TELECOM Digest Sat, 25 Dec 93 20:29:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 837
Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson
Book Review Index (Rob Slade)
Fax Machine as Scanner? (Hiro Sugawara)
V.35 to RS-232 Conversions (Brad Walker)
Questions About CSU/DSU Link Speeds (Brad Walker)
Notice to AT&T Customnet and Pro Wats Customers (Paul Robinson)
Indiana NPA 317 Dialing Change Breaks Many COCOTS (George Goble)
ATM and Multimedia (Xavier Garcia)
ATM (Donald Army)
ISDN Clarification (Mike D. Schomburg)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 25 Dec 93 11:53 -0600
From: Rob Slade <
[email protected]>
Subject: Book Review Index
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although as Rob points out he is unable
to send back issues, most of the books listed in the index below have
been reviewed by Mr. Slade here in the Digest during the past year. If
you are interested in seeing reviews you missed earlier, what you can
do is grep the index to the Digest for the past year using the keyword
'Book Review:' You'll get the issue numbers involved and can obtain
those copies from the Archives. Generally Mr. Slade's reviews have
appeared here two or three times per week for the past several months.
If you like seeing his book reviews in the Digest, drop him a note and
let him know, asking him to continue them in 1994. Thanks. PAT]
------------------
Pre-scriptum: No, I can't send you back issues. No, there is no ftp
or mail-sever site -- yet. Two outfits have expressed interest, but
neither have gotten their ASCII together yet.
REVIEW.LST 931114
Book review index
This is a listing of (mostly technical) book reviews. The initial
coding is the review file name (and approximate size of the file):
this is followed by the name of the book and author(s) and a very
brief description. (Some versions of this file may also contain
listings of software reviews.)
BK2NDCNT RVW 2832 "Second Contact", Resnick - fiction about hacking for data,
some reasonable database security stuff
BKABCLAN RVW 5439 "The ABC's of Local Area Networks", Dortch - practical, but
somewhat limited in detail, good intro for small LAN
BKAMGTMN RVW 2012 "A manager's guide to multivendor networks", Enck - like it
says
BKBBS4BS RVW 6728 "Bulletin Board Systems for Business", Wood/Blankenhorn -
very PC oriented (COM932)
BKBSECCS RVW 4880 "Building a Secure Computer System", Gasser - heavy on
technical, particularly secure hardware
BKBURGER RVW 11277 "Computer Viruses and Data Protection", Burger - poorly
written with little solid information, some viral programs
in source code
BKCMCOOP RVW 3668 "Communications for Cooperating Systems", Cypser - IBM
biased view of OSI and TCP/IP
BKCMPSEC RVW 5779 "Computer Security Basics", Russell/Gangemi - good overview,
but some problems (SEC931)
BKCMVRCR RVW 3662 "Computer Virus Crisis", Fites/Johnston/Kratz - somewhat
sloppy and a number of errors
BKCONINT RVW 4132 "Connecting to the Internet", Estrada - good reference for
contact with Internet providers, hopefully to be improved in
future versions
BKCURRY RVW 3171 "Unix System Security - A Guide for Users and System
Administrators", Curry - not as good as Spafford/Garfinkel
(SEC932)
BKDEDMAC RVW 3614 "The Dead Mac Scrolls", Pina - diagnosis guide for Mac
hardware
BKDEMAN RVW 2784 "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and
Networks", Frey/Adams - valuable reference on email details
between networks
BKDENING RVW 8118 "Computers Under Attack", Denning, ed. - collection of
essays roughly related to security, also "the net"
BKDMGTOU RVW 8012 Dr. Macintosh's Guide to the On-Line Universe,
LeVitus/Ihnatko - somewhat flippant but very thorough
introduction to computer communications regardless of system
BKDTCMDC RVW 2912 "Data Communications & Networking Dictionary", Pardoe/Wenig
- a basic glossary, not overly biased, not overly complete
BKEMAIL RVW 4066 "E-Mail", Caswell - good business proposal, but limited and
dated
BKETHICS RVW 4331 "Computers, ethics and society", Ermann/Williams/Gutierrez -
textbook for computer ethics course: not great
