Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!gatech!bbn!bbn.com!dkovar
From: dkovar@bbn.com (David C. Kovar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Modems/Emulators recognizing Call Waiting?
Message-ID: <21864@bbn.COM>
Date: 10 Mar 88 15:17:26 GMT
References: <4201@husc6.harvard.edu>
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: dkovar@BBN.COM (David C. Kovar)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 31

In article <4201@husc6.harvard.edu> hellerst@husc8.UUCP (Joe Hellerstein) writes:
>Is there such a thing as a modem, and/or terminal emulation software, that could
>recognize call waiting, and buffer data while you answer the phone (or
>some such system?)  If not, why not?  Seems like a reasonable idea, providing
>that the call waiting beep could be made understandable and uniform around
>the country.  Sure is cheaper than getting another phone line.
>
>Joe Hellerstein

  One you accept your second call, the only information coming over the
line is the voice transmission for that call. No carrier, no data, no
nothing. One could probably set up one's Mac to ignore the loss of carrier
and the like, but you'd also have to arrange for the modem on the other
end to do the same thing. Buffering data and handling the call waiting only
on your own end will not work.

  The problem that I used to have with call waiting, when I had call waiting,
was that the tone indicating a second call would come in, disrupt the carrier
and the modem would drop the connection. Very annoying.

  The solution? DOV modems. Data Over Voice. Back when I was working for CMU
in Pittsburgh I had a 9600 baud modem sitting on my desk that would connect
with a matching one at CMU. Nice, clean, high speed data connections. And
the phone still operated normally. I could place and receive calls even while
typing at the terminal. The 9600 baud was also going to be raised to 19.2
at some point, if I recall correctly. Someone at CMU or Pitt would have to
answer that one. Take your Sun workstation home and hook it up over the
modem ....

-David Kovar
 DKovar@BBN.COM