forman@CEEE-SED.ARPA.UUCP (03/11/87)
Thanks to all of you who sugggested using *70 to cancel (temporarily) call waiting. C&P Telephone does not (yet) have this feature available in my area. It is availabe in West Virginia on their system and they are implementing it slowly in other areas. C&P has a special sign-up for custom features offer through 16 March, and I have signed up to add call forwarding. I would like to forward to a busy signal, as many people know we have both call waiting and an answering machine now, and thus could be puzzled if they got an unanswered phone. Does anyone know to locate a line that gives a busy tone? Forgot to mention: no service hook-up charge ($16) during this special sign-up. ------
apn@nonvon.UUCP (03/12/87)
in article <8703111444.AA27190@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, forman@CEEE-SED.ARPA says: > > Thanks to all of you who sugggested using *70 to cancel (temporarily) > call waiting. C&P Telephone does not (yet) have this feature available > in my area. It is availabe in West Virginia on their system and they > are implementing it slowly in other areas. > C&P has a special sign-up for custom features offer through 16 March, and > I have signed up to add call forwarding. I would like to forward to a > busy signal, as many people know we have both call waiting and an > answering machine now, and thus could be puzzled if they got an > unanswered phone. > Does anyone know to locate a line that gives a busy tone? maybe you could have it dial yourself!! I had a lot of fun with these features when they first came out... let's see, who could I forward to ? In this area a "1" must be prefixed to long distance numbers, so naturally this gives rise to the need of error message recordings I then proceeded to forward my phone to a number that usually did require a "1" prefix, but infact I forwarded it to such a number dialed without the one prefix. the dialee (!!) would then get a "We're sorry, you must first dial a one when calling this number. Will you please hang up and try your call again" usually then they would proceed to call the same number with a one and get the corresponding alternate message "We're sorry, it is not necessary to dial a one when calling this number. Will you please hang up and try your call again" lots of fun... Well I *was* 16 at the time... And then... I found this *new* feature... party line calling. Then fun really started! Being interested in what the limits of this system where we found that "stringing" together 10-12 callers was not impracticle. A protocol was worked out so that some conversation could actually take place, vs. the otherwise possible random noise. Token ring passing and collision detection/arbitration was first tried and invented on just such a setup. Have fun. Alex P. -- UUCP: {sun, seismo, amdahl, lll-crg, 'etc'}!ptsfa!nonvon!apn {* Only those who attempt the absurd ... will achieve the impossible *} {* I think... I think it's in my basement... Let me go upstairs and check. *} {* -escher *}
michael@crlt.UUCP (Michael McClary) (03/16/87)
in article <8703111444.AA27190@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, forman@CEEE-SED.ARPA says: > I have signed up to add call forwarding. I would like to forward to a > busy signal, as many people know we have both call waiting and an > answering machine now, and thus could be puzzled if they got an > unanswered phone. > Does anyone know to locate a line that gives a busy tone? At one time, all Bell crossbar-5 switches had a number that gave a permanent bussy signal, and I think this is true of their other switches as well. I believe it was used to test the quality of the busy signal - they needed a number that would always get a busy through the normal switching network. You could try calling your local tellco office. If the office personell can't help, try calling repair service. You might be able to sweet-talk the repair operator into having someone who knows the number call back. You could also try to hunt the number out yourself. Bell companies generally reserve numbers of the form xxx-99xx for company phones (just as they generally reserve xxx-9[^9]xx for payphones), and the higher numbers in the next-to-last digit (8,9,0) are usually test numbers of various sorts. If you get one where a person answers "Frame!" you've got somebody who can answer your question. (Be nice - he can also screw up your phone if you bother him, and he's likely to watch you to see if you're a phone-phreak if you ever reach him at all. Around here his number usually ends in 3, like xxx-9983, and sometimes the magic number 311 gets him.) A problems with hunting: you might get a tellco office or service that just happens to be busy when you try it. Pity your poor callers then... "I've got code in my node." | UUCP: ...!ihnp4!itivax!node!michael | AUDIO: (313) 973-8787 Michael McClary | SNAIL: 2091 Chalmers, Ann Arbor MI 48104 Above opinions are the official position of McClary Associates. Customers may have opinions of their own, which are given all the attention paid for.
