TELECOM Digest     Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:55:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 300

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Pakistan Internet Link Repairs Will Take Three Days (Lisa Minter)
    New Worm Lures Users With 'Breaking News' (Lisa Minter)
    Microsoft Unveils Cut Rate Windows XP (Lisa Minter)
    Science is Perfect! (Stephen Greene)
    CVS Limits ExtraCare Info Access (Monty Solomon)
    IESG Approves Publication of Anti-Spam Mechanisms (Peter Godwin)
    Cellular Jamming?  Think Again (Joseph)
    Iran's Holiest Shrine Opens to Virtual Pilgrims (Lisa Minter)
    Sony BMG Cuts Deal With Mashboxx (Lisa Minter)
    T-Mobile Cuts Deal With Google (Lisa Minter)
    Publishing Executive Caught up in Child Porn Trap (Lisa Minter)
    Bluetooth Device on Two PCs (YesBalala)
    Re: DSL Speed (W Howard)
    Re: Western Union History (Lisa Hancock)
    Re: Using Comcast to Host Web Site (William Warren)

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; other stuff of interest.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Pakistan Internet Link Repairs to Take Three Days 
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:34:42 -0500


Pakistan's data and Internet links with the outside world will be
affected until at least the weekend as repairs are carried out on a
faulty undersea fiber-optic cable, telecommunications officials said
on Wednesday.

The cable developed a fault late on Monday, cutting the country's
international data links, including the Internet, and causing chaos
for businesses across the country. Satellite back-up systems were
brought on-stream on Wednesday, restoring some Internet access.

"Data connectivity will not be as fast as it normally is but we've
provided satellite back-up," said Mashkoor Hussain, vice president of
operations at Pakistan Telecommunication Co. Ltd., which operates the
data link. Telephone links had not been affected, he said.

"Two satellite back-up systems have been provided from 9 a.m. (0400
GMT) to ensure that banks and other businesses like airline ticketing
can be provided with Internet data facilities as normal as possible,"
he said.

Hussain said an attempt to repair the cable -- Pakistan's sole
international cable Internet link -- early on Wednesday had failed.

A repair ship from the company that laid the cable was due to set off
from Dubai on Wednesday afternoon and it should reach the site, about
50 km (30 miles) off the coast, on Thursday afternoon. Repair work was
then expected to take 48 hours, he said.

"The repair work is major, the cable will have to be taken out and
repaired," another PTCL official said.

Hussain said the repairs would not have an impact on neighboring
countries, including India, which are also linked up to the faulty
cable. Those countries had back-up cables, he said.

Business people in Pakistan said things were a bit better but they
were still facing serious difficulties.

"The situation has slightly improved today but we're still facing a
lot of problems. Most of our work is being carried out manually," said
a foreign bank dealer.

Records of bank transactions were not being logged electronically, a
local bank dealer said.

"A large backlog has built up and it's increasing all the time. It's a
big disaster," the second dealer said.

Nasir Ali of the private Air Blue airline said his company's Web-based
booking system was working, but very slowly.

"PTCL has given us some relief but our system is still very slow," Ali
told Reuters.

The head of Pakistan's Internet Service Providers' Association,
V.A. Abdi, said the providers normally had total bandwidth of 600
megabites at their disposal but now they had just 34. Pakistan has
about 10 million Internet users, he said.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

------------------------------

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: New Worm Lures Users With 'Breaking News'
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:46:18 -0500


Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service

LONDON--Internet users alarmed over news of Michael Jackson's death or
dark conspiracies behind the demise of Pope John Paul II should
perhaps just be worried that they received another new e-mail worm.

Researchers at security firm Sophos today warned of the spread of the
Kedebe-F e-mail worm, which carries a variety of subject headers and
messages touting breaking news. However, users who click on the
attached file could have their security software and firewall
disabled, according to Sophos.

Possible messages include "someone sent me this document which is
stolen from a secret government body ... about John Paul's death."
Other messages try to entice recipients into opening the attached file
by claiming Michael Jackson has died,(lurid picures attached!) Osama
bin Laden has been captured by U.S. soldiers, (more pictures of him
being led away by police!) or the MyDoom e-mail worm author has been
arrested by Microsoft,(still more lurid pictures!) Sophos said.

