Letters: Letters You Wrote

Dear 2600: Are there still any hard-core Telenet hackers out there?  Are you tired of Telenet dropping carrier on you after x number of tries?  Then use Dunsnet!  I found these numbers originally posted as UNIX dial-ups, but found them to be Dunsnet access numbers.  The @ prompt on Dunsnet looked familiar so I tried some Telenet addresses and they were the same as Telenet. Here are the numbers: 612-893-0294, 612-893-0296, 201-464-5222       Amadeus Thanks for the info.  However, we found that Dunsnet drops carrier on users too after a certain number of unsuccessful tries.  And not all the addresses are the same.  For instance, typing MAIL won't get you Telemail as it will on Telenet, but another type of system.  There also seem to be more commands.  Typing HELP reveals some of them.

Dear 2600: I'm trying to find out what my ANI is.  Can you help?       Frustrated in Miami Automatic Number Announcement Circuit (ANAC) come in many shapes and sizes.  Ours is 958.  Other people must dial 311 to hear their phone number read back to them.  Others we've heard of are 1223, 114, 4102222, and even 1-200-555-1212.  We'd appreciate hearing any others from our readers. It might actually be easier in some cases to find out from the operator when you're not sure what your number is.  They won't tell you on many occasions due to "privacy" considerations, but one way around that is to act like a repairman and request the "drop line ID."  This, we're told, usually works.

Dear 2600: This comes from a Pacific Bell bill insert: "A new prefix, 811, will soon be available for you to call your Pacific Bell business office toll-free from any area served by us.  All our business office numbers will be replaced by toll-free numbers with an 811 prefix. "If your PacBell business office numbers changed to an 811 prefix, the new prefix and number will appear on your telephone bill. "After this change, you only dial 811-XXXX from any PacBell area in the state to reach your local office toll-free.  However, if you are calling from an area where 1+ dialing is required, you must continue to dial the I before dialing the seven digit 811 number. "Some of you who have specialized equipment could have a problem in dialing the 811 prefix.  You may need to contact your vendor.  Until equipment modification is made, you may continue dialing the old business office numbers available from 411. "This change will save you the cost of a toll call to PacBell when a call is made to all non-local offices.  (Today, calls to our BOs are normally toll free from a customer's home or business area.)"       Reader on the Pacific Something else which is popping up in many places is the ability to choose your operators.  Generally, dialing one "0" will get you your local operator, i.e. New York Telephone, New Jersey Bell.  Dialing "00" will get you an AT&T operator.  The local operators are used for making collect, third-party, and credit card calls to local areas whereas AT&T operators handle longer distances.  We presume they both have the same capabilities, equipment-wise.

Dear 2600: How come Northern Virginians can't dial 202-976-XXXX calls at all?  Since these are local calls, 7-digit dialing is called for. 976 numbers are trapped to the general "Cannot be completed as dialed" recording.  If you dial 202 first, you get the same thing.  If the 976 service provider has also signed up for the 976 exchange in Baltimore, you can reach it by dialing 301+976-XXXX, but you'll be charged for an inter-LATA long distance call on the carrier of your choice, assuming that carrier accepts 976 calls (Sprint and MCI do not). Actually, there is a way to reach 202-976-XXXX numbers from Northern Virginia: use a long-distance service which accepts calls via your dialing a 7-digit local access number which their switch answers.  Do your security code, then 202-976-XXXX and the call will go through.  The only long-distance service which accepts 976 calls to my knowledge is Allnet (formerly Max), and they charge $2.00 plus tax for each call regardless of length of time or distance. AT&T accepts 976 calls, but only to other LATAs.  AT&T also charges only the cost of the long-distance call itself to 976 numbers; they don't carry back the 976 provider's premium charge to the caller.  Presumably, this is the reason most alternate long-distance companies either don't allow 976 or charge through the nose for it.  Neither of these reasons appear to bother AT&T. (The Virginia PUC does not allow the "Dial-It calls" as they believe they cost too much and are of dubious value, i.e., dial-porn, etc.)       Private Sector Subscriber While those folks may very well be right about the lack of quality on Dial-It services, they really have no business deciding for you what you can and cannot call.  Everyone should be allowed access to those phone numbers if they're willing to pay the charges.  We're shocked that Sprint and MCI don't allow calls to 976.  As far as we're concerned, they have absolutely no right to do this.  If you want to call the weather in New York from Chicago, who are they to say that's not allowed? Fortunately, there are always ways around their system.  Unfortunately, 2600-types are pretty much the only people who know this.  So, for the benefit of everyone else, we suggest complaining day and night to any company that selects what phone numbers you can call. In the meantime, here are some alternatives.  In our area (516, 718, 212, 914), a new exchange has opened up.  The 970 exchange also has Dial-It services as well and may be reachable when 976 isn't.  So far, we've only found two working numbers, 970-0000 and 970-9999, both of which can be described as alternate porno services.  And if the weather is all you're after, then we've got good news.  Weathertrac is a new service that not only gives the weather, but allows you to choose what city you want to hear a forecast for!  You simply key in the area code or, for foreign cities, the first three letters of the city.  This system is also useful for telling you the local time.  There are even some hidden cities, we're told.  Here are the numbers for this we've found so far: 212-355-1212, 213-337-3737, 214-350-5050, 214-869-9200, 303-639-1639, 312-956-0950, 404-976-7676, 512-222-2222, 602-230-2323, 619-444-4444, 713-875-8585, and 817-975-7575.  We're also told that 1-976-7676 will work from inside the 612 area, but not from outside.

