Analog modem emulator?

[Vintage Computer Festival]

On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, Cini, Richard wrote:

> I was talking about the VCF exhibit, where I believe you would still

D'oh!  Sorry.

> need a modem bank. If I have two Apple II's each with a modem plugged into
> the PBX and I "dial" extension 101 which is the host PC, won't I get a busy
> when the second Apple dials "101"? I think you do need a modem bank on the
> host PC with the fallover feature on the PBX programmed properly. The PBX is
> simply acting as the "phone company" for purposes of connecting the two.

In telco parlance this is what's called a "hunt group", where you have
multiple destinations in a group that all have the same function where it
doesn't matter which one you reach (for instance a customer support line).
So you have one number assigned to the entire group, and the PBX will pick
the first available extension based on some simple algorithm (hunt from
top down, bottom up, least used, etc.)

In the VCF exhibit, my thinking is that each exhibitor is assigned an
extension, and so people on the outside (or inside) can call into a main
number and then from there transfer themselves to a particular exhibitor's
extension.  If there's a TCP/IP to telco gateway (what we are discussing
here) then the gateway PC would have a bank of modems connected into the
PBX and anyone coming in on a TCP/IP "call" would be randomly assigned a
physical modem, and from there they could dial into any available
extension.  If the extension is busy, they try another (or get routed to
e-mail to leave a message ;)

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
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