BKETHPKT RVW 2529 "Ethernet Pocket Guide", Byron Spinney - big on cabling and
stuff
BKETWOOS RVW 6481 "Exploring the World of Online Services", Resnick - looks at
Compuserve and Prodigy, very rah, rah, not much info
BKEYESTM RVW 2465 "Eye of the Storm", Gold Eagle/Worldwide - fiction, virus is
minor subplot
BKFANLAN RVW 2782 "Fantastic LANtastic", Talbott/Raker - good one stop
reference for users, managers and installers
BKFARROW RVW 3556 "Unix System Security", Farrow - basic
BKFEUDO RVW 4414 "Computer Virus Desk Reference", Feudo - collects basic
virus reference sources for those without online access
BKGIGNET RVW 3564 "Gigabit Networking", Partridge - good overview of some of
the latest hot topics in comms
BKGLBTCH RVW 7883 "Globalization, Technology and Competition",
Bradley/Hausman/Nolan - what business thinks about
technology and communications - not much
BKHGHLND RVW 5286 "Computer Virus Handbook", Highland - good overview,
unfortunately somewhat dated
BKHGTWFW RVW 4648 "Hacker's Guide to Word For Windows", Leonhard/Chen -
necessary information to augment Word for Windows with its
bugs and documentation
BKHODGE RVW 2393 "Rid Me of This Virus!", Hodge - short, uneven material,
perhaps a good pamphlet
BKHOFMAN RVW 5768 "Rogue Programs", Hoffman, ed. - good collection of essays
BKINTCMP RVW 5422 "The Internet Companion", LaQuey/Ryer - short and quick, not
many helps and sometimes too many details, passable intro
BKINTDCM RVW 7280 "Introduction to data communications", Gelber - bad start,
good contents later
BKINTSYS RVW 3175 "Internet System Handbook", Lynch/Rose - essays by people
involved with the Internet, strong on protocols, weak on
direction
BKINTTCP RVW 3105 "Internetworking with TCP/IP", Comer/Stevens - good
overview, also good basic network comm concepts
BKKROL RVW 4616 "The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog", Ed Krol -
excellent introduction to the Internet as well as resource
for experienced users (COM931)
BKLEVIN RVW 3793 "Computer Virus Handbook", Levin - vague and undisciplined
BKLRNUNX RVW 1941 "Learning the UNIX Operating System", Todino/Strang - like
it says. Short.
BKLUDWIG RVW 6838 "Little Black Book of Computer Viruses", Ludwig - MS-DOS
specific, not very accurate, viral source code
BKLUNDEL RVW 4304 "Virus!", Lundell - a lot of research, but a lot of errors
as well
BKMANUCP RVW 2114 "Managing uucp and Usenet", O'Reilly/Todino - clear and
complete overview
BKMATRIX RVW 7009 "The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems
Worldwide", Quarterman - almost everything you ever wanted
to know about "inter" networks
BKMCAFEE RVW 5668 "Computer Viruses, Worms, Data Diddlers, Killer Programs and
Other Threats to Your System", McAfee/Haynes - some
interesting speculations buried in a mass of undisciplined
garbage
BKMDMREF RVW 4939 "The Modem Reference", Banks - fairly complete overview, but
with errors and without much organization
BKMGENIE RVW 5560 "Glossbrenner's Master Guide to GEnie", Glossbrenner -
somewhat dated with the changes in the system, but still
very useful
BKMSTNVL RVW 4432 "Mastering Novell Netware", Currid/Gillett - a very *basic*
intro to Novell
BKMSUNCM RVW 4464 "Mastering UNIX Serial Communications", Gofton - good, but
very brief, intro to serial comm and some UNIX programs
BKNTINTG RVW 1458 "Network Interface Technical Guide" - lists important data
for any and all network cards, invaluable for LAN admins
BKOPSYNT RVW 3366 "Open Systems Networking", Piscitello/Chapin - Solid
management and technical review of the "hot topic"
BKPCVIRS RVW 6620 "PC Viruses: Detection, Analysis and Cure", Solomon - very
accurate, slightly dated, somewhat demanding technically
BKPICKGD RVW 2333 "A Guide to the Pick System", Dale Dougherty - like it says,
intro
BKPRTCOM RVW 4160 "Portable Communications", Banks - very little portable, but
some reasonable communications background
BKPRUNSC RVW 3705 "Practical UNIX Security", Garfinkel and Spafford - very
practical, very secure, very UNIX (SEC932)
BKPTHWRK RVW 1992 "The Complete Guide to Pathworks", Spencer - DOS and VMS
