Ways of connecting Unix PC's

[Ed Horch]

In article <498 at maxepr.UUCP> ken at maxepr.UUCP (Ken Brassler) writes:
>>>    |       ph0<-----RJ11 null-modem------------->ph0|
>You ARE using modems, so what you need is a "null-telephone company"
>cable. You know, a cable that will produce a dial tone when ph0 goes
>off-hook, then decode the tone sequence it receives, then produce a
>ring signal to the other ph0, etc..... :-)

No smiley needed here, Ken.  That's *exactly* what's needed.  There are
such beasts sold for telephone testing.  Although I can't provide
specifics, I'd imagine such a box wouldn't be cost-effective for this
kind of application, though.  Telecom test eqipment tends to be 
hideously expensive because of low sales volume and also because of 
the mountains of specs this kind of equipment has to meet.

AT&T builds (built?) a telephone interface board for the unix-pc that
was designed to be used for voice-mail type applications.  I used to
know the details of this thing's hardware (Craig? Jonathan?).  It
sounded like a neat thing to do simple call-processing on.  I also
remember that'it was kind of expensive (>$1K) including software, and
it, like the tape system, was *not* discounted during the fire sale.

Might be worth looking into, though.  (Anyone got one for sale? :-)

-Ed Horch