Nothing New

Using supposed "breaking news" to persuade users to open a message and
click on an attachment is a long-favored method among virus writers,
according to Graham Cluley, Sophos's senior technology consultant.

"This is a fairly common trick. It doesn't take Albert Einstein to
think this one up," Cluley said.

Although the worm is currently slow-spreading, Cluley flagged it as an
example of the kinds of social-engineered threats that users should
watch out for.

The worm spreads via e-mail or peer-to-peer file sharing networks. It
appears to be targeted at both news hounds and geeks, with mentions of
the MyDoom worm, Cluley said. Also, it spreads on P-to-P networks by
copying itself to the directory for sharing information on the server,
purporting to be source code for the Sasser worm.

Users are advised to update their antivirus software to fight the threat.

Copyright 2005 PC World Communications, Inc.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the
use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without
profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the
understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic
issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I
believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S.  Copyright Law. If you wish
to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go
beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner, in this instance, PC World Communications, Inc.

For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My suggestion is to _never_ open any
email attachments; just return them to the sender unopened with a
note saying you do not accept those things.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Microsoft Unveils Cut Rate Windows XP
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:47:56 EDT


By THERESA BRAINE, Associated Press Writer

Beset by rampant counterfeiting across Latin America, Microsoft on
Tuesday introduced a cut-rate, reduced version of Windows XP that is
aimed at first-time, low-income computer users who might otherwise run
pirated software.

XP Starter Edition helps users learn to use a mouse and other computer
devices, but strips out networking, limits the number of programs that
can open and won't work on top-level processors.

The program "is for people who want access to legal software," said
Microsoft Mexico General Director Felipe Sanchez Romero. The company
sees a large potential market, given that 83 percent of Mexicans don't
have personal computers.

The company says most novice users don't need the advanced functions
and it says it has designed the bottom-tier version of XP to be "an
affordable and simple introduction to personal computing."

Microsoft launched the Spanish language version of the program at a
news conference in Mexico City that featured several partners,
including a state-owned lending agency, the main phone company Telmex
and local computer manufacturers Texa, Lanix and Hergo.

The software will be available only pre-installed on machines, not as
a boxed product. Microsoft has not offered it in the United States or
western Europe.

The company earlier had released versions in Thailand, India, Russia,
Malaysia and Brazil -- other markets where counterfeiting is common.

A report by the Gartner consulting company last year criticized the
product for limiting upgrade opportunities as people gain expertise.

Sanchez Romero said last week that about 65 percent of the software
used in Mexico is pirated. Even some small local computer makers
include counterfeit versions of Microsoft Office on their machines and
counterfeit software is sold openly at hundreds of impromptu stalls on
Mexico City sidewalks.

While mainline computer makers usually include Windows, customers who
want to buy a legal boxed version of Windows XP Home must pay more
than $300 - almost a month's wage for the average Mexican worker. A
boxed package of XP Pro costs about $500 at major computer stores in
Mexico City.

The ubiquity of pirated Windows software also may have slowed Mexico's
adoption of a Windows rival, the open-source software Linux, which has
grown more rapidly in other Latin American nations.


Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

------------------------------

From: Stephen Greene <no@email.invalid>
Subject: Science is Perfect!
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 06:21:31 GMT
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net


Mark Crispin wrote:

> http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from
> voting, party politics, or public debate.  Si vis pacem, para
> bellum.

You must be a janitor there. Science has been corrupted by politics,
ideology, and economics from day one.

The vast majority of scientists cannot afford the expensive
educations, equipment and facilities they must have (on TOP of making
a living.). These are BIG bucks. And if the scientists don't find what
the people who are putting up the bucks (almost always large
corruptions, directly and indirectly) want them to find, they find
themselves flipping burgers at McDonalds, and blacklisted to boot.

