-=< The Cheshire Cat Newsletter >=-              December 21, 1994 - Issue 27

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                    Moving With Your Modems - a Survival Kit

It's hard to believe in this day & age, but there are areas where the phone
company - Pacific Bell, at least - is only required to provide "voice quality"
phone lines.  In my case that means a maximum of (a very shaky) 4800 baud!  
Before I begin, understand that I'm not an expert on phone lines or the phone
companies' various systems.  The information I'm passing along here is a
compilation of things I've learned from Pacific Bell representatives at
various levels, and from friends who've been very helpful.  You must know:
My very first contact at Pacific Bell just happened to be the sysop of a BBS
in Sacramento.  Be warned that unless you're (extremely) lucky and bump into
just such a person, the reps in general have little-or-no knowledge of the
system I'm about to describe.  Their final answer will always be "get a
business line" - which, as you may already know, is useless (not to mention
financially out-of- reach for a free BBS or the casual modemer).  You have to
kiss a lot of frogs before you find the handsome prince - that one person who
KNOWS what you're talking about, understands it's important and is willing &
able to help you track down a solution.


                                   Disclaimer

My explanations of the phone company's systems and terminology is as accurate
as what they've provided to me.


                                Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Pacific Bell service rep in Sacramento, without whose help I
wouldn't have had a prayer of keeping my BBS online.  I'd gladly give his name
but it's been a couple months since I spoke to him and I lost his number.

Thanks to those 2-in-100 other Pacific Bell reps who took the time and made the
effort to either help or point me to someone who could help.  I appreciate you.

Thanks to my many online friends who spent so much of their own time & energy
to find out as much as possible.  That info was very, very valuable in helping
me decide how to proceed.  You guys ALWAYS seem to be there for me.  I think
you know how greatful I am.


                            OK!  Let's Get Started!

If you NEED this information, I hope it helps.  If ever you have information
to add to this, think about passing it along to me.  I'll include it and
re-issue this file.



  Sally Kosh, SysOp	-=< The Cheshire Cat BBS >=-	Top #:  916-587-6947

                  (now operating at 28.8k v.34 on all nodes!)



           POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) with Copper, End-to-End

POTS is simply the phone-line system Pacific Bell normally provides.  On POTS
your connection with the telephone company's facility is normally accomplished
using copper, end-to-end.  All other things (your inside phone wiring, your
modem, etc.) being equal, your data connections should be strong.  (My 28.8k
"v.everything" US Robotics Dual Standard modems would be capable of
transferring files at around 3,300 characters per second on "POTS, with copper
end-to-end" phone line connections.)


          Pair Gain - or, Kiss That Information SuperHighway Goodbye

Pacific Bell's Pair Gain system was created by the Marquis de Sade.  Well maybe not
but...The phone company uses it in low-density areas to keep their costs down.
That's completely understandable (or at least it was acceptable, before data
transmission was a consideration) and they have the California Public Utility
Commission's permission to do it.  They are required to provide no more than
voice-quality phone lines.  Here's Pair Gain explained, as I understand it:
Copper is used from Pacific Bell's (Truckee) facility to our "main junction"
(in Glenshire).  At that point - and again at either 4 or 5 "boxes" between
that box and me - the bandwidth is "split" amongst several lines terminating
at our homes.  I got 2 different figures; one rep said that as many as 24
phone numbers could be sharing the same signal.  The other guy (one of those
saviors I mentioned earlier) said 96.  Either way, it spells disaster for data
communication.  My 28.8's, connected to other 28.8's that're on normal copper
POTS, couldn't do any better than 1,100 characters per second, or about 1/3
of what's optimum for these modems.  When I called my BBS from another 28.8
(connected to my non-BBS computer), I could barely achieve 900 CPS.  Even at
those pathetic rates the connections were quite unreliable - there were many,
many "Lost Carrier" messages in the BBS logs.  And faxing was impossible at
any baud rate.


