At+t Corp.

At&t Bell Laboratories

James L Archibald

Donald Raymond Laturell

Kurt E Holmquist

Richard K Smith

Steven D Hunt

Mahendra Patel

William R Davis

A communication card includes a housing and a shank rotatably mounted thereto. The shank defines an axis along its length around which the shank can rotate. A connector is mounted on the shank. The shank and connector are extendable beyond an edge of the housing to an extended position. In the extended position, the connector and shank are rotatable about the shank axis.

Communication card with extendible, rotatable coupling

Some data communications networks employ the use of both a leased line and a dial-up line between two modems. Typically, the dial-up line provides a backup capability when the leased line causes a degradation in the signal quality of the data signal. This degradation of the signal quality of the data signal is detected by one of the two modems, which then automatically establishes a data connection over the dial-up line. However, it is preferable to switch back to the leased line as soon as possible since the leased line usually costs less than the dial-up line. Therefore, in order to test the leased line, the entire data signal is simultaneously transmitted on both the dial-up line and the leased line. The use of the existing data signal to test the leased line's effect on signal quality allows the modem to perform a more complete analysis of the returned data signal so that a premature transition back to the leased line does not occur.

Method and apparatus for switching communications from a secondary

A local communication apparatus (e.g., a modem) is arranged to detect when a remote communication apparatus desires to switch from the data mode and enter a command/control mode. To accomplish mode switching, the remote apparatus sends a scrambled escape pattern, scrambled using a proprietary polynomial, over the data channel. After detecting the escape pattern the local apparatus switches to the command/control mode. In this mode, the remote and local apparatuses communicate using the proprietary scrambler/descrambler polynomial.

Command and control signalling method and apparatus

A secure method of accessing a computer facility is provided within the data communications equipment (DCE), e.g., a modem or a terminal server, by the use of Calling Party Directory Number (CPDN). In particular, a telephone line from the local public switched telephone network is configured to provide CPDN information. This telephone line terminates in the DCE, which stores a plurality of lists, each list comprising a plurality of CPDN numbers. Upon receiving a telephone call from a calling party, the DCE takes one of three courses of action depending on the calling party's CPDN: 1) the DCE can answer the telephone call if the calling party's CPDN is on the 'caller pays' list; 2) the DCE can refuse to answer the telephone call and then return the telephone call if the CPDN is on the 'we pay' list; or 3) the DCE can simply not answer, or return, the telephone call if the calling party's CPDN is not found on any of the plurality of lists.

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Clearwater, FL, United States of America

James L Archibald