only, but a reasonably good overview
BKRDDBSC RVW 3796 "Research Directions in Database Security", Lunt (ed.) -
rather generic, but a good intro to the various problems in
a very complex area
BKSCNCMP RVW 2839 "Security in Computing", Pfleeger - reasonable textbook, but
some shortcomings
BKSGTCVR RVW 6052 "Survivor's Guide to Computer Viruses" - relatively good,
but disappointing coming from the Virus Bulletin
BKSHKWAV RVW 2582 "Shockwave Rider", John Brunner - fiction, "tapeworm" is a
minor but important aspect of the plot
BKSMILEY RVW 2704 "Smileys", David W. Sanderson/Dale Dougherty, 1993 - short,
mostly listing, some discussion (COM931)
BKSMLDCT RVW 1444 "The Smiley Dictionary", Seth Godin - not as complete as
Sanderson and Dougherty, but nicer format
BKSNDMAL.RVW 3201 "sendmail", Costales/Allman/Rickert - complete overview and
reference on sendmail
BKSYSLAW RVW 3685 "Syslaw", Rose/Wallace, 1992 - legal aspects of BBSes and
online systems (COM932) (SEC932)
BKTCHDCM RVW 4029 "Technical Aspects of Data Communications", McNamara - an
intro to data comm course between covers
BKTERMCP RVW 3666 "termcap and terminfo", Strang/Mui/O'Reilly - good overview
and tutorial
BKTRMCMP RVW 12846 "Terminal Compromise", Schwartau - fiction, some good
security ideas buried in a lot of bad writing
BKUNICOD RVW 4962 "The Unicode Standard" - just like it says
BKUMASSC RVW 4709 "Using McAfee Associates Software for Safe Computing",
Jacobsen - printed docs for SCAN et al
BKUMSKMT RVW 5143 "Using MS-DOS Kermit", Gianone - excellent documentation for
MS-Kermit, excellent overview of terminal emulation and file
transfer in general
BKUPOS RVW 4625 Unix, Posix, and Open Systems, Quarterman/Wilhelm - good
intro to one of the current "buzz phrases"
BKUSUUCP RVW 1548 "Using UUCP and Usenet", Todino/Dougherty - short
BKWNPROG RVW 2471 "Windows Network Programming", Ralph Davis - good
programming reference
MVSNEAKR RVW 4726 "Sneakers", Universal Pictures - fictional, but reasonably
good portrayal of a "tiger team"
Publishers or authors wishing to have their books reviewed and added
to the list should have copies sent to Rob Slade at 3118 Baird Road,
North Vancouver, BC, Canada, V7K 2G6. Please note that all shipments
from outside of Canada should state very clearly that the material is
for evaluation and has no commercial value. In addition, it is
��
advisable to declare a media cost of $1 per disk and an "intellectual
property" value of $1 per item such that the total does not exceed
$15. Rob Slade does not take any responsibility for shipments delayed
or refused at Customs for failure to follow these directions.
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 REVIEW.LST 931114
Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM
Digest and affiliated newgroups/mailing lists.
DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer
[email protected],
[email protected], Rob Slade at 1:153/733
DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact:
[email protected]
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Hiro Sugawara)
Subject: Fax Machine as Scanner?
Organization: Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc., Los Gatos, CA
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 22:20:01 GMT
Does anyone know a good way to use a fax machine as a scanner to send
image data to a fax modem through a local connection? I would be very
possible and easy if I had two telephone lines, but I do not.
I use a Mac IISi and a LineLink modem with MaxFax.
Here are what I have done so far:
1. FaxScanner
I bought a device called FaxScanner from a small Florida company for
some $70. They sent me a sub-cigarette box size device with a 9V
battery and a "BitFax" program. I followed the instruction and
installl BitFax with MaxFax termporarily removed. My fax machine
transferred image to BitFax successfully.
Here are the problems with this:
- BitFax is *very* slow handling image data.
- BitFax's user interface is much poorer than other fax programs I have
used (MaxFax and GlobalFax), so I don't want to use BitFax as my resident
fax program.
