> From: John Day <jeanjour@xxxxxxxxxxx> > > No, there was nothing illegal about it. The reason for acoustic > couplers was that the RJ-11 had been invented yet and it was a pain > to unscrew the box on the wall and re-wire every time you wanted to > connect. In the 1970s, in the US, and for inter-state use, you either had to rent the modem from the phone company, or rent a "data-access arrangement" device to connect your modem to the network. The DAA cost about as much as the modem, so there was little in the way of independent modems. Acoustic couplers got around that rule. Also, in those days, there was a large four-pronged plug that could be used for phones. It was sometimes used when people wanted to move phones around. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:4prongplug.JPG Dale