mgrant@MIMSY.UMD.EDU (Michael Grant) (03/19/87)
A wonderful thing to forward your calls to if you want to be funny is the recording, "I'm sorry, the call you have made requires a $0.25 deposit, please hang up, deposit $0.25 and try your call again." I found this, along with several other wonderful recordings up in the xxx-99xxx range. -Mike
andrew@sask.UUCP (03/20/87)
> I have signed up to add call forwarding. I would like to forward to a > busy signal, as many people know we have both call waiting and an > answering machine now, and thus could be puzzled if they got an > unanswered phone. > Does anyone know to locate a line that gives a busy tone? I find that forwarding my phone to my own phone number works. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- By the way, I only wanted to post the information about the line. It seems that inews, in its infinite wisdom, refuses to post my article if I include more original text than new text. Please excuse the following garbage. jaivw ksowv jsoek mvosp sjzdv jekwl jsiov skvel mxous maizv eivie josve jxive lasdf asdoi lkzxc asdlk asdfe tyunf dsfgb vlxck wertf flasd sdjkh
jah@techsup.UUCP (03/23/87)
Anyone needing to find a busy signal for test purposes can use the old "time" number used in most metropolitan areas until about 1980. Like a lot of the good old freebies that turned into "feebies", in just about every case the telcos shut off the (xxx) 853-1212 time number and sold the rights to a local bank or newspaper. You can get a busy by simply dialing local or LD the 853-1212 number. It is excellent for testing autodialers and call accounting units. The use of the number goes back to the 1930's when time was reached from any exchange by dialing ULrich (or some such exchange) 853-xxxx. Later on, the telcos wanted to use the 853 exchange code for customer services and had to block out the ability to dial time by just dialing any 4 extension digits. So they busied out the old time combinations of 853-1212, 853-2121, etc. For a long time a lot of customers with an 853 prefix were getting calls for time. One of these exchanges is in West Hollywood, CA and at the time of the original cutover PacBell (the Pacific Tel and Tel) took a lot of heat over this.
john@viper.UUCP (04/08/87)
In article <8703111444.AA27190@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <forman@ceee-sed.arpa> writes: >Thanks to all of you who sugggested using *70 to cancel (temporarily) >call waiting. C&P Telephone does not (yet) have this feature available >in my area. It is availabe in West Virginia on their system and they >are implementing it slowly in other areas. >C&P has a special sign-up for custom features offer through 16 March, and >I have signed up to add call forwarding. I would like to forward to a >busy signal, as many people know we have both call waiting and an >answering machine now, and thus could be puzzled if they got an >unanswered phone. >Does anyone know to locate a line that gives a busy tone? > I had a similar problem before my area installed the *70 option. If you're interested in a slightly more complex fix, the following worked for me and I used it for almost 2 years...: 1) Get call forwarding... 2) Forward -your- phone to the number you want to call. 3) Hang up and then dial -your- phone number. On systems where *70 is not available, the call forwarding only has one outbound line to forward with. It also doesn't have the self-call detection lockout that would prevent you from calling yourself. The result of this is that your single outbound forwarding line will be -in-use-. If someone calls you, the circuits will detect the fact that the call can't-be-forwarded, give the caller a busy signal, and _Not_ put a <beep> tone on your existing line because it doesn't have any forwarded -or- current call to tell you about. This has the advantage that you don't have to know any "secret" numbers and should work no matter where you live... Don't forget the most important part...: 4) When you're finished, disable the forwarding so people can call you. --- John Stanley (john@viper.UUCP) Software Consultant - DynaSoft Systems UUCP: ...{amdahl,ihnp4,rutgers}!{meccts,dayton}!viper!john