If any of you have recently had the urge to build a box, you may have been stunned by the number out there. Sure, we all know the only real box is the blue box, but once you see all these knock offs (rainbow box, crimson box, cheese box, etc...) you may start to wonder if any of them work. True, quite a few do, but most of them are a waste of time to build (if I wanted a damn hold button I’d buy a two line phone– at least the buttons on them work), plus, many times people write these to get attention, even though there is no way in hell they would function correctly, if at all. Well, I decided to write this, to help people out who want to experiment with electronics and phones (that and the fact that I’m a loser with no life). After reading this file, you’ll start to wonder if the days of boxing have finally come to an end- or if they are just starting all over again. This file will provide a short overview of as many boxes as I can find, and give a small history lesson in the process.
NOTE: Many boxes require you open the phone box on the outside of your house. Not the customer access side, but the phone company side. This can be done w/ a 7/16 inch hex driver.
ACRYLIC BOX
Purpose: The purpose of this box is to get Three-Way-Calling, Call
Waiting, programmable Call Forwarding, and an easier way of extended Bud Boxing (tap and use your neighbor’s phone line).
Contruction: Sounds rather easy, but it may be too good to be true?
Probably is, considering all you need is wire, an AT&T or Bell Can,
and some wire. Well, basically what your doing is going around to
people’s houses and mixing up their lines and wires. No real skill
involved here, as long as you follow instructions.
Risks: I guess you could have fun with this one, but people aren’t
stupid and will check their box and call the Gestapo (er, phone
company) and complain. There’s a good chance of getting caught,
especially if you have wires and lines running from their house to
your (BTW, it is illegal to have phone lines running from one house to another- we tried this with Warcraft).
AQUA BOX
Purpose: The Aqua box kills the FBI lock ‘n trace. I copied this
from the text file:
The F.B.I. can tap into a conversation,
sort of like a three-way call connection. Then, when they get there,
they can plug electricity into the phone line. All phone connections
are held open by a certain voltage of electricity, that is why you
sometimes get static and faint connections when you are calling far
away, because the electricity has trouble keeping the lineup. What the lock in trace does is cut into the line and generate that same voltage straight into the lines. That way, when you try and hang up, voltage is retained. Your phone will ring just like someone was calling you even after you hang up. (If you have call waiting, you should understand better about that, for call waiting intercepts the
electricity and makes a tone that means someone is going through your line). Then, it is a matter of which voltage is higher. When you push down the receiver, then it see-saws the electricity to the other side. When you have a person on each line it is impossible to hang up unless one or both of them will hang up. If you try to hang up, voltage is retained, and your phone will ring. That should give you an understanding of how calling works, also. When electricity passes through a certain point on your phone, the electricity causes a bell to ring or on some newer phones an electronic ring to sound.)
Contruction: In order for the Aqua box to work, you have to drain all of the voltage out of the line. This is the exact purpose of the box. This is accomplished with a BEOC, a Basic Electrical Output Socket, and some work. The box is rather simple to build, and I’ve heard that it works, although I have never experienced the lock ‘n trace first hand. In fact, I’m not even sure if they still use it.
Risks: Well, since the FBI is already onto you, this is basically your
last hope, so there isn’t much more you can do.
BEIGE BOX
Purpose: The Beige box creates a lineman’s handset, something that is rather fun to experiment with. You can hook it up to a neighbor’s or a businesses’ line and use their line just as if you were in their
house.
Construction: As far as I know, this box works and works well, but
there is still a high risk of getting caught. Building the box is
simple if you have some knowledge of how alligator clips work, and is a good project for a beginning phreak. Try it in a hotel.
Risks: Same risks of the Acrylic, they could find out and report you.
BLACK BOX
Purpose: The black box allows the person calling you not to be billed for the call. This is done by tinkering with the voltage in the
phone. At any one time, there is voltage running though your phone
line. When the phone rings, the voltage jumps up to 48 volts. When
you pick up, it goes down to 10 and you can communicate. The phone company pays attention to this and starts billing you for it. The black box keeps the voltage at 36 volts, so the phone company doesn’t know your talking. The box is simple and easy to construct.
Unfortuantly, you’ll have to find a phone that you need to wind up to talk on, because they were the last phones that used this type of
billing system. Doing it now will only cause suspicion, and is a
waste of money (about $1.49).
Contruction : Simple, but it doesn’t work anymore so why build it?
Risks: Back in the day, if you used this box too long, the phone
company will thing your phone is ringing because of the high voltage. After about 1/2 hour of ringing, they will disconnect your phone because they think something is wrong. History lesson here.
BLAST BOX
Purpose: The blast box is an amplifier hooked up to the phone’s mic
to amplify (hence the name “amplifier”) the sound.
Construction: The instructions are very vague, and requires a little
knowledge of electronics. Now, most phones come with a built in
volume control, and thus makes the blast box useless.
