TELECOM Digest Wed, 17 Mar 93 16:58:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 185 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson LCI International: A New Long Distance Choice (Brent Whitlock) Consolidating Cellular Sprint Account With Other Phones (Brent Whitlock) My LD Carrier Changed Again! (Timothy E. Buchanan) Modems Get Hung; Testing Advice Wanted (Doug Barr) George Gilder Strikes Again (Robert L. McMillin) Odd Crossed Connection Story (Michael J. Saletnik) MCI 800 Problem (RISKS via Monty Solomon) Need Auto-Dialer (Wayne Jones) IXO (TAP) With Motorola ADVISOR Pager (Andy Rubin) Need Phone Fraud Help (Doug Smith) Book Review: Toll Fraud and Telabuse (TELECOM Moderator) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: LCI International: A New Long Distance Choice Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 17:31:25 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Recently, LCI International has been advertising in the Champaign-Urbana, Illinois area for long distance service. Their main marketing point is that they have easy to understand pricing plans. They advertise that their "Simple, Fair, and Inexpensive" residential plan (their only residential plan) costs $0.17 per minute 6 am to 6 pm, and $0.12 per minute 6 pm to 6 am. They are based in the Columbus, Ohio area and have been marketing in Rockford and Peoria, Illinois recently. According to an article in the Tuesday, March 9 edition of {The Champaign-Urbana News Gazette}, their goal is 2% of the long distance market. (AT&T has 60.3%, MCI has 17%, and Sprint has 10%, according to the same source.) Does anyone know more details on whether or not they have good connections, how long does it take to complete a call through them, if their customer service is any good, what they use to carry their telephone traffic (do they just resell AT&T connections?), or any other information to compare them with the big three carriers? For those interested, the number listed in the article for more information on their residential service was 1-800-860-1217. * * * * * * --> DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself. <-- * * * * * * Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology bwhitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ From: bwhitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: Consolidating Cellular Sprint Account With Other Phones Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 17:23:09 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana oppedahl@Panix.Com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: > Another difference that obtains here in New York, and I expect in most > other places too, is that the B carriers (due to the MFJ restrictions > imposed after the Bell breakup) are obligated to let you pick which > long-distance carrier you use, while the A's are not. > This has practical consequences. Suppose I want to use Sprint long > distance, either because I find it to have clearer line quality or > because I can get it consolidated-billed with my other Sprint calls. > Then I cannot use the A carrier, as they are in bed with AT&T. Concerning the hypothetical reference to having Sprint long distance on a mobile phone consolidated-billed with other Sprint calls, I am afraid that this cannot be done. I tried to have my Sprint LD for my cellular phone consolidated on the same account as the Sprint LD for my home phone (and my calling cards,) but the Sprint Customer Service Rep. said they could not do that. :-( I hope they change that soon. * * * * * * --> DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself. <-- * * * * * * Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology bwhitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ From: buchanan@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (BUCHANAN TIMOTHY E) Subject: My LD Carrier Changed Again! Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 15:54:44 GMT About 15 months ago I moved back to Colorado from Puerto Rico, where I had worked on contract for three years. I chose ATT as my carrier. Soon after, I received a notice from Sprint, with whom I had a FONE-card, saying my card had been cancelled but I could call to receive a new one. I did and regret it. A few weeks later I got a card from ATT, saying my dialing plan was being cancelled, as I had _changed_ carriers and had no use for it. I did not authorize any such change. It took some time to get things back where I wanted them, and I returned the card to Sprint with a note saying that I wanted nothing further to do with their company. This was about a year ago. Last week, from out of the blue I got another letter from Sprint, thanking me, etc, and enclosing new card! Sprint claims that they did not request the change, but that US West sent them a "tape update" which they processed. US West says that it is Sprint who sends them the tape. Who is right here? US West now says they will put me on "Supreme Protect", which will prevent a LD provider from changing my carrier w/o my authorization. I thought I had that anyway, but I guess not. Maybe we should _all_ call our local RB and ask for the "Supreme Protect"? Timothy ------------------------------ From: barr@tramp.Colorado.EDU (BARR DOUG) Subject: Modems Get Hung; Testing Advice Wanted Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 16:31:17 GMT We have some dial in modems that "hang". They require power cycling to reset them. I am interested in testing our setup and see if I can find the problem (they are NEC modems). Is there any book on modem and telephone line testing? Any good test equipment? Could it be the analog phone lines and/or the way the users are disconnecting? Could it be anything other than the modems? [Moderator's Note: If you are using the traditional three plusses +++ as your modem attention getter, the problem may be that most of your users are using the same