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The Telecom Digest for April 14, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 96 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:33:06 -0500
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Islamic Mobile Service from SalamFone
Message-ID: <BANLkTikv-Gi=bP0Ly_3=UGWrfpKOZg_fKw@mail.gmail.com>
On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 9:30 PM, Robert Bonomi
<bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com> wrote:
> In article <BANLkTim4vPLRA1MgOXGJBLNXKoRr0QszDA@mail.gmail.com>,
> John Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote:
>>Interesting...
>>
>>Salamfone Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Kuwait's Reach Telecom has
>>launched the first ever Shariah Compliant mobile service in the
>>world ...
>>
>>***** Moderator's Note *****
>>
>>I don't usually run PR notices like this (Sorry, John), but I'm
>>making an exception because I'm curious what the readers think about
>>this kind of marketing pitch.
No worries. I realize not everything I find interesting will make it
into the annals of telecom history. :-)
> As it apparently involves sending SMS messages and calls to the
> phone at random times, it should discourage the use of those phones
> as detonators for the not-so-smart bombs wearing clothing by duPont.
>
> This sounds like a good thing to me. grin
Hmmm.... didn't think of it that way. I had never heard of a
religious-based phone service. I just thought this was curious.
John
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:32:00 -0500
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: This Sim Card Will Unlock Your iPhone 4, No Jailbreaking Required
Message-ID: <BANLkTinBGA0Cp2ZA_CKBOK4J5=GCS22cNw@mail.gmail.com>
(From the website - Ed.)
"Yesterday we told you about a service that will unlock your iPhone 4
by altering your its IMEI number.
"While that sounds good, at $180 it's pretty expensive and there's no
guarantee Apple won't be able to reverse it later."
This is getting interesting. What finally drove me away from iPhone
and to Android was the difficulty of unlocking the phone and using a
different SIM.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-unlock-your-iphone-4-with-just-a-sim-card-2011-4
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:09:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <16fa9cb6-1318-47b4-a4b3-dcc0264c15cb@j17g2000vbr.googlegroups.com>
On Apr 11, 10:42 pm, bon...@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)
wrote:
> In the U.S., with POTS service, virtually all end-users have basic
> protection against such 'at the DEMMARC', provided by the telco.
>
> There are multiple reasons for the telco providing it. For starters:
>
> 1) given a strike on telco wiring, with a surge following the telco
> wiring into the property, and possibly injuring someone inside, the
> telco does have legal liability.
>
> 2) if there is a strike on the end-user property, the telco doesn't want
> that surge 'backing up' into the telco system, and blowing out lots
> of other customer pairs.
Our apt building has no such protection. I've lost a few modems from
lightning strikes a distance a distance away, as others mentioned.
Several of my neighbors were affected too during the same storm.
I believe the telco differentiates between aerial drops and
underground drops. AFAIK, subscribers served by a line from a pole to
their house has protection on it to protect the wiring from the
lightning-power currents that could cause a fire. However, AFAIK
underground lines would not send out current that would be enough to
start a fire or even damage old style Western Electric phones, so
protection is not provided.
Not every subscriber has a demarc box. Our complex does not have
them, and I understand that situation is typical for such older
buildings. On the exterior of the building is a large telco junction
box, which serves as a mini-distributing frame connecting the
underground cable to the lines that serve each apt. Residents do not
have access to that junction box.
For 99% of the residents not having a demarc is not an issue. They
plug a phone into the jack on the wall and that's it. One time I had
bad static on the line and I reported it. The telco got back to me
that it was fixed "put on a different pair", but the fix was
completely transparent to me and at no charge. The same thing
happened to a neighbor in a different building.
As mentioned, the condo board will not allow the telco to put FIOS in
here because the board fears the external boxes will be ugly. I'm not
sure that's a valid concern since this thread suggests the FIOS boxes
could be installed in the building rear. But then they had trouble
getting the cable company to install wires properly and discretely as
they promised to do, not run them across sidewalks or thrown over a
roof as they did.
All underground wiring was a big deal in the 1970s, but it has some
drawbacks. Contractors screw up and cut phone lines despite being
warned to check first. Winter freeze/thaw cycles can break electric
power cables and that's very costly to provide. The original
underground transformers had overheating and moisture problems.
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:58:40 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does FiOS support rotary phones?
Message-ID: <pan.2011.04.13.03.58.37.682457@myrealbox.com>
On Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:42:58 -0500, Robert Bonomi wrote:
> In article <pan.2011.04.11.22.29.51.300337@myrealbox.com>, David Clayton
> <dcstar@myrealbox.com> wrote:
>
>>People still complain about their ISP after storms in their area or
>>bellyache about their "crap" ADSL modems which - coincidently - seems to
>>either fail or degrade in performance after these self-same storms.
>
> The only weather-related DSL problems I've known of were where a multi-
> pair distribution cable had a moisture problem. After a hard rain some
> water would get into the cable, and cross-talk issues would go way up.
> wait a few days, the damp spot dried out and things were back to normal.
> Well, until the next rain.
Basic electronic equipment - like ADSL modems - invariably have little
protection to surges and even small ones can cumulatively degrade
performance.
>From many years of observing one very popular broadband forum there were
always people complaining immediately after storms in every ISP's
individual forum. When you took a broader look at the complaints at a
regional level you could then see the pattern, and the subsequent
dissatisfaction with things until - magically - replacing the ADSL modem
seemed to fix all issues.
As I said before, good business for the modem manufacturers who sell the
replacements and maybe also those who also sell protection devices for the
incoming phone line (which aren't common in Australia).
--
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: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:53:18 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Islamic Mobile Service from SalamFone
Message-ID: <pan.2011.04.13.03.53.13.855010@myrealbox.com>
On Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:30:40 -0500, Robert Bonomi wrote:
> In article <BANLkTim4vPLRA1MgOXGJBLNXKoRr0QszDA@mail.gmail.com>, John
> Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote:
>>Interesting...
>>
>>Salamfone Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Kuwait's Reach Telecom has
>>launched the first ever Shariah Compliant mobile service in the world ...
>>
>>***** Moderator's Note *****
>>
>>I don't usually run PR notices like this (Sorry, John), but I'm making an
>>exception because I'm curious what the readers think about this kind of
>>marketing pitch.
>
> As it apparently involves sending SMS messages and calls to the phone at
> random times, it should discourage the use of those phones as detonators
> for the not-so-smart bombs wearing clothing by duPont.
>
> This sounds like a good thing to me. grin
Unless these random messages appeared at least every couple of hours, then
they would be ineffective as any such "discouragement". How do you think
people would react to random messages arriving ~10 times a day to their
phones?
--
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: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:32:43 -0400
From: "Pete Cresswell" <x@y.Invalid>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: After Breach, Companies Warn of E-Mail Fraud
Message-ID: <jbnbq6h6agb869i5gfefklq6sb7eb0v8a7@4ax.com>
Per Sam Spade:
>My wife uses her email very carefully to a small group of social
>contacts. Yet, she gets some spam.
Rule#3: Avoid using a name as your email address.
e.g. Pete@Whatver.com = Bad
PC@Whatever.com = Better
xafgwpq.com = Least spam-prone....
This helps mitigate dictionary attacks where somebody
matches a collection of first names to a collection
of domain names.
"Least spam-prone" and not "Best" bc of anticipated
difficulty telling somebody verbally what one's address
is.
--
PeteCresswell
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