Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!uhnix1!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: isis!isis.UUCP!tkoppel@eecs.nwu.edu (Ted Koppel) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Forest Park Hum?? Fact or Fiction? Message-ID: Date: 17 Nov 89 01:43:42 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: CARL -- Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries Lines: 40 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 520, message 12 of 12 I was just talking to my sister and brother-in-law who live 'just over the line' in Forest Park, Illinois. There exchange prefix is 708 (formerly 312) 771. They have a computer and have just acquired a modem; they have had no luck connecting to Compuserve or any of the local BBS systems. They had a different phone problem yesterday, and an Illinois Bell (?) (what are they these days??) tech came out to fix the problem, which was in the box handing from the pole, and not in their house. However, they asked the tech why they were unable to sustain a modem connection. His response was that they were victims of the 'Forest Park Hum'. He described it as a well known phenomenon in which there is too much (something) which causes hum on the lines to the point of inabaility to transmit data. He said that they could buy a conditioned line or something else very expensive to be able to use a modem. Is this for real? Is there any way around it? Is there any pressure that my sister can place on anyone at Illinois Bell to improve matters? And so on ... Thanks... Ted Koppel CARL - Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries = BITNET: TKOPPEL@DUCAIR UUCP: uunet!isis!tkoppel or tkoppel@du.edu [Moderator's Note: I have never heard of such a thing; that is, an entire community with noisy lines. How does the telepone man think the half dozen BBS lines in Forest Park operate presently? All with dedicated, clean lines? And how do the rest of us in Chicago reach BBS lines in Forest Park? Can your relatives use 300/1200 baud, if not necessarily 2400? Is it possible the modem unit itself is faulty? When in a voice connection, do they get an unusual amount of hum, buzz, clicking or popping? Sorry to say, there are some IBT employees who for whatever reason are very antagonistic toward modem usage, dislike the use of computers by people at home, and say *whatever* in response to questions such as posed. They'd love to sell a conditioned line for the extra bucks per month. I highly doubt it is needed. PT]