As for politics, it's almost impossible to seperate it from economics,
but I recall reading about all of the scientists who lost their jobs
and their reputations in the latter part of the 19th century for
insisting that particles smaller than an atom existed.

When was the last time you heard of a scientist winning the Noble
Prize for discovering or developing something that hurt a major
corporation?

Or a scientist in the employ of a major corporation (the vast majority)
who published findings that hurt that corporation's business?

Who funds the major educational institutions? The corporations.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 03:49:02 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: CVS Limits ExtraCare Info Access After Expose


By Marion Davis, Staff Writer

The CVS Corp. has cut off Web access to ExtraCare card holders'
detailed purchase information after a consumer group showed reporters
how easily an intruder could log into the system and find out, say,
how many condoms or enema kits someone's bought.

CVS has issued about 50 million of the loyalty cards, which allow the
drugstore chain to track each customer's purchases and, in exchange,
provide a 2-percent rebate on those purchases, along with customized
coupons.

To log into your account on CVS.com, all you need is the card number,
your ZIP code, and the first three letters of your surname. Even now,
anyone with that information can easily find out the card holder's
home address, phone number, and total purchases each quarter.

But until last week, the Web site also allowed customers to request a
detailed purchase report to be emailed to them -- to any address they
put in.

http://www.pbn.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/115431


CVS ends Web site feature over privacy concerns
An unauthorized person could track other customers' purchases by e-mail

News Story by Todd R. Weiss

JUNE 23, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Retail drugstore chain CVS Corp. has
temporarily disabled a feature on its Web site that allowed an
unauthorized person to improperly obtain customer purchase records via
e-mail.

In a statement yesterday, Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS acknowledged that
it had disabled a feature that allows registered users of its CVS
ExtraCare loyalty cards to track purchases made under "flexible
spending accounts" (FSA) set up through their employers. The loyalty
cards offer discounts to shoppers who register for the cards and allow
CVS to gather information about their purchases.

More than 50 million customers use its ExtraCare loyalty cards, CVS said.


     http://www.computerworld.com/databasetopics/data/story/0,10801,102716,00.html

------------------------------

From: Peter Godwin <godwin@isoc.org>
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 16:38:18 +0200
Organization: Internet Society
Subject: IESG Approves Publication of Anti-Spam Mechanisms 


IESG APPROVES PUBLICATION OF ANTI-SPAM MECHANISMS AS EXPERIMENTAL RFCs

Reston, VA - 29th June 2005 - The Internet Engineering Steering Group
(IESG) has approved two groups of documents as experimental RFCs for
proposed anti-spam mechanisms.

RFCs to be entitled 'Sender Policy Framework (SPF) for Authorizing Use
of Domains in E-Mail' and 'Sender ID: Authenticating E-Mail' describe
two different approaches to domain-based authorization for systems
sending mail.

The current document approvals are part of ongoing activities within
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to explore new technical
solutions that combat the problem of spam. Experimental RFCs are not
standards -- they are specifications that are published for the general
information of the Internet technical community.

While many proposals for domain-based authorization have been under
consideration, no consensus has yet been reached concerning a single
technical approach. The IESG does not endorse either of the two
mechanisms documented in the experimental RFCs - their publication is
intended to encourage further discussion and experimentation in order
to gain experience that can be used to write future standards in this
space.

While some solutions based on both mechanisms have already been
deployed, the IETF cautions that an experimental phase is essential
before moving towards standards because they affect such a significant
part of the Internet infrastructure. Given the importance of the
worldwide e-mail and DNS systems, it is critical that future standards
support their continued stability and smooth operation.

At the same time, the IETF continues to consider other ways in which
standards measures can be used to combat spam. Such measures will most
likely need to work alongside social and legal mechanisms. Examples of
other IETF anti-spam activities include:

* consideration of a proposal to use cryptographic signatures to
authenticate e-mail senders.

* consideration of a draft for a protocol that would enable operators
to communicate details of spam and phishing incidents in an automated
real-time manner. This protocol (draft-jevans-phishing-xml-00) allows
operators to have the information needed to take action against those
sending spam or mounting phishing attacks.

