Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!bu.edu!buengc!bph From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: Phone Harassment Message-ID: <5536@buengc.BU.EDU> Date: 18 Mar 90 18:59:27 GMT References: <21849@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <13746@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <90071.220057SAB121@psuvm.psu.edu> <1185@gtx.com> <1990Mar16.001210.27602@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <5533@buengc.BU.EDU> <1990Mar17.145353.2911@ddsw1.MCS.COM> Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) Followup-To: sci.electronics Distribution: na Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng. Lines: 29 In article <1990Mar17.145353.2911@ddsw1.MCS.COM> benfeen@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Ben Feen) writes: >In article <5533@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) writes: >> >>Ben, you have a lot to learn about Fiber Optics. >> >Yes, I know... This was an old old old trick - Before the ESS and fiber >optics. Besides, it was actually for modems - They often aren't surge >protected, and it wouldn't take much of a jolt. It was a joke, Ben. The fiber optics would never even know you put the jolts into the line. The juice would be bled off by the protection circuitry on the first preamp it hit. And there weren't many modems around when the lines went to ESS, and when have you ever been harrassed by a modem, anyway? (And please don't start a discussion of autodialers, there hasn't been one set to redial a refusal in years...) >P.S. Don't try this - With the new gadgets, etc. it wouldn't work, you'd be >damaging your own phones, and on top of that, it's undoubtedly illegal. It is not, since it's not going to hurt anyone (unless you slip and lick the terminals as you're bolting the power onto your phone line...) but it is actionable, if you manage to clobber any of the PhoneCo's gear. --Blair "Ben Feen needs a vacation. Of that I'm certain."