winslade@zeus.unomaha.edu (JOHN WINSLADE) (01/19/91)
At a local sysops' gathering tonight, the subject of Caller*ID <tm> came up and it was mentioned by one participant that he had heard that the Class- Mate <tm> would not work in US West territory, supposedly due to differences in the way US West sends the CLID data. Class-Mate is a widget that connects between a CLID-equipped phone line and a computer's line that converts the incoming CLID data to serial data that may be captured by the computer. It's is available from Bell Atlantic and possibly other sources. Is it >>REALLY<< the case that US West uses a different scheme for CLID?? I am now using a CLID box that I got from Hello Direct -- the same box that is sold to non-US West subscribers, as far as I know. The box works fine here, and I know the same model CLID box works in New Jersey as well. Also, I had the impression that the Class-Mate was more or less a passive device that demodulated the CLID data and converted it to RS-232 compatible levels, and did not really do any heavy-duty data conversion. Am I correct in assuming this. Thanks. Good Day! JSW [Moderator's Note: Since an ultimate goal is to make Caller-ID available to everyone on all calls throughout the USA I would think the individual systems throughout the country are compatible. PAT]
dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave Levenson) (01/20/91)
In article <16200@accuvax.nwu.edu>, winslade@zeus.unomaha.edu (JOHN WINSLADE) writes: > Also, I had the impression that the Class-Mate was more or less a > passive device that demodulated the CLID data and converted it to > RS-232 compatible levels, and did not really do any heavy-duty data > conversion. Am I correct in assuming this. Thanks. The ClassMate appears to be a little more intelligent than that. When it is powered up, it outputs a four-line message in ASCII identifying itself, giving its firmware copyright notice and version information. It validates the checksum passed by the telco, but does not pass it along to the RS-232 port. It does pass a single character indicating the validity of each message. It appears to contain a modem (really, just a -dem) to demodulate the incoming caller id information, a buffer memory for one message, and a UART to talk to the RS-232 port. There is probably also a microprocessor that runs this stuff. It most-likely consists of a microcomputer -- one chip that contains ROM, RAM, and two serial ports. With such a device, one only needs the modem and the passive components to drive the serial port at RS-232 levels. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave Voice: 908 647 0900 ax: 908 647 6857
oheare@uunet.uu.net (David O'Heare) (01/24/91)
In article <16200@accuvax.nwu.edu>, the Moderator notes: > [Moderator's Note: Since an ultimate goal is to make Caller-ID > available to everyone on all calls throughout the USA I would think > the individual systems throughout the country are compatible. PAT] Well, the scheme used in Canada is explicitly NOT the same as that used in the U.S., in spite of the close coupling of our phone systems. The gadgets supplied by Bell Canada will understand the sceme used by most, though not all, of the U.S. RBOCs. The gadgets supplied by most U.S. RBOCs and third party vendors understand only a subset of the data stream that Bell Canada puts out; usually just enough to get confused. On a similar note: does anybody out there know WHY Bell Canada chooses to send the particular phone number that it does? I would have thought that they'd send the pilot number of a hunt group, for example, rather than the explicit number within the group. Any ideas? Dave O'Heare oheare@gandalf.ca +1 613 723 6500