* publication of RFC 3865, which provides a mechanism that legitimate
commercial e-mailers can use to mark messages. This standard may
provide a tool for governments and service providers to use when
labeling e-mail. The IETF also published RFC 4096, which gives advice
to regulatory authorities considering using the subject line of
messages for mandatory labels.

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Texts of the related Internet Drafts are available here:

Sender Policy Framework (SPF):
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-schlitt-spf-classic-02.txt

Sender ID:
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-katz-submitter-01.txt
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-lyon-senderid-core-01.txt
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-lyon-senderid-pra-01.txt

Texts of the RFCs will be available here when published:

http://www.ietf.org/rfc.html


The IETF (http://www.ietf.org), which has provided leadership in the
development of Internet standards for nearly 20 years, is a large open
international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and
researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture
and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open to any interested
individual. The technical work of the IETF is done in its working
groups within areas managed by Area Directors (ADs). The ADs are
members of the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).

ABOUT ISOC

The Internet Society (http://www.isoc.org) is a not-for-profit
membership organization founded in 1991 to provide leadership in
Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in
Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring
the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the
benefit of people throughout the world. ISOC is the organizational
home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and other
Internet-related bodies who together play a critical role in ensuring
that the Internet develops in a stable and open manner. For over 13
years ISOC has run international network training programs for
developing countries and these have played a vital role in setting up
the Internet connections and networks in virtually every country
connecting to the Internet during this time

FOR FURTHER DETAILS: 

Peter Godwin
Communications Manager, Internet Society
E-mail: godwin@isoc.org 
4, rue des Falaises
1205 Geneva
Switzerland

------------------------------

From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: Cellular Jamming?  Think Again.
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 05:54:31 -0700
Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com


http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=23199

FCC Re-iterates Cell-Phone Jammers Are Illegal

WASHINGTON-People who want to use cell-phone jammers to get rid of
annoying mobile-phone use should think again.  It is against the
law. Those found using, selling, manufacturing or distributing
cell-phone jammers could be subject to an $11,000-per-day fine and
seizure of their equipment by the United States Marshals, warned the
Federal Communications Commission.

"In response to multiple inquiries concerning the sale and use of
transmitters designed to prevent, jam or interfere with the operation
of cellular and PCS telephones, the FCC is issuing this public notice
to make clear that the marketing, sale or operation of this type of
equipment is unlawful. Anyone involved with such activities may be
subject to forfeitures, fines or even criminal prosecution," said the
FCC.

------------------------------

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Iran's Holiest Shrine Opens to Virtual Pilgrims
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:37:03 -0500


Visiting Iran's holiest Shi'ite Muslim Shrine is now just one click
away thanks to a new Internet service for those who cannot visit in
person.

Shi'ite Muslims all over the world can make a virtual pilgrimage to
the tomb of Imam Reza in the northeastern city of Mashhad by
connecting to www.aqrazavi.org.

"It is for those impatient Shi'ites who want to feel permanently
connected to the eighth Imam," the supervisor of the shrine wrote on
the site.

Shi'ite Muslims believe Imam Reza was the eighth successor to the
prophet Mohammad who was allegedly poisoned in 817 while traveling
through Mashhad, then a tiny village.

Mashhad has since grown into Iran's second biggest city, pulling in
much of its income from about two million pilgrims who visit the
shrine each year.

Some of Iran's most senior clerics already have Web sites, posting
religious edicts on the Web.


Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

------------------------------

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Sony BMG Inks Deal With P2P Firm Mashboxx
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:39:00 -0500


Music giant Sony BMG has finalized its deal with the legal
file-sharing network Mashboxx, two days after a U.S. court dealt a
blow to Mashboxx's unauthorized rivals such as Grokster.

Mashboxx, headed by former Grokster president Wayne Rosso, is a
peer-to-peer file-sharing network that requires users to pay for
copyrighted songs.

The companies said on Wednesday that Sony BMG songs will cost $0.99
each, in line with the price charged by Apple's market-leading iTunes
online music store. Unlike iTunes, users will be able to preview
entire tracks for a limited number of plays for free.

