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[#] Wed Feb 01 2023 02:03:07 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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We have one.Attached to the VoIP port of my ( fiber ) modem.

i guess if you actually talk on the phone they are more conformable than a 1/2 slice of bread stuck to your face.

 

Tue Jan 31 2023 07:55:14 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: I did it again :)



Now I can finally get rid of those damn cordless phones that the family insists on keeping around.

 



[#] Wed Feb 01 2023 22:40:01 UTC from darknetuser

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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2023-01-31 21:03 from Nurb432
Subject: Re: I did it again :)
We have one.Attached to the VoIP port of my ( fiber ) modem.

i guess if you actually talk on the phone they are more conformable
than a 1/2 slice of bread stuck to your face.


I concur there. If you actually want to talk, big bulky landline phones are
much better.

For one, they are more comfortable to handle, and the ones I know have better sound quality for the most part. Then there is the fact landline plans are much cheaper for calls around here. As a bonus, mobile networks cause more stuttering and signal drops so if you want to have an important conversation a landline is much better.

[#] Thu Feb 02 2023 19:07:20 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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Actually, if you're going mobile-to-mobile and on the same carrier, Voice Over LTE has far superior sound quality because you aren't getting compressed down to a crappy codec that was intended for landlines. Combine with a *good* headset and the experience is quite superior.

Anyway, where I live we have unlimited calling on both landline and mobile.
No one calls our landline anymore except scammers, so it's no loss. Also the cordless phones seem to have a negative impact on our wifi, so good riddance.

As a bonusfest, my carrier (T-Mobile) supports wifi calling if your phone supports it (which mine does), so if there is wifi available it can do voice over text without a cell signal. (Super useful on airplanes!)

[#] Thu Feb 02 2023 20:04:48 UTC from LadySerenaKitty

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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AT&T also supports wifi calling and wifi texting.  It doesn't work very well on public networks, tho.

 

Thu Feb 02 2023 14:07:20 EST from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: I did it again :)
Actually, if you're going mobile-to-mobile and on the same carrier, Voice Over LTE has far superior sound quality because you aren't getting compressed down to a crappy codec that was intended for landlines. Combine with a *good* headset and the experience is quite superior.

Anyway, where I live we have unlimited calling on both landline and mobile.
No one calls our landline anymore except scammers, so it's no loss. Also the cordless phones seem to have a negative impact on our wifi, so good riddance.

As a bonusfest, my carrier (T-Mobile) supports wifi calling if your phone supports it (which mine does), so if there is wifi available it can do voice over text without a cell signal. (Super useful on airplanes!)

 



[#] Thu Feb 02 2023 21:54:30 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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I switched to google voice long long ago to insulate me from trouble when i switch carriers or want to use my PC to talk. 

Cell service for me is just a roaming data connection. I cant even tell you what my real number is.   

Thu Feb 02 2023 03:04:48 PM EST from LadySerenaKitty Subject: Re: I did it again :)

AT&T also supports wifi calling and wifi texting.  It doesn't work very well on public networks, tho.

 



[#] Thu Feb 02 2023 23:49:48 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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I'm absolutely happy to give up my landline number as it receives almost nothing but spam. When you mentioned Google Voice I looked to see if I could port it to that, but they don't do land lines. So I will simply give up the number ... and I will *still* supply it to anything that requires a phone number.

Nobody really wants to talk on the phone anyway. Especially on an airplane.
Remember those satellite phones they used to have in airplanes that would let you make calls for $500,000,000,000,000 per minute? Yeah, those are gone.
:) I am happy just to be able to text at cruising altitude.

[#] Fri Feb 03 2023 01:13:11 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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I have a reason to hold on to my number. 

Thu Feb 02 2023 06:49:48 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: I did it again :)
I'm absolutely happy to give up my landline number as it receives almost nothing but spam. 

 



[#] Fri Feb 03 2023 01:39:00 UTC from fandarel

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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Remember those satellite phones they used to have in airplanes that
would let you make calls for $500,000,000,000,000 per minute? Yeah,
those are gone.

When I first got this job and was flying all over the place, I called Grandma from one of those phones. We talked for just over a minute and I think it cost me $37. It impressed Grandma, which made it worth the cash, but I don't recall ever using one again. Airplane time is time away from civilization for me. I can read a book and snooze, I don't even want to talk to the people next to me.

[#] Fri Feb 03 2023 12:19:23 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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As a smallish child I do remember the handsets on the seat in front along with the food tray.  Being told not to touch it.

Thu Feb 02 2023 06:49:48 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: I did it again :)

Remember those satellite phones they used to have in airplanes that would let you make calls for $500,000,000,000,000 per minute? Yeah, those are gone.
:) I am happy just to be able to text at cruising altitude.