Risks: None, unless it’s illegal to be loud or to open your phone.
BLOTTO BOX
Purpose: This one made me laugh the first time I heard it. What this
is supposed to do is generate so much electricity that it turns off
all of the phone lines in your area. Wow you say? We’ll, I’ve only
heard of one person who had the nuts to build this one and he’s no
longer with us. After construction, you must turn on the box with a
remote of a long rubber pole to avoid being killed. The generator
used in this box generates so much electricity that it will kill you
if you are too close, and may shock people who try to use the phone in close proximity to your “experiment”. No one is sure if this one
works, because frankly no one want to see if it does. I will pay good
money to see someone attempt to build this one, so tell me if you plan to.
Contruction: Don’t even try. Dangerous, semi-complex, and just an
all-around dumb thing to to. However, if and when it works, it sounds like a blast
Risks: Just a few small ones like being put away in jail for life and
dying. Nothing to be afraid of, right?
BLUE BOX
Purpose: The only real box, the blue box generates tones which allow you to control operator switchboards and have all sorts of fun. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on this one, because if you don’t know about it, you don’t deserve to be reading this magazine. These boxes were used a while ago, and when I say a while, I mean the 60s and 70s. You know, back in the day were you actually had to know a little to computers, not now when any schmuck with a computer can go into newsgroups and boards and call themselves a hacker. Sorry, got a little off track. There have been numerous files written on this one, but now anything you play through the phone cannot effect the switchboard. Until phreakers find away around this, the legend of blue boxing is dead.
The blue box generated many tones, the most famous of which is the 2600hz tone. This tone can also be reproduced by a Cap’n Crunch whistle which were included in the cereal a long time ago. You can probably still buy them from an old school phreaker, though. In fact, I think they may sell them in the 2600 marketplace.
Construction: This one doesn’t have to be a box. You can find blue
box tones all over the net (www.weasel.org for Macintosh), and build one for nostalgic reasons.
Risks: Well, don’t get caught with it, because even though they don’t
work, possesion of one will result in a large fine and/or jail time.
BROWN BOX
Purpose: This allows you to take two lines in your house and make a party line out of them. For the most part, this box works, but has
little phreaking value. If you want a party line, check this one out.
Contruction: It doesn’t look that complex to build, and schematics
are in ASCII (as most are). I wish someone would use SketchPad and draw these things instead of using ASCII art.
Risks: I’m not sure if this is illegal or not, but I believe you have
to pay a monthly bill for a party line (in some places). So this
would be a form of stealing.
BUD BOX
Purpose: This acts an an extension of your neighbor’s line. You run
a line attached to some alligator clips from their house to yours and
plug a phone in.
Construction: A moron could build this one, and is good for listening
to other’s conversations (there are quite a few boxes that do this).
Risks: You still have to run wires across the yard or whatever, and
you run a high risk of getting caught. Same risks as the Acrylic.
CHARTREUSE BOX
Purpose: I’ve never actually tried this one, and I’ve never heard of
it working, but I’ve never heard of it not working either. There is a
constant voltage running through your phone. This box allows you to leech this voltage for whatever you want.
Contruction: Construction is pretty easy, but take my advice- pay the damn electric bill and move on. You can’t run a light off this.
Risks: How would I know? It’s illeagal to use phone lines in an
improper manner, so I’m assuming this constitutes an illegal manner.
CHEESE BOX
Purpose: The cheese box is supposed to make you phone essentially a pay phone. One questions comes to mind, why? Why would you ever need to do this? I’ve heard of people doing this to not be traced, but there are easier ways.
Construction: I don’t even think you have to build anything, just
forward incoming calls to the operator and play some red box tones.
If you ask me, this is a waste of time.
Risks: Don’t build it and there are no risks. But, if you need to
play red box tones, possesion of a red box or red box tones are
illegal.
CHROME BOX
Purpose: This one sounds fun. It is a modified strobe light that you
use in your car to induce lights to change. I don’t know when the
file was written, but if you’ve ever watched emergency vehicles,
they’ve a got flashing lights (fast white ones, not the ones that
swirl and blink). This file was written in 88, and I doubt if cities
use this anymore.
Contruction: Difficult. You have to find the exact pattern of
flashing. This can be accomplished with video freeze frames and such. Modifying the strobe lights seems like an endless task. Sometimes, there is no pattern, and you can just change the flash rate on the light.
Risks: I don’t think the police would like to know your are doing
this. If you decide to use it, put an infrared filter over it.
CLEAR BOX
Purpose: This box scams the post-pay phones (if there are any anymore) and acts like a red box. The phones work like this. You dial a number, when the line connects, you can hear the person, but they can’t hear you until you deposite money. This elimates spending money on answering machines, and they are good for calling lines that you don’t need to talk to (information, 1-800-FREE-SEX, ect...) First, this file was written a little while ago, and if the phones aren’t gone already, they probably would have changed.
