Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!decwrl!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: IZZYAS1@oac.ucla.edu (Andy Jacobson) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Ring-back and finding own number Message-ID: <13170@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 8 Oct 90 04:31:00 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 57 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 723, Message 3 of 12 In reference to the Moderator's comments at the end of #719: Pat, I discovered that here in GTE-land of West LA, none of the old techniques worked for ring-back. (These old techniques being: Calling a special prefix followed by the last 4 digits of your phone number, you get a dial tone that you can not dial against, you give a switchhook flash, get a special tone, hang up and it rings. If when you pick up again, you give another flash, it will ring back again, ad infinitum, but if you just hang up you are back to regular service). There were some suspicious open stretches of prefixes in the 213 that responded like 1ESS's do when you dialed the ringback wrong (954-958), so I got creative. I found that from 213-824, if, instead of dialing 954 and the last 4 digits, I preceded it with a 1, it worked! Ditto for 1-958 from the 208 prefix. Both of these prefixes are on a 1ESS (CLLI=WLANCAXJ). Now in Evanston, Illinois, once they had 1ESS in place, 571 was the ringback prefix for 864, 869, 491, and the non-NU part of 492. 572 was the prefix for 475, 573 for 328, and 574 for 866. (I never got to try the newer 570 prefix.) These no longer work, but if you try 1-57n-XXXX ... Bingo. You should try these around the 312, and 708 areas to see what happens. Interestingly these methods appear to be switch dependant. In MarVista (part of LA, CLLI=SNMNCA??) there is an NT digital switch. One simply dials their own number and hangs up. However in Venice (also part of LA, CLLI=SNMNCA??) you have to dial 113 and your seven digits. In the last two years or so, GTE has upped the stakes. From 213-208, and 213-824 anyway, it only works every third time you try it (you have to repeat the entire process to progress). The first two are either a decoy or perhaps for some different types of ringer I've never tried from. It seems for me its always the third that works, and if I keep trying, it cycles in threes. In reference to finding your own number, in the 1ESS part of LA, you dial 1223. In the digital part, 114. In San Francisco, 760 and another one I can't remember BOTH work (except for a very few prefixes, where it is one or the other). In Chicago, it used to be 290, followed by a flash, but I could never get it to work reliably since 1980. Andy Jacobson (izzyas1@oac.ucla.edu) [Moderator's Note: I've since found that 571 (wait for dial tone, flash hook, dial 6 and hang up, then get ring back) throughout northern Ilinois' old 312 code has been replaced by 1-57x-last four of your phone number (get fresh dial tone, dial 6 and hang up, then get ring back) throughout 708 and 312. In addition to getting a ring back, if you want to test the accuracy of your touchtone pad, after you have dialed the 1-57x-last four and received fresh dial tone, then (against that new dial tone) dial 1234567890. If your tone pad is working properly you will get cla-beep! cla-beep! PAT]