tkoppel@eecs.nwu.edu (Ted Koppel) (11/17/89)
I was just talking to my sister and brother-in-law who live 'just over the line' in Forest Park, Illinois. There exchange prefix is 708 (formerly 312) 771. They have a computer and have just acquired a modem; they have had no luck connecting to Compuserve or any of the local BBS systems. They had a different phone problem yesterday, and an Illinois Bell (?) (what are they these days??) tech came out to fix the problem, which was in the box handing from the pole, and not in their house. However, they asked the tech why they were unable to sustain a modem connection. His response was that they were victims of the 'Forest Park Hum'. He described it as a well known phenomenon in which there is too much (something) which causes hum on the lines to the point of inabaility to transmit data. He said that they could buy a conditioned line or something else very expensive to be able to use a modem. Is this for real? Is there any way around it? Is there any pressure that my sister can place on anyone at Illinois Bell to improve matters? And so on ... Thanks... Ted Koppel CARL - Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries = BITNET: TKOPPEL@DUCAIR UUCP: uunet!isis!tkoppel or tkoppel@du.edu [Moderator's Note: I have never heard of such a thing; that is, an entire community with noisy lines. How does the telepone man think the half dozen BBS lines in Forest Park operate presently? All with dedicated, clean lines? And how do the rest of us in Chicago reach BBS lines in Forest Park? Can your relatives use 300/1200 baud, if not necessarily 2400? Is it possible the modem unit itself is faulty? When in a voice connection, do they get an unusual amount of hum, buzz, clicking or popping? Sorry to say, there are some IBT employees who for whatever reason are very antagonistic toward modem usage, dislike the use of computers by people at home, and say *whatever* in response to questions such as posed. They'd love to sell a conditioned line for the extra bucks per month. I highly doubt it is needed. PT]
pf@islington-terrace.csc.ti.com (Paul Fuqua) (11/20/89)
> Date: Thursday, November 16, 1989 7:43pm (CST) > From: isis!isis.UUCP!tkoppel at eecs.nwu.edu (Ted Koppel) > Subject: Forest Park Hum?? Fact or Fiction? > Is this for real? Is there any way around it? Is there any pressure > that my sister can place on anyone at Illinois Bell to improve > matters? And so on ... > [Moderator's Note: I have never heard of such a thing; that is, an entire > community with noisy lines. I have; I live in one (far Northeast Dallas). In my case, the problem is that I'm just over the hill from the KMEZ-FM transmitter, and the radio signal interferes with the modem. Codex and Microcom modems wouldn't operate in the area unless some simple filtering circuitry was added. My modem is issued by my employer, so they were not only familiar with the problem, but also had a modified modem handy; I'm told the Microcom, at least, now includes the filter in their modems. Good thing it could be solved by a modem swap: given the horror stories about SWBell charging business rates for modem use, I wasn't about to call them and ask for help. I don't know how to check for a similar condition in Forest Park. The technician I talked to here just had an inspiration when I told him that the problem started when I moved to a new apartment. Paul Fuqua pf@csc.ti.com {smu,texsun,cs.utexas.edu,rice}!ti-csl!pf Texas Instruments Computer Science Center PO Box 655474 MS 238, Dallas, Texas 75265 [Moderator's Note: Come to think of it, I have too. Please see the article in the Digest from earlier this year on the situation in Hammond, IN, where radio station WYCA-FM blasts everyone within a few miles range of their transmitter in Burnham, IL. PT]