FOREIGN PHONE SOCKETS When I asked for advice on connecting modems to phone sockets around the world I got a lot of useful advice here on CIS. I've collated it here, but can't personally vouch for the accuracy of all that follows. The people who were so helpful to me on CIS will very probably help you too if you run into difficulty. Their IDs are reproduced along with their advice. Key Contact: TeleAdapt Manufactures/distributes all manner of adaptors, acoustic couplers, road warrior kits, and books. Very helpful staff. Tel +1 (408) 370-5105 +44 (081) 421 4444 Fax +1 (408) 370-5110 +44 (081) 421 5308 Best of luck in your travels, Matthew Goldsbrough CIS 73241,2533 08-Jul-94 ------------------------------------ From: Dennis Lefebvre 71660,1273 You will need to purchase individual adapters for each country, there's no "universal" adapter because, unlike electricity, there's no common standard in Europe. I have easily, and inexpensively, found RJ11-to-local converters in London, Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. Mind you, using an "unapproved" modem is illegal in most countries, the adapters are sold not for the convenience of travellers, but because imported phones, answering machines, &tc often ship with RJ11 cords. It is possible to buy some in the US, or mail order from a UK firm (I'll look for the CIS UID if you like) that has a very complete assortment, but they are much more expensive than buying locally, which I found to be a pleasant diversion. However, if you are travelling on business and won't have time to shop, or cannot risk being offline, it would probably pay to buy in advance. ------------------------------------ From: Dennis Lefebvre 71660,1273 Via CIS:MAIL I am sending you a file describing the phone connectors used in various contries [IT FOLLOWS]. The author, Gordon Brown 100111,2713, can supply any of the described adapters via mail from the UK. I have not purchased anything from him, although I may before my next trip, so this is not an endorsement. I bought the Dutch one in an Amsterdam department store; the Belgian one at Tandy; and the French one at a Paris shop that sold telephones, knives, guns and other "security" products. ------------------------------------ From: Gordon Brown 100111,2713 WORLD TELEPHONE PLUG GUIDE The following is a guide to the telephone plugs used worldwide. To generalise, all developed countries of the world have their own specific type, which have been adopted by other countries. The American plug - the US RJ11 - is the nearest to a "standard" that exists and has been adopted in about 40 countries worldwide - notably, outside of the USA & Canada, Greece, Spain and Ireland. Those countries shown to use the US RJ11 system, are known to use it in at least their major hotels, if not throughout the country. - e.g. in Romania, the Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest uses the RJ11, but older phones are hardwired. It is our recommendation that an international traveller should always travel with the following items in addition to the national Telephone plug of the country - supplied by TeleAdapt as TeleDaptors. The US RJ11 telephone plug suitably prepared for connection to the users modem. A pair of "crocodile/alligator" clips - "TeleClips" A telephone line tester "TeleTester" These items are provided by TeleAdapt in the TeleToolkit. If travelling to countries where metering impulses are present: A Tax impulse filter - "TeleFilter" Travellers are cautioned that the US RJ11 is also used by modem and telephone manufacturers as a convenient quick disconnect at the telephone base/modem body. Although this is identical and physically compatible to the US RJ11 telephone plug, electrical mismatches may occur if the normal telephone cable is removed from the modem and a locally bought cable used, resulting in "NO DIALTONE" messages. It is TeleAdapt's policy always to provide adaptors that convert after the working cable, providing a known interface. Country TeleDaptor Advised ABU DHABI British and US RJ11 AFGHANISTAN Russian? AJMAN British ALBANIA Greek/Russian? ALGERIA French ARGENTINA Argentinean (2 types) AUSTRALIA Australian AUSTRIA Austrian - TeleFilter AZORES Portuguese BAHRAIN British BANGLADESH British old & US RJ11 BELGIUM Belgian - TeleFilter BELIZE British & US RJ11 BENIN French & S.African? BOTSWANA British BRAZIL US, Brazilian & French BULGARIA Russian BURUNDI S. African? CAMEROON French/S. African CENT. AFRICAN REPUB S. African CHAD French C.I.S. Russian CONGO French COOK ISLANDS Australian CUBA Russian? CYPRUS British & US RJ11 CZECHOSLOVAKIA Czechoslovakian - TeleFilter DENMARK Danish DJIBOUTI French EGYPT Turkish, French & US RJ11 ETHIOPIA Italian FAEROE ISLES Danish FALKLAND ISLES British FIJI Australian FINLAND Finnish/Norwegian (2 types) FRANCE French FRENCH GUIANA French FRENCH POLYNESIA French GABON French GAMBIA British old/new GERMANY German (2 types) - TeleFilter GHANA British old/new GIBRALTAR British GREECE US RJ11 & Greek GREENLAND Danish GUADELOUPE French HONG KONG US RJ11 & British HUNGARY Hungarian INDIA British Old INDONESIA Australian IRAN US RJ11 & Turkish ISRAEL Israeli - 2 types ITALY Italian JAPAN US RJ11 & Japanese JORDAN US RJ11 & British KENYA British old & new, US RJ11 KOREA (SOUTH) US RJ11 & US old 4 pin KUWAIT US RJ11 & British LEEWARD ISLANDS US RJ11 & French/Dutch LESOTHO US RJ11, British & S. African LIECHTENSTEIN German & Swiss LUXEMBOURG German (old) MACAO US