he made such a mistake when he was 15, years before. Communities are not interested in such differences. Returning to telecom, a new problem is kids "sexting", that is, sending risque pictures of themselves, such as a teen girl posing in her underwear (or less) and sending a cellphone picture to her boyfriend. Boys being boys, they send the photo to their friends. In our area, when this first happened the cops went nuts and were ready to charge the kids with distributing or possesing porn. The school wanted to check every kid's cellphone to see if the pictures were on it and they were tracing down all the cellphones involved. Now, sexting is not a desirable practice, but the best cure is prevention so it doesn't happen in the first place, like educating kids that taking and sending such pictures is a really stupid and distasteful thing to do. Likewise with other offenders. Society seems to focus on after-the- fact draconian punishments rather than determining why people do such things in the first place and working to prevent it. >I get really worried when the state starts to demonize groups of people. Indeed. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. The Telecom Digest is currently being moderated by Bill Horne while Pat Townson recovers from a stroke. 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