Mashboxx is designed to work closely with the technology company
Snocap, headed by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, which identifies
songs by their digital "fingerprint" and determines if they are
copyrighted.

The efforts of Snocap and Mashboxx got a boost from the U.S. Supreme
Court this week. The court ruled that Grokster could be held liable
for copyright infringement, in part because it had taken no steps to
prevent users from sharing copyrighted music and movie files.

Sony BMG Chief Executive Andy Lack told Reuters after the Grokster
ruling that he had hopes that unauthorized peer-to-peer services would
change their tune by utilising technology like Snocap's.

"There's an opportunity to employ lots of different technologies that
legitimise these file-sharing services," he said. "A lot of them
didn't want to come to the table until this ruling."

Snocap has deals in place with all four major music labels --
Vivendi's Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music. Rosso said
on Wednesday that negotiations are under way with the other music
majors as well as a number of independents.

Sony BMG is a 50-50 joint venture between Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) and
Bertelsmann.

(Additional reporting by Derek Caney in New York)

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

------------------------------

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: T-Mobile Teams Up With Google for Instant Mobile
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:41:48 -0500


Deutsche Telekom's mobile arm T-Mobile will use Web search leader
Google as the starting point for its clients who surf the Internet on
their mobile phones, T-Mobile said on Wednesday.

The Google deal is part of a campaign in which T-Mobile, Europe's
second-largest mobile operator, will offer full access to the Internet
on its phones, abandoning the "walled garden" concept in which
operators hand-pick Web sites.

"With the Google homepage we want tell our customers from the first
moment that they are carrying with them the Internet they know from
home," said T-Mobile board member Ulli Gritzuhn at a news conference
in T-Mobile's Bonn headquarters.

The moves follow the years-long failure by mobile operators to
convince subscribers to use their mobile phones for more than phone
calls and text messages. With falling call prices, they need their
clients to use their phones for more.

Many customers have shunned mobile Internet services such as
T-Mobile's old "t-zones" or market leader Vodafone's "Live!," often
finding them complicated and expensive.

As part of the Internet campaign, dubbed "web'n'walk," T-Mobile will
also launch mobile devices with larger displays, better suited to the
Web, and will offer cheaper tarriffs to encourage Internet usage,
Gritzuhn said.

Web'n'walk will launch in July in Germany and Austria, and later this
year in Britain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

Gritzuhn said T-Mobile expected a high six-digit number of subscribers
to use web'n'walk by the end of 2006, and aimed to generate additional
revenue of 10 euros per user per month through the offering.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

------------------------------

From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Publishing Exec Indicted on Child-Porn Charges
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:49:21 -0500


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former publishing executive who was a member
of New York's state education board has been indicted on
child-pornography charges, U.S. authorities said on Tuesday.

Robert Johnson, 59, who was publisher of Long Island's Newsday
newspaper from 1986 to 1994, faces up to 50 years in prison and a fine
of up to $750,000 for downloading child pornography including a movie
titled "Real Child Rape," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
said.

He also faces obstruction-of-justice charges for erasing more than
12,000 files from his company computers after learning of the
investigation in May 2004.

Johnson resigned abruptly that month as chief executive of the
financial-printing firm Bowne & Co. Inc. and gave up his seat on New
York State's Board of Regents, citing personal reasons.

Federal authorities said Johnson erased the computer files after a
Bowne executive told him he was under investigation.

A Bowne spokesman directed inquiries to Johnson's personal attorney,
who was not available for comment.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation has led to the
arrest of nearly 6,000 people on child-pornography charges in the past
two years.  Many of them were found through the records of a
Belorussian company that handled payments for several
child-pornography sites.

"Those who believe that cyberspace can conceal their online child
pornography purchases are mistaken," ICE Deputy Special Agent Marvin
Walker said in a statement.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

------------------------------

From: YesBalala <root@10.0.0.1>
Subject: Bluetooth Device on 2 PCs
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 13:57:00 -0400


I have a portal Bluetooth USB adapter which is shared between my
office and home PC, to exchange data to my PDA phone.