Dear 2600: You ask why there is no "Q" on the phone dial.  Name me one word that starts with "Q" that doesn't start with "QU".  (Only one "Q" exchange is possible.) Here's all interesting "letter-number" for the collection: 612-RAW-BEEF.  It's a Minneapolis liquor store.       Any Mouse Actually, ten exchanges would be possible with "QU" since an exchange is three digits.  And besides, there would be two other letters on the same number, so every exchange could still have a name.  How many words do you know of that begin with "X"?  That's on every phone yet "Z" isn't. Obviously, the situation is becoming more serious (see 2600 Flash page).  It's time we all stood up and demanded our Q's and Z's! Keep the "letter-numbers" coming, folks!  But remember, they must be letters that the company on the other end doesn't want spelled out.

Dear 2600: Some numbers which may be of interest to readers: U.S. Sprint (formerly U.S. Tel, but now used by Sprint as a calling card number) 800-345-0008 (950-1033), SBS (really MCI, but not the same as MCI's other two dial-ups) 800-446-4462 (950-1088), and MCI calling card number 800-624-1022 (950-1022). Now for some tricks.  On U.S. Sprint, after hearing the dial tone, dial #, then one of the following numbers: 1 will get the main office in Dallas, 2 will get something that answers as "installers," 3 is silence, 4 is a reorder, 5 is a recording saying "The speed number you dialed is invalid," 6 is a 1000 Hertz tone, 7 is the same as 5, 8 is the old customer service number, 9 is the field office, and 0 is the old customer service number.  You can key in two digits in some cases and get the "speed number" recording or precede any of these numbers with a 0, but this only happens on the 800 number.  You can also get the dial tone back by hitting the # for a couple of seconds, but not after a 3 or a 6. On SBS, after getting the tone, enter 800002 for customer service, 800042 rings somewhere, and 800034 is investigations. Some 800 extenders are 800-247-1800, 800-882-2255, and 800-643-4344.       NYNEX Phreak       Silicon Sorcerers       NYC We appreciate the info.  We have one thing to add.  When dialing 800002 for customer service on SBS, you get an answering machine.  But it's not an ordinary answering machine.  It's a tie-in to Phonemail, an IBM service.  By hitting a 0 the middle of the message, you will hear a voice asking you what extension you want to be transferred to.  If you enter anything with an 8 or a 9 as the starting number, you will hear a dial tone which cannot be broken by Touch-Tones.  It will then start ringing and be answered by an MCI person.  If instead of entering an extension, you hit a * three times (not too quickly), the system will list the extension of every subscriber on the system, and possibly their name.  Of course, the trick is to find the phone number that allows you to login to these users' accounts - what this is is simply a way of leaving messages.  We suspect that the folks at MCI/SBS have just gotten themselves a ROLM phone system.  This is indicated by the way they keep hanging up on people as soon as they answer the phone.  With a ROLM system, you must either press the button next to the flashing light (which indicates that a line is ringing) and take the call on the built-in speakerphone or pick up the handset (the phone automatically knows which line to select).  If the person picking up the phone picks up the receiver and presses the button (as almost all office workers have been brought up to do), their penalty is immediate and total disconnection. And so it goes.