fgk@lll-crg.llnl.gov (Frank G Kienast) (02/12/89)
>One thing I didn't see posted was what happens when someone calls a BBS and >say "Hey, man, great new board at 123-4567. Call it now!" and mistypes a >few digits in the process. Whoever lives at the wrong number gets a >mountain of modem calls, usually at 3 AM or whenever the BBS junkies are >awake. A similar problem exists with machines that are programmed to automatically redial a number until data has been successfully sent. A few months ago, I was testing a fax setup at home. Compuserve offers a service which lets you send a mail message via fax by specifying the area code and number of the destination fax machine, so I decided to use this to test my setup. I found serious hardware problems with my setup which I would not be able to fix that day. I had no way, though, of stopping the retry calls. In the next few hours, I answered the phone several times only to hear a fax machine at the other end. Obviously, this same problem would also occur when someone mistyped the number of a fax machine they wished to send to. I think automatic retry should only be activated if the called number is busy, and not if there is voice or even no answer. This should not be all that difficult - even modems can tell the difference between busy, no answer, voice, etc. In real life: Frank Kienast Well: well!fgk@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU CIS: 73327,3073 V-mail: 804-980-3733
bill@bilver (02/13/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0057m02@vector.UUCP> you write: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 57, message 2 of 7 >>One thing I didn't see posted was what happens when someone calls a BBS and >>say "Hey, man, great new board at 123-4567. Call it now!" and mistypes a >>few digits in the process. Whoever lives at the wrong number gets a >>mountain of modem calls, usually at 3 AM or whenever the BBS junkies are >>awake. > >A similar problem exists with machines that are programmed to >automatically redial a number until data has been successfully sent. I had a similar experience and it was all MY fault. I gave another site a login, and later they asked me my phone number. Not realizing they wanted the modem I gave them my voice number. About 3:15am on a Saturday morning the phone rang, - nothing there - dead line. Back to bed, phone rings again. Still no one there. Two more times - then it stops. 5:15 - same thing. 7:15am - again. Now I see a pattern. Trying to figure out who I could have offended that was making harrasing phone calls. It continued during the day - and I realized the calls were at the exact time, and the same pattern. Four times, and quit. Ah Ha! Thought maybe someone had printed my voice number in a list of local bbses. (used to run a bbs). Called around - all checked okay. Continues thru Sunday - then late Sunday I had an inspiration - called the local usenet nodes, and voila. Up until I found it was my mistake I was ready to stop at nothing to get the "prankster". I admitted, sheepishly, to my wife that it was my fault. Her side of the bed was closer to the phone and she was about ready to kill me :-) --- Bill Vermillion - UUCP: {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd}!peora!rtmvax!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP
judice%kyoa.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (Louis J. Judice) (02/14/89)
Re: Automatic Retry I believe the FCC prohibits automatic re-dialers to make more than 15 unanswered requests - IF - only one number is selected for re-dialing. My Radio Shack "Sensorphone" (neat little device that calls up to four pre-programmed numbers if temperatures go out of range, power fails or alarms go off) had a little problem like this recently. It has an "answering machine compatibility mode", which I never used until I had to put an answering machine on the #2 line in my house that had modems and the Sensorphone. Well, I didn't completely test it, and of course there was a power failure the next day. The sensorphone proceded to call my mother's house and my brother's house repeatedly, every 2.5 minutes from 9am until 7pm, with the dire message "THIS IS TELEPHONE NUMBER 123-4567. THE ELECTRICICITY IS OFF..." Of course the electricity was back on within 30 seconds at 9am, and every attempt to call the stupid thing back met with the answering machine picking up the line. I even tried to trick my other answering machine, which has message forwarding to call the second line and hopefully tie the damn thing up until it ran out of tape. But it didn't work. Anyway, the Sensorphone is now on the OTHER line - with an answering machine that it seems to be compatible with, and it ONLY calls my mom's house! /ljj