               The Light At the End of the Tunnel (AKA Doug)

Doug (the local Pacific Bell engineer) was recommended to me by the Pac Bell
serviceman named J.B., who checked my lines and informed me that I had "good,
solid 4800-baud connections".   After several minutes of muttering under his
breath (something like "... too old for this; 13 more days till I retire...")
J.B. mentioned he's a HAM operator.  Since his hobby and mine have much in
common, I appealed to him at that level and when he left he gave me Doug's
name and number.  This interaction is what prompted me to write this "helper
file" in the first place; more on that in a minute... back to Doug.

I put off calling Doug for a couple of weeks, meanwhile trying other avenues
and contemplating alternatives, and I'll get back to that, too.  When I
finally did contact Doug, I knew immediately that it was THE connection I had
needed.  He listened, he absorbed, he understood, he determined the extent of
the problem and he told me what WOULD BE DONE to eliminate it.  AND he
returned my phone call!  I knew it would be solved - for the first time in 5
weeks I didn't have the sinking feeling that I'd have to shut down the BBS,
which has been a major part of my life for the past 8 years.  I was so
elated... this guy must think I'm knitting with only one needle!  I was
GROVELING with gratitude!


                            Tips, Traps & Best Wishes

The reason I put off calling Doug for so long is that I felt - correctly, as
it turns out - he would be my last, best hope of salvation.  I - and several
online friends working on behalf of me and the BBS - had been hitting a dead
end with Pacific Bell for weeks.  No matter how we tried, we always came up
against "we're not required to provide more than voice-quality lines in that
area" (read as "tough luck") and "get a business line".  So... it took more
recuperation time, each time I hit the brick wall.  If Doug wasn't the
answer, the BBS would certainly be dead.  (Only a SysOp could get this
emotional about phone lines!)

    You & I know a free BBS is anything BUT a business; it's a money pit!  
    (I just did some quick calculations:  I've invested over $40,000 in the
    BBS over the past 8 years - and that doesn't include upgrades or software.
    I consider my time as just enjoying my hobby.)  It's a free service for
    any person with a modem, and fun for me, but it's no business!

Business (ISDN) lines - at least as it's available here - would be useless,
even if I were willing & able to pay for them.  As it was explained to a
friend who checked into it, the only callers who'd benefit from them are
those who, themselves, are on these ISDN lines.  What good is that, Pac Bell?

Dealing with Pacific Bell is difficult, because you're dealing with people!
It's important to determine quickly, to avoid wasting your time, whether
you're using a "demo version" or the "final release version" of a real person!
[My second call took me to the only truly STUPID person - an "early alpha
version", if you will.  "Duh... we don't do dat.  We juss change phone
numbers."]  Try not to be discouraged; remember that not all family trees
have branches, but most do.  Persist, with the help of the "redial" button.
Tip:  If you call Pacific Bell's 800 service number during prime time there's
no telling where you'll connect, and that redial button will, eventually, pay
off.  You WILL find someone who can help - or at least someone who will point
you in the right direction.  Cherish this person - and remember his name; you
might find yourself writing a text like this sometime, and this one would've
been so much nicer if I had taken the time to write down names.  Familiarize
yourself with the "techie" stuff you're told, enough to relate to the next
person in line (who may revise what you think you now know).

Report the non-data-capable lines immediately.  Pac Bell will send a
serviceman to check their lines; be aware that if they determine the problem
to be beyond their responsibility (if your house wiring is the culprit) they
will charge you for the service call and (of course) to fix it.   So check
your part, yourself, before calling.  They may also charge you if they just
find NOTHING wrong on their lines.  Simply being on a pair gain system isn't
considered "something wrong" so be prepared for a charge.  It's a necessary
step though, and J.B. was able to improve my transmission ever-so-slightly
so there was no charge to me.  Talk to the serviceman; these guys know their
stuff - 99.9% of Pac Bell people know nothing about phone lines.  You
probably won't get anywhere with them as far as actually getting something
done - see the standard answers, earlier in this text - but at the very least
they'll tell you the name of their supervisor and any name is progress during
this stage.  Again, remember that these are real-live people... and it isn't
the serviceman's fault - maybe he's just counting down the days till
retirement and probably doesn't deserve the irritation-transference that
you're tempted to do!  (In my case I begged & pleaded... who says an online
junky has no pride..?!)


