From: fgoldstein@bbn.|nospam.|com (Fred R. Goldstein)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom.tech
Subject: Re: What switch are you on?
Date: 20 Jun 1997 14:17:41 GMT

In article <33A9538D.58CC@stopthespam.nortel.ca>, sohacki@NOSPAM.nortel.ca
says...

>What methods exist to identify the switch a particular
>phone line hangs off of?  Are there any "features" or
>particular nuances that identify one from another?

To tell a DMS-100 from a 5ESS on an analog line, two differences stand out.
One, on a DMS, when you press the first touch-tone digit and hold it down,
dial tone remains on until you release the digit.  On the 5E, dial tone drops
shortly after you press the digit, even before you might release it.

Two, on a DMS, after a call, if you do not have another call waiting or
anything, flashing the switchhook will cause the call to NOT hang up, though
it should; on a 5E, flash when nothing else is pending causes disconnect.
This makes it easier to go on to make a second call on a 5E.

>What info might you expect to able to get from the telco
>(just the type of switch (DMS-100 or a 5ESS) or maybe more,
>e.g. what software revision)?

Depends on the telco.  Some of 'em treat it as national security.  Others are
happy to tell if you can reach the right person, usually a business marketing
side tech-support person.  PacBell has a nice list, for instance, which
national account teams distribute.  Switch type is easier to get than s/w
revision; for ISDN, they have to tell you switch type because they're not
compatible with the same terminal device software!

--
Fred R. Goldstein   k1io    fgoldstein"at"bbn.com
BBN Corp., Cambridge MA  USA         +1 617 873 3850
Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission.

From: varney@ihgp2.ih.lucent.com (Al Varney)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom.tech
Subject: Re: What switch are you on?
Date: 30 Jun 1997 15:13:47 GMT

In article <5p4i9q$ue$5@news01.deltanet.com>,
John Lundgren <localhost@127.0.0.1> wrote:
>Tim Sohacki (sohacki@stopthespam.nortel.ca) wrote:
>> Fred R. Goldstein wrote:

>> > To tell a DMS-100 from a 5ESS on an analog line, two differences
>> > stand out. One, on a DMS, when you press the first touch-tone digit
>> > and hold it down, dial tone remains on until you release the digit.
>> > On the 5E, dial tone drops shortly after you press the digit, even
>> > before you might release it.

>One thing that bothers me is that how can you tell if the dialtone goes
>away at the first instant when pressing the TT pad disables the earpiece?

   Listen on another extension.  But I'd reword the statement as:

   ... on a DMS, when you press the first touch-tone digit and release it,
   dial tone remains on well after you release the digit.  On the 5E, dial
   tone is gone by the time you release the first digit (unless you are
   very fast).

Al Varney - just personal experience, not an ad for my employer