38 replies to this topic

[PurpleJesus]

I used to have a similar problem on my c64 when doing 1200 bps.. I found that if I manually set it to something like 1210 bps it cleared up junk like that.. just a thought.

Hey there, which terminal software do you use?? To date I haven't seen one that you can manually set to 1210... I've also checked my modem's instructions (it's an External USR) and there's no command to set it to 1210....

Cheers

Not sure how it's done today. the modem itself would think 1200 bps, but set the computers I/O uart to clock at 1210 bps.. On the C64 it was just a little math and poking 2 bytes the uart would then use for it's clock divider.

I just posted that cause I had a similar problem when I wrote a BBS program 25 years ago..

Googling around, try Realterm : http://realterm.sourceforge.net/
it says it can accept any rate you specify, it depends on the hardware you have if it'll be accepted or not.

Failing that, I'd say sniff the rx/tx lines with a logic analyzer and do some math to verify the speed and other settings.

[ThoughtPhreaker]

I pass by a bunch of Millenniums daily that want a real rate quote for every call.

Heh, well, I lied. My schedule has been shifting around a lot, so I think the earliest chance I might get to have at that phone will be early next week.

I noticed the numbers being dialled out were only 9 digits?? I may have missed one but I was trying to see what the number was to the MillManager it was dialling to...

No, it was ten digits. I was just making a really big kluge to isolate both channels, which involved Asterisk and a DID that uses RFC-2833. Out of band DTMF being the most useless thing in the world, it naturally broke it on the recording. The way I recorded it is more or less just poking at an inherent flaw in the way the phone works. The process went something like this;

1) Call Asterisk DID that records call, waits forever for a number with cellular phone
2) Pick up Millennium and get fake dialtone
3) While sitting on fake dialtone, make new call on mobile phone to Millennium
4) Dial number that requires modem usage on the Millennium
5) Millennium goes offhook to dial out, answering incoming call from the mobile phone
6) Quickly bridge call to asterisk and Millennium, and mute cell
7) Millennium gives Asterisk toll-free reporting number
8) Sans hax, call goes through semi-normally.

In retrospect, I don't think you have to give it a real dialtone. Just anything that sounds like some kind of tone - even humming into your phone will probably work.

This was a crude setup however with microphones taped to handsets.. I'm actually going to setup the recording to playback as an extension on my Asterisk box... hopefully my modem can get more out of it with a quieter and "direct" connection....

You could probably get away with just making an electrical interface between a phone patch and your modem. The idea of isolating the two channels is to make it as clean as possible, so you can afford a little noise later . Are you sure it's 8N1, though? I tried a bunch of different parity settings, and [Connection] always came through without a problem. I'm by no means any sort of modem veteran, but I think the fact that we're getting semi-random stuff in between might indicate a problem with the parity/stop bits/whatnot.

[armeniki]

Hi ThoughtPhreaker,

Well that's quite an elaborate albeit necessary process! Very clever though

Are you sure it's 8N1, though? I tried a bunch of different parity settings, and [Connection] always came through without a problem.

Oh really? Ok that's interesting... I'll fiddle around with that this week... *however* I'm wondering if the connection recording you have is too short or incomplete or perhaps due to static... that's why towards the end it becomes gibberish? just a thought....

If you're able to get the Millennium Manager's number as it dials out that would be helpful as well.... I'm wondering if I can use it to configure "install" the the phone that I have (pictured above) whilst I record the entire conversation (via Asterisk)... that would be a very lengthy "transaction" between the two and could be a big help in figuring out protocols...

an inherent flaw in the way the phone works

Definitely a flaw but I suspect one that can be fixed easily by the telco as this is working only because the physical phoneline accepts incoming calls even though the phone itself won't ring (hope they don't notice that)..... best to take advantage of this as long as possible


PurpleJesus: Thanks for that.. I'll play with these settings and see how I go.

Cheers

Edited by armeniki, 28 February 2011 - 12:15 AM.

[ThoughtPhreaker]

http://thoughtphreak.../millenown.flac

Well, that took way longer than it should've, but I got it. For reference, I dialed 212-736-5000, and was quoted $5.05 for one minute. Who would (could?) actually pay that is beyond me.

If you're able to get the Millennium Manager's number as it dials out that would be helpful as well.... I'm wondering if I can use it to configure "install" the the phone that I have (pictured above) whilst I record the entire conversation (via Asterisk)... that would be a very lengthy "transaction" between the two and could be a big help in figuring out protocols...

The tandem machine probably takes a look at the serial number you send forward, or even uses it to authenticate. You might want to be careful. Or find yourself a serial number >.>

Just fyi, the phone will call a different reporting number depending on what company owns it, so if it really authenticates based on serial number, you might want to grab the reporting number from the set.

Edited by ThoughtPhreaker, 03 March 2011 - 03:07 PM.

[armeniki]

Thanks for that ThoughtPhreaker!

$5.05 for one minute. Who would (could?) actually pay that is beyond me.

LOL! And the telcos wonder why no one uses payphones any longer...

Just fyi, the phone will call a different reporting number depending on what company owns it

This could be true but I'm not sure just yet... Personally I'm thinking that since Quortech owns all of the management equipment and they licence everything out, there's only one main number that can be reached from everywhere.

I think it's both or either the phone number or the serial number which tells Quortech where the phone is/which telco it belongs to.. during the Install process the set wants to know its telephone number and a serial number.... so perhaps when MM receives a call from phone 311 555 2368 and serial 12345678 it'll look it up and say 'oh that's Bob's Telco in Punxsutawney PA' we'll load profile xyz for it'... and so on... I could be completely wrong but that's my thought...


