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This is something that I have been wondering about for a while.
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It is entirely possible to recieve a phone call at the same time that you are on the computer. I haven't been able to afford the hardware, but it is out there. I am talking about a standard one line, home phone line. I figured out a long time ago that that had to be possible. I have a piece of the phone cable that is strung between the poles out front. Inside that cable there are 10 wires. That makes 5 pairs, or 5 possible 'single, home phone lines'. Or at least that is what we are to believe if we believe that only one call in or out is possible on those wires that come into our house.
I live in a remote area. We have phone lines coming in on only one established road right now. One cable. The very cable that runs past my place, and that I am tapped into. Between me and the highway, there are near to 700 places with phones. After me, there are at least a thousand. If only one call at a time can go through on any two of those wires in that cable, why is there more than 5 people with phones out here ? Or, why isn't there several hundred bundles of those cables ?
The answer, of course, is that a number of calls can all be taking place simultaneously on any pair of those wires in that cable. They are simply on different frequncies or something. Someone else has already figured out how to take advantage of this, and has a box out that, if plugged into the wall, and your phone and modem both plugged into it, will allow you to talk on the phone at the same time that you are making a post here at Breaktime.
Now for my "I wonder why"... given all that, why hasn't someone come up with a modem that will use that same basic method, but basicaly make a number of modem connections all at the same time, through your phone line, and add them all together at your computer. In essence giving you, not one 56k connection, chopped to smaller bits, but multiple 56k connections all going at once, and bottlenecked into your computer. I think I've already seen instances of one connection divided into a bunch of downloads at once, to 'speed it up'. That's not the sort of thing I am talking about. I am talking about, in essence, a number of separate 'phone calls' all happening over the same line, and all funneled into one internet connection for your computer.
*I've kludged a drawing of what could theoreticaly be done just using those 50 dollar boxes you can get at Fred Meyers...You'd still have to have another special box just to put all those separate 'calls' back together again to feed into your computer, or modems would have to be designed to do that.But... the real thought is that if that box can be built with two connections possible on one line, why can't it be built with any number of connections allowed ? And coming roundabout, why aren't modems already built that do this ? (Make a bunch of connections simultaneously, and then tie them all together into one connection for the home computer.) Is that basicaly what DSL is ???
*Luka any thing past the on button is ?able to me :-)
*I think there are phone connections capable of multiple connections, but the phone company controls this sort of thing and they charge a lot for it. T1 lines have been around for a long time and they handle many many calls at once, but they are expensive. DSL only works if you are close to the phone company. Here it is limited to 3 miles - not an option for me. One thing I do know is the ordinary phone line coming into houses has multiple wires to serve as a backup or to make it easy to add a second line. you only use 2 wires for a single line - the others are dead. Fiber optic cables they are now starting to put into houses allow a lot more data to come in. I can never get more than 24k at my house because that's all the phone company gives me at my rural location. Doesn't matter what modem I put on my computer. I'm pretty sure the cable capacity has something to do with the number of splits that would be capable on a home line. The old wires are only 24 gauge and can't carry all that much. With my marginal wiring, I'm not sure even the $50 splitter would work ok. Too often, I get static connections just using voice. I'm also pretty sure ma bell has a lock on getting multiple lines over a single paid phone line without paying them for more.Mary
*Seems like I remember seeing ads for some sort of thingy (That's a technical term) that would use call waiting to "put your computer on hold" while you took a call. But I don't remember who made it.
*Luka,when you see this item in Radio Shack 2 years from now you can prove (Via Breaktime archives) that you had the idea first! Go get that patent!!!Seriously though, I wonder if the phone company's infrastructure could handle this en mass. Can you imagine every household now utilizing their line to make, say, a dozen calls at once? (voice plus 11 synchronized modem calls). Maybe it could handle it, but I don't know.I think they are sinking their infrastructure dollars into things like fiber on the poles instead, which of course holds great promise if/when we can all connect it to our house/computer.
*LukeWhile the wire pair can carry more information. It ends up at phone company where they "process" it with the other signals. Now days the phone calls are all digitized and then you are working with a bits that are mixed and switched until it get to the there end where it is converted back to analog again. That part of the system can only handle voice bank (300 - 3000 Hz). So you are limited to a single function.However, what you are suggesting is done, but not at the user end. As I said the wire pair can carry more information. For a while I shared a phone line with the neighbor. There was a small box on the top called a DSLIC (digital subscriber line inteface card). Basically that moved part of the functions of central office out to my pole where they then split the single line into two.For DSL they run frequencies that are above the voice band. At the user end there is a filter to remove it from the phones. At the central office end there is also filters to direct the digital information to a separate path.Also you are seeing this done more and more. In a lot of areas of new developement you will see Telco green "boxes" on pads. They run multiple cable, now days fiber optics, from the central office to the box which then converts it to the voice band signles for each pair to the home.The concept of multiple more than one communications on a line is not new. This was done with telegrah signals. That is what Bell was working on before he got side tracked with the telephone.
*...If we had all gone Apple......We would all have brain implants by now......We would all have brain implants by now......We would all have brain implants by now......We would all have brain implants by now......Or maybe not............n...
*There is software available to enable you to receive phone calls through your internet connection. I can't think of any names but I've seen it advertised. I have home phone calls forwarded to the cell phone if I'm online during working hours.
*DSL will allow your computer to be online 24/7 while the telephone works just like it should. Some Internet providers offer an Internet Call Director that gives you the option to go offline and answer the phone, ignore the call or give the caller a message. There is a "callers" phone number displayed to help you with this decision.
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This is something that I have been wondering about for a while.