 



[#] Fri Feb 03 2023 16:01:58 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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As a smallish child I do remember the handsets on the seat in front
along with the food tray.  Being told not to touch it.

When I was growing up I spent a lot of time aboard small to mid size boats.
There was a service that relayed calls between the landline telephone system and VHF marine radio. It was sooper dooper expensive, and of course everyone on the frequency could listen to your call, but every now and then we heard someone using it frivolously.

My service change has taken effect. I looked at my Verizon account and for the first time ever it's data only. It's a beautiful thing. Just one simple "dumb pipe".

[#] Fri Feb 03 2023 18:05:29 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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my current wireless provider ( after i got kicked off cricket ) , if you add voice to their data plan its actually cheaper.  *shrug*

Fri Feb 03 2023 11:01:58 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: I did it again :)
As a smallish child I do remember the handsets on the seat in front
along with the food tray.  Being told not to touch it.

When I was growing up I spent a lot of time aboard small to mid size boats.
There was a service that relayed calls between the landline telephone system and VHF marine radio. It was sooper dooper expensive, and of course everyone on the frequency could listen to your call, but every now and then we heard someone using it frivolously.

My service change has taken effect. I looked at my Verizon account and for the first time ever it's data only. It's a beautiful thing. Just one simple "dumb pipe".

 



[#] Fri Feb 03 2023 18:09:21 UTC from darknetuser

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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Nobody really wants to talk on the phone anyway. Especially on an


I keep hearing that phone calls are obsolete. It sounds to me like when they say that emails are obsolete.

Texting is fine, but if you want to sell something, buy something, or coordinate something, you won't accomplish crap unless you pick the phone up and call. Sometimes that doesn't work either and you have to walk up to the person and lift him off his feet to grab his attention.

[#] Fri Feb 03 2023 18:24:26 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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Obsolete for average daily life.  Not eradicated from life.

 

Fri Feb 03 2023 01:09:21 PM EST from darknetuser Subject: Re: I did it again :)
Nobody really wants to talk on the phone anyway. Especially on an


I keep hearing that phone calls are obsolete. It sounds to me like when they say that emails are obsolete.

Texting is fine, but if you want to sell something, buy something, or coordinate something, you won't accomplish crap unless you pick the phone up and call. Sometimes that doesn't work either and you have to walk up to the person and lift him off his feet to grab his attention.

 



[#] Mon Feb 06 2023 23:14:06 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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Obsolete for average daily life.  Not eradicated from life.

Right. And remember, we're just talking about home telephones here. It's nice not having to say "hold on, I'll get him/her for you" or "he/she is not home" or "it's for you" or any of the other machinations of an entire household sharing a telephone. Every call is now a person-to-person call.

Fourscore and seven years ago, our forefathers didn't have mobile telephones, they didn't have text, and if they weren't home you couldn't talk to them.
Isn't science wonderful.

Personally, I *like* the new cultural practice that has sprung up in both personal and business communication where you begin a conversation in text and then ask them if they are willing to continue on the telephone. (Side note: we BBS people invented this 40 years ago; we called it "go voice".)
Unsolicited telephone calls are now considered intrusive. They are reserved for rude people and scammers.

I've been down to the garage half a dozen times in the last couple of days just to admire how nice my wiring center now looks with nothing on it but data connections. No telephone equipment, no television wiring, just the fiber terminal and a couple of Mikrotik devices. At the top, a box with a triplex keystone plate serving as my patch panel. It is teh r0x0r.

[#] Mon Feb 06 2023 23:30:50 UTC from Nurb432

Subject: Re: I did it again :)

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I prefer not being bothered in real time.  As a kid, was not fond of the phone and having to instantly reply to the person on the other end as they rattled on. I have stuff to do, and wasting time with you isn't on that list.  Answering machines were a god-send. I was an early adopter.

At least in person, you could always get up and head home after sensory overload occurs " gotta go *insert some excuse here* "  but it seemed harder to hang up on people and not piss them off.

Email, text, etc is nice. You see it, and can wait.

Only good thing i see out of all of the modern stuff is if you get into a jam you can call for help.   Too many times as a kid i had to find my own way out of trouble.  How to stop the bleeding so you dont die after your crash your bike.. Get a part back on the bike/car/etc so you can limp home. Always carried a minimal tool kit in the trunk + spare parts..  hell still do.   i wonder how many people carry fan belts, a spare ECM, coil.. spool of wire. bla bla.. one car even an extra distributor and engine sensors in a box .. 

