The Creation and Use of A Crusty Box Submitted for exclusive use by HackAddict. 1. What is the Crusty Box 2. Why is it so Crusty? 3. How do you make one? 4. Alternate ways of making the Crusty Box 5. Using the Crusty Box 6. Why it Works ***************************************** What is the Crusty Box? ***************************************** The Crusty Box is an easy way to listen to neighbors phone calls, making calls yourself, and hacking/scanning without getting caught. It is extremely easy to make and is a good way to start phreaking. While it isn't real techincal, it can be useful. Does it deserve to be called a box? That's for the phreaking community to decide. ***************************************** Why is it so Crusty? ***************************************** It is called the Crusty Box because it is not much of box and is easy to make. Most boxes deal with the insides of telephones and more elec- tronic material. The Crusty Box simply works with phone lines and a few extras. Paint it brown when you're done. It was the first color of mine, but tan and brown were already taken. Don't you think of brown when you hear the word crusty? ***************************************** How Do You Make One? ***************************************** Extremely simple and cheap. It really doesn't have to be a box, but it can. Below are the materials you'll need: - a LONG telephone wire (or a few with connectors) - a splitter (found at most electronic stores, allows two lines to go into one jack) - an extra phone - a computer with a modem - a small ring box (or somthing of that type) Take the box (paint it brown!) and cut a hole in one side, enought so the top of the splitter can fit through. Cut two on another side about the same size. Tape the splitter in the box so that the top is sticking out of the one hole. This is the hard part. Many times, on the outside of your victims house, there will be a phone jack or box. If there's a box, there should be 2 jacks. They should say line, or phone, or something to that effect. There should be a wire going into one or both of the jacks. Remove the wire and insert your spiltter into the jack (if there is two, finish completing your box and if doesn't work, switch jacks). Now take the wire that was orginally in the jack and put it into one end of the splitter. The box is now installed. Take the extremely long phone wire and put it into the other end of the splitter. Run that wire into your house and into your modem (you'll have to unplug the line thats already going in there). It IS illegal to run phone lines from one hosue to another, so you could bury the line or hide it somehow. When everything's done, it should look like this: ________ | ____ | <-- Phone Jack |||||| ________| |________ | | | | | | |______ | | | | | | Box | splitter | | | | __ | | | | | | | | | | Original Line | | | | | |_________ |_______|___| | _ | | \|/ _|_______________________| |____________________ /|\ | | Long Phone Line ***************************************** Alternate ways of making the Crusty Box ***************************************** If you don't want to keep the box on your neighbor's house, there is an alternate way to make a Crusty Box. You'll need the same materials except you'll also need 2 extension connectors (can be found wherever you bought the splitter). Cut the box and insert the splitter as shown above. Find you neighbors line that goes into his jack and put and extension connector on it. Take the long phone line and run it into your house. Put the other extension connector on the end of the splitter. Plug the long phone wire into one side of the splitter. Take another long phone line and plug it into the top of the splitter, into the extension connector you just put there. Take a short phone line and plug it into the other jack in the splitter. Plug the other end that short phone line into your modem. Take the long phone line that is connected to the extension connector (the one that is in the top is the splitter) and run it back to your neighbors house and finally plug it in to his jack. Bury the two lines. This way is more complex, but you'll have the box in your possession, and you can easily unplug the lines and put the orginal wire back in the jack. Here's some ascii art to represent it: _____ | <--neighbors orginal line neighbors jack--> | | | | | | | <-- extension connector l.l. --> | | | | | | exten. conn. 2 --> | | | _|_ | <-- long line 2 | |___ | | | splitter & box --> | | | | | _ | | | | |______| | | <-- short line ***************************************** Using the Crusty Box ***************************************** There are many things you can do once you have the Crusty Box installed. You can use your phone to call people useing their line (this billing them). This is not too smart because you can get into trouble is they find out something is happening or they find your box! Also, make sure they have free local calling so each call won't be billed when you war dial. --------- Snooping --------- Listening to your neighbor's conversations can be interesting. To do this as discrete as possible, I recommend a terminal emulator. If you just pick up a phone they will hear it. Once in the emulatorm type "ATDT" and the modem will let you listen to their phone line. Hit return again to hang up. If you type numbers after the "ATDT" it will dial those numbers. A good terminal emulator for the Mac is Z-Term of Smartcom Master. I don't know of many for PC, but I'm sure they're out there. -------- Hacking -------- When your neighbor isn't home, it would be a great time to war dial/hack. It's not on your line so you might not get busted (unless they don't have a computer). Just do everything as normal as you usually would. You can also make prank calls and such without getting them traced to your house. ***************************************** Why it Works ***************************************** Using the Crusty Box is just like stealing a phone from their house. The splitter allows to wire to go into one jack, thus having 2 phones, or a phone and a modem operational at the same time. You are using your neighbor's line for your personal use. Have fun, and don't get caught! (Name witheld by request of the author)