RJ11 & Portuguese MALAWI Danish & British/US RJ11 MALAYSIA British & US RJ11 MALI French MALTA British MARTINIQUE French MONACO French MONGOLIA Russian? MOROCCO French MOZAMBIQUE US RJ11 & Portuguese NAMIBIA South African NETHERLANDS Dutch NEW CALEDONIA Australian NEW ZEALAND British NIGER French NIGERIA British (Old) & German (Old) NORFOLK ISLAND Australian NORWAY Finnish/Norwegian (2 types) OMAN British & US RJ11 PAKISTAN US RJ11 & British (old) PALAU Australian? PAPUA NEW GUINEA Australian POLAND Polish/Russian PORTUGAL US RJ11 & Portuguese QATAR US RJ11 & British REUNION French/Australian? RUSSIA Russian RWANDA French SAMOA Australian SAN MARINO Italian SAUDI ARABIA British & US RJ11 SENEGAL French/South African SINGAPORE US RJ11 & British SOLOMON ISLES Australian? SOUTH AFRICA South African ST.MARTIN French ST.PIERRE/MIQULON French SPAIN US RJ11 - TeleFilter SURINAM Dutch SWAZILAND British SWEDEN Swedish (2 types) SWITZERLAND Swiss (2 types) - TeleFilter SYRIA US RJ11 & Turkish TANZANIA British TOGO French TONGA Australian? TUNISIA French TURKEY Turkish UK British VENEZUELA Venezuelan YUGOSLAVIA Yugoslavian ZAIRE Belgian/S. African? ZAMBIA British ZIMBABWE British/S. African US RJ11 Countries Antigua & Barbuda Bahamas Bahrain Barbados Bermuda Bolivia Borneo Burma Cambodia Canada Cayman Isles Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Diego Garcia Dominica Dominican Rep. Dubai Ecuador El Salvador Grenada Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bisseau Guyana Haiti Honduras Iceland Indonesia Ireland Jamaica Jordan Laos Lebanon Liberia Libya Malaysia Maldive Islands Mexico Monserrat Nicaragua Oman Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Puerto Rico Romania Seychelles Singapore Spain Sri Lanka St. Kitts & Nevis St. Lucia St. Vincent Taiwan Thailand Trinidad & Tobago Turks & Caicos UAE Uruguay Vietnam Virgin Isles Yemen V3.0 This guide is copyright to TeleAdapt. It is compiled from many information sources and is subject to update at any time. Feedback is welcome to changes and anomalies discovered. E&.O.E. This information has been provided by Gordon Brown - 100111,2713. It comes from LIB 0 - General Interest, of the Travel Forum on CompuServe. ------------------------------------ From: Robert Starling 72440,2501 I have an "Emergency Jumper Cable" so to speak that I made for cases where the phone lines and connectors are not friendly. It is two small alligator clips with insulating covers connected to a six foot length of phone line that has an RJ-11 on the other end. You can usually dismantle the phone or wall jack to find an open lead. Another option I've used is crude and requires a little tinkering but it works...particularly if the wall jack is behind a 300 pound dresser and the phone is like a vault. Insert two straight pins parallel into the "offending" phone line until you find the red/green individually. Then you can use the alligator clips to the head of each pin. Also, you can unscrew the mouthpiece and connect the alligator clips directly to the leads/contacts of the mouthpiece. The old fashion way is an acoustic coupler. If you travel a lot, a good book to read is The Complete Laptop Computer Guide by David H. Rothman and published by St. Martin's Press. There are in-depth chapters on foreign phone connections and traveling in and out of countries where a computer is viewed as more of a threat than a gun. Several good sources listed as well. I used to correspond with David on MCI Mail. His MCI address is 1065024. He may even be on CIS. He would most likely be up to date on the latest information. Also, a fair warning is in order when tinkering with foreign phones. Do it at your own risk. ------------------------------------ From: Michael Reichmann 76703,2007 I'm a bit behind the others in addressing the question of international telephone jack adaptors, but here are some comments based on years of travelling abroad with various portable PCs. There is a company called Teleadapt, (408/370-5105) who sell adaptors for virtually every telephone plug in the world. These are available as individual units or as kits, based on geographic region. They can be quite expensive. A bigger issue (2 actually) that I have found is that in many hotels around the world the phone are hard wired or the wall attachement point is inaccessable behind a bureau etc. Even more problematic is that many hotels abroad (not too many in the US) have digital PABXs and phone sets and thus an analogue device such as a modem simply won't work. The best solution that I have found is a device called the TeleSwitch, also sold as the CP+ Telecoupler II, and possibly by other names. It looks a lot like an old fashioned acoustic coupler, but it doesn't replace your existing modem, it works with it. Simply attach the earmuffs to the telephone handset (its very! adaptable) and then plug your modem into the TeleSwitch. (The company Teleadapt whos number appears above also sells them). The advantage of this approach is that you can dial the number from the handset, just like a voice call, including going through USA Direct, and then as soon as you hear the remote connection put the muffs on the handset at hit connect on your software. I used this approach to send and receive faxes and data from London, Paris Amsterdam, Tokyo etc all within the past few months. Works like a charm and usually is able to support 9600 bps if the lines are clean. ------------------------------------