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From: mosier@iuvax.UUCP (Steve Mosier)
Newsgroups: net.dcom
Subject: Phone line blues
Message-ID: <223@iuvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Mar-86 17:07:48 EST
Article-I.D.: iuvax.223
Posted: Tue Mar  4 17:07:48 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Mar-86 03:19:59 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 28

In September, the local phone company (Indiana Bell) changed over to a
digital switching system.  Since that time, trying to use a modem has
met with less than desirable results.  After several days of dealing
with the local CO, a tech type came to the university and installed some
test equipment on the lines and came up with error rates that exceeded
his wildest expectations.  He finally concluded that the "lines were
out of phase"  His efforts to correct the problems seems to have
succeeded, somewhat.  However, the preformance is far from what it was
previous to the switch over.  The phone people seem to take the attitude
that "if you can hear and talk to the other person, everything is ok"
For example, I can login on to what appears to be a clean line and 
everything will seem fine, then I get a stream of 30 or 40 garbage characters.
I can go along for several minutes, then I get hit with another stream.
Dialing out for UUCP traffic seems to meet with the same results.
Our resident engineer maintains that, although you can hear and talk, 
the lines are probably much out of spec since a modem that is designed to
operate over a voice grade line simply can't.  I've called the phone co
several times now, with no results.

One note on the above, the phone lines do not have any audible clicks
or pops, so I'm at a loss to explain why they give so much garbage.  The
garbage is not local echo i.e. it will appear as input.  Another curious
factor; folks within the city have little or no problem dialing in, but
people on the fringe areas and from out of town get hit the hardest.
We have checked and double checked our dialins and dialouts, so the ball 
is definitively in their court.  How does one deal with this?

-steve  mosier@indiana.csnet or {cbosgd,ihnp4,seismo}!iuvax!mosie