 From my PC, I can discover, assign the passphase, and resync the
data.  Then when I come back home, I will need to do the discover
again, and assign the passphrase in order to work. Then, when I am back
to the office, will have to do discovery again. This holds true even
if I am using the same passphase.

As far as I understand, the device address is the only thing to
identify the device. Then how came with the same passphase, I cannot
access the device from different PC? Is there anyway that it will
work, so I don't need to buy another adapter?

------------------------------

From: whoward@login2.srv.ualberta.ca (W Howard)
Subject: Re: DSL Speed
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 05:52:27 UTC
Organization: University of Alberta


In article <telecom24.299.10@telecom-digest.org>,
<nmclain@annsgarden.com> wrote:

> Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com> wrote:

>>> Each RT is connected to a host CO, and from the point of view of the
>>> customer, it's indistinguishable from the CO.  POTS lines served
>>> from the RT are switched at the CO; the RT simply relays signals
>>> back and forth between the customer and the CO.  Numbers are part of
>>> the same NPA-NXX blocks as the host CO.

>> Is it indistinguishable if the customer has a V.90 modem?  I think
>> I've read that an RT won't allow 56k dialups.

> Some RTs allow V.90 modems; some don't.  Apparently, yours does
> (assuming that's the reason the farm can be so far from the CO and
> still get DSL).  A good tutorial on this issue is at
> http://www.aztek-eng.com/TIA-paper.PDF .

Many RTs do not maintain signal phase when multiplexing many signals
onto one pair.  Doesn't much matter for voice, but high-speed modems
use phase modulation so it matters a lot for them.

>>> [ more snippage ]

>>> LOAD COILS.  The frequency-dependent attenuation characteristics of
>>> the loop (as described above) also affect voice band frequencies
>>> (300-3000 Hz), resulting in rolloff of the higher frequencies of voice
>>> signals.  To solve this problem, telcos have traditionally installed
>>> "load coils" at 6000-foot intervals on long (typically >18K feet)
>>> loops.  A load coil is a small inductor installed across the
>>> conductors to cancel the affects of interconductor capacitance.
>>> Although load coils reduce high-frequency rolloff within the voice
>>> band, they cause severe attenuation above 4000 Hz.  See
>>> http://tinyurl.com/8njv3 .

If the load coil is installed between the conductors, it would cause
low-frequency rolloff, not decrease high-frequency rolloff.  This
could flatten the total frequency response curve but also requires
boosting the whole signal to make up for all those rolloffs.

>> At DSL frequencies I would have thought coil impedance would be too
>> high to matter.  I don't quite grasp it.

> Any other reader want to tackle this question?

I betcha they aren't plain inductors.  For use at those rather low
frequencies, they are probably wound on some iron core, and were
designed to do the right thing for voiceband frequencies.  For a long
time, it didn't matter how they behaved at 500 kHz because telco did
not intend to have 500 kHz signals on the wires.

For the curious, current flowing through an iron-core inductor tries
to induce little current loops in the iron.  Higher frequencies induce
physically smaller loops.  So the iron core is sliced or powdered to
make sure no piece of it is small enough to hold a current loop of the
frequencies of interest -- those current loops are lost energy for the
signal.  If the cores were designed to be OK for 4 kHz, they could
absorb most of the energy at 40 or 400 kHz (and convert it to heat).

------------------------------

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Western Union History
Date: 29 Jun 2005 06:21:17 -0700


Wesrock@aol.com wrote:

> They were a long distance carrier at one time, complete with 10XXX
> code.  I used them a time or two, and I believe I knew of a business
> that was pic'ed to them, probably through a reseller.

Yes, they were.  I do remember some advertising, but IIRC it was
rather short lived.  But what happened?

Jim Haynes wrote:

> I composed the following a few days ago and was going to take it to
> private email, which bounced.  So here it is.

Thanks for making your post public.  You make a lot of good points and
others should have the chance to read it.

> One could say that Western Union's goose was cooked when they were
> offered the chance to buy the Bell patents and turned it down.  Of
> course it was a perfectly reasonable decision for them. ...