 

Only once i had to call for help as a kid.  Idiot me, out in the woods where i should not have been, got on the wrong trail, got stuck in the mud.  Normally you never do that alone, but it was dark and i thought i was cool.  45 min walk in the dark to the nearest pay phone to call my girls father ( it was 11pm..figured i better call him first )  + call for help to pull me out.  Took 2 trucks and me pushing by hand.   Fun times .. lol.

 



[#] Tue Feb 21 2023 14:49:23 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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And now, it seems that the two broadband providers in my area (Verizon and Optimum) are starting to get into a bit of a fiber speed war. This can only be good for consumers! It's almost as if free market competition really works!
:)

Both seem to have settled on NG-PON2 (ITU G.989) for their multi-gigabit networks. This benefits Verizon because GPON and NG-PON2 can coexist on the same glass, as they use different wavelengths. This standard is pretty slick -- multiple OLTs can share a fiber at the head end. And if they totally max it out they can get up to 40 Gbps. Both providers are already offering 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps service in some initial test markets. Wowee!

At this point I'm not sure if there are many residential subscribers who could reasonably make use of any more than 1 Gbps. Even here at AwesomeAcre with four people who use the network heavily, parts of my network are still running at 100 Mbps and no one even notices. Consumer grade 2.5 Gbps equipment is starting to appear, but it's hardly a mainstream thing yet. I think 1 Gbps will be the sweet spot for a good long while.

That having been said, I did see the cable company deploying fiber to my street over the weekend, and I'm noticing signs of fiber installation all over the area now that I'm looking. It seems to be in the stage where they're just using contractors to get the cable up onto the poles for now, and they'll come around to terminate it later. There are big temporary coils everywhere.

[#] Tue Feb 21 2023 16:50:27 UTC from Nurb432

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Few years ago we had fiber run thru our town.   Tore up countless yards. Left 1/2 buried boxes everywhere ( sloppy )

Not one tap here.. we were just in the way heading south so they mowed us down as an irritant.  Why was it not near the main road that is 300 feet away to minimize damage, i dont know. they HAD to go thru residential areas.

At first i thought we might get competition.. nope. 



[#] Sat Mar 11 2023 19:25:59 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Subject: Hacking the Motorola or TelLabs ONT to provide hours of battery backup for DATA

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In case anyone is interested...

When fiber-to-the-home service first began to appear (15-20 years ago) the regulators forced them to provide battery backup for the fiber terminals, because the phones had to keep working during a power outage. Your typical Motorola or TelLabs ONT from that era has a battery backup, but it only keeps the Internet connection going for a few minutes during an outage, so that it can power the phone line for up to eight hours.

Sensible people, who no longer have landline telephone or television service, would prefer to use that battery to keep the Internet connection running during a power outage. Here's a video demonstrating how I did it:

[ https://rumble.com/v2clhv6-hacking-the-verizon-fios-ont-motorola-or-tellabs-to-provide-hours-of-batter.html ]

TL;DR I grounded out the comms pins between the battery backup unit and the rest of the terminal, so that it always believes there is power available. Also I tapped into the +12VDC connection to also feed power to my router and one wifi access point. Now it all stays running for as long as the battery holds out.

[#] Sat Mar 11 2023 19:46:14 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Subject: Re: Hacking the Motorola or TelLabs ONT to provide hours of battery backup for DATA

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I'm posting this as a separate message only for those who are interested.  This is the reason older fiber terminals have a battery backup in the first place, and why newer ones don't.  It's a real SMH moment.

Regular telephone service is highly regulated.  It has to meet a lot of requirements, including the ability to function properly during a power outage for a reasonable amount of time.  This is the reason telco central offices have lots of batteries in them,  for example, even if a generator is present on site.  That's the reason older fiber terminals have battery backup, and it's the reason why those battery backup units shut off the data and video service after a few minutes -- to keep the phone lines working.

But...!  Voice-over-IP services such as Vonage, Magic Jack, Ooma, etc. are not subject to those requirements, because they are classified as "Internet communication" services and not as telephone services.  So what's a company like Verizon to do?

Answer: they brought out a new service called "Verizon Digital Voice".  It uses the same equipment and provides analog telephone service out of the exact same jack on the fiber terminal.  BUT ... they reprogrammed it to connect back to the telephone network using SIP over IP instead of ATM.  It doesn't even use your regular Internet connection, and there isn't even any way to make it do so.  It implements a second IP connection to the terminal, and SIP running over that connection.

And apparently this was enough to get the regulators to consider it an Internet Communication service instead of a Telephone service.  They threw in some niceties, like simultaneous ringing features, to make it look more Vonage-like.  But the important thing was, now that it's an "Internet" phone service, the regulatory requirements went away, and they no longer have to provide a battery backup.  So instead of having a fiber terminal that looks like this:

You can have a much smaller one that looks like this: