David Lesher <wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu> (12/31/89)
I see two different but related topics discussed here. 1) How many hops can a forwarded call take? 2) If ending in a hunt group or rotary, can more than one call be forwarded at the same time? Item one has some uses. Item two is very nice if you run a dialin bank, shall we say in Metro DC, with 10 modems. You can get one line, in a 'straddle' zone (maybe Howard County) and always forward calls to the bank. Then up to ten people can benefit from the extended area of local calling available. Alas, one method of squelching loops (1) is implementing a block on (2). For whatever the reason, in the areas of DC where (2) did work, it seems to no longer. A host is a host & from coast to coast...wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu no one will talk to a host that's close..............(305) 255-RTFM Unless the host (that isn't close)......................pob 570-335 is busy, hung or dead....................................33257-0335
Blake Farenthold <blake@pro-party.cts.com> (01/04/90)
In-Reply-To: message from wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu >1) How many hops can a forwarded call take? >2) If ending in a hunt group or rotary, can more than one call >be forwarded at the same time? >Item one has some uses. Item two is very nice if you run a dial-in >bank, shall we say in Metro DC, with 10 modems. You can get one line, >in a 'straddle' zone (maybe Howard County) and always forward calls to >the bank. Then up to ten people can benefit from the extended area of >local calling available. There was a 14 or so line CB Simulator in Ft. Worth that tried this a few years back. As it was explained to me they had about 14 business lines that "hunted" (or whatever term is in vogue now) in Ft. Worth. They wanted to extend service into Dallas without an expensive "metro" number (numbers that can be reahed toll free from the entire Dallas Ft. Worth metroplex) so they rented a closet or somthing in one of the mid cities (Arlington, Irving, D/FW Airport [yes D/FW Airport, Texas is a city], that is a local call to/from both Dallas and Ft. Worth) and set up fowarding. It worked for a while and would multiple forward. Then the phone company caught on (or just coincidently changed their software) and it started only forwarding one call and be busy for any additional calls 'till the first one hung up. The sysop then (or so he claims) set up a PC in the "closet" and when it "heard" the short ring indicating a call is being forwarded it picked up the line, dialed *73 (cancel call forwarding), hung up, picked the phone back up, then dialed *72 <number> (activate call forwarding). This only "sorta" worked as often a caller would call into the Dallas number while the PC was in the process of re-establishing the forwarding. I have no idea if they are still doing this and have lost touch with the people involved since they sold the system. Judging by SWBell's attitude towrds BBSers they have probably found a way to stop this, if they know about it. UUCP: ...!crash!pnet01!pro-party!blake ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-party!blake@nosc.mil INET: blake@pro-party.cts.com Blake Farenthold | Voice: 800/880-1890 | MCI: BFARENTHOLD 1200 MBank North | Fax: 512/889-8686 | CIS: 70070,521 Corpus Christi, TX 78471 | BBS: 512/882-1899 | GEnie: BLAKE