BT's Call Waiting and ppp

[Mark Ovens]

After several frustrating attempts to d/l a rather large Windows
driver file for a friend (using FreeBSD) when the modem kept
dropping the line I finally twigged that it was caused by BT's Call
Waiting feature, which beeps several times if someone tries to call
you when you are on a call. It appears that this confuses the modem
and it drops the line.

Call Waiting can be cancelled by dialling ``#43#'' but this has 2
problems when using ppp(8).

1. When you dial ``#43#'' you get one of BT's recorded messages; "Call
Waiting is cancelled, <pause>, Call Waiting is cancelled. If this is
incorrect, press square after the dial tone" and then the dial tone
returns.

I tried changing the ``set phone'' line to ``#43#,,,,,,,08450884100'',
the commas allowing the message to pass by but unfortunately, as the
dial tone returns, when ppp(8) dials the number it picks up the line,
but I just get a message, "the number you have dialled has not been
recognized......" as presumably the exchange misses the first few
digits (adding extra zeroes didn't help).

Is there anyway to make this work with ppp? I don't think that there
is, but would it be possible to handle this in any way?

2. The Call Waiting feature is not re-enabled after the call is
finished, you have to dial ``*43#'' to re-enable it.

Is there anyway to pick up the line and send ``ATDT*43#'' to the modem
when the connection is closed? Again, I don't think that there
is, but would it be possible to handle this in any way?

I'm going to contact BT and point out the problem that this causes and
suggest that it would be better if they offered a way of cancelling
Call Waiting on a per-call basis, i.e. automatically re-enabled when
the call is terminated, and to suppress the message but I doubt that I
will get very far.

-- 
PERL has been described as "the duct tape of the Internet"
and "the Unix Swiss Army chainsaw"
				- Computer Shopper 12/99
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