WMartin@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (William G. Martin) (04/06/89)
This showed up on the Info-CPM list and it looks to be of interest to Telecom, so I'm forwarding a copy: --------------- Return-Path: <SAGE@LL.ARPA> Received: from LL.ARPA by WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL with TCP; Wed, 29 Mar 89 10:05:58 MST Date: Tue 29 Mar 1989 12:07:14 EDT From: <SAGE@LL.ARPA> Subject: Redialing Phones To: INFO-CPM@SIMTEL20.ARPA Local addressee: SAGE Message-ID: <SAGE.08843634@LL.ARPA> Martin Olivera asked about phones that automatically redial a busy number. One of the most famous of these is the Demon Dialer from Zoom Telephonics in Boston. It does much more than redial; it is a complete phone enhancement system. It is installed in series with the incoming phone line and thus gives its capabilities to all telephones in the house or office. It serves as a repertory dialer (allows numbers to be associated with abbreviated strings, such as #MOM to call home), it will rapidly retry a busy number, and it will at intervals retry a number that does not answer. One factor you should consider is whether the telephone has busy TONE detection. I have what is otherwise a very nice telephone, the AP2002 that you see in the DAK catalogs. It is the best speakerphone I have ever heard, has a full typewriter keyboard, stores hundreds of numbers under alpha codes, and will automatically redial a busy number. However, it only knows a number is busy by inferring that from its not answering after some thirty seconds. The smart modems, of course, can detect the busy tone and disconnect immediately. Listening to the busy signal for thirty seconds every minute can get rather annoying. It would also be nice if the phone would supply a local ring signal to alert you when the call does go through. The Zoom Demon Dialer may have these features, but I am not sure. Here is the address and phone number of Zoom as I got it from the phone book: Zoom Telephonics 617-423-1072 (general) 207 South Street 617-423-1076 (tech support) Boston, MA They are coming out in the next several months with an even more spectacular product. It will be a complete telephone subsystem that can be controlled from your personal computer. Demon dialing is only a small part of its capabilities. It can handle two incoming central- office lines and four local lines, which might be connected to voice telephones, modems, fax machines, and so on. It does its own touch-tone decoding and voice synthesis. Here is a scenario. A call comes in on line one. A synthesized message asks you to press key 1 for the fax, 2 for the modem, 3 for voice. Suppose you ask for the modem. It can then request that you key in a password before it will connect you to the modem. Or, wherever caller identification service is available from the phone company, it will check the phone number of the CALLING party and act accordingly. This is where your personal computer comes in. There are many interesting possibilities here! I have no connection with Zoom except as someone fascinated by their products. Though I always yearned for a demon dialer, I never did buy one. However, this new gadget, I suspect, will be beyond my powers to resist! -- Jay Sage -------