The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998

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From: nitejoker@aol.com (NiteJoker) Reply-To: nitejoker@aol.com (NiteJoker) Newsgroups: alt.2600 Subject: PHREAKING - A guide for beginners Date: 31 Aug 1995 01:51:22 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Message-ID: <423ikq$bpc@newsbf02.news.aol.com> Simple, easy to read, and informative. Don't get caught. Read the disclaimer. /-------------------\ | Becoming A Phreaker | +---------------------+ |The Quick n' Easy Way| \---------------------/ /-------------\ < By NightJoker > \-------------/ So, you want to be a phreaker, and you want to do it the Quick 'n Easy Way, eh? Well, no fear, your obdn't servant, NightJoker is here! if you've been a wannabe phreaker for years, but don't have the patience or know-how to make some of the more advanced boxes, this is for you. This file will show how to make one of the easiest boxes, which will make your life fun, and your enemies cringe (OK, maybe not *cringe* exactly, more like be really pissed off...). Using readily availible parts from your nearest Radio Shack, you too can be up there with the ranks of Cap'n Crunch (well, you'd actually have to do something pretty damn daring or revoulutionary, but practice, practice, practice!). Notice the lack of ALL CAPS or an│n«oy#╢ing gi╚£bb≡█eri╞sh. This is easy to read, easy to follow, and lots of phun. I've done my best to make it so that the instructions can be followed if some of the the ASCII art gets fucked up in the transfer. Just wing it. The BEIGE Box The beige box is the primary source of entertainment for the phreaker. With some experience, you can successfully make long distance phone calls, obscene/prank calls, and other stuff, all on someone else's bill. The beige box is simply a ripoff linemans handset. You know, the bright orange ones that you see linemans holding while they cling to a telephone pole? But of course, no phreaker in their right mind is going to climb up a pole! You're going to stay nice and safe on the ground. All this is is a normal phone with a special cable. Simple. The construction: Now using the minimmum of parts, you could create a basic beige box. (1) Phone cable with the wires color-coded (1) Telephone (2) Alligator clips, green and red. It's best to use an X-Acto-style knife, or a utility knife. Now, find a phone cable (the one that goes between the wall and phone, not the handset cable). It should be a couple feet long. Carefully slice it open near on plug - do it slowly, and not too deep, so that you dont cut any wires. Peel it open slightly, and if you see several wires that are colored, great. If all you see is some wires that aren't colored, forget it, that'll be too hard (tape it up with some scotch tape, maybe your mom won't notice). Now that you've found your cable, cut off one end, a few inches from the connector. Save this connector (with a few inches of cable) for later. Slice the covering back 3-4 inches, and cut it off, leaving the colored wires intact. There sould be four wires - red, green, black, and yellow. To be able to use the wire for other things later, tape the black and yellow paralell to the cable, so they won't get into the way. Now, strip abot a half an inch of the red and green wires. To strip it, take your knife, and lay the cable on a hard table. Take the red wire, and press it to the table with your finger, about 2 inches from the end. Taking the knife, position it about a half an inch from the end, the point on the wire. Slowly and gently, swipe the knife AWAY from you, towards the end of the wire. You should make a thin cut along the wire. If you have not cut all the way through, do it again. Carefully separate the wire from the insulation. You should have a wire, with the end splitting into a piece of insulation and a piece of wire. Cut off the insulation - dont cut the wire! Do the same thing for the green wire. Now, you should have a phone cable, with a connector at one end, and a sripped green and red wire at the other end. Go to the nearest electronic store. They should sell little baggies of alligator clips with colored plastic sheathes - make sure they don't have wire attatched to them. These cost about $1.50. Buy (or otherwise get) a bag that has a red and green clip. Now, take your red and green clips, and slip the sheathe off of them. They should slide right off, and leave the metal clip that has a small screw attatched to it, or a tab with a hole in it. Unscrew the screw until there is enough space to wrap the wire around it. Wrap the properly colored wire around it, and screw it in. Or, stick the wire in the tab, and wrap it around a few times, until ther is no stripped wire left.Give it a little tug to see if it's secure. Put the sheathe back on. Do it to the other wire. OK, you now have a phone cord, that has a plug at one end, and a red and green alligator clip, attached to the same colored wires, at the other end. Your're done! +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | *Into Your Phone Attach the clips to these| | * , | | * +++Black.......,... | | +-----+ / / +++++ , . | | +-+ |-------------/---/------------+++++++++++++++Red,,,,,, . | | +-+ |-----------//--//-------------+++++++++++++++Green,,,, . | | +-----+ / / +++++ . | | +++Yellow.......... | | . | | . | | Tape these back................. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ NOTE: If you (A) can't find the right cable, or (B) are too damn lazy, Radio Shack sells cables with a standard phone connector at one end, and spade lugs connected to the colored wires at the other end. Just cut off the connecors, and strip the wires. How to use it: How old is your house? If it was built or if the phone system was upgraded within the last 20 years, go to the side of the house where your gas and electrical meters are. You should find the power box (where the breakers are) that wierd things with all the pipes and a meter (the gas thingie), and, maybe, a grey box with some wires attatched to it. Now, this might be your cable hookup, but if there's a Bell logo on it, that's probably it. If you can't find it, look in the backyard. Once you've found it, see if there is some sort of bolt on it. If it dosen't have one, reach under the box, and find the edge of the cover. Grab it, and pull down and out. It should open up. If it dosen't, try the sides, or the top. If it sitll dosen't, look again for a bolt. If there is one, go to the handy-dandy hardware store, and get yourself a 7/16 inch hex driver. This should open up the box. This can also be used to open up other kinds of telco switch boxes. Once you have it open, you may see several things: = Four wires, red, green, black, and yellow, hooked up to four posts by a screw. = A bunch of wires - look for the red, green, black, and yellow ones. = If you live in an apartment building, a bunch of rows of plastic, with metal tabs sticking out of them. There should be wires coming out of most of the tabs, that are colored red, green, black, and yellow. They should be labeld with apartment numbers or phone numbers. Look for yours. = One or two thick cables, connected to something else. This is a cable box, bozo. If you want free cable, figure it out. = A shitload of spiders. Get the RAID. Now, get a phone - the ones that are the "slimline" kind are the best, or the kind that are just a handset, and no base are better. Plug your modified cable into this. Making sure that the switch for the handset is down, clip the red clip to the post/terminal witht the red wire. This is the RING terminal. It's usually on the right - remember the phreakers adage: ring-red-right. Connect the green clip to the green wired post/terminal. Make sure they are firmly attached, and not touching any other wires. Now, pick the phone up, and (hopefully) you should hear a dial tone. If not, adjust the clips (can't touch any other posts, remember!). If that dosen't work, then switch the clips (if that's the problem, just switch the colored insulation on the clips). +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | The Telephone Network Box | | +--------------------+ | | | | | | Green ---------->x<........>x --------- Red | | | . | | | | . | | | | ............... Put the clips on these| | | | | | Ignore ---------->x x<--------- Ignore | | | | | | | | | | +--------------------+ | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ If you live in an apartment building: +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | ............Yellow | | . | | . .........Black | | . . | | +----.--.----+ | | Green Tip.... - - - -.....Red Ring | | | - - - - | | | | - - - - | | | | - - - - | The Telephone "Punchdown Block"| | | - - - - | Usually found in office and | | | - - - - | apartment buildings. | | | - - - - | NOTE: TIP and RING might be | | | - - - - | switched, depending on the | | | - - - - | building. | | | - - - - | | | | - - - - | | | | - - - - | | | +------------+ | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ NOTE: first try this on your own line. That way, you can fiddle with it all you want, and not get in trouble (unless someone's on the phone). Congrats! If it works, great! If it dosen't, go back and check what you did. The Phun You Can Have: Obviously, this has to be good for something! Remember, this is literally and extension of their phone, keep that in mind. So here is some stuff: = Make free calls. Hopefully, the box is somewhere secluded. Make all the calls you want! But, tell the person that you may have to hang up quickly. Tell them that when this happens, they should hang up quick, too. Don't stay on for too long! You can get caught this way, if someone tries to call alot, or someone picks up the phone and hears someone else