Construction: Plans are vague, but you’ll figure it out if you want
to build it.
Risks: Same as a red box, although most police aren’t aware of these.
COPPER BOX
Purpose: Designed in 86, the copper box boasts that ability to
“bring AT&T down to their knees.” You find an telco extension and dial it, autodialing codes until you bring down the company.
Construction: This is not a box, it’s just a trick that most likely
doesn’t work. It was concieved in 86, and I’ve never had success with it (if you lucky enough to find an extension). If anyone has done this, please contact me.
Risks: If it works, and they catch you, you are screwed. This is
obviously illegal.
CRIMSON BOX
Purpose: Adds a hold button to your phone. This will allow you to
make rude comments w/o the other person hearing you.
Constuction: I had 5 minutes and made this one. First, it’s usless.
Second, it unstable and by using the switch wrong, you’ll frequently
hang up the line. It’s nice to build to get used to electronics for
the first time, but I suggest de-constructing it afterwards because
it’s a pain in the ass. Go by a phone with one installed.
Risks: Are you joking? No one cares.
DAY-GLO BOX
Purpose: This is another way to pester businesses, tap lines, get
free phone calls, etc... About the same as the Acrylic and Beige
boxes.
Construction: Medium. It seems like the only reason this file was
written is to give some ideas on how to use the Beige box.
Risks: Same as Beige and Acrylic boxes.
GOLD BOX
Purpose: If you find two jacks close to each other, this one will
work. Dial an ANI to find out the number of each. This box allows
you to dial one number, then dial out from the other. Ex. You dial
line one- you should get a dial tone for line two. This would be a
great way to cover your tracks, call anonymously, or hack a dialup in your area code w/o using an outdial (if there are any left).
Contruction: I’ve heard many instances of this one not working.
First, you have to get a box that lets NO light in, and have an LED
shine directly on a photocell. One of the more difficult to build.
Risks: Im sure there is some sort of law prohibiting this, but if you
get it to works, it will be of great benefit.
GREEN BOX
Purpose: Generate RingBack, CoinCollect, and CoinReturn tones. These tones are used by the called party, and won’t work on fortress phones. I doubt if this works anymore, because on occation you have to use blue box tones.
Contruction: This is also not a box. The called party needs a set a
green box tones, which are rather easy to get.
Risks: Scamming the phone company is a no-no and could result in
heavy fines and jail-time.
LIGHT BOX
Purpose: Notifies user whether a phone extension is off the hook. I
guess someone would have use for this, but I can’t think of any off
the top of my head. Once again you play with the red and green wires in side of a phone, along with some switches and lights.
Constuction: Construction isn’t hard, but understanding why it works may be.
Risks: This is pretty much useless and no one cares if you have it.
LUNCH BOX
Purpose: This was almost the first one I built. It is a simple
transmitter that broadcasts ove the AM frequency. Plans for a
reciever are also included. At first, this thing seems to have little
phreak value, but you can hook it up to the red wire in a phone and
send the conversation over the airwaves. You have to have a licence
to broadcast more than 300 ft. 8 ft of wire will broadcast this
range, but hook it up to the black wire on the phone for a 250ft.
antenna.
Construction: Complex, but not hard if you pay attention (i guess you could call it long). A little knowledge of electronics are required, but as long as you follow the schematics, it should work.
Risks: None as long as you dont’ broadcast more than 300ft.
MAGENTA BOX
Purpose: This is similar to the gold box but it seems easier to build
and functions differently. You still need to lines for it to work,
but this is is easily detectable. Read about the gold box to find out
more about the functions.
Construction: After getting though the huge schematics, installation
is somewhat difficult. I’ve never gotten this one to work, but I’ve
heard stories of ones who have.
Risks: The phone company will find out about this in 2 days, so I
suggest abusing it as much as possible. Take it down so you can use
it again.
MAUVE BOX
Purpose: Written in 86, this box is supposed to “draw in” the closest
phone conversation by using a magnetic field. The author suggests not using this in a dorm or apartment. This may also do some damage to phones and connections.
Construction: This one has some wierd instructions. You’ll need
dirt, iron shavings, tupperware containers. It sounds rather hard to
build and even harder for it to work right. I just came across this
one a few minutes before writing this, so I haven’t had a chance to
try it. Sounds far-fetched, though.
Risks: Proabably illegal- how the hell would I know?
NEON BOX
Purpose: Allows you to play sound on your computer over the phone. Most useful tones that would be played over the lines don’t work anymore, but if you don’t have speakers or want to play sounds for someone, this may have some use.
Construction: Simple construction with a phone, headphones, and wire.
Risks: None, this box poses no legal threat.
