Ian, at 02:43 on Feb 15 1997, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

IS> It's simply not possible, while most calling modems do not
IS> emit any tones at all, until the called modem presents
IS> answer or protocol tones.

BG> Precisely, although a software producer could always
BG> utilise V.8 Call Indicate tones for that purpose, I guess...

IS> Yes, and/or V.25 calling tones on many pre-V.34 modems too 

Sure, the tools are there; it's just a matter of correctly utilising them.

IS> .. one might call such a system and probably set yourself up to be ok, but 
IS> inbound, especially on a publicly accessible system like BBS or mailer, 
IS> there's no way you could ever train every caller, or even expect them to 
IS> have it available, or enabled.

Quite so, the opportunity may have already been and gone.  By the same
token, I wouldn't even begin to suggest what will become of modems within
the next few years, and with digitised and multiplexed signals being able
to handle multiple types of data simultaneously, call discrimination may be
largely unnecessary.

IS> My guess is that people will keep on trying though, it does 
IS> keep coming up .. hey, I might even get around to trying 
IS> inbound fax on the mailer here soon :)

Get a lot of faxes via your BBS line, do you Ian?  :)

Regards, Bill

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