having a convesation! Be careful. = Getting someone in trouble. Call a radio station (most have caller ID). Start cussing your brains out. Say that everyone should worship satan, fuck jesus, eat SPAM, or whatever. Hopefully, they'll track the number down. Or call a bomb threat to the police. They'll always trace the call. Perhaps, call the operator, and start fucking around. NOTE: don't do this to someone you don't know. Only do it to real pricks who deserve it. And DON'T call 911. Their response is shitty already, don't make it worse for some guy with a shard of glass in his skull. = Eavesdropping. Get a phone that has a MUTE button. Tape it down SECURELY! If you hold it down, the line could get noisy, and they might get suspicious. Record it, and blackmail 'em if it's juicy! But be careful, extortion is a federal offense. Some Tips: Try to look inconspicuous - don't go wearing a hot pink raincoat. If going a night, wear dark clothes. Keep all your stuff in a small backpack. Case the place first - look to see if there's a car in the driveway. Are alot of lights on? Look for the box in the obvious places - if you can't find it, skip it. Try to find a house that looks empty, or has alot of bushes by the box. If you crouch, and it's dark, you might not be seen by the idle jogger or walker. If you're really paranoid, wear a fake moustache. Also, wear some kind of gloves. People are paranoid, and might get the box dusted. (You can never be too careful!) If someone does pick up the phone whale you are doing your stuff, either hang up, or, for a better chance at them not coming out, say something like "Oops, must be a crossed line." Maybe say something about the phone guys doing something on the poles this morning. In either case, LEAVE FAST! Don't forget to close the box, or they'll know someone was there. And always tell the person you are talking to that you might have to leave quick and they should hang up quick also. If you are over 21, try to look like a telco guy. Get a fishing tackle box, and but your stuff in it. If someone hears something on the line, and then see's a telco guy walking away, they might not get suspicious. Or, if you can get a REAL telco outfit, complete with belt with all the tools, and an orange/blue/yellow hard hat with the local service logo, get real ballsy, and knock on the door and say "Hello ma'am/sir, I need to run some line tests, we've been having some problems with the trunk lines, and I need to check some of the houses on this block. Could you not use the phone for the next half an hour? Thanks." Try not to piss in your pants. Right before you leave, tell them "All done here, thanks." Remembet to spraypaint the phone orange. Oh, and another thing, don't do it in your own neighborhood! Someone might see you, or there might be a nosy old guy across the street, and he might say "Joe, I saw that kid of Marty's snooping around today." Busted. Also, be wary of "Neighborhood Watch" areas - this is full of people with binoculars and 911 on the speed dial. If someone happens to see you messing with their stuff, look as innocent as possible. Say something like "My friends dared me to do it - they said I was chicken unless I went to someone's house and called them! Please, don't tell anyone! My parents will KILL me! Pleaseohplease!. Oh god, uncle Gene's gonna kill me! Oh Jesus, please! I was just trying to prove something to my friends!" Maybe start to sob. You might just get off with a lecture. If you are wearing some sort of disguise, maybe try to make a run for it. Ditch the disguise, and make like nothing happend. Another thing - you may want to buy a 10-20 foot cable, so you can connect to their phone box, and sit in the bushes a bit away, and have your phun. Advanced Stuff For The Beige Box: If you know what you are doing, here's some suggestions: = Wire a switch in line with the microphone so you can flip it in and out of the circut. This is a helluva lot cleaner than a MUTE button, but make sure to switch it on or off before you pick up the phone, so there won't be any abnormal noise. = If it's the kind that is just a handset, you might want to install a switch for an on-off switch, instead of having the switch on the bottom down. = Wire an "in-use" light into it, so that you don't pick up the phone on someone. Remember, you are treading into illegal territory. Don't get caught, unless you like dishing out 100,000-200,000 buckaroos and/or having "Crusher Moe" breating down your neck for 1-5 years. And don't brag about your phun openly - who knows, maybe Ma Bell is listening! Brag behind a name (like me!). DISCLAIMER I, the guy named NightJoker, do not accept any responsibility for any damage you, the reader, may cause. I will not pay bail, be your lawyer, or bake cakes with hacksaws in them. If you get caught, you are screwed, because I can't help you. In other words: it ain't my fault!