At the time they made the decision, the telephone had a long way to go
technically before it would become widespread.

Companies make buy/don't buy decisions like that all the time.
Usually what is brought doesn't offer very much.

> I presume AT&T didn't "really" violate any agreement with W.U. when it
> introduced TWX.  Otherwise W.U. could have sued an won.

It may have been a handshake verbal agreement, not a formal one.
Obviously not enforceable, but not necessarily ethical for AT&T.

> Following the tenure of Newcomb Carlton, Vail's hand-picked successor
> at W.U., the company seems to have gone through a long period of
> lackluster leadership.  One who is more interested in business than I
> could see who were the directors at the time and perhaps what their
> motives were.

Oslin doesn't seem to think too much of WU's leaders through those
years.  In contrast, AT&T tried to have strong leadership oriented
toward innovation and growth.  I sense the ex-railroad leaders of WU
were more of a "this is our service, take it or leave it".  (Not all
RR mgmt had that attitude--many were quite progressive.)

> Seems like I read somewhere that W.U. was once offered the opportunity
> to buy Teletype and turned it down.  They didn't want to be in the
> manufacturing business.

Again that is a decision companies make all the time.  IBM varied over
the years between making some components and farming them out.  IBM
had a lot of trouble with buying vaccum tubes in its early days --
radio tubes just weren't up to digital needs.  IBM considered making
their own and experimented with this; they developed better tubes.
But they decided to show the existing makers what could be done and
bought from outside.  (Note -- it took MANY years until transistors
were cheaper than tubes).

> The merger with Postal is portrayed as being both government mandated
> and as being on terms very costly to W.U.  If this is true then it is
> another instance of the government hobbling a company that was not in
> very good shape to begin with.  ...

I think that is a very important point.  Many people think that
because AT&T was a regulated common carrier it would be 'guaranteed'
nice profits.  We see by the WU example and the railroads that being
in that status is by no means any guarantee.  Excessive and ridiculous
govt regulation ruined the railroads.  It was one thing to force
providing a subset service at below cost "for the social good", but
another to make the whole enterprise run at below cost.

> W.U. got into the microwave business, which provided a lot more
> bandwidth than they needed.  For whatever reason they were not able to
> sell their excess bandwidth to the TV networks.  Maybe they didn't
> have the capital to serve the places the networks wanted to go; and
> again AT&T had the economy of scale to their advantage.  W.U. could
> have done what MCI later did, selling bandwidth in competition with
> AT&T on high-traffic routes.  AT&T put MCI through a bruising legal
> fight on that one, and maybe W.U. didn't have the stomach for it.  And
> then W.U. was a member of the club of common carriers, while MCI was
> an outsider trying to get in.

I tend to agree that as a regulated common carrier, WU didn't want to
try to push into AT&T's as MCI did.  The govt probably would've hit WU
hard.  But I wish I knew more about their microwave system -- what it
did for them and what it didn't.

> The government forced W.U. to divest their cable business.

Which seems unfair.

> W.U. operated a lot of local telegraph offices long after they had
> ceased to pay for themselves.  In some cases the FCC required the
> company to keep the offices open.  W.U. should have had a plan to
> convert them to contract agencies; although the best way to do this
> would probably involve having the agencies use TWX.

I suspect it was both FCC and unions that forced the local offices to
stay open.  Ironically, I am not aware of any pressure on the Bell
System to provide or not provide public business offices.

> 've always wondered if perhaps W.U. was too New York centric in its
> management attitudes.  ...

Interesting point.

Thanks again for your response.

I'm coming to the conclusion that (1) Western Union's management and
staff was old and tired, perhaps because of seniority, unions, and
cutbacks.  In a declining business, the best or younger people pick up
and go elsewhere, the lesser or older ones stay.  If you were a bright
person in 1970, my guess is that a Western Union facility might have
seen a little stale compared to the rest of the world (though they
were developing computer systems, see below).  (2) WU technically kept
missing the boat, being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the
wrong technology, as described above.