- Believe or not, this configuration transferred image *without* the black
hardware device. It's a kind of scam! I didn't need to buy it!
Another company in San Diego is selling a similar product called
FaxScan for some $100. I would recommend keeping away from these.
2. MaxFax
Having discovered that the black box is unnecessary, I tried to make
MaxFax do the same thing, manual transmission from the fax machine and
manual receiption to MaxFax, but no success. MaxFax somehow recognizes
the fax machine and fax machine displays MaxFax's station ID, but the
negotiation eventually fails and no data is transferred.
Listening to the negotiation signals carefully, I noticed that MaxFax
makes different tones from what it makes when it answers to regular
incoming calls with ringing. So, I think if there's any way to
simulate ringing, MaxFax can make it. I checked with some telephony
books and found that the central office uses 90Vrms ringing signal and
ringing has to be removed within 200ms after detection of an off-hook.
Does anyone know more about this or any *cheap* commercial product?
[email protected]
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Brad Walker)
Subject: V.35 to RS-232 Conversions
Organization: Island Software
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 08:44:12 GMT
I'm curious to know where to look for information on the v.35 spec.
In addition I'm curious to know if anyone has done v.35 to rs-232
conversions.
I've done several device drivers for SBus serial cards that had the
capability to do up to 256Kb/port. And I noticed that on most datacom
equipment like routers they have a v.35 connection that hooks into a
CSU port. What I would like to do is build a Point to Point link using
Cisco routers. But, would like to plug the Cisco directly into my SBus
board. The only problem is that the Cisco speaks v.35 and the SBus
board speaks rs-232. Hence my question.
Thanks for any and all info.
brad w.
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Brad Walker)
Subject: Questions About CSU/DSU Link Speeds
Organization: Island Software
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 08:36:58 GMT
I'm curious to know if you can concatenate two 56Kb links from a local
service provider to get 128Kb through put. What I'm interested in is
what is the next increment up from 56Kb. Is it fractional T1 or what?
And if it is fractional T1 then what kind of CSU/DSU does one need.
Thanks,
brad w.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 02:12:13 EST
From: Paul Robinson <
[email protected]>
Reply-To: Paul Robinson <
[email protected]>
Subject: Notice to AT&T Customnet & Pro Wats Customers
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
December 25, {New York Times}, Page A23
NOTICE TO AT&T CUSTOMNET[TM] AND AT&T PRO(R) WATS SERVICE CUSTOMERS
A tariff was filed with the Federal Communications Commission on
December 21, 1993, pursuant to which AT&T will substantially
restructure the AT&T CustomNet[TM] Service Type 2 rate schedule for
direct dialed international calls from locations on the United States
mainland and Hawaii. As part of the restructure, rates will be
divided into two rate periods, called "Standard" and "Economy". Also,
the timing interval for additional periods will be reduced from six
seconds to one second. Based on existing calling patterns, CustomNet
Service Type 2 users will experience rate changes ranging from a 39%
decrease to a 34% increase. On average, these changes will result in
a 3.1% decrease across all such users.
In addition, AT&T filed tariff changes that reduced the timing
interval for additional periods on domestic AT&T CustomNet Service
calls from six seconds to one second, and increased usage rates for
such service by 1%. Further, AT&T increased PRO(R) WATS schedule (b)
usage rates by 1%. AT&T CustomNet Service and PRO WATS schedule (b)
will also be simplifying the rate periods on domestic calls to
peak/off-peak periods. The latter change will have no effect on
rates.
The tariff changes are scheduled to become effective January 4,
1994. For information on International Services contact an International
Sales Representative at 1 800 222-0900. For information on Domestic
Services contact a Domestic Sales Representative at 1 800 222-0400.
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (George Goble)
Subject: Indiana NPA 317 Dialing Change Breaks Many COCOTS
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 13:39:47 GMT
Nov 1, GTE (Lafayette, IN), and Indiana Bell (Indianapolis) announced,
that Dec 1 all non-local area calls in NPA 317 (i.e 1+ and I assume 0+
) would be REQUIRED to include the NPA. The reason stated was the
shortage of NPAs and this change would free some up.
