Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!vector!telecom-gateway From: johnl@ima.ISC.COM Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Subscriber's Line Cross-connected Message-ID: Date: 10 Feb 89 22:27:52 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Lines: 25 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Originally-From: harvard!ima.ISC.COM!johnl (John R. Levine) X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 57, message 5 of 7 In article rpw3@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Rob Warnock) writes: >[use a modem to log off-hook time on your phone line] >.. it may be hard for NET to find, since they can't see your modem, >but it shouldn't be too hard for you to give them a little help. > >(What can they do, even then? Well, if you called them and said, "That >other guy is on my line *RIGHT NOW*, they might be able to run a TDR >measurement and find out [approximately] where the other phone is.) Even better, when the phone is off the hook pick up the phone and say "Excuse me but your phone is cross-wired with mine, would you mind telling me your phone number?" It worked for me one time. Or when the modem goes off hook, tell it to send lots of noise so the other customer will complain and, with any luck, they'll figure out what the problem is. It occurs to me that there may be a worse problem here. I gather that each phone line really has two numbers, the number that makes it ring and the number used for billing. Normally both are the same but in some cases, e.g. DID trunks or other multiple installations, everything is billed to the customer's main number. There may be a line somewhere with a correct ring number but your billing number, so the other guy wouldn't even notice that anything was wrong except that he didn't get any toll charges on the bill. Regards, John Levine, johnl@ima.isc.com