I don't know how many other small/dialup ISPs are seeing this problem. BellSouth just turned it on in our area. Sent our support calls through the ceiling during busy evening hours.
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 14:39:31 -0600 Subject: Please Help Us From: "Howard Shere" <hshere@watervalley.net>
BellSouth recently added a feature to your phone service called "Busy Connect". This service plays a recording whenever you dial and get a busy signal offering to keep trying the number for 75 cents. This service will interfere with your modems ability to detect a busy signal and your computer will report that "the computer you are dialing is not answering" or some similar message.
2 weeks ago BellSouth told us that this service was on our lines and we asked that it be removed. They told us that this would solve the "no answer" problems that our customers were reporting. We have continued to get complaints from customers about "no answer" problems and when we talked to BellSouth today, we were told that this service was on our customers lines and not on ours. We are not sure why we were given the wrong information when we first reported this trouble.
We are asking that all of our customers call BellSouth and ask to have this service removed. They have refused to help us directly and have said that the only way to have this service removed is for our customers to call them directly.
BellSouth can be reached at 557-6500 (for home telephone customers) or 557-6000 (for small business customers). Tell them you want the "Busy Connect" service removed from your line. There is no charge from BellSouth for removing this service.
I was wondering if anybody out there had any insight into how functionally integrated once seperate networks become when two telcos merge or one telco buys anothers network. I was looking at a recently publiched map of Cable and Wireless's new network, since the purchase of MCI's network as an off shoot of the MCIWorldCom merger, and the map did not seem to include C&W's old network topology. In fact it seemed pretty close to being the old MCI network back when they released the topology and things were not top secret. The question is what will become of the old C&W network, will it be functionally integrated within routing tables and meshed with the MCI network or operate as a seperate privately peered network. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Sean Gorman University of Florida Department of Geography
Busy Connect ...
The user will not actually get charge for a busy connect service. When he reaches a busy line, instead of getting a busy signal, he will get a prompt to th effect "if you want the phone company to call you back when the line is free ... for a 75 cents charge ... press 1 is yes, and 2 for no". So, you modem user should not be charge when it encounter that situation. As with your users complaining getting "no answer", well, it is really a case of swapping of the failure code of "busy" to "no answer". In either case, they are out of luck ... because pressumably you do not have enough circuits into your dialup POP, or the ILEC/CLEC has capacity problem ... hence the busy situation. Regards, John Leong --------------------------------------------------------- Bell Labs Research johnleong@research.bell-labs.com 4995 Patrick Henry Dr. Tel: 408-567-4459 Santa Clara, CA 95054 Fax: 408-567-4448
On Wed, Jan 27, 1999 at 03:17:58PM -0800, John Leong wrote:
Busy Connect ...
The user will not actually get charge for a busy connect service. When he reaches a busy line, instead of getting a busy signal, he will get a prompt to th effect "if you want the phone company to call you back when the line is free ... for a 75 cents charge ... press 1 is yes, and 2 for no". So, you modem user should not be charge when it encounter that situation.
Depends on the phone company, doesn't it?
As with your users complaining getting "no answer", well, it is really a case of swapping of the failure code of "busy" to "no answer". In either case, they are out of luck ... because pressumably you do not have enough circuits into your dialup POP, or the ILEC/CLEC has capacity problem ... hence the busy situation.
Yes, but look at it from the point of view of a customer who (a) doesn't know what happens behind the scenes and (b) probably isn't listening to his modem dial the phone. "No answer", to me, as an ISP customer would mean that there is a broken modem somewhere that is not answering the phone. Definitely different than "Busy." -- Steve Sobol sjsobol@nacs.net (AKA support@nacs.net and abuse@nacs.net) "Can you look out the window, without your shadow getting in the way" --Sarah McLachlan - "Building a Mystery"
"No answer", to me, as an ISP customer would mean that there is a broken modem somewhere that is not answering the
phone.
Definitely different than "Busy."