thing. When the user issues the three plusses, they go to your computer which echoes them back to the user, but they are seen by your modem as well. As they are passed through back to the user, your modem acts on them also and sits there patiently, waiting for someone on *your end* to give it ATO or whatever. The user uses the three plusses to get his modem's attention and give an ATH or ATZ, disconnecting him while leaving your modem in limbo, refusing to answer further incoming calls. Your users complain 'the modem is not answering', you find it apparently 'hung', and recycle power. You might try giving it ATZ instead to see if it simply disconnects and resets at that point ... it could have been waiting all afternoon for you to arrive! Try setting your attention sequence to something unusual such as three tildes ~ or three carots ^, etc. ASCII CHR$(127) is my choice for my modem. Even if the user does not disconnect but merely 'three-plusses' to check something out, he won't get control of *your modem* back with his ATO ... your modem won't be listening to him at that point. Just a suggestion; I've seen this many times. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 08:53:12 -0800 From: rlm@indigo2.hac.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: George Gilder Strikes Again Ok, TELECOMer's, run off to your favorite newsstand and get a copy of {Forbes}. The cover story in {Forbes: ASAP} is an article about telephony and wireless communication by George Gilder. You'll like it, I promise. Robert L. McMillin | Voice: (310) 568-3555 Hughes Aircraft/Hughes Training, Inc. | Fax: (310) 568-3574 Los Angeles, CA | Internet: rlm@indigo2.hac.com After April 2 : rlm@mcgort.com or rlm@surfcty.com ------------------------------ From: msaletni@jade.tufts.edu (Michael J. Saletnik) Subject: Odd Crossed Connection Story Organization: Tufts University - Medford, MA Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 14:14:12 GMT This situation happened to me a few weeks ago, and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me just what happened. I was at home when my phone rang. I was standing near it and immediately picked it up. I heard my friend talking, but not to me. It sounded as if he had dialed the phone, then turned his head to talk to the people in his house. So I said hello. I shouted hello. He didn't hear me. After a moment I realized that I was hearing just *his* side of a conversation with his mother. After a few moments, I hung up and called him. He has call waiting, so he picked up and I told him that he'd rung my phone and so on. He didn't believe me, but I repeated part of his conversation, and he was shocked. Apparently, he had been about to call me when his mother called him. I don't know the exact sequence of his dialing my number and his phone ringing and my phone ringing, unfortunately, but I was hoping someone could explain just what the heck happened that tapped me into half of his conversation. This is with New England Telephone in the Greater Boston area; he has call waiting, I do not. Thanks, Michael J. Saletnik, Tufts University E'91 G'93 michael@binkley.ext.tufts.edu msaletni@pearl.tufts.edu TA & Manager of Computer Resources, Dept. of Civil Engineering ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 15:12:22 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: MCI 800 Problem Excerpt from RISKS DIGEST 14.40 Date: 10 Mar 93 13:28:00 EST From: "MARCHANT-SHAPIRO, ANDREW" Subject: MCI 800 problem Some time ago, my parents (who live in another state) decided that, if they were going to hear their grandchildrens' voices, they needed to get a personal 800 number from MCI. The personal 800 scheme works like this: each household is assigned a unique 800 number (I'm told), and an access code (4 digits). As a precaution against abuse, when you dial the 800 number you get a message telling you to enter your code. Only callers who enter the correct code get connected, so no massive dialing scheme advertising holiday resorts (etc) can exploit the users' willingness to pay for incoming calls. I promptly programmed my parents' number and the code on adjacent buttons of my phone and left it at that. I would just hit the first button, wait for the announcement (voice-mail style) and hit the second button. This worked, until a little over a month ago. At that point, after I hit the second button I was asked to wait, and an operator came on the line and asked for my code. The first time this happened, I refused to give the code (since I had forgotten it (!)). A moment later, it apparently showed on the operator's console, and I was put through. I thought this was an aberration, but at no time after the first event was I able to get directly through, without talking to an operator. I thought their equipment might not be able to handle the high speed dialer, so I relearned the code and punched it in myself. Still no go. I tried from my office. Same thing. Finally, last week, I managed to get the operator to switch me to a technical representative. This individual and I discussed what was happening, and the rep told me that he knew of another case where much the same thing had happened. I then asked if they had changed or upgraded their system software lately. Long pause. "Why yes, we did, just about a month ago." I suggested they check things out, and was promised a report. Well, a couple of days later the system WORKED! And it has not failed again since. I have not received a report (nor a consulting fee from MCI), but I suspect that MCI's upgrade of their personal 800 system included some, uh, 'features' of which they weren't aware. They may have gone back to the old software, or they may have just fixed MY problem. I don't know which. But I am certain that the origin of the problem had to do with a programming error in MCI's hardware/software, and this raises the issue of other errors that might be out there. Should MCI employ beta testers? That would be my suggestion. They could pay people like me to make trial calls at, say, 3:00 AM CST, just to make sure the system worked as advertised. Hey, in a world where most people can't program an MS-DOS .BAT file, you need to check! Andrew Marchant-Shapiro, Sociology and Political Science Depts., Union College Schenectady NY 12308 518-370-6225 marchana@gar.union.edu marchana@union.