thomas@mvac23.uucp (Thomas Lapp) (06/24/89)
Here is an interesting situation which I have never heard of before. It
occurred to my co-worker who is in the process of moving from one apartment
to another one about 8 miles away.
She has a roommate who is staying in the old apartment for a short time
longer than my co-worker. My co-worker asked for the phone in the new
apartment to be connected as soon as possible (the number is to stay the
same). I have not asked her, but I assume that she also requested that the
old number be disconnected at some date which was later than the request
for the new line.
The end result is that the new line was connected and the old location is
also still connected resulting in two phones in two physically separate
locations having the same phone number and both ringing when a call is
received.
Just thought it was interesting to note, since I didn't know the telco
could do that. I just assumed it was one number per line.
- tom
==============================================================================
uucp: ...!udel!mvac23!thomas ! Internet: mvac23!thomas@udel.edu
Location: Newark, DE, USA ! or mvac23%thomas@udel.edu
==============================================================================
[Moderator's Note: An 'extension phone' can be hooked up anywhere in the
loop. Two or more wire pairs can be wired in parallel from the central
office as easily as they can be in your home. What you are describing is
how 'answering services' have always been wired. A wire pair to the answering
service is attached to your pair in the phone office; you both get the same
calls. If you pick up first, the ringing stops on their end.
I might add this is how the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the CIA
also listen to you (assuming authorized taps, of course). When telco is
served with a court order to apply a tap to your line, they tie another
pair on your line in the office and send it through a coil and off to the
FBI. **And they charge both YOU and the FBI for the price of the line!!**
No smiley given here. PT]johnl@harvard.harvard.edu (John R. Levine) (06/24/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0211m02@vector.dallas.tx.us> mvac23!thomas@udel.edu writes: >[Moderator's Note: An 'extension phone' can be hooked up anywhere in the >loop. Two or more wire pairs can be wired in parallel from the central >office as easily as they can be in your home. What you are describing is >how 'answering services' have always been wired. ... I was reading a book on Bell System practices circa 1984 yesterday. It says that physically bridged answering services are now considered extremely obsolete. What they do now is that the answering service installs a peculiar kind of PBX with no regular extensions, a lot of attendant stations, and some DID trunks. When the customer wants his phone answered, he forwards his phone using regular call forwarding to one of the DID numbers. Calls show up at the answering service, the service's PBX can then report the DID number called which tells the service who the call was for. A clever way of using technology. -- John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869 { bbn | spdcc | decvax | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something Massachusetts has 64 licensed drivers who are over 100 years old. -The Globe
Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup.portal.com (06/25/89)
Regarding the person that had two locations ring to the same number: This is quite common, especially if you are in the same central office srving area. I used it a few yaers ago when I moved from a condo to a house. For a week or so, I was moving between both places and wanted the same number. Michigan Bell was glad to do it, with no additional charges (other than the prorated monthly rate at each location). A very useful service! [Moderator's Note: Several years ago, when I moved to my present apartment, Illinois Bell offered the same thing. Since I was in the same district, thus keeping the same number, they said have it both places for a week or two during your transition. It was a great help during moving week. PT]
kent@husc6.harvard.edu (Kent Borg) (06/26/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0211m02@vector.dallas.tx.us> mvac23!thomas@udel.edu writes: [about two locations having the same line] >[Moderator's Note: An 'extension phone' can be hooked up anywhere in the >loop. Two or more wire pairs can be wired in parallel from the central >office as easily as they can be in your home. What you are describing is ... >I might add this is how the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the CIA >also listen to you (assuming authorized taps, of course). When telco is >served with a court order to apply a tap to your line, they tie another >pair on your line in the office and send it through a coil and off to the >FBI. **And they charge both YOU and the FBI for the price of the line!!** Is it really done that way with modern electronic switches? If so, does this mean that the electronically inclined and paranoid among us might be able to keep track of when we are being bugged by measuring the impedence and capacitance of our lines? I'm not electronically enough inclined to know off hand how I might easily do this (though I wonder whether a detailed frequency response curve might not be a good start), nor am I paranoid enough to bother, but I am curious... Maybe Sharper Image will start selling a box to watch your line and tell you when its electrical properties change in a suspicious way? One more thing. When the CIA taps your domestic US line they are seriously violating the law, they are supposed to only operate outside the USA. Now, if you believe that they *always* behave... Anybody out there handled the CO end of wire taps? Got any interesting details for us? Kent Borg kent@lloyd.uucp or ...!husc6!lloyd!kent P.S. The NSA (No Such Agency) always listens to all the international traffic they can get their hands on--like Usenet. Their computers will sift through this message, see the use of "CIA", "NSA", "FBI", and possibly add another entry in my file. (I've used these words before you see.)
phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) (06/27/89)
>[Moderator's Note: Several years ago, when I moved to my present apartment, >Illinois Bell offered the same thing. Since I was in the same district, >thus keeping the same number, they said have it both places for a week or >two during your transition. It was a great help during moving week. PT] I was offered this service almost 15 years ago by SWBT, but declined since I could not figure out a way in which I could call from one house to the other. During the time of getting ready to move (over a month in my case), I just put in a seperate line and then changed the number when I actually made the move. Seems to me that this was before call forwarding was offered, but that would make it even more convenient now. -phil -- -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* J. Philip Miller - Div of Biostat - Washington Univ Medical School phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet phil@wubios.wustl - bitnet (314) 362-3617 c90562jm@wuvmd - alternate bitnet
edg@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Edward Greenberg) (06/28/89)
When moving within the same Central Office, it's quite normal to order "duplicate service" for a short period of time. Tariffs and company policies will determine whether The Phone Company will do this and how much it costs. The technical requirement is that you are going to be served by the same CO that serves you now. -e
cdaf%iuvax.uucp@mailrus.cc.umich.edu (Charles Daffinger) (06/28/89)
->From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) ->I was offered this service almost 15 years ago by SWBT, but declined since I ->could not figure out a way in which I could call from one house to the other. ->During the time of getting ready to move (over a month in my case), I just put ->in a seperate line and then changed the number when I actually made the move. WHen I was growing up in Western Pa, we had a house, and a summer place 5 miles away, both which had the same number. In order to call from one house to another, you just dailed 9091 and hung up. The phone would ring until someone picked up, after which you picked up, and had your conversation. This was on an ancient mechanical switch. -charles
deej@bellcore.bellcore.com (David Lewis) (06/30/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0215m08@vector.dallas.tx.us>, lloyd!kent@husc6.harvard. edu (Kent Borg) writes: ] >I might add this is how the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the CIA ] >also listen to you (assuming authorized taps, of course). When telco is ] >served with a court order to apply a tap to your line, they tie another ] >pair on your line in the office and send it through a coil and off to the ] >FBI. **And they charge both YOU and the FBI for the price of the line!!** ] Is it really done that way with modern electronic switches? ] If so, does this mean that the electronically inclined and paranoid ] among us might be able to keep track of when we are being bugged by ] measuring the impedence and capacitance of our lines? Actually, it's already been done. ] Maybe Sharper Image will start selling a box to watch your line and ] tell you when its electrical properties change in a suspicious way? I don't know if Sharper Image sells them, but there are any number of "security consulting" firms which do. They include boxes which sit beside/beneath the phone to a replacement microphone for a 2500 set which has a little LED that lights up if the characteristics of the line change... -- David G Lewis ...!bellcore!nvuxr!deej "If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower."