So you use call waiting and a computer - big smile crosses our faces -

The problem.

Your dialing out on your home phone to a bulletin board and all of a sudden,
your sister-in-law, who is a basic pain in the butt, wants a recipe from
your wife. So, the call waiting beep burps your computer.

A flash of unexplainable characters cross the screen, and you are not able
to understand what happened. Depending on the modem, you may have actually
lost the line and got disconnected. Call waiting has zapped you.

Here is what you can do about it. First how to prevent it (technically) and
then how to implement it.

Preventing the Call Waiting Burp (CWB)...

On a touch tone phone, dialing *70 before the phone number will eliminate
the call waiting feature until you hang up. For example, if I wanted to call
my brother in Europe and did not want to be bothered with call waiting, I
would dial *70 followed by the phone number of my brother. Until I hang up,
anyone calling me will get a busy signal, as if I never had call waiting. As
soon as I hang up, call waiting is restored... So *70 disables call waiting
for just that one phone call. If you are using a pulse phone, dialing 1170
will disable the call waiting...


Implementing it...

There are many different ways to implement this. The easiest is to preface
the phone numbers in your dialing directory (whatever software you use) with
the *70. Then, whenever your computer dials out, it will preface the call
with the *70. Until you disconnect the call, call waiting can't burp you...

Another way I prefer to implement this is with the Long Distance codes. Most
communication software allow you to have a long distance code dialed before
any of the phone numbers (access to long distance services like Sprint are
supported this way). I set a code to *70. Then, if I am using a phone line
that does not have call waiting, I can change that code to spaces and my
entire dialing directory gets updated...

So be sure, that if you dial a number from a non-call waiting phone, you do
not preface it with the *70, this will cause a recording from the phone
company to be played.

SYSOP
Bob Zimmerman
The Mainframe BBS
312-364-0425
2400/1200/0300


Bob Zimmerman
Concord Associates
2275 Half Day Road
Suite 345
Deerfield, Il  60015
312-948-0350