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 14:41:49 MST From: jones@sunspot.noao.edu (Wayne Jones) Subject: Need Auto-Dialer I am looking for an auto-dialer with >10 number list, answer detection before playback and programmable number of repeats. Prefer digital message storage. Where would I find something like this? Any info appreciated. Wayne Jones National Solar Observatory jones@sunspot.noao.edu Sunspot, NM 88349 ------------------------------ From: arubin@Apple.COM (Android Rubin) Subject: IXO (TAP) With Motorola ADVISOR Pager Date: 16 Mar 93 22:10:25 GMT Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA I'm looking for the control-character spec for the motorola Advisor pager. I would like to know what special characters must be sent to enable silent pages, and to have pages from an information service show up in the proper bin. (ie, second display line). If anyone has the details, or knows where I can get them, could you please drop me an e-mail? Thanks. Andy arubin@apple.com ------------------------------ From: dougs@david.wheaton.edu (Doug Smith - SGA) Subject: Need Phone Fraud Help Organization: Wheaton College Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 15:02:08 GMT My company was a recent target of PBX fraud. Someone figured out how to exploit a bug to allow dial out after calling in on our 800 number. I patched the hole but we are left with about $4000 in phone bills. I realize that most of the calls came from payphones in New York. However, between our 800 number bill detail and our call accounting logs we might have the original hacker's call detail. The problem is I can't get any assistance from the phone company (AT&T). I have talked with their security division but the majority of people I talk to don't have a clue what is going on. They try to categorize it with harrassment calls from individuals who have no technical knowledge. Has anyone been through this that might have suggestions on where to go next? I'd like to find out if any of the numbers in our log are not pay phones so I know if there is anything to pursue. I haven't found anyone at AT&T willing to look up the numbers and tell me what they are. Thanks in advance for your help. Doug Smith dougs@sga.uucp or ...wheaton.wheaton.edu!sga!dougs [Moderator's Note: Something I received recently touches on this very topic. See the final message in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Book Review: Toll Fraud and Telabuse Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 12:00:00 CST Recently I was introduced through the mail to John J. Haugh, a very knowledgeable person where toll fraud is concerned. With three associates, Robert E. Burney, Gregory L. Dean and Lawrence H. Tisch, Mr. Haugh last year published a monumental work, "Toll Fraud and Telabuse", a two-volume publication covering toll fraud in great detail and how to spot it and/or prevent it. The book discusses not only the technical aspects of toll fraud, but the legal aspects as well such as who is responsible, and the type of stance victims might take with their carrier to resolve the problem. The 'telabuse' side of the report discusses the huge amount of unauthorized long distance calling done by employees authorized to use their employer's phone for ized use of other employer resources such as fax machines, etc. Over 400 pages of precise technical details on how hackerphreaks penetrate your PBX, voicemail, DISA and other remote access lines to rip you off ... detailed discussions of cellular fraud, fraud against COCOT operators, telephone fraud by prisoners in correctional centers, and credit card fraud. Volume 2 includes several case histories, the contacts to make in law enforcement agencies investigating toll fraud, a complete list of federal and state statutes dealing with toll fraud, and much more. Haugh's book received rave reviews from several telecom industry publications, and I don't mind adding my own voice to the many praising his work. Haugh also talks about the 'politics' of toll fraud; why companies are reluctant to make changes required to prevent it and how telephone companies cover up the problem when it occurred as a result of a telco employee's dishonesty. The book is frank, and the authors do not mince words when they discuss telco policies regards toll fraud. The price is $270, and while that is not inexpensive, all you need is one good raid by some phreaks accompanied with a phone bill that arrives via UPS in a box one month to pay the cost. It is soft cover, 8.5" x 11". Mr. Haugh's firm, Telecommunications Advisors, Inc. also publishes a bi-monthly journal entitled "Telecommunications and Network Security Review" which continues the discussion started in the book published last year. The subscription price is $170 per year. Haugh, his firm and his associates seem like good people to get to know. No doubt they can assist with toll fraud investigations and prosecutions, and their printed material is among the best 'self help' material I have seen. Telecommunications Advisors, Inc. One S.W. Columbia Street #500 Portland, OR 97258 Phone: 503-227-7878 or 800-435-7878 Fax: 503-227-4144 Include a VISA/MC/AMEX number if you wish to charge your purchase. If you want more detailed information, ask for the brochure and a sample copy of the first issue of their Review. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #185 ****************************** Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253