Being kind of a traditionalist, I have patronized a lot of organizations
"past their prime" and it's very sad to see a once proud thriving
company now tired and tattered -- literally and figuratively.

I've talked about this a lot on this newsgroup because I've seen some
old proud companies (like IBM and Verizon) rebuild themselves and stay
healthy yet others decline and die.  I find WU of interest because
despite being very old, it was in a very thriving field -- data
communications.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I always thought most of the smaller,
> less profitable Western Union offices were run as contract agencies;
> the 'agent' (or person who put up the money to pay the rent on the
> location, the phone bills and the payroll) was also the person who got
> the twelve to eighteen percent commission Western Union paid on
> 'sent paid' and 'received collect' traffic through the office.

In 1980 WU had both contract agents and local offices.  The local
office in one small city was a dumpy little place with some frames and
a single Teletype in the back.  In 1980 the bulk of their business was
money transfers.

The contract agents didn't need a Teletype for that, they merely used
an 800 number to call WU and WU used WATS lines to call out.  Agents
had a password card called "BINGO" to validate a money transfer.
Basically in that time most WU activity was operators taking requests
for money transfers either directly from customers or agents, entering
them into the computer, and another operator passing the information
along by voice.  There was a little Mailgram and traditional service.
Most traditional telegrams were read over the phone by another agent.
I think back then a Telegram had a formal status to it similar to a
Certified Letter; that is, it constituted a legal notice; I don't know
if that status still exists for any Telegrams sent today.

Businesses were still using Telex to some extent, esp for overseas
work where telephone still cost a lot of money.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 11:15:09 -0400
From: William Warren <william_warren_nonoise@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Using comcast to Host Web Site


autogoor@yahoo.com wrote:

> I developed a web site and would like to host it with my own computer
> at home. I am thinking using Comcast Cable broadband as my ISP. Does
> Comcast allow web host? Anyone has experience? Anyone has any other ISP
> suggestions? I am in California.

> Thanks.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did you ask Comcast about their rules
> on this?  PAT]

Comcast has been blocking port 80 (HTTP) for a while now, and they've
recently started blocking port 25 (SMTP) as well. IMNSHO, it's only a
matter of time before they start blocking all syn packets and charging
extra for ANY incoming connection, but for now you can do it with some
workarounds.

In short, if your flavor of Comcast is like mine, you can't host a
server unless you pay extra or are willing to employ some dynamic port
mapping service.

However, they do provide web hosting for customers, so if your aim is
to host a web site and you don't care which computer it uses, that
would work.

If you're more interested in operating your own server, I suggest you
sign on as a junior system administrator at any organization that will
have you: you'll have better hours than if you do it at home.

William, who was once woken at 3 AM by a System Admin in California who 
wanted to help me fix my mailing loop problem *RIGHT NOW*.

------------------------------


TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and
other forums.  It is also gatewayed 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.

Contact information:    Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest
                        Post Office Box 50
                        Independence, KS 67301
                        Phone: 620-402-0134
                        Fax 1: 775-255-9970
                        Fax 2: 530-309-7234
                        Fax 3: 208-692-5145         
                        Email: editor@telecom-digest.org

Subscribe:  telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org
Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org

This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
published continuously since then.  Our archives are available for
your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!

URL information:        http://telecom-digest.org

Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/
  (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives)

RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html
  For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308
    and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest

*************************************************************************
*   TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from                  *
*   Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate  *
*   800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting.         *
*   http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com                    *
*   Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing      *
*   views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc.                             *
*************************************************************************

ICB Toll Free News.  Contact information is not sold, rented or leased.

One click a day feeds a person a meal.  Go to http://www.thehungersite.com

Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.

              ************************

DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO
YOUR CREDIT CARD!  REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST
AND EASY411.COM   SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest !

              ************************

Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your
career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management
(MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35
credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the
skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including
data, video, and voice networks.

The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College
of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the
College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has
state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus
offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum.  Classes
are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning.

Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at
405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at
http://www.mstm.okstate.edu

              ************************

   ---------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list. 

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.

End of TELECOM Digest V24 #300
******************************