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From: kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Unbreakable Dialtone
Message-ID: <16311@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 22 Jan 91 19:55:10 GMT
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Reply-To: Ken Abrams <pallas!kabra437@uunet.uu.net>
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 58, Message 2 of 13


In article <16253@accuvax.nwu.edu> SINGER@ibm.com (David Singer)
writes:

>Once in a while (maybe one call out of ten), pressing the keypad on my
>phone (or sending DTMF from my modem) won't break the dialtone.  If I
>hang up and retry, it will almost always work.  This happens on both
>my lines, using various instruments.

>I called telco (well, GTE); they "tested my lines" (dumping a modem
>session in the process) and said they found nothing, but the problem
>continues.  Can anyone suggest some magic words to whisper in GTE's
>ear to point them in the right direction?

You provide a fairly complete picture of the symptoms.  It is HIGHLY
likely that GTE has a defective DTMF receiver in your CO.  They are
probably getting a few other similar complaints but haven't seen a
pattern yet.  I would suggest that they have a reversed link in the
switch but most modems don't depend on the line polarity to make the
tones.  This kind of a problem is difficult to find but not
impossible.  It takes a little time for them to test all the receivers
but usually takes longer to convince them that they need to do it!

All of the above only applies if your CO is of the analog variety.  If
it is a digital switch, all bets are off.


Ken Abrams           uunet!pallas!kabra437
Illinois Bell        kabra437@athenanet.com
Springfield          (voice) 217-753-7965