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The Telecom Digest for August 17, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 196 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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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.
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Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:57:10 -0500
From: Will <imo252@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Ring voltage measurment question
Message-ID: <XnsA0B0D5230CA2Aimo252yahoocom@216.196.97.131>
RonTheGuy@null.invalid (Ron) wrote in news:1klb6ws.oopg46dxj39kN%
RonTheGuy@null.invalid:
> Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>
>> Analog multimeter says that during ringing there'a 18 volts across the
>> terminals of the (outside) NIJ and across the terminals of the
>> (indoor) block into which the phone is plugged. Sheesh!
>>
>> Ring is the only problem; none with calling out or sound quality.
>>
>> Next stop: telco service folks, but armed with a little knowledge.
>
> Wow, that should ideally be 90 volts.
>
Minimum ring voltage at the NI: 55V RMS @ 20/30 Hz (Depending on ILEC).
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 02:02:02 +0000 (UTC)
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 'Heather from card services', et al.
Message-ID: <k0hkaq$dr7$1@reader1.panix.com>
Heather had the day off; Andy called me today. I hope he was not too bored
listening to himself.
--
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: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 20:37:49 -0500
From: Will <imo252@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Did anyone ever figure out where "E&M" came from?
Message-ID: <XnsA0B0DC0732459imo252yahoocom@216.196.97.131>
Fred Goldstein <fgoldstein.SeeSigSpambait@wn2.wn.net> wrote in
news:20120312221919.705485468@mailout.easydns.com:
> On Sun, 11 Mar 2012, Bill Horne wrote,
>
>>I was at a lunch for ham radio operators yesterday, and the sea of
>>grey hair that I saw has put me in a reflective mood.
>
> Hey, but we kept the riff-raff out with that Morse Code requirement!
> ;-) (In this case, almost anyone born after, say, 1955. It was
> dropped too late.)
>
>>I've been searching through various archives this morning, without
>>success, trying to find out if anyone ever figured out the origin of
>>the "E & M" signalling lead designations. When I took the D-18 course
>>at New England Telephone, I read that the designations might have come
>>from old circuit diagrams for telegraph equipment, but that nobody
>>knew for sure.
>
> I'd put this into one of those "lost to history", but I tend to give
> some credence to the story told in various sources, including David
> Talley's "Basic Telephone Switching Systems" (1969), which said,
>
> "The E and M system received its name from historical designations
> found on old circuit drawings. The E refered to the middle "e" in
> received and the M from the m in transmit."
>
> But it's also possible that those were just mnemonics. The drawings
> of some circuit or other at sone point in time may have simply
> labeled the leads A,B,C,... and those two happened to be E and
> M. Then somebody came up with the mnemonics. After all, if I wanted
> to name the two signaling (not bearer) leads, ear and mouth would not
> be the first things that come to mind.
>
>
> --
> Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com
> ionary Consulting
> http://www.ionary.com/
>
> +1 617 795 2701
>
>
I suspect that the E&M leads, as known today for two state signalling,
may have been in addtion to other signaling leads used on early in-band
signaling equipment. For example, while I never worked on DLL equipment
at the AT&T Toll office where I once worked in the late 1970's, DLL
equipment, not to be confused with the more typical 2W loop extension
repeater circuits in common use, were designed to work with signaling
units to convert two state E&M signaling (B & X Types) to loop & ground
start operations. I recall circuit layout models showing a K option for
DLL equipment. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to work on such
circuit layout designs, having been broken in in B, E, and F type SF,
and auxiliary units. Latter DS1 carrier equipment.
While trunk signaling equipment employed E&M leads, loop signaling units
used an A&B lead designation, along with SX/SX1 when a DC signaling
component was employed.
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 23:23:06 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking
Message-ID: <p06240816cc52166e42e6@[10.0.1.9]>
How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking
By Mat Honan
August 6, 2012
In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First
my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter
account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist
and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was
broken into, and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data
on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.
In many ways, this was all my fault. My accounts were daisy-chained
together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID
account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to
Twitter. Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account,
it's possible that none of this would have happened, because their
ultimate goal was always to take over my Twitter account and wreak
havoc. Lulz.
Had I been regularly backing up the data on my MacBook, I wouldn't
have had to worry about losing more than a year's worth of photos,
covering the entire lifespan of my daughter, or documents and e-mails
that I had stored in no other location.
Those security lapses are my fault, and I deeply, deeply regret them.
But what happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several
customer service systems, most notably Apple's and Amazon's. Apple
tech support gave the hackers access to my iCloud account. Amazon
tech support gave them the ability to see a piece of information - a
partial credit card number - that Apple used to release information.
In short, the very four digits that Amazon considers unimportant
enough to display in the clear on the web are precisely the same ones
that Apple considers secure enough to perform identity verification.
The disconnect exposes flaws in data management policies endemic to
the entire technology industry, and points to a looming nightmare as
we enter the era of cloud computing and connected devices.
...