Prior to November 1, many 1 + NPA + NXX + YYYY reached an intercept
saying "not necessary to dial the NPA". 1 + NPA + ... (where NPA
wasn't needed) has caused all sorts of various behaviors over the last
20 years. After November 1, 1 + NPA dialing would work, with mandatory
being 12/1/93.
On 12/1/93, 1 + NXX + YYYY still worked, but sometime around the
middle of December 1 + NXX + YYYY just started getting a fast busy,
but no message. My Cellular ONE phone, still works for 1 + NXX
dialing (switch based in Indy).
This change appears to have broken piles of software in PBXs,
Voicemail outcalls, etc, etc, and most importantly COCOTS!
I have seen numerous signs on COCOTS in the Lafayette Area "Long
distance does not work". I know one of the business owners, the Levee
Coin OP Laundry. I have been lecturing him for years on the Evils of
COCOTS/AOS's and gave him telecom printouts. Now their COCOT/AOS
SCREWED them. The provider wants a whole bunch of money, and a
signed new contract (via mail, you know over XMAS), before they will
think about reprogramming the phone. I think they have been down
approximatly two weeks.
My Cellular One voice mail has pager outcall. THe Voice mail switch
is in Indy, my pager in Lafayette, not in "local area", but both in
NPA 317. When setting up my voicemail to pager outcall in the past
(about a year ago) I set it to 1-317-423-YYYY, but it did not work.
Their switch/software/routing ONLY would work if set to 1-423-YYYY. I
remembered that, and told Cellular one around Dec 1. They didn't do
anything and around December 7 it all quit, but the voice mail would
not accept 1-317- ... All pagers were broke for approximatly two weeks
before they got somebody to reprogram things to take 1+317+NXX+ ...
I would imagine that there are tons of PBXs, which try "least cost"
routing, etc, which are totally hosed by this change. The public only
had 30 days notice. Has this sort of thing happened in recent times
before without major havoc? This all coincides with the holidays,
with many of the important players on vacation.
ghg
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 14:48:53 +0100
From: Xavier Garcia <
[email protected]>
Subject: ATM and Multimedia
Organization: EPFL
Does anyone know how can I contact the Multimedia Forum or tell me
what are they working on (e.g video compression standards AAL2
definition.)?
Thanks,
Xavier Garcia research engineer
Telecommunications laboratory
Swiss federal Institute of technology, Lausanne
1015 Lausanne Switzerland
Internet:
[email protected]
Phone: +4121 6935258 Fax: +4121 693 4660
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Donald Army)
Subject: ATM News Groups Wanted
Date: 25 Dec 1993 15:41:48 GMT
Organization: Symantec Corporation
Are there any news groups on ATM??
Thanks,
[email protected]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 93 09:07:57 CST
From:
[email protected] (Mike D. Schomburg)
Subject: ISDN Clarification
��
Concerning Mike Lanza's remarks about ISDN on 12-22-93, it should be
noted that the 2B+D spec is the Basic Rate Interface, or BRI. The
Primary Rate Interface, or PRI, contains 23B+D, and fits within a
conventional T-1 bit stream. While the BRI and PRI are commonly lumped
together as narrowband ISDN, they play very different roles in the
network. PRIs are becoming quite common as high (relatively) capacity
delivery vehicles from IXCs to customer premises, with at least two
advantages over vanila T-1. The call control is message-oriented --
over the D channel -- and caller ID is delivered over the D channel,
making it much easier to manipulate.
The purpose of the BRI is to bridge the analog gap between the
customer premise and the (virtually) all-digital LEC-IXC network. ISDN
specs define the B and D channels generically, meaning there is no
arbitrary constraint on the use of the channels. Either or both B
channels (64kbps) can be used for voice or data (but Mike is correct
that there is no advantage to digital voice). Particular LECs may
choose to offer only one B channel, or any combination of the
possibilities.
One last point -- personal computer cards are available that provide
64kbps connectivity for the computer, and also have an RJ-11 jack for
your plain old phone. You do not necessarily have to junk your phones.
My appologies if this is redundant.
Opinions expressed are my own and are not to be confused with my employer's.
Mike D. Schomburg
[email protected]
Lincoln Telephone Co. 402 476 5351
------------------------------
End of TELECOM Digest V13 #837
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