The modem return code, unfortunately is often not precise. After dialing, if it gets any voice response, be it some human answering because of mis-dialed, message from the phone company offering to retry when line is free, annoucement of "As of <day>, the area code you called will be change to <XXX>", and finally annoucment of "All circuits are busy, please retry latter" ... all will result in a "no answer" return code as the modem expects and not getting the commencement of the modem hand shake sequence. All such voice reponses have nothing to do broken modem ... and the last case is actually a busy condition that cannot be correctly handled by most modem (the Courier has the capability to return a "voice" return code ... but cannot, for good reason, tell you what is the nature of the voice message). This had been a pain in the rear end to me in my previous project. I will be happy to share with anyone my experience with modems ... but let's take this off line. Best Regards, John Leong --------------------------------------------------------- Bell Labs Research johnleong@research.bell-labs.com 4995 Patrick Henry Dr. Tel: 408-567-4459 Santa Clara, CA 95054 Fax: 408-567-4448
On Thu, Jan 28, 1999 at 10:38:44AM -0800, John Leong wrote:
"No answer", to me, as an ISP customer would mean that there is a broken modem somewhere that is not answering the phone. Definitely different than "Busy."
The modem return code, unfortunately is often not precise.
You can say _that_ again. this is rapidly veering off topic, so replies privately, please, but does _anyone_ know why 15 years after Bell standardized on different SIT tone sequences for differen error conditions, modems _still_ can't report the proper error? Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth jra@baylink.com Member of the Technical Staff Buy copies of The New Hackers Dictionary. The Suncoast Freenet Give them to all your friends. Tampa Bay, Florida http://www.ccil.org/jargon/ +1 813 790 7592
On Wed, 27 Jan 1999, William Allen Simpson wrote:
I don't know how many other small/dialup ISPs are seeing this problem. BellSouth just turned it on in our area. Sent our support calls through the ceiling during busy evening hours.
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 14:39:31 -0600 Subject: Please Help Us From: "Howard Shere" <hshere@watervalley.net>
BellSouth recently added a feature to your phone service called "Busy Connect". This service plays a recording whenever you dial and get a busy signal offering to keep trying the number for 75 cents. This service will interfere with your modems ability to detect a busy signal and your computer will report that "the computer you are dialing is not answering" or some similar message.
2 weeks ago BellSouth told us that this service was on our lines and we asked that it be removed. They told us that this would solve the "no answer" problems that our customers were reporting. We have continued to get complaints from customers about "no answer" problems and when we talked to BellSouth today, we were told that this service was on our customers lines and not on ours. We are not sure why we were given the wrong information when we first reported this trouble.
We are asking that all of our customers call BellSouth and ask to have this service removed. They have refused to help us directly and have said that the only way to have this service removed is for our customers to call them directly.
We've had the same up here in Canada for a while now, very annoying for customers. Anyhow, if you do *02 (Bell here uses DMS), it disables it forever (we'll until you do *02 again). We've actually put that message on our TechSupport quick tips music when you call in to report a problem... Why does technology have to be so annoying sometimes :) Later Cyril Jaouich [CJ837] --------------------- ACC NETWORK OPERATIONS EASTERN CANADA/US ---------------------------------------- Only 8117 hours before Y2K, will you be compliant?
Cyril Jaouich wrote:
We've had the same up here in Canada for a while now, very annoying for customers. Anyhow, if you do *02 (Bell here uses DMS), it disables it forever (we'll until you do *02 again). We've actually put that message on our TechSupport quick tips music when you call in to report a problem... Why does technology have to be so annoying sometimes :)
It's not the technology that's annoying, it's the suits who think it's OK to change the way things work, at our loss, so they can make a buck. -- -- *-----------------------------* Phil Howard KA9WGN * -- -- | Inturnet, Inc. | Director of Internet Services | -- -- | Business Internet Solutions | eng at intur.net | -- -- *-----------------------------* phil at intur.net * --
participants (7)
-
Cyril Jaouich -
Jay R. Ashworth -
John Leong -
Phil Howard -
Sean Patrick Gorman -
Steven J. Sobol -
William Allen Simpson