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/all/
How Not to Become Mat Honan: A Short Primer on Online Security
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/08/how-not-to-become-mat-honan/
After Epic Hack, Apple Suspends Over-the-Phone AppleID Password Resets
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-icloud-password-freeze/
Date: 15 Aug 2012 11:47:01 -0500
From: Telecom Digest Moderator
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: SIT Tones and Robo Calls
While the Digest does not forbid putting 'invalid' from lines on submissions,
we do have a polic against forging OTHER PEOPLE'S ACTUAL DOMAIN NAMES.
A user from an Omaha NE area ISP did just that today -- unintentionally,
I am sure, but 'notforreal.net' is a real domain.
Those submittig messages to the Digest -- either via the mailing-list, or
the newsgroup -- are strongly encouraged to use a valid, replyable,
address on their submissions.
For those who desire spam-proofing, or total anonomity, submissios can use
the '[obfuscate]' tag on the subject line -- which modifies the submitter
address in a way that a person can derive the correct address for a reply,
but mechanical harvesting will fail. OR they can use the '[Anonymous]' tag,
which will remove all trace of the sender/origin, replacing it with a
standarized, "well known", psuedonym.
For those who insist on munging addresses themselves, please 'register'
a 'real' email address with the moderator, alnog with the invalid address
you will be using on submissions. Lastly, be sure it =is= invalid,
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:03:10 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: AT&T sets deadline for 2G sunset in 4 years
Message-ID: <MPG.2a96ffeab932f80a989d8e@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <k013bv$om4$1@dont-email.me>, bill@horneQRM.net says...
>
> On 8/8/2012 12:22 PM, PV wrote:
> > Bill Horne<bill@horne.VALID-IF-THIS-IS-ELIDED.net> writes:
>
> >> BTW, does this mean that AMPS is finally going away, that AT&T will
> >> phase out TDMA, or that some other branch of the "voice" cellular tree
> >> is to be pruned at the same time?
> >
> > Eh? Those are both retired technologies and have been for quite some time.
> > I don't think anyone even owns the spectrum to run AMPS/TDMA on analog
> > anymore. Dead like the dodo. *
>
> I thought AT&T was using GSM, and that GSM used TDMA. Are we talking
> apples and oranges?
>
> Bill
I believe GSM uses a subset of CDMA, not TDMA.
Date: 16 Aug 2012 18:44:23 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: AT&T sets deadline for 2G sunset in 4 years
Message-ID: <20120816184423.73331.qmail@joyce.lan>
>> I thought AT&T was using GSM, and that GSM used TDMA. Are we talking
>> apples and oranges?
>
>I believe GSM uses a subset of CDMA, not TDMA.
You are mistaken. GSM is most definitely TDMA.
The next generation, LTE, is indeed CDMA.
R's,
John
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:17:42 -0700
From: SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Any Non-free SMS Gateways for e-mail to SMS on Wireless Carriers that Lack a Free SMS Gateway?
Message-ID: <502d9bbb$0$70417$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>
While most wireless carriers have a free SMS gateway so you can send an
SMS to a phone via e-mail, not all do. I.e. on Verizon where you can
send an e-mail to 4085551212@vtext.com and it sends the e-mail as an SMS
to the phone (at least the first 160 characters of it).
I was looking for a paid service that would accept e-mail messages
forwarded from my Gmail account and send the e-mail as an SMS to a phone
on a foreign (non-U.S.) wireless carrier that lacks an SMS gateway.
I thought
http://www.ipipi.com
would work, but it requires that the
subject of the e-mail be a password to their system. So while you could
manually do e-mail to text and enter the password in the subject line,
you can't automatically change the subject of a forwarded e-mail (at
least I couldn't find a way to do it).
Here's what I'm trying to do.
When I travel outside the U.S. I forward my Verizon/Pageplus cell phone
to my Google Voice number. My Google Voice number is, in turn, forwarded
to a rented Localphone.com incoming phone number which in turn forwards
to the prepaid phone number with a SIM card that I buy when I reach my
destination.
The reason I have Google Voice in between my Verizon/Pageplus cell phone
and the Localphone incoming number is so SMS to my Verizon/Pageplus
phone will be sent as an e-mail to my Gmail account, while voice calls
will be forward to Localphone then forwarded to the foreign prepaid
phone. Localphone forwards voice calls internationally, but does not
forward SMS. Google does not forward internationally at all.
I had the bright idea of setting up a Gmail filter that looks for the
subject words "SMS from" and sends those e-mails (which are received SMS
on my Verizon/Pageplus phone) to an SMS gateway which then sends a text
to my foreigh prepaid phone. I tried this out and it works fine, but it
requires that the foreign carrier have an SMS gateway, and not all do.
In fact in China, none do (probably for political reasons).
Anyone know of a way to do what I want to do? Even a localphone
alternative that passes through SMS would be fine. localphone does pass
through texts for UK incoming numbers, but not for U.S. incoming numbers.
*Moerator note: if email is processed on a system where one can use
'procmail', then automatically changing the subject line on a forwarded
message is trivial. Also, a quick google search for 'paid sms gateway'
turned up over 800K hits.
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