OLIVE BOX
Purpose: This box functions as a phone ringer. Has no phreak value,
but can be phone playing pranks on people. Ring their phone and drive them insane.
Constructions: Schematics a rather easy to follow, and shouldn’t be
hard if you can buildmost of the other boxes.
Risks: It depends how you use it. It’s bad if you use it on someone,
but what you do with it is your business, as long as no one cares.
PEARL BOX
Purpose: This box produces tones in the range of 1-9999hz, which
include important ones such as 2600, 1633, etc... This is a good
substitute for the blue box, but then again, blue boxing doesn’t work anymore, so this might have to be a novilty item.
Construction: Surprisingly simple considered what it does and the
amount of stuff nedded to build it.
Risks: Same as blue box risks.
PINK BOX
Purpose: The pink box does a variety of things, including three-way
calling, hold on both lines, allowing a caller to dial with the other
line. Basically a souped up brown box.
Construction: Short and simple. There are two files floating around-
one that has no explanation of how to use it, and a good one with
detail.
Risks: Proabably illegal. Don’t invite a police officer to talk on
your line.
RED BOX
Purpose: One of the more famous boxes, the red box used to allow you to get free phone calls from pay phones. This can be done by
recording the tones that the phone plays when you drop in money. The nickel, dime, and quarter each make a different sound. These sounds can be reproduced with a modified Radio Shack tone dialer (replace the crystal inside), with a microrecorder, or with Hallmark Greeting Cards. Surprising, these boxes still work in some parts of the US. They will not work on COCOTs, and some phones don’t use the tone system anymore, and the ones that do usually cut off sound to the headset when inserting money. Big cities are ruled out, but give it a try.
Construction: The easiest way to do this is to take a microrecorder
and drop some money in, then hang up. Unfortunantly, this causes
static, and it may not play back at the right speed. The best way is
with a tone dialer. This produces the most accurate sound. The
initial fee in $20 for the tone dialer, which is a little steep.
You’ll also need a crystal. The exact measurement is 6.4 something,
but 6.5536 is the most popular. This was my first box, and I used a
6.5 crystal. Another way is to hook the microrecorder up to the
phones and record. They can even be made out of Hallmark cards, which is probably the hardest way of doing it.
Risks: Many, you are stealing from the phone company, and police have cracked down on phreaking. People have been arrested and fined (as high as $50,000 if I heard correctly) for possesing these. Do not use them in large public places (i.e. malls, resturants, etc...)
ROCK BOX
Purpose: Channels sound from a stereo out through the phone lines.
There are two types, advanced and simple.
Constuction: Lots of parts, lots of work, but is like any other
schematic. Pay attention.
Risks: None, really. Has some benefits.
SCARLET BOX
Purpose: Create a very bad connection on your neighbor’s line.
Useful for crashing BBSes and annoying people, but yanking the cord could accomplish both.
Contruction: Not hard, some alligator clips and a resitor.
Risk: Don’t get caught screwing with your neighbor’s line.
SILVER BOX
Purpose: All keypads have numbers 0-9 on them , and the * and # keys. What most people don’t know is that there is another set of Keys, the ABCD keys, which preform the following functions:
A-FLASH
B-FLASH OVERRIDE (PRIORITY
C-PRIORITY COMMUNICATION
D-PRIORITY OVERIDE (TOP MILITARY)
Using them is another matter, most people don’t know where, how, or when to use them. Nor do I, but the file mentions something about loops. Dial information (555-1212) and hold the D key as it’s
ringing. If the operator is mad, it doesn’t work in your area code
anymore. If you get a pulsing tone, it will work. Try numbers (6 and 7 usually work) and you will find loop ends.
Contruction: Semi difficult, but it only works on some phones. I’ve
made one, but our city is too modern for it to work.
Risks: Using it the wrong way (under military networks) is illegal,
but just be smart.
STATIC BOX
Purpose: Keeps voltage regulated to avoid static on the line. Useful
for long distance talking and internet connections.
Contruction: If you built anything before, this should be a snap.
Risks: None, really. Your not hurting or stealing anything.
URINE BOX
Purpose: To cause neighbor’s phone’s to malfunction, melt, or
explode. Can cause seizures and even kill people. This is nothing
more than a prank. This thing doesn’t work, and I didn’t even waste
my money trying to build it.
Contruction: Don’t build it.
Risks: None. It’s fake.
WHITE BOX
Purpose: Portable keypad. Like a tone dialer.
Contruction: Modify a phone, add some batteries, and you have a
portable keypad. Or, you could buy a tone dialer.
Risks: You may be interrogated, but after they find it works, you’ll
be let go.
There you have it. Any questions, just e-mail me and I’ll try to
answer as many as I can. There’s still a bunch of FTP sites and web
pages with these on there, so just Yahoo search and have fun.
