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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!tektronix!tekchips!wm
From: wm@tekchips.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.dcom,net.info-terms
Subject: Re: Call Waiting and Modems
Message-ID: <259@tekchips.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 12-Aug-83 20:30:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekchips.259
Posted: Fri Aug 12 20:30:28 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Aug-83 18:25:48 EDT
References: <599@hao.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 25

I have used a terminal and a modem on a phone line that has call
waiting.  The call waiting signal always severed the connection, and
almost always put some gargage characters on the screen.  Usually the
fact that the system went away was enough to tell me that another call
was coming in, and I would pick up the phone and answer the call.
Worked very well.  Most UNIX programs handle the HUP signal in a
reasonable way, and rarely was any work lost.  The main exception to
this, interestingly enough, was older versions of news, which would
mark the current article that you were reading as having been read.
This bug has been fixed (at least it has been here, depends on which
news are you running).  If you have a little more money, you can get
call waiting and call forward, and forward your calls while you are
using the phone for a terminal.  One of the best deals we ever did was
have two phone lines.  We had the first line rotor to the second, and
had call waiting on the second line (you will have to convince your
local phone office that a residence phone can have a rotor on it, but
it can).  That way if the first line was in use for the terminal, calls
would rotor to the second, and if the second line was also in use, it
would get a call waiting beep.  Getting two lines like this also ended
up being significantly cheaper than two separate lines, for some
strange reason.  Probably if all the home hackers out there get this
installed, the phone company will get wise and change the rates :-(

				Wm Leler
				wm.Tektronix@Rand-relay