Anyways, just as an aside..... from what I've noticed about the way the Install procedure works, the MM will load the following into each set:

1) Time/Date
2) Company Banner (which can be displayed or not)
3) Which language is displayed by default (English/Spanish/French)
4) A list of numbers which can be dialled at no cost
5) A list of local numbers and the local cost.
6) A list of numbers to be programmed into any speed dial buttons
7) A schedule of when to dial in to report CDRs
8) A list of numbers which can be dialled out during a power failure (this programs that extra Elcotel board)
9) Whether its modem is to answer any incomings calls or not, if the line accepts incoming calls in the first place.
10) A validation string to verify any calling card(s) - this is simply to say that the card is valid/acceptable, the actual approval/processing takes place server side.
11) A list of allowable Craft access numbers.
12) A list of allowable Install/Coin Collection/etc. PINs for techs to use.

I think that's about it...

Ok - now to figure out this serial number business....

Edited by armeniki, 04 March 2011 - 02:17 AM.

[ThoughtPhreaker]

This could be true but I'm not sure just yet... Personally I'm thinking that since Quortech owns all of the management equipment and they licence everything out, there's only one main number that can be reached from everywhere.

Take a listen to the first recording again. The DTMF is messed up, but you can clearly hear it's dialing a different number then in the second recording.

A validation string to verify any calling card(s) - this is simply to say that the card is valid/acceptable, the actual approval/processing takes place server side.

I can definitely vouch for something like this happening. When I made that first recording, I planned on swiping an old calling card, and have the phone try to validate it. It didn't approve of this.

[armeniki]

Hi all... just wanted to post this to keep this thead alive! I know there's a lot of challenges to get this going but I don't want to give up.

Meanwhile, I have recorded a whole bunch of prompts from the Millennium if any one really needs one.....

Cheers!

[ThoughtPhreaker]

Nice, how'd you get the prompts without having the phone set up?

By all means, though, let us know what direction you want to take this in.

[armeniki]

Nice, how'd you get the prompts without having the phone set up?

By all means, though, let us know what direction you want to take this in.

Hey mate,

I just used a simple pick-up mic and a high quality DVR/DAR.

Meanwhile, I saw another Millennium on eBay a week ago and wanted to bid on it but I thought I'd better get the one I have sorted and working before I can get another one....

I've been thinking about this but do you think Nortel created a standalone program like M-Manager to use for testing purposes or in a workshop?? I just find it hard to believe that a tandem computer is the only thing that the software is available on...

By the way are you able to send me another recording of a modem communication? Still trying to figure this out although I haven't put too much time into it recently but will in the next month.


Cheers

Edited by armeniki, 09 February 2012 - 07:27 PM.

[armeniki]

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Edited by armeniki, 09 February 2012 - 07:28 PM.

[armeniki]

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Edited by armeniki, 09 February 2012 - 07:26 PM.

[ThoughtPhreaker]

Wow, you've really put a lot of commitment into this. Kudos to you, good sir.

I can make another recording, but would you mind if the distant/local ends weren't isolated like they were in the last two? I've had a bit of trouble, and the equipment I used to make that recording isn't running right now. Try making a mixdown of the recordings you already have - I've tried this before myself, and it seems like modems are pretty resilient against noise at that baud rate, but the possible lack of error correction could be a problem.

So this proves my point about the modem handshake being too long on our regular modems... so hopefully I can figure out a way to shorten it... anybody know the right AT commands for that?

I've had that problem with my modems too - I think when support for lower baud rates started to go downhill in some of the later - and present modems. One thing you might be able to do to help is type ATS37=5 on most modems; this will force it into 1200 baud mode on most chipsets.

[armeniki]

Wow, you've really put a lot of commitment into this. Kudos to you, good sir.

No worries, I'm just trying to get this phone to work... hopefully someone out there can contribute as well.

I can make another recording, but would you mind if the distant/local ends weren't isolated like they were in the last two?

Sure they don't have to be seperated.

Edited by armeniki, 27 December 2011 - 10:23 PM.

[armeniki]

Progress - am now able to communicate with it and have uploaded the time/date (yy-mm-dd).....

Attached Files

•  IMG_20111226_152418.jpg   947.61K   8 downloads

Edited by armeniki, 27 December 2011 - 10:26 PM.

[Andrew]

Progress - am now able to communicate with it and have uploaded the time/date (yy-mm-dd).....

Wow! That's really cool, would you like to tell us how you managed it?

[ThoughtPhreaker]

Nice! I've been told if you can find the Millennium Manager access number, it'll set the time and date on the phone even if you give it an invalid serial number.

I've been working with a friend to get a recording setup with both sides isolated by the way. When he gets it ready, is there anything in particular that you'd like me to record? The Millenniums in place here are the electronic equivalent of world class bullshitters; no matter what you dial, they have an answer for it. Even calls to international mobile numbers (which I'm sure much to the chagrin of whoever pays for international, they can't tell the difference between) will be quoted without communicating to the Millennium Manager. Even if you give it country codes that don't exist, it'll come back with a rate quote - I gave it an international premium rate service number, and it still gave me a quote. Since that idea never took off for international carriers, we sadly can't check and see if that actually completes.

With the possible exception of credit card calls, the only way I've found to make them call in is to give them an area code that doesn't exist; it always comes back saying it can't rate the call, though, and I think that's one of the first recordings I posted.

[armeniki]

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Edited by armeniki, 29 January 2012 - 03:22 AM.

[armeniki]

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Edited by armeniki, 29 January 2012 - 03:22 AM.

[armeniki]

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Edited by armeniki, 29 January 2012 - 03:21 AM.