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The Telecom Digest for June 6, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 136 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Date: 05 Jun 2012 01:56:06 -0300
From: Mike Spencer <mds@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Ring voltage measurment question
Message-ID: <878vg2cq6x.fsf@nudel.nodomain.nowhere>
I have a traditional rural land line with two 2500 sets [1] attached.
Recently I've been getting intermittent weak ringing: sometimes a
ring, sometimes a weak chatter (no gong), sometimes nothing audible.
Moving the clapper spring to the low-voltage position seems to have
fixed it for now.
But I'd like to figure what's going on and call the telco service guys
if the voltage is low or there's a potential for further
deterioration. (Voice and (tone) dialing work as expected.)
Can I get a meaningful ring voltage reading using an inexpensive
analog multimeter on the "AC Volts" setting? Or do I need a different
(or better) meter for (AIUI) 22 hz measurements?
And do I measure the voltage across the two wires while both phones
are attached to the line? At the demarc? Or should I try to do it
with both phones disconnected?
[1] Yes, real ones with two gongs. I think they're both Nortel. Not
recent Chinese knock-offs.
--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
mspenbellscer@tallwhistlesships.ca
(remove bells and whistles)
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2012 10:16:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Ring voltage measurment question
Message-ID: <51f2478f-fd8c-4c87-be64-9f7b1141260c@f16g2000yqg.googlegroups.com>
On Jun 5, 12:56 am, Mike Spencer <m...@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
wrote:
> I have a traditional rural land line with two 2500 sets [1] attached.
> Recently I've been getting intermittent weak ringing: sometimes a
> ring, sometimes a weak chatter (no gong), sometimes nothing audible.
> Moving the clapper spring to the low-voltage position seems to have
> fixed it for now.
A friend of mine, in a rural location, had ringing trouble. He called
his local telephone company and they added something to the line
pole. The problem was resolved.
One test you might make is plugging in a phone at the demarc box,
isolating out the phones in your house, then calling the phone. If
that phone rings ok, it would suggest there is a problem in your house
wiring, perhaps a short or leak. If that phone fails to ring, then it
probably is a telco problem.
Two conventional telephone sets is not a large ringing load and they
should work fine. Perhaps you should report it to your phone company
and let them try to fix it, before you go to the trouble of
measurements, etc. Good luck.
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2012 15:03:17 +0000 (UTC)
From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Ring voltage measurment question
Message-ID: <jql73l$dm1$1@reader1.panix.com>
In article <878vg2cq6x.fsf@nudel.nodomain.nowhere>,
Mike Spencer <mds@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote:
>I have a traditional rural land line with two 2500 sets [1] attached.
>Recently I've been getting intermittent weak ringing: sometimes a
>ring, sometimes a weak chatter (no gong), sometimes nothing audible.
>Moving the clapper spring to the low-voltage position seems to have
>fixed it for now.
[...]
My guess is a corodded connection somewhere between your phone and the
CO.
Measure ring voltage (an analog multimeter would be best) at the NIJ and
at your phones. A significant difference would place the bad connection
on your territory. Little or no difference puts it in the telco's lap.
Also see if a phone rings better at the NIJ than its normal place. This
would also indicate the problem is yours.
A partial short would have a similar effect and test.
--
Rich Greenberg Sarasota, FL, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 941 378 2097
Eastern time. N6LRT I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67
Canines: Val,Red,Shasta,Zero,Casey & Cinnar (At the bridge) Owner:Chinook-L
Canines: Red & Max (Siberians) Retired at the beach Asst Owner:Sibernet-L
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2012 21:04:31 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Ring voltage measurment question
Message-ID: <xv94k1j93z3z.waioksl6hq45.dlg@40tude.net>
On 05 Jun 2012 01:56:06 -0300, Mike Spencer wrote:
> I have a traditional rural land line with two 2500 sets [1] attached.
> Recently I've been getting intermittent weak ringing: sometimes a
> ring, sometimes a weak chatter (no gong), sometimes nothing audible.
> Moving the clapper spring to the low-voltage position seems to have
> fixed it for now.
Help me understand: this "weak ringing" or "chatter" is taking place as an
incoming call is trying to notify you it's coming in? -- if so, it gives
the appearance of either a too-low ringing voltage, or some resistive
degradation in your wiring. Or is it the sort of bell-activity that
reflects some random high-amplitude noise, or perhaps stutter dial-tone, on
your line -- if that, I've encountered it, and it lasted until some years
later, when a nest of squirrels on the outside overhead pole wires resulted
in so much squirrel-tooth and squirrel-poop damage to the conductors that a
truck-roll was needed to string up new wire. New wire => no more chatter.
Cheers, and best of luck, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
Date: 06 Jun 2012 01:30:56 -0300
From: Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Ring voltage measurment question
Message-ID: <87r4ttf4e7.fsf@nudel.nodomain.nowhere>
tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net> writes:
> On 05 Jun 2012 01:56:06 -0300, Mike Spencer wrote:
>
>> I have a traditional rural land line with two 2500 sets [1] attached.
>> Recently I've been getting intermittent weak ringing: sometimes a
>> ring, sometimes a weak chatter (no gong), sometimes nothing audible.
>> Moving the clapper spring to the low-voltage position seems to have
>> fixed it for now.
>
> Help me understand: this "weak ringing" or "chatter" is taking place as an
> incoming call is trying to notify you it's coming in?
Yes. Answering the slightly twittering phone reveals an incoming call.
> ...if so, it gives the appearance of either a too-low ringing
> voltage, or some resistive degradation in your wiring.
Yes, since setting the clapper to the low voltage position fixed it.
For now. But will it get worse? Hence the effort to determine the
origin of the problem.
> ...when a nest of squirrels on the outside overhead pole wires
> resulted in so much squirrel-tooth and squirrel-poop damage to the
> conductors that a truck-roll was needed to string up new wire. New
> wire => no more chatter.
Wire is open to view for half a mile at least. No squirrels, bird
nests or the like in evidence.
Replies from richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) and HAncock4
<withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> noted.
I'll follow up on your suggestions, some of which I hadn't thought
of.
In particular, richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) wrote:
> Measure ring voltage (an analog multimeter would be best)...
Oh, good.
Thanks, all,
--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:08:12 -0500
From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Found: prices behind Verizon's 300Mbps FiOS upgrades
Message-ID: <CbSdnRD0s_GhCVDSnZ2dnUVZ_r6dnZ2d@posted.nuvoxcommunications>
In article <jqgelo$8vj$3@reader1.panix.com>,
David Scheidt <dscheidt@panix.com> wrote:
>:***** Moderator's Note *****
>:Does anyone know what the practical limit to cable modem speed is? I
>:doubt it's in the 300 Mbps range ...
>
>DOCISS 3 provides about 38 Mb/s per configured channel. How many
>channels are configued is an operator choice. Eight channels down,
>four up gives 304 up, 108 down. That's an availabe option with
>hardware that's deployed in some cable systems. I don't think it's
>being sold yet, though.
And, of course, that bandwidth is (dynamically) shared among all users
on the given cable 'run' from the head-end. 4 subscribers on the same
run, trying to use that 300 mbit/sec at the same time, will only get
about 75mbit each.
The big, unanswered, question is how much Verizon
'oversubscribes'/'over- sells' the uplink capacity from the
concentrator/router that those 300mbit end users are connected to. I
would be seriously surprised to find a 10gig connection to their
core for every 32 such end-users.
I would also question how many such 300mbit users their external
connectivity can handle. At the price for the bandwidth, I could see
people using it for on-line replication of terabyte+ databases. At
'wire speed' on this circuit, one can move a terabyte in around 8
hours. This makes for 'interesting' possibilities. <grin>
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2012 11:31:12 -0500
From: John <john@address-is-invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Found: prices behind Verizon's 300Mbps FiOS upgrades
Message-ID: <jqlc8h$gm8$1@dont-email.me>
On Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:08:12 -0500 Robert Bonomi wrote:
> In article <jqgelo$8vj$3@reader1.panix.com>, David Scheidt
> <dscheidt@panix.com> wrote:
>>:***** Moderator's Note *****
>>:Does anyone know what the practical limit to cable modem speed is? I
>>:doubt it's in the 300 Mbps range ...
>>
>>DOCISS 3 provides about 38 Mb/s per configured channel. How many
>>channels are configued is an operator choice. Eight channels down, four
>>up gives 304 up, 108 down. That's an availabe option with hardware
>>that's deployed in some cable systems. I don't think it's being sold
>>yet, though.
>
> And, of course, that bandwidth is (dynamically) shared among all
> users on the given cable 'run' from the head-end. 4 subscribers on
> the same run, trying to use that 300 mbit/sec at the same time, will
> only get about 75mbit each.
>
> The big, unanswered, question is how much Verizon
> 'oversubscribes'/'over- sells' the uplink capacity from the
> concentrator/router that those 300mbit end users are connected to.
> I would be seriously surprised to find a 10gig connection to their
> core for every 32 such end-users.
>
> I would also question how many such 300mbit users their external
> connectivity can handle. At the price for the bandwidth, I could
> see people using it for on-line replication of terabyte+ databases.
> At 'wire speed' on this circuit, one can move a terabyte in around 8
> hours. This makes for 'interesting' possibilities. <grin>
Cable modem speed limitations are well below the available bandwidth
on any particular node. Nodes are fed with fiber; go figger.
Many DOCSYS 3.0 users with fast service on the same coax node can be
downloading at the same time without any penalty in speed.
If the total node starts degrading, the cable company should rearrange
the plant or upgrade their facilities. That involves corporate
decisions and politics, both inappropriate for this technical
discussion.
--
John
When a person has -- whether they knew it or not -- already
rejected the Truth, by what means do they discern a lie?
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2012 16:16:26 +0000 (UTC)
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Found: prices behind Verizon's 300Mbps FiOS upgrades
Message-ID: <jqlbcq$orc$2@reader1.panix.com>
bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) writes:
>And, of course, that bandwidth is (dynamically) shared among all users
>on the given cable 'run' from the head-end. 4 subscribers on the same
>run, trying to use that 300 mbit/sec at the same time, will only get
>about 75mbit each.
No, it is shared on the FIBER run to your local HFC, hanging
midspan somewhere in your neighborhood. But true, it is shared
with your neighbors. (and it is Megabits, not millibit per
second....)
BTW, HFC's are hung midspan because when first deployed, the
cable co's lost many to theft. Seems they were being resold
to Central/South America. Midspan locations required a bucket
truck to steal same, not just a ladder.
--
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2012 12:57:48 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Cricket brings iPhone to prepaid
Message-ID: <1pl2rxbwf9hzl.1tpnygnlrgihf.dlg@40tude.net>
MVNO Cricket is now offering assorted versions of Apple iPhone and a
$55/month plan I might label an "all-you-can-eat-within-reason"
prepaid cellular plan with no contract or minimum term requirements.
See
http://www.pcworld.com/article/256574/cricket_brings_iphone_to_its_prepaid_network.html
for further details.
Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2012 16:15:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: One nano-SIM to rule them all: Apple submission approved as standard
Message-ID: <1338938102.1817.YahooMailClassic@web161501.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Telecom Digest/CDT moderator writes:
> Is it just me, or does this seem like a shrinking solution in search
> of a miniscule problem? I mean, think about it: a SIM card is
> supposed to be easy to handle, so once it's small enough to fit in a
> pocket, there's no more need to change. Shrinking it makes it
> harder to use, not easier.
>
> (Don't get me started on the sizes of phones. They're already too
> small.)
I can't say if it's just you or not, but the reality of today is that
many people are just not using regular mobile "dumb" phones any more
and many people are using smartphones only (iPhones, Android phones,
Windows Phone etc.) Those phones are certainly bigger than the "dumb"
phones of even a few years ago. The trend rather than smaller smart
phones is HUGE smartphones some as large as 5.5 inches which should
really be called phablets rather than phones since many tablets are
only 7 inches. Any way to get the phone smaller by eliminating
removal of access to a battery or shaving off the size of the SIM card
is a desire of the makers of these devices. In order to keep the
device small enough they have to find space somewhere. The reality of
mobile communication is that it's something that's changing. 19 years
ago we oo'd and ah'd over a brick analog AMPS phone and though that
was the katzenpajamas. Things change :)
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2012 16:02:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Why your cell phone is ripe for spam texts in 2012
Message-ID: <1338937361.73379.YahooMailClassic@web161505.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Sat, 2 Jun 2012 23:41:09 +0000 (UTC) danny burstein wrote:
<<[1] the trick here is that just about all spam text-sms is transmitted
via an e-mail -> cellphone gateway. Most carriers offer
this via something like sending to: phonenumber@cellularcarrier.demo>>
Your experience is different than mine. The phone spam that I get is
usually either from a five digit code or sometimes from a "legitimate"
(I use that in parenthesis since I'm not sure what if anything's
legitimate about it since voice calls to the number usually end up
with getting a SIT and the no such number recording.) But the reason
I don't get any "email" related cellphone spam is that if anyone
wishes to reach me via email on my mobile phone I have an "alias" that
I set up on my operator's web site so that any email sent to
[10-digits]@tmomail.net goes into the ether and I never know about it
nor am I charged for receiving such drek. That's not to say that it's
not a problem since it most surely is a problem and doesn't seem to be
a high priority for the mobile operators to fix. I also use a feature
that I found on
http://babble.ly/
that lets anyone call me without
actually knowing my number by typing that URL (followed by four
characters) to reach me.
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2012 22:04:16 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Mystery of Big Data's Parallel Universe Brings Fear, and a Thrill
Message-ID: <p06240808cbf46ad233ef@[10.0.1.2]>
Mystery of Big Data's Parallel Universe Brings Fear, and a Thrill
By DENNIS OVERBYE
June 4, 2012
Not long ago, a woman in Tacoma, Wash., received a suggestion from
Facebook that she "friend" another woman. She didn't know the other
woman, but she followed through, as many of us have, innocently laying
our cookie-crumb trails through cyberspace, only to get a surprise.
On the other woman's profile page was a wedding picture - of her and
the first woman's husband, now exposed for all the cyberworld to see
as a bigamist.
And so it goes in the era of what is called Big Data, in which more
and more information about our lives - where we shop and what we buy,
indeed where we are right now - the economy, the genomes of countless
organisms we can't even name yet, galaxies full of stars we haven't
counted, traffic jams in Singapore and the weather on Mars tumbles
faster and faster through bigger and bigger computers down to
everybody's fingertips, which are holding devices with more processing
power than the Apollo mission control. Big Data probably knows more
about us than we ourselves do, but is there stuff that Big Data itself
doesn't know it knows? Big Data is watching us, but who or what is
watching Big Data?
It is perhaps time to be afraid. Very afraid, suggests the science
historian George Dyson, author of a recent biography of John von
Neumann, one of the inventors of the digital computer. In "A Universe
of Self-Replicating Code," a conversation published on the Web site
Edge, Mr. Dyson says that the world's bank of digital information,
growing at a rate of roughly five trillion bits a second, constitutes
a parallel universe of numbers and codes and viruses with its own
"physics" and "biology."
There are things going on inside that universe that we don't know
about, he points out - except when it produces unpleasant surprises,
as it did during the "flash crash" of the stock market in May 2010.
And we had better find out what they are.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/science/big-datas-parallel-universe-brings-fears-and-a-thrill.html
-or-
http://goo.gl/hXNo3
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2012 23:13:31 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Mystery of Big Data's Parallel Universe Brings Fear, and a Thrill
Message-ID: <20120606031331.GB5868@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
On Tue, Jun 05, 2012 at 10:04:16PM -0400, Monty Solomon wrote:
>
> Mystery of Big Data's Parallel Universe Brings Fear, and a Thrill
>
> By DENNIS OVERBYE
> June 4, 2012
>
> (snip)
>
> It is perhaps time to be afraid. Very afraid, suggests the science
> historian George Dyson, author of a recent biography of John von
> Neumann, one of the inventors of the digital computer. In "A Universe
> of Self-Replicating Code," a conversation published on the Web site
> Edge, Mr. Dyson says that the world's bank of digital information,
> growing at a rate of roughly five trillion bits a second, constitutes
> a parallel universe of numbers and codes and viruses with its own
> "physics" and "biology."
>
> There are things going on inside that universe that we don't know
> about, he points out - except when it produces unpleasant surprises,
> as it did during the "flash crash" of the stock market in May 2010.
> And we had better find out what they are.
>
> ...
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/science/big-datas-parallel-universe-brings-fears-and-a-thrill.html
>
> -or-
>
> http://goo.gl/hXNo3
>
There are two ways to look at "Big Data": as a change agent that will
improve our lives, or as an Orwellian "Big Brother" menace that
threatens to turn us all into pod people or oppressed, frightened
clerks waiting for the Telescreen to order us to face the music and
proceed MinLove-wise.
I'm bothered that the press seems to be determined to paint any use of
such information as an evil event. The coverage of this, and most
technical issues, is, IMNSHO, intended to induce fear and make the
public want to buy the paper, or watch the TV commercials, instead of
informing us about BOTH the positive and negative possibilities of
large databases and the information in them.
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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