Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Phone/Fax Switchbox -- Do They Work? Message-ID: <10457@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 4 Aug 90 17:44:10 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Ken Abrams Organization: Athenanet, Inc., Springfield, Illinois Lines: 35 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 542, Message 8 of 11 In article <10235@accuvax.nwu.edu> mike spann writes: >In article <10225@accuvax.nwu.edu> cjp%megatek.UUCP@ucsd.edu >(Christopher J. Pikus) writes: >The other box (and the one I would select) uses the little known fact >that audio energy is carried down the phone line when the phone is >ringing. (This is commonly known to thiefs who sometimes talk to each >other without answering the phone). An automatic fax machine sends a >calling tone every three seconds while waiting for the phone to be >answered. The phone/fax switch box listens on the line for this >'calling tone' and routes the call to the fax machine if one is heard. >The box never answers the phone which I consider an advantage. This Another urban myth bites the dust. This is a "little known fact" because it is NOT a fact, ie. not true. Maybe that needs a little qualification. If you live in the rain forrest in Africa and are still using something like tin cans and string and calling it a phone, then maybe you have a case to make. It's also possible that some PBX systems might exhibit this strange behavior (don't know, I never worked on them animals). If, on the other hand, you are talking about REAL phone systems like the ones used by modern telcos to call across town or across the country, what you said above just plain and simply is not the case. There is no physical or electrical path between the calling and called party until the phone is answered, none, zip, zilch. This path did exist in some of the older vintage Step-by-Step switches but not in anything newer than that. Wake up and join the 20th Century. Ken Abrams uunet!pallas!kabra437 Illinois Bell kabra437@athenanet.com Springfield (voice) 217-753-7965