                                Solutions

There are 2 solutions to "pair gain" and both were tried here.  Your saviors
(mine being Doug, Odie and Jim) will want to check the connections at each
step between you and the phone company.  They'll remove any "inhibitors"
along the way; those will probably be on the box outside your house.  [If
you're lucky enough to find guys like these, please don't abuse them by
wasting their time.  Do everything possible to make absolutely sure the
problem isn't your software, hardware of "house wiring".]  The next thing
they'll do is "unload" your lines - separate each line from every other line
in your "pair gain" area.  For me, that did the trick.  The second thing that
can be done (Pacific Bell is going to hate this) is the installation of "coin
cards" on your lines, at the primary junction box.  What that does is give
you the same quality as pay phones.  [They really don't like to do that.] 
One of the saviors said coin cards had made a big difference in other similar
situations but it didn't make any  improvement here over the "unloading" so
they were removed.


                                  Results

Well, it isn't as good as it should be but it's a lot better.  People with
28.8s now connect at 24,000 most of the time, and not less than 21,600. 
There's occasional line noise, but I think that's due to the line between the
outside box and the BBS - they're under snow at the moment, so I won't know
till spring!


                            Final Words of Wisdom

If you've downloaded this text because you need an immediate solution, you
have some work ahead of you.  Don't give up.  You SysOps out there who hit the
"why am I doing this... nobody'll miss my BBS if I just shut it down; they'll
just go elsewhere" stage, as I did - stand back, relax, take a few days off.
Your membership will let you know that you ARE appreciated for your efforts
and - who knows - they might just surprise you with their willingness to help
in some very meaningful ways.  My "online friends" didn't even wait to be
asked.  As a "veteran" SysOp I'm not at all surprised about that - though I'm
certainly greatful to them.  I've found that we "onliners" tend to help each
other out on a regular basis.  Maybe that's why we get so frustrated with the
"brick walls" we encounter offline!


                            One More "Final Word"...

I did contemplate what to do if I never found a "Doug".  It isn't something I
looked forward to doing - which is the other reason I was reluctant to make
that last call.  

The online community is huge - you already know that.  Just think of the
numbers!  Virtually all of us are connected in some way with, potentially,
many MANY thousands of others via the various online networks like RIME,
InterNet and a multitude of other online echo-nets.  You or I can "touch" a
virtually unlimited number of others electronically, right from our keyboards.
The sheer power-in-numbers available to us has yet to be tested.  Inequitable
service (nobody with pair gain line service gets a price break!) is a prime
candidate for "community action".  My next step, had I failed to find Doug,
would have been to post an open message on the worldwide networks to make
everyone aware of pair gain and the problems associated with it, and to appeal
to ALL onliners to fill out and send a (provided) form letter to Pacific Bell,
another to the California Public Utilities Commission and another to the FCC.
Imagine the deluge!!!  Having gone that far I would also have contacted all
the various local (and area) agencies, organizations and communications
-related companies I could think of - I'd have made a lot of noise.  I'm not
really the "activist" type, personally, so I'll never know if I would have
followed through.  I'm delighted that I won't have to find out.	

                                                          <Big Cheshire Grin>

Doug also told me he plans some changes for this area in the spring - could it
be that we'll catch up with the 1990's here?  Wow - a SINCERE wow!  Thank you
Doug, Jim, Odie - and